Parrots Found In Rare Book On German Birds: The Writing Parrot Squawks

by Stephen J. Gertz

On command (his to me) once more, today's guest blogger is Albert the Writing Parrot, a thirty-five year old Yellow-Naped Amazon, Booktryst's mascot, my ward since his five-months old birthday, and, pathetically, my most successful long-term relationship. He knows more about parrot books than I do. If his writing voice sounds similar to mine do not be surprised. He is, after all, a parrot  - SJG.

Psittacus Albini
(Cacatua galerita fitzroy)
Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo.
   

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather: parrots in the Fatherland.

Greetings, bibliophiles and parrot-freaks, I'm Albert, the Yellow-Naped Amazon, who was once given a pen to render into plastic confetti but discovered, to my amazement and Gertz's, that when held in zygodactyl foot made comprehensible prose when applied to a sheet of paper  provided for my amusement. No bird-brain, I picked-up a thing or two while reading the newspaper on the bottom of my cage despite its crude punctuation with the end product of digestion.

Psittacus Rufus vertice nigro
(Lorius Domicellus)
Purple-Capped Lory

The other day Gertz presented me with another rare antiquarian book on birds for review, Vorstellung der Vögel in Deutschland und beiläufig auch einiger Fremden nach ihrer Eigenschaften beschrieben by Johann Leonhard Frisch (1666-1743).  It's a book on the birds of Germany originally published in Berlin, 1733, and issued in parts at irregular intervals over the next thirty years, the final section published in 1763. It’s considered to be the first great German color-plate bird book. Gertz brought home a copy of the third and most complete edition, a folio of fourteen parts in one volume issued 1817-1820 with 255 gorgeous hand-colored plates.

Psittacus viridis alis capite liteo
(Amazona barbadensis barbadensis)
Yellow-Shouldered Amazon

A book on the birds of Germany. What, you may ask, are parrots doing in this otherwise delightful strudel in print? Exotic, tropical birds like parrots are typically found in Central and South America, the Caribbean, India, the South Pacific (where they engage in Happy Talk on Bali Hai-Ai-Ai), parts of Africa, or as escapees on the lam in Southern California and San Francisco. Sightings in the Black Forest, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Bad Arolsen, Bad Bentheim, Bad Bergzabern, Bad Berka, Bad Berleburg, Bad Berneck im Fichtelgebirge, Bad Bevensen, Bad Blankenburg, Bad Bramstedt, Bad Breisig, Bad Brückenau, Bad Camberg, Bad Colberg-Heldburg, and Bad Düben through Bad Wünnerberg are non-existent. Yes, there's a whole lotta Bad in Germany but it's not as bad as it seems, though hamburgers in Heidelberg are nothing to write home about. As a natural habitat for parrots, however, it's definitely the opposite of good. I was once there in January and froze my pecker off. A bird that can't peck soon goes hungry but what bird eats blechküchen, anyway? Gott in Himmel! Gimme a bagel with a shmear of cream cheese.

Psittacus veridis fronte albo collo rubro

But enough about brunch at Nate n' Al's in Beverly Hills with a flock of ancient Hollywood dodos gumming schmaltz herring.

So, anyway, German linguist, entomologist and ornithologist Johann Leonhard Frisch began to publish Vorstellung der Vögel in Deutschland und beiläufig auch einiger Fremden nach ihrer Eigenschaften beschrieben in 1733. Following his death, the book was continued by his sons Leopold, who handled the text, and Ferdinand Helfreich and Philip Jakob who took care of the engraving and coloring of the plates, while a member of the third generation, Johann’s grandson Johann Christoph, created the final thirty plates. In 1763, the year the last part was issued, a second edition of the entire work appeared in Berlin from publisher Bey Friedrich Wilhelm Birnstiel.

Psittacus Rufus alis viridis
(Lorius garrulus garrulus).
Chattering Lory.

Here's the skinny on it: “One of the most enjoyable of all bird books but rare...Frisch's 'Vorstellung der Vogel' is not only an attractive book but it is very, very seldom seen. And there is no doubt whatever that this makes it much more exciting, when we do see it, or possess it" (Sitwell, et al, Fine Bird Books 1700-1900, p. 67).

How rare is it? Rarer than a rocky island off the coast of Peru without guano. (NB: bird guano has a fertilizer analysis of 11%-16% nitrogen - the majority of which is uric acid, FYI - 8%-12% equivalent phosphoric acid, and 2%-3% equivalent potash. Thank me the next time this comes up in casual conversation).

