Eastern Bluebird & Sarsaparilla Vine
This Eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis)Â is posed with a sarsaparilla vine (Smilax pumila). Mark Catesby created this illustration for his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, Vol. 1 (1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749) published the first illustrated work on the flora and fauna of North America. Catesby included his own scientific names for the species he documented, and he called the “Blew Bird” Rubicula Americana caerulea. Later on in 1758, Carolus Linnaeus created his first systematic taxonomy, which has been built upon and revised but still remains the foundation of taxonomy, and he renamed the Eastern Bluebird “Sialia sialis."Â













