Naturalist Mark Catesby

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The following article, among eleven others, is part of the 2014 educational calendar produced by the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) in Thibodaux. This calendar, a tidal graph calendar produced annually, typically presents information related to historic landmarks, wildlife, and culture of the area. This year's entries focus on Louisiana naturalists, from colonial times to the twentieth century. Written by BTNEP's Andrew Barron and reproduced for Country Roads readers with BTNEP's permission, these articles highlight the rich biodiversity of our state and the individuals who've spent their lives documenting and/or protecting it.

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Mark Catesby (1682—1749) was an English naturalist who is well known for his work “Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands” completed during the years 1729—1747. It was the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America and included 220 color plates of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, mammals, and plants.

Catesby was inspired at a young age by John Ray, an early English naturalist. After studying natural history in England, he made collections from his sister’s home in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1712. Then, he visited the West Indies in 1714, and then returned to Virginia and onto England in 1719.

His botanical collections made him popular among other scientists in England. In 1722, he conducted a botanical expedition in the Carolinas and West Indies for the Royal Society to collect plant and animal specimens. After returning to England in 1726, he spent seventeen years preparing “Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.”

It was the first natural history publication to use folio-sized color plates that Catesby learned to etch himself. Catesby increased the realism of his illustrations by combining drawings of animals with the plants. He completed the first volume in 1731, which helped elect him to the Royal Society in 1733, and completed the second volume in

1743. He also produced a supplement in 1746-1747 from material sent to him by friends in America.

Catesby was also the first naturalist to study, author, and present a paper to the Royal Society on bird migration, entitled “Of Birds of Passage.” He was the first to express concern for the decrease of birds due to habitat loss and to discover that birds migrate (people thought that birds overwintered in ponds or the trunks of trees).

Carolus Linnaeus, the inventor of the scientific naming system, included much of Catesby’s information from “Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands” in the tenth edition of his “Systema Naturae” (1758). Although Catesby documented a large variety of animals and plants that occur here, he never visited Louisiana.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Catesby