Our native birds have not retreated, like our quadrupeds, and are, therefore, within our reach. The managers hope to see the Society, in due time, in possession of a large collection of these beautiful animals. In the accomplishment of this undertaking, it is easy to perceive that the Society may be powerfully aided by the community: and a sanguine hope is entertained, that no backwardness or indifference will be manifested by those who may fortunately have it in their power to forward specimens.
In collecting the fishes and reptiles of the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Lakes, the managers will likewise need all the aid which their fellow-citizens may feel disposed to give them. Although not a very interesting department of zoology, no object of the Society offers so great a prospect of novelty as that which embraces these animals. The managers, therefore, flatter themselves that they will not be suffered to proceed unaided in this portion of their labours.
The obscure and neglected race of insects will not be overlooked, and any specimens sufficiently perfect to be introduced into a cabinet of entomology, will be thankfully received.
The western country, from having afforded some of the most gigantic and curious remains of land animals which have yet been discovered, seems entitled to a museum of such relics. A collection of this kind will be one of the earliest objects of the Society. Its funds will be liberally expended for the purpose; and if aided by those who may be so fortunate as to discover any of the great bones which lie buried in our alluvial or bottom lands, the managers hope, at no distant period, to repair, in some degree, the losses which have been repeatedly sustained by exportation of these interesting fossils.
The third class comprises objects of very little utility, but of extraordinary interest. Nothing, indeed, presented by the western country seems to excite in a higher degree the curiosity of strangers, than the relics and vestiges of the extinct and comparatively civilized population with which it abounds.
The managers will make every possible effort to form an extensive collection of these remains.
It is extremely unfortunate for those engaged in researches concerning the objects of this class, that so many of them have been disseminated abroad. To study them successfully, it is necessary that they should be compared, and for this purpose they must be brought together. The managers hope, therefore, that such persons as now hold, or may hereafter possess any of these antiquities, will dispose of them to the Society, instead of sending them out of the country. In this way, and in this only, can a valuable collection of these unique curiosities be formed.
The remaining class comprehends the weapons, utensils, trinkets, and other manufactures of our neighbouring Indians, of which the managers hope, in a short time, to be able to exhibit a great variety.
The curiosities of this country are the primary, but not the exclusive objects of the Society. It proposes in due time to open a gallery of paintings, and thus offer to the lovers and cultivators of the fine arts, a few of those models which are absolutely necessary to the gratification and improvement of their taste.