DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 6 



of his warmest friends was his brother-in-law, Dr. John 

 Spencer, who was a great-uncle of the writer. The letters of 

 Mr. Harris to Dr. Spencer are extremely interesting, especially 

 those which he wrote while on his different scientific expedi- 

 tions. 



He was always fond of nature, but it is probable that he did 

 verj- little in the way of serious scientific study or collecting 

 until some years after he was of age. In 1835 he was elected a 

 member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 being at that time 36 years old. He was on good terms with 

 John Cassin, then a leading man at the Philadelphia Academy, 

 and Cassin frequently refers to him in his letters and notes. 

 On August 20, 1845, we find Cassin and Harris going together 

 on a trip to Cape May. On June 23, 1845, Cassin in a letter to 

 Baird speaks of Harris having called at the Academy with 

 Audubon. This seems to have been the first time that Cassin 

 and Audubon met, and there is reason for believing that it was 

 the last. The meeting appears not to have been an altogether 

 happy one, and they parted none too amicably after a warm 

 dispute as to who discovered Falco harrisii. Again, on February 

 20, 1846, Cassin writes to Baird as follows : "Our ornithologi- 

 cal corps is doing nothing. Heermann is in Baltimore study- 

 ing medicine; Gambel and Woodhouse, here doing the same 

 thing. Townsend has set up his pole as a dentist. Harris 

 lives at home like a gentleman, a^ he is, and your humble ser- 

 vant (in his lucid intervals) tries to mind his own business with 

 more or less success." 



In the Proceedings of the Academy we find the name of 

 Edward Harris mentioned a number of times, either as a con- 

 tributor of specimens or of papers relating to various branches 

 of natural history. In May, 1844, he exhibited an Everglade 

 Kite. In May, 1845, he contributed a paper on certain geol- 

 ogical formations of the upper Missouri River. In December, 

 1845, he presented a paper on a new titmouse, Parus septen- 

 trionalis. In December, 1846, he presented to the Museum a 

 specimen of the Arkansas Flycatcher — Tyrannus verticalis — 

 taken in New Jersey, which specimen is still in the Academy 

 collection. In March, 1846, he read a paptr on the difference 



