N O T E S

ON THE

S T A T E OF V I R G I N I A .

WJtlTTEN BY

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

ULUSTAAT1D WITH

A MAP, including the States of VIRGINIA, MARY*

LAND» DELAWARE and PENNSYLVANIA*

L O N D O N :

PRINTED FOR JOHN STOCKDALE, OPPOSITE

BVRLINCTON-HOUSE, PICCADILLY,
M.DCC.LXXXVII.

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 43
We cultivate also potatoes, both the long and the round, turnips,
carrots, parsneps, pumpkins, and ground nuts (Arachis.) Our grasses
are Lucerne, St. Foin, Burnet, Timothy, ray and orchard grass; red,
white, and yellow clover; greenswerd, blue grass, and crab grass.
The gardens yield musk melons, water melons, tomatas, okra,
pomegranates, figs, and the esculent plants of Europe.
The orchards produce apples, pears, cherries, quinces, peaches,27
nectarines, apricots, almonds, and plumbs.

ANIMALS
Our quadrupeds have been mostly described by Linnseus and Mons.
de Buffon.28 Of these the Mammoth, or big buffalo, as called by the
Indians, must certainly have been the largest. Their tradition is, that
he was carnivorous, and still exists in the northern parts of America.
A delegation of warriors from the Delaware tribe having visited the
governor of Virginia, during the present revolution, on matters of
business, after these had been discussed and settled in council, the
governor asked them some questions relative to their country, and,
among others, what they knew or had heard of the animal whose bones
were found at the Saltlicks, on the Ohio. Their chief speaker im-
mediately put himself into an attitude of oratory, and with a pomp
suited to what he conceived the elevation of his subject, informed him
that it was a tradition handed down from their fathers, "That in
antient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to the Big-
bone licks, and began an universal destruction of the bear, deer, elks,
buffaloes, and other animals, which had been created for the use of
the Indians: that the Great Man above, looking down and seeing this,
was so enraged that he seized his lightning, descended on the earth,
seated himself on a neighbouring mountain, on a rock, of which his
seat and the print of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled his bolts
among them till the whole were slaughtered, except the big bull, who
presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell; but
missing one at length, it wounded him in the side; whereon, springing
round, he bounded over the Ohio, over the Wabash, the Illinois, and
finally over the great lakes, where he is living at this day." It is well
known that on the Ohio, and in many parts of America further north,

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 44 Notes on the State of Virginia
tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude, are found in
great numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little
below it. A Mr. Stanley, taken prisoner by the Indians near the mouth
of the Tanissee, relates, that, after being transferred through several
tribes, from one to another, he was at length carried over the mountains
west of the Missouri to a river which runs westwardly; that these bones
abounded there; and that the natives described to him the animal to
which they belonged as still existing in the northern parts of their
country; from which description he judged it to be an elephant. Bones
of the same kind have been lately found, some feet below the surface
of the earth, in salines opened on the North Holston, a branch of the
Tanissee, about the latitutde of 36%°. North. From the accounts pub-
lished in Europe, I suppose it to be decided, that these are of the same
kind with those found in Siberia.29 Instances are mentioned of like
animal remains found in the more southern climates of both hemis-
pheres;30 but they are either so loosely mentioned as to leave a doubt
of the fact, so inaccurately described as not to authorize the classing
them with the great northern bones, or so rare as to found a suspicion
that they have been carried thither as curiosities from more northern
regions. So that on the whole there seem to be no certain vestiges of
the existence of this animal further south than the salines last men-
tioned.31 It is remarkable that the tusks and skeletons have been ascribed
by the naturalists of Europe to the elephant, while the grinders have
been given to the hippopotamus, or riverhorse.32 Yet it is acknowledged,
that the tusks and skeletons are much larger than those of the elephant,
and the grinders many times greater than those of the hippopotamus,
and essentially different in form. Wherever these grinders are found,
there also we find the tusks and skeleton; but no skeleton of the hippota-
mus nor grinders of the elephant. It will not be said that the hippopota-
mus and elephant came always to the same spot, the former to deposit
his grinders, and the latter his tusks and skeleton. For what became of
the parts not deposited there? We must agree then that these remains
belong to each other, that they are of one and the same animal, that
this was not a hippopotamus, because the hippopotamus had no tusks
nor such a frame, and because the grinders differ in their size as well

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 45
as in the number and form of their points. That it was not an elephant,
I think ascertained by proofs equally decisive. I will not avail myself
of the authority of the celebrated anatomist,33 who, from an examina-
tion of the form and structure of the tusks, has declared they were es-
sentially different from those of the elephant; because another anato-
mist,34 equally celebrated, has declared, on a like examination, that
they are precisely the same. Between two such authorities I will suppose
this circumstance equivocal. But, i. The skeleton of the mammoth (for
so the incognitum has been called) bespeaks an animal of six times the
cubic volume of the elephant, as Mons. de Buffon has admitted.35
2. The grinders are five times as large, are square, and the grinding
surface studded with four or five rows of blunt points: whereas those
of the elephant are broad and thin, and their grinding surface flat.36
3. I have never heard an instance, and suppose there has been none,
of the grinder of an elephant being found in America. 4. From the
known temperature and constitution of the elephant he could never
have existed in those regions where the remains of the mammoth have
been found. The elephant is a native only of the torrid zone and its
vicinities: if, with the assistance of warm apartments and warm cloth-
ing, he has been preserved in life in the temperate climates of Europe,
it has only been for a small portion of what would have been his natural
period, and no instance of his multiplication in them has ever been
known. But no bones of the mammoth, as I have before observed, have
been ever found further south than the salines of the Holston, and
they have been found as far north as the Arctic circle. Those, therefore,
who are of opinion that the elephant and mammoth are the same,
must believe, i. That the elephant known to us can exist and multiply
in the frozen zone; or, 2. That an internal fire may once have warmed
those regions, and since abandoned them, of which, however, the globe
exhibits no unequivocal indications; or, 3. That the obliquity of the
ecliptic, when these elephants lived, was so great as to include within
the tropics all those regions in which the bones are found; the tropics
being, as is before observed, the natural limits of habitation for the
elephant.37 But if it be admitted that this obliquity has really decreased,
and we adopt the highest rate of decrease yet pretended, that is, of one

