Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/70

66 show to J. G. Bell, when met J. P. Giraud, with whom I went to see his collection of birds, which is the finest I have seen. Gave him a Cape May warbler. He gave me a Red Phalarope and a copy of his little tract called Descriptions of 16 New Species of North American Birds from Texas.

Wednesday. At Mr. Audubon's in morn for two hours, drawing.

9th, Thursday. Thanksgiving Day. No lecture. In morn at Mr. Audubon's, taking drawing lessons; started with Tyrannula.

Although he took lessons from so great a master, he never became very skilled with the pencil; largely, of course, because the pressure of other work prevented him from spending much time in drawing. No doubt, however, his knowledge of the minute structure of Tyrannula, gained in the way just described, helped him to discriminate and describe two new species a few years later.

Mr. Nuttall was, of course, the distinguished botanist and ornithologist. Circumstances never permitted the acceptance of the invitation. Baird now went to Philadelphia for a short vacation:

The veteran ornithologist Woodhouse only died recently. Cassin became one of Baird's most intimate friends, sharing with him in the interest of every ornithological discovery. The old colored man, Mr. Solomon Brown, who faithfully assisted Baird during his whole life in Washington, tells me that 'old John Cassin used to come down from Philadelphia about once a month to look over the collection; and he and Baird were just like brothers.'

To return, however, to the diary:

This also was in Philadelphia. Conrad and Lea were the famous conchologists, Lea being especially devoted to the freshwater mussels.

Baird was certainly not one of those people who wait for opportunities to engage in research. He not only went everywhere and met every naturalist within reach, and picked up all the information he could from them and from books, but he was making discoveries on his own account. Although he is known to us as a student of vertebrate zoology, he took a keen interest in botany, anthropology and many