330 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



of American ornithology along certain lines during the past cen- 

 tury. This is the reason why 1 select a large and familiar group 

 of birds (of the suborder Passeres) to illustrate what I have in 

 view, for nearly everyone in the land knows the more common 

 representatives of this tribe; as, for instance, the American Gold 

 finch, the Chipping sparrow (see Figure), the Snowbirds, the 

 Chewinks (Pipilo), and others. 



Not long age the American Ornithologists' Union published a 

 second edition of its Check-List of North American Birds, and in 

 it is given the scientific and English name of every species and 

 subspecies of bird of this country. The first edition of this work 

 appeared over (en years ago, and the present writer has com- 

 pared the two volumes in such a manner, in addition to other 

 data, as to show the number of new birds made known to science 

 and named in the last one. These results were duly published in 

 Tlie American Naturalist, of Philadelphia, of last year (1896). But 

 these show only the number of new species and subspecies of 

 birds discovered in this country during the past ten or twelve 

 years, whereas it can be shown that the widening of our knowl- 

 edge in similar fields during the past century has been simply 

 wonderful. 



Let us start from the time of Wilson, for example, and his 

 name, that of "the American ornithologist," as he has been 

 fondly called, is known to all of us. Alexander "Wilson was born 

 in 1766, and died in 1813, so the most of his ornithological work 

 was performed about a century ago, and it is proposed here to 

 compare, in a general way. the number of Fringillidai (Sparrows, 

 etc.) known to Wilson, with the number named in the A. O. U. 

 Check-List. With such a selected example as this before us, it 

 will not be difficult for those who are more or less interested in 

 American ornithology to gain some idea of what the entire ex- 

 tension of our knowledge has been in these fields. 



I have before me what I take to be an alphabetical list of the 

 birds of this country as they were known to Wilson, and quite 

 apart from the synopsis of Dr. Brewer that subsequently ap- 

 peared in some of the later editions of the former's work. The 

 first birds to be dealt with in this list are the Buntings, and these, 

 as have the majority of birds since Wilson's time, have all had 

 their scientific, or classical names, changed for them. Of this, 

 little or nothing will be said here, and only to an extent in paren- 

 theses as will indicate to the modern student of the science, the 



