THE OSPREY. 



28 



mens to the Smithsonian. I care very little whether he sends 

 us anything, as he has only a few species not already in our 

 possession, and if his idontificaticlns are as unreliable as they 

 appear, 1 would iiiurh rather not be bothered by his e^ss. .. . 



[Signed] Spencer F. Baird. 



Camp may Tucson. A. '/'.. Nov. nth, 1872. 



I liave had nothing more to do with Prof. Baird and do 



not care to have any further uegociations with him till becomes 

 with something else than inomises. I have got nothing what- 

 ever from him except some old phamplets |sic|of the year "59 

 & '60 I believe, which I used for waste paper, as they were of 

 no use to trie... fSignedlCHS Bkndiuk. 



U'ashhigtoil. />. ('., Nov. 30, 1IS72. 



I cannot understand why Bendire should have any hard 



feeling in regard to the Institution and myself; we did every- 

 thing we could to secure his transfer. . . We are of course sorry 

 that we are not to get any of his collections, but can bear the 

 deprivation with the greatest equanimity. He will find his 

 own eggs are not valued half as much in Europe as those we 

 could give him froiu the Arctic regions ... I am sure that if I 

 knew where his eggs were going I could get back any of them 

 that I wanted .. ..Again, the fact first suggested by you, and 

 verified by his specimens, of his erroneotis identifications, is 

 very much against the value of his collection. . . . 



[Signedl Spencer F. Haiko. 



iras/ii?ii;ti»i, D. C, Dec. 21, 1872. 



....Let me know what you hear from Bendire in reference 

 to his plans for the future. It is possible that we might now 

 be able to do something for him ... . fSigned] S. F. Bairo. 



Catnfi near I'licson, A. '/'.. Jan. Htli. 1873. 



....I have no objection to show Prof. Baird my collection 

 when I go east, but I shall not make any advances myself in 

 the matter. If he wants to see them he will have to come to 

 me. I shall not take them to Washington, neither am I 

 anxious to exchange with the Smithsonian. The professor 

 evidently expected that by soft-soaping me pretty strong I 

 would send luy eggs, etc.. on and take what he might be pleased 

 to give me for them in exchange. I am too old a bird to be 

 caught that way, and like to have a few words to say in the 

 matter myself, also to see what I am to get first. They can 

 have some of my eggs, if they give me what I want for them, 

 but not otherwise, and I want to see what I am to get, before I 

 send mine. If they would distribute their immense stock of 

 eggs and other things amongst collectors instead of keeping 

 them stored away where they do nobody any good they woidd 

 find collectors a little more liberal with them, than they are. 

 But that is not their style, it is, take all you can and keep 

 what you have. I do not expect to keep my collection ... I 

 mean to give it to some scientific Institution most probably in 

 Europe. If I leave it in the U. S. the .'\cadeinv of Natural 

 Sciences in Philadelphia will get it in preference to any other 

 establishment of the kind in this country .... 



[Signed] Cms. Bendire. 



Washington, H. C. Jan. 18, 1873. 



....I cannot imagine where Bendire finds reasons to be ag- 

 grieved at the Institution;. . . but if his object is siiriply to spite 

 the Smithsonian, I do not think he will succeed.. .1 wish very 

 much you would send me some of Bendire's letters, containing 

 the blowing up, in order that I may better understand the na- 

 ture of his complaint. I shall not lay it up against him at all, 

 whatever he may say in tlie matter, and for this I think you 

 can trust me. ]Signed] Spencer ¥. Baird. 



.\'r7u York, Feb. 4, 1873. 



.... The Bendire letters ]wliich 1 had lueanwhile sent to Prof. 

 Baird as requested] did not accompany the package sent to 

 me, Mrs. Baird thinking she would keep them until 1 return 

 |to Washington]. 1 am, of course, quite anxious to have the 

 difficulty with him made up ; and, with entire confidence in the 

 propriety of our conduct, 1 can read with perfect equanimity 

 the most virulent personal language that he may indidge in... 



[Signedl S. F. Baird. 



Washington, D. C, Feb. 15, 1873. 



....I have read Bendire's letters with much interest and 

 amusement. As to his notion of our playing upon him and 

 tampering with him, you can, of course, judge as well as any- 

 one how correct he is likely to be. ..It is, of course, not worth 

 while for me to write to him, especially as he boasts that he 

 has two or three letters unanswered. . . I send back the corres- 

 pondence as you request ... . [Signed] Spencer F". Baird. 



Cavalry Depot. St. Louis. Mo., Febr. 22, 1873. 



