184 Harris, Notes on Harris's Sparrow. LApril 



Here is a vivid picture of a situation well calculated to stir the 

 imagination and excite the enthusiasm of this twenty-five year old 

 easterner on his first visit to the virgin West, and thoughts of 

 ornithological discoveries were no doubt reserved for the future. 

 Nuttall could not have been so distracted by the excitement inci- 

 dent to the departure of this wild cavalcade, since he had had 

 several previous experiences of the wilderness, was an older man, 

 and was by nature "shy, solitary, contemplative, and of abstract 

 manner." At all events he set the ornithological pace immediately 

 at the start of the journey by discovering a new bird. Townsend's 

 silence in his ' Narrative ' regarding this important event was of 

 course due to courtesy to the discoverer who had not yet given his 

 species to science. 



In my account of NuttalPs discovery of his " Mourning Finch," I 

 have assumed that the specimen he took in Jackson County is the 

 type. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that in the absence 

 of any definite knowledge regarding the type specimen it is pre- 

 sumed from his description that the specimen here taken was the 

 type. The description referred to was published in the second 

 edition of his Manual (the volume on water birds being a reprint 

 of the first edition) which did not appear until 1S40. It will thus 

 be seen that this important species was allowed to remain in 

 obscurity for six years while twenty-four other new species sub- 

 sequently discovered on the trip had been described, as well as 

 sixteen figured by Audubon in the Great Work, prior to the appear- 

 ance of Townsend's Narrative in 1S39. Nuttall's published 

 description of the bird is merely the briefest possible outline of 

 salient specific characters, no measurements whatever being given. 

 On his return to the East, two years in advance of Townsend, 

 Nuttall had in his possession a quantity of the latter's material 

 for delivery to the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, which Insti- 

 tution had helped substantially in financing the travelers. It 

 was this material that Audubon sought so eagerly to possess, that 

 his great work then nearing completion might not lack the new 

 species. 1 Audubon had called on Nuttall, in Boston, in the hope 



1 An unbiased account of Audubon's efforts to secure these specimens is given in Chapter 

 XXXI, Vol. 2, of Dr. Herrick's recent historical study 'Audubon The Naturalist.' 

 Further light on the subject may be found in a letter from Audubon to Harris under date 

 of Oct. 26. 1837, published in the Auk, Vol. XX, p. 370, by S. N. Rhoads. Audubon has 

 left a full account of his activities at this time in the Introduction to Vol. 4 of the ' Orni- 

 thological Biography.' 



