Fragments of Natural History

Ornithology

by J. P. Kirtland
      
Am. Journ. Sci. and Arts, XL, 1841, 19-24. Art. II.
Fragments of Natural History, by J. P. Kirtland, M.D.,
Prof. Theo. and Prac. Phys., Medical College of Ohio.

             “I write that which I have seen.”—LE BAUM

                               No. II---ORNITHOLOGY

The feathered tribes of our country have been so thoroughly investigated by Wilson, Bonaparte, Nuttall, Audubon, and Townsend, that the young ornithologist can hardly expect to meet with a new species, unless it be some straggler or accidental visitor from other parts of the world. An ample field, is however, furnished him in which he may successfully employ his talents. The habits of some of our most interesting birds are but very imperfectly understood.  If we take for instance the Migratory Sylvias, we can obtain but little more than their names and scientific characters from these authors—and in regard to their habits, less than we have been able to discover by our own observations.

On investigating the subject, it may perhaps be discovered that in some instances, errors have been imbibed and perpetuated by mistaken accidental movement of individual birds under unusual circumstances, for the common habits of the whole species.

The term of life of no one person is of sufficient duration to allow him to complete a full history, even of our American species, from his own researches and observations; such a work must be the production of the joint labor of several ages and many individuals. Many facts remain to be supplied before it can be successfully completed. The opportunities for observing the movements, and obtaining a correct history of the habits and characters of the rare birds, are only occasional and fortuitous, and are as likely to fall in the way of one who knows not how to improve them, as of one who possesses the talent for correct observation that distinguishes the author of the “Birds of America.”

It is not to be expected that the public generally will ever turn aside from their usual pursuits to make observations on matters relating to natural science.  The energies of some idle gunner may, perhaps, be aroused sufficiently by the appearance of a new or rare bird to induce him to destroy its life; the carcass will be gazed upon with a momentary curiosity and then cast underfoot.

In every community their {sic} are, however, some individuals who have a natural taste for matters of this kind. If they would improve the opportunities as they occur for making themselves familiar with the rare birds, and would communicate the results of their observation to the public through the medium of some suitable publication, any deficiency in the history of our American birds would soon be supplied. Entertaining this view, I am induced to offer for the pages of the Journal of Science, the following extracts from my notes and memorandums, made during the last three years.

A flock of Bohemian wax-chatterers (Bombycilla garrula,) consisting of fifty or sixty individuals, was frequently seen in a marsh at the old mouth of the Cuyahoga river, near the city of Cleveland during the month of March of the present year.  They were usually engaged in feeding on the pulps and seeds of the swamp rose, and as they were mistaken by the sportsmen for the common cherry bird (B. carolinensis) they were permitted to pursue their occupation without interruption.

I procured a fine specimen which is preserved in my cabinet; another is in the cabinet of Prof. Ackley of this city.

We believe this to be the first instance in which this bird has been taken within the United States, or has been known to visit us in any considerable numbers; though we learn from the appendix to Nuttall’s Ornithology, and also from Peabody’s Report on the Birds of Massachusetts, that the younger Audubon once pursued an individual of this species in that State.

Nuttall says, “the wax-chatterer, hitherto in America, seen only in the vicinity of the Athabasca river, near the region of the Rocky mountains in the month of March, is of common occurance {sic} as a passenger throughout the colder regions of the whole northern hemisphere. In spring and late in autumn they visit Northern Asia or Siberia and Eastern Europe in vast numbers, but elsewhere are only uncertain stragglers{”}.

Their size, markings, and habits readily distinguish them from the cherry or cedar bird. Justice is by no means done to their colors and beauty of form, in the figure given of the species by Bonaparte, in the third volume of his American Ornithology.

An hyperborean phalarope (Phalaropus hyperboreus) {red-necked phalarope P. lobatus} was shot on Lake Erie, near the pier of Cleveland harbor, last November, by a young man in my employment, while pursuing a wounded gull.

The phalarope was a young bird in winter plumage. It is preserved in my cabinet. Little could be learned of its habits. It was a solitary individual, and when first discovered was resting on the water, where it seemed to be as much at home as any of the gulls with which it was associating. (1)

The yellow throated gray warbler (Sylvia pensilis) {yellow-throated warbler Dendroica dominica} must be considered not a rare annual visitor, even to the northern parts of Ohio, though Mr. Audubon informs his readers that “they confine themselves to the southern States, seldom moving further towards the middle district than North Carolina,” and “do not ascend the Mississippi further than the Walnut Hills;” and Mr. Nuttall says, that they “very rarely venture as far north as Pennsylvania.”  I have in my possession a specimen that I shot on the banks of the Mahoning river, in Trumbull county, on the 5^th of May, 1839; and during the last week in April of the present year, I killed three near the Cuyahoga river, three miles from Lake Erie. Early in July I saw an old one feeding her young on the banks of the Mahoning. They were two-thirds of their full size, and were perched on a small bush over the water. A full-grown individual was seen on the first of August on the shore of the Lake within the limits of the city. In every instance in which I have met with them, they seemed to have a strong predilection to the vicinity of water, and were generally engaged in capturing insects.

The Sylvia rara (2) {cerulean warbler Dendroica cerulea} is common in the woods about the banks of the Cuyahoga, during spring and summer. Its habits are accurately described by Audubon.

The same locality is a favorite resort and breeding place for the purple breasted gross-beak (Fringilla ludoviciana) {rose-breasted grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus}.

