May 22, 1884] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



823 



tjtftqxl §i$(oryr. 



THE COUESIAN PERIOD. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Witii the kind permission of Dr. Ooueg and his publishers, 

 1 am able to send you in advance of publication a portion ot 

 the "Historical Preface* 7 of the uew "Key to North Ameri- 

 can Birds," which cannot fail to interest your readers, and 

 respecting which I beg to say a few words. 



I was present at the meeting of the Biological Society ot 

 Washington, when Dr. Cones complemented the society by 

 laying before it a complete set of proof -sheets of the "Key, 

 and read (he substance of the "Historical Preface,/ in 

 which he traced the progress and development of American 



or minor divisions, each tersely characterized m the manner 

 which the accompanying preface shows. 



In fclie discussion which followed the delivery of the ad- 

 dress Prof. Lester P. Ward proposed to carry this System of 

 chronical classification further than Dr. Coues, of course, 

 eould have done, by recognizing the fourth quarter of the 

 present century as a seventh "epoch," extending from 1872 

 to 1900, which he called the "Couesian epoch." 



Heartily indorsing this proposition as I do, T beg to add 

 a few words upon the "period" to be assigned to Coues in 

 this epoch. In my judgment, the time from 1872 to 1881, 

 or that between the' two editions of the "Key," may appro- 

 priately be termed the "Couesian period," and! am sure that 

 your readers will with one accord indorse the propriety of my 

 proposition. 



Prof. Ward, on the occasion referred to above, ably de- 

 fined and in a few words characterized the "epoch" which he 

 proposed, much in the same way as a thoroughly competent 

 and broad-minded zoologist, might present those strong char- 

 acters which stamp a new genus when it comes within the 

 field of his observation. Following Dr. Coues's own plan of 

 classification, as precedented in the "Wilsonian epoch" with 

 its "Wilsonian period," or, still later, the "Bairdian epoch" 

 with its "Bairdian period," it devolves upon me to refer to 

 at least some of the leading specific characters which mark 

 the times included within the "period" I have proposed. 



The old "Key," constituting as it does the initial 

 landmark of the "Couesian period," differed iu one great 

 respect from all other works upon ornithology that had pre- 

 ceded it. It reached the people. The great works of Audu- 

 bon antt Wilson were up to that time the dream of all young 

 American ornithologists, of which the "Key" was the reali- 

 zation. Its influence was both marvelous and good, and can 

 hardly be over estimated, for it became a living factor of the 

 growing mind of the coming generation of men of the time 

 in which it appeared. It fell into the hands of boys who 

 could now "find out the names" of the birds which they saw 

 and collected. It taught to classify, to observe, to record, 

 and as a result of all, to appreciate and admire. 



The influence of the book was scarcely more than the in- 

 fluence of its author who, through all this part of his life, as 

 he has ever since been, an example of that fixedness of pur- 

 pose—which honest men cannot help but esteem — added to 

 which he has been the direct encourager of the younger 

 workers, in a thousand ways, and in none more than the ex- 

 ample set by himself in his cheerfulness, under many of the 

 direst of trials which the greater share of the world's people 

 is sure to cast across the path of such men. 



The heart of the Couesian period is filled with many other 

 noble works, familiar to all of us, and setting aside the two 

 hundred or more minor papers by this author we see stand- 

 ing boldly out in relief our "Field Ornithology," "The 

 Birds of the Northwest," "Birds of the Colorado Valley" 

 and "The Coues Check List." These all have given an 

 immense impulse to the advance of the science of ornithol- 

 ogy, and all exerted an excellent influence. 



It will not be possible for me to attempt in this letter even 

 an outline of the scientific activities on foot during the mid- 

 years of this period. It included the days of the great sur- 

 vey S — the Government expeditions — when many a hardy 

 naturalist was sweeping into the general treasury the western 

 forms of birds. 



Following the digest of all this material, which had thus 

 been collected, another feature that had been slowly growing 

 now, in the last few years of the period, comes quite promi- 

 nently in the foreground to assert itself as an additional char- 

 acteristic. This is the study of the structure of birds, and 

 as the older countries have already taught us it is the ad- 

 juster that follows in the track of the pioneer. Ornithology 

 owes not a little to Dr. Coues for bis labors in this all-im- 

 portant field, as many of his productions will attest. 



Ah! I see the eye of every true ornithologist in the country 

 grow brighter as he regards the picture of the triumphs for 

 his science, that go to make up the closing days of the Coues- 

 ian period. 



The mere mention of the name of the center feature, here, 

 is sufficient to bring to mind a train of thought, which if 

 followed in all its pleasant bearings, would carry me far be- 

 yond my limits. 



We ail know the debt ornithology owes to Dr. Coues for 

 his zeal and judgment during the times of the establishment 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union, and how much this 

 organization promises to the science in this country. 



