Type Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey 



BY SPENCEK TROTTER 



The title, "Tj'pe Birds," may not be exactly clear as to the 

 meaning it is intended to convey. By "type" I mean the in- 

 dividual specimen that furnished thejirst or original description 

 of a species under the Linnean or binomial nomenclature. Prior 

 to this use of generic and specific names to express the idea of 

 likeness or unlikeness in living beings — to describe a form of life 

 as distinguished from other forms — a cumbersome description 

 in Latin was resorted to which carried with it but a vague im- 

 pression of a distinct form of life, and gave no clue whatever to 

 relationship. Catesby was a pre-Linnean describer of numerous 

 North American birds, but while his descriptions are good, his 

 cumbersome polynomial names, though interesting from a 

 purely historical point of view, do not hold in the nomen- 

 clature of to-day. 



Linnseus, the founder of the binomial system, and Gmelin, 

 the compiler of a later edition of the " Systema Naturae," in 

 their efforts to name all known species in accordance with the 

 new mode went over the works of their predecessors and furn- 

 ished each bird there described and figured with a proper Latin 

 binomial name, quoting only a few words of description in their 

 "Systema," but giving a reference to the original work. So 

 while we quote our names from Linnaeus or Gmelin, we must 

 still go back to the mustier volumes of Catesby, Edwards, Kalm, 

 etc., to find out where the birds came from, and just what they 

 were. 



It has been a matter of some interest to me to trace the locali- 

 ties from which the original individual or type specimens of our 

 common birds came from, and to discover how many of them 

 were obtained by Philadelphia collectors. 



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