Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/americanornitholO3wilsuoft AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. ( ee _conerastEs : (igi and Sete Publicat ations ) = AN THE VARIOUS Plees S— _— oF — LITERATURE, SCIENCE, & THE ARTS. VOL. LXX. THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY VOL.1I. THE SCARLET IBIS. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE & C? EDINBURGH: AND HURST, CHANCE & C? LONDON. 1831. £oo\ Aves AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY : : 5; OR THE H NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. BY ALEXANDER WILSON, AND CHARLES LUCIAN BONAPARTE. EDITED BY ROBERT JAMESON, Esa. F.R.S.E.&L. F.L.S. M.W.S. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, &c. IN FOUR VOLUMES, VOL, IIL EDINBURGH: \ PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH; AND HURST, CHANCE, AND CO. LONDON. 1831. " x m5, tae : ¥ + : 3 - ae dich 4 ae wns © Pass ant : ‘ OPO pore) “e 4 ee (hed ae $. Par \' a aN ae, Oren “ahi eT ia - bs Ee ccs hain eal esa on t# Lari a se “ut ‘ My say. 2.1.1 RA at ee ) ‘oe Me = rs sa , | Sony "eres Ape? POE ER SATA LAM rere : — Wirt ts tai te Na en oe ae c a es tna hist i “sg by. as aeat’ PARTLY POMEL V2 Ae e a ; eS ae ee q ry \r ‘ of weitae | wombantax ae EDINBURGH: ‘es Ne nen SeeEeeeS P , tear E—— ee rt eee erm mm oe ea CONTENTS OF VOLUME THIRD. American Avyoset American Bittern American Widgeon American Woodcock Ash-coloured Sandpiper Bartram’s Sandpiper Black-bellied Darter, or Snake Bird, female Black-bellied Plover Black, or Surf Duck Black Skimmer, or Sheerwater Blue Crane, or Heron Blue-winged Teal Brant : Brown Phalarope Buffel-headed Duck Canada Goose Canvass Back Duck \< vi CONTENTS. Carolina Rail Clapper Rail Cinereous Coot ; Darter, or Snake Bird, —male Dusky Duck Eider Duck, — female Eider Duck,—male Esquimaux Curlew Gadwall Golden Eye Golden Plover Goosander, — female Goosander, —male Gray Phalarope Great Heron ; Great Marbled Godwit Great Northern Diver, or Loon Great Tern Great White Heron Green Heron Green-winged Teal Harlequin Duck Hooded Merganser Kildeer Plover Laughing Gull Least Bittern Lesser Tern Little Guillemot Little Sandpiper Long-billed Curlew CONTENTS. & Long-legged Plover Long-tailed Duck, —female Long-tailed Duck, —male Louisiana Heron Mallard Marsh Tern Martinico Gallinule Night Heron, or Qua Bird Pied Duck Pied Oyster Catcher Pintail Duck Purre . , Red-backed Sandpiper Red-breasted Merganser Red-breasted Sandpiper Red-breasted Snipe Red Flamingo Red-headed Duck Ringed Plover Ring Plover Roseate Spoonbill Ruddy Duck, —female Ruddy Duck, — male Ruddy Plover 'Sanderling Plover Scarlet Ibis Seaup Duck Scoter Duck Semipalmated Sandpiper )Semipalmated Snipe Vili CONTENTS. Short-tailed Tern Shoveller -Smew, or White Nun Snipe Snow ee ae Snow Goose,— young Snowy Heron Solitary Sandpiper Sooty Tern Spotted Sandpiper Stormy Petrel Summer Duck, or Wood Duck Tell-tale Godwit, or Snipe Tufted Duck Turnstone Velvet Duck Virginian Rail White Ibis Whooping Crane Wilson’s Plover . | < Wood Ibis Yellow-crowned Heron Yellow-shanks Snipe Synonyms To VoLumeE First Synonyms TO VoLUuME SECOND SynonyMs To VoLtumME TuHIRpD AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. ORDER IV. GRALLA, Linyzuvs. VOL. Iit. A Fy ae Pipi ryt PS tieg ef adr de Tame Ke . eae Savownmeap ms mao Mi hee ai’ yd i alte lie cag sip s T Seer set bow y haw 50) ‘ ‘ PU nee: te Sue ves ve: gh oi ww te. eux a: ary cae & Pili adechy 2g, Ae, eta rp Plate rei wmv magne nal ahtisp > Bie mF Ve vpehs re * lap & dif ii iJ =: i {sees Raahy te oe Haevare Stayt! ard ian we * ‘g ya Pears ' dhe sts #1 tty “Al rie wliig ai pic ae iz ft Boe i Fie GOR 3 if ie ee Me Rit oe. ay dip arched * ig e4 +. Jtak 2 A ae 4 piwcscniarnat Ayarade «1-4 coil alin ny BaF ) hetiline nag cab! Acree eae nik inf ea} tars tr YIMLOG Te, a saath aus? eyes anys wigs san phoned SFA ae! pee Wy dis 7 % bee say Feiggdaabitinr bc be 1 ANOS ij iaeoils lie. Tether. ~Fukag Une. if de x tee pT ANY 6) Hike minute 4 To sO Be OT hifos OF Gi "Sr, re “4 endl oredy oy dod’ yee? 2 FAMILY XVIL PRESSIROSTRES, Cuvier. GENUS XXXIX.— CHARADRIUS, Linnzvs. SUBGENUS I. —CHARADRIUS, LINNEUS. 193. CHARADRIUS MELODUS, BONAPARTE. CHARADRIUS HIATICULA, WILSON. —RINGED PLOVER. WILSON, PLATE XXXVII. FIG. HI. ADULT. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM, THE ringed plover is very abundant on the low sandy shores of our whole sea coast during summer. They run, or rather seem to glide, rapidly along the surface of the flat sands, frequently spreading out their wings and tail like a fan, and fluttering along, to draw or entice one away from their nests, These are formed with little art, being merely shallow concavities dug ix the sand, in which the eggs are laid, and, during the day at least, left to the influence of the sun to hatch them. The parents, however, always remain near the spot to protect them from injury, and, probably, in cold, rainy, or stormy weather, to shelter them with their bodies. The eggs are three, sometimes four, large for the bird, of a dun clay colour, and marked with nume- rous small spots of reddish purple. _ The voice of these little birds, as they move along the sand, is soft and musical, consisting of a single plaintive note occasionally repeated. As you approach near their nests, they seem to court your attention, and, the moment they think you observe them, they 4 ‘“CHARADRIUS HIATICULA. spread out their wings and tail, ing themselves ong, and imitating the squeaking of young birds; if you turn from them, they immediately resume their proper posture, until they have again caught your eye, when they display the same attempts at deception as before. A flat, dry, sandy beach, just beyond the reach of the summer tides, is their favourite place for breeding. rah fay This species is subject to great variety of change in its plumage,. In the month of July, I found most of those that were breeding on Summers’s Beach, at the mouth of Great Egg Harbour, of a light shade; but, about the beginning or middle of October, they had become much darker above, and their plumage other- wise varied. They were then collected in flocks; their former theatrical and deceptive manceuvres seemed all forgotten. They appeared more active than before, as well as more silent, alighting within a short distance of one, and feeding about without the least appearance of suspicion. At the commencement of winter, they all go off towards the south. This variety of the ringed plover is seven inches long, and fourteen in extent; the bill is reddish yellow for half its length, and black at the extremity; the front and whole lower parts pure white, except the side of the breast, which is marked with a curving streak of black, another spot of black bounding the front above; back and upper parts, very pale brown, inclining to ashy white, and intermixed with white; wi pale brown; greater coverts, broadly tipt with white ; interior edges of the secondaries, and outer edges of the primaries, white, and tipt with brown ; tail, nearly even, the lower half white, brown towards the extremity, the outer feather pure white, the next white with a single spot of black; eye, black, and full, surrounded by a narrow ring of yellow ; legs, reddish yellow ; claws, , lower side of the wings, pure white. RING PLOVER. 5 194, CHARADRIUS SEMIPALMATUS, BONAPARTE, TRINGA HIATICULA, WILSON. — RING PLOVER, WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. III. A BIRD by this name has just been described, under the supposition that it was the ring plover in its summer dress; but which, notwithstanding its great resemblance to the present, I now suspect to be a different species. Fearful of perpetuating error, and anxious to retract, where this may inadvertently have been the case, I shall submit to the consideration of the reader the reasons on which my present suspicions are founded. — The present species, or true ring plover, and also the former, or light coloured bird, both arrive on the sea coast of New Jersey late in April. The present kind continues to be seen in flocks until late in May, when they disappear, on their way farther north; the light coloured bird remains during the summer, forms its nest in the sand, and generally produces two brood in the season. Early in September the present species returns in flocks, as before; soon after this, the light coloured kind go off to the south, but the other remain -a full month later. European writers inform us, that the ring plover has a sharp twittering note; and this account agrees exactly with that of the present: the light coloured species, on the contrary, has a peculiarly soft and musical note, similar to the tone of a German flute, which it utters while running along the sand, with expanded tail and hanging wings, endeavouring to decoy you from its nest. The present species is never seen to breed here; and, though I have opened great numbers of them as late as the 20th of May, the eggs which the females contained were never larger than small bird shot; while, at the same time, the light coloured kind had every where begun to lay in the little cavities which they had dug in the sand on the beach. These facts being considered, it seems difficult 6 CHARADRIUS SEMIPALMATUS. to reconcile such difference of habit in one and the same bird. The ring ne is common in England, and agrees exactly with the one now before us; but the light coloured species, as far as I can learn, is not found in Britain; specimens of it have indeed been taken to that country, where the most judicious of their ornithologists have concluded it to be still the ring ‘plover, but to have changed, from the effect of climate. Mr Pennant, in speaking of the true ri plover, makes the following remarks: “ Almost - which I have seen from the northern parts of North America have had the black marks extremely faint, and almost lost. The climate had almost destroyed the specific marks, yet in the bill and habit preserved sufficient to make the kind very easily ascertained.” These traits agree exactly with the light coloured species just described. But this excellent naturalist was perhaps not aware, that we have the true ring plover here in spring and autumn, agreeing in ever respect with that of Britain, and at least in eq numbers; why, therefore, has not the climate equall affected the present and the former sort, if both are the same species? These inconsistencies cannot be recon- ciled but by supposing each to be a distinct species, which, though approaching extremely near to each other in external appearance, have each their peculiar notes, colour, and places of breeding. The ring plover is seven inches long, and fourteen inches in extent; bill, short, orange coloured, tipt with black ; front and chin, white, encircling the neck; upper part of the breast, black; rest of the lower parts, pure white; fore part of the crown, black ; band from the upper mandible covering the auriculars, also black; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, of a brownish ash colour; wing-quills, dusky black, marked with an oval ‘spot of white about the middle of each; tail, olive, eepening into black, and a6 with white; legs, dull yellow; eye, dark hazel; eyelids, yellow. ; This bird is said to make no nest, but to lay four eggs of a pale ash colour, spotted with black, which she _-) WILSON’S PLOVER. 7 deposits on the ground.* The eggs of the light coloured species, formerly described, are of a pale cream colour, marked with small round dots of black, as if done with @ pen. : The ring plover, according to Pennant, inhabits America down to Jamaica and the Brazils; is found in summer in Greenland; migrates from thence in autumn; is common in every part of Russia and Siberia; was found by the navigators, as low as Owhbyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, and as light coloured as those of the highest latitudes. * 195. cHARADRIUS WILSONIUS, WILSON. — WILSON’S PLOVER. WILSON, PLATE LXXIII. FIG. V. Or this neat and prettily marked species I can find no account, and have concluded that it has hitherto escaped the eye of the naturalist. The bird from which this description was taken, was shot the 13th of May, 1813, on the shore of Cape Island, New Jersey, by my ever-regretted friend; and I have honoured it with his name.{ It was a male, and was accompanied by another of the same sex and a female, all of which were fortu- nately obtained. This bird very much resembles the ring plover, except in the length and colour of the bill, its size, and in wanting the yellow eyelids. The males and females of this species differ in their markings, but the ring plovers nearly agree. We conversed with some sports- men of Cape May, whoasserted that they were acquainted with these birds, and that they sometimes made their appearance in flocks of considerable numbers; others had no knowledge of them. That the species is rare we were well convinced, as we had diligently explored the shore of a considerable part of Cape May, in the vicinity of Great Egg Harbour, many times at different * Bewicx. + Arctic Zoology, p. 485. ¢ This description, from vol. ix. of the original edition, is written by Mr Ord. : 8 CHARADRIUS WILSONIUS. seasons, and had never seen them before. How long they remain on our coast, and where they winter, we are unable to say. From the circumstance of the oviduct of the female being greatly e ed, and containing an egg half grown, apparently within a week of bei ready for exclusion, we concluded that they b there. Their favourite places of resort appear to be the dry sand flats on the sea shore. They utter an agreeable piping note. _ This species is seven inches and three quarters in length, and fifteen and a half in extent; the bill is black, stout, and an inch long, the upper mandible projecting considerably over the lower; front, white, passing on each side to the middle of the eye above, and bounded by a band of black of equal breadth ; lores, black ; eyelids, white; eye, large and dark; from the middle of the eye backwards the stripe of white becomes duller, and extends for half an inch; the crown, hind head, and auriculars, are drab olive ; the chin, throat, and sides of the neck, for an inch, pure white, i uite round the neck, and narrowing to a point behind ; the upper breast below this is marked with a broad kand of jet black; the rest of the lower pe pure white ; upper parts pale olive drab; along the edges of the auriculars and hind head, the plumage, where it joins the white, is stained with raw terra sienna; all the plumage is darkest in the centre; the tertials are fully longer than the primaries, the latter brownish black, the shafts and edges of some of the middle ones white ; secondaries and greater coverts, slightly tipped with white; the legs are of a pale flesh colour; toes bordered with a narrow edge; claws and ends of the toes, black ; the tail is even, a very little longer than the wings, and of a blackish olive colour, with the exception of the two exterior feathers, which are whitish, but generally the two middle ones only are seen. | The female differs in having no black on the forehead, lores, or breast, those parts being pale olive. KILDEER PLOVER: © 9 196. CHARADBIVS YOCIFERUS, LINNXUS AND WILSON. KILDEER PLOVER. WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. VI. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts restless and noisy bird is known to almost every inhabitant of the United States, being a common and pretty constant resident. During the severity of winter, when snow covers the ground, it retreats to the sea shore, where it is found at all seasons; but no sooner have the rivers broke up, than its shrill note is in heard, either roaming about high in air, tracing Gheahank of the river, or running amidst the watery flats and meadows. As spring advances, it resorts to the newly ploughed fields, or level plains bare of grass, interspersed with shallow pools; or, in the vicinity of the sea, dry bare sandy fields. In some such situation it generally chooses to breed, about the beginning of May. The nest is usually slight, a mere hollow, with such materials drawn in around it as happen to be near, such as bits of sticks, straw, pebbles, or earth. In one instance I found the nest of this bird paved with fragments of clam and oyster shells, and very neatly surrounded with a mound or border of the same, placed in a very close and curious manner. In some cases there is no vestige whatever of a nest: The eggs are usually four, of a bright rich cream or yellowish clay colour, thickly marked with blotches of black. They are large for the size of the bird, measuring more than an inch and a half in length, and a full inch in width, tapering to a narrow point at the great end. “eNothing can exceed the alarm and anxiety of these birds during the breeding season. Their cries of hildeer, hildeer, as they winnow the air overhead, dive, and course around you, or run along the ground counter- feiting lameness, are shrill and incessant. The moment they see a person approach, they fly or run to attack him with their harassing clamour, continuing it over 10 CHARADRIUS VOCIFERUS. so wide an extent of ground, that they puzzle the pursuer as to the parti spot where the nest or young are concealed; very much resembling, in this respect, the lapwing of Europe. During the evening, and long after dusk, particularly in moonlight, their cries are frequently heard with equal violence, both in the spring and fall. From this circumstance, and their fiying ‘about both after dusk and before dawn, it appears probable that they see better at such times than most, of ‘their tribe. They are known to feed much on worms, and many of these rise to. the surface during the night. The prowling of owls, may also alarm their fears for their young at those hours: but, whatever may be the cause, the facts are so. The kildeer is more abundant in the Southern States in winter than in summer. Among the rice fields, and even around the planter’s yards, in South Carolina, I ‘observed them very numerous in the months of February and March. There the negro boys frequently practise the barbarous mode of catching them with a line, at the extremity of which is a crooked pin with a worm on it. Their flight is something like that of the tern, but more vigorous; and they sometimes rise to a great height in the air. They are fond of wading in pools of water; and frequently bathe themselves during the summer, They usually stand erect on their legs, and run or walk with.the body in a stiff horizontal position; they run with great swiftness, and are also strong and vigorous in the wings, Their flesh is eaten by some, but is not in general esteem; though others say, that in the fall, when they become very fat, it is excellent... _ During the extreme droughts of summer, these birds resort to the gravelly channel of brooks and shallow streams, where they can wade about in search of aquatic insects : at the close of summer, they generally descend to the sea shore, in small flocks, seldom more than ten or twelve being seen together. They are then more serene and silent, as well as difficult to be approached, The kildeer is ten inches long, and twenty inches in extent; the billis black; frontlet, chin, and ring round => GOLDEN PLOVER. > ll the neck, white; fore part of the crown, and auriculars from the bill backwards, blackish olive ; eyelids, bright scarlet ; eye, very large and of a full black; from the centre of the eye backwards, a stripe of white; round the lower part of the neck is a broad band of black; below that, a band of white, succeeded by another rounding band or crescent of black; rest of the lower ier pure white; crown and hind head, light olive rown; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, olive brown, skirted with brownish yellow; primary quills, black, streaked across the middle with white; bastard win tipt with white; greater coverts, broadly tipt with white; rump and tail-coverts, orange; tail, tapering, dull orange, crossed near the end with a broad bar of black, and tipt with orange, the two middle feathers near an inch longer than the adjoining ones, legs and feet, a pale light clay colour. The tertials, as usual in this tribe, are very long, reaching nearly to the tips of the primaries; exterior toe joined by a membrane to the middle one, as far as the first joint. ; 197. CHARADRIUS PLUVIALIS, LINN EZUS AND WILSON. GOLDEN PLOVER. WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. V. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts beautiful species visits the sea coast of New York and New Jersey in spring and autumn; but does not, as far as I can discover, breed in any part of the United States. They are most frequently met with in the months of September and October; soon after which they disappear. The young birds of the great black-bellied plover are sometimes mistaken for this species. Hence the reason why Mr Pennant remarks his having seen a variety of the golden plover, with black breasts, which he supposed to be the young.* The golden plover is common in the northern parts of Europe. It breeds on high and heathy mountains. The female lays four eggs, of a pale olive colour, varie- * Arctic Zoology, p. 484. 12 CHARADRIUS PLUVIALIS. — with blackish spots. They usually fly in small ocks, and have a shrill whistling note. They are very frequent in Siberia, where they likewise breed ; extend x We to Kamtschatka, and as far south as the Sandwich Isles. In this latter place, Mr Pennant remarks, “ they are very small.” Although these birds are occasionally found along our sea coast, from Georgia to Maine, yet they are no where numerous; and I have never met with them in the interior. Our mountains being generally covered with forest, and no species of heath having, as yet, been discovered within the boundaries of the United States, these birds are probably induced to seek the more remote arctic regions of the continent to breed and rear their young in, where the country is more open, and unencumbered with woods. The golden plover is ten inches and a half long, and twenty-one inches in extent; bill, short, of a dusky slate colour; eye, very large, blue black; nostrils, placed in a deep furrow, and half covered with a pro- minent membrane; whole upper parts, black, thickly marked with roundish spots of various tints of golden yellow; wing-coverts and hind part of the neck, pale brown, the latter streaked with yellowish ; front, broad line over the eye, chin and sides of the same, yellowish white, streaked with small pointed spots of brown olive; breast, grey, with olive and white ; sides, under the wings, marked thinly with transverse bars of pale olive; belly and vent, white; wing-quills, black, the middle of the shafts marked with white; greater coverts, black, tipt with white; tail, rounded, black, barred with triangular spots of golden yellow; | dark dusky slate ; feet, three-toed, with generally the slight rudiments of a heel, the outer toe connected as far as the first joint with the middle one. The male and female differ very little in colour. BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 13 SUBGENUS II. —SQUATAROLA, CUVIER. 198. CHARADRIVS HELVETICUS, BONAPARTE. _ CHARADRIUS 4PRICARIUS, WILSON. — BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. “WILSON, PLATE LVIl. FIG. IV. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. _ Tuts bird is known in some parts of the country by the name of the large whistling field plover. It gene- rally makes its first appearance in Pennsylvania late in April; frequents the countries towards the mountains; seems particularly attached to newly ploughed fields, where it forms its nest of a few slight materials, as slightly put together. The female lays four eggs, large for the size of the bird, of a light olive colour dashed with black; and has frequently two brood in the same season. It is an extremely shy and watchful bird, though clamorous during breeding time. The young are without the black colour on the breast and belly until the second year, and the colours of the plumage aboye are likewise imperfect till then. They feed on worms, grubs, winged insects, and various kinds of berries, particularly those usually called dew-berries, and are at such times considered exquisite eating. About the beginning of September, they descend wit their young to the sea coast, and associate with the numerous multitudes then returning from their breeding places in the north. At this season they abound on the plains of Long Island. They have a loud whistling note; often fly at a great height; and are called by many gunners along the coast the black-bellied kildeer. The young of the first year have considerable resemblance to those of the golden plover ; but may be easily distinguished from this last by the largeness of their head and bill, and in being at least. two inches more in length. The greater number of those which I have examined have the rudiments of a hind toe; but the character and manners of the plover are so conspi- cuous in the bird, as to determine, at the first glance, 14 CHARADRIUS HELVETICUS. the tribe it belongs to. They continue about the sea coast until early in November, when they move off to the south. This same bird, Mr Pennant informs us, inhabits all the north of Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and Hudson’s Bay, and all the arctic part of Siberia. It is said, that at Hudson’s Bay it is called the hawk’s-eye, on account of its brilliancy. It appears, says the same author, in Greenland, in the spring, about the southern lakes, and feeds on worms and berries of the heath. This species is twelve inches long, and twenty-four inches in extent; the bill is thick, deeply grooved on the upper mandible, an inch and a quarter in length, and of a black colour; the head and globe of the eye are both remarkably large, the latter deep bluish black; forehead, white; crown and hindhead, black, spotted with golden yellow; back and scapulars, dusky, sprinkled with the same golden or orange coloured spots, mixed with‘others of white; breast, belly, and vent, black; sides of the breast, whitish; wing-quills, black; middle of the shafts, white; greater coverts, black, tipt with white; lining of the wing, black; tail, regularly barred with blackish and pure white; tail coverts, pure white; legs and feet, a dusky lead colour; the exterior toe joined to the middle by a broad membrane; hind toe very small. rom the length of time which these birds take to acquire their full colours, they are found in very various stages of plumage. The breast and belly are at first white, gradually appea mottled with black, and finally become totally black. The spots of orange, or golden, on the crown, hindhead, and back, are at first white, and sometimes even the breast itself is marked with these spots, mingled among the black. In every stage the seemingly disproportionate size of the head, and thickness of the bill, will distinguish this species. TURNSTONE. 15 GENUS XL.—STREPSILAS, Wiicer. 199. STREPSILAS IN TERPRES, ILLIG.—TRINGA INTERPRES, WILS- TURNSTONE. WILSON, PLATE LVII. FIG. I.—-EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. - Tuts beautifully variegated species is common to both Europe and America ; consequently extends its migra~ tions far to the north. It arrives from the south on the shores of New Jersey in April; leaves them early in June ; is seen on its return to the south in October; and continues to be occasionally seen until the com- mencement of cold weather, when it disappears for the season. It is rather a scarce species in this part of the world, and of a solitary disposition, seldom mingling among the large flocks of other sandpipers ; but either coursing the sands alone, or in company with two or three of its own species. On the coast of Cape May and Egg Harbour, this bird is well known by the name of the horse-foot snipe, from its living, during the months of May and June, almost wholly on the eggs or spawn of the great king crab, called here by the common people the horse-foot. This animal is the monoculus polyhemus of entomologists. Its usual size is from twelve to fifteen inches in breadth, by two feet in length; though sometimes it is found much larger, The head, or forepart, is semicircular, and convex above, covered with a thin, elastic, shelly case. . The lower side is concave, where it is furnished with feet and claws resembling those of a crab. The posterior extremity consists of a long, hard, pointed, dagger-like tail, by means of which, when overset by the waves, the animal turns itself on its belly again. The male may be distinguished from the female by his two large claws having only a single hook each, instead of the forceps of the female. In the bay of Delaware, below Egg Island, and in what is usually called Maurice River Cove, these creatures seem to have formed one of their principal settlements, The bottom of this cove 16 STREPSILAS INTERPRES. is generally a soft mud, extremely well suited to their accommodation. Here they are resident, burying them- selves in the mud during the winter; but, early in the month of May, they approach the shore in multitudes, to obey the great law of nature, in depositing their eggs within the influence of the sun, and are then very troublesome to the fishermen, who can scarcely draw a seine for them, they are so numerous. Being of slow motion, and easily overset by the surf, their dead bodies cover the shore in heaps, and in such numbers, that for ten miles one might walk on them without touching the ground. The hogs from the neighbouring country are larly driven down, every spring, to feed on them, which they do with great avidity ; though by this kind of food their flesh acquires a strong disagreeable fishy taste. Even the small turtles, or terrapins, so eagerly rht after by our epicures, contract so rank a taste by feeding on the spawn of the king crab, as to be at such times altogether unpalatable. This spawn may sometimes be seen lying in hollows and eddies in bushels, while the snipes and sandpipers, particularly the turnstone, are hovering about feasting on the delicious fare. The dead bodies of the animals themselves are hauled u in wagons for manure, and when placed at the hi of corn, in planting time, are said to enrich the soil, and add greatly to the increase of the crop. The turnstone derives its name from another si larity it possesses, of turning over with its bill small stones and pebbles, in search of various marine worms and insects. At this sort of work it is exceedingl dexterous; and, even when taken and domesticated, % said to retain the same habit.* Its bill seems particu- larly well constructed for this purpose, differing from _ all the rest of its tribe, and very much resembling in shape that of the common nuthatch. We learn from Mr Pennant that these birds inhabit Hudson’s Bay, Greenland, and the arctic flats of Siberia, where they * Caruspy. TURNSTONE. + 17 breed, wandering southerly in autumn. It is said to build on the ground, and to lay four eggs, of an olive colour, spotted with black, and to inhabit the isles of | the Baltic during summer, . _ The turnstone flies with a loud twittering note, and runs with its wings lowered ; but not with the rapidity of others of its tribe. It examines more completely the same spot of ground, and, like some of the woodpeckers, will remain searching in the same place, tossing the stones and pebbles from side to side for a considerable time. These birds vary greatly in colour; scarcely two indiyiduals are to be found alike in markings, . These varieties are most numerous in autumn when the young birds are about, and are less frequently met with in spring. The most perfect specimens I have examined are as follows: | : Length eight inches and a half, extent seventeen inches; bill, blackish horn; frontlet, space passing through the eyes, and thence dropping down and joining the under mandible, black, enclosing a spot of white. Crown, white, streaked with black; breast, black, from whence it turns up half across the neck; behind the eye, a spot of, black; upper part of the neck, white, running down and skirting the black breast as far as the shoulder; upper part of the back, black, divided by a strip of bright ferruginous; scapulars, black, glossed with greenish, and interspersed with rusty red; whole back below this, pure white, but hid by the, scapulars; rump, black; tail-coverts, white ; tail, rounded, white at the base half, thence black to the extremity; belly and vent, white; wings, dark dusky, crossed by two bands of white; lower half of the lesser coverts, ferruginous ; legs and feet, a bright - vermilion, or red lead; hind toe, standing inwards, and all of them edged with a thick warty membrane. The male and female are alike variable ; and when in perfect plumage nearly resemble each other. . Bewick, in his History of British Birds, has figured and described what he considers to be two species of VOL. Il. B 18 HEMATOPUS OSTRALEGUS. turnstone; one of which, he says, is chiefly confined to the southern, and the other to the northern parts of Great Britain. The difference, however, between these two appears to be no greater than commonly occurs among individuals of the same flock, and evidently of the same species, in this country. As several years probably elapse before these birds arrive at their com- plete state of plumage, “gr Bmp must necessarily Psa according to the different ages of the indi- vi : GENUS XLL— HZMATOPUS, Linnzvs. 200. HA:MATOPUS OSTRALEGUS, LINNZUS AND WILSON, PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. WILSON, PLATE LXIV. FIG. Il. