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Gambel’s Oak (Quercus gambelii)

Birds of Gambel

This Witness Post is about birds, but it is also about famous people who either discovered, idenfied or where honored with a bird species including their name in the common name. In this case the famous person is William Gambel.

The Gambel name was placed on trees, birds, reptiles and other discoveries by Thomas Nuttall, the English botanist and zoologist. Nuttall worked in the US from 1808 to 1841 and he placed the Latin name “Gambelii” on several species (oaks and quail) in honor of one of his students, the American explorer and ornithologist, William Gambel.

Who was William Gambel?

In the later years of Nuttall’s American research, he met the teenager William Gambel, who was an enthusiastic, young naturalist from Philadelphia. Born to a poor Irish family, Gambel’s father died when William was nine and the boy followed his personal interests in the study of nature. Nuttall hired Gambel as a research assistant, taking him on trips from the Carolina’s to Maine. Before returning to England, Nuttall encouraged Gambel to explore the US following in his footsteps – WEST – in search of new species. Taking his mentor’s advice, Gambel set out with a wagon train with a collection of traders and trappers in search of new flora and fauna. For three years he explored from Santa Fe to Los Angeles and carefully documented all of the species he could specifically identify and he took detailed notes on those with unusual characteristics. Among the many new species of birds he noted was the first description of a “handsome species” of quail that “conspicuously display the long crest.” Gambel sent a complete descriptions to his mentor, Thomas Nuttall, who named the bird in Gambel ́s honor. [1]

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Gambel Quail (Callipepla gambelii)

Gambel discovered this appealing ground-dweller and he could hardly have asked for a more exciting and beautiful avian namesake. In spring, the male Gambel’s Quail often perches atop a stump, cactus or some other prominent lookout, his black topknot or plume whiffling in the breeze. He tilts his head back, and with closed eyes, repeatedly sings his lovely song. At this time he is seeking a mate while declaring his territory and warning off other males.[2]

Returning east to Philadelphia in 1845, Gambel disappointingly failed to gain a desired position as curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences. One source says that Gambel left the Academy after conflicts with his supervisor, John Cassin. Undaunted, he kept moving forward. After some testing, he qualified to practice medicine. With his M.D. in hand, he married Catherine Towson of Philadelphia, and then immediately went on another trip West, this one headed to California. He preceded his bride and planned to send for her when he had safely reached the West Coast. Gambel’s primary goal was to set up his medical practice in San Francisco, and then to further pursue his interests in medicine and natural history. The Gold Rush era cross-country journey was not without its dangers and tragedies.

Gambel had difficult time crossing of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Landing in a mining camp with some sick gold miners, he tried to help the miners with his newly acquired medical talents; however, the sanitation was non-existent. In the mining camp he contracted typhoid fever and soon fell sick with fever and delirium. He died in 1849 at the age of twenty-six.[3]

Mountain Chickadee (Poecille gambelii)

Three and a half decades after Gambel’s death, his prolific field notes and journal writings were still revered by researchers of the West. Gambel had studied trees, rocks, rodents and birds with equally keen insights. The American ornithologist, Robert Ridgway, having read Gambel’s many notes and journals, posthumously named the Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambelii) in Dr. William Gambel’s honor.

Gambel Quail (Callipepla gambelii) female

Gambel ́s Quail and Gambel’s Oak are both uniquely southwest. Additionally, Gambel is the first American ornithologist to identify the roadrunner (previously recognized by Spanish explorers).

Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)
Gambel Oak leaves and acorns (Quercus gambelii)

Oak has the unfortunate common name “scrub oak,” as if it were an inferior runt of the quercus species. Oaks are deciduous and Gambel Oaks are commonly found in the Southwest with and without many leaves. It thrives in the understory among forests of ponderosa pines at elevations between 5,000 to 8,000 feet. The rough terrain and aridity at their trunks often leaves them stunted and gnarly, which may account for the “scrub” nickname.

