V ° l 'l9i8 XV ] Rhoads, Abbot's Birds of Georgia. 273 



Some of these were the originals of published illustrations of 

 articles in scientific journals of an early day and in Holbrook's 

 Herpetology. A companion volume to this one, both in size and 

 modern binding, contained the water-color sketches of birds, form- 

 ing the subject of this article. Mr. Mackall was anxious to have 

 the tentative identification of these, as being of John Abbot's 

 authorship, verified, but it was not until January of the present 

 year that they were sent to me for that purpose. In this examina- 

 tion I have naturally made the archives of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia and the good offices of the Editor of ' The 

 Auk' my chief assistants. 



The folio volume containing these illustrations was bound for 

 Mr. De Renne in three quarter red morocco, say about twenty years 

 ago, possibly longer. The date and source of purchase unfortu- 

 nately cannot now be ascertained. 1 On the back of the binding is 

 printed in gold: — "Birds of Georgia"; and at bottom: — " 1797." 

 There is no other attempt, either inside or outside of the volume, 

 to record its authorship, origin or subsequent history. 



A set of thirteen manuscript sheets, written in ink and of very 

 recent date describes each plate in detail by number and name, 

 with remarks as to pose, etc. These, together with a library 

 reference filing card, stating that "the artist was probably John 

 Abbot," were laid within the volume. 



There are one hundred and twenty-two hand painted sheets of 

 uniform size, make and quality of heavy, hand made, plate paper, 

 some slightly discolored by age and moisture, one torn into and 

 mended and the last one of the series lacking a considerable part of 

 the upper margin, not affecting the illustration but removing the 

 legend probably written on its back as in all other sheets in the set. 

 There are no watermarks in the paper, as in the Faxon set, to indi- 

 cate age, but it is similar in make-up to old English plate paper of 

 the last two decades of the eighteenth century, and this, together 

 with the nomenclature used by the artist, indicate that these 

 sketches were made several years prior to those described by Dr. 

 Faxon. The sheets measure nine and one-half by thirteen inches 

 and evidently have not been trimmed since they were painted upon. 



1 As this paper goes through the press I learn that the plates were purchased for $100. 

 from Geo. D. Smith, a well known dealer of New York City, on April 23, 1906. 



