While Audubon deservedly receives credit for characterizing the birds of North America, another naturalist was at work in England. William Swainson in his travels drew and coloured the birds he encountered and wrote of their characteristics. Swainson was fascinated by crows and thought in the evolutionary process as man descended the tree of life unparalleled in his accomplishments, the crow in another branch equaled man in his achievements. In both species, the ability to adapt, copy that which had been proven useful by other animals and to advance its culture is without equal. Here is what Swainson wrote about the crow:
The crow, unites in itself a greater number of properties than are to be found individually in any other genus of birds; as if in fact it had taken from all the other orders a portion of their peculiar qualities, for the purpose of exhibiting in what manner they could be combined. From the rapacious birds this ype of types as the crow has been justly called, takes the power of soaring in the air, and seizing upon living birds, like the hawks, while its habit of devouring putrid substances, and picking out the eyes of young animals, is borrowed from the vultures. From the scansorial or climbing order it takes the faculty of picking the ground, and discovering its food when hidden from the eye, while the parrot family gives it the taste for vegetable food, and furnishes it with great cunning, sagacity, and powers of imitation, even to counterfeiting the human voice. Next come the order of waders, who impart their quota to the perfection of the crow by giving it great powers of flight, and perfect facility in walking, such being among the chief attributes of the suctorial order. Lastly, the aquatic birds contribute their portion, by giving this terrestrial bird the power of feeding not only on fish, which are their peculiar food, but actually of occasionally catching it (Wilson American Ornithology; Fishing Crow) In this wonderful manner do we find the crow partially invested with the united properties of other birds, while in its own order, that of the incessores or perchers, it stands the pre-eminent type. We cannot also fail to regard it as a remarkable proof of the superior organization and character of the corvidae, that they are adapted for all climates, and accordingly are found all over the world.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Robert Chambers, 1844, Chambers, London, Reprinted and Edited by James A Second, The University of Chicago Press,1994. pp 269-271.
On the natural history and classification of birds, Swainson, W.: 1837, Vol. II, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, London.
Note: Not a lot is know about Mr. Swainson other than that he was a respected naturalist in his day and was quoted extensively in Robert Chambers’s book on a variety of topics.
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