ts, U.S.A., being on court
martial duty at Fort Brady, paid their respects to me, and the Col.
expressed his pleasure and surprise at the taste, order, and disposition
of the grounds and the Agency.

Nor did the official duties of my position interfere with the
investigation of the natural history of the country.

A large box of stuffed birds and quadrupeds, containing twenty-three
specimens of various species, was sent to the Lyceum of Natural History
at New York, in the month of April. Mr. William Cooper writes, under
this date, that they have been received and examined. "The lynx appears
to be the northern species, different from that common in this part of
the country, and very rarely seen here even in the public collections.
Several of the birds, also, I had never had an opportunity of examining
before. The spruce partridge, _Tetrae Canadensis_, is very rare in the
United States. There is no other species in this city besides yours. It
was entirely unknown to Wilson; but it is to appear in the third vol. of
Bonaparte's continuation of Wilson, to be published in the ensuing
autumn. The circumstance of its being found in the Michigan Territory,
is interesting on account of the few localities in which this bird has
been found in our boundaries. The three-toed woodpecker, _Picus
tridactylus_, was equally unknown to Wilson, and the second volume of
Bonaparte, now about to be issued, contains an elegant figure and
history of this bird, which also inhabits the north of Europe and Asia.
The other birds and quadrupeds of your collection, though better known,
were very interesting, as affording materials for the history of their
geographical distribution, a subject now become exceedingly interesting.
The plover of the plain is the turnstone, _strepsilus interpres_.

"The large fish is one of the genus _Amia_, and Dr. Dekay is inclined to
think it different from the _A. caloa_ found in our southern rivers, but
of much smaller size. The tortoises belong to three species, viz., _T.
scabra_, _T. pieta_, and _T. serpentina_. It is the first information I
have obtained of their inhabiting so far to the north-west. There are
also others found in your vicinity, which, if it would not be asking too
much, I should be much pleased if you could obtain for the Lyceum."

"I hope you will excuse me, if I take the liberty to recommend to you,
to direct your observation more particularly to those birds which come
to you in winter, from th