102 Zoology of Colorado 



states, but he gave names to sixteen of the birds we find in Colo- 

 rado. John James Audubon, born of French parentage in 

 Louisiana in 1 780, was endowed with high artistic as well as scien- 

 tific talent, his great book on American birds being furnished with 

 folio plates in colors, showing the birds in their natural surround- 

 ings, the associated plants drawn with equal care.* A copy of 

 this rare book may be seen in the library of Teachers College 

 at Greeley. Audubon died in 1 85 1 , having left such a mark on 

 the ornithology of his time that it has since been designated the 

 Audubonian period. Thirteen of our birds were named by him 

 A contemporary of Audubon was Prince Charles Bonaparte, 

 nephew of the famous Napoleon, but devoted to much more, 

 creditable pursuits. Some of his work has been severely criti- 

 cised, but he made very important contributions to our knowl- 

 edge.** His active work on American birds dates from 1824 to 

 about 1838. As he wrote so much, he named a great many 

 birds, and fifteen of his names are valid today for Colorado 

 species. An interesting early explorer of western North Amer- 

 ica was Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuweid, generally cited 

 as Wied. He named two of our birds, one being the turkey- 

 buzzard. Following the period of Audubon is the period of 

 Baird. Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887) was practically the 

 founder of the U. S. National Museum, and the author of mono- 

 graphic works on American vertebrates.*** Twenty of our birds 

 bear names proposed by him. Dr. Elliot Coues, whom we have 

 frequently cited, was the author of the great Key to North 

 American Birds, a manual dealing with the subject in a very 

 broad and thorough way, and long the bible of our ornitholo- 

 gists. When I met him at Santa Fe many years ago, he told 

 me of his early experiences in Arizona; how he found the red 

 rattlesnake when fleeing from the Indians, skinned it as he rode, 

 and wrapped the skin around his gun barrel; how he got new 

 birds, as he said with picturesque exaggeration "every morning 

 before breakfast." He was an original and indefatigable worker, 

 full of interesting and sometimes rather startling ideas, who did 



♦The beautiful Dogwood, Cornus nuttallii of Audubon, was introduced to science in this 

 manner. 



**See Coues, Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv .TerT., Sept. 1880, p. 676. He is treated 

 much more kindly in Coues "Key", vol. I, p. xx. 

 ***See Cockerell, Zoology, pp. 520-529. 



