THE YOUNG PROFESSOR 159 
to my name, and any scientific publications I myself have made. 
The number of these is limited, Mr. Audubon, Dr. Gray and a few 
others are all who have put my name in print. My own publications 
are few. Various catalogues of Plants and Animals of this region, 
some of which I enclosed to you a few weeks ago, constitute the 
principal, except various descriptions of new species of North Ameri- 
can birds in Silliman’s Journal, Journal of the Academy of Nat. 
Sciences, the Supplement to Audubon’s Birds of North America, etc. 
My labors for several years past have been devoted principally to 
the collection of materials for a work on the Synonymy of the Birds 
of North America. To do this in the most complete manner I have 
spared no pains. Every work to be found by me in the public and 
private libraries of Boston, New York, Philadelphia New Haven and 
Washington has been carefully examined. The result of this is that 
many discoveries have been made as to the correct nomenclature 
of our Species. The whole occupies several hundred foolscap pages 
and is nearly ready for publication. I am only waiting until I can 
consult several Swedish and German works to publish the results 
of my labors. All my ornithological friends at home and abroad 
have kindly urged the speedy completion of this work as a very 
great desideratum. Among them: Hugh E. Strickland of Oxford, 
Charles Bonaparte, F. Schlegel, Curator of the Museum at Leyden, 
and others. 
Should I go to Washington, my collections would of course 
accompany me. The principal of these are specimens of North 
American Birds, Quadrupeds, Reptiles and Fishes, Complete Skele- 
tons, Crania, numerous Vertebrata, and Forest trees. My ornitho- 
logical collection is probably the richest in N. American species of 
any in the world, containing with very few exceptions all those 
figured and described by Audubon, with many others unknown to 
him. I possess numerous new species which I intend to publish in 
monographs of families and genera. They are all in skins, and about 
three thousand in number, properly labelled and well preserved. 
Especial care has been taken to procure every variety of age and sex. 
I have besides a good: series of European birds and eggs obtained 
from various correspondents in that country. 
A principal object also of my studies has been the preparation 
of a Bibliography of Ornithology and American Natural History in 
