Studies in Avian Biology No. 15: 14-26, 1994. THE UNLIKELY 18TH CENTURY NATURALISTS OF HUDSON’S BAY C. STUART HOUSTON Abstract. The Hudson’s Bay Territory, which included the entire drainage basin west to the Rocky Mountains, although one of the most thinly occupied areas in all of North America, was second only to South Carolina as the North American locality which contributed the most type specimens of birds. The collectors, fur traders ofthe Hudson’s Bay Company, were Alexander Light, James Isham, Thomas Hutchins, Humphrey Marten, Andrew Graham, and Samuel Heame. My researches in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives and the Royal Society library have solved the long-standing confusion about the relative contributions of Andrew Graham and Thomas Hutchins to the Observationspublished in 1969 by the Hudson’s Bay Record Society. I have transcribed for publication the separate original “journals” of Graham and Hutchins and have compiled the largest dictionary of Cree Indian names of birds. Isham and Graham collected the most type specimens. Heame was the best naturalist. Hutchins, the medical doctor and best scientist, was the only one to have a taxon named for him. Key Words: Hudson’s Bay Territory; Alexander Light; James Isham; Humphrey Marten; Andrew Graham; Samuel Hearne; Thomas Hutchins; type specimens. From the Hudsons’ Bay Territory, one of front of scientific ornithology and taxono- the most thinly occupied areas in all of North my. America, came improbable but extremely Severn, with a year-round population of important contributions to 18th-Century 20 white fur traders, and Albany with 33, ornithology. Even though it included a large became immortalized as type localities. The drainage basin that extended west to the other five trading posts around Hudsons’ Rocky Mountains (Fig. l), it seems almost Bay, including York Factory with 42 em- inconceivable today that Hudsons’ Bay ployees, gave a total population of white should have been second only to South Car- people in the Hudsons’ Bay territory of un- olina as the North American locality which der 250. Contributions from the settled, contributed the most type specimens of populated and more developed areas such birds. Even more unlikely were the men who as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York made the collections, the literate but rugged and Florida lagged far behind those from fur traders of the Hudsons’ Bay Company. the underpopulated wild reaches of Hud- By sheerest chance their timing was perfect, sons’ Bay. South Carolina, the leader thanks involving them and their specimens in a to Mark Catesby, had almost one-thousand- revolutionary new scientific endeavour led fold more people than did Hudsons’ Bay; by the Swede, Carolus von Linnaeus. in 1770, Charleston, Catesbys’ base, was the The fur traders were unaware of the sys- fourth largest city in British America with tem newly created by Linnaeus to give each a population of 10,861. species a unique binomial Latin name. Nor When Linnaeus published his Tenth Edi- could they have guessed that their speci- tion of Systema Naturae in 1758, Mark mens would be hand-painted, page-size, in Catesbys’ Natural History of Carolina, Flor- four large books by George Edwards, A Nat- ida and the Bahama Islands (1729-1747) ural History of Uncommon Birds, between was the sole source for 55 species, 43 of 1743 and 175 1. Edwards, in turn, had no them from South Carolina. (Another 14 inkling of the fact that Linnaeus would give species, 11 from South Carolina, were add- Latin names to the species illustrated in his ed in Linnaeus ’ Twelfth Edition in 1766.) book. But this improbable sequence of Edwards ’ Natural History was the next most events put these fur traders at the very fore- important source, contributing 13 species 14 EARLY CANADIAN NATURALISTS-Houston 15 described by Edwards from Hudsons’ Bay Hudsonius, Hudsons’ Bay Magpie” (Sabine (McAtee 1957:29 l-300). 1823). The subspecies of Striped Skunk from The Hudsons’ Bay Company was more “the Plains of the Saskatchewan” near Carl- than just a company with a charter for trade ton, about 1500 km from the bay, was sim- and an employer of fur traders; it acted as ilarly named Mephitis mephitis var. hud- the government of its lands. As Harold A. sonia, the “Hudsons’ Bay Skunk” Innis said in 1956, “The northern half of (Richardson 1829:55-56). Histories of the North America remained British because of Hudsons’ Bay Record Society similarly the importance of fur as a staple prod- spoke of the 17 14 negotiations “settling the uct. It is no mere accident that the pres- boundary between Hudson Bay and Cana- ent Dominion [of Canada] coincides rough- da” (Davies 1965). ly with the fur-trading areas of northern The designation of Hudson Bay as the North America.” As part of its assertion of type