2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



guided him in the pursuits in which both were interested. 

 Young Gambel was brought to the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 in Philadelphia, and was probably employed there for a short 

 time. When little more than twenty-one years of age he un- 

 dertook a trip across the continent at the instance of Nuttall 

 some three or four years after Townsend's return. He took a 

 much more southerly route, exploring the Raton Mountains of 

 northern New Mexico and passing thence from Santa F6 to the 

 Colorado River, then in the wilds of Old Mexico, and through 

 southern California, returning round the Horn in 1845, stop- 

 ping, as Townsend had done, at Valparaiso, From California 

 he sent to Nuttall descriptions of some of his ornithological dis- 

 coveries, comprising Nuttall' s Woodpecker, Mountain Chick- 

 adee, etc. 



About August 15, 1845, Gambel and his specimens arrived 

 in Philadelphia. Cassin, writing to Baird on this date, says: 

 "Eureka! Gambel is here with his California birds and others 

 — not very many, but some of the most magnificent specimens 

 I ever saw. He has four new species in addition to those 

 already described: a queer little Parus crested, but totally dis- 

 tinct from bicolor; another which he calls Parus but is hardly of 

 that genus — more like Setophaga; an extraordinarily large, long- 

 billed bird which he calls Promerops; a new Mergulus, like 

 Alle, but entirely distinct, with others that need examining. 

 He has also most beautiful specimens of well-known birds, and 

 others not so well known, as Sitta pygmaea, Tyrannula saya, T. 

 nigrescens, Sialia occidentalis, etc. Decidedly the gem of his col- 

 lection is a most superb specimen of Leptostoma longicauda Sw., 

 a beautiful cuckoo-like bird which walks on the ground, but I 

 have not time really to tell you about it. His Lophortyx gam- 

 belii Nutt. is splendid, and I can find no description of it in 

 books to which I have access. His description of four new 

 species will be made next Tuesday evening. 



"Unfortunately he has made it an object merely to make one 

 good series, which I shall try hard to get the Academy to buy. 

 Of many birds he has but one specimen, though of several 

 species he has duplicates — of Sitta pygmaea and Parus minimus — 

 he and I have done little else for two afternoons and evenings 



