30 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
that is new..... And especially about the white-tailed ptarmigan. You know lots 
about that bird if you will only tellit..... Don’t be too modest please and let me know 
anyhow something about the species coming under consideration as far as you can. It 
will be more to the point than the observations of most people that profess to know a 
great deal more about such matters than youdo..... 
Dec. 5, 1889 
. . . - There are few men today who are as careful in their observations as you are, 
and I want to make the most I can of their knowledge. ... . 
Dec. 13, 1889 
. . - » There are few as close observers as yourself. I want to quote you as often 
as possible, because I know that your observations are thoroughly reliable in every way. 
April 28, 1888 
. . . . I always look forward with a great deal of interest to your captures, which 
aside from their rarity are by far the finest prepared specimens both as regards to the 
eggs as well as to the preservation of the nests, that we receive from anywhere. ... . 
Regarding the statements in the first of the foregoing quotations, the 
correctness of Bendire’s surmise is shown by the fact that Gale’s unpub- 
lished notes are very copious on some of the very birds concerning 
which the former was inquiring in his several letters. The correctness 
of the statements of the last quotation is further shown by the fact that 
the numerous nests and eggs in the University of Colorado cabinets which 
were collected by Mr. Gale include rare species and are most beautifully 
prepared and packed, so that none thus far opened has been found 
damaged in the slightest particular after having been moved several 
times and stored in at least two different places. 
Although his work in the field was chiefly with birds and his notes 
scarcely mention anything else, letters from Captain Bendire and Dr. 
C. H. Merriam found amid his correspondence indicate that he did 
some rather important work with mammals. Two new species found 
at Gold Hill are placed to his credit—-Gale’s Colorado red-backed mouse 
(Evotomys gapperi galei Merriam’), and the Gale wood-rat (Neotoma 
jallax Merriam?). The following from a letter written by Captain 
Bendire to Mr. Gale on December 27, 1887, is of interest: 
The skins I carried over to Mr. Merriam and saw him open them. From what you 
had said in your note I supposed there were but a few and not especially valuable, but 
tC. Hart Merriaq, ‘Description of a New Evotomys from Colorado,’’ North American Fauna, No. 4, 
U. S. Agri. Dept., 1890, pp. 23, 24. 
2C. Hart Merriam, “Abstract of a Study of the American Wood-rats, with Descriptions of Fourteen 
New Species and Subspecies of the Genus Neotoma,’”’ Proc. Biol. Soc. of Wash., Vol. IX, 1804-95, pp. I17- 
128. 