¿Quánto cuesta? When Gertz told me how much this copy of the third edition was going for I instantly moulted all my feathers. Looking like a plucked anorexic dwarf chicken with prosthetic hooked pecker, I exclaimed in a screech heard all the way to Swaziland, "$119, 045!?!"

After repeating the exalted sum seventeen times (because repetition is reflexive and what we parrots do) I asked him what a complete copy of the first edition is worth. No copies have come to auction within the last thirty-eight years and who knows how much farther back than that: Gertz accidentally left his fifteen-volume set of the ABPC Index 1923-1975 in a nightclub while partying with Rihanna, perusing it while she danced a wild tarantella on a tabletop, spliff insouciantly hanging from her lips while Chris Brown desperately clung to her hips. Still, he estimates a 1st ed. to go for $150K-$175K, maybe more. But what does Chris Brown know about rare books?

Polly wants a crack at it! No chance.

Psittacus Carolinensis
(Conuropsis carolinensis)
The Carolina Parakeet,
the only North American parrot, now extinct.

Alright, alright, alright, already, what are parrots doing in a book on the birds of Germany? it turns out that the third edition was augmented with a Supplement featuring some non-Aryan foreign species, I suppose to demonstrate the superiority of ornithology's master race by comparison. I tend to think, however, that a color-plate book of German birds needs a tonic to offset dull, drab, and dour Teutonic avifauna like Herr Schwartz's Brown Eagle below, hence the vivid splash of psittaciformes.

Der Schwartz braune Adler. Aquila melanaetus.

This copy also contains Verzeichniß der in Ferdinand Helfreich Frisch Vorstellung der Vögel in Deutschland...abgebildete Säugethiere und Vögel, nach der 13ten Ausgabe des von J.G. Gemelin bearbeiteten Linne’schen Natursystems geordnet (Berlin: 1819), an extra twelve-page Linnean index for those who appreciate fine linneans with 400 thread-count. 

Upcoming: my review of Kim Jong-un's new book, The Juche-Inspired Socialist Birds of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Are the Masters of the Country's Development: A Field Guide For The Education Of The Masses Yearning To Eat. It's a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection.

In answer to Angel Louy, Ph.D of Stamps, Arkansas: I know why the caged bird writes: the Met turned me down, the fools. Luciano Pavarotti? You haven't lived until you've heard me as Canio croon the intro verse of Vesti la Giubba - obviously written with a parrot in mind* - with typically psychotic psittacine chuckles passing for sorrowfully ironic laughter: 

Recitar! Mentre preso dal delirio,
non so più quel che dico,
e quel che faccio!
Eppur è d'uopo, sforzati!
Bah! Sei tu forse un pappagallo?

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

 Lo sono un pagliaccio!
 Lo sono un pagliaccio!
 Lo sono un pagliaccio!
 Lo sono un pagliaccio!
__________

*Act! While in delirium,
I no longer know what I say,
or what I do!
And yet it's necessary... make an effort!
Bah! Are you not a parrot?
I am a clown!

With apologies to Leoncavallo.
___________

FRISCH, Johann Leonhard. Vorstellung der Vögel in Deutschland und beiläufig auch einiger Fremden nach ihrer Eigenschaften beschrieben.Berlin, Nicolaische Buchhandlung, 1817[-1820]. Third and most complete edition. 14 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With engraved frontispiece with a portrait of Johann Leonhard and Ferdinand Helfreich Frisch, 255 contemporaneously hand-colored engraved plates (31 x 20 cm.

Anker 155. Nissen  ZBI 339. Wood, p. 349. Zimmer I, pp. 233-234. Sitwell, p. 67, 76.
__________
 
Images courtesy of Asher Rare Books / Antiquariat Forum, currently offering this title, with our thanks.
___________

Of Related Interest:

The Writing Parrot On Rare Parrot Books.

___________ 
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The Writing Parrot On Rare Parrot Books

by Albert

Today's guest blogger is Albert the Writing Parrot, a thirty-four year old Yellow-Naped Amazon, Booktryt's mascot, my ward since his five-months old birthday, and, pathetically, my most successful long-term relationship. He knows more about these books than I do. If his writing voice sounds similar to mine do not be surprised. He is, after all, a parrot  - SJG.

I'm delighted to take pen in zygodactyl foot and contribute to Booktryst today. Thirty-fours years after Gertz tried to teach me how to say, "I want a great big pizza," I'm pleased to report what will soon become apparent: My vocabulary has dramatically increased, and my diction is poifect.

Grand Eclectus Parrots, male (L) and female (R).

