Vol. XXXVI 



1918 



Rhoads, Abbot's Birds of Georgia. 275 



by an asterisk (*) in the list given. The two Abbot portfolios 

 therefore represent 174 species, presumably all of birds procured 

 in Georgia, and, for a period of approximately 110 years ago, a 

 remarkable showing in the annals of early American Ornithology, 

 produced as it was by an Englishman who was primarily a hard 

 working field entomologist, dependent thereon for his living and 

 at the same time remarkable for his accurate and beautiful sketches 

 of insects and the trees and flowering plants upon which they feed. 

 As intimated by Faxon, the number of bird species is also note- 

 worthy because of the small number of marine or tide water forms 

 depicted, due, no doubt, to the distance of sixty miles or more 

 separating Abbot's home in Screven County from the seacoast. 



Of gulls and terns, only two species each are given. Of the 

 Limicoline Shore-birds, so abundantly represented by species 

 frequenting the coast line of the Southeastern States, all of Abbot's 

 plates show but seven species of those peculiar to the coast and 

 some of these are known to straggle inland along such a waterway 

 as the Savannah River, near which' our artist's home was located. 

 Comparing again with Faxon's list, we note that the De Renne 

 series numbers twenty-one Warbler species to sixteen: also in 

 Flycatchers ( Tyrannidce) the ratio is four to one. 



The De Renne series has thirteen plates of Hawks showing 

 variations of probably eight species as against four species in the 

 other series. The disparity in number of water-bird plates in the 

 two folios is markedly in favor of the Boston Society's collection, 

 being fifty-two to eleven. If our conjecture as to the Boston series 

 being of later production is correct it is in accord with the natural 

 trend of a collector's researches to go farther afield, and may be 

 found to tally with Abbot's residence in or near Savannah for a 

 period prior to his return to England. 



It is unfortunate that Dr. Faxon did not publish at least a repre- 

 sentative series of quotations from the pencil annotations which 

 Abbot is stated to have made on his drawings, especially of the 

 names or localities there given. One of the most interesting fea- 

 tures of the collection here described is Abbot's nomenclature, 

 both vulgar and technical, which I have taken pains to reproduce, 

 without any alteration, and within quotation marks. It is desirable 

 that some one, having access to the Boston Society's portfolio, 



