Key to North American birds : containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and Lower California with which are incorporated General ornithology ... and Field ornithology ...

Front matter

Med

Starlings

(Sturnus Vulgaris)

Preface To The Fourth Edition

TN presenting a new edition of the Ivey to those who are interested in North American Birds, the publishers desire the author to add a word by way of preface. But little need be said of a book which speaks for itself in passing through several editions to supply that demand for a standard textbook of ornithology which this work has itself done much to create, by stimulating and satisfying an interest in one of the most delightful departments of Natural History.

The part which the Key has taken in the evolution of the subject since 1872 is sketched in the “ Historical Preface ” (pp. xxvi-xxx), first introduced in the Second Edition, 1884. Since the founding of the American Ornithologists’ Union in 1883 the impetus then given to the study of birds has resulted in a momentum directly proportionate to the number of workers in this field and to the length of time these have been engaged. I could wish the fruits of such unparalleled activity were all sound and ripe, but they are not ; growth has been forced to some extent in rival hot-houses, and the familiar parable of wheat and tares finds a fresh illustration. Too quick transition from an old to a new order of things in the technicalities of our subject has brought disorder, as usual. Till the pace slackens somewhat, so that we can see where we stand, I do not think it would be wise to recast the Key.

Therefore, the only change in the present edition is the addition of a Second Appendix, beginning page 897.

E. C.

Preface To The Third Edition

HE second edition of the “ Key,” which appeared in May, 1884, has already been out of print for more than a year. Though aware of the continued demand for a standard work of reference, the author has been unable to meet it more promptly, having meanwhile accepted some other literary engagements which proved imperative in their demand upon his capacity for work. Slight as the requisite revision of this book has proven to be, it did not seem expedient to go to press again without recognizing the steps American Ornithology has taken during the past three years, though these may be called many rather than great ones. There is so little to change in the substance of the book that it has been thought decidedly best to reprint from the same plates, and put what new matter has come to hand in the form of an Appendix. However much there is that might have advantageously gone into the second edition, but did not, the author is satisfied with nearly everything that did go in, and quite ready to submit it all to the still further test of time. The transition from what some of his friends have called the “ Couesian Period ” may mean a change in form rather than in fact.

The naming of our birds, as an art distinguished from the science of knowing them, has lately been pitched in a key so high that the familiar notes of the former “ Key ” might jangle out of tune, or be lost entirely, were the attempt made to reset them just now. During the confusion unavoidably incident to such sweeping changes in nomenclature as we have recently made, it will be a decided benefit to the student, the sportsman, and the amateur, if not also to every working ornithologist, to be provided with a convenient means of comparing the older with the newer style of nomenclature we have adopted, until each one shall have grown accustomed to the change of spectacles. This accommodation is afforded by the present edition, which leaves the names and their num-

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bers untouched in the body of the text, and then adjusts them to the new angle of vision in the Appendix, in parallel columns. Thus the new “ Key ” turns either way ; or, to vary the metaphor, the renovated structure stands Janusfaced, looking both ways at once — backward upon its old self, of which it has no cause to be ashamed ; forward upon another self, of which it has much reason to be proud.

The train of incidents which resulted in what may be called a nomenclatural explosion was fired at the founding of the American Ornithologists’ Union at New York, in September, 1883. As one of three persons who brought that happy episode upon an unsuspecting bird-world, which nevertheless greeted their stroke with acclamation, the author must plead a modesty act in bar of trial of his pen on that particular count. But as the honor was his of presiding over the first Congress of the Union, whilst the ideas of its founders were shapen into a permanent and world-wide organization, so also it fell to his lot to appoint several committees for the despatch of business the Union at once took in hand ; and of one of these he has to speak here.

This particular wheel within other wheels turned upon a resolution of the Union “ that the Chairman appoint a committee of five, including himself, to whom shall be referred the question of a revision of the Classification and Nomenclature of the Birds of North America.” Having accepted the situation, the author held with his esteemed colleagues many sessions of the Committee in Washington and New York, and in April, 1885, offered to the Union the result of much joint labor. The report of the Committee being accepted, it was ordered to be printed, and it appeared in 1886 in an octavo volume of 400 pages, entitled “The Code of Nomenclature and Check-list of North American Birds, adopted by the American Ornithologists’ Union,” etc.

