delicate nature. In other words, these birds pass and repass through the
air, performing numberless evolutions, as if it did not cost them the
least labour to fly. When in the interior of the country, they resort to
the old fields, and the vast prairies, as well as the ploughed lands,
seldom in flocks of less than ten or a dozen, and not unfrequently by
hundreds. Now, they are seen high, loosely moving in short reiterated
undulations, inspecting the ground below; now, they come sweeping over
and close to it, and seem about to alight, when, on the contrary, their
ranks close in an instant, they wheel about, and rise again into the
air. These feats are often repeated six or seven times, when at last,
satisfied as to their safety, or the abundance of food in the spot, they
alight, and immediately run about in quest of food. They run briskly,
and as lightly as birds usually called Larks are wont to do, but with
this difference, that they suffer their tails to vibrate whenever they
stop running. Again, instead of squatting partially down, as true Larks
do, to pick up their food, they move their body upon the upper joints
of the legs, in the manner of Thrushes and other birds. Another habit
seldom found in the Lark genus is that of settling on fences and trees,
and walking along them with apparent ease. In fact, the bird, although
called a Lark by WILSON and others, belongs to the Pipit or Titlark
family.
Whilst residing among the meadows and ploughed fields, these birds feed on
insects and small seeds, picking up some gravel at the same time. Along
the rivers, or on the sea-shores, they are fond of running as near the
edge of the water as possible, and searching among the drifted leaves
and weeds for such insects as are usually found there. The vibratory
motion of their tail is now more perceptible, being quicker. Their
feeble notes are also frequently uttered. When shot along the shores,
their stomachs have been found filled with fragments of minute shells,
as well as small shrimps, and other garbage. When raised by the report
of a gun, they rise high, and sometimes fly to a considerable distance;
but you may expect their return to the same spot, if you keep yourself
concealed for a few minutes. They are expert fly-catchers, inasmuch as
they leap from the ground, and follow insects on the wing for several
feet with avidity. The company of cattle is agreeable to them, so much
so, that they walk almost under them in quest of insects. When in fields,
the Brown Titlarks are often seen mixed with a few other birds known by
the name of Winter Larks, the habits of which I shall detail in my next
volume.
The species now under consideration reaches Louisiana about the middle
of October, and leaves it in the beginning of March. I caught some
of these birds on my passage from France to the United States, on the
Great Newfoundland Banks. They came on board wearied, and so hungry that
the crumbs of biscuit thrown to them were picked up with the greatest
activity. I am inclined to consider the Brown Titlark identical with
the Water Pipit of Europe.
ANTHUS SPINOLETTA, _Ch. Bonaparte_, Synopsis of Birds of the
United States, p. 90.
ALAUDA SPINOLETTA, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. p. 288.
PIPIT SPIONCELLE, _Temm._ Man. d'Ornith. Part i. p. 265.
BROWN LARK, ALAUDA RUFA, _Wilson_, Amer. Ornith. vol. v. p. 89.
Pl. 42. fig. 4.
Adult Male. Plate X. Fig. 1.
Bill straight, subulate, depressed at the base, acute, the edges slightly
inflected at the middle, the gap not reaching to beneath the eyes;
upper mandible keeled at the base, afterwards rounded, slightly notched
and declinate at the tip. Nostrils basal, oval, half closed above by a
membrane. Head small. Neck slender. Body slender. Feet longish, slender;
tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with longish scutella, longer than
the middle toe; toes scutellate above, granulated beneath; inner toe
free; hind toe with a very long, almost straight claw, which, together
with the rest, is slender, compressed and acute.
Plumage blended, soft, with little gloss. Wings rather long, acute, the
first, second, and third primaries longest. Tail longish, forked, the
feathers rather narrow and sharpish.
Bill brownish-black. Legs and claws deep brown, tinged with green. Iris
brown. Upper parts olive-brown tinged with grey; throat and a line over
the eye brownish-white. Quills brownish-black, margined externally with
whitish; tail of the same colour, the outermost feather half white, the
next obliquely white at the end. Under parts reddish white, the sides
of the neck and the breast longitudinally spotted with dark brown.
