If there be any special expenses incurred in the preparation of this memorandum, including the time of a photographer, I will direct them to be paid from the Smithsonian fund. [p289]
If you could get Mr. Holmes (who made most of the sketches and all of the photographs of the “John Crow”), to try and do something like this for your buzzard, especially getting such a photograph of it in flight, as will give the position of its center of gravity relative to the center of pressure on the wings, it would add very greatly to the value of your memoranda, and I think Mr. Holmes takes so full and intelligent an interest in the subject, that he might be pleased to give his help.
Very truly yours,
S. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary.
MR. ROBERT RIDGWAY,
Smithsonian Institution,
Curator, Division of Ornithology, U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C.
In response to this request, Mr. Ridgway submitted the following very interesting information:
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,