Lincoln's Sparrow
Notes Page for a Potential Bird Club Presentation:
It was way back in November 2002. I get a phone call from Bob “Bebirdin” Riggs about finding Lincoln Sparrows in Russell County. I had just been birding for just over a year and this sparrow had somehow managed to elude my many attempts to find it. I needed this bird for a lifer and was ready for the chase.
Bob and I decided to meet on a dreary Saturday and I made the long drive over Drill Mountain, through Honaker, and to our meeting spot at the Little River in Russell County.
After stopping at several thickets along Route we finally spotted a pair of Lincoln’s near a small spring running from the side of the mountain. We watched from the truck for several minutes.
So just who is the Lincoln's Sparrow named for. One might assume that it was for President Abraham Lincoln but they would be mistaken. There have rumours on the internet that the bird was named for Abraham Lincoln's father Thomas but these have been proven false also. In fact the species was named for a Thomas Lincoln of Dennisville, Maine.
The year was 1833 and Thomas Lincoln was an unassuming 21 year old from Dennisville, Maine. His family were successful farmers in Maine but not famous by any means with the one exception that Thomas' grandfather, Benjamin Lincoln, had been a Major General during the Revolutionary War and also served at the young nation's first Secretary of War. It turned out that young Thomas was friends with John Woodhouse Audubon, son of the famous ornithologist John James Audubon. And it just so happened that John J. Audubon was leading an expedtion to Labrador to look for new bird species.
Turns out: still gold. Thomas Lincoln was a cool guy. Plus, he's from Maine. Here's what I could find out about him:
According to page 109 of this book, Thomas Lincoln was born in 1812. Thomas came from successful stock, his grandfather being Benjamin Lincoln, a Revolutionary War general, a fatso, the recipient of the sword of surrender at Yorktown, and a friend of George Washington (I knew presidents would be involved somehow). Benjamin's fifth child, Theodore, was Dennysville's first settler, a Harvard graduate, a Judge, and Thomas' father.
Coming from such a prestigious family, it's amazing to me that Thomas is most responsible for the Lincoln (of Dennysville) family name being remembered. While I couldn't find a whole lot about the man himself, what I could find painted a portrait of a man who wasn't quite as exciting as his relatives. According to this page, Thomas was "a successful farmer, taciturn neighbor and a staunch abolitionist." A taciturn neighbor! If, in a hundred years, the only thing people remember me for is being shy around the people who live nearby I'm going to spin in my cremated remains.
Regardless of how infrequently he spoke to his neighbors, Thomas Lincoln will be always be remembered as the man the Lincoln's sparrow is named after. The story is short and sweet: Lincoln, a friend of Audubon's son, hopped aboard Audubon's 1833 trip to Labrador in search of new bird species. One day in June, Audubon heard a song he didn't recognize and challenged his crew to find its singer. Lincoln, being an excellent marksman, shot the little bugger and presented it to Audubon, who named it "Tom's Finch" (or "Lincoln's Pinewood-Finch" as it appears on Audubon's first sketch of the bird) on the spot. Audubon wrote that he named the bird for Lincoln because he was a favorite among the crew, and Thomas was given three cheers for the honor. Good times!
We had been in Labrador nearly three weeks before this Finch was discovered. One morning while the sun was doing his best to enliven the gloomy aspect of the country, I chanced to enter one of those singular small valleys here and there to be seen. The beautiful verdure of the vegetation, the numerous flowers that grew sprinkled over the ground, the half-smothered pipings of some frogs, and the multitudes of mosquitoes and flies of various sorts, seemed to belong to a region very different from any that I had previously explored. But if the view of this favoured spot was pleasing to my eye, how much more to my ear were the sweet notes of this bird as they came thrilling on the sense, surpassing in vigour those of any American Finch with which I am acquainted, and forming a song which seemed a compound of those of the Canary and Wood-lark of Europe. I immediately shouted to my companions, who were not far distant. They came, and we all followed the songster as it flitted from one bush to another to evade our pursuit. No sooner would it alight than it renewed its song; but we found more wildness in this species than in any other inhabiting the same country, and it was with difficulty that we at last procured it. Chance placed my young companion, THOMAS LINCOLN, in a situation where he saw it alight within shot, and with his usual unerring aim, he cut short its career. On seizing it, I found it to be a species which I had not previously seen; and, supposing it to be new, I named it Tom's Finch, in honour of our friend LINCOLN, who was a great favourite among us. Three cheers were given him, when, proud of the prize, I returned to the vessel to draw it, while my son and his companions continued to search for other specimens. Many were procured during our stay in that country. They became more abundant and less shy the farther north we proceeded, but no longer sang, in consequence of the advance of the season. We did not, however, succeed in finding a nest.