< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu
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SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD

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of these and of fishes. It will be well to give a brief summary of his labors:

Mammals.—The eighth volume of the Pacific Railroad Reports, published in 1857, is a large quarto of more than 800 pages, devoted to a complete revision of the mammals of North America, so far as the materials then available would permit. This work was much in advance of all others in the precision of the descriptions, the citation of localities and the care with which the synonymy was compiled. To this day, we have nothing that really takes its place. The matter of illustrations was not overlooked; I found among Baird's letters one dated January 24, 1852, addressed to d'Orbigny in Paris, asking how illustrations might best be made with a view to excellence and at the same time economy. What information d'Orbigny supplied I do not know, but the illustrations accompanying Baird's larger works were remarkable for their excellence, and highly creditable to the new museum.

Baird described in all sixty-three new mammals, of which forty-two are now considered valid, and twenty-one synonyms. I will confess that I was surprised at the large amount of synonymy; but it must be remembered that in the fifties large series for comparison, such as are available to-day, did not exist, while the descriptions of earlier writers were many of them imperfect. Nine genera and subgenera were proposed, of which seven are accepted to-day.

Birds.—I can not do better than quote the statements (Smithsonian Report for 1888, pp. 706-708) of Dr. Robert Ridgway, who more than any other man is to be regarded as Baird's successor in this field:

With the publication, in 1858, of (the Pacific Railroad Report on The Birds of North America) a great quarto volume of more than one thousand pages, began what my distinguished colleague, Professor Coues, has fitly termed the 'Bairdian Period' of American ornithology—a period covering almost thirty years and characterized by an activity of ornithological research and rapidity of advancement without a parallel in the history of the science. Referring to this great work, in his 'Bibliographical Appendix' to 'Birds of the Colorado Valley' (p. 650), Professor Coues says: "It represents the most important single step ever taken in the progress of American ornithology in all that relates to the technicalities. The nomenclature is entirely remodeled from that of the immediately preceding Audubonian period, and for the first time brought abreast of the then existing aspect of the case. . . . The synonymy of the work is more extensive and elaborate and more reliable than any before presented; the compilation was almost entirely original, very few citations having been made at second-hand, and these being indicated by quotation-marks. The general text consists of diagnoses or descriptions of each species, with extended and elaborate criticisms, comparisons, and commentary. . . . The appearance of so great a work from the hands of a most methodical, learned, and sagacious naturalist, aided by two of the leading ornithologists of America (John Cassin and George N. Lawrence), exerted an influence perhaps stronger and more widely felt than that of any of its predecessors, Audubon's and
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