Audubon in the Arboretum: A Field Guide

Audubon in the Arboretum A Field Guide

Dee Smith and Scott Bishop Foreword by Andrea Wulf

A joint publication of the Auburn University Libraries, the Donald E. Davis Arboretum, the College of Sciences and Mathematics, and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University

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© 2013 by Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University Auburn University Libraries, Donald E. Davis Arboretum, College of Sciences and Mathematics, and Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Auburn University Auburn, Alabama Editors: Candis Birchfield and Jay Lamar Design: Janet Guynn ISBN 0-9742130-5-5 Produced with the support of the Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Endowment at Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art

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This publication was produced in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Donald E. Davis Arboretum and the 10th anniversary of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. It also marks the exhibition of the prints featured in its pages.

Audubon in the Arboretum: Selections from the Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection September 14–December 14, 2013 A cornerstone of the museum’s holdings, the Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection is presented in periodic rotating exhibitions.

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Contents Map

Inside front cover

Preface by Andrea Wulf

7

Acknowledgments

8

Audubon in the Arboretum by Dee Smith

10

An Audubon Guide by Scott Bishop

16

Plates and Descriptions 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

Blue-green Warbler (American Beautyberry) Summer or Wood Duck (Sycamore) Wood Pewee (Swamp Azalea) Yellow-throated Vireo (Oakleaf Hydrangea) Wood Thrush/White-throated Sparrow (Flowering Dogwood) Audubon’s Warbler, Hermit Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler (Strawberry Bush) Orchard Oriole (Honey Locust) Mocking Bird (Yellow Jasmine) Hooded Warbler (Coral-bean, Dayflower) Downy Woodpecker (Cross-vine) Ruby-throated Humming Bird (Trumpet Vine) Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Common Pawpaw) Great Carolina Wren (Red Buckeye) Whip-poor-will (Oak) American Robin (Rock Chestnut Oak) Canada Warbler (White Laurel) Traill’s Flycatcher (Sweetgum Tree) Black-billed Cuckoo (Magnolia) American Crow (Black Walnut) Red-winged Starling or Marsh Blackbird (Red Maple) Baltimore Oriole (Tulip Tree) Cardinal Grosbeak (Carolina Laurelcherry) Townsend’s Warbler, Arctic Blue-bird, Western Blue-bird (Carolina Allspice)

26 30 34 38 42 46 50 54 58 62 66 70 74 78 82 86 90 94 98 102 106 110 114

List of Plates

119

Works Cited

123

Index 125

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Plate 5a

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Preface

There was a time when art and science were not treated as separate disciplines. The drawings by Audubon which this guide brings together capture magnificently how we can still enjoy today this union of art and science. At the same time, it also reminds us how stunning America’s native species are—as depicted by Audubon but also as we walk amongst them in the Donald E. Davis Arboretum.

These flowering dogwoods, azaleas, and magnolias once enraptured gardeners so much that they sent plant hunters into the wild to bring them home into their carefully crafted landscapes. English gardeners became so obsessed that they spent fortunes on these trees and shrubs, while the American founding fathers used them to make a political statement. They imbued native species with patriotic sentiment and planted them proudly in their groves and shrubberies. They became a symbol for America.

Cicero once said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” For me, Audubon brings those two together— looking at his lavish drawings always makes me want to go for a walk in the American woods.

Andrea Wulf Author of Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation and The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire, and the Birth of an Obsession

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Acknowledgments

I am among those who think that science has great beauty.

A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.

Marie Curie

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Madame Curie’s premise encourages us to consider John J. Audubon’s laboratory as the expansive 19th-century American landscape where he studied and observed natural phenomena, making careful visual and written notations on the birds, plant life, and later the mammals that inhabited this vast open workshop. For him, the marriage of natural science and art was an accepted practice in pursuit of new discoveries. For a very long time, after Audubon created his magnificent portfolios, academia became increasingly compartmentalized into separate and not always equal disciplines.

But fortunately, in more recent years we have come to recognize that collaboration of these crossover areas yields more substantial material than we would have through isolated pursuits. Looking at the magical wonders that constitute Audubon’s Birds of America, we are struck by their detail and beauty much like that child enthralled by a fairy tale. Equally enchanting is the opportunity to discover these wonders firsthand as we experience them in a natural setting.

This field publication has been a most worthy and significant project, bringing together the expertise and educational resources of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art (JCSM), the Donald E. Davis Arboretum, the College of Sciences and Mathematics, and the Auburn University Libraries.

Such collaboration was not only valuable to the participants who were able to share their knowledge, but it has resulted in this uniquely informative guide which will prove a benefit to all of us who have a passion for the natural world and the art it inspired. This project celebrates JCSM’s 10th and the Davis Arboretum’s 50th anniversary, both important historical benchmarks for these institutions.

We wish to acknowledge and thank everyone whose efforts made this publication possible. This includes our writers—Scott Bishop, Dee Smith, and Andrea Wulf—as well as Candis Birchfield and Jay Lamar for their role as editors and Dennis Harper and Janet Guynn for their knowledgeable direction and beautiful design. We are also forever grateful to Susan Philips for the gift of the museum’s extraordinary Audubon collection, amassed by her beloved grandparents Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller. The Audubon collection and its endowment are among JCSM’s great strengths, and it is appropriate to acknowledge this significant gift, which not only made this project possible but provides the wherewithal for ongoing scholarship.

It is with great pleasure that we present this collaborative endeavor.

Marilyn Laufer Bonnie MacEwan Nicholas Giordano

Director, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Dean, Auburn University Libraries Dean, College of Sciences and Mathematics

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Fig. 1. In the eastern part of the United States, rows of shallow holes in tree bark are usually made by the yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius).

They lap up the leaking sap along with any trapped insects.

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Audubon in the Arboretum When one thinks of John James Audubon’s work, it is often his depictions of wildlife that first come to mind. However, what makes his work so successful, in addition to his talent for illustrating birds, is that he painted his subjects in their natural, or native, settings. His paintings and journals contain some of the best images and descriptions of America as it existed in the early 19th century, and provide documentation of the native landscape of the time period.

Compared to the modern landscape, it was a very different America that Audubon experienced. He wrote of fields as far as the eye could see, almost impenetrable cane brakes, and wildlife in abundance. His America was one of wilderness, a land truly wild. Yet in his journals he also wrote of a “vanishing America” and expressed fear that it would be gone before he could record it all.

The plants and natural landscapes of the American wild were so intriguing that, as early as 1734, explorer, botanist, and horticulturalist John Bartram (1699–1777) was busily engaged in shipping thousands of plants and seeds from America to England. The plants were met with great excitement and sought out by plant collectors. Over time, English gardens became filled with American plants.

The plant trade grew rapidly, and in the midst of the plantcollecting and botanical network that stretched to every corner of the globe, “foreign” plants also arrived in America. Many non-native plants introduced in America in the 1700s and 1800s are well adapted and enrich Fig. 2. Barred or hoot owl (Strix varia) in an Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides)

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Fig. 3. Cumberland azalea (Rhododendron cumberlandense)

our landscape. A prime example is the beautiful camellia from China, which is, ironically, the state flower of Alabama.

Is it possible to imagine a Southern landscape without crepe myrtles from the Indian Subcontinent or azaleas from Japan? Even though North America has an equally beautiful native azalea, it is far less prevalent in the landscape than its Asian cousin.

However, not all of these introductions have enriched our landscape. Some have become invasive and outcompete and displace our natives. There are several costs associated with the introduction of some of these non-native plants. A direct cost is the millions of dollars spent each year in an attempt to control damage to local habitats. Another cost of introducing foreign plants to our local environment is that over time, native species can be overwhelmed by non-native, invasive species. When this happens, our ecosystems become imbalanced and don’t function properly. All creatures in the wild depend directly or indirectly on plants for food, but many foreign plants provide little, if any, support for native plant eaters, like insect herbivores, or the leaf-eaters. They just don’t eat the nonnative plants.

Initially, this may seem to be a positive: aren’t plants that insects don’t eat what we want in a landscape? The answer is no, because insect-resistant plants can seriously disrupt the food chain. Since so many animals depend partially or entirely on insect protein for food, a land without insects is a land without most forms of higher life. Without insects, our food crops aren’t pollinated and birds can’t feed their young. Ecosystems are highly complex and rely on a variety of species to survive. When we remove species from our ecosystems, we risk their complete collapse.

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Insects are either generalist, meaning they eat a wide variety of plants, or specialists that rely on only one food source. What many specialists eat is toxic to others. They have co-adapted with their food source and developed traits that allow them to detoxify the plant chemicals. Whichever they are, most eat plants they have shared an evolutionary history with—our natives.

The pawpaw leaf is the sole support for the zebra swallowtail, while a single oak or black cherry tree can support literally hundreds of species.

