42 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
the study of law, and soon had an extensive practice, giving 
up his natural history work in order to devote himself to 
his profession, but always retaining an interest in it. 
Professor Baird always expressed a very high opinion 
of his brother’s ability as an ornithologist, saying that 
if he had kept on he would have taken high rank among 
the students of that branch of science. He became 
interested in politics and was Mayor of Reading in 
1855-6, and Collector of Internal Revenue for the 8th 
district of Pennsylvania 1869-72. He died at the age 
of fifty-five in 1872, leaving a widow and two children. 
This seems a not unsuitable place to include a brief 
notice of Professor Baird’s other brothers and sisters. 
The second brother Samuel studied law but never 
practised. For a short time he taught school and after- 
ward for quite a number of years was connected with the 
United States Customs service at Philadelphia. His 
health was always delicate and he died unmarried. 
The youngest brother Thomas had a strong taste for 
mechanics and devoted himself to mechanical and factory 
work. He married Miss Mary Bill and died in 1897, 
leaving two sons and two daughters. 
The two older sisters, Rebecca and Lydia, never 
married. The youngest, Mary, married Henry J. Biddle 
of Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the Civil War he 
joined the army, and while on duty as a member of General 
McCall’s staff was wounded and taken prisoner in one 
of the battles before Richmond, and died in a hospital 
in that city. They had five children. 
Professor Baird’s diary was not begun before 1838 
and as before mentioned was at first little more than a 
meteorological record. By the following year, however, 
it began to be also a register of birds shot and excursions 
