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the shore. He speaks also at some length of the Indians to be 

 found in the neighboring regions. Mr. Harris was apparently 

 no great admirer of the Red Man and refers with a slight touch of 

 sarcasm to Mr. Catlin, who in his enthusiastic admiration of the 

 Indian had spoken of him as " Nature's Nobleman." 



The letter, continued on the 21st inst., tells of the first appear- 

 ance of buffalo and gives interesting descriptions of their habits 

 and movements. From this time on they were comparatively 

 abundant. The letter then continues : 



" Another rare bird — ■ Say's Flycatcher has been added to our 

 list, also Pipilo Arcticus, — the new Towhee Bunting, which you 

 will find figured in Mr. Audubon's small work. For the last few 

 days we have seen immense quantities of the nests of the cliff 

 swallow in the lime stone rocks which compose the base of the 

 high prairie hills, and where they jut upon the river are perpen- 

 dicular cliffs, but there are no birds to be seen and we fear they 

 have all been killed by a severe gale we had on the 14th when 

 the thermometer fell from 76° to 43°. Since that gale we have 

 seen very few swallows of any kind." 



Under date the 2 2d Mr. Harris tells of the increasing difficulty 

 in securing wood for the engine. Buffalo are spoken of as 

 becoming more abundant, while a- war party of Indians was seen 

 on the east bank of the river. Then comes the following short 

 paragraph which is of interest to ornithologists as being the first 

 mention of the Western Meadowlark. "We have seen today the 

 Arkansaw Flycatcher and a Meadow Lark which must prove to 

 be a new one, its note is so entirely different from ours, though as 

 far as we have been able to observe it the markings and habits 

 are very similar." 



Mr. Harris then discourses at some length upon the habits of 

 the buffalo, and especially upon the wanton destruction of them 

 by Indians and Whites. Upon the 24th the letter continues as 

 follows : " The wind blew hard this morning, and it was evident 

 the boat could not be got off for some hours. Bell and I went 

 ashore. We procured some excellent birds — Red-shafted \\'ood- 

 pecker, — Say's Flycatcher, — Arkansaw Flycatcher, — Lark Finch 

 & several of the new Meadow Larks. I still insist upon its being 

 new, although it is so much like our own birds that we cannot 



