76 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Wilson's not excepted, and marked an epoch in the history of American ornithol- 

 ogy. . . . Such a monument of original research is likely to remain for an 

 indefinite period a source of inspiration to lesser writers, while its authority 

 as a work of reference will always endure." 



Thus are graphically described the distinctive feature of what Mr. Leonhard 

 Stejneger has truthfully termed the Bairdian School of ornithology, a school 

 strikingly characterized by peculiar exactness in dealing with facts, conciseness 

 in expressing deductions, and careful analysis of the subject in its various 

 bearings; — methods so radically different from those of the older 'European 

 School ' that, as the esteemed member whom we have just named has already 

 remarked, conclusions or arguments can be traced back to their source and thus 

 properly weighed, whereas the latter affords no basis for analysis. In other 

 words, as Mr. Stejneger has, in substance, said, the European School requires 

 the investigator to accept an author's statements and conclusions on his personal 

 responsibility alone, while the Bairdian furnishes him with tangible facts from 

 which to take his deductions. . . . The distinctive features of the ' Bairdian 

 school ' were still further developed by the publication in 1864-66, of the ' Re- 

 view of American Birds,' a work of unequaled merit, displaying in their per- 

 fection Professor Baird's wonderful powers of analysis and synthesis, so 

 strongly combined in his treatment of difficult problems. Unfortunately for 

 ornithology this work was but fairly begun, only a single volume (an octavo of 

 450 pages) being published. ... I have it on good authority that no single 

 work on American ornithology has made so profound an impression on European 

 ornithologists as Professor Baird's ' Review,' and, by the same authority, I am 

 permitted to state that he — a European by birth and rearing — became an 

 American citizen through its influence. 



Dr. D. S. Jordan writes, concerning Baird's methods: 



He taught us to say, not that the birds from such and such a region show 

 such and such peculiarities, but that 'I have the following specimens, which 

 indicate the presence of certain peculiarities in the birds of certain regions. 

 The first was taken on such a day of such a month, at such a place, by such 

 a person, and is numbered so and so on the National Museum records. 



This habit of exactness, introduced by Baird (who himself exhibited it, 

 as we have seen, when still a boy), has been followed by most of our 

 ornithologists, with the result that this subject has been brought 

 to a remarkable degree of completeness. Let any one compare the 

 current literature on birds with that on insects, and the immense influ- 

 ence and value of the Bairdian method will be at once apparent. 



The ' Eeview of American Birds ' described and classified a number 

 of species from Costa Eica and adjacent countries; and Dr. Eidgway, 

 who is now studying the birds of Costa Eica, with materials vastly 

 more abundant and satisfactory than those possessed by Baird, tells me 

 that he marvels at Baird's accuracy and insight. From Costa Eica 

 alone, Dr. Eidgway has obtained from 3,000 to 3,500 birds, a greater 

 number than Baird had from all middle America, including the West 

 Indies; and yet Baird's work still stands, with very few modifications. 



