While he deserves great credit for his illustrations and writings on American Birds, John James Audubon was not the first to publish a serial on American birds. He was preceded by many naturalists, including Alexander Wilson.
Wilson wrote the nine-volume book, American Ornithology, “that illustrated 268 bird species and kindled America’s insatiable appetite for bird knowledge, 30 years before Audubon’s Birds of America. Today, he has five North American birds named in his honor.”[1]
Wilson was a Scottish immigrant who became an American citizen. He had been a mill worker, poet and peddler. In America, he became a teacher, encyclopedia editor and a naturalist. He lived in the Philadelphia area and “[t]here, he eventually encountered famed naturalist William Bartram and became interested in ornithology, beginning to make paintings of bird species. He also met and worked closely with early American ornithologist Charles Willson Peale, founder of the Peale Museum in Philadelphia, one of America’s first natural history museums.”[2]
Through this work, he became a correspondent of President Jefferson (who was also interested in birds), and even presented the president a volume of American Ornithology at the White House—arriving without an appointment!
Wilson’s first volume, of American Ornithology, “contained nine hand-colored plates and 158 pages of text, depicting and describing thirty-four species of birds. In accuracy and information content it rivaled anything published in Europe up to that time, and as further volumes were published, they set a solid foundation for bird study in the United States.”[3]
Wilson used his experience as a poet in his descriptions of birds. In his description of the Wood Thrush, Wilson wrote that “he pipes his few but clear and musical notes in a kind of ecstasy; the prelude, or symphony to which, strongly resembles the double-tongueing [sic] of a German flute, and sometimes the tinkling of a small bell. . .”[4]
Birds named for Wilson include the Wilson's Storm-petrel, Wilson's Plover, Wilson's Phalarope, Wilson's Snipe and Wilson's Warbler. Note: All birds named for people will have their names changed in the coming years. The official arbiter of common names is the American Ornithology Society, and the announcement of this decision can be found here.
Credits
[1] All About Birds website
[2] Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology Edward H Burtt., Jr. and William E. Davis, Jr.
[3] Kenn Kauffman The Birds Audubon Missed.
[4] Wilson, Alexander, American Ornithology, vol. 1, p. 30 as quoted in Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology Edward H Burtt., Jr. and William E. Davis, Jr.
Alexander Wilson Portrait Attributed to Thomas Sully, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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