It has been my experience that all parrot lovers are a little tetched in the head.  You say "Hello" to a parrot freak and they get all gushy, "Oh, he talked!" like it's the eighth wonder of the world and you're the first parrot in history to throw a vocal crumb to a human. Psittacosis, aka Parrot Fever, is not confined to bacterial activity; parrot people are omnivorous, fervent and  gentle suckers who will consume any parrot-related product, art, toy, or miscellaneous tshoschke. Money is no object.

Alexandrine Parakeet.

Yet a parrot lover who owns a $6,000 hyacinthine macaw will not spring for first editions of the great parrot books; they go for the reprints, of which there are many. I don't get it. They'd rather spend the money to acquire another parrot, as if they were collecting books. Hey, I'm a parrot and I like parrots as much as the next guy but tell me, when was the last time a book left droppings on your shoulder? Does a book perch on your fork and hijack food on the way to your mouth?? Chew the furniture? We're like dogs with wings only our bite is worse than our bark (though my bark is poifect Pekingese).

Rose-Hill Parakeet.

Then again, how many books can fly, psychotically chuckle, or demand Italian comfort food?

Hyacinthine Macaw.

Edward Lears's magnificent Illustrations of the Family Psittacidae, or Parrots (1832);  Selby's Natural History of Parrots (1836); W.T. Greens's Parrots in Captivity (1884); the Duke of Bedford's Parrots and Parrot-Like Birds in Aviculture (1929);  Joseph Forshaw and William T. Cooper's modern classic Parrots of the World (Melbourne, 1973); Rosemary Low's The Parrots of South America (1972), Parrots Their Care and Breeding (1980), Amazon Parrots (1983), and Lories and Lorikeets, the Brush-Tongued Parrots (1977); even Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds (1939) by Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz; and many more. Don't get me started on the great ornithology and natural history color-plate books featuring members of my fine feathered family, eg., William Jardine's Naturalist Library (1836). I've seen most all, antiquarian through modern.

Blue-Breasted Lory.

C'mon, parrot peeps, get crackin' and start collectin'! [Editor's note: translated into parrotese, this may be interpreted as a gentle nudge or emphatic nip to exposed flesh].

Leadbetter's Cockatoo.

The other day Gertz shows me The Speaking Parrots (1884) by Dr. Karl Russ (1833-1899), the first translation into English of  Die sprechenden papageien. Ein hand- und lehrbuch (Berlin: L. Gerschel, 1882), that book the first separate edition of volume three,  Die Papageien, of Russ' Die fremdländischen Stubenvögel, his ten-volume series (1878-1881) originally published in Magdeburg. Never seen it. Never looked at the color plates, never read it. I like it, and give it 5-Seeds, my highest rating, despite the fact that the otherwise stunning chromolithographs are not completely faithful to the true colors of the birds. I'm pleased it was translated; I've got enough problems with English, fuggetabout sprechenden Deutsche.

Yellow-Crowned Conure.

• • •

I want to bring to your attention one of the strangest works in the annals of parrot literature, found in the August, 1981 issue of The Magazine of the Parrot Society, a British journal for the parrot-obssessed. The Brits are even more loony about parrots than Americans so, naturally, it accepted the following article by a feather-brained Yank.

I witnessed the incident at Casa Gertz leading to up to this therapy which,  performed on a duck or not, screamed quack. While Ba-Ba, a Tres Marias Amazon and the bane of my existence,  cockatiels Felix and Oscar, and The Canary With No Name watched, Gerald McBoing-Boing, a Yellow-Backed Lory, insanely attacked Pépe, a Scarlet Macaw, four times his size in another weight class entirely. Macaw bit toe of Lory. Lory didn't quit. Lory had to be separated from macaw before macaw ate lunch. Toe required amputation. Gertz, who received his veterinary degree via mail order from a diploma-mill in Ulan Bator while working as a physical therapy aide for a coked-up PT at a health club in Los Angeles, performed the procedure and post-surgical rehab. Gertz was a prodigy; damn if it didn't work! He showed me a copy of the article when it was published. After ripping it to shreds I was hungry. 

"I want a great big pizza."

Four years after Gertz hopelessly began teaching it to me the phrase finally emerged from my keratin lips. But I haven't said it since and have no plans to do so; ha-ha! I've moved on. I'm an autodidact; who needs Gertz? My ace impression of John Moschitta's speed-speaking FedEx commercials and whistling of Flight of the Bumble Bee are the talk of the parrot world. My friends and colleagues can't stop squawking about it.

