BICENTENARY OF LINN^US 55 



brought to Europe, most of them found their way to Linnaeus, and many 

 were definitely named by him for the first time. The twelfth edition of the 

 famous "Systema Naturse" describes 210 mammals, 78 of which are Ameri- 

 can (including under that term North and South America) ; 790 birds are 

 noted, of which 260 are American; and 88 of the 124 reptiles are also 

 American. 



We think of Audubon, Baird, Coues and Ridgway as the great American 

 ornithologists, and they are great; but a glance at the check-list of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union shows how prominent a part was played by 

 Linnseus. The list of 1889 gives 729 species and subspecies. No less than 

 202 of these were named by Linnaeus ; while Audubon, the father of American 

 ornithology, named but 33. Twenty-five bear the sign-manual of Coues, 

 and 104 of Ridgway. We must, it is true, remember that a considerable 

 number of the birds named by Linnseus are species common to Europe and 

 North America, but, on the other hand, it must also be borne in mind that 

 many named by Ridgway are what are called subspecies, which were not 

 recognized in the day of Linnseus. 



In the time of Linnseus there were few naturalists in the United States, 

 but those were active ; and that they approved of his methods is shown by a 

 letter of Collin to Linnseus, in which he says, "Your system I can tell you 

 obtains much in America. Mr. Clarion and Dr. Golden at Albany are 

 complete professors, as is Dr. Mitchell at Urbana, Va." If this seems a 

 pitifully small number to us, it must be remembered that in those days 

 naturalists were few in number, and natural objects studied but little; and 

 twelve years later there were in all England but seven botanists who vv^ere fol- 

 lowers of the Linnsean methods. Those were the good times when one man 

 knew the plants and animals of the whole globe. Now a naturalist may 

 devote his entire time to the study of one small group, and the names of other 

 plants and animals are often as unfamiliar to him as they are to the average 

 man. 



It is interesting, almost amusing, to see how little an idea Linnseus and 

 his contemporaries had of the number of the animals in the world, for their 

 most liberal estimates were very far from the facts. And this lack of knowl- 

 edge Linnseus realized when he wrote at the eud of his "Systema Naturse," 

 "Ea qua scimus sunt pars minima eorum quae ignoramus." Thus Ray in 

 1693, a short time before Linnseus began his career, estimated that there 

 were about twenty thousand animals, including insects, in the whole world; 

 and this was a very liberal estimate, for he actually described less than four 

 thousand. 



Now, Ray was what would be termed to-day a "lumper," and divided 

 all living things into four great orders, — insects, fishes, birds and beasts. 



