8 THE AUD U BOW ?3B.U let Eealar 
Audubon Screen Tours, 1958-59 
THROUGH THE GENEROSITY of one of our members, Dr. Alfred Lipsey of 
Chicago, the Illinois Audubon Society will be able to present six Audubon 
Screen Tour Lectures this season instead of the usual five. As before, these 
will all be Sunday matinees, to be presented in the James Simpson theater 
of the Chicago Natural History Museum at Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore 
Drive. All programs are free, and the public is invited. Members will re- 
ceive the usual cards giving complete details early this fall. 
October 5, 1958 — Cleveland P, Grant...................... “Land of Early Autumn” 
November 16 — Patricia Bailey Witherspoon................ “Kiwi Commonwealth” 
January 4,.1959 — Charles(Mohr2 2272 “Outdoor Almanac” 
February 22 — Howard Cleaves................-........- “Animals at Night in Color” 
March 8 —.G. Clifford (Carl = “Secrets of the Sea” 
April 19 — Robert C. Hermes........................ “Animals at Home and Abroad” 
The Earliest Published Article on Illinois Birds 
By ORMsBY ANNAN 
WERE AN HISTORIAN of ornithology to consult either Cory or Ridgway, he 
would be led to believe that the first article on Illinois birds appeared in 
1853 or 1854. Cory (1909: 740) cites an 1853 paper by Dr. William Le- 
Baron, a physician of Geneva, Illinois: “Observations upon some of the 
birds of Illinois most interesting to the agriculturist.” This appeared in 
Volume I of the Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society. 
Ridgway (1881: 168, and also 1889, part 1, Vol. I: 36) cites this paper 
under 1853-54, 
Recently I obtained some early volumes of the Transactions, and noticed 
that LeBaron’s article was dated, by him, December 12, 1854, and that the 
Transactions were published in Springfield in 1855. Since it is the actual 
date of publication of a journal which establishes the date of an article, 
it appears that the earliest article to appear in print, devoted to Illinois 
ornithology, should be credited to 1855, and not to 1853-54. 
Many more people will read Cory or Ridgway than will consult LeBaron’s 
original article. Perhaps it would be easier to find an article earlier than 
LeBaron’s than it will be to correct the impression that published orni- 
thology in Illinois commenced in 1853. Do any of the members of the Illinois 
Audubon Society know of material earlier than LeBaron’s? 
1059 Chatsfield Road, Winnetka 
1909 Cory, Charles B. “The Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin.” Field Museum of Natural 
History, Publication 131. Zoological Series, Vol. IX. 
1855 LeBaron, William. ‘Observations upon some of the birds of Illinois most interesting 
to the agriculturist.”’ T'rans. Ill. State Agri. Soc., 1:559-565. 
1881 Ridgway, Robert. “A Catalogue of the Birds of Illinois.’ Ill. State Lab. of Nat. 
Hist., Bulletin 4: 163-208. 
L889 Ridgway, Robert. The Ornithology of Illinois. Part 1S Vola: 
