While driving around town this past week, I was half-listening to the radio
when I heard the most astonishing phrase.
It was so remarkable I grabbed a pen and scribbled it onto a piece of
handy newspaper.
Later, when I went to track down the quotation, I had some
trouble—I’m not sure I got it all right. But I know the sense of the quote
is correct. But what’s the rest of the
story?
Here’s what I heard:
“The prairies of North America would be full of bluebirds were it not for a single line in Henry IV part 1.”
Huh? That’s such a
striking phrase that I had to dig into it. What could possibly be the connection here?
Remarkably enough, after just a few minutes of searching, I was able to find the original quote AND discover the connections here. Can you?
Today’s search challenge has 3 parts:
(1) WHAT connection does Henry IV have with the collapse of
bluebird populations?
(2) WHO was such a fan of Henry IV that he caused the demise of bluebirds in North
America?
(3) Finally, WHAT is the name of the organization that
sponsored his (now notorious) act
that led to the problems with bluebirds?
that led to the problems with bluebirds?
As usual, please let us know how you figured these questions
out—what resources you used—and about how long it took you.
Fly onto the net and discover!
(1) WHAT connection does Henry IV have with the collapse of bluebird populations?
ReplyDeleteThe introduction of the European Starling to North America caused decline in the Bluebird population. Starlings are mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry IV.
(2) WHO was such a fan of Henry IV that he caused the demise of bluebirds in North America?
Eugene Schieffelin wanted to introduce all of the birds mentioned by Shakespeare into North America.
(3) Finally, WHAT is the name of the organization that sponsored his (now notorious) act that led to the problems with bluebirds?
American Acclimatization Society
Search strategy:
Began with [ bluebirds shakespeare ] to get this page http://www.wildwingco.com/bluebirds.html that talks about the decline and causes. It also mentions Eugene Schieffelin
Searched Eugene Schieffelin to get his Wikipedia entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin That included American Acclimatization Society.
Doubled back to check [ "henry iv" starling ] and got http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/Henry_IV,_part_1/3.html CMD-F to find [ starling ].
5 minutes
Eugene Schieffelin was determined to bring every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's work to North America. In 1890, 60 starlings were released in Central Park. The next year more were released. Starlings take over bluebirds nests when bluebirds migrate south for the winter. Mr. Schieffelin worked with the American Acclimatization Society. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1088972/index.htm and http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1088972/index.htm
ReplyDeleteStarlings are mentioned in Henry IV, part 1 when Hotspur threatens to have a starling trained to say "Mortimer" over and over to the king who does not want to hear the name "Mortimer."
This took me less than 10 minutes. My original search was "starlings and blue birds." Then, I searched for sites about Eugene Schieffelin.
Firstly I searched Blubird but nothing useful found ..then I searched demise of blubird again nothing special...then I searched extinction of blubird Henry IV,result 4 had sth that i was looking for...
ReplyDelete" ......In 1890, a group called the American Acclimatization Society, dedicated to the introduction of foreign flora and fauna, including every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare, released about a hundred starlings in Central Park based on this line from Henry IV: "Nay I'll have the starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer." These birds also were extremely successful...." in order to find answer of q2 I searched :American Acclimatization Society bluebird and directly go to wikipedia page:"..But it was Schieffelin, an avid admirer of Shakespeare, who was the society's driving force. Some accounts of his efforts claim that he had resolved that as an aesthetic goal, the organization should introduce every bird species mentioned in the Bard's works. Other accounts say this is unproven...."
It takes me less than 10 min to find them
1. Eugene Schieffelin hoped to introduce into North America every bird mentioned by Shakespeare. The starling's remarkable vocal abilities that secured it a place in "Henry IV". Starlings bully several native species, often rudely evicting bluebirds and woodpeckers.
ReplyDelete2. Eugene Schieffelin
3. Schieffelin belonged to the American Acclimatization Society
About 5 minutes, finding Eugene Schieffelin was the key; easy from there.
Very interesting. After searching for henry iv and bluebirds, found an article in Scientific American from May 2008 by Steve Mirsky that calls out the American Acclimatization Society as the group that released 100 starlings into Central Park (3). The connection to Henry IV comes from the line “Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but ‘Mortimer.' The AAS group wanted all of the bird species mentioned in Shakespeare's plays to be in North America. (1) The biggest proponent of this starling introduction was A Bronx resident, drug manufacturer Eugene Schieffelin (2).
