In the 1930s, German zoologist Ernst Schäfer and American zoologist Brook Dolan II made two natural history expeditions to Tibet and China. Despite a hunting prohibition from the Tibetan government, Schäfer and Dolan killed roughly 3,500 birds over the course of these trips, using primarily a home-made slingshot. The birds, including newly discovered species and subspecies, were then transported back to the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, where they remain today.
Passer montanus maximus / Tree Sparrow / Feldsperling
[collected April 2 1935]
the gun was a name he raised with his hand lie still now stone-split in a thin plane of sun sun lie still ill ill the stubble field snow-softened to a cold flank of white lie still sei still ill ill the white field beyond the tree line weißes feld without white what is a hand his eye lining me blue weißes feld ohne weiß what is a hand and and not wing reach of my wing not lead-blue beak stone-shattered from my blond body cold the air was darkcold splintered und weiß weißes feld ohne weiß was ist eine hand and and his hands hid like fangs in the grass cold cold and splintered dunkelblond my blond ond ond my aufgesplittert dunkelblond my field my white down now the dun dun dun colored are all i see a hand is not warm his eye gesplittert split it it splintered blue beyond ond the tree line was ist eine hand a gun the sun wasn’t warm was blue blue blue seine hände nicht warm seine hände a gun er hebt ab
Corvus corax tibetanus / Common Raven / Kolkrabe
[specimen discarded September 24 1935]
cool flakes of light giv giv giv
given away way to water er listen lightly
the water speaks sings a little it gives me o over
hingegeben my bones an opened throat it plays hör zu
the light licht no leaves sift cool through me
on water no on light light flickers on
the leaves like water through me
my skin? elsewhere where herein horchen
the water flits listen it speaks in in thin bells i lose
i’m losing der sinn verläuft mit dem wasser
listen water sings stings a little singt mich durch
i hear ich verliere i err ich irre
sung cleanly out of my skin lass mich ich irre
there is nothing i know listen the water leafs
through my my my bone-branches hinaus
tree? elsewhere knows ich gebe mich
dem wasser hin eyeless leaves me wide-eyed riv riv
riven yet i trace the light thing the bright
ringing through my lock of bones
locked ich irre gone among stones the feather-less
wing washed down to a spear of white no you
i am losing lass mich watch for the blue das wasser das irrt
the black that is is blue and sometimes
the cold ist schwarzblau have you seen iridescent
no irides no des no blue no iri irre ich irre
der sinn verläuft like flakes of light through me no in
giv giv iven mich hin hin hingegeben i lose leave me
verloren lost lass mich ich ich irre verliere lass mich irren
Passerine pseudopodoces humilis / Tibetan Ground-tit / Höhlenhäher
[specimen discarded April 1 1935]
am i flock? am i i teeming
my bones unknotted from any body dy
sunken in grass like grass knotted in ground
one no all of me still in stillness field or sky
everywhere bled thin of it its green its blue blue ausgeblutet
look up nach oben to edgeless white open
no no place where field finds sky
the wide above muffles white in in white
fluxes the field fällt nieder nieder no place
down down and the light breathes slim in long d draws
my unlocked bones lie lie locker loose like wind in air yet
never airborne nev never born am i cold?
schau schau flakes of sky flock schneeflocken driv driv
driven what pattern there drifts and drops soft das sanfte treiben
i keep myself i i keep nothing
around me silent the grass bled clean dry y
schau nach oben no horizon now nur weite
the open sears my my eyeless eye wide
breit in sanfter stummheit i hide i
am hidden but bare bloß oß like wind in air
horizon-less weiß i sing the snow in me in mich
hinein sky y bled mute of blue am i snow?
schau nach oben ins ope open i found nothing
my no our sound aufgeknotet from wind in air
from that man what man der mann only a
wintersound barely breathing barely bound
bled clean bloß the snow teems
umhüllt mich muffles the bone loose es lässt sich mich nieder
snow flocken fall feather-less the stillness catches