A medical officer in the U. S. Navy, Shufeldt was later associated with the Smithsonian Institution. His special interests were in ornithology, mammalogy and the comparative anatomy of vertebrates. A member of the American Ornithologists' Union and numerous domestic and foreign scientific societies. Prolific writer of natural history articles. The letters in this collection are to Witmer Stone, partly about general ornithology, but dealing especially with matters concerning his publications in the Auk.