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 46 Notes on the State of Virginia
minute in a century, to transfer the northern tropic to the Arctic circle,
would carry the existence of these supposed elephants 250,000 years back;
a period far beyond our conception of the duration of animal bones left
exposed to the open air, as these are in many instances. Besides, though
these regions would then be supposed within the tropics, yet their
winters would have been too severe for the sensibility of the elephant.
They would have had too but one day and one night in the year, a cir-
cumstance to which we have no reason to suppose the nature of the
elephant fitted. However, it has been demonstrated, that, if a variation
of obliquity in the ecliptic takes place at all, it is vibratory, and never
exceeds the limits of 9 degrees, which is not sufficient to bring these
bones within the tropics. One of these hypotheses, or some other equally
voluntary and inadmissible to cautious philosophy, must be adopted to
support the opinion that these are the bones of the elephant. For my own
part, I find it easier to believe that an animal may have existed, resem-
bling the elephant in his tusks, and general anatomy, while his nature
was in other respects extremely different. From the 30th degree of
South latitude to the 30th of North, are nearly the limits which nature
has fixed for the existence and multiplication of the elephant known to
us. Proceeding thence northwardly to 365/2 degrees, we enter those
assigned to the mammoth. The further we advance North, the more
their vestiges multiply as far as the earth has been explored in that
direction; and it is as probable as otherwise, that this progression con-
tinues to the pole itself, if land extends so far. The center of the Frozen
zone then may be the Achme of their vigour, as that of the Torrid is
of the elephant. Thus nature seems to have drawn a belt of separation
between these two tremendous animals, whose breadth indeed is not
precisely known, though at present we may suppose it about 6l/2 degrees
of latitude; to have assigned to the elephant the regions South of these
confines, and those North to the mammoth, founding the constitution
of the one in her extreme of heat, and that of the other in the extreme
of cold. When the Creator has therefore separated their nature as far
as the extent of the scale of animal life allowed to this planet would
permit, it seems perverse to declare it the same, from a partial resem-
blance of their tusks and bones, But to whatever animal we ascribe

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 47
these remains, it is certain such a one has existed in America, and that
it has been the largest of all terrestrial beings. It should have sufficed
to have rescued the earth it inhabited, and the atmosphere it breathed,
from the imputation of impotence in the conception and nourishment
of animal life on a large scale: to have stifled, in its birth, the opinion
of a writer, the most learned too of all others in the science of animal
history, that in the new world, "La nature vivante est beaucoup moins
agissante, beaucoup moins forte:" that nature is less active, less ener-
getic on one side of the globe than she is on the other.38 As if both sides
were not warmed by the same genial sun; as if a soil of the same
chemical composition, was less capable of elaboration into animal nutri-
ment; as if the fruits and grains from that soil and sun, yielded a less
rich chyle, gave less extension to the solids and fluids of the body, or
produced sooner in the cartilages, membranes, and fibres, that rigidity
which restrains all further extension, and terminates animal growth.
The truth is, that a Pigmy and a Patagonian, a Mouse and a Mammoth,
derive their dimensions from the same nutritive juices. The difference
of increment depends on circumstances unsearchable to beings with our
capacities. Every race of animals seems to have received from their
Maker certain laws of extension at the time of their formation. Their
elaborative organs were formed to produce this, while proper obstacles
were opposed to its further progress. Below these limits they cannot fall,
nor rise above them. What intermediate station they shall take may
depend on soil, on climate, on food, on a careful choice of breeders. But
all the manna of heaven would never raise the Mouse to the bulk of the
Mammoth.
The opinion advanced by the Count de Buffon, is i. That the ani-
mals common both to the old and new world, are smaller in the latter.
2. That those peculiar to the new, are on a smaller scale. 3. That those
which have been domesticated in both, have degenerated in America:
and 4. That on the whole it exhibits fewer species.39 And the reason he
thinks is, that the heats of America are less; that more waters are spread
over its surface by nature, and fewer of these drained off by the hand
of man. In other words, that heat is friendly, and moisture adverse to
the production and developement of large quadrupeds. I will not meet

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 48 Notes on the State of Virginia
this hypothesis on its first doubtful ground, whether the climate of
America be comparatively more humid ? Because we are not furnished
with observations sufficient to decide this question. And though, till it
be decided, we are as free to deny, as others are to affirm the fact, yet
for a moment let it be supposed. The hypothesis, after this supposition,
proceeds to another; that moisture is unfriendly to animal growth. The
truth of this is inscrutable to us by reasonings a priori. Nature has
hidden from us her modus agendi. Our only appeal on such questions
is to experience; and I think that experience is against the supposition.
It is by the assistance of heat and moisture that vegetables are elaborated
from the elements of earth, air, water, and fire. We accordingly see the
more humid climates produce the greater quantity of vegetables. Vege-
tables are mediately or immediately the food of every animal: and in
proportion to the quantity of food, we see animals not only multiplied
in their numbers, but improved in their bulk, as far as the laws of their
nature will admit. Of this opinion is the Count de Buffon himself in
another part of his work:40 "in general it seems that somewhat cold
countries are better suited to our oxen than hot countries, and they are
the heavier and bigger in proportion as the climate is damper and more
abounding in pasture lands. The oxen of Denmark, of Podolie, of the
Ukraine, and of Tartary which is inhabited by the Calmouques, are the
largest of all."41 Here then a race of animals, and one of the largest too,
has been increased in its dimensions by cold and moisture, in direct
opposition to the hypothesis, which supposes that these two circum-
stances diminish animal bulk, and that it is their contraries heat and
dryness which enlarge it. But when we appeal to experience, we are not
to rest satisfied with a single fact. Let us therefore try our question on
more general ground. Let us take two portions of the earth, Europe and
America for instance, sufficiently extensive to give operation to general
causes; let us consider the circumstances peculiar to each, and observe
their effect on animal nature. America, running through the torrid as
well as temperate zone, has more heat, collectively taken, than Europe.
But Europe, according to our hypothesis, is the dryest. They are equally
adapted then to animal productions; each being endowed with one of
those causes which befriend animal growth, and with one which opposes
it. If it be thought unequal to compare Europe with America, which is

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 49
so much larger, I answer, not more so than to compare America with
the whole world. Besides, the purpose of the comparison is to try an
hypothesis, which makes the size of animals depend on the heat and
moisture of climate. If therefore we take a region, so extensive as to
comprehend a sensible distinction of climate, and so extensive too as
that local accidents, or the intercourse of animals on its borders, may
not materially affect the size of those in its interior parts, we shall
comply with those conditions which the hypothesis may reasonably
demand. The objection would be the weaker in the present case, because
any intercourse of animals which may take place on the confines of
Europe and Asia, is to the advantage of the former, Asia producing
certainly larger animals than Europe. Let us then take a comparative
view of the Quadrupeds of Europe and America, presenting them to
the eye in three different tables, in one of which shall be enumerated
those found in both countries; in a second those found in one only; in
a third those which have been domesticated in both. To facilitate the
comparison, let those of each table be arranged in gradation according
to their sizes, from the greatest to the smallest, so far as their sizes
can be conjectured. The weights of the large animals shall be expressed
in the English avoirdupoise pound and its decimals: those of the
smaller in the ounce and its decimals. Those which are marked thus*,
are actual weights of particular subjects, deemed among the largest of
their species. Those marked thus f, are furnished by judicious persons,
well acquainted with the species, and saying, from conjecture only,
what the largest individual they had seen would probably have weighed.
The other weights are taken from Messrs. Buffon and D'Aubenton, and
are of such subjects as came casually to their hands for dissection. This
circumstance must be remembered where their weights and mine stand
opposed: the latter being stated, not to produce a conclusion in favour
of the American species, but to justify a suspension of opinion until we
are better informed, and a suspicion in the mean time that there is no
uniform difference in favour of either; which is all I pretend.
I have not inserted in the first table the Phoca nor leather-winged
bat,42 because the one living half the year in the water, and the other
being a winged animal, the individuals of each species may visit both
continents.

