Vol.XVIin Correspondence. 217 



1901 J 



(1828), Jardine's (1832), and the various reprints of Jardine, such as 

 Brewer's (1S40), and those published by Chatto & Windus (i876),etc- 

 The editions published by Porter & Coates (Phila., 1871, 1878), are 

 printed from Hall's edition of 1828-29. Jameson's edition (1831) alone, 

 g,o far as I have observed, reproduces the text of the first edition of Vol. I. 

 The last three volumes of Wilson's work were not so carefully elabo- 

 rated as the earlier volumes. Ord therefore subjected these volumes to 

 acareful revision and published them in a second edition,— Vols. VII, VIII, 

 in 1824, Vol. IX in 1825. In the second edition of these volumes Ord 

 introduced extensive additions to the text of Wilson and important 

 changes in the nomenclature, while the sketch of the author's life, pre- 

 fixed'to the ninth volume, was enlarged from 36 pages to 198 pages. 

 The changes in the nomenclature are tabulated in the editor's prefaces to 

 the second edition ; but the alterations and additions to the text are often 

 indistinguishable without a collation of the two editions. 



While issuing the second edition of Vols. VII-IX, Ord reprinted the 

 rest of the volumes, I-VI, in 1824, retaining on their title-pages the dates 

 of the original edition of these volumes, viz. 1808-12. Comparison of 

 the " reprints " with original copies of Vols. I-VI reveals the fact that the 

 re-issue is far from being a mere reprint of the first edition. In the editio 

 princeps Wilson made certain emendations of the nomenclature, etc., at 

 the eleventh hour, in the indexes to the several volumes, and more par- 

 ticularly in the 'List of the Land Birds of the United States,' which 

 appeared in the sixth volume, in 1812. In the reprint of 1824 Ord 

 incorporated most of these emendations in their proper places in the 

 text, and in a few instances introduced changes of his own. These re- 

 prints, then, taken together with the 1824-25 edition of Vols. VII-IX, 

 strictly speaking, constitute the second or Ord edition of the ' American 

 Ornithologv,' the true date of which is 1824-25. 



Two of Ord's amendments in these so-called reprinted volumes affect, 

 the nomenclature. Twice had Wilson applied the same name to two 

 different birds. In Vol. VII the Sora Rail is called Rallus virgmianus: 

 in Vol. VI the same name is given to the Virginia Rail. The Slate- 

 colored [Sharp-shinned] Hawk is described under the name Falco penn- 

 sylvanicus on p. 13 of Vol. VI, while on p. 92 of the same volume the 

 Broad-winged Haw^k figures by the same name. In the reprint of 1824, 

 the Sora Rail appears as Rallus caroUnns, the name of the Broad-winged 

 Hawk is changed to Falco latissimm. The latter specific name is the one 

 sanctioned bv the A. O. U. Check-List, in which it is credited to Wilson, 

 181 2, instead of Ord, -1824. During the same year, 1824, Bonaparte (Journ. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Ill, 348) drew attention to Wilson's double use 

 of the name /e««5v/r;rt;/iC//5 in the genus Falco, and proposed the name 

 ■wihoni for the Broad-winged Hawk; but in a footnote he courteously 

 withdrew this name in favor of latissimiis on being told by Ord that he 

 had chosen this name in his forthcoming reprint of Wilson. Both of 

 these names, however, are anticipated by Sparvitts platypterus, a name 



