1891.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 73 



ing a series of special papers published 1837-42, were contribu- 

 tions of the highest importance, and the first careful, systematic 

 work on any special groups of American mammals by an Amer- 

 ican writer. 



Incidentally important contributions had been made by nu- 

 merous foreign authors, but it would carry us far beyond our 

 present scope to consider them in detail. 



Baird began to write on North American mammals as early as 

 1852, his work culminating in 1857 in his great work already 

 mentioned — a work which gave him pre-eminent standing as an 

 authority, and which still remains the basis from which present 

 investigators take tlieir departure. 



Baird's volume included only the land mammals, exclusive of 

 the bats, which, with the seals and Cetacea, were not treated. With 

 these several groups omitted, Baird recognized about 220 species 

 -as entitled to a i)lace in the list of North American mammals, — 

 nearly twice the number given by Harlan in 1825. Thirty-six 

 others are mentioned as having been attributed to North America, 

 which he was unable to recognize. A few of these are extra- 

 limital, but the greater part are either ]iurely nominal, or so 

 poorly described as to render their recognition impossible. 



Baird treated the subject exclusively from the systematic side, 

 there being nothing in his work relating to the habits of the 

 species. Classification, and all questions of synonymy and no- 

 menclature, were treated exhaustively; specific and generic char- 

 acters were presented in detiil and with great discrimination. 

 As a technical treatise the work remains a monument to the 

 industry and sagacity of its talented author, and, considering its 

 extended scope, has not been excelled by any work, in any coun- 

 try, on systematic mammalogy. It was illustrated by sixty lith- 

 ographic plates and nearly forty woodcuts, relating mainly to 

 cranial, dental, and other structural characters. In 18C0 the 

 text was reissued, with a large number of additional ])hites, some 

 of them new, but mos^tly from other volumes of the Pacific 

 Eailroad and Mexican Boundary Survey reports. 



Professor Baird brought to his work not only a mind well 

 trained in modern methods of research, but he was favored with 

 resources in the way of material far beyond what had fallen to 

 the lot of any of his predecessors. 



In March, 1853, Congress appropriated $150,000 for the prose- 

 cution of surveys by the War Department of various routes 

 across the continent, from the Mississippi Eiver to the Pacific 

 coast, for the purpose of determining practicable lines for the 

 construction of railroads. Six well-equipped parties were placed 

 ■at once in the field, and six others were soon added, each accom- 