Regarding my disagreement with Prof. Baird, 1 have 



nothing to blairie myself with that I know of, and do not care 

 to make any advance myself. . I wrote Mr. Ridgway a long 

 letter shortly before leaving Arizona, in which 1 explained why 

 1 broke off with Prof. Baird. If 1 .im injuring myself by my 

 conduct I can't help it, I will not commence and write him 

 first. Favors I don't want any from him... 



[Signed] Chs. Bendire. 



Washington. D. C, March 8, 1873. 

 .... I shall be very glad to have Bendire luake up his quarrel 

 with the Institution, as he will gain nothing by contimiing his 

 antagonism. ..We are quite willing to do anything to adv.ince 

 his interest and to induce a return to common sense on his 

 part. I cannot very well take the initiative in writing to him, 

 as he himself boasts that he has wilfully left three or four of 

 my letters unanswered | Signed] Spencer F. Baikd. 



Washington. I). C. April 14, 1873. 

 . . ..I wrote to Bendire. as you requested, and have just had 

 a letter from him, which, though somewhat curt, is a consid- 

 erable improvement on his former state of mind. He invites 

 me to come out to St. Louis and see his collection, and is will- 

 ing to exchange his duplicates for any of his deficiencies in 

 the Smithsonian collection, ])rovided these aie prepared in 

 the best manner and properly anthenticateii, adding that he is 

 extremely particular in his own authentications, and that un 

 less these are absolutely s.itisfactory in ours he wants none- of 

 them!! This is rather tall for a man whose own identifica 

 tions are not beyond susjiicion, as direct(!<l tow;irds an estab 

 lishment that religiously smashes everything of the egg kind 

 coming into its cliarge that is not perfectly authentic. I fear 

 a good part of his own collection would meet tlK- same fate if 

 we had it.. .1 say nothing, however, about wanting any of his 

 collection, as the Smithsonian does not quite do business on 

 the plan proposed by him. jSigued] S. F. Baird. 



Comment is needless. In the cool, gray light of 

 history the above documents will be seen to reflect a 

 very pretty quarrel as it stood for a year or so. This 

 was the situation in 1872-73, over which I was happih- 

 instrumental in causing the olive-branch to wave at 

 last, as I said in my Osprey column. I have a par 

 allel series of Dr. Brewer's letters for the same period, 

 but life is short, this article is already long, and I 

 cannot go over them now to see just where he came 

 in. I think it must have been a little later ; perhaps 

 I will see about that some other day, if I can find 

 time The facts exhibited certainly justify my char- 

 acterization of Bendire as a ' bumptious and captious 

 German soldier, who was a man to take strong likes 

 and dislikes on very small provocation.' I never 

 knew him otherwise, either before or after he trans- 

 posed his private likes and dislikes between Dr. 

 Brewer and myself ; and during all the years that I 

 used to meet the ' Honorary Curator of Oology ' at 

 the Smithsonian, I can hardly recall an occasion when 

 he was not growling like a bear with a sore head about 

 the way he said the authorities were treating him in 

 regard to the publication of his book. 



Mr. Manly Hardy seems to feel aggrieved by what 

 he calls my ' claim of discovering ' Bendire, and goes 

 on to talk about my barking at the moon, etc. One-eyed 

 men are great seers among the blind, but I should 

 think he might have seen with half an eye that I 

 spoke of 'discovering' Bendire simply as a fashion of 

 speech in telling my little story, with reference to the 

 fact that I was the first to put Bendire into print (see 

 Aitk for July). As to the 'abuse' of Dr. Brewer, with 

 which Mr. Hardy charges me, that is all nonsense. 

 The exact truth is never abusive, though it may be 

 damnatory. Everybody knows that Dr. Brewer 

 made a fool of himself about the Sparrows for years, 

 and the fact that he then died does not alter the other 

 fact of what he did when he was alive. Many other 

 persons, perhaps Mr Hardy, did the same: but Dr. 

 Brewer's foolishness was more conspicuous, because 

 he pretended to be an ornithologist. The harm he 

 did is incalculable, and his name deserves to be stig- 

 matized as long as there is a Sparrow left in the 

 United States to shriek ' Brewer 1 Brewer ! Brewer! ' 

 By the same token, I do not find that Maj. Bendire's 

 recent demise alters one iota the merits of his quarrel 

 of 1872-73, as set forth by me in The Osprey, and 

 as above substantiated. Dying makes a great differ- 

 ence to the person chiefly concerned, but has no re- 

 troactive effect upon the events of his life, and only 

 sentimentalists allow it to influence their estimate of 

 personal character. — Elliott Coues. 

 W'ashinglon, D. C, June 25, 1897. 



