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     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