Journal article
Return to the ‘Great Pine Swamp’ of Alexander Wilson
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, v 144(1), pp 49-73
04 Mar 2024
Abstract
During an excursion to a place called the ‘Great Pine Swamp’ in May 1811, Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) collected specimens of three supposedly new species of wood warbler (Parulidae) and one thrush (Turdidae), which he later described in American ornithology vol. 5. Two decades later, John James Audubon (1785–1851) claimed that he had ‘followed [Wilson's] track' in 1829 and located the ‘Great Pine Swamp' at a logging community on the west bank of the Lehigh River, near the modern village of Rockport, Pennsylvania (PA). Most scholars have assumed that Audubon was correct, that Rockport was indeed the site of Wilson’s ‘Great Pine Swamp’. However, in June 2023, I used historic maps to retrace Wilson’s route and discovered that his ‘Great Pine Swamp’ was actually in Monroe County, PA, c.26 km (16 miles) east of Rockport, on the opposite side of the Lehigh River, in a different physio-geographic province. Here, after two centuries, I resolve the location of the ‘Great Pine Swamp’ and shed new light on Wilson’s and Audubon’s published accounts of species they reportedly encountered there.
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Details
- Title
- Return to the ‘Great Pine Swamp’ of Alexander Wilson
- Creators
- Matthew R. Halley - Delaware Museum of Nature and Science
- Publication Details
- Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, v 144(1), pp 49-73
- Publisher
- British Ornithologists’ Club
- Number of pages
- 25
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85186988192
- Other Identifier
- 991022202512604721