Birds and Trees of North America is Rex Brasher's seminal work, comprised of 862 watercolor paintings bound in an encyclopedic set. Between 1929 and 1932, he created 100 twelve-volume sets—1,200 individual books—and sent them to patrons across North America. Volume 5 contains 93 hand-colored plates, depicting quail, grouse, turkeys, vultures, pigeons, kites, and hawks.
Order, Gallinae: suborder, Phasiani; family, Odontophoridae
QUAIL are plump, medium-sized, ground-dwelling, with short convex bills, stout feet, wings short, arched and rounded. The wing area is small and altho they fly swiftly, with rapid strokes, their flight is not extended. While tails are short they give ample steering capacity enabling the birds to twist and turn dexterously.
They are more or less polygamous. Eggs large and numerous. The young hatch fully formed and capable of walking as soon as natal down dries. Period of incubation about 24 days.
[Numbers 289 to 296, Adults, two-thirds natural size.]
Order, Gallinae: suborder, Phasiani; family, Tetraonidae
GROUSE have strong feathered or semi-feathered legs; toes edged with comblike growth — shed at intervals. Space around eye sometimes bare with or without comb above eyes. Tail rounded, forked or pointed, of 16 to 22 feathers, relatively more ample than in Quails. Wings arched, rounded and strong altho small. They are expert contortionists, turning and twisting among branches with astonishing speed. Colors fairly constant except among Ptarmigans where seasonal variations are the artist's despair. Specimens used in delineating the Ptarmigans were from Dr. Sanford's collection and were selected as the average but the student must not take them literally as no two skins were alike.
Order, Gallinae: suborder, Phasiani; family, Meleagridae
The only representative of the Pheasant family, TURKEYS have naked heads and extremely stout, strong, spurred legs. Wings rounded, concave and small and they travel more afoot than awing. Tail ample, of broad blunt feathers.
Order, Gallinae: suborder, Penelopes; family, Cracidae
Head crested without wattles. Wings arched with short outer pinions. Tail graduated of twelve broad feathers.
Order, Columbae: family, Columbidae
Altho normally peaceful, some species stage rather fierce combats during the breeding season. They are trim graceful birds with small heads, long wings and tails, capable of swift whistling and protracted flight. Their plumage is dense, more or less iridescent but the feathers detach easily from the tender skin.
The young are hatched naked and fed by regurgitated food from the parents' crops.
Order, Raptores: suborder, Sarcorhamphi; family, Cathartidae
As the family name indicates, VULTURES perform a very useful service as scavengers, living entirely on dead bodies, never attacking living forms unless disabled to the point of helplessness.
Bills stout, blunt and hooked. Claws not sharp or strongly curved on heavy feet. Wings broad with from twelve to twenty-five secondaries, with outer primaries separated in flight. They walk slowly and are awkward on the ground but perfect masters of the air. Incubation period about four weeks.
Order, Raptores; suborder, Falcones; family, Buteonidae
Members of this order have wonderful mechanisms designed to check lesser forms of life. Compared to body weight, wing area is large and some species are capable of speed and control in the air only surpassed by Hummingbirds. Bills hooked, claws on powerful legs, long, sharp, curved and flexible. Legs feathered usually below knee joint with "flag" well developed. At rest, many convey the impression of heaviness but awing this is supplanted by a sense of power and agility. They are capable of enduring long periods of starvation but gorge to repletion when the chance comes. The majority do far more good than harm and only ignorant people destroy them promiscuously. Prey is swallowed in chunks or whole, indigestible parts being regurgitated in pellet form. Females larger and more rapacious than males.
The KITES are a compact genus, notable for extraordinary wingspread, weak feet and bills.
Birds and Trees of North America is a vivid record of taxonomy in motion. The scientific and common names within these volumes do not always align with modern standards, nor do they always align with historical standards. While Rex followed the 1910 checklist of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU), he occasionally deviated from it according to his own observations and convictions. He disagreed with the “hair-splitting fad” of systematists and the possessive form of bird names, yet maintained the necessity of a standard language for understanding the avian world. Where Rex intentionally diverged from standard classification, we have preserved his work in its original form.