BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Dr. John Brickell published in Dublin, in 1737, a book bearing a comprehensive 

 title as follows: "The Natural History of North Carolina, with an account of the 

 trade, manners, and customs of the Christian and Indian inhabitants; illustrated 

 with copperplates, whereon are curiously engraved the map of the country, several 

 strange beasts, birds, fishes, snakes, insects, trees, and plants, etc." 



His list of birds follows closely that of Lawson, published some years previously, 

 and the similarity of the text in many instances strongly suggests the idea that he 

 frequently bordered closely on plagiarism. 



He enumerates 128 kinds of birds. Five of these, at least, we must eliminate at 

 the start. He makes three eagles out of one, naming, as he does, in addition to the 

 Bald Eagle, the Black Eagle and Gray Eagle, which were simply different phases 

 of the immature bird. We, of course, cannot accept two species of leather-winged 

 bats as birds, and the nightingale, which he mentions, is not found in a wild state 

 in the Western Hemisphere. 



Although Dr. Brickell, in his Preface, says, regarding his natural history, "I 

 have been very exact," the reader is not always so impressed. Of the Brown Peli- 

 cans he says: "They have an odd kind of note, much like the braying of an ass, 

 and in spring they go into the woods to breed, and return in the autumn," whereas 

 it is a well-known fact that the Pelican is an absolutely silent bird, and in the 

 United States breeds on or near the ocean beaches or on mangrove keys of the Gulf 

 Coast. Of the Cuckoo he writes : "In winter they hide themselves in hollow trees, 

 and their feathers come off, and they are scabby; they usually lay one egg, and 

 that in the nest of the Hedge Sparrow." 



This statement reminds one of the story of the naturalist Cuvier, to whom a stu- 

 dent stated that a lobster was a red fish which runs backward. Cuvier is reported 

 to have replied : "You are right in all but three things, viz. : It is not red, it is not 

 a fish, and does not run backward." The Carolina Cuckoos do not hide in hollow 

 trees; they do not lose all their feathers at once and become scabby; they lay not 

 one, but from two to four eggs, in a nest of their own construction; and, finally, 

 the Hedge Sparrow is not found in America. 



In writing of the Gray Eagles, he discusses at length their interesting character- 

 istics of form and movements. In part he says : ' ' They are great thieves, and live 

 to be very old, and die not from age nor any sickness, but of mere hunger by 

 reason that the upper beak of their bill is so far overgrown and turneth inward so 

 much that they are not able to open it to feed themselves. They seldom seek their 

 prey in the forenoon, for they are found sitting idle and perched upon trees all the 

 morning. It is reported that the quills or feathers of eagles, if laid amongst those 

 of other fowls, will rot and consume them, which I have not faith to believe. The 

 flesh, though scarce fit to be eaten, is medicinal against the gout; the bones of the 

 skull in powder are good against megrim; the brain, drank in wine, helps the 

 jaundice, and the gall is of excellent use in most disorders of the eye, and applied 

 helps the bitings of serpents and scorpions." 



Delicious as Brickell's natural-history sketches are, it is probable that he acquired 

 much of his material from the Indians and settlers, and has woven into his narra- 