The days of the period, so full of honor and achievements, 

 are numbered, and we have but a few more left us to enjoy 

 the pleasures of anticipation, before its namesake will hand 

 us the volume, that brings it to a close. 



It. W. Shufuldt, Captain Medical Corps U.S.A. 

 Chairman Sect, of Avian Anatomy, Amer. Oruith. Union. 

 American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D. 0., May 3, 1884. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW. 



Were a modern Hesiod to essay — neither a cosmogony nor 

 a theogony— but the genesis of even the last department of 

 human knowledge — were he to seek the beginnings of Amer- 

 ican Ornithology, he would find it. only in Chaos. For from 

 this sprang all things, great and small alike, to pass through 

 Night and Nemesis to the light of days which first see orderly 

 progress in the course of natuial evolution, when is first es- 

 tablished some sequence of events we recognize as causes 

 and effects. Then there is system, and formal law ; there 

 science becomes possible; there" its possible history begins. 



Long was the time during which the birds of our country 

 were known to our inhabitants, after the fashion. of the peo- 

 ple of those days — known as things of which use could be 

 made and studied, too, that use might be made of them. 



But this period is prehistoric; no evidence remains, save in 

 some quaint pietograph or rudely graven image. There fol- 

 lowed a period— shorter by far than the. former one, though 

 it endures— when the same birds awakened in Other men an 

 interest they could not excite in a savage breast, and the 

 sense of beauty was felt. Use and beauty! What may not 

 spring from such divinely mated pair, when once they brood 

 upon thehunlarj mind, likehalcyons stilling troubled waters, 

 sinking the instincts of the animal in the restful, satisfying 

 reflections of the man? 



The history of American Ornithology begins at the time 

 when men first wrote upon American birds; for men write 

 nothing without some reason, and to reason at all is the be- 

 ginning of science, even as to reason aright is its end. The 

 date no one can assign, unless il lie arbitrarily; it was during 

 the latter part of the sixteenth century, which with the 

 Whole of the seventeenth, represents the formative or embry- 

 onic period during which were, gathering about the germ 

 the crude materials out of which an ornithology of North 

 America was to be fashioned. As these accumulated and 

 were assimilated— as the writings multiplied and books bred 

 books, "each after its kind," this special department^ of 

 knowledge grew up, and its form changed with each new im- 

 press made upon its plastic organization. 



Viewing in proper perspective these three centuries and 

 more which our subject has seen — passing in retrospect the 

 steps of its development— we find that it offers several phases, 

 representing as many "epochs" or major divisions, of very 

 unequal duration, and of scientific significance inversely pro- 

 portionate to their respective lengths. All that went before 

 1700 constitutes the first of these, which may be termed the 

 Archaic epoch. The eighteenth century witnessed an extra- 

 ordinary event, the consequence of which to systematic 

 zoology cannot be over estimated; it occurred almost exactly 

 in the middle of the century, which is thus sharply divided 

 into a Prc-Liinm-an epoch, before the institution of the _bi- 

 nomial nomenclature, and a l\>si-Linnaan epoch, during 

 which this technic of modern zoology was established — each 

 approximately of half a century's duration. In respect of 

 our particular theme, the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury saw the "father of American ornithology," whose spirit 

 pointed the crescent in the sky of the Wilsonian epoch. 

 During the second quarter these horns were filled with the 

 genius of the Audubonian epoch. In the thud, the plente- 

 ousuess of a master mind has marked the Bairdian, epoch. 



Clearly as the six epochs may be recoguized, there is of 

 course no break between them; they not only meet, but 

 merge in one another. The sharpest line is that which runs 

 across Linnaeus at 1758; but even that is only visible in his- 

 torical perspective, while the assignation of the dates 1700 

 and 1800 is rather a chronological convenience than other- 

 wise. Nothing absolutely marks the former; and Wilson 

 was unseen till 1808. 



The Archaic epoch stretches into the dim past with im- 

 shif ting scene, even at the turning point of the two centuries 

 in which it lies, It is otherwise with the rest; their shapes 

 have incessantly changed; and several have been the periods 

 in each of them during which their course of development 

 has been accelerated or retarded, or modified in some special 

 feature. These changes have invariably coincided with— 

 have, in fact, been induced by— the appearance of some 

 great work ; great, not necessarily in itself, but in its relation 

 to the times, and thus in the consequences of the interaction 

 between the times and the author — who left the science other 

 than he found it. The edifice as it stands to-day is the work 

 of all, even of the humblest builders; but its plan is that of 

 the architects who w have modeled its main features, and the 

 changes they have successively wrought are the marks of 

 progress. It is consequently possible, and it will be found 

 convenient to subdivide the epochs named (excepting the 

 first) into lesser natural intervals of time, which may be 

 called "periods," to each of which may attach the name of 

 the architect whose design is expressed most clearly. I recog- 

 nize fifteen such periods of very unequal duration, to which 

 specific dates may attach. Seven of these fall in the last cen- 

 tury; eight in the three-quarters of the present century. We 

 may pass them in brief review. 



