Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

Such were the tools of the antient Indians, and the use which they made of them, before the Europeans invaded this country, and before they (the Indians) were acquainted with the advantages of iron. North America abounds in iron-mines, and the Indians lived all about the country before the arrival of the Europeans, so that several places can be shewn in this country, where at present there are iron-mines, and where, not a hundred years ago, stood great towns or villages of the Indians. It is therefore very remarkable that the Indians did not know how to make use of a metal or ore which was always under their eyes, and on which they could not avoid treading every day. They even lived upon the very spots where iron ores were afterwards found, and yet they often went many miles in order to get a wretched hatchet, knife, or the like, as above described. They were forced to employ several days in order to sharpen their tools, by rubbing them against a rock, or other stones, though the advantage was far from being equal to the labour. For they could never cut down a thick tree with their hatchets, and with difficulty they felled a small one. They could not hollow out a tree with their hatchets, or do a hundredth part of the work which we can perform with ease, by the help of our iron hatchets. Thus we see how disadvantageous the ignorance and inconsiderate contempt of useful arts is. Happy is the country which knows their full value!

January the 5th. Christmas-day was celebrated this day by the Swedes and English, for they kept then to the old stile.

January the 6th. There are a great number of hares in this country, but they differ from our Swedish ones in their size, which is very small, and but little bigger than that of a rabbit; they keep almost the same grey colour both in summer and winter, which our Northern hares have in summer only; the tip of their ears is always grey, and not black; the tail is likewise grey on the upper side, at all seasons; they breed several times a year: in spring they lodge their young ones in hollow trees, and in summer, in the months of June and July, they breed in the grass. When they are surprised they commonly take refuge in hollow trees, out of which they are taken by means of a crooked stick, or by cutting a hole into the tree, opposite to the place where they lie; or by smoke, which is occasioned by making a fire on the outside of the tree. On all these occasions the greyhounds must be at hand. These hares never bite, and can be touched without any danger. In day-time they usually lie in hollow trees, and hardly ever stir from thence, unless they be disturbed by men or dogs; but in the night they come out, and seek their food. In bad weather, or when it snows, they lie close for a day or two, and do not venture to leave their retreats. They do a great deal of mischief in the cabbage-fields; but apple-trees suffer infinitely more from them, for they peel off all the bark next to the ground. The people here agreed that the hares are fatter in a cold and severe winter, than in a mild and wet one, of which they could give me several reasons, from their own conjectures. The skin is useless, because it is so loose, that it can be drawn off; for when you would separate it from the flesh, you need only pull at the fur, and the skin follows: these hares cannot be tamed. They were at all times, even in the midst of winter, plagued with a number of common fleas [7].

January the 16th. The common mice were in great abundance in the towns and in the country; they do as much mischief as in the old countries. Oldmixon in his book, the British Empire in America, vol. i. p. 444, writes, that North America had neither rats nor mice before European ships brought them over. How far this is true I know not. It is undoubted, that in several desart places, where no man ever lived, I have seen and killed the common mice, in crevices of stones or mountains; and is it probable that all such mice as are spread in this manner, throughout the inland parts of the country, derive their origin from those which were brought over from Europe?

Rats likewise may be ranked among those animals which do great damage in this country. They live both in the cities and in the country, and destroy the provisions. Their size is the same with that of our rats, but their colour differs; for they are grey, or blue-grey. I enquired of the Swedes, Whether these rats had been here prior to the arrival of the Europeans, or whether they came over in the ships? But I could not get an answer which I might depend upon. All agreed, that a number of these dangerous and mischievous animals were every year brought to America, by ships from Europe and other countries. But Mr. Bartram maintained, that before the Europeans settled here, rats had been in the country; for he saw a great number of them on the high mountains, which are commonly called the Blue Mountains, where they lived among stones, and in the subterraneous grottoes which are in those mountains. They always lie very close in the day-time, and you hardly ever see one out; but at night they come out, and make a terrible noise. When the cold was very violent, they seemed quite torpid; for during the continuance of the cold weather, one could not hear the least noise, or shrieking, occasioned by them. It is to be observed, that neither the Swedes nor the English have any dark windows in their houses here. There is hardly a dormer-window in the garret; but only loose boards. The walls in the wooden houses are frequently not closed, even with moss; so that the rooms, though they have fires in them, are no warmer than the outside apartment, or hall. The rooms where the servants sleep have never any fire in them, though the winter is pretty severe sometimes. The rats have, therefore, little or no warmth in winter; but as soon as a milder season makes its appearance, they come out again. We observed several times this winter, that the rats were very active, and made an unusual noise all night, just before a severe cold. It seems, they had some sensation of cold weather being at hand; and that they therefore eat sufficiently, or stored up provisions. In mild weather, they were used to carry away apples, and other provisions: therefore, we could always conclude, with certainty, when the rats made an uncommon noise at night, or were extremely greedy, that a severe cold would ensue. I have already observed in the preceding volume, p. 312, that the grey squirrels in this country have the same quality. When these, and the common mice, eat maize, they do not consume the whole grains, but only the loose, sweet and soft kernel, and leave the rest.

