THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 

 ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol. xxxv. July, 1918. No. 3. 



GEORGIA'S RARITIES FURTHER DISCOVERED IN A 



SECOND AMERICAN PORTFOLIO OF 



JOHN ABBOT'S BIRD PLATES. 



BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS. 



Plate IV. 



If the expectant reader of this article will examine volume XIII 

 of ' The Auk' for the year 1896 he will find, on page 204, the follow- 

 ing title of a paper by Walter Faxon, 'John Abbot's Drawings of 

 the Birds of Georgia'. I have worded my own subject to "carry 

 on," as it were, an amplification of what was there published more 

 than twenty years ago. 



In brief, Dr. Faxon describes, with considerable minuteness, "a 

 set of 181 water color sketches of birds," owned by the Boston 

 Society of Natural History and labeled "Drawings of the Birds 

 of Georgia by John Abbot." How the Society secured these was 

 not known. They appear to have been originally classified, as a 

 collection, by Abbot himself, and consecutively numbered from 1 

 to 200, Dr. Faxon inferring that nineteen of the original series had 

 been lost. Abbot's handwriting, in pencil, consisting of names, 

 largely in accord with the nomenclature of Wilson's ' Ornithology,' 

 with memoranda of dimensions, migration data and color notes, 

 appears on the plates, only one of which is inscribed (in ink) with 

 Abbot's signature and the date, " 1810." 



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