^'"'ig^.^"'] Correspondence. 29 1 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The So-called Cancelled Fasciculus of Cassin's Illustrations. 



Editors of 'The Auk:' — 



Dear Sirs: — In the Bibliographical Appendix to Coues's ' Birds of the 

 Colorado Valley,' there appears this citation : " 1853. Cassin, J. Unti- 

 tled fasciculus of his Illustrations of the Birds of Texas, California," etc. 

 Then follow these notes : "The first part issued of this work was a trial 

 or specimen number, which was cancelled as unsatisfactory, and is there- 

 fore scarcely citable. . Several bound copies, however, are extant; they 

 bear no title, date, or imprint, and are not paged. Thev consist of 15II. 

 of text and 5 pU., representing Xantkura Ittxuosa, Melanerpes formici- 

 vorus, Cha7ncea fasciata, Lop/iophanes atrtcristaius, and Crytonyx tnas- 

 sena. See 1853-55 ^i^d 1856, Cassin, J." 



There is a copy of the fasciculus in the Library of the Academy of Nat- 

 ural Sciences of Philadelphia, and an examination will show that the pre- 

 ceding citation and notes are erroneous in almost every respect. To 

 begin with, the fasciculus has a paper cover bearing the following title : 

 'Illustrations | of the | Birds of California, Texas, | and | British and 

 Russian America. | Intended to comprise all the species of North America 

 except Mexico, not figured by ! former American authors, and to serve as 

 I a supplement | to the octavo edition of | Audubon's Birds of America. 

 I By I John Cassin, | . . . . and | Henry L. Stevens, | . . . .To be com- 

 pleted in thirty numbers, published monthly. | Philadelphia: | King & 

 Baird, Printers, No. 9 Sanson Street. | 1852. 



From this it will be seen that not only is there a title, but its wording 

 is quite different from Cassin's ' Illustrations,' (1853-55) ! that the work has 

 a joint authorship; and that the date of publication is 1852. 



The pages are numbered at the bottom, each species separately, t. e., the 

 text relating to the Mexican Jay is numbered 1-4, and the synopsis of the 

 genus Parus, 1-5. In the later work six pages are devoted to the Mexican 

 Jay, while the synopsis of the genus Parus is reduced to four, showing 

 that the text was considerably changed in this issue. 



It is not likely that the fasciculus under consideration was cancelled as 

 unsatisfactory, at least as far as the plates are concerned, as they are supe- 

 rior to those of the later work, and were drawn and lithographed by 

 Henry L. Stephens; those in the later work (1853-55) were drawn by 

 Geo. G. White and Wm. E. Hitchcock, and lithographed, printed and col- 

 ored by J. T. Bowen. The earlier plates, five in all, are not numbered, and 

 if numbered according to their insertion would compare as follows with 

 those in the first part of the later work : 



