{"id":21301,"title":"Allen's Hummingbird. An American Horror Story","description":"The exploration of Allen's Hummingbird, some of the protagonists, a brief history of California and crimes against indigenous populations.","content":"

\"lixr9mguvnum8gspvwodi7wl1zwc8czx6v5vwgk1z6u8nkti.jpg\"The Allen\u2019s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin)<\/em> follows my ongoing interest in how birds receive their common names. Allen\u2019s Hummingbird is a close relative of the Rufous Hummingbird, native to California and is just 3.5 inches long.<\/p>

\"cbmuroolcfkwzib3seeltvpmtijwpv0ftkncdnezdtw6zxex.jpg\"Ren\u00e9 Lesson (1794-1849)<\/em><\/p>

This bird was described in 1829 by French explorer Ren\u00e9 Lesson (1794-1849) he gave the bird the binomial name Ornismya sasin<\/em> and included the bird in \u2018Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux-Mouches\u2019 the illustration below was possibly made by his wife, Marie Cl\u00e9mence Lesson, she trained as a natural history artist in Paris and married Ren\u00e9 in 1827.<\/p>

In 1879 ornithologist and ethnologist Henry Wetherbee Henshaw (1850-1930) renamed the bird after Charles Andrew Allen (1841-1930). I wanted to do discover more about this renaming and learn about the key protagonists and the cultural context of this little Californian hummingbird.<\/p>

\"dxgsfs4p5xhokjlijbbxokwqpl4nqs4yidordpxfkvmc6hym.jpg\"Charles Andrew Allen became a life long bird lover after being inspired by Boston based ornithologist and taxidermist, James Gately (1810\u20131875). When Charles Andrew Allen was 11 he was walking in Cape Cod with James Gately, the young Charles Andrew Allen presented a bird to James Gately and asked what it was, he identified it as a Cory Shearwater. Gately then took it to his cabin and proceeded to show Allen how to stuff the bird, James Gately went on to tutor the boy in the ways of taxidermy and bird lore. I discovered little more about the nature of this relationship and it\u2019s unclear whether they remained in touch. <\/p>

James Gately was from Cheshire, UK and moved to the U.S after a scandal that is hard to identify, suggestions vary, from falling in love with a woman \u2018beneath him\u2019 to his first wife dying young or even a potential child born out of wedlock. Whatever the details he moved to Boston determined to disregard his past difficulties and follow his interest in birds.\u00a0<\/p>

\"7qfsp0o2nrwkahcucko9diee38wqgu12ntapjfx0lrnl7mqp.jpg\"James Gately (1810\u20131875)<\/em><\/p>

Gately went on to become the so-called Hermit of Hyde Park<\/em>. It\u2019s reported that he was an heir to some wealth, though he was determined to be independent, potentially due to an estrangement from his family. He spent his first years in America reading and researching birds, when he noticed money was running low he began to sell taxidermy and bird cages. Down to his last 40 gold coins he went to sell one of his bird cages in Charlestown, it was there that he was robbed of his last coins. Heartbroken, he retreated into the then relative wilderness of the park and foraged for food and shelter in the forest, he eventually built a shack seeing very few people until he was forced into the town to sell his bird themed goods.<\/p>

He almost died of starvation and injury several times though as the years passed he eventually gathered enough funds to buy some land where he built a better structure to live in. In 1875 he died alone in his shack surrounded by taxidermy and various starving birds in the cages he\u2019d built. Despite his propensity for solitude his funeral was well attended by ornithologists that had previously visited him and some curious locals. His grave is marked with a roughly hewn stone simply marked with the word \u2018Hermit\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>

Listen to a podcast from hub history about James Gately <\/em>here.<\/em><\/a><\/p>

\"dzhcxkbgwmq2gbcfogsfvnn5dpgmr24nn7e1qwwbuwt2jmf3.jpg\"Charles Andrew Allen (1841-1930)<\/em><\/p>

As an adult Charles Andrew Allen moved to California and worked as groundsman and carpenter, in his spare time he collected various specimens and sent them to ornithologists on the east coast for their own collections. In 1877 it was Allen that noticed a slight difference between the tail of the Rufous Hummingbird and a similar hummingbird sample he\u2019d collected, he suggested to the renowned Bostonian ornithologist William Brewster that it may be a sup-species. Brewster passed the specimen to Henry Wetherbee Henshaw who confirmed the variation and as acknowledgement named it after Allen. The difference between them is minor, Allen\u2019s Hummingbird has a green back and narrow tail feathers, a Rufous Hummingbird has a copper back with wider tail feathers.\u00a0Read a biography of Charles Andrew Allen <\/em>here.<\/em><\/a><\/p>

\"dmwfymkbnp9melxmh8r52q6r7sqipdb2945zy4xr4u5fub1n.jpg\"Henry Wetherbee Henshaw (1850-1930)<\/em><\/p>

Henry Wetherbee Henshaw was a well connected ornithologist that had an auspicious career on the east coast of the United States. Throughout his career he embarked on many expeditions where he collected countless bird specimens, though this makes it sound relatively passive. The way that\u00a0 birds were categorised at this time was to kill them, by shooting or capture. Henshaw mentions that he learnt how to wring the neck of a cardinal without damaging the specimen. On one trip he amassed 600 (bird) skins and several large mammals.<\/p>

In 1874\u00a0 he made a passing reference to \u2018Apaches\u2019 in some correspondences shown here<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cThe Apaches swarm about our camp which is on the bank of the White River near the Fort. One or more always accompanying me collecting, as they have the eyes of a hawk, are as good as a retriever.\u00a0Walking along I often hear a low \u2018coosh-coosh\u2019 and turning find one of them pointing at a bird in a tree top that I can hardly see. They seem to think it\u2019s the greatest sport in the world\u201d he continues... \u201cApaches may take a liking for my scalp which, by the way, I have had shaved clean to lessen its market value.\u201d In 1888, Henshaw went on to salvage some of the Awaswas <\/em><\/strong>language for a publication: Handbook of North American Indians North of Mexico <\/em>as he also occasionally had work as an anthropologist.<\/p>

\"i67rxa3rawmahdtx3rg4d4evwlts4jjtivwfkcbfydnwx4hm.jpg\"Pomo woman. 1924 by Edward S. Curtis<\/em><\/p>

This mention of American indigenous people led me to explore what was happening at the time in California when these \u2018discoveries\u2019 of local fauna were being made, with the hope of discovering what the indigenous name might be for Allen\u2019s Hummingbird.<\/p>

I was appalled and ashamed at my own ignorance when I discovered that during this time a mass-genocide of \u2018American Indians\u2019 was taking place, it was sanctioned by the American federal government and led to untold misery. The American government eradicated the population and knowledge of the indigenous populations so effectively that much has been lost forever. This area of research is incredibly disturbing and I am only just beginning. For the interested below are some videos that share some of the stories from tribal leaders and Benjamin Madley; writer of American Genocide.<\/p>