__________

RUSS, Dr. Karl. The Speaking Parrots: A Scientific Manual. Translated by Leonora Schultze and Revised by Dr. Karl Russ. London: L. Upcott Gill, 1884. First edition in English. Octavo. viii, 296 pp.  Half-title. Eight chromolithograph plates including frontispiece, nine b&w plates, misc.illustrations. Advertisements at front and end. Publisher's pictorial cloth.

Nissen 804.

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Rare Books To Chase The Wintertime Blues

By Nancy Mattoon

Detail of Curcuma cordata. Plate 4435.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol.75, 1849.
(All Images Courtesy of Glasgow University Library.)

Old Man Winter went on a quite a rampage in December of 2010. In the U.S., Christmas snow fell on parts of the South for the first time since just after the Civil War. Portions of the Northeastern U.S. got three feet of snow, causing a state of emergency to be declared in six states and closing down major airports, resulting in 4,000 cancelled flights. Even sunny Southern California is being treated to the second wettest December since 1878. Meanwhile in Europe, the U.K. is experiencing the coldest December since 1910, along with record snows and high winds. Is there any way to escape this Winter Wonderland? The answer is yes, if only through the imagination, by falling into some rare books featuring beautiful images of Spring. University of Glasgow Library has created a wonderful online exhibit called Birds, Bees, and Blooms, which is guaranteed to chase away your Winter blues, at least for a little while.

The Justicia Carnea, Plate 3383.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol. 62, 1835.

Originally mounted in 2007 to accompany the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society, the exhibition features "a selection of some of the wonderful natural history books now in the care of the Glasgow University Library's Special Collections." The introduction to the show notes that, "As well as often being groundbreaking scientific texts, many of these books are beautifully illustrated, charting advances in graphic art from manuscript illumination through to woodcutting, engraving and etching." For our purposes today, these marvelous color plates supply a much needed breath of Spring to Winter-weary souls.

The Blue Heron, Plate 79.
Albin, Eleazar. A natural history of birds.
London: 1731-1738

The avian section of the exhibit features plates from John James Audubon's Birds of America, and illustrations from several of John Gould's works of ornithology, both of which have recently been discussed here on Booktryst. Also in the exhibit are plates from an earlier bird book, Eleazar Albin's A Natural History of Birds of London (1731-1738). This is one of the oldest examples of a lavishly illustrated work of ornithology aimed at the "gentleman reader," rather than the scientist. The book features 306 hand-colored engravings by Albin and his daughter, Elizabeth.

Goldfinches, Plate 70.
Albin, Eleazar. A natural history of birds.
London: 1731-1738

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Albin was a social butterfly who forged connections with many members of the aristocracy in order to obtain access to their collections of exotic birds. He proudly states in the book's preface that all of the illustrations were drawn from live birds, and entreats his readers to supply him with future specimens: "Gentlemen…send any curious Birds…to Eleazar Albin near the Dog and Duck in Tottenham-Court Road."

Merian, Maria Sibilla.
Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und
sonderbare Blumennahrung.
Nuremberg: 1679. Plate 8.

The "Bees" section of the exhibition actually cheats a little, including books covering all manner of insects. One of the most interesting is Maria Sibilla Merian's 1679 work, Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung (The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food.) Merian was the daughter of a noted engraver, and the granddaughter of a botanical artist. She was taught to paint and draw by her stepfather, who was a well-respected still life painter, particularly known for depicting Dutch flowers. As a naturalist, she was self-taught, and became fascinated with the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly. In this book she presents the stages of development of different species of European butterflies along with the plants on which they fed. Many scholars of her day believed that insects spontaneously generated from decaying mud, but her close observation of the transformation of the butterfly gave lie to that long-accepted notion.

Merian, Maria Sibilla.
Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und
sonderbare Blumennahrung.
Nuremberg: 1679. Plate 36.

Over 25 years after the publication of her work on the butterflies of the Old World, Merian journeyed to the New World to observe the butterfly species of the newly acquired Dutch colony of Surinam. She and her daughters spent two years in South America recording the flora and fauna of an area of the world then almost completely unknown to Europeans. Her book on the subject, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705), became a classic natural history text at a time when very few women won respect in the scientific world.

Drury, Dru. Illustrations of natural history.
Wherein are exhibited upwards of
two hundred and forty figures of exotic insects.
London: 1770-1773.
Plate 18, Butterflies.

