74 2 The Smithsonian Institution 



The several catalogues of North American birds issued 

 by the Institution and especially the octavo edition of 

 1859 were long in great demand among bird and egg col- 

 lectors for cataloguing purposes. In 1881, however, they 

 were replaced by a new catalogue by Robert Ridgway, en- 

 titled " Nomenclature of North American Birds," and this in 

 turn served the purpose of most collectors until it was sup- 

 planted by the " check-list " published by the American 

 Ornithologist Union in 1886. 



Professor Baird did not abandon his ornithological studies 

 after the publication of his great work on North American 

 Birds, but extended them to the species of Middle and South 

 America, and went over the ground he had already so well 

 surveyed. In 1863 the Institution issued a circular relative 

 to collections of birds from Middle and South America, and a 

 " List of the Described Birds of Mexico, Central America, 

 and the West Indies, not in the Collection of the Smithsonian 

 Institution," and solicited desiderata. With the new material 

 thus obtained, Baird began in 1864 the publication of " Part 

 I " of a " Review of American Birds in the Museum of the 

 Smithsonian Institution," including those of North and 

 Middle America, and continued the issue in instalments till 

 1866, when increasing duties compelled him to abandon it 

 after having covered a number (fourteen of the system 

 adopted) of the families of Oscines. 



In 1866 a separate issue of an "Outline of a Systematic 

 Review of the Class of Birds," by W. Lilljeborg, and an "Ar- 

 rangement of Families of Birds," containing only the names 

 of those divisions and including groups, by Spencer F. Baird, 

 were issued. 



These general works on American ornithology were sup- 

 plemented by a number of special memoirs on various 

 avifaunas as follows : One such was a catalogue of the 