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 50 Notes on the State of Virginia
A comparative View of the Quadrupeds of
Europe and of America.
I. Aboriginals of both.
EUROPE. AMERICA.

Ib. Ib.
Mammoth
Buffalo. Bison *i8oo
White bear. Ours blanc
Caribou. Renne
Bear. Ours 153-7 *4io
Elk. Elan. Orignal, (Moose) palmated
Red deer. Cerf 288.8 *273
Fallow deer. Daim 167.8
Wolf. Loup 69.8
Roe. Chevreuil 56.7
Glutton. Glouton. Carcajou
Wild cat. Chat sauvage t3°
Lynx. Loup cervier 25.
Beaver. Castor 18.5 *45
Badger. Blaireau 13.6
Red Fox. Renard 13-5
Grey Fox. Isatis
Otter. Loutre 8-9 t»
Monax. Marmot te 6-5
Vison. Fouine 2.8
Hedgehog. Herisson 2.2
Martin. Marte 1-9 1*
OZ.
Water rat. Rat d'eau 7-5
Wesel. Belette 2.2 OZ.
Flying squirrel. Polatouche 2.2 t4
Shrew mouse. Musaraigne I.

II. Aboriginals of one only.

EUROPE. AMERICA.

Ib. Ib.
Sanglier. Wild boar 280 . Tapir 534 .
Mouflon. Wild sheep 56 . Elk, round horned f45° •
Bouquetin. Wild goat Puma
Lievre. Haire43 7.6 Jaguar 218.
Lapin. Rabbet 3.4 Cabiai 109.
Putois. Polecat 3.3 Tamanoir 109.
Genette 3.1 Tamandua 65.4

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 51
II. TABLE continued.
EUROPE. AMERICA.

Ib.
Desnam. Muskrat oz. Cougar of N. Amer. 75-
Ecureuil. Squirrel 12. Cougar of S. Amer. 59-4
Hermine. Ermin 8.2 Ocelot
Rat. Rat 7-5 Pecari 4 6 -3
Loirs 3-i Jaguaret 43- 6
Lerot. Dormouse 1.8 Alco
Taupe. Mole I .2 Lama
Hamster •9 Paco
Zisel Paca 3 2 -7
Leming Serval
Souris. Mouse .6 Sloth. Unau 27i
Saricovienne
Kincajou
Tatou Kabassou 21.8
Urson. Urchin
Raccoon. Raton 16.5
Coati
Coendou 16.3
Sloth. A'i I
3-
Sapajou Ouarini
Sapajou Coaita 9.8
Tatou Encubert
Tatou Apar
Tatou Cachica 7-
Little Coendou 6-5
Opossum. Sarigue
Tapeti
Margay
Crabier
Agouti 4.2
Sapajou Sa'i 3-5
Tatou Cirquingon
Tatou Tatouate 3-3
Mouffette Squash
Mouffette Chinche
Mouffette Cone pate.
Scunk
Mouffette. Zorilla
Whabus. Hare. Rab-
bet
Aperea
Akouchi

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 52 Notes on the State of Virginia
II. TABLE continued.
EUROPE. AMERICA.

Ondatra. Muskrat Ib.

Pilori
Great grey squirrel t2-7
Fox squirrel of Vir-
ginia 1-2.625
Surikate 2.

Mink t2.
Sapajou. Sajou 1.8
Indian pig. Cochon 1.6
d'Inde
Sapajou. Saimiri i-5
Phalanger
Coquallin
Lesser grey squirrel ti-5
Black squirrel ti-5
Red squirrel 10. OZ.
Sagoin Saki
Sagoin Pinche
Sagoin Tamarin oz.
Sagoin Ouistiti 4-4
Sagoin Marikine
Sagoin Mico
Cayopollin
Fourmillier
Marmose
Sarigue of Cayenne
Tucan
Red mole oz.
Ground squirrel 4.

III. Domesticated in both.

EUROPE. AMERICA.

Ib. Ib.
Cow 763. *2500
Horse *i366
Ass
Hog *I200
Sheep 125
Goat *8o
Dog 67.6
Cat 7-

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 53
Of the animals in the ist table Mons. de Buffon himself informs us44
that the (roe, the) beaver, the otter, and shrew mouse, though of the
same species, are larger in America than Europe. This should therefore
have corrected the generality of his expressions XVIII. 145. and else-
where, that the animals common to the two countries are considerably
less in America than in Europe, "and that without any exception."45
He tells us too that on examining a bear from America, he remarked
no difference "in the shape of this American bear compared with that
of Europe."46 But adds from Bartram's journal, that an American bear
weighed 400 Ib. English, equal to 367 Ib. French: whereas we find the
European bear examined by Mons. D'Aubenton weighed but 141 Ib.
French.47 Kalm tells us that the Moose, (Orignal) or (palmated Elk) of
America, is as high as a tall horse;48 and Catesby, that it is about the big-
ness of a middle sized ox.49 (I have seen a skeleton 7 feet high, and from
good information believe they are often considerably higher. The Elk
of Europe is not two-thirds of his height).50 The wesel is larger in
America than in Europe, as may be seen by comparing its dimensions
as reported by Mons. D'Aubenton and Kalm.51 The latter tells us, that
the lynx, badger, red fox, and flying squirrel, are the same in America
as in Europe: by which expression I understand, they are the same in all
material circumstances, in size as well as others: for if they were
smaller, they would differ from the European.52 Our grey fox is, by
Catesby's account, little different in size and shape from the European
fox.53 I presume he means the red fox of Europe, as does Kalm, where
he says, that in size "they do not quite come up to our foxes."54 For
proceeding next to the red fox of America, he says "they are entirely the
same with the European sort." Which shews he had in view one Euro-
pean sort only, which was the red. So that the result of their testimony
is, that the American grey fox is somewhat less than the European red;
which is equally true of the grey fox of Europe, as may be seen by com-
paring the measures of the Count de Buffon and Mons, D'Aubenton.55
The white bear of America is as large as that of Europe. The bones of
the Mammoth which have been found in America, are as large as those
found in the old world. It may be asked, why I insert the Mammoth,
as if it still existed ? I ask in return, why I should omit it, as if it did
not exist ? Such is the oeconomy of nature, that no instance can be pro-

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 54 Notes on the State of Virginia
duced of her having permitted any one race of her animals to become
extinct; of her having formed any link in her great work so weak as
to be broken.56 To add to this, the traditionary testimony of the Indians,
that this animal still exists in the northern and western parts of America,
would be adding the light of a taper to that of the meridian sun. Those
parts still remain in their aboriginal state, unexplored and undisturbed
by us, or by others for us. He may as well exist there now, as he did
formerly where we find his bones. If he be a carnivorous animal, as
some Anatomists have conjectured, and the Indians affirm, his early
retirement may be accounted for from the general destruction of the
wild game by the Indians, which commences in the first instant of their
connection with us, for the purpose of purchasing matchcoats, hatchets,
and fire locks, with their skins. There remain then the buffalo, red
deer, fallow deer, wolf, (the renne),57 glutton, wild cat, monax, vison,
hedge-hog, martin, and water rat, of the comparative sizes of which
we have not sufficient testimony. It does not appear that Messrs, de
Buff on and D'Aubenton have measured, weighed, or seen those of
America. It is said of some of them, by some travellers, that they are
smaller than the European. But who were these travellers? Have they
not been men of a very different description from those who have laid
open to us the other three quarters of the world? Was natural history
the object of their travels? Did they measure or weigh the animals
they speak of? or did they not judge of them by sight, or perhaps even
from report only? Were they acquainted with the animals of their
own country, with which they undertake to compare them ? Have they
not been so ignorant as often to mistake the species?58 A true answer to
these questions would probably lighten their authority, so as to render
it insufficient for the foundation of an hypothesis. How unripe we yet
are, for an accurate comparison of the animals of the two countries,
will appear from the work of Mons. de Buff on. The ideas we should
have formed of the sizes of some animals, from the information he had
received at his first publications concerning them, are very different
from what his subsequent communications give us. And indeed his
candour in this can never be too much praised. One sentence of his book
must do him immortal honour. "I love as much a person who corrects
me in an error as another who teaches me a truth, because in effect an
error corrected is a truth."59 He seems to have thought the Cabiai

