The Blue-Green-Purple of an Indigo Bunting

In his Systema Naturae, Linnaeus named the then known American birds, and created a standard by which later ornithologists could agree or disagree. They have been doing so ever since. Linnaeus gave one Latin name for the genus and one for the species, and, when necessary, a third to designate a subspecies. The Swedish naturalist, however, never saw the American birds he named. He never knew the iridescent blue-green-purple of an indigo bunting among wild roses, nor the delight of a brown thrasher singing on an April morning. It was from other men's descriptions, from early drawings and from dead specimens, that he named many of our birds.

All those determined by Linnaeus bear his name, or its abbreviation- L.-immediately following the scientific name. His is a potent signature in the history of American birding. As the 19th century opened, the discovering of American birds became a major pursuit among men of science. Here was a continent the fauna of which was little known. Scarcely anything had been scientifically ferreted out about the birds, mammals, and plants living inland from the better-known coast. And there were some men who could not be content with the laboratory, or with a dried bird skin collected by someone else. They were outdoor birders in whom lay the spirit of adventure and discovery, and to whom the discomforts of primitive conditions were as nothing if only there were birds.

These men-from Alexander Wilson and George Ord in the early 1800's, both of whom preceded and overlapped Audubon's work, to the two young men in 1939 who discovered Sutton's warbler-made history as they added bird after bird to the list for America. Incongruous as it may appear at first, it is peculiarly fitting that the names of men be attached to the names of birds. In each name there is a reason; back of each a story. They are not idle titles; not political gestures. They were the result of hard work, careful study, and exploration in the years between 1800 (some even earlier) and today.

In Wilson's day, spring migration was a feverish time of mad searching for new species. Birds never before classified were snatched from the ancient paths of migration. In this way Wilson found many new birds, among them a large number of our warblers. He found the Nashville warbler near Nashville, Tennessee; found the Tennessee warbler on the banks of the Cumberland; found the Connects warbler in Connecticut. The bird list today name; many birds for this lonely Scot, who learned the life-histories of more than four hundred birds in the days when little or nothing was in print to guide him in his work.