Charles Crawford Gorst: "The Bird-Man"

              Figure
Charles Crawford Gorst 
THE BIRD-MAN




Ye blessed creatures, I have heard the call


Ye to each other make; I see


The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;


My heart is at your festival,


My head hath its coronal,


The fulness of your bliss, I feel—I feel it all!




—
WORDSWORTH





CHARLES CRAWFORD GORST ILLUSTRATED LECTURE-ENTERTAINMENTS 
Lecturer - Singer of Bird Songs - Entertainer Bird Music - Bird Life - Nature



O

NE SPRING MORNING
 when I ran barefooted through wind-blown grass on a sunlit prairie hilltop, I was stopped by a little white-shouldered black bird, rocking and shining on a plume of nodding grass.  Then the bending spray flung that little bird up into the sunshine, and in a blur of glistening wings it climbed high up the rain of light that fell through bright clouds, and delicately it parachuted down again.  And up and down the sunlight it scattered a thrilling wild song!





I BEGAN IMITATING BIRDS AT EIGHT I NOW SING EIGHT HUNDRED BIRD SONGS



Eagerly I tried to imitate it.  I failed.  But its lovely phrases were so like a stanza of poetry that its echo is clear in my memory today.  And it thrilled me with a desire to imitate bird songs.  Two years later when I was ten, after two months experimenting with my vocal organs, I sang a real bird-note.  Soon I sounded fifteen simple bird-tones and with them imitated many birds.  Through years of singing with birds I have developed twenty-nine elementary bird-tones, and now, using no artificial whistle, I sing 800 songs of 220 kinds of birds.





I HAVE MADE BIRDS DO QUEER THINGS



I could not fully tell of my joy in singing with birds.  As witnesses could testify, I have made them do strange things.  In silent woods I have sung and started a general chorus.  The Brown Thrasher has flown to me for a singing contest.  The hawk has answered my scream and swooped at me.  I have called a maiden Redstart away from her lover and brought him in anger after her.  Like a baby Song Sparrow I cried for food; its fidgety mother brought me a green worm!  On a solitary Canadian lake my imitative laughter decoyed a pair of swimming grebes to me through the reeds.  I have stood in the dusk of a giant redwood forest and called the Varied Thrush down a long pillar of light from the wood's high roof.  In Florida when I mocked a Mockingbird I brought upon him an undeserved beating from another!  I have chirped crickets out of their holes and into combat.  Once when I out-trilled a female toad's 
adored
 she left him and came out of the water to me!  I have been hunted by the giant Pileated Woodpecker.  In the cool twilight of northern woods I have stood beside vine-wound columns under high green arches and sung heavenly evening hymns with Hermit Thrushes.  From a high cliff, on a black autumn night, I have called up to migrating birds and heard circling voices come down and murmur, 
Are you there?  Come with us!
  And I have longed to go.





I HAVE SEEN BIRDS FEED MAN



In amazement I have watched the birds feed man — as surely as they fed Elijah — by making his food possible:  the Cuckoo scatter a web tent and devour 250 caterpillars at a meal; the 
Hen Hawk
 tear up a rat, one of the pests composing 85 per cent of its food; the Flicker breakfast on 1000 chinch bugs, the Maryland Yellowthroat on 3500 plant lice, and the Mourning Dove on 10,000 weed seeds!





I FIND DEEP MEANING IN BIRD-MUSIC



I know what birds say to mean, 
I am glad.
  — 
Where are you?
  — 
I love you!
  — 
I hate you!
  — 
What was that?
  — 
I hunger.
  — 
I suffer!




I hear some kinds of birds imitate other kinds and some sing freak songs and even un-named human tunes!  I find that bird songs blossom exquisitely in symmetrical musical forms as flowers bloom in lovely shapes and colors.  I feel that some bird songs beautifully describe the surrounding scenes, that the bold fervor and graceful freedom of the Western Meadowlark's song tell of the windy prairie's spirit of the far and the high, the bright, the restless and the free, and that the serene, meditative flute-notes of the Wood Thrush voice the mystical tranquility of evening woods.




