470 Stone, Jacob Post Giraud, Jr. [o" t k 



ber, his name appears as H. C. DeRham. The failure to capitalize 

 the second part of his name inGiraud's work has resulted in the bird 

 being sometimes quoted asDurhami, so anxious are some to emend 

 names to a supposedly correct form! John G. Bell was the well- 

 known taxidermist, "devoted to natural history," to quote Giraud, 

 and Philip Brasher was a close friend and collector of Long Island 

 birds who apparently did not appear as the author of any orni- 

 thological contributions. His name also suffered two misspellings, 

 as may be seen above. The appearance of Giraud's own name in 

 connection with the Texan Horned Lark Otocoris alpcstris giraudi 

 in later works, requires a word of explanation. Mr. Henshaw in 

 his review of the Horned Larks (Auk, 1884, p. 260) states that this 

 Texan race is the bird that Giraud described as Alauda minor, as 

 he ascertained by examining the type, but this name being pre- 

 occupied he renamed it in honor of its original describer. Mr. 

 Ridgway, however, examining the same type many years later, 

 decides that it belongs to the Mexican race 0. a. chrysoloema. Be 

 this as it may, I am sure no one will begrudge Giraud the well" 

 merited recognition that was in error conferred upon him. 



Giraud's other work " The Birds of Long Island," published by 

 Wiley and Putnam, 1G1 Broadway, New York, in 1844, was the 

 best piece of local ornithological work that had appeared up to 

 that time, and is still the leading authority upon Long Island birds, 

 though of course important additions have been made to the list 

 of species by later ornithologists who have followed in Giraud's 

 footsteps. 



The work, moreover, is of great historic value today, since it gives 

 us a reliable picture of water-bird life in early times, when many 

 species now rare were of common occurrence, while there is fre- 

 quent incidental mention of birds from other parts of the eastern 

 United States. He who possesses a copy of this classic with the 

 gilded representation of the Heath Hen on the back of the cover 

 may well count himself fortunate. Dr. Elliott ( 'oues apparently did 

 not estimate this work of Giraud's at its true value in his ' Bibli- 

 ography,' as he dismisses it with very curt mention. His remark, 

 "Audubon's classification and nomenclature," moreover, is not 

 strictly correct, and several species not mentioned by Audubon 

 are added. That the latter fact escaped Dr. Coues' keen eye is 

 rather remarkable. The changes from Audubon's nomenclature 