Length 6½ inches, extent of wings 10½; bill 7/12 along the ridge, ⅔
along the gap; tarsus 11/12, middle toe ¾; hind toe ⅚ including the
claw, which is 5/12.
Adult Female. Plate X. Fig. 2.
The female differs from the male only in being somewhat smaller, and in
having the colours paler, and the upper parts more tinged with brown.
THE GREAT PINE SWAMP.
I left Philadelphia, at four of the morning, by the coach, with no other
accoutrements than I knew to be absolutely necessary for the jaunt which
I intended to make. These consisted of a wooden box, containing a small
stock of linen, drawing paper, my journal, colours and pencils, together
with 25 pounds of shot, some flints, the due quantum of cash, my gun
_Tear-jacket_, and a heart as true to nature as ever.
Our coaches are none of the best, nor do they move with the velocity of
those of some other countries. It was eight, and a dark night, when I
reached Mauch Chunk, now so celebrated in the Union for its rich coal
mines, and eighty-eight miles distant from Philadelphia. I had passed
through a very diversified country, part of which was highly cultivated,
while the rest was yet in a state of nature, and consequently much more
agreeable to me. On alighting, I was shewn to the travellers' room, and
on asking for the landlord, saw coming towards me a fine-looking young
man, to whom I made known my wishes. He spoke kindly, and offered to
lodge and board me at a much lower rate than travellers who go there for
the very simple pleasure of being dragged on the railway. In a word, I
was fixed in four minutes, and that most comfortably.
No sooner had the approach of day been announced by the cocks of the
little village, than I marched out with my gun and note-book, to judge
for myself of the wealth of the country. After traversing much ground,
and crossing many steep hills, I returned, if not wearied, at least much
disappointed at the extraordinary scarcity of birds. So I bargained to
be carried in a cart to the central parts of the Great Pine Swamp, and,
although a heavy storm was rising, ordered my conductor to proceed. We
winded round many a mountain, and at last crossed the highest. The weather
had become tremendous, and we were thoroughly drenched, but my resolution
being fixed, the boy was obliged to continue his driving. Having already
travelled about fifteen miles or so, we left the turnpike, and struck up
a narrow and bad road, that seemed merely cut out to enable the people
of the Swamp to receive the necessary supplies from the village which
I had left. Some mistakes were made, and it was almost dark, when a
post directed us to the habitation of a Mr JEDIAH IRISH, to whom I had
been recommended. We now rattled down a steep declivity, edged on one
side by almost perpendicular rocks, and on the other by a noisy stream,
which seemed grumbling at the approach of strangers. The ground was so
overgrown by laurels and tall pines of different kinds, that the whole
presented only a mass of darkness.
At length we got to the house, the door of which was already opened,
the sight of strangers being nothing uncommon in our woods, even in
the most remote parts. On entering, I was presented with a chair, while
my conductor was shewn the way to the stable, and on expressing a wish
that I should be permitted to remain in the house for some weeks, I was
gratified by receiving the sanction of the good woman to my proposal,
although her husband was then from home. As I immediately fell a-talking
about the nature of the country, and inquired if birds were numerous
in the neighbourhood, Mrs IRISH, more _au fait_ to household affairs
than ornithology, sent for a nephew of her husband's, who soon made
his appearance, and in whose favour I became at once prepossessed. He
conversed like an educated person, saw that I was comfortably disposed
of, and finally bade me good-night in such a tone as made me quite happy.
The storm had rolled away before the first beams of the morning sun
shone brightly on the wet foliage, displaying all its richness and
beauty. My ears were greeted by the notes, always sweet and mellow, of
the Wood Thrush and other songsters. Before I had gone many steps, the
woods echoed to the report of my gun, and I picked from among the leaves
a lovely Sylvia, long sought for, but until then sought for in vain. I
needed no more, and standing still for awhile, I was soon convinced that
the Great Pine Swamp harboured many other objects as valuable to me.
The young man joined me, bearing his rifle, and offered to accompany
me through the woods, all of which he well knew. But I was anxious to
transfer to paper the form and beauty of the little bird I had in my
hand; and requesting him to break a twig of blooming laurel, we returned
to the house, speaking of nothing else than the picturesque beauty of
the country around.
