{"id":8301,"date":"2014-01-23T04:09:49","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T11:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=8301"},"modified":"2015-03-28T08:19:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T15:19:08","slug":"the-duck-and-daniel-webster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/23\/the-duck-and-daniel-webster\/","title":{"rendered":"The Duck and Daniel Webster"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wikimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I for one don’t often think of nineteenth-century statesmen when I’m up to my ears in bird stuff, but the note in the catalogue entries for two of the Smithsonian’s\u00a0<\/a>Labrador Duck<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>specimens couldn’t help but catch my eye:<\/p>\n

Daniel Webster received specimen from Audubon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, that Audubon. And yes, that Daniel Webster.<\/p>\n

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But as far as I can tell, that isn’t exactly the way it all happened. A quick e-trip ad fontes<\/em> reveals that the collector was actually Webster, who killed — as Audubon reports<\/a> —<\/p>\n

a fine pair … on the Vineyard Islands, on the coast of Massachusetts, from which I [Audubon] made the drawing for the plate before you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Audubon claims (I haven’t checked) that his was the first published image of the female of this species.<\/p>\n

In 1846<\/a>, Audubon passed the precious skins on to one of his more promising prot\u00e9g\u00e9s, Spencer Baird<\/a>, who, Ridgway tells us<\/a>, “considered [them] his personal property while he lived,” even though Baird housed the birds in the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n

You might think — you might — that specimens of such surpassing rarity and distinguished provenance would be left to lie quietly on their backs in the cambridge cans. But in the late 1950s, skin A 1972 was dismantled and relaxed for study by Philip Humphrey and Robert Butsch<\/a>. After thoroughly photographing the bird and taking a series of eleven X-ray images,<\/p>\n

Butsch … began by removing the wings and legs…. When study of the wings and legs was completed, Butsch relaxed the body of the specimen and opened the midventral incision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But never fear.<\/p>\n

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

Where the skin had been “in rather poor condition” when Butsch and Humphrey began — torn, broken, and “gray with dirt” — it was “considerably improved in appearance … washed and degreased” by the time they had finished their work and put the bird back together.<\/p>\n

It’s a rare bird that can, in a sense, give its life twice for science — and a rare politician who can represent two states in Congress and serve two terms as Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

They don’t make ’em like that anymore.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

I for one don’t often think of nineteenth-century statesmen when I’m up to my ears in bird stuff, but the note in the catalogue entries for two of the Smithsonian’s\u00a0Labrador Duck\u00a0specimens couldn’t help but catch my eye: Daniel Webster received specimen from Audubon. Yes, that Audubon. And yes, that Daniel Webster. But as far as … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Duck and Daniel Webster”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8301"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8301"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9893,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8301\/revisions\/9893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}