The natural history of North America has been regarded with especial
interest wherever the sciences have been cultivated since the discovery
of the continent. There never has been a period, however, in which such
extensive and productive research has been carried on, as in that which
commenced with the annexation of Texas to the United States, and in
which also California and New Mexico have become parts of the Union. The
extension of the laws of the United States over these vast countries,
and the consequent protection and personal safety, have induced the
visits of scientific travellers;—numerous Government expeditions for the
purposes of exploration and survey have been necessary, and have been
despatched on such missions with the utmost promptness and vigilance of
the public good by all administrations of the General Government, in the
period to which we allude, and have almost invariably been accompanied
by officers specially charged with making observations and collections
in Natural History. The Smithsonian Institution also has exerted an
influence in the highest degree favorable and important in the
development of the Natural History of this country, as in other
departments of science and literature.
These are the main and immediate causes of the great strides that the
knowledge of the natural productions of North America has made within a
period of little upwards of twenty years. There are, of course, others,
of which the general diffusion of knowledge and attention to education
in the United States especially, and in fact throughout the civilized
world, have been perhaps the most efficient.
Since the time of the publication of the works of our predecessors in
American Ornithology, the additions of species and of information in
that department of our Zoology have been very large, and being for much
the greater part within our reach, we have been induced to undertake the
present work. It is to be regarded in some measure as an addition to the
works of former authors in American Ornithology, but at the same time
complete in itself.
Our advantages for study have been much superior to those possessed by
former writers in America. There never was in the United States, until
within the last ten years, a library of Natural History, approximating
in any considerable degree to completeness, nor affording the necessary
facilities for the study of Ornithology. Nor until within that period
was there any collection sufficiently comprehensive to answer the
purposes of comparison and general research. In various branches of
Natural History, but especially in Ornithology, these most important and
desirable objects have been fully accomplished in the formation of the
Library and Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,—a
result for which science is indebted, not to the Government, nor to
public patronage of any kind, but to strictly private enterprise and
individual scientific taste.
A new era in the history of the zoological sciences in the United States
commenced with the purchase and importation of the late General
Massena’s collection of Birds into this country in 1846, by Thomas B.
Wilson, M. D., of Philadelphia, and the commencement at the same period
of a library in Natural History by the same gentleman and his brother,
Mr. Edward Wilson, now residing in England. Both have been continued
without intermission to the present time, and the results have been, so
far as relates to Ornithology, that a most extensive collection has been
formed, now numbering about twenty-five thousand specimens, and a
Library containing very nearly every book relating to this branch of
natural science, of which copies are to be obtained; and also,
principally through the personal exertions of the latter-named
gentleman, in the cities of Europe, many that are of exceeding rarity
and value. In several other departments, also, nearly or quite as
complete collections of books and specimens have been made. To Fossil
Remains, Conchology, and Crustacea, these remarks are especially
applicable.
Citizens who thus devote themselves to the advancement of science and
intellectual cultivation in their country,—whose exertions tend so
immediately to elevate it in the scale of civilization and refinement,
deserve to be ranked with its most illustrious scholars, statesmen, and
soldiers, and are equally entitled to the national gratitude. So long as
the condition of, or progress in the arts and sciences shall continue to
characterize nations, the influence in the United States of the
gentlemen to whom we have alluded, must be regarded as important in the
highest degree, and their services will be gratefully remembered by
their countrymen so long as the sciences are cultivated or appreciated.
They have reared in their native city a monument to Natural Science as
endurable as its influence in the minds of men, and more honorable to
themselves than the proudest obelisk or the richest memento of the
conqueror’s triumph.
With such facilities for study, we have necessarily had advantages over
other American Ornithologists. One object of our work is to present a
general revision of the Ornithology of the United States, endeavoring to
bring our subject nearer to the true state of the science than has been
previously attempted in this country. In our Synopsis, the student will
find many corrections and additions, and will find himself, too, very
probably introduced to names both American and European, of the
connection of which with North American Ornithology, previous records
are silent, quite unjustifiably.
Our predecessors have not been well versed in the history and
bibliography of Ornithology, nor indeed have they professed such
information. It is in fact a description of knowledge to be attained
with difficulty in any country,—so great, indeed, that no one
Ornithologist has ever yet been completely acquainted with the
bibliography of his science.
To our publishers, Messrs. J. B. Lippincott & Co., is due our gratitude
for constant kindness and encouragement during the publication of the
present volume. Our treatment by the members of this eminent firm has in
fact most fully demonstrated to us their deep interest in the Natural
Sciences, as gentlemen of taste and cultivation, quite irrespective, so
far as relates to our work, of merely business considerations.
To the kind friends whose contributions have added so much to the
interest of this volume, we have to express our sense of great
obligation, especially to Col. George A. McCall, Capt. J. P. McCown,
Capt. S. G. French, Dr. T. C. Henry, of the U. S. Army, to Mr. John G.
Bell, Dr. A. L. Heermann, Dr. P. R. Hoy, Dr. S. W. Woodhouse, Mr. John
H. Clark, Dr. Charles Pickering, and Dr. C. B. R. Kennerly.
To Dr. A. Hall, of Montreal, and Dr. R. Haymond, of Brookville, Indiana,
for much valuable information relating to the birds of their districts.
To Professor J. P. Kirtland, Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, Professor S. F.
Baird, and Mr. Robert Kennicott, we have also to express our gratitude
for very important services, in facilitating the circulation of our
work, and for much information and assistance.
For facilities for the examination and comparison of specimens we
gratefully acknowledge our obligations to the gentlemen of the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; to Professor Joseph Henry and
Professor S. F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution; to the Natural
History Society of South Carolina; to Mr. Edward Harris, to the Rev. Dr.
Bachman, to Mr. John Krider, to Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence, and to Mr. J. P.
Giraud.
Of the superior execution of the plates of our work, it is perhaps
unnecessary for us to speak, but in justice to Mr. J. T. Bowen, and Mr.
W. E. Hitchcock, we may be allowed to say that we regard them as having
in this volume fully established a degree of excellence in the
production of zoological plates, rarely excelled, if equalled, in this
country.
Though we hope and fully intend to proceed with a second series of this
work, as materials accumulate, especially as the present volume has met
with a degree of patronage much greater than we had any right or reason
to expect, we have to say to our friends and patrons, that at present we
have no definite prospect of such continuation. Should we be favored
with life and health, we hope to present two additional volumes or
series, each, like the present, complete in itself, for which very
nearly a sufficient number of birds are now known as inhabiting the
United States, and which are not given by former authors on North
American Ornithology. At present, our engagements, we regret to say,
render such an undertaking quite impossible.
John Cassin.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, _November, 1855_.