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM, Tuts singular species, although nowhere numerous, inhabits almost every sea shore, both on the new and old continent, but is never found inland. It is the only one of its genus hitherto discovered, and, from the conformation of some of its parts, one might almost be led by fancy to suppose, that it had borrowed the eye of the pheasant, the legs and feet of the bustard, and the bill of the woodpecker. The oyster-catcher frequents the sandy sea beach of New Jersey, and other parts of our Atlantic coast in summer, in small parties of two or three pairs together. They are extremely shy, and, except about the season of breeding, will seldom permit a person to approach within gunshot. They walk along the shore ina watchful, stately manner, at times ~~ it with their long wedge-like bills, in search of small shell fish. This appears evident, on examining the hard sands where ve usually resort, which are found thickly perforated _ with oblong holes two or three inches in a th. The small crabs called fiddlers, that burrow in the mud at the bottom of inlets, are frequently the prey of the oyster-catcher ; as are muscles, spout-fish, and a variety of other shell fish and sea insects with which those shores abound, PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 19 The principal food, however, of this bird, according to European writers, and that from which it derives its name, is the oyster, which it is said to watch for, and snatch suddenly from the shells, whenever it surprises them sufficiently open. In search of these, it is reported that it often frequents the oyster beds, looking out for the slightest opening through which it may attack its unwary prey. For this purpose the form of its bill seems very fitly calculated. Yet the truth of these accounts are doubted by the inhabitants of Egg Harbour, and other parts of our coast, who positively assert, that it never haunts such places, but confines itself almost solely to the sands: and this opinion I am inclined to believe correct ; having myself uniformly found these birds on the smooth beach bordering the ocean, and on the higher, dry, and level sands, just beyond the reach of the summer tides. On this last situation, where the dry flats are thickly interspersed with drifted shells, I have repeatedly found their nests, between the middle and 25th of May. The nest itself is a slight hollow in the sand, containing three eggs, somewhat. less than those of a hen, and nearly of the same shape, of a bluish cream colour, marked with large roundish spots of black, and others of a fainter tint.. In some, the ground cream colour is destitute of the bluish tint, the blotches larger, and of a deep brown. The young are hatched about the 25th of May, and sometimes earlier, having myself caught them running along the beach about that period. They are at first covered with down of a grayish colour, very much resembling that of the sand, and marked with a streak of brownish black on the back, rump, and neck, the breast being dusky, where in the old ones it is black. The bill is at that age slightly bent downwards at the tip, where, like most other young birds, it has a hard protuberance that _assists them in breaking the shell; but in a few days afterwards this falls off.* These run along the shore with great ease and swiftness, * Latham observes, that the young are said to be hatched in about three weeks; and though they are wild when in flocks, yet 20 HEMATOPUS OSTRALEGUS. The female sits on her eggs only during the night, or in remarkably cold wind | tater aia at ms times the heat of the sun and of the sand, which is sometimes great, renders incubation unnecessary, But although this is the case, she is not deficient in care or affection. She watches the spot with an attachment, anxiety, and perseverance, that are really surprising, till the time arrives when her little offspring burst their risons, and follow the guiding voice of their mother, ‘When there is appearance of danger, they squat on the sand, from which they are with difficulty distinguished, while the parents make large circuits around the intruder, alighting sometimes on this hand, sometimes on that, uttering repeated cries, and practising the common affectionate stratagem of counterfeited lame- ness, to allure him from their young. ‘ysld These birds run and fly with great vigour and velocity. Their note is a loud and shrill whistling wheep-wheep- wheo, smartly uttered. A flock will often rise, descend, and wheel in air with remarkable regularity, as, if drilled to the business, the glittering white of their wings at such times being very conspicuous. They are ‘more remarkable for this on their first arrival in the spring. Some time ago, I received a stuffed specimen of the oyster-catcher, from a gentleman of Boston, an experienced sportsman, who, nevertheless was. unac- quainted with this bird. He informed me, that two very old men to whom it was shewn called it a hagdel. He adds, “ it was shot from a flock, which was first . discovered on the beach near the entrance of Bosten Harbour. On the approach of the gunner, they rose, and instantly formed in line, like a corps of troops, and advanced in perfect order, keeping well dressed. They made a number of circuits in the air previous to being shot at, but wheeled in line; and the man whe fire are easily brought up tame, if taken young. ‘‘I have known them,” says he, * to be thus kept for a long time, Pe re ponds and ditches during the day, attending the ducks and poultry to shelter of nights, and not unfrequently to come up of themselves ; as evening approaches.” — General Synopsis, vol. iil; Pp, 220, © I ees ta oe . PIED OYSTER-CATCHER, © 21 into the flock, observed that all their evolutions were ‘like a regularly organized military company.” ' The oyster-catcher will not only take to the water ‘when wounded, but can also swim and dive well. This fact I can assert from my own observation, the exploits of one of them in this way having nearly cost me my life. On the sea beach of Cape May, not far from a deep and rapid inlet, I broke the wing of one of these ‘birds, and being without a dog, instantly pursued it towards the inlet, which it made for with great rapidity. We both plunged in nearly at the same instant ; but the ‘bird eluded my grasp, and I sunk beyond my depth ; it “was not until this moment that I recollected having carried in my gun along with me. On rising to the Surface, I found the bird had dived, and a strong ebb current was carrying me fast towards the ocean, encumbered with a gun and all my shooting apparatus ; .I was compelled to relinquish my bird, and to make for the shore, with considerable mortification, and the total destruction of the contents of my powder horn. The wounded bird afterwards rose, and swam with great buoyancy out among the breakers. ' The same day, I shot and examined three individuals of this species, two of which measured each eighteen inches in length, and thirty-five inches in extent; the other was somewhat less. The bills varied in length, measuring three inches and three quarters, three and a half, and three and a quarter, thinly compressed at the point, very much like that of the woodpecker tribe, but remarkably narrowed near the base where the nostrils are placed, probably that it may work with more freedom in the sand. This instrument for two-thirds of its length towards the point, was evidently much worn by digging; its colour, a rich orange scarlet, somewhat yellowish near the tip; eye, large, orbits, of the same bright scarlet as the bill, irides, brilliant yellow, pupil, small, bluish black; under the eye, is a small spot of white, and a large bed of the same on the wing- coverts; head, neck, scapulars, rump, wing-quills, and tail, black; several of the primaries are marked on the 22 HE MATOPUS OSTRALEGUS. outer vanes with a slanting band of white ; secondaries, white, rip of them tipt with black; the whole lower parts of the body, sides of the rump, tail-coverts, and that portion of the tail which they cover, are pure white; the wings, when shut, cover the whole white plumage of the back and rump; legs and naked part of the thighs, TW red; feet, three-toed, the outer joined to the middle by a broad and strong membrane, and each bordered with a rough warty edge; the soles of the feet are defended from the hard sand and shells by a remarkably thick and callous warty skin. On opening these birds, the smallest of the three was found to bea male; the gullet widened into a kind of crop; the stomach, or gizzard, contained fragments of shell fish, pieces of crabs, and of the great king crab, with some dark brown marine insects., The flesh was remarkably firm and muscular, the skull, thick and’ strong, intended, no doubt, as in the woodpecker tribe, for the security of the brain from the violent concussions it might receive while the bird was engaged in digging. The female and young birds have the back and scapulars of a sooty brownish olive. . This species is found as far south as Cayenne and Surinam. Dampier met with it on the coast of New Holland; the British circumnavigators also saw it on Van Diemen’s’ Land, Terra del Fuego, and New Zealand. a en) ee os el + FAMILY XVIII. AERODIAL, i111cer,. GENUS XLIL— GRUS. 201. GRUS AMERICANA, BONAP. —ARDEA AMERICANA, WILSON. WHOOPING CRANE. WILSON, PLATE LXIV. FIG,» Ills Tuis is the tallest and most stately species of all the feathered tribes of the United States; the watchful inhabitant of extensive salt marshes, desolate swamps, and open morasses in the neighbourhood of the sea. Its migrations are regular, and of the most extensive kind, reaching from the shores and inundated tracts of South America to the arctic circle. In these immense perio- dical journeys, they pass at such a prodigious height in the air as to be seldom observed. They have, however, their resting stages on the route te and from their usual breeding places, the regions of the north. A few some- times make their appearance in the marshes of Cape May, in December, particularly on and near Egg Island, where they are known by the name of storks. The younger birds are easily distinguished from the rest by the brownness of their plumage. Some linger in these marshes the whole winter, setting out north about the time the ice breaks up. During their stay, they wander along the marsh and muddy flats of the sea shore in search of marine worms, sailing occasionally from place to place, with a low and heavy flight, a little above the surface; and have at such times a very formidable appearance. At times they utter a loud, clear, and piercing cry, which may be heard at the distance of two miles. They have also various modulations of this singular note, from the peculiarity of which they 94 GRUS AMERICANA. derive their name. When wounded, they attack the nner, or his dog, with great resolution; and have een known to drive their sharp and formidable bill, at one stroke through a man’s hand. During winter,.they are frequently seen in the low grounds and rice plantations of the Southern States, in search of grain and insects. On the 10th of February, I met with several near the Waccamau river, in South Carolina ; I also saw a flock at the ponds near Louisville, Kentucky, on the 20th of March. They are extremely po and vigilant, so that it is with the greatest ifficulty they can be shot. They sometimes rise in the air spirally te a great height, the mingled noise of their screaming, even when they are almost beyond the reach of sight, resembling that of a pack of hounds in full cry. On these occasions, they fly around in large circles, as if reconnoitring the country to a vast extent for a fresh quarter to feed in. Their flesh is said to be well tasted, nowise savouring of fish. They swallow mice, moles, rats, &c. with great avidity. They build their nests on the ground, in tussocks of long amidst solitary swamps, raise it to more than a foot in height, and lay two pale blue eggs, spotted with brown. These are much larger, and of a more lengthened ‘form than those of the common hen. The cranes are distinguished from the other families of their genus by the comparative baldness of their heads, the broad flag of plumage projecting over the tail, and in general by their superior size. They also ‘differ in their internal organization from all the rest of ‘the heron tribe, particularly in the conformation of the windpipe, which enters the breast-bone in a cavity fitted to receive it, and after several turns goes out again at the same place, and thence descends to the lungs. Unlike the herons, they have not the inner side of the middle claw pectinated, and, in this species at — the hind toe is short, scarcely reaching the ound, ae" The vast marshy flats of Siberia are inhabited by a ‘erane yery much resembling the present, with the ——— “WHOOPING CRANE. 95 exception of the bill and legs being red; like those of the present, the year old birds are said also to be tawny. It is highly probable that the species described by naturalists as the brown crane (ardea Canadensis,) is nothing more than the young of the whooping crane, their descriptions exactly corresponding with the latter. In a flock of six or eight, three or four are usually of that tawny or reddish brown tint on the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts; but are evidently yearlings of the whooping crane, and differ in nothing but in that and size from the others. They are generally five or six inches shorter, and the primaries are of a brownish cast. The whooping crane is four feet six inches in length, from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and, when standing erect, measures nearly five feet ; the bill is six inches long, and an inch and a half in thickness, straight, extremely sharp, and of a yellowish brown colour; the irides are yellow; the forehead, whole crown, and cheeks, are covered with a warty skin, thinly interspersed with black hairs; these become more thickly set towards the base of the bill; the hind- head is of an ash colour ; the rest of the plumage, pure white, the primaries excepted, which are black; from the root of each wing rise numerous large flowing feathers projecting over the tail and tips of the wings ; the uppermost of these are broad, drooping, and pointed at the extremities, some of them are also loosely -webbed, their silky fibres curling inwards, like those of the ostrich. They seem to occupy the place of the tertials. The legs and naked part of the thighs are ‘black, very thick and strong ; the hind toe seems rarely or never to reach the hard ground, though it may _probably assist in preventing the bird from sinking too ‘deep in the mire. 26 ARDEA HERODIAS. GENUS XLV.— ARDEA, Linnaus. . SUBGENUS I.—ARDEA, 202. ARDEA HEROD1AS, LINN. AND WILSON. — GREAT HERON. WILSON, PLATE LXV. FIG. Ll. Tue history of this large and elegant bird having been long involved in error and obscurity,* I have taken more than common pains to present a faithful description of it, and every fact and authentic parti- cular relative to its manners, which may be necessary to the elucidation of the subject. The great heron is a constant inhabitant. of the Atlantic. coast, from New York to Florida; in deep snows and severe weather seeking the open springs of the cedar and cypress swamps, and the muddy inlets occasionally saaared. by the tides. On the higher inland pari of the country, beyond the mountains, they are -less numerous; and one which was shot in the upper parts of New Hampshire, was described to me as a great curiosity. Many of their breeding places occur in both Carolinas, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea. In the lower parts of New Jersey, they have also their favourite places for building, and rearing their young. These are generally in the gloomy solitudes of the tallest cedar swamps, where, if. unmolested, they continue annuall to breed for many years, These swamps are from a mile to a mile in breadth, and.sometimes five or .six in length, and appear as if they occupied the former channel of some choked up river, stream, lake, or arm * Latham says of this species, that “ all the upper parts of the body, the belly, tail, and mis are brown ;” and tite description has been repeated by every pee compiler. Buffon, with his - usual eloquent absurdity, describes the heron as “ exhibiting the picture of wretchedness, anxiety, and indigence; condemned to struggle perpetually with misery and want; sickened with the restless cravings of a famished appetite ;” a description so ridi- culously untrue, that, were it possible for these birds to comprehend it, it would excite the risibility of the whole tribe. GREAT HERON.: 27 of the sea. The appearance they present to a stranger is singular. A front of tall and perfectly straight trunks, rising to the height of fifty or sixty feet without a limb, _ and crowded in every direction, their tops so closely _ woven together as to shut out the day, spreading the gloom of a perpetual twilight below. On a nearer approach, they are found to rise out of the water, which, from the impregnation of the fallen leaves and roots of the cedars, is of the colour of brandy. Amidst this bottom of congregated springs, the ruins of the former forest lie piled in every state of confusion. The roots, prostrate logs, and, in many places, the water, are covered with green mantling moss, while an under- growth of laurel, fifteen or twenty feet high, intersects every opening so completely, as to render a passage through laborious and harassing beyond description ; at every step, you either sink to the knees, clamber over fallen timber, squeeze yourself through between the stubborn laurels, or plunge to the middle in ponds made by the uprooting of large trees, and which the green moss concealed from observation. In calm weather, the silence of death reigns in these dreary regions; a few interrupted rays of light shoot across the gloom ; and unless for the occasional hollow screams of the herons, and the melancholy chirping of one or two species of small birds, all is silence, solitude, and desolation. When a breeze rises, at first it sighs mournfully through the tops; but as the gale increases, the tall mast-like cedars wave like fishing poles, and rubbing against each other, produce a variety of singular noises, that, with the help of a little imagination, resemble shrieks, groans, growling of bears, wolves, and such like comfortable music. _ _ On the tops of the tallest of these cedars the herons construct their nests, ten or fifteen pair sometimes occupying a particular part of the swamp. The nests are large, formed of sticks, and lined with smaller twigs; each occupies the top of a single tree. The eggs are generally four, of an oblong pointed form, larger than those of a hen, and of a light greenish blue, withou, 98 ARDEA HERODIAS. any spots. The young are produced about the middle of May, and remain on the trees until they are full as heavy as the old ones, being extremely fat, before they are able to fly. They breed but once in the seasom If disturbed in their breeding place, the old birds fly occasionally over the spot, sometimes honking like a goose, sometimes uttering a coarse hollow grunting noise, like that of a hog, but much louder. The great heron is said to be fat at the full moon, and lean at its decrease ; this might be accounted for by the fact of their fishing regularly by moonlight through the greater part of the night, as well as during the day; but the observation is not universal, for at ‘such times I have found some lean, as well as others : fat. The ka Se said to be excellent for the table, and even the old birds, when in good order, and properly ‘cooked, are esteemed by many. | The principal food of the great heron is fish, for ‘which he watches with the most unwearied patience, and seizes them with surprising dexterity. At the edge of the river, pond, or sea shore, he stands fixed and motionless, sometimes for hours together. But his stroke is as quick as thought, and sure as fate, to the ‘first luckless fish that approaches within his reach; these he sometimes beats to death, and always swallows head foremost, such being their uniform position in the stomach. He is also an excellent mouser, and of great service to our meadows, in destroying the short-tailed or meadow mouse, so injurious to the banks. He also feeds eagerly on grasshoppers, various winged insects, particularly dragon flies, which he is very expert at striking, and also eats the seeds of that species of he ta usually called splatterdocks, so abundant along ‘our fresh water ponds and rivers. The heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes very high, and to a great distance ; ‘his neck doubled, his head drawn in, and his long legs stretched out ina right line behind him, appearing like a tail, and, at , serving the same rudder-like office. When e leaves the sea coast, and traces, on wing, the courses a - GREAT HERON. 29 of the creeks or riversupwards, he is saidjto prognosticate rain; when downwards, dry weather. He is most jealously vigilant and watchful of man, so that those who wish to succeed in shooting the heron, must approach him entirely unseen, and by stratagem, The same inducements, however, for his destruction, do not prevail here as in Europe. Our sea shores and rivers are free to all for the amusement of fishing. Luxury has not yet constructed her thousands of fish ponds, and surrounded them with steel traps, spring guns, and heron snares.* In our vast fens, meadows, and sea marshes, this stately bird roams at pleasure, feasting on the never failing magazines of frogs, fish, seeds, and insects, with which they abound, and of which he, probably, considers himself the sole lord and proprietor. i have several times seen the bald eagle attack and tease the great heron; but whether for sport, or to make him disgorge his fish, I am uncertain. “~ The common heron of Europe hat dee major) very much resembles the present, which might, as usual, _ * & The heron,” says an English writer, ‘* is a very great devourer of fish, and does more mischief in a pond than an otter. ‘People who have kept herons, have had the curiosity to number the fish they feed them with into a tub of water, and counting them again afterwards, it has. been found that they will eat up. fey t in “moderate dace and roaches in a day. It has been found, t carp ponds visited by this bird, one heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a year; and will hunt them so close, as to let very few escape. The readiest method of destroyiug this mischievous bird, is by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with a baited hook. When the haunt of the heron is found out, three or four small roach, or dace, are to be procured, and each of them is to be baited on a wire, with a strong hook at the end, entering the wire just at the gills, and letting it run just under the skin to the tails the fish will live in this manner for five or six days, which isa very “essential thing; for if it be dead, the heron will not touch it. -A strong line is then to be prepared of silk and wire twisted together, and is to be about two yards long; tie this to the wire ‘that holds the hook, and to the other end of it there is to be tied a stone of about a pound weight; let three or four of these baits’ be -sunk in different shallow parts of the pond, and, in a night or two’s (time, the heron will not fail to be taken with one or other of 30 ARDEA HERODIAS. have probably been ranked as the original stock, of which the present was a mere degenerated species, were it not that the American is greatly superior, in size and weight, to the European species, the former measuring four feet four invhes, and weighing upwards of seven pounds; the latter, three feet three inches, and rarely weighing more than four pounds. Yet, with the exception of size, and the rust coloured thighs of the present, they are extremely alike. The common heron of Europe, however, is not an inhabitant of the United States. The great heron does not receive his full pl during the first season, nor until the summer of the second. In the first season, the young birds are entirely destitute of the white plumage of the crown, and the long pointed feathers of the back, shoulders, and breast, In this dress I have frequently shot them in autumn, But in the third year, both males and females have assumed their complete dress, and, contrary to all the European accounts which I have met with, both are then so nearly alike in colour and markings, as scarcely to be distinguished from each other, both having the long flowing crest, and all the ornamental white pointed lumage of the back and breast. Indeed, this sameness in the plumage of the males and females, when arrived at their perfect state, is a characteristic of the whole of the genus with which I am acquainted. Whether it be different with those of Europe, or that the young and imperfect birds have been hitherto mistaken for females, I will not pretend to say, though I think the latter conjecture highly probable, as the night raven (ardea nycticoraz) been known in Europe for several centuries, and yet, in all their accounts, the sameness of the colours and plumage of the male and female of that bird, is nowhere mentioned ; on the contrary, the young or yearling bird has been universally described as the female. On the 18th of May I examined, both externally and by dissection, five specimens of the great heron, all in complete plumage, killed in a cedar swamp near the GREAT HERON. 31 head of Tuckahoe river, in Cape May county, New Jersey. In this case, the females could not be mistaken, as some of the eggs were nearly ready for exclusion. Length of the great heron, four feet four inches from the point of the bill to the end of the tail; and to the bottom of the feet, five feet four inches; extent, six feet; bill, eight inches long, and one inch anda quarter in width, of a yellow colour, in some blackish on the ridge, extremely sharp at the point, the edges also sharp, and slightly serrated near the extremity ; space round the eye, from the nostril, a light purplish blue; irides, orange, brightening into yellow where they join the pupil; forehead and middle of the crown, white, passing over the eye; sides of the crown and hindhead, deep slate, or bluish black, and elegantly erested, the two long, tapering, black feathers, being full eight inches in length; chin, cheeks, and sides of the head, white for several inches ; throat, white, thickly streaked with double rows of black; rest of the neck, brownish ash, from the lower part of which shoot a great number of long, narrow pointed, white feathers, that spread over the breast, and reach nearly to the thighs; under these long plumes, the breast itself, and middle of the belly, are of a deep blackish slate, the latter streaked with white; sides, blue ash; vent, white; thighs and ridges of the wings, a dark purplish rust colour; whole upper parts of the wings, tail, and body, a fine light ash, the latter ornamented with a profusion of long, narrow, white, tapering feathers, originating on the shoulders or upper part of the back, and falling gracefully over the wings; primaries, very dark slate, nearly black ; naked thighs, brownish yellow ; legs, brownish black, tinctured with yellow, and netted with seams of whitish; in some, the legs are nearly black. Little difference could be perceived between the plumage of the males and females; the latter were rather less, and the long pointed plumes of the back were not quite so abundant. The young birds of the first year have the whole upper part of the head of ‘a slate; want the Tom, 32 ARDEA ALBA. _ , plumes of the breast and back ; and have the body, 4 and lesser coverts of the wings, considerably tinged — with ferruginous. ape On dissection, the gullet was found of great width, from the mouth to the stomach, which has not the two strong muscular coats that form the gizzard of some birds; it was more loose, of considerable and uniform thickness throughout, and — of containing nearly. a pint; it was entirely filled with fish, among whic were some small eels, all placed head downwards; the intestines measured nine feet in length, were scarcely as thick as a goose-quill, and incapable of being dis- tended ; so that the vulgar story of the heron swallowing eels, which, passing suddenly through him, are repeatedly swallowed, is absurd and impossible, On the external coat of the stomach of one of these birds, opened soon after being shot, something like a blood-vessel lay in several meandering folds, enveloped in a membrane, and closely adhering to the surface. On carefully opening this membrane, it was found to contain a large, roun living worm, eight inches in length; another, of like length, was found coiled, in the same manner, on another part of the external coat. It may also be worthy of notice, that the intestines of the young birds of the first season, killed in the month of October, when they were nearly as large as the others, measured only six feet four or five inches; those of the full grown ones, from eight to nine feet in length, ; if 203. ARDEA ALBA, LINNZUS.—ARDEA EGRETTA, WILSON. _ GREAT WHITE HERON, WILSON, PLATE LXI. FIG, IV. _ Tuts tall and elegant bird, though often seen, during the summer, in our low marshes and inundated meadows, yet, on account of its extreme vigilance and watchful timidity, is very difficult to be procured. — Its principal residence is in the regions of the south, being found from Guiana, and ptobably: beyond the line, to New ee GREAT WHITE HERON. 33° “York. It enters the territories of the United States late in February; this I conjecture from having first met with it in the southern parts of Georgia about that .) time. The high inland parts of the country it rarely or never visits ; its favourite haunts are vast inundated swamps, rice fields, the low marshy shores of rivers, and such like places; where, from its size and colour it is very conspicuous, even at a great distance. ) -* The appearance of this bird, during the first season, when it is entirely destitute of the long flowing plumes ef the back, is so different from the same bird in its perfect plumage, which it obtains in the third year, that naturalists and others very generally consider them as two distinct species. The opportunities which I have fortunately had of observing them with the train in various stages of its progress, from its first appearance to its full growth, satisfies me that the great white heron with, and that without, the long plumes, are one and the same species, in different periods of age. In the museum of my friend, Mr Peale, there is a specimen of this bird, in which the train ,is wanting; but on a closer examination, its rudiments are plainly to be perceived, extending several inches beyond the common plumage. _ The great white heron breeds in several of the extensive cedar swamps in the lower parts of New Jersey. Their nests are built on the trees, in societies ; the structure and materials exactly similar to those of the snowy heron, but larger. The eggs are usually four, of a pale blue colour. In the months of July and August the young make their first appearance in the meadows and marshes, in parties of twenty or thirty together. The large ditches with which the extensive meadows below Philadelphia are intersected, are regu- larly, about that season, visited by flocks of those birds; these are frequently shot, but the old ones are too sagacious to be easily approached. Their food consists of frogs, lizards, small fish, insects, seeds of the splatterdock, (a species of nymphz,) and small water snakes. They will also devour mice and moles, the VOL, III, c 2 34 ARDEA ALBA, : remains of such having been at different times found ah their stomachs. | A The long plumes of these birds have at various — i been in great request on the continent of | urope, particularly in France and Italy, for the purpose of ornamenting the female head-dress. When dyed of * various colours, and tastefully fashioned, they form a light and elegant duster and mosquitoe brush, The Indians prize them for ornamenting their hair, or to knot; and I have occasionally observed these peop wandering through the market-place of New Orleans with bunches of those feathers for sale. The great white heron measures five feet from the extremities of the wings, and three feet six inches from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail; the train extends seven or eight inches farther. This train is composed of a great number of long, thick, tapering shafts, mace from the lower part of the shoulders, and thinly furnished on each side with fine flowing hair- like threads, of several inches in length, covering the lower part of the back, and falling gracefully over the tail, which it entirely conceals, The whole plumage is of a snowy whiteness, except the train, which is slightly tinged with yellow. The bill is nearly six inches in length, ofa rich orange yellow, tipt with black ; irides, a paler orange; pupil, small, giving the bird a sharp and piercing aspect; the legs are long, stout, and of a black colour, as is the bare space of four inches above the knee ; the span of the foot measures = hye of six inches; the inner edge of the middle claw is pectinated; the exterior and middle toes are united at the base, for about half an inch, by a membrane. The articulations of the vertebre are remarkably long; the intestines measure upwards of eight feet, and are very narrow. The male and female are alike in a ; both, when of full age, haying the train equally ong. 4 SNOWY HERON. 35 204. ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA, GMELIN AND WILSON. SNOWY HERON. WILSON, PLATE LXII. FIG. IV. _ Tuts elegant species inhabits the sea coast of North America, from the Isthmus of Darien to the Gulf of St Lawrence, and is, in the United States, a bird of passage; arriving from the south early in April, and leaving the middle States again in October. Its general appearance, resembling so much that of the little egret of Europe, has, I doubt not, imposed on some of the naturalists of that country, as I confess it did on me.