15 



JOHN CASSIN.* 



During the past three years American Ornithology has lost from its 

 ranks, three of its most distinguished patrons and votaries, who have 

 died in the very prime of their lives, and in the midst of their 

 active usefulness. Thomas B. Wilson, M. D., of Philadelphia, whose 

 munificence not only enriched the Museum of the Academy with the 

 renowned Massen collection of birds, but added to it by constant 

 contributions, until it became the largest in the world, and accom- 

 panied these princely gifts by one even more valuable, the most per- 

 fect ornithological library anywhere to be found. Henry Bryant, M. 

 D., of Boston, to whom tlie Natural History Society of that city is 

 indebted for an ornithological collection only second in numbers to 

 that of Philadelphia, an active, enthusiastic student alike in the 

 closet and the field; and now John Cassin, of Philadelphia, who, more 

 than any other writer during the last quarter of a ceutury has cou- 

 tributed, by his investigations and his publications, to advance and 

 increase our knowledge, both of American and Foreign Oi'nithology. 

 He died in Philadelphia on the 10th of January, aged fifty-six years 

 and four mouths. 



Mr. Cassin was born in Chester, Pa., in 1813, and became a citizen 

 of Philadelphia in 1834. During the thirty-four years he has resided 

 in that city, he has been an active member of the Academy of Natural 

 Science, and no one has been more constant or more fruitful, both in 

 his studies and in his contributions to his favorite science. Besides 

 some sixty papers published in the Journal, or in the Proceedings of 

 that Society, all of them of first-class importance, he has, from time 

 to time, given to the world more elaborate publications. In 1856 he 

 published an octavo volume, giving illustrations and descriptions of 

 fifty species of birds unknown to Audubon. The ornithology of 

 Wilkes' expedition was committed, for revision, to Mr. Cassin's charge, 

 and by him published in a most creditable manner. The ornithology 

 of the expedition to Japan, the ornithology of Lieut. Gilliss' expe- 

 dition to Chili, and the rapaces and grallatores in the ornithology of the 

 Pacific Railroad Explorations were also written by Mr. Cassin. 



In 1846, about twelve years after his first residence in Philadelphia, 

 Dr. Wilson commenced his noble contributions to the Museum and to 

 the library of the Academy of that city. The result, " was a collection 

 of twenty-five thousand specimens of birds, and a library contain- 

 ing," says Mr. Cassin, "very nearly every book relating to this brauch 

 of natural science." With such unequalled opportunities, a man of 

 Mr. Cassin's rare application, devotion and zeal, could not but be- 

 come a complete master of his science. No one on this continent 



* Communicated by Thomas M. Brewer, M. D., of Boston. 



