THE AUK : 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol.. XX. Ji-^LY, 1903. No. 3 



NOTES ON THE ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 

 OF PETER KALM. 



BY SPENCER TROTTER. 



A PECULIAR interest lends itself to pioneer work in any branch 

 of knowledge, and the early history of things holds a charm that 

 is hard to explain on purely logical grounds. Such an interest 

 gathers about the work of Peter Kalm, the Swede, who travelled 

 in North America during the years 1748-175 1. Kalm was prima- 

 rily a botanist and was sent out to America to gather specimens 

 of plants and seeds with a view to the acclimatization of different 

 species in Sweden. On his return to Sweden he published an 

 account of his observations and travels in a work of three volumes 

 entitled ' En Resa Til Norra America,' which appeared at Stock- 

 holm between the years 17 53-1 761. The original was later trans- 

 lated into English, German, and Dutch, the English translation 

 by John Reinhold Forster appearing in three volumes under the 

 title of ' Travels into North America,' published at London in 

 1770-177 1. Forster was an English naturalist of some note and 

 his name is commemorated in one of the beautiful species of 

 North American terns. 



Accustomed as we are to look upon Wilson and Audubon as the 

 pioneers in American Ornithology we are apt to lose sight of ear- 

 lier workers in the field who left behind no great monuments. 

 To be sure, Mark Catesby's work (i 730-1 748) is a pre-Wilsonian 

 monument of illustrated ornithology, and the works of Edwards, 



