2 To Correspondence. 1^"^ 



assigned to the "Broad-winged Hawk" of Wilson by Vieillot in 1823 

 (Encycl. Method., Ornithol., Ill, 1273). The correct name of this bird, 

 therefore, is Bitteo platy-pterus (Vieill.). 



The history of the Ord reprints was well understood by contemporary 

 writers, but as time went on confusion arose from the false dates on their 

 titles. So early as 1S53, Cassin, in his 'Illustrations of the Birds of 

 California, Texas, etc.,' p. 101, declared that only the last three volumes 

 of Wilson were republished, and that the names pennsylvanicus and 

 latissinius as applied to the Broad-winged Hawk occurred in different 

 copies of the original edition. He therefore inferred that the latter name 

 was substituted by Wilson himself, while the sheets were going through 

 the press. Cassin further affirmed that Mr. Ord told him that he had 

 nothing to do with either of the names in question, — a lapse of memory 

 not remarkable in a man who at the time Cassin wrote had numbered 

 more than three score and ten years. As a matter of fact, a Falco 

 latissi'mus copy of Vol. VI bears within itself indisputable proof that it 

 could not have been printed in 181 2. It was in the sixth volume that 

 Wilson inserted his 'General Index of the Land Birds,' which included 

 some species to be treated of in later volumes of the work. The places 

 for the volume and page references in such cases were necessarily left 

 blank, with notice to the reader that the blanks might be filled up in 

 MS. after the publication of the later volumes. Now in those copies in 

 which the name Falco latissimus appears, these blank spaces are 

 occupied by printed references to the pagination of subsequent volumes, 

 including the ninth, which was not only printed, but written (bv Ord 

 himself) after Wilson was in his grave. 



Sets purporting to be the original edition are sometimes made up by 

 combining volumes belonging to the first and second editions. When 

 this mixtin-e involves the first six volumes, which bear the same osten- 

 sible dates in both editions, a convenient ear-mark for detecting the Ord 

 reprints will be found in the printers' signatures. The signature of the 

 sheet following Z is a double A. In the original edition the double letter 

 is a small capital and lower case (Aa), — in the 1824 reprints it is capital 

 and small capital (Aa). 



Walter Faxon. 



Cambridge, AIas.s. 



