DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. !) 



New Jersey which he possessed. He writes to Baird one day 

 in early spring: "You have scarcely an idea of the engrossing 

 character of an active business life in the city, in which I have 

 the misfortune to be merged. I long for the country, and could 

 I make it at all compatible with my interests I should get out 

 of this quickly; being penned up in a city is not what it is 

 cracked up to be, especially in the glorious spring-time. 1 

 hope you will shortly have the satisfaction of welcoming your 

 (and let me add my) old friend Merula carolinensis Esq [cat 

 bird], Rev. Pipilo erythrophthalnius [chewink], the amiable 

 family of the Sylvias [warblers], with all the uncles, aunts, 

 (cousins and brothers, to which give my respects and the compli- 

 ments of the season." 



To Cassin, however, just as to Audubon, the gun was a most 

 important part of the ornithologist's outfit, and the collector and 

 observer were intimately mingled in his ideas of a field natural- 

 ist. To quote his own words: " Bird collecting is the ultimate 

 refinement — the ne plus ultra of all the sports of the field. It is 

 attended with all the excitement, and requires all the skill of 

 other shooting, with a much higher degree of theoretical infor- 

 mation and consequent gratification in its exercise. . . . Per- 

 sonal activity, coolness, steadiness of hand, quickness of eye 

 and ear will be of service, and some of them indispensable, to 

 successful collecting. The main reliance is, however, on the 

 ear for the detection of birds by their notes. Whether in the 

 tangled forest, the deep recesses of the swamp, on the sea-coast 

 or in the clear woodlands, on the mountain or in the prairie, it 

 advises one of what birds may be there, and we recognize no 

 more exquisite pleasure than to hear a note that we are not ac- 

 ([uainted with." 



His local researches resulted in the discovery of one bird 

 unknown to Wilson and Audubon, the Philadelphia Vireo, 

 while he also demonstrated the distinctness of our Merganser 

 Duck from the European species, bestowing upon it the name 

 Americanus. From the south-west he described a number of 

 new species, secured by various early collectors, but it was from 

 Africa that most of his new birds were obtained. He had 

 always made a specialty of African birds, and formed a con- 