Bird voices have led me beyond themselves into Nature's wide, hidden Holy-of-holies where I have felt




A presence that disturbs me with the joy


Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime


Of something far more deeply interfused,


Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,


And the round ocean and the living air,


And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.





I HAVE TAUGHT BIRD-STUDY, JOINED THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION AND LECTURED FIFTEEN YEARS IN ALL STATES AND PROVINCES



As a very young man I often entertained with birdcalls.  At college, where I tutored in ornithology, and in my further years of seminary and post-graduate work my platform work so increased that I finally made it my vocation.  Soon I became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union.  During fifteen years of annual guaranteed tours under America's two leading platform bureaus I have appeared often in all States and Canadian Provinces, except two.





I ADDRESS MUCH VARIED AUDIENCES



There is now a nation-wide 
Back to Nature
 movement.  People realize with alarm that




The world is too much with us:  late and soon,


Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:


Little we see in Nature that is ours;


We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!




And they who turn to Nature find bird-study her finest popular offering.  In the forms and colors of birds they see the loveliness of flowers.  But birds are super-flowers that thrill us with song and by their elusiveness lure us into the joy of the chase.  And of all higher wild animals birds are the friendliest, most helpful, most varied and numerous, most beautiful and musical.  So, nearly everybody is interested in them, and widely differing audiences invite programs of bird-lore.




For fifteen years I have appeared for commercial clubs, summer camps, banquets, kindergartens, garden clubs, teachers' institutes, hunting and fishing clubs, Boy Scouts, colleges, Y.M.C.A's, women's clubs, churches, normal schools, musical and literary clubs, lodges, social functions, private and public schools, lecture courses, chautauquas, museums, libraries, bird-and-nature clubs.





I TRY TO ENTERTAIN, INFORM AND INSPIRE



I have tried to please by bringing each audience entertainment, information, refinement and inspiration in suitable proportions.  With darkened windows, the romance of soft lamplight, and if possible a forest stage-scene, I usually open a program with one or two solos, in bird-song style with piano, and purposed to be really musical.  Then, if suitable, come some amusing novelties.  Finally the program proper.  I feature a profusion of bird-songs, reproduced by the vocal organs only.  These range over seven octaves from low booms to fine notes two octaves above the piano, and include reedy notes, screams in reversed falsetto, several kinds of trills, of warbles and of tremolos, duet-notes, flute-notes, insect-notes, three tones trilled together, three different trills sounded together, etc., etc.





I SHOW MY OWN LARGE PAINTINGS, LIGHT-FLOODED AND SUPERIOR TO SLIDES



I show original full-color paintings of scenes and greatly enlarged birds, standing six feet high and flooded with light by a special device.  Each picture cost me several days of painting.  They have the brilliance of lantern slides and have carried well over an audience of six thousand.  Experts declare them superior to slides because they are more beautiful in composition, drawing and color; require less time in preparation, no operator and no painful interruptions of the program; allow people to see my method of singing; permit the audience and me to see and feel each other which creates enthusiasm in both; and if necessary can be adapted to any lighting system, even outdoors.





I LEAD WALKS, ADVISE AND START CLUBS



Using songs and pictures to illustrate and frequent apt humor to enliven, I talk of the astonishing things birds do when imitated, of their interesting words to each other, of the varied and beautiful forms of their songs, of their amusing and pathetic home-life, of their immeasurable service in fields and gardens, and finally of the peace of mind and the spiritual joy that Nature can bestow.




After my programs, if desired, I answer questions, advise about books, field glasses, nature-study equipment, etc., and show samples, help to organize bird-clubs, and when possible conduct bird-walks.



Figure

Pitch Chart from the Boston Sunday Post


Figure

A Record from my Notebook






Comment and Appearances



JOHN BURROUGHS,

Eminent Naturalist:

You made a distinct impression upon me.  The bird songs that you reproduced were the best I ever heard.