Adult Zebra swallowtails lay their eggs on pawpaw leaves

Zebra swallowtail larva only eat pawpaw leaves

Without the complex interactions between plants, animals, and insects we’ll have a less rich and balanced landscape. We are learning that the plants we choose for our own yards can make a significant impact on establishing more biodiversity and be a functional part of the web of life.

Zebra swallowtail provide a food source for bird young

American plants, and particularly native Southeastern plants, are a part of our local history. They tell us where we are and give us a sense of place. The plants shown in the prints in this guide—and planted in the Davis Arboretum—are the same plants Audubon and his fellow naturalists encountered in their travels. They are native to this region and grow and thrive here. Audubon would have been attuned to the rhythms and timing of nature’s events, such as the migration schedules of the migratory birds he painted.

Many of us today pay little attention to this connection and are essentially unaware of the effects that plant species around us have on the other species that surround us. For a very long time “gardening” has been done with an eye purely toward aesthetics, planting for pleasing combinations of colors and textures, seasonal interest, and repeating patterns.

What a dramatic difference could be made to the biodiversity of a place if more thought were given to planting for the benefit of the Fig. 4. Mockernut hickory native species with which we share our space.

(Carya tomentosa)

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The Davis Arboretum houses the living collections in Auburn University’s Department of Biological Sciences, and it is a carefully catalogued living museum. Part of its mission is to collect and display the plant species that are native to Alabama and the Southeast, and by doing so create ecosystems that support other native organisms. Somewhere along the way, Americans have come to expect our landscapes to look a certain way, to conform to an artificial idea of perfection, embracing clipped hedges and manicured lawns.

The pesticide arsenal is reached for at the first sign of insect invasion.

These contrived gardens have little in common with a living, balanced system where all things interact. Contrary to popular belief, a pest-free and sterile garden is not healthy, and it ceases to function as a community of interacting organisms. Audubon’s illustrations and writings are windows onto a landscape that may have changed dramatically but, in part, is still present.

He reminds us of what once was, and that we are part of a web that connects us to our history and to the natural world, a web that needs to remain intact.

Dee Smith Donald E. Davis Arboretum College of Sciences and Mathematics, Auburn University

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Figs. 5 and 6. Darby's Pond, pictured here in 1885 (left), would become a central feature in the Davis Arboretum in 1963 (above).

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Plate 2

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An Audubon Guide

In 1820, John James Audubon (1785–1851) committed himself to creating a book representing all the birds in America in life size. He would spend the next nineteen years of his life realizing the project. In 1839, when the last pages had been printed and handcolored, Audubon had made and sold approximately 200 sets of 435 prints that were bound into four volumes. That same year he published the fifth and final volume of the Ornithological Biography, a text meant to accompany the collection of prints entitled The Birds of America. In the introduction to his Ornithological Biography, dated March 1831, Audubon wrote, “The flowers, plants, or portions of trees which are attached to the principal objects, have been chosen from amongst those in the vicinity of which the birds were found, and not, as some persons thought, the trees or plants upon which they always feed or perch.” His choices were not, of course, random; he often picked the most spectacular plants in the birds’ environments on which to situate them.

Audubon developed the images for his prints, as far as possible, by firsthand observation of the birds in their environments. Sometimes he would work on a composition over several years, as is the case with the Wood Duck, which was begun in Louisiana in 1821. Audubon depicted the flying male separately, pasted it into the composition, and added the female in 1825. The print created from the composition was made in England in 1834. The Ornithological Biography was written in Scotland and England in 1835. By the time Audubon wrote the essay on the wood duck, it had been fourteen years since he had begun the drawing that would become the basis of the print. Even so, in the essay on the wood duck (as in most of the essays),

Fig. 7. John Syme (Scottish, 1795–1861), Portrait of John James Audubon, 1826, oil on canvas. The White House Historical Association (White House Collection).

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Audubon introduced the scene as a single moment: he remembered sitting at the “trunk of a gigantic sycamore.” The construction of the story, like the construction of the image, is a Romantic process of creating an idealized image (or experiential moment) of the American landscape. The written text, which we might mistakenly think of as the Science—as opposed to the Art of the prints—often tries to convey not just a moment that places the reader/viewer in the scene, but a shared moment of Romantic insight.

Science and art are not divided in this moment.

Fig. 8. John James Audubon, Cerulean Warbler, 1821, watercolor, graphite, and pastel with touches of black ink and selective glazing on paper, laid on card. Collection of the New York Historical Society.

Audubon only partially completed the plant, leaving the top third drawn in with pencil for Havell to complete.

Right: Plate 1. Hand-colored print after the original painting above (detail).

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Audubon would often use an assistant to paint the plants on which the birds appear. Over the years, he employed a young man named Joseph Mason, his two sons Victor and John Woodhouse Audubon, friend and relative by marriage, Maria Martin, and a landscape artist named George Lehman. Mason had been Audubon’s student, and he was his first assistant, accompanying him on his earliest drawing expedition down the Mississippi River in 1820.

They were in Louisiana and traveling to other parts of the Southeast until July 1822. During this time, Mason, an extremely talented artist, contributed the plant portraits to Audubon’s compositions. It is not surprising then, since we are looking at native plants of the Southeast, that Mason can be credited with painting most of the plants represented in this guide.

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It is important to understand that The Birds of America is a publication of prints made from original compositions created by Audubon in graphite, pastel, and watercolor. In order to find a printer who was willing and able to take on such a monumental project, Audubon went to Britain.

There he first worked with a Scottish printer named William H. Lizars, who produced the first ten prints, and then with a father and son, both named Robert Havell, in London. The younger Havell carried out much of the work, and his master skill is certainly part of what makes Audubon’s prints so artistically successful. Audubon would take his completed paintings of the birds to the Havells, who would engrave, etch, and aquatint the composition on a copper plate and then print it onto high-quality cotton paper in sheets measuring 28 x 39 inches.

After the prints were pulled, watercolorists employed by the Havells would handcolor the prints according to Audubon’s instructions and following his original painting. Customers who subscribed to The Birds of America would receive shipments of five prints at a time, and when they had assembled a complete volume—Audubon also had tables of contents and title pages printed—they would have them bound.

Audubon designed all of the compositions, designated which plants would be represented, and exerted ultimate control over the complex artistic process that created The Birds of America. The native plants pictured in this guide feature some of the Southeast’s most beautiful blooms—the southern magnolia, the

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Mocking Bird, Plate 21 (see page 54)

dogwood, cross vine and trumpet vine, yellow jasmine, oakleaf hydrangea—as well as stately trees—oaks, tulip poplars, the sycamore. These plants are not mere backdrop to the bird portraits; rather they are as in nature, part and parcel of the rich environment Audubon closely observed. For instance, in his description of the mockingbird, he takes one of his more verbose Romantic turns through the environment of Louisiana:

…in a word it is where Nature seems to have paused, as she passed over the Earth, and opening her stores, to have strewed with unsparing hand the diversified seeds from which have sprung all the beautiful and splendid forms which I should in vain attempt to describe, that the Mocking Bird should have fixed its abode, there only that its wondrous song should be heard.

We invite you to use this guide to take a turn through the beautiful grounds of the Davis Arboretum with John James Audubon as your guide.

Scott Bishop Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Auburn University

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The

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Plates

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Blue-green Warbler, Plate XLIX

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1

American Beautyberry Callicarpa americana The raw berries of the American beautyberry, while palatably sweet, are suitable for human consumption only in small amounts because they are astringent. They have been used in jellies, and the roots may be used to make herbal tea. An isolated plant compound, callicarpenal, has reportedly been proven effective in tests as a mosquito repellent. It has been claimed that “fresh, crushed leaves of American beautyberry … keep biting insects away from animals such as horses and mules” (Pons, 2). Perhaps this strategy was used

by Audubon and other explorers of the time as they traversed dense forests and bogs.

If beautyberry is planted in a favorable site it can reach eight to nine feet in height. There are several specimens in the Davis Arboretum and they make a good understory shrub at the edge of a landscape.

The berries are a valuable food source for many bird species and they’ll reward you with new plants as they spread the seeds.

“The plant on which I have figured a male [warbler] is found in Louisiana, growing along the skirts of woods and fences. It is called the Spanish Mulberry. It is an herbaceous perennial plant, attaining a height from four to eight feet. The fruit is eaten by children, but is insipid” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 259).

Following the lead of ornithologist Alexander Wilson, Audubon thought this bird was a blue-green warbler. Actually, it is a cerulean warbler (Dendroica cerulea), a separate species that breeds in northernmost Alabama.

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Fig. 9. The color of the berries is so outstanding they can’t be missed, but the flowers are very small and delicate and require a little closer inspection to be appreciated.

The blue-green warbler is actually a cerule an warbler Call: zee zee ze e zizizizieeet

In Spring it has a soft and mellow song.