January the 21st. The cold now equalled that of Sweden, though this country is so much more southerly. The Celsian or Swedish thermometer was twenty-two degrees below the freezing point, in the morning. As the rooms are without any shutters here, the cracks in the walls not closed with moss, and sometimes no fire-place or chimney in the room, the winters here must be very disagreeable to one who is used to our Swedish warm winter-rooms. But the greatest comfort here is, that the cold is of a very short duration. Some days of this month, the room which I lodged in was such, that I could not write two lines before the ink would freeze in my pen. When I did not write, I could not leave the ink-stand on the table; but was forced to put it upon the hearth, or into my pocket. Yet, notwithstanding it was so cold, as appears from the meteorological observations at the end of this volume, and though it snowed sometimes for several days and nights together, and the snow lay near six inches high upon the ground, yet all the cattle are obliged to stay, day and night, in the fields, during the whole winter. For neither the English nor the Swedes had any stables; but the Germans and Dutch had preserved the custom of their country, and generally kept their cattle in stables during winter. Almost all the old Swedes say, that on their first arrival in this country, they made stables for their cattle, as is usual in Sweden; but as the English came, and settled among them, and left their cattle in the fields all winter, as is customary in England, they left off their former custom, and adopted the English one. They owned, however, that the cattle suffered greatly in winter, when it was very cold, especially when it froze after a rain, and that some cattle were killed by it in several places, in the long winter of the year 1741. About noon, the cattle went out into the woods, where there were yet some leaves on the young oak; but they did not eat the leaves, and only bit off the extremities of the branches, and the tops of the youngest oaks. The horses went into the maize fields, and ate the dry leaves on the few stalks which remained. The sheep ran about the woods, and on the corn fields. The chickens perched on the trees of the gardens, at night; for they had no particular habitations. The hogs were likewise exposed to the roughness of the weather, within a small inclosure.

A small kind of birds, which the Swedes call Snow-bird, and the English Chuck-bird, came into the houses about this time. At other times, they sought their food along the roads. They are seldom seen, but when it snows. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, calls it Passer nivalis; and Dr. Linnæus, in his Systema Naturæ, calls it Emberiza hyemalis.

The river Delaware was now covered with ice opposite Philadelphia, and even somewhat lower, and the people could walk over it; but nobody ventured to ride over on horseback.

January the 22d. There are partridges in this country; but they are not of the same kind with ours. The Swedes called them sometimes rapphons (partridges), and sometimes aekkerhoens (quails). Some of the English likewise called them partridges, others quails. Their shape is almost the same with that of the European partridges, and their nature and qualities the same: I mean, they run and hide themselves, when pursued. But they are smaller, and entirely different in colour. In this work I cannot insert, at large, the descriptions which I have made of birds, insects, quadrupeds, and plants; because it would swell my volume too much. I only observe, that the feet are naked, and not hairy; the back is spotted with brown, black, and white; the breast is dark yellow; and the belly whitish, with black edges on the tips of the feathers. The size is nearly that of a hazel-hen, or tetrao bonasia. Above each eye is a narrow stroke of whitish yellow. These birds are numerous in New Sweden, i. e. this part of the country. On going but a little way, you meet with great coveys of them. However, they keep at a great distance from towns; being either extirpated, or frightened there by the frequent shooting. They are always in lesser or greater coveys, do not fly very much, but run in the fields, and keep under the bushes and near the inclosures, where they seek their food. They are reckoned very delicious food; and the people here prepare them in different ways. For that purpose they are caught, and shot in great numbers. They are caught by putting up a sieve, or a square open box, made of boards, in the places they frequent. The people strew some oats under the sieve, and lift it up on one side by a little stick; and as soon as the partridges are got under the sieve, in order to pick up the oats, it falls, and they are caught alive. Sometimes they get several partridges at once. When they run in the bushes, you can come very near them, without starting them. When they sleep at night, they come together in an heap. They scratch in the bushes and upon the field, like common chickens. In spring they make their nests, either under a bush or in the maize fields, or on the hills in the open air: they scratch some hay together, into which they lay about thirteen white eggs. They eat several sorts of corn, and seeds of grass. They have likewise been seen eating the berries of sumach, or rhus glabra. Some people have taken them young, and kept them in a cage till they were tame: then they let them go; and they followed the chickens, and never left the court-yards.

