THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER WILSON-ODD JOBBING

摘要

Alexander Wilson and Billy Duncan, his nephew, landed in the New World near Wilmington, Delaware, donned their packs, and began walking to Philadelphia, the capitol of the young nation. Among the first birds Wilson saw was a Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythroce-phalus). He was stunned. Years later his description of the bird in volume one of American Ornithology retains some of that initial enthusiasm: "There is perhaps no bird in North America more universally known than this. His tricolored plumage, red, white, and black, glossed with steel blue is so striking and characteristic, ..."