THE OSPREY. 63 



able man. He was fond of books and quite a collector and his favorite harbor 

 was in the l)ack room of the second-story of his house which served as his 

 library. He leaned toward the anti(jnarian side of book-collecting and took 

 especial pride in his Linnseana. He had almost all the works of the great 

 Swede and most of the editions of his Systema Natura?. This antiquarian and 

 historical tendency was manifest in the series of three articles, entitled "Fasti 

 Ornithologicae" contributed to the Proceedings in 1S65, 1866 and 1867, in 

 which he reviewed the ornithological portions of the works of Philip Ludwig 

 Statius Miiller, der Naturforscher, and the Encyclopjedia Londinensis. 



In these articles, he resurrected a number of long-forgotten names and most 

 of his determinations have been accepted and the names revived are still re- 

 tained. 



Cassin's forte was as a student of species and of various groups or families 

 of birds so far as their species were concerned. He took little or no interest 

 in anatomical studies or taxonomy based on such studies and limited his inves- 

 tigation to determination of species as represented by their skins. He was, 

 indeed, a typical old-fashioned ornithologist, but one of the best of that type. 

 He did not fear to differentiate generically birds that appeared to him to be 

 too slightly related to others to be connected with them under a common 

 generic designation. Apropos of relationship, ho would not admit that what 

 was so-called was really blood relationship or indicative of derivation from 

 common ancestors of a remote past; in other words, he did not believe in what 

 is now known as evolution. He was not, however, violently prejudiced against 

 it and philosophically viewed it as a philosophical question. He was, indeed, 

 somewhat fond of considering philosophical (juestions and frequently discussed 

 such with his friend. Dr. Thomas Wilson. With that gentleman he composed, 

 in 1863, an article "on a third Kingdom of organized beings," intermediate 

 between the Animal and Vegetable. 



In addition to his ornithological and literary studies and his regular 

 business avocations, Cassin took much interest in the government of his 

 adopted city, and served for some time in the city councils as representative of 

 the ward in which he resided. 



Cassin had a humorous bent which he freely indulged, and at one time he 

 assisted in the publication of a comic periodical. No likeness of Cassin has 

 ever been published so far as the present writer knows, and that now given 

 will convey to many ornithologists some idea of the appearance of one of 

 whom they have heard much, but have otherwise a vague idea about. It is 

 reproduced from a photograph given by the subject to the writer in 1^61. 



A summary of his publications will be given in the next number of the 



OSPRET. 



