A similar unhappy fate awaited the delightful Bachman's warbler. Always rare, it was said to have one of the loveliest songs of all birds. For years it escaped detection, but in 1939, two birders, operating independently in different places, coincidentally saw a Bachman's warbler within two days of each other. Both shot the birds {nice work, boys!}, and that, it appears, was that for the Bachman's warbler. But there are almost certainly others that disappeared before anyone much noticed. John James Audubon painted three species of bird-the small-headed flycatcher, the carbonated warbler, and the Blue Mountain warbler-that have not been seen by anyone since. The same is true of Townsend's bunting, of which there is one stuffed specimen in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
( Bill Bryson )
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