| Description | Descriptive list of animals and birds collected on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company, to which the manuscript's introductory remarks are addressed. The description was intended to accompany specimens, presumably sent to the Royal Society: 'The Labels fixed to each subject are marked with a number corrisponding to this Account of it'. Each specimen has a descriptive paragraph, giving the animal's Native American name, phontically rendered, 'in compliance with Mr. Pennant's directions'. Hutchins acknowledges the advice of Mr Graham in describing the plumage of birds, presumably the Scottish naturalist Andrew Graham (1730s-1815), also employed by the Hudson's Bay Company.
The account features Quadrupeds (including a few marine animals) pp.2-40; Ornithology (migratory birds) pp.40-90; Ornithology (stationary birds) pp.91-104. |
| Administrative history | Thomas Hutchins (c.1742-1790) British physician and naturalist was based at York Factory, Manitoba 1766-1773 and at Albany Fort, Ontario 1774-1782. |