ReplyDeleteAt the end of his article, however, it says “And starlings actually appear to be innocent in the case of the missing bluebirds. The feather friends at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology contend on their Web site that 'a study in 2003 found few actual effects on populations of 27 native species. Only sapsuckers showed declines because of starlings, and other species appeared to be holding their own against the invaders.' So when it comes to songbird decline, as Shakespeare almost said, maybe the fault is not in our starlings but in ourselves."
Took about 5-10 minutes.
(1) Shakespeare noted the mimicking abilities of the starling which led (2) Eugene Schieffelin releasing starlings into New York City's Central Park. He was a member of the (3) American Acclimatization Society, which aimed to spread animal species throughout the world. Starlings are direct competitors with bluebirds for nesting locations and have helped to decrease their population. Oh, the damage done by ignorance...
ReplyDeleteThis one seemed easier than most. It took less than 5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteMy original search was [Shakespeare birds]and autofill allowed me to choose [invasive] as an addition, which I did. That took me to the Smithsonian blog, where I discovered Eugene Schieffelin released 60 European Starlings into Central Park, which was successful beyond belief. The blog also told me the American Acclimatization Society was behind bringing Europe's flora and fauna to the United States. It did not say anything about the connection to Henry IV, however.
I then did a second search adding Henry IV to my original search which took me to the Wikipedia page for the American Acclimatization Society. There I learned that Schieffelin was an avid admirer of Shakespeare who likely wanted to bring to America every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's works.
In Henry IV, Hotspur is thinking of using the starling's vocalizations to drive the King mad. (Also from the Wikipedia article.)
I assume we are blaming Eugene Schieffelin for releasing starlings. Starlings are often blamed for kicking other birds out of their homes. However, according to the "Scientific American" article I found, "The feather friends at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology contend on their Web site that “a study in 2003 found few actual effects on populations of 27 native species. Only sapsuckers showed declines because of starlings, and other species appeared to be holding their own against the invaders.” So when it comes to songbird decline, as Shakespeare almost said, maybe the fault is not in our starlings but in ourselves." (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=call-of-the-reviled&page=2)
ReplyDeleteI found this in about 3 minutes by searching for "Henry IV bluebirds" and clicking a link to a BirdSleuth for Homeschoolers. That one caught my eye since my oldest son is homeschooled and the snippet mentioned both bluebirds and Henry IV. There was a link at the Birdsleuth site to the Scientific American article.
This took me about 30 minutes, 5 extra minutes because I inverted IV into VI rather quickly and I couldn't find the right quote and didn't understand why!
ReplyDeleteI first searched blue birds, henry IV and shakespeare, with no luck. Then added collapse and then extinction. then found MIT's full play up online and looked for bluebirds, then blue, then red with no luck.
Finally, I started looking up "blue birds" "extinct" which lead me to the wikipedia page of the Eastern Blue Birds, which lead me to the non-native species the "Common Starling", which led me to the person and organization that introduced that bird to the USA.
2&3- Eugene Schieffelin of the American Acclimatization Society. 1. The society's focus was on introducing European flora and fauna for economic and cultural purposes. Eugene was such a big fan of Shakespeare that he folded both interests into one. Where the bluebirds are concerned, the pertinent quote in Henry IV is: "I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him
To keep his anger still in motion."
Really interesting factoid, and rather astonishing to think how much that organization has impacted American wildlife. I'd have preferred they had explored what was already here though.
started with [Henry IV part 1 bluebirds], 5th result >[http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/1998/Nest-Boxes-For-Bluebirds.aspx] >
ReplyDelete[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin] >[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/01/opinion/100-years-of-the-starling.html?src=pm] > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Acclimatization_Society] .
relatively quick - 5 minutes - started with voice search in Chrome, was all tabbed sequentially.
(1) WHAT connection does Henry IV have with the collapse of bluebird populations?
ReplyDeleteR= Using [bluebirds AROUND(5) Henry IV part 1]
found:
a) The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds - Google Books Result. That shows that: A society wanted to introduce into the New World every bird species mentioned in the Bards work.
With the same search found the name of the Society of question 3: American Acclimatization Society
To find the line. I used the search [Henry IV bluebirds population collapse] and found it was based on this line from Henry IV: "Nay I'll have the starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer.
WHO was such a fan of Henry IV that he caused the demise of bluebirds in North America?