A flock of unusual birds, which I suppose to be the willow wrens (Sylvia trochilus) (3) was discovered in September, 1839, on the shore of the Lake, near this city. They made only a momentary stop, for on firing at one of their number as they were settling down upon a bunch of thistles, the remainder suddenly darted away over the Lake and disappeared. The characters of the specimen taken, agree with the description of the Willow Wren. They are said to be far more common in Europe than in the United States.

The Florida gallinule (Gallinula chloropus) {common moorhen G. chloropus} is not described by ornithologists as a western bird. Mr. Audubon says, “none are to be seen in the western country.”  Bonaparte informs his readers that “in the middle and southern United States it appears to be quite accidental; for, although a few well authenticated instances are known of its having been seen and shot even as far north as Albany, in the State of New York, it has escaped the researches of Wilson, as well as my own.”

Mr. Nuttall gives us to understand that ‘in the middle and northern States, it appears to be quite accidental.” Notwithstanding this weight of authority to the contrary, I am disposed to consider this bird as one of our annual visitors, and not as a mere straggler in these parts.

I have the best authority for saying that several pairs reared their young in a marsh not more than a mile from this city, during the last summer, and I know of at least half a dozen specimens that were shot there during the last spring. Broods of the young have been repeatedly seen during the summer.

A mature male and female were recently sent me from Fairport, Geauga county, by the Hon. Ralph Granger, and I am assured by a gentleman that one has been taken alive in the vicinity of Buffalo, in the State of New York. Another was taken at Warren, in Trumbull County, two years since, and became so far domesticated as to run about the barnyard in company with the fowls during the summer, but at the approach of autumn suddenly disappeared.

The late Dr. Ward informed me that he had occasionally met with them in Roscoe, Coshocton County, and Dr. Sager assures me that they visit Michigan. I have repeatedly heard of them in other sections of the western States.

In their habits they are so retiring and secluded that they may escape even the most active and sagacious observer.

The buff-breasted sandpiper (Tringa rufescens), which seems to be a rare species in most parts of our country, was seen in the vicinity of this city in three different instances during the last autumn. I secured two specimens, one of which I presented to the New York Lyceum of Natural History; the other is retained in my own collection. This bird was unknown to Wilson and Bonaparte, and also to Mr. Audubon, until he received a specimen from England. It seems to be extremely shy and wary in its habits, and when watched by a gunner, will skulk behind some little hillock or tufts of grass. The individuals seen by myself were on a sandy flat, not immediately contiguous to water. In one instance Dr. Terry met with it in the public highway near this city.

The dunlin, ox-bird, or purre (Tringa alpina), visited us in large flocks during three or four weeks last autumn, and it has again appeared in a few instances the present spring. I have specimens preserved both in the summer and winter plumage.    

Mr. Audubon informs his readers that he has never found one far inland.

The Cape May warbler (Sylvia maritima) visits the northern parts of Ohio in small numbers every spring. A solitary individual may be seen here and there, busily employed in catching insects about the cherry and apple trees at the time they put forth their blossoms.

According to Mr. Nuttall, it “has only been seen near the swamps of Cape May, in New Jersey, and near Philadelphia.”

The chestnut-sided warbler (Sylvia icterocephala) is not uncommon with us for a few days in spring, and in one instance I saw a pair in a cranberry marsh in Boardman, Trumbull county, on the first day of June. The male was warbling its soft notes from the top of a young maple, and the female skipping about in the bushes below. I am convinced they were preparing for nesting in that vicinity.  Its note is rather loud, but soft and pleasant to the ear.  Mr. Audubon seems to have met with it only in one instance.

The bay-breasted warbler (Sylvia castanea), is still more common with us in the spring, and in some seasons protracts its visit for two or three weeks. Its favorite resort is the tops of the highest beech trees, at the time the buds are bursting into leaves.

The willet (Totanus semipalmatus), Mr. Audubon says, “are very seldom met with far inland,” and “I have very little doubt that those seen by Mr. Say on the banks of the Missouri, had accidentally visited that country.”

This bird is a common visitor to the shores of Lake Erie, both in the spring and autumn. On the 3d of July, 1838, I shot an old specimen from a flock of more than twenty individuals, that were in the habit of visiting the marsh in Ohio City, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, for a number of days in succession.

The young birds appeared here on the first of July of the present year, and considerable numbers have been shot by the sportsmen.

A few years since, they remained here during the whole of the summer, and probably reared their young in the neighborhood. They are very abundant about some of the upper lakes.

The marbled goodwit (Limosa fedoa) occasionally visits the shores of Lake Erie and the Ohio river. The Hon. Mr. Granger has furnished me with a beautiful pair, killed near his residence at Fairport. Several young specimens were shot in this vicinity about the first of August of the present season. They were associating with a flock of long-billed curlews (Numenius longirostris).

The Hudson curlew (Numenius hudsonicus) {whimbrel N. phaeopus }has been taken in a few instances in Ohio. I have a specimen in my cabinet that alighted in the garden of Mr. A. Hayden, of this city, and was shot by him three years since. Another was taken in the vicinity of Cincinnati.

The piping plover (Charadrius melodus) I have seen in two instances on the shore of Lake Erie, and have specimens in my cabinet both in their winter and summer plumage.

Mr. Audubon informs his readers that they never proceed any distance inland, even {“}along the sandy margins of our largest rivers.”

            CLEVELAND, OHIO, June 4, 1840. 

Courtesy of the research of The Ohio Cardinal