EXPEDITION TO THE MISSOURI 259 



use snuff. I hope that you are able to say the 



same.' 



Spencer Baird wrote to Audubon from Washing- 

 ton, November 24, 1843, to congratulate him upon the 

 safe return of his western party, saying: "From time 

 to time short notices of your whereabouts and doings 

 appeared in the newspaper and a thousand times I 

 wished that the fears of my friends had not prevented 

 me from accompanying you to the scenes of action." 

 Audubon thought that he might well regret the diffi- 

 culties that had stood in his way; in replying he said 

 that he had seen "not one Rattlesnake and heard not a 

 Word of bilious fever, or [experienced] anything more 

 troublesome than Moschitoes and of these by no means 

 many" ; they had brought home a Swift Fox, an Ameri- 

 can Badger, and a live Deer, which they thought might 

 prove to be new, fifteen new birds, as well as a certain 

 number of quadrupeds, besides "many of the Birds pro- 

 cured on the Western side of the Big Rocky Hills by 

 Nuttall and Townsend." He felt that much still re- 

 mained to be done, his only regret being that he was 

 not what he "was 25 Years ago, Strong and Active, 

 for willing he was as much as ever." 



In 1844 Audubon brought to a close his octavo edi- 

 tion of the Birds by adding seventeen species, eleven of 

 which were new and represented his discoveries on the 

 Upper Missouri of the previous year. The 500th plate, 

 and last of the series which marked the end of Audu- 

 bon's life-long labors in ornithology, was dedicated to 

 "Baird's Bunting," Emberiza bairdii. "If a trace of 

 sentiment be permissible in bibliography," said Elliott 



9 At the close of the Civil War, Bachman wrote to a friend: "I had 

 been a snuff-taker for forty years, and I had tried three times to wean 

 myself from the vice. I have done it effectually now. . . ." 