Vol. 1, 258

—J. J. Audubon

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Summer or Wood Duck, Plate CCVI

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2

Sycamore Platanus occidentalis An American sycamore tree can often be distinguished from other trees by its attractive exfoliating bark, which flakes off in irregular masses, leaving the greenish-white, gray, and brown surface mottled. The sycamore bark is rigid and does not stretch as the bark of other trees does. Thus, to accommodate the growth of the wood underneath, the tree sloughs it off, leaving a beautifully patterned bark (Keeler, 263-268).

A few of the globe-shaped fruits are shown in this print. They will often stay on the tree throughout the winter, and if these are collected and planted in spring they will germinate readily. The seeds are eaten by several bird species: the gold finch, purple finch, chickadee, and dark-eyed junco. And as Audubon illustrates here, cavity-nesting birds such as owls, flycatchers, chimney swifts, and wood ducks, make their home in sycamore trees.

A sycamore can grow to massive proportions, typically reaching 98 to 130 feet in height and as much as six-and-a-half feet in diameter when grown in deep soils. In 1770, George Washington recorded in his journal a sycamore measuring nearly 45 feet in circumference at three feet from the ground (Luthringer, 2007-03-22).

“The tree represented in the plate is the Platanus occidentalis, which in different parts of the United States is known by the names of Buttonwood, Sycamore, Plane-tree, and Water Beech, and in Canada by that of the Cotton-tree” (Audubon, Vol. 3, 62).

Audubon spoke often in Britain of the great size to which American trees could grow. He had a sample of the sycamore sent to the Liverpool Royal Institution, requesting that the segment be of “the largest diameter that can be procured in the woods” and “the face of it … marked with the height of the tree” (Audubon, Journal, 208).

Year-round residents of Alabama, wood ducks (Aix sponsa) nest in the cavities of trees.

They are fairly common in open woodlands near water.

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Fig. 10. The patterned bark is visible only on the tree's base, upper branches, and roots. If you walk toward the waterfall, you will see a mass of sycamore roots in the creek—evidence of the tree's affinity for low moist woods and floodplains.

I have always experienced a peculiar pleasure while endeavoring to study the habits of this most beautiful bird in its favourite places of resort.

Vol. 3, 52

—J. J. Audubon

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Fig. 11

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Wood Pewee, Plate CXV

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3

Swamp Azalea Rhododendron viscosum The swamp azalea is typically a wetland shrub, sometimes called the clammy azalea because of its very sticky corolla. The species name, viscosum, means "sticky" in Latin. The flowers appear after the leaves and are typically fragrant and white, although native pink forms do occur. All forms are of special value to native bumblebees. The pistils and filaments are typically white, which helps distinguish this species from a similar one, R. arborescens, which has red pistils.

Audubon notes that the swamp azalea “grows abundantly in almost every district of the United States, in such localities as are suited to it” (Audubon, Vol. 2, 96). Unfortunately, like many of our native azaleas that once were common, the swamp azalea is no longer abundant in the wild.

Audubon made the composition for this print on his first journey back to America from England in May 1829. He had just hired landscape artist George Lehman, who painted the plant in this composition. Eventually, Lehman would regularly provide Audubon with backgrounds depicting the American landscape.

Now called the eastern wood pewee (Contopus virens), this species is abundant in our area in spring and summer.

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Fig. 12. Unlike honeybees, which were imported from Europe, many bumblebee species are native to North America. Since they evolved with our native plants, bumblebees are important pollinators.

Eastern wood pewee Songs: pee-a-wee or pee-yer

Fig. 13

Fig. 14. Sometimes Audubon included a drawn detail of the birds' anatomy and Havell chose to retain it in the print, a reward for the curious viewer.

This sketch can be found on the lower left side of the print.

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Yellow-throated Vireo, Plate CXIX

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4

Oakleaf Hydrangea Hydrangea quercifolia The American botanist John Bartram first described Hydrangea quercifolia. The species name, quercifolia, refers to the shape of the leaf, which is reminiscent of a leaf from the oak genus Quercus.

Philip Henry Gosse, an English naturalist, writer, and artist (1810–1888), spent eight months in Alabama in 1838 and painted detailed watercolors of insect specimens he collected. In his book, Letters from Alabama, Gosse chronicled his experiences, and mentioned hydrangeas being cultivated in the gardens of Dallas County, Alabama, obviously having been transplanted from the surrounding area.

Oakleaf hydrangea is native to the Southeastern United States and common from Tennessee south to the Florida Panhandle and west to the Mississippi River. It grows in mixed hardwood forests, along streams, and on forested hillsides, usually on soils containing calcium and/or lime, and often where limestone is at the ground surface. Oakleaf hydrangea is an understory shrub, frequently seen growing in the shade of large oaks, hickories, magnolias, and American beech—all trees of the Southern forests.

The oakleaf above was painted by Joseph Mason in July of 1821. On the original painting and in the Biography, Audubon calls the plant by the charming name “swamp snowball” (Audubon, Vol. 2, 121; Low, 92).

The yellow-throated vireo (Vireo flavifrons) is found throughout Alabama in the summer breeding season. Care must be taken to avoid confusing it with the pine warbler and yellow-breasted chat.

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The blossoms are lasting, and pleasing to the eye, on account of their pure white colour when first expanded; they dry on the stalks, retaining their form, and remaining until winter.

Vol. 2, 121

—J. J. Audubon

Yellow-throated vireo Song: three–eight

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Fig. 15

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A number of cultivars have been developed from the native oakleaf hydrangea. Some available selections include those bred to be dwarf as well as some bred to have larger blooms.

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Wood Thrush, Plate LXXIII

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5 Flowering Dogwood Cornus florida Flowering dogwood is one of the most beautiful eastern North American trees with showy early spring flowers, red fruit, and scarlet autumn foliage.

The hard wood is extremely shock-resistant and historically was useful for making weaving-shuttles, spools, small pulleys, mallet heads, golf clubs, and jeweler’s blocks (Cappiello and Shadow, 100).

Indians used the aromatic bark and roots as a remedy for malaria and extracted a red dye from the roots and bark to color porcupine quills and eagle feathers. Birds and mammals eat the red fruit, butterflies are attracted to the flowers, and the foliage is a host for the spring azure butterfly.

In 2012, the United States sent 3,000 dogwood saplings to Japan to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to Washington, D.C. White-throated Sparrow, Plate VIII

Audubon must have favored the dogwood. He represented it three times: it appears in summer foliage in plate CXXII [the Blue Grosbeak] and in other plates in spring and autumn foliage. Of the dogwood he wrote, “No sooner does spring return, when our woods are covered with white blooms in a gay mimicry of the now melted snows, and the delighted eye is attracted to the beautiful flowers of the Dog-wood tree” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 42).

Audubon called the wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) his “favorite of the feathered tribes” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 372). It can be found throughout Alabama during the summer.

The white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) overwinters throughout the Southeast and is fairly common in woodland underbrush and gardens.

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This bird is my greatest favourite of the feathered tribes of our woods. To it I owe much. How often has it revived my drooping spirits, when I have listened to its wild notes in the forest…

Vol. 1, 772

—J. J. Audubon

Wood thrush Call: pit-pit-pit

Fig. 16

White-throated spar row Fig. 17 Song: Oh sweet Cana da Canada Canada; calls: pink or tseep

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Fig. 18. The flowers on the dogwood are the small, inconspicuous, rounded cluster in the center. The showy white "petals" are actually bracts, or specialized leaves.

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Audubon’s Warbler, Hermit Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Plate CCCXCV

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6

Strawberry Bush Euonymus americanus The strawberry bush occurs in the shady understory of moist forests of eastern North America from New York south to Florida, and west to Oklahoma and east Texas.

A specimen covered with hundreds of bursting red hearts is a remarkable sight. In autumn, the leaves turn shades of orange and red before falling. In the winter, the leafless green twigs and stems are structurally interesting. The fruits, though beautiful to look at, are reported to be poisonous to humans. However, wildlife biologists often refer to strawberry bush as an “ice-cream plant” for deer.

In areas with heavy deer populations, the strawberry bush may be almost impossible to find.

The original painting situates the birds on a Carolina allspice bush painted by Maria Martin, who would become the mother-in-law to both of Audubon’s sons. At some later date, Audubon had her make a painting of the strawberry bush for him. In the Biography he says, “For the drawing of this plant represented in this plate…

I am indebted to my much esteemed friend Miss Martin” (Audubon, Vol. 5, 57).

The painting on which this print is based was made in Charleston in 1836. Audubon had purchased the skins of these birds in Philadelphia in October 1836 from Thomas Nuttall, a member of the Wyeth Expedition, which crossed the Rocky Mountains.

What Audubon called "Audubon’s warbler" is now called the yellow-rumped warbler (Dendroica coronata) and is a winter resident of the Southeast. The other two species pictured in the print are summer residents of the Far West.

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Fig. 20. Strawberry bush flower

wn as Fig. 19 Audubon’s warbler, now kno call: myrtle the yellow-rumped warbler

The greater part of the phenomena of Nature… are concealed from us all our lives. There is just as much beauty visible to us in the landscape as we are prepared to appreciate, and not a grain more…

A man sees only what concerns him.

