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 8 contains 84 hand-colored plates, depicting horned larks, magpies, jays, crows, blackbirds, orioles, and grackles.
Order, Passeres: suborder, Oscines; family, Alaudidae
Members of this family are terrestrial altho American species sometimes alight on fences and branches. Bills and legs slender, the latter being equipped with elongated hind toenail. Wings long, pointed. Tails of twelve feathers, even, double rounded, or notched.
Order, Passeres: suborder, Oscines; family, Corvidae
Bills and feet are stout and powerful, reaching the extreme in RAVENS. Wings — long-reaching to end of tail, in CROWS; short and rounded, in MAGPIES and JAYS. Tail usually rounded, never notched, sometimes greatly graduated. One brood is the rule. Period of incubation about 14–21 days, both sexes participating.
Order, Passeres: suborder, Oscines; family, Icteridae
Bills usually conical and sharp. Rictal bristles slight or wanting. Wings variable, usually rounded; area rather small, relatively.
Tails rounded, even or graduated — folding like a fan.
One brood a season is the rule. Incubation period about two weeks.
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.