The objects which we kept steadily in view were : first, to establish certain sound principles or canons of nomenclature applicable to zoology at large as well as to ornithology ; and, secondly, to apply these rules consistent!)' and effectually to the naming of North American birds. Others must be left to judge how well or ill these purposes may have been accomplished, but the simple fact is that no sooner had the book appeared than it became the standard and indeed the only recognized Nomenclator in American Ornithology. That which the Committee had stamped with the seal of the Union became the current coin of the realm, other than which our venerable fowl, The Auk, should know none.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

IX la estimating the probable consequences for the long run, it is necessary to discriminate between any given ornithological fact and the handle we may agree to give that fact. The former is a natural fixity, the latter is a movable furniture ; the former is subject to no authority we can set up, the latter is wholly arbitrary, determinable at our pleasure. Uniformity of nomenclature is so obvious and decided a practical convenience that even at the risk of seeming to laud work in which he had a hand, the author cannot too strongly urge compliance with the Union’s code, and adherence to the set of names the Union has adopted. These may not be the best possible, but they are the best we have.

The author’s insistence upon this point does not of course extend to any case where an error of ornithological fact may appear. That is an entirely different matter. Reserving to himself, as he certainly does, the right of individual judgment in every question of ornithological science, he is the last to persuade others to refrain from equal freedom of expert opinion. “ So many men, so many minds,” even when the number is only five ; no individual opinion is necessarily reflected upon any point in the Code and Check-list ; it is the collective voice of a majority of the Committee that is heard in every instance. The occasion for individual dissent on the part of any member of that body, as of any other writer upon the subject, arises when in his private capacity as an author he has, as it were, to pass upon and approve or disapprove any results of the labors of others. The Appendix to the present edition of the “ Key ” unavoidably brings up such an occasion. Yet that he may not even seem to reflect upon any of his co-workers, his criticism express or implied has been sedulously reduced to its lowest terms. It consists chiefly in declining to admit to the “Key” some forms that the Committee have deemed worthy of recognition by name. Indeed he has preferred to err, if at all, on the other side, desiring to give the user of this book the later results of the whole Committee.

Nevertheless he must here record an earnest protest, futile though it may be, against the fatal facility with which the system of trinomials lends itself to sad consequences in the hands of immature or inexperienced specialists. No allusion is here intended to anything that has been done, but he must reiterate what was said before (Key, p. xxvii ) respecting what may be done hereafter if more judicious conservatism than we have enjoyed of late be not brought to bear down hard upon trifling incompetents. The “ trinomial tool ” is too sharp to be made a toy ; and even if we do not cut our own fingers with it, we are likely to cut the throat of the whole system of naming we have reared with such

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care. Better throw the instrument away than use it to slice species so thin that it takes a microscope to perceive them. It may be assumed, as a safe rule of procedure, that it is useless to divide and subdivide beyond the fair average ability of ornithologists to recognize and verify the result. Named varieties of birds that require to be “ compared with the types ” by holding them up slantwise in a good strong light, — just as the ladies match crewels in the milliner’s shop, — such often exist in the cabinets or in the books of their describers, but seldom in the woods and fields.

K C.

Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, D.C., April, 1SS7.

Were a modern Hesiod to essay — neither a cosmogony nor a theogony — but the genesis of even the department of human knowledge, — were lie to innings of American Ornithology, he would n 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 natural evolution, when is first established 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 its inhabitants, after the fashion of the people 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 pictograpli or rudely graven image. There followed a period shorter by far than the former one, though it endures to-day — when the same xn

HISTORICAL PREFACE.

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 the human mind, like halcyons stilling troubled waters, sinking the instincts of the animal in the restful, satisfying reflections of the man 1

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 beginning of science, even as to reason aright is its end. The date no one can assign, unless it be arbitrarily ; it was during the latter part of the sixteenth century, which, with the whole of the seventeenth, represents the formative or embryonic 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 impress 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 proportionate to their respective lengths. All that went before 1700 constitutes the first of these, which may be termed the Archaic epoch. The eighteenth century witiressed an extraordinary 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 Pre-Linncean epoch, before the institution of the binomial nomenclature, and a Post-Linna-an 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 century 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 third, the plenteousness of a master mind has marked the Bairdian epoch.

Clearly as these six epochs may be recognized, 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 Linnmus at 1758 : but even that is only visible in historical perspective, while the assignation of the dates 1700 and 1800 is rather a chronological convenience than otherwise. Nothing absolutely marks the former ; and Wilson was unseen till 1808.

The Archaic epoch stretches into the dim past with unshifting 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 lie 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 have modelled its main features, and the changes they have success-

HISTORICAL PREFACE.

xm 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 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 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 he traced back to the middle of the sixteenth century ; but, up to the eighteenth, no hook 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 Ilamersly described the “ American Tomineius,” 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 hooks published by colonists, adventurers, and missionaries, in their several interests, — unless Hernandez’s famous “ Thesaurus ” he brought into the present connection. Among such hooks 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; Wood’s “New England’s Prospect,” 1634 ; Sagard Theodat’s “Voyage,” 1632; Josselyn’s “New England’s Parities,” 1672 ; — and so on, with a few more, — sometimes mere paragraphs, sometimes a page or a formal chapter, — but scarcely anything to be now considered except in a spirit of curiosity.

