Under a Wild Sky, page 48
skunks, 8
slaves, 19, 40, 43, 203, 260, 269; in Florida, 273–75; in Kentucky, 91, 92, 125, 135, 165; in Saint-Domingue, 18, 20; in Louisiana, 179, 261–62
Smith, John, 65
snake-birds, 132, 175
snakes, 28, 62, 145; black, 116, 224; see also rattlesnakes
snipes, 273, 291–92
songbirds, 180; see also specific species
Spark (ship), 276
sparrows: Bachman’s, 287; house, 136; swamp, 287
species, 30–32, 34, 44; new, 156, 177, 188, 268, 275, 286
specimens, 67, 69, 97, 99, 188, 254; live-caught, 62; in Philadelphia Museum, 84; posing of, 16, 71; preparation of, 100–101, 288
Speed, Captain James, 124
spoonbills, roseate, 278
squirrels, 28, 97, 170, 265; flying, 43; gray, 287
Stamford, Lord, 207
Stanley, Edward, Lord, 200–201
starlings, 136
steamboats, 135, 165
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., 317n
Streshinsky, Shirley, 333n
Swainson, William, 239–42, 253, 255–56, 335n, 336n, 344n
Swainson’s warbler, 286
swallows, 19, 61
swamp sparrows, 287
swans, 16, 50, 126, 156, 188; trumpeter, 136
Swift (ship), 27–28
Sylvia aestiva, 195
Syme, John, 215
Systema Naturae (Linnaeus), 30–32
tanagers: scarlet, 3; western, 105
Tanagra rubra, 3
taxidermy, 100, 168; toxic chemicals used in, 288
taxonomies: of Audubon, 159, 173, 286; of Bonaparte, 9–10, 228, 258; of Buffon, 34, 35; of Linnaeus, 30–34, 44, 61, 256, 258, 281; of Wilson, 12, 258
teal, 51; blue-winged, 51; green-winged, 137–38
tell-tale godwits, 273, 291–92
terns, 19
Thani, Sheik Hamad bin-Khalifa Al, 292
Thomas, William, 66
thrushes, 185; wood, 46, 246
Transylvania Company, 91, 122–23
Transylvania University, 145
Travels through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida (Bartram), 57–59, 307n
Treasury Department, U.S., 275
Trinity Cemetery (New York), 291
Troculus colubris, 65
Troglodytes hyemalis, 18
trogons, 19
trumpeter swans, 136
Turdus polyglottus, 87
turkey buzzards, 170, 209, 218–20, 281
turkeys, wild, 6, 35, 58, 91, 192, 228, 239, 245, 251, 282; drawings of, 16, 97, 205, 214, 218; hunting of, 89, 94, 133; natural history of, 93–97, 240, 257, 313n; as owls’ prey, 147; Wilson’s encounter with, 109
turtles, 58
Vanderlyn, John, 181, 190
vireos, Bartram’s, 286
Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, The, 283, 287–88
vultures, 82, 287; turkey, see turkey buzzards
Wallace, William, 22
War of 1812, 130–31, 164, 170
warblers, 19, 63, 93, 136, 185, 186; Audubon’s, 287; autumnal, 170; Canada, 228; MacGillivray’s, 286–87; prothonotary, 228, 234, 333n; Rathbone, 286; Swainson’s, 286; yellow-poll, 195; yellow-rumped, 170; yellow-throated, 186
Ward, Henry, 268–72
Washington, George, 40, 69
waterfowl, 15–16, 123, 137; hunting of, 50–52, 69–70, 78, 124, 137–39; see also ducks; geese; swans
Waterton, Charles, 217, 280, 281, 289, 344n
waxwing, cedar, 146
Werner, Abraham Gottlob, 211
Wernerian Natural History Society, 211, 218–20, 222, 224, 231
western tanager, 105
whippoorwills, 63, 112
white pelicans, 148–49
white-tailed deer, 136
whooping cranes, 29, 110–11, 214
widgeon, 51
Williams, George Alfred, 333n
Wilson, Alexander, 11, 21–27, 53–55, 59–60, 65, 104–17, 137, 176, 180, 202, 254, 255, 271, 286, 301–4nn, 306n, 315nn, 318nn, 322n; and Academy of Science, 12, 114–15, 189–90, 314n, 318n; Audubon’s criticism of, 12, 187; Bachman and, 269, 275; Bartram and, 59, 62–64, 84; death of, 12, 13, 104, 115; engraving of drawings by, 84, 86, 196; hunting of waterfowl by, 50–52; immigration to America of, 27–29; Jefferson and, 44–47; Lewis and, 104–5; misidentification of birds by, 115, 157, 170, 299n, 323n; Niagara Falls trip of, 80–83; Ord and, 13, 14, 16, 114, 115, 302n, 309n, 317n; passenger pigeon flock observed by, 152; in Philadelphia, 11–12, 28, 47–50, 52–53, 83–86, 104; poetry of, 22–26, 308n; prose style of, 46–47; quality of drawings by, 46–47, 102; romantic entanglements of, 24, 25, 55–56, 63, 308n, 310n; Southern expedition of, 105–7; taxonomy of, 258; teaching jobs of, 50, 53, 56, 62–64, 80, 81, 85; visit to Audubon of, 109–12, 168, 259, 316n, 317nn; see also American Ornithology
Wilson, James, 256
wingshooting, 50, 98–99
winter wrens, 18
wolves, 35, 81, 82, 126, 136, 155, 260, 287, 324n
woodcock, 50, 121, 139, 170
wood ducks, 6, 89, 104, 185
woodpeckers, 63, 116, 282; ivory-billed, 106–7, 174, 313n; pileated, 106; redheaded, 303n
wood pewees, 186
wood thrushes, 46, 246
Wren, Christopher, 231
wrens, 93, 108; winter, 18
Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at, 328n
yellow-billed cuckoos, 228
yellow fever, 19, 47–48, 53, 65, 191
yellow-poll warblers, 195
yellow-throated warblers, 186
William Souder is an award-winning journalist and the author of three books. A Plague of Frogs: Unraveling an Environmental Mystery explores an outbreak of deformed frogs across North America. Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of “The Birds of America” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book, On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2012. Souder lives in Grant, Minnesota.
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William Souder, Under a Wild Sky