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 55
he first examined wanted little of its full growth. "It was not yet fully
grown."60 Yet he weighed but 46% Ib. and he found afterwards, that
these animals, when full grown, weigh 100 Ib.61 He had supposed, from
the examination of a jaguar, said to be two years old, which weighed
but 16 Ib. 12 oz. that, when he should have acquired his full growth, he
would not be larger than a middle sized dog.62 But a subsequent account
raises his weight to 200 Ib.63 Further information will, doubtless, pro-
duce further corrections. The wonder is, not that there is yet something
in this great work to correct, but that there is so little. The result of
this view then is, that of 26 quadrupeds common to both countries, 7
are said to be larger in America, 7 of equal size, and 12 not sufficiently
examined. So that the first table impeaches the first member of the
assertion, that of the animals common to both countries, the American
are smallest, "and that without any exception."64 It shews it not just,
in all the latitude in which its author has advanced it, and probably
not to such a degree as to found a distinction between the two countries.
Proceeding to the second table, which arranges the animals found in
one of the two countries only, Mons. de Buffon observes, that the tapir,
the elephant of America, is but of the size of a small cow. To preserve
our comparison, I will add that the wild boar, the elephant of Europe,
is little more than half that size. I have made an elk with round or
cylindrical horns, an animal of America, and peculiar to it; because I
have seen many of them myself, and more of their horns; and because
I can say, from the best information, that, in Virginia, this kind of elk
has abounded much, and still exists in smaller numbers; (the palmated
kind is confined to the more Northern latitudes).65 I have made our
hare or rabbet peculiar, believing it to be different from both the Euro-
pean animals of those denominations, and calling it therefore by its
Algonquin name Whabus, to keep it distinct from these.66 Kalm is of
the same opinion. I have enumerated the squirrels according to our
own knowledge, derived from daily sight of them, because I am not
able to reconcile with that the European appellations and descriptions.
I have heard of other species, but they have never come within my
own notice. These, I think, are the only instances in which I have
departed from the authority of Mons. de Buffon in the construction
of this table. I take him for my ground work, because I think him the
best informed of any Naturalist who has ever written. The result is,

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 56 Notes on the State of Virginia
that there are 18 quadrupeds peculiar to Europe; more than four times
as many, to wit 74, peculiar to America; that the first of these 74 weighs
more than the whole column of Europeans;67 and consequently this
second table disproves the second member of the assertion, that the
animals peculiar to the new world are on a smaller scale, so far as that
assertion relied on European animals for support: and it is in full
opposition to the theory which makes the animal volume to depend on
the circumstances of heat and moisture.
The Hid. table comprehends those quadrupeds only which are
domestic in both countries. That some of these, in some parts of
America, have become less than their original stock, is doubtless true;
and the reason is very obvious. In a thinly peopled country, the spon-
taneous productions of the forests and waste fields are sufficient to sup-
port indifferently the domestic animals of the farmer, with a very little
aid from him in the severest and scarcest season. He therefore finds it
more convenient to receive them from the hand of nature in that indif-
ferent state, than to keep up their size by a care and nourishment which
would cost him much labour. If, on this low fare, these animals dwindle,
it is no more than they do in those parts of Europe where the poverty
of the soil, or poverty of the owner, reduces them to the same scanty
subsistance. It is the uniform effect of one and the same cause, whether
acting on this or that side of the globe. It would be erring therefore
against that rule of philosophy, which teaches us to ascribe like effects
to like causes, should we impute this diminution of size in America to
any imbecility or want of uniformity in the operations of nature. It
may be affirmed with truth that, in those countries, and with those
individuals of America, where necessity or curiosity has produced equal
attention as in Europe to the nourishment of animals, the horses, cattle,
sheep, and hogs of the one continent are as large as those of the other.
There are particular instances, well attested, where individuals of this
country have imported good breeders from England, and have improved
their size by care in the course of some years. To make a fair compari-
son between the two countries, it will not answer to bring together ani-
mals of what might be deemed the middle or ordinary size of their
species; because an error in judging of that middle or ordinary size
would vary the result of the comparison. Thus Monsieur D'Aubenton

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 57
considers a horse of 4 feet 5 inches high and 400 Ib. weight French,
equal to 4 feet 8.6 inches and 436 Ib. English, as a middle sized horse.68
Such a one is deemed a small horse in America. The extremes must
therefore be resorted to. The same anatomist dissected a horse of 5 feet
9 inches height, French measure, equal to 6 feet 1.7 English.69 This is
near 6 inches higher than any horse I have seen: and could it be sup-
posed that I had seen the largest horses in America, the conclusion
would be, that ours have diminished, or that we have bred from a
smaller stock. In Connecticut and Rhode-Island, where the climate is
favorable to the production of grass, bullocks have been slaughtered
which weighed 2500, 2200, and 2100 Ib. nett; and those of 1800 Ib. have
been frequent. I have seen a hog weigh 1050 Ib. after the blood, bowels,
and hair had been taken from him.70 Before he was killed an attempt
was made to weigh him with a pair of steel-yards, graduated to 1200 Ib.
but he weighed more. Yet this hog was probably not within fifty genera-
tions of the European stock. I am well informed of another which
weighed noo Ib. gross. Asses have been still more neglected than any
other domestic animal in America. They are neither fed nor housed in
the most rigorous season of the year. Yet they are larger than those
measured by Mons. D'Aubenton, of 3 feet 7% inches, 3 feet 4 inches,
and 3 feet 2% inches, the latter weighing only 215.8 Ib.71 These sizes,
I suppose, have been produced by the same negligence in Europe, which
has produced a like diminution here. Where care has been taken of
them on that side of the water, they have been raised to a size bordering
on that of the horse; not by the heat and dry ness of the climate, but by
good food and shelter. Goats have been also much neglected in America.
Yet they are very prolific here, bearing twice or three times a year, and
from one to five kids at a birth. Mons. de Buffon has been sensible of
a difference in this circumstance in favour of America.72 But what are
their greatest weights I cannot say. A large sheep here weights 100 Ib.
I observe Mons. D'Aubenton calls a ram of 62 Ib. one of the middle
size.73 But to say what are the extremes of growth in these and the
other domestic animals of America, would require information of
which no one individual is possessed.74 The weights actually known
and stated in the third table preceding will suffice to shew, that we
may conclude, on probable grounds, that, with equal food and care, the

