1^2 Deane, Letters from Abert to Audubon. [\"r 



JOHN JAMES ABERT, TO JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



(Hitherto unpublished letters.) 



BY RUTHVEN DEANE. 



The following letters written by John James Abert are based 

 upon information and specimens furnished by his son, Lieut. James 

 William Abert, who in 1848 wrote his ' Report of an examination 

 of New Mexico in the years 1846-7.' Lieut. Abert was at that 

 time an officer of Topographical Engineers. 



In each of these letters reference is made to a partridge, then 

 unknown to them, which in the Report of 1848, had been identi- 

 fied as the Scaled Partridge (Cattipepla sguamata). While this 

 species was first described by Vigors in 1830 from specimens sent 

 from old Mexico, those collected by Lieut. Abert were the first 

 records for the United States. The only quotation from Abert's 

 Report referring to this partridge which I find, is by Cassin, 1 but 

 these letters are particularly interesting as they antedate any pub- 

 lished records of the Scaled Partridge for our fauna. Mr. Ridg- 

 way writes me that none of these specimens found their way into 

 the Smithsonian collection, but Mr. Winner Stone writes, " I am 

 happy to say we have one of the Abert Scaled Partridges in the 

 Philadelphia Academy (No. 24331, December, 1846, New Mexico); 

 it is mounted and in good shape." These letters are copied "ver- 

 batim, literatim et punctuatim" and I am under many obligations 

 to Miss M. Eliza Audubon for the privilege of publishing them. 



Dear Sir : 



My son Lieut. A.' 2 has some taste for Natural History. He has 

 just returned from Santa Fe, having been on General Kearney's 3 

 expedition. He had learned to prepare bird skins & had prepared 

 many, but unfortunately during a long & Severe illness his Skins 

 and arsenick were lost — when he recovered he prepared a few 



1 Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Rus- 

 ian America. Philadelphia, 1856, p. 129. 



2 James William Abert, born November 18, 1820; died August 10, 1897. 



3 General Stephen Watts Kearney, born August 30, 1794 ; died October 31, 



