RK-046

January 27', 1855 [stamp] Smithsonian Institution Washington D.C.

My Dear Robert If I can lay hands on it, I will send you a slip from an eastern paper containing your article on the Sand Hill Crane, which is quite going the rounds. I have seen it in five different journals! Is not that encouragement? The Jan. number of Prairie Farmer has come, and I have read it all through; am quite posted up on Western agriculture - The Natural History Column is a first rate idea. Dr. Hoy, & Rev. A. C. Barry of Racine might help with articles, as also Dr. Kirtland We have nothing from the Pearl River region of Miss, and would be glad to have any Specimens from it. Cant your cousins (girls?) get some squirrels, rabbits &c? All questions of coleoplera we refer to Dr. Leconte. He will most probably answer all your questions kindly, and promptly. Prof. S.S. Haldeman of Columbia Penn.

might also be tried. The prairie hen is very rare to the eastward. A few ocur in the Pocono Mountains of North eastern Pennsylvania, and some in the Barrens of Long Island; and perhaps the Caye Island off the Coast of Mass. I received specimens last spring from Calcasieu La. on the Gulf, west of New Orleans. I am as yet undecided as to the genus of the New snake; it may prove new. Its specific name will be Kennicottii. Whenever figured ^engraved you shall have a copy: I have one beautiful drawing. In most cases I can determine the species of a birds egg, even without the bird: so that the eggs alone will be desirable one or two nests of each kind should be collected whenever convenient. I don't know of any Insect pins in the country, but I will import some; you shall have a batch soon as they come. Australia is peculiar in every respect; Fauna, Flora and every thing. All the mammals with few exceptions are marsupial, like our possums; dogs, rats, squirrels &c! or what resemble these in other respects - The Swans are black and the crows white. The trees are ferns or such like, and the leaves stand on edge instead of in horizontal plaines. Every

thing is contradictory to our usual ideas. It is a continent, and usually so ranked. The Alligator your uncle mentioned is the Menopoma alleghaniensis, that large Salamandroid animal. Much resembling your Menobranchus of the lakes. It is unusually known by that name in the tributaries of the Ohio. It differs from the true Alligator in having a smooth slimy skin. It has not the tufts on each side of the head like the Menobranchus, but like it has a gill opening on each side - the neck. It has five toes on the hind feet; the Menobranchus but four. I hardly know what bait is best for field mice. Have you tried cheese! Perhaps potatoes, apples, corn, or anything which they destroy when they have a chance Yours truly S.F. Baird Robt. Kennicott West Northfield Ill