ofhis trip to plotthe northern border of the United States after the War of J0hnFarrand, Jr. 1812. Delafield and Schoolcraft were MOMENTSIN HISTORY friends, and both were membersof the Lyceumof NaturalHistory of New-York. Schoolcraft showed De- lafieldthe grosbeak and other speci- menshe had acquired during his stay at Sault Ste. Marie. Schoolcraft was How the starvedfor civilizedcompany, and it islikely that the two men talked for manyhours about the natural history EveningGrosbeak of the vast and little-known Chippe- wa countrybefore Delafield contin- uedhis journey on to thenorthwest, Got Its Name tracingwhat he hopedwould be- comethe permanentboundary be- tween the United States and British Everybirder knows his duties as United States Indian America. Agentfor thetribes living in there- It isalso likely that it wasDelafield that it is not a retiring gionaround Lake Superior. Already a who recommended that Schoolcraft species,that it doesn't notedethnologist and explorer, and sendhis specimens to the Lyceum of the man who later identified Lake Natural Historyof New-York,be- hide in "deep and Itasca in Minnesota as the source of causewithin days of Delafield's lonelyswamps," and the MississippiRiver, Schoolcraftvisit--still in April 1823--apackage quicklyset to work recording the lan- left Sault Ste. Marie addressedto the that it calls at all hours guageand culture of theChippewas. Lyceum. In additionto thegrosbeak, of the day. Beforelong, he had compiled a large labeled"Paushkundamo," the pack- Chippewadictionary and had mas- age containeda Lynx, a Spruce SAULT STE. MARIE, LOCATED teredthe complexgrammar of this Grouse,a Three-toedWoodpecker, a besidea seriesoœ mighty rapids not Algonquianlanguage. RuddyTurnstone, aSnapping Turtle, œardown the St. MarysRiver œrom On Monday, April 7, 1823, a Painted Turtle, and a Bowfin. the outlet oœLake Superior,was Schoolcraftwrote in his journal: Schoolcraftfollowed the package œoundedbyFather Marquette as a Je- "Duringsevere winters, in thenorth, with a letterto WilliamCooper, the suitmission in 1668,making it the somespecies ofbirds extend their mi- leadingornithologist at the Lyceum oldest white settlement in what is grationsfarther south than usual. andnamesake of Cooper'sHawk; in nowthe stateoœ Michigan. During This appearsto havebeen the case the letterhe explainedthe circum- the eighteenthcentury, a successionduring the presentseason. A small stancesofthe capture of the grosbeak oœFrench and British trading posts bird,yellowish and cinereous, of the Four monthslater, Major De- occupiedthe site,which had long grosbecspecies, appeared this day in lafieldhad crossed Lake Superior and beenan importantfishing place œor the neighborhoodof one of the wascamped on the Savanne River, in theChippewa Indians. Less than a sugar-campson the river below, and themuskeg country a fewmiles east decade aœterthe end oœthe War of wasshot with an arrow by anIndian of Lac des Mille Lacs, and south of 1812, when the westernborder be- boy,who brought it up to me.The thepresent routes of the Trans-Cana- tween the United States and British Chippewascall it Pashcundamo."daHighway and the Canadian Pacif- territoryto the northhad yet to be The Chippewaword Pashcundamo, ic Railroad, in theThunder Bay dis- determined, the United Statestook or Paushkundamo,Schoolcraft later trict of Ontario.In hisjournal for possessionoœSault Ste. Marie. Here explained,can be translated"berry- August15, 1823,he wrote: '5•t tw•- the Americansbuilt Fort Brady, breaker." light,the singularbird thatcries at whichremained a militarysite until A few daysafter Schoolcraft had thishour, perched about the tent, a•ter the Second World War. acquiredthe "berry-breaker,"Major andwas identified with oneseen by In 1822,the year Fort Brady was JosephDelafield, boundary agent for me at the Sault in Mr. Schoolcraft's completed,Henry Rowe Schoolcraft the United States, made a briefstop possession."Delafield didn't collect a arrivedat SaultSte. Marie to takeup at SaultSte. Marie during the course specimen,but he, too, sent his obser- 11•4 American B•rds,W•nter 1992 Butboth names--Fringilla vesper- ONTARIO tinaand "Evening Grosbeak"--were bayanne River (CANADA) basedon a misconception.Assoon as Lat des Mdle Lacs it wasdiscovered, the bird becameas- Fhunder Bay sociatedwith the evening.Cooper chosevespertina because of what ,.•.b s u P E R/ OR Schoolcraft and Delafield had said in %O \.bg'g their letters. Schoolcraft wrote that the bird had been shot "in the .