SPENCER F. BAIRD. 705 



Although his elder brotlier had anticipated him by a few years in be- 

 ginning the formation of a collection, he soon " diverged into other 

 paths," and became a lawyer in Reading, Pennsylvania,* leaving to 

 him the held of ornitliology, which he cultivated so assiduously that 

 when the catalogue of his collection t was closed, at number 3696, al- 

 most every species of bird occurring, regularly or otherwise, in eastern 

 and central Pennsylvania was represented, and in most cases by series 

 of specimens showing tlie different stages and phases of plumage. This 

 collection, deposited there by Professor Eaird when he entered upon his 

 duties as Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, is still in 

 the National Museum, of whose ornithological treasures it forms an im- 

 portant element, so many of its specimens having served as the types 

 of Professor Baird's descriptions in his " Birds of Korth America " and 

 subsequent works. In it are "specimens of birds prepared by these 

 boys forty-tive [now nearly fifty] years ago by a simple process of 

 evisceration, followed by stuffing the body-cavities full of cotton and 

 arsenical soap" — a method probably adopted by them before they had 

 learned the art of skinning birds. 



Although his collection was made at a time when the art of taxider v 

 is generally supi)osed to have been far behind its present status, espe- 

 cially so far as this country is concerned, the excellent i)reparation of 

 the specimens, their ver.y precise labelling and perfect preservation, 

 show Professor Baird to have been in every respect the peer of any 

 ornithological collector of the present period. Exposed for more than 

 thirty years to constant handling and everything that could effect their 

 deterioration, they are still in a most excellent state of perservation, 

 and none have lost their labels. 1 have never known a specimen of 

 Professor Baird's preparation to be attacked by insects, a statement 

 which I am able to make regarding few other collections of which I 

 possess the knowledge to speak. The force of these observations may 

 be better appreciated when it is considered that probably no other 

 collection of skins has ever received so much haudling as that made bj'" 

 Professor Baird, every standard work on North American birds pub- 

 lished since IHaO having been based esseJitially upon it, so far as eastern 

 species are concerned. Not only aie the specimens i)repared and pre- 

 served in a manner equalled by only the best of our living collectors, 

 but tlu'ir labels are fastened with unusual security, aiul contain very 

 precise data, including scientific name (with authority), sex, age, 

 locality, and date ; and usually, on the reverse side, the total length 

 and stretch of wings, measured before skinning. 



The formation of so large and varied a collection of course in- 



* Mr. Goode informs xis that "at the time of his death, in 1872," he "was United 

 States, collector of internal revenne at Reading." 



t This catalogue constitutes Volume I of the series of National Museum " Register 

 of Specimens," now tilling twenty-one volumes, aiul containing more than 112,000 sep- 

 arate entries. 



U. Mis. 142 45 



