“The notes of Traill’s Fly-catcher consist of the sounds wheet, wheet, which it articulates clearly while on wing.  It resides in the skirts of the woods along the prairie lands of the Arkansas River, where alone I have been able to procure it.  When leaving the top branches of a low tree, this bird takes long flights, skimming in zigzag lines, passing close over the tops of the tall grasses, snapping at and seizing different species of winged insects, and returning to the same trees to alight.

. . . I have named this species after my learned friend Dr. Thomas Stewart Traill of Liverpool, in evidence of the gratitude which I cherish towards that benevolent gentleman for all his kind attentions to me.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 236 [excerpted].

“This beautiful species is destitute of song, and is of solitary habits, preferring at all times the interior of the forests, but not the densest part of them.  I have observed that woods interspersed with what are called scrubby hickories or stunted oaks, are favourite resorts of the Summer Red Birds.

Their residence in the United States scarcely exceeds four months.  None remain in any of the more southern parts of our districts.  Indeed, by the middle of September, it would be difficult to see a single pair in the forests of Louisiana.  So very tender do they seem to be in regard to cold, or even temperate weather, that they seldom go farther north than Boston, or the shores of Lake Erie, but prefer the sandy woodlands all along the eastern shores, as far as Massachusetts.

. . . I have represented an adult male, his mate, and a young bird in its singularly patched state, to enable you to judge how different a family of these birds must appear to the eye of a person unacquainted with the peculiarity of these differences and changes of plumage.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 232-233 [excerpted].

“The appetite of the Cedar Bird is of so extraordinary a nature as to prompt it to devour every fruit or berry that comes in its way.   In this manner they gorge themselves to such excess as sometimes to be unable to fly, and suffer themselves to be taken by the hand.  Indeed I have seen some which, although wounded and confined in a cage, have eaten of apples until suffocation deprived them of life in the course of a few days.  When opened afterwards, they were found to be gorged to the mouth.

It is a beautiful bird, but without any song, even during the breeding season, having only a note which it uses for the purpose of calling or rallying others of its species.  This note is feeble, and as it were lisping, yet perfectly effectual, for when uttered by one in a flock within hearing of another party, the latter usually check their flight, and alight pell-mell on the same tree.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 227 [excerpted].

“The migration of the Orchard Oriole from south to north is performed by day, and singly, as is that of its relative the Baltimore Oriole, the males appearing a week or ten days sooner than the females . . .

“The arrival of the females is marked with all due regard, and the males immediately use every effort in their power to procure from them a return of attention.  Their singings and tricks are performed with redoubled ardour, until they are paired, when nidification [nest-building] is attended to with the utmost activity . . .

The nest represented in the plate was drawn in Louisiana, and was entirely composed of grass . . . The branch of Honey Locust on which you see these birds belongs to a tree which sometimes grows to a great height . . . it bears a long pod, containing a sweet substance, not unlike that of the honey of bees, and which is eaten by children, when it becomes quite ripe.  The spines are made use of by tobacconists for the purpose of fastening together the different twists of their rolls.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 222-224 [excerpted].

We bid farewell to Erika Jenns, Indiana University ’13, who has spent an incredibly productive six weeks in the Watkinson creating a 40+ page annotated checklist of our collection relating to Lydia Sigourney, “the sweet singer of Hartford,” poetess and author published widely in the magazines, and a contemporary of Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain who enjoyed national fame during her lifetime–but is largely forgotten.  We are intending to illustrate and publish the checklist this year.

Erika also posted to our guest blog, “I Found it at the Watkinson,” from July 4th to August 3rd, and some of these will be excerpted in the publication.

Erika’s work will also provide the foundation for an exhibition at some point in the near future.  We wish her luck in her senior year at Indiana, and beyond!