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 58 Notes on the State of Virginia
climate of America will preserve the races of domestic animals as large
as the European stock from which they are derived; and consequently
that the third member of Mons. de Buffon's assertion, that the domestic
animals are subject to degeneration from the climate of America, is as
probably wrong as the first and second were certainly so.
That the last part of it is erroneous, which affirms that the species
of American quadrupeds are comparatively few, is evident from the
tables taken all together. By these it appears that there are an hundred
species aboriginal of America.75 Mons. de Buffon supposes about double
that number existing on the whole earth. Of these Europe, Asia, and
Africa, furnish suppose 126; that is, the 26 common to Europe and
America, and about 100 which are not in America at all. The American
species then are to those of the rest of the earth, as 100 to 126, or 4 to 5.
But the residue of the earth being double the extent of America, the
exact proportion would have been but as 4 to 8.76
Hitherto I have considered this hypothesis as applied to brute ani-
mals only, and not in its extension to the man of America, whether
aboriginal or transplated.77 It is the opinion of Mons. de Buffon that the
former furnishes no exception to it: "Although the savage of the new
world is about the same height as man in our world, this does not suffice
for him to constitute an exception to the general fact that all living
nature has become smaller on that continent. The savage is feeble, and
has small organs of generation; he has neither hair nor beard, and no
ardor whatever for his female; although swifter than the European
because he is better accustomed to running, he is, on the other hand,
less strong in body; he is also less sensitive, and yet more timid and
cowardly; he has no vivacity, no activity of mind; the activity of his
body is less an exercise, a voluntary motion, than a necessary action
caused by want; relieve him of hunger and thirst, and you deprive him
of the active principle of all his movements; he will rest stupidly upon
his legs or lying down entire days. There is no need for seeking further
the cause of the isolated mode of life of these savages and their repug-
nance for society: the most precious spark of the fire of nature has been
refused to them; they lack ardor for their females, and consequently
have no love for their fellow men: not knowing this strongest and most
tender of all affections, their other feelings are also cold and languid;

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 59
they love their parents and children but little; the most intimate of all
ties, the family connection, binds them therefore but loosely together;
between family and family there is no tie at all; hence they have no
communion, no commonwealth, no state of society. Physical love con-
stitues their only morality; their heart is icy, their society cold, and their
rule harsh. They look upon their wives only as servants for all work,
or as beasts of burden, which they load without consideration with the
burden of their hunting, and which they compel without mercy, with-
out gratitude, to perform tasks which are often beyond their strength.
They have only few children, and they take little care of them. Every-
where the original defect appears: they are indifferent because they
have little sexual capacity, and this indifference to the other sex is the
fundamental defect which weakens their nature, prevents its develop-
ment, and—destroying the very germs of life—uproots society at the
same time. Man is here no exception to the general rule. Nature, by
refusing him the power of love, has treated him worse and lowered him
deeper than any animal."78 An afflicting picture indeed, which, for the
honor of human nature, I am glad to believe has no original. Of the
Indian of South America I know nothing; for I would not honor with
the appelation of knowledge, what I derive from the fables published of
them. These I believe to be just as true as the fables of ^Esop. This
belief is founded on what I have seen of man, white, red, and black,
and what has been written of him by authors, enlightened themselves,
and writing amidst an enlightened people. The Indian of North
America being more within our reach, I can speak of him somewhat
from my own knowledge, but more from the information of others
better acquainted with him, and on whose truth and judgment I can
rely.79 From these sources I am able to say, in contradiction to this
representation, that he is neither more defective in ardor, nor more
impotent with his female, than the white reduced to the same diet and
exercise:80 that he is brave, when an enterprize depends on bravery;81
education with him making the point of honor consist in the destruction
of an enemy by stratagem, and in the preservation of his own person
free from injury; or perhaps this is nature; while it is education which
teaches us to honor force more than finesse;82 that he will defend him-
self against an host of enemies, always chusing to be killed, rather than

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 60 "Notes on the State of Virginia
83
to surrender, though it be to the whites, who he knows will treat him
well: that in other situations also he meets death with more delibera-
tion, and endures tortures with a firmness unknown almost to religious
enthusiasm with us: that he is affectionate to his children, careful of
them, and indulgent in the extreme: that his affections comprehend his
other connections, weakening, as with us, from circle to circle, as they
recede from the center: that his friendships are strong and faithful to
the uttermost extremity:84 that his sensibility is keen, even85 the war-
riors weeping most bitterly on the loss of their children, though in gen-
eral they endeavour to appear superior to human events: that his
vivacity and activity of mind is equal to ours in the same situation;
hence his eagerness for hunting, and for games of chance.86 The women
are submitted to unjust drudgery. This I believe is the case with
every barbarous people. With such, force is law. The stronger sex there-
fore imposes on the weaker. It is civilization alone which replaces
women in the enjoyment of their natural equality. That first teaches
us to subdue the selfish passions, and to respect those rights in others
which we value in ourselves. Were we in equal barbarism, our females
would be equal drudges. The man with them is less strong than with
us, but their woman stronger than ours; and both for the same obvious
reason; because our man and their woman is habituated to labour,
and formed by it. With both races the sex which is indulged with ease
is least athletic. An Indian man is small in the hand and wrist for the
same reason for which a sailor is large and strong in the arms and
shoulders, and a porter in the legs and thighs.—They raise fewer chil-
dren than we do. The causes of this are to be found, not in a difference
of nature, but of circumstance. The women very frequently attending
the men in their parties of war and of hunting, child-bearing becomes
extremely inconvenient to them. It is said, therefore, that they have
learnt the practice of procuring abortion by the use of some vegetable;
and that it even extends to prevent conception for a considerable time
after.87 During these parties they are exposed to numerous hazards, to
excessive exertions, to the greatest extremities of hunger. Even at their
homes the nation depends for food, through a certain part of every year,
on the gleanings of the forest: that is, they experience a famine once in
every year. With all animals, if the female be badly fed, or not fed

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 61
at all, her young perish: and if both male and female be reduced to
like want, generation becomes less active, less productive. To the
obstacles then of want and hazard, which nature has opposed to the
multiplication of wild animals, for the purpose of restraining their
numbers within certain bounds, those of labour and of voluntary abor-
tion are added with the Indian. No wonder then if they multiply less
than we do. Where food is regularly supplied, a single farm will shew
more of cattle, than a whole country of forests can of buffaloes. The
same Indian women, when married to white traders, who feed them
and their children plentifully and regularly, who exempt them from
excessive drudgery, who keep them stationary and unexposed to acci-
dent, produce and raise as many children as the white women.88
Instances are known, under these circumstances, of their rearing a
dozen children. An inhuman practice once prevailed in this country
of making slaves of the Indians. (This practice commenced with the
Spaniards with the first discovery of America).89 It is a fact well known
with us, that the Indian women so enslaved produced and raised as
numerous families as either the whites or blacks among whom they
lived.—It has been said, that Indians have less hair than the whites,
except on the head.90 But this is a fact of which fair proof can scarcely
be had. With them it is disgraceful to be hairy on the body. They say
it likens them to hogs. They therefore pluck the hair as fast as it
appears. But the traders who marry their women, and prevail on them
to discontinue this practice, say, that nature is the same with them as
with the whites, Nor, if the fact be true, is the consequence necessary
which has been drawn from it. Negroes have notoriously less hair than
the whites; yet they are more ardent. But if cold and moisture be the
agents of nature for diminishing the races of animals, how comes she
all at once to suspend their operation as to the physical man of the new
world, whom the Count acknowledges to be "about the same size as
the man of our hemisphere,"91 and to let loose their influence on his
moral faculties? How has this "combination of the elements and other
physical causes, so contrary to the enlargement of animal nature in this
new world, these obstacles to the developement and formation of great
germs,"92 been arrested and suspended, so as to permit the human body
to acquire its just dimensions, and by what inconceivable process has

