Page 9 - St Giles Catesby booklet MC StG 20210723 e-flip_Neat
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Catesby window
Porgy (Calamus calamus) {2: 16} or sea bream inhabits inshore waters and
Animals and plants depicted in the leaded lights, clockwise starting in upper centre and ending coral reefs. Mark Catesby wrote that "It is esteemed a good eating Fish ...
in the centre. The volume number and plate number for Catesby's illustration in The Natural plentiful about the Bahama Islands" where he spent almost a year in
History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands (1729–1747) are provided. 1725–1726. The name "porgy" comes from "pargo", a Spanish name for
similar fishes.
Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) with leaves of the American
turkey oak (Quercus laevis) {1: 23}. The passenger pigeon has been Laurel greenbrier (Smilax laurifolia) {1: 15} is a rampant woody vine with
extinct since 1914 when "Martha", the last living bird, died in Cincinatti leaves like the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), a familiar aromatic European
Zoo. In Catesby's day, and until the second half of the late 1800s, vast shrub. The inconspicuous yellowish flowers are followed by shiny black
flocks of passenger pigeons darkened the skies of the eastern USA. berries that are eaten by various birds. Catesby noted that the thickly
entangled branches of this vine provided shelter for cattle in winter.
Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) {1: 11} is one of a small number of
coniferous trees that shed their foliage in winter. Bald cypresses of the Eastern screech-owl (Megascops asio) {1: 7} is a small owl that occurs in
southeastern USA are very long-lived, the oldest known tree is estimated eastern North America ranging from Mexico north to Canada. Its
to be more than 2,500 years old. plumage varies in colour and Catesby depicted the redder form that
predominates in the southern parts of its range.
Spanish festoon butterfly (Zeryhthia rumina) {2: 95} is an anomaly in
Mark Catesby's book being a European insect. This is explained by Leopard lily or Catesby's lily (Lilium catesbaei) {2: 58} is a dwarf lily that
recalling that Mark Catesby's younger brother John served as an army was named in Catesby's honour. It inhabits damp, acidic areas in the
officer based in Gibraltar, whence he sent his brother specimens southeastern USA between Florida and Virginia. Each stem bears a single
including a viperfish (Chauliodus sloani). upward-facing orange-red flower, streaked yellow in the centre.
Lilythorn (Catesbaea spinosa) {2: 100} is a beautiful, yellow-blossomed American green tree frog (Dryophytes cinerea) {2: 71} is, as its name
shrub that Mark Catesby found in the Bahama Islands. He brought seeds indicates, usually green but its colour changes with temperature. This
to England in 1726 and is likely to have illustrated the lilythorn from a small frog ranges widely through central and southeastern USA, and is
plant cultivated in William Blathwayt's garden at Dyrham near Bristol. often found in gardens and backyard swimming pools.
The name Catesbaea was coined by Mark's friend, the Dutch botanist and
physician, Dr Johan Frederik Gronovius. Willow oak (Quercus phellos) {1: 16} is a deciduous oak that can be 100ft
(30m) tall. It grows wild in the floodplains of rivers in the south and
Ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) {1: 16} was the largest southeastern USA. A tree will produce acorns profusely once it is about
woodpecker once common in South Carolina's forests. The last definite 15 years old, and the acorns are devoured by black bears, squirrels and
sighting of this bird was in 1944, and it is now regarded as extinct. The many birds including woodpeckers.
male has a striking red crest.
[centre] Rice (Oryza sativa) {1: 14} was much cultivated in South Carolina
Hercules' club (Zanthoxylum clava-herculis) {1: 26} is a spiny shrub or in Catesby's time when vast flocks of "rice birds", more familiar today as
small tree native in the southeastern USA It is also called the toothache bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), often devasted the crop. "Rice birds"
tree because, when chewed, the sap in the leaves and bark will numb the flying overhead gave Catesby a clue that led to his theory about bird
mouth so it was used by native Americans and early settlers to treat migration published in the Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society.
toothache.
