Plus ça change

On October 23, 1896, Frank L. Burns “secured” the first Henslow’s sparrow he had ever encountered in his home state of Pennsylvania.

henslow's sparrow, Fuertes

Burns didn’t shoot it. He didn’t net it or trap it. He didn’t even pick it up from under a plate glass window.

A large black and white cat was seen along the fence of a pasture field, with something in her mouth…. It proved to be an [adult Henslow’s sparrow] in excellent plumage, with the exception of the primaries and secondaries, which were scarcely three-fourths grown. This, together with its extreme fatness, rendered it an easy victim to tabby.

We know that Burns skinned the bird. The fate of the cat is less certain.

Share

Smelly Sparrows

One of my favorite lines in the history of American ornithology comes from J.P. Giraud‘s description of one of my favorite birds, the Henslow’s sparrow.

Henslow sparrow, Robert Ridgway

Shotgun birders like Giraud found this species no less maddeningly elusive than today’s observers. Happily, though, writes Giraud,

from the eagerness with which it is pursued by dogs, we may infer that it possesses considerable game effluvia.

As late as the 1970s, it seems, hunters in Louisiana were complaining that their dogs were pointing these grassland “stinkbirds” instead of quail.

Gellert, you have a mission.

Share