Another of Glasgow's entomological treasures is Dru Drury's Illustrations of natural history. Wherein are exhibited upwards of two hundred and forty figures of exotic insects... (1770-1773). Drury was a wealthy silversmith who became fascinated by the insect world. He amassed a collection of over 11,000 specimens from all over the globe, many of which were obtained by travelers and seamen, to whom he paid a sixpence an insect, "whatever the size."

Drury, Dru. Illustrations of natural history.
Wherein are exhibited upwards of
two hundred and forty figures of exotic insects.
London: 1770-1773.
Plate 39, Hornets And Wasps.

According to the exhibition, the "Illustrations of natural history was published in three parts between 1770 and 1782." The hand-colored copperplate engravings were created from Drury's specimens by Moses Harris, and Drury notes in his preface that "the utmost care and nicety has been observed, both in the outlines, and engraving. Nothing is strained, or carried beyond the bounds nature has set."

Harris, Moses.
An exposition of English insects ...
minutely described, arranged, and named,
according to the Linnaean system.
London: 1782.
Plate 30, Dragonflies.

The illustrator of the previous volume, Moses Harris, is the author of another volume included in the exhibit, An exposition of English insects ... minutely described, arranged, and named, according to the Linnaean system (1782). Harris was encouraged to pursue a childhood interest in insects by his uncle, a member of the Society of Aurelians, the first organized entomological society in England. According to the Glasgow Library, "Harris wrote several works on insect life and, as an accomplished artist, was responsible for drawing, engraving, and colouring all his own work, maintaining at all times a high standard of accuracy. "

Harris, Moses.
An exposition of English insects ...
minutely described, arranged, and named,
according to the Linnaean system.
London: 1782.
Plate 23, Dragonflies.

Harris expressed his goal in writing An Exposition of English insects as helping the observer "at first sight of an insect...[to] be capable of not only knowing the class it refers to, but at the same time to what order and section of that class, and this by the wings only." The text includes a color wheel to allow the reader to determine the "variety of teints [sic] that adorn the several parts of insects." The work includes over 50 meticulously-executed hand-colored plates.

Fuchs, Leonhart.
De historia stirpium commentarii insignes.
Basel: 1542.
Cucurbita major and minor.

Finally, we can't forget the Spring flowers when on our imaginary vacation from Old Man Winter. The Glasgow exhibit includes two especially inspiring botanical titles, filled with magnificent color plates. The first of these is Leonhart Fuchs' De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (Or, Notable commentaries on the history of plants), which was first published in 1542. As said in the show, this "massive folio volume...describes in Latin some 497 plants, and is illustrated by over 500 superb woodcuts based upon first-hand observation... Fuchs relied on the illustrations to be used as the main means for identifying the plants. Over 100 species are illustrated for the first time, many of the specimens probably coming from Fuchs' garden in Tübingen; over a thirty-five year period, he grew many of the plants featured in the work, including the exotics."

Fuchs, Leonhart.
De historia stirpium commentarii insignes.
Basel: 1542.
Botanical Illustrators At Work.

Fuchs spent over 30 years compiling his herbal masterpiece, and it was clearly a labor of love. Fuchs expressed his love for the flora of the natural world in this charming fashion: "There is nothing in this life pleasanter and more delightful than to wander over woods, mountains, plains, garlanded and adorned with flowerlets and plants of various sorts, and most elegant to boot, and to gaze intently on them. But it increases that pleasure and delight not a little, if there be added an acquaintance with the virtues and powers of these same plants."

Fuchs, Leonhart.
De historia stirpium commentarii insignes.
Basel: 1542.
Frontispiece Of The Author.

Fuchs was a physician, and was particularly interested in the pharmacological uses of plants. He hoped to educate his fellow medical practitioners on the proper identification of healing plants, a skill which he believed them to be sadly lacking. He stressed the importance of his illustrations and their accuracy: "'a picture expresses things more surely and fixes them more deeply in the mind than the bare words of the text... Each illustration was therefore based upon the appearance of the living plant; furthermore, we have not allowed the craftsmen so to indulge their whims as to cause the drawing not to correspond accurately to the truth."

Rosa Semperflorens, Plate 284.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol.8, 1794.

Our final cure for the Wintertime blues: some images from the one greatest of all scientific periodicals, Curtis's Botanical Magazine. First published in 1787, it continues to this day, and is the oldest periodical in existence to feature color plates, according to the exhibition. Printing the work of the world's best botanical illustrators for over two centuries, its over 11,000 color plates form an amazing visual record of flowers and plants as they were introduced to English gardens. The plates were always drawn from living specimens, and "coloured as near to nature, as the imperfection of colouring will admit." As incredible as it may seem, "the plates were all hand coloured until as late as 1948 when a shortage of colourists forced the periodical to adopt photographic reproduction."

