Alexander Wilson - 9780674072558

Burtt and Davis, Jr bring more evidence to support Scottish poet and labor activist, Alexander Wilson, as the real Father of American Ornithology, not John James Audubon. They include previously unpublished drawings. Wilson was a peripatetic eighteenth-century Scotsman, nature lover, poet, and labor activist, whose political activities precipitated his emigration to America in 1794. He promptly fell in love with North American birds and the wilderness. More bird species are named after him than any other American ornithologist. In his lifetime he traveled 12,000 miles by every manner of transport setting up a network of observers. He discovered new species and wrote myriad accounts of indigenous birds as well as sketched them in their native habitats in a manner unlike traditional biological illustration. His bird poses assisted identification for field guides. Audubon was the most well-know of the naturalists who were inspired by Wilson's work. He authored the first major scientific work to be published in the U.S., the illustrated, nine-volume American Ornithology. Five years before his death, he delivered a copy of American Ornithology to then President Jefferson, who discussed with him the assertion of the Europeans that American flora and fauna were simply degenerate forms of European ones. Wilson died of dysentery in 1813, at the age of 47, having put his mark not only on ornithology, but the study of animal behavior, ecology, and early American literature as well. Coming out on the bicentennial of his death this book represents the first time most of Wilson's drawings and plates have been reproduced. The book is beautifully illustrated with drawings and tables, and includes appendixes, notes, and bibliography. Belknap Press is an imprint of Harvard U. Press. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)