CORRESPONDENCE 155 



appointed assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. 



An outline of the scientific career of this remarkable 

 naturalist would embrace the following briefly stated but 

 distinctive periods of scientific activity : A period of 

 twenty-six years devoted to laborious investigation of 

 the vertebrate fauna of North America, 1843-1869 ; forty 

 years of continuous contribution to scientific literature 

 of which at least ten were devoted to scientific editor- 

 ship, 1840-1880; four years devoted to educational work, 

 1846-1850 ; forty-one years devoted to the encourage- 

 ment and promotion of scientific enterprises and the 

 development of new workers among the young men with 

 whom he was brought into contact, 1846-1887 ; thirty- 

 seven years devoted to administrative work as an officer 

 of the Smithsonian Institution and in charge of the 

 scientific collections of the government, 1850-1887 ; 

 twenty-eight years its principal executive officer, 1850- 

 1887 ; nine years secretary and responsible head of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, 1878-1887; sixteen years United 

 States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, a philan- 

 thropic labor for the increase of the food supply of the 

 world and incidentally for the promotion of the interests 

 of biology and physical investigation, 1871-1887. 



Prof. Baird's published works embrace his History 

 of North American Birds, five volumes, 1874-1884 ; the 

 reports of the Smithsonian Institution and of the United 

 States Fish Commission, while a complete bibliography 

 of his works would embrace over one thousand titles, two 

 hundred of which are to be classed as formal and elaborate 

 contributions to scientific literature. With the publica- 

 tion of his quarto work of over two thousand pages on 