"Autumnal Tints"

—Henry David Thoreau

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Orchard Oriole, Plate XLII

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7 Honey Locust Gleditsia triacanthus Names have origin and significance, and Gleditsia derives its name from Gottlieb Gleditsch (1714–1786), a medical doctor who was also a botanist and one-time director of the Berlin Botanical Garden.

The species name, triacanthus, means three-branched thorns, and they are quite formidable. Thornless forms do occur sporadically in nature, and these have been propagated for use in home landscapes as a less prickly alternative. You will see both versions side by side in the Davis Arboretum.

The sweet-smelling flowers of the honey locust are favored by bees, and the sweet, juicy pulp in the seed pod is enjoyed by wildlife. One advantage of the thorns is that the plant provides a safe nesting site for birds. In addition to providing cover for other wildlife, the airy, fast growing, and graceful honey locust also provides food and nectar for bees and butterflies, and is the larval host plant for the silver-spotted skipper butterfly.

“The branch of Honey Locust, on which you see these birds, belongs to a tree which sometimes grows in great abundance. …

The trunk and branches are frequently covered with innumerable long, sharp, and extremely hard spines, protruded in every direction, and in some instances placed so near to each other as to preclude the possibility of any person’s climbing them. It bears a long pod, containing a sweet substance, not unlike the honey of bees, and which is eaten by children, when it becomes quite ripe. The spines are made use of by tobacconists for the purpose of fastening together the twists of their rolls” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 224).

The orchard oriole (Icterus spurius) is found throughout Alabama in summer.

It can be very common in suburban shade trees and orchards.

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Fig. 21. Honey locust is the larval host plant for the silverspotted skipper, pictured here.

Fig. 22. Triacanthus means three branched thorns.

Fig. 23 Orchard oriole Song and call: hew-li

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Mocking Bird, Plate XXI

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8

Yellow Jasmine Gelsemium sempervirens The yellow jasmine is a well-known climbing vine common in southern states from Virginia to Florida and west to Mexico. Its flowers are a strong yellow, and the vines climb sometimes thirty feet or more to drape their bright blooms in early spring. The blossoms are strongly scented and produce nectar that attracts a range of pollinators, including many butterflies and hummingbirds. However, a strange oddity is that the nectar is toxic to honeybees and causes brood death when gathered by the bees.

All parts of this plant contain the toxic strychnine-related alkaloids gelsemine and gelseminine and should not be consumed. The sap may cause skin irritation in sensitive individuals. Children, mistaking this flower for honeysuckle, have been poisoned by sucking the nectar from the flower. The flowers, leaves, and roots may be lethal to livestock.

The representation of the canebrake rattlesnake in this print caused much argument among the scientific community of Audubon’s time. One of Audubon’s most vociferous detractors, American ornithologist George Ord (1781–1866), said that rattlesnakes never climbed trees and that the shape of the rattlesnake’s fangs was wrong. History and science support Audubon's observations.

A year-round resident of the Southeast, the northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) can be found in a variety of habitats.

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Fig. 24. The scientific name of the mockingbird is Mimus polyglottos.

Mimus is Latin for "one who mimes," referring to the bird’s mimetic abilities, and polyglottos is Greek, meaning "many-tongues" or "harmonious."

Thus, the mockingbird is a manytongued mime.

The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets, The deep dark green of whose unvarnish’d leaf Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more, The bright profusion of her scatter’d stars.

The Task, Vol. VI

—William Cowper

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Hooded Warbler, Plate CX

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9

Coral-bean, Dayflower Erythrina herbacea Coral-bean can be easily grown and is useful for bringing bright red highlights to woodland plantings in a low-maintenance landscape. Although its use in gardens is not particularly common, it is popular among those who grow it as a source of early season color, and because it makes a showy addition to the perennial garden and attracts both hummingbirds and butterflies. The seed pods, which are almost black, contain brilliant red seeds.

Native American people had many medicinal uses for this plant. Creek women used an infusion of the root for bowel pain, and the Choctaw used a decoction of the leaves as a general tonic. The Seminole used an extract of the roots for digestive problems, and extract of the seeds, or of the inner bark, as an external rub for rheumatic disorders.

Toxicity is considered low, but seeds are poisonous to humans if eaten.

In this plate, the seedpod shown on the right is coral-bean, the image on the left Audubon referred to as a "dayflower."

Audubon dated the original composition for this print August 11, 1821, and noted that he was in Louisiana. The plant he calls a dayflower is a member of the Commelinacae family, a large family of flowering plants, often considered weeds, called dayflowers or spiderworts.

Fig. 25. John James Audubon, Hooded Warbler, 1821, watercolor, graphite, pastel. Collection of the New York Historical Society. Audubon painted the female on August 11, 1821.

Joseph Mason painted the flower on the left. The male pictured on the right was added later, and Audubon sketched in, but did not complete, the coral-bean plant. Havell included the sketch in the print and each sheet was hand colored.

The hooded warbler (Wilsonia citrina) is fairly common in moist woodlands in the Southeast.

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Fig. 26

Hooded warbler Song: ta-wit ta wit ta wit tee-yo

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Downy Woodpecker, Plate CXII

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10 Cross-vine Bignonia capreolata Cross-vine is an evergreen vine with glossy leaves and showy, twotoned trumpet flowers. It blooms early in spring and provides a nectar source for butterflies and hummingbirds. A fast grower, it can send out shoots that grow at a rate of ten to twenty feet per year. Cross-vine will cling to walls or supports but does not damage masonry walls. It received its common name because, when cut, the stem features a cross shape in its center.

Some of the plants Audubon illustrated were used by indigenous people before the arrival of Europeans. One example is the crossvine mentioned in this quote from John Bartram.

“The climbing stems of the climber are equally divided longitudinally into four parts by the same number of their membranes somewhat resembling a piece of white tape by which means, when the vine is cut through and divided traversely, it presents to view the likeness of a cross. This membrane is of a sweet, pleasant taste. The country people of Carolina crop these vines to pieces together with china brier and sassafras roots, and boil them in their beer in the spring for diet drink, in order to attenuate and purify the blood and juices, it is a principal ingredient in Howard's famous infusion for curing the yaws, etc, the virtues, and use of which he obtained from Indian Doctors.”

Audubon represented the cross-vine, which he calls ramping trumpet-flower, four times in The Birds of America. In his Ornithological Biography, he comments that it “abounds in Georgia, Alabama, and the Floridas. The flowers are destitute of odour.

Hummingbirds delight to search for food in them, as well as in those of other species of the genus” (Audubon, Vol. 2, 83).

The downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) is common year-round throughout the United States. An active bird often seen in suburbs as well as forests and parks, it is a frequent visitor to feeders.

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Downy woodpecker Call: pik

Fig. 27

Fig. 28. Cross section of cross-vine.

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Ruby-throated Humming Bird, Plate XLVIII

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11 Trumpet Vine Campsis radicans The trumpet vine is a vigorous, fast-growing vine featuring redorange (or rarely, yellow), tubular, three-inch flowers throughout the summer. It will climb quickly over structures and nearby trees, attaching by aerial rootlets. Trumpet vine is fairly drought tolerant and can become invasive, spreading itself very vigorously and overcoming smaller plants. In the early spring it can be cut back to promote bushier growth. Young plants may die back to deep fleshy roots in severe winters but they will quickly recover.

The plant is frequently cultivated because of its large clusters of attractive, bright red flowers which attract hummingbirds. Pollination is accomplished by hummingbirds and long-tongued bees.

In this print, Audubon renders the American native trumpet vine, which was introduced in England in 1640 and was one of the most popular plants of the Georgian period. The Europeans were also particularly taken with the hummingbird. The original painting for this print makes stunning use of metallic paint to highlight the wings and bodies of the birds.

“I have represented these pretty and most interesting birds in various positions, flitting, feeding, caressing each other, or sitting on the slender stalks of the trumpet-flower and pluming themselves. The diversity of action and attitude thus exhibited, may, I trust, prove sufficient to present a faithful idea of their appearance and manners.

A figure of the nest you will find elsewhere” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 253).* *Audubon included the nest in plate CLVI (number 19 in this guide).

Hummingbirds are native only to the New World, and the ruby-throated is the only one of which Audubon would have had any significant firsthand observation. The rubythroated hummingbird is a summer resident of much of the eastern United States, and it overwinters in some parts of southern Alabama. It is fairly common in gardens and on the edges of woodlands.

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include Fig. 29. Some of the threats to hummingbirds ns, and dirty habitat loss, pesticide use, cats, window collisio the feeders feeders. If you feed these tiny creatures, keep you ever clean and situate them away from windows. If it is see a praying mantis hanging around your feeder, attempting to catch the bird as a meal.