A few days passed, during which I became acquainted with my hostess and
her sweet children, and made occasional rambles, but spent the greater
portion of my time in drawing. One morning, as I stood near the window
of my room, I remarked a tall and powerful man alight from his horse,
loose the girth of the saddle, raise the latter with one hand, pass the
bridle over the head of the animal with the other, and move towards the
house, while the horse betook himself to the little brook to drink. I
heard some movements in the room below, and again the same tall person
walked towards the mills and stores, a few hundred yards from the
house. In America, business is the first object in view at all times,
and right it is that it should be so. Soon after my hostess entered my
room, accompanied by the fine-looking woodsman, to whom, as Mr JEDIAH
IRISH, I was introduced. Reader, to describe to you the qualities of
that excellent man were vain; you should know him, as I do, to estimate
the value of such men in our sequestered forests. He not only made me
welcome, but promised all his assistance in forwarding my views.
The long walks and long talks we have had together I never can forget, or
the many beautiful birds which we pursued, shot, and admired. The juicy
venison, excellent bear flesh, and delightful trout that daily formed
my food, methinks I can still enjoy. And then, what pleasure I had in
listening to him as he read his favourite Poems of BURNS, while my pencil
was occupied in smoothing and softening the drawing of the bird before
me! Was not this enough to recall to my mind the early impressions that
had been made upon it by the description of the golden age, which I here
found realized?
The Lehigh about this place forms numerous short turns between the
mountains, and affords frequent falls, as well as below the falls deep
pools, which render this stream a most valuable one for mills of any
kind. Not many years before this date, my host was chosen by the agent of
the Lehigh Coal Company, as their mill-wright, and manager for cutting
down the fine trees which covered the mountains around. He was young,
robust, active, industrious, and persevering. He marched to the spot
where his abode now is, with some workmen, and by dint of hard labour
first cleared the road mentioned above, and reached the river at the
centre of a bend, where he fixed on erecting various mills. The pass
here is so narrow that it looks as if formed by the bursting asunder of
the mountain, both sides ascending abruptly, so that the place where the
settlement was made is in many parts difficult of access, and the road
then newly cut was only sufficient to permit men and horses to come to
the spot where JEDIAH and his men were at work. So great, in fact, were
the difficulties of access, that, as he told me, pointing to a spot about
150 feet above us, they for many months slipped from it their barrelled
provisions, assisted by ropes, to their camp below. But no sooner was the
first saw-mill erected, than the axemen began their devastations. Trees
one after another were, and are yet, constantly heard falling, during
the days; and in calm nights, the greedy mills told the sad tale, that
in a century the noble forests around should exist no more. Many mills
were erected, many dams raised, in defiance of the impetuous Lehigh. One
full third of the trees have already been culled, turned into boards,
and floated as far as Philadelphia.
In such an undertaking, the cutting of the trees is not all. They have
afterwards to be hauled to the edge of the mountains bordering the river,
launched into the stream, and led to the mills over many shallows and
difficult places. Whilst I was in the Great Pine Swamp, I frequently
visited one of the principal places for the launching of logs. To see
them tumbling from such a height, touching here and there the rough
angle of a projecting rock, bouncing from it with the elasticity of a
foot-ball, and at last falling with awful crash into the river, forms
a sight interesting in the highest degree, but impossible for me to
describe. Shall I tell you that I have seen masses of these logs heaped
above each other to the number of five thousand? I may so tell you, for
such I have seen. My friend IRISH assured me that at some seasons, these
piles consisted of a much greater number, the river becoming in those
places completely choked up.
When _freshets_ (or floods) take place, then is the time chosen for
forwarding the logs to the different mills. This is called a _Frolic_.
