HISTORICAL PREFACE. 
xiii 
ively 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 inter- 
vals 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 recognize fifteen such periods, of 
very unequal duration, to which specific dates may attach. Seven of these fall in the 
last century ; 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 birds may be traced back 
to the middle of the sixteenth century ; but, up to the eighteenth, no book entirely and 
exclusively devoted 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 Toraineius," 
as it was called. One of the largest, as well as the smallest of our birds, — the turkey, 
early 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 famous "Thesaurus " be brought into the present connec- 
tion. Among such books containing bird-matter may be noted Smith's " Virginia," 1612; 
Hamor's "Virginia," 1615; Whitbourne's "Newfoundland," 1620; Higginson's "New 
England," 1630 ; Morton's "New English Canaan," 1632 ; V^ood's "New England's 
Prospect," 1634 ; Sagard Theodat's "Voyage," 1632 ; Josselyn's "New England's 
Earities," 1672 ; — and so on, with a few more, — sometimes mere paragraphs, some- 
times a page or a formal chapter, — but scarcely anything to be now considered except in 
a spirit of curiosity. 
The Pre-Linn^an Epoch : 1700-1758. 
(1700-1T30.) 
The Lawsonian Period. — It may be a Incus a non 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, Gentleman, Surveyor- General of 
North Carolina, whose "' Description and Natural History " of that country contains one 
of the most considerable faunal lists of our birds which appeared before 1730, and went 
through many editions, — the last of these being published at Raleigh, in 1860. The 
several early editions devote some fifteen or twenty pages to birds, — an amount aug- 
mented considerably when Brickell appropriated the work in 1737. The Baron de la 
Hontan did similar service to Canadian birds in his "Voyages," 1793 ; but, on the 
whole, this period is scarcely more than archaic. 
(1730-1748.) 
The Cateshian Period. — This comprises the time when Mark Catesby's great work 
was appearing by instalments. " The Natural History of Carolina, Elorida," etc., is the 
