The Three Secretaries 169 



His work in ornithology was, perhaps, the most extensive 

 and that which contributed more than any other to his repu- 

 tation ; for although he published only eighty papers, several 

 of them were monographic, and so exhaustive and critical in 

 their character that their publication was epoch-making. 



The first of his large works, the " Birds of North America," 

 which constituted the ninth volume of the reports of the Pa- 

 cific Railroad Survey, was published in 1858, a quarto work 

 of more than one thousand pages, which for twenty years re- 

 mained the principal authority. Indeed, this and his " Re- 

 view " are still regarded by every American ornithologist as 

 absolutely indispensable for constant reference. Coues has 

 declared that with its publication began the "Bairdian Period " 

 in American ornithology, a period covering almost thirty 

 years and characterized by an activity without a parallel in 

 the history of the science. " It represents the most impor- 

 tant single step ever taken in the progress of American or- 

 nithology in all that relates to the technicalities. The no- 

 menclature is entirely remodeled from that of the immediately 

 preceding Audubonian period, and for the first time brought 

 abreast of the then existing aspect of the case. It was 

 adopted by the Smithsonian Institution, and thousands of 

 separately printed copies of the * List of Species ' were dis- 

 tributed during succeeding years to institutions and individu- 

 als ; the names came at once into almost universal employ, 

 and so continued, with scarcely appreciably diminished force, 

 until about 1872." 



** The appearance of so great a work, from the hands of a 

 most methodical, learned, and sagacious naturalist, aided by 

 two of the leading ornithologists of America [John Cassin 

 and George N. Lawrence], exerted an influence perhaps 

 stronger and more widely felt than that of any of its prede- 

 cessors, Audubon's and Wilson's not excepted, and marked 



12 



