Audubon, once a Cincinnati resident, is revered for his paintings of
America birds, but some of his writings about them have lost their
authority. His painting of the common greenshank may be admired, but his
discovery is not now recognized by the authorities. Audubon reported
having collected three of them during a visit to southern Florida in
1832, but for years the experts have discounted this report, saying none
of those specimens exists. In fact, there is one all-but-forgotten
common greenshank from Audubon in the Smithsonian Museum  (#USNM A1975)
with the appropriate date and locality; this record is the earliest for
North America by many years. Another recently-recognized Florida
greenshank specimen from 1882 is probably older than any Alaska example,
and has been accepted by the FL records committee.
        As for the crested grebe, Audubon was likely led astray, probably by
migrating red-necked grebes and the extravagant reports of explorers in
the "fur country" in the north; his statements about how common the
crested grebe was in North America are extravagant, but there is at
least one neglected but undeniable North American specimen not
recognized by museum curators for unknown reasons.
        There may well be some other old finds that have been scorned or
overlooked by today's experts; one is a strange occurrence of a pair of
black-headed siskins that Audubon illustrates accurately and describes
thus: "While residing in Henderson, on the Ohio [in KY] I, one cold
morning in December, observed five males of this species on the heads of
some sunflowers in my garden, and after watching them for a little time,
shot two of them." Audubon illustrated a male, but his specimens are not
known to persist. Still, a pair of museum specimens of this species from
North America do exist, collected in Colorado in 1877!
        All these surprises about new and unknown N. American species come from
routine investigations of museum holdings, and there are probably a lot
more out there. Who knows, though: birders with cameras may add more
species to the N. Am. list even to this day, for birds both living and
dead...
Bill Whan
Columbus

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