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John Abbot's Drawings of the Birds of Georgia

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John Abbot's Drawings of the Birds of Georgia 204_ FAXON,Mbbot's 29rawt'n•s of Geor•[a]½[rds, L[- JulyAuk According to general testimony,the diminution of late years in the numbersof the ducks is very marked. Mr. Basserr,how- ever, sees and takes in Nippenickett a larger nmnber and greater variety of ducks of late years than ever before. The causesof the changein this case are not known, and it may be left to the reader to speculateupon the•n. In all there are 28 speciesof ducks attributed to Massachusetts. We of course do not consider the Labrador and St. I)omingo Ducks as occurring in the State. All of these 28 have occurred withincomparatively recent years in PlymouthCounty. Twenty- four of them have been taken on fresh water. Barrow's Golden- eye would doubtlessbe added to this list, were the facts known, leaving only three of the ducks which, when with us, are strictly maritime, the two Eiders and the Harlequin. Of the 28 I should class.seven only as decidedly rare,--the Ring-neck, Gadwall, Shoveller, Harlequin, King Eider, Barrow's Golden-eye, and Canvas-back. JOHN ABBOT'S DRAWINGS OF THE BIRDS OF GEORGIA. BY WALTER FAXON. JOHN Annorr's illustrations of the Lepidoptera of Georgia, edited by Sir James Edward Smith and published in two folio volumesat London in x797, have made his name familiar to entomologists, but few ornithologists are aware that Abbot, during his sojourn in Georgia,made a seriesof coloreddrawings of the birds of that State. The Boston Society of Natural History has long possessedmany of Abbot'sunpublished drawings of Georgian insects•, and there has lately come to light, in the 1These are bound in two volumes, one comprising r74 plates given to the Society by Asa (;ray who received them from J. E. Gray of the British Museum, the other comprising r93 plates purchased of Dr. Oemler of Georgia. Vol.x896 XIII] j FAXOX,-4bbot's Drazv[ngrs of Georg•iat½ircts. 20 5 library of the Society,a set of xS• water-colordrawings of birds. This series of plates is accompaniedby the followingentry in the handwriting of the late Miss L. Foster•: "Drawings of the Birds of Georgia,by John Abbot," but no record of how or when the collectioncame into the possessionof the Societyhas yet been found. The plates are classified and numberedby Abbot himself from x up to 200, but nineteen are lost from the set. The namesof the birds appear in most casesat the bottom of each plate, written in pencil the nomenclaturebeing chiefly that of Wilson. One of the platesalone bearsthe inscription. in ink, "J. Abbot delin. ad'vivum, •8•o," but the character of the dra•vingsthemselves as well as the considerableamount of Abbot'swell knownautograph on the backs of the plates leaves no doubt as to their origin. The noteson the backs of the plates consistof memorandain pencil relating to the dimensionsof the birds drawn, often followed by the date (day of the month, but in no case the year) and notes on the colors and on the time of arrival of migratory species. These memoranda have in most cases been erased and replaced in many instancesby the names of the birds in the writing of Dr. T. M. Brewer,through whose hands the whole lot of drawings must have passed. Fortunately, Abbot'snotes can still be decipheredwith time and patience. We are chiefly indebted to Swainsons and S. H. Scudder• for the fexv facts that are known concerning Abbot's life. Coming to America in the interest of several of the leading entomologistsof England, probably about the year x79o, he soon settled in the State of Georgia, where he remained till as late as •8•o. Here he mainly devoted himself to collecting, rearing, and drawing the insectsof the State,together with the plants upon which they feed. The drawings published by Smith and those in the possessionof the Boston Society of • Miss Foster was Assistantin the Library from •$65 to 1885. • Taxidermy, with the Biographyof Zo/51ogists,and Notices of their Works. By \Villiam Swainson. Lardners'sCabinet Cyclopaedia,Vol. CXXVI, •84o. John Abbot, the Aurelian. By Samuel tt. Scudder. Canadian Entomol- ogist, XX, i888, • 5o. 206 FAxoN,Jtbbot's Z)ra,v[nffs of Geor4¾(t• 15'/rds. L[-Auk July Natural History form but a small part of what he produced. Seventeen bound volumes of unpublished entomologicaldraw- ings in the British Museumbear witnessto his zeal and activity.