Diplopappus Incanus, Plate 3382.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol.62, 1835.

The books included here are just a small sampling from the Birds, Bees, and Blooms exhibition. Exploring some of the other items will prolong the pleasure of your imaginary respite from the chilly scenes of Winter. Just remember that no matter how cold, snowy, and wet you get, this too shall pass. No, really, Winter must end...eventually.
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The Strange Case Of "Britain's Audubon" and Edward Lear

By Nancy Mattoon

The Australian Black Swan From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

The recent sale of a first edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America for $11.5 million made it the most expensive printed book in history. In fact an article in The Economist online estimates that, adjusted for inflation, "five of the ten highest prices ever paid for printed books were paid for copies of Birds of America." Those two items must have Victorian ornithologist John Gould, known as "The British Audubon," spinning in his grave.

John Gould. An 1849 portrait by T.H. Maguire.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

John Gould was the most ambitious of all Victorian ornithologists, combining a shrewd and uncompromising business sense, with a sharp eye for specimens, and a sharper one for artistic talent. In his own time, as he would have been the first to inform you, Gould was just as famous, and more financially successful, than Audubon.

The Emu From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

John Gould was the son of an ambitious gardener, who through hard work and diligence became the foreman of the Royal Gardens at Windsor. Gould learned two things from his father: a love of the natural world and a belief that a man could rise above his station through sheer determination.

The Beautiful Grass-Finch,
From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

From one of his father's fellow gardeners Gould learned the art of taxidermy. Skill at preserving birds and animals was highly prized among Victorians, and some said his passion for it verged on an obsession. In any case, Gould set up his first business in Windsor as a taxidermist, and quickly won recognition for his ability to make his subjects look "natural." He became so adept at the trade that he was commissioned to stuff a giraffe for King George IV.

The Nankeen Night Heron,
From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

Gould's chance to advance beyond taxidermy came in 1827, when the newly founded Zoological Society of London held a contest to hire its first director and curator. Despite having almost no formal education, John Gould entered and won the position. In 1830 the Society acquired a large collection of bird skins from the Himalayan region of Asia.

The Australian Cassowary,
From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

These exotic specimens, many never before documented, gave Gould the idea of publishing an illustrated guide depicting the rare birds. This became his first published work, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830–1832). It should be noted that although Gould was credited as author, the text was written mostly by the secretary of the Society, Nicholas Aylward Vigors, and the lithography was done by primarily his wife, Elizabeth Coxen Gould, based on John Gould's original sketches. This became a pattern with Gould throughout his career. He repeatedly took sole credit for accomplishments that were in fact a team effort.

One of Edward Lear’s illustrations for John Gould’s
A Monograph of the Ramphastidae,
or Family of Toucans.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

The other unsung contributor to Gould's first book was Edward Lear. In 1830 Lear published the first two folios of Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, a ground-breaking work of ornithology for several reasons: it was the first bird book published in the large folio size, the first on a single family of birds, the first in which all of the specimens were drawn from life (at the Parrot House of London's Zoological Gardens), and one of the first to use the relatively new process of lithography, rather than engraving, for illustrations. Alas for Lear, while his work was an artistic triumph, it was also a financial failure. He spent too much time obsessively perfecting his work, and not enough selling subscriptions and collecting payments.

Edward Lear in 1840,
as drawn by his friend Wilhelm Marstrand.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

But Lear's business failure was Gould's opportunity. He not only hired Lear to work for him, he appropriated Lear's format and style as his own. Thus all of Lear's innovations were soon attributed to the more successful Gould. (Save for the fact that Gould often used preserved specimens rather than live birds as his subjects.) Lear taught the lithography process to Elizabeth Gould, and drew all of the backgrounds for her illustrations. None of his work was credited.

Macrocercus ararauna (Blue and Yellow Maccaw)
from Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae,
or Parrots by Edward Lear.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

The relationship between Lear and Gould has been called "seven years of exploitation," in an online exhibit on Lear's ornithological illustrations from Cornell's University's Albert R. Mann Library. According to the exhibit, Lear created ten complete plates for Gould's 1834 work, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans, with no acknowledgement whatsoever, and with his signature actually having been erased from the plates in the second edition. In total Lear contributed to six of Gould's books.

