Beschreibung:

AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES Autograph manuscript, the description of the "American White Pelican Pelicanus Americanus" (Plate CCCXI of The Birds of America , published in Ornithological Biography ), the working manuscript, comprising approximately 4100 words with many authorial emendations and deletions, part of text written across page 4, with pencilled markings and notes (probably by MacGillivray) deleting three passages (some 500 words, yet unpublished), n.d. [before 1838], 6 pages folio, closely written, 9 clean tears (mostly at folds) reinforced with silk, several minor marginal tears, folding cloth cover and slipcase. "I feel great pleasure good Reader in assuring you that this Species which has hitherto been considered as the same found in Europe, is quite distinct from the lat[t]er, in consequence of which I have honored it with the name of my beloved Country, over the Inland water courses of which I hope this splendid species will range...unmolested and ever free!....Measurements of the Male being represented in my Plate and Drawn from a Specimen shot near the entrance of the St. John River East Florida...." Published (with some slight differences in places) in Ornithological Biography , vol.4 (Edinburgh 1838), pp.88-94. A further eight-page section (pp.95-102) comprises a detailed taxonomic description of the bird, presumably by MacGillivray, with two wood-engraved anatomical diagrams. Provenance : Dr. Evan Morton Evans (1870-1955) Daniel Webster Evans (1907-1966)