28 



spencer F. Baird. 



of purpose, led him to distinction in his 

 chosen field of research. When fourteen 

 years old, he began, with his brother Wil- 

 liam, a collection of the birds of Cumber- 

 land county. Pa., and the materials then 

 brought together formed the nucleus of the 

 Smithsonian collection of birds. It was at 

 this period of his life that Baird formed the 

 acquaintance of Audubon, who became his 

 warm friend, and whom he materially aided 

 in the labors to which in later years he gave 

 an added value by systematizing their re- 

 sults. 



At the age of seventeen he graduated 

 from Dickinson College and entered upon 

 the study of medicine, but he appears to 

 have longed for a broader field of research, 

 and five years later accepted the chair of 

 Natural History, and later that of Chemistry, 

 in Dickinson College. While thus engaged 

 he became associated with Agassiz, with 

 whom he planned a joint work on the fresh- 

 water fishes of the United States, an un- 

 dertaking which from some cause fell 

 through, but the mere fact that Agassiz en- 

 tered into the arrangement, is evidence of 

 the ripeness of intellect displayed by his 

 young colleague. The five years spent by 

 Baird as professor in this institution consti- 

 tuted a definite epoch of his life ; they were 

 years devoted to the acquisition and con- 

 sideration of facts brought to light by his 

 own labors and those of others, and these 

 facts were classified and arranged with 

 some efforts at system in the process of col- 

 lections ; but it was not until the close of 

 this period that Baird developed those great 

 capacities for generalization and systemiza- 

 tion, which later enabled him, as it were, 

 to build together the achievements of past 

 and contemporary workers into a monu- 

 ment in which all the valuable results of 

 their life labors were so arranged that they 

 were seen to constitute severally important 

 parts in a great whole of truth, order, and 

 beauty. 



In every department of natural history 



Baird may be said to have stood to his fel- 

 low workers in the relation of the architect 

 to the quarryman. No matter how perfect 

 their knowledge of their several specialties, 

 Baird mastered all that they knew, and with 

 rare insight, saw at a glance the relations 

 of truths in one branch of science, to truths 

 in all others, and the general order which 

 rendered it possible to bind all together in 

 one harmonious whole. 



In 1850 Baird was elected Assistant Sec- 

 retary of the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 naturally succeeded to the Secretaryship on 

 the death of Professor Henry, and it was 

 in his conduct of the duties of this office 

 that he found opportunity for the display 

 of that rare administrative ability and capa- 

 city for organization, which led to his selec- 

 tion for the post of Commissioner of Fish 

 and Fisheries. 



His labors in this department, his success 

 in restocking depleted waters with choice 

 fish, and the enormous economic importance 

 of the results achieved, are topics of the 

 day, and familiar to every one interested in 

 the subject. Having seen what was wanted, 

 designed the necessary measures, and or- 

 ganized a staff to give effect to them, the 

 work really seemed to call for little further 

 attention from him. An hour or two a day 

 was as much as he was in the habit of de- 

 voting to this important department, but 

 he was familiar with every detail of the oper- 

 ations. 



Professor Baird's contributions to scien- 

 tific literature were, as already said, very 

 numerous. Between 1850 and 1874 he pub- 

 lished several works upon North American 

 natural history, the most important of which, 

 perhaps, was his " North American Birds," 

 published in 1858, a work which Coues 

 characterizes as the most important and 

 decided single step ever taken in North 

 American ornithology, in all that relates to 

 the technicalities of the science, effecting a 

 complete revolution in classification and 

 nomenclature. 



