[196] Nevertheless so careful and discerning a naturalist as Thomas Nuttall confidently asserted that his friend, Mr. M. C. Pickering, had "obtained a specimen several years ago near Salem (Massachusetts)"; see _A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada_ (Cambridge, 1832). Dr. Elliott Coues at one time thought that it might have been the Pine-creeping Warbler, and Professor Baird identified it as the female or young of the Hooded Warbler. [197] Compare _Ornithological Biography_, vol. iii, p. 203, where in Audubon's article on the Whooping Crane, there is this note: "Louisville, State of Kentucky, March, 1810. I had the gratification of taking Alexander Wilson to some ponds within a few miles of town, and of showing him many birds of this species, of which he had not previously seen any other than stuffed specimens. I told him that the white birds were the adults, and that the grey ones were the young. Wilson, in his article on the Whooping Crane, has alluded to this, but, as on other occasions, he has not informed his readers whence his information came." [198] What appear to be the original legends, written on this drawing in ink, are as follows: "Chute de l'Ohio. July 1, 1808. No. 31. J. A. Que j'avais figuré [?] 12 pennes à la queue." Above were later added, also in ink, the names, "sylvia Trochilus delicata; Sylvia delicata, Aud." [199] On this drawing, which with Audubon's other originals is in the collections of the Historical Society of New York, the legends are as follows: "Mississippi Kite, Male, Falco mississippiensis; Drawn from nature by John J. Audubon, Louisiana, parish of Feliciana, James Perrie's Esq., Plantation. June 28th, 1821. Length 14 inches; Breadth 3 feet, ½ inches; Weight 10¾ ounces; Tail feathers, 12." It is drawn in his usual style of that period, in pastel, water color and pencil, and has been dismounted. [200] See Vol. I, p. 305. [201] _American Ornithology_, vol. iii, p. 80. [202] See Witmer Stone, "Some Letters of Alexander Wilson and John Abbot," _The Auk_, vol. xxiii, 1906. [203] In 1840, by W. B. O. Peabody, naturalist; author of a _Life_ of Wilson; see Bibliography, No. 105. [204] Vincent Nolte, _Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres_ (Bibl. No. 176).