48 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
On the 30th of November he shot a wild cat near the 
town. This was a sufficiently rare animal, even then, 
to create excitement, and he notes that its stomach was 
filled with the long brown hair of a deer. 
His correspondence with Audubon continued, and the 
following letter not in the Deane collection has some 
interest: 
From John J. Audubon to Spencer F. Baird. 
My Dear Sir,— New Yor, June 22, 1840. 
Your favor of the 20th inst. came to hand this morning, and I 
will answer to its contents at once. 
It is impossible at present for me to give you any precise idea of 
the work on our quadrupeds which I have in contemplation to publish, 
any further than to say to you, that it is my intention, as well as 
that of my friend, the Rev4 John Bachman, of Charleston, S. C., 
assisted by several others of our best naturalists, to issue a work 
on the Mammalia of North America worthy of the naturalist’s 
attention, both at home and abroad.—Through our joint efforts, 
and assisted as we hope and trust to be, by numerous friends and 
acquaintances in different portions of our Wide Union, we expect to 
collect, not only new species, but much of valuable matter connected 
with their geographical range, and particular habits. For instance, 
in your assistance in this department as well as in ornithology, you 
may be able to send us valuable intelligence respecting the Shrews, 
Mice, Rats, Squirrels, etc., found in your immediate vicinity &c.— 
and by saving and forwarding specimens to us, be able also, in all 
probability, to place into our hands, objects never before known to 
the World of Science. Whatever information we thus receive is 
sacredly published under the name of the friend from whom we 
receive the information, etc. I have sent you the Zoological report 
of Doct. De Kay.!° His Corvus cocolotle is really our Raven. Supposed 
by some inexperienced European naturalists to be distinct from the 
Raven of Europe, which, however, is a gross error. 
10 James Ellsworth De Kay, M.D., born in Lisbon in 1792; died 
at Oyster Bay, Long Island, N. Y., Nov. 21, 1851. Author of the 
Zoology of New York, in the great series of reports issued by the 
State toward the middle of the last century. 
