Turning now to America. the first ornitholo gist of any reputation was William Bartram, who published in 1791 his Trurels Through North and South CarOMNI, which has been called 'the start ing point of American ornithology.' In 1808 ap peared the first volume of Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology, the last two volumes of which were published in 1814 by Ord. Wilson's friend and editor. Wilson was one of our most remarkable ornithologists. and his great work contains an account of about 2S0 species of birds, which were not only faithfully described.but care fully figured in colors. Several editions of this classic have been published. After Wilson's death, his work was continued by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who publi-shed in the years 1825-33 his four large volumes. uniform with Wilson's Ornithology. In 1831 appeared the bird volume of Richardson and Swainson's Fauna Boman .] merieana, a hook of the greatest importance. The Manual of Ornithology of the United States and Canada. by Thomas Nuttall, appeared in 1832-34. and is a well-written and interesting treatise. The Audubon period followed, in which appeared that most magnificent of bird-hooks, the original folio edition of Audubon's Birds of America. Altogether there were 435 plates with more than 1000 figures. The text to accompany this set of plates consisted of five volumes called Ornithological Biography, and is intensely inter esting reading. These were not by any means the only books which Audubon (q.v.) wrote, but it is on these that his fame rests most securely. There can be no question, however, that much of Audubon's success was due to his keen Scotch friend William 1NlacCillivray, who was an adept at avian anatomy.
The Audubonian period may be said to have passed into the Bairdian in the fifties; especially on the publication in 1S5S of Vol. ix. of the Pacific Railroad Reports, devoted to the birds secured by the various parties making surveys for the proposed transcontinental railroad. In this volume Spencer F. Baird came to the front as an ornithologist. for although lie was ma terially assisted by Cas'kin and Lawrence. the work was primarily his. It has well been said that this book "effected a revolution in classifica tion and nomenclature." for the names used both fur groups and species were a radical departure from those current in the Andubonian period. Baird was the leading American ornithologist of the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and his influence remains strong.
Since 1870 ornithology has progressed marvel ously, and among those who advanced it Elliott Cones may he placed foremost because he first made really accessible to American students a knowledge of the bird fauna of their own coun try. Adding to his very extensive acquaintance with birds a wide knowledge of ornithological literature and history, and a charming literary style, he made his Key to North Americas Birds highly influential, and, at the period of its first publication (Boston, 1872), an indispensable guide to every bird-student. Revised editions
were issued successively in 1884, 1887, 1890, and 1903. Dr. Cones was the author of numerous other books and papers, of which Birds of the Northwest (1874), and Birds of the Colorado part i. (1878). were most important. The critical bibliography begun in the later work and continued elsewhere constitutes a history of the development of American ornithology.
The names of Robert Ridgway and J. A. Allen belong, with that of Cones, in the front rank of American ornithologists of their period. The former spent his life in the service of the Smith sonian Institution. and was co-author with S. F. Baird and T. M. Brewer in the important History of North merican Birds, of which the first three volumes (land birds) were issued in Boston in 1874, and the last two (water birds) in 1884. Besides many technical and faunal papers. he published a Hansa/ of North .1tneri cun Birds (Philadelphia, 1887). which embodied the ideas and classification that prevailed at the National Museum. A second edition soon fol lowed. In 1901 appeared the first part (Frin gillithe) of a most comprehensive treatise en titled The Birds of North and Middle, America, written by Ridgway and published by the Smith sonian as Bulletin No. .50 of the United States National Museum. This work is purely technical, containing no account of the habits of the birds. but as a guide to American ornithology it is the most advanced and complete treatise of its time. The second part appeared in 1902 and others followed at intervals.
Dr. J. A. Allen (q.v.) contributed greatly to the philosophy of ornithology, and as editor of The .1 tit,- for ninny years exerted a constant and critical scientific influence. The latter part of his life was spent as curator of the department of bird, in the American Museum of Natural History at New York, where his assistant was Frank II. chapinan. whose numerous books, es pecially his practical Hum/hook, vatly stimu lated the growth of the popular interest and knowledge of birds it hich was su striking a feature of the intellectual development of the country toward the (dose of the nineteenth cen tury. Since 1883 the controlling factor in the progress of the science of ornithology in America has been the American Ornithologists' Union Cuvier's scheme of classification held its ground in popular books, with very little change, during the entire century. Since IS6o, however, ornithologists have recognized that, however 'convenient' Cuvier's system may be, it is woe fully unnatural. and ninny and varied have been the attempts to produce a 'natural' classifica tion. Of these we can only mention the most important. hi 1867 Huxley published his cele brated Classification of Birds, based very largely upon skeletal characters, especially tho‘e con nected with the skull. Ili: classification may be briefly summarized as follows: Division. 4. Aletaearpal not ankylosed together; tail longer than body; order SAURCR.E.