120 Grinnell, Some Audubon Letters. [apfIi 



Audubon family, and John Audubon as a friend of my father's was 

 often at my father's house. He was a bluff, gruff, but friendly man, 

 and was always willing to talk about birds, mammals, or, indeed, 

 any natural history object, to any boy who asked him questions. 

 It was to him that I took a small "pigeon" which I had killed near 

 our home, which he identified as a ground dove {Chamcepelia passe- 

 rina). I noted the taking of this bird many years afterward. "^ 



John Woodhouse Audubon died in 1862. 



The Audubon family and many of their kinsfolk were, of course, 

 well known to their near neighbors. I used to see some of the 

 Berthouds, Bachmans, Talmans and Mallorys, the latter being 

 relatives of Mrs. Victor Audubon, Victor's second wife, who was 

 Georgine R. Mallory. 



Miss Eliza Mallory gave me the letters here printed. A room 

 in the Victor Audubon house was being cleared out, and the old 

 papers burned, and Miss Mallory suggested that as I was interested 

 in birds, I might like some of these papers. They were bundled 

 up and given to me, while the others fed a bonfire. 



Among the papers which I have are many sheets which appear 

 to be the printers' copy from which the "Viviparous Quadrupeds 

 of North America" was set, a long letter from Thomas Lincoln, 

 dated November 17, 1846, describing some of the larger mammals 

 of Nova Scotia, and a half a dozen drafts of bird biographies in the 

 handwriting of John James Audubon, material which no doubt 

 was afterward put into good English by Audubon's great assistant, 

 William MacGillivray. Among this material are alsp two or 

 three sheets in the handwriting of Prof. Spencer F. Baird, whose 

 association with Audubon was close for some years. 



The letters follow. 



New York April 28th 1833 — 



My Dear Victor — 



On opening the box containing the numbers last sent to this 



place for distribution, we found the contents Wet and of course 



some of them damaged. We have however dried them and made 



of them that could be done and they will all go on Monday (to- 



1 The Nuttall Bulletin, III, p. 147. 



