Forbush. Edward H 1929 1858 the the the the the the the the SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS XV Natural Bird Gardens on Mount XV Desert Island 251056 EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH Massachusetts State Ornithologist, Author of "Useful Birds and Natural Bird Gardens on Mount Their Protection," a book placed by order of the Massachusetts Legislature in every Public Library and High School in the Desert Island State; Author of "Game Birds and Wild Fowl." When America was first discovered the coast of Maine was the habitat of myriads of land and water birds. Marvelous accounts of their abundance have come down to us in the narratives of the early voyagers, and it is indeed a region wonderfully fitted to be a great nesting ground and feeding place for both land and water species. The coast line is SO broken with deep, irregular indentations and the islands lying off it are SO numerous that from the mouth of the Kennebec at Casco Bay to that of the St. Croix at the Canadian boundary it presents to the wash of the tides more than 2,500 miles of shore. All along the coast there are broad flats and salt-marshes extending deeply inland which are swept over twice a day by the tido's great flood, rising 12 feet or more in the Mount Desert region; and every recurring tide brings in with it and deposits on these flats and marshes quantities of floating marine life, while countless animal and vegetable forms grow on and in their fertile bottoms. In early days, accordingly, when every tide went out ISSUED BY 3 THE WILD GARDENS OF ACADIA BAR HARBOR, MAINE Date ? : Before 1916 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. State Ornithologist. OFFICE OF THE State Board of Agriculture. WARD HOWE FORBUSH, Room 136, State House. STATE ORNITHOLOGIST Office days, Monday and Friday. Other days by appointment. Boston, 191 when America was first discovered the coast of Maine was the habitat of myriads of .land and water birds. Champlain, in his ao- count of his second voyage along that COAST, tells of the multitude of Cowles of the air which he behold. Hakluyt, in his "Discovery of Norumboga" mentions particularly "the great plentie of foules." Rozier, in his narrative of woymouth's voyage to the Maine coast in 1605, speaks of "many fowls of divers kinds" 88 breeding upon the islands. He mentions partucularly eagles, hernshaws (herona), cranes, duoks, great goess, SWANS and penquins (great Auks), crows, shrikes, ravena, news, turtle doves (passenger pigeons), and "many other fowls in flooks unknown," and speaks of oranes especially AB breeding on there Jalanda. Levett ACAIN, in hia "VOYAGA to New England," 1623, speaks of "a world of fowl" alone the const. This coastal region 18 indeed wonderfully fitted to be a great nest ing ground and feeding place for both land and water birds. The BOAAT line 1.8 broken with deep, irregular indentations and the islands lying off. it are 30 nunerous that from CaRno BAY to the Canadian boundary it presents to the WASH of the tides more than 2500 miles of shore. A.Z.Z along the ooast there are broad flats and salt-marshes extending deeply inland whion are swept over twice A day by the tide's great flood -- rising from twelve to thirteen feet in the Mt. Desert region. And every regurring tide Notes First page of twelve typescript for the Sieurde Monts Publication Vol. 15, Edward Howe Forbush - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 2 Edward Howe Forbush From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Edward Howe Forbush (April 28, 1858 - March 7, 1929) was a noted Massachusetts ornithologist and a prolific writer, best known for his book Birds of New England. Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1858, he was a precocious naturalist. His family moved to West Roxbury, when he was seven. As an older child, he conducted field studies of area wildlife and also studied taxidermy. Once again, his family moved to Worcester, where he became a member of the Worcester Natural History Society, and began to publish the results of his studies. At the age of sixteen he was appointed Curator of Ornithology of the Society's museum. 1 When he was nineteen, he mounted an expedition to Florida - this would be the first of many trips he took around the United States to study birds. In 1893, Forbush was appointed Ornithologist to the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. His primary studies at this time were "economic ornithology" - that is, determining whether a given species of bird was beneficial or detrimental to agriculture. In 1908 he became the Massachusetts State Ornithologist. He was a founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He was also first president of the Northeastern Bird-Banding Association (now the Association of Field Ornithologists). His work "Birds of Massachusetts (and Other New England States)" is a three-volume set of books published 1925-1929 by the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. Title notwithstanding, it was and remains a valuable reference regarding not just New England birds but also in regard to ornithology of the Northeast and farther afield. He was also known for his studies of the Heath Hen and his attempts to save the species. He died in Westborough in 1929. His wife donated a glass case containing artistically arranged ornithological specimens to the Westborough Public Library, with a plaque reading: "Presented by Etta L. Forbush in memory of her husband Edward Howe Forbush. All specimens collected prepared and mounted by Mr. Forbush at the age of eighteen." In 1931, The Forbush Bird Club of Worcester, Mass., was established in his memory. Notes Note: see Paul Brooks. 1 E.B. White, "Mr. Forbush's Friends," p. 42. 2 Park Street (1986), Chapter 5. References Forbush, Edward Howe, 1925-1929, The Birds of Massachusetts (and Other New England States). 