214 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



the Indiana University farm, near Mitchell, Indiana;" and "the Mammals 

 of Indiana." The last of these, published in the "Indiana Department of 

 Geology and Natural Resources" for 1908, is the most important pul)lieation 

 yet issued on the mammalian fauna of Indiana. 



In it are given full descriptions of all the 66 species known from the State, 

 and much interesting and valuable information regarding their abundance, 

 distribution, and habits. 



In Dr. Hahn's untimely death on St. Paul Island, Bering Sea, May 31, 

 1911, zoological science lost one of its most promising young men. 



While considerable collecting of the mammals of the state has been done, 

 our knowledge is very incomplete. There are doubtless many species be- 

 longing to the local fauna which have never as yet been recorded from the 

 state. 



And then, the habits and the economic relations of the various species 

 have been studied scarcely at all. As an illustration, the possibilities of 

 fur-farming in Indiana have received no serious attention. This is a matter 

 well worthy serious consideration. The muskrat is ]>articularly worth 

 experimenting with. The hundreds of small lakes and ponds dotting every 

 county in the northern part of the state, each surrounded or bordered by large 

 areas of marsh land such as affords an ideal home for muskrats, should be 

 considered with reference to muskrat farming. The muskrat is very prolific; 

 its fur is popular and brings a good price, that of northern Indiana musk- 

 rats being particularly fine and bringing very high ])rices. 



A little attention to this questicMi. a little experimental nuiskrat farming, 

 will demonstrate, I confidently Ix'lieve, that northern Indiana is an ideal 

 country for this industry; an industry which once started, will add thousands 

 of dollars to the income of the farmers of northern Indiana. 



OUMTUOLOCiY 



Mention has already l)een made of the relation to our state of the two 

 great American ornithologists, John .lames Audubon, and Alexander Wilson. 

 This relation was slight at best. It is certain that Wilson on his trip down 

 the Ohio in March, 1810, observed certain species of birds on the Indiana 

 side of the river and actually tried, apparently without success, to collect 

 specimens of the wild turkey just below Vevay. That Audubon in the several 

 years that he lived at Louisville and Henderson, on the Kentucky side of the 

 Ohio River, made some collecting trips to the Indiana shore, is a very safe 

 assumption. But neither of them so far as I have been able to learn, ever 

 l)ublished anything on the birds of Indiana. I have also mentioned Dr. 

 Rufus Haymond and his list of birds of Franklin County. I shall now speak 

 of the more recent ornithologists who have contributed to our knowledge 

 of the avi-fauna of Indiana. 



