8 spencer Fuller ton Baird. [January 



arranged, besides other literary work and the increasing pressure 

 of administrative duties. Whatever the cause, however, its dis- 

 continuance is to be regretted, since its completion would have 

 given us an invaluable guide to the study of Neotropical birds. 

 I have it on good authority, that no single work on American 

 ornithology has made so profound an impression on European 

 ornithologists as Professor Baird's 'Review'; and, by the same 

 authority, 1 am permitted to state that he — a European by 

 birth and rearing — became an American citizen through its 

 influence. 



In the preface to the present writer's latest work on Ameri- 

 can ornithology* the author is proud to mention that the book 

 was "originally projected by Professor Spencer F. Baird .... 

 whose works represent the highest type of systematic orni- 

 thology and have furnished the model from which the younger 

 generation of ornithologists have drawn their inspiration" ; and 

 that his friendly advice and suggestions had rendered compara- 

 tively easy the performance of a task which under less favorable 

 auspices would have been far more difficult of accomplish- 

 ment — acknowledgments which but faintly express the author's 

 obligations to his tutor. 



In commenting upon the value of Professor Baird's contribu- 

 tions to scientific literature. Professor Goode remarks that "no 



* A Manual | of | North American Birds. | By | Robert Ridgway. | — | Illustrated 

 by 464 outline drawings of the | generic characters. | — | Philadelphia : | J. B. Lippin- 

 cott Company. | 1887 | Royal octavo. Frontispiece (portrait of Professor Baird), pp. 

 i-xi, 1-631, pll. i-cxxiv. 



The history of this work, briefly stated, is as follows : 



Before the printing of the 'History of North American Birds ' had been completed- 

 Professor Baird had under way a smaller but very useful work, consisting of the ana- 

 lytical or synoptical tables of the larger work, improved and somewhat enlarged by the 

 introduction of brief diagnoses of the nests and eggs of the different species, together 

 with the English names. This book, of which there exists only a single copy, and that 

 not perfect, was completed early in 1874. Its title is 'Outlines of American Ornithology 

 by S. F. Baird and R. Ridgway. Part I. Land Birds." For some reason the work was 

 never published, and the electrotype plates were destroyed. This work, in which the 

 present writer had some share, was the embryo which, after twelve years' incubation, 

 finally developed into the more comprehensive ' Manual of North American Birds," in 

 the preparation of which, however. Professor Baird took no active part, though it is 

 scarcely necessary to say that he was much interested in its progress, even almost to 

 the close of his life, which ended shortly after the work had been printed, but before it 

 could be published. It has been a matter of deep regret to the author, that Professor 

 Baird could not have had a share in the preparation of the book, and still more that 

 he could not have lived to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing it published. 



