396 Palmer, In Memoriam: Theodore Nicholas Gill. [bet. 



tributions to zoology in Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia, and the 

 Century and Standard Dictionaries. He published no great mono- 

 graphs in the ordinary acceptation of the term and no comprehen- 

 sive work on natural history, evolution, or geographic distribution, 

 although few men were better qualified for such a task. He 

 devoted most of his attention to essays, revisions of groups, short 

 papers on special subjects, notices, and reviews. 



Birds received but a small part of his attention. His publica- 

 tions on ornithology may be conveniently divided into three groups: 

 (a) A series of annual reviews in the ' Summaries of Scientific 

 Progress,' 1871-1885; (b) contributions to ' Johnson's Cyclopedia,' 

 miscellaneous essays on distribution and nomenclature; and 

 (c) articles and notices in 'The Osprey.' These may be briefly 

 considered in the order indicated. 



In 1871 Harper and Company undertook the publication of the 

 'Annual Record of Science and Industry,' edited by Professor 

 Baird, who had associated With him a number of well-known 

 scientific men to take charge of special subjects. Abstracts and 

 summaries of the more important articles of the year were pub- 

 lished in Harper's Weekly and Harper's Monthly and later col- 

 lected into an annual volume, prefaced by a general account of the 

 progress of the year in each department. Doctor Gill contributed 

 the material on vertebrate zoology. Each volume contained a 

 bibliography and brief necrology, thus forming a convenient but 

 condensed account of the progress of the year. The series was 

 discontinued in 1878, but Professor Baird who had become Secre- 

 tary of the Smithsonian Institution in May of that year arranged 

 for the publication of a Record of Scientific Progress in the Annual 

 Reports of the Institution. The first installment Covering the 

 years 1879-80 appeared in the volume for 1880, thus continuing 

 without interruption the 'Annual Record' formerly published by 

 the Harpers. To this series, extending through the years 1879 to 

 1885, Gill contributed the chapters on zoology covering the whole 

 field from Protozoa to Primates. Necessarily the sections devoted 

 to birds were brief and usually condensed to less than half a dozen 

 pages. Only the more important discoveries or publications could 

 be noticed, but they were selected from the whole field of ornithol- 

 ogy and included extinct as well as living birds and notices of articles 