Detail from Edward Lear's illustration of a Raven (Corvus corax)
from Volume III of John Gould's The Birds of Europe.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

John Gould was by anyone's estimation a master of the business of books. He deserves immense credit as one of the nineteenth century's greatest natural history publishers. Driven and prolific, he produced 15 major works on birds, containing over 3,000 color plates, and covering every major continent save Africa. Additionally, he wrote over 300 scientific articles and many smaller books. If he had been content to be remembered as an ornithologist and publisher, his legacy would have been untarnished.

Macrocercus aracanga (Red and Yellow Maccaw),
from Edward Lear's
Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae,
or Parrots.

(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

But John Gould's desire to be held in esteem as an artist and writer caused him to needlessly take credit where credit was not due. Upon Gould's death in 1881, the usually affable Lear wrote, "He was one I never liked really, for in spite of a certain jollity and bonhommie [sic], he was a harsh and violent man... [A] persevering hard working toiler in his own line, but ever as unfeeling for those about him... He owed everything to his excellent wife,—& to myself, without whose help in drawing he had done nothing." A sad coda to a life of true accomplishment, shadowed only by the need to be seen as an artistic genius, when being business genius was enough.
__________

For Cornell Library "The Time Of The Singing Of Birds Is Come"

A Bali Starling, An Endangered Species Whose Song Was Recorded By Linda Macaulay.

The goal of poets is to make words sing. And so what better to inspire them than the sublime sounds, expressed so casually, so naturally, so sweetly, by the songbird? It comes as no surprise, then, that nearly every major poet has written a poem in praise of avian warblers. From Catallus to Chaucer to Keats to Collins, all are spellbound by the music of the skies. They try, with all the tools at their command, to conjure up in words the notes that flow so effortlessly from far simpler creatures.

A Rust and Yellow Tanager, Its Song Is Another Of Linda Macaulay's First Cuts.

What makes this situation far more vexing for today's aspiring poets, is that their time spent communing with nature is often short. Since they compose on a keyboard, requiring electricity or a quickly-drained battery, prolonged exposure to the melodies of the meadow may seem a distant dream. But thanks, in large part to a passionate, intrepid, and adventuresome couple, the song of the lark, and thousands and thousands of other calming coos, are just a mouse-click away. Wannabe wordsmiths, get thee (virtually) to the Macaulay Library of Sound.

William and Linda Macaulay.
(Photo Courtesy of City University of New York.)

Not created expressly to produce poetry, what was formerly known as the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's Library of Sound, has recently been renamed in honor of two of its foremost contributors, William and Linda Macaulay. The Macaulay Library of Sound is the world's largest collection of zoological sounds, featuring audio (and secondarily video) recordings of over 9,000 species of birds, mammals, and insects. All of the sounds are available online, free of charge.

A Vermiculated Fishing Owl, The Only Known Photograph Of This Species, Captured By William Macaulay in Borneo In 1995. Its Bird Call Is A "First Cut" Recorded by Linda Macaulay.

Linda Macaulay has devoted 23 years of her life to recording bird songs. To date, she has captured the calls and songs of 2,668 species of birds, or nearly 30% of the known species worldwide. She has traveled from her home in Greenwich, Connecticut to 50 countries around the globe in search of the sounds of the rarest birds in the world. And Ms. Macaulay's recordings, often obtained at great personal risk, have all been added to the Cornell University database. (Her husband William, a billionaire venture capitalist, accompanies her whenever possible. For him birding is a "quiet and relaxing" respite from the madding crowd. His monetary contributions to the Macaulay Library of Sound have been substantial.)

A Whitehead's Trogon, One Of The Species Whose Song Was first Recorded By Linda Macaulay.

The globe-trotting Ms. Macaulay's passion for capturing "first cuts," the term used for the initial recording of the sounds of a particular species, has taken her to parts of the world that tourists seldom see. In Rwanda she traipsed through waist deep swamps in search of the Shoebill. On another trip to Africa, in Gabon, she spelunked several caverns seeking the Gray-necked Rockfowl. Sometimes the challenges of her travel are not just geographical: in Papua, New Guinea she was surrounded by a band of men brandishing spears. In Ethiopia she braved the modern version of the same behavior: every man who had reached his teens carried an AK-47. With typical understatement Macaulay remarks that she and her husband "have a different risk profile than most people." All of this daring-do has paid off handsomely for the Library of Sound: Ms. Macaulay believes there are at least 10 species she alone has recorded, these include the Whitehead's Trogon from Borneo, and the Rust and Yellow Tanager from Argentina.

The Shoebill, Whose Song Was Recorded In The Swamps Of Rwanda.