R= Eugene Schieffelin
Only a few seconds to find the answer to this one. (Too many clues?)
ReplyDeleteSearching on google books with the string "Henry IV part 1 bluebird" takes us here:
http://goo.gl/Yhmlc
where we can get answers to all the questions
1. The introduction of starlings to America based on a Henry IV line, destroyed the bluebird population.
2. Eugene Shieffelin
3. American acclimatization society
I used Bing for my initial searches. Total time was about 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteFirst I searched for "North America bluebird demise" and found the following:
http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/1998/Nest-Boxes-For-Bluebirds.aspx
At the turn of the century, bluebirds were so prevalent in this country that ornithologist Frank Chapman wrote in 1904: “A bird so familiar as the bluebird needs no introduction.” Five decades later, sightings of the birds were few and far between. Their decline was due in part to habitat loss and also a misguided attempt to meddle with ecology. “There was a fellow who introduced 100 European starlings in New York’s Central Park about a century ago because he thought folks in the New World should enjoy all the birds Shakespeare wrote about,” says Berner. “Somewhere in his works (Henry IV, Part I), he mentions starlings. Now European starlings are one of the most abundant birds in North America.” Then there were the house sparrows, imported into this country to eradicate an insect pest. “But people ignored the fact that the sparrows have heavy seed-crushing bills, not insect-eating bills,” he adds.
This lead me to search for "starling introduction to north america" where I found:
http://www.wbu.com/education/starlings.html
The European Starling was introduced into North America when the "American Acclimatization Society" for European settlers released some 80-100 birds in Central Park (New York City) in 1890-91. The head of this particular organization, Eugene Scheiffelin, desired to introduce all birds ever mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.
Then I looked up Eugene Scheiffelin in Wikipedia with a further link to the American Acclimatization Society:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Acclimatization_Society
Shakespeare's birds
By 1877 New York pharmacist Eugene Schieffelin was the chairman of the society. Another notable member of the society was wealthy silk merchant Alfred Edwards, who constructed bird boxes around Manhattan to help House Sparrows to breed.
But it was Schieffelin, an avid admirer of Shakespeare, who was the society's driving force. Some accounts of his efforts claim that he had resolved that as an aesthetic goal, the organization should introduce every bird species mentioned in the Bard's works. Other accounts say this is unproven.[4] The society's wildest success was with the European Starling. The bird appears in Henry IV, Part 1 when Hotspur considers using its vocal talents to drive the King mad. Since King Henry was refusing to pay a ransom to release his disloyal brother-in-law Edmund Mortimer, Hotspur says: "I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but "Mortimer," and give it him, to keep his anger still in motion."
A couple of quick searches turned up all the relevant information:
ReplyDeleteIn the late 1800s, the American Acclimatization Society, a group of New Yorkers particularly devoted to Shakespeare and led by one Eugene Schieffelin, set out to introduce into the New World every bird species mentioned in Shakespeare's works. The group's researchers turned up the following lines in Henry IV, Part 1:
I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I'll bolla "Mortimer!"
Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but "Mortimer," and give it him ....
Schieffelin's society released a crate of sixty European (or common) starlings in Central Park in 1890. The birds liked their new home. By the turn of the century, they had expanded beyond the city, and by 1925 they covered the eastern United States and Canada. Fifteen years later they had made it all the way to the Pacific coast. Their expansion was no doubt facilitated by their habit of stealing other birds' nest holes, rather than stopping to build their own, and wildlife experts agree that the starlings' piratical habits have exacted a heavy toll on the eastern bluebird especially.
I backed into this one by searching "Bluebird History" first, which led me to a page saying sparrows and starlings had been introduced to the U.S. and impacted the bluebird population.
ReplyDelete"Bluebird Sparrow Shakespeare" didn't return much of value but "Bluebird Starling Shakespeare" returned a bunch of results pointing to Eugene Schieffelin, chairman of the American Acclimatization Society, who introduced 100 birds to Central Park in 1890-91. "Henry IV starling" verifies that Shakespeare mentions a starling in part 1.
Time to solve: < 5 mins.
Time to go back and read about bluebird history, the American Acclimation Society, and various other tangents (> an hour, as usual)
At first I searched in the Intenet through Google for ‘bluebirds and Henry IV’. I found an article in the Scientific American (www.scientificamerican.com) about this issue named ‘Shakespeare to Blame for Introduction of European Starlings to U.S.’ and I could read that in the late 19th century were introduced since Europe by the Acclimatization Society hundred of birds as ‘a project to introduce to the U.S. every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s scripts’. And also that Eugene Schieffelin was one of the ‘particularly responsible’ member for this action. One of the birds introduced was the starling. It says ‘The Acclimatization Society released some hundred starlings in New York City’s Central Park in 1890 and 1891’.