3 vol. Massachusetts Department of Agriculture May, Dr. John B., "Edward Howe Forbush" in Bulletin of the Northeastern Bird Banding Association, Vol.4, no. 2, April 1928 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Howe_Forbus 3/6/2010 Edward Howe Forbush - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 2 May, Dr. John B., "Edward Howe Forbush: 1858-1929" in Bulletin of the Northeastern Bird Banding Association, Vol. 5, no. 2, April 1929 White, E.B. "Mr. Forbush's Friends," in The New Yorker, February 26, 1966, pp. 42-66. External links Forbush Bird Club Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Howe_Forbush" Categories: 1858 births / 1929 deaths | American ornithologists | People from Worcester, Massachusetts People from Worcester County, Massachusetts This page was last modified on 21 December 2009 at 21:58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Howe_Forbush, 3/6/2010 Forbes Forbush of the war. He had learned to read Italian and to more than five hundred titles. And tt range assortn Spanish in addition to French, before the war, of these titles is extraordinary; they include pa- tablishe and studied Greek while in prison. pers on entomology, ornithology, limnology, ich- mens He was a born naturalist. His farm life as a thyology, ecology, and other phases of biology. cured boy and his open-air life in the army intensified All of his work was characterized by remarkable the Wo his interest in nature. After the close of the originality and depth of thought. He was the and in war, he began at once the study of medicine/ first writer and teacher in America to stress the summer tering the Rush Medical College where he nearly study of ecology, and thus began a movement years p. completed the course. His biographers have not which has gained great headway. published "that lif as yet given the reason for the radical change in eighteen annual entomological reports, all of that it his plans which caused him to abandon medicine which have been models. He was the first and than th at this late stage in his education; but the writer leading worker in America on hydrobiology. He of his 1: has been told by his son, that it was "because of studied the fresh-water organisms of the inland In 18 a series of incidents having to do mainly with waters and was the first scientist to write on the a mena operations without the use of anesthetics which fauna of the Great Lakes. His work on the food setts, a convinced him that he was not temperamentally of fishes was pioneer work and has been of very ernor tc adapted to medical practice." His scientific in- great practical value. He was a charter member rector terests, however, had been thoroughly aroused, of the American Association of Economic En- ousness and for several years while he taught school in tomologists and served twice as its president. measur southern Illinois, he carried on studies in nat- He was also a charter member of the Illinois work ural history. In 1872 through the interest and Academy of Science; a member of the National icy of influence of Dr. George Vasey, the well-known Academy of Sciences and of the American Philo- priatio. botanist, he was made curator of the Museum of sophical Society and in 1928 was made an hon- ure ahe State Natural History at Normal, Ill., and three orary member of the Fourth International Con- plished years later was made instructor in zoölogy at the gress of Entomology. Indiana University gave report, normal school. In 1877 the Illinois State Mu- him the degree of Ph.D., in 1884, on examination most in seum was established at Springfield and the mu- and presentation of a thesis. He married, on Dec. Duri seum at Normal, becoming the property of the 25, 1873, Clara Shaw Gaston, whose death pre- interest state, was made the Illinois State Laboratory of ceded his by only six months. A son, Dr. Ernest insect Natural History. Forbes was made its director. B. Forbes of State College, Pa., and three daugh- the gip During these years he had been publishing the ters survived him. tion an results of his researches rather extensively, and [An article in Science, Apr. II, 1930, by Henry B. logist tc had gone into a most interesting and important Ward: and another in Jour. of Economic Entomology, setts. Apr. 1930, by Herbert Osborn. See also an autobio- line of investigation, namely the food of birds graphical letter, written in 1923, printed in Sci. Month- cating and fishes. He studied intensively the food of ly/ (N. Y.), May 1930 Who's Who in America, 1928- and the the different species of fish inhabiting Illinois 29; and F. C. Pierce, Forbes and Forbush Geneal. 1892).] eled an L.O.H. waters and the food of the different birds. This lished study, of course, kept him close to entomology, FORBUSH, EDWARD HOWE (Apr. 24, tention and in 1884 he was appointed professor of zo- 1858-Mar. 8, 1929), ornithologist, came from a tentiou ölogy and entomology in the University of Illi- long line of ancestors the earliest of whom emi- tion (I nois. The State Laboratory of Natural History grated from Scotland to Massachusetts about Wild-1 was transferred to the university and in 1917 was 1660. His parents, Leander Pomeroy Forbush erted a renamed the Illinois Natural History Survey. and Ruth Hudson Carr, resided at the time of his chusett He retained his position as chief, and held it up to birth in Quincy, Mass., where the father was ical lit the time of his death. He was appointed state principal of the Coddington School. From early and Ot entomologist in 1882 and served until 1917, when childhood he had an all-absorbing interest in the of whi the position was merged in the survey. He re- great outdoors and spent much of his time watch- while tired from his teaching position as an emeritus ing the birds and quadrupeds, and later in hunt- This W professor in 192I. He served as dean of the Col- ing and trapping them. At fourteen he took up eastern lege of Science of the university from 1888 to taxidermy and was soon skilful in the prepara- his life 1905. tion of specimens. He left school at fifteen, de- more i All through his career he had been publishing termined to forego a college education, to be in- beautif his writings actively. As early as 1895, Samuel dependent and self-supporting, and to prepare Agass Henshaw, in his Bibliography of the more Im- himself through his own initiative for what he greatl ortant Contributions to American Economic seemed best fitted to do. At first he turned to col- For Entomology (Pt. IV A-K, nos. 661-762), listed lecting natural history specimens, visited Florida tholog IOI titles. It is said that his bibliography runs and British Columbia, and brought back a large founde 510 Forbush Force range assortment of material. With a companion he es- dubon Society, president of the Northeastern lude pa- tablished a "naturalists' exchange" where