John Cassin

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, 1853 to 1855. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1862 [c1855].

Through the end of the nineteenth century as the American frontier was pushed back from the Midwest to the west coast, continued efforts were made by naturalists and ornithologists to document previously unrecorded species. First published in 1856, Cassin's text acknowledges the author's contributions to the study of ornithology in the title, citing the fact that he identifies birds not previously described. Cassin was an American ornithologist who described approximately 200 birds not identified by Wilson or Audubon.