LIFE AT "MINNIE'S LAND" 215 



the number to 382. The present number of North 

 American birds, omitting sub-species, admitted to the 

 third revised edition of the "Check-List," prepared by a 

 .Committee of the American Ornithologists' Union and 

 published in New York in 1910, is 768. To this is added 

 a hypothetical list of 26 names, the validity of which is 

 still in doubt; these embrace Townsend's Bunting — 

 Spiza townsendi (Audubon) ; Carbonated Warbler — 

 Dendroica carbonata (Audubon) , Blue Mountain War- 

 bler — Dendroica montana (Wilson), known only in the 

 works of Wilson and Audubon; the mysterious Small- 

 headed "Flycatcher," or Warbler — Musicapa minuta 

 (Wilson) or Wilsonia (?) microcephala (Ridgway), an 

 account of which is given in Chapter XIV and which 

 is known only in Wilson's and Audubon's works; and 

 Cuvier's Regulus — Regulus cuvieri (Audubon), which 

 has never been seen beyond the covers of The Birds of 

 America, and its descriptive text: "I shot this bird," 

 said Audubon, "on my father-in-law's plantation of Fat- 

 land Ford, on the Skuylkill River in Pennsylvania, on 

 the 8th June 1812, while on a visit to my honoured rela- 

 tive Mr. William Bakewell ... I have not seen an- 

 other since." 



Audubon was soon canvassing the principal cities for 

 this work, with what success is shown by the following 

 letter * to his family: 



Audvthon to Ms Farmly 



Baltimobe, Feb. Zl. 1840. 

 11 o'clock at night. 

 My dear feiends 



So far so good, but alas ! I am now out of numbers to de- 

 liver to my subscribers here. Here ! where I expected to pro- 



* First published by Ruthven Deane (Bibl. No. 48b), The Auk, vol. 

 XXV (1908). 



