Plate 24 – Roscoe’s Yellow-Throat

In the fall of 1813, John James Audubon hiked across the barrens of Kentucky (see Plate 14) to get from Henderson, Kentucky, to Louisville. Along the way he encountered a bird that he identified in Birds of America as a new species for science. Audubon named the bird Roscoe’s Yellow-throat. “Although timid, it seldom flies far off at the approach of man, but instantly dives into the thickest parts of its favorite bushes and high grass, where it continues searching for food either along the twigs, or among the dried leaves on the ground, and renews its little song when only a few feet distant.” Roscoe’s Yellow-throat was named in honor of William Roscoe (1753-1831). Roscoe was instrumental in publicizing the work of John James Audubon in England and gaining for Audubon a publisher for Birds of America. For the later octavo edition of Birds of America, Audubon re-identified Roscoe’s Yellow-throat as a Maryland Ground-warbler. The Maryland Ground-warbler is commonly known today as the Common yellowthroat (see Plate 23).