In 1963, Milton Trautman wrote a short note, "John Maynard Wheaton's
'Tired' Bird", which describes the only major error in Wheaton's 1882
"Report on the Birds of Ohio". In his description of the grasshopper
sparrow, Wheaton thought he had observed a change in its song "later in
the season, as if the bird, tired of the monotony of its breeding note,
changes it to a shorter and less monotonous 'se ick.'"
Trautman recognized this 'changed' song as that of the Henslow's
sparrow, another furtive meadow species. Wheaton had collected one back
in 1856, but felt he had found the young of the grasshopper sparrow.
Trautman notes that Theodore Jasper, another physician and birder who
lived only a few blocks from Wheaton, had collected a "Henslow's
Bunting" in 1872 (OSU Museum #1171), but Wheaton apparently did not
recognize it as such for his book.
Trautman wrote in his 1963 note this for his readers:
"Do not feel too superior. How much knowledge of birds would you have,
if like Wheaton, you had no field glasses or at best a pair of opera
glasses not designed for outdoor use, no book by Peterson or the other,
now available, information which has been amassed since his day, no
automobile to dash from one end of the state to the other, no rare bird
telephone service, and no 40 hour week? If Wheaton had desired to work
out the song and habitat differences between the Grasshopper and
Henslow, he would have had to do a great deal of traveling by horse and
buggy, and much collecting with a gun of these two secretive and
difficult-to-shoot species." Hmm.
Bill Whan
Columbus
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