Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America

Part 1

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA, TEXAS, OREGON, BRITISH AND RUSSIAN AMERICA.

INTENDED TO CONTAIN DESCRIPTIONS AND FIGURES OF ALL North American Birds NOT GIVEN BY FORMER AMERICAN AUTHORS, AND A GENERAL SYNOPSIS OF NORTH AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY.

BY JOHN CASSIN, MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA; OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY; OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA; OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE; OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY; OF THE NEW YORK LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY; OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF MONTREAL, ETC. ETC.

1853 TO 1855.

PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1856.

Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by JOHN CASSIN, in the Clerk’s office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

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.

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