234 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



FASTI 0RNITH0L0GI.2E. 

 BY JOHN CASSIN. 



"There is no antidote against the opium of time, which temporarily considereth all 

 things : our fathers find their graves in our short memories, and sadly tell us how we 

 may be buried in our survivors." 



"Oblivion is not to be hired. The greater part must be content to be as though they 

 had not been ; to be found in the register of God, not in the records of men. Twenty- 

 seven names make up the first story before the flond, and the recorded names, ever since, 

 contain not one living century. The number of the dead long exceedeth the living. The 

 night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the eqninox?" Sir 

 Thomas Browne. 



No. 1. 



Philipp Ludwig Statius MilLLER, 



Professor tier Naturgeschichte zu Erlany, Mitglied der Rom. Kaiserl. Akademie, 



wie auch der Berlinischen Gessellschaft der Naturforscher. S$c. 



Of this author I am acquainted with the following works which in part 

 relate to Ornithology : 



1. Delicias Naturas Selectae, oder auserlenes Naturalien Kabinet welches aus 

 den drey Reichen der Natur zeiget, &c. 2 vols., Polio, Niirnberg, 1766, (edi- 

 tion in German and French,) many colored plates. 



2. Same work, 2 vols., Folio, Dordrecht, 1771, (edition in Dutch.) 



3. Des Ritters Carl von Linne vollstiindiges Natursystem, nach der zwolften 

 lateinschen Ausgabe, &c, an edition of the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus in 

 German, of which the Kingdom Animalia is by this author, in 9 vols., Oc- 

 tavo, 158 plates, Niirnberg, 1773 to 1776. 



There are also numerous memoirs, translations and other works, the most 

 extended and apparently the most complete enumeration of which is in En- 

 gelmann's Bibliotheca Historico-Naturalis. I have seen none other than the 

 above relating to Ornithology. 



In a series of papers, of which this is the first, I propose to bring to the 

 notice of ornithologists, a very considerable number of authors, the works of 

 whom have been either wholly or partially overlooked, or at least have not 

 received that degree of attention to which they seem to have been, and in 

 most instances are, surely entitled. All of those, whom I propose to notice, 

 have written since the era of the Linnaean binomial nomenclature. Facilities 

 unusually favorable for this descripiionof investigation exist in the library 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, which is very rich in 

 Zoology, especially of the older authors, owing mainly to the scientific taste 

 and great liberality of the late Mr. William Maclure, of Dr. Thomas B. Wil- 

 son, and of Mr. Edward Wilson. Many of the most remarkable and rarest 

 works were collected in Europe and presented to the Academy by the last 

 named gentleman. 



There are also in the library of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, 

 in that of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, and in that of 

 the Library Company of Philadelphia, valuable and but imperfectly known 

 works, which are included within the objects of my proposed series, and to 

 all of which, by virtue of their rules and through the courtesy of the officers 

 of those institutions, I have unrestricted access. I propose to notice works, 

 or parts of works, only which relate to Ornithology, and in a few instances to 

 present notices of well known authors, for the purpose of giving condensed 

 accounts of their works. 



The bibliography of Ornithology is so extensive that no naturalist has yet 

 mastered it, nor has been able to entirely appreciate and avail himself of the 

 labors of his predecessors. There is, of course, much diversity of acquire- 



[Oct. 



