CORRESPONDENCE 287 



like to have me next May drop down to the region of 

 black flies and make an excursion with you ' up the 

 creek ? ' Or shall we then be too old ? " It was the last 

 letter from Dr. Brewer found among the papers of Mr. 

 Boardman. He died at Boston, January 24, 1880. 



Mr. Joel Asaph Allen, now the curator of vertebrate 

 zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, 

 Central Park, New York city, was one of Mr. Board- 

 man's correspondents. He was born in Springfield, 

 Mass., July 19, 1838. He was a student under Agassiz 

 at the Lawrence scientific school of Harvard University ; 

 a member of several scientific expeditions, and assistant 

 in ornithology in the Harvard Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology. Mr. Allen was the first president of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, serving from 1883 to 

 1890. He edited the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornitholog- 

 ical Club, and has for some years been editor of The 

 Auk, the leading ornithological review in this country. 

 He has occupied his present position since 1885. 



The correspondence between these friends began in 

 1864, and was continued at intervals until 1886. Writ- 

 ing to Mr. Boardman December 3, 1886, Mr. Allen says: 

 "In regard to the Messina Quail I can only say that 

 none have ever returned to breed where they were 

 turned out. It is the opinion of those who have watched 

 most carefully the experiment of their introduction that 

 it has been a complete failure. In several instances they 

 reared young the first year after being turned out, but 

 disappeared the following winter never to return. It is 

 the general belief that in migrating they struck out to 

 sea and were lost." On October 26, 1869, in writing 

 Mr. Allen, Mr. Boardman tells of obtaining two birds 



