xvi HISTOBICAL PREFACE 



vately printed in Paris in 1782, though the authorized publication was not till 1787. 

 It contains a list of 77 birds of Virginia, fortified with references to Catesby, Linnseus, 

 and Brisson, as the author's authorities. There were many editions, one dating 1853. 



The long publication in France of one of the monumental works on general orni- 

 thology coincides very nearly with this period. I refer of course to Buffon and his 

 collaborators. The " Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux," by Buffon and Montbeillard, dates 

 in its origin4 edition 1770-1783, being in nine quarto volumes with 264 plain plates. 

 It forms a part of the grand set of volumes dating 1749-1804 in their original editions. 

 With the nine bird-volumes are associated the magnificent series of colored plates known 

 as the "Planches Enlumin^es," published in 42 fascicles from 1765 to 1781. The 

 pktes are 1008 in number, of which 973 represent birds. 



(1785-1791.) ' 



The Pennantian Period. — A great landmark — one of the most conspicuous of the 

 last century — was set up with the appearance in 1785 of the second volume of Thomas 

 Pennant's "Arctic Zoology." The whole work, in three quarto volumes with many 

 plates, 1784-1787, was "designed as a sketch of the Zoology of North America." 

 In this year, also, John Latham completed the thifd volume (or sixth part) of his 

 " General Synopsis of Birds." These two great works have much in common, in so far 

 as a more restricted treatise can be compared with a more comprehensive one ; and in 

 the history of our subject the names of Latham and Pennant are linked as closely as 

 those of Catesby and Edwards. The parallel may be drawn still further ; for neither 

 Pennant nor Latham (up to the date in mention) used binomial names ; their species 

 had consequently no standing; but they furnished to GmeUn in 1788 the same bases 

 of formally-named species of the thirteenth edition of the " Systema Naturse," that 

 Catesby and Edwards had afforded Linnaeus in 1758 and 1766. Pennant treated up- 

 wards of 500 nominal species of North American Birds. The events at iarge of this brief 

 but important period were the progress of Latham's Supplement to his Synopsis, the first 

 volume of which appeared in 1787, though the second was not completed till 1801 ; 

 the appearance in 1790 of Latham's "Index Omithologicus," in which his birds receive 

 Latin names in due form; and the publication in 1788 of the thirteenth edition of the 

 "Systema Naturse," as just said. 



We are so accustomed to see "Linn." and "Gm." after the names of our longest- 

 known birds that we almost unconsciously acquire the notion that Linnaeus and Gmelin 

 were great discoverers or describers of birds in those days. But the men who made 

 North American ornithology what it was during the last century were Catesby, 

 Edwards, Forster, Pennant, Latham, and Bartram. For "the illustrious Swede" was in 

 this case little more than a methodical cataloguer, or systematic indexer ; while his editor, 

 Gmelin, was merely an industrious, indiscriminate compiler and transcriber. Neither of 

 these men discovered anything to speak of in this connection. 



(1791-1800.) 



The Bartramian Period. — William Bartram's figure in the events we are sketching 

 is a notable one, — rather more on account of his bearing upon Wilson's subsequent ca- 

 reer than of his own actual achievements. Wilson is often called the " father of Ameri- 



