Part 4

The English and the Swedes gave the name of Mink to an animal of this country, which likewise lives either in the water, or very near it. I have never had an opportunity to see any more than the skin of this animal. But the shape of the skin, and the unanimous accounts I have heard of it, make me conclude with much certainty, that it belonged to the genus of weasels or mustelæ. The greatest skin I ever saw, was one foot, eight inches long, a lesser one was about ten inches long, and about three inches, one third broad, before it was cut; the colour was dark brown, and sometimes almost black; the tail was bushy, as that of a marten; the hair was very close; and the ears short, with short hair. The length of the feet belonging to the lesser skin was about two inches long. I am told this animal is so similar to the American polecat, or Viverra putorius, that they are hardly distinguishable [9]. I have had the following accounts given me of its way of living; it seldom appears in day-time, but at night it comes out of the hollow trees, on the banks of rivers. Sometimes it lives in the docks and bridges, at Philadelphia, where it is a cruel enemy to the rats. Sometimes it gets into the court-yards at night, and creeps into the chicken-house, through a small hole, where it kills all the poultry, and sucks their blood, but seldom eats one. If it meets with geese, fowls, ducks, or other birds on the road, it kills and devours them. It lives upon fish and birds. When a brook is near the houses, it is not easy to keep ducks and geese, for the mink, which lives near rivers, kills the young ones. It first kills as many as it can come at, and then it carries them off, and feasts upon them. In banks and dykes near the water, it likewise does mischief, with digging. To catch it the people put up traps, into which they put heads of birds, fishes, or other meat. The skin is sold in the towns, and at Philadelphia; they give twenty-pence and even two shillings a-piece for them, according to their size. Some of the ladies get muffs made of these skins; but for the greatest part they are sent over to England, from whence they are distributed to other countries. The old Swedes told me that the Indians formerly used to eat all kinds of flesh, except that of the mink.

I have already mentioned something of the Raccoon; I shall here add more of the nature of this animal, in a place which is properly its native country [10]. The English call it every where by the name of Raccoon, which name they have undoubtedly taken from one of the Indian nations; the Dutch call it Hespan, the Swedes, Espan, and the Iroquese, Attigbro. It commonly lodges in hollow trees, lies close in the day-time, never going out but on a dark, cloudy day; but at night it rambles and seeks its food. I have been told by several people, that in bad weather, especially when it snows and blows a storm, the Raccoon lies in its hole for a week together without coming out once; during that time it lives by sucking and licking its paws. Its food are several sorts of fruit, such as maize, whilst the ears are soft. In gardens it often does a great deal of damage among the apples, chesnuts, plumbs, and wild grapes, which are what it likes best; among the poultry it is very cruel. When it finds the hens on their eggs, it first kills them, and then eats the eggs. It is caught by dogs, which trace it back to its nest, in hollow trees, or by snares and traps, in which a chicken, some other bird, or a fish, is put as a bait. Some people eat its flesh. It leaps with all its feet at once; on account of this and of several other qualities, many people here reckoned it to the genus of bears. The skin sold for eighteen-pence, at Philadelphia. I was told that the Raccoons were not near so numerous as they were formerly; yet in the more inland parts they were abundant. I have mentioned the use which the hatters make of their furs; as likewise that they are easily tamed, that they are very greedy of sweet-meats, &c. in the preceding volume. Of all the North American wild quadrupeds none can be tamed to such a degree as this.

February the 10th. In the morning I went to Philadelphia, where I arrived towards night. On my arrival at the ferry upon the river Delaware, I found the river quite covered with drifts of ice, which at first prevented our crossing the water. After waiting about an hour, and making an opening near the ferry, I, together with many more passengers, got over, before any more shoals came on. As it began to freeze very hard soon after the twelfth of January (or New Year, according to the old style) the river Delaware was covered with ice, which by the intenseness of the frost grew so strong, that the people crossed the river with horses at Philadelphia. The ice continued till the eighth of February, when it began to get loose, and the violent hurricane, which happened that night, broke it, and it was driven down so fast, that on the twelfth of February not a single shoal came down, excepting a piece or two near the shore.

Crows flew in great numbers together to-day, and settled on the tops of trees. During the whole winter we hardly observed one, though they are said to winter there. During all this spring they commonly used to sit at the tops of trees in the morning; yet not all together, but in several trees. They belong to the noxious birds in this part of the world, for they chiefly live upon corn. After the maize is planted or sown, they scratch the grains out of the ground and eat them. When the maize begins to ripen, they peck a hole into the involucrum which surrounds the ear, by which means the maize is spoiled, as the rain passes through the hole which they have made, and occasions the putrefaction of the corn. Besides eating corn, they likewise steal chickens. They are very fond of dead carcasses. Some years ago the government of Pensylvania had given three-pence, and that of New Jersey four-pence premium for every head of a Crow, but this law has now been repealed, as the expences are too great. I have seen the young Crows of this kind in several places playing with tame ones whose wings were cut. The latter hopped about the fields, near the farm-houses where they belonged to, but always returned again, without endeavouring to escape on any occasion. These American Crows are only a variety of the Royston Crow, or Linnæus’s Corvus Cornix.