The inclosures made use of in Pensylvania and New Jersey, but especially in New York, are those, which on account of their serpentine form resembling worms, are called worm-fences in English. The poles which compose this fence are taken from different trees; but they are not all of equal duration: the red cedar is reckoned the most durable of any, for it holds out above thirty years; but it is very scarce, and grows only in a single place hereabouts, so that no fences can be made of it. It is true, the fences about Philadelphia (which however are different from the worm-fences) are all made of red cedar; but it has been brought by water from Egg-harbour, where it grows in abundance. The supports on which the poles lie are made of the white cedar, or Cupressus thyoides, and the poles which are laid between them of the red cedar or Juniperus Virginiana. Next to the cedar-wood, oak and chesnut are reckoned best. Chesnut is commonly preferred, but it is not every where so plentiful as to be made into fences; in its stead they make use of several sorts of oak. In order to make inclosures, the people do not cut down the young trees, as is common with us, but they fell here and there thick trees, cut them in several places, leaving the pieces as long as it is necessary, and split them into poles of the usual thickness; a single tree affords a multitude of poles. Several old men in this country told me, that the Swedes on their arrival here, made such inclosures as are usual in Sweden, but they were forced to leave off in a few years time, because they could not get posts enough; for they had found by experience that a post being put into the ground would not last above four or six years before the part under ground was entirely rotten; but the chief thing was, that they could not get any switches for to tie them together; they made some of hiccory, which is one of the toughest trees in this country, and of the white oak; but in the space of a year or two the switches were rotten, and the fence fell in pieces of itself, therefore they were forced to give over making such inclosures. Several of the new comers again attempted, but with the same bad success, to make fences with posts and switches. The Swedish way of inclosing therefore will not succeed here. Thus the worm-fences are one of the most useful sorts of inclosures, especially as they cannot get any post, made of the woods of this country, to stay above six or eight years in the ground without rotting. The poles in this country are very heavy, and the posts cannot bear them well, especially when it blows a storm; but the worm-fences are easily put up again, when they are thrown down. Experience has shewn that an inclosure made of chesnut or white oak seldom holds out above ten or twelve years, before the poles and posts are thoroughly rotten: when the poles are made of other wood, the fences hardly stand six or eight years. Considering how much more wood the worm-fences require, (since they run in bendings) than other inclosures which go in strait lines, and that they are so soon useless, one may imagine how the forests will be consumed, and what sort of an appearance the country will have forty or fifty years hence, in case no alteration is made; especially as wood is really squandered away in immense quantities, day and night all the winter, or nearly one half of the year, for fewel.

