HISTORICAL PREFACE. xxi 



treatise, more valuable for its descriptions of new species and genera than for its methods 

 of classificatiou, was by William Swainson, as were the elegant and accurate coLjred 

 plates ; the biographical matter, by Dr. (later Sir) John Richardson, increased our knowl- 

 edge of the life-history of the northerly birds so largely, that it became a fountain of 

 facts to be drawn upon by nearly every writer of prominence from that day to this. 

 Each of the distinguished authors had previously appeared in connection mth our birds, 

 — Swainson as above said; Eichardson in 1825, in the appendix to Captain Parry's 

 "Journal." The influence of the work on the whole cannot be well overstated. 



Two events, besides the appearance of the "Fauna," mark the year 1831. One of 

 these is the publication of the first volume of Audubon's " Ornithological Biography," 

 being the beginning of the text belonging to his great folio plates. The other is the 

 completion of the bird-volumes of Peter Pallas' famous "Zoographia Eosso-Asiatica," 

 one of the most important contributions ever made to our subject, treating so largely 

 as it does of the birds of the region now called Alaska. The same year saw also the 

 Jameson edition of " Wilson and Bonaparte." 



(1832-1834.) 



The Nuttallian Period. — Thomas Nuttall (born 1786 — died 1859) was rather botanist 

 than ornithologist; but the travels of this distinguished English-American naturalist 

 made him the personal acquaintance of many of our birds, his love for which bore fruit 

 in his " Maimal of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada," of which the first 

 volume appeared in 1832, the second in 1834. The work is notable as the first "hand- 

 book " of the subject ; it possesses an agreeable flavor, and I think was the first formal 

 treatise, excepting Wilson's, to pass to a second edition, as it did in 1840. Nuttall's 

 name is permanent in our annals ; and many years after he Avrote, the honored title was 

 chosen to be borne by the first distinctively ornithological association of this country, — 

 the " Nuttall Ornithological Club," founded at Cambridge in 1873, and still flourishing. 



(1834-1853.) 



The Auduhonian Period. — Meanwhile, the incomparable work of Audubon — 

 " the greatest monument erected by art to nature " — was steadily progressing. The 

 splendid genius of the man, surmounting every difficulty and discouragement of the 

 author, had found and claimed its own. That which was always great had come to be 

 known and named as such, victorious in its impetuous yet long-enduring battle with 

 that curse of the world, — I mean the commonplace; the commonplace, with which 

 genius never yet effected a compromise, since genius is necessarily a perpetual menace 

 to mediocrity. Audubon and his work were one ; he lived in his work, and in his 

 work will live forever. When did Audubon die. We may read, indeed, " on Thurs- 

 day morning, January 27th, 1851, when a deep pallor overspread his countenance. . . . 

 Then, though he did not speak, his eyes, which had been so long nearly quenched, 

 rekindled with their former lustre and beauty ; his spirit seemed to be conscious that 

 it was approaching the Spirit-land." And yet there are those who are wont to exclaim, 

 "a soul! a soul! what is that?" Happy indeed are they who are conscious of its 

 existence in themselves, and who can see it in others, every instant of time during their 

 lives ! 



