Not a sighting - delete if not interested in Ohio bird esoterica -

Recently I was up in my attic searching for source material for an autobiographical book I have been dabbling in for years. For some reason I decided to open a box labeled “OSU Notebooks, etc.” (Note: I attended Ohio State 1972 – 1981.) Among the “ceteras” I found a book I bought back in the Bronze Age: “The First White Man of the West, or the Life and Exploits of Colonel Daniel Boone” by Timothy Flint (1847,) published in Cincinnati in 1854. It is great stuff, once you get past the hagiography, the racism, and the description of tortures and wars. Interspersed and hidden amidst these elements are passages that are descriptions of the land when it was truly wild, and even more insights into such matters that the thoughtful modern reader can infer. I read the old, frayed, stained book in its entirety (only 252 pages) while otherwise occupied in the last couple weeks with seemingly endless plane flights between Ohio, California, Alaska, and intermediate stops in between, earning me strange looks and inquiries from fellow passengers absorbed in modern paperbacks. 

Daniel Boone spent considerable time in Ohio, mostly either fighting the “Indians,” (Miami and Shawnee) or as their captive.  A couple chapters describe customs he observed while a prisoner of the Shawnee. Ultimately his bravery and backwoods skills resulted in his being adopted by a prominent Shawnee widow. “He often accompanied them in their hunting excursions, wandering with them over the extent of forest between Chillicothe and lake Erie.”

One passage that is relevant here is, “There is in that country a sparrow, of an uncommon species, and not often seen. This bird is called in the Shawnese dialect by a name importing “kind messenger,” which they deem always a true omen, whenever it appears, of bad news. They are exceedingly intimidated whenever this bird sings near them; and were it to perch and sing over their war-camp, the whole party would instantly disperse in consternation and dismay.”

I wonder what it is, or was? Does anybody know? Maybe it is extinct. I suppose it may not even be a sparrow, given that this is a mid-nineteenth century account of incidents from 1778, but it was probably a small brown bird, thus a “sparrow.” It was “uncommon” but certainly well-known among the Shawnee. It had a song of sufficient clarity and duration to be regarded as a message of warning. We’re not talking Henslow’s here. It lived in the primordial forests of Ohio, and would at least sometimes perch in the trees, and so it could be “over their war-camp.”

This passage certainly illustrates that both the native Americans and Daniel Boone were familiar with bird song and bird identification, which I think is pretty cool.

My favorite candidate is Louisiana waterthrush. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Bob Evans,
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County

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