May 2.
The tea lee of the yellow-rump warbler in the street, at the end of a cool, rainy day.*
May 2, 2016
*In a footnote HDT later identified this "tea lee" bird as the white-throated sparrow.
According to Torrey, in May 1853 HDT confused the white-throated sparrow's "tull lull" song as that of the myrtle bird, and as late as "1857, the song of the white-throat is still attributed to the myrtle-bird." Not until January, 1858, did Thoreau get "what appears to be his first intimation as to the real authorship of this song." See January 15, 1858 ("Dr. Kneeland . . . making the note of the myrtle-bird, ah, te-te-te te-te-te te-te-te, exactly . . . said that that was the note of the white throated sparrow"); June 21, 1858 ("Mr. Bryant at the Natural History Rooms agrees with Kneeland in thinking that what I call the myrtle-bird’s is the white-throat sparrow’s note.") See also September 20, 1853 ("I saw the Fringilla hyemalis; also a bird a little smaller maybe, brownish and yellowish with some white tail-feathers, which I think makes the tull-lull sound, hopping on the wood-pile. Is not this the myrtle-bird? Their note interested me because I formerly had many a chase in a spring morning in the direction of this sound, in vain, to identify the bird."); October 28, 1853 ("The yellow-crowned warbler . . . my tull-lulls of the Moosehead Carry."); April 26, 1854 ("The woods are full of myrtle-birds this afternoon, more common and commonly heard than any, especially along the edge of woods on oaks, etc., — their note an oft-repeated fine jingle, a tea le, tea le, tea le."); April 19,1855 ("Hear the tull-lull of the white-throated sparrow in street”); May 4, 1855 (" Myrtle-birds numerous, and sing their tea lee, tea lee in morning"); May 6, 1855 (“Myrtle-birds very numerous just beyond Second Division. They sing like an instrument, teee teee te, t t t, t t t, on very various keys . . . Many white-throated sparrows there.”); May 5, 1857 ('Hear the tull-lull of a myrtle-bird (very commonly heard for three or four days after"); May 6, 1858 ("Heard a myrtle-bird's tull-lull yesterday, and that somebody else heard it four or five days ago."); May 3, 1859 ("Hear the te-e-e of a white-throat sparrow. "); May 6, 1859 ("Hear the tea-lee of the white-throat sparrow"); May 7, 1860 ("Hear the white throat sparrow’s peabody note in gardens.")
The yellow-rump warbler / myrtle-bird / yellow-crowned warbler, See April 11, 1853 ("At Natural History Rooms . . . The yellow-rump warbler (what is it in Nuttall?) is bluish-gray, with two white bars on wings, a bright yellow crown, side breasts, and rump. Female less distinct."); October 28, 1853 ("Little sparrow-sized birds flitting about amid the dry corn stalks and the weeds, — one, quite slaty with black streaks and a bright-yellow crown and rump, which I think is the yellow-crowned warbler,"); April 23, 1854 ("The myrtle-bird, –yellow-rumped warbler . . . on the willows, alders, and the wall by Hubbard's Bridge, slate and white spotted with yellow. Its note is a fine, rapid, somewhat hissing or whistling se se se se se ser riddler se, somewhat like the common yellowbird's."); May 7, 1855 (" I believe the yellow-rumped warbler has a note somewhat like the tweezer's."); September 23, 1855 (“A little . . . bird on a.willow at Hubbard’s Causeway, eating a miller: with bright-yellow rump when wings open, and white on tail. Could it have been a yellow-rump warbler?”); October 14, 1855 ("Black bill and feet, yellow rump, brown above, yellowish-brown on head, cream-colored chin, two white bars on wings, tail black, edged with white, — the yellow-rump warbler or myrtle-bird without doubt."); September 29, 1858 ("One or two myrtle-birds in their fall dress, with brown head and shoulders, two whitish bars on wings, and bright-yellow rump.") See also Thomas Nuttall, A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada 31 (1832) ("Yellow-Crowned Warbler or Myrtle-Bird (Sylvia coronet)")
No comments:
Post a Comment