Ornithological biography, Vol. 1 (of 5)

Chapter 196: FOOTNOTES

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About This Book

The volume gathers richly observed natural-history accounts of many bird species found in the United States, pairing careful descriptions of plumage, anatomy, nests, eggs, songs, and seasonal movements with personal field observations and anecdotes. Each species entry accompanies an engraved plate and discusses habitat preferences, feeding and breeding behavior, and variation between sexes and ages. Interspersed are reflections on landscape and local manners, methodological notes on collecting and illustrating specimens, and an autobiographical introduction that traces the author's youthful fascination with birds and the artistic and scientific efforts undertaken to represent them faithfully.

FOOTNOTES

[1] In America, the term mast is not confined to the fruit of the beech, but is used as a general name for all kinds of forest fruits, including even grapes and berries.

[2] The peculiarities in the structure of the plumage of different species of birds might, if duly attended to, prove of essential service to the systematic ornithologist, as conducing, along with other circumstances, to the elucidation of the natural affinities of birds. On this subject, I would refer the system-makers to the valuable observations of Mr Macgillivray in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for 1828.

[3] After the summer showers, the ground is seen covered with multitudes of very small frogs, of a brownish-black colour, which many of the inhabitants foolishly suppose to have descended from the clouds. Some of these I have occasionally found in the stomach of the Black-billed Cuckoo.