•a St.RiverMarys evenin•'(Schoolcraft's italics), and STœ. MARl[ addedthat "the Indian boy wasat- tractedinto the woods by its peculiar, andto himstrange note." Delafield 4 wasmore explicit. "Its mournful cry WISCONSIN aboutthe hour of my encamping, (whichwas at sunset)had beforeat- Earlyreports of tke EvenngGrosbeak by naturalists came from tke GreatLakes region in tke tractedmy attention,but ! could early1800s. Clfippewa Indians in tke areacalled the bird"berry-breaker." neverget sight of this bird but on this occasion.There is an extensiveplain vationsto WilliamCooper. theevening," and it quicklybecame andswamp through which flows the By early1825, Cooper had re- knownas the Evening Grosbeak, the Savannahriver, coveredwith a thick ceivedSchoolcrafts specimen and nameadopted by Bonaparte,Nut- growthof sapintrees. My inference the two letters from Schoolcraft and tall, and Audubon, and still in use was then, and is now, that this bird Delafield. He had also decided that today.In placeof Schoolcraft's simple dwells in such dark retreats, and the grosbeakwas a new species,"yellowish and cinereous,"Cooper leavesthem at the approachof whichhe proceededto describein provideda detaileddescription of night." the Annalsof theLyceum of Natural 162 words,which made it dear that Authorswho had no personalex- Historyof New-IOrk.He calledthe theoriginal specimen from Sault Ste. periencewith the so-calledEvening birdFringilla vespertina, or "finch of Marie was an adult male. Grosbeaknow took up the refrain. TheEvening G•sbeak was initially de•ribed asntirmg and silent during the day. Mo• bl•e• knowt• G•sbeak• noisyand a f•quent visitorto winter •ede• Photo•.& M.Zim•rma•lR• Volume 46, Number 5-1185 Charles Lucien Bonaparte,who merelyhave been co]rang an elegant "deepand lonely swamps," and that treatedthe speciesin hisAmerican name,and not expressinga view it callsat all hoursof theday. Dons Ornithologyin 1828, statedthat: aboutthe bird'shabits; he had had 22 HeustisSpeirs, writing in Bent's"L•fe "Theirnote is strangeand peculiar, yearsto reconsiderhis commentof Histories,"has even suggested that a andit isonly at twilightthat they are 1828.Hesperiphona vespertina isstill bettername might have been "morn- heardcrying in asingular strain." the most familiar scientific name for ing grosbeak."There is nothing Even the carefulThomas Nuttall, theEvening Grosbeak. strangeor peculiarabout its most in hisManualof the Ornithology ofthe common calls, and whether these UnitedStates and Canada, published calls are sad or mournful is a matter in 1832,wrote that in springthese ofopinion. grosbeaks"appear to passmost of the But bothnames In 1983,the committee prepanng dayin the deepand lonely swamps, Fringilla verspertinaand the Sixth Edition of the A.O.U. thicklyovergrown with a gloomy and Check-listdropped the genus Hespe- almostimpervious forest of resinous "EveningGrosbeak"-- ripbonaand placedthe Evening evergreens.From thesethey sally were based on a mis- Grosbeakin the genus Cocco- forth in small families to feed towards thraustes,which also includes the theapproach of night;and at this sea- conception. stout-billed Hawfinch of Eurasia. son,in the duskof twilight,their Theywere by no meansthe first or- strangeand mournful notes are heard nithologiststo make this suggestion. in the forest,while the sadand sere- Today,the Evening Grosbeak has Coccothraustesis a classical Greek nading minstrelhimself remains spreadeastward from Lake Superior name for a bird that has never been concealed."Through this passage,to the Maritime Provinces and New- identifiedwith certainty.It might ratherthickly overgrown itself, we foundland,along with the boxelder, have been the Hawfinch.As it hap- can tracethe early inferencesof one of its main sourcesof food. It is a pens,the Greek word means "berry- MajorDelafield. The associationof common winter visitor to feeders. breaker,"which is exactlywhat the this grosbeakwith the evening Everybirder knows that it isnot a re- Chippewasat SaultSte. Marie had seemed well established. tiringspecies, that it doesn'thide in beensaying all along. -y- It took anotherpersonal en- counter with the bird to set the recordstraight. John Kirk Townsend (ofTownsend'sSolitaire and Towns- "1wish I'd had a pair of these end'sWarbler), who had collected when I first started thefirst female Evening Grosbeak in the BlackHills in 1834,spent most of 1836 at Fort Vancouver on the birding. " ColumbiaRiver. On May27 of that SWIFT 8 x 42ram ULTRALITE year,he made the following entry in 'q'op-rated"in the binocularreview in Cornell University's Autumn1992 LivingBird, which said, '•he bestbinocular for hisjournal: "It isstated that they are the buck. Birds look sharp and crisp... Their 21-ounce retiringand silentduring the day, weight and armoredcoating make them the most comfort- able Porro prism we examined.Amazingly, they were the and singonly on the approachof only Porroprism binoculars to passthe foggingtest. I wish I'd evening.Here they are remarkably had a pair of these when I firststarted birding." A good 6.6ø