Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/80

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Wilson's not excepted, and marked an epoch in the history of American ornithology. . . . Such a monument of original research is likely to remain for an indefinite period a source of inspiration to lesser writers, while its authority as a work of reference will always endure."

Thus are graphically described the distinctive feature of what Mr. Leonhard Stejneger has truthfully termed the Bairdian School of ornithology, a school strikingly characterized by peculiar exactness in dealing with facts, conciseness in expressing deductions, and careful analysis of the subject in its various bearings;—methods so radically different from those of the older 'European School' that, as the esteemed member whom we have just named has already remarked, conclusions or arguments can be traced back to their source and thus properly weighed, whereas the latter affords no basis for analysis. In other words, as Mr. Stejneger has, in substance, said, the European School requires the investigator to accept an author's statements and conclusions on his personal responsibility alone, while the Bairdian furnishes him with tangible facts from which to take his deductions. . . . The distinctive features of the 'Bairdian school' were still further developed by the publication in 1864-66, of the 'Review of American Birds,' a work of unequaled merit, displaying in their perfection Professor Baird's wonderful powers of analysis and synthesis, so strongly combined in his treatment of difficult problems. Unfortunately for ornithology this work was but fairly begun, only a single volume (an octavo of 450 pages) being published. . . . I have it on good authority that no single work on American ornithology has made so profound an impression on European ornithologists as Professor Baird's 'Review,' and, by the same authority, I am permitted to state that he—a European by birth and rearing—became an American citizen through its influence.

Dr. D. S. Jordan writes, concerning Baird's methods:

He taught us to say, not that the birds from such and such a region show such and such peculiarities, but that 'I have the following specimens, which indicate the presence of certain peculiarities in the birds of certain regions. The first was taken on such a day of such a month, at such a place, by such a person, and is numbered so and so on the National Museum records.

This habit of exactness, introduced by Baird (who himself exhibited it, as we have seen, when still a boy), has been followed by most of our ornithologists, with the result that this subject has been brought to a remarkable degree of completeness. Let any one compare the current literature on birds with that on insects, and the immense influence and value of the Bairdian method will be at once apparent.

The 'Review of American Birds' described and classified a number of species from Costa Rica and adjacent countries; and Dr. Ridgway, who is now studying the birds of Costa Rica, with materials vastly more abundant and satisfactory than those possessed by Baird, tells me that he marvels at Baird's accuracy and insight. From Costa Rica alone, Dr. Ridgway has obtained from 3,000 to 3,500 birds, a greater number than Baird had from all middle America, including the West Indies; and yet Baird's work still stands, with very few modifications.