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 62 Notes on the State of Virginia
their action been directed on his mind alone? To judge of the truth of
this, to form a just estimate of their genius and mental powers, more
facts are wanting, and great allowance to be made for those circum-
stances of their situation which call for a display of particular talents
only. This done, we shall probably find that they are formed in mind as
well as in body, on the same module with the "Homo sapiens Euro-
paeus."93 The principles of their society forbidding all compulsion, they
are to be led to duty and to enterprize by personal influence and persua-
sion. Hence eloquence in council, bravery and address in war, become
the foundations of all consequence with them. To these acquirements
all their faculties are directed. Of their bravery and address in war we
have multiplied proofs, because we have been the subjects on which
they were exercised. Of their eminence in oratory we have fewer
examples, because it is displayed chiefly in their own councils. Some,
however, we have of very superior lustre. I may challenge the whole
orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator,
if Europe has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage,
superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore,
when governor of this state.94 And, as a testimony of their talents in
this line, I beg leave to introduce it, first stating the incidents necessary
for understanding it. In the spring of the year 1774, a robbery was com-
mitted by some Indians on certain land-adventurers on the river Ohio.
The whites in that quarter, according to their custom, undertook to
punish this outrage in a summary way. Captain Michael Cresap,95 and
a certain Daniel Great-house, leading on these parties, surprized, at
different times, travelling and hunting parties of the Indians, having
their women and children with them, and murdered many. Among
these were unfortunately the family of Logan, a chief celebrated in
peace and war, and long distinguished as the friend of the whites.96
This unworthy return provoked his vengeance. He accordingly signal-
ized himself in the war which ensued. In the autumn of the same year
a decisive battle was fought at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway,
between the collected forces of the Shawanese, Mingoes, and Delawares,
and a detachment of the Virginia militia. The Indians were defeated,
and sued for peace. Logan however disdained to be seen among the
suppliants. But, lest the sincerity of a treaty should be distrusted, from

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 63
which so distinguished a chief absented himself, he sent by a messen-
ger the following speech to be delivered to Lord Dunmore.
"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin
hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked,
and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody
war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was
my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and
said, 'Logan is the friend of white men.' I had even thought to have
lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, the last
spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of
Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a
drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on
me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted
my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do
not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt
fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to
mourn for Logan?—Not one."
Before we condemn the Indians of this continent as wanting genius,
we must consider that letters have not yet been introduced among
them.97 Were we to compare them in their present state with the Euro-
peans North of the Alps, when the Roman arms and arts first crossed
those mountains, the comparison would be unequal, because, at that
time, those parts of Europe were swarming with numbers; because
numbers produce emulation, and multiply the chances of improvement,
and one improvement begets another. Yet I may safely ask, How many
good poets, how many able mathematicians, how many great inventors
in arts or sciences, had Europe North of the Alps then produced ? And
it was sixteen centuries after this before a Newton could be formed. I
do not mean to deny, that there are varieties in the race of man, dis-
tinguished by their powers both of body and mind. I believe there are,
as I see to be the case in the races of other animals. I only mean to sug-
gest a doubt, whether the bulk and faculties of animals depend on the
side of the Atlantic on which their food happens to grow, or which
furnishes the elements of which they are compounded? Whether
nature has enlisted herself as a Cis or Trans-Atlantic partisan? I am
induced to suspect, there has been more eloquence than sound reason-

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 64 Notes on the State of Virginia
ing displayed in support of this theory; that it is one of those cases
where the judgment has been seduced by a glowing pen: and whilst I
render every tribute of honor and esteem to the celebrated Zoologist,
who has added, and is still adding, so many precious things to the
treasures of science, I must doubt whether in this instance he has not
cherished error also, by lending her for a moment his vivid imagination
and bewitching language.98
So far the Count de Buffon has carried this new theory of the
tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this side of the
Atlantic. Its application to the race of whites, transplanted from Europe,
remained for the Abbe Raynal." "One must be astonished (he says)
that America has not yet produced one good poet, one able mathema-
tician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science."100 "America
has not yet produced one good poet." When we shall have existed as a
people as long as the Greeks did before they produced a Homer, the
Romans a Virgil, the French a Racine and Voltaire, the English a
Shakespeare and Milton, should this reproach be still true, we will
enquire from what unfriendly causes it has proceeded, that the other
countries of Europe and quarters of the earth shall not have inscribed
any name in the roll of poets.101 But neither has America produced "one
able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single
science." In war we have produced a Washington, whose memory will
be adored while liberty shall have votaries, whose name will triumph
over time, and will in future ages assume its just station among the
most celebrated worthies of the world, when that wretched philosophy
shall be forgotten which would have arranged him among the degen-
eracies of nature. In physics we have produced a Franklin, than whom
no one of the present age has made more important discoveries, nor has
enriched philosophy with more, or more ingenious solutions of the
phenomena of nature. We have supposed Mr. Rittenhouse second to
no astronomer living: that in genius he must be the first, because he is
self-taught. As an artist he has exhibited as great a proof of mechanical
genius as the world has ever produced. He has not indeed made a
world; but he has by imitation approached nearer its Maker than any
man who has lived from the creation to this day.102 As in philosophy
and war, so in government, in oratory, in painting,103 in the plastic art,

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 65
we might shew that America, though but a child of yesterday, has
already given hopeful proofs of genius, as well of the nobler kinds,
which arouse the best feelings of man, which call him into action, which
substantiate his freedom, and conduct him to happiness, as of the
subordinate, which serve to amuse him only. We therefore suppose,
that this reproach is as unjust as it is unkind; and that, of the geniuses
which adorn the present age, America contributes its full share. For
comparing it with those countries, where genius is most cultivated,
where are the most excellent models for art, and scaffoldings for the
attainment of science, as France and England for instance, we calculate
thus. The United States contain three millions of inhabitants; France
twenty millions; and the British islands ten. We produce a Washington,
a Franklin, a Rittenhouse. France then should have half a dozen in
each of these lines, and Great-Britain half that number, equally eminent.
It may be true, that France has: we are but just becoming acquainted
with her, and our acquaintance so far gives us high ideas of the genius
of her inhabitants. It would be injuring too many of them to name par-
ticularly a Voltaire, a Buffon, the constellation of Encyclopedists, the
Abbe Raynal himself, &c. &c. We therefore have reason to believe she
can produce her full quota of genius. The present war having so long
cut off all communication with Great-Britain, we are not able to make
a fair estimate of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which
she wages war is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not
seem the legitimate offspring either of science or of civilization. The
sun of her glory is fast descending to the horizon. Her philosophy has
crossed the Channel, her freedom the Atlantic, and herself seems pass-
ing to that awful dissolution, whose issue is not given human foresight
to scan.104
Having given a sketch of our minerals, vegetables, and quadrupeds,
and being led by a proud theory to make a comparison of the latter
with those of Europe, and to extend it to the Man of America, both
aboriginal and emigrant, I will proceed to the remaining articles com-
prehended under the present query.
Between ninety and an hundred of our birds have been described by
Catesby. His drawings are better as to form and attitude, than colour-
ing, which is generally too high. They are the following.

