Lieutenant Bendire's Thrasher

John Farrand, Jr.

Bendire'sThrasher. Photographer/•).&M. Zimmerman/VIREO (z01/6/050).

ARLEMIL BENDER, BORN IN THE dedicatedofficer, he wasknown to pass This beautiful landscapewas full of Duchyof Hesse-Darmstadtin up valuablespecimens rather than delay birds. 1836, was evidently a high- the troopsunder his command. This beautiful landscapewas also spiritedyouth. When he was 17 years In June of 1871, Bendire found him- largely controlled by the Chiricahua old, he managedto get himselfkicked self stationedat CampLowell, a small Apaches. Underfunded and under- out of a theologicalseminary. Rather outposton a rise near the Santa Cruz staffed,Camp Lowell was a vital sup- than face an uncertainprofessional fu- River at Tucson in the Terri- ply depot during the protracted ture at home, young Benderpromptly tory. A collection of tents and adobe "Apache War." Bendire commanded did what many Germanswere doing unitsthat escortedcivilians and wagon in the 1850s. He emigrated to the trains along the dangeroustrails be- . tween forts and led mounted columns Within weeks after Bender's arrival He was hailedfor his in searchof Apacheencampments. He in in 1853, he enlisted was an experiencedIndian fighter of in the United StatesArmy and Ameri- contribution to whom it was later said: "The Indians canized his name to Charles Bendire, American learned to fear, and at the same time, to droppingthe "Emil." For the next sev- respecthim, for he was relentlessin eral yearshe servedwith distinctionat and his vastknowledge their pursuitwhen they were obviously variousposts in the American South- of westernbirds. in the wrong." Whether the Chiri- west, and then saw action in cahuas ever thought of themselves duringthe Civil War.By the time Gen- as "obviously in the wrong" is not eral Robert E. Lee surrenderedat Ap- recorded. pomattox Court House in April of buildingslong sinceswallowed up by Despiteof the heavydemands of his 1865, Bendire had attainedthe rank of downtownTucson, Camp Lowell was military duties, Lieutenant Bendire First Lieutenantin the First Cavalry. the ideal place for an ornithologist. steadilygathered a collectionof eggs AlthoughBendire's interest in birds Creosoteflats spreadaway in all direc- andbird skins.On July28, 1872,while was kindled during theseyears before tions. Cholla, saguaros,ocotillo, and exploringthe desertnear Camp Low- andduring the Civil War, it wasonly in palo verde clothed the stony lower ell, he collected a set of eggs of a the late 1860s and early 1870sthat he slopesof the TucsonMountains to the thrasher, an unfamiliar bird with a becamea seriousand systematic collec- west and the Santa Catalinas to the shortbill. Becausehe didn't recognize tor of birds' eggs--andof birds when north and east. Far off to the south, the bird, he collected it. The thrasher theywere needed to confirmthe identi- over the hot flat roofs of Tucson, one turnedout to be a female.He compared ficationof a set of eggs.But alwaysa could see the Santa Rita Mountains. the bird with specimensof the Crissal