* From a more careful comparison, however, of both birds, I am satisfied that they are two entirely different and distinct species. These differences consist in the large flowing crest, yellow feet, and singularly curled plumes of the back of the present; it is also nearly double the size of the European species. The snowy heron seems particularly fond of the salt marshes during summer, seldom penetrating far inland, Its white plumage renders it a very conspicuous object, either while on wing, or while wading the meadows or marshes. Its food consists of those small crabs usually called fiddlers, mud worms, snails, frogs, and lizards. It also feeds on the seeds of some species of nymphe, and of several other aquatic plants. On the 19th of May I visited an extensive breeding place of the snowy heron, among the red cedars of Summers’s Beach, on the coast of Cape May. The situation was very sequestered, bounded on the land side by a fresh water marsh or pond, and sheltered from the Atlantic by ranges of sand hills. The cedars, though not high, were so closely crowded together as to render it difficult to penetrate through among them. Some trees contained three, others four nests, built * “On the American continent the little egret is met with at New York and Long Island,” —Laruam, vol. ui, p. 90, yw 36 ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA. wholly of sticks. Each had in it three eggs, of a pele greenish blue colour, and measuring an inch and three quarters in length, by an inch and a quarter in thick- ness. Forty or fifty of these eggs were cooked, and found to be well tasted; the white was of a bluish tint, and almost transparent, though boiled for a considerable time ; the yolk very small in quantity. The birds rose in vast numbers, but without clamour, alighting on the tops of the trees around, and watching the result in silent anxiety. Among them were numbers of the night heron, and two or three purple-headed herons. Great quantities of egg shells lay scattered under the " trees, occasioned by the depredations of the crows, who were continually hovering about the place. On one of the nests I found the dead body of the bird itself, half devoured by the hawks, crows, or gulls. She had probably perished in defence of her eggs. The snowy heron is seen at all times during summer among the salt marshes, watching and searching for food, or passing, sometimes in flocks, from one part of the bay to the other. They often make excursions up the rivers and inlets, but return regularly in the evening to the red cedars on the beach to roost. I found these birds on the Mississippi, early in June, as far up as Fort Adams, roaming about among the creeks and inundated woods. | The length of this species is two feet one inch; extent, three feet two inches; the bill is four inches and a quarter long, and grooved; the space from the nostril to the eye, orange yellow, the rest of the bill black ; irides, vivid orange; the whole plumage is of a snowy whiteness; the head is largely crested with loose unwebbed feathers, nearly four inches in length ; another tuft of the same covers the breast; but the most distinguished ornament of this bird is a bunch of long _ silky plumes, proceeding from the shoulders, covering the whole back, and extending beyond the tail, the shafts of these are six or seven inches long, extremel elastic, tapering to the extremities, and thinly set wit long, slender, bending threads or fibres, easily agitated LOUISIANA HERON. 37 by the slightest motion of the air; these shafts curl upwards at the ends, When the bird is irritated, and erects those airy plumes, they have a very elegant appearance: the legs and naked part of the thighs are black ; the feet, bright yellow; claws, black, the middle one pectinated. The female can scarcely be distinguished by her plumage, having not only the crest, but all the orna- ments of the male, though not quite so long and flowing. The young birds of the first season are entirely destitute of the long plumes of the breast and back ; but, as all those that have been examined in spring are found crested and ornamented as above, they doubtless receive their full dress on the first moulting. Those shot in October measured twenty-two inches in length, by thirty-four in extent; the crest was beginning to form; the legs, yellowish green, daubed with blacks; the feet, greenish yellow; the lower mandible white at the base ; the wings, when shut, nearly of a length with the tail, which is even at the end. The little egret, or European species, is said by Latham and Turton to be nearly a foot in length; Bewick observes, that it rarely exceeds a foot and a half; has a much shorter crest, with two long feathers ; the feet are black; and the long plumage of the back, instead of turning up at the extremity, falls over the rump. The young of both these birds are generally very fat, and esteemed by some people as excellent eating. 205. ARDEA LUDOVICIANA, WILSON. — LOUISIANA HERON. WILSON, PLATE LXIV. FIG. I.— EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM« Tus is a rare and delicately formed species, occa- sionally found on the swampy river shores of South Carolina, but more frequently along the borders of the Mississippi, particularly below New Orleans. In each of these places it is migratory; and in the latter, as I 38 ARDEA LUDOVICIANA. have been informed, builds its nest on trees, amidst the inundated woods. Its manners correspond very much with those of the blue heron. It is quick in all its motions, darting about after its prey with surprising agility. Small fish, frogs, lizards, ha ies and various aquatic insects, constitute its principal food. - There is a bird described by Latham in his General Synopsis, vol. iii, p. 88, called the demi egret,* which, from the account there given, seems to approach near to the present species. It is said to inhabit Cayenne. ’ Length of the Louisiana heron, from the point of the bill to the extremity of the tail, twenty-three inches ; the long hair-like plumage of the rump and lower part of the back extends several inches farther; the bill is remarkably long, measuring full five inches, of a yellowish green at the base, black towards the point, and very sharp; irides, yellow ; chin and throat, white, dotted with ferruginous and some blue; the rest of the neck is of a light vinous purple, intermixed on the lower part next the breast with dark slate coloured plumage; the whole feathers of the neck are long, narrow, and pointed; head, crested, consisting first of a number of long, narrow, purple feathers, and under these seven or eight pendent ones, of a pure white, and twice the length of the former; upper part of the back and wings, light slate ; lower part of the back and ru white, but concealed by a mass of long unwebbed hair- like plumage, that falls over the tail and tips of the Wings, extending three inches beyond them; ‘these lumes are of a dirty purplish brown at the base, and fighten towards the extremities to a pale cream colour; the tail is even at the tip, rather longer than the wi and of a fine slate ; the legs and naked thighs, greenish yellow; middle claw, pectinated; whole lower parts, . ase white. Male and female alike in plumage, both ing erested. * See also Burrow, vol. vii, p. 378. NIGHT HERON. 39 SUBGENUS Il. — BOTAURUS. 206. ARDEA NYCTICORAX, LINNAEUS AND WILSON. NIGHT HERON, OR QUA BIRD. WILSON, PLATE LXE. FIG. Il. ADULT. — FIG. 111. YOUNG. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts species, though common to both continents, and known ia Europe for many centuries, has been so erroneously described by all the European naturalists whose works I have examined, as to require more than common notice in this place. For this purpose, an accurate detail is given of so much of their history as I am personally acquainted with. The night heron arrives in Pennsylvania early in ‘April, and immediately takes possession of his former breeding place, which is usually the most solitary and deeply shaded part of a cedar swamp. Groves of swamp oak, in retired and inundated places, are also sometimes chosen, and the males not unfrequently select tall woods, on the banks of the river, to roost in during the day. These last regularly direct their course, about the beginning of evening twilight, towards the marshes, uttering, in a hoarse and hollow tone, the sound Qua, which by some has been compared to that produced. by the retchings of a person attempting to vomit. At this hour, also, all the nurseries in the swamps are emptied of their inhabitants, who disperse about the marshes, and along the ditches and river shore, in quest of food. Some of these breeding places have been occupied every spring and summer for time immemorial, by from eighty to one hundred pair of ua birds. In places where the cedars have been cut own for sale, the birds have merely removed to another quarter of the swamp; but when personally attacked, long teased, and plundered, they have been known to remove from an ancient breeding place, in a body, no one knew where. Such was the case with one on the 40 ARDEA NYCTICORAX. Delaware, near Thompson’s Point, ten or twelve miles below Philadelphia; which having been repeatedly attacked and plundered by a body of crows, after many severe rencounters, the herons finally abandoned the place. Several of these breeding places occur among the red cedars on the sea beach of Cape May, inter- mixed with those of the little egret, green bittern, and blue heron, The nests are built entirely of sticks, in considerable quantities, with frequently three and four nests on the same tree. The eggs are generally four in number, measuring two inches and a quarter in length, by one and three quarters in thickness, and of a very pale light blue colour. The ground or marsh below is bespattered with their excrements lying all around like whitewash, with feathers, broken “Be shells, old nests, and frequently small fish, which they haye dropt by accident, and neglected to pick up. On entering the swamp in the neighbourhood of one of these breeding places, the noise of the old and the young would almost induce one to suppose that two or three hundred Indians were choking or throttling each other. The instant an intruder is discovered, the whole rise in the air in silence, and remove to the tops of the trees in another part of the woods, while parties of from eight to ten make occasional circuits over the spot to see what is going on. When the young are able, they climb to the highest part of the trees ; but, knowing their inability, do not attempt to fly. Though it is probable that these nocturnal birds do not see well during the day, yet their faculty of hearing must be exquisite, as it is almost impossible, with all the ecensions one can use, to penetrate near their resi- nce without being discovered, Several species of hawks hover around, making an occasional sweep among the young; and the bald eagle himself has been ‘seen reconnoitring near the spot, probably with the same design. Contrary to the generally received opinion, the males and females of these birds are so alike in colour, as scarcely to be distinguished from each other; both have ’ NIGHT HERON. 4l also the Jong slender plumes that flow from the head. These facts I have exhibited by dissection on several subjects, to different literary gentlemen of my acquain- tance, particularly to my venerable friend, Mr William Bartram, to whom I have also often shewn the young. One of these last, which was kept for some time in the botanic garden of that gentleman, by its voice instantly betrayed its origin, to the satisfaction of all who examined it. These young certainly receive their full coloured plumage before the succeeding spring, as, _ on their first arrival, no birds are to be seen in the dress of the young bird ; but, soon after they have bred, these become more numerous than the others. Early in October they migrate to the south. According to Buffon, these birds also inhabit Cayenne, and are found widely dispersed over Europe, Asia, and America. The European species, however, is certainly much smaller than the American, though in other respects corresponding exactly to it. Among a great number which I examined with attention, the following des- cription was carefully taken from a common sized full grown male. - Length of the night heron, two feet four inches ; extent, four feet; bill, black, four inches and a quarter long from the corners of the mouth to the tip; lores, or space between the eye and bill, a bare bluish white skin; eyelids also large and bare, of a deep purple blue; eye three-quarters of an inch in diameter; the iris of a brilliant blood red; pupil, black ; crested crown and hindhead, deep dark blue, glossed with green; front and line over the eye, white; from the hindhead proceed three very narrow, white, tapering feathers, between eight and nine inches in length; the vanes of these are concave below, the upper one enclosing the next, and that again the lower; though separated by the hand, if the plumage be again shook several times, these long flowing plumes gradually enclose each other, appearing as one; these the bird has the habit of erecting when angry or alarmed: the cheeks, neck, and whole lower parts, are white, tinctured with yellowish ¢ 42 ARDEA NYCTICORAX. cream, and)under the wings with very pale ash; back and scapulars, of the same deep darks bland, glossed with green, as that of the crown; rump and tail-coverts, as well as the whole wings and tail, very pale ash ; legs and feet, a pale yellow cream colour; inside of the middle claw, serrated. The female differed in nothing as to plumage from the male, but in the wings being of rather a deeper ash, having not only the dark deep green blue crown and back, but also the long pendent white plumes from the hindhead. Each of the females contained a large cluster of eggs of various sizes, | The young bird was shot soon after it had left the nest, and differed very little from those which had been taken from the trees, except in being somewhat larger. This measured twenty-one inches in length, and three feet in extent; the general colour above, a very deep brown, streaked with reddish white, the — of white on the back and wings being — the centre of the feather to the tip; quills, deep dusky, marked on the tips with a spot of white; eye, vivid orange ; belly, white, streaked with dusky, the feathers being pale dusky, streaked down their centres with white ; legs and feet, light green; inside of the middle claw slightly pectinated ; body and wings, exceedingly thin and limber; the down still stuck in slight tufts te the tips of some of the feathers, These birds: also breed in great numbers in the neighbourhood of New Orleans ; for, being in that city in the month of June, I frequently observed the Indians sitting in market with the dead and living young birds for sale; also. numbers of gray owls, (strix nebulosa;) and the white ibis, (¢antalus albus,) for which nice dainties I observed they generally found purchasers. - The food of the night heron, or qua bird, is chiefly _eomposed of small fish, which it takes by night. Those that [ opened had a large expansion of. on immediately under the bill, that narrowed from to the stomach, which is a large oblong pouch, and was filled with fish. The teeth of the pe¢tinated claw were ’ YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. 43 thirty-five or forty in number, and, as they contained age of the down of the bird, shewed evidently | this circumstance that they act the part of a comb, to rid the bird of vermin in those parts which it cannot reach with its bill. 207. ARDEA VIOLACEA, LINNUS AND WILSON. YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. WILSON, PLATE LXV. FIG. I. - Tuts is one of the nocturnal species of the heron tribe, whose manners, place, and mode of building its nest, resemble greatly those of the common night heron, (ardea nycticoraz ;) the form of its bill is also’ similar. The very imperfect figure and description of this species by Catesby seem to have led the greater part of European ornithologists astray, who appear to have copied their accounts from that erroneous source, other- Wise it is difficult to conceive why they should either have given it the name of yellow-crowned, or have described it as being only fifteen inches in length ; since the crown of the perfect bird is pure white, and the whole length very near two feet. The name, however; erroneous as it is, has been retained in the present account, for the purpose of more particularly pointing out its absurdity, and designating the species. * This bird inhabits the lower parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, in the summer season ;‘ reposing during the day among low, swampy woods, and feeding only m the night. It builds in societies, making its nest with sticks, among the branches of low trees, and lays four pale blue eggs. This species is not numerous in Carolina, which, with its solitary mode of life, makes this bird but little known there. It abounds on the Bahama Islands, where it also breeds; and great numbers of the young, as we are told, are yearly taken for the table, being accounted in that quarter excellent eating. This bird also extends its migrations into Vir- ginia, and even farther north; one of them having been 44 ARDEA VIOLACEA,. shot a few years ago on the borders of Schuylkill below Philadelphia. The food of this species consists of small fish, crabs, and lizards, particularly the former; it also appears to have a strong attachment to the neighbourhood of the ocean, The yellow-crowned heron is twenty-two inches in length, from the point of the bill to the end of the tail; the long flowing plumes of the back extend four inches farther; breadth, from tip to tip of the expanded wings, thirty-four inches; bill, black, stout, and about four inches in length, the upper mandible grooved exactly like that of the common night heron; lores, pe green; irides, oe 4 red ; head and part of the neck, lack, marked on each cheek with an oblong spot of white; crested crown and upper part of the head, white, ending in two long narrow tapering plumes of pure white, more than seven inches long; under these are a few others of a blackish colour; rest of the neck and whole lower parts, fine ash, somewhat whitish on that part of the neck where it joins the black; upper parts, a dark ash, each feather streaked broadly down the centre with black, and bordered with white; wing- quills, deep slate, edged finely with white; tail, even at the end, and of the same ash colour; wing-coverts, deep slate, broadly edged with pale cream; from each shoulder proceed a number of long loosely webbed tapering feathers, of an ash colour, streaked broadly down the middle with black, and extending four inches or more beyond the tips of the wings; legs and feet, yellow ; middle claw, pectinated, Male and female, as im the common night heron, alike in plumage. I strongly suspect that the species called by natura-~ lists the Cayenne night heron (Ardea Cayonieney is nothing more than the present, with which, according to their descriptions, it seems to agree almost exactly, BLUE CRANE, OR HERON. 45 208. ARDEA CERULA:A, LINNZUS AND WILSON. BLUE CRANE, OR HERON. WILSON, PLATE LXII. FIG, Ill. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM, In mentioning this species in his translation of the Systema Nature, Turton has introduced what he calls two varieties, one from New Zealand, the other from Brazil; both of which, if we may judge by their size and colour, appear to be entirely different and distinct species; the first being green, with yellow legs, the last nearly one half less than the present. By this loose mode of discrimination, the precision of science being altogether dispensed with, the whole tribe of cranes, herons, and bitterns, may be styled mere varieties of the genus ardea, The same writer has still farther increased this confusion, by designating as a different species his bluish heron, (A. ce@rudescens,) which agrees almost exactly with the present. Some of these mis- takes may probably have originated from the figure of this bird given by Catesby, which appears to have been drawn and coloured, not from nature, but from the glimmering recollections of memory, and is extremely erroneous. These remarks are due to truth, and neces- sary to the elucidation of the history of this species, which seems to be but imperfectly known in Europe. The blue heron is properly a native of the warmer climates of the United States, migrating from thence, at the approach of winter, to the tropical regions, being found in Cayenne, Jamaica, and Mexico. On the muddy shores of the Mississippi, from Baton Rouge downwards to New Orleans, these birds are frequently met with. In spring they extend their migrations as far north as New England, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea, becoming more rare as they advance to the north. On the sea beach of Cape May, I found a few of them breeding among the cedars, in company with the snowy heron, night heron, and green bittern. .The description of the present was taken from two of these, 46 ARDEA CERULZA. shot in the month of May, while in complete plu . Their nests were composed of small sticks, built in the tops of the red cedars, and contained five eggs, of a light blue colour, and of somewhat a deeper tint than those of the night heron, Little or no 5 ai could be perceived between the colours and markings of the aa and female. This remark is applicable to almost the whole genus; though, from the circumstance of mauy of the yearling birds differing in plumage, they have been mistaken for females. is _ The blue heron, though in the Northern States it be found chiefly in the neighbourhood of the ocean, probably on account of the greater temperature of the climate, is yet particularly fond of fresh water bogs, on the edges of the salt marsh, These it often frequents, wading about in search of tadpoles, lizards, various larve of winged insects, and mud worms. It moves actively about in search of these, sometimes making a run at its prey; and is often seen in company with the snowy heron. Like this last, it is also very silent, intent, and watchful. The genus ardea is the most numerous of all the wading tribes, there being no less than ninety-six dif- ferent species enumerated by late writers. These are again subdivided into particular families, each dis- tinguished by a certain peculiarity. The cranes, by having the head bald ; the storks, with the orbits naked; and the herons, with the middle claw pectinated. To this last belong the bitterns. Several of these are nocturnal birds, feeding only as the evening twilight commences, and reposing either among the long grass and reeds, or on tall trees, in sequestered places, during the day. What is very remarkable, these night wan- derers often associate, during the breeding season, with the others, building their nests on the branches of the same tree; and, though differing so little in external form, feeding on nearly the same food, living and lodging in.the same place, yet preserve their race, language, and manners, as perfectly distinct from those AMERICIAN BITTERN. 47 of their neighbours, as if each inhabited a separate quarter of the globe. - The blue heron is twenty-three inches in length, and three feet in extent; the bill is black, but from the nostril to the eye, in both mandibles, is of a rich light purplish blue ; iris of the eye, gray ; pupil, black, sur- rounded by a narrow silvery ring; eyelid, light blue ; the whole head, and greater part of the neck, are of a deep purplish brown; from the crested hindhead shoot three narrow pointed feathers that reach nearly six inches beyond the eye; lower part of the neck, breast, belly, and whole body, a deep slate colour, with lighter reflections ; the back is covered with long, flat, and narrow feathers, some of which are ten inches long, and extend four inches beyond the tail; the breast is also ornamented with a number of these long slender feathers; legs, blackish green ; inner side of the middle claw pectinated. The breast and sides of the rump, under the plumage, are clothed with a mass of yellowish white unelastic cottony down, similar to that in most of the tribe, the uses of which are not altogether understood. Male and female alike in colour. ’ The young birds of the first year are destitute of the purple plumage on the head and neck. 209. ARDEA MINOR, WILSON. —AMERICAN BITTERN, WILSON, PLATE LXY. FIG. III, Tuts is another nocturnal species, common to all our sea and river marshes, though nowhere numerous; it rests all day among the reeds and rushes, and, unless disturbed, flies and feeds only during the night. In some places it is called the Indian hen; on the sea coast of New Jersey it is known by the name of dunkadoo, a word probably imitative of its common note. They are also found in the interior, having myself killed one at the inlet of the Seneca lake, in October. It utters, at times, a hollow guttural note among the reeds, but has nothing of that loud booming 48 ARDEA MINOR. sound for which the European bitterr is so remarkabley This circumstance, with its great inferiority of size, and difference of marking, sufficiently prove them to be two distinct species, although, hitherto, the present has been classed as a mere variety of the European bittern, These birds, we are informed, visit Severn river, at Hudson’s Bay, about the beginning of June; make their nests in swamps, laying four cinereous green eggs among the long grass. The young are said to be, at first, black. . These birds, when disturbed, rise with a hollow Awa, and are then easily shot down, as they fly heavily. Like other night birds, their sight is most acute during the evening twilight ; but their hearing is, at all times, exquisite. The American bittern is twenty-seven inches long, and three feet four inches in extent; from the point of the bill to the extremity of the toes, it measures three feet; the bill is four inches long ; the upper mandible, black ; the lower, greenish yellow; lores and i yellow; irides, bright yellow; upper part of the head, flat, and remarkably depressed ; the plumage there is of a deep blackish brown, long behind and on the neck, the general colour of which is a yellowish brown shaded with darker ; this long plumage of the neck the bird can throw forward at will, when irritated, so as to give him a more formidable appearance; throat, whitish, streaked with deep brown; from the posterior and lower part of the auriculars, a broad patch of d black passes diagonally across the neck, a distinguished characteristic of this species; the back is deep brown, barred and mottled with innumerable specks and streaks of brownish yellow ; quills, black, with a leaden gloss, and tipt with yellowish brown; legs and feet, yellow, tinged with pale green; middle claw, pectinated; belly, light yellowish brown, streaked with darker; vent, plain; thighs, sprinkled on the outside with grains of dark brown; male and female, nearly alike, the latter somewhat less. According to Bewick, the tail of the European bittern contains only ten feathers; the Ame- _ GREEN HERON. A9 rican species has, invariably, twelve. The intestines measured five feet six inches in length, and were very little thicker than a common knitting needle; the stomach is usually filled with fish or frogs. _ This bird, when fat, is considered by many to be excellent eating. ‘210. ARDEA VIRESCENS, LINN. AND WILSON. —GREEN HERON. WILSON, PLATE LXI. FIG. 1, —EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts common and familiar species owes little to the liberality. of public opinion, whose prejudices have stigmatized it witha very vulgar and indelicate nick- name; and treat it, on all occasions, as worthless and contemptible. Yet few birds are more independent of man than this; for it. fares best, and is always most numerous, where cultivation is least known or attended to; its favourite residence being the watery solitudes of swamps, pools, and morasses, where millions of frogs and lizards “ tune their nocturnal notes’ in full chorus, undisturbed by the lords ef creation. The green bittern makes its first appearance. in Pennsylvania early in April, soon after the marshes are completely thawed. There, among the stagnant ditches with which they are intersected, and amidst the bogs and quagmires, he hunts with great cunning and dexterity. Frogs and small fish are his principal game, whose caution, and facility of escape, require nice address, and rapidity of attack. When on the look-out for small fish, he stands in the water, by. the side of the ditch, silent and motionless as a statue; his neck drawn in over his breast, ready for action. The instant a fry or minnow comes within the range of his bill, by a stroke, quick and sure as that of the rattlesnake, he seizes his prey, and swallows it in an instant. He searches for small crabs, and for the various worms and larvee, particularly those of the. dragon fly, which lurk in the mud, with equal adroitness. But the capturing of frogs requires much nicer management. These wary VOL. Ill. D 50 ARDEA VIRESCENS. reptiles shrink into the mire on the least alarm, and do not raise up their heads again to the surface without the most cautious circumspection. The bittern, fixi his penetrating eye on the spot where they Sinatoeonaly approaches with slow stealing step, laying his feet so gently and silently on the ground, as not to be heard or felt ; and, when arrived within reach, stands fixed, and bending forwards, until the first glimpse of the frog’s head makes its appearance, when, with a stroke instan- taneous as lightning, he seizes it in his bill, beats it to death, and feasts on it at his leisure. _ This mode of life, requiring little fatigue where game is so plenty, as is generally the case in all our marshes, must be particularly pleasing to the bird, and also very interesting, from the continual exercise of cunning and ingenuity ne to circumyent its prey. Some of the naturalists of Europe, however, in their superior wisdom, think very differently ; and one ean scarcely refrain from smiling at the absurdity of those writers, who declare, that the lives of this whole class of birds are rendered miserable by toil and hunger ; their very appearance, according to Buffon, presenting the image of suffering anxiety and indigence.* When ios the green bittern rises with a hollow guttural scream; does not fly far, but usually alights on some old stump, tree, or fence adjoining, and looks about with extended neck ; though, sometimes, this is drawn in so, that his head seems to rest on his breast. As he walks along the fence, or stands gazing at you with outstretched neck, he has the frequent habit of jetting the tail. He sometimes flies high, with doubled neck, and legs extended behind, flapping the wings smartly, and travelling with great expedition. He is the least shy of all our herons; and, perhaps, the most numerous and generally dispersed, being found far in the interior, as well as along our salt marshes; and every where about the muddy shores of ourmill ponds, creeks, and large rivers. . * Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, tome xxii, p. 343. GREEN HERON: -. 5L The green bittern begins to build about the 20th of April; sometimes in single pairs, in swampy woods ; obi ‘in companies; and not. unfrequently in a kind of association with the qua birds, or night herons. The nest is fixed among the branches of the trees; is constructed wholly of small sticks, lined with finer twigs, and is of considerable size, though loosely put together. The female lays four eggs, of the common oblong form, and. of a pale light blue colour.. The young do not leave the nest until able to fly; and, for the first season, at least, are destitute of the leng ointed plumage on the back; the lower parts are also ighter, and the white on the throat broader. During the whole summer, and until late in autumn, these birds are seen in our meadows and marshes, but never remain during winter in any part of the United States. _ ‘The green bittern is eighteen inches long, and twenty- five: inches in extent; bill, black, hghter below, and yellow at the base; chin, and narrow streak down the throat, yellowish white; neck, dark vinaceous red; back, covered with very long, tapering, pointed feathers, of a hoary green, shafted with white, on a dark green ground; the hind part of the neck is destitute of plumage, that it may be the more conveniently drawn in over the breast, but is covered with the long feathers of the throat and sides of the neck, that enclose it behind; wings and tail, dark glossy green, tipt. and bordered with yellowish white; legs and feet, yellow, tinged before with green, the skin of these thick and movable ; belly, ashy brown; irides, bright orange ; erested head, very dark glossy green. The female, as I have particularly observed, in numerous instances, differs in nothing, as to colour, from the male ; neither of them receive the long feathers on the back during the first season. | ‘There is one circumstance attending this bird, which, i recollect, at: first surprised me. On shooting and wounding one, I carried it some distance by the legs, which were at first yellow; but on reaching home, | ‘perceived, to my surprise, that they were red. On 52 ARDEA EXILIS. letting the bird remain some time undisturbed, they again became yellow, and I then discovered that the action of the hand had brought a flow of blood inte them, and produced the cha of colour. I have remarked the same in those of the night heron, SUBGENUS Il. —ARDEOLA. 211. ARDEA EXILIS, GMELIN AND WILSON. — LEAST BITTERN. WILSON, PLATE LXY. FIG. IV. Tuits is the smallest known species of the whole tribe. It is commonly found in fresh water meadows, and rarely visits the salt marshes. One shot near Great Bay Harbour was presented to me as a very uncommon bird. In the meadows of Schuylkill and Delaware, below Philadelphia, a few of these birds breed every year ; making their nests in the thick tussocks of grass, mm swampy places. When alarmed, they seldom fly far, but take shelter among the reeds or long They are scarcely ever seen exposed, but skulk during the day ; and, like the American bittern, feed chiefly in the night. This little creature measures twelve inches in length, and sixteen in extent; the bill is more than two inches and a quarter long, yellow, ridged with black, and very sharp pointed ; space round the eye, pale yellow; irides, bright yellow; whole upper part of the crested head, the back, scapulars, and tail, very deep slate, reflecting slight tints of green; throat, white, here and there tinged with buff; hind part of the neck, dark chestnut bay ; sides of the neck, cheeks, and line over the eye, brown buff; lesser wing-coverts, the same; greater _ wing-coverts, chestnut, with a spot of the same at the aia of the wing; the primary coverts are also tipt with the same; wing-quills, dark slate; breast, white, tinged with ochre, under which lie a number of blackish feathers ; belly and vent, white; sides, pale: ochre; legs, greenish on the shins, hind part and feet, yellow; LEAST BITTERN. 