ReplyDeleteAfter that I searched for bluebirds and I found an article in the ‘Michigan Bluebird Society’ ( http://www.michiganbluebirds.org/about-bluebirds) and I could read about the demise of the population of bluebirds because of the starling nesting since the end of 19th century.
So I got the answers to the questions:
1.- It was a project to introduce to the U.S. every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s scripts.
2.- Eugene Schieffelin.
3.- The Acclimatization Society.
It took me about fifteen minutes.
A search on “Henry IV” and bluebirds brought me to a Sports Illustrated article from 1974 entitled “A plague of starlings” which provided some of the answers. A secondary search on Schieffelin and starlings provided the rest. In 1877 Eugene Schieffelin was the chairman of the American Acclimatization Society, and as such decided to introduce every bird species mentioned in Shakespeare’s works to the United States. Starlings are mentioned in Henry IV by Hotspur …”I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer and give him”. And so Eugene Schieffelin got to work releasing starlings in New York’s Central Park. Starlings will usurp the nests of other cavity dwelling birds, such as bluebirds. A bird without a nest is a bird that doesn’t reproduce. Nesting boxes that have entrances big enough for bluebirds to enter yet too small to allow starlings to enter can help. In my geographic area another threat to bluebirds is the house sparrow – which was also introduced to the US by Schieffelin and the American Acclimatization Society. Sadly, the blue bird and the house sparrow are about the same size, so changing the diameter of the entrance hole will not keep the invaders out of the nest.
ReplyDeleteA five minute search.
This one seemed much easier than usual (or maybe I'm getting much better)... took about 2 mins to solve.
ReplyDeleteI Googled "henry iv bluebirds," found this link: http://birdsleuth4homeschools.blogspot.com/2010/12/birds-blue.html, which links to this Scientific American article with all the details: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=call-of-the-reviled.
1) Starlings menacingly push bluebird eggs and chics out of their nests to make room for themselves. Starlings are a bird mentioned in Henry IV. Starlings were released in great numbers in the late 19th century in an attempt to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays to the US.
2) Eugene Schieffelin
3) The American Acclimatization Society
This took about 10 minutes. First I looked under "Henry IV" and Bluebirds.
ReplyDelete1. This led to a link about a few sites down that talked about the line from Shakespeare's Henry the 4th "Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but ‘Mortimer." The Starling was imported into the U.S. around 1890 and victimized the bluebirds by attacking their nests and knocking over eggs and chicks.
2. The first page mentioned an organization called the American Acclimation Society so I searched under "American Acclimation Society" and starling and found a scientific American Article that said that Eugene Schieffelin was particularly responsible for the release of the birds.
3. On that first page I looked on they talk about an organization called the American Acclimation Society that wanted to bring all the birds from Shakespeare's plays into America.
Took 9 minutes.
ReplyDeleteFirst I looked for Henry IV bluebird. I looked through a few results and didn't find anything that jumped out at me. I then decided to try searching through the entire play. Found it online and searched for blue (no relevant results), blue-bird (nothing), and finally just bird.
I realized that the connection could be the introduction of another bird, something harmful to bluebirds.
Started searching for "henry iv part 1" bluebird. Found a wikipedia article about the "American Acclimatization Society." Upon reading I found that Eugene Schieffelin was the man who introduced European Starlings to the US. They competed with the bluebirds for nesting areas and caused their near collapse.
Some people area a little weird...
Thanks for this one, it was fun!
(1) According to http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/1998/Nest-Boxes-For-Bluebirds.aspx an attempt was made to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to America. As a result, the starling (mentioned in Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1, Scene 3) took over the ecological niche that the bluebirds occupied. (http://anotherbagmoretravel.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/eugene-schieffelin-william-shakespeare-and-starlings-in-the-usa/)
ReplyDelete(2) Eugene Schieffelin (http://anotherbagmoretravel.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/eugene-schieffelin-william-shakespeare-and-starlings-in-the-usa/)
(3) Acclimation Society of North America (http://anotherbagmoretravel.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/eugene-schieffelin-william-shakespeare-and-starlings-in-the-usa/)
This took me about 5 minutes. I started by searching on 'Henry IV bluebirds'. That gave me http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/1998/Nest-Boxes-For-Bluebirds.aspx which gave me the basic idea of what happened, as well as the location being Central Park.
