The Birds That Audubon Missed
Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Renowned naturalist Kenn Kaufman examines the scientific discoveries of John James Audubon and his artistic and ornithologist peers in this fascinating “blend of history, science, art, biography, and memoir” (Booklist, starred review) that is “a bird lovers’ delight” (Kirkus Reviews).
Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science.
The most famous name in the bird world was John James Audubon, who painted spectacular portraits of birds. But although his images were beautiful, creating great art was not his main goal. Instead, he aimed to illustrate (and write about) as many different species as possible, obsessed with trying to outdo his rival, Alexander Wilson. George Ord, a fan and protégé of Wilson, held a bitter grudge against Audubon for years, claiming he had faked much of his information and his scientific claims. A few of Audubon’s birds were pure fiction, and some of his writing was invented or plagiarized. Other naturalists of the era, including Charles Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon), John Townsend, and Thomas Nuttall, also became entangled in the scientific derby, as they stumbled toward an understanding of the natural world—an endeavor that continues to this day.
Despite this intense competition, a few species—including some surprisingly common songbirds, hawks, sandpipers, and more—managed to evade discovery for years. Here, renowned bird expert and artist Kenn Kaufman explores this period in history from a new angle, by considering the birds these people discovered and, especially, the ones they missed. Kaufman has created portraits of the birds that Audubon never saw, attempting to paint them in that artist’s own stunning style, showing how our understanding of birds continues to gain clarity, even as some mysteries persist from Audubon’s time until ours.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this splendid study, naturalist Kaufman (A Season on the Wind) examines 19th-century ornithologist John James Audubon's quest to document the birds of North America. Kaufman describes how in the 1830s, Audubon embarked on expeditions to southern Florida and northeastern Canada to find birds unknown to the late Alexander Wilson (1766–1813), whose ornithology writings were still regarded as authoritative. Audubon notched a few successes, such as discovering Bewick's Wren, but Kaufman focuses on Audubon's misses. These included such understandable omissions as the prairie falcon, which tends to travel alone and fly quickly. Others reveal the practical factors that shaped scientific knowledge in the 19th century. Ornithologists often identified birds from imprecise descriptions that could elide over subtle variations, so that some species went "undiscovered," mistaken for similar-looking birds. Audubon fell into this trap, failing to observe that the Swainson's thrush and gray-cheeked thrush were distinct species. The discerning attention Kaufman pays to overlooked corners of his subject's biography reveals Audubon's fabulist streak (he ginned up funds for his first book by inventing an eagle with a rumored 10-foot wingspan) and ethical lapses (he once passed off a hawk specimen from a fellow Academy of Natural Sciences member as his own). Kaufman includes his own illustrations of the birds discussed, gamely mimicking Audubon's style while bringing a sensibility distinctly his own. It's a high-flying study of Audubon's scientific contributions and major missteps. Illus.
