Transcribe Hornaday, W. T. Letter to Ward, Henry A. (1878-08-05)

He has had experience with an Austrian naturalist named Xanthis, and will cer- tainly be of much use to me. I brought over a Portugese lad as a regular hunter, and be</s en > ^tween^ us all it will be a great wonder if we don't come out with a big collection. My China boy is a perfect treasure, for with a boy like him I can do just double as much as I could with a bad one. Now that I have more help I am going to collect more abundantly of everything. My main ideas are 1st to get a lot of Orangs, 2nd to make a big collection of mammals, as complete a series as possible. 3rd as complete a series as possible of fishes & alcoholics of all kinds, especially fresh waiter species. 4th to </s make > collect a complete series of rocks & min- erals. 5th to collect all the </u beetles > I can conveniently. Birds I shall take only under certain conditions, viz, when I can do no better, & when it will not interfere with ^more^ important work.

    Good Lord ! How it do rain ! Now that

the day's business is over & everybody in his own den it has settled down to a steady pour to make up for an hour or two lost this morning. And </u this > is the </u dry season >, so they all tell me.

    Gov't pays a reward of 1 Rupee pr. foot

on Crocodiles. Today one was brought down the river for the reward, word was sent me from the Office at once, so I went down & quietly cut off the croc's head. His length was 11 ft. Sixteen-footers are