SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 77 



Baird described about 124 new species and subspecies of birds, 6 in- 

 cluding a few which were published by others from his manuscripts. 

 He established about 28 new genera and subgenera, most of which are 

 now accepted and in current use. Quite a large number of the species 

 are now reduced to subspecies, but this is explained by the fact that in 

 Baird's day the trinomial system had not come into general use, and 

 consequently binomials were used for birds which would now be con- 

 sidered to have less than full specific rank. It must also be remem- 

 bered that the great series now available show intergrading forms which 

 were not known fifty years ago. A certain number of synon} r ms were 

 based on individual variations and immature states of plumage, and in 

 one case a bird proved to be Asiatic, with a wrong locality. On the 

 whole, judging by the modifications introduced by later authors, it ap- 

 pears that Baird's work on birds was of a higher grade than that on 

 other groups ; but it may be that this is largely to be explained by the 

 relatively chaotic condition of the then-existing knowledge of the other 

 classes, making the task of reducing them to order more difficult. 



Batrachia. — In 1849, before he went to Washington, Baird pub- 

 lished (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia) an important paper en- 

 titled * Revision of the North American Tailed Batrachia/ In this 

 work the nomenclature of the species was wholly revised, some new 

 species were indicated, and the genus Desmognathus was established. 

 This genus is now universally recognized, and Cope has made it the 

 type of a distinct family, Desmognathidse. Papers on Batrachia, con- 

 taining descriptions of new species, and a few new genera, continued 

 to be published until 1850, most of them in conjunction with Dr. 

 Girard. After that date, in 1867, 1869 and 1889, a few species were 

 published by Cope from Baird's manuscript. In all 42 species and 

 varieties were published as new, and of these 26 are recognized as valid 

 by Cope in his revision issued in 1889. 



Reptiles.— Br. W. H. Dall (' Smithsonian Report' for 1888) writes 

 thus: 



Many of his herpetological papers were elaborate studies. One of the 

 most important of the early memoirs was that on the reptiles of Stansbury's 

 expedition to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and another, that on those 

 collected by the United States exploring expedition under Wilkes. The cata- 

 logue of North American Reptiles in the collection of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion is a classical work, serving to the present day as a text-book for students 

 of herpetology. In 1859 appeared his great study of the reptiles collected by 

 the parties engaged in the explorations for a Pacific Railroad, a monument of 

 patient research and discriminating analysis. After this his contributions to 

 the subject were mostly short papers or announcements of new or interesting 

 facts. 



"Dr. Brown Goode (Bull. 20, U. S. N. M.) says 70, but searching the litera- 

 ture I have found a large number of additions. 



