A Gathering of Birds Read online

  Pehr Kalm (to use his real name) was born in 1716 in Angermanland, Sweden, the son of a Finnish clergyman. He was destined for the church and deeply attracted by it; religion seems to have consumed all the emotional side of his nature; otherwise he was reasonable, logical, and precise to a fault, a young man with a very practical turn of mind. At the University of Åbo he fell under the influence of the naturalist Bishop Brovallius who taught him all he knew and then sent him to Linnaeus at Upsala.

  Kalm’s interests in natural history were catholic, though his specialty was economic botany. His conception of his mission in America was to collect plants and animals which could be naturalized for use in Europe. So in his passage on the grackle we note how he stressed its damage to crops. His writings gain an almost modern flavor from his attention to the food relations, life habits, and economic significance of birds.

  Kalm arrived in Philadelphia in 1748 with an assistant, and for almost two years traveled extensively from Delaware to Quebec, and New York to Niagara (then in the wilderness). He was deeply interested in the vocal organs of the bull-frog, the pouch of the opossum, the light of the firefly, the constricting of the blacksnake, the venom of the Jersey mosquito, and the singular history of the seventeen-year cicada. His descriptions of American trees and flowers of the Appalachian zone were enthusiastic, and it is pleasant to record of one blossom, the mountain laurel, that Linnaeus named it Kalmia in his honor.

  Kalm made the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin and his learned friends. He was thus armed with a respectable body of opinion about New World Nature, and resists the hair-raising myths with which he was regaled by others. In a bewildering world of new forms he makes no real mistakes, hews to the important and in all ways does credit to his great teacher.

  The pastor of the Swedish colony at Raccoon, New Jersey, having died, Kalm married his widow, so that his American journey in every way crowned his life.

  Returned to Finland, Kalm labored diligently to grow his American plants and to prepare his notes and diary for the press. They were published in 1753 and appeared in English translation in 1760, edited by Forster, under the title Travels into North America. From this work, selections are here made. By all odds it is the most worthy account of American natural history up to that time. Kalm was a straightforward but not a poetic writer. His almost dry precision is undoubtedly part of his character, and it has a charm of its own that is quite eighteenth century. Romanticism, with all its color, we must not expect of him or his age. Yet, useless though grackle and hummingbird and whippoorwill must have seemed to his practical nature, we find that he cannot resist the magical spell of American birds. Despite his great sobriety, he finds himself describing sights and sounds because he cannot forget them.

  Kalm, honored and highly placed at the University of Åbo, passed the rest of his life in scholarly tranquillity, and became at last an ordained Lutheran clergyman.

  But probing history has unearthed a trace of a long-cherished project to return to the western world; Kalm seems to have proposed the plan to Linnaeus, but it never bore fruit. Yet he longed, sometimes, it would seem, to see the sugar maples blaze in glory, to smell the honeyed azalea flowers again, to hear the cardinals and scarlet tanagers whistle, and the axes of the pioneers ringing at the trunks of hickory and balsam.

  RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD

  OF ALL the rare birds of North America, the humming-bird is the most admirable, or at least most worthy of peculiar attention. Several reasons induce me to believe that few parts of the world can produce its equal. Dr. Linnaeus calls it trochilus colubris. The Swedes, and some Englishmen, call it the king’s bird; but the name of humming-bird is more common. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, vol. i. page 65. tab. 65. has drawn it, in its natural size, with its proper colours, and added a description of it. In size it is not much bigger than a large bumblebee,* and is therefore the smallest of all birds. It is doubtful if there is a lesser species in the world. Its plumage is most beautifully coloured, most of its feathers being green, some grey, and others forming a shining red ring round its neck; the tail glows with fine feathers, changing from green into a brass colour. These birds come here in spring, about the time when it begins to grow very warm, and make their nests in summer; but, towards autumn, they retreat again into the more southern countries of America. They subsist barely upon the nectar, or sweet juice of flowers, contained in that part which botanists call the nectarium, and which they suck up with their long bills. Of all the flowers, they like those most, which have a long tube; and I have observed that they have fluttered chiefly about the impatiens noli tangere, and the monarda with crimson flowers. An inhabitant of the country is sure to have a number of these beautiful and agreeable little birds before his windows all the summer long, if he takes care to plant a bed with all sorts of fine flowers under them. It is indeed a diverting spectacle to see these little active creatures flying about the flowers like bees, and sucking their juices with their long and narrow bills. The flowers of the above-mentioned monarda grow verticillated, that is, at different distances they surround the stalk, as the flowers of our mint (mentha), bastard hemp (galeopsis), motherwort (leonurus), and dead nettle (lamium). It is therefore diverting to see them putting their bills into every flower in the circle. As soon as they have sucked the juice of one flower, they flutter to the next. One that has not seen them would hardly believe in how short a space of time they have had their tongues in all the flowers of a plant, which when large, and with a long tube, the little bird, by putting its head into them, looks as if it crept with half its body into them.

  During their sucking the juice out of the flowers they never settle on it, but flutter continually like bees, bend their feet backwards, and move their wings so quick that they are hardly visible. During this fluttering they make a humming like bees, or like that which is occasioned by the turning of a little wheel. After they have thus, without resting, fluttered for a while, they fly to a neighbouring tree or post, and resume their vigour again. They then return to their humming and sucking. They are not very shy; and I, in company with several other people, have not been full two yards from the place where they fluttered about and sucked the flowers; and though we spoke and moved, yet they were no ways disturbed; but, on going towards them, they would fly off with the swiftness of an arrow. When several of them were on the same bed there was always a violent combat between them, in meeting each other at the same flower (for envy was likewise predominant amongst these little creatures), and they attacked with such impetuosity that it would seem as if the strongest would pierce its antagonist through and through with its long bill. During the fight, they seem to stand in the air, keeping themselves up by the incredibly swift motion of their wings. When the windows towards the garden are open, they pursue each other into the rooms, fight a little, and flutter away again. Sometimes they come to a flower which is withering, and has no more juice in it; they then, in a fit of anger, pluck it off, and throw it on the ground, that it may not mislead them for the future. If a garden contains a great number of these little birds, they are seen to pluck off the flowers in such quantities that the ground is quite covered with them, and it seems as if this proceeded from a motion of envy.

  Commonly you hear no other sound than their humming; but when they fly against each other in the air, they make a chirping noise like a sparrow or chicken. I have sometimes walked with several other people in small gardens, and these birds have on all sides fluttered about us without appearing very shy. They are so small that one would easily mistake them for great humming-bees or butterflies, and their flight resembles that of the former, and is incredibly swift. They have never been observed to feed on insects or fruit; the nectar of flowers seems therefore to be their only food. Several people have caught some humming-birds, on account of their singular beauty, and have put them into cages, where they died for want of proper food. However, Mr. Bartram has kept a couple of them for several weeks together, by feeding them with water in which
sugar had been dissolved; and I am of opinion that it would not be difficult to keep them all winter in a hot-house.

  The humming-bird always builds its nest in the middle of a branch of a tree, and it is so small that it cannot be seen from the ground, but he who intends to see it must get up to the branch. For this reason it is looked upon as a great rarity if a nest is accidentally found, especially as the trees in summer have so thick a foliage. The nest is likewise the least of all; that which is in my possession is quite round, and consists in the inside of a brownish and quite soft down, which seems to have been collected from the leaves of the great mullein or verbascum thapsus, which are often found covered with a soft wool of this colour, and the plant is plentiful here. The outside of the nest has a coating of green moss, such as is common on old pales, or enclosures, and on trees; the inner diameter of the nest is hardly a geometrical inch at the top, and its depth half an inch. It is however known, that the humming-birds make their nests likewise of flax, hemp, moss, hair, and other such soft materials; they are said to lay two eggs, each of the size of a pea.

