DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 7 



lished by Ord on the Florida Jay and Boat-tailed Grackle,* 

 and a number of specimens secured by Peale and deposited for 

 the most part in his father's museum. 



The year after their return Say, then thirty-two years of age, 

 was selected as zoologist on Major Long's expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains, and Peale, a youth of nineteen, was engaged 

 as his assistant. Say writes to Melsheimer on March 13, 1819: 

 "Mr. T. Peale will accompany me to prepare skins of such ani- 

 mals as may be discovered. ' ' Long' s instructions to Peale show 

 more explicitly what was expected of him. He says: "Mr. 

 Peale will officiate as assistant naturalist. In the several de- 

 partments above enumerated his services will be required in 

 collecting specimens suitable to be preserved, in dating and de- 

 lineating them, in preserving the skins etc., of animals, and in 

 sketching the stratifications of rocks, earths, etc., as presented 

 on the declivities of precipices." He received $1.50 per day 

 and Say $2.00 each being allowed one ration per day until they 

 left Council Bluffs. 



Peale' s half-brother Rembrandt, who was twenty-two years 

 his senior, wrote him at this time: " I suspect that you will be 

 the only draughtsman; I therefore recommend you to practice 

 immediately sketching from nature. I know how well you 

 draw when you have the object placed quietly before you; but 

 if you practice sketching from human figures as well as animals 

 and trees, hills, cataracts, etc., you will be able to present us 

 with many curious and interesting representations. Get into 

 the habit of making notes of everything as it occurs, no matter 

 how short. Memoranda written at the moment have always 

 an interest of accuracy that distant recollections never have." 

 This last sentence is admirable advice and as true today as when 

 it was written, even though the camera has in a great measure 

 removed the necessity for sketching. 



Long's expedition followed the regular highway to the fron- 

 tier—the Ohio river; down which Lewis and Charles had gone 

 in 1803 to join their men; down which in 1808 went Audubon 

 and his bride to establish himself in business in Kentucky; and 



» Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Vol. I. 



