FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 181 
THE ORNITHOLOGY OF COLUMBUS’ FIRST 
VOYAGE* 
BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN, 
One would suppose that the records left by Columbus of 
his voyage had been so closely studied by recent commen- 
tators, that just attention had been given to every circum- 
stance which could in the least have governed the course of 
the discoverer. Volume after volume, essay upon essay, 
has been written, treating minutely of apparently every in- 
fluence which could have affected Columbus’ land-fall, but 
with one exception I do not find that historians have rightly 
estimated the part which birds played in the discovery of 
the New World. I think, however, it can be proved that 
from November 6th, when the Canaries disappeared in the 
east, until October 12th, when the Bahamas were sighted, 
by far the most important events which occurred to the 
little fleet were the visits it received from land-birds. 
Columbus was not a naturalist; his mission was to dis- 
cover not new species, but new worlds. As a rule, his 
journals are devoid of natural history incidents, but during 
this first voyage he was fully alive to the significance of the 
appearance of migratory birds ; indeed, his journal furnishes 
us to-day with the best records we have of the occurrence 
of land-birds in the waters through which he passed. The 
finding of sea-weed or the sight of a whale was, at the best, 
only negative evidence of the proximity of land; but the 
* First published in Our Animal Friends, Oct., 1895, pp. 31, 32. 
