6.13.2014

a rare and beautiful bird
...Thoreau's Journal: 13-Jun-1853

What was that rare and beautiful bird in the dark woods under the Cliffs, with black above and white spots and bars, a large triangular blood-red spot on breast, and sides of breast and beneath white? Note a warble like the oriole, but softer and sweeter. It was quite tame. I cannot find this bird described. I think it must be a grosbeak. At first I thought I saw a chewink, it sat within a rod sideways to me, and I was going to call Sophia to look at it, but then it turned its breast full toward me and I saw the blood-red breast, a large triangular painted spot occupying the greater part of the breast. It was in the cool, shaded underwood by the odd path just under the Cliff. It is a memorable event to meet with so rare a bird. Birds answer to flowers, both in their abundance and their rareness. The meeting with a rare and beautiful bird like this is like meeting with some rare and beautiful flower, which you may never find again, perchance, like the great purple fringed orchis, at least. How much it enhances the wildness and the richness of the forest to see it in some beautiful bird which you never detected before.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, no doubt.

michael jameson said...

we come across them now they are not birds though! they are rare and beautiful people! kind and friendly! we know when we meet one and when we are one, the world is a little happier to have one in its midst,they understand in many ways or know as little as a child, they are more spirit then body!. michael jameson oldantiqueguy@hotmail.com