2^oofe Ji^etdsf anb Utebtetusi 



A List of Avian Species for Which the 

 Type Locality Is South Carolina. 

 By Arthur Tiezevant Wayne. Con- 

 tribution from Charleston Museum, III, 

 1917, pages 1-8. 



To Mark Catesby properly belongs the 

 title 'Father of American Ornithology.' 

 He was the first naturalist to write a 

 formal treatise on the birds of any part of 

 North America and his great folio volume, 

 published in London as a part of his 

 Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and 

 the Bahama Islands (1731-48), was a 

 remarkable production for that period. 



Catesby, as Mr. Wayne tells us, arrived 

 in South Carolina May 23, 1722, and 

 passed the following year in the coast 

 region. He then visited the upper, and 

 as yet unsettled, parts of the state. Of 

 the seventy-six birds which Mr. Wayne 

 here includes as having been described 

 from South Carolina, no less than fifty- 

 seven were first formally presented to 

 the world by Catesby. 



Among these are the Wood Duck, 

 Bob-white, Passenger Pigeon, Carolina 

 Paroquet, Kingfisher, Ruby- throated 

 Hummingbird, and others now so widely 

 known that it carries the mind far back 

 in the history of our country to think of 

 a time when knowledge of their existence 

 was not common property. 



Obviously, many of the birds which 

 Catesby described and figured (for exam- 

 ple, the Paroquet and Passenger Pigeon) 

 were familiar to the early settlers, not 

 to mention the aboriginal inhabitants of 

 the country in which they lived. 



If by the discovery, then, we should 

 mean when a certain animal first attracted 

 the attention of man, we would never be 

 able to name the actual date of discovery 

 of most of our larger and more conspicu- 

 ous or economically valuable forms of life. 



To the ornithological mind, however, 

 it is enough to know when a species of 

 bird first came to the notice of a person 

 sufficiently interested to publish his ob- 

 servations concerning it. 



In this sense Catesby may be called the 

 real discoverer of most of the birds he 

 describes. Points of view are compara- 

 tive, and, landing in a new world, he 

 naturally expected to see new sights and 

 new forms of life. No other ornithologist 

 alas! will ever explore so virgin a field as 

 South Carolina was to Catesby in 1722. 



We are grateful to Mr. Wayne for a 

 brochure, which aside from its technical 

 value, makes a strong appeal to the imag- 

 ination through the emphasis it places on 

 the results of Catesby's labors. — F. M. C. 



Our Back-door Neighbors. By Frank 

 C. Pellett. The Abington Press, New 

 York and Cincinnati. i2mo. 209 pages; 

 numerous half-tones from photographs. 

 Price, $1.50. 



Mr. Pellett is evidently a born natur- 

 alist with a keen and loving interest in the 

 various forms of life which live about him, 

 whether bird, mammal, or insect. He 

 writes of Hawks, Owls, and Crows, bees, 

 turtles, rabbits, skunks, and caterpillars 

 with equal enthusiasm, adding to our 

 knowledge of their habits and increasing 

 our interest in them. 



Mr. Pellett's style is pleasing, unaf- 

 fected, and sympathetic. His photo- 

 graphs illustrate his text and both are 

 well designed to arouse us to the world 

 which lies at our back door. — ^F. M. C. 



Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — The October issue closes 

 the thirty-fourth year of the magazine 

 and finds it even more vigorous than in its 

 earlier days. It opens with 'A Study of 

 Subsequent Nestings after the Loss of the 

 First' by H. Mousley, who throws some 

 light on a subject to which a host of egg- 

 collectors might well devote attention. 

 Some excellent half-tones of sets of 

 Warblers' eggs accompany the article. 

 The 'Nesting of the Cape May Warbler 

 at Lake Edward, Quebec, is recorded by 

 H. F. Merriam. 



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