The Archaic Epoch: to 1700. 

 Mere mention or fragmentary notice of North American 

 but, to the eighteenth, no book entirely and exclusively de- 

 birds may be traced back to the middle of the sixteenth century ; 

 voted to the subject had appeared. The turkey and the 

 humming-bird were among the earliest to appear in print; 

 the latter forms the subject of the earliest paper I have found, 

 exclusively and formally treating of any North American 

 bird as such, and this was not until 1693, when Hamersly 

 described the "American Tomineius," as it was called, One 

 of the largest, as well as the smallest of our birds, — the 

 turkey, eaily came in for a share of attention. The germs of 

 the modern "faunal list" — that is to say, notes upon the birds 

 of some particular region or locality — appeared early in the 

 seventeenth century, and continued throughout; but only as 

 incidental and very slight features of books published by 

 colonists, adventurers, and missionaries, in their several 

 interests — unless Hernandez's "Thesaurus" be brought into 

 the present connection. Among such books containing bird- 

 matter may be noted Smith's "Virginia," 1612; Hamor's 

 "Virginia," 1615; Whitbourne's "Newfoundland," 1620; 

 Higgiuson's "New England," 1630; Morton's "New England 

 Canaan," 1632; Wood's "New England's Prospect," 1634; 

 Bayard Theodot's "Voyage," 1632; Josselyn's "New Eng- 

 land Rarities," 1672 — and so on, with a few more, some- 

 times mere paragraphs, sometimes a page or a formal chap- 

 ter, but scarcely anything to be now considered except in a 

 spirit of curiosity. 



The Phe-Linn^ean Epoch: 1700-1758. 



(1700-1730.) 



The Lawsonian Period. — It may be a lueus a no% to call 

 this the "Lawsonian" period; but a name is needed for the 

 portion of this epoch prior to Catesby, during which no 

 other name Is so prominent as that of John Lawson, Gentle- 

 man, Surveyor -General of North Carolina, whose "Descrip- 

 tion and Natural History" of that country contains one of 

 the most considerable faunal lists of our' birds w T hich ap- 

 peared before 1730, and went through many editions— the 

 last of these being published at Raleigh in 1860. The sev- 

 eral early editions devote some fifteen or tw r enty pages to 

 birds — an amount augmented considerably when Bricked 

 appropriated the work in 1737. The Baron de la Houtau 

 did similar service to Canadian birds in his "Voyages," 1793; 

 but, on the whole, this period is scarcely more than archaic. 



1730-1748. 



The CatesMun Period.— This comprises the time wben 

 Mark Catesby's great work was appearing by instalments. 

 "The Natural History of Carolina, Florida," etc., is the 

 first really great work to come under our notice; its influence 



was immediate, and is even now felt. It is the ".Audubon" 

 of that time; a folio in two volumes, dating respectively 

 1731 and 1743. with an appendix, 1748; passing to a second 

 edition in 1754, to a third in 1771, under the supervision of 

 Edwards: reproduced in Germany, in "Seligmanu's Samni- 

 lung," 1749-76. It was published in parts, the date of the 

 first of which I believe to have been 1730, though it may 

 hove been a little earlier. Volume 1., containing the birds, 

 appears to have been issued in five parts and was made up in 

 1731. it consists of a hundred colored plates of birds, with 

 as many leaves Of text; a few more birds are given in the 

 appendix, raising the number to 113. These illustrations 

 are recognizable almost without exception; most of the 

 es are for the first time described and figured: they fur- 

 nish the basis of many subsequently named in the Linnscan 

 system; the work was eventually furnished by Edwards 

 with a Liunsean concordance or index; and altogether it is 

 not easy to overestimate the significance of the Catesbian 

 period, due to this one work; for no other book requires or 

 indeed deserves to be mentioned in the same connection, 

 though a few contributions, of somewhat "archaic." char- 

 acter, were made by various writers. 



1748-1758. 



