Gambel William (1821-1849)
Gambel's Life: Brief but BrilliantDr. William Gambel (1821-1849) may qualify as the most important 19th Century figure in California ornithology. He was the first trained naturalist to spend extensive time on California soil. Before Gambel's arrival, naturalists in California were confined to naval expeditions or brief stays, like Thomas Nuttall's two months in the spring of 1836. Gambel arrived by foot in 1841, and left California at the end of 1843, having experienced all seasons, and visited many parts of the state.
His namesake legacy is a rich one: Gambel's Quail [Callipepla gambelii] and Mountain Chickadee [Poecile gambeli], both of which Gambel first discovered for science. Both are California residents. Named for him are a subspecies of White-crowned Sparrow, and a formerly recognized subspecies of White-fronted Goose— both winter in California. Also named for him are a genus of lizard and Gambel's oak, both of which he discovered. In addition he first collected and scientifically described several California birds.
How did a man who died before his 27th birthday accomplish so much?
Gambel was born into an impoverished but educated Irish family near Philadelphia. His father died when young William was nine. His mother began teaching to support her four children. Eldest son, William, followed his interests toward nature study and began working for the aging Nuttall (1786-1859) who was busily writing up his findings on the Pacific Coast. Nuttall was also starting a work on American trees, making collecting trips along the Atlantic seaboard. Thus in the late 1830s young Gambel went along on field trips to the Carolinas, then to New England, as far north as Maine. They surely spent much time discussing what Nuttall had seen in California in 1836, and what Nuttall imagined he had not seen. Gambel was an able student and apprentice collector, his primary interests were minerals and birds. He was also learning plants and mammals from one of the top field naturalists in American history, Nuttall. In 1840 the elder man finished a revised edition of his Ornithology. At that time it was the only complete, popular priced book about American birds, revised to include most of Nuttall and Townsend's observations from the Pacific Coast. Gambel would have known this book by heart.
On page 664, Nuttall credits his young assistant with observations on a Northern Flicker nest:
"My Friend, Mr Gambel, observed…a burrow of this kind in Cambridge [Mass], excavated out of the living trunk of a Sassafras about 15 feet from the ground…."
Thus, Gambel was well-prepared when he got the chance to travel west with a group of traders in 1841, at age eighteen. He was going as a collector for his mentor, Nuttall.
Gambel travelled via Saint Louis and Independence, reaching Santa Fe on July 2, 1840. Near there that he first saw the Mountain Chickadee. Also nearby, he discovered his namesake oak growing along the upper Rio Grande.
By September he had joined trappers heading to California via the Mormon Trail through Utah. He was the first naturalist to visit that area. Gambel wrote to Nuttall of his quail discovery:
"We met with small flocks of this handsome species some distance [east] of California, in the month of November, inhabiting the most barren brushy plain…here, where a person would suppose it to be impossible for any animal to subsist…."
By November, 1841, Gambel was on the southern California coast. He collected botanical and zoological specimens there. In November, 1842, he asked the U.S. Navy for protection (this was still Mexican territory) from local Indian tribes. Instead, Gambel was hired as secretary to Commodore Ap-Catesby Jones. (He has a San Francisco street named after him.) When Jones lost his command for mistakenly seizing Monterey, Gambel stayed with the ship and the new commanders. Thus he moved as far north as San Francisco and Monterey and as far south as South America. All with Navy protection.
In 1842 Gambel sent Nuttall a letter from Pueblo Los Angeles with descriptions of 11 southwestern birds, four were new to science: Wrentit, California Thrasher, Oak Titmouse and a bird named for his friend, Nuttall's Woodpecker. The first three were collected near Monterey. By the time he got back to Philadelphia, Gambel was reknowned among natural scientists. John Cassin wrote Spencer Baird in 1845:
"Eureka, Gambel is here with his California birds…some of the most magnificent specimens I ever saw…decidedly the gem of his collection is a most superb specimen of…a beautiful cuckoo-like bird which walks on the ground…."
The Roadrunner had been previously described from Mexican collectors, but had not been seen by U.S. scientists.
Back in Philadelphia, Gambel was befriended by leading scientists of his time: Cassin, Adolphus Heerman, Spencer Baird, Edward Harris, even meeting the legendary Audubon. Gambel published a series of papers culminating in his list of 176 species seen on the western trip. Much of his information was incorporated into Cassin's book on birds of the Pacific Coast. Gambel drew three plates for Nuttall's book on trees, but the friends would never meet again for Nuttall returned to England in 1842.
Gambel completed medical training, married and planned to begin his medical career in California where the Gold Rush was on. In 1849 he started across country with a group of settlers. His record was already brilliant, his future looked even brighter. En route he made a serious mistake, joining a slower-moving group that promised more time for field collecting. Gambel's party reached Nevada at the end of a very dry fall, losing most of their cattle and horses. Then they hit the east edge of the Sierra after the first snows. Gambel was one of the few survivors of the ill-fated group that made it through the mountains, reaching Rose's Bar on the Yuba River. There, while helping a group of sick gold miners, Gambel himself caught typhoid and died, December 13, 1949. Gambel's bones and Rose's Bar were both sluiced away by hydraulic mining. But he left a legacy worthy of a great naturalist: the Mountain Chickadee and Gambel's trove of original bird observations and one of our most beautiful birds, Gambel's Quail, survive.
