244 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



It is with very great regret that we have to record the death 

 of John Cassin, which took place at Philadelphia on the 10th 

 of January last. Among the many ornithologists whose loss has 

 been deplored in this Journal, there has not been one of such 

 approved scientific reputation as the last who has been taken 

 from us. Born in Pennsylvania in 1813, the deceased natu- 

 ralist passed the greatest part of his life in the City of Brotherly 

 Love, devoting the leisure moments of a busy career to the 

 study of Natural History, and especially of Ornithology. His 

 labours will long live ; for such works as the ' Birds of Cali- 

 fornia,' the Ornithology of the several United States' Expedi- 

 tions under Gillis, Perry, and Wilkes, and his share in Prof. 

 Baird's ' Birds of North America,' are enduring monuments, to 

 say nothing of the numerous and nearly always valuable papers 

 communicated by him to various publications, and in particular 

 to those of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, of 

 which he was one of the most active members. A word more 

 also must be said by us : those foreign ornithologists who have 

 visitedthemagnificentMuseum of which the "Quaker City" boasts 

 (and both the late and the present Editor of ' The Ibis ' have 

 enjoyed that good fortune) can never fail to have been charmed 

 by the obliging and unpretending manner in which Mr. Cassin 

 did the honours of the institution, by his alacrity in calling the 

 attention of the stranger to its chief treasures, and his willing- 

 ness to discuss with the best temper such questions as always 

 arise when naturalists meet. We sincerely condole with our 

 American brethren in general, and with the Philadelphia Aca- 

 demy in particular, in the loss which, in common with them, we 

 have sustained ; for the death of this distinguished ornithologist 

 leaves a vacancy also in the list of the Honorary Members of 

 the B. 0. U. ' 



Erratum in 'The Ibis' for 1868. 

 Page 420, line l,for " veeticalis, Baird," read " cakolinensis (L.)." 



