276 Rhoads, Abbot's Birds of Georgia. [jJJ y 



make a report on the noteworthy portions of those pencil notes 

 which are said to lie in obscurity beneath the cryptic camouflage of 

 Dr. T. M. Brewer. By so doing he may bring to light a few more 

 secrets which time and patient research are adding to the real 

 biography of the hermit naturalist of Georgia. 



Some of Abbot's common names are recognizable as those of 

 Catesby, Edwards and Pennant, his English models; a few are 

 apparently quite local, as "Flax Bunting" for the American Gold- 

 finch, " Cat Flycatcher" for the familiar Cat Bird, " Blue Warbler," 

 not inaptly given to the Blue Bird, "Black Bunting" for Snowbird, 

 "Pigeon Hawk" for Mississippi Kite, "Little Sparrow" for the 

 " Chippy," etc. Some of the names are evidently Abbot's own for 

 species he thought undescribed, "very rare," or that he could not 

 identify: as "Barred-tail Sandpiper" for the Solitary species, 

 " Black-rumped Sandpiper" for the Pectoral, "Yellow Warbler" 

 for the Blue-winged Yellow, "Yellow-poll Warbler" for Chestnut- 

 sided, " Georgia Wren" for Long-billed Marsh Wren and " Magnolia 

 W'arbler" for the Cape May species. His name of "Red-breasted 

 Thrush" for our so-called "Robin" is worthy of universal adop- 

 tion. His classing all the American "Starling" Blackbirds as 

 "Oriole" strikes one nowadays rather strangely, though it has a 

 more real and generic meaning than the vulgar name now applied 

 to that group. It also seems a bit queer to think of Vireos as 

 "Flycatchers," though Wilson so termed them while Audubon used 

 the name as an alternative and more than half their food is flies or 

 flying. We are not a little indignant, too, to find our familiar and 

 much loved Song Sparrow damned by such faint praise as to be 

 called the "Spotted breasted Sparrow"! No doubt a careful 

 analysis of these English names would reveal much as to the artist's 

 real sources of literary knowledge, both of books and persons. 

 That he was in steady correspondence with English men of science 

 is matter of record and no doubt some of his contemporaries abroad 

 received from him the types and drawings of American birds, 

 now recognized, which were there first described. His personal 

 association with Alexander Wilson in Georgia is recorded by Ord, 

 but to what extent the ' American Ornithology ' is indebted to the 

 discoveries of the Georgia naturalist may now be left to the re- 

 search of others. 