Ruby-throated hummingbird Call: chee-dit

No sooner has the returning sun again introduced the vernal season, and caused millions of plants to expand their leaves and blossoms to his genial beams, then the little Humming Bird is seen advancing on fairy wings, carefully visiting every opening flower-cup…

Vol. 1, 248

—J. J. Audubon

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Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Plate II

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12 Common Pawpaw Asimina triloba The pawpaw is a patch-forming understory tree found in welldrained, deep, fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat, with large, simple leaves and large fruits. Pawpaws at one time were considered to be a primary understory tree in North American forests. Seeds from this plant were included in the shipments sent by John Bartram to England. Phillip Miller at the Chelsea Physic Garden was probably the first to grow these “rare pawpaw” from seed.

Some Native American tribes cultivated the pawpaw for fruit and are possibly responsible for its widespread range today. The fruit, which is the largest edible fruit native to America, tastes like banana and is edible in small quantities. There are two species of pawpaw native to the Southeast: the common pawpaw, the one you see here, and the smallflower pawpaw (Asimina parviflora). They both make good understory plants but prefer different conditions. Common pawpaw's natural habitat is ditches, ravines, and bottomlands, while the smallflower pawpaw prefers dry, piney woods and thickets.

“The branch, among the foliage of which you see the male and female winging their way, is one of the Pawpaw, a tree of small size, seldom more than from twenty to thirty feet in height, with a diameter of from three to seven inches. ...The fruit, which is represented in the plate, consists of a pulpy and insipid substance, within which are found several large, hard, and glossy seeds. The rind is extremely thin. The wood is light, soft, brittle, and almost useless. The bark, which is smooth, may be torn off from the foot of the tree to the very top, and is frequently used for making ropes, after it has been steeped in water sufficiently to detach the outer part, when the fibres are obtained, which when twisted, are found to be nearly as tough and durable as hemp” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 20).

Common throughout most of the United States, the yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) frequents open woods and orchards.

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Fig. 31. Zebra swallowtails are specialists: their larvae only eat pawpaw leaves.

If there are no pawpaws, there are no zebra swallowtails.

Fig. 30. Larva and chrysalis stage of the zebra swallowtail

Yellow-billed cuckoo Fig. 32 Songs: kuk-kuk-kuk ka ka kowlp-kowlp

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Great Carolina Wren, Plate LXXVIII

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13

Red Buckeye Aesculus pavia Since many gardeners choose plants to attract wildlife, the valuable asset possessed by the red buckeye is its red tubular flowers. They attract hummingbirds, which depend on red buckeye because it blooms early, before most other nectar plants have flowered. The bottlebrush buckeye is a related species but has white flowers that bloom in the summer.

Buckeye seeds are quite pretty and harmless to hold, but they should never be eaten as they are toxic to humans and wildlife. It is said that Native American Indians scattered crushed buckeye seeds into pools of water to stupefy fish so they could be easily collected and eaten.

“The Dwarf Buck-eye, on a blossomed twig of which you observe a pair of Great Carolina Wrens, is by nature as well as name a low shrub. It grows near swampy ground in great abundance. Its flowers, which are scentless, are much resorted to by the Hummingbirds, on their first arrival, as they appear early in the season. The wood resembles that of the Common Horse-chestnut, and its fruit is nearly the same in form and color, but much smaller. I know of no valuable property possessed by this beautiful shrub” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 401).

The bird Audubon called the"great Carolina wren" (Thryothorus ludovicianus) is now simply the "Carolina wren." It is a common year-round resident across all of Alabama and the Southeast.

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Fig. 33 Carolina wren Song: teakettle tea-kettle teakettle cheery cheery cheery

The quickness of the motions of this active little bird is fully equal to that of the mouse.

Vol. 1, 399

—J. J. Audubon

Fig 34. Common folklore suggests a buckeye, oiled and carried in one’s pocket, could ward off rheumatism, arthritis, headache, and ensure male potency. To increase the odds of good fortune, a two-dollar bill was wrapped around the buckeye.

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Whip-poor-will, Plate LXXXII

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14 Oak Quercus sp The value of oaks for supporting wildlife is substantial. Since the introduction of the chestnut blight in the 1900s, which resulted in the extinction of the species by 1940, American chestnut has been lost from our forests. Oaks, hickories, walnuts, and the American beech now supply the bulk of nut forage needed to support wildlife populations.

Oaks provide much more than acorns to fill bellies. As indicated in this print, in addition to providing nesting sites for dozens of bird species, a less obvious benefit is that of hosting plant-eating insects, or insect herbivores. No other plant genus supports more species of Lepidoptera caterpillars. Most birds raise their young on insects like Lepidoptera caterpillars, so the availability of oak trees is crucial to the survival of many species in the food chain.

“This is one of the largest trees of the United States, and attains a height from eighty to ninety feet, with a diameter of from four to five. The bark is deeply cracked, and of a black colour. The wood is reddish, coarse grained, and not so much esteemed as that of the White Oak, and some other species. The bark is used for tanning, as well as for dyeing wool of a yellow colour. It is generally distributed, especially in the mountainous parts” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 425-426).

“I have represented a male and two females, as well as some of the insects on which they feed. The former are placed on a branch of Red Oak, that tree being abundant on the skirts of the Kentucky Barrens, where the Whip-poor-will is most plentiful” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 425-426).

The whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus) is a summer resident of northern Alabama and a winter resident in the southernmost part of the state. It prefers open coniferous and mixed woodlands. It will roost for long periods on branches during the daylight hours.

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Fig. 35. Hyalophora cecropia caterpillar. The larger hora moth in Audubon's print is a cercropia moth (Hyalop cecropia), which is the largest moth found in North America. Adult cercropia moths live only two weeks, pupal producing a single brood. They remain in the is spent stage for the entire winter. The caterpillar stage eating and growing. In our area they can be found s, living on maples, willows, dogwoods, oaks, poplar er the sassafras, or their favorites, black cherries. Consid e of the effects herbicide use has on the intricate balanc ecosystems in our own backyards.

Description is incapable of conveying to your mind any accurate idea of the notes of this bird, much less the feelings which they excite.

Vol. 1, 423-24

—J. J. Audubon

Fig. 36. In the bottom right corner of the original painting, Audubon sketched the foot of the whip-poor-will, and Havell retained it in the print.

The scientific name for whip-poor-will is Caprimulgus vociferous. The family appellation Caprimulgus comes from the Latin "capra," a nanny goat, and "mulgere," to milk, which translates to "goatsucker," referring to the ancient folk belief that the birds would suck the milk from goats during the night. Now often referred to as the "nightjar family," it includes chuck-will’s-widow as well as whip-poor-will, the vociferous (from Latin voiferari, “to shout”) goatsucker.

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American Robin, Plate CXXXI

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15

Rock Chestnut Oak Quercus prinus All oaks belong to either a white oak or red oak group. The rock chestnut oak is a member of the white oak group and can tolerate thin, dry soils. Red oaks have lobed leaves that come to a point with a bristle, whereas the white oaks have leaves with rounded lobes. The leaf characteristics can be somewhat confusing, and it is helpful to have a good oak tree identification guide.

White oaks produce acorns on a one-year cycle. The acorns contain few tannins and taste good to game, but the trees produce sporadically from year to year. Light crops are typical, but bumper crops can and do occur. Red oaks take two years to mature an acorn, but they reproduce yearly and commonly provide a reliable crop. Although the red oak acorns contain tannins and are bitter, deer and other wildlife do not seem to mind, especially in years that white oaks don’t produce much. The red oak acorns usually contain large amounts of fats and carbohydrates, though the white oaks contain the highest carbohydrate content.

Audubon notes that this tree “grows to a great size, forming a fine ornament to our woods, and in open situations spreads abroad its branches to a great extent. The wood is valuable, and is much employed in the Western and Southern countries, where … it abounds” (Audubon, Vol. 2, 196).

A common year-round resident throughout most of the United States, American robins (Turdus migratorius) are often seen on lawns and nesting in shrubs and on sheltered windowsills and eaves.

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Fig. 37

American robin Song: cheerily cheer-up cheerio

Whenever the sun shines over the earth, the old males tune their pipe, and enliven the neighborhood with their song.

Vol. 2, 192

—J. J. Audubon

The oak genus supports as many as 550 herbivores.

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Canada Warbler, Plate CIII

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16

White Laurel Rhododendron maximum Peter Collinson (1694–1768), a wealthy English cloth merchant, financed the travels of John Bartram and was the middleman for the exchange of plants between England and America. One of the plants he acquired, and which he particularly appreciated, was this rhododendron. He had success growing the white laurel when other gardeners struggled to keep them alive. He envied Bartram “the Ravishing Sight” of vast landscapes “alive with this rich embroiderie” (Wulf, 140).

This species dominates the southern Appalachian understory, and although it does grow in the Davis Arboretum, it is not a particularly easy species to grow in central Alabama.