February the 8th. The Musk-rats, so called by the English in this country, on account of their scent, are pretty common in North America; they always live near the water, especially on the banks of lakes, rivers, and brooks. On travelling to places where they are, you see the holes which they have dug in the ground just at the water’s edge, or a little above its surface. In these holes they have their nests, and there they continue whenever they are not in the water in pursuit of food. The Swedes call them Désmans Rattor [8], and the French, Rats musqués. Linnæus calls this animal Castor Zibethicus. Their food is chiefly the muscles which ly at the bottom of lakes and rivers; you see a number of such shells near the entrance of their holes. I am told they likewise eat several kinds of roots and plants. They differ from the European Musk-rat, or Linnæus’s Castor Moschatus. The teeth are the same in both; the tail of the American is compressed on the sides so, that one sharp edge goes upwards and the other downwards: the hind feet are not palmated, or joined by a moveable skin, but are peculiar for having on both sides of the feet, long, white, close, pectinated, off-standing hair, besides the short hair with which the feet are quite covered. Such hairs are on both sides of the toes, and do the same service in swimming as a web. Their size is that of a little cat, or to be more accurate, the length of the body is about ten inches, and the tail of the same length: the colour of the head, neck, back, sides, and of the outside of the thighs, is blackish brown; the hairs are soft and shining; under the neck, on the breasts, and on the inside of the thighs, they are grey. They make their nests in the dykes that are erected along the banks of rivers to keep off the water from the adjoining meadows; but they often do a great deal of damage, by spoiling the dykes with digging, and opening passages for the water to come into the meadows; whereas Beavers stop up all the holes in a dyke or bank. They make their nests of twigs and such like things externally, and carry soft stuff into them for their young ones to ly upon. The Swedes asserted that they could never observe a diminution in their number, but believed that they were as numerous at present as formerly. As they damage the banks so considerably, the people are endeavouring to extirpate them, when they can find out their nests; the skin is paid for, and this is an encouragement towards catching the animal. A skin of a Musk-rat formerly cost but three-pence, but at present they gave from six-pence to nine-pence. The skins are chiefly employed by hatters, who make hats of the hair, which are said to be nearly as good as Beaver hats. The Musk-rats are commonly caught in traps, with apples as baits. In the country of the Iroquese, I saw those Indians following the holes of the Musk-rats by digging till they came to their nests, where they killed them all. Nobody here eats their flesh; I do not know whether the Indians eat it, for they are commonly not over nice in the choice of meat. The musk-bag is put between the cloaths in order to preserve them against worms. It is very difficult to extirpate these Rats when they are once settled in a bank. A Swede, however, told me, that he had freed his bank, or piece of dyke along the river, from them in the following manner: He sought for all their holes, stopped them all up with earth, excepting one, on that side from whence the wind came. He put a quantity of sulphur into the open entrance, set fire to it, and then closed the hole, leaving but a small one for the wind to pass through. The smoke of the sulphur then entered their most remote nests, and stifled all the animals. As soon as the sulphur was burnt, he was obliged to dig up part of the ground in the bank, where they had their nests; and he found them lie dead by heaps. He sold the skins, and they paid his trouble, not to mention the advantage he got by clearing his bank of the Musk-rats.

Beavers were formerly abundant in New Sweden, as all the old Swedes here told me. At that time they saw one bank after another raised in the rivers by beavers. But after the Europeans came over in great number, and cultivated the country better, the beavers have been partly killed, and partly extirpated, and partly are removed higher into the country, where the people are not so numerous. Therefore there is but a single place in Pensylvania where beavers are to be met with; their chief food is the bark of the beaver-tree, or Magnolia glauca, which they prefer to any other. The Swedes therefore put branches of this tree near the beaver-dykes, into traps, which they laid for the beavers, whilst they were yet plentiful; and they could almost be certain of good success. Some persons in Philadelphia have tamed beavers, so that they go a fishing with them, and they always come back to their masters. Major Roderfert, in New York, related that he had a tame beaver above half a year in his house, where he went about quite loose, like a dog. The major gave him bread, and sometimes fish, which he was very greedy of. He got as much water in a bowl as he wanted. All the rags and soft things he could meet with he dragged into a corner, where he was used to sleep, and made a bed of them. The cat in the house, having kittens, took possession of his bed, and he did not hinder her. When the cat went out, the beaver often took the kitten between his fore paws and held it to his breast to warm it, and doated upon it; as soon as the cat returned he gave her the kitten again. Sometimes he grumbled, but never did any hurt, or attempted to bite.

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.

March the 3d. The Swedes call a species of little birds, Snofogel, and the English call it Snow-bird. This is Dr. Linnæus’s Emberiza hyemalis. The reason why it is called snow-bird is because it never appears in summer, but only in winter, when the fields are covered with snow. In some winters they come in as great numbers as the maize-thieves, fly about the houses and barns, into the gardens, and eat the corn, and the seeds of grass, which they find scattered on the hills.

At eight o’clock at night we observed a meteor, commonly called snow-fire [15]. I have described this meteor in the memoirs of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, see the volume for the year 1752, page 154, 155.

Wild Pigeons, (Columba migratoria [16]), flew in the woods, in numbers beyond conception, and I was assured that they were more plentiful than they had been for several years past. They came this week, and continued here for about a fortnight, after which they all disappeared, or advanced further into the country, from whence they came. I shall speak of them more particularly in another place.

March the 7th. Several people told me, that it was a certain sign of bad weather here when a thunder-storm arose in the south or south west, if it spread to the east and afterwards to the north: but that on the contrary, when it did not spread at all, or when it spread both east and west, though it should rise in south or south west, yet it would prognosticate fair weather. To-day it was heard in south west, but it did not spread at all. See the meteorological observations, at the end of this volume.

Till now the frost had continued in the ground, so that if any one had a mind to dig a hole he was forced to cut it through with a pick-ax. However it had not penetrated above four inches deep. But to-day it was quite gone out. This made the soil so soft, that on riding, even in the woods, the horse sunk in very deep.