A CENTURY OF ZOOLOGY IN AMERICA 397 



common species are given for students' exercises. Pre- 

 pared for Rensselaer school and the popular class-room." 

 "Four hundred and sixty-one genera are described in 

 this text-book. They embrace every known species of 

 the Animal Kingdom." This is a compilation from 

 European sources with a few American species of various 

 groups included. On the other hand, Godman's Natural 

 History, in three volumes (1826-1828), was an illustrated 

 and creditable work. Such was also the case with Sir 

 John Richardson's Fauna Boreali Americana of which 

 the volume on quadrupeds was published in England in 

 1829. The other volumes on birds, fishes and insects 

 appeared between 1827 and 1836. Audubon and Bach- 

 man's beautifully illustrated "Quadrupeds of North 

 America" was issued between 1841 and 1850. 



About 1840 several of the states inaugurated natural 

 history surveys and published catalogues of the local 

 faunas. The reports on the animals of Massachusetts 

 and New York are the most complete zoological mono- 

 graphs published in America up to that time. This is 

 particularly true of DeKay's Natural History of New 

 York published between 1842 and 1844 in beautifully 

 illustrated quarto volumes. 



The leader in the systematic studies in the early part 

 of the century was Thomas Say, who published descrip- 

 tions of a large number of new species of animals, par- 

 ticularly reptiles, mollusks, Crustacea and insects. Say's 

 conchology, printed in 1816 in Nicholson's Cyclopedia, 

 is the first American work of its kind. This was 

 reprinted in 1819 under the title "Land and Fresh-water 

 Shells of the United States." In 1824-1828 appeared 

 the three volumes of Say's American Entomology. 



The prominent position held by Say in the zoological 

 work of this period is illustrated by the following para- 

 graph from Eaton's Zoological Text-book ( 1826, p. 133 h 

 "At present but a small proportion of American Ani- 

 mals, excepting those of large size, have been sought put 

 . . . And though Mr. Say is doing much ; without assist- 

 ance, his life must be protracted to a very advanced 

 period to afford him time to complete the work. ^ But if 

 every student will contribute his mite, by sending Mr. 

 Say duplicates of all undescribed species, we shall prob- 



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