{"id":10391,"date":"2015-10-12T08:12:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T15:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=10391"},"modified":"2015-10-12T08:12:57","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T15:12:57","slug":"the-thrasher-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/12\/the-thrasher-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thrasher Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Toxostoma<\/a>
\nMike Baird, Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

I need to spend more time birding California. Except for the gnatcatcher and the blasted mountain quail, I’ve been fortunate enough to see all of the state’s terrestrial specialties — but many of them, like the dark and lovely\u00a0California thrasher<\/strong>, only a few times.<\/p>\n

Among its other attractions, this sturdy earth-scratcher has one of the oddest scientific names ever assigned a North American bird. After a few changes of genus, the thrasher is now known formally as\u00a0Toxostoma redivivum<\/em>, the revivified sickle-bill.<\/p>\n

Toxostoma<\/em>, and the original generic name\u00a0Harpes<\/em><\/a>, are both straightforward enough. But why did this bird require resurrection?<\/p>\n

When William Gambel named this species in 1845, he recognized in it a bird drawn by J.R. Pr\u00e9vost, Jr<\/a>., for the report of the voyage commanded by the comte de La P\u00e9rouse<\/a>, a hero of the American Revolution. La P\u00e9rouse and his expedition were in Monterey\u00a0in September of\u00a01786, when they shot and stuffed what they believed was an unknown Promerops<\/em><\/a>, a sunbird.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

Another expedition, that of Alejandro Malaspina in the early 1790s, returned to Spain with a\u00a0painting\u00a0of the species\u00a0— but no clue to the identity of what they called simply\u00a0the unknown bird.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

In confirming the bird’s existence half a century later, Gambel fulfilled\u00a0the hopes expressed by Louis-Pierre\u00a0Vieillot<\/a>\u00a0and John Latham<\/a><\/p>\n

that some future Naturalist may elucidate more fully what La Peyrouse has given a very imperfect description of.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not everyone was sure that Gambel had actually\u00a0revived the bird of the earlier explorers. John Cassin wrote<\/a> that<\/p>\n

whether it is the fact … that the figure in La Peyrouse represents the present bird, admits of some doubt,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and suggested that the French might instead\u00a0have\u00a0collected specimens of the\u00a0curve-billed thrasher<\/strong> — a bird, of course, that is extremely rare anywhere in California, and improbable to the point of virtually impossible at Monterey.<\/p>\n

Far easier to believe that Gambel was right, and that his collectors had in fact rediscovered the thrasher of La P\u00e9rouse. True or not, it makes a good story.<\/p>\n

Even if it’s not a sunbird.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Baird, Wikimedia Commons I need to spend more time birding California. Except for the gnatcatcher and the blasted mountain quail, I’ve been fortunate enough to see all of the state’s terrestrial specialties — but many of them, like the dark and lovely\u00a0California thrasher, only a few times. Among its other attractions, this sturdy earth-scratcher … <\/p>\n

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