locality for species such as the Marbled its largely unstated hegemony, the Com- Godwit, American White Pelican and Pur- pany undertook occasional forays into ex- ple Martin is thus somewhat misleading, ploration and into science. since the overwhelming probability is that Each of the Company officers contributed these specimens came from inland, within primarily to the success of the fur trade; five what is now Manitoba or eastern Saskatch- of them also made direct or indirect con- ewan. tributions to geographic exploration. Nat- Let us now look at the collectors. ural history was at best an amusing sideline. ALEXANDER LIGHT TYPE LOCALITY OF “HUDSON BAY” The first of the Hudsons’ Bay Company Quite apart from the geographic ambi- collectors was Alexander Light. A ship- guity inherent in the citation of a vast inland wright, he was sent to Churchill in 1733 for sea, up to 1600 km in length and up to 1000 four years at 2.33 per annum. Light “was km in width, the general “type locality” of sent out, . by the Hudsons’ Bay Com- “Hudson Bay” used by the American Or- pany, on account of his knowledge of Nat- nithologists ’ Union Check-List is inade- ural History” (Richardson 1832:ix-x). quate or misleading for several species. Few Light collected five taxa of birds (all but ornithologists have appreciated that until one new), two mammals and a turtle, each 1870 the popular term “Hudsons’ Bay” (the illustrated by Edwards. New bird taxa in- possessive form Hudsons’ is no longer in cluded one new species, the Spruce Grouse official geographic use; modern maps show (Canachitescanadensis), and three new sub- Hudson Bay rather than Hudsons’ Bay) des- species involving North American races ignated an area of nearly 3.6 million km2 which Linnaeus had correctly considered as extending west to the Rocky Mountains and belonging to the European species (McAtee draining into the bay (Rich 1958, Houston 1950): Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus 1983). In this area, officially named “Ru- albus); Northern Hawk-Owl (Surnia ulula perts’ Land” for 200 years, the people, as caparoch); Gyrfalcon (Falco obsoletusrus- well as some of its birds and mammals, were ticolus). often called “Hudsonians” (cf. Hearne Light also collected specimens of the 1795). For example, when Joseph Sabine Snowy Owl and the Red-necked Phalarope. described the North American form of the Linnaeus gave the name Falco canadensis Black-billed Magpie, now Pica pica hud- to an eagle portrayed incorrectly by Ed- sonia, from a specimen collected by John wards as having feathered tarsi but a white Richardson and painted by Robert Hood at tail, obviously a composite of two eagle Cumberland House, over 1000 km by canoe specimens. This eagle was said to have been from Hudsons’ Bay, he named it “Corvus brought alive to England by an unnamed 16 STUDIES IN AVIAN BIOLOGY NO. 15 Hudsons’ Bay Territory 1670-1870 0 FIGURE 1. Map of Hudson’s Bay Territory, 1670-l 870. “Gentleman employd’ in the Hudsons_Bay’ rigid Winters.” Edwards presumed this to Companys’ Service,” in all probability Al- be the Blue colour phase ofthe Snow Goose. exander Light. Not until the Fourth AOU There was a three-way connection be- Check-List in 193 1 was this specimen des- tween Alexander Light, George Edwards and ignated on very questionable grounds as the Sir Hans Sloane. It was Sloane, the Presi- type for the North American subspecies of dent of the Royal College of Physicians, to the Golden Eagle, now Aquila chrysaetos whom Edwards dedicated his second vol- canadensis. ume. Edwards was Keeper of the Royal Col- In 1738, Light returned to begin his sec- lege Library. Alexander Light brought live ond term. Light told George Edwards (1750: birds and mammals home from Hudsons’ 152) “there is a Goose which comes in Sum- Bay for Sloanes’ aviary-zoo and skinned mer to Hudsons_Bay,’ having its Forehead specimens for the use of Edwards, who por- as it were scorched with Heat, and the Na- trayed them in his book. tives firmly Believe, that these Geese to avoid the Winters’ Cold, fly toward the Sun, JAMES ISHAM and approach so near that it singes its Fore- James Isham was the second Hudsons’ head against his Orb. It is hard to convince Bay collector of important natural history these Savages that there are Climates on this specimens. Unfortunately for Isham, al- Earth warmer than their own, to which Birds though his specimens were among the first may fly for Food and Shelter during their to receive binomial Latin names bestowed EARLY CANADIAN NATURALISTS- Houston 17 by Linnaeus himself, they were collected be- fore it was fashionable to name new species after the collector. There are no species named ishami-and few modern ornithol- ogists can remember his name. Isham was a capable but plodding man who neither sought glory nor received much recognition.