LIFE AT "MINNIE'S LAND" 227 



I am now as anxious about the publication of the Quad- 

 rupeds as I ever was in the procuring of our Birds, indeed my 

 present interest in Zoology is altogether bent toward the Com- 

 pletion of this department of Natural Science. 



Do please write to me often as I am always glad to hear 

 from you, and when I am somewhat slow in answering your let- 

 ters, be assured that it is altogether on a/c of the excess of 

 Labour that I have to go through. 



Believe me with sincere good wishes 

 Your friend and servant, 



John J. Audubon. 



Although Audubon never went to Carlisle, young 

 Baird, as we shall see, repeatedly visited him in New 

 York and became a favorite with his family. A de- 

 scription of the new Flycatchers was published by the 

 Baird brothers in 1843, and represented Spencer's first 

 contribution to his favorite science; Audubon included 

 their discovery in the Appendix to the seventh and last 

 volume of The Birds of America in 1844. 



Audubon's occupations in the summer of this year 

 are clearly reflected in the following letter : ^ 



Audubon to Dr. George Parkman 



New York, June SOth 1841 

 My Dear Feiend. — 



I intended having written to you yesterday by Miss 

 Shatuck, who was good enough to spend the day with us, but 

 I was so deeply engaged on a drawing of Rocky Mountain 

 Flying Squirrels, that the time of her departure came suddenly 

 and I could merely ask of her to say to you, that your last 

 letter and remittance had reached us in safety, and with the 



'See John E. Thayer (Bibl. No. S3), The Auk, vol. xxxiii (1916). 

 Mr. Thayer's Ornithological Museum now contains the original specimen of 

 Parkman's Wren, to which Audubon refers; it is "mounted on a twig, 

 in a paper box with a glass front," and is "in excellent condition." 