Volume 44, Number 3 351 Thrasher and with the local race of the within two years, claimed credit for Curve-billed, recognized as distinct having "discovered" Bendire, and from the birds in Texasthat very year called him a "bumptiousand captious by RobertRidgway and namedby El- Geman soldier."But othersspoke of liott Coues. It wasn't a Crissal and it his great contributionto Americanor- wasn't a Curve-billed, so Bendire sent nithologyand of his vastknowledge of the specimento . westernbirds. James Cushing Merrill, Coues,who had servedin the Army writing in The Auk, said: "Simple in Medical Corpsin the Southwestduring habits,unselfish, and always ready to the 1860s, knew the birds of the Ari- help others,Major Bendireis sincerely zonaTerritory better than anyone else. mourned,not only by membersof this After puzzling over the bird himself, union,but by all thoseto whomhe was Coues passed it along to Ridgway. known only by correspondenceor by Ridgway repliedthat it mustbe the fe- his secure title to scientific remem- male of Harporhynchus curvirostris brance, his 'Life Histories of North vat. palmeri, the local race of the American Birds.'" Frank Hall KnowI- Curve-billed, likewise taken at Tucson. œ tOhwrote: "To thosefortunate enough With some misgivings, Coues re- "Simple in habits, unselfish,and always to know him intimately,he was a ge- readyto help others...hewas full of remi- layed Ridgway'sopinion to Bendire. niscencesand anecdotesof his long life on nial companion,full of reminiscences Bendirewas quick to reply. This was thefrontier." Photograph/The Auk, Vol.15 and anecdotesof his long life on the not the female Curve-billed. The habits (1898). frontier,of its hardshipsand dangers, andeggs of thenew bird weredifferent. and its scientific successes." While theCurve-billed usually nested Klamath in Oregon, where he discov- Bendire's greatest scientific suc- in a dense cactus, the new bird often ered the Pacific Water Shrew (Sorex cesson the frontier was probablythe chosea catclaw or mesquite,and the bendirii) and restoredhis middle initial thrasher.Looking back, the confusion nest itself was more delicate and built "E.," dropped30 years before. There it caused is understandable. When of finer materials.The eggswere pale followed a year's leave of absencein Couesdescribed it, the region around greenish white, not blue, and were ,D.C., and thenhe went to Tucson had been reasonably well more coarselyspeckled. Fort Custer in the Montana Territory, studied, and no new thrasher had been To provehis point, Bendirecollected from which he retired with the rank of discovered since 1858, when the a male of the strange thrasher on Captain in the spring of 1886. Four Crissal Thrasher was obtained at Fort November 9, 1872, and sent this bird, years after his retirement, the U.S. Thorn in what is now New Mexico. along with spechnensof both sexesof Army conferredupon him the brevetof Just one species, the Cozumel palmeri, to Coues. Coues was con- Major. Thrasher,found only on Cozumel Is- vinced, and in the issue of The Ameri- During his leave of absencein 1883 land off the coast of the Yucatan Penin- can Naturalist for June, 1873, he and 1884, Bendirehad been made sula, now remained unknown. One describedthe bird as a new species, HonoraryCurator of the Departmentof author,replying to Coues'description Harporhynchus Bendirei, "Bendire's Oology at the United StatesNational and apparentlyfollowing sometheory Mocking-thrush." Museum.He quickly organized the ne- other than Darwin's, went so far as to Charles Bendire's stay at Camp glected egg collection, donating his declare that Bendire's Thrasher was Lowell produced more than just the own specimens,which by now num- not a good species because, in his thrasher.Among other things,he dis- bered more than 8,000. After his re- words, "the maximum number of covered the Rufous-wingedSparrow, tirement, he moved permanently to speciesin the genus Harporhynchus collectedthe secondspecimen of the Washingtonand began writing papers was undoubtedlyreached some time SpottedOwl and the fourth specimen and books rather than letters. Having ago." Curve-billed and Bendire's of the Elf Owl (both firsts for Ari- had the thrasher,three subspeciesof thrashersare indeedvery similar.Even zona),and took the first eggsand nests birds, a shrew, a fish, and three fossil today,experienced birders are some- of the Crissal Thrasher and Lucy's trees named after him, he himself de- timeshard put to decidewhich species Warbler. He also established---with scribed and named Attwater's Prairie- they are seeing. Bendire's Thrasher specimens--the first United States Chicken. He began writing his Life (now Toxostomabendirei) is usually recordsof the Gray Hawk, Inca Dove, Histories of North AmericanBirds, the outnumberedby the Curve-billedand Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Tropical forerunner of Bent's "Life Histories" is often shy. It has always been the Kingbird,and Painted Redstart. In Jan- and comparedby his contemporaries most difficult of the thrashers. uary of 1873, more than a year and a with the works of Wilson, Audubon, The next time you are studying a half after he arrived at Camp Lowell and Nuttall. Along with Coues, Wil- bird you think might be a Bendire's andjust a few monthsbefore its garri- liam Brewster, and others, he was a Thrasher, binoculars in one hand and son moved six miles northeast to what founder of the American Ornitholo- Kenn Kaufman'snew field guidein the was to becomethe larger and grander gists' Union. other, take comfort from the fact that Fort Lowell, Bendire was transferred When he died in 1897 at the age of this bird hasbeen a problemfor almost to St. Louis. 60, Major Charles E. Bendire was 120years. ß After that he was stationedat Camp buried with full military honors at Hamey in Oregon,at Fort Walla Walla Arlington National Cemetery. Coues, --506 East 82nd Street in WashingtonTerritory, and at Fort who would join him at Arlington New York, NY 10028

352 American Birds, Fall 1990