Audubon and his Journals Volume II Part 6

[11] No doubt the _Mammillaria vivipara_, a small globose species, quite different from the common _Opuntia_ or p.r.i.c.kly pear of the Missouri region.--E. C.

[12] The individual so designated was an important functionary in these villages, whose authority corresponded with that of our "chief of police," and was seldom if ever disputed.--E. C.

[13] "It rises to the west of the Black Mts., across the northern extremity of which it finds a narrow, rapid pa.s.sage along high perpendicular banks, then seeks the Missouri in a northeasterly direction, through a broken country with highlands bare of timber, and the low grounds particularly supplied with cottonwood, elm, small ash, box, alder, and an undergrowth of willow, red-wood, red-berry, and choke-cherry.... It enters the Missouri with a bold current, and is 134 yards wide, but its greatest depth is two feet and a half, which, joined to its rapidity and its sand-bars, makes the navigation difficult except for canoes." ("Lewis and Clark," ed. 1893, pp. 267, 268.)

"We came to a green spot at the mouth of the Little Missouri, which is reckoned to be 1670 miles from the mouth of the great Missouri. The chain of blue hills, with the same singular forms as we had seen before, appeared on the other side of this river." ("Travels in North America,"

Prince of Wied, p. 182.)

[14] At this time the account of the Prince of Wied had not been published in English; that translation appeared December, 1843, two years after the German edition.

[15] This is the Little Knife, or Upper Knife River, to be carefully distinguished from that Knife River at the mouth of which were the Minnetaree villages. It falls into the Missouri from the north, in Mountraille Co., 55 miles above the mouth of the Little Missouri. This is probably the stream named Goat-pen Creek by Lewis and Clark: see p.

274 of the edition of 1893.--E. C.

[16] Or White Earth River of some maps, a comparatively small stream, eighteen and one half miles above the mouth of Little Knife River.--E.

C.

[17] Present name of the stream which flows into the Missouri from the north, in Buford Co. This is the last considerable affluent below the mouth of the Yellowstone, and the one which Lewis and Clark called White Earth River, by mistake. See last note.--E. C.

[18] Maximilian, Prince of Wied.

[19] This is a synonym of _Spermophilus tridecem-lineatus_, the Thirteen-lined, or Federation Sphermophile, the variety that is found about Fort Union being _S. t. pallidus_.--E. C.

[20] Charles Larpenteur, whose MS. autobiography I possess.--E. C.

[21] This is the first intimation we have of the discovery of the Missouri t.i.tlark, which Audubon dedicated to Mr. Sprague under the name of _Alauda spragueii_, B. of Am. vii., 1844, p. 334, pl. 486. It is now well known as _Anthus (Neocorys) spraguei_.--E. C.

[22] Here is the original indication of the curious Flicker of the Upper Missouri region, which Audubon named _Picus ayresii_, B. of Am. vii., 1844, p. 348, pl. 494, after W. O. Ayres. It is the _Colaptes hybridus_ of Baird, and the _C. aurato-mexica.n.u.s_ of Hartlaub; in which the specific characters of the Golden-winged and Red-shafted Flickers are mixed and obscured in every conceivable degree. We presently find Audubon puzzled by the curious birds, whose peculiarities have never been satisfactorily explained.--E. C.

[23] The fact that the _Antilocapra americana_ does shed its horns was not satisfactorily established till several years after 1843. It was first brought to the notice of naturalists by Dr. C. A. Canfield of California, April 10, 1858, and soon afterward became generally known.

(See Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1865, p. 718, and 1866, p. 105.) Thereupon it became evident that, as Audubon says, these animals are not true Antelopes, and the family _Antilocapridae_ was established for their reception. On the whole subject see article in Encycl. Amer. i., 1883, pp. 237-242, figs. 1-5.--E. C.

[24] That the account given by Audubon is not exaggerated may be seen from the two accounts following; the first from Lewis and Clark, the second from the Prince of Wied:--

"The ancient Maha village had once consisted of 300 cabins, but was burnt about four years ago (1800), soon after the small-pox had destroyed four hundred men, and a proportion of women and children....

