226 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



posed to accept its validity, as will appear in the follow- 

 ing interesting letter which he sent to his young friend : 



r 



Audubon to Spencer Fuller ton Baird 



NEW YORK, July 29, 1841. 

 My DEAR SIR, 



I have not had time to answer your interesting favor of 

 the 21st until this morning, being now constantly engaged in 

 the figuring, &c., of the Quadrupeds of Our Country ; by which 

 I mean that I actually work from daylight every day until 

 I retire to my necessary repose at night. 



Your observations upon the birds of passage the last 

 spring are what they have been almost throughout the U. S. 

 The very backward spring which we have experienced this year 

 did no doubt retard the coming into the States the millions of 

 passenger birds that come to us from beyond our limits. The 

 Fly-catcher of which you are in doubt is nevertheless the 

 M. Pusilla, and you must not be surprised to find perhaps 

 some discrepancy between the specimens you have procured and 

 the descriptions you may have read, as among mine these 

 differences are quite obvious and belonging to either sex or age, 

 as is indeed the case with most of our birds as well as among 

 many of our quadrupeds. . . . 



I cannot at present tell you when I may have the pleasure 

 of meeting you at your own domicile, and yet this may happen 

 quite unexpectedly. 



Do you pay attention to the quadrupeds around you? If 

 not, I wish you would! and moreover I should be highly 

 pleased to hear of your procuring for us all such as may be 

 found in your vicinity. You have Bats, Wood Rats, fy Mice, 

 Weasels, $c., $c., all of which I should like to possess speci- 

 mens at your hands. Could you not save all that you come 

 across with in this way, place them in common good Rum, and 

 forward them to me at once or as soon as you have some 2 

 or three species. I will most cheerfully pay all expenses to 

 Philadelphia addressed to J. B. Chevalier, No. 70 Dock Street. 



