ELEMENTS OF BARTRAM'S LANDSCAPE 97 



sidered " the first [American] ornithologist of any reputation," -^ 

 and his list, to be exact, contains 215 different species of birds.-^ 

 Bartram was, of course, familiar with the work of previous 

 observers of American birds, especially Catesby and Lawson. 

 Jefferson's list of birds " he could not have known, for although 

 the Travels was published some years after Jefferson's book, it 

 was written some years before. 



It is not, however, with Bartram' s lists of birds that we are 

 concerned but with his description of birds as an element of his 

 landscape. Here we are more interested in his " curious bird, 

 called by an Indian name (Ephouskyca) which signifies in our 

 language the crying bird . . . about the size of a large domestic 

 hen; all the body ... is of a dark led colour, every feather 

 edged or tipped with white, which makes the bird appear 

 speckled on a near view" {Travels, 147). We are interested 

 in his detailed description of the wood pelican " a large bird, 

 perhaps near three feet high when standing erect" (p. 149). 

 That " admirable bird," the turkey buzzard, appears in his 

 landscape, the painted vulture with its " white or cream " 

 coloured plumage and its red crown (pp. 150-151). With Bar- 

 tram we listen to " the cheering converse of the wild turkey- 

 cock " (p. 83), and "Behold the loud, sonorous, watchful 

 savanna cranes " as they sail " with musical clangor in detached 

 squadrons " (p. 146). We watch the " curious and handsome 

 Snake Bird, a species of cormorant," whose " head and neck . . . 

 are extremely small and slender ... all the upper side, the 

 abdomen and thighs, are as black and glossy as a raven's . . . 

 the breast and upper part of the belly are covered with feathers 

 of a cream colour, the tail is very long, of a deep black, and 

 tipped with a silvery white, and when spread, represents an 

 unfurled fan" (pp. 132-133). We note the fishing-hawk, a 



^^ The New International Encyclopedia, article on Ornithology, XVII, 588. 



^' See Biographical Sketch in American Philosophical Society Pamphlet v 1166. 

 In connection with Bartram's list of birds in the Travels, see also his MS Diary 

 for a record of bird migration, and the reprint of portions of this Diary, edited 

 by Witmer Stone, under the title " Bird Migration Records of William Bartram," 

 The Auk, XXX, 325-58. 



"'' Notes on the State of Virginia, 1784. The edition consulted is the third 

 American, 1808; the list of birds appears on pp. 102-107. 