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 BIRDS OF VIRGINIA.

Linnaean Designation. Catesby's Designation. Popular Names. Buffon™

oiseaux.

Lanius tyrannus Muscicapa corona rubra J-55 Tyrant. Field martin 8.398
Vultur Aura Buteo specie Gallo-pavonis 1.6 Turkey buzzard i .246
Falco leucocephalus Aquila capite albo i .1 Bald Eagle 1.138
Falco sparverius Accipiter minor i-5 Little hawk. Sparrow hawk
Falco columbarius Accipiter palumbarius i-3 Pigeon hawk 1.338
Falco furcatus Accipiter cauda furcata J-4 Forked tail hawk i .286.312
Accipiter piscatorius I .2 Fishing hawk 1.199
Strix asio Noctua aurita minor *-7 Little owl 1.141
Psittacus Caroliniensis Psitticus Caroliniensis I . II Parrot of Carolina. Perroquet 11-383
Corvus cristatus Pica glandaria, casrulea, cristata I.I5 Blue jay 5.164
Oriolus Baltimore Icterus ex aureo nigroque varius 1.48 Baltimore bird 5.318
Oriolus spurius Icterus minor 1.49 Bastard Baltimore 5.321
Gracula quiscula Monedula purpurea I . 12 Purple jackdaw. Crow blackbird 5-J34
Cuculus Americanus Cuculus Caroliniensis 1.9 Carolina cuckow 12.62
Picus principalis Picus maximus rostro albo 1.16 White bill woodpecker 13.69
Picus pileatus Picus niger maximus, capite rubro 1.17 Larger red-crested woodpecker 13.72
Picus erythrocephalus Picus capite to to rubro 1 .20 Red-headed woodpecker 13.83
Picus auratus Picus major alis aureis 1.18 Gold winged woodpecker. Yucker J3-59
Picus Carolinus Picus ventre rubro 1.19 Red bellied woodpecker 13.105
Picus pubescens Picus varius minimus I .21 Smallest spotted woodpecker 13.113
Picus villosus Picus medius quasi-villosus I.I9 Hairy woodpecker. Speck, woodpec. 13. in
Picus varius Picus varius minor ventre luteo I .21 Yellow bellied woodpecker I3-H5

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 Sitta Europasa j Sitta capite nigro I .22 Nuthatch 10.213
\Sitta capite fusco I .22 Small Nuthatch 10.214
Alcedo alcyon Ispida 1.69 Kingfisher 13.310
Certhia p'm\is Parus Americanus lutescens 1.61 Pinecreeper 9-433
Trochilus colubris Mellivora avis Caroliniensis 1.65 Humming bird 11.16
Anas Canadensis Anser Canadensis 1.92 Wild goose 17-122

Anas bucephala Anas minor purpureo capite 1-95 BurTel's head duck I7-356
Anas rustica Anas minor ex albo & fusco vario 1.98 Little brown duck I7-4I3
Anas discors Querquedula Americana variegata I .100 White face teal 17-403
Anas discors (3. Querquedula Americana fusca 1.99 Blue wing teal 17.405
Anas sponsa Anas Americanus cristatus elegans 1.97 Summer duck 17.351
Anas Americanus lato rostro i .96 Blue wing shoveler 17.275
Mergus cucullatus Anas cristatus 1.94 Round crested duck 15-437
Colymbus podiceps Prodicipes minor rostro vario 1.91 Pied bill dopchick 15-383
Ardea Herodias Ardea cristata maxima Americana 3.10 Largest crested heron 14.113
Ardea violacea Ardea stellaris cristata Americana 1.79 Crested bittern M-I34
Ardea cxrulea Ardea cserulea 1.76 Blue heron. Crane 14.131
Ardea virescens Ardea stellaris minima i.80 Small bittern 14.142
Ardea asquinoctialis Ardea alba minor Caroliniensis 1.77 Little white heron 14.136
Ardea stellaris Americana 1.78 Brown bittern. Indian hen 14-175
Tantalus loculator Pelicanus Americanus 1.81 Wood pelican i3-4°3
Tantalus alber Numenius albus 1.82 White curlew 15.62
Tantalus fuscus Numenius fuscus 1.83 Brown curlew 15.64
Charadrius vociferus Pluvialis vociferus 1.71 Chattering plover. Kildee 15.151
Hxmatopus ostralegus Hasmatopus 1.85 Oyster Catcher 15.185
Rallus Virginianus Gallinula Americana 1.70 Soree. Ral-bird 15.256
Meleagris Gallopavo106 Gallopavo Sylvestris xliv. Wild turkey 3.187.229
Tetrao Virginianus Perdix Sylvestris Virginiana 3.12 American partridge. American quail 4-237
Urogallus minor, or a kind of Lagopus107 3-i Pheasant. Mountain partridge 3-409
Columba passerina Turtur minimus guttatus 1.26 Ground dove 4.404

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 BIRDS OF VIRGINIA—Continued

Linnaean Designation. Catesby's Designation. Popular Names. Buffbn

oiseaux.

Columba migratoria Palumbus migratorius 1-23 Pigeon of passage. Wild pigeon 4.351
Columba Caroliniensis Tutrur Caroliniensis 1.24 Turtle. Turtle dove 4.401
Alauda alpestris Alauda gutture flavo 1.32 Lark. Sky lark 9-79
Alauda magna Alauda magna i-33 Field lark. Large lark 6.59
Sturnus niger alis superne rubentibus i-i3 Red winged starling. Marsh blackbird 5-293
Turdus migratorius Turdus pilaris migratorius 1.29 Fieldfare of Carolina. Robin redbreast f 5.426
\9-257
Turdus rufus Turdus ruffus 1.28 Fox coloured thrush. Thrush 5-449
Turdus polyglot tos108 Turdus minor cinereo albus non maculatus 1.27 Mocking bird 5-45i
Turdus minimus i-3i Little thrush 5.400
Ampelis garrulus. j3. Garrulus Caroliniensis 1.46 Chatterer 6.162
Loxia Cardinalis Coccothraustes rubra 1.38 Red bird. Virginia nightingale 6.185
Loxia Caerulea Coccothraustes caerulea i-39 Blue gross beak 8.125
Emberiza hyemalis Passer nivalis 1.36 Snow bird 8.47
Emberiza Oryzivora Hortulanus Caroliniensis 1.14 Rice bird 8.49
Emberiza Ciris Fringilla tricolor 1.44 Painted finch 7.247
Tanagra cyanea Linaria caerulea 1.45 Blue linnet 7.122
Passer culus i-35 Little sparrow 7.120
Passer fuscus i-34 Cowpen bird 7.196
Fringilla erythrophthalma Passer niger oculis rubris J
-34 Towhe bird 7.201
Fringilla tristis Carduelis Americanus !-43 American goldfinch. Lettuce bird 7.297
Fringilla purpurea 1.41 Purple finch 8.129
Muscicapa crinita Muscicapa cristata ventre luteo 1.52 Crested flycatcher 8.379
Muscicapa rubra Muscicapa rubra 1.56 Summer red bird 8.410