On April 8, 2010 Linda Macaulay will be honored at the Paley Center for Media in New York City with Cornell's prestigious Arthur A. Allen Award (.pdf format), which honors ornithologists whose work specifically benefits the general public. She is particularly pleased to receive this recognition because she believes the free, online Library of Sound is a singular achievement: "A person in any country can access a bird sound digitally for free," she told Anne W. Semmes of the Greenwich Citizen. "It's like looking for a book -- you can go online and hear all the sounds... You don't have to be a scientist."

That should be music to the ears of laboratory-leery poets everywhere. And in case some versifiers still aren't sold on the poetical virtues of bird songs, (and in honor of April's status as National Poetry Month) this piece will close with a few examples of how the Lullaby of Birdland has freed some of our greatest writers to take wing and soar:


Stray Birds #1 by Rabindranath Tagore.


Stray birds of summer come to my window
to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn,
which have no songs,
flutter and fall there with a sigh.

A Yellow-eared Toucanet, One Of Macaulay's Favorites Of The Birds She's Recorded.

Excerpt from: Mockingbirds by Mary Oliver.

This morning
two mockingbirds
in the green field
were spinning and tossing
the white ribbons
of their songs
into the air.
I had nothing
better to do
than listen.
I mean this
seriously.

Little Bird by An Anonymous Celtic Poet.

Little bird! O little bird!
I wonder at what thou doest,
Thou singing merry far from me,
I in sadness all alone!

Little bird! O little bird!
I wonder at how thou art
Thou high on the tips of branching boughs,
I on the ground a-creeping!

Little bird! O little bird!
Thou art music far away,
Like the tender croon of the mother loved
In the kindly sleep of death.

Excerpt from: Ode to Bird Watching by Pablo Neruda.

You can hear them
like a heavenly
rustle or movement.
They converse
with precision.
They repeat
their observations.
They brag
of how much they do.
They comment
on everything that exists.

A Rufous Whistler, Another Species Recorded by Linda Macaulay For The Library Of Sound.

For the House Sparrow, in Decline by Paul Farley.

Your numbers fall and it's tempting to think
you're deserting our suburbs and estates
like your cousins at Pompeii;
that when you return
to bathe in dust and build your nests again
in a roofless world where no one hears your cheeps,
only a starling's modem mimicry
will remind you of how you once supplied
the incidental music of our lives.


Excerpt From: Ode To A Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Sound of vernal showers
On the twinkling grass,
Rain-awakened flowers,
All that ever was Joyous, and clear,
and fresh, thy music doth surpass.

Teach us, Sprite or Bird,
What sweet thoughts are thine:
I have never heard Praise of love or wine
That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.


Excerpt from: Caged Bird by Maya Angelou.

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

An Eastern Nicator, One Of Linda Macaulay's Favorite African Songbirds.

Unknown Bird by W.S. Merwin.

Out of the dry days
through the dusty leaves
far across the valley
those few notes never
heard here before

one fluted phrase
floating over its
wandering secret
all at once wells up
somewhere else

and is gone before it
goes on fallen into
its own echo leaving
a hollow through the air
that is dry as before

where is it from
hardly anyone
seems to have noticed it
so far but who now
would have been listening

it is not native here
that may be the one
thing we are sure of
it came from somewhere
else perhaps alone

so keeps on calling for
no one who is here
hoping to be heard
by another of its own
unlikely origin

trying once more the same few
notes that began the song
of an oriole last heard
years ago in another
existence there

it goes again tell
no one it is here
foreign as we are
who are filling the days
with a sound of our own

The Gray-necked Rockfowl, Recorded In The Caves Of Gabon.

Excerpt from: Birds Of Passage by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I hear the cry
Of their voices high
Falling dreamily through the sky,
But their forms I cannot see.

O, say not so!
Those sounds that flow
In murmurs of delight and woe
Come not from wings of birds.

They are the throngs
Of the poet's songs,
Murmurs of pleasures, and pains, and wrongs,
The sound of winged words.

This is the cry
Of souls, that high
On toiling, beating pinions, fly,
Seeking a warmer clime,

From their distant flight
Through realms of light
It falls into our world of night,
With the murmuring sound of rhyme.

The Elusive Iraq Babbler, Found In Syria On The Euphrates River.

To The Cuckoo by William Wordsworth.

O Blithe New-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?

While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear,
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near.

Though babbling only to the Vale,
Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.


Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my school-boy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, faery place;
That is fit home for Thee!

Posted by Nancy Mattoon at 12:06 AM