And to add to the talents of the aforementioned good doctor, Gambel also discovered unique species of goose, sparrow, and woodpecker (which he named after Thomas Nuttall) among other wildlife (lizards and plants) on anyone’s life lists. William Gambel’s short life was full of adventure and heartbreak, and should not be lost in either the name blame or name game of the past few decades.

Nuttall’s Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii)

Appendix

William Gambel (1823–1849) was Thomas Nuttall’s young protégé from Philadelphia. In 1841, at the young age of 18, Gambel crossed the continent and became the first botanist to collect species of birds in the Santa Fe area. He died of typhoid fever on December 13, 1849, at Rose’s Bar on the Yuba River in California. He was 26 years old.

Birds Gambel described in his journals

  • Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii), 1843, originally published as Lophortyx gambelii. The name honoring him is generally credited to Nuttall, who received Gambel’s description of it. Gambel also published several “new species” descriptions in volume 2 (1845) of the Proceedings, which is probably where the Wrentit, thrasher, and titmouse first appeared.
  • Nuttall’s Woodpecker (Dryobates nuttallii), which he named for his mentor, Thomas Nuttall.
  • Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata). He described it in 1845 as a member of the chickadee genus Parus, then two years later created the genus Chamaea for it.
  • California Thrasher (Toxostoma redivivum). In 1842, from Los Angeles, he wrote Nuttall about 11 southwestern birds, four of them new to science: the Wrentit, California Thrasher, Oak Titmouse, and Nuttall’s Woodpecker.
  • Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus).
  • Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans), described by Gambel.
  • Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), described by Gambel.
  • Two of his names didn’t stick with historical review:
    • Mergulus cassini turned out to be the Cassin’s Auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus), which already had a name, and
    • Fringilla blandingiana described in 1843, was the Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo chlorurus), it had also already been named.

Birds named for Gambel

  • Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii).
  • Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli). Gambel discovered it, and Robert Ridgway named it for him after his death in 1886.
  • Gambel’s White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii), now a subspecies of the White-crowned Sparrow.
  • Several older names honoring Gambel are now obsolete:
    • Goose (Anser gambeli), the goose is now part of the Greater White-fronted Goose.
    • Quail (Lophortyx gambeli).
    • White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia gambeli).
    • Shrike (Lanius gambeli), the shrike has been reclassified as part of the Loggerhead Shrike genus.

Plants and other Animals named for Gambel

  • Gambel Oak (Quercus gambelii). Gambel collected it near Santa Fe, New Mexico territory and Nuttall named it in his honor in 1848.
  • Showy Island Snapdragon (Gambelia speciosa). The plant genus Gambelia, named by Nuttall, honors Gambel. It grows in northwestern Mexico and on California’s Channel Islands, and this species is listed as rare in California.
  • Leopard lizards, the lizard genus Gambelia. Spencer Baird named this genus, and it includes the Long-nosed Leopard Lizard (Gambelia wislizenii).
  • Gambel’s Watercress (Rorippa gambelii), an endangered plant of southern California wetlands.

Written Works by Gambel

  • Gambel, William. “Remarks on the Birds Observed in Upper California.” Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 3, 1846, pp. 44–48.
  • —. “Remarks on the Birds Observed in Upper California.” Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 3, 1847, pp. 154–58.
  • —. “Remarks on the Birds Observed in Upper California.” Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 3, no. 8, 1847, pp. 198–205.
    • NOTE: The three Proceedings entries titled “Remarks on the Birds Observed in Upper California” are separate installments of an ongoing series. The third, pages 198–205, shares those pages with a Cassin paper, so Gambel’s section is only part of that range.
  • —. “Remarks on the Birds Observed in Upper California, with Descriptions of New Species.” Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 2nd series, vol. 1, 1847, pp. 25–56.
  • —. [Description of Lophortyx gambelii.] Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 1, 1843, p. 260.

A related work by Nuttall about Gambel

  • Nuttall, Thomas. “Descriptions of Plants Collected by William Gambel, M.D., in the Rocky Mountains and Upper California.” Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 2nd series, vol. 1, 1848, pp. 149–89.