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Bewick's Wren Thryomanes bewickii (Audubon, 1827) (1 Viewer)

Taphrospilus

Well-known member
OK I Understood Audubon published this plate here assume with no description.

What makes curious is Avibase is referencing for Troglodytes bewickii two publications here:

Reference:
BirdsAm. 1 pl.18 1831Orn.Biogr. 1 p.96

I assume it is 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.

So what has priority the plate or the text? Or have they been published at the same time?
 
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Avibase's ref seems to be a mixture of two different references.
"BirdsAm. 1 pl.18" is OK, has clear priority, and dates from 1827. "1831Orn.Biogr. 1 p.96" refers to a later work (which may have been cited in the past by authors who did not accept names based exclusively on an illustration, but is not nomenclaturally relevant under the current rules).
 
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Avibase's ref seems to be a mixture of two different references.
"BirdsAm. 1 pl.18" is OK, has clear priority, and dates from 1827. "1831Orn.Biogr. 1 p.96" refers to a later work (which may have been cited in the past by authors who did not accept names based exclusively on an illustration, but is not nomenclaturally relevant under the current rules).

So the whole work was published in once in 1831? I have seen the title page but here is written e.g.:

...and which is now publishing, under the title "The Birds of America."

From that comment I am not 100 % sure about the publishing history of Orn.Biogr.. Of course the foreword is from March 1831 here. Anyway the work seemed to be published 1831-1839 here and Plate 18 seems indeed from 1827 if we read and trust A Bibliography and Nomenclator of the Ornithological Works of John James Audon. Other helpful sources are An American Edition of Audubon's 'Ornithological Biography' or A catalogue of the Ellis collection of ornithological books in the University of Kansas Libraries p. 47.
 
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"The birds of America; from original drawings" is made of 435 plates. These were published between 1827 and 1838, in 87 parts which included 5 plates each, and are normally bound into four volumes of 100, 100, 100, and 135 plates. The format is "double elephant folio", which is [huge] (50 inches = 127 cm tall). There is no text in this work other than the plate captions, but these include scientific names.

"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, together with an account of the digestive organs of many of the species, illustrated by engraving on wood" is a text work, that covers the birds appearing on the plates of "The birds of America". It was published in 5 volumes, which bear the dates 1831, '34, '35, '38 and '39. The format is royal 8vo (17 x 25 cm -- these are "normal" books, thus). The first three volumes each cover the birds appearing in one of the first three "double elephant" volumes, the last two volumes cover respectively the first 87 and the remaining birds of the fourth "double elephant" volume, plus some birds that were not illustrated at all. The five volumes were published separately, but each one as a whole, I think.
 
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