Seeing birds: Dr Casey Wood's (1856–1942) second career

Abstract

In 1920, Casey Albert Wood (1856–1942), a prominent Canadian ophthalmologist and bibliophile, began what was essentially a second career as an amateur ornithologist and author. This paper examines the path Wood followed as he learned more about birds and developed a network of colleagues that aided his transition to a respected member of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) and prolific author on ornithology. It also seeks to place Wood's ornithological writings within the contemporary scientific and popular literature on birds. After his retirement from medical practice in 1920, Wood and his wife Emma (née Shearer) (1859–1951) travelled extensively and Wood's ornithological observations were published in journals varying from scientific publications like the AOU's The Auk and the Cooper Ornithological Society's The Condor, to more popular magazines like the Audubon Society of the Pacific's The Gull. Wood's contributions often combined natural history observation with literary allusions and personal reminiscence. Towards the end of his second career, Wood turned to his bibliophile interests, publishing a catalogue of the McGill Library holdings in vertebrate zoology as well as a translation co-authored with his niece Florence Marjorie Fyfe (1892–1965) of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen's De arte venandi cum avibus. Wood was representative of an earlier generation of gentlemen ornithologists, eulogized in his obituary in The Auk as “probably the most broadly cultured and deeply learned of his generation in our Union”.