40 PUBLICATIONS OF SPENCER F. BAIRD. 



74. 



1857. Baird, Spencer F. American Oology. <:^Edinb. New Philos. Journal, new 

 ser., V, 1857, p. 374. 

 Extract from a letter relating to T. M. Brewer's work. 



75. 



1857. Baird, Spencer F. Catalogue | of | North American Mammals, | chiefly in the 

 Museum of the | Smithsonian Institution. | By | Spencer F. Baird, | Assistant 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. | — | Washington : | Smithsonian 

 Institution, | July, 1857. | 4to. pp. 21. 



This cat.alogue is essentially the systematic list -which forms the first twenty-one pages of 

 the General Eeport on North American Mammals published the same year. 



A large edition of this check-list catalogue was printed, and it remains to the present time 

 the only check-list and the principal standard of authority for labeling collections. 



76. 



1857. Baird, Spencer F. Explorations and surveys for a railroad route from the 

 Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. | War Department. | — | Mammals : | 

 By Spencer F. Baird, | Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. | 



I - I Washington, D. C, 1857. <^2d^esSoT' Spouse of Representatives. 



) T? Q^^ — Reports | of | explorations and surveys, | to | ascertain 

 the most practicable and economical route for a railroad | from the | Missis- 

 sippi River to the Pacific Ocean. | Made under the direction of the Secretary 

 of War, in | 1853-6, | according to acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 

 1854, and August 5, 1854. | — | Volume VIII. | — | Washington: | *A. O. P. 

 Nicholson, Printer. | 1857. 4to. pp. xlviii, 757, pi. xviii-lx. t 

 The special title-page quoted above is on page xxi. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface xxv-xxix 



Systematic list of the higher groups xxx, xxxi 



List of species xxxii, xlviii 



Introductory remarks I 



Dated W.ashington July 20, 1857. 



"It is a systematic account of the mammals (exclusive of Getacea, Ohiroptera, Sirenia, 

 and Pinnipedia) of North America, about 220 in number, and is by far the most important 

 and most authoritative treatise which has ever appeared on the subject." (Gii.L and CouES.) 



Review. — Annals and Magazine of Natural History, May, ser. 3, vol. i, 1858, pp. 369-373, re- 

 printed in American Journal Science and Arts, xxvi, 1858, pp. 141-146. 



The following description of the work is taken from the preface : 



" The present report is intended to embrace a systematic account of all the species of North 

 American mammals collected or observed by the different parties organized under the direc- 

 tion of the War Department for ascertaining the best route for a railroad from the Missis- 

 sippi River to the Pacific Ocean. It was originally proposed to furnish a separate report in 

 detail, on the collections of each party, but a consideration of the fact, th.it, with scarcely an 

 exception, almost every species was found on two or more lines of survey, and thus not 

 peculiar to any one expedition, led to an abandonment of the first intention. It was con- 

 sidered to bo worse than useless to repeat the same descriptions and details over and over 

 again, while, at the same time, under the circumstances, it would have been difficult to say in 

 what report any particular article could be best placed. As, too, the interest of North Amer- 

 ican zoology depends not merely on the character of the spec^"es, but also on their generic 

 and family affinities, as well as on their relationships to latitude and longitude, climate, soil, 

 elevation, &c., it would have been impossible to do justice to the subject by cutting up the 



* Other copies have the imprint of Beverly Tucker. 



t lu GiU audCoues's "Material for a Bibliogr.aphy of North American Mammals," pp. 992, 

 this edition is cited as containing plates i-lx, which is erroneous, the first 17 plates being 

 given in other volumrs of this series of reports. 



