Page 120 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Bureau of Biological Survey From “The Survey” November 1928
“Birds of New Mexico Published. On November 15 there was issued a volume based in part on investigations that had their inception during the early years of the Biological Survey. This is a report on the Birds of New Mexico a book of more than 800 pages in which are brought together in attractive form the principal facts that have become known on this group of wild creatures.
The book appears under the authorship of Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey, sister of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, first chief of the Biological Survey and wife of Vernon Bailey, field naturalist of the Division of Biological who did the first field work in the state in 1889. Later these efforts were supplemented by extensive explorations by both Mr. and Mrs. Bailey and by many other workers. The data of others, published and unpublished, have also been freely drawn upon, the earliest being from the Spanish adventurer Coronado, who in 1540 found in the wild turkey of New Mexico a welcome addition to his larder. The late Wells W. Cooke, an assistant biologist of the Survey, who died in 1916, had made a beginning on the work of collecting the mass of information that is detailed in this book and his labors are recognized on the title page and in special sections. The book is prefaced with a historical statement by Mr. Redington of the part the Biological Survey has had in the work from the time of its inception
The book is profusely illustrated with 25 new color plates, numerous cuts in black and white from photographs and drawings, including 60 maps of distribution of species prepared in the Bureau. The color plates consist of a map of the life zones of the State, also prepared in the Biological Survey, one hitherto unpublished color plate by the late Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and 23 plates illustrating numerous species of the birds of New Mexico from drawings specially made for this work by the bird artist, Allan Brooks. Publication was under the auspices of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish in cooperation with the State Game Protection Association and the Biological Survey with ‘the generous cooperation of other interested organizations and individuals of Now Mexico’.”
Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey
Florence Merriam published Birds Through an Opera-Glass in 1890. Many consider that publication to be the “first field guide in the modern tradition”. She was very active in conservation efforts, helping to form both the Smith College Audubon Society and the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia. She was active in ending the use of feathers of wild birds in the millinery trade.
She traveled throughout the United States. In 1889 she made her first trip to the west (to San Diego) and traveled in Arizona and Utah with Harriet Mann Miller (Olive Thorne Miller), a well known author who wrote articles and books with a bird theme. Bailey’s books were well received; her book A-Birding on a Bronco was the first book illustrated by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. One of the drawings from the book is shown below.
Among her many works was Handbook of Birds of the Western United States, published in 1902. It remained a standard reference for 50 years. Starting in 1903, she and her husband traveled throughout New Mexico studying natural history generally and ornithology particularly. She was with Vernon Bailey on the trip described in the field notes which follow. In 1928, she published The Birds of New Mexico, which is considered a classic. It includes an extensive description of the
work done in this area by wife and husband. She received the Brewster Medal (the American Ornithologists’ Union Award for an exceptional body of work) for The Birds of New Mexico in 1931. This was the sixth time it had been awarded.
Florence Augusta Merriam, 1886.
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