An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

MacGILLIVRAY, William

1 entries
  • 12797

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.

Edinburgh: Adam Black, 18311839.

This was the text for Aububon's The birds of America. Audubon wrote it with the assistance of William Macgillivray, though he did not credit him on the title page. The text included Audubon's accounts of his travels and adventures in America scattered through the volumes in the bird descriptions, and as separate anecdotes. Audubon recounted his experiences in the Florida Keys, along the Mississippi, and in Louisiana and Kentucky in the 1820s and 1830s.

Audubon published the text separately from the double elephant folio plates in order to avoid a stricture of the British Copyright Act of 1709 which would have required him to deposit a set of the very expensive double elephant folio plates with each of nine depository libraries in the United Kingdom.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists, ZOOLOGY › Ornithology