February the 12th. In the afternoon I returned to Raccoon from Philadelphia.

On my journey to Raccoon, I attentively observed the trees which had yet any leaves left. The leaves were pale and dried up, but not all dropt from the following trees:

The Beach-tree, (Fagus sylvatica) whether great or small; it always kept a considerable part of its leaves during the whole winter even till spring. The greater trees kept the lowermost leaves.

The white oak (Quercus alba). Most of the young trees which were not above a quarter of a yard in diameter, had the greatest part of their leaves still on them, but the old trees had lost most of theirs, except in some places where they have got new shoots. The colour of the dry leaves was much paler in the white oak than in the black one.

The black oak (as it is commonly called here). Dr. Linnæus calls it the red oak, Quercus rubra. Most of the young trees still preserved their dried leaves. Their colour was reddish brown, and darker than that of the white oak.

The Spanish oak, which is a mere variety of the black oak. The young trees of this kind likewise keep their leaves.

A scarce species of oak which is known by its leaves having a triangular apex or top, whose angles terminate in a short bristle; the leaves are smooth below, but woolly above [11]. The young oaks of this species had still their leaves.

When I came into any wood where the above kinds of oaks were only twenty years, and even not so old, I always found the leaves on them.

It seems that Providence has, besides other views, aimed to protect several sorts of birds, it being very cold and stormy about this time, by preserving even the dry leaves on these trees. I have this winter at several times seen birds hiding in the trees covered with old leaves during a severe cold or storm.

February the 13th. As I began to dig a hole to-day, I found several insects which were crept deep into the ground in order to pass the winter. As soon as they came to the air, they moved their limbs a little, but had not strength sufficient for creeping, except the black ants, which crept a little, though slowly.

Formica nigra, or the black ant, were pretty numerous, and somewhat lively. They lay about ten inches below the surface.

Carabus latus. Some of these lay at the same depth with the ants. This is a very common insect in all North America.

Scarabæus; chesnut-coloured, with a hairy thorax; the elytræ shorter than the abdomen, with several longitudinal lines, beset with hair. It is something similar to the cock-chaffer, but differs in many respects. I found it very abundant in the ground.

Gryllus campestris, or the field-cricket: They lay ten inches deep; they were quite torpid, but as soon as they came into a warm place they revived and were quite lively. In summer I have found these crickets in great plenty in all parts of North America where I have been. They leaped about on the fields, and made a noise like that of our common house-crickets, so that it would be difficult to distinguish them by their chirping. They sometimes make so great a noise, that it causes pain in the ears, and even two people cannot understand each other. In such places where the rattle-snakes live, the field-crickets are very disagreeable, and in a manner dangerous, for their violent chirping prevents the warning, which that horrid snake gives with its rattle, from reaching the ear, and thus deprives one of the means of avoiding it. I have already mentioned that they likewise winter sometimes in chimnies [12]. Here they ly all winter in the ground, but at the beginning of March, as the air was grown warm, they came out of their holes, and began their music, though at first it was but very faint and rarely heard. When we were forced on our travels to sleep in uninhabited places, the crickets had got into the folds of our clothes, so that we were obliged to stop an hour every morning in examining our clothes, before we could get rid of them.

The red ants (Formica rufa) which in Sweden make the great ant-hills, I likewise found to-day and the following day; they were not in the ground, for when my servant Yungstroem cut down old dry trees, he met with a number of them in the cracks of the tree. These cracks were at the height of many yards in the tree, and the ants were crept so high, in order to find their winter habitation: As soon as they came into a warm place, they began to stir about very briskly.

February the 14th. The Swedes and the English gave the name of blue bird to a very pretty little bird, which was of a fine blue colour. Linnæus calls it Motacilla Sialis. Catesby has drawn it in his Natural history of Carolina, vol. I. pl. 47, and described it by the name of Rubecula Americana cærulea; and Edwards has represented it in his Natural history of birds, plate and page 24. In my own journal I called it Motacilla cærulea nitida, pectore rufo, ventre albo. In Catesby’s plate I must observe, that the colour of the breast ought to be dirty red or ferruginous; the tibiæ and feet black as jet; the bill too should be quite black; the blue colour in general ought to be much deeper, more lively and shining; no bird in Sweden has so shining and deep a blue colour as this: The jay has perhaps a plumage like it. The food of the blue bird is not merely insects, he likewise feeds upon plants; therefore in winter, when no insects are to be met with, they come to the farm-houses in order to subsist on the seeds of hay, and other small grains.

