320 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



as the authors say, the bearing of such publications of local 

 faunae on the laws which regulate the distribution of species on 

 the globe. This paper is followed by another on two new species 

 of Tyrannutse from the same region.* Mr. Baird's collection of 

 birds, fishes, mammals, etc., became greatly extended by long 

 excursions on foot in the Adirondacks and elsewhere which his 

 great powers of physical endurance enabled him to carry on and 

 for distances, some days, of nearly 60 miles. 



The writer first made the acquaintance of Mr. Baird in 1843, 

 when working over the corals of the Wilkes Exploring Expedi- 

 tion, then arranged in the hall of the Patent Office ; and he had 

 for some time daily proof of his enthusiasm in science, his 

 earnestness as a worker, his scientific knowledge and his generous 

 disposition — the latter manifested, among other ways, in his gift 

 of a translation of Ehren berg's Memoir on the Corals of the Red 

 Sea, which he had in the meantime prepared. This was the 

 commencement of his interest in the Expedition collections that 

 afterward came under the charge of the Smithsonian Institution 

 when he was assistant Secretary. 



Professor Baird's appointment to the position of assistant Secre- 

 tary in the Institution was made in 1850. It was hailed with 

 great satisfaction by those interested in the natural sciences ; for 

 it was thus made sure that the Institution, which had so admira- 

 ble a representative of the physical sciences in the secretary, 

 Professor Henry, would be ably conducted as regards other sci- 

 entific departments. It was just the place for him and he was 

 just the right man for the place. His breadth of knowledge in 

 the sciences of nature, his sympathy with other workers over the 

 land, his indefinite powers of work, his systematic methods, and 

 his eagerness to make the Institution national in the highest 

 sense of the term and also scientifically and practically useful, pro- 

 duced their effects ; and happily there was full support of the 

 assistant secretary in his views and plans by Professor Henry. 

 Part of these plans consisted in the furthering of Government 

 explorations for scientific discovery and observations in the 

 Territories; and for many years after 1850 such expeditions 

 were in the field adding greatly to the knowledge of the struc- 

 ture, featui-es, resources, floras and faunas, etc., of the country, 

 and gathering specimens for a great national museum. The 

 arrangements and selection of men for such expeditions, were 

 largely in Mr. Baird's hands, and much of the success attending 

 them was due to his wisdom. The gathering of specimens finally 

 resulted in 1857, in the union of the collection with those of the 

 Wilkes Exploring Expedition in a common museum, supported by 

 funds from the General Government but under the charge of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



Dr. Baird's study of American birds led to his commencing in 

 1846 the preparation of a Synonymy of North American Birds; 



* Cited from the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, vol. i, 1843. 



