COLOUR IN BIRDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 237 



RufFof Europe (Tringa pugnax)* for sale in a cage in the Charleston 

 market. It was fed on soaked ship biscuit, on its passage from Liver- 

 pool. 



On revising this article, which has insensibly grown upon me as I 

 proceeded, and which has extended to a length not originally antici- 

 pated, it has occurred to me that it might be construed, by some, as 

 evidencing a disposition to cavil at the writings, and undervalue the 

 labours of the able and estimable naturalists of our country. I should 

 reproach myself with ingratitude, could I for a moment conceive that 

 I had been influenced by such unworthy motives. The number of 

 American naturalists has been exceedingly limited ; their labours have 

 been great, and poorly requited, in a pecuniary point of view, or in 

 what they regard of most value, fame. We are indebted to them for 



* This species has recently been added to our ornithology by Mr Nuttall, in consequence 

 of a fine specimen having been obtained in the neighbourhood of New York. I doubt whe- 

 ther we have a right to claim it as American. Birds well known on the eastern continent, 

 unless they exist in high northern latitudes, ought to be admitted with great caution into our 

 Fauna. The European Partridge bus been killed in the middle states ; no doubt it had escaped 

 from a cage. I obtained, some miles from Charleston, a male Chaffinch (FringUla Calebs), 

 in full song, and afterwards saw its imported mate in a cage in the market. I had for some 

 years in possession a European Turtle Dove [Columba turtur), which had escaped from con- 

 finement, and, it was afterwards ascertained, had flown on board of a vessel at sea, three hun- 

 dred miles from the coast of France; and I received two years since, from my friend Mr 

 Nicholson, a European Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), which had alighted on the rigging of the 

 ship, several days' sail from Liverpool, on his passage to America. Surely these species, 

 brought to our country by force or accident, cannot be claimed as belonging to us. It will be 

 a source of regret, if, in this respect, we are led to imitate the example of European ornitholo- 

 gists, who, in order to swell their list of birds, publish every foreign species escaped from a 

 cage, or driven on their coast by a tempest. 



The admission of species from specimens obtained from museums, on doubtful authority, is 

 a still greater evil. In this way Mr Nuttall, who exercised so much knowledge and caution 

 in his botanical works, has, in his ornithology, admitted species to which I am inclined to 

 think we have but a doubtful claim. His Reed Bunting {Emberiza schceniclus) of Europe, 

 for instance, is given on the authority of specimens presented to Audubon by a keeper of a 

 museum, who stated their having been obtained at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I had an op- 

 portunity of examining these specimens; the materials with which they were filled, and the 

 English holly bush on which they were fastened, betrayed evidences of their having come 

 from across the Atlantic, ready stuffed and perched. Mr Audubon finally came to the same 

 conclusion. It is difficult to expunge a species once admitted into books. The Willow 

 Wren of Catesby, and the little Spotted Grey Sparrow of Latham, have caused many a poor 

 ornithologist to wear out his shoes in a fruitless search. It might be advisable to act towards 

 these perplexing species as is done in some colleges, where a name, if not answered to after 

 having been called a certain number of times, is stricken from the rolls. 