“What a beautiful object, in the delightful season of spring, is our Great Laurel, covered with its tufts of richly, yet delicately, coloured flowers! In imagination I am at this moment rambling along the banks of some murmuring streamlet, overshadowed by the thick foliage of this gorgeous ornament of our mountainous districts. …

I must content myself with requesting you to look at the blossoms of the laurel as depicted in my plate, together with two of the birds, which, in pairs, side by side, are fond of residing among its glossy and verdant foliage” (Audubon, Vol. 2, 18).

The Canada warbler (Wilsonia Canadensis) has been reported as a spring migrant through northern Alabama.

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Fig. 38 Canada warbler Song: chip-chupitty-swee-ditchety

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but not so interesting as looking.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Traill’s Flycatcher, Plate XLV

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17

Sweetgum Tree Liquidambar styraciflua The orderly gardener will be driven mad by the spiny sweetgum balls that will cover the ground during the fall of the year, but the ubiquitous sweetgum serves a more noble purpose. Those annoying seed balls provide food for a number of bird species, including chickadees, goldfinch, cardinals, purple finch, mourning doves, juncos, towhees, and white-throated sparrows, not to mention chipmunks and squirrels. Sweetgum is also a favorite of yellowbellied sapsuckers. Look for their parallel rows of little square holes in the bark. Sweetgums are also very successful at turning bare earth into forest since they grow so quickly and tolerate poor soil; and they have great fall color. If this isn’t enough, they are also a larval host plant for the beautiful luna moth. So there are indeed good things to be said about the abundant (and annoying) sweetgum.

Audubon noted that the wood of the sweetgum tree is “very hard and fine grained, but is now little used, although formerly furniture of various kinds was made of it. When the bark is removed, a resinous substance exudes, which has an agreeable smell, but is only obtained in very small quantity” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 238).

Audubon recorded that he painted this bird at “Fort of Arkansas, April 17, 1822.” He was the first to describe this bird, which he named for his friend, Thomas Stewart Traill, an English professor and a writer for Encyclopedia Britannica. Now called the "willow flycatcher," it maintains Traill’s name in its Latinate name Empidonax traillii (Low, 55). It is a very rare migrant in the Southeast.

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Fig. 39 and 40. Sweetgum trees are larval host plants for the beautiful luna moth.

Fig. 41. Note the small image in the bottom left corner of the bird's bill seen from the top.

Willow flycatcher Songs: fitz-bew brreet

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Black-billed Cuckoo, Plate XXXII

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18

Magnolia Magnolia grandiflora Before Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) devised the binomial nomenclature of modern classification, plant names included lengthy descriptions of their habitat, leaf shapes, and calyx. As new species were discovered, it was necessary to add more descriptions to distinguish them from each other. Magnolia grandiflora was at one time Magnolia foliis lanceolatis persistentibus, caule erecto arboreo— descriptive, but certainly difficult and unhandy.

By the mid-1700s, Linnaeus’s system of classification was accepted, and he was able to honor or insult botanists by naming plants for them. Linnaeus bestowed the honor of having this magnificent plant named for him to Pierre Magnol, a French botanist.

Bartram sent many magnolia seeds to England. The nation was quite taken with the tree and declared it the most beautiful tree in America.

“It being so scarce a species in Louisiana, I have honoured it by placing a pair on a branch of Magnolia in bloom, although the birds represented were not shot on one of these trees, but in a swamp near some, where the birds were in pursuit of such flies as you see figured, probably to amuse themselves. The Magnolia has already been presented to your view in another plate, where it was figured in seed. Here you have it arrayed in all the beauty of its splendid blossoms” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 170-171).

Audubon’s painting for this print was labeled “Louisiana, 1822.” Audubon said that the black-billed cuckoo was a rare migrant through Louisiana. The southern limits of the black-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus erythrophthalmus) breeding range only extend as far south as Tennessee’s southern border.

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After the summer showers, the ground is seen covered with multitudes of very small frogs, of a brownishblack colour, which many of the inhabitants foolishly suppose to have descended from the clouds. Some of these I have occasionally found in the stomach of the Black-billed Cuckoo.

Vol. 1, 170

—J. J. Audubon

me 210 nus with so a large ge rn United is te as lia he no ut So Mag nge wide. The ld ra l or ra w s tu ie na spec nter of the lias. ce no e th ag m is e tiv States ecies ecies of na sp sp t t gh gh ei ei l al of the etum has m or oo rb bl A s is ie The Dav tive spec e the lias. Our na mer, unlik m of magno su y rl ng or ea oom in in late spri typically bl t, tives that t by a fros hi n te Asian rela of and are species ly on e Th early spring s. the bloom southern which kills een is the bly evergr rther lia fu re tle is lit at A th re. the you see he of e lia on no e ag se m nolia th you will ag pa e m f th ea n bigl dow tives, the have n na s ca ou ch hi du ), w deci acrophylla . m ng lia lo no (Mag e inches to forty-fiv leaves up

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Fig. 42. Cucumber magnolia (Magnolia acuminata)

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American Crow, Plate CLVI

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19

Black Walnut Juglans nigra The fruit (nut) of the black walnut has a brownish-green, semifleshy husk and a brown, corrugated nut, which is small and very hard. The entire fruit falls in October. Fruiting may begin when the tree is four to six years old, however large crops require twenty years of growth. The tree tends to crop more heavily in alternate years.

The lifespan of J. nigra is about 130 years.

Historically, pulverized black walnut husks provided insecticides, fish poison, and black dye. Black walnut is highly prized for its darkcolored heartwood. It is heavy and strong, yet easily split and worked.

Walnut wood has been used for gunstocks, furniture, flooring, paddles, coffins, and a variety of other wood products.

The roots, nut husks, and leaves secrete a substance into the soil called juglone, which is a respiratory inhibitor to some plants. A number of plants are poisoned by juglone and should not be planted in close proximity to a black walnut. The black walnut is a preferred host of the beautiful luna and regal moths.

“I have placed the pensive oppressed Crow of our country on a beautiful branch of the Black Walnut tree, loaded with nuts, on the lower twig of which I have represented the delicate nest of our Common Humming Bird, to fulfill the promise which I made when writing the history of that species for my first volume” (AudubonVol. 2, 322).* * “Hummingbirds on a Trumpet Vine” (Plate XLVII) is number 11 in this guide.

The American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), which occurs in a wide variety of habitats, is a common year-round resident throughout most of the United States.

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American crow w ca Call:

Fig. 43

Fig. 44. Black walnu ts with their outer green husk.

The Crow is an extremely shy bird, having found familiarity with man no way to his advantage.

Vol. 2, 317

—J. J. Audubon

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Red-winged Starling or Marsh Blackbird, Plate LXVII

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20

Red Maple Acer rubrum Red maple, also known as swamp, water, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of Eastern North America. Many of its features, especially its leaves, are quite variable in form. At maturity it often attains a height of fifty feet. It is appropriately named as its flowers, petioles, twigs, and seeds are all red to varying degrees. Among these features, however, it is best known for its brilliant deep scarlet foliage in autumn.

Red maple is a larval host and nectar source for the rosy maple moth and the large maple moth.

Audubon reports that this species of tree is “known by the names Red Maple and Swamp Maple [Audubon’s italics]. …The wood is hard and close, and takes a good polish. It is extensively used for various purposes” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 287).

This abundant bird, the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), called "starling"

by Audubon, is often seen in massive flocks in the winter. It is a year-round resident throughout most of the United States.

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le: ed of map Fig. 45. Se a ar m winged sa

Red-winged blackbird Songs: konk-la-ree Call: check

Fig. 46

In the United States one can hardly mention its name, without hearing such an account of its pilferings as might induce the young student of nature to conceive that it had been created for the purpose of annoying the farmer.

Vol. 1, 348

—J. J. Audubon

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Baltimore Oriole, Plate XII

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21

Tulip Tree Liriodendron tulipfera The tulip tree, a relative of the magnolia, is a major honey plant in the Eastern United States, yielding a dark reddish, fairly strong honey which gets mixed reviews as a table honey but is favorably regarded by bakers. Nectar is produced in the orange parts of the flowers. Some specimens may be poor nectar producers simply because they have relatively little orange in their flowers.

When Audubon was roaming the forests of America, the tulip poplar was considered one of the most magnificent of trees, second only to the giant sycamore.

In fact, it flourished alongside the sycamore in the bottom of valleys and near rivers.

In virgin cove forests of the Appalachian Mountains, it could grow to more than 165 feet in height, often with no limbs until it reached 80 to 100 feet, making it a very valuable timber tree.

The tulip poplar is also a valuable tree for wildlife as the seeds are eaten by cardinals, purple finch, and squirrel; the flowers visited by bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies; and the leaves eaten by tiger and spicebush swallowtail butterfly larvae.

Liriodendron tulipfera is commonly associated with the first century of forest succession. In Appalachian forests, it is a dominant species during the first 50 to 150 years of succession but is absent or rare in stands of trees 500 years or older.

On fertile soils, it often forms pure or nearly pure (homogenous) stands. It can and does persist in older forests when there is sufficient disturbance to generate large enough gaps for regeneration.

