Il^TRODUOTIOK 



Many years ago the publication of a series of bibliographies of rep- 

 resentative American naturalists was begun in the Bulletins of the 

 United States National Museum. The series was intended to include 

 analytical discussions of the writings of the men who have been espe- 

 cially prominent in the study, classification, and naming of the animals 

 and plants of America, with a view to facilitating the use of the very 

 extensive, widely scattered, and very compylicated literature which 

 has grown up in connection with American systematic biology. 



Five bulletins have been published in this series: No, 20, The Pub- 

 lished Writings of Spencer Fullerton Baird, 1843-1882, by G. Brown 

 Goode; No. 23, The Published Writings of Isaac Lea, LL. D., by 

 Newton Pratt Scudder; No. 30, Bibliography of Publications Relating 

 to the Collection of Fossil Invertebrates in the United States National 

 Museum, including complete lists of the writings of Fielding B. Meek, 

 Charles A. White, and Charles D. Walcott, by John Belknap Marcou; 

 No. 40, The Published Writings of George Newbold Lawrence, 1844- 

 1891, by L. S. Foster, and No. 41, The Published Writings of Dr. 

 Charles Girard, by G. Brown Goode. 



The scope of this series would seem appropriately limited to the 

 work of the naturalists living and working in America, but there is 

 one exception which no one can doubt the propriety of making — that 

 in the case of Mr. Philip Lutley Sclater, the secretary of the Zoological 

 Society of London, who has confined his work for the most part to 

 American ornithology, and whose contributions to the sj^stematic 

 ornithology of the American Continent have far exceeded in extent 

 those of anyone working in this country. His opportunities have 

 been almost unlimited, and his utilization of these opportunities has 

 been wonderfully effective. 



The ornithology of Neotropical America was but little known when 



he began his work. Mr. George N. Lawrence, of New York City, 



also an indefatigable worker in the same field, has left an extensive 



record in his bibliography already published. His studies were 



carried on, however, in the intervals of an active business life, while 



Mr. Sclater has been able to devote his entire time for more than half 



a century to systematic work, and has given most of his attention to 



the bird fauna of Central and South America, with results the extent 



of which is well shown by the analytical catalogue of his writings now 



published. 



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