53 thighs, feathered to within a quarter of an inch of the knees; middle claw, pectinated; toes, tinged with pale een; feet, large, the span of the foot measuring two inches and three quarters, Male and female, nearly alike in colour. The young birds are brown on the crown and back. The stomach. was filled with small fish ; and the intestines, which were extremely slender, measured, in length, about four feet. The least bittern is also found in Jamaica, and several of the West India islands, FAMILY XIX. FALCATE, I:11cer. GENUS XLVI. —TANTALUS. 212. ran rALus LOCULATOR, LINN US AND WILSON. — WOOD mus. WILSON, PLATE LXVI. FIG. 1. -——EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tue wood ibis inhabits the lower parts of Louisiana, Carolina, and Georgia; is very common in Florida, and extends as far south as Cayenne, Brazil, and various parts of South America. In the United States it is migratory ; but has never, to my knowledge, been found to the north of Virginia. Its favourite haunts are watery savannahs and inland swamps, where it feeds on fish and reptiles. The French inhabitants of Louisiana esteem it good eating. With the particular manners of this species I am not personally acquainted ; but the following characteristic traits are given of it by Mr William Bartram, who had the best 4 ten i of noting them. “ This solitary bird,” he observes, “ does not associate in flocks, but is generally seen alone, commonly near the banks of great rivers, in vast marshes or meadows, especially such as are covered by inundations, and also in the vast deserted rice plantations; he stands alone, on the topmost limb of tall dead cypress trees, his neck contracted or drawn in upon his shoulders, and his beak resting like a long scythe upon his breast; in this pensive posture, and solitary situation, they look extremely grave, sorrowful, and melancholy, as if in . the deepest thought. They are never seen on the sea coast, and yet are never found at a great distance from it. They feed on serpents, young alligators, frogs, and other reptiles.” * * Travels, &e. p. 150. WOOD IBIS. 55 A very fine specimen of this bird was sent to me from Georgia by Stephen Elliot, Esq. of Beaufort, South Carolina ; its size and markings were as follow :— Length, three feet two inches; bill, nearly nine inches long, straight for half its length, thence curving down- wards to the extremity, and full two inches thick at the base, where it rises high in the head, the whole of a brownish horn colour; the under mandible fits into the ‘upper in its whole length, and both are very sharp ed: face, and naked head, and part of the neck, dull greenish blue, wrinkled; eye, large, seated high in the head ; irides, dark red; under the lower jaw is a loose corrugated skin, or pouch, capable of containing about -half a pint; whole body, neck, and lower parts, white ; quills, dark glossy green and purple; tail, about two ‘inches shorter than the wings, even at the end, and of a deep and rich violet; legs and naked thighs, dusky green; feet and toes, yellowish, sprinkled with black ; 4eet, almost semipalmated, and. bordered to the claws -with a narrow membrane; some of the greater wing- coverts are black at the root, and shafted with black ; lumage on the upper ridge of the neck, generally worn with rubbing on the back, while in its common position, of resting its bill on its breast, in the manner of the white ibis. The female has only the head and chin naked; both are subject to considerable changes of colour when young, the body being found sometimes blackish above, the belly cinereous, and spots of black on the wing- eoverts; all of which, as the birds advance in age, gradually disappear, and leave the plumage of the body, 4&c. as has been described. : 56 IBIS RUBRA. \¥ GENUS XLVIL—JBIS, Laczp. ) 218. 1HIs RUBRA, VIEILLE. —TANTALUS RUBER, WILSON. SCARLET IBIS, WILSON, PLATE LXVI. FIG. 1. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuis beautiful bird is found in the most southern parts of Carolina, also in Georgia and Florida, chiefly about the sea-shore and/its vicinity. In most of America, within the tropics, and in almost all the West India islands, it is. said to be common; also in the Bahamas. Of its manners, little more has been collected, than that it frequents the borders of the sea, and shores of the neighbouring rivers, feeding on small fry, shell fish, sea worms, and small crabs. It is said to perch on trees, sometimes in large flocks; but to lay its eggs on the ground, oma bed of leaves. The eggs are described as being of a greenish colour; the young, — when hatched, black ; soon after, gray ; and before they - are able to fly, white ; continuing gradually to assume their red colour until the third year, when the scarlet lumage is complete. It is also said that they eep in flocks, the young and old birds separately. They have frequently been domesticated. The scarlet ibis measures twenty-three inches in length, and thirty-seven in extent; the bill is five inches long, thick, and somewhat of a square form at the base, peels bent downwards, and sharply ridged, of a lack colour, exeept near the base, where it inclines-to | red; irides, dark hazel; the naked face is finely wrinkled, and of a pale red; chin, also bare and wrinkled for about an inch; whole plumage, a rich glowing scarlet, except about three inches of the extremities of the four outer quill feathers, which are of a deep steel blue ; legs and naked part of the thighs, pale red, the three anterior toes united by a membrane as far as the first joint. i Whether the female differs, in the colour of her» WHITE IBIS. 57 lumage, from the male, or what changes both undergo wei the first and second years, I am unable to say from personal observation. Being a scarce species with us, and only found on our most remote southern shores, a sufficient number of specimens have not been procured, to enable me to settle this matter with sufficient certainty. - 914, rBrIs ALBA, YIEILL. — TANTALUS ALBUS, WILSON. WHITE IBIS. WILSON, PLATE LXVI. FIG. IIl. aBuus: species bears in every respect, anceps that of colour, so-strong a resemblance to the preceding, that I have been almost induced to believe it the same, in its white or imperfect stage of colour. The length and form of the bill, the size, conformation, as well as colour of the legs, the general length and breadth, and eyen the steel blue on the four outer quill-feathers, are exactly alike in both. These suggestions, however, are not made with any certainty of its being the same, but as cireumstances which may lead to a more precise exa- mination of the subject hereafter. I found this species pretty numerous on the borders of Lake Pontchartrain, near New Orleans, in the month of June, and also observed the Indians sitting in market with strings of them for sale. I met with them again on the low keys or islands off the Peninsula of Florida, Mr Bartram observes, that “they fly in large flocks or squadrons, evening and morning, to and from their feeding places or roosts, and are “usually called Spanish curlews. They feed chiefly on cray fish, whose cells they probe, and, with their strong pinching bills, drag) them out.” The low islands above mentioned abound with these creatures and small crabs, the ground inesome places seeming alive with them, so that the rattling of their shells against one another was incessant. My venerable friend, in 1 his observations on these birds, adds, “It is a pleasing sight at times of high winds, 58 IBIS ALBA. and heavy thunder storms, to observe the numerous squadrons of these Spanish curlews, driving to and fro, turning and tacking about high up in the air, when, by their various evolutions in the different and opposite eurrents of the wind, high in the clouds, their silvery white plumage gleams and sparkles like the brightest crystal, reflecting the sunbeams that dart upon them between the dark clouds.” The white ibis is twenty-three inches long, and thirty-seven inches in extent; bill formed exactly like that of the scarlet species, of a pale red, blackish towards the point; face a reddish flesh colour, and finely wrinkled; irides, whitish ; whole plumage pure white, except about four inches of the tips of the four outer quill-feathers, which are of a deep and glossy steel blue; legs and feet pale red, webbed to the first joint. | These birds I frequently observed standing on the: dead limbs of trees, and on the shore, resting on one. leg, their body in an almost perpendicular position, the head and bill resting on the breast. This appears to be its most common mode of resting, and perhaps sleeping, as, in all those which I examined, the plumage on the upper ridge of the neck and upper part of the back, was evidently worn by this habit. The same is equally: observable on the neck and back of the wood ibis. The present species rarely extends its visits north of Carolina, and even in that State is only seen fora few weeks towards the end of summer. In Florida they are common, but seldom remove to any great distance from the sea. ' : s _ FAMILY XX; LIMICOLZ, IticEr. GENUS XLVIII.—NUMENIUS, Latuam. 215, NUMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS, WILS.—LONG-BILLED CURLEW. WILSON, PLATE LXIV, FIG, Iv. Tuts American species has been considered by t the iabteraliots of Europe to be a mere variety of their own, notwithstanding its difference of colour, and superior length of bill. ” These differences not being accidental, or found in a few individuals, but common to all, and none being found in America corresponding with that of Europe, we do not hesitate to consider the present as a distinct species peculiar to this country. Like the whooping crane, this bird is an inhabitant of marshes in the vicinity of the sea. It is also found in the interior, where, from its long bill and loud caer? nite; it is generally known. The curlews appear in the salt marshes of. New! Jersey about the middle of May, on their way to the north, and in September, on their return from their breeding places. Their food consists chiefly of small crabs, which they are very dexterous at probing for, and pulling out of the holes with their long bills; they also feed on those small sea snails so abundant in the marshes, and on various worms and insects. They’are’ likewise fond of brambleberries, frequenting the fields and aeraad in search of this fruit, on which they get very fat, and are then tender and good eating, alto- gether free from the sedgy taste with which their flesh is usually tainted while they feed in the salt marshes. The curlews fly high, generally in a wedge-like form, somewhat resembling certain ducks, occasionally utter~ ing their loud whistling note, by a dexterous imitation: 60 NUMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS. of which a whole flock may sometimes be enticed within gunshot, while the cries of the wounded are sure to detain them until the gunner has made repeated shots and great havoc among them, This species is said to breed in Labrador, and in the neighbourhood of Hudson’s Bay. A few instances have been known of one or two pair remaining in the salt marshes of Cape May all summer, A person of pie i sad informed me, that he once started a _curlew from her nest, which was composed of a little dry grass, and contained four eggs, very much resem- bling in size and colour those of the mud hen, or clapper rail. This was in the month of July. Cases of this kind are so rare, that the northern regions must he considered as the general breeding place of this ies. ee Phe long-billed curlew is twenty-five inches in length, and three feet three inches in extent, and, when in good order, weighs about thirty ounces ; but individuals differ greatly in this respect; the bill is eight inches long, nearly straight for half its length, thence curving considerably downwards to its extremity, where it ends in an obtuse knob that overhangs the lower mandible; the colour black, except towards the base of the lower, where it is of a pale flesh colour; tongue, extremely short, differing in this from the snipe; eye, dark ; the general colour of the plumage above is black, epntind and barred along the edge of each feather with pale brown; chin, line over the eye and round the same, pale brownish white; neck, reddish brown, streaked with black; spots on the breast more sparingly dis- persed; belly, thighs, and vent, pale plain rufous, with- out any spots; primaries, black on the outer edges, pale brown on the inner, and barred with black; shaft of the outer one, snowy; rest of the wing, pale reddish brown, elegantly barred with undulating lines of black ; tail, slightly rounded, of an ashy brown, beautifully marked with herring bones of black; legs and naked thighs, very pale light blue, or lead colour, the middle toe connected with the two outer ones as far as the first ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 61 joint by a membrane, and bordered along the sides with a thick warty edge; lining of the wing, dark rufous, approaching a chestnut, and thinly spotted with black. e and female alike in plumage. The bill continues to grow in length until the second season, when the bird receives its perfect plumage. The stomach of this species is lined with an extremely thick skin, feeling to the touch like the rough hardened palm of a sailor or blacksmith. The intestines are very tender, mea- suring usually about three feet in length, and as thick as a swan’s quill. On the front, under the skin, there are two thick callosities, which border the upper side of the eye, lying close to the skull. These are commen, I believe, to most of the tringa and scolopax tribes, and are probably designed to protect the skull from injury while the bird is probing and searching in the sand and mud. 216. NUMENIVS HUDSONICUS, LATHAM. SCOLOPAX BOREALIS, WILSON. — ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. WILSON, PLATE LYI. FIG. I. Tue Esquimaux curlew, or, as it is called by our gunners on the sea coast, the short-billed curlew, is peculiar to the new continent. Mr Pennant, indeed, conceives it to be a mere variety of the English whimbrel (.S. pheopus); but among the great numbers of these birds which 1 have myself shot and examined, I have never yet met with one corresponding to the descriptions given of the whimbrel, the colours and markings being different, the bill much more bent, and nearly an inch and a half longer, and the manners in certain particulars very different: these reasons have determined its claim to that of an independent species. The short-billed curlew arrives in large flocks on the sea coast of New Jersey, early in May, from the south, frequent the salt marshes,’ muddy shores, and inlets, feeding on small worms and minute shell fish. They are most commonly seen on mudflats at low water, in 62) NUMENIUS HUDSONICUS. company with yarious other waders, and at high water roam along the marshes. They fly high and with great, rapidity. A few are seen in June, and as late as the, beginning of July, when they generally move off towards the north. Their appearance on these occasions is very interesting: they collect together from the marshes as if by premeditated design, rise to a great height in the air, usually-about an hour before sunset, and, forming in one vast line, keep up a constant whistling on their march to the north, as if conversing with one another to render the journey more agreeable. Their flight is then more slow and regular, that the feeblest may keep up with the line of march, while the glittering of their beautifully speckled mings sparkling in the sun, pro- duces altogether a very pleasing spectacle. In the month of June, while the dewberries are ripe, these birds sometimes frequent the fields, in Comyn with the long-billed curlews, where brambles abound, soon get very fat, and are at that time excellent eating. Those who wish to shoot them, fix up a shelter of brushwood in the middle of the field, and by that means kill great numbers. In the early part of spring, and indeed during the whole time that they frequent the marshes, feeding on shell fish, they are much less esteemed for the table. , Pennant informs us, that they were seen in flocks innumerable on the hills about Chatteux Bay, on the Labrador coast, from August the 9th to September 6th, when they all disappeared, being on their way from their northern breeding place. He adds, “ they kept on the open grounds, fed on the empetrum nigrum, and were very fat and delicious.” They arrive at Hudson’s Bay in April, or early in May,— pair and breed to the north of Albany Fort among the woods,—return in _ August to the marshes,—and all disappear in Septem- ber.* About this time they return, in accumulated numbers, to the shores of New Jersey, whence they finally depart for the south early in November. * Philosophical Transactions, \xii, 411. SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. 63 The Esquimaux curlew is eighteen inches long, and thirty-two inches in extent ;. the bill, which is four inches and a half long, is black towards the point, and a pale lish flesh colour near the base ; upper part of the 1ead, dark brown, divided by a narrow stripe of brownish white ; over each eye extends a broad line of pale drab; iris, dark coloured ; hind part of the neck, streaked with dark brown; fore part and whole breast, very pale brown; upper part of the body, pale drab, centred and barred with dark brown, and edged with spots of white on the exterior vanes; three first primaries, black, with white shafts; rump and tail-coverts, barred with dark brown ; belly, white; vent, the same, marked with zig- zag lines of brown; whole lining of the wing, beautifully barred with brown on a dark cream ground; legs and naked thighs, a pale lead colour. GENUS XLIX.—TRINGA, Brisson. SUBGENUS I. —HEMIPALMA, BONAPARTE. 217. TRINGA SEMIPALMATA, WILSON. SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. WILSON, PLATE EXIII. FIG. IV. Tuis is one of the smallest of its tribe, and seems to have been entirely overlooked, or confounded with another which it much resembles, (tringa pusilla,) and with whom it is often found associated, Its half webbed feet, however, are sufficient marks of distinction between the two. It arrives and departs with the ruddy plover; flies in flocks with the stints, purres, and a few others; and is sometimes seen at a considerable distance from the sea, on the sandy shores of our fresh water lakes. On the 23d of ‘September I met with a small flock of these birds in Burlington Bay, on Lake Champlain, They are nume- rous along the sea shores of New Jersey, but retire to the south on the approach of cold weather. This species is six inches long, and twelve in extent; 5 64 TRINGA ALPINA. the bill is black, an inch long, and very slightly bént; crown and body above, dusky brown, the plumage edged with ferruginous and tipt with white; tail and wings, nearly of a length ; sides of the rump, white ; rump and tail-coverts, black; wing-quills, dusky black, shafted, and banded with white, much in the manner of the least snipe; over the eye a line of white; lesser coverts, tipt with white; legs and feet, blackish ash, the latter half webbed. Males and females alike in colour. These birds varied greatly in their size, some bei scarcely five inches and a half in length, and the bi not more than three quarters; others measured seven inches in the whole length, and the bill up of an inch, In their general appearance they greatly resemble the stints or least snipe; but unless we allow that the same species may sometimes have the toes half webbed, and sometimes divided to the origin, —and this not in one or two solitary instances, but in whole flocks, which would be extraordinary indeed,—we cannot avoid classing this as a new and aistinet species. _ SUBGENUS Il.—TRINGA, 218. TRINGA ALPINA, LINNAUS. —TRINGA ALPINA, WILSON. RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. WILSON, PLATE LVI. FIG. Il. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts bird inhabits both the old and new continents, being known in England by the name of the dunlin, and in the United States, along the shores of New Jersey, by that of the red-back. Its residence here is but transient, chiefly in April and May, while passing to the aretic regions to breed, and in September and October, when on its return southward to winter quarters. During their stay, they seldom collect in separate flocks by themselves, but mix with various other species of strand birds, among whom they are rendered conspicuous by the red colour of the upper part of their plumage. They frequent the muddy fate .and shores of the salt : RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 65 marshes at low water, feeding on small worms, and other insects, which generally abound in such places, In the month of May they are extremely fat. _ This bird is said to inhabit Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Alps of Siberia, and, in its migrations, the coasts of the Caspian Sea.* It has not, till now, been..recognized by naturalists as inhabiting this part of North America. Wherever its breeding place may be, it. probably begins to lay at a late period of the season, as, in numbers of females which I examined on the lst of June, the eggs were no larger than grains of mustard seed. Length of the red-back, eight inches and a half, extent, fifteen inches; bill, black, longer than the head, (which would seem to rank it with the snipes, ) slightly bent, grooved on the upper mandible, and wrinkled at the base; crown, back, and scapulars, bright reddish rust, spotted with black; wing-coverts, pale olive; quills darker; the first tipt, the latter crossed with white ; front, cheeks, hindhead, and sides of the neck, quite round; also the breast, grayish white, marked with small specks of black; belly, white, marked with a broad crescent of black; tail, pale olive, the two middle feathers centred with black; legs and feet, ashy black ; toes, divided to their origin, and bordered with a slightly scalloped membrane ; irides, very dark. _.The males. and females are nearly alike in one respect, both differing greatly in colour, even at the same season, probably owing to difference of age ; some being of a much brighter red than others, and the plumage dotted with white. In the month of Sep- tember many are found destitute of the black crescent fs ee belly ; these have been conjectured to be young irds. * PENNANT. VOL. III. labs si pet t-elf FS 66 TRINGA CINEREA. 219. TRINGA CINEREA, WILSON. —ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER« WILSON, PLATE LVII. FIG. 11.*—EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tue regularly disposed. concentric semicircles of white and dark brown that mark the upper parts of the plumage of this species, distinguish it from: all others, and give it a very neat appearance. In activity it is superior to the preceding ; and traces the fe and recession of the waves along the sandy beach wit great nimbleness, wading and searching among the loosened particles for its favourite food, which is a. small thin oval bivalve shell-fish, of a white or pearl colour, and not larger than the seed of an apple. These usually lie at a short depth below the surface; but in some places are seen at low water in heaps, like masses of wet grain, in quantities of more than a bushel together. During the: latter part of summer and autumn, these minute shell-fish constitute the food of almost all those busy flocks that run with such activity along the sands, among the flowing and retreating waves. They are universally swallowed whole; but the action of the bird’s stomach, assisted by the shells themselves, soon reduces them to a pulp. If we may judge from their effects, they must be extremely nutritious, for almost all those tribes that feed on them are at this season mere lumps of fat. Digging for these in the hard sand would be a work of considerable labour, whereas, when the particles are loosened by the flowing of the sea, the birds collect them with great ease and dexterity. It is amusing to observe with what adroitness follow and A the tumbling surf, while at the same time they seem wholly intent on collecting their food. - The ash-coloured sandpiper, the subject of our pre- sent account, inhabits both Europe and America. It has been seen in great numbers on the Seal Islands near Chatteaux Bay; is said to continue the whole * Is the Tringa Icelandica, Linneus, in the winter: dressy ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 67 summer in Hudson’s Bay, and breeds there.’ Mr Pennant suspects that it also breeds in Denmark ; and says, that they appear in vast flocks on the Flintshire shores during the winter season.* With us they are also migratory, being only seen in spring and autumn. They are plump birds; and, by those accustomed to the sedgy taste of this tribe, are esteemed excellent eating. The length of this species is ten inches, extent twenty; bill, black, straight, fluted to nearly its. tip, and about an inch and a half long; upper parts, brownish ash, each feather marked near the tip with a narrow semicircle of dark brown, bounded by another of white; tail-coverts, white, marbled with olive; wing-quills, dusky, shafts, white; greater coverts, black, tipt with white; some of the primaries edged. also with white ; tail, plain pale ash, finely edged and tipt with white; crown and hindhead, streaked with’ black, ash, and white ; stripe over the eye, cheeks; and: chin, white, the former marked with pale streaks of dusky, the latter pure; breast, white, thinly specked with blackish; belly and: vent, pure white; legs, a dirty yellowish clay colour; toes, bordered with a narrow, thick, warty membrane; hind’ toe, directed inwards, as in the turnstone; claws and eye, black. These birds vary a little in colour; some being con siderably darker above, others‘ entirely white below; but, in all, the concentric semicircles on the back, wr ae = and wing-coverts, are conspicuous.: think it probable that these birds become much lighter coloured during the summer, from the circum- stance of having shot one late'in the month of June, at Cape May, which was of a pale drab or dun colour. It was very thin and: emaciated; and on examination appeared to have been formerly wounded, which no. doubt occasioned its remaining behind its companions.’ Early in December f examined the same coast every day for nearly two weeks, without meeting with more than one solitary: individual of this species, although * Arctic’ Zoology; p. 474: 68 TRINGA RUFA. in Octoberthey were abundant. How far to the south- ward they extend their migrations, we have no facts that will enable us to ascertain, though it is probable that the shores of the West India islands afford them shelter and resources during our winter. ' 220. TRINGA RUFA, WILSON. —RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. WILSON, PLATE LVII. FIG. V.* — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Or this prettily marked species I can find no des- cription. The Tringa Icelandica, or Aberdeen sand-. des of Pennant and others, is the only species that any resemblance to it; the descriptions of that bird, however, will not apply to the present. The common name of this species on our sea coast is the gray-back, and among the gunners it is a particular favourite, being generally a plump, tender, and excellent bird for the table; and, consequently, brings a good price in market. The gray-backs do not breed on the: shores of the Middle States. Their first appearance is early in May. They remain a few weeks, and again disappear until October. They usually keep in small flocks, alight in a close body together on the sand flats, where the search for the small bivalve shells already described. On the approach of the sportsman, they frequently stand fixed and silent for some time; do not appear to be easily alarmed, neither do they run about in the water as much as some others, or with the same rapidity, but appear more tranquil and deliberate. In the month of November, they retire to the south. _ This species is ten inches long, and twenty in extent; the bill is black, and about an inch and a half long; - the chin, eyebrows, and whole breast, are a pale brownish orange colour; crown, hindhead from the upper man- dible backwards, and neck, dull white, streaked with black ; back, a pale slaty olive, the feathers tipt with * Is Tringa Icelandica, Linneus, in its summer dress. “THE PURRE © 69 white, barred and spotted with black and pale ferru- ginous; tail-coverts, white, elegantly barred with black ; wings, plain dusky, black towards the extremity ; the greater coverts, tipt with white; shafts of the pri- maries, white; tail, pale ashy olive, finely edged with white, the two middle feathers somewhat the longest; belly and vent, white, the latter marked with small arrow-heads of black; legs and feet, black; toes, bordered with a narrow membrane; eye, small and black. In some specimens, both of males and females, the red on the breast was much paler, in others it descended as far as the thighs. Both sexes seemed nearly alike. 921. TRINGA CINCLUS. —THE PURRE. WILSON, PLATE LVII. FIG. III. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuis is one of the most numerous of our strand birds; as they are usually called, that frequent the sandy beach on the frontiers of the ocean. In its habits it differs so little from the preceding, that, except in being still more active and expert in running and searching among the sand, on the reflux of the waves, as it nimbly darts about for food, what has been said of the former will apply equally to both, they being pretty constant associates on these occasions. The purre continues longer with us, both in spring - and autumn, than either the turnstone or the ash- coloured sandpiper; many of them remain during the very severest of the winter, though the greater part retire to the more genial regions of the south, where I have seen them at such seasons, particularly on the sea coasts of both Carolinas, during the month of February, in great numbers. These birds, in conjunction with several others, sometimes collect together in such flocks, as to seem, at a distance, a large cloud of thick smoke, varying in form and appearance every instant, while it performs its evolutions in air. As this cloud descends and courses 70 TRINGA CINCLUS. along the shores of the ocean, with great rapidity, in a kind of waving serpentine flight, alternately throwing its dark and white plumage to the eye, it forms a very grand and interesting appearance. At such times the gunners make prodigious slaughter among them ; while, as the showers of their companions fall, the whole bod often alight, or descend to the surface with them, ti the sportsman is completely satiated with destruction. ‘On some of these occasions, while crowds of these victims are fluttering along the sand, the small pi hawk, constrained by, necessity, ventures to make a sweep among the dead in presence of the pena but as suddenly pays for his temerity with his life! Such a tyrant is man, when vested with power, and unrestrained by the dread of responsibility. The purre is eight inches in length, and fifteen inches in extent; the bill is black, straight, or slightly bent downwards, about an inch and a half long, very thick at the base, and tapering to a slender blunt poimt at the extremity; eye, very small; iris, dark hazel; cheeks, gray; line over the eye, belly, and vent, white; back and scapulars, of an ashy brown, marked here and there with spots of black, bordered with bright ferruginous; sides of the rump, white; tail-coverts, olive, centred with black ; chin, white; neck below, gray ; breast and sides, thinly marked with pale spots of dusky, in some, pure white; wings, black, edged and tipt with white; two middle tail-feathers, dusky, the rest brown ash, edged with white; legs and feet, black; toes bordered with a very narrow scalloped membrane. The usual broad band of white crossing the wing, forms a dis- tinguishing characteristic of almost the whole genus. ‘On examining more than a hundred of these birds, they varied considerably in the black and ferruginous spots on the back and scapulars ; some were alt _ plain, while others were thickly marked, particular] on the scapulars, with a red rust colour, centred with black. The females were uniformly more plain than the males; but many of the latter, oratintty young birds, were destitute of the ferruginous spots. On the - LITTLE SANDPIPER. 71 24th of May the eggs in the females were about the size of partridge shot. In what particular regions of the north these birds breed is altogether unknown. 222. TRINGA PUSILLA, WILSON. — LITTLE SANDPIPER. WILSON, PLATE XXXVII. FIG. IV. —EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts is the least of its tribe in this part of the world, and in its mode of flight has much more resemblance to the snipe than to the sandpiper. It is migratory, departing early in October for the south. It resides chiefly among the sea marshes, and feeds among the mud at low water; springs with a zigzag irregular flight, and a feeble twit. Itis not altogether confined to the neighbourhood of the sea, for I have found several of them on the shores of the Schuylkill, in the month of August. In October, immediately before they go away, they are usually very fat. Their nests or particular breeding places I have not been able to discover. This minute species is found in Europe, and also at Nootka Sound on the western coast of America, Length, five inches and a half; exterit, eleven inches; bill and legs, brownish black; upper part ef the breast, gray brown, mixed with white; back and. upper parts, black; the whole plumage above, broadly edged with bright bay and yellow ochre; primaries, black ; greater coverts, the same, tipt with white; eye, small, dark hazel; tail, rounded, the four exterior feathers on each side, dull white, the rest, dark brown; tertials, as long as the primaries; head above, dark brown, with paler edges; over the eye, a streak of whitish; belly and vent, white; the bill is thick at, the base, and very slender towards the point; the hind toe, small. In some specimens, the legs were of a dirty yellowish eolour.. Sides of the rump, white; just below the greater coverts, the primaries are crossed with white. Very little difference could be perceived between the plumage of the males and females. The bay on the edges of the back and scapulars was rather brighter in the male, and the brown deeper. 