iSSS.J spencer Fullerton Baird. h 



and combined them, together with original ideas, into a chissifi- 

 cation which was an improvement on its predecessors. Thns, 

 the chxssification presented in the 'Birds of North America' 

 (185S) is based essentially upon the systems of Sundevall ('Or- 

 nithologiskt System,' 1S35 and 1S43), Cabanis ('Ornithologisclie 

 Notizen,' 1S47), ^^^^ Keyserling and Blasius ('Wirbelthicre 

 Europas,' 1S40). The nomenclature was fixed by mctliods 

 adopted from G. R. Gray ('List of the Genera of Birds,' etc., 

 1S41-42), to the abandonment of which must be attributed most 

 of the subsequent changes in generic names. In the 'Review' 

 (1S64-66) and 'History of North American Birds' (1S74), a 

 furriier concession is made to the classifications of Sundevall and 

 Cabanis by commencing with the Order Passeres and Family 

 Turdidai instead of the Raptores. The same systems were the 

 foundation of Liljeborg's ' Classification of Birds,' formally 

 adopted by the Smithsonian Institution (through Professor 

 Baird) in 1S66, by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin (with certain 

 emendations and amplifications) in 1S73, and with still further 

 modifications by the American Ornithologists' Union, in 1SS6. 

 The distinctive features of the 'Bairdian School' were still 

 further developed by the publication, in 1S64-66, of the 'Review 

 of American Birds,' a work of unequalled merit, displaying in 

 their perfection Professor Baird's wonderful powers of analysis 

 and synthesis, so strongly combined in his treatment of difficult 

 problems. Unfortunately for ornithology, tliis work was but 

 fairly begun, only a single volume (an octavo of 450 pages) 

 being published. The cause of its discontinuance is not defin- 

 itely known to the present writer, but it may have been the inter- 

 vention of the 'Ornithology of California,'* a work based on the 

 manuscript notes of Di". J. G. Cooper, but edited by Piofcssor 

 Baird, who also superintended its publication, and the 'History 

 of North American Birds, 'f material for which was already being 



* Geological Survey of California. | J. D. Whitney, State Geologist. | — | Ornitholo- 

 gy. I Volume I. I Land Birds. | Edited by S. F. Baird, | from the manuscript and notes 

 of I ]. G. Cooper. | Published by authority of the Legislature. | 1870. | 



A royal octavo volume of 592 pages, illustrated by numerous woodcuts, some colored 

 by hand. 



t A I History | of North American Birds | by | S. F. Baird, T. M. Brewer, and R. 

 Ridgway | Land Birds | Illustrated by 64 colored plates and 593 woodcuts | volume L 

 I [III]. I [Vignette.] | Boston | Little, Brown, and Company | 1874. | 3 vols., small 

 quarto, vol. I. pp. i-x.\viii, 1-596, i-vi, cuts, and pll. i-.\xvi, Vol. II, 3 pll. pp. 1-590, 

 i-vi, cuts, and pll. xvii-lvi, Vol. Ill, 3 pll., pp. 1-560, i 1., i-xxviii, cuts, and pll. Ivii-Ixix. 



