CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 'T^y. /• 267 
I lf:f;/ r:V 
Art. IX. List of tlie Birds of Alaska, i^nt^i, J^ip^^raphfpci} , 
Notes. By Wm. H. Dall and H. M. ]^A^|Ni]Sjiji^. 
Lis- presenting this first paper on the results of the Russo- 
American Telegraph Expedition, it is fitting that a brief account 
should be given of the circumstances under which those results 
were obtained. 
The prime object of the enterprise was the connection, by a 
line of electric telegraph, of St. Petersburg and San Francisco. 
It originated with Mr, P. M. Collins, and was carried on, nearly 
to a successful conclusion, by the energy of the Directors of the 
Western Union Telegraph Company. 
In 1865 an expedition was organized, for the purpose of explo- 
ration, preparatory to the building of the line. This was placed 
in charge of Captain Charles S. Bulkley, formerly of the United 
States War Telegraph corps, and an excellent electrician. 
In their search for information, the officers of the company 
made inquiries of the Smithsonian Institution, and were brought 
into contact with Mr. Robert Kennicott, well known among 
naturalists from his explorations in the Hudson's Bay Territory. 
Under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and the 
Chicago Academy of Sciences, it was finally arranged that Mr. 
Kennicott should undertake the explorations in the vicinity of 
the Yukon, for the company, with the privilege of selecting a 
party of young men competent to make observations and col- 
lections in natural history, who were to hold themselves ready, 
however, for any duty to which they might be assigned. The 
outfit was contributed by the Chicago Academy of Sciences 
and the Smithsonian Institution, assisted by the liberality of 
Captain Bulkley and the directors, among whom may be espe- 
cially mentioned, Messrs. O. H. Palmer, G. II. Mumford, Anson 
Stager, and J. E. Wilder. It is especially to the broad and 
liberal spirit exhibited in a commercial enterprise by these 
gentlemen, that science is indebted for many valuable additions 
to her storehouse of knowledge ; and it must be gratifying, 
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