“This tree is one of the most beautiful of those indigenous to the United States, and attains a height of seventy, eighty, or even a hundred feet. … The wood is yellow, hard, but easily wrought and is employed for numerous purposes, particularly in the construction of houses, and for charcoal. The Indians often form their canoes of it, for which purpose it is well adapted, the trunk being of great length and diameter, and the wood light” (Audubon, Vol. 1, 71).

A summer resident of northern and western Alabama, the Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula) is sometimes seen in deciduous woodlands in the central region of the state.

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Fig. 48. Detail of tulip poplar flower

re oriole Baltimo nd call: hew-li a Song

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Fig. 47

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Cardinal Grosbeak, Plate CLIX

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22

Carolina Laurelcherry Prunus caroliniana Audubon’s laurelcherry, known as the Carolina cherry laurel, Cherry laurel, Carolina cherry, or wild almond, is a flowering tree native to the Southeastern United States, from North Carolina south to Florida and westward to eastern Texas.

The leaves range in color from yellow-green to a rich dark green, depending on the pH of the soil. Fragrant white flowers appear on two- to three-inch long racemes (long stalked bunches) in late winter and early spring and are displayed to maximum advantage against the dense foliage. The flowers are followed by blue-black fruits that are about one-half inch in diameter.

This versatile evergreen is usually encountered as a large shrubby plant in nature where it often can be seen forming large colonies.

Due to its abundant seed production and ease of seed dispersal via birds, this tree is sometimes considered a “weedy native” species.

The leaves and branches contain high amounts of prussic acid (cyanide), making it toxic to grazing animals.

“The Wild Almond is altogether a southern tree. Many are planted around the plantation grounds or the gardens of our southern cities, on account of its beautiful appearance. The fruits are greedily devoured by many species of birds, but are unpalatable to man” (Audubon, Vol. 2, 340).

The northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a non-migratory bird that inhabits woodland edges, swamps, creek-side thickets, and gardens throughout the eastern United States.

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Cardinal Songs: cue cue cue; cheer cheer cheer; purty purty purty. Call: chip

Fig. 49 and 50

In richness of plumage, elegance of motion, and strength of song, this species surpasses all its kindred in the United States.

Vol. 2, 336

—J. J. Audubon

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Townsend’s Warbler, Arctic Blue-bird, Western Blue-bird, Plate CCCXCIII

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23

Carolina Allspice Calycanthus floridus The oldest known member of its genus that has found its way into gardens, Calycanthus floridus was noted by Mark Catesby (1682– 1749) in the woodlands of Piedmont Carolina. He described its bark “as odoriferous as cinnamon” (7) and its flower like a starry anemone. The planters of Carolina gathered it into their gardens, and through John Bartram’s boxes, Peter Collinson imported it into England from Charleston, South Carolina, about 1756. He described it to Linnaeus for naming. Since the leathery, maroon flowers are not very showy, the shrub is considered by some to be of minor garden value, where scent is less valued than color. It is, however, an old-fashioned and sentimental favorite in the American Southeast, its native home.

“The plant represented, Calycanthus floridus, the Carolina Allspice, much esteemed on account of the fragrance of its large purple flowers, abounds in the Southern States, growing on the margins of swamps and rivulets” (Audubon, Vol. 5, 44).

None of the birds represented in this plate were seen by Audubon living in their natural environments. Like the western birds represented in Plate CCCXCV (number 6 in the guide), Audubon purchased the skins of the birds from Thomas Nuttall, a member of the Wyeth Expedition. Maria Martin made the original painting of the Carolina allspice in 1836, when Audubon was working feverishly in Charleston to complete the paintings for The Birds of America. For these reasons, Audubon pairs birds of the Far West with a Southern plant.

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Eastern bluebird e Song: chur chur-lee chu-le

Fig. 51

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Remembrance of Things Past, Vol. 5

—Marcel Proust

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List of Plates All works reproduced in this volume and listed below are by John James Audubon and are part of the Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University.

Paper dimensions: 39 x 28 inches 1. Blue-Green Warbler, Plate 49 The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, 1828 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.19 2. Summer or Wood Duck, Plate CCVI The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. III, 1834 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 Gift of Susan Phillips 2004.03.15

6. Audubon’s Warbler; Hermit Warbler; Blackthroated Gray Warbler, Plate CCCXCV The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. IV, 1837 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.06 7. Orchard Oriole, Plate XLII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.52

3. Wood Pewee, Plate CXV The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1831 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.77

8. Mocking Bird, Plate XXI The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.49

4. Yellow-throated Vireo, Plate CXIX The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.82

9. Hooded Warbler, Plate CX The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1831 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.40

5.Wood Thrush, Plate 73 The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, 1829 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.78

10. Downy Woodpecker, Plate CXII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1831 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.29

5 a.White-Throated Sparrow, Plate VIII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I Hand-colored etching and line engraving Engraved by W. H. Lizars, Edinburgh Printed and colored by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.76

11. Ruby-throated Humming Bird, Plate XLVII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.62

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12. Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Plate 11 The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, 1829 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Engraved by W. H. Lizars, Edinburgh Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.80

19. American Crow, Plate CLVI The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1833 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.01

13. Traill’s Fly-Catcher, Plate 45 The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, 1828 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.71

20. Red-winged Starling or Marsh Blackbird, Plate LXVII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.59

14. Great Carolina Wren, Plate 78 The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, 1830 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.36

21. Baltimore Oriole, Plate XII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.08

15. Whip-poor-will, Plate LXXXII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.75

22. Cardinal Grosbeak, Plate CLIX The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1833 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 Gift of Susan Phillips 2004.03.03

16. American Robin, Plate CXXXI The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1832 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.03 17. Canada Warbler, Plate CIII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 Gift of Susan Phillips 2004.03.07

23. Townsend’s Warbler; Arctic Blue-bird;Western Blue-bird, Plate CCCXCIII The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. IV, 1837 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.70

18. Black-billed Cuckoo, Plate 32 The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, 1828 Hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving Printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38 1992.1.1.15

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In April 2005, Auburn University Board of Trustees named the museum’s grounds and gardens the Susan Phillips Gardens. They were dedicated to her and in memory of her son, Matthew Albert Tucker and her mother, Anne Miller Phillips on October 19, 2005. Phillips’ donation of her grandparents’ collection, The Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection, and its attendant endowment make possible the exhibitions, education, and research devoted to Audubon and natural history at JCSM.

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List of Figures 1. Yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

2. Barred or hoot owl (Strix varia) in an Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

3. Cumberland azalea (Rhododendron cumberlandense), Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

4. Mockernut hickory (Carya tomentosa),

Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

5. Darby's Pond, Davis Arboretum.

Photograph courtesy the Auburn University Archives.

14. Detail of John James Audubon, Wood Pewee, Plate

CXV, The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1831, hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving, printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University; Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection, 1992.1.1.77

15. Yellow throated vireo.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

16. Wood thrush.

Photograph by: Jerry R. Oldenettel.

17. White-throated sparrow.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

18. Dogwood.

Photograph by: Laura Kloberg.

6. Darby's Pond, Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

19. Yellow-rumped warbler.

7. John Syme (Scottish, 1795–1861), Portrait of John James Audubon, 1826, oil on canvas, The White House Historical Association (White House Collection).

20. Strawberry bush flower.

8. John James Audubon, Cerulean Warbler, 1821,

watercolor, graphite, and pastel with touches of black ink and selective glazing on paper, laid on card. Collection of the New York Historical Society.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

Photograph by: Patrick Coin.

21. Silver-spotted skipper.

Photograph by: Elizabeth Brandebourg.

22. Detail of honey locust thorns, Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

9. American beautyberry flower.

23. Orchard oriole.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

10. Detail of sycamore bark,

24. Mocking bird.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

Photograph by: Julia Bartosh.

Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

11. Femail and male wood duck.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill 12. Bumblebee on swamp azalea

(Rhododendron viscosum),Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

13. Eastern wood-pewee.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

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25. John James Audubon, Hooded Warbler, 1821, watercolor, graphite, pastel, Collection of the New York Historical Society.

26. Hooded warbler.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

27. Downy woodpecker and feather.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

28. Cross section of bignonia vine, Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

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29. Ruby-throated humming bird.

Photograph by:Dr. Geoff Hill.

42. Cucumber magnolia (Magnolia acuminata).

Photograph by: Patty Tyler.

30. Zebra swallowtail, Eurytides marcellus Life Cycle. Photograph by: Jerry A. Payne, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org, image 1226485.

43. American crow.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

31. Zebra swallowtail.

Photograph by: Roy Knight.

