“Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang”
HARTFORD, Conn. – “There is something about the finality of extinction that brings one up short. Never again is hard to accept – but it happens. Lives are lost and species are lost. It is sobering and worthy of contemplation. No living thing is immune, not even human beings.”
And so begins the narrative in the attractive and informative booklet that accompanies the new exhibition at Trinity College’s Watkinson Library: “Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang: Bird Extinctions Around the World Since 1600.”
The exhibition, which was arranged by Dr. Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz, curator of the nationally recognized Enders Ornithology Collection, is on display from February 8 through June 9.
The show features beautiful ornithological publications from the 18th century to the present, as well as original paintings, to illustrate a selection of 31 extinct birds from around the world. Each display includes a brief discussion of the bird and an explanation of how it became extinct.
The exhibition, arranged geographically, begins in Madagascar and moves east through the Indian Ocean by way of the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Reunion, and Rodrigues, and then on to New Zealand. From there it veers north to the Solomon Islands and into the Western Pacific to the Japanese Bonin Islands. From there, the next stop is the ravaged bird fauna of Hawaii and finally North America, beginning in Mexico, moving to the United States and ending in the North Atlantic.
Also on display is a small exhibition of endangered felines.
In connection with the two exhibitions, there will be a talk, “Conservation of Imperiled Birds and Felines: Notes from the Field” on March 26 at 4:45 p.m. The joint presentation will be given by Trinity’s resident ornithologist Joan Morrison, Charles A. Dana Research Associate Professor of Biology, and feline expert Dr. Jim Sanderson. The talk will be in the Joslin 1823 Room in Trinity’s Library and Information Technology Center.
The Watkinson Library is open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. but beginning in mid-May, the Library will close at 1 p.m. on Fridays. The Library will be open on Saturdays from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. from March 29 through May 3.
For more information, contact Dr. Kaimowitz at 860-297-2266 or at Jeffrey.Kaimowitz@trincoll.edu.