The first mention of specific birds in 

 the Chicago region is in the journals 

 of Father Jacques Marquette's second 

 voyage. On December 4, 1674, on 

 reaching the Chicago River, he found 

 "more snow there than elsewhere, as 

 well as more tracks of animals and Tur- 

 keys." On December 12, his party killed 

 three or four turkeys out of many that 

 came around their cabin, and Jacques, 

 one of Father Marquette's young compan- 

 ions, brought in a partridge "... exactly 

 like those of France, except that it had 

 2 ruffs of 3 or 4 feathers as long as a 

 feather near the head, covering the 2 

 sides of the neck where there are no 

 feathers." Undoubtedly a prairie chick- 

 en! On March 23, 1675: "We killed 

 several partridges, only the males of 

 which had ruffs on the neck .... These 

 partridges are very good . . ." 



On March 30 of the following year, 

 the good Father noted : "The north wind 

 delayed the thaw until the 25th of March, 

 when it set in with the south wind. On 

 the very next day, game began to make 

 its appearance. We killed 30 pigeons, 

 which I found better than those down 

 the great river, but they are smaller, 

 both old and young." The "30 pigeons" 

 presumably were mourning doves; those 

 down the "great river" were probably 

 passenger pigeons. 



The next day, traveling up the Chi- 

 cago, they saw Canada geese and ducks 

 passing continually, and on the Des 

 Plaines River, many migrating "cranes." 



In 1712, one of the Jesuit missionaries, 

 Father Gabriel Marest, remarks in his 

 journal under date of November 9 that 

 "game is very abundant. Above all we 

 found quantities of swans, cranes, bus- 

 tards and ducks. The wild grain which 

 grows naturally in the country fattens 

 them so that they die of being over- 

 stuffed ! Turkeys are just as numerous, 

 and they are as good as those in France." 



Loons were also abundant, and John 

 Long, in his Voyages and Travels of an In- 

 dian Interpreter and Trader 7768-88, reports 

 that the Indians used the dried skins of 

 these birds to make cases to cover their 



guns, so keeping them from getting wet. 

 Loon hunting is described by Jonathan 

 Carver in his Travels through the Interior 

 Parts of North America in 7766, 7767, and 

 7768: "These birds are exceedingly nim- 

 ble and expert at diving, so that it is 

 almost impossible for one person to shoot 

 them, as they will dextrously avoid the 

 shot by diving. ... It requires three 

 persons to kill one of them, and this can 

 only be done the moment it raises his 

 head out of the water as it returns to the 

 surface after diving." Although Carver 

 reports that the flesh was very "ill- 

 flavored," it "repays the trouble taken 

 to obtain it, by the excellent sport it 

 affords." This is the first mention of 

 killing by white men for "sport." 



Carver also listed the "Birds which 

 are found in the interior Parts of North 

 America" and gives ten pages of de- 

 scriptions, the following being of par- 

 ticular interest: 



"The WHIPPERWILL, or, as it is 

 termed by the Indians, the Muckawiss. 

 This extraordinary bird is somewhat like 

 the nighthawk in its shape and colour, 

 only it has some whitish stripes across 

 the wings [Carver has here confused the 

 wing markings of the two birds] and like 

 that is seldom ever seen till after sun- 

 set .. . during the spring and summer 

 months. As soon as the Indians are in- 

 formed by its notes of its return, they 

 conclude that the frost is entirely gone 

 [and] begin to sow their corn. . . . The 

 Indians, and some of the inhabitants of 

 the back settlements, think if this bird 

 perches upon any house, that it betokens 

 some mishap to the inhabitants of it." 



Of the blackbird, Carver says: "There 

 are three sorts of birds in North America 

 that bear this name; the first is the com- 

 mon or . . . crow blackbird [bronzed 

 grackle] .... In the month of Septem- 

 ber this sort fly in large flights, and do 

 great mischief to the Indian corn, which 

 is at that time just ripe." This is the 

 first account depicting a bird of the Chi- 

 cago region as an enemy to man. 



Louis Armand de Lorn d'Arce, known 

 to history as the Baron Lahontan, came 

 to New France in 1683. He seems to 

 have been an amateur naturalist. Like 

 Carver, he made lists of trees, fruits, ani- 

 mals, birds, and insects (under which he 

 included rattlesnakes and frogs!) found 

 in the "North and South Countries of 



Canada." Among the 63 birds listed is 

 one he calls "a nightingale unknown to 

 Europe. . . . That sort of Nightingale 

 that I saw, is of a peculiar form; for 'tis 

 of a lesser size than the European, and 

 of a bluish color, and its notes are more 

 diversified; besides that, it lodges in the 

 holes of Trees, and four or five of 'em do 

 commonly keep together upon the thick- 

 est Trees, and with joynt Notes Warble 

 o'er their Songs." This was our blue- 

 bird. He also speaks fondly of a "Oiseau 

 Mouche [hummingbird], a very little 

 bird resembling a Fly; ... no bigger 

 than one's Thumb, and the colour of its 

 Feathers is so changeable, that 'tis hard 

 to fasten any one colour upon it. . . . Its 

 beak is as sharp as a Needle. It flies 

 from Flower to Flower, like a Bee, and 

 by its fluttering sucks the flowery Sap." 

 Another bird was the wood duck "call'd 

 Branchus. . . . They owe the name of 

 Branchus to their resting upon the 

 branches of Trees." 



Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollect 

 priest who traveled with LaSalle from 

 1679 to 1682, left a graphic description 

 of their canoe trip from La Baye des 

 Puans (Green Bay) to the River of the 

 Miamis (St. Joseph's River) at St. Jo- 

 seph, Michigan. The stormy October 

 weather made life difficult and their 

 only food was a handful of Indian corn 

 a day. They often had to wade in the 

 cold, shallow water, pushing their three 

 great canoes to prevent them from 

 swamping — a very difficult task for starv- 

 ing men. Suddenly they saw crows and 

 eagles circling around what they hoped 

 might be some game. They hurried to 

 the spot, and, sure enough, there was a 

 buck that had been killed by a wolf and 

 only partly eaten. They finished the 

 animal, praising God for sending his 

 birds to save them from starvation. 



IN 1779, Jean Baptiste Point de Sable, 

 a native of Santo Domingo, who was 

 a "well educated and handsome" free 

 mulatto, loyal to the French, left his 

 home at Peoria and came to live among 

 the Pottawatomie Indians at "Eschika- 



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