[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Carolina Wren on SC quarter! (fwd)



You can find more info and a BIG picture at:

http://www.state.sc.us/governor/speeches/coins.html

The design with the state symbols, including the Carolina Wren, won the 
citizens' poll with 77% of the vote!  

"The song of the Carolina Wren symbolizes the hospitality of our people."
- Gov. Jim Hodges

Will the North Carolina quarter have a cardinal?  Not likely, even though the 
Raleigh birder Halbert Carmichael may be submitting a design.  See
http://www.gocarolinas.com/news/carolinas/1999/05/25/nc_quarterdesign.html

Did you know the Tomtit used to be the NC state bird??  Found this (while 
searching for other stuff) in the Raleigh N&O 10/3/99:

Editorial: Here comes the judge

Probably no bird is as bold as the Carolina chickadee. A fearless, friendly 
frequenter of the feeder, it's well known to most bird lovers. This 
distinguished creature in tailored tux with headpiece of shiny black and a 
bold cravat was once North Carolina's state bird. Looking like a pompous 
judge, it seemed the very image of an old-fashioned Southern statesman.  

Weighing less than a half-ounce, it's a year-round resident wherever it finds 
a cordial reception. In the forests and swamps where it dwells it consumes 
bugs, seeds, beetles, almost anything. A busy bird, its heart rate in cold 
weather rises to an incredible 700 per minute. Attracted to noise --the 
countryman knows it well -- it seems drawn to the splitting of firewood; 
rather like a lawyer, it knows knows that wherever it hears controversy there 
is food.  

Politics being politics, the chickadee was also known in the Southlands as 
the tomtit, a word colloquially meaning little and insignificant. Some 
flighty legislators as a result found their feathers ruffled and protested at 
the thought of the Old North State becoming known as the Tomtit State. So, 
with proper decorum, they rose to the occasion and organized schoolchildren 
to select a more impressive bird. Youth being easier to motivate politically 
than their elders, they selected the flashy bright red of the cardinal 
instead of the fearless, friendly bundle of energy, the chickadee.  

Other birds come and go, but the tomtit is a faithful resident of Carolina  
 and sticks with us through storm and cold when lesser birds have fled.

(It's amazing what you can find in a few minutes using web search engines!)

--
Charles W. "Will" Cook                w 919-660-7423 (new!)
cwcook@duke.edu                 h 919-967-5446
Duke University Botany Dept., Durham, North Carolina
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook