124 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



very abundant, but have now been killed by tanneries, pickerel, etc. 

 Our St. Croix river used to be a great breeding place for water 

 birds, but since pickerel were put in about thirty years ago they 

 have most all left. Pickerel destroy the chicks, so that very few 

 ducks or grebe now breed with us. Year before last there was 

 very good salmon fishing with fly just above the toll bridge 

 between Calais and Milltown. Some were taken last year, but not 

 so many as in former years. 



One of Mr. Boardman's sons furnishes the following 

 interesting incidents showing the exactness of his infor- 

 mation regarding bird life and the estimation in which 

 he was held by learned men in Great Britain : ' ' Father 

 did not begin seriously his ornithological collection until 

 he had been in business for nearly a quarter of a century. 

 He therefore brought to it the trained instinct and exact 

 knowledge of a thorough business man. He spent nearly 

 twenty winters in the state of Florida, and while there, 

 from 1868 to 1873, he made a collection of the birds of 

 that state for the Smithsonian Institution. Prof. Spencer 

 F. Baird, who succeeded Prof. Henry as Superintendent 

 of the Smithsonian Institution and afterwards as Fish 

 Commissioner of the United States, stated that father 

 was the only one whose returns to the Institution needed 

 no correction. Henry Osborne, who for a number of 

 years was the president and general superintendent of 

 the railroad running from St. Andrews to DeBeck Junc- 

 tion was something of a naturalist and a great friend of 

 my father. He now lives in London, England. About 

 four years ago I lunched with him in London at the 

 Carlton Club. He kindly took me about to the London 

 Society of Natural History, the British Museum, the 

 Zoological Gardens of London, and introduced me to the 

 managers thereof, and I confess I was not a little 



