44 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



from May to August). Made in the interest of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology. 



1873. Bismark, North Dakota, to the Yellowstone River, thence up the Yellow- 

 stone to Pompeys Pillar, north to the Musselshell River, and east to the Yellow- 

 stone and Bismark. Made under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 as chief of the party of Naturalists of the North Pacific Railroad Expedition 

 of 1873, Gen. D. S. Stanley, Commander. 



Positions Held. 



Assistant in Ornithology and Curator of Birds and Mammals in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 1870-1875. 



Lecturer on Ornithology at Harvard College, 1871-1873. 1 



Curator of Reptiles, Boston Society of Natural History, 1868-1871. 



Curator of Birds and Mammals, Boston Society of Natural History, 1870-1880. 



Acting Secretary, Boston Society of Natural History, October, 1874-May, 1875. 



Councilor, Boston Society of Natural History, 1881-1885. 



Corresponding Secretary, Nuttall Ornithological Club, and Editor of its 'Bulle- 

 tin,' 1876-1883. 



President of the American Ornithologists' Union, August, 1883 - November, 

 1891. Editor of its journal 'The Auk,' and of its other publications, 1883-1912. 

 Subcommittee (with E. Coues) to codify the rules of nomenclature for discussion 

 by the full Committee on the Revision of the Nomenclature and Classification of 

 North American Birds, 1883-1886. Chairman of the Committee on the Nomencla- 

 ture and Classification of North American Birds, 1904-1912. Chairman of the 

 Committee on Revision of the Code of Nomenclature, 1905-1908. 



Curator of Birds and Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York, since 1885. Editor of the 'Bulletin' and the zoological series of the 

 'Memoirs,' since 1889. 



1 A course of twelve lectures was planned but, if I remember rightly, only four or five were de- 

 livered. As they were intended to treat the subject seriously they were naturally technical rather than 

 'popular,' and the audience soon dwindled to a few students actually interested in the subject. While 

 read from manuscript, they were elaborately illustrated by specimens with extemporized explanations, 

 particularly as respects the osteology and pterylography of the subject. In my inexperience in such 

 matters, an average attendance of half-a-dozen auditors seemed farcical, and I counted myself a failure 

 as a lecturer and did not complete the course. On looking over the manuscript and the schedule of the 

 course in later years I have felt chagrin that it was not completed, as the attendance was as large as 

 should have been expected at a course so specialized in character. The following is the schedule of the 

 course: I. The distinctive characteristics of birds in comparison with other vertebrates; birds as a 

 modification of the vertebrate type for aerial locomotion; the osteology of birds. II. The muscular 

 and nervous systems and the organs of sense. III. The digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems 

 and vocal organs. IV. Reproductive organs and embryological development. V and VI. The 

 tegumentary system, including the development of feathers, their arrangement, structure, modifications 

 and functions. VII. Historical summary of the principal systems of classification. VIII, IX, and X. 

 The classification of birds, with a general review of the leading groups. XI and XII. Geographical 

 distribution of animals, with special reference to birds; geographical variation in birds. 



In short, the lectures were planned to form a compendium of bird-lore, and had they been com- 

 pleted and published, with proper illustrations, they would have furnished in concise form a useful 

 reference work for the bird student, the need for which was not supplied, even in part, till 1884, when 

 Coues's ' General Ornithology' was added to the second edition of his invaluable ' Key to North Ameri- 

 can Birds.' 



