4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



brief descriptions of his new species and lists of all that he saw. 

 The first edition of this work was exhausted in three weeks, and 

 in 1842 he contemplated publishing another, but so far as I 

 know this intention was never carried out. He published also 

 two short papers in the Journal of the Academy containing 

 lists of the species that he had met with in his travels. The real 

 results of his labors were, however, embodied in the later vol- 

 umes of Audubon's great work, and the identity of the con- 

 tributor is to a great extent lost in the fame of the artist author. 



Later Townsend conceived the idea of publishing an illus- 

 trated work on the Ornithology of the United States with plates 

 of royal octavo size. A single part was issued, now one of the 

 rarest brochures on American Ornithology, but apparently owing 

 to the almost simultaneous appearance of the small edition of 

 Audubon, the undertaking was abandoned. 



Townsend had been elected a member of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in September, 1833, and upon 

 his return from the west he was made a Curator, serving Decem- 

 ber, 1839-December, 1840, and later December, 1845-December, 

 1846. 



In 1842 he was employed by the National Institute, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. , in securing and mounting birds for their exhibit, 

 while he served also as Recording Secretary. 



In 1843 controversies arose between Capt. Wilkes who was 

 superintending the preparation of the specimens brought back 

 by the U. S. Exploring Expedition, and the National Institute, 

 in whose rooms the material was stored, which resulted in the 

 discharge of Townsend, just as he was becoming established 

 where he would apparently have been in direct line for scien- 

 tific positions under the soon-to-be-established Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Congress undertook an investigation of the National Insti- 

 tute's affairs, and Townsend had hopes of being reinstated as 

 Curator, but apparently nothing came of the matter, and by the 

 end of 1845 we find him back in Philadeli^hia, living at Ninth 

 and Cherry Streets, and studying dentistry, a profession in 

 which two of his brothers had attained eminence. 



Some years previous to this Townsend married Miss Harriet 