speci- Bird Banding Association and the Federation of gg, ich- mens and taxidermists' supplies could be pro- Bird Clubs of New England, and was associated biology. cured; later he became curator and president of with the work of the National Association of Au- markable the Worcester, Mass., Natural History Society, dubon Societies. He married on June 28, 1882, was the and in this connection established one of the first Etta L. Hill of Upton, Mass. tress the summer natural history camps for boys. As the [F. C. Pierce, Forbes and Forbush Geneal. (1892) John B. May, "Edward Howe Forbush : A Biog. Sketch," ovement years passed he discovered, to use his own words, in Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist., Apr. 1928 Boston ublished "that life, not death, would solve our riddles, and Transcript, Mar. 8, 1929 ; personal acquaintance.] all of that it was more essential to preserve the living W.S-e. irst and than the dead." This indeed became the keynote FORCE, MANNING FERGUSON (Dec. gy. He of his later life. 1824-May 8, 1899), soldier, jurist, author, was e inland In 1891 when the imported gipsy-moth became born in Washington, D. C., the son of Peter e on the a menace to shade and fruit trees in Massachu- [q.v.] and Hannah (Evans) Force. His father's :he food setts, a commission was appointed by the gov- ancestors were French Huguenots who came to of very ernor to effect its control. Forbush was made di- America upon the revocation of the Edict of member rector of the work, and at once realized the seri- Nantes; his mother's family was Welsh and emi- nic En- ousness of the situation and the need for drastic grated to Pennsylvania. He prepared for West resident. measures. From the beginning, however, his Point at a boarding school in Alexandria, Va., Illinois work was handicapped by the short-sighted pol- but a change in his plans caused him to go to National icy of the legislature in refusing adequate appro- Harvard, where he entered as a sophomore. In 1 Philo- priations, and in 1900, seeing nothing but fail- 1845 he received his bachelor's degree and three an hon- ure ahead, he resigned. He had already accom- years later he graduated from law school. In Jan- al Con- plished much in keeping the pest in check and his uary 1849 he removed to Cinginnati where he y gave report, The Gypsy Moth (1896), became the spent a year in the office of Walker & Kebler ination most important work on the subject. studying law. Upon his admission to the bar in on Dec. During this period Forbush had never lost his 1850 he became one of the firm of Walker, Keb- th pre- interest in ornithology. His reports on birds as ler & Force. Ernest insect destroyers, published while carrying on He practised law until the commencement of daugh- the gipsy-moth campaign, attracted much atten- the Civil War, when he entered the volunteer ser- tion and resulted in his appointment as ornithol- vice as major of the 20th Ohio Regiment. He enry B. logist to the Board of Agriculture of Massachu- was rapidly promoted to lieutenant-colonel and mology, setts. In this position he at once set about edu- colonel of this regiment; took part in the capture autobio- Month- cating the public to the economic value of birds of Fort Donelson and the battle of Pittsburg 1, 1928- and the importance of their protection. He trav- Landing; and campaigned with Gen. Grant in Gencal. eled and lectured in all parts of the state and pub- 1862-63 in southwestern Tennessee and northern O.H. lished a series of reports which attracted wide at- Mississippi. When Gen. Sherman marched on pr. 24, tention. Though he also published two more pre- Jackson during the siege of Vicksburg, Force from a tentious volumes, Useful Birds and their Protec- was placed in command of the 2nd Brigade and m emi- tion (1907), and A History of the Game Birds, "was employed to guard the road as far back as about Wild-Fowl and Shore Birds (1912), which ex- Clinton." After the siege of Vicksburg he re- orbush erted an influence beyond the borders of Massa- ceived the XVII Corps gold medal of honor by a of his chusetts, his greatest contribution to ornitholog- award of a board of officers ; and on Aug. II, er was ical literature was his Birds of Massachusetts 1863, was appointed brigadier-general. During n early and Other New England States, the first volume Gen. Sherman's Meridian and Atlanta cam- in the of which appeared in 1925, the second in 1927, paigns, he commanded a brigade, which on July watch- while the third was published after his death. 21, 1864, attacked and carried a fortified hill in L hunt- This work was in reality an ornithology of north- full view of Atlanta. The next day Gen. Hood ook up eastern North America embodying the results of endeavored to capture this hill and in the terrible repara- his life's studies, as well as quotations from the battle which ensued, Force was shot through the en, de- more important observations of others, while the upper part of his face. For a time it was thought be in- beautiful illustrations from the brushes of Louis the wound was mortal but on Oct. 22, he was able repare Agassiz Fuertes [q.v.], and Allan Brooks added to report for duty although he carried throughout hat he greatly to the value of the work. life the marks of the wound. In recognition of to col- Forbush was a fellow of the American Orni- his "especial gallantry before Atlanta," he was Florida thologists' Union and a member of its council, a brevetted major-general on Mar. I3, 1865. He large founder and president of the Massachusetts Au- commanded a division in Gen. Sherman's army 5I Roger Tory Peterson Defenders of Wildlife Magazine, October 1980 Page I of 2 Evolution of a Field Guide by Roger Tory Peterson October 1980 Home he egg came first; a bird that was not quite a chicken laid an egg that hatched into something that was a DEFENDERS chicken, if barely. So with A Field Guide to the Birds. Like an evolving species, the form hatched out, back in those Depression years, perhaps crudely, then found its niche and flourished (beyond our dreams) and produced fertile offspring almost beyond count. In 1934 there was nothing remotely like the Field Guide in Part 1 print. Still, I can't take credit for inventing something out of whole cloth. My special contribution was the Part 2 visual element within a carefully chosen context. Other ornithologists, both noted and nameless, had worked out the field marks of most birds. I combined their knowledge with my visual presentation and, at the urging of Part 3 two friends in particular. carried the idea through. Their encouragement. my native interest in birds, and my Part 4 professional training as an artist enabled me to create something that appeared new, though it was really a kind of fertile hybrid. Ernest Thompson Seton's semi-autobiographical story Two Little Savages provided one seed. Its young hero, Roger Tory Yan, had a book which showed him how to identify ducks in the hand. But since he only saw live ducks from Peterson died on afar, he was at a loss for their names. He discovered some mounted specimens in a dusty showcase and noticed July 28 at his home that each species had its own combination of streaks and blotches which distinguished it from all other ducks. in Old Lyme, Yan decided that if he committed the birds' 'uniforms' to paper he'd know these ducks at a distance. He Connecticut, at the painstakingly sketched the labeled birds in the showcase and was on his way to becoming a field naturalist in age of 87. He served Seton's story at least. I don't remember when I first read that tale. As a boy I found my most faithful friends in on the board of books. My mother had toddled me off to kindergarten prematurely at the age- of 4, SO I was always a year directors of behind my peers, an inch or two smaller, the runt of the primary-school clutch. Somewhat solitary, I was Defenders of fascinated by birds and that set me distinctly apart. In Jamestown, N.Y., and throughout the nation bird Wildlife from 1965 watchers were rare. They were considered kooks, though we didn't have that word then. (I was called a number to 1973. This article of other things, names I'd rather leave unspoken.) appeared in the the October 1980 issue of DEFENDERS Just as I can't remember a time when I didn't watch birds, I can't forget the first person who watched me watching with an unjaundiced eye. Her name was Miss Blanche Hornbeck. A pretty, redheaded teacher, she magazine. organized a Junior Audubon Club at school. The Audubon Society provided some leaflets with color plates. checklists, and field hints. Miss Hornbeck provided guidance, and nature provided the rest both the wild birds and the trait or drive that turns some boys into life listers before the age of 12. Our basic text was Reed's Pocket Bird Guide, a little volume the shape of a fat checkbook that devoted to each common species a page of descriptive text and a portrait of the bird. By the time I reached high school, I'd graduated from Reed's which I knew by heart. I was reading Bird Lore and The Auk when I could get it, and drawing local birds in the margins of my copybooks. I was immersed in birds, and otherwise in trouble up to rny scrawny neck. For example, I nearly failed biology. When our science teacher told us the snowy egret was extinct, I saw fit to correct her abruptly. 'No,' I announced. 'It's been coming back since 1920. That kind of deportment was academically expensive. My father, a properly puritanical Swede, despaired at my single- minded drive and doubted whether I'd ever amount to much. A cabinetmaker who emigrated with his parents during the Scandinavian precursor of the Irish potato famines, he came from the same district in Smaland where Linnaeus was born. Sharing my elders' view that I wasn't college material, I set my sights on becoming a commercial artist. That was acceptable enough, SO I set off for the Art Students' League with my father's blessing, then went on to the National Academy of Design. In New York City I remained obsessed by birds. But there I had legendary company. The Linnaean Society met every Tuesday evening at the American Museum of Natural History under the guidance of Ludlow Griscom. I fell in with the seven young men of the Bronx County Bird Club to nurse the seemingly impossible hope of sighting 100 species on the Christmas Count. We soon reached that number and more, thanks in large part to Griscom. A genius at field identification, Griscom used his encyclopedic memory for 'field marks' to identify birds. That phrase, which Edward Howe Forbush featured in his authoritative text, The Birds of Massachusetts, was already part of birding's lingua franca. But in print 'field marks' usually meant the complete catalog of a bird's features starting with every raptor's talons and every tern's black cap. Griscom developed the practical habit of looking for distinguishing marks in the field the visible signs that separated one wren from its almost identical cousins. I left New York in 1931 packing all the ingredients of my new synthesis: Seton's boy protagonist sketching stuffed ducks: Reed's rustic book: Forbush's felicitous paragraph heading http://www.defenders.org/rtpeter1.html 9/3/2002 Droc. 176066 fth Boston Society of Natural History its 107 V. 39 # 2 (1928): 32-63.* No. 2.-EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. BY JOHN B. MAY, M. D., Division of Ornithology, Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH, the subject of this sketch, comes of a long line of New England forebears. His ancestry is easily traced back to about 1660, but there the chain is broken and circumstantial evidence must enter into consideration in connecting the family with Old England. The progenitor of the family in New England was Daniel Forbes, whose name, under various spellings, appears in the early records on several occasions. He is believed to have been a Scotchman, and there is considerable evidence leading to the supposition that he was one of the eight thousand or SO Scotch soldiers who were deported to New England by Cromwell after the battle of Dunbar, September 3, 1650. One of the bits of evidence upon which this inference rests, is a large basket-hilted sword, like a Scotch claymore, which Daniel Forbes brought with him to this country, and which remained in the family for a long time as an heirloom. In the ancient records of the little town of Kinellar, near Aberdeen in Scotland, dated June 15, 1655, reference is made to one "Andro Forbes of Kinellar, heir to Daniel Forbes." From the wording of this record, Daniel Forbes was Andro's uncle, and apparently he was not known to be dead at the time, but was absent from Kinellar. Such reference might easily be made to a Scotch soldier who was absent