The PRE-LiNNiEAN Epoch : 1700-1758.

(1700-1730.)

The Lawsonian Period. — It may be a htcus a non to call this the “ Lawsonian ” period ; hut 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 augmented 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 Catesbian Period. — This comprises the time when Mark Catesby’s great work was appearing by instalments. “The Natural History of Carolina, Florida,” etc., is the

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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 “ Seligmann’s Sammlung,” 1749-76. It was published in parts, the date of the first of which I believe to have been 1730, though it may have been a little earlier. Volume I, 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 1 1 3. These illustrations are recognizable almost without exception ; most of the species are for the first time described and figured ; they furnish the basis of many subsequently named in the Linmean system ; the work was eventually provided by Edwards with a Linmean 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 ” character, were made by various writers.

(1748-1758.)

The Edivar chian Period. — This bridges the interval between Catesby and the establishment of the binomial nomenclature, and finishes the Pre-Linnaean epoch. No great name of exclusive pertinence to Xorth 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 Xorth American element is conspicuous. This work contains two hundred and ten colored plates, with accompanying text, forming a treatise which easily ranks among the half-dozen greatest works of the kiud of the Pre- Linnsean epoch, and passed through several editions in different languages. Its impress upon American ornithology of the time is second only to that made by Catesby’s, of which it was the natural sequence, if not consequence It bore similarly upon birds soon to be described in binomial terms, and was shortly followed by the not less famous “ Gleanings 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 Linnaeus published appeared in this period, he having in 1750 first described the Louisiana Nonpareil (Passerina ciris). This period also saw the publication of part of the original Swedish edition of Peter Kalm’s “Travels,” 1753-61, which went through numerous editions in different languages. Kalm was a correspondent of Linnaeus ; the genus of plants, Kalmia, commemorates his name ; his work contains accounts of many of our birds, some of them the bases of Linmean 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 continuation 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.

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xv

The PosT-LiNNyEAN Epoch: 1758-1800.

(1758-1760.)

The Linncean Period. — An interregnum here, during which not a notable work or worker appeal’s in North American ornithology itself. But events elsewhere occurred, the reflex action of which upon our theme is simply incalculable, fully requiring the recognition of this period. The dates, 1758-1766, are respectively those of the appearance of the tenth and of the twelth edition of the “ Systema Naturae” of Linnaeus. In the former the illustrious Swede first formally and consistently applied his system of nomenclature to all birds known to him; the latter is his completed system, as it finally left his hands ; and from then to now, zoologists and especially ornithologists have disputed whether 1758 or 1766 should be taken as the starting-point of zoological nomenclature. In ornithology, the matter is still at issue between the American and the British schools. However this may result, the fact remains that during this “Linnsean period,” 1758 to 1766, we have the origin of all the tenable specific names of those of our birds which were known to Linnaeus ; the gathering up and methodical digestion and systematic arrangement of all that had gone before. Let this scant decade stand, — mute in America, but eloquent in Sweden, and since applauded to the echo of the world.

Nor is this all. The year 1 760 saw the famous “ Ornithologia ” of Mathurin Jacques Brisson (born April 20, 1725 — died June 23, 1806), in six portly quartos with 261 folded plates, and elaborate descriptions in Latin and French of hundreds of birds, a fair proportion of which are North American. Many are described for the first time, though unfortunately not in the binomial nomenclature. The work holds permanent place; and most of the original descriptions of Brisson’s are among the surest bases of Linnaean species.

(1766-1785.)

The Forsterian Period. — Nearly twenty years have now elapsed with so little incident that two brochures determine the complexion of this period. John Reinhold Forster was a learned and able man, whose connection with North American ornithology is interesting. In 1771 he published a tract, now very scarce and of no consequence whatever, entitled “A Catalogue of the Animals of North America.” But it was the first attempt to do anything of the sort, — in short, the first thing of its kind. It gives 302 birds, neither described nor even named scientifically. But that was a large number of North American birds to even mention in those days, — more than Wilson gave in 1814. Forster followed up this exploit in 1772 with an interesting and valuable account of 58 birds from Hudson’s Bay, occupying some fifty pages of the “Philosophical Transactions.” Several of these birds were new to science, and were formally named, — such as our White-throated Sparrow, Black-poll Warbler, Hudsonian Titmouse, and Eskimo Curlew’. Aside from its intrinsic merit, this paper is notable as the first formal treatise exclusively devoted to a collection of North American birds sent abroad. The period is otherwise marked by the publication in 1780 of Fabricius’ “ Fauna Groenlandica,” in which some 50 birds of Greenland receive attention ; and especially by the appearance of a great statesman and one of the Presidents of the U nited States in the role of ornithologist, Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia” having been first pri-

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HISTOUICA L PEE FA CE vately printed in Paris in 1782, though the authorized publication was not till 1787. It contains a list of 77 birds of Virginia, fortified with references to Catesby, Linnaeus, and Brisson, as the author’s authorities. There were many editions, one dating 1853.

