Z PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



brought him into prominence as one of the most daring and 

 erratic of the new lights in American science of that day. 

 This, however, did not come to pass until several years after 

 his first visit to the United States, for, after traveling on foot 

 extensively in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delawaye, Maryland 

 and New York, chiefl)^ with an eye to the natural beauties and 

 curiosities of the country, he returned to Sicily in the year 

 1805. He took back with him a large collection of plants, 

 seeds, shells, minerals, etc., which he had picked up in an 

 amateur way, in his American wanderings. He states that his 

 herbarium alone contained ten thousand specimens. In his 

 autobiography ^ he makes no mention of having collected birds 

 previous to this time, but says, ' ' My brother [who accompanied 

 him to America] had become a Sportsman and procured me 

 many Birds. I wanted to undertake the Ornithology of the 

 United States, finding many of them new or unknown, or badly 

 described." It is interesting to know that this was almost pre- 

 cisely the time when Alexander Wilson had resolved to gather 

 materials for the publication of his American Ornithology, and 

 from what we know of Rafinesque's later attempts in this 

 branch of science, it was a fortunate thing that this scheme of 

 his, like many others, was given up. 



A perusal of his autobiography shows that he began the study 

 of birds near Marseilles in 1797, when he started writing letters 

 to F. M. Daudin, the French ornithologist, who was his first 

 learned correspondent. Rafinesque states that in 1800, while 

 living near Leghorn with a Mr. Lanthois, "I began to hunt, 

 but the first Bird I shot was a poor Parus (titmouse) whose 

 death appeared a cruelty to me, and I have never been able 

 to become an unfeeling hunter. I sent accounts of rare Birds 

 to Daudin. We often visited in Parties, the woods near the 

 city, when Botany was not forgotten." We have here no 

 doubt the chief reason why Rafinesque did so little systematic 

 work in the realm of higher vertebrate animals and eventually 

 devoted the greater part of his biological studies to botany. 

 Indeed, if it were not for the prominent figure which his work 



^ A Life of Travels and Researches in North America and South Europe 

 etc.). Phila. , 1836, 148 pp. 



