In 1927, Vermont’s State Federation of Women’s Clubs conducted a state bird campaign. The hermit thrush emerged the winner, but it was’t officially adopted.
A bill to adopt the hermit thrush was presented in 1941, supported primarily by the Vermont Federation of Women’s Clubs. But numerous other birds rose to challenge it.
There are few records to explain why the hermit thrush was the Federation’s favorite. Its distinctive sweet call—a long clear opening note and four or five different-pitched succeeding notes—apparently added to the bird’s charm. These rising and falling bell-like notes may have inspired one of the hermit thrush’s colloquial names, American nightingale.
Though sparsely distributed, the hermit thrush is found in all of Vermont’s fourteen counties. But some legislators were bothered by the hermit thrush’s habit of deserting Vermont in winter (even though it is one of the first woodland birds to return to Vermont each spring).
Competition
Another winter migrant, the robin, proved one of the thrush’s primary rivals, though it had already been selected by other states. Others suggested the well-known chickadee, which inhabits Vermont’s forests year-round. However, Maine had adopted the chickadee in 1927. Pennsylvania had spoken for the ruffed grouse, or partridge.
Someone suggested the blue jay, “one of the most rugged and down-to earth birds, which could be seen all year and which brought the color of the blue sky to the wintry landscape.” In addition, the blue jay was claimed by no other state. This triggered another suggestion. “If you’ve got to have a state bird that’s a rugged individualist,” it was argued, “one that’s around all the time, and one that nobody else has—then, how about the crow?”
“The woodpecker” was suggested, but one representative warned that “its habit of tapping on wood might give some of the [House] members a headache.” A report in the Argus mentioned the stork, screech owl, and mud-hen [probably the American bittern, according to Steve Faccio of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science] as candidates. Still another nominee was the whiffle-bird, apparently a denizen of Caledonia County “which only flies backwards, since it does not care where it is going but wants to see where it has been.”
More fun lie ahead. The Senate wanted to learn more about the proposed state bird, so it passed a resolution. House Clerk Harold J. Arthur, a noted whistler (and later Vermont’s governor), was directed to appear before the upper house and “warble (not wobble) as the Hermit Thrush would do were it present.” Arthur tuned up with songs of the whippoorwill, bobwhite and canary. He then gave his rendering of a thrush—though not, he confessed, necessarily that of the hermit thrush.
Thrush versus Thrush
In the Senate, the hermit thrush was locked in a 13-13 tie with the blue jay. Lt. Governor Mortimer R. Proctor, as president of the Senate, broke the tie in favor of the hermit thrush. In the House, the hermit thrush had to battle the robin (another species of thrush).
“The hermit thrush burst into joyous song this morning as he winged his way toward the executive chambers for final endorsement by the governor’s signature as the official state bird.”
So reported the Montpelier Evening Argus of March 25, 1941 about passage that day of Senate Bill 31 which became No. 1 of the Laws of 1941. The bill was approved on March 28. (However, the hermit thrush may not have become official until June 1.)
Perhaps, as suggested by Ronald Rood in “Spirit of the Forest” (Vermont Life, 1961), legislators realized that the hermit thrush’s unfaithful ways were not so different from those of some Vermonters. Rood wrote, “It is both a native Vermonter and a summer visitor. Although it leaves for the southern half of the United States with the approach of cold weather, it was hatched and raised in Vermont. And, like so many other Vermonters, it can never break the ties with its native land. It comes back in April of each succeeding year.”
The adoption of the hermit thrush led to further efforts to commemorate Vermont’s natural heritage, not all of them serious. On March 29, 1941, a Senator Hall offered Senate Resolution 12, as follows:
Whereas, this honorable body has devoted one Monday evening session to the selection of a state bird, and another to the choice of a state fish; now therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate:
That in order to avoid the making of invidious distinctions among several branches of the animal kingdom, the evening of Monday, March 31, be set aside for the selection as state reptile of either the spotted adder or the lounge lizard; and be it further resolved
That this matter be made a special order for Monday, March 31, at 8:05 P.M.
And pending the question, Shall the resolution be adopted? on motion of Senator Farman, the resolution was committed to the Committee on Temperance.
Hall withdrew his resolution, and Vermont was left with only a state bird.
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