• The place of Abbot'sresidence during his stay in Georgia has been barely rescuedfrom oblivion by the late Col. Charles C. Jones2 the historian of the State. From •797 to •847 the county seat of Sereyen Co., Ga. was the little town of Jacksonborough, situate some sixty or seventymiles N N W of Savannahand a few miles west of the Savannah River. It was here, accordingto Colonel Jones,that Abbot lived and wrought. After the removal of the publicbuildings from Jacksofiboroughto Sylvaniain •847, the old town was abandoned,its dwellingsquickly fell to decay, and now a few shards of comlnon pottery scattered over the surface of the soil alone serve to mark the place where it once stood. From this regionit is probablethat mostof the birds portrayed by Abbot came. Yet the considerable number of shore and sea birds included amongst the drawingswould seem to show that the artist had recourse to the sea for some of his material. Nineteen plates, as before said, are lost from the series. But if the remainingplates be arrangedaccording to the numbersput upon them when the set was still unbroken their sequence will suggestthe subjectsof many of tl•e missingnumbers. Thus it is pretty safe to assumethat Plate •6 was the male Red-winged Blackbird, 23 the Baltimore Oriole, 27 the male Boat-tailed Grackle, 29 the Purple Grackle, 3 • the ¾ellow-billed Cuckoo,44 the male SouthernHairy Woodpecker, 8o the Nonpareil, and so foilowing. In this way we can, with someapproach to precision, estimatethe numberof speciesincluded in the original set of 2o0 plates at about •6o,-- thirteen speciesbeing allowed for the nine- teen missingnumbers. A goodlynumber this, when one consid- ers the period when the work was accomplished,the remoteness of the artist'sresidence from the sea,and the fact that ornithologi- cal pursuits were aside from the main purpose of his visit to • See W. F. Kirby, in Can. Entomol., XX, t888, 230. • The Dead Townsof Georgia. By CharlesC. Jones.p. 240. ColI. Georgia Hist. Soc., IV, •878. Vol.x896 XIII] I FAXON,nabors zg,.•,•,,',,•.• of (;co,•c•,'••,',gs. 20 7 America. Somesixty yearsbefore Abbot cameto Georgia,Mark Catesbywas similarly engaged in illustrating the local fauna on the other side of the Savannah River, with special reference to the birds. AlthoughCatesby had the advantageof a year's resi- dence on the sea-boardbefore he went up the Savannah River to live at Fort Moore, the number of Carolinian b.irds describedand figured by him amounts to only 9o against Abbot's •6o. Yet Catesby followed the pursuit with such ardor that he did not hesitate to affirm that few birds except aquatic species could have escapedhim. • On looking throughthe Abbot bird-portraitsseveral arrest the eye from their historic interest. Plate 68 is a good representa- tion of Swainson'sWarbler, drawn at least a quarter of a century before this specieswas describedand named by Audubon. On the reverseof the plate is the following autographnote by Abbot: "L. 6. May 8. Swamp.-- Swamp Worm-eater." Swainson'sWarbler was first describedand figured by Audubon in •834, • from specimenssecured by John Bachmannear Charles- ton, S.C., in •832. Its secondintroduction to public notice was in the r61eof a bird of Georgia,in White's list of Georgiabirds publishedby Alexander Gerhardt in •855. a The next record like- wise relates to a Georgia specimenfrom Liberty County.• But little wasknown concerningthe habits of SwainsoWsWarbler until •885, when Mr. William Brewster publisheda narrative of his experiencein the bird's haunts near Charleston in the summer of •884 .• It is now known to be a summervisitor to certain parts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisi- ana, Texas, SoutheasternMissonri, and the Dismal Swamp of Virginia. • The following speciesfound among the Abbot drawings are not included in White's very full list of the birds of Georgia, published in ' Naumannia,' •855, 382: zV•cteanj,c/ea, Zoxia [ettcofitera,Mmmoclramt•,c [econ/eii, Otocoriz alfiestris, Dendroica tt}¾rina,Grus mexicana, G•ara rubra, •otanus me[a•zo[eu- cus, •arzana caroSha, Zarus delawarensis. • Orn. Biog., II, 563. a Naumannia,•855, 382. 4Baird, Birds of North America, t858, p. 253. *Auk, II, •885, 65. 208 F•.xo•'.ß Abbol's Drazw'nffs of GeorgiaBirds. I_July[-Auk Plate 97.--Leconte's Sparrow(•tmmodJwmus /eton/eli). This bird also was known to Abbot and drawn by him about forty years before it was described by Audubon. The next observer after Abbot who had the luck to meet with it was Maximilian, Princeof Wied, duringhis journeyup the MissouriRiver in x833. It was not until x858, however,fourteen years after the species wasdescribed by Audubon,that Maximilian'saccount was pub- lished3 After a carefuldescription of the specimenobtained, the Prince addsthe following story of its capture,which gives one such a vivid idea of the elusive habits of the bird as to merit quo- tation: "I obtaineda single specimenof this northern species near the middle course of the Missouri. The way in which the little bird creptabout, just like a mouse,in the grass and under the busheswas remarkable. In fact, severalof our party mistook it for a mouse. It was surrounded;yet, thoughunable to escape, it could not be forced to fly.
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