The Edwardsiaii: Period.— This bridges the interval be- 

 tween Catesby and the establishment of the binomial nomen- 

 clature, and finishes the Pre-Lirinaean epoch. No great 

 name of exclusive pertinence to North American ornithology 

 appears in this decade. But the great naturalist whose name 

 is inseparably associated with that of Catesby had begun in 

 1741 the "Natural History of Uncommon Birds," which he 

 completed in four parts or volumes, in 1751, and in which 

 the North American element is conspicuous. This work 

 contains two hundred and ten colored plates, with accom- 

 panying text, forming a treatise which early ranks among 

 the half-dozen greatest works of the kind of the pre-Linnajan 

 epoch, and passed through several editions in different lan- 

 guages. Its impress upon American Ornithology C-J the 

 time is second only to that made by Catesby's, of which it 

 was the natural sequence, if not consequence. It bore simi- 

 larly upon birds soon to be described in binomial terms, and 

 was shortly followed by the not less famous "Gleaniugs of 

 Natural History," 1758-64, a work of precisely the same 

 character, and in fact a continuation of the former. Edwards 

 also made some of our birds the subject of special papers 

 before the Philosophical Society, as those of 1755 and 1758 

 upon the Ruffed Grouse and the Phalarope. It may be noted 

 here that one of the few special papers upon any American 

 bird which Linnteus published appeared in this period, he 

 having in 1750 first described the Louisiana Nonpareil (Pas- 

 upvirm nm'<t\ This nf>rind also saw the nublieation of Dart 



l/OO-Ol, WU1CU wem lUIUUgii uumeiuus cmuuua iu. uiucituu 



languages. Kalm was a correspendent of Linnams; the 

 genus of Plants Kalmia commemorates his name; his work 

 contains accounts of many of our birds, some of them the 

 bases of Linna;an species; and he also published, in 1759, a 

 special paper upon the wild pigeon. As in the Catesbian 

 period, various lesser contributions were made, but none 

 requiring comment. Thus Lawson, as representing the con- 

 tinuation of a preceding epoch, and the associated names of 

 Catesby and Edwards in the present one, have carried us 

 past the middle of the last century. 



[to be continued.] 



THE BROWN THRUSH. 



(Harporhy nchus Ifoifus). 



THE brown thrush is a shy fellow, and the greatest quiet 

 and patience are requisite, if one would observe him at 

 his ease. His flight, as he passes from tree to tree, is a short, 

 jerky flutter, and it is amusing to see him "pitch himself," 

 so to speak, into a spruce. He will dash in among the 

 boughs with a clumsy flutter, remain perfectly silent for a 

 moment, then with a swift run he goes out to the very end 

 of the branch, where he will oftentimes remain quiet for 

 many minutes, apparently lost in contemplation of the view, 

 from his airy perch. In action be closely resembles the 

 mocking bird, possessing in common with the latter a re- 

 markably sweet voice, which he uses in the most artistic. 

 manner. His favorite song times are in the early morning 

 and evening (although he does not confine himself strictly to 

 hours), the former being the boldest and continuing longer 

 than at sunset. He will select some high perch on the tip of 

 a spruce, or way up in some tall poplar, and day after day, 

 from this vantage ground, you will hear him carol his favor- 

 ite melodies. As a musician, he ranks with the finest in our 

 woods. Would you hear him at his best, though, you must 

 find him as he crouches close in to the trunk of some dark 

 pine or hemlock, during the heat of the day. There, as he 

 sits in the cool shade, you will hear him extemporize, very 

 softly, as though talking to himself, but in such an exquisite 

 strain, that you listen enraptured. One must be close to en- 

 joy all this, as I doubt if his notes at these times could be 

 heard at over twenty yards distance. His usual cry of chekf 

 chelc! whew'w! is most frequently heard, at evening, as he 

 fusses about, in search of a perch, on which to pass the 

 night. 



The bright, fresh colors of the thrush's plumage on his 

 arrival, and before his "good clothes" have grown rusty with 

 use, is shown in pleasing contrast with the rich green of the 

 young grass as the sprightly fellow hops about the lawn, 

 lie rarely ventures far from the trees when hunting for food, 

 and is ready on an instant's notice to flirt his long tail and 

 flutter up among the boughs out of sight, generally keeping 

 on the further side of the tree as you approach. He has a 

 great habit of poking about the brier tangles, and, as a gen- 

 eral thing, you are almost sure to find him there, along the 

 edges of woods and in the hedges. These thickets and 

 tangles are where he loves to build his nest, although he will 

 sometimes select a location more exposed to observation. 

 Still, you will often find it as above, in the very thick of the 

 thorns and briers, snug and cosy and cool, a fit abode for the 

 sly chap, Like the catbird, the flirts of his long tail fre- 

 quently serve as an index to the state of his mind. Curios- 

 ity, for example, is expressed by a quick flip of the tail from 

 one side to the other, as he clings to some trembling vine and 

 peers out at you from uuder the leaves, fancying himself un- 

 observed. Should he find that you have discovered him, he 

 silently disappears; quietly, mysteriously he goes, without a 

 sound, nothing to indicate his course but the vibration of the 

 foliage or the quiver of an alder as he noiselessly threads his 

 way through the maze of twigs underneath. This bud, with 

 his curious ways, is a favorite of mine, aud I heartily welcome 

 his voice again as it mingles with the evening chants rising 

 from field and forest in the early spring. 



The gray of twilight is fading into dusk, and the shadows 



