“We found more wildness in this species than in any other inhabiting the same country…” — John James Audubon, writing about the Lincoln’s sparrow.
In June 1833, the great naturalist and pioneer ornithologist set out for the wildlands of Labrador. In Audubon’s day the giant northern Canadian province was largely a mystery. Rumors of new birds to be discovered provided irresistible fodder to the birdman, and he set sail in the company of several companions.
One fine day, they heard a beautiful and unfamiliar song and pursued the singer. One of Audubon’s crew, the intrepid 21-year-old Thomas Lincoln, caught up with the songbird, took aim and dropped the songster. In those days, shotgun ornithology was the rule.
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Upon showing his prize to Audubon, he pronounced it a new species, heaped praise on his young colleague and ended up naming the bird Lincoln’s sparrow ( Melospiza lincolnii ).
That Audubon considered the Lincoln’s sparrow to possess “more wildness” than any other bird in this remote northern land seems remarkable. It was competing with Atlantic puffins, gyrfalcons, red-throated loons and many other seemingly more spectacular boreal species.