The accounts we have had of the effects of the small-pox are most distressing; ... when these warriors saw their strength wasting before a malady which they could not resist, their frenzy was extreme; they burnt their village, and many of them put to death their wives and children, to save them from so cruel an affliction, and that they might go together to some better country."

"New Orleans, June 6, 1838. We have from the trading posts on the western frontier of Missouri the most frightful accounts of the ravages of small-pox among the Indians.... The number of victims within a few months is estimated at 30,000, and the pestilence is still spreading....

The small-pox was communicated to the Indians by a person who was on board the steamboat which went last summer to the mouth of the Yellowstone, to convey both the government presents for the Indians, and the goods for the barter trade of the fur-dealers.... The officers gave notice of it to the Indians, and exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent any intercourse between them and the vessel; but this was a vain attempt.... The disease first broke out about the 15th of June, 1837, in the village of the Mandans, from which it spread in all directions with unexampled fury.... Among the remotest tribes of the a.s.siniboins from fifty to one hundred died daily.... The ravages of the disorder were most frightful among the Mandans. That once powerful tribe was exterminated, with the exception of thirty persons. Their neighbors, the Gros Ventres and the Riccarees, were out on a hunting excursion at the time the disorder broke out, so that it did not reach them till a month later; yet half the tribe were destroyed by October 1. Very few of those who were attacked recovered.... Many put an end to their lives with knives or muskets, or by precipitating themselves from the summit of the rock near the settlement. The prairie all around is a vast field of death, covered with unburied corpses. The Gros Ventres and the Riccarees, lately amounting to 4,000 souls, were reduced to less than one half. The a.s.siniboins, 9,000 in number, are nearly exterminated.

They, as well as the Crows and Blackfeet, endeavored to fly in all directions; but the disease pursued them.... The accounts of the Blackfeet are awful. The inmates of above 1,000 of their tents are already swept away. No language can picture the scene of desolation which the country presents. The above does not complete the terrible intelligence which we receive.... According to the most recent accounts, the number of Indians who have been swept away by the small-pox, on the Western frontier of the United States, amounts to more than 60,000."

[25] _Quiscalus brewerii_ of Audubon, B. of Am. vii., 1844, p. 345, pl.

492, now known as _Scolecophagus cyanocephalus_. It was new to our fauna when thus dedicated by Audubon to his friend Dr. Thomas M. Brewer of Boston, but had already been described by Wagler from Mexico as _Psarocolius cyanocephalus_. It is an abundant bird in the West, where it replaces its near ally, _Scolecophagus carolinus_.--E. C.

[26] This is no doubt the _Lepus artemisia_ of Bachman, Journ. Philad.

Acad. viii., 1839, p. 94, later described and figured by Aud. and Bach., Quad. N. Am. ii., 1851, p. 272, pl. 88. It is now generally rated as a subspecies of the common Cottontail, _L. sylvaticus_. Compare also _L.

nuttalli_, Aud. and Bach. ii., 1851, p. 300, pl. 94.--E. C.

[27] This is the same hybrid Woodp.e.c.k.e.r which has been already noted on p. 14.--E. C.

[28] That is, the Chestnut-collared Longspur, _Calcarius ornatus_, which Mr. Bell was mistaken in supposing to breed in holes of the Ground Squirrels, or Spermophiles, as it nests on the open ground, like Sprague's Lark, McCown's Longspur, and most other small birds of the Western plains. But the surmise regarding the nesting of Say's Flycatcher is correct. This is a near relative of the common Pewit Flycatcher, _S. phoebe_, and its nesting places are similar.--E. C.

[29] This pa.s.sage shows that Audubon observed individuals of the hybrid Woodp.e.c.k.e.r which he considered identical with _Colaptes cafer_, and also others which he regarded as belonging to the supposed new species--his _C. ayresii_.--E. C.

[30] The usual t.i.tle or designation of the chief trader or person in charge of any establishment of a fur company.--E. C.

