704 BIOGEAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 



natural history studies, and in the study of medicine, including a 

 winter's course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 in New York, in 1842, though he never formally completed his medical 

 course. " In 1845 he was chosen professor of natural history in Dick- 

 inson College, and in 1846 his duties and emoluments were increased 

 by election to the chair of natural history and chemistry in the same 

 institution. July 5, 1850, he accepted the position of Assistant Secre- 

 tary of the Smithsonian Institution, and October 3, at the age of 

 twenty-seven years, he entered upon his life work in connection with 

 that foundation — 'the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 

 men.'" 



Mr. Goode informs us that " his ancestry upon one side was Eng- 

 lish, upon the other Scotch and German. His paternal graudfatber 

 was Samuel Baird, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a surveyor by profes- 

 sion, whose wife was Rebecca Potts." The Bairds were from Scotland, 

 while the Potts family came from England to Pennsylvania at the close 

 of the seventeenth century. " His great grandfather on the mother's 

 side was the Eev. Elihu Spencer, of Trenton, one of the war preachers 

 of the Revolution, whose patriotic eloquence was so influential that a 

 price was set on his head by the British Government; his daughter 

 married William M. Biddle, a banker, of an English family for many 

 generations established in Pennsylvania, and identified with the bank- 

 ing interests of Philadelphia. Samuel Baird, the father of the subject 

 of this sketch, established himself as a lawyer at Reading, Pennsylvania, 

 and died when his son was ten years old. He was a man of fine culture, 

 a strong thinker, a close observer, and a lover of nature and out-of-door 

 l)ursuits. His traits were inherited by his children, especially by his 

 sons Spencer and William. The latter, who was the elder, was the first 

 to begin collecting specimens, and as early as 1836 had in hand a col- 

 lection of the game-birds of Cumberland County. His brother soon 

 became his companion in this pursuit, and six years later they published 

 conjointly a paper entitled ' Descriptions of two species, supposed to be 

 new, of the Genus Tyranmila Swainsou, found in Cumberland County, 

 Pennsylvania.'" * 



Early in 1838 Professor Baird became acquainted with Audubon, 

 " with whom he was for many years in correspondence, and who, in 

 1842, gave to him the greater part of his collection of birds, including 

 most of his types of new species." In 1841 a very intimate friendship was 

 begun with George N. Lawrence, of IsTew York, with John Cassin of 

 Philadelphia, in 1843, and Thomas M. Brewer, of Boston, in 1845. These 

 close friendships coutiuued through life, though of these ornithologists 

 only the first named survives him, the others having died before Pro- 

 fessor Baird. Tbeywere all at onetime or another associated with him 

 in his ornithological work. 



* These species are now known as Emjiidonax Jlaviventris Baird and £1. rninimus 

 Baird. 



