27 October: State of my health somewhat better. At eight o’clock, temperature of 6 1/3°R [46.3°F, 7.9°C] but rising soon. In the morning Dreidoppel went to Wabash Island, where there are many squirrels. Here he shot a rust-bellied squirrel and an urubu (carrion crow, turkey buzzard) in flight and brought it home alive. M7This is the species with the reddish head; the grayheaded urubu lives farther south and does not come as far north as the Ohio.

Messrs. Bodmer and Hall had been invited to Mr. Owen’s place for the afternoon and evening. Messrs. Say and Lesueur visited me; the latter brought me a special species of Equisetum, which grows only at a little spot here on the Wabash and gets to be up to six feet high. It is said to occur frequently along the Mississippi, likewise on the islands of the Missouri.