Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/81

 Baird described about 124 new species and subspecies of birds, including a few which were published by others from his manuscripts. He established about 28 new genera and subgenera, most of which are now accepted and in current use. Quite a large number of the species are now reduced to subspecies, but this is explained by the fact that in Baird's day the trinomial system had not come into general use, and consequently binomials were used for birds which would now be considered to have less than full specific rank. It must also be remembered that the great series now available show intergrading forms which were not known fifty years ago. A certain number of synonyms were based on individual variations and immature states of plumage, and in one case a bird proved to be Asiatic, with a wrong locality. On the whole, judging by the modifications introduced by later authors, it appears that Baird's work on birds was of a higher grade than that on other groups; but it may be that this is largely to be explained by the relatively chaotic condition of the then-existing knowledge of the other classes, making the task of reducing them to order more difficult.

Batrachia.—In 1849, before he went to Washington, Baird published (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia) an important paper entitled 'Revision of the North American Tailed Batrachia' In this work the nomenclature of the species was wholly revised, some new species were indicated, and the genus Desmognathus was established. This genus is now universally recognized, and Cope has made it the type of a distinct family, Desmognathidæ. Papers on Batrachia, containing descriptions of new species, and a few new genera, continued to be published until 1850, most of them in conjunction with Dr. Girard. After that date, in 1867, 1869 and 1889, a few species were published by Cope from Baird's manuscript. In all 42 species and varieties were published as new, and of these 26 are recognized as valid by Cope in his revision issued in 1889.

Reptiles.—Dr. W. H. Dall ('Smithsonian Report' for 1888) writes thus:

Many of his herpetological papers were elaborate studies. One of the most important of the early memoirs was that on the reptiles of Stansbury's expedition to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and another, that on those collected by the United States exploring expedition under Wilkes. The catalogue of North American Reptiles in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution is a classical work, serving to the present day as a text-book for students of herpetology. In 1859 appeared his great study of the reptiles collected by the parties engaged in the explorations for a Pacific Railroad, a monument of patient research and discriminating analysis. After this his contributions to the subject were mostly short papers or announcements of new or interesting facts.