{"id":8992,"date":"2021-11-22T20:19:18","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T01:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richard.rathe.org\/?p=8992"},"modified":"2021-12-11T14:52:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-11T19:52:39","slug":"the-book-of-birds-1849","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/2021\/the-book-of-birds-1849","title":{"rendered":"The Book of Birds 1849"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Book of Birds; Intended for the Amusement and Instruction of Young People<\/em><\/strong>, that’s some title! We discovered this book in our “attic” during a major cleaning. Turns out it is over 170 years old<\/strong>\u2026 pre-Civil War!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Title Page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Publication Details<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Introduction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Below is a limited sampling<\/strong> of historically significant pages that contain many surprising (and perhaps inaccurate) facts. Alas the “Elegant Plates” mentioned on the title page appear to be missing. Also missing is any mention of smaller birds such as wrens and warblers?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Great Auk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sad to say the Great Auk<\/strong> was near extinction (by human hands) at the time this book was written. The book says it “is frequently seen<\/em>” but this is unlikely. For Europeans it was the original penguin. In other words penguins were named after the auk and not the other way around! [Pinguinus impennis<\/em> is the correct classification, Alca<\/em> is the genus for the related Razorbill.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Great Northern Diver, or Loon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Common Loon<\/strong> is now classified as Gavia immer<\/em>. They can (according to the book) predict approaching tempests. Their pelts and feathers were also popular with various native peoples for ceremonial clothing, but “They are never eaten.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Loon (Pages 2 & 3, Click to Enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Condor (Click to Enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The book actually cites Lewis & Clark<\/em> (!) to say Condors<\/strong> inhabit the “Rocky Mountains<\/em>“. It goes on to say it is doubtful the bird “assaults infants<\/em>” but a group may attack and maim a “young bull<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Carolina Parrot (Click to Enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Modern books refer to this bird as the Carolina Parakeet<\/strong>, now extinct. Apparently it originally ranged as far north as New York and Wisconsin, and as far west as Colorado! No more, how sad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Book of Birds; Intended for the Amusement and Instruction of Young People, that’s some title! We discovered this book in our “attic” during a major cleaning. Turns out it is over 170 years old\u2026 pre-Civil War! Below is a limited sampling of historically significant pages that contain many surprising (and perhaps inaccurate) facts. Alas … Continue reading “The Book of Birds 1849”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,20],"tags":[490,485,488,489,487,491],"class_list":["post-8992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-books","category-history","tag-carolina-parakeet","tag-common-loon","tag-condor","tag-extinct-species","tag-great-auk","tag-lewis-clark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8992"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9054,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8992\/revisions\/9054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}