Genus Buteo. Cuvier, Regne Animal, I. p. 323. (1817.)
Buteo Bairdii. Hoy, Proc. Acad., Philadelphia, VI. p. 451. (1853.)
Form. Rather smaller than _Buteo lineatus_; compact and robust; wings
long, and pointed; third primary longest; tail moderate, rather wide,
rounded.
Dimensions. Female, total length of skin, 19½ inches; wing, 15; tail, 8
inches, and about an inch longer than the folded wings.
Colors. Female (Plate XLI., upper figure), entire upper parts dark
brown, with a purplish bronzed lustre, especially on the wings; plumage
of the head and neck behind, and some feathers on the back edged and
tipped with yellowish white; upper tail-coverts yellowish white, with
transverse bars of brown; tail above brownish cinereous, and having
about ten narrow bands of brownish black, and tipped with white; under
parts pale yellowish white or fawn color, with a few sagittate spots of
brown on the sides, and a stripe of dark brown running downwards on each
side from the corners of the mouth; cere, legs, and irides yellow.
Younger? (Plate XLI., lower figure.) Upper parts very dark brown or
nearly black, with a purplish lustre; under parts with almost every
feather having a large spot of brownish black, which color predominates
on the breast, presenting a nearly uniform color with the upper parts;
throat with narrow stripes of the same color; flanks and inferior
wing-coverts with circular and oval spots of white; tibiæ dark brown,
with transverse bars and circular and oval spots of reddish white; upper
tail-coverts reddish white, with their outer edges brown, and with
transverse stripes of the same; under tail-coverts yellowish white, with
transverse stripes of brown; forehead white; cheeks yellowish white;
stripes from the corners of the mouth wide and conspicuous. Sex unknown.
Hab. Wisconsin (Dr. Hoy, Rev. Mr. Barry, Mr. Dudley); Utah Territory
(Lieut. Beckwith). Spec. in Nat. Mus., Washington, and Mus. Acad.,
Philadelphia.
Obs. This bird does not intimately resemble any other of the American
Falconidæ at present known, and is a well marked species, especially in
the plumage above described as probably the younger. In this the nearly
uniform brownish black breast and large spots of the same color on the
other under parts are strongly characteristic. The plumage of the first
described above bears some resemblance to the young of _Buteo lineatus_,
and also to the young of _Buteo pennsylvanicus_, but not sufficient to
require especial consideration.
To us it is a point of high interest that the present bird bears the
name of one with whom our relations have been intimate and of the most
pleasant character almost since boyhood. One who is a most competent and
efficient officer of the first Institution in America for the diffusion
of knowledge—one who has gained a rank amongst the first American
zoologists; and better, no man lives who is more conscientious in the
discharge of his duties, more respectful of all that renders life
agreeable, or more faithful in his friendships, than Spencer F. Baird,
of the Smithsonian Institution.
TOXOSTOMA REDIVIVA.—(Gambel.)
The Curved-billed Thrush.
PLATE XLII. Adult Male.
The bird now before the reader is one of the most admired songsters of
the western countries of North America. By competent judges, as we shall
see in the course of the present article, he has been pronounced worthy
of favorable mention, even when compared with our great sylvan
vocalists, the Mocking Bird, and the Rufous Thrush, to both of which he
can claim relationship, not distant.
Viewed as the representatives of principles embodied, as it were, in the
various forms or rather classes of animal life, a consideration by no
means to be overlooked in the present age of zoological science, birds
are the especial exponents of the principles of the beautiful, and, of
all classes of animals, appeal most directly to the higher faculties of
the human mind. Entire symmetry and elegance of form, gracefulness of
motion, agreeable and varied colors, and the fact that of the vast
circle of animal life, they alone possess vocal powers which are
musical, have recommended this class, and tended to perpetuate its high
estimation in all civilized countries.
The flight of birds, never yet successfully imitated by the ingenuity of
man (unlike in that respect the motions of fishes in their element), is
a means of locomotion so entirely peculiar as always to have attracted
attention, and, in past ages, wonder, even to such extent as to have
assumed an aspect of superstition, not entirely ignorant nor
reprehensible, because founded on facts of nature, manifesting itself in
auguries and divinations, which commanded respect for centuries
erroneously, but expanded into truth at last by the aid of the light of
Inductive science. The conclusions of the learned and cultivated nations
of antiquity, however apparently erroneous, are rarely without some
foundation in and relation to truth, and in many cases are the origin of
modern science. So the augurs were the first ornithologists, as the
astrologers were the first astronomers.
The poets have found in birds the most attractive of animals. There is
scarcely one from the great Grecian era of taste and poetry to the
present day, in whose productions passages do not occur, recognised as
beautiful and deriving their essential character from this class of
objects. Hebrew and Greek were alike in this respect, whether in the
derivation of sacred symbols or of imagery in poetic allusion; the Dove
of the former is of the same general character as the Peacock of Juno,
or the Sparrows of Venus, poetic and truthful to nature and of the same
origin. The Greek poets found in birds suitable accompaniments for the
most sublime creations of their genius, their Deities. The greatest of
Hebrew poets rejoices in the assurance that “the time of the singing of
birds is come, and the voice of the Turtle is heard in the land.”
[Illustration: Plate 42
The Curved-billed Thrush
Toxostoma rediviva (_Gambel_)]
Singing birds belong exclusively to the class of Insessores or Perching
birds. One Falcon only (an African species, _Falco musicus_), is said to
possess a musical voice, not making, though we much suspect, any
considerable figure in that line. No wading, swimming, or gallinaceous
bird makes any pretensions.
