LIFE AT "MINNIE'S LAND" 229 



the Columbia River by Dr. Townsend some years be- 

 fore, and though Audubon had described it in 1839, his 

 figure of it had but just appeared; this was doubtless 

 included, as Mr. Thayer remarks, in the parts of the 

 octavo edition of The Birds of America, which Dr. 

 Parkman distributed at Boston in the summer of this 

 year. 



As an indication of the zeal and energy with which 

 Audubon undertook his work on the quadrupeds, the 

 following letter (dated "New York, August 15, 1841," 

 and addressed to "W. O. Ayres, 10 Esq., Miller's Place, 

 Suffolk county, Long Island, New York") will be read 

 with interest: 



Audubon to W. 0. Ayres 



I am now closely engaged in conjunction with my friend the 

 Revd. John Bachman of Charleston, S. C., in the preparing 

 of a work on the viviparous quadrupeds of North America, 

 and I have already drawn about one hundred figures of these, 

 including thirty-six species. 



Now knowing the interest you feel towards the advance- 

 ment of Natural Science, in every department, I have thought 

 that should you assist us in the procuring specimens, whether 

 in the flesh or skin, dead or alive ; that we would be much bene- 

 fitted by such aid. Long Island possesses rare and valuable 

 species, and although many of them are plentiful they are 

 rarely procured unless accidentally as it were. In your Ram- 

 bles after the feathered Tribe, you surely come across at times 

 with quadrupeds, and if you were good enough to shoot them 

 or to catch them and send them to me in the manner mentioned 

 below, I personally would feel extremely obliged to you. 



Bats, Wood Rats and Wood Mice, Shrews, Shrew Moles 



M Baird wrote to Audubon, November 4, 1846: "Please tell me the 

 address of your friend Ayres. I have been collecting fishes for some 

 weeks, and wish to correspond & exchange with him on this subject." A 

 woodpecker, Colaptes ayresii, was named after this friend by Audubon, 

 in The Birds of America, vol. vii, in 1843. 



