340 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



tionalities of nomenclature will admit, that if any of Bartram's 

 names are available, so are all of his identifiable binomials. No 

 point is clearer than this ; and equally indisputable are the follow- 

 ing propositions: 



1. Bartram wrote subsequent to 1*766. 



2. He was effectually, systematically, and on principle binomial, 

 occasionally lapsing. But if his exceptional slips are to count 

 against him, then not a few great modern ornithologists must also 

 be ruled out ; among whom ma}' be instanced Schlegel, Bonaparte, 

 Sundevall, and others, in whose writings are found trinomial names, 

 the three terms of which succeed each other consecutively without 

 intervention of any kind of punctuation to bring about even a 

 semblance of binomiality. 



3. Several of Bartram's names are in current usage, unchal- 

 lenged, and many others are among ordinary synonymatic quota- 

 tions. 



4. In It 91, Bartram published a descriptive catalogue of the, 

 to him then known, Birds of the Eastern United States, 215 in 

 number, in which list are introduced various species for the first 

 time named binomially ; some of which names are already in use, as 

 just said, but more of which have been ignored, or only used in 

 attribution to later writers, especially Wilson. 



It is not expected to prove Bartram's availability to the satis- 

 faction of everybody ; but the fact that he must be either ruled 

 out altogether, or fully accepted, is demonstrably indisputable. 

 Upon this premise, we set ourselves to enquire into the nature of 

 his claims upon our recognition. 



At various pages of his work, Bartram describes, at length and 

 with particularity, several species of birds, to which he applies 

 names, such as Vultur atratus, Meleagris americana, and Tan- 

 talus jrictus. These accounts leave no question open but that 

 touching the author's method of nomenclature. 



But the main ornithological interest of the work centres in the 

 List Bartram gives. If Wilson was the father of American Orni- 

 thology, as he has been styled, Bartram, back to whom the pedi- 

 gree of many names is traceable, was certainly the grandfather of 

 that vigorous offspring. His statement of United States' birds is 

 one of the earliest of those which are of any special account, and 

 which treat exclusively of this subject, while its extent and general 

 pertinence entitle the author to rank among the fathers. His 