Red-bird is another species of small bird. Catesby has likewise figured it [13]. Dr. Linnæus calls it, Loxia Cardinalis. It belongs to that class of birds which are enemies to bees, lying in wait for them and eating them. I fed a cock for five months together in a cage; it eat both maize and buck-wheat, for I gave it nothing else. By its song it attracted others of its species to the court-yard, and after we had put some maize on the ground under the window where I had it, the others came there every day to get their food; it was then easy to catch them by means of traps. Some of them, especially old ones, both cocks and hens, would die with grief on being put into cages. Those on the other hand which were grown tame, began to sing exceedingly sweet. Their note very nearly resembles that of our European nightingale, and on account of their agreeable song, they are sent abundantly to London, in cages. They have such strength in their bill that when you hold your hand to them they pinch it so hard as to cause the blood to issue forth. In spring they sit warbling on the tops of the highest trees in the woods, in the morning. But in cages they sit quite still for an hour; the next hour they hop up and down, singing; and so they go on alternately all day.

February the 17th. Cranes (Ardea Canadensis) were sometimes seen flying in the day-time, to the northward. They commonly stop here early in spring, for a short time, but they do not make their nests here, for they proceed on more to the north. Certain old Swedes told me, that in their younger years, as the country was not yet much cultivated, an incredible number of cranes were here every spring; but at present they are not so numerous. Several people who have settled here, eat their flesh, when they can shoot them. They are said to do no harm to corn, or the like.

February the 23d. This morning I went down to Penn’s Neck, and returned in the evening.

Snow lay yet in several parts of the woods, especially where the trees stood very thick, and the sun could not make its way: however it was not above four inches deep. All along the roads was ice, especially in the woods, and therefore it was very difficult to ride horses, which were not sharp shoed. The people who are settled here know little of sledges, but ride on horseback to church in winter, though the snow is sometimes near a foot deep. It lays seldom above a week before it melts, and then some fresh snow falls.

A species of birds, called by the Swedes, maize-thieves, do the greatest mischief in this country. They have given them that name, because they eat maize, both publicly and secretly, just after it is sown and covered with the ground, and when it is ripe. The English call them blackbirds. There are two species of them, both described and drawn by Catesby [14]. Though they are very different in species, yet there is so great a friendship between them, that they frequently accompany each other in mixed flocks. However, in Pensylvania, the first sort are more obvious, and often fly together, without any of the red-winged stares. The first sort, or the purple daws, bear, in many points, so great a likeness to the daw, the stare, and the thrush, that it is difficult to determine to which genus they are to be reckoned, but seem to come nearest to the stare; for the bill is exactly the same with that of the thrush, but the tongue, the flight, their sitting on the trees, their song and shape, make it entirely a stare; at a distance they look almost black, but close by they have a very blue or purple cast, but not so much as Catesby’s print: their size is that of a stare; the bill is conic, almost subulated, strait, convex, naked at the base, black, with almost equal mandibles, the upper being only a very little longer than the lower; the nostrils are oblong, yet a little angulated, so as to form almost squares; they are placed obliquely at the base of the bill, and have no hair; there is a little horny knob, or a small prominence on the upper side of them; the tongue is sharp and bifid at the point; the iris of the eyes is pale; the forehead, the crown, the nucha, the upper part and the sides of the neck are of an obscure blue and green shining colour; the sides of the head under the eyes are obscurely blue; all the back and coverts of the wings are purple; the upper coverts of the tail are not of so conspicuous a purple colour, but as it were blackened with soot; the nine primary quill-feathers are black; the other secundary ones are likewise black, but their outward margin is purple; the twelve tail feathers have a blackish purple colour, and their tips are round; those on the outside are the shortest, and the middle extremely long. When the tail is spread, it looks round towards the extremity. The throat is blueish green, and shining; the breast is likewise black or shining green, according as you turn it to the light; the belly is blackish, and the vent feathers are obscurely purple-coloured; the parts of the breast and belly which are covered by the wings, are purple-coloured; the wings are black below, or rather sooty; and the thighs have blackish feathers; the legs (tibiæ), and the toes are of a shining black. It has four toes, as most birds have. The claws are black, and that on the back toe is longer than the rest. Dr. Linnæus calls this bird Gracula Quiscula.

