Should George Shattuck have forwarded that No. to Mr. B. of Baltimore, pray ask him to write to the later to send it to me as soon as convenient. If per chance you could procure for me a live Hare in the Summer dress (It is pure white in winter) pray do so and do not mind the price or the cost of its conveyance to me. This animal is abundant in the northern portions of your State and is fully double the size of the common Hare called the "Rabbit."
With sincerest regards and kindest remembrances to all around you and our mutual Friends,
believe [me] yours always
John J. Audubon.
The "Parkman Wren"
well mounted will soon be
on your chimney mantle!
The unique specimen of the little Wren, referred to in the postscript of this letter, had been discovered on the Columbia River by Dr. Townsend some years before, and though Audubon had described it in 1839, his figure of it had but just appeared; this was doubtless included, as Mr. Thayer remarks, in the parts of the octavo edition of The Birds of America, which Dr. Parkman distributed at Boston in the summer of this year.
As an indication of the zeal and energy with which Audubon undertook his work on the quadrupeds, the following letter (dated "New York, August 15, 1841," and addressed to "W. O. Ayres,[183] Esq., Miller's Place, Suffolk county, Long Island, New York") will be read with interest:
Audubon to W. O. Ayres
I am now closely engaged in conjunction with my friend the Revd. John Bachman—of Charleston, S. C., in the preparing of a work on the viviparous quadrupeds of North America, and I have already drawn about one hundred figures of these, including thirty-six species.
Now knowing the interest you feel towards the advancement of Natural Science, in every department, I have thought that should you assist us in the procuring specimens, whether in the flesh or skin, dead or alive; that we would be much benefitted by such aid.—Long Island possesses rare and valuable species, and although many of them are plentiful they are rarely procured unless accidentally as it were. In your Rambles after the feathered Tribe, you surely come across at times with quadrupeds, and if you were good enough to shoot them or to catch them and send them to me in the manner mentioned below, I personally would feel extremely obliged to you.
Bats, Wood Rats and Wood Mice, Shrews, Shrew Moles and all the smaller animals can be forwarded in an earthern jar immersed in good Yankee Rum.—The larger kinds can be skinned, preserving the skull entire, and also the legbone and the clavicles. One fore & one hind foot ought to be pinned on a board or cork until perfectly dried, and actual measurements and weights forwarded with the specimens. Nos. accordingly with the notes of localities and dates. Young and old are wanted. The Cat Squirrel is now and then procured about you of a very large size—the Woodchuck &c. but it is unnecessary for me to give you a list as we are anxious to procure every thing we can from every portion of the Union with the view to ascertain their geographical range.