REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41 



routes to the Pacific, which was published in the series of reports 

 ordered by Congress. To this was added an account of all the birds 

 of the Atlantic States, and it thus formed a systematic and descrip- 

 tive work on the ornithology of North America, which has since be- 

 come the principal standard manual on this subject. A reprint by 

 the Institution, from this volume, of the catalogue of species has 

 been widely distributed and much used for labelling collections and 

 preparing lists for distribution of specimens. 



The number of specimens of birds of America in the collection of 

 the Institution at the time the work was published, and upon which 

 it was based, was less than 10,000; it now exceeds 40,000. 

 Many portions of North America unexplored at that time — the 

 whole arctic region, the recesses of the Rocky mountains, Cape St. 

 Lucas, &c. — have since been investigated; the migration and distri- 

 bution southward in winter of the species have been established by 

 numerous collections from the West Indies, Mexico, Central and 

 South America, and information generally has been collected, during 

 the interval of seven years, which tends to complete the knowledge 

 of the ornithology of North America. In this same period the spe- 

 cimens received from all parts of Mexico and Central America and 

 the West Indies are so numerous as to represent nearly all the 

 known species, and to embrace many new ones, forming, according 

 to Professor Baird, an aggregate of species much larger than that of 

 any other single collection. 



In order, therefore, to bring up the subject to the present date, 

 and at the same time to exhibit a connected account of the birds of 

 Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies, Professor Baird un- 

 dertook the work referred to, and 320 pages of it have thus far been 

 published, each signature being dated, to show the time of actual is- 

 sue. The portion printed embraces an account of the oscine or sing- 

 ing birds, with synoptical tables and detailed descriptions of the 

 families, genera,and species, excepting where these have already ap- 

 peared in the Pacific Railroad Report. As the account of each family 

 is completed, the duplicate specimens are set aside for distribution 

 to the principal museums at home and abroad as types of the "re- 

 view." 



The work of Professor Baird has met with much commendation 

 from ornithological writers in this country and Europe. The editor 

 of the London Ibis, a journal devoted exclusively to ornithology, re- 

 marks: " that it will be the book of authority on North American 

 ornithology for a long time to come, there can be little doubt. The 



