b PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



siderable private collection, while the large collections made by 

 DuChaillu came later to the Academy and were described by 

 Cassin. 



Besides his numerous contributions to the publications of the 

 Academy, Cassin prepared the reports on the ornithological 

 collections made by all of the early government expeditions: 

 The U. S. Exploring Expedition — revised edition, Japan Ex- 

 pedition, and the Gilliss Astronomical Expedition. He also 

 prepared a portion of the volume on Birds in the Pacific Rail 

 Road Series, and published a work on ' ' The Birds of Texas and 

 California." 



During the time of his greatest activity Cassin was easily the 

 first ornithologist in America. Of his contemporaries Baird and 

 Lawrence were most closely associated with him, but both did 

 their most important work a little later than Cassin. Baird was 

 ten years his junior, and from the first seems to have consulted 

 him on all ornithological questions, and the relations between 

 them were always most intimate and cordial. Later when the 

 duties of the secretaryship of the Smithsonian Institute occupied a 

 large part of Baird' s time, he left to Cassin the descrijation of large 

 numbers of new birds which came into the National Institution. 



Audubon had just returned from his Missouri river trip and 

 was making his last contribution to ornithology at the time that 

 Cassin' s career began, so that they were hardly contemporaries. 

 They met I believe but once, at the Academy in June, 1845, 

 when Audubon was on a visit to his old friend, Edward Harris, 

 of Moorestown, N. J. Little or no correspondence seems to 

 have passed between them, which is not surprising, since they 

 looked upon ornithology from totally different sides. 



With Cassin technic was the all-prominent feature, and there 

 was none of the artistic or poetic temperament which character- 

 ized his predecessors. On this account his work appeals but 

 little to the popular school of bird students which has grown up 

 within the last generation, and his name is consequently less 

 familiar. We must, however, remember that the exact knowl- 

 edge and comprehensive books of to-day have been made pos- 

 sible by the combined work of both kinds of ornithologists. 

 Cassin himself says: "It is by no means desirable to be ex- 