  * Kalm underestimates its size. [Ed.]

  PURPLE GRACKLE

  A SPECIES of birds, called by the Swedes maize-thieves, do the greatest mischief in this country. They have given them that name because they eat maize both publicly and secretly, just after it is sown and covered with the ground, and when it is ripe. The English call them black-birds. There are two species of them, both described and drawn by Catesby. Though they are very different in species, yet there is so great a friendship between them, that they frequently accompany each other in mixed flocks. However, in Pennsylvania, the first sort are more obvious, and often fly together, without any of the red-winged stares. The first sort, or the purple daws, bear, in many points, so great a likeness to the daw, the stare, and the thrush, that it is difficult to determine to which genus they are to be reckoned, but seem to come nearest to the stare; for the bill is exactly the same with that of the thrush, but the tongue, the flight, their sitting on the trees, their song, and shape, make it entirely a stare; at a distance they look almost black, but close by they have a very blue or purple cast. The iris of the eyes is pale: the forehead, the crown, the nucha, the upper part, and the sides of the neck, are of an obscure blue and green shining colour: the sides of the head under the eyes are obscurely blue; all the back and coverts of the wings are purple. The throat is blueish green, and shining; the breast is likewise black or shining green, according as you turn it to the light; the belly is blackish, and the vent feathers are obscurely purple-coloured; the parts of the breast and belly which are covered by the wings, are purple-coloured; the wings are black below, or rather sooty; and the thighs have blackish feathers. Dr. Linnaeus calls this bird gracula quiscula.

  A few of these birds are said to winter in swamps, which are quite overgrown with thick woods; and they only appear in mild weather. But the greatest number go to the south at the approach of winter. To-day I saw them, for the first time this year. They flew in great flocks already. Their chief and most agreeable food is maize. They come in great swarms in spring, soon after the maize is put under ground. They scratch up the grains of maize, and eat them. As soon as the leaf comes out, they take hold of it with their bills, and pluck it up, together with the corn or grain; and thus they give a great deal of trouble to the country people, even so early in spring. To lessen their greediness of maize, some people dip the grains of that plant in a decoction of the root of the veratrum album, or white hellebore, and plant them afterwards. When the maize-thief eats a grain or two, which are so prepared, his head is disordered, and he falls down: this frightens his companions, and they dare not venture to the place again. But they repay themselves amply towards autumn, when the maize grows ripe; for at that time, they are continually feasting. They assemble by thousands in the maize-fields, and live at discretion. They are very bold; for when they are disturbed, they only go and settle in another part of the field. In that manner they always go from one end of the field to the other, and do not leave it till they are quite satisfied. They fly in incredible swarms in autumn; and it can hardly be conceived whence such immense numbers of them should come. When they rise in the air they darken the sky, and make it look quite black. They are then in such great numbers, and so close together, that it is surprising how they find room to move their wings. I have known a person shoot a great number of them on one side of a maize-field, which was far from frightening the rest; for they only just took flight and dropped at about the distance of a musket-shot in another part of the field, and always changed their place when their enemy approached. They tired the sportsman before he could drive them from off the maize, though he killed a great many of them at every shot. They likewise eat the seeds of the aquatic tare-grass (zizania aquatica) commonly late in autumn, after the maize is got in. In spring they sit in numbers on the trees, near the farms; and their note is pretty agreeable. As they are so destructive to maize, the odium of the inhabitants against them is carried so far, that the laws of Pennsylvania and New Jersey have settled a premium of threepence a dozen for dead maize-thieves. In New England, the people are still greater enemies to them; for Dr. Franklin told me, in the spring of the year 1750, that, by means of the premiums, which have been settled for killing them in New England, they have been so extirpated, that they are very rarely seen, and in a few places only. But as, in the summer of the year 1749, an immense quantity of worms appeared on the meadows, which devoured the grass, and did great damage, the people have abated their enmity against the maize-thieves; for they thought they had observed, that those birds lived chiefly on these worms before the maize is ripe, and consequently extirpated them, or at least prevented their spreading too much. They seem therefore to be entitled, as it were, to a reward for their trouble. But after these enemies and destroyers of the worms (the maize-thieves) were extirpated, the worms were more at liberty to multiply; and therefore they grew so numerous that they did more mischief now than the birds did before. In the summer 1749, the worms left so little hay in New England that the inhabitants were forced to get hay from Pennsylvania and even from Old England. The maize-thieves have enemies besides the human species. A species of little hawks live upon them, and upon other little birds. I saw some of these hawks driving up the maize-thieves, which were in the greatest security, and catching them in the air. Nobody eats the flesh of the purple maize-thieves or daws (gracula quiscula); but that of the red-winged maize-thieves, or stares (oriolus phoeniceus) is sometimes eaten. Some old people have told me that this part of America, formerly called New Sweden, still contained as many maize-thieves as it did formerly. The cause of this they derive from the maize, which is now sown in much greater quantity than formerly; and they think that the birds can get their food with more ease at present.