The song was long considered as entirely the expression of love during
the season, which has its most pleasant analogy in the spring-time of
life, but that conclusion admits of some exceptions. Many birds sing in
autumn apparently without the pleasant incitement of either actual or
prospective attachment. Cases occur, too, as we have sometimes
witnessed, of a bird having, to all appearance, failed in securing the
object of his choice, remaining alone and solacing himself with a song
occasionally for the balance of the season;—possibly somewhat of the
nature of deriving comfort from “ends of verse and sayings of
philosophers.”
Our present bird belongs to the family of Thrushes, but to a genus which
can scarcely be said to be represented in the States on the Atlantic;
though the Rufous Thrush (_Mimus rufus_) is very nearly related to it,
if not actually belonging to the group. This bird has been observed by
nearly all the naturalists who have visited western North America, and
its history is comparatively well known. To our friend, Col. McCall, we
have to acknowledge our obligations, as on many former occasions, for a
contribution intended for our present article:—
“This remarkable bird, whose dulcet notes, flowing with exquisite
smoothness, place him almost beyond rivalry among the countless
songsters that enliven the woods of America, or indeed of the world at
large, is as retired and simple in his manners as he is gay and
brilliant in song. In his ordinary hearing, as well as in the very
marked character of his flight, he exhibits a strong resemblance to our
humble and unobtrusive, though always welcome vocalist, the Ferruginous
Thrush (_M. rufus_); while in the faculty of modulating sweet sounds he
is scarcely surpassed by the dashing, ambitious, and ever-animated
Mocking Bird (_M. polyglottus_). His resemblance to the Ferruginous
Thrush in the particulars above mentioned, forcibly impressed itself
upon me the first time I saw the California bird. This was on the banks
of the Rio Colorado, below the mouth of the Gila, where, in the month of
June, the shade and seclusion afforded by the cotton-wood and the willow
seemed to be a favorite abode of the species. I saw many individuals in
the course of a ride of fifteen miles through this wild region. In one
quiet nook I met with a pair ‘in love and mutual honors joined,’ who
evidently had some dear little ‘pledges of peace’ secreted in the dense
foliage around. They were greatly excited by my approach, deprecating
the unlooked-for intrusion with abundant energy and vehemence. It was
then that their harsh, scolding notes, their motions, and all their
attitudes, reminded me most forcibly of my old friends of the Atlantic
groves, although, under other circumstances, the resemblance was
sufficiently obvious. But, besides their traits of character, there is a
striking resemblance in the organization of the two species; the bill,
for instance of _M. rufus_, when compared with the bills of its
congeners, _M. polyglottus_, _M. carolinensis_, and others, is found to
be greatly elongated and much curved, and in this lengthened and curved
bill (to say nothing of the shorter wings and longer tail) may easily be
discerned a decided approach to the remarkable form developed in _T.
rediviva_, and other closely allied species. This coincidence of a
similarity of organization with a similarity of manners is, I think,
sufficiently marked to show a close relationship between the two
species; or, in other words, to indicate _M. rufus_ as the connecting
link between these two distinct genera.
“The song of the California bird is far superior to that of the
Thrush,—though it must be admitted that he has not the powerful voice of
our Mocking bird, that prince of songsters, nor his imitative powers;
but he certainly has a liquid mellowness of tone united with clearness
of expression and volubility of utterance that cannot be surpassed. On
the first occasion on which it was my good fortune to hear this bird
fairly tune his pipes to sound a roundelay, the performer was perched
upon the bare branch of an ancient oak, and his farewell carol to the
departing day was delivered with a warmth and pathos so truly wonderful
as to fill me with admiration and delight; and though I was then anxious
to procure birds for the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy, I scarcely
thought of molesting him whose vesper chaunt had just enlivened that
wild, secluded vale! I cannot, even now, without a tweak of contrition
and self-reproach, acknowledge that the desire to procure a ‘specimen’
prompted me, some time afterwards, to shoot a bird of this species.
“This almost sacrilegious act, I feel bound to confess, met with a just
reward; for, having placed my prize on the branch of a neighboring tree,
in order to preserve its plumage unruffled, while I continued my pursuit
after game (for the larder as well as for the cabinet) I had the
mortification, on my return, to find that some savage wild animal, as
little impressed by soul-stirring music, I might almost say, as myself,
had made a hasty supper off my divine songster, feathers and all.”
Dr. Heermann, in his manuscript notes, through his kindness now in our
possession, thus mentions the present bird:—
“This bird is abundant. I have not only seen it in Northern California,
but also as far south as Texas, on the borders of the Rio Grande. It is
shy and retiring in its habits, and when startled, flies low for some
distance, and plunging into a thicket, alights on the ground, and so
conceals itself, that it is not again easily found. It runs or hops on
the ground with considerable facility and speed.
“Among the feathered songsters of Western America, this bird is the most
superior, and its song is a striking feature in the localities where it
is found. Its notes are equal in harmony to those of the Mocking bird of
the United States, though not so varied. To the miners it is well known
by the name of the California Mocking bird, and it is with them a great
favorite.
“It incubates in California, but the only nest that I ever found
contained young in the month of July. This nest was composed of coarse
twigs and lined with slender roots, not very carefully constructed, and
resembling somewhat those of some other of the Thrushes.”
Dr. Henry has also observed this bird in the vicinity of Fort Fillmore,
rather abundantly, particularly during the months of October and
November. It has been noticed, too, by nearly all the other naturalists
who have visited California and New Mexico.
The figure in our plate is rather less than half the size of life.
The plant represented is a species of _Vernonia_, from the neighbourhood
of Santa Fé, New Mexico, and was raised from the seed by Mr. Robert
Kilvington, of this city.