56 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Mussasctis (musquash) is a beast of the forme and nature of our 

 water Rats, but many of them smell exceedingly strongly of 

 Muske." 



And in the same strain he goes on to mention a score of mam 

 mals, identifying them with those of Europe with surprising 

 accuracy. 



His " Utchun quoyes, which is like a Wild Cat," is evidently 

 the bay lynx. With the birds he was less familiar, but he men 

 tions a number which resemble those of Europe, and states that 

 many of them were unfamiliar. He was the first to refer to the 

 red-wing blackbird (Agelcetis phaniceus) . 



He catalogues 25 kinds of fish and shell-fish, using the names 

 by which many of them are known to this day. 



He gives also a very judicious account of the useful trees of 

 Virginia, referring, among novel things, to the Chechinquamin, 

 (chinkapin) , and another which no one can fail to recognize. 



" Plums," he says, " are of three sorts. * * * That which 

 they call Putchamins grow as high as a Palmeta ; the fruit is 

 like a Medler ; it is first greene, then yellow, and red when it is 

 ripe ; if it be not ripe it will draw a man's mouth awry with much 

 torment."* 



In his description of New England, Smith mentions twelve 

 species of mammals, including the " moos," now spoken of for 

 the first time,f 16 of birds, and 27 " fishes." His descriptions 

 of the abundance of fishes are often quoted. J 



Smith's first work upon Virginia was printed in 1612 and his 

 .General History in 1624. In the interim, Raphe Hamor, the 

 younger, secretary of the Colony, issued his " True Discourse of 

 the Present Estate of Virginia," published in London in i6i5. 



* Generall Historic, 1624, p. 27. 



t From the Indian word Moosoa. Slafter, in his notes on Champlain's 

 Voyages, i, p. 265, supposes the Orignac referred to by this explorer in 

 his De Sauvages, etc., Paris, 1607, to have been the Moose, and his Cerf 

 to have been the Caribou. 



J Generall Historie, pp. 216-17. 



A copy of this rare work was sold in London, 1883, for 69 pounds. A 