I then searched on 'Central Park starlings' and got http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/01/opinion/100-years-of-the-starling.html which gave me Schieffelin's name.
I did a final search on Eugene Schieffelin and got http://anotherbagmoretravel.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/eugene-schieffelin-william-shakespeare-and-starlings-in-the-usa/ which filled in the details (as well as give a 2nd opinion about whether Schieffelin was to blame and questioning the Shakespeare connection).
1) Henry IV references Shakespeare's work. Shakespeare mentioned starlings and when European Starlings were released in the US, they drove down the population of the Eastern Bluebird.
ReplyDelete2) Eugene Schieffelin wanted to release in the US all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works.
3) American Acclimatization Society
2 Minutes- Googled "Blue birds shakespeare" and first redult gave me the name of the man who released the birds. Wikipedia provided more info on Schieffelin and the society he belonged to.
1. Starlings outcompete bluebirds. They were introduced by the American Acclimatization Society because of their mention in Henry IV part I. mentals
ReplyDelete2. Eugene Schieffelin
3. American Acclimatization Society
How I did it:
ReplyDelete1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebird - "By the 1970s, bluebird numbers had declined by estimates ranging to 70% due to unsuccessful competition with house sparrows and starlings, both introduced species..."
2. I guessed starlings were more likely so searched "starling henry iv"
3. found this article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=call-of-the-reviled
Done, took me under a minute
(1) WHAT connection does Henry IV have with the collapse of bluebird populations? It inspired the introduction of European (or common) starlings in America and they took over the Eastern Bluebird habitat and drove them to extinction.
ReplyDelete(2) WHO was such a fan of Henry IV that he caused the demise of bluebirds in North America? Anglophile and Shakespeare buff Eugene Schieffelin
(3) Finally, WHAT is the name of the organization that sponsored his (now notorious) act that led to the problems with bluebirds? American Acclimatization Society
Google search: Henry IV "Part 1" bluebird* finds the following extract from The armchair birder: discovering the secret lives of familiar birds by John Yew(Google Books) - Easter bluebird, pp. 23-7
2 Google searches (needed to add "Part 1") to get the result.
5 minutes. All to easy this time but I must pay tribute to your Power Searching with Google course which tipped me off to the (now) simplified Google search syntax (all the fiddly bits built-in/implied )
I posted a complete answer in the wrong place. Oops.
ReplyDeleteShort version.
"In 1850, Nicholas Pike was the director of the
Brooklyn Institute (Barrows 1889), so we have every
reason to believe that he had direct knowledge of this
first introduction."
A quick google search finds a sports illustrated article with all the answers. First page of the results:
ReplyDeletehttp://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1088972/index.htm
Hi Butters -- can you say WHAT your quick Google search was? I agree, that's a great article--but we're trying to teach each other how to get from to . What search did you do?
DeleteI started by looking for birds in Henry IV Part 1 - and several are mentioned. A search for
ReplyDeletebluebird sparrow "Henry IV part 1"
gave the Wikipedia link for the American Acclimatization Society - and all the answers were in this:
New York pharmacist Eugene Schieffelin was the chairman of the society and a fan of Shakespeare. (Answer 2). Schieffelin wanted to introduce all birds mentioned by the bard into America. Of those introduced, the Starling was the most successful - and this bird is mentioned in Henry IV Part 1.
The organisation is the American Acclimatization Society.
Total time - around 5 minutes!
As others have said European Starling, Eugene Schefflin, American Aclimitization Society. This is my time trying so pleased to complete it. In the end Googling for Shakespeare Bluebird turned up this page wildwingco.com/bluebirds?html which told the whole tale, and then it was just checking. (There were errors / incomplete data as the page said house sparrow not starling, and didn't specify the name of the Aclimitization Society).
ReplyDeleteBut before that I used Google books and Amazon's "look inside" feature to try and find mention of bluebirds in his works. It was a dead end, but an interesting one.
There are Wikipedia pages on both Schieflin and the AAS.
Matt Page
a couple of false starts, then [Henry IV blue bird]. First thing was this challenge, second was a Wikipedia article on the American Acclimatization Society which gave all three answers.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI posted this comment yesterday morning but didn't see it above so here it again. Apologies if this is a repeat.