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 Muscicapa ruticilla Ruticilla Americana i.6 7 Red start [8-349
\9-259
Muscicapa Caroliniensis Muscicapa vertice nigro i.66 Cat bird 8.372
Muscicapa nigrescens i-53 Black-cap flycatcher 8.34i
Muscicapa fusca i-54 Little brown flycatcher 8.344
Muscicapa oculis rubris i-54 Red-eyed flycatcher 8-337
Motacilla Sialis Rubicula Americana cserulea i-47 Blue bird 9.308
Motacilla regulus Regulus cristatus 3-i3 Wren 10.58
Motacilla trochilus. /3 Oenanthe Americana pectore luteo i.5o Yellow-breasted chat 6.96
Parus bicolor Parus cristatus i-57 Crested titmouse lo.iSi
Parus Americanus Parus fringillaris i .64 Finch creeper 9.442
Parus Virginianus Parus uropygeo luteo 1.58 Yellow rump 10. 184
Parus cucullo nigro i .60 Hooded titmouse 10. 183
Parus Americanus gutture luteo 1.62 Yellow-throated creeper
Parus Caroliniensis 1.63 Yellow titmouse 9-431
Hirundo Pelasgia Hirundo cauda aculeata Americana 3-8 American swallow 12.478
Hirundo purpurea Hirundo purpurea 1.51 Purple martin. House martin 12.445
Caprimulgus Europasus a Caprimulgus 1.8 Goatsucker. Great bat 12.243
Caprimulgus Europseus /8 Caprimulgus minor Americanus *.i6 Whip-poor Will 12.246

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 70 Notes on the State of Virginia
Besides these, we have
The Royston crow. Corvus The Cormorant.
cornix. Duck and Mallard.
Crane. Ardea Cana- Widgeon.
densis. Sheldrach, or Canvas back.
House swallow. Hi- Black head.
rundo rustica. (Bald Coot)109
Ground swallow. Hi- Ballcoot.
rundo riparia. Sprigtail.
Greatest grey eagle. Didapper, or Dopchick.
Smaller turkey buz- Spoon billed duck.
zard, with a fea- Water-witch.
thered head. Water-pheasant.
Greatest owl, or night Mow-bird.
hawk. Blue peter.
Wethawk, which feeds Water wagtail.
flying. Yellow-legged snipe.
Raven. Squatting snipe.
Water pelican of the Small plover.
Missisipi, whose Whistling plover.
pouch holds a peck. Woodcock.
Swan. Red bird, with black
Loon. head, wings and tail.

And doubtless many others which have not yet been described and
classed.
To this catalogue of our indigenous animals, I will add a short
account of an anomaly of nature, taking place sometimes in the race of
negroes brought from Africa, who, though black themselves, have in
rare instances, white children, called Albinos. I have known four of
these myself, and have faithful accounts of three others. The circum-
stances in which all the individuals agree are these. They are of a pallid
cadaverous white, untinged with red, without any coloured spots or
seams; their hair of the same kind of white, short, coarse, and curled
as is that of the negro; all of them well formed, strong, healthy, perfect
in their senses, except that of sight, and born of parents who had no
mixture of white blood. Three of these Albinos were sisters, having
two other full sisters, who were black. The youngest of the three was
killed by lightning, at twelve years of age. The eldest died at about
27 years of age, in child-bed, with her second child. The middle one
is now alive in health, and has issue, as the eldest had, by a black man,

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 Productions Mineral, Vegetable and Animal 71
which issue was black. They are uncommonly shrewd, quick in their
apprehensions and in reply. Their eyes are in a perpetual tremulous vi-
bration, very weak, and much affected by the sun: but they see better in
the night than we do. They are of the property of Col. Skipwith, of
Cumberland. The fourth is a negro woman, whose parents came from
Guinea, and had three other children, who were of their own colour.
She is freckled, her eye-sight so weak that she is obliged to wear a
bonnet in the summer; but it is better in the night than day. She had
an Albino child by a black man. It died at the age of a few weeks.
These were the property of Col. Carter, of Albemarle. A sixth instance
is a woman of the property of a Mr. Butler, near Petersburgh. She is
stout and robust, has issue a daughter, jet black, by a black man. I am
not informed as to her eye sight. The seventh instance is of a male
belonging to a Mr. Lee, of Cumberland. His eyes are tremulous and
weak. He is tall of stature, and now advanced in years. He is the only
male of the Albinos which have come within my information. What-
ever be the cause of the disease in the skin, or in its colouring matter,
which produces this change, it seems more incident to the female than
male sex. To these I may add the mention of a negro man within my
own knowledge, born black, and of black parents; on whose chin,
when a boy, a white spot appeared. This continued to increase till he
became a man, by which time it had extended over his chin, lips, one
cheek, the under jaw and neck on that side. It is of the Albino* white,
without any mixture of red, and has for several years been stationary.
He is robust and healthy, and the change of colour was not accom-
panied with any sensible disease, either general or topical.
Of our fish and insects there has been nothing like a full descrip-
tion or collection. More of them are described in Catesby than in any
other work. Many also are to be found in Sir Hans Sloane's Jamaica,110
as being common to that and this country. The honey-bee is not a
native of our continent. Marcgrave111 indeed mentions a species of
honey-bee in Brasil.112 But this has no sting, and is therefore different
from the one we have, which resembles perfectly that of Europe. The
Indians concur with us in the tradition that it was brought from
Europe; but when, and by whom, we know not. The bees have gen-
erally extended themselves into the country, a little in advance of the

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 72 Notes on the State of Virginia
113
white settlers. The Indians therefore call them the white man's fly,
and consider their approach as indicating the approach of the settle-
ments of the whites. A question here occurs, How far northwardly have
these insects been found? That they are unknown in Lapland, I infer
from Scheffer's information, that the Laplanders eat the pine bark, pre-
pared in a certain way, instead of those things sweetened with sugar.
"They eat this in place of things made with sugar."114 Certainly, if
they had honey, it would be a better substitute for sugar than any prepa-
ration of the pine bark. Kalm tells us the honey bee cannot live through
the winter in Canada.115 They furnish then an additional proof of the
remarkable fact first observed by the Count de Buflfon, and which has
thrown such a blaze of light on the field of natural history, that no
animals are found in both continents, but those which are able to bear
the cold of those regions where they probably join.
(We have it from the Indians also that the common domestic fly is
not originally of America, but came with the whites from Europe}.116

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