32. Yellow-billed cuckoo.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

33. Carolina wren.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

34. Red buckeye.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

35. Cecropia moth, Hyalophora cecropia.

Photograph by: David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org, image 5255077 36. Detail of John James Audubon, Whip-poor-will,

Plate LXXXII, The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving, printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University; Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection, 1992.1.1.75

44. Detail of walnuts, Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

45. Seed of maple: winged samara, Davis Arboretum.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

46. Red-winged blackbird.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

47. Baltimore oriole.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

48. Detail of tulip poplar flower.

Photograph by: Christy Stanfield.

49. Cardinal (male).

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

50. Cardinal (female).

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

51. Eastern bluebird.

Photograph by: Roy Knight.

37. American robin.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

38. Canada warbler.

Photograph by: Dr. Geoff Hill.

39. Luna moth.

Photograph by: Elizabeth Brandebourg.

40. Luna moth.

Photograph by: Patrick Thompson.

41. Detail of John James Audubon, Traill’s Fly-Catcher,

Plate 45, The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. I, 1828, hand-colored etching, aquatint, and line engraving, printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University; Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection, 1992.1.1.71

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Works Cited Audubon, John James, and William McGillvray.

Ornithological biography, or An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America: accompanied by descriptions of the objects represented in the work entitled The Birds of America, and interspersed with delineations of American scenery and manners. 5 vols. Philadelphia and Edinburgh: Judah Dobson and A. Black, 1831-1849.

Print. ___, John James Audubon’s Journal of 1826: The Voyage to The Birds of America. Ed. Daniel Patterson.

Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2011.

Print.

Cappiello, Paul, and Don Shadow. Dogwoods: The Genus Cornus. Portland: Timber Press, 2005. Print.

Catesby, Mark. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (1732) Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1974. Reprint.

Gosse, Philip Henry. Letters From Alabama: Chiefly Relating to Natural History. Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama Press, 2012. Print.

Keeler, Harriet L. Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900. Print.

Low, Susanne M. A Guide to Audubon’s Birds of America: A Concordance Containing Current Names of the Birds, Plate Names with Descriptions of Plate Variants, a Description of the Bien Edition, and Corresponding Indexes. New Haven and New York: William Reese Company and Donald A. Heald, 2002. Print.

Luthringer, Dale. (2007-03-22). “Historical sycamore dimensions.” Native Tree Society Eastern Native Tree Society. Web link. Retrieved 2009-11-16.

Pons, Luis. “Learning From Our Elders: Folk Remedy Yields Mosquito-Thwarting Compound.” Agricultural Research Magazine 54.2 (2006). Print.

Tallamy, Douglas. Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens. Portland: Timber Press, 2009. Print.

Wulf, Andrea. The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire, and the Birth of an Obsession. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.

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Fig. 51. Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Galleries, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University

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Index Acer rubrum, Red Maple, 101–102 Aesculus pavia, Red Buckeye, 73–74 Agelaius phoeniceus, Red-winged Blackbird, 101–102 Aix sponsa, Summer or Wood Duck, 29–30 American Beautyberry, Callicarpa Americana, 25–26 American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos, 97–98 American Robin, Turdus migratorius, 81–82 Antrostomus vociferous, Whip-poor-will, 77–78 Archilochus alexandri, Ruby-throated Humming Bird, 65–66 Arctic Blue-bird, see Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides), 112 Asimina triloba, Common Pawpaw, 69–70 Audubon, John James, 11, 13, 17–20, 25, 33, 41, 45, 53, 61, 65, 73, 81, 89, 93, 113, Audubon, John Woodhouse, 18 Audubon, Victor Gifford, 18 Audubon’s Warbler, see Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronate), 45–46 Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula, 105–106 Bartram, John, 11, 37, 61, 69, 85, 93, 113 Bignonia capreolata, Cross-vine, 61–62 Black Walnut, Juglans nigra, 97–98 Black-billed Cuckoo, Coccyzus erythrophthalmus, 91–94 Black-throated Gray Warbler, Dendroica nigrescens, 44 Blue-Green Warbler, see Cerulean Warbler(Dendroica cerulea), 25–26 Callicarpa Americana, American Beautyberry, 25–26 Calycanthus floridus, Carolina Allspice, 113 Campis radicans, Trumpet Vine, 65 Canada Warbler, Wilsonia Canadensis, 85–86 Cardinal Grosbeak, see Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), 109–110 Cardinalis cardinalis, Northern Cardinal, 109–110 Carolina Allspice, Calycanthus floridus, 113 Carolina Laurelcherry, Prunus caroliniana, 109 Carolina Wren, Thryothorus ludovicianus, 73–74 Catesby, Mark, 113 Cerulean Warbler, Dendroica cerulea, 25–26 Coccyzus americanus, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 69–70 Coccyzus erythrophthalmus, Black-billed Cuckoo, 93–94 Collinson, Peter, 85, 113 Common Pawpaw, Asimina triloba, 69–70 Contopus virens, Eastern Wood Pewee, 33–34

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Coral-bean, Erythrina herbacea, 57–58 Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood, 41, 43 Corvus brachyrhynchos, American Crow, 97–98 Cross-vine, Bignonia capreolata, 61–62 Dendroica cerulean, Cerulean Warbler, 25–26 Dendroica coronate, Yellow-rumped Warbler, 45–46 Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens, 61–62 Eastern Wood Pewee, Contopus virens, 33–34 Empidonax traillii, Willow Flycatcher, 89–90 Erythrina herbacea, Coral-bean, 57–58 Euonymus americanus, Strawberry Bush, 45–46 Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida, 41, 43 Gelsemium sempevirens, Yellow Jasmine, 53 Gleditsia triacanthus, Honey Locust, 49–50 Gosse, Phillip Henry, 37 Great Carolina Wren, see Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), 73–74 Havell, Robert, 18, 19, 34 Honey Locust, Gleditsia triacanthus, 49–50 Hooded Warbler, Wilsonia citrina, 57–58 Hydrangea quercifolia, Oak-leaved Hydrangea, 37–38 Hylocichla mustelina, Wood Thrush, 41–42 Icterus galbula, Baltimore Oriole, 105–106 Icterus spurius, Orchard Oriole, 49–50 Juglans nigra, Black Walnut, 97–98 Lehman, George, 18, 33 Linnaeus, Carl, 93, 113 Liquidamber styraciflua, Sweetgum Tree, 89–90 Liriodendron tulipfera,Tulip Tree, 105 Lizars, William H., 19 Magnol, Pierre, 93 Magnolia grandiflora, Magnolia, 93 Magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, 93 Martin, Maria, 18, 45, 113 Mason, Joseph, 18, 37, 57 Miller, Phillip, 69 Mimus polyglottos,Northern Mockingbird, 53–54 Mocking Bird, see Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), 53–54

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Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, 109–110 Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, 53–54 Nuttall, Thomas, 45, 113 Oak-leaved Hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia, 37–38 Oak, Quercus sp., 77–78 Orchard Oriole, Icterus spurius, 49–50 Ord, George, 53 Picoides pubescens, Downy Woodpecker, 61–62 Platanus occidentalis, Sycamore, 29–30 Prunus caroliniana, Carolina Laurelcherry, 109 Quercus prinus, Rock Chestnut Oak,, 81 Quercus sp, Oak, 77–78 Red Buckeye, Aesculus pavia, 73–74 Red Maple, Acer rubrum, 101–102 Red-winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, 101–102 Red-winged Starling or Marsh Blackbird, see Red-winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, 101–102 Rhododendron viscosum, Swamp Azalea, 33–34 Rhododenron maximum, White Laurel, 85 Rock Chestnut Oak, Quercus prinus, 81 Ruby-throated Humming Bird, Archilochus alexandri, 65–66 Strawberry Bush, Euonymus americanus, 45–46 Summer or Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), 29–31 Swamp Azalea, Rhododendron viscosum, 33–34 Sweetgum Tree, Liquidamber styraciflua, 89–90 Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, 29–30 Thryothorus ludovicianus, Carolina Wren, 73–74 Townsend’s Warbler, Dendroica townsendi, 89–90 Traill, Thomas Stewart, 89 Traill’s Flycatcher, see Townsend’s Warbler (Dendroica townsendi), 89–90 Trumpet Vine, Campis radicans, 65 Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipfera, 105 Turdus migratorius, American Robin, 81–82 Vireo flavifrons, Yellow-throated Vireo, 37–38 Washington, George, 29 Whip-poor-will, Antrostomus vociferus, 77–78 White Laurel, Rhododenron maximum, 85 White Throated Sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, 41–42 Willow Flycatcher, Empidonax traillii, 89–90 Wilson, Alexander, 25 Wilsonia Canadensis, Canada Warbler, 85–86 Wilsonia citrina, Hooded Warbler, 57–58

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Wood Pewee, see Eastern Wood Pewee Contopus virens, 33–34 Wood Thrush, Hylocichla mustelina, 41–42 Yellow Jasmine, Gelsemium sempevirens, 53–54 Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus, 69–70 Yellow-rumped Warbler, Dendroica coronate, 45–46 Yellow-throated Vireo, Vireo flavifrons, 37–38 Zonotrichia albicollis, White Throated Sparrow, 41–42

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