THE OSPREY. 51 



February 186!), nnd published in tlicir Proceedings (xii, 244-24S,) and re- 

 published, in part, in the American Jotirnal of Science for March, 18C9 (2. s., 

 xlvii, 292-293). The Academy of Natural Sciences of riiiladclphia, at its 

 meeting of "Jan. 19th," 1869, passed titling resolutions respecting his death 

 and resolved that "Science has suffered a loss which cannot be repaired; the 

 loss of one who, more than any other student of Natural History in America, 

 has advanced the science of ornithology", but no obituary notice was published 

 by it. The American Philosophical Society, at its "stated meeting, January 

 15, 1869", was officially informed of his death by Dr. Leconte, and, on motion 

 of Dr. Ruschenberger, "Dr. [Robert] Bridges was requested to prepare an 

 obituary notice of the deceased" (p. 3), but Dr. Bridges, in a letter of Feb- 

 ruary 20, "declined" the "appointment" (p. 23). Subsequently Professor 

 Spencer F. Baird was appointed to prepare an obituary notice but never did 

 so. A brief notice, already referred to, was published in the Ibis for April, 

 1869. A notice in 26 lines likewise appeared in Appleton's Cyclopajdia of 

 American Biography (i, 553, 554). Certainly Cassin was worthy of a better 

 fate. To show what was thought and known of him at last, much of the 

 notice by Dr. Brewer is now again published; but with a few necessary 

 changes which preclude the use of quotation marks for the excerpts collec- 

 tively. 



John Cassin was born of Quaker parentage, in Chester, Pa., Sept. 6th, 

 1813. In 1834, at the age of twenty-one, he took up his abode in Philadel- 

 phia, where he continued to reside till his death. "In his earlier life he engaged 

 in mercantile pursuits, and afterwards, for several years, held important posi- 

 tions under the national government. At the death of Mr. Bowen, the prin- 

 cipal engraver of Philadelphia, he assumed the management of the establish- 

 ment, which he continued until his death. All the reports of explorations and 

 surveys issued by our government were largely indebted to him for the excel- 

 lence of their illustrations." 



For more than thirty years Mr. Cassin devoted all the leisure hours he 

 could take from the requirements of his business to the study of ornithology. 

 Privileged to reside in Philadelphia among the kindred spirits that compose its 

 Academy, yet more privileged in having access to its wealth of ornithological 

 specimens, — then the greatest in the world, — and to its even greater wealth in 

 scientific works, where was to be found, procured by the munificence of his 

 friend, the late Dr. Wilson, every known publication of any value on the 

 subject of ornithology — ^with all these privileges no one could well have en- 

 joyed greater advantages for pursuing his favorite study, and certainly no one 

 could have better improved such rai'e opportunities. 



"With a full appreciation of all that I aver," says Dr. Brewer, "I claim 

 for my lamented friend, that as a general ornithologist, especially in regard to 



