264 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



can secure and send him. He writes : " Any that you 

 can procure would be a very valuable addition to my 

 material for studying this family. The external structure 

 of the ear appears to afford one of the most important 

 characters among those available as a basis of classifica- 

 tion and, of course, it is impossible to make any use of 

 dried skins for the e:'amination of this organ. Not 

 recollecting just how complete was the list of desiderata 

 that I gave you, I take the liberty to mention here, since 

 you were so kind as to offer to obtain some of them for 

 me those which I desire." Then follows a list of 

 fourteen New England and eight Florida species. To 

 this request Mr. Boardman made immediate response. 

 May 13, 1874, he tells Mr. Ridgway of a man who found 

 a bird that was new to him, exhausted on the ground. 

 He described the Sooty Tern exactly, and says: "It 

 is a new place for this bird. I have never seen it north 

 of Florida." In this letter Mr. Boardman wants to be 

 remembered to Henshaw and to know where he is going ; 

 to hear from Turner and what he got in Alaska ; from 

 Prof. Goode, Bean, Elliot, Milner and "all the folks." 



August 10, 1874, Mr. Boardman writes, sending him a 

 lark, "Very small and marked differently from any I have 

 before seen;" also a queerly marked warbler, "which 

 we call a yellow or red poll but in queer plumage," 

 about which he wants information. He adds : " I wish 

 you could come down here and see where lots of the 

 warblers breed. We have several considered rare, as Bay- 

 breasted, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Blue, Golden- 

 crested, etc." To this Mr. Ridgway replies : 