72 TRINGA ARENARIA, SUBGENUS Ill. —CALIDRIS, ILLIGER. 223. TRINGA ARENARIA, LINN.—CHARADRIUS CALIDRIS, WILS- SANDERLING PLOVER. WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. LV. — WINTER DRESS, In this well known bird we have another proof of the imperfection of systematic arrangement, where no attention is paid to the general habits, but where one single circumstance is sometimes considered sufficient to determine the species. The genus plover is charac- terized by several strong family traits, one of which is that of wanting the hind toe. Thessandpipers have also their peculiar external characters of bill, general form, &e. by which they are easily distinguished from the former. The present species, though possessi the bill, general figure, manners, and voice of the sand- pipers, feeding in the same way, and associating with these in particular, yet wanting the hind toe, has been classed with the plovers, with whom, this single cir- cumstance excepted, it has no one characteristic in common. Though we have not, in the present instance, presumed to alter this arrangement, yet it appears both reasonable and natural that, where the specific characters in any bird seem to waver between two species, the figure, voice, and habits of the equivocal one, should always be taken into. consideration, and be allowed finally to determine the class to which it belongs. Had this rule been followed in the present instance, the bird we are now about to describe would have undoubtedly been classed with the sandpipers. The history of this species has little in it to excite our interest or attention. It makes its appearance on our sea coasts early in September, continues during the greater part of winter, and on the approach of spring returns to the northern regions to breed. While here, it seems perpetually busy running along the wave-worn strand, following the flux and reflux of the surf, eagerly 'SANDERLING PLOVER. 73 picking up its food from the sand amid the roar of the ocean. It flies in numerous flocks, keeping a low, meandering course along the ridges of the tumblin surf. On alighting, the whole scatter about after the receding wave, busily picking up those minute bivalves already described. As the succeeding wave returns, it bears the whole of them before it in one crowded line; then is the moment seized by the experienced gunner to sweep them in flank with his destructive shot. The flying survivors, after a few aérial meanders, again alight, and pursue their usual avocation as busily and as unconcernedly as before. These birds are most numerous on extensive sandy beaches in front of the ocean. Among rocks, marshes, or stones covered with sea-weed, they seldom make their appearance. The sanderling is eight inches long, and fourteen inches in extent; the bill is black, an inch and a quarter in length, slender, straight, fluted along the upper mandible, and exactly formed like that of the sandpiper ; the head, neck above, back, scapulars, and tertials, are gray white; the shafts, blackish, and the webs tinged with brownish ash; shoulder of the wing, black ; greater coverts, broadly tipt with white; quills, black, crossed with a transverse band of white ; the tail extends a little beyond the wings, and is of a grayish ash colour, edged with white, the two middle feathers being about half an inch longer than the others; eye, dark hazel; whole lower parts of the plumage, pure white; legs and naked part of the thighs, black ; feet, three-toed, each divided to its origin, and bordered with a narrow membrane. Such are the most common markings of this bird, both of males and females, particularly during the winter; but many others occur among them, early in the autumn, thickly marked or spotted with black on the crown, back, scapulars, and tertials, so as to appear much mottled, having as much black as white on those parts. In many of these I have observed the plain gray plumage coming out about the middle of 74 CHARADRIUS RUBIDUS. October, so that, perh the: may be their winter, and the spotted their kno Re P _ I have also met with many specimens of this bird, not only thickly speckled with white and black above, but also on the neck, and strongly tinged on both with ferruginous, in which dress it has been mistaken by Mr Pennant and others for a new species; the des- Pre of his “ ruddy plover” agreeing exactly with this. * 224. CHARADRIUS RUBIDUS, WILSON. RUDDY PLOVER, WILSON, PLATE LXIII. FIG. 111. }—sSUMMER DRESS. Tuts bird is frequently found in company with the sanderling, which, except in colour, it very much resembles. It is generally seen on the sea coast of New Jersey in May and October, on its way to and from its breeding place in the north, It runs with great activity along the edge of the flowing or retreat- ing waves on the sands, picking up the small bivalve shell-fish, which supplies so many multitudes of the plover and sandpiper tribes. | I should not be surprised if the present species turn out hereafter to be the sanderling itself, in.a different dress. Of many scores which I examined, scarce two were alike; in some the plumage of the back was almost plain, in others the black plumage was» just shooting out. This was in the month of October. Naturalists, however, have considered it as a separate species; but have given us no farther particulars than that, “ in Hudson’s Bay, it is known by the name of Mistchaychekiskaweshish,” {—a piece of information certainly very instructive. * See Arctic Zoology, p. 486, No. 404. t This bird is the sanderling plover in its summer dress. LATHAM. LONG-LEGGED PLOVER. 75 The ruddy plover is eight inches long, and fifteen in extent; the bill is black, an inch long, and straight ; sides of the neck and whole upper parts, speckled largely with white, black, and ferruginous ; the feathers being centred with black, tipt with white, and edged with ferruginous, giving the bird a very motley appear- ance; belly and vent, pure white; wing-quills, black, crossed with a band of white; lesser coverts, whitish, centred with pale olive, the first two or three rows black ; two middle tail-feathers, black ; the rest, pale cinereous, edged with white; legs and feet, black ; toes, bordered with a very narrow membrane. On dissection, both males and females varied in their colours and markings. GENUS L.—HIMANTOPUS, Brisson. 225. HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS, VIEILL. RECURVIROSTRA HIMANTOPUS, WILSON. —LONG-LEGGED PLOVER. WILSON, PLATE LVIII, FIG. Il. —- EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. ' Naruratists have most unaccountably classed this bird with the genus charadrius, or plover, and yet affect to make the particular conformation of the bill, legs, and feet, the rule of their arrangement. In the present subject, however, excepting the trivial circum- stance of the want of a hind toe, there is no resem- blance whatever of those parts to the bill, legs, or feet, of the plover; on the contrary, they are so entirely different, as to create no small surprise at the adoption and general acceptation of a classification, evidently so absurd and unnatural. This appears the more repre- hensible, when we consider the striking affinity there is between this bird and the common avoset, not only in the particular. form of the bill, nostrils, tongue, legs, feet, wings, and tail, but extending to the voice, man- ners, food, place of breeding, form of the nest, and even the very colour of the eggs of both, all »of which are strikingly alike, and point out, at once, to the actual 76 HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS. observer of nature, the true relationship of these remarkable birds. ; Strongly impressed with these facts, from an intimate Param with the living subjects, in their native wilds, I have presumed to remove the present species to the true and proper place assigned it by nature, and shall now areca to detail some parti of its history. This species arrives on the sea coast of New Jersey about the 25th of April, in small detached flocks, of twenty or thirty together. These sometimes i subdivide into lesser parties ; but it rarely happens that a pair is found solitary, as, during the breeding season, they usually associate in small companies. On their first arrival, and, indeed, during the whole of their residence, they inhabit those particular parts of the salt marshes pretty high up towards the land, that are broken into numerous shallow pools, but are not usually overflowed by the tides during the summer. These pools or ponds are generally so shallow, that, with their long legs, the avosets can easily wade them in every direction; and as they abound with minute shell-fish, and multitudes of aquatic insects and their lary, besides the eggs and spawn of others deposited in the soft mud below, these birds find here an abun- dant supply of food, and are almost continually seen wading about in such places, often up to the breast in water. In the vicinity of these bald places, as they are called fifty yards off, among the thick tufts of grass, one of these small associations, consisting perhaps of six or eight pair, takes up its residence during the breeding season. About the first week in May, they begin to construct their nests, which are at first slightly formed of a small quantity of old grass scarcely sufficient to keep the eggs from the wet marsh. As they lay and sit, however, either dreading the rise of the tides, or for some other purpose, the nest is increased in height, with dry twigs of a shrub very common in the marshes, roots of the salt grass, sea-weed, and various other LONG-LEGGED PLOVER. 77 substances, the whole weighing between two and three pounds, This habit of adding materials to the nest after the female begins sitting, is common to almost all other birds that breed in the marshes. The eggs are four in number, of a dark yellowish clay colour, thickly marked with large blotches of black. These nests are often placed within fifteen or twenty yards of each other; but the greatest harmony seems to prevail among the proprietors. _ ' While the females are sitting, the males are either wading through the ponds or roaming over the adjoining marshes; but should a person make his appearance, the whole collect together in the air, flying with their long legs extended behind them, keeping up a continual yelping note of click, click, click. Their flight is steady, and not in short, sudden jerks, like that of the plover. As they frequently alight on the bare marsh, they drop their wings, stand with their legs half bent, and trem- bling, as if unable to sustain the burden of their bodies. In this ridiculous posture they will sometimes stand for several minutes, uttering a curring sound, while, from the corresponding quiverings of their wings and long legs, they seem to balance themselves with great difficulty. This singular maneuvre is, no doubt, intended to induce a belief that they may be easily caught, and so turn the attention of the person, from the pursuit of their nests and young, to themselves, The red-necked ayvoset practises the very same dece tion, in the same ludicrous manner, and. both alight indiscriminately on the ground or in the water. Both will also occasionally swim for a few feet, when they chance, in wading, to lose their depth, as I have had several times an opportunity of observing. - The name by which this bird is known on the sea coast is the stilt, or tilt, or long-shanks. They are but sparingly dispersed over the marshes, having, as has been already observed, their particular favourite spots, while, in large intermediate tracts, there are few or none to be found. They occasionally visit the shore, wading about in the water and in the mud, in search of 78 HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS. food, which they scoop up very dexterously with their delicately formed bills. On being wounded while in the water, they attempt to escape by diving, at which they are by no means expert. In autumn their flesh is tender, and well tasted. They seldom raise more than one brood in the season, and depart for the south earl in September. As they are well known in Jamaica, it is probable some of them may winter in that and other of the West India islands. Mr Pennant observes, that this bird is not a native of northern Europe; and there have been but few instances where it has been seen in Great Britain, It is common, says Latham, in Egypt, being found there in the marshes in October. It is likewise plentiful about the salt lakes, and is often seen on the shores of the Caspian sea, as well as by the rivers which are th themselves into it, and in the southern deserts of Independent Tartary. The same author adds, on the authority of Ray, that it is known at Madras in the East Indies. All the figures and descriptions which I have seen of this curious bird, represented the bill as i and‘ of almost an equal thickness throughout, which I have’ never found so in any of the numerous specimens I have myself shot and examined. Many of these accounts, as well as figures, have been taken from dried and stuffed skins, which give but an imperfect and often erroneous idea of the true outlines of\nature, The dimensions, colours, and markings, of a very beaus tiful specimen, newly shot, were as follow :— Length, from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, fourteen inches, to the tips of the wings, sixteen; extent, twenty-eight inches; bill, three inches long, slightly curved upwards, tapering to a fine point, the upper mandible rounded above, the whole of a deep black colour; nostrils, an oblong slit, pervious ; tongue, short, pointed; forehead, spot behind the eye, lower eyelid, sides of the neck and whole lower parts, pure white; back, rump, and tail-coverts, also white, but so concealed by the scapulars as to appear black; tail, - LONG-LEGGED PLOVER. | 79 even, or very slightly forked, and of a dingy white; the vent-feathers reach to the tip of the tail below; line before the eye, auriculars, back part of the neck, scapulars, and: whole wings, deep black, richly glossed with green ; legs and naked thighs, a fine pale carmine ; the latter measures three, the former four inches and a half in length, exceedingly thin, and so flexible that they may be bent considerably without danger of breaking. This thinness of the leg enables the bird to wade with expedition, and without fatigue. Feet, three- toed, the outer toe connected to the middle one by a broad membrane; wings, long, extending two inches beyond the tail, and sharp pointed; irides, a bright rich scarlet ; pupil, black. In some the white from the breast extends quite round the neck, separating the black of the hind neck from that of the body; claws, blackish horn. . The female is about half an inch shorter, and differs in haying the plumage of the upper back and scapulars, and: also the tertials, of a deep brown colour. The stomach, or gizzard, was extremely muscular, and con- tained fragments of small snail shells, winged bugs, and a slimy matter, supposed to be the remains of some aquatic worms. In one of these females I counted upwards of one hundred and ‘fifty eggs, some of them as large as buck shot: The singular form of the legs and feet, with the exception of the hind toe and one membrane of the foot, is exactly like those of the ayoset. The upper curvature of the bill, though not quite so great, is also the same as in the other, being rounded above, and tapering to a delicate point in the same manner: In short, a slight comparison of the two is sufficient to satisfy the most scrupulous observer that nature has: classed these two birds: together, 80 TOTANUS SEMIPALMATUS. ‘7o04 “arevw ‘S| 226. TOTANUS SEMIPALMATUS, TEMMINCK. WP GENUS LI.—TOTANUS, Becusrein. SCOLOPAX SEMIPALMATA, WILSON. —SEMIPALMATED SNIPE. ‘ WILSON, PLATE LVI. FIG. III. of Tuts is one of the most noisy and noted birds that inhabit our salt marshes in summer, Its common name is the willet, by which appellation it is universally known along the shores of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland,—in all of which places: it breeds in great numbers. oe The willet is peculiar to America. It arrives from the south on the shores of the Middle States about the 20th of April, or beginning of May; and from that time to the last of July, its loud and shrill reiterations of pill-will-willet, pill-will-willet, resound, almost in- cessantly, along the marshes, and may be distinctly, heard at the distance of more than half amile. About the 20th of May, the willets generally begin to lay.* Their nests are built on the ground, among the grass of the salt marshes, pretty well towards the land, or cultivated fields, and are composed of wet rushes and coarse grass, forming a slight hollow or cavity in a tussock. This nest is gradually increased during the period of laying and sitting, to the height of five or six inches. The eggs are usually four in number, very thick at the great end, and tapering to a narrower point at the other than those of the common hen; they; measure two inches and one eighth in length, by one and a half in their greatest breadth, and are of a dark dingy olive, largely blotched with blackish browny particularly at the great end. In some, the ground colour has a tinge of green; in others, of bluish. They are excellent eating, as I have often experienced when obliged to dine on them in my hunting excursions * From some unknown cause, the height of Jaying of these birds is said to be full two weeks later than it was twenty years ago. ‘SEMIPALMATED SNIPE. 81 through the salt marshes. The young are covered with a grey-coloured down; run off soon after they leave the shell; and are led and assisted in their search of food by the mother, while the male keeps a continual watch around for their safety. | The anxiety and affection manifested by these birds for their eggs and young, are truly interesting. A rson no sooner enters the marshes, than he is beset _ by the willets, flying around and skimming over his head, vociferating with great violence their common of pill-will-willet ; and uttering at times a loud clicking note, as he approaches nearer to their nest. As they occasionally alight, and slowly shut their long white wings speckled with black, they have a mournful note, expressive of great tenderness. ‘ During the term’ of incubation, the female often resorts to the sea shore, where, standing up to the belly in water, she washes and dresses her plumage, seeming to-enjoy great satis- faction from these frequent immersions. She is also at other times seen to wade more in the water than most of her tribe; and, when wounded im the wing, will take to the water without hesitation, and swims tolerably well. , : OMT The eges of the willet, in every instance which has come under my observation, are placed, during imeu- bation, in an almost upright position, with the large end uppermost; and this appears to be the constant practice of several other species of birds that breed in these marshes. During the laying season, the crows are seen roaming over the marshes in search'of eggs, and wherever they come, spread consternation and alarm among the willets, who, in united numbers, attack and pursue them with loud clamours. It is worthy of remark, that, among the various birds that breed in these marshes, a mutual respect is paid to each other’s eggs; and it is only from intruders on the land side, such as crows, jays, weasels, foxes, minx, and man himself, that these affectionate tribes have most to dread. The willet subsists chiefly on small shell fish, marine VOL, III. F 82 TOTANUS SEMIPALMATUS. worms, and other aquatic insects; in search of which, it regularly resorts to the muddy shores and flats at low water; its general rendezvous being the marshes. | This bird has a summer and also a winter dress, its colours differing so much in these seasons as scarcely to appear to be the same species. Its spring and summer plumage, in a good specimen, is as follows :— Length, fifteen inches ; extent, thirty inches; upper parts, dark olive brown; the feathers, streaked down the centre, and crossed with waving lines of black; wing-coyerts, light. olive ash, and the whole upper parts sprinkled with touches of dull yellowish white; primaries, black, white at the root half; secondaries, white, bordered with brown ; rump, dark brown; tail, rounded, twelve feathers, pale olive, waved with bars of black; tail-coverts, white, barred with olive; bill, pale lead colour, becoming black towards the tip ; very black; chin, white; breast, beautifully m , with transverse spots of olive on a cream ground; belly and vent, white, the last barred with olive; legs: and feet, pale lead colour; toes, half webbed. Towards the fall, when these birds associate in —_— flocks, they become of a pale dun colour above, plumage being shafted with dark brown, and the tail white, or nearly so. At this season they are extremely fat, and esteemed excellent eating. Experienced gunners always select the lightest coloured ones from a flock, as being uniformly the fattest. | tite The female of this species is generally larger than the male. In the months of October and November, they gradually disappear, ire JF. . YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 83 227. TOTANUS FLAFIPES, VIEILL. —SCOLOPAX FLAVIPES, WILSON. YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. . WILSON, PLATE LVIII. FIG. IV- Or this species I have but little to say. It inhabits our sea coasts and salt marshes during summer; fre- _ quents the flats at low water, and seems particularly fond of walking among the mud, where it doubtless finds its favourite food in abundance. I have never met with its nest, nor with any person acquainted with its particular place or manner of breeding. It is a plentiful species, and great numbers are brought to market in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, parti- eularly in autumn. Though these birds do not often penetrate far inland, yet, on the 5th September, { shot several dozens of them in the meadows of Schuylkill, below Philadelphia. There had been a violent northeast storm a day or two previous, and a large flock of these, accompanied by several species of tringa, and vast numbers of the short-tailed tern, ap- peared at once among the meadows. As a bird for the table, the yellow-shanks, when fat, is in considerable repute. Its chief residence is in the vicinity of the sea, where there are extensive mud flats. It has a sharp whistle, of three or four notes, when about to take wing, and when flying. These birds may be shot down with great facility, if the sportsman, after the first discharge, will only lie close, and permit the wounded birds to flutter about without picking them up; the flock will generally make a circuit, and alight repeatedly, until the greater part of them may be shot down. Length of the yellow-shanks, ten inches; extent, twenty; bill, slender, straight, an inch and a half in length, aud black ; line over the eye, chin, belly, and vent, white; breast and throat, gray; general colour of the plumage above, dusky brown olive, inclining to ash, thickly marked with small triangular spots of dull 84 TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS. white ; tail-coverts, white ; tail, also white, handsomely barred with dark olive ; wings, plain dusky, the secon- daries edged, and all the coverts edged and tipt with white ; shafts, black; eye, also black; legs and naked thighs, long and yellow ; outer toe, united to the middle one by a slight membrane; claws, a horn colour. The female can scarcely be distinguished from the male. 228. TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS, VIEILI. SCOLOPAX VOCIFERUS, WILSON. —TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. jul WILSON, PLATE LVIII. FIG. Ve 4! . Tuts species and the preceding are both well known to our duck-gunners along the sea coast and marshes, by whom they are detested and stigmatized with the names of the greater and lesser, tell-tale, for their faithful vigilance in alarming the ducks with their loud - and shrill whistle, on the first glimpse of the gunner’s approach. Of the two, the present species is by far e most watchful; and its whistle, which consists of four notes rapidly repeated, is so loud, shrill, and alarming, as instantly to arouse every duck within its hearing, and thus disappoints the eager expectations of the marksman. Yet the cunning and experience the latter are frequently more than a match for all ¢ them ; and before the poor tell-tale is aware, his warning’ voice is hushed for ever, and his dead body mi with those of his associates. is _» This bird arrives on our coast early in April, breeds in the marshes, and continues until November, about the middle of which month it generally moves off to the south. The nest, I have been informed, is built in a tuft of thick grass, generally on the borders of a bog or morass.. The female, it is said, Jays four eggs, of a dingy white, irregularly marked with black. _ These birds appear to be unknown in Europe. They’ are simply mentioned by Mr Pennant, as having been observed in autumn, feeding on the sands on the lower TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. 85 part of Chatteaux Bay, continually nodding their heads, and were called there stone curlews. * _ The tell-tale seldom: flies in large flocks, at least uring summer. It delights in watery bogs, and the muddy margins ef creeks and inlets; is either seen searching about for food, or standing ina watchful posture, alternately raising and lowering the head, and, en the least appearance of danger, utters its shrill’ whistle, and mounts on wing, generally accompanied by all the feathered tribes that are near.' It occasion- y penetrates inland along the muddy shores of our large rivers, seldom higher ‘than tide water, and then singly and solitary. They sometimes rise to a great height in the air, and can be distinctly heard when beyond the reach of the eye... In the fall, when they are fat, their flesh is highly esteemed, and many of them are brought to our markets, The colours. and. markings of this bird are so like those of the preceding, that, unless in point of size, and the particular curva- one of the bill, the description of one might serve for oth. |, The tell-tale is fourteen inches and a half long, and twenty-five inches in extent; the bill is two inches and a quarter long, of a dark horn colour; and slightly bent upwards; the space round the eye, chin, ‘and throat, pure white; lower part of the neck, pale ashy white, speckled with black; general colour of the upper parts, an ashy brown, thickly spotted with black and dull white, each feather being bordered and spotted on the edge with black ; wing-quills, black ; some of the primaries, and all of the secondaries, with their coverts, spotted round the margins with black and white; head and neck above, streaked with black and white ; belly and vent, pure white; rump, white, dotted with black ; tail, also white, barred with brown; the wings, when closed, reach beyond the tail; thighs, naked, nearly two inches above the knees; legs, two inches and three quarters long; feet, four-toed, the outer joined by a * Arctic Zoology, p. 468. 86 _» TOTANUS BARTRAMIUS. membrane to the middle, the whole of a rich o yellow. The female differs little in plumage from the male; sometimes the vent is slightly dotted with black, and the upper parts more brown. Nature seems to have intended this bird as a kind of spy, or sentinel, for the safety of the rest; and so well acquainted are they with the watchful vigilance of this species, that, while it continues silent among them, the ucks feed in the bogs and marshes without the least suspicion, The ED object of the gunner is to escape the penetrating glance of this guardian, which is some- times extremely difficult to effect. On the first whistle of the tell-tale, if beyond gunshot, the gunner abandons his design, but not without first bestowing a few left- handed blessings on the author of his disappointment. 229. TOTANUS BARTRAMIUS, TEM. —TRINGIA BARTRAMIA, WILS. BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. I. - Tuts bird being, as far as I can discover, a new species, undescribed by any former author, I have honoured it with the name of my very worthy friend, near whose botanic gardens, on the banks of the river Schuylkill, I first found it. On the same meadows, I have since shot several other individuals of the ies, and have thereby had an opportunity of making an accurate description of it. Unlike most of their tribe, these birds appear to refer running about among the grass, feeding on sectyin and other winged insects. There were three or four in company ; they seemed extremely watehful, silent, and shy, so that it was always with extreme difficulty I could approach them. These birds are occasionally seen there during the months of August and September, but whether they breed near I have not been able to discover. Havi never met with them on the sea shore, I am persuad that their principal residence is in the interior, in _ BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. 87 meadows, and such like places. They run with great rapidity, sometimes spreading their tail, and dropping their wings, as birds do who wish to decoy you from ‘their nest ; when they alight, they remain fixed, stand very erect, and have two or three sharp whistling notes as they mount to fly. They are remarkable plump birds, weighing upwards of three quarters of a pound; their flesh is superior, in point of delicacy, tenderness, and flavour, to any other of the tribe with which I am acquainted. ; This species is twelve inches long, and twenty-one in extent; the bill is an inch and a half long, slightly bent. downwards, and wrinkled at the base, the upper mandible, black.on its ridge, the lower, as well as the ‘edge of the upper, of a fine yellow; front, stripe over the eye, neck, and breast, pale ferruginous, marked with small streaks of black, which, on the lower part of the breast, assume the form of arrow heads; crown, black, the plumage slightly skirted with whitish ; chin, orbit of the eye, whole belly, and vent, pure white ; hind head, and neck above, ferruginous, minutely streaked with black ; back and scapulars, black, the former, slightly skirted with ferruginous, the latter, “with white; tertials, black, bordered with white ; primaries, plain black ; shaft of the exterior quill, snowy, its inner vane, elegantly chest with white ; secondaries, pale brown, spotted on their outer vanes, with black, and tipt with white; greater coverts, dusky, edged with pale ferruginous, and spotted with black ; lesser coverts, pale ferruginous, each feather broadly bordered with white, within which is a con- centric semicircle of black; rump, and ‘tail-coverts, deep brown black, slightly bordered with white; tail, tapering, of a pale brown orange colow’, beautifull spotted with black, the middle feathers centred wit dusky ; legs, yellow, tinged with green; the outer toe joined to the middle by a membrane; lining of the wings, elegantly barred with black and white; iris of of the eye, dark, or blue black, eye, very large. The male and female are nearly alike, 88 TOTANUS CHLOROPYGIUS. we tT - ' + _ 250, TOTANUS CHLOROPYGIUS, VIEILL. me TRINGA SOLITARIA, WILSON. — SOLITARY SANDPIPER. WILSON, PLATE LVIIL. FIG. 111. Tuis new species inhabits the watery solitudes of our highee )mountains during the summer, from Kentucky to New York; but is no where numerous, seldom more than one or two being seen together, It takes short, low flights; runs nimbly about among the mossy margins of the mountain'springs, brooks, and pools, occasionally stopping, looking at you, and .per- tually nodding the head. . It is so unsuspicious, or so little acquainted with man, as to permit one to approach ot within a few yards of it, without appearing to take any ~ notice, or to be the least alarmed. At the approach of cold weather, it descends te the muddy shores of our large rivers, where it is occasionally met with, singly, on its way to the south, I have made many long and close searches for the nest of this bird, without success. They regularly breed on Pocano mountain, between Easton and Wilkesbarre, in Pennsylvania, arriving there early in May, and departing in’ September. It is usually silent, unless when suddenly flushed, when it utters a sharp whistle. Y reoword “As This, species has considerable resemblance, both in manners and markings, to.:the green sandpiper of Europe (tringa ochropus ;) but differs from that bird in being nearly. one-third less, and in wanting the white rump and tail-coverts of that species; it is also destitute of its silky olive green plumage. How far north its migrations extend, lam unable to say. _ he solitary sandpiper is eight inches and a half long, and fifteen inches in extent; the bill. is one inch and a quarter in length, and dusky ; nostrils, pervious, bill, fluted above and below; line over the eye, chin, belly, and vent, pure white; breast, white, spotted with pale olive brown; crown and neck above, | r a i SPOTTED SANDPIPER, 89 dark olive, streaked with white ; back, scapulars, and , dark brown olive, each feather marked along the edges with small round spots of white; wings, in, and of a darker tint; under tail-covert, spotted with black; tail, slightly rounded, the five exterior feathers on each side, white, broadly barred with black ; ‘the two middle ones, as well as their coverts, plain olive ; legs, long, slender, and.of a dusky green. Male and female alike in colour. | 231. TOTANUS MACULARIUS, TEMMINCK. | | \ZRINGA MACULARIA, WILSON. —SPOTTED SANDPIPER. ’ WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. I. