Citizen Bird

Scenes from Bird-Life in Plain English for Beginners, A Critical Edition

By Mabel Osgood Wright, Elliott Coues, and Elliot Coues; Illustrated by Louis Agassiz Fuertes; Edited by Elizabeth Cherry and Meghan Freeman

Rutgers University Press

In the late nineteenth century, American bird lovers faced a crisis. Bird species were becoming endangered or even extinct at an alarming rate, and old methods of hunting and collecting specimens accelerated the process. A new conservationist approach to birding was necessary, and it needed to be taught to the next generation of Americans. Thus 1897’s Citizen Bird, the first birding guide for children, was born. A tremendously influential text in the Progressive-era United States, it inspired in a generation of schoolchildren a love of wild birds and the desire to protect them.

Born of a collaboration between naturalist Mabel Osgood Wright, ornithologist Elliott Coues, and bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the book is vital to the history of birding and the broader study of nineteenth-century American culture and literature. This new edition of Citizen Bird preserves the original book’s 111 drawings and adds explanatory footnotes, supplemental historical material, and a new introduction. More than a century and a quarter after its original publication, Elizabeth Cherry and Meghan Freeman contextualize the book in the tradition and history of birding and discuss the roles of its authors and illustrator in birding history. A landmark text in the history of American conservationism, Citizen Bird is a timeless classic that will bring joy to birdwatchers of all ages.

Author
Contents

ELIZABETH CHERRY is a professor of sociology at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York. She is the author of Culture and Activism: Animal Rights in France and the United States and For the Birds: Protecting Wildlife through the Naturalist Gaze (Rutgers University Press).

MEGHAN FREEMAN is the fellowship and internship librarian at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and she has taught and published on nineteenth century literature, art, and culture.

MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT (1859-1934) founded the Connecticut Audubon Society and the Birdcraft Museum and Sanctuary in Connecticut, published several books on birds and birding, and helped revive and reestablish the National Audubon Society through her work as editor and writer for Bird-Lore, the precursor to Audubon Magazine. Her book Birdcraft: A Field Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds (1895) is widely regarded as the first true field guide for birds, and her book Citizen Bird: Scenes from Bird-Life in Plain English for Beginners (1897) is cited by the Library of Congress as a milestone in the conservation movement.

ELLIOTT COUES (1842-1899) was one of the founders, and later the president, of the American Ornithologists’ Union (now the American Ornithological Society), published numerous books and scientific papers on ornithological topics, and edited the AOU’s publication The Auk. His Key to North American Birds (1872), a highly regarded scientific bird identification manual, was revised and reprinted in six editions. One of the American Ornithological Society’s most prestigious annual awards is named after Elliott Coues.

LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES (1874-1927) was a highly sought-after American bird illustrator, second in prominence today only to John James Audubon. He produced thousands of illustrations for many important works, including Merriam Bailey’s Handbook of Birds of the Western United States (1902), Keyser’s Birds of the Rockies (1902), Coues’s Key to North American Birds (1903), Eaton’s Birds of New York (1910-1914), and Forbush’s Birds of Massachusetts (1925-1929). The Wilson Ornithological Society has named its most prestigious award after Louis Agassiz Fuertes.

Introduction
Citizen Bird

I. Overture by the Birds
II. The Doctor's Wonder Room
III. A Sparrow Settles the Question
IV. The Building of a Bird
V. Citizen Bird
VI. The Bird as a Traveller
VII. The Bird's Nest
VIII. Beginning of the Bird Stories
IX. A Silver-Tongued Family
X. Peepers and Creepers
XI. Mockers and Scolders
XII. Woodland Warblers
XIII. Around the Old Barn
XIV. The Swallows
XV. A Brilliant Pair
XVI. A Tribe of Weed Warriors
XVII. A Midsummer Excursion
XVIII. Crows and their Cousins
XIX. A Feathered Fisherman
XX. Some Sky Sweepers
XXI. Hummers and Chimney Sweeps
XXII. Two Winged Mysteries
XXIII. A Laughing Family
XXIV. Two Odd Fellows
XXV. Cannibals in Court
XXVI. A Cooing Pair
XXVII. Three Famous Game Birds
XXVIII. On The Shore
XXIX. Up The River
XXX. Ducks and Drakes
XXI. Gulls and Terns at Home
XXXII. Chorus by the Birds
XXXIII. Procession of Bird Families

Appendix 1: Supplementary Material on Citizen Bird
Appendix 2: Historical Materials on Nineteenth-Century Birding and Audubon
Appendix 3: Other Works of 19th Century Children's Literature
Appendix 4: Images
Acknowledgments

Related Titles