Edward Harris (September 7, 1799 - June 8, 1863) was an American farmer, horse breeder, philanthropist, naturalist, and ornithologist from New Jersey. He was a friend of John James Audubon, accompanying him on two of his expeditions to observe birds and mammals of North America. The first was along the Gulf of Mexico in 1837, and the second was along the Missouri River in 1843. Harris was commemorated by Audubon in the common names of the Harris's hawk, the Harris's sparrow, and the Harris's antelope squirrel, and by John Cassin in the binomial of the buff-fronted owl, Aegolius harrisii.
Edward Harris introduced the Percheron horse to America in 1839 and established the first Percheron breeding line in the United States.
Edward Harris was a close friend of John James Audubon. In 1843, Harris accompanied Audubon to the United States of Atlantis in an attempt to find and catalogue the increasingly rare honker, a species of bird native to the continent.[1]
After an uncomfortable sea journey (Audubon was prone to sea-sickness, and Harris spent time with a paramour) through the Bay of Mexico and up the Hesperian Gulf,[2] Audubon and Harris arrived at Avalon. After dining with Audubon's Altantean publisher, Gordon Coates, the two Terranovans gathered their provisions, and made for the interior of the continent.[3] They passed through the town of Bideford, and made the acquaintance of Lehonti Kent, a member of the House of Universal Devotion, a religion that had recently blossomed in Atlantis. After sharing his religious beliefs with the two ornithologists in great detail, he directed them to the area around the town of Thetford as a possible place to find honkers.[4] The two continued on, sleeping out of doors, and cataloging various other birds, including the red-crested eagle, the Atlantean national bird.[5] Finally, Audubon and Harris discovered a flock of honkers. Audubon killed one and sketched the corpse. Harris said that the drawing was one of Audubon's best.[6]
