JOURNAL 
OF THE 
Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 
JUNE, 1908 
VOL. XXIV NO. 2 
ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK IN NORTH CAROLINA* 
T. GILBERT PEARSON 
udra 
NEW V 
botani 
QaFOI 
Our earliest record of an ornithological observation in North 
Carolina is that of Captain Barlow who in company with his asso- 
ciate, Captain Amadas, visited the coast in 1584. Entering the 
Sounds by one of the inlets they sailed to Roanoke Island and 
landed. Evidently they climbed one of the tree-covered dunes 
girting the east side of the island, for Captain Barlow writes, 
“Under the bank or hill whereon we stood, we beheld valleys 
replenished with goodly cedar trees, and having discharged our 
harquebus shot, such a flock of cranes (the most part white) arose 
under us, with such a cry redoubled by many echoes, as if an 
army of men had shouted together.” One visiting Roanoke Island 
today will still see goodly cedar trees but the herons, (which 
doubtless were the birds to which he referred) are no longer to be 
found in such numbers. Three hundred and twenty-five years of 
^Presidential address before the North Carolina Academy of Science, 
May 1, 1908. 
1908] 
33 
Printed June 20, 1908. 