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuis very common ‘species arrives in Pennsylvania about the 20th of April, making its first appearance along the shores of our large rivers, and, as the season advances, tracing the courses of our creeks and streams towards the interior. Along the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, and their tributary waters, they are in great abundance during the summer. This species is as remarkable for perpetually wagging the tail, as some others are for nodding the head ; for, whether running on the ground, or on the fences, along the rails, or in the water, this motion seems continual; even the young, as soon as they are freed from the shell, run about constantly wagging the tail: About the middle of May, they resort to the adjoining corn fields to breed, where I have frequently found and examined their nests. One of these now before me, and which was built at the root ofa hill of Indian corn, on high ground, is composed wholly of short pieces of dry straw. The eggs are four, of a pale clay or cream colour, marked with large irregular spots of black, and more thinly with others of a paler tint. They are large, in proportion to the size of the bird, measuring an inch and a quarter in length, very thick at the great end, and tapering suddenly to the other. The young run about with wonderful speed, as soon as they leave the shell, and 90 TOTANUS MACULARIUS. fave. theltt overed with’ dowit'of's-aull drab colons, | marked with a single streak of black down the middle of the back, and with another behind each ear. They have a weak, plaintive note. On the approach of any — person, the parents exhibit symptoms of great distress, _ counterfeiting lameness, and fluttering along the ground with seeming difficulty. On the appearance of a dog, this agitation is greatly increased ; and it is very interesting to observe with what dexterity she will lead him from her young, by throwing herself repeated] before him, fluttering off, and keeping just without his reach, on a contrary direction from her helpless brood. My venerable friend, Mr William Bartram, informs me, that he saw one of these birds defend her young for a considerable time from the repeated attacks of a ground squirrel. The scene of action was on the river shore. The parent had thrown herself, with her two young behind her, between them and the land; and at every attempt of the squirrel to seize them by a circuitous sweep, raised both her wings in an almost perpendicular position, assuming the most formidable appearance she was capable of, and rushed forwards on the squirrel, who, intimidated by her boldness and manner, instantly retreated ; but presently returning, was met, as before, in front and on flank by the daring and affectionate bird, who, with her wings and whole plumage bristling up, seemed swelled to twice her usual size. The youn crowded together behind her, sppetenayy sensible their perilous situation, moving backwards and forwards as she advanced or retreated. This interesting scene lasted for at least ten minutes; the strength of the poor parent began evidently to flag, and the attacks of the squirrel became more daring and frequent, when my good friend, like one of those celestial agents who, in Homer’s time, so often decided the palm of victory, stepped forward from his retreat, drove the assailant ‘back to his hole, and rescued the innocent from ser wes “ers i s The flight of this bird is usually low, skimming along the Slirface of the water, its long wings making a SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 9I considerable angle downwards from the body, while it utters a rapid cry of weet, weet, weet as it flutters along, seldom steering in a direct line up or down the river, but making a long circuitous sweep, stretching a great way out, and gradually bending in again to the shore. These birds are found occasionally along the sea marshes, as well as in the interior; and also breed in the corn fields there, frequenting the shore in search of food; but rarely associating with the other tringe. About the middle of October, they leave us, on their way to the south, and do not, to my knowledge, winter © in any of the Atlantic States. Mr Pennant is of opinion, that this same species is found in Britain ; but neither his description, nor that of Mr Bewick, will apply correctly to this. The following particulars will enable Europeans to deter- mine this matter to their satisfaction : Length of the spotted sandpiper, seven inches and a half, extent, thirteen inches ; bill, an inch long, straight, the tip and upper mandible, dusky, lower, orange ; stripe over the eye, and lower eyelid, pure white ; whole upper parts, a glossy olive, with greenish reflec- tions, each feather marked with waving spots of dark brown; wing-quills, deep dusky ; bastard wing, bordered and tipt with white ; a spot of white on the middle of the inner vane of each quill feather except the first ; secondaries tipt with white; tail, rounded, the six middle feathers, greenish olive, the other three on each side, white, barred with black; whole lower parts, white, beautifully marked with roundish spots of black, small and thick on the throat and breast, larger and thinner as they descend to the tail; legs, a yellow clay colour ; claws,‘ black. The female is as thickly spotted below as the male ; but the young birds of both sexes are pure white below, without any spots; they also want the orange on the bill. These circumstances I have verified on numerous individuals, ; 92 LIMOSA FEDOA,. ‘a GENUS LII,—LIMOSA, Brisson. ' 232. LIMOSA FEDOA, VIEILL.—SCOLOP4X FEDOA, WILSON. GREAT MARBLED GODWIT. WILSON, PLATE LVI. FIG IV. FEMALE. Tuts bird is a transient visitant of our sea coasts in spring and autumn, to and from its breeding place in the north. Our gunners call it the straight-billed curlew, and sometimes the red curlew. It is a shy; cautious, and watehful bird; yet: so strongly are they attached to each other, that, on wounding one inva flock, the rest are immediately arrested in their flight, making so many circuits over the spot where it li fluttering and sereaming, that the sportsman often makes great destruction among them. Like the curlew, ' they may also be enticed within shot, by imitating their call or whistle ; but can seldom be approached without some such maneuvre. They are much less numerous than the short-billed curlews, with whom, however, they not unfrequently associate. They are found among the salt marshes in May, and for some time in June, and also on their return, in October and Novem- ber; at which last season they are usually fat, and in high esteem for the table. The female of this bird has been described by several writers as a distinct species from the male; the chief difference consists in the undulating bars of black with which the breast of the male is marked, and which are wanting in the female. The male of the great marbled godwit is nineteen inches long, and thirty-four inches in extent; the bill is nearly six inches in length, a little turned up towards the extremity, where it is black, the base is of a pale purplish flesh colour ; chin and upper part of the throat, whitish ; head and neck, mottled with dusky brown and black on a ferruginous ground; breast, barred with wavy lines of black ; back and scapulars black ; marbled RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 93 with pale brown ; rump and tail-coverts, of a very light brown, barred with dark brown ; tail, even, except the two middle feathers, which are a little the longest ; wings, pale ferruginous, elegantly marbled with dark brown, the four first primaries black on the outer edge ; whole lining and lower parts of the wings, bright ferruginous ; belly and vent, light rust colour, witha _ tinge of lake. The female differs in wanting the bars of black on the breast. The bill does not acquire its full length before the third year. About fifty different species of the scolopax genus are enumerated by naturalists... These are again, by some, separated, into three classes, or subgenera; viz. the: straight-billed, or snipes; those with bills bent downwards, or the curlews; and those: whose bills are slightly turned upwards, or godwits. The whole area shy, timid, and solitary tribe, frequenting those vast marshes, swamps, and morasses, that frequently prevail in the vicinity of the ocean, and on the borders of large rivers. They are also generally migratory, on account of the periodical freezing of those places in the northern regions, where they procure their food. The godwits -are particularly fond. of salt marshes; and are rarely found in countries remote from the sea. GENUS LHTI.—SCOLOPAX. : : SUBGENUS I. — MACRORAMPHUS, LEACH. 233. SCOLOPAX GRISEA, GMELIN. 'SCOLOPAX NOVEBORACENSIS, WILSON. —RED-BREASTED SNIPE.’ WILSON, PLATE XLVII. FIG. I. » Tuts bird has a considerable resemblance to the common ‘snipe, not only in its general. form, size, and colours, but likewise in the excellence of its flesh, which is in high estimation. It differs, however, greatly from the common snipe in its manners, and in 94 . SCOLOPAX GRISEA. many other peculiarities, a few of which, as far as I have myself observed, may be sketched as follows: — The red-breasted snipe arrives on the sea coast of New Jersey early in April; is seldom or never seen inland: early in May, it proceeds to the north to breed, and returns by the latter part of July, or beginning of August. During its stay here, it flies in flocks, some- times very high, and has then a loud and shrill whistle, making many evolutions over the marshes; forming, dividing, and reuniting. They sometimes settle ins numbers, and so close together, that eighty-five have been shot at one discharge of a musket. They spring from the marshes with a loud twirling whistle, generally rising high, and making several circuitous mancuvyres in air, before they descend, They frequent the sand bars and mud flats at low water, in search of food; and, being less suspicious of a boat than of a person on shore, are easily approached by this medium, and shot down in great numbers. They usually keep by themselves, being very numerous; are in excellent order for the table in September ; and, on the approach of winter, retire to the south. I have frequently amused myself with the various action of these birds: They fly very rapidly, sometimes wheeling, coursing and doubling along the surface of the marshes ; then shooting high in air, there separating and forming in various bodies, uttering a Kind of quivering whistle. Among many which I opened in May, were several females that had very little rufous below, and. the backs were also much lighter, and less marbled with ferruginous. The eggs contained in their ovaries were some of them as e as garden peas. Their stomachs contained masses of those small snail shells that lie in millions on the salt marshes; the wrinkles at the base of the bill, and the red breast, are strong characters of this species, as also the membrane which unites the outer and middle toes together. The red-breasted snipe is ten inches and a half long, and eighteen inches in extent; the bill, is about two inches and a quarter in length, straight, grooved, black SNIPE, 95 towards the point, and of a dirty eelskin colour at the base, where it is tumid and wrinkled; lores, dusky ; cheeks and eyebrows, pale yellowish white, mottled with specks of black ; throat and breast, a reddish buff colour ; sides, white, barred with black ; belly and vent, white, the latter barred with dusky; crown, neck above, back, scapulars, and tertials, black, edged, mottled, and marbled with yellowish white, pale and bright ferruginous, much in the same manner as the common snipe; wings; plain olive, the secondaries, centred and bordered with white; shaft of the first quill, yery white; rump, tail-coverts, and tail (which consists of twelve feathers,) white, thickly spotted with black ; legs and feet, dull yellowish green; outer toe united to the middle one by a small membrane; eye, very dark. The female, which is paler on the back, and less ruddy on the breast, has been described by Mr Pennant as a separate species. * These birds doubtless breed not far to the northward of the United States, if we may judge from the lateness of the season when they leave us in spring, the largeness of the eggs in the ovaries of the females before they depart, and the short period of time they are absent. Of all our sea-side snipes, it is the most numerous, and the most delicious for the table. From these circum- stances, and the crowded manner in which it flies and settles, it is the most eagerly sought after by our gunners, who send them to market in great numbers, SUBGENUS II. — SCOLOPAX, VIEILL. 234. SCOLOPAX BREHMII, KAUP. —SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO, WILS. SNIPE. WILSON, PLATE LVIII. FIG, I, Tuts bird is well known to our sportsmen; and, if not the same, has a very near resemblance to the common snipe of Europe. It is usually known by the * See his Brown Snipe, Arctic Zoology, No. 369. 4 96 SCOLOPAX BREHMII. name of the English snipe, to distinguish it from the woodcock, and from several others of the same genus. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the 10th of March, and remains in the low grounds for several weeks ; the eater part then move off to the north, and to the igher inland districts, to breed. A few are oceasionally found, and, consequently, breed, in our low marshes, during the summer. When they first arrive, they are usually lean; but, when in good order, are excellent eating. They are perhaps the most diffieult to shoot of all our birds, as they fly in sudden zigzag lines, and very rapidly. Great numbers of these birds winter on the rice grounds of the Southern’ States, where, in the month of February, they 4 Teneo to be much tamer than they are usually here, as I frequently observed them running about among the springs and watery thickets. I was told by the inhabitants that they generally disappeared early in the spring. On the 20th of March, I found these birds extremely numerous on the borders of the ponds near Louisville, Kentucky, and also in the neighbourhood of Lexington, in the same State, as late as the 10th of April. 1 was told by several people that they are abundant in the Illinois country, up as far as lake Michigan. They are but seldom seen in Pennsylvania during the summer, but are occasionally met with in considerable numbers on their return in autumn, along the whole eastern side of the Alleghany, from the sea to the mountains. They have the same soaring irregular flight in the air, in loomy weather, as the snipe of Europe; the same leating note and occasional rapid descent ; spring from the marshes with the like feeble squeak ; and, in every respect resemble the common avine of Britain, except in being about an inch less; and in having sixteen feathers in the tail instead of fourteen, the number said by Bewick to be in that of Europe. From these circumstances, we must either conclude this to be a different species, or partially changed by difference of climate ; the former appears to me the most probable opinion of the two, exter. 97 These birds abound in the meadows and low grounds along our large rivers, particularly those that border the Schuylkill and Delaware, from the 10th of March to the middle of April, and sometimes later,'and are eagerly sought after by many of our gunners. The nature of the grounds, however, which these birds frequent, the coldness of the season, and peculiar shyness and agility of the game, render this amusement Attractive only to the most dexterous, active, and eager of our sportsmen. ‘HID . The snipe is eleven inches long, and seventeen inches im extent; the bill is more than two inches and a half long, fluted lengthwise, of a brown colour, and black towards the tip, where it is very smooth while the bird is alive, but, soon after it is killed, becomes dimpled, like the end of a thimble; crown, black, divided by an irregular line of pale brown; another broader one of the same tint passes over each eye ; from the bill to the eye, there is a narrow dusky line ; neck and upper part of the breast, pale brown, variegated with touches of white and dusky ; chin, pale ; back and scapulars, deep velvety black, the latter elegantly marbled with wavin lines of ferruginous, and broadly edged exteriorly with white ; wings, plain dusky, all the feathers, as well as those of the coverts, tipt with white ; shoulder of the wing, deep dusky brown, exterior quill, edged with white ; tail-coverts, long, reaching within three quarters of an inch of the tip, and of a pale rust colour, spotted with black ; tail, rounded, deep black, ending in a bar of ie ferruginous, crossed with a narrow waving line of black, and tipt with whitish ; belly, pure white; Sides, barred with dusky; legs and feet, a very pale ashy green; sometimes the whole thighs and sides of the vent are barred with dusky and white. The female differs in being more obscure in her colours ; the white on the back being less pure, and the black not so deep. ~ VOL, IIT. ¢@ : , 4 98 SCOLOPAX MINOR- SUBGENUS III]. — RUBICOLA, VIEILL. 235. SCOLOPAX MINOR, GMELIN AND WILSON~ AMERICAN WOODCOCK, WILSON, PLATE XVIII. FIG. H. . Tuts bird, like the rail, is universally known te our sportsmen. It arrives in Pennsylvania early im March, sometimes sooner; aud I doubt not but in mild winters some few remain with us the whole of that season. During the day, they keep to the woods and thickets, and, at the approach of evening, seek the rings and open watery places to feed in, They soon perse themselves over the country to breed. About the beginning of July, particularly in long continued hot weather, they descend to the marshy shores of our large rivers, their favourite springs and watery recesses inland being chiefly dried up. To the former of these retreats, they are pursued by the merciless sportsman, flushed by dogs, and shot down in great numbers. This species of amusement, when eagerly followed, is still more laborious and fatiguing than that of snipe shooting ; and, from the nature of the ground, or cripple, as it is usually called, yiz, deep mire intersected with old which are covered and hid from sight by high r weeds, and alder bushes, the best dogs are soon tired out ; and it is customary with sportsmen who regularly pursue this diversion, to have two sets of dogs, to relieve each other alternately, _ The woodcock usually begins to lay in April, The nest is placed on the ground, in a retired part of the woods, frequently at the root of an old stump, It. is formed of a few withered leaves and stalks of grass laid with yery little art, The female lays four, sometimes five eggs, about an inch and a half long, and an inch or rather more in diameter, tapering suddenly to the small end. These are of a dun clay colour, thickly marked with spots of brown, Pet at the great AMERICAN WOODCOCK, 99 end, and interspersed with others of a very pale purple. The nest of the woodcock has, in several instances that have come to my knowledge, been found with eggs in February ; but its usual time of-beginning to lay is early in April. In July, August, and September, they are considered in good order for shooting. The woodcock is properly a nocturnal bird, feeding chiefly at night, and seldom stirring about till after sunset. At such times, as well as in the early part of the morning, particularly in spring, he rises by a kind of spiral course to a considerable height in the air, ‘uttering at times a sudden quack, till, having gained his utmost height, he hovers around in a wild irregular manner, making a sort of murmuring sound; then descends with rapidity as he rose. When uttering his common note on the ground, he seems to do it with diffi- culty, throwing his head towards the earth, and frequently jetting up his tail. These notes and mancuvres are most usual in spring, and are the call of the male to his favourite female. Their food consists of various larve, and other aquatic worms, for which, during the evening, they are almost continually turning over the leaves with their bill, or searching in the bogs. Their flesh is reckoned delicious, and prized highly. They remain with us till late in autumn, and, on the falling of the first snows, descend from the ranges of the Alleghany to the lower parts of the country in great numbers; soon after which, viz. in November, they move off to the south. - This bird, in its general figure and manners, greatly resembles the woodcock of Europe, but is considerably less, and very differently marked below, being an entirely distinct species. A few traits will clearly point out. their differences. The lower parts of the European woodcock are thickly barred with dusky waved lines, on a yellowish white ground. The present species has ‘those parts of a bright ferruginous.. The male of the American species weighs from five to six ounces, the female, eight; the European, twelve. The European woodcock makes its first appearance in Britain in 100 . SCOLOPAX MINOR. *. October and November, that country being in fact only its winter quarters; for, early in March, they move off to the northern parts of the Continent to breed. The American species, on the contrary, winters in countries south of the United States, arrives here early in March, extends its migrations as far, at least, as the river St Lawrence, breeds in all the intermediate places, and retires again to the south on the approach of winters The one migrates from the torrid to the te regions, the other, from the temperate to the arctic. The two birds, therefore, notwithstanding their names are the same, differ not only in size and markings, but also in native climate. Hence the absurdity of those who would persuade us, that the woodcock of America crosses the Atlantic to Europe, and vice versa. These observations have been thought necessary, from the respectability of some of our own writers, who seem to have adopted this opinion. 8 _ How far to the north our woodcock is found, I am unable to say. It is not mentioned as a bird of Hudson’s Bay, and, being altogether unknown in the northern parts of Europe, it is very probable that its migrations do not extend to a very high latitude; for, it may be laid down as a gene e, that those birds which migrate to the arctic regions, in either continent, are very often common to both. The head of the woodcock is of singular conformation, lange, somewhat triangular, and the eye fixed at a remarkable distance from the bill, and high in the head. This construction was ne to give a greater range of vision, and to secure the eye from injury, while the owner was searching in the mire: The flight of the woodcock is slow. When flushed at any time in the woods, he rises to the height of the bushes or underwood, and almost eae drops behi them again at a short distance, generally ing off for several yards as soon as he touches the ground, The notion that there are two species of woodeoek in this country to originated from the great differ- ence of size between the male and female, the latter being considerably the larger. Mp AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 101 The male woodcock is ten inches and a half long, and sixteen inches in extent; bill, a brownish flesh colour, black towards the tip, the upper mandible ending in a slight knob, that projects about one-tenth of aninch beyond the lower, * each grooved, and, in length, somewhat more than two inches and a half; forehead, line over the eye, and whole lower a reddish tawny ; sides of the neck, inclining to ash; between the eye and bill, a slight streak of dark brown; crown, from the forepart of the eye backwards, black, crossed by three narrow bands of brownish white ; cheeks, marked with a bar of black, variegated with light brown ; edges of the back, and of the scapulars, pale bluish white; back and scapulars, deep black, each feather tipt or marbled with light brown and bright ferruginous, with numerous fine zigzag lines of black crossing the lighter parts; quills, plain dusky brown; tail, black, each feather marked along the outer edge with small spots of pale brown, and ending in narrow tips, of a pale drab colour above, and silvery white below; lining of the wing, bright rust; legs and feet, a pale reddish flesh colour ; eye, very full and black, seated high and very far back in the head ; weight, five ounces and a half, sometimes The female is twelve inches long, and eighteen in extent; weighs eight ounces ; and differs also in having the bill very near three inches in length; the black on the back is not quite so intense; and the sides under the wings are slightly barred with dusky. The young woodcocks of a week or ten days old are covered with down of a brownish white colour, and are marked from the bill along the crown to the hind head, with a broad stripe of deep brown; another line of the * Mr Pennant, (Arctic Zoology, p. 463,) in describing the American woodcock, says, that the lower mandible is much shorter than the upper. From the appearance of his figure, it is evident that the specimen from which that and his description were taken had lost nearly half an inch from the lower mandible, probably broken off by accident. Turton and others have repeated this mistake. 102 SCOLOPAX MINOR. same passes through the eyes to the hindhead, curving under the eye; from the back to the rudiments of the tail, runs another of the same tint, and also on the sides under the wings ; the throat and breast are considerably tinged with rufous ; and the quills at this age are just ‘bursting from their light blue sheaths, and appear marbled, as in the old birds; the legs and bill are of a ale purplish ash colour, the latter about an inch long. en taken, and utter a long, clear, but feeble peep, not louder than that of a mouse. They are far inferior to young partridges in running and skulking; and, should the female unfortunately be killed, may easily be taken on the spot, eye FAMILY XXI MACRODACTYLTI, Itucer. GENUS LI¥V.— RALLUS, Linnevs. SUBGENUS I. — RALLUS, ILLIGER. 236... RALLUS CREPITANS, LINNAUS AND WILSON. CLAPPER RAI. WILSON, PLATE LXII. FIG. I. Tuis is a very numerous and well known species, inhabiting our whole Atlantic coast from New England to Florida. It is designated by different names, such as the mud hen, clapper rail, meadow clapper, big rail, &c. Though occasionally found along the swampy shores and tide waters of our large rivers, its principal residence is in the salt marshes. It is a bird of passage, arriving on the coast of New Jersey about the 20th of April, and retiring again late in September. I suspect that many of them winter in the marshes of Georgia and Florida, having heard them very numerous at the mouth of Savannah river in the month of February. Coasters and fishermen often hear them while on their migrations, in spring, generally a little before day- break. The shores of New Jersey, within the beach, consisting of an immense extent of flat marsh, covered with a coarse reedy grass, and occasionally overflowed by the sea, by which it is also cut up into innumerable islands by narrow inlets, seem to be the favourite breeding place for these birds, as they are there acknowledged to be more than double in number to all other marsh fowl. The clapper rail, or, as it is generally called, the mud hen, soon announces its arrival in the salt marshes, Dy its loud, harsh and incessant cackling, which very much resembles that of a Guinea fowl. This noise is most general during the night, and is said to be always 104 RALLUS CREPITANS. greatest before a storm. About the 20th of May, they Senay commence laying and building at the same — time; the first egg being usually dropt in a slight cayity, lined with a little dry grass pulled for the pur- pose, which, as the number of the eggs increase to their usual complement, ten, is gradually added to, until it - rises to the height of twelve inches or more, — doubtless to secure it from the rising of the tides. Over this the long salt grass is artfully arched, and knit at top, to conceal it from the view above; but this very cireum- stance enables the experienced egg hunter to distinguish — the spot at the distance of thirty or forty yards, though - imperceptible to a common eye. The eggs are of a pale clay colour, sprinkled with small spots of dark red, and measure somewhat more than an inch and a half in length, by one inch in breadth, being rather obtuse at the small end, These eggs are exquisite eating, far — surpassing those of the domestic hen. The height of © laying is about the Ist of June, when the people of the” neighbourhood go off to the marshes an egging, as it is’ called. So abundant are the nests of this species, and so dexterous some persons at finding them, that one hundred dozen of eggs haye been collected by one man inaday. At this time, the crows, the minx, and the foxes, come in for their share; but, not content with the eggs, those last often seize and devour the parents also, The bones, feathers, wings, &c. of the poor mud hen lie in none near the hole of the minx; by which — owever, he himself is often detected and ~ circumstance, destroyed. ; These birds are also subject to another calamity of a more extensive kind: After the greater part of the eggs are laid, there sometimes happen violent northeast tempests, that drive a great sea into the bay, covering - the whole marshes; so that at such times the rail may be seen in hundreds, floating over the marsh in great — distress ; many escape to the mainland; and vast numbers perish. On an occasion of this kind I have seen, at. one view, thousands in a ye meadow, > walking about exposed and bewildered, w ile the dead _ CLAPPER RAIL: * 105 bodies of the females, who had perished on or near their nests, were strewed along the shore. This last circumstance proves how strong the ties of maternal affection is in these birds; for of the great numbers which I picked up and opened, not one male was to be found among them; all were females! Such as had not. yet begun to sit probably escaped. These disasters do not prevent the survivors from recommencing the work of laying and building anew ; and instances have occurred where their eggs have been twice destroyed by the sea; and yet in two weeks the eggs and nests seemed as numerous as ever, The young of the clapper rail very much resemble those of the Virginian. rail, except in being larger. On the 10th of August, I examined one of these young clapper rails, caught among the reeds in the Delaware, and apparently about three weeks old; it was covered with black down, with the exception of a spot of white on. the auriculars, and a streak of the same along the side of the breast, belly, and fore part of the thigh; the legs were of a blackish slate colour; and the bill was marked with a spot of white near the point, and round the nostril. These run with great facility among the grass and reeds, and are taken with extreme difficulty. . The whole defence of this species seems to be in the eryous vigour of its limbs, and thin compressed form of its body, by which it is enabled to pass between the stalks of grass and reeds with great rapidity. There are also every where among the salt marshes covered ways, under the flat and matted grass, through which the rail makes its way like a rat, without a possibility of being seen. There is generally one or more of these from its nest to the water edge, by which it may escape unseen ; and sometimes, if closely pressed, it will dive to the other side of the pond, gut, or inlet, rising and disappearing again with the silence and celerity of thought. In smooth water it swims tolerably well, but not fast; sitting high in the water, with its neck erect, and striking with great rapidity. When on shore, it.runs with the neck extended, the tail erect, 106 RALLUS CREPITANS. and frequently flirted up. On fair ground, they rum nearly as fast as a man; having myself, with great difficulty, caught some that were wing-broken. They have also the faculty of remaining under water for several minutes, clinging close, head downwards, ry the roots of the grass. In a long stretch, they fly wi great velocity, very much in the manner of a duck, with extended neck, and generally low; but such is their aversion to take wing, that you ee traverse the marshes where there are hundreds of these birds, without seeing one of them; nor will they flush until they have led the dog through numerous labyrinths, and he is on the very point of seizing them. ' The food of the clapper rail consists of small shell- fish, particularly those of the snail form, so abundant in the marshes; they also eat small crabs. Their flesh is dry, tastes sedgy, and will bear no comparison with that of the common rail. Early in October, they move off to the south; and though, even in winter, a solitary instance of one may sometimes be seen, yet these are generally such as have been weak or wounded, and unable to perform the journey. The clapper rail measures fourteen inches in length, and eighteen in extent; the bill is two inches and a ‘quarter long, slightly bent, pointed, grooved, and of a reddish brown colour ; iris of the eye, dark red; nostril, oblong, pervious ; crown, neck, and back, black, streaked with dingy brown; chin and line over the eye, brownish white; auriculars, dusky; neck before, and whole breast, of the same red brown as that of the preceding ‘species; wing-coverts, dark chestnut; quill- feathers, lain dusky; legs, reddish brown; flanks and vent, black, tipt, or barred with white. The males and females are nearly alike. The young birds of the first year have the upper parts of an olive brown, streaked with pale ‘slate ;— wings, pale brown olive; chin and part of the throat, white; breast, ash colour, tinged with brown; legs and feet, a pale horn colour. Mr Pennant, and several other naturalists, appear to have taken their descriptions © VIRGINIAN RAIL. 107 from these imperfect specimens, the clapper rail being altogether unknown in Europe. c +I have never met with any of these birds in the interior at a distance from lakes or rivers, I have also made diligent inquiry for them along the shores of Lakes Champlain and Ontario, but without success. 237. RALLUS FIBGINIANUS, LINN.ZUS AND WILSON. VIRGINIAN RAIL. “WILSON, PLATE LX. FIG. L.— EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUMs | Tuts species very much resembles the European ‘water rail, (rallus aqguaticus,) but is smaller, and has none of the slate or lead colour on the breast, which marks that of the old continent ; its toes are also more than proportionably shorter, which, with a few other peculiarities, distinguish the species. It is far less numerous in this part of the United States than our ‘common rail, and, as I apprehend, inhabits more remote northern regions. It is frequently seen along the borders of our salt marshes, which the other rarely visits; and also breeds there, as well as among the smeadows that border our large rivers. It spreads over the interior as far west as the Ohio, having myself shot it in the barrens of Kentucky early in May. The people there observe them in wet places, in the groves, only in spring. It feeds less on vegetable, and more on animal, food than the common rail. During the months of ‘September and October, when the reeds and wild oats swarm with the latter species, feeding on their nutritious seeds, a few of the present kind are occasionally found ; but not one for five hundred of the others. The food ‘of the present species consists: of small snail shells, . worms, and the larve of insects, which it extracts from the mud; hence the cause of its greater length of bill, «to enable it the more readily to reach its food. On this ‘account also, its flesh is much inferior to that of the eother, In most of its habits, its thin compressed form 108 RALLUS VIRGINIANUS. of body, its aversion to take wing, and the dexterity with which it runs or conceals itself among the grass and sedge, are exactly similar to those of the common rail, from which genus, notwithstanding the difference of its bill, it ought not to be separated. ot This bird is known to some of the inhabitants the sea-coast of New Jersey, by the name of the fresh- water mud hen, this last being the common appellation of the clapper rail, which the present species resembles in every thing but size. The epithet fresh-water is given it, because of its frequenting those parts of the marsh only where fresh water springs rise through the bogs into the salt marshes. In these places it usually constructs its nest, one of which, through the active exertions of my friend Mr Ord, while traversing with me the salt marshes of Cape May, we had the good fortune to discover. It was built in the bottom of a tuft of grass, in the midst of an almost impenetrable quagmire, and was composed altogether of old wet grass: and rushes. The eggs had been floated out of the nest by the extraordinary rise of the tide in a violent north+ east storm, and lay scattered about among the drift weed. The female, however, still lingered near the spot, to which she was so attached, as to suffer herself to be taken by hand. She doubtless intended to repair her nest, and commence laying anew; as, during the few hours that she was in our possession, she laid one egg, corresponding in all respects with the others. Om examining those floated out of the nest, they contained’ young, perfectly formed, but dead. The usual number of is from six to ten. They are shaped like those of the domestic hen, measuring one inch and two-tenths long, by very nearly half an inch in width, and are ofa dirty white, or pale cream colour, sprinkled with specks of reddish and pale purple, most numerous near the great end. They commence laying early in May, and probably raise two brood in the season. I suspect this from the circumstance of Mr Ord having, late in the month of July, brought me several young ones of only a few days old, which were caught among the grass near . VIRGINIAN RAH: ~ 109 the border of the Delaware. The parent rail shewed t solicitude for their safety. They were wholly black, ‘except a white spot on the bill; were covered with a fine down, and had. a soft piping note. In the month of June of the same year, another pair of these birds began to breed amidst a boggy spring in one of Mr Bartram’s meadows, but were unfortunately destroyed. | _ The Virginian rail.is migratory, never wintering in the Northern or Middle States. It makes its first appearance in Pennsylvania early in May, and leaves the country on the first smart frosts, generally in November. I have no doubt but many of them linger in the low woods and marshes of the Southern States during winter. This species is ten inches long, and fourteen inches in extent; bill, dusky red; cheeks and stripe over the eye, ash, over the lores and at the lower eyelid, white; iris of the eye, red; crown and whole upper parts, black, streaked with brown, the centre of each feather being black; wing-coverts, hazel brown, inclining to chestnut; quills, plain deep dusky ; chin, white; throat, breast, and belly, orange brown; sides and vent, black, tipt with white; legs and feet, dull red brown; edge of the bend of the wing, white. The female is about half an inch shorter, and differs from the male, in haying the breast much paler ; not of so bright areddish brown; there is also more white on the chin and throat. ) When seen, which is very rarely, these birds stand or run with the tail erect, which they frequently jerk upwards. They fly with the legs hanging, generally but a short distance ; and the moment they alight, run off with great speed. ; 110 RALLUS CAROLINUS. SUBGENUS Il. — CHEX, ILLIGER, ig 238. BALLUS CAROLINUS, LANNAXUS AND WILSON. | a CAROLINA RAIL. WILSON, PLATE XLVIIL. FIG. l.—EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM, Or all our land or water fowl, perhaps none afford the sportsman more agreeable amusement, or a more delicious repast, than the little bird now before us. This amusement is indeed temporary, lasting only two or three hours in the day for four or five weeks in each year; but, as it occurs in the most agreeable and temperate of our seasons, is attended with little or no fatigue to the gunner, and is frequently successful, it attracts numerous followers, and is pursued, in sach places as the birds frequent, with great eagerness and enthusiasm. . So The natural history of the rail, or, as it is called in Virginia, the sora, and in South Carolina the coot, is to the most of our sportsmen involved in profound and inexplicable mystery. It comes, they know not whence; and goes, they know not where. No one can detect their first moment of arrival ; yet all at once the reedy shores, and grassy marshes, of our large rivers swarm with them, thousands being sometimes found within the space of a few acres. These, when they do venture on wing, seem to fly so feebly, and in such short fluttering flights among the reeds, as to render it highly re age le to most people that they could possibly make their way over an extensive tract of mans? 4 Yet, on the first smart frost that occurs, the w suddenly disappear, as if they had never been. - To account for these extraordinary phenomena, it has been supposed by some that they bury themselves in the mud; but as this is every year dug into by ditchers and people Sat eam in repairing the banks, without any of those sleepers being found, where but a few weeks before these birds were innumerable, this theory has been generally abandoned. And here their researches into this mysterious matter generally end in the common _ CAROLINA RAILs lil exclamation of “ What can become of them!” Some profound inquirers, however, not discouraged with these difficulties, have prosecuted their researches with more success; and one of those, living a few years ago near the mouth of James River in Virginia, where t rail or sora are extremely numerous, has (as I was informed on the spot) lately discovered that they change into frogs! having himself found in his meadows an animal of an extraordinary kind, that appeared to be neither a sora nor a frog, but, as he expressed it, “something between the two.” He carried it to his negroes, and afterwards took it home, where it lived three days; and in his own and his negroes’ opinion, it. looked like nothing in this world but a real sera changing into a frog! What farther confirms this grand discovery is the well known circumstance of the frogs ceasing to hollow as soon as the sora comes in the fall. .. This sagacious discoverer, however, like many others renowned in history, has found but few supporters, and, except his own negroes, has not, as far as I can learn, made a single convert to his opinion. Matters being so circumstanced, and some explanation necessary, I shall endeavour to throw a little more light on the subject by a simple detail of facts, leaying the reader to form his own theory as he pleases. The rail or sora belongs to a genus of birds of which about thirty different species are enumerated by natu- ralists; and those are distributed over almost every region of the habitable parts of the earth, The general character of these is every where the same. They run swiftly, fly slowly, and usually with the legs hanging down ; become extremely fat ; are fond of concealment ; and, wherever it is practicable, prefer running to flying, Most of them are migratory, and abound during the summer in certain countries, the inhabitants of which have very rarely an opportunity of seeing them, Of this last the land rail of Britain is a striking example, This. bird, which during the summer months may be heard in almost every grass and clover field in the kingdom, uttering its common. note Creh, ¢rek, from 112. RALLUS CAROLINUsS. sunset to. a late hour in the night, is yet unknown by sight to more than nine-tenths of the inhabitants. “ Its well known cry,” says Bewick, “ is first heard as soon as the grass becomes long enough to shelter it, and continues till the grass is cut; but the bird is seldom seen, for it constantly skulks among the thickest of the herbage, and runs so nimbly through it, windi and doubling in every direction, that it is difficult to come near it; when hard pushed by the dog, it some- times stops short, and squats down, by which means its too eager pursuer overshoots the spot, and loses the trace. It seldom springs but when driven to extremity, and generally flies with its legs hanging down, but never to a great distance; as soon as it alights it runs off, and, before the fowler has reached the spot, the bird is at a considerable distance.”* The water crake, or spotted rail of the same country, which in its plumage approaches nearer to our rail, is another notable example of the same general habit of the genus. “ Its common abode,” says the same writer, “is in low swampy grounds, in which are pools or streamlets overgrown with willows, reeds, and rushes, where it lurks and hides itself with great circumspection ; it is wild, solitary, and shy, and will swim, dive, or skulk under any cover, and some~ times suffer itself to be knocked on the head, rather than rise before the sportsman and his dog.” The water rail of the same country is equally noted for the like habits. In short, the whole genus ess this strong family character in a very remarkable degree. | These three species are well known to migrate into Britain early in spring, and to leave it for the more southern parts of Europe in autumn. Yet they are rarely or never seen on their passage to or from the countries where they are regularly found at different seasons of the year, and this for the very same reasons that they are so rarely seen even in the places where the anges P a PTL . It is not therefore at all surprising, that the regular migrations of the American aa ow bon should in like ‘* Bewicx’s British Birds, vol. i, p. 308. - CAROLINA RAIL. 113 manner have escaped notice in a country like this, whose population bears so small a proportion to its ‘extent, and where the study of natural history is so little attended to. But that these migrations do actually take place, from north to south, and vice versa, may be fairly inferred from the common practice of thousands of other species of birds less solicitous of concealment, and also from the following facts. On the 22d day of February I killed two of these birds in the neighbourhood of Savannah in Georgia, where they have never been observed during the summer. On the 2d of the May following I shot another ina watery thicket below Philadelphia, between the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, in what is usually called the Neck. This last was a male, in full plumage. We are also informed, that they arrive at Hudson’s Bay early in June, and again leave that settlement for the south early in autumn. That many of them also remain here to breed is proven by the testimony of persons of eredit and intelligence with whom [have conversed, both here and on James River in Virginia, who have seen their nests, eggs, and young. In the extensive meadows that border the Schuylkill and Delaware it was formerly common, before the country was so thickly settled there, to find young rail, in the first mowing time, among the grass. Mr James Bartram, brother to the botanist, a venerable and still active man of eighty-three, and well aequainted with this bird, says, that he has often seen and caught young rail in his own meadows in the month of June; he has also seen their nest, which he says is usually in a tussock of grass, is formed of a little dry grass, and has four or five eggs of a dirty whitish colour, with brown or blackish spots ; the young run off as soon as they break the shell, are then quite black, and run about among the grass like mice. The old ones he has very rarely observed at that time, but the young often. Almost every old settler along these meadows with whom I have conversed, has occasionally seen young rail in mowing time; and all agree in describing them as covered with blackish down. There can, therefore, VOL. III. H 114 RALLUS CAROLINUS. be no reasonable doubt as to the residence of many of these birds, both here and to the northward, during thesummer. That there can be as little doubt relative to their winter retreat, will appear more particularly towards the sequel of the present account. During their residence here, in summer, their manners exactly a with those of the water crake of Britain, so that, though actually a different species, their particular habits, common places of resort, and eagerness for concealment, are as nearly the same as the nature of the climates will admit. Early in August, when the reeds along the shores of the Dakss eats attained their full growth, the rail resort to them in great numbers to feed on the seeds of this plant, of which they, as well as the rice birds, and several others, are immoderately fond. These reeds, which appear to be the zizania panicula effusa@ of Linnzus, and the zizania clavulosa of Willdenow,. grow up from the soft muddy shores of the tide water, , which are alternately dry, and covered with four or five: feet of water. They rise with an erect, tapering stem, to the height of eight or ten feet, being nearly as thick below as a man’s wrist, and cover tracts along the river of many acres. The cattle feed on their long leaves with avidity, and wade in after them as lean they dare safely venture. They grow up so close . together, that, except at or near high water, a boat can with difficulty make its way through among them. The: seeds are produced at the o of the plant, the blossoms. or male parts occupying the lower branches of the) _ panicle, and the seeds the higher. These seeds are nearly as long as a common sized pin, somewhat more: slender, white, sweet to the taste, and very nutritive, as appears by their effects on the various birds that at - this season feed on them. When the reeds are in this state, and even while in blossom, the rail are found to have taken possession of them in great numbers. These are generally numerous in proportion to the full and promising crop of the former. As you walk along the embankment of the = CAROLINA RAIL. TES river at this season, you hear them squeaking in every direction like young puppies; if a stone be thrown poe reeds, there is a general outcry,anda reiterated kuk, kuk, kuk, something like that of a guinea fowl. Any sudden noise, or the discharge of a gun, produces the same effect. In the mean time none are to be seen, unless it be at or near high water; for, when the tide is low, they universally secrete’ themselves among the interstices of the reeds, and you may walk past, and even over them, where there are hundreds, without Seeing a single individual. On their first arrival, they are generally lean, and unfit for the table; but, as the reeds ripen, they rapidly fatten, and, from the 20th of September to the middle of October, are excellent, and eagerly sought after. The usual method of shooting them, in this quarter of the country, is as follows :— The sportsman furnishes himself with a light batteau, and a stout experienced boatman, with a pole of twelve or fifteen feet long, thickened at the lower end to prevent it from sinking too deep into the mud. About two hours or so before high water, they enter the reeds, and each takes his post, the sportsman standing in the bow ready for action, the boatman, on the stern seat, pushing her steadily through the reeds. The -rail generally spring singly, as the boat advances, and at a short distance ahead, are instantly shot down, while the boatman, keeping his eye on the spot where the bird fell, directs the boat forward and picks it up as the gunner is loading. It is also the boatman’s business to keep a sharp look-out, and give the word “ Mark!” when a rail springs on either side without being observed by the sportsman, and to note the exact spot where it falls until he has picked it up; for this once lost sight of, owing to the sameness in the appearance of the reeds, is seldom found again. In this manner the boat moves steadily through and over the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, the gunner loading and firing, while the boatman is pushing and picking up. The sport continues till an hour or two after high water, when the shallow- ness of the water, and the strength and weight of the 116 RALLUS CAROLINUS. floating reeds, as also the backwardness of the game to spring as the tide decreases, oblige them to return. Several boats are sometimes within a short distance of. each other, and a perpetual cracking of musketry prevails along the whole reedy shores of the river. In these excursions it is not uncommon for an active and. expert marksman to kill ten or twelve dozen in a tide. They are usually shot singly, though I have known five killed at one discharge of a double-barrelled piece, These instances, however, are rare. Lowes The flight of these birds among the reeds is usually, low; and, shelter being abundant, is rarely extended to more than fifty or one hundred yards. When winged, and uninjured in their legs, they swim and dive with great rapidity, and are seldom seen to rise again. I, have several times, on such occasions, discovered them clinging with their feet to the reeds under the water; and at other times skulking under the floating reeds, with their bill just above the surface. Sometimes, when wounded, they dive, and, rising under the gunwale of the boat, secrete themselves there, moving round as the boat moves, until they have an engentuay of escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and delicate in every thing but the legs, which seem to possess great vigour and energy, and their bodies being so remarkably. thin, or compressed, as to be less than an inch anda quarter through transversely, they are enabled to pass between the reeds like rats. When seen, they are almost constantly jetting up the tail. Yet, though their flight among the reeds seems feeble and fluttering, every. sportsman who is acquainted with them here must have, seen them occasionally rising to a considerable height, stretching out their legs behind them, and flying rapidly. across the river where it is more than a mile in widths Such is the mode of rail shooting in the neighbour~ hood of Philadelphia. In Virginia, particularly along the shores of James River within the tide water, where, the rail, or sora, are in prodigious numbers, they,are also shot on the wing, but more usually taken at night in the following manner; A kind of iron grate is fixed CAROLINA RAIL. 117 on the top of a stout pole, which is placed like a mast, ima light canoe, and filled with fire. The darker the ight the more successful is the sport. The person manages the canoe is provided with a light paddle ten or twelve feet in length, and, about an hour before high water, proceeds through among the reeds, which lie broken and floating on the surface. The whole . — for a considerable way round the canoe is com- pletely enlightened ; the birds stare with astonishment, and, as they appear, are knocked on the head with the paddle, and thrown into the canoe. In this manner from twenty to eighty dozen have been killed by three negroes in the short space of three hours! ~ At the same season, or a little earlier, they are very numerous in the lagoons near Detroit on our northern frontiers, where another species of reed (of which they are equally fond) grows in shallows in great abundance. Gentlemen who have shot them there, and on whose rg I can rely, assure me, that they differ in nothing from those they have usually killed on the shores of the Delaware and Schuylkill; they are equally fat, and exquisite eating. On the sea coast of New Jersey, where these reeds are not to be found, this bird is altogether unknown; though along the marshes of Maurice river, and other tributary streams of the Dela- ware, and, wherever the reeds abound, the rail are sure to be found also. Most of them leave Pennsylvania before the end of October, and the Southern States early in November, though numbers linger in the warm southern marshes the whole winter. A very worthy gentleman, Mr Harrison, who lives in Kittiwan, near a creek of that name, on the borders of James River, informed me, that in burning his meadows early in March, they generally raise and destroy several of these birds. That the great body of these rail winter in ’ countries beyond the United States, is rendered highly robable from their being so frequently met with at sea, tween our shores ck the West India islands. A Captain Douglas informed me, that on his voyage from St Domingo to Philadelphia, and more than a hundred 118 RALLUS CAROLINUS. miles from the capes of the Delaware, one night the man at the helm was alarmed by a sudden crash on deck that broke the glass in the binnacle, and put out the light. On examining into the cause, three rail were found on deck, two of which were killed on the spot, and the other died soon after. The late Bishop Madison, president of William and Mary College; Vir- ginia, assured me, that a Mr Skipwith, for some time our consul in Europe, on his return to the United States, when upwards of three hundred miles from the capes of the Chesapeake, several rail or soras, I think five or six, came on board, and were caught by the eople. Mr Skipwith, being well acquainted with the bird, assured him that they were the very same with those usually killed on James river. I have received like assurances from several other gentlemen and captains of vessels who have met with these birds between the mainland and the islands, so as to leave no doubt on my mind of the fact. For why should it be considered incredible that a bird which can both swim and dive well, and at pleasure fly with great rapidity, as I have myself frequently witnessed, should be incapable of migrating, like so many others, over extensive tractsof land or sea? Inhabiting, as they do, the remote regions of Hudson’s Bay, where it is impossible they could subsist during the rigours of their winter, they must either emigrate from thence or perish ; and as the same places in Pennsylvania which abound with them in October are often laid under ice and snow during the winter, it is as impossible that they could exist here in that inclement season; Heaven has therefore given them, in common with many others, certain prescience of these circumstances, and judgment, as well as strength of flight, sufficient to seek more genial climates abounding with their suituble food. si? The rail is nine inches long, and fourteen inches im — extent; bill, yellow, blackish towards the point; lores, front, crown, chin, and stripe down the tevantybdedk 2 line over the eye, cheeks, and breast, fine light ash > sides of the crown, neck, and upper parts generally, _ CAROLINA RAIL. 119 olive brown, streaked with black, and also with long lines of pure white, the feathers being centred with black on a brown olive ground, and edged with white; these touches of white are shorter near the shoulder of the wing, lengthening as they descend; wing, plain olive brown ; tertials, streaked with black and long lines of white; tail, pointed, dusky olive brown, centred with black; the four middle feathers bordered for half their length with lines of white; lower part of the breast marked with semicircular lines of white on a light ash ground ; belly, white; sides under the wings, deep olive, barred with black, white, and reddish buff ; vent, brownish buff; legs, feet, and naked part of the thighs, yellowish green; exterior edge of the wing, white ; eyes, reddish hazel. The females, and young of the first season, have the throat white, the breast pale brown, and little or no black on the head, The males may always be distin- guished by their ashy blue breasts and black throats. During the greater part of the months of September and October the market of Philadelphia is abundantly supplied with rail, which are sold from half a dollar to ‘a dollar a dozen. Soon after the 20th of October, at which time our first smart frosts generally take place, these birds move off to the south. In Virginia they usually remain until the first week in November. Since the above was written, I have received from Mr George Ord of Philadelphia, some curious particulars relative to this bird, which, as they are new, and come from a gentleman of respectability, well known for his dexterity at rail shooting, are worthy of being recorded, and merit farther investigation. “* My personal experience,” says Mr Ord, “ has made me acquainted with a fact in the history of the rail, which perhaps is not generally known, and I shall, as » briefly as possible, communicate it to you. Some time in the autumn of the year 1809, as I was walking in a » oyard, after a severe shower of rain, I perceived the feet ‘of a bird projecting from a spout. I pulled it out, and 120 RALLUS CAROLINUS. discovered it to be a rail, very vigorous, and in perfect health. The bird was placed in a small room, on a gin- case, and I was amusing myself with it, when, in the act of pointing my finger at it, it suddenly sprang forward, apparently much irritated, fell to the floor, and, stretching out its feet, and bending its neck until the head nearly touched the back, became to all appearance lifeless. Thinking the fall had killed the bird, I took it up, and began to lament my rashness in provoking it. In a few minutes it again breathed, and it was some time before it perfectly recovered from the fit, into which, it now appeared evident, it had fallen. I placed the rail in a room, wherein canary birds were confined, and resolved that, on the succeeding day, I would endeavour to discover whether or no the passion of anger had produced the fit. I entered the room at the appointed’ time, and approached the bird, which had retired, on beholding me, in a sullen humour, to a corner. On pointing my finger at it, its feathers were immediately ruffled, and in an instant it sprang forward, as in the first instance, and fell into a similar fit. The following day the experiment was repeated with the like effect. In the fall of 1811, as I was gunning amongst the reeds in pursuit of rail, 1 perceived one rise but a few feet before my batteau. The bird had risen about a yard when it became entangled in the tops of a small bunch © of reeds, and immediately fell. Its feet and neek were extended, as in the instance above mentioned, and, before it had time to recover, I killed it. Some few days afterwards, as a friend and I were gunning in the same ~ place, he shot a rail, and, as we approached the spot to pick it up, another was perceived, not a foot off, in a © fit. I took up the bird, and placed it in the crown of my hat. In a few moments it revived, and was as vigorous as ever. These facts go to prove, that the rail is subject to gusts of passion, which operate to so violent a degree as to produce a disease, similar in its effects to epilepsy. I leave the explication of the phenomenon to those physiologists who are competent and willing to investigate it, It may be worthy of remark, tha — | CAROLINA RAIL. 121 the birds affected as described, were all females of the rallus Virginianus, or common rail. “ The rail, though generally reputed a simple bird, will sometimes manifest symptoms of considerable intelligence. To those acquainted with rail shooting, it is hardly necessary to mention, that the tide, in its flux, is considered an almost indispensable auxiliary; for, when the water is off the marsh, the lubricity of the mud, the height and compactness of the reed, and the swiftness of foot of the game, tend to weary the sports- man and to frustrate his endeayours. Even should he succeed in a tolerable degree, the reward is not com- mensurate to the labour. I have entered the marsh in a batteau at a common tide, and in a well known haunt have beheld but few birds. The next better tide, on resorting to the same spot, I have perceived abundance of game. The fact is, the rail dive, and coneeal them- selves beneath the fallen reed, merely projecting their heads above the surface of the water for air, and remain in that situation until the sportsman has passed them ; and it is well known, that it is a common practice with wounded rail to dive to the bottom, and, holding upon some vegetable substance, support themselves in that situation until exhausted. During such times the bird, in escaping from one enemy, has often to encounter another not less formidable. Eels and cat-fish swarm in every direction prowling for prey, and it is ten to one if a wounded rail eseapes them. I myself have beheld a large eel make off with a bird that I had shot, before I had time to pick it up; and one of my boys, in bobbing for eels, caught one with a whole rail in its y- * | have heard it observed, that on the increase of the moon the rail improves in fatness, and decreases in a considerable degree with that planet. Sometimes I haye conceited that the remark was just. If it bea fact, I think it may be explained on the supposition that. the bird is enabled to feed at night, as well as by. day, while it has the benefit of the moon, and with less interruption than at other periods.” 122 GALLINULA MARTINICA. GENUS LV.—GALLINULA, Brisson, 239. GALLINULA MARTINICA, LATHAM. GALLINULA PORPHY RIO, WILSON, —MARTINICO GALLINULE. * WILSON, PLATE LXXIII. FIG. 1l.— EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tus splendid bird is a native of the southern parts of the continent of North America. I have never learnt that it migrates as far north as Virginia, though it is probable that it may be occasionally seen in that State. It makes its appearance, in the Sea Islands of Georgia, in the latter part of April, and, after spending the summer, it departs, with its young, in the autumn. The marshes of Mexico appear to be its winter resi- dence. It frequents the rice fields and fresh water peoes, in company with the common gallinule ; but/the atter, being of a more hardy nature, remains all winter both in Georgia and Florida. During its migration this bird is frequently driven to sea; and I have known two or three instances of its havitig sought refuge on board of vessels. On the 24th May, 1824, a brig arrived at Philadelphia, from New Orleans, bringing a fine living specimen, which had flown on board of her in the Gulf stream. This bird is now [1825] alive in the Philadelphia Museum. In the month of August, 1818, a storm drove another individual on board of a vessel, in her passage from Savannah to Philadelphia. This also lived for some time in Peale’s Museum. . The Martinico gallinule is a vigorous and active bird. It bites hard, and is quite expert in the use of its feet. When it seizes upon any substance with its toes, it requires a considerable effort to disengage it. Its toes are long, and spread greatly. It runs with swiftness > - and, when walking, it jerks its tail in the manner of the common rail. Its manners and food are somewhat similar to those of the far famed purple gallinule, whose * Named in the plate, Purple Gallinule. The description of the bird is written by Mr Ord. é CINEREOUS COOT. 123 history is so beautifully detailed in the works of Buffon. In its native haunts, it is vigilant and shy; and it is not easy to spring it, without the assistance of a dog. Length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, fourteen inches ; bill, an inch and a quarter long, yermilion, greenish yellow at the tip; irides, pale cornelian; naked crown, dull azure; head, part of the neck, throat, and breast, of a rich violet purple; back and scapulars, olive green ; rump, tail, and its coverts, brownish green; sides of the neck, and wings, ultra- marine, the latter tinged with green; shoulders of ings, rich azure ; inner webs of the quills and tail- feathers, dusky brown; belly and thighs, dull purplish black; vent, pure white; tail, rounded; legs and feet, greenish yellow ; claws, long, sharp, and of a pale flesh colour; span of the foot, five inches. GENUS LVI.—FULICA, Linnxvs. ' 240, FULICA AMERICANA, GMELIN. — FULICA ATRA, WILSON. ~ CINEREOUS coor. * . WILSON, PLATE LXXIII. Fic. I. —-EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. ’ Tuts species makes its appearance in Pennsylvania about the first of October. Among the muddy flats and islands of the river Delaware, which are periodically overflowed, and which are overgrown with the reed or wild oats, and rushes, the coots are found. They are not numerous, and are seldom seen, except their places of resort be covered with water; in that case they are generally found sitting on the fallen reed, waiting for the ebbing of the tide, which will enable them to feed. Their food consists of various aquatic plants, seeds, insects, and, it is said, small fish. The coot has an aversion to take wing, and can seldom be sprung in its retreat at low water: for, although it walks rather ~ * Named in the plate, Common Coot. The description of the bird is written by Mr Ord. . 124 FULICA AMERICANA. awkwardly, yet it contrives toskulk through the grass and reeds with great speed, the compressed form of ‘its body, like that of the rail genus, being well adapted to the purpose. It swims remarkably well, and, when wounded, will dive like a duck, When closely pursued in the water, it generally takes to the shore, rising with parent reluctance, like a wounded duck, and fluttering ong the surface with its feet pattering on the water.