William Gambel (1823 - December 13, 1849) was an American naturalist and collector.
Gambel was born in Philadelphia. In 1838 he travelled with the naturalist Thomas Nuttall on a collecting trip to North Carolina. In March 1841 he set off alone to collect plants for Nuttall. He travelled west, taking a more southerly route to that taken previously by Nuttall and Townsend. From Independence he followed the Santa Fe Trail, and then along the Old Spanish Trail, arriving in California in early November. He spent 1842 collecting along the coast, and then joined the US navy as a secretary, which allowed him to visit all the California mission stations. The new birds he collected included Gambel's Quail (Callipepla gambelii), Mountain Chickadee (Parus gambeli) and Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii).Gambel arrived back in Philadelphia in August 1845. In 1848 he qualified as a physician. He died of typhoid whilst crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains in midwinter.
Bibliography
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1840. Nuttall, T. A 1 Manual 1 of the 1 Ornithology I of the I United States and
of Canada. I By I Thomas Nuttall, A. M., I?. I,. S. &c. I Second Edition,
with Additions. I - I The I,and Birds I - I - I Boston: I Hilliard,
Gray, and Company. I - I MDCCCXI,. 12mo, pp. i-viii, l-832; many iigg.
Contains short notes on several species personally observed by the author at San
Diego, Santa Barbara or Monterey; also descriptions of two alleged new species from
Santa Barbara, Trochilus icterocephaZus (=CaZypte anna) and TrogGodytes pnaculosa (=I). Other species are accredited to California on authority of Audubon, Vigors or Lesson, some erroneously.1843. Gambel, W. Descriptions of some new and rare Birds of the Rocky
Mountains and California. <Proc. AC. Nat. SC. Phil. I, April 1843, pp.
259-262.
Includes the original description of Pionus Nuttalii (=Dryobates nuttallii) ; taken near
I,os Angeles, December 10.1845. Gambel, W. Descriptions of new and little known Birds, collected in Upper
California. <Proc. AC. Nat. SC. Phil. II, August 1845, pp. 263-266.
Includes the original description of Narjes rediviva (ToAxostoma redivivum) from
“near Monterey”; Paarus inornatus from “Upper California”; and Parus fasciatus
(Chanzcea fasciata) from “California. ” Also Mergulus Cassinii (Ptychoramphus
ale&&s), from the “Coast of California”, is described as new.1846-1847. Gambel, W. Remarks on the Birds observed in Upper California. <
Proc. AC. Nat. SC. Phil. III, April 1846, pp. 44-48; October 1846, pp. IIO-
115; February 1847, pp. 154-158; April 1847, pp. 200-205.
This is an annotated list of 82 species, a large number of which are for the first time
accredited to California. The accompanying notes, in some cases quite extended, are of value in that they indicate the abundance and distribution at that time of species
now rare or local. Of particular interest in this respect are the remarks on the California
Vulture, Raven, and Yellow-billed Magpie. However, all the species mentioned are still
to be found somewhere within the State, except Quiscalus major, which Gambel claims was occasionally seen in his time as far north as Upper California.1847. Gambel, W. Chamaea, new genus of Birds allied to Parus. < Am. Journ.
Sc. & Arts, 2nd Ser. IV, November 1847, p. 286.1847. Gambel, W. Chamaea, a new genus of Birds allied to Parus. < Annals
and Magazine of Nat. Hist. XX, December 1847, pp. 441-442.
A republication.1847-1849. Gambel, W. Remarks on the Birds observed in Upper California,
with descriptions of new species. <Journ. AC. Nat. SC. Phil., 2nd Ser. I,
December 1847, pp. 25-56; August 1849, pp. 215-229; pll. VIII-IX.
An extensively annotated list of 176 species; but a number of these, altho entered regularly, are extralimital, having been secured, as sometimes stated, in the Rocky Mountains or in Mexico.1850. Gambel, W. Description of a new species of Mergulus, Ray, from the
coast of California. <Journ. AC. Nat. SC. Phil., 2nd Ser. II, November 1850,
p. 55, pl. VI.
Mergulus Cassinii (=Ptychoramphus aleuticus).
1843. Gambel, W. Descriptions of some new and rare Birds of the Rocky
Mountains and California. Proc. AC. Nat. SC. Phil. I, April 1843, pp.
259-262.
1845. Gambel, W. Descriptions of new and little known Birds, collected in Upper
California. Proc. AC. Nat. SC. Phil. II, August 1845, pp. 263-266.
1846-1847. Gambel, W. Remarks on the Birds observed in Upper California.
Proc. AC. Nat. SC. Phil. III, April 1846, pp. 44-48; October 1846, pp. IIO-
115; February 1847, pp. 154-158; April 1847, pp. 200-205.
1847. Gambel, W. Chamaea, new genus of Birds allied to Parus. Am. Journ.
Sc. & Arts, 2nd Ser. IV, November 1847, p. 286.
1847-1849. Gambel, W. Remarks on the Birds observed in Upper California,
with descriptions of new species. Journ. AC. Nat. SC. Phil., 2nd Ser. I,
December 1847, pp. 25-56; August 1849, pp. 215-229; pll. VIII-IX.
1850. Gambel, W. Description of a new species of Mergulus, Ray, from the
coast of California. Journ. AC. Nat. SC. Phil., 2nd Ser. II, November 1850,
p. 55, pl. VI.