14 THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY 



him a debt of gratitude in assembling and perfecting the spe- 

 cial characters brought forward by so many previous authors, 

 and giving to us the whole in one continuous, comprehensive 

 combination. 



We next come to Charles L. Bonaparte, 1850-57, who 

 was an ardent enthusiast, and clearly stamped his opinions as 

 regards obscure points in our classification. He proposed a 

 system, which, though it added few new phases to those al- 

 ready possessed, embraced faithfully the best suggestions of 

 previous writers upon the subject. It was regarded, both at 

 his time and for a long while after, in very high repute ; and 

 from the number of species then known to science of exten- 

 sive scope. It was used by the best writers of the time in 

 preference to the system of either Linnaeus or Cuvier. His 

 name, though generally associated with that of Wilson has, 

 however, a wide significance of its own. John Cassin, 1853- 

 55,~really supplemented the work of Audubon by his histo- 

 ries of Birds, for the most part those west of the Rocky Mount- 

 ains. He also wrote a part of that fine work, The Ninth Vol- 

 ume of the Pacific Railroad Report, conjointly with Professor 

 S. F. Baird and Mr. Geo. F. Lawrence. P. L. Sclater, 

 1857, et sec. and O. Salvin, separately and together, added 

 their voluminous writings to the cause of Ornithology. The 

 former has especially given us a very valuable basis for fur- 

 ther definiteness of separation by his geographical regions. 

 He divided the world into a given number of these regions, 

 and portioned to each its avi-fauna. These boundaries have 

 been enlarged, from time to time, until our present well- 

 known " faunal regions" or " faunal areas " have resulted. 



Professor Spencer F. Baird, 1858, was a gentleman de- 

 serving of more than passing mention. He was, for many 

 years, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, and a most able writer and zoologist. From 

 his personal ability alone he would very easily have lead the 

 cause of Ornithology in America, if not abroad also. In his 

 position as head of an institution such as the Smithsonian 



