Ornithological Historical Sketch 



tive many of the traditions and superstitions of the times. Positive statements as 

 to what he actually saw seldom appear; one of these is when, in speaking of the 

 smallness of the Hummingbird, he remarks: "I have frequently seen Isutterfiies 

 chase them away from the flowers." 



Another of those early gentlemen who traveled through the South and left his 

 writings for the benefit of posterity was William Bartram, in 1791. His book is 

 entitled Travels Through North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, etc. It seems, 

 however, that he made but one hasty trip through North Carolina. He traveled 

 by land, and, entering the State in Brunswick County, proceeded to Southport, 

 passed from there up the Clarendon (Cape Fear) River to Campbelltowu (now 

 Fayetteville), and thence on to Virginia. He speaks briefly of the trees, soil, and 

 rocks, but makes no reference to the wild animal life. Some of his stories are 

 very highly colored. He speaks of the alligators of South Carolina rushing at 

 him with terrible roarings, and states that the steam issuing from their mouths 

 and nostrils threw over him a "hurricane" of water. In reading his writings one 

 is inclined to believe that had he lived to-day some persons might have classed him 

 as a "nature faker." 



Passing now from this short sketch regarding the earlj^ explorers and natural- 

 history observers, whose writings excite in the modern ornithologist more interest 

 than credibility, we may consider briefly the work of modern bird students. 



Apparently the first real ornithologist to visit North Carolina for the purpose of 

 studying the birds was Alexander Wilson, a Scotchman who traveled through the 

 country collecting birds and making drawings of them by day, and playing the 

 flute for profit or diversion at night. Wilson was a field naturalist of the first 

 order, and his far-famed work, American Ornithology, illustrated with his own 

 most creditable drawings in colors, has well won for him the title of "Father of 

 American Ornithology," despite the fact that his work was eclipsed some years 

 later by the stupendous undertaking of John James Audubon. As an ornithologist 

 Audubon was Wilson's superior only in that he was a more skillful artist. As a 

 man, Wilson was of humble parentage, but indifferently educated, was poor, retir- 

 ing, sensitive, and self-effacing. Audubon was of excellent parentage, was highly 

 educated, was always confident, and at times self-assertive. Both were great con- 

 tributors to the world's knowledge of American birds, and it was their work which 

 aroused real interest in the subject and put in motion the movement for bird study 

 from which has since developed a long line of brilliant American ornithologists. 



On one of Wilson's trips through North Carolina, he found a specimen of the 

 largest woodpecker of all eastern North America, the Ivory billed. The bird has 

 probably been extinct for a long time in this State. Another point of interest 

 attending this capture by Wilson is that there is no recorded instance of one ever 

 having lieen taken farther north in eastern America. His record is therefore inter- 

 esting and unique. He says: 



"The first place I observed this bird at, when on my way to the south, was alDOut 

 12 miles north of Wilmington, in North Carolina. There I found the bird from 

 which the drawing of the figure in the plate was taken. This bird was only wounded 