The long publication in France of one of the monumental works on general ornithology coincides very nearly with this period. I refer of course to Buffon and his collaborators. The “ Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux,” by Buffon and Montbeillard, dates in its original edition 1770-1783, being in nine quarto volumes with 264 plain plates. It forms a part of the grand set of volumes dating 1749-1804 in their original editions. With the nine bird- volumes are associated the magnificent series of colored plates known as the “Planches Enluminees,” published in 42 fascicles from 1765 to 1781. The plates are 1008 in number, of which 973 represent birds.

(1785-1791.)

The Pennantian Period. — A great landmark — one of the most conspicuous of the last century — was set up with the appearance in 1785 of the second volume of Thomas Pennant’s “ Arctic Zoology.” The whole work, in three quarto volumes with many plates, 1784-1787, was “designed as a sketch of the Zoology of North America.” In this year, also, John Latham completed the third volume (or sixth part) of his “ General Synopsis of Birds.” These two great works have much in common, in so far as a more restricted treatise can be compared with a more comprehensive one ; and in the history of our subject the names of Latham and Pennant are linked as closely as those of Catesby and Edwards. The parallel may be drawn still further ; for neither Pennant nor Latham (up to the date in mention) used binomial names ; their species had consequently no standing; but they furnished to Gmelin in 1788 the same bases of formally-named species of the thirteenth edition of the “ Systema Naturae,” that Catesby and Edwards had afforded Linnaeus in 1758 and 1766. Pennant treated upwards of 500 nominal species of North American Birds. The events at large of this brief but important period were the progress of Latham’s Supplement to his Synopsis, the firstvolume of which appeared in 1787, though the second was not completed till 1801 ; the appearance in 1790 of Latham’s “Index Ornithologicus,” in which his birds receive Latin names in due form; and the publication in 1788 of the thirteenth edition of the “Systema Naturae,” as just said.

We are so accustomed to see “Linn.” and “ Gm.” after the names of our longestknown birds thatrve almost unconsciously acquire the notion that Linnaeus and Gmelin were great discoverers or describers of birds in those days. But the men who made North American ornithology what it was during the last century were Catesby, Edwards, Forster, Pennant, Latham, and Bartram. For “the illustrious Swede” was in this case little more than a methodical cataloguer, or systematic indexer ; while his editor, Gmelin, was merely an industrious, indiscriminate compiler and transcriber. Neither of these men discovered anything to speak of in this connection.

(1791-1800.)

The Bartramian Period. — William Bartram’s figure in the events we are sketching is a notable one, — rather more on account of his bearing upon Wilson’s subsequent career than of his own actual achievements. Wilson is often called the “ father of Aineri-

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xvn can ornithology ; ” if this designation be apt, then Bartram may he styled its godfather. Few are fully aware how much Wilson owed to Bartram, his “guide, philosopher, and friend,” who published in 1791 his “Travels through North and South Carolina,” containing much ornithological matter that was novel and valuable, including a formal catalogue of the birds of the Eastern United States, in which many species are named as new. I have always contended that those of his names which are identifiable are available, though Bartram frequently lapsed from strict binomial propriety ; and the question furnishes a bone of contention to this day. Many birds which Wilson first fully described and figured were really named by Bartram, and several of the latter’s designations were simply adopted by Wilson, who, in relation to Bartram, is as the broader and clearer stream to its principal tributary affluent. The notable “ Travels,” freighted with its unpretending yet almost portentous bird-matter, went through several editions and at least two translations ; and I consider it the starting-point of a distinctively American school of ornithology.

We have seen, in several earlier periods, that men’s names appear in pairs, if not also as mates. Thus, Catesby and Edwards ; Linnaeus and Gmelin ; Pennant and Latham ; and, perhaps, Buffon and Brisson. The Bartramian alter ego is not Wilson, but Barton, whose “Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania,” 1799, closed the period which Bartram had opened, and with it the century also. Benjamin Smith Barton’s tract, a folio now very scarce, is doubly a “ fragment,” being at once a work never finished, and very imperfect as far as it went ; but it is one of the most notable special treatises of the last century, and I think the first book published in this country that is entirely devoted to ornithology. But its author’s laurels must rest mainly upon this count, for its influence or impression upon the course of events is scarcely to be recognized, — is incomparably less than that made by Bartram’s “ Travels,” and by his mentorship of Wilson.