ERNEST THOMPSON SETON,
 
Noted Author, Naturalist:
  
Some of our bird musicians have been gifted in their imitative power, some in their analysis and appreciation of bird songs.  You are fortunate in combining the three as well as in fortifying your talk with sound natural history.  You have an unlimited field before you.




EIGHTEEN TIMES BEFORE MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY, Boston:
  
As a lecture on birds and for its inimitable bird notes your program is the finest work I ever heard.




Winthrop Packard, 
Secretary and Manager




SEVEN TALKS AT AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, New York:
  
By ornithologists he is pretty generally regarded as the best imitator of bird songs in America.




Dr. Clyde Fisher, 
Curator




EIGHT PROGRAMS AT 
PRESIDENT COOLIDGE'S CHURCH,
 Washington:
  His program is rendered by a personality so attractive that you will wish to claim him as a personal friend.  Fifteen hundred people here heard him with so much enthusiasm that we engaged him for six consecutive programs for the following month.  Those six programs taxed our seating capacity.




Dr. Jason Noble Pierce, 
Minister




THREE APPEARANCES AT BABSON'S STATISTICAL ORGANIZATION, Wellesley Hills, Mass.:
  
Your work was exceedingly satisfactory!  You have wonderful ability to give a most entertaining and helpful hour.  It was said that this was the largest audience ever in the town of Wellesley.




ROGER W. BABSON




DR. T. GILBERT PEARSON,
 
President National Association of Audubon Societies, New York:
  
— the best imitator of wild birds that America has produced.




THE DETROIT FREE PRESS:


There is a decided aesthetic value in his recital, as well as plenty of entertainment and jolly fun.




THE BOSTON EVENING TRANSCRIPT:


It is a popular illusion that imitating birds is a stage trick, but Mr. Gorst has raised this art to a higher plane.  His inspiring presentation of the beautiful in bird life held the closest attention of both children and adults.




OHIO STATE JOURNAL, Columbus:


Mr. Gorst's lecture was an entertainment with a rare flavor.  It was like the sound of wind in the leaves, the touch of cool grass, or the odor of honeysuckles!




THE OREGONIAN, Portland, Oregon:


At the Municipal Auditorium children and grown-ups sat enthralled by 'The Bird-man,' and more than $600.00 was cleared.




THE NASHVILLE TENNESEEAN:


His bird imitations excited continuous applause and exclamations from the audience.




PRESIDENT OF DE PAUW UNIVERSITY, Greencastle, Ind.:
  
Listening to your inimitable program was one of the most profitable and enjoyable experiences that I ever had.




Dr. Lemuel H. Murlin, 
President




STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, Erie, Pa.:
  
Your entire audience was pleased, and you would be welcome here again.  You have a message for every school child in the country, as well as for older people.




L. H. Van Houten, 
Director




THE TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL, St. John, N. B.:


At the reception in honor of Earle Spicer, Prince George, of Russia, and Charles Crawford Gorst, the noted 'Bird-man,' Mr. Gorst whistled the song of the European Blackbird by request of the Prince.  'It's exactly like it!'  said the excited Russian Prince, as he thanked the clever imitator.




THE CHOATE SCHOOL, Wallingford, Conn.:
  
You don't seem merely an extraordinarily good lecturer:  in your reproduction of bird songs you are a genius.  I hope to hear you at Choate for as many years as you will come.




George C. St. John, 
Headmaster




THE ALOHA CAMPS:
  
I have never heard anyone who approaches you.  Your rare gifts will surely make you more than welcome at any camp.  I do hope you will give some more time to the four Alohas next summer.




Harriet Farnsworth Gulick, 
Head of the Aloha Camps




VICTOR and EDISON RECORDS For terms, guarantee, and information, write
 
CHARLES CRAWFORD GORST 28 BEAUFORT ROAD, BOSTON 30, MASS.






Figure

THE JAY
:  
I hear you calling me





Figure
Confidences

Figure
Bird meets Bird-man, Jr.




Figure

Far from the madding crowd





Figure


THE OVENBIRD
.  Painting by Charles C. Gorst

Figure

A Born Snob





Figure

In the Public Eye