Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from 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
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 annexa tion 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 in?uence in the high est 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.
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