from home after the disastrous defeat at Dunbar, and whose property perhaps was in danger of confiscation because of his participation in that battle. About this same time men by the name of Forbes are known to have settled near Kittery, Maine, where they were sent by Cromwell's orders. The first definite record of Daniel Forbes in this country, however, was in Cambridge, Mass., to which place some of the Kittery émigrés are known to have removed shortly after their landing in America. On March 26, 1660, the Cambridge records show that Daniel Fforbes was married to one Rebecca Perriman in that town. Daniel was apparently unable to write even his own name (a common condition in those days), as is shown by his affixing his mark instead of his signa- ture to various legal papers; and the recording clerks, listening to his broad Scotch pronunciation, generously threw in a few extra letters Rev. R.F. Cheney. "A List writings of Edward Howe Forhush Pp. 64-72. 51880-1927 62 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. style, and is full of new and valuable information. It is a worthy monument to an admirably useful career. The long and valuable services of Mr. Forbush to Massachusetts and to the country at large constitute a fine example of the benefits to be derived from continuing in public office through long periods competent men in technical work. With his retirement from official work at the age of seventy years, I cannot visualize a cessation of work by Edward Howe Forbush along the lines in which he has been SO successful. He will, henceforth, have the freedom to choose those things which most interest him. That he may have many healthful and happy years in which to do this is the sincere wish of his friend, E. W. NELSON, Formerly Chief, Biological Survey. United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, D. C., February 17, 1928. It is with genuine pleasure that I write a few brief words of appreciation of Edward Howe Forbush, with whom I have been associated for many years in the work of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. During that time I have learned to know Mr. Forbush as a real friend, as an able cooperator, as an excellent administrator. His enthusiasm, while indefinable and intangible, is contagious in its sincerity. His industry is untiring. He has never thought of personal advancement or personal gain, but has given freely of his time and effort and of the vast fund of information which he has acquired by painstaking research, to all with whom he came in contact. Mr. Forbush is a real lover of nature, a keen scientist, a careful investigator, an ardent conservationist, but withal a man whose judgment is not affected either by prejudice or by sentiment. His researches into the food habits of our Massachusetts birds have been of tremendous importance to the agriculturist, the forester, the sportsman, and the nature lover, not only within the Common- wealth but far beyond its borders. His books and his many bulletins on birds, published by the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, have been read by thousands of people, and there is a constant demand for these publications on economic ornithology. His interesting and instructive lectures have been the means of wide dissemination of information, and the supply of magazine and newspaper articles which he has contributed or inspired, has never been equal to the demand from his public. The ability to grasp the philosophy of natural science, to impart it to others, and particularly to stress its usefulness to man- kind while SO doing, is a rare attribute, but one which Mr. Forbush possesses to an unusual degree. He has taught us all that a love of birds is not in the least lessened by a knowledge of the fact that they are of economic importance in the scheme of the universe. The aesthetic and the practical are not incompatible, but may go together, hand in hand. Arthur W. gilbert, Commissioner Community of Passedunts Dept Agricultion State Haw, Boston, 2/15/28. 42 E.B.White New Yorker 1966. Feb. 26. Pp.42f. ANNALS OF BIRDWATCHING MR. FORBUSH'S FRIENDS A a boy, Edward Howe Forbush, terns. I_see him, again, concealed in Volume III is the golden-crowned the ornithologist, was up and the lowest branches of a spruce on a sparrow, an accidental visitor to New away at daybreak every fine small island off the Maine coast-a England. In between these two entries spring morning, exploring the woods soft, halmy night. He is observing the are descriptive accounts and anecdotal and fields of West Roxbury. At thir- arrival of Leach's petrels, whose bur- reports of all the species known to visit teen, he stuffed a song sparrow-his rows are underneath the tree-cerie, New England, whether on business or first attempt at taxidermy. At fifteen, he strange birds, whose chucklings and on pleasure or through the accident of gave up school in favor of birds. At six- fformless sounds might have been the great storms. Although not it student of teen; he was appointed Curator of Or- conversation of elves. Or on that night birds, I am thrown with them a good nithology of the Worcester Natural when he visited a heronry among the bit. It is much the same sort of experi- History Society's museum---indoubt- sand dunes of Sandy Neck, Barnstable: ence as being thrown with people in the edly one of the youngest curators any- "The windless air was stagrant and subway: I gaze at a female, and am where about. He began "collecting," fetid; swarms of stinging midges, decr- filled with curiosity and à wish to know which means shooting birds to get a flies, and mosquitoes attacked at will; more than I do about her nesting site, closer look at them, and he continued and vicious wood-ticks, hanging from breeding habits, measurements, voice, to experiment with taxidermy after the vegetation, reached for me with and range. In the subway, gazing at an reading a book on it. "Such mummies," their clinging claws; and crawled upon interesting face, I have nothing to help he wrote of his mounted birds, "have my limbs, seeking au opening to bury me but my imagination. But among their uses, but later I came to see that their heads in my flesh.' In such un- birds, when I encounter a new face or life, not death, would solve all riddles; comfortable situations, birds being near, renew my acquaintance with an old that an examination