JEDIAH IRISH, who is generally the leader, proceeds to the upper leap with
his men, each provided with a strong wooden handspike, and a short-handled
axe. They all take to the water, be it summer or winter, like so many
Newfoundland spaniels. The logs are gradually detached, and, after a
time, are seen floating down the dancing stream, here striking against
a rock and whirling many times round, there suddenly checked in dozens
by a shallow, over which they have to be forced with the handspikes. Now
they arrive at the edge of a dam, and are again pushed over. Certain
numbers are left in each dam, and when the party has arrived at the
last, which lies just where my friend IRISH's camp was first formed,
the drenched leader and his men, about sixty in number, make their way
home, find there a healthful repast, and spend the evening and a portion
of the night in dancing and frolicking, in their own simple manner, in
the most perfect amity, seldom troubling themselves with the idea of
the labour prepared for them on the morrow.
That morrow now come, one sounds a horn from the door of the store-house,
at the call of which each returns to his work. The sawyers, the millers,
the rafters and raftsmen are all immediately busy. The mills are all
going, and the logs, which a few months before were the supporters of
broad and leafy tops, are now in the act of being split asunder. The
boards are then launched into the stream, and rafts are formed of them
for market.
During the summer and autumnal months, the Lehigh, a small river of
itself, soon becomes extremely shallow, and to float the rafts would
prove impossible, had not art managed to provide a supply of water for
this express purpose. At the breast of the lower dam is a curiously
constructed lock, which is opened at the approach of the rafts. They
pass through this lock with the rapidity of lightning, propelled by
the water that had been accumulated in the dam, and which is of itself
generally sufficient to float them to Mauch Chunk, after which, entering
regular canals, they find no other impediments, but are conveyed to
their ultimate destination.
Before population had greatly advanced in this part of Pennsylvania, game
of all descriptions found within that range was extremely abundant. The
Elk itself did not disdain to browse on the shoulders of the mountains,
near the Lehigh. Bears and the Common Deer must have been plentiful, as,
at the moment when I write, many of both kinds are seen and killed by
the resident hunters. The Wild Turkey, the Pheasant and the Grouse, are
also tolerably abundant; and as to trout in the streams—Ah, reader, if
you are an angler, do go there, and try for yourself. For my part, I can
only say, that I have been made weary with pulling up from the rivulets
the sparkling fish, allured by the struggles of the common grasshopper.
A comical affair happened with the bears, which I shall relate to you,
good reader. A party of my friend IRISH's raftsmen, returning from Mauch
Chunk, one afternoon, through sundry short cuts over the mountains, at
the season when the huckle-berries are ripe and plentiful, were suddenly
apprised of the proximity of some of these animals, by their snuffing the
air. No sooner was this perceived than, to the astonishment of the party,
not fewer than eight bears, I was told, made their appearance. Each man,
being provided with his short-handled axe, faced about, and willingly
came to the scratch; but the assailed soon proved the assailants, and
with claw and tooth drove off the men in a twinkling. Down they all
rushed from the mountain; the noise spread quickly; rifles were soon
procured and shouldered; but when the spot was reached, no bears were
to be found; night forced the hunters back to their homes, and a laugh
concluded the affair.
I spent six weeks in the Great Pine Forest—Swamp it cannot be
called—where I made many a drawing. Wishing to leave Pennsylvania, and
to follow the migratory flocks of our birds to the south, I bade adieu
to the excellent wife and rosy children of my friend, and to his kind
nephew. JEDIAH IRISH, shouldering his heavy rifle, accompanied me, and
trudging directly across the mountains, we arrived at Mauch Chunk in
good time for dinner. Shall I ever have the pleasure of seeing that good,
that generous man again?
At Mauch Chunk, where we both spent the night, Mr WHITE, the civil
engineer, visited me, and looked at the drawings which I had made in
the Great Pine Forest. The news he gave me of my sons, then in Kentucky,
made me still more anxious to move in their direction, and, long before
day-break, I shook hands with the goodman of the forest, and found
myself moving towards the capital of Pennsylvania, having as my sole
companion a sharp frosty breeze. Left to my thoughts, I felt amazed that
such a place as the Great Pine Forest should be so little known to the
Philadelphians, scarcely any of whom could direct me towards it. How
much is it to be regretted, thought I, that the many young gentlemen who
are there so much at a loss how to employ their leisure days, should
not visit these wild retreats, valuable as they are to the student of
nature. How differently would they feel, if, instead of spending weeks
in smoothing a useless bow, and walking out in full dress, intent on
displaying the make of their legs, to some rendezvous where they may
enjoy their wines, they were to occupy themselves in contemplating the
rich profusion which nature has poured around them, or even in procuring
some desiderated specimen for their _Peale's Museum_, once so valuable
and so finely arranged? But alas! no: they are none of them aware of
the richness of the Great Pine Swamp, nor are they likely to share the
hospitality to be found there.
Night came on, as I was thinking of such things, and I was turned out of
the coach in the streets of the fair city, just as the clock struck ten.
I cannot say that my bones were much rested, but not a moment was to be
lost. So I desired a porter to take up my little luggage, and leading
him towards the nearest wharf, I found myself soon after gliding across
the Delaware, towards my former lodgings in the Jerseys. The lights were
shining from the parallel streets as I crossed them, all was tranquil and
serene, until there came the increasing sound of the Baltimore steamer,
which, for some reason unknown to me, was that evening later than usual
in its arrival. My luggage was landed, and carried home by means of a
bribe. The people had all retired to rest, but my voice was instantly
recognised, and an entrance was afforded to me.
THE BIRD OF WASHINGTON.
_FALCO WASHINGTONII._
PLATE XI. MALE.
It was in the month of February 1814, that I obtained the first sight of
this noble bird, and never shall I forget the delight which it gave me.
Not even HERSCHEL, when he discovered the planet which bears his name,
could have experienced more rapturous feelings. We were on a trading
voyage, ascending the Upper Mississippi. The keen wintry blasts whistled
around us, and the cold from which I suffered had, in a great degree,
extinguished the deep interest which, at other seasons, this magnificent
river has been wont to awake in me. I lay stretched beside our patroon.
The safety of the cargo was forgotten, and the only thing that called my
attention was the multitude of ducks, of different species, accompanied
by vast flocks of swans, which from time to time passed us. My patroon,
a Canadian, had been engaged many years in the fur trade. He was a man
of much intelligence, and, perceiving that these birds had engaged my
curiosity, seemed anxious to find some new object to divert me. An eagle
flew over us. "How fortunate!" he exclaimed; "this is what I could have
wished. Look, sir! the Great Eagle, and the only one I have seen since
I left the lakes." I was instantly on my feet, and having observed it
attentively, concluded, as I lost it in the distance, that it was a
species quite new to me. My patroon assured me that such birds were
indeed rare; that they sometimes followed the hunters, to feed on the
entrails of animals which they had killed, when the lakes were frozen
over, but that when the lakes were open, they would dive in the daytime
after fish, and snatch them up in the manner of the Fishing Hawk; and
that they roosted generally on the shelves of the rocks, where they
built their nests, of which he had discovered several by the quantity
of white dung scattered below.
Convinced that the bird was unknown to naturalists, I felt particularly
anxious to learn its habits, and to discover in what particulars it
differed from the rest of its genus. My next meeting with this bird was
a few years afterwards, whilst engaged in collecting crayfish on one of
those flats which border and divide Green River, in Kentucky, near its
junction with the Ohio. The river is there bordered by a range of high
cliffs, which, for some distance, follow its windings. I observed on the
rocks, which, at that place, are nearly perpendicular, a quantity of white
ordure, which I attributed to owls that might have resorted thither. I
mentioned the circumstance to my companions, when one of them, who lived
within a mile and a half of the place, told me it was from the nest of
the Brown Eagle, meaning the White-headed Eagle (_Falco leucocephalus_)
in its immature state. I assured him this could not be, and remarked
that neither the old nor the young birds of that species ever build
in such places, but always in trees. Although he could not answer my
objection, he stoutly maintained that a brown eagle of some kind, above
the usual size, had built there; and added that he had espied the nest
some days before, and had seen one of the old birds dive and catch a
fish. This he thought strange, having, till then, always observed that
both Brown Eagles and Bald Eagles procured this kind of food by robbing
the fish-hawks. He said that if I felt particularly anxious to know what
nest it was, I might soon satisfy myself, as the old birds would come
and feed their young with fish, for he had seen them do so before.