74 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



meetings of the directors of corporations of which he was 

 a member and attended to his usual business duties, he 

 was prevented from ordinary work and at the close of 

 the year he records : ' ' Lame knee has kept me on 

 crutches since 4 September." It did, in fact, keep him 

 on crutches for nearly six months beyond the time at 

 which that record was made. His list of correspondents 

 for the year comprises forty -three names, nearly all of 

 them those of leading naturalists of this country and 

 abroad. 



Late in the spring of 1880 Mr. and Mrs. Boardman 

 left for the west, arriving in Minneapolis where four of 

 their children were then living, on May 7. Three days 

 afterward, as he records in his diary, Mr. Boardman 

 went for birds, getting grosbeaks, orioles, jays, etc. 

 Almost every day for several weeks following he went 

 birding every forenoon and in the afternoon worked at 

 skinning and mounting birds. Among the entries in 

 his diary are: "Got orioles, rose-breasted and scarlet 

 tanagers;" "went to Minnesota bottoms — shot duck, 

 quail, yellow headed blackbirds;" "got white king- 

 bird ; " " went to Lake Calhoun ; seven black terns, two 

 yellow heads, two orioles, larks, blackbirds ; " " dinner 

 at Albert's — had mallard ducks ; " " went to Minnesota 

 bottoms with Willie — shot yellow-head blackbirds, 

 scarlet tanager, grosbeaks and larks." While on this 

 visit he lost no time in becoming acquainted with the 

 birds of the west, both in the field and at the collection 

 of the University of Minnesota where he spent many 

 days. A letter to Prof. Baird gives an interesting account 

 of his impressions of the western fauna. He was yet 

 suffering from the accident to his knee and was obliged 

 to use crutches, as a reference in the letter will indicate : 