* . is known in Pennsylvania by the name of the mud- en. I have never yet discovered that this species breeds with us; though it is highly probable that some few may occupy the marshes of the interior, in the vicinity of the ponds and lakes, for this purpose: those retired situations being well adapted to the hatching and rearing of their young. Inthe Southern States, particularly South Carolina, they are well known; but the Floridas appear to be their principal rendezvous for the business of incubation. “ The coot,” says William Bartram, “ is a native of North America, from Pennsylvania to Florida. They inhabit large rivers, fresh water inlets or bays, lagoons, &c. where they swim and feed amongst the reeds and grass of the shores; particularly in the river St Juan, in East Florida; where they are found in immense flocks. They are loquacious and noisy, talking to one another night and day; are constan on the water, the broad lobated membranes on their toes enabling them to swim and dive like ducks.” + I observed this species to be numerous, during the winter, in the fresh water ponds, situated in the vicinity of the river St Juan, or St John, in East Florida; but I did not see them in the river. The food which they obtain in these places must be very abundant and nutritious, as the individuals which I shot were exces- sively fat. One male specimen weighed twenty-four ounces ayoirdupois. They associate with the common * In Carolina, they are called Flusterers, from the noise they make in flying along the surface of the water. —A Voyage to Carolina, by Joux Lawson, p. 149. ¢ Letter fon Mr Bartram to the author. CINEREOUS COOT. 125 gollaniele (gallinula chloropus ;) but there is not, per- one of the latter; for twenty of the former. he cinereous coot is sixteen inches in length, and twenty-eight in extent; bill, one and a half inch long, white, the upper mandible slightly notched near the tip, and marked across with a band of chestnut, the lower mandible marked on each side with a squarish spot of the like colour, edged on the lower part with bright yellow or gamboge, thence to the tip, pale horn colour ; membrane of the forehead, dark chestnut brown ; irides, cornelian red ; beneath the eyes, in most speci- meus, a whitish spot; the head and neck are of a deep shining black, resembling satin; back and scapulars, i greenish olive; shoulders, breast, and wing- coverts, slate blue; the under parts are hoary; vent, black; beneath the tail, pure white; primaries and secondaries, slate, the former tipt with black, the latter with white, which does not appear when the wing is closed; outer edges of the wings, white; legs and- toes, yellowish green, the scalloped membrane of the latter, lead colour; middle toe, including the claw, three inches and three quarters long. The bird from which the foregoing description was- taken, was shot in the Delaware, below Philadelphia, the 29th of October, 1813. It was an old male, an uncommonly fine specimen, and weighed twenty-three ounces avoirdupois. It is deposited in Peale’s Museum. The young birds differ somewhat in their plumage, that of the head and neck being of a esa at black ; that of the breast and shoulders, pale ash; the throat, gray or mottled; the bill, bluish white; and the mem- brane on the forehead, considerably smaller. The young females very much resemble the young males; all the difference which I have been enabled to perceive, is as follows :—breast and shoulders, cinereous ; markings on the bill, less; upper parts of the head, in some specimens, mottled ; and being less in size. . The lower parts of these birds are clothed witha thick down, and, particularly between the thighs, 126 FULICA AMERICANA. covered with close fine feathers. The thighs are placed bs behind, are fleshy, strong, and bare above the ees. _ The gizzard resembles a hen’s, and is remarkably large and muscular. That of the bird which has been described was filled with sand,‘ gravel, shells, and the remains of aquatic plants. Buffon describes the mode of shooting coots in France, particularly in Lorraine, on the great pools of Tiaucourt, and of Indre; hence we are led to suppose, that they are esteemed as an article of food. But with us, who are enabled, by the abundance and variety of e, to indulge in greater luxuries in that season when our coots visit us, they are considered as of no account, and are seldom eaten. The Europeanornithologists represent the membrane on the forehead of the fulica atra as white, except in the breeding season, when it is said to change its colour to pale red. In every specimen of the cinereous coot which I have seen, except one, the membrane of the forehead was of a dark chestnut brown colour. . The one alluded to was a fine adult male, shot in the Dela- ware, at Philadelphia, on the 11th of May: the membrane was of a pure white ; no white marking beneath the eye ; legs and feet of a bright grass green. In Wilson’s figure of the coot, there are some slight errors: the auriculars are designated, which should not have been done, as they are not distinguishable from the rest of the plumage of the head and neck, which is all of a fine satiny texture; and the outline of the bill - js not correct. Latham states, that the common European coot (f. atra) is “ met with in Jamaica, Carolina, and other parts of North America.” This, I presume, is a mistake, _ as I have never seen but one species of coot in the United States. Brown, in speaking of the birds of Jamaica, mentions a coot, which, in all probability, is the same as ours. The coot mentioned by Sloane is the common gallinule. So is also that spoken of in the Natural History of Barbadoes, by Hughes, p. 71. . « CINEREOUS COOT. 127 In Lewis and Clark’s history of their expedition, mention is made of a bird which is common on the Columbia; is said to be very noisy, to have a sharp, shrill whistle, and to associate in large flocks ; it is called the black duck.* This is doubtless a species of coot, but whether or not different from ours cannot be ascertained. How much is it to be regretted, that, in an expedition of discovery, planned and fitted out by an enlightened government, furnished with every means for safety, subsistence, and research, not one naturalist, not one draftsman, should have been sent, to observe and perpetuate the infinite variety of natural productions, many of which are entirely unknown to the community of science, which that extensive tour must have revealed ! The coot leaves us in November for the southward. The foregoing was prepared for the press, when the author, in one of his shooting excursions on the Dela- ware, had the good fortune to kill a full plumaged female coot. This was on the 20th of April. It was swimming at the edge of a cripple, or thicket of alder bushes, busily engaged in picking something from the surface of the water, and, while thus employed, it turned frequently. The membrane on its forehead was very small, and edged on the fore part with gamboge. Its eggs were of the size of partridge shot. And on the 13th of May, another fine female specimen was presented to him, which agreed with the above, with the exception of the membrane on the forehead being nearly as large and prominent as that of the male. From the cireum- stance of the eggs of all these birds being very small, it is probable that the coots do not breed until July. * History of the Expedition, vol. ii, p. 194. Under date of November 30th, 1805, they say: ‘ The hunters brought in a few black ducks of a species common in the United States, living in large flocks, and feeding on grass: they are distinguished by a nm white beak, toes separated, and by eres no craw.” aS Ee ee ee CC Lee —— a ae | S ’ FAMILY XXII. PINNATIPEDES, Buisson. GENUS LVIL—PHALAROPUS, Brisson. SUBGENUS I. PHALAROPUS, CUVIER. 24). PHALAROPUS FULICARNIS, BONAPARTE. —PHALAROPUS HYPERBOREUS, WILSON. —BROWN PHALAROPE,* WILSON, PLATE LXXIII. FIG, 11. Or this species only one specimen was ever seen by Wilson, and that was preserved in Trowbridge’s Museum, at Albany, in the State of New York. On referring to Wilson’s Journal, I found an account of the bird, there called a tringa, written with a lead pencil, but so scrawled and obscured that parts of the writing were not legible. I wrote to Mr Trowbridge, soliciting a articular description; but no answer was returned, canta, having had the good fortune, since publishing the first edition, of examining a fine recent specimen of this rare bird, I hope I shall be enabled to fix the species by such characters as will prevent any ornitho- logist in future from confounding it with the species which follows, —two birds, which, owing to a want of precision, were involved in almost inextricable confu- siou, until Temminck applied himself to the task of disembroiling them; and this ingenious naturalist has fully proved that the seven species of authors consti- tuted, in effect, only two species. Temminck’s distinctive characters are drawn from the bill; and he has divided the genus into two sections,—an arrangement of which, the utility is not evident, seeing that each section contains but one species, unless we may consider the barred phalarope of * Named in the plate, Gray Phal The description of the bird is written by Mr Ord. J vow — —— ss ; BROWN PHALAROPE. 129 Latham constitutes a third, a point not yet ascertained, and not easy to be settled for the want of characters. In my examination of these birds I have paid par- ticular attention to the feet, which possess characters ually striking with those of the bill; hence a union of all these will afford a facility to the student, of which he will be fully sensible when he makes them the subject of his investigation. Our figure of this species betrays all the marks of haste; it is inaccurately drawn and imperfectly coloured; notwithstanding, by a diligent study of it, I have been enabled to ascertain that it is the coot- footed tringa of Edwards, plate 46 and 143, to which bird Linnzus gave the specific denomination of Jobata. In the twelfth edition of the Systema Nature, the Swedish naturalist, conceiving that he might have been in error, omitted, in his description of the lobata, the synonyme of Edwards’s cock coot-footed tringa, No. 148, and recorded the latter bird under the name of hyper- borea,—a specific appellation, which Temminck and other ornithologists have sanctioned, but which the laws of methodical nomenclature prohibit us from adopting, as, beyond all question, hyperborea is only SK of lobata, which has the priority, and must stand. M. Temminck differs from us in the opinion that the 7. lobata of Gmelin, vol. i, p. 674, is the present species, and refers it to that which follows. But, if is respectable ornithologist will take the trouble to look into the twelfth edition of Linnzus, vol. i, p. 249, No. 8, he will there find two false references, Edwards’s No. 308, and Brisson’s No. 1, which gave rise to Gmelin’s confusion of synonymes, and a consequent confusion in his description, as, the essential character in both authors being nearly in the same words, (rostro subulato, apice inflexo, &c.) we are at no loss to infer that both descriptions have reference to the same bird; and we are certain that the /obata of the twelfth edition of the former is precisely the same as that of the tenth VOL, Ill. I 5 130 PHALAROPUS HYPERBOREUS. edition, which cites for authority Edwards’s 46 and 148, as before mentioned, =U I shall now give the short description of the bird as I find it in Wilson’s Note Book :-— Bill, black, slender, and one inch and three-eighths. In the original the bill is said to be one inchand three quarters long; but that this is a mistake, we have only to measure the bill of the figure, drawn of half the size of nature, to be convinced of. Wilson always measured his bills from the tip to the angle of the mouth. Our figure, by this admeasurement, indicates a bill of pre- cisely the length of that of Peale’s specimen, which I have described in detail. In length, lores, front, crown, hindhead, and thence to the back, very pale ash, nearly white; from the anterior angle of the eye, a curying stripe of black descends along the neck for an inch or more, thence to the shoulders, dark reddish brown, which also tinges the white on the side of the neck next to it; under parts, white; above, dark olive; wings and legs, black. Size of the turnstone. The specimen from which the following deseription was taken, was kindly communicated to me by my friend Mr Titian R. Peale, while it was yet in.a recent state, and before it was prepared for the museum. It was this individual which enabled me to ascertain the species figured by Wilson. It was shot in the neigh- bourhood of Philadelphia, on the 7th of May, 1818. Bill, narrow, slender, flexible, subulate, of equal width; nostrils, basal, and linear; lobes of the toes, thick, narrow, and but slightly scalloped. Outer ‘toe, connected to the middle one as far as the first joint; inner toe, divided nearly to its base; hind toe, resting on the ground. Bill, black, one inch and three-eighths in length ; head above, of an ash gray; hindhead, whitish, which colour extends a short distance down the neck; over the eyes, a white stripe, below them, a white spot ; throat and lower parts, white; a line of black 8 through the eyes, spreads out towards the hindhead, and descends along the neck; lower part of the neck, BROWN PHALAROPE. 181 pale ferruginous; back part of the neck, deep ferru- ginous, which descends on each side, and mingles with the plumage of the back and scapulars, which are of a clove brown, the feathers tipt with whitish; wings - and tail, dark clove brown, some of the lesser coverts having a reddish tinge; the upper tail-feathers, tinged with red at their tips, the under feathers, marked with white on their inner webs; irides, dark brown; legs and feet, dark plumbeous ; claws, long, of a dark horn colour; hind toe, independent of the claw, five six- teenths of an inch long; the tertials, when the wing is closed, extend to within three-eighths of an inch of the tip of the primaries; weight, an ounce and three quarters; length, nine inches and a half; breadth, sixteen inches. This was a female; her eggs very In the grand chain of animated nature, the phala- ropes constitute one of the links between the waders and the web-footed tribes, having the form of the sand- pipers, with some of the habits of the gulls; the scal- oped membranes on their toes enabling them to swim with facility. They are clothed with a thick coat of feathers, beneath which, as in the ducks, lies a mass of ‘down, to protect them from the rigours of the northern climates, of which they are natives. They do not appear to be fond of the neighbourhood of the ocean, and are generally found in the interior, about the lakes, ponds, and streams of fresh water, where they delight to linger, swimming near the margin in search of seeds and insects. They are no where numerous, are com- monly seen in pairs, and are so extremely tame and unsuspicious, that one may approach to within a few feet of them. The genus lobipes of the Baron Cuvier is founded upon this species; and it must be confessed that its characters are sufficiently distinct from those of the bird which follows, to authorize such a separation ; but unless some new species should be discovered, we see no impropriety in associating the two birds already known, taking care, however, to preserve a consistency 132 PHALAROPUS WILSONII. in the generic characters, which Temminck, in his Manuel, has not sufficiently observed. In the Appendix to Montague’s Supplement to the Ornithological Dictionary, we find the following re- marks on this species, there named fulicaria :—* We have before mentioned that this bird had been observed in the Orkneys in considerable abundance in the summer, and that no doubts were entertained of its ee there, although the nest had not been found. To Bullock, therefore, we are indebted for the farther elucidation of the natural history of this elegant little bird. In a letter to the author, this gentleman says, ‘I found the red phalarope common in the marshes of Sanda and Westra, in the breeding season, but which it leaves in the autumn. This bird is so extremely tame, that I killed nine without moving out of the same spot, being not in the least alarmed at the report of a . It lays four eggs, of the shape of that of a sni festomeths less, of an olive colour, blotched with y: It swims with the greatest ease, and, when on the water, looks like a beautiful miniature of a duck, a its head close to the back, in the manner of a teal.’ Mr Bullock farther observes, ‘ That the plumage of the female is much lighter, and has less of the rufous than the other sex.’ ” SUBGENUS Il. — LOBIPES, CUVIER. 242. PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS, WILSON. — GRAY PHALAROPE. * WILSON, PLATE LXXIIL. FIG. IV. Bit, pretty stout and wide, slightly compressed at the tip, depressed on the lower half r Privvex mandible, carinate ; nostrils, subovate, a short distance from the - base; feet, semipalmate, lobes of the toes, broad and greatly scalloped, hind toe, barely touching the ground. Bill, reddish orange at the base, the remainder black, an * Named in the plate, Red Phalarope. GRAY PHALAROPE. 133 inch long ; front and crown, black, barred transversely with lines of white; throat, sides of the neck, and lower rts, white, thickly and irregularly barred with curving es of reddish chocolate; upper parts, of a deep cinereous_ blue, streaked with brownish yellow and black ; the back scapulars, broadly edged with brownish yellow ; wings and rump, dark cinereous ; greater wing- coverts, broadly tipt with white, forming a large band; primaries, nearly black, and crossed with white below their coverts; tail, plain olive, middle of its coverts black, their sides bright brownish yellow; vent, white, those feathers immediately next to the tail, reddish chocolate ; legs, black on the outside, yellowish within. Length nine inches, breadth fifteen inches and a half; length of hind toe, independent of the claw, one-eighth of an inch. Male. The inner toe is connected to the middle one by a membrane as far as the first joint, the outer toe much farther: hence the feet may be properly termed semipalmate ; webs and lobes, finely pectinated. This conformation of the feet is pretty accurately exhibited in Edwards’s plate, No. 308. The gray phalarope is a rare bird in Pennsylvania, and. is not often met with in any part of the United States. The individual from which our description was taken, was shot in a pond in the vicinity of Philadelphia, in the latter part of May, 1812. There were three in company. The person who shot it had never seen one of the species before, and was struck with their singular manners. He described them as swimming actively near the margin of the pond, dipping in their bill very often, as if feeding, and turning frequently. In conse- quence of our specimen being in a state of putridity when received, it was preserved with considerable difficulty, and the sex could not be ascertained. In the spring of the year 1816, my friend, Mr Le Sueur, shot, in Boston Bay, a young individual of this species : crown, dark slate, tinged with yellowish brown; front, throat, line over the eye, belly, and vent, white; shoulders, breast, and sides, tawny or fawn colour; back, dark slate, paler near the rump, the feathers edged 134 PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS. with bright yellow ochre; wings, pale cinereous, some of the lesser coverts edged with white, the greater coverts largely so, forming the bar; primaries and tail, black ; the latter edged with yellowish brown, the shafts of the former white; bill and feet, as in, the first described. On the 20th of March, 1818, I shot, in the river St John, in East Florida, an immature female specimen; irides, dark brown; around the base of the bill, a — marking of dark slate; front and crown, white, mottled with pale ash ; at the interior part of each eye, a black spot; beneath the eyes, dark slate, which extends over the auriculars, the hindhead, and upper part of the neck ; upper parts, cinereous gray, with a few faint streaks of slate; throat, breast, whole lower parts, and under tail-coverts, pure white; flanks, with a few faint ferruginous stains ; wings, slate brown, the coverts of the secondaries, and a few of the primary coveris, largely tipt with white, forming the bar as usual; tail, brown, edged with cinereous; legs and feet, pale plumbeous ; the webs, and part of the scalloped mem- branes, yellowish ; bill and size as in the first specimen, The tongne of this species is large, fleshy, and obtuse. This bird has been described under a variety of names. What could induce that respectable naturalist, M. Temminck, to give it a new appellation, we are totally at a loss to conceive. That his name (Phalaro- pus platyrhinchus) is good,—that it is even better than all the rest, we are willing to admit,—but that he had no right to give it a new name we shall boldly maintain, not only on the score of expediency, but of justice. If the right to change be once conceded, there is no calculating the extent of the confusion in which the whole system of nomenclature will be involyed; the _ study of methodical natural history is sufficiently labo- rious, and whatever will have a tendency to diminish this labour ought to meet the cordial support of all those who are interested in the advancement of the natural sciences, “ The study of natural history,” says the present GRAY PHALAROPE. 135 -learned president of the Linnzan Society, “is, from the multitude of objects with which it is conversant, necessarily so encumbered with names, that students require every possible assistance to facilitate the attain- ment of those names, and have a just right to complain of every needless impediment. Nor is it allowable to alter such names, even for the better. In our science, the names established throughout the works of Linnzus are become current coin, nor can they be altered without great inconvenience.” * That there is a property in names, as well as in things, will not be disputed ; and there are few naturalists who would not feel as sensibly a fraud committed on their nomenclature as on their purse. The ardour with which the student pursues his researches, and the solicitude which he manifests in promulgating his dis- coveries under appropriate appellations, are proofs that at least part of his gratification is derived from the supposed distinction which a name will confer upon him; deprive him of this distinction, and you inflict a wound upon his self-love which will not readily be healed. To enter into a train of reasoning to prove that he who first describes and names a subject of natural history, agreeable to the laws of systematic classification, is for ever entitled to his name, and that it cannot be superseded without injustice, would be useless, because they are propositions which all naturalists deem self- evident. Then how comes it, whilst we are so tenacious of our own rights we so often disregard those of others ? I would now come to the point. It will be perceived that I have ventured to restore the long neglected name of fulicaria, That I shall be supported in this restora- tion I have little doubt, when it shall have been made manifest that it was Linnzus himself who first named this species. A reference to the tenth edition of the * ont Introduction to Physiological and Systematical Botany, chap. 1 136 PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS. Systema Nature* will shew that the authority for tringa fulicaria is Edwards’s red coot-footed tri 1, 142, and that alone, for it does not appear FE us had seen the bird. The circumstance of the change of the generic appellation can in nowise affect the specific name; the present improved state of the science requires the former, justice demands that the latter. should be. preserved. this work I have pre- served it; and I flatter myself that this humble to vindicate the rights of Linnzus will be approved = all those who love the sciences of which he was so illustrious a promoter. : * Of all the editions of the Systema Nature, the tenth and the twelfth are the most valuable; the former being the first which contains the synonyma, and the latter being that which received the finishing hand of its author. In the United States, Linnzus is p78 own through two editors: Gmelin, whose thirteenth edition of the Systema Nature has involved the whole science in almost inextricable confusion; and Turton, whose English trans- lation of Gmelin is a disgrace to science and letters. All writers on zoology and botany should possess Linneus’s tenth and twelfth editions ; they will be found to be of indispensable use in tracing synonymes and fixing nomenclature. . oF FAMILY XXITIL HAY GROBAT 4, Itu1cer. GENUS LVIIL.—RECURVIROSTRA, Linnxvs. 245. RECURVIROSTRA AMERICANA, LINN XUS AND WILSON. AMERICAN AVOSET. WILSON, PLATE LXIIl. FIG. Il. —-EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuis species, from its perpetual clamour and flippancy of tongue, is called, by the inhabitants of Cape May, the lawyer; the comparison, however, reaches no farther ; for our lawyer is simple, timid, and perfectly inoffensive. In the description of the long legged avoset, the similarity between that and the present is taken notice of. This resemblance extends to every thing but their colour. I found both these birds associated together on the salt marshes of New Jersey, on the 20th of May. They were then breeding. Individuals of the present species were few in respect to the other. They flew around the shallow pools exactly in the manner of the long legs, uttering the like sharp note of click, clich, click, alighting on the marsh or in the water indiscriminately,. fluttering their loose wings, and shaking their half bent legs, as if ready to tumble over, keeping up a continual yelping note. They were, however, rather more shy, and kept at a greater distance. One which I wounded attempted repeatedly to dive; but the water was too shallow to permit them to do this with facility. The nest was built among the thick tufts of grass, at a small distance from one of these pools. It was composed of small twigs of a sea side shrub, dry , sea weed, &c. raised to the height of several inches. The eggs were four, of a dull olive colour, marked with large irregular blotches of black, and with others of a fainter tint. This species arrives on the coast of Cape May late in April; rears its young, and departs again to the south early in October. hile here, it ost constantly 138 RECURVIROSTRA AMERICANA. frequents the shallow ee in the salt marshes; wading about, often to the be ly, in search of food; viz. marine worms, snails, and various insects that abound among the soft muddy bottoms of the pools. The male of this species is eighteen inches and a half long, and two feet and a half in extent; the bill is black, four inches in length, flat above, the general curvature =F om except at the extremity, where it bends slightly down, ending in an extremely fine point; irides, reddish hazel; whole head, neck, and breast, a light sorrel colour; round the eye, and on the chin, nearly white ; upper part of the back and wings, black ; scapulars, and almost the whole back, white, though generally concealed by the black of the upper parts; belly, vent, and thighs, pure white ; tail, equal at the end, white, very slightly tinged with cinereous ; tertials, dusky brown; greater coverts, tipt with white ; secon- daries, white on their outer edges, and whole inner vanes ; rest of the wing, deep black ; naked part of the thighs, two and a half inches; legs, four inches, both of a very pale light blue, exactly formed, thinned, and netted, like those of the long legs; feet, half webbed ; the outer membrane somewhat the broadest; there is a very slight hind toe, which, claw and all, does not exceed a quarter of an inch in length. “In these two latter circumstances alone it differs from the long legs, but is in every other strikingly alike. The female was two inches shorter, and three less in extent; the head and neck a much paler rufous, fading almost to white on the breast, and separated from the black of the back by a broader band of white ; the bill was three inches and a half long; the Jeg half an inch shorter; in every other respect marked as the male. She contained a great number of eggs, some of them nearly ready for exclusion. The stomach was filled with small nails, periwinkle shell fish, some kind of mossy vegetable food, and a number of aquatic insects. The intestines were infested with tape worms, and a number of smaller bot-like worms, some of which wallowed in the cavity of the abdomen. : RED FLAMINGO. 189 Tn Mr Peale’s collection, there is one of this same species, said to have been brought from New Holland, differing little in the markings of its plumage from our own. The red brown on the neck does not descend so far, scarcely occupying any of the breast; it is also somewhat less. In every stuffed and dried specimen of these birds ~ which I have examined, the true form‘and fiexure of the bill is altogether deranged, being naturally of a very tender and delicate substance. GENUS LIX.—PH@ENICOPTERUS, Linnxvs. 244, PHENICOPTERUS RUBER, LINNXSUS.—RED FLAMINGO. WILSON, PLATE LXVI. FIG. IV. —EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tus very singular species being occasionally seen on the southern frontiers of the United States, and on the eninsula of East Florida, where it is more common, as a claim to a niche in our Ornithological Museum, although the author regrets, that, from personal obser- vation, he can add nothing to the particulars of its history, already fully detailed in various European works. From the most respectable of these, the Synopsis of Dr Latham, he has collected such particulars as appear authentic and interesting. “ This remarkable bird has the neck and legs in a baie disproportion than any other bird; the length rom the end of the bill to that of the tail; is four feet two or three inches; but to the end of the claws, measures sometimes more than six feet. The bill is four inches and a quarter long, and of a construction different from that of any other bird ; the upper mandible very thin and flat, and somewhat movable ; the under, thick; both of them bending downwards from the middle ; the nostrils are linear, and placed in a blackish membrane; the end of the bill, as far as the bend, is _ black ; from thence to the base, reddish yellow; round the base, quite to the eye, covered with a flesh coloured cere; the neck is slender, and of a great length; the 140 PHGNICOPTERUS RUBER. tongue, large, fleshy, filling the cavity of the bill, furnished with twelve or on hooked pupil on each side, turning backwards ; the tip, a sharp cartilaginous substance. The bird, when in full plumage, is wholly of a most deep scarlet, ge of Africa said to be the deepest,) except the quills, which are black; from the base of the thigh to the claws, measures thirty-two inches, of which the feathered part takes up no more than three inches; the bare part above the knee, thirteen inches ; and from thence to the claws, sixteen ; the colour of the bare parts is red, and the toes are furnished with a web, as in the duck genus, but is deeply indented. The legs are not straight, but slightly bent, the shin rather projecting. . “ These birds do not gain their full plumage till the third year. In the first, they are of a grayish white for the most part; the second, of a clearer white, tinged with red, or rather rose colour; but the wings and scapulars are red; in the third year, a general glowing scarlet manifests itself throughout; the bill and also keep pace with the gradation of colour in plumage, these parts changing to their colours by degrees, as the bird approaches to an adult state. “ Flamingoes prefer a warm climate; in the old continent not often met with beyond forty degrees north or south; every where seen on the African coast, and adjacent isles, quite to the Cape of Good Hope;* and now and then on the coasts of Spain,+ Italy, and those of France lying in the Mediterranean Sea; being, at times, met with ‘at Marseilles, and for some way up the Rhone; in some seasons frequents Aleppo, { and parts adjacent; seen also on the Persian side of the Caspian Sea; and from thence, along the western coast, as far as the Wolga; though this at - uncertain times, and chiefly in considerable flocks, coming * In Zee Coow river.— Philosophical Transactions. Once plenty in the Isle of France. — Voyage to Mauritius, p. 66. ft About Valencia, in the lake Albufere. —Ditton’s Travels, p- 374. +t Russex’s Aleppo, p. 69. RED FLAMINGO. 141 from the north coast mostly in October and November ; but so soon as the wind changes, they totally disappear.* They breed in the Cape Verd Isles, particularly in that of Sal.+ The nest is of a singular construction, made of mnd, in shape of a hillock, with a cavity at top; in this the female lays generally two white eggs, of the size of those of a goose, but more elongated. The hillock is of such a height as to admit of the bird’s sitting on it conveniently, or rather standing, as the legs are placed one on each side at full length.§ The young cannot fly till full grown, but run very fast. «“ Flamingoes, for the most part, keep together in flocks, and now and then are seen in great numbers together, except in breeding time. Dampier mentions having, with two more in company, killed fourteen at once; but this was effected by secreting themselves, for they are very shy birds, and will, by no means, suffer any one to approach, openly, near enough to shoot them. || Kolben observes, that they are very numerous at the Cape, keeping in the day on the borders of the lakes and rivers, and lodging themselves of nights in the long grass on the hills. They are also common to various places in the warmer parts of America, frequenting the same latitudes as in other quarters of the world; being met with in Peru, Chili, Cayenne,{ and the coast of Brazil, as well as the various islands of the West Indies. Sloane found them in Jamaica; but particularly at the Bahama Islands, and that of Cuba, where they breed. When seen at a distance, they appear as a regiment of soldiers, being arranged alongside of one another, on the borders of the rivers, searching for food, which chiefