me, smiling at the fervor of my first ornithological enthusiasm. He
thought he was asking me a poser; but I answered gayly, "It makes
me happy;" and taking things as they run, happiness is a pretty
substantial "good." So was it now with the sight of this long-desired
warbler. It taught me nothing; it put nothing into my pocket; but it
made me happy,--happy enough to sing and shout, though I am ashamed
to say I did neither. And even a sober son of the Puritans may be
glad to find himself, in some unexpected hour, almost as ineffably
delighted as he used to be with a new plaything in the time when he
had not yet tasted of the tree of knowledge, and knew not that the
relish for playthings could ever be outgrown. I cannot affirm that I
went quite as wild over my first Cape May warbler as I did over my
first sled (how well the rapture of that frosty midwinter morning is
remembered,--a hard crust on the snow, and the sun not yet risen!),
but I came as near to that state of heavenly felicity--to reënter
which we must become as little children--as a person of my years is
ever likely to do, perhaps.
It is one precious advantage of natural history studies that they
afford endless opportunities for a man to enjoy himself in this
sweetly childish spirit, while at the same time his occupation is
dignified by a certain scientific atmosphere and relationship.
He is a collector of insects, let us say. Whether he goes to the
Adirondacks for the summer, or to Florida for the winter, he is
surrounded with nets and cyanide bottles. He travels with them as
another travels with packs of cards. Every day's catch is part of
the game; and once in a while, as happened to me on Cameron Hill,
he gets a "great hand," and in imagination, at least, sweeps the
board. Commonplace people smile at him, no doubt; but that is only
amusing, and he smiles in turn. He can tell many good stories under
that head. He delights to be called a "crank." It is all because
of people's ignorance. They have no idea that he is Mr. So-and-So,
the entomologist; that he is in correspondence with learned men the
country over; that he once discovered a new cockroach, and has had a
grasshopper named after him; that he has written a book, or is going
to write one. Happy man! a contributor to the world's knowledge, but
a pleasure-seeker; a little of a savant, and very much of a child; a
favorite of Heaven, whose work is play. No wonder it is commonly said
that natural historians are a cheerful set.
For the supplying of rarities and surprises there are no birds
like the warblers. Their pursuit is the very spice of American
ornithology. The multitude of species (Mr. Chapman's "Handbook of the
Birds of Eastern North America" enumerates forty-five species and
sub-species) is of itself an incalculable blessing in this respect.
No single observer is likely ever to come to the end of them. They do
not warble, it must be owned, and few of them have much distinction
as singers, the best that I know being the black-throated green and
the Kentucky; but they are elegant and varied in their plumage, with
no lack of bright tints, while their extreme activity and their
largely arboreal habits render their specific determination and their
individual study a work most agreeably difficult and tantalizing. The
ornithologist who has seen all the warblers of his own territory, say
of New England, and knows them all by their notes, and has found all
their nests,--well, he is himself a pretty rare specimen.
As for my experience with the family in Tennessee, I was glad, of
course, to scrape acquaintance--or to renew it, as the case might
be--with the more southern species, the Kentucky, the hooded, the
cerulean, the blue-wing, and the yellow-throat: that was partly why
I was here; but perhaps I enjoyed quite as keenly the sight of our
own New England birds moving homeward; tarrying here and there for
a day, but not to be tempted by all the allurements of this fine
country; still pushing on, northward, and still northward, as if for
them there were no place in the world but the woods where they were
born. Of the southern species just named, the Kentucky was the most
abundant, with the hooded not far behind. The prairie warbler seemed
about as common here as in its favored Massachusetts haunts; but
unless my ear was at fault its song went somewhat less trippingly:
it sounded labored,--too much like the scarlet tanager's in the way
of effort and jerkiness. Unlike the golden warbler, the prairie
was found not only in the lower country, but--in less numbers--on
Walden's Ridge. The two warblers that I listed every day, no matter
where I went, were the chat and the black-and-white creeper.
When all is said, the Kentucky, with its beauty and its song, is
the star of the family, as far as eastern Tennessee is concerned.
I can hear it now, while Falling Water goes babbling past in
the shade of laurel and rhododendron. As for the chat, it was
omnipresent: in the valley, along the river, on Missionary Ridge,
on Lookout Mountain, on Walden's Ridge, in the national cemetery,
at Chickamauga,--everywhere, in short, except within the city
itself. In this regard it exceeded the white-eyed vireo, and even
the indigo-bird, I think. Black-polls were seen daily up to May 13,
after which they were missing altogether. The last Cape May and the
last yellow-rump were noted on the 8th, the last redstart and the
last palm warbler on the 11th, the last chestnut-side, magnolia,
and Canadian warbler on the 12th. On the 12th, also, I saw my only
Wilson's blackcap. In my last outing, on the 18th, on Walden's Ridge,
I came upon two Blackburnians in widely separate places. At the
time, I assumed them to be migrants, in spite of the date. One of
them was near the hotel, on ground over which I had passed almost
daily. Why they should be so behindhand was more than I could tell;
but only the day before I had seen a thrush which was either a
gray-cheek or an olive-back, and of course a bird of passage. "The
flight of warblers did not pass entirely until May 19," says Mr.
Jeffries, writing of what he saw in western North Carolina.[6]
The length of time occupied by some species in accomplishing their
semi-annual migration is well known to be very considerable, and
is best observed--in spring, at least--at some southern point.
It is admirably illustrated in Mr. Chapman's "List of Birds seen
at Gainesville, Florida."[7] Tree swallows, he tells us, were
abundant up to May 6, a date at which Massachusetts tree swallows
have been at home for nearly or quite a month. Song sparrows were
noted March 31, two or three weeks after the grand irruption of
song sparrows into Massachusetts usually occurs. Bobolinks, which
reach Massachusetts by the 10th of May, or earlier, were still very
abundant--both sexes--May 25! Such dates are not what we should
have expected, I suppose, especially in the case of a bird like
the bobolink, which has no very high northern range; but they seem
not to be exceptional, and are surprising only because we have
not yet mastered the general subject. Nothing exists by itself,
and therefore nothing can be understood by itself. One thing the
most ignorant of us may see,--that the long period covered by the
migratory journeys is a matter for ornithological thankfulness. In
Massachusetts, for example, spring migrants begin to appear in late
February or early March, and some of the most interesting members of
the procession--notably the mourning warbler and the yellow-bellied
flycatcher--are to be looked for after the first of June. The
autumnal movement is equally protracted; so that for at least half
the year--leaving winter with its arctic possibilities out of
consideration--we may be on the lookout for strangers.
One of the dearest pleasures of a southern trip in winter or early
spring is the very thing at which I have just now hinted, the sight
of one's home birds in strange surroundings. You leave New England in
early February, for instance, and in two or three days are loitering
in the sunny pine-lands about St. Augustine, with the trees full of
robins, bluebirds, and pine warblers, and the savanna patches full of
meadow larks. Myrtle warblers are everywhere. Phoebes salute you as
you walk the city streets, and flocks of chippers and vesper sparrows
enliven the fields along the country roads. In a piece of hammock
just outside the town you find yourself all at once surrounded by a
winter colony of summer birds. Here are solitary vireos, Maryland
yellow-throats, black-and-white creepers, prairie warblers, red-poll
warblers, hermit thrushes, red-eyed chewinks, thrashers, catbirds,
cedar-birds, and many more. White-eyed vireos are practicing in the
smilax thickets,--though they have small need of practice,--and
white-bellied swallows go flashing and twittering overhead. The world
is good, you say, and life is a festival.
My vacation in Tennessee afforded less of contrast and surprise, for
a twofold reason: it was near the end of April, instead of early in
February, so that migrants had been arriving in Massachusetts for six
or seven weeks before my departure; and Tennessee has nothing of the
foreign, half-tropical look which Florida presents to Yankee eyes;
but even so, it was no small pleasure to step suddenly into a world
full of summer music. Such multitudes of birds as were singing on
Missionary Ridge on that first bright forenoon! The number of species
was not great, when it came to counting them,--morning and afternoon
together yielded but forty-two; but the whole country seemed alive
with wings. And of the forty-two species, thirty-two were such as
summer in Massachusetts or pass through it to their homes beyond.
Here were already (April 27) the olive-backed thrush, and northern
warblers like the black-poll, the bay-breast, and the Cape May, none
of which would be due in Massachusetts for at least a fortnight.
Here, too, were yellow-rumps and white-throated sparrows, though the
advance guard of both species had reached New England before I left
home. The white-throats lingered on Walden's Ridge on the 13th of
May, a fact which surprised me more at the time than it does in the
review.
One bird was seen on this first day, and not afterward. I had been
into the woods north of the city, and was returning, when from the
bridge over the Tennessee I caught sight of a small flock of black
birds, which at first, even with the aid of my glass, I could not
make out, the bridge being so high above the river and its banks.
While I was watching them, however, they began to sing. They were
bobolinks. Probably the species is not common in eastern Tennessee,
as the name is wanting in Dr. Fox's "List of Birds found in Roane
County, Tennessee, during April, 1884, and March and April, 1885."[8]
I have ventured upon some slight ornithological comparison between
southeastern Tennessee and eastern Massachusetts, and, writing as a
patriot (or a partisan), have seen to it that the scale inclined
northward. To this end I have made as much as possible of the absence
of robins, song sparrows, and vesper sparrows, and of the comparative
dearth of swallows; but of course the loyal Tennessean is in no
want of a ready answer. Robins, song sparrows, vesper sparrows, and
swallows are _not_ absent, except as breeding birds. He has them
all in their season,[9] and probably hears them sing. On the whole,
then, he may fairly retort, he has considerably the advantage of us
Yankees: he sees our birds on their passage, and drinks his fill
of their music before we have caught the first spring notes; while
we, on the other hand, see nothing of his distinctively southern
birds unless we come South for the purpose. Well, they are worth the
journey. Bachman's finch alone--yes, the one dingy, shabbily clad
little genius by the Chickamauga well--might almost have repaid me
for my thousand miles on the rail.
* * * * *
It was a strange mingling of sensations that possessed me in
Chattanooga. The city itself was like other cities of its age and
size, with some appearance of a community that had been in haste to
grow,--a trifle impatient, shall we say (impatience being one of
the virtues of youth), to pull down its barns and build greater;
just now a little checked in its ambition, as things looked; yet
still enterprising, still fairly well satisfied with itself, with
no lack of energy and bustle. As it happened, there was a stir in
local politics at the time of my visit (possibly there always is),
and at the street corners all patriotic citizens were exhorted to
do their duty. "Vote for Tom ---- for sheriff," said one placard.
"Vote for Bob ----," said another, in capitals equally importunate.
In Tennessee, as everywhere else, the politician knows his trade.
Familiarity, readiness with the hand, freedom with one's own name
(Tom, not Thomas, if you please), and a happy knack at remembering
the names of other people,--these are some of the preëlection tests
of statesmanship.
All in all, then, between politics and business, the city was "very
much alive," as the saying goes; but somehow it was not so often the
people about me that occupied my thoughts as those who had been here
thirty years before. Precious is the power of a first impression.
Because I was newly in the country I was constantly under the feeling
of its past. Hither and thither I went in the region round about,
listening at every turn, spying into every bush at the stirring of a
leaf or the chirp of a bird; yet I had always with me the men of '63,
and felt always that I was on holy ground.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] _The Auk_, vol. iii. p. 103.
[4] Both these warblers--the Nashville and the Tennessee--were named
by Wilson from the places where the original specimens were shot.
Concerning the Tennessee warbler he sets down the opinion that "it is
most probably a native of a more southerly climate." It would be a
pity for men to cease guessing, though the shrewdest are certain to
be sometimes wrong.
[5] _The Auk_, vol. iii. p. 175.
[6] _The Auk_, vol. vi. p. 120.
[7] _Ibid._, vol. v. p. 267.
[8] _The Auk_, vol. iii. p. 315. Of sixty-two species seen by me
during the last four days of April, eleven are not given by Dr.
Fox, namely, Wilson's thrush, black-poll warbler, bay-breasted
warbler, Cape May warbler, black-throated blue warbler, palm warbler,
chestnut-sided warbler, blue golden-winged warbler, bobolink, Acadian
flycatcher, yellow-billed cuckoo.
[9] See Dr. Fox's list.
A LIST OF BIRDS
FOUND IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF CHATTANOOGA FROM APRIL 27 TO MAY 18,
1894.
1. Green Heron. _Ardea virescens._--A single individual seen from a
car window. No other water birds were observed except three or four
ducks and a single wader, all upon the wing and unidentified.
2. Bob White. Quail. Partridge. _Colinus virginianus._--Common.
3. Ruffed Grouse. "Pheasant." _Bonasa umbettus._--Heard drumming on
Walden's Ridge.
4. Carolina Dove. Mourning Dove. _Zenaidura macroura._--A small
number seen.
5. Turkey Vulture. Turkey Buzzard. _Cathartes aura._--Common.
6. Black Vulture. Carrion Crow. _Catharista atrata._--Two birds seen.
7. Red-tailed Hawk. _Buteo borealis._--One bird seen from Walden's
Ridge.
8. Sparrow Hawk. _Falco sparverius._--One bird, on Walden's Ridge.
9. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. _Coccyzus americanus._--Common. First
noticed April 29.
10. Black-billed Cuckoo. _Coccyzus erythrophthalmus._--Seen twice on
Lookout Mountain, May 7 and 8, and once on Walden's Ridge, May 12.
11. Belted Kingfisher. _Ceryle alcyon._--A single bird heard on
Walden's Ridge.
12. Hairy Woodpecker. _Dryobates villosus._--My notes record
seven birds. No attempt was made to determine their specific or
sub-specific identity, but they are presumed to have been _D.
villosus_, not _D. villosus audubonii_.
13. Downy Woodpecker. _Dryobates pubescens._--A single bird was heard
(not seen) on Walden's Ridge,--a noticeable reversal of the usual
relative commonness of this species and the preceding.
14. Red-cockaded Woodpecker. _Dryobates borealis._--Found only at
Chickamauga, on Snodgrass Hill, in long-leaved pines--two or three
birds.
15. Pileated Woodpecker. "Logcock." _Ceophloeus pileatus._--Said to
be common on Walden's Ridge, where I heard its flicker-like shout.
16. Red-headed Woodpecker. _Melanerpes erythrocephalus._--One seen
near Missionary Ridge and one at Chickamauga. The scarcity of this
bird, and the absence of the red-bellied and the yellow-bellied, were
among the surprises of my visit.
17. Flicker. Golden-winged Woodpecker. _Colaptes auratus._--Not
common. Three birds were seen at Chickamauga, and it was occasional
on Walden's Ridge, where I listed it five days of the seven.
18. Whippoorwill. _Antrostomus vociferus._--Undoubtedly common. I
heard it only on Walden's Ridge, the only place where I went into the
woods after dark.
19. Nighthawk. _Chordeiles virginianus._--Common.
20. Chimney Swift. _Chætura pelagica._--Abundant.
21. Ruby-throated Humming-bird. _Trochilus colubris._--Common in the
forests of Walden's Ridge. Seen but twice elsewhere. First seen April
28.
22. Kingbird. _Tyrannus tyrannus._--Seen but three times--nine
specimens in all. First seen April 29.
23. Crested Flycatcher. _Myiarchus crinitus._--Noticed daily, with
two exceptions.
24. Phoebe. _Sayornis phoebe._--Common on Lookout Mountain and
Walden's Ridge. Not seen elsewhere.
25. Wood Pewee. _Contopus virens._--Very common. Much the most
numerous member of the family. Present in good force April 27, and
gathering nest materials April 29.
26. Acadian Flycatcher. Green-crested Flycatcher. _Empidonax
virescens._--Common.
27. Blue Jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._--Scarce (for the blue jay), and
not seen on Walden's Ridge!
28. Crow. _Corvus americanus._--Apparently much less common than in
Eastern Massachusetts.
29. Bobolink. _Dolichonyx oryzivorus._--A small flock seen, and heard
singing, April 27.
30. Orchard Oriole. _Icterus spurius._--Common, but not found on
Walden's Ridge.
31. Baltimore Oriole. _Icterus galbula._--A single bird, at
Chickamauga, May 3.
32. Crow Blackbird. _Quiscalus quiscula?_--Seen on sundry occasions
in the valley country, but specific distinction not made out. Both
forms--_Q. quiscula_ and _Q. quiscula æneus_--are found in Tennessee.
See Dr. Fox's List of Birds found in Roane County, Tennessee. "The
Auk," vol. iii. p. 315. My own list of the Icteridæ is remarkable for
its omissions, especially of the cowbird, the red-winged blackbird
(which, however, I am pretty certain that I saw on the wing) and the
meadow lark.
33. House Sparrow. English Sparrow. _Passer
domesticus._--Distressingly superabundant in the city and its suburbs.
34. Goldfinch. _Spinus tristis._--Abundant. Still in flocks.
35. White-crowned Sparrow. _Zonotrichia leucophrys._--Seen but once
(May 1), two birds, in the national cemetery.
36. White-throated Sparrow. _Zonotrichia albicollis._--Common. Still
present on Walden's Ridge (in two places) May 13. Sang very little.
37. Chipping Sparrow. Doorstep Sparrow. _Spizella socialis._--Common.
38. Field Sparrow. _Spizella pusilla._--Common.
39. Bachman's Sparrow. _Peucæa æstivalis bachmanii._--Common. One of
the best of singers.
40. Chewink. Towhee. _Pipilo erythrophthalmus._--Rather common. Much
less numerous than I should have expected from the nature of the
country.
41. Cardinal Grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._--Seen daily, but
seemingly not very numerous.
42. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. _Habia ludoviciana._--A single female,
May 11.
43. Indigo-bird. _Passerina cyanea._--Very abundant. For the first
time I saw this tropical-looking beauty in flocks.
44. Scarlet Tanager. _Piranga erythromelas._--Common on the
mountains, but seemingly rare in the valley.
45. Summer Tanager. _Piranga rubra._--Common throughout.
46. Purple Martin. _Progne subis._--Common.
47. Rough-winged Swallow. _Stelgidopteryx serripennis._--A few birds
seen.
48. Red-eyed Vireo. _Vireo olivaceus._--Common. One of the species
listed every day.
49. Yellow-throated Vireo. _Vireo flavifrons._--Common. Seen or heard
every day except April 27.
50. White-eyed Vireo. _Vireo noveboracensis._--Abundant. Heard every
day.
51. Black-and-white Creeper. _Mniotilta varia._--Very common.
52. Blue-winged Warbler. _Helminthophila pinus._--One bird seen at
Chickamauga, and a pair on Missionary Ridge.
53. Golden-winged Warbler. _Helminthophila chrysoptera._--Common,
especially in the broken woods north of the city.
54. Panda Warbler. Blue Yellow-backed Warbler. _Compsothlypis
americana._--Only on Walden's Ridge.
55. Cape May Warbler. _Dendroica tigrina._--One bird seen on Cameron
Hill, and a small company on Lookout Mountain--April 27, and May 7
and 8.
56. Yellow Warbler. Golden Warbler. _Dendroica æstiva._--Common, but
not observed on Walden's Ridge.
57. Black-throated Blue Warbler. _Dendroica cærulescens._--Common,
April 27 to May 14.
58. Myrtle Warbler. Yellow-rumped Warbler. _Dendroica
coronata._--Noted April 27 and 28, and May 7 and 8.
59. Magnolia Warbler. _Dendroica maculosa._--Not uncommon, May 1 to
12.
60. Cerulean Warbler. _Dendroica coerulea._--One bird, a male in
song, on Lookout Mountain.
61. Chestnut-sided Warbler. _Dendroica pensylvanica._--Listed on six
dates--April 27 to May 12.
62. Bay-breasted Warbler. _Dendroica castanea._--Seven or eight
individuals--April 27 to May 10.
63. Black-poll Warbler. _Dendroica striata._--Common to May 13.
64. Blackburnian Warbler. _Dendroica blackburniæ._--Seven birds--May
1 to 18.
65. Yellow-throated Warbler. _Dendroica dominica._
(_Albilora?_)--Found only at Chickamauga (Snodgrass Hill), where it
seemed to be common.
66. Black-throated green Warbler. _Dendroica virens._--Common.
67. Pine Warbler. _Dendroica vigorsii._--Not numerous, but found in
appropriate places.
68. Palm Warbler. _Dendroica palmarum._--The specific--or
sub-specific--identity of this bird was not certainly determined, but
I judged the specimens--seen on four dates, April 29 to May 11--to be
as above given, rather than _D. palmarum hypochrysea_.
69. Prairie Warbler. _Dendroica discolor._--Very common.
70. Oven-bird. _Seiurus aurocapillus._--Common on Lookout Mountain
and Walden's Ridge. Seen but once in the lower country.
71. Louisiana Water-thrush. _Seiurus motacilla._--A few birds seen on
Walden's Ridge.
72. Kentucky Warbler. _Geothlypis formosa._--Very common, and in
places very unlike.
73. Maryland Yellow-throat. _Geothlypis trichas._--Common.
74. Yellow-breasted Chat. _Icteria virens._--Very common.
75. Hooded Warbler. _Sylvania mitrata._--Common, especially along the
woodland streams on Walden's Ridge.
76. Wilson's Blackcap. _Sylvania pusilla._--A single bird on Walden's
Ridge, May 12, in free song.
77. Canadian Warbler. _Sylvania canadensis._--Seen on three
dates--May 6, 11, and 12.
78. Redstart. _Setophaga ruticilla._--Common. Not seen after May 14.
79. Mocking-bird. _Mimus polyglottos._--Rare. Not found on the
mountains.
80. Catbird. _Galeoscoptes carolinensis._--Very common, both in the
city and in the country round about.
81. Brown Thrasher. _Harporhynchus rufus._--Common.
82. Carolina Wren. Mocking Wren. _Thryothorus ludovicianus._--Common.
83. Bewick's Wren. _Thryothorus bewickii._--Not common. Seen only on
Missionary Ridge.
84. White-breasted Nuthatch. _Sitta carolinensis._--Common at
Chickamauga and on Walden's Ridge. A single bird noticed on Lookout
Mountain.
85. Tufted Titmouse. _Parus bicolor._--Common.
86. Carolina Chickadee. _Parus carolinensis._--Common.
87. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. _Polioptila cærulea._--Common.
88. Wood Thrush. _Turdus mustelinus._--Very common. A bird with
its beak full of nest materials was seen April 29, at the base of
Missionary Ridge.
89. Wilson's Thrush. Veery. _Turdus fuscescens._--Rare.
90. Gray-cheeked Thrush. _Turdus aliciæ_, or _T. aliciæ
bicknelli_.--Two birds, May 2 and 13.
91. Swainson's Thrush. Olive-backed Thrush. _Turdus ustulatus
swainsonii._--In good numbers and free song. Seen on four dates, the
latest being May 12.
92. Robin. _Merula migratoria._--Five birds in the national cemetery,
April 29.
93. Bluebird. _Sialia sialis._--Common. Young birds out of the nest,
April 28.
INDEX.
Arbutus, 137.
Azalea:--
flame-colored, 178.
pink, 182.
white, 132.
Baptisia, blue, 14, 93.
Blackbird:--
crow, 99.
red-winged, 215.
Bluebird, 9, 13, 78, 99, 111, 207.
Bobolink, 205, 209.
Buzzard, turkey, 6, 188.