V °!s XVI ] Stone, Some Philadelphia Collections and Collectors. I 7 I 



Of all the participants in that meeting of 1825, however, 

 Rafinesque stands out as the most striking character. Eccentric 

 and egotistical to the last degree, he attempted to cover the whole 

 field of science, history, and finance. His scientific works were 

 for the most part ignored by his contemporaries, and in return he 

 handled them without mercy. We can picture their mingled pity 

 and contempt when Rafinesque wrote, " I consider myself 

 endowed with a sagacity for the perception of generic and specific 

 differences far in advance of any man of my time," and yet have 

 we not to-day to a great extent the same views which he held on 

 these matters, and are we not resurrecting many of his names 

 which for nearly a century have been allowed to rest as the 

 vagaries of an erratic mind? 



Fortunately he touched but lightly upon ornithology, and we 

 are spared the irritation which his numerous and abbreviated 

 diagnoses produce in the minds of our botanists, conchologists and 

 mammalogists. 



The birds which were collected on the Long Expedition and 

 described by Say were, as already explained, deposited in Peale's 

 Museum and not in the Academy as has been often supposed, 

 this action being in all probability due to the influence of Titian 

 Peale who accompanied the expedition and doubtless himself 

 collected the specimens. 



The failure to obtain the Rocky Mountain collection was not 

 much felt at the Academy, as they soon received a far richer 

 collection of western birds than that made by Long's expedition. 



In 1834 Dr. John K. Townsend, already an active ornithologist 

 at the Academy, undertook a journey to the mouth of the 

 Columbia River. He was accompanied by Thomas Nuttall, who 

 at that time was mainly interested in botany, and apparently 

 allowed Townsend a clear field among the birds. Nuttall 

 returned in the following year after visiting the Hawaiian Islands 

 and California. Townsend, however, did not reach home until 

 the close of 1836, visiting, meantime, Hawaii, some of the other 

 Pacific Islands, and Chili. 



Townsend's collection was the most important yet secured in 

 western North America and the specimens subsequently served 

 as the types of new species described not only by himself, but by 

 Audubon, Nuttall, Cassin, and Titian Peale. 



