Citizen Bird: Scenes from Bird-life in Plain English for Beginners

Mabel Osgood Wright · Elliott Coues

Jan 1897 · Macmillan

About this ebook

This classic and widely influential work brings together the talents of the greatest American ornithologist of his generation (Coues), a pioneering nature writer/editor/ornithologist (Wright), and a young artist whose contribution to the American tradition of bird illustration proved to be second only to Audubon's own (Fuertes); this book features the first substantial body of his work. Directed at the general public, especially children, and written in an entertaining and fanciful fiction style, the work imparts solid scientific knowledge while inculcating conservation values. It exemplifies the extensive literature of popular yet scientifically-grounded ornithology which nurtured the national passion for birds in this era, thereby fostering some of conservationism's most vital and widespread grass roots. Women were particularly well-represented in this literature, often--like Wright--combining literary gifts with serious scientific knowledge (Wright was elected to membership in the American Ornithologists' Union) to bridge the widening gap between professional science and amateur nature-study, and often--as in this work--confirming contemporary expectations of gender roles by directing their writings particularly toward children.