The Stockamsel: An Historical Review

This is the story of the Stockamsel -- and its hopeless quest to become a unique bird species. Deep in the forests of Austria, a black-colored ouzel had caught the attention of the local hunters, and due to its habit of making its nest on tree stumps, they gave it the evocative name of Stockamsel. By the mid 18th century, this information reached the Ornithology world, and a new type of bird was born. It was equated by some with the mysterious Merula fusca of Aristotle. Others gave it the honor of being its very own species. French authors began speaking of a similar, if not identical, bird that they called Merle brun. The Stockamsel even made a brief appearance in the Italian ornithological literature as the short-lived Turdus menegazzianus. But by the mid 19th century, the increasing doubts of its existence reached a boiling point, and the Stockamsel began its inexorable disappearance, absorbed into the growing list of synonyms for either the Blackbird (Turdus merula) or the Ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus). And there it lies today, buried and forgotten by the many.