[31] "The black-tailed deer never runs at full speed, but bounds with every foot from the ground at the same time, like the mule-deer."

("Lewis and Clark," ed. 1893.)

[32] The above is a very good example of the way these Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs vary in color, presenting a case which, as Audubon justly observes, is a "puzzle to all the naturalists in the world." See note, p. 14.--E. C.

[33] _Vulpes utah_ of Aud. and Bach., Quad. N. Am. iii., 1853, p. 255, pl. 151, or _V. macrourus_ of Baird, as already noted. This is the Western variety of the common Red Fox, now usually called _Vulpes fulvus macrourus_.--E. C.

[34] Among the "birds shot yesterday," July 26, when Audubon was too full of his Buffalo hunt to notice them in his Journal, were two, a male and a female, killed by Mr. Bell, which turned out to be new to science.

For these were no other than Baird's Bunting, _Emberiza bairdii_ of Audubon, B. Amer, vii., 1844, p. 359, pl. 500. Audubon there says it was "during one of our Buffalo hunts, on the 26th July, 1843," and adds: "I have named this species after my young friend Spencer F. Baird, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania." Special interest attaches to this case; for the bird was not only the first one ever dedicated to Baird, but the last one ever named, described, and figured by Audubon; and the plate of it completes the series of exactly 500 plates which the octavo edition of the "Birds of America" contains. This bird became the _Centronyx bairdii_ of Baird, the _Pa.s.serculus bairdi_ of Coues, and the _Ammodramus bairdi_ of some other ornithologists. See "Birds of the Colorado Valley," i., 1878, p. 630. One of Audubon's specimens shot this day is catalogued in Baird's Birds of N. Am., 1858, p. 441.--E. C.

[35] See Bell's account of the trip, page 176.

[36] Nuttall's Poor-will, now known as _Phalaenoptilus nuttalli_, which has a two-syllabled note, rendered "oh-will" in the text beyond.--E. C.

[37] A _parfleche_ is a hide, usually a Buffalo bull's, denuded of hair, dressed and stretched to the desired shape. All articles made from this hide are also called parfleche, such as wallets, pouches, etc.

[38] Niobrara River; for which, and for others here named, see the previous note, date of May 20.

[39] On the south side of the Missouri, in present Nebraska, a short distance above the mouth of the Big Sioux. This small stream is Roloje Creek of Lewis and Clark, Ayoway River of Nicollet, appearing by error as "Norway" and "Nioway" Creek on General Land Office maps.--E. C.

[40] J. H. K. Burgwin. See a previous note, date of May 10.

[41] Of Maine; in 1843 a second lieutenant of the First Dragoons. He rose during the Civil War to be lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Cavalry, and Brevet Major-General of Volunteers; died Jan. 7, 1873.

[42] _Branta hutchinsi._

[43] Audubon's daughter-in-law, Mrs. V. G. Audubon, writes: "He returned on the 6th of November, 1843. It was a bright day, and the whole family, with his old friend Captain c.u.mmings, were on the piazza waiting for the carriage to come from Harlem [then the only way of reaching New York by rail] There were two roads, and hearing wheels, some ran one way and some another, each hoping to be the first to see him; but he had left the carriage at the top of the hill, and came on foot straight down the steepest part, so that those who remained on the piazza had his first kiss. He kissed his sons as well as the ladies of the party. He had on a green blanket coat with fur collar and cuffs; his hair and beard were very long, and he made a fine and striking appearance. In this dress his son John painted his portrait."

[44] See page 126.

[45] These extracts, as well as the descriptions by Mr. Denig and Mr.

Culbertson, of Forts Union and McKenzie, which follow, are in Audubon's writing, at the end of one of the Missouri River journals, and are given as descriptions of the life and habitations of those early western pioneers and fur-traders.

EPISODES[46]

These Episodes were introduced in the letterpress of the first three volumes of the "Ornithological Biographies," but are not in the octavo edition of the "Birds of America," and I believe no entire reprint of them has been made before. So far as possible they have been arranged chronologically.

Louisville, in Kentucky. 1808.

The Ohio. 1810.