A few of these birds are said to winter in swamps, which are quite overgrown with thick woods; and they only appear in mild weather. But the greatest number go to the south at the approach of winter. To-day I saw them, for the first time this year. They flew in great flocks already. Their chief and most agreeable food is maize. They come in great swarms in spring, soon after the maize is put under ground. They scratch up the grains of maize, and eat them. As soon as the leaf comes out, they take hold of it with their bills, and pluck it up, together with the corn or grain; and thus they give a great deal of trouble to the country people, even so early in spring. To lessen their greediness of maize, some people dip the grains of that plant in a decoct of the root of the veratrum album, or white hellebore, (of which I shall speak in the sequel) and plant them afterwards. When the maize-thief eats a grain or two, which are so prepared, his head is disordered, and he falls down: this frightens his companions, and they dare not venture to the place again. But they repay themselves amply towards autumn, when the maize grows ripe; for at that time, they are continually feasting. They assemble by thousands in the maize-fields, and live at discretion. They are very bold; for when they are disturbed, they only go and settle in another part of the field. In that manner, they always go from one end of the field to the other, and do not leave it till they are quite satisfied. They fly in incredible swarms in autumn; and it can hardly be conceived whence such immense numbers of them should come. When they rise in the air they darken the sky, and make it look quite black. They are then in such great numbers, and so close together, that it is surprising how they find room to move their wings. I have known a person shoot a great number of them on one side of a maize-field, which was far from frightening the rest; for they only just took flight, and dropped at about the distance of a musket-shot in another part of the field, and always changed their place when their enemy approached. They tired the sportsman, before he could drive them from off the maize, though he killed a great many of them at every shot. They likewise eat the seeds of the aquatic tare-grass (Zizania aquatica) commonly late in autumn, after the maize is got in. I am told, they likewise eat buck-wheat, and oats. Some people say, that they even eat wheat, barley, and rye, when pressed by hunger; yet, from the best information I could obtain, they have not been found to do any damage to these species of corn. In spring, they sit in numbers on the trees, near the farms; and their note is pretty agreeable. As they are so destructive to maize, the odium of the inhabitants against them is carried so far, that the laws of Pensylvania and New Jersey have settled a premium of three-pence a dozen for dead maize-thieves. In New England, the people are still greater enemies to them; for Dr. Franklin told me, in the spring of the year 1750, that, by means of the premiums which have been settled for killing them in New England, they have been so extirpated, that they are very rarely seen, and in a few places only. But as, in the summer of the year 1749, an immense quantity of worms appeared on the meadows, which devoured the grass, and did great damage, the people have abated their enmity against the maize-thieves; for they thought they had observed, that those birds lived chiefly on these worms before the maize is ripe, and consequently extirpated them, or at least prevented their spreading too much. They seem therefore to be entitled, as it were, to a reward for their trouble. But after these enemies and destroyers of the worms (the maize-thieves) were extirpated, the worms were more at liberty to multiply; and therefore they grew so numerous, that they did more mischief now than the birds did before. In the summer 1749, the worms left so little hay in New England, that the inhabitants were forced to get hay from Pensylvania, and even from Old England. The maize-thieves have enemies besides the human species. A species of little hawks live upon them, and upon other little birds. I saw some of these hawks driving up the maize-thieves, which were in the greatest security, and catching them in the air. Nobody eats the flesh of the purple maize-thieves or daws (Gracula quiscula); but that of the red-winged maize-thieves, or stares (Oriolus Phœniceus) is sometimes eaten. Some old people have told me, that this part of America, formerly called New Sweden, still contained as many maize-thieves as it did formerly. The cause of this they derive from the maize, which is now sown in much greater quantity than formerly; and they think that the birds can get their food with more ease at present.

The American whortleberry, or the Vaccinium hispidulum, is extremely abundant over all North America, and grows in such places where we commonly find our whortle-berries in Sweden. The American ones are bigger, but in most things so like the Swedish ones, that many people would take them to be mere varieties. The English call them Cranberries, the Swedes Tranbær, and the French in Canada Atopa, which is a name they have borrowed from the Indians. They are brought to market every Wednesday and Saturday at Philadelphia, late in autumn. They are boiled and prepared in the same manner as we do our red whortle-berries, or Vaccinium vitis idæa; and they are made use of during winter, and part of summer, in tarts and other kinds of pastry. But as they are very sour, they require a deal of sugar; but that is not very dear, in a country where the sugar-plantations are not far off. Quantities of these berries are sent over, preserved, to Europe, and to the West Indies.

March the 2d. Mytilus anatinus, a kind of muscle-shells, was found abundantly in little furrows, which crossed the meadows. The shells were frequently covered on the outside, with a thin crust of particles of iron, when the water in the furrows came from an iron mine. The Englishmen and Swedes settled here seldom made any use of these shells; but the Indians who formerly lived here broiled them and ate the flesh. Some of the Europeans eat them sometimes.

The snow still remained in some parts of the wood, where it was very shady, but the fields were quite free from it. The cows, horses, sheep, and hogs, went into the woods, and sought their food, which was as yet very trifling.