of the dead was Mr. Forbush found the purest delight. one, I turn to Forbush for help in merely a preliminary to a study of the I managed to acquire a set of "Birds" comprehending what I have been look- living, and that it was more essential to of Massachusetts" about twenty years ing at. The information he imparts is, of preserve the living than the dead." ago, and have been reading around in course, reliable and often fascinating, Even when he atea bird (he was a the books ever since, for refreshment but for the casual reader his great gift hungry man and ate his share of birds), and instruction. The first entry in Vol- is his immense enthusiasm for anything Mr. Forbush always saved the skin to ume I is Halbeell's grebe (grebes seem that has feathers. I suppose all ornithol- further his scientific researches. His life to rank nearest to the reptiles from logists rather approve of birds .or titcy was bound up with everything on which birds sprang) The last entry in wouldn't pursue the thing, but Edward wings, and his career Howe Forbush during culminated in the great his long and busy life "Birds of Massachu- was obviously enchant- setts and Other New ed with/them. He was England States," the champion of birds three-volume summa- as well las their inter- tion of the avian scene. CONFIDENTIAL preter. Mr. Forbush died in A centain tidiness in- 1929, aged seventy- LOAN fects "Birds of Massa- one, when the work COMPANY chusetts." The ar- was within a few pages rangement is calming of completion. to the nerves. You al- When I am out of ways khow what you joint, from had weath- are going to get and er or it poor run of the order in which you thoughts, I like to sit will get it. Let us say and think about Ed- you. wish to satisfy an ward Howe Forbush. idle curiosity about the I like to think of him on barn owl and you take that June morning in out Volume II and 1908 when, marooned turn to page 189. First, on a sandy islet near the Laun name Then the elbow of Cape Cod, the common name. his stranded skiff Then the "other" awash, his oars garried name (or names)-in to sea, a stiff sou' wester this cast, monkey-faced blowing, drifting sand owl. Then comes a sutting his face, sea ris- section in small type: ing, he allowed himself description, measure- to become utterly ab- ments, molts, field sorbed in an immense marks, poice, breeding, concourse of birds" range, distribution in resting on the sands, chon New England, and most of them common Day season in Massachu- setts. This fine-print section goes into great detail. The barn owl, for instance, is such an infrequent visitor to New England that Mr. Forbush lists the names of the persons who have observed him or taken him, and the dates ("Lexington, June 10, 1915, female taken by Chas. Fowle," and so on). When it comes to describing the sounds a bird makes, Mr. Forbush is seldom content with giving his own endition; instead, he assem- bles a company of listeners and lets each one do an limitation. The voice of the barn owl, depending on who is trying to get it on paper, is "a weire scream; a nasal snore; a loud, prolonged rasping steck; a series of notes click, click, click, click, click, resembling in char- acter the notes of a Katydid, but delivered with diminishing emphasis and shortening in- tervals during the end of the series." The song of the black- throated green warbler: Brad- ford Torrey translates it as "trees, trees, murmuring trees," a pleasing, dreamy, drawling, reedlike Jay; others change it to "cheese, cheese, a little more cheese;" and Dr. C. W. Townsend sets it down "Please Mr. Quillan! You're supposed to be lonely at the top!" as "Hear me Saint Theresa." (Mrs. M. M. Nice recorded two hundred and seventy-four repetitions of the song in one hour.) If breeze, at river mouth where the rip- owls have been the pitiable victims of you have any questions about nesting pling flood flows into the sparkling sea, ignorance and superstition. Hated, de- sites, eggs, period. of incubation, breed- a lazy swiell washing gently on the bar spised, and feared by many peoples, ing habits, breeding dates, appearance where a herd of mottled seals is bask- only their nocturnal habits have enabled of young in juvenile plumage, range, ing in the sun, Old-squaws and Gold- them to survive in company with civi- or distribution, the answers will almost en-eyes in small parties-such a scene lized man. In the minds of mankind certainly be here in this section. at Ipswich is a fit setting for the great they have been leagued with witches But when he's all through with the Grebe that winters on our coasts." Or and malignant evil spirits, or even have monumental task of delineating his bird the entry for the ivory gull: "In spring been believed to personify the Evil One. in fine print, Mr. Forbush cuts loose dawns, fair and rosy, when the sun They have been regarded as precursors with larger type and wider thoughts. rising over the blue Arctic, magnificent of sorrow and death, and some savage Under the heading "Haunts and Hab- with floating ice, reveals a scene of gor- tribes have been so fixed in the belief its" he writes an essay about the bird, geous splendor; where ice lies in in- that a man will die if an owl alights on dropping his tight scientific detach- numerable shapes, some sparkling like the roof of his dwelling that, it is said, ment and indulging himself as stylist, gems and prisms, others rearing vast, some Indians having actually seen the enthusiast, and footloose reporter. It is white, phantasmal forms; on the edge owl on the roof-tree have pined away in these free-swinging essays that the of the ice pack where the wind opens and died. Among all these eerie birds, fun is-for me, anyway. The style of vast sea-lanes; where the mirage shows the Barn Owl has been the victim of the pieces is peculiarly the author's towering mountains that never were the greatest share of obloquy and per- own-a rich prose occasionally touched on land or sea; in summer or winter, secution, owing to its sinister appear- with purple but never with dullness or in storm or sunshine, there dweils ance; its weird night cries, its habit of disenchantment, A devotee of the peri- the white Gull, bird of the ice and haunting dismal swamps and dank odic sentence, he often begins his report snow." quagmires, where an incautious step by setting the stage, leaving the bird out Sometimes, ignoring the scene, he may precipitate the investigator into a it for a few moments, as in the very leaps to the side of his bird and launches malodorous filth or sucking quicksands, first entry (Holbcell's grebe); "A an attack on its detractors, as with |the and its tendency to frequent the neigh- bright clear day in January, a gentle barn owl: "Since the dawn of history, horhood of man's dwellings, especially 44 unoccupied buildings and ghostly ruins. Doubtless the Barn 'Owl is responsi- FALSE YOUTH: WINTER ble for some of the stories of haunt- Through an ide storm in Nashville I took a student home, ed houses which have been current Sliding off theiroad twice or three times; for this through the centuries. When divested She asked me in. She was a living-in-the-city by science of its atmosphere of malign Country girl who on her glazed porch broke off mystery, however, this owl is seen to be An icicle, and bit through its blank bone brought me not only harmless but a benefactor to Into another life in the shining-skinned clapboard house mankind and a very interesting fowl Surrounded by a world where creatures could not stand, that will well repay close study.' Where people broke hip after hip. At the door my feet Sometimes Mr. Forbush devotes Took hold, and at the fire I sat down with her blind most of his essay to some peduliarity of Grandmother. All over the double room were things the bird: howl the bittern produces its That would never freeze, but would have taken well famous sounds of pumping and of To ice: long tassels hanging from lamps curtains stake-driving; whether the night heron beads ia shawl on the mantel all endless things really can throw out a light from its To touch untangle all things intended to be breast, as some believe; whether the Inexhaustible to hands, She sat there, fondling cedar waxwing's dizzy spells are caused What was in reach staring into the fire with me, by its drinking too much fermented Never batting a lid. I talked to her easily eagerly juice or by plain gluttony. Sometimes Of my childhood my mother whistling in her heartsick bed, he starts his essay off with a bit of plain My father grooming his gamecocks. She rocked, fingering talk, straight from the shoulder, to clear The lace on the arm of the chair changing its pattern up any misconception about the subject: Like a game of chess. Before left, she turned and raised "Cowbirds are free lovers. They are Her hands, and asked me to bend down. An icicle stiffened neither polygamous nor polyandrous-- In my stomach as she drew on my one lock of hair, just promissuous: They have no de- Feeling the individual rare strands not pulling any mesne and no domicile; they are en- Out. I closed my eyes as she put her fingertips lightly tirely unattached. Their courting is On them and saw, behind sight, something in me fire brief and to the point. In this pleas- Swirl in a great shape like a fingerprint like none other ant pastime the male usually takes the In the history of the earth looping holding its wildflines lead." Of human force. Her forefinger then her keen nail When he has finished with one of Went all the way along the deep middle line of my brow these rambling essays, Mr. Forbush Not guessing but knowing quivering deepening winds up his study of the species with Whatever I showed by it. She said, You must laugh n lot a short, businesslike paragraph headed Or be in the sun, and I began to laugh quietly against "Economic Status." Here he weighs The truth, soishe might feel what the line she followed the bird's usefulness against its crimes, Did then. Her hands fell and she said to herself, My God, and it is in these concluding paragraphs, To have a growing boy. You cannot fool the blind, I knew, in which the bird is usually subjected As I battled for air standing laughing a lot as she to the ordeal of having the contents of Said I must do squinting also as in the brightest sun its stomach examined, that you see Mr. In Georgia to make good to make good the line in my head. Forbush the partisan wrestling with She lifted her face like a swimmer; the fire swarmed Mr. Forbush the scientist. The two are On my false, created visage as she rocked and took up evenly matched, and they struggle The tassel of a lamp. Some kind of song may have passed manfully. Not all birds are popular in Between our closed mouths as I headed into therice. this world, and a number of them have My face froze with the vast world of time in a smile police records. The crow is a corn- That has never left me since my thirty-eighth year- patch vandal. The jay is a common When I skated like an out-of-shape bear to my Chevrolet thief, The cormorant poses a threat to And spun my wheels on glass-that time when age was caught the salmon fishery, The shrike catches In a thaw in a ravelling room when I conceived of my finger other birds and impales them in a Print as a shape of fire and of youth as a lifetime search thornbush for future reference. The For the blind bobolink knocks the spots out of a rice -JAMES DICKEY harvest. The owl presages death. The herring gull annoys commercial fisher- men and befouls the decks of yachts at ornithologists who have investigated the molested usually have an opportunity to anchor. And so on-a long list of food of this species regard it as a useful raise young later in the season, when crimes and misdeeds. Edward Howe bird.' Yet the author is scrupulously the young Crows e-been reared, and Forbush, however, during his long life fair-the ends his defense by quoting natural enemies of birds are necessary of studying birds, managed to see more' Mr. W. L. Dawson, author of "Birds" to keep their numbers/within bounds." good in them than bad, and the dark of Ohio," who finds the shrike's Mr. Forbush also recalls with relish the chapters in the avian book are deeply offenses hard to forgive, and who says case of a sheepman who annibilated the challenging to him. Of the cruel shrike he keeps his gun loaded. crows in his region because they killed he says that "though we may deplore. Of the mischievous crow Mr. For- newborn lambs, only to discover that his attack on the smaller birds, we can bush says, "Its habit of eating eggs and the grass in his pastures was dying from but admire his self-reliance, audacity young of other birds should not count white grubs, which had increased rapid- and courage," and that "all economic too heavily against it, as the birds thus ly following the destruction of the 45 crows. You can feel his heart rise up at this bit of ecological justice. When Mr. Forbush comes to the cormorant/a notorious fish eater, he issues a caution- ary blast by quoting another bird man, P. A. Taverner, who wrote, "Though com- monly accused of damaging the salmon fisheries by de- youring the small fish and fry, careful examination of about thirty specimens showed that the hundreds of birds present were eating fish of no eco- nomic value and no salino- noid remains were found in them. Probably the eels, sculpins, and other fish taken by the cormorant make the species beneficial rather than harmful to the salmon, and probably more than compen- sate for the few valuable fish that it occasionally takes. This is a good example of the caution that is necessary be- fore condemning any species of birds." In his role as defense at- torney for the birds, Mr. Forbush is not merely spirit- ed, he is wonderfully re- sourceful. He thinks of everything. After listing the obvious benefactions of gulls (they destroy grasshoppers and locusts, dispose of dead fish and garbage, eat field "All this avant-garde stuff is getting to be old hat, if you ask me." mice and other pests, and in foggy weather enable mar- iners tn. locate dangerous rocks and ledges by their shrill cries), he the eternal scheme of the universe, its herring. Then he introduced an excit- springs a surprise. "In war time," he existence serves to check the undue in- ing new theme. "These large, gro- says, triumphantly, "gulls show the lo- crease of small birds and to prevent the tesque-looking birds," he wrote, "afford cation of drifting mines by perching propagation of unfitness and disease winter tourists much interest as they upon them." What jury would convict among them." flop about the docks and many post- a sengull after that piece of testimony? When Mr. Forbush came to the cards bearing pictures of pelicans are The common tern: "It never eats economic status of the brown pelican, sent north every year. It is quite possi- marketable fish." which not only loves fish but boldly ad- ble that the profits made on pelican The blue jay: "Jays bury nuts and vertises the fact by carrying a pouch to postcards at Florida newsstands exceed seeds in the ground, thus planting for- hold them in, he knew he was in a in value the total quantity of food fish ests, They also regurgitate smaller seeds tough spot. Without hesitation, he captured by the pelicans in the waters and so distribute them." called to his assistance Mr. T. Gilbert along its charming coast." The cedar waxwing: "If the cherry Pearson, onetime president of the Na- grower, when planting an orchard, tional Association of Audubon Societies, who, in the spring of 1918, had investi- A WANDERER in the pages of would first set out a row of soft early Forbush is rewarded with many cherries or early mulberries around this gated the pelican's criminal record and delights and surprises, not the least orchard, and allow the birds to take the reported on it to the Federal Food Ad- of which are the peerless illustrations fruit from those trees, he might thereby ministrator. Mr. Pearson proved every by Louis Agassiz Fuertes and Allan save the main crop of later, harder, and bit as slippery in arguing a case as Mr. Brooks. To me, one of the chief amuse- more marketable fruit," Forbush himself, He first testified that ments of the work is the presence of The sharp-shinned hawk: "It is not the stomachs of pelicans contained no Mr. Forbush's large company of in- a bird for the farmer to tolerate about trout, mackerel, or pompano; instead, formers, or tipsters: people who at one his chicken coopsynor is it desirable they were loaded with mullet, pigfish, time or another wrote him or phoned about a bird preserve. Nevertheless in Gulf menhaden, pinfish, and thread him to tell of an encounter with a LABOR RELATIONS "Then I can tell the press that both sides are nearing agreement after a final round of negotiations?" bird-a strange doing, an odd fact, a ing an alder run, and there, right be- bizarre occurrence. By paying heed to fore his eyes, will he the nest of â least these people and giving them house- flycatcher. The reader has hardly got room, Mr. Forbush adds greatly to his started on Volume I before the first of own abundant store of knowledge be- these tipsters pops up: "Mr. Wilbur F. sides livening things up for the read- Smith, of South Norwalk, Connecti- er. He welcomes tipsters just as a news- cut, wrote to me March 27, 1916, that paper columnist welcomes them. Some he had observed Holbeell's Grebes fish- of his are professional bird people, ing near an anchored boat on which a known to him. Some are contributors fisherman lived Mr. Smith noted of articles to nature publications, from that when a bird had swallowed a par- which Mr. F. has lifted a juicy pas- ticularly large fish, it put its head on sage. But ^scattered through the three its back and went to sleep." volumes are the names of hundreds Well, there you are. It'll be fifty of amateurs and strangers, who by years next month that Smith of South reporting some oddity of bird be- Norwalk discovered that a grebe grabs havior or recording an unlikely arrival a little shut-eye after a heavy fish din- have achieved immortality; their names ner, but the news comes as fresh today are embedded in the text of "Birds of as when the letter was dropped in the Massachusetts" as firmly as a bottle cap mail, (I called the informant "Smith" in a city pavement, and they are; for just now, but Mr. Forbush was a the ages. Their lives, from the courtly man and always used the polite appear to be wonderfully haphazard "Mr." or "Miss? of "Mrs." or "Dr." and fortuitous, One of them will be in introducing his people.) "sharpening a sickle" when he looks up I have taken it ion myself to bring a to see a girl attacked by an eagle; one few of Forbush's friends together-a of them will "happen to be" in a little sort of convention of tipsters, pros and outbuilding at precisely the right mo- amateurs alike-and will here sum- ment to witness the courtship of whip- marize their findings about birds. My poorwills, one of them will chance to list is necessarily selective out of per- step from a clump of small pines fac- haps a thousand I've chosen a handful.