LIFE AT "MINNIE'S LAND" 215 



the number to 382. The present number of North 

 American birds, omitting sub-species, admitted to the 

 third revised edition of the "Check-List," prepared by a 

 .Committee of the American Ornithologists' Union and 

 published in New York in 1910, is 768. To this is added 

 a hypothetical list of 26 names, the validity of which is 

 still in doubt; these embrace Townsend's Bunting 

 Spiza townsendi (Audubon) ; Carbonated Warbler 

 Dendroica carbonata (Audubon), Blue Mountain War- 

 bler Dendroica montana (Wilson) , known only in the 

 works of Wilson and Audubon; the mysterious Small- 

 headed "Flycatcher," or Warbler Musicapa minuta 

 (Wilson) or Wilsonia (?) microcephala (Ridgway), an 

 account of which is given in Chapter XIV and which 

 is known only in Wilson's and Audubon's works; and 

 Cuvier's Regulus Regulus cuvieri (Audubon), which 

 has never been seen beyond the covers of The Birds of 

 America, and its descriptive text: "I shot this bird," 

 said Audubon, "on my father-in-law's plantation of Fat- 

 land Ford, on the Skuylkill River in Pennsylvania, on 

 the 8th June 1812, while on a visit to my honoured rela- 

 tive Mr. William Bake well ... I have not seen an- 

 other since." 



Audubon was soon canvassing the principal cities for 

 this work, with what success is shown by the following 

 letter 4 to his family : 



Audubon to his Family 



BALTIMORE, Feb. 21. 1840. 

 11 o'clock at night. 



MY DEAR FRIENDS 



So far so good, but alas ! I am now out of numbers to de- 

 liver to my subscribers here. Here ! where I expected to pro- 



4 First published by Ruthven Deane (Bibl. No. 48b), The Auk, vol. 

 xxv (1908). 