  WHIPPOORWILL

  April 22d. The Swedes give the name of whipperiwill, and the English that of whip-poor-will, to a kind of nocturnal bird, whose voice is heard in North America, almost throughout the whole night. Catesby and Edwards both have described and figured it. Dr. Linnaeus calls it a variety of the caprimulgus Europæus, or goat-sucker: its shape, colour, size, and other qualities make it difficult to distinguish them from each other; but the peculiar note of the American one distinguishes it from the European one, and from all other birds: it is not found here during winter, but returns with the beginning of summer. I heard it to-day, for the first time, and many other people said that they had not heard it before this summer; its English and Swedish name is taken from its note; but, accurately speaking, it does not call whipperiwill, nor whip-poor-will, but rather whipperiwip, so that the first and last syllables are accented, and the intermediate ones but slightly pronounced. The English change the call of this bird into whip-poor-will, that it may have some kind of signification: it is neither heard nor seen in day-time; but soon after sun-set, it begins to call, and continues for a good while, as the cuckoo does in Europe. After it has continued calling in a place for some time,
it removes to another, and begins again: it usually comes several times in a night, and settles close to the house; I have seen it coming late in the evening, and settling on the steps of the house in order to sing its song; it is very shy, and when a person stood still, it would settle close by him, and begin to call. It came to the houses in order to get its food, which consists of insects; and those always abound near the houses at night; when it sat and called its whipperiwhip, and saw an insect passing, it flew up and caught it, and settled again. Sometimes you hear four or five, or more, near each other, calling as it were for a wager, and raising a great noise in the woods. They were seldom heard in towns, being either extirpated there, or frightened away, by frequent shooting. They do not like to sit on trees, but are commonly on the ground, or very low in bushes, or on the lower poles of the enclosures; they always fly near the ground; they continue their calling at night till it grows quite dark; they are silent till the dawn of day comes on, and then they call till the sun rises. The sun seems to stop their mouths, or dazzle their eyes, so as to make them sit still. I have never heard them call in the midst of night, though I have hearkened very attentively on purpose to hear it, and many others have done the same. I am told they make no nest, but lay two eggs in the open fields. My servant shot at one which sat on a bush near the house, and though he did not hit it, yet it fell down through fear, and lay for some time as if dead, but recovered afterwards. It never attempted to bite when it was held in the hands, only endeavouring to get loose by stirring itself about. Above, and close under the eyes, were several black, long, and stiff bristles, as in other nocturnal birds. The Europeans eat it. Mr. Catesby says, the Indians affirm, that they never saw these birds, or heard of them, before a certain great battle, in which the Europeans killed a great number of Indians. Therefore, they suppose that these birds, which are restless, and utter their plaintive note at night, are the souls of their ancestors who died in battle.