466 Stone, Jacob Post Giraud, Jr. [£" t k 



collection to Vassar College, some of the young ladies induced him 

 to sit for one, and a copy was sent me by Prof. Orton. After going 

 to Poughkeepsie he did nothing more in ornithological investiga- 

 tion, but occasionally delivered a lecture to the college students." 



Besides presenting his collection to the college he also bequeathed 

 to the institution $30,000, to be paid at the time of his wife's death, 

 and two other bequests for the completion of his collection of 

 North American birds. In 1890, probably at the time of Mrs. 

 Giraud's death (she was living in 1887 at an advanced age), the 

 courts revoked one-half of the main bequest and one of the addi- 

 tional ones, leaving only $2,000 for the purchase of additional birds. 

 With regard to the collection, Prof. Wm. B. Dwight, professor of 

 Natural History at Vassar in 1887, wrote Mr. Dutcher that they 

 had a catalogue in Giraud's own handwriting prepared in October, 

 1867, which consisted of a list of the specimens with an explana- 

 tion of the scientific names, but with rarely any additional data. 

 Occasionally a specimen was marked "from Long Island " or "from 

 Texas," but nothing further. 



Prof. Spencer F. Baird, when as a young man he visited New 

 York in 1841, met Giraud at the shop of John G. Bell, the taxi- 

 dermist, and was invited to inspect his collection, which Baird 

 pronounced the finest collection of American birds that he had 

 ever seen. Giraud gave Baird a number of specimens of shore 

 birds and others which he did not have and promised him more 

 the following season. Baird was at this time eighteen years of 

 age, while Giraud was a man of thirty. 



Giraud's contributions to ornithological literature were two in 

 number, both notable works and both today rated among the rarest 

 books of their kind. 



The first was entitled: "A Description of Sixteen New Species 

 of North American Birds described in the Annals of the New York 

 Lyceum of Natural History. By Jacob P. Giraud, Jr. Collected 

 in Texas, 1838. New York. George F. Nesbitt, printer, Tontine 

 Building, corner of Wall and Water Streets. 1841." 



It is a folio of eighteen leaves and eight plates, neither paged 

 nor numbered. Of the sixteen species described only fourteen 

 are figured. The plates are drawn by "A. Halsey Esqur." and 

 the lithography is by N. Carrier, 2 Spruce St., N. Y. This work 

 has been the cause of no little controversy, since, on account of 



