84 THE OSPREY. 



This report was headed "Birds. | By J. Cassin. | "and covered pp. 172- 

 206 and pi. 14-28 of the second volume; the plates were well drawn and col- 

 ored. No new species were made known. 



33d Congress, 2d Session. House of Representatives. Ex. Doc. No. 91. | — | 

 Reports | of | Explorations and Surveys, | to | ascertain the most practicable and economi- 

 cal route for a railroad | from the | Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. | Made under 

 the direction of the Secretarj' of War, in | 1853-6, | according to Acts of Congress of March 

 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854. | — | Volume IX. | — | Washington: | A. O. P. 

 Nicholson, printer. | 1858. [Subtitled as follows: Explorations and Surveys for a rail- 

 road route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. | War Department. | — | Birds: 

 I by Spencer F. Baird, | Assistant Secretary Smithsonian Institution. | With the co-ope- 

 ration of ] John Cassin and George N. Lawrence. | — | Washington, D. C. ] 1858. 4to. 

 i-lvi, 1-lOOS pp. No illustrations.] 



Another edition (from the same type) was headed "Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 

 78" and printed by Beverly Tucker. 



Mr. Cassin has furnished the entire account of the Raptores, from p. 4 to 

 64, of the Grall£e from p. 689 to 753, and of the Alcidis from p. 900 to 918, 

 in all about 135 pages. 



In 1860 the text of this was republished from the same stereotype plates 

 with the following title. 



The Birds | of | North America; | the description of species based chiefly on the 

 collections | in the | Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. | By | Spencer F. Baird, | 

 Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, | with the co-operation of | John 

 Cassin, | of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, | and | George N. Law- 

 rence, I of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. | With an Atlas of One Hundred 

 Plates. I Text. | — ] Philadelphia: | J. B. Lippincott & Co. | 1860. [4to. 2 p. 11. (Title, 

 Advt.), i-lvi, 1-1005 pp. Atlas, xi pp., 100 pll.] 



Coues has well described it; it was "a reissue, re titled, of vol. ix, Pacific 

 Railroad Reports, 1858, q. v. The main text is identical, apparently from the 

 same plates; and so the preliminary matter seems to be, excepting new Title, 

 Advt., Explanation of Plates (pp. vii-xii), and Systematic List of Illustra- 

 tions (pp. xiii-xv). — Helminthophaga virginice, p. xi (pi. 70, f. 1), sp. n. 

 The Atlas consists of 100 pll., about half of which are new, the remainder 

 being from the Pacific Railroad Reports and Mexican Boundary Survey, re- 

 touched and relettered, in some cases redrawn, for the edition." 



We are indebted to Mr. Witmer Stone for the portrait of Cassin in the 

 present number of The Osfret and which originally appeared in Cassinia. 



