Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta). Vol II. Plate 40. Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors). Vol I. Plate 100.
America Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus). Vol I. Plate 85. Osprey or “Fishing Hawk” (Pandion haliaetus). Vol I. Plate 2.
naturalist John James Audubon and was consulted by Charles
Darwin. Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus relied on his work
for his famous system for classifying species. Catesby was also
among the first to comment on bird migration and the impact
of habitat destruction. Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying
Catesby’s book was “The only complete, reliable, illustrated
natural history of America.”
Catesby dedicated most of his life to exploring and
documenting the wilderness in North America. His images
of birds in their natural environment look much as they do
today around the waterways on Kiawah. As an example, his
Green Heron, “Green Bittern,” (Butorides virescens) perched
on a Carolina ash tree branch (Fraxinus caroliniana) looks
remarkably similar to barrier island topography. Vol I. Plate
80. Mark Catesby’s The Natural History of Carolina, Florida,
and the Bahama Islands, Vol I and II shows many paintings
of wildlife which would have been sketched when he was
exploring Kiawah Island. Others from his book include the bald eagle, osprey, American oystercatcher, blue-winged teal,
loggerhead turtle, green tree frog, belted kingfisher, white
ibis, black skimmer, laughing gull, and Eastern cottonmouth
snake, to name a few.
Catesby’s images accurately portray much of the waterfowl
around Kiawah; it is his attention to detail and beautifully
painted illustrations of wildlife in its natural habitat that
have made his original work so valuable. It is also interesting
to note that Volumes I and II of The Natural History were
published 100 years before James John Audubon published
his well known book Birds of America.
Thanks go to David J. Elliott, Director of the Catesby
Centre at Clemson University in S.C., for sharing his
extensive knowledge about Mark Catesby and granting
permission for the use of these images. These Catesby prints
are from the Royal Society’s copy of The Natural History
Collection and courtesy of the Catesby Centre, Clemson
University, Sylvia W. Bacon, Artistic Director. NK
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