Correction 155 



New Jersey once cr twice in the last fifty years, and there are 

 no records of captures. , 



Apparently misled by a statement of mine in the Atik, 1899, 

 Mr. Burns states that but two of Alexander Wilson's types 

 are extant. A number of others were discovered some years 

 since in Boston and I think the fact has been published, though 

 I do not at this moment recall the place of publication. The 

 fire to which Mr. Burns refers was not at Peak's Museum but 

 was at P. T. Barnum's Museum in New York City where part 

 of Peak's collection was preserved. There is no record, 

 however, of any of Wilson's birds having been secured by Bar- 

 num. 



The Trumbull referred to by Mr. Burns should be Wm. P. 

 Turnbull, and P. B. Hay should be P. R. Hoy, both printer's 

 errors, no doubt. — Witmer Stone, Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila- 

 delphia. 



I very much appreciate Mr. Stone's friendly criticisms. No 

 one can be more desirous of eliminating seeming or real errors 

 in statements than I. Writers attempting biographical or his- 

 torical subjects are peculiarly dependent upon the observations 

 of others, the acceptance or rejection of much being a matter of 

 personal judgment, and disagreements not infrecjuent. 



I can scarcely plead ignorance to a knowledge of the fact 

 that Townsend shot the bunting bearing his name. My note, 

 perhaps, should read " taken for Dr. Ezra Michener," as less 

 liable to misinterpretation. The bird was killed in his own 

 neighborhood expressly for his cabinet, received almost imme- 

 diately, and a brief description of the specimen while in the 

 flesh, written by him on the day of the capture. He even states 

 in his diary "We have given it the provisional name of Euspka 

 alhigula, or white-throated bunting." (Cf. Insectivorous Birds 

 of Chester Co., Pa., 1863.) I can see no impropriety, however, 

 in accrediting the bird to the person responsible for all of the 

 facts of the case, as well as being the original owner and for 

 a great many years, up to the time he presented it to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, the conservator of this valuable specimen. 