ReplyDelete(1) WHAT connection does Henry IV have with the collapse of bluebird populations?
The introduction of the European Starling to North America caused decline in the Bluebird population. Starlings are mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry IV.
(2) WHO was such a fan of Henry IV that he caused the demise of bluebirds in North America?
Eugene Schieffelin wanted to introduce all of the birds mentioned by Shakespeare into North America.
(3) Finally, WHAT is the name of the organization that sponsored his (now notorious) act that led to the problems with bluebirds?
American Acclimatization Society
Search strategy:
Began with [ bluebirds shakespeare ] to get this page http://www.wildwingco.com/bluebirds.html that talks about the decline and causes. It also mentions Eugene Schieffelin
Searched Eugene Schieffelin to get his Wikipedia entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin That included American Acclimatization Society.
Doubled back to check [ "henry iv" starling ] and got http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/Henry_IV,_part_1/3.html CMD-F to find [ starling ].
5 minutes
(1) WHAT connection does Henry IV have with the collapse of bluebird populations? A Shakespeare enthusiast introduced the starling to North America (specifically to New York City) in 1890 because he wanted to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare. The starling is mentioned in Henry IV.
ReplyDelete2) WHO was such a fan of Henry IV that he caused the demise of bluebirds in North America? Eugene Schieffelin
(3) Finally, WHAT is the name of the organization that sponsored his (now notorious) act that led to the problems with bluebirds? American Acclimatization Society
My search took 5 minutes
Methodology:
1st search: bluebirds henry IV part 1
Came across the article on nesting places for bluebirds, which had this quote: "At the turn of the century, bluebirds were so prevalent in this country that ornithologist Frank Chapman wrote in 1904: “A bird so familiar as the bluebird needs no introduction.” Five decades later, sightings of the birds were few and far between. Their decline was due in part to habitat loss and also a misguided attempt to meddle with ecology. “There was a fellow who introduced 100 European starlings in New York’s Central Park about a century ago because he thought folks in the New World should enjoy all the birds Shakespeare wrote about,” says Berner. “Somewhere in his works (Henry IV, Part I), he mentions starlings. Now European starlings are one of the most abundant birds in North America.” http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/1998/Nest-Boxes-For-Bluebirds.aspx
2. 2nd search: starlings introduced north america effect bluebird, which led me to the Wikipedia article on Eugene Schieffelin, which also named the society.
Funny, I'd been told on a visit to Cornell that it was house sparrows (not starlings) that were taking all the bluebirds nesting sites. Either way, blame the American Acclimatization Society: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Acclimatization_Society
ReplyDelete(1) WHAT connection does Henry IV have with the collapse of bluebird populations?
ReplyDeleteA fellow who introduced 100 European starlings in New York’s Central Park about a century ago because he thought folks in the New World should enjoy all the birds Shakespeare wrote about,”
Shakespeare quote: "Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but 'Mortimer'"
http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/1998/Nest-Boxes-For-Bluebirds.aspx
(2) WHO was such a fan of Henry IV that he caused the demise of bluebirds in North America?
Eugene Schieffelin
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1088972/index.htm
(3) Finally, WHAT is the name of the organization that sponsored his (now notorious) act that led to the problems with bluebirds?
American Acclimatization Society
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=call-of-the-reviled
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Acclimatization_Society
Searches
- Henry IV "bluebirds"
- starling shakespeare henry iv
- American Acclimatization Society bluebird starling
1. search: demise of bluebirds north america AND Henry iv
ReplyDelete2. clicked on 8th entry on 1st page :
The Bluebird: A Story With A Happy Ending - post-journal.com ...
www.post-journal.com/.../The-Bluebird--A-Story-With-A-Happy-En...May 22, 2011 – Who else could so lift our hearts but the beautiful bluebird? ... on this line from Henry IV: "Nay I'll have the starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer. ... The North American Bluebird Society is a non-profit education, ...
3. browsed story and read about the American Acclimatization society then searched for: American Acclimatization Society founder
4. Wikipedia entry for AAS : Schieffelin, an avid admirer of Shakespeare, who was the society's driving force. Some accounts of his efforts claim that he had resolved that as an aesthetic goal, the organization should introduce every bird species mentioned in the Bard's works. Other accounts say this is unproven.[4] The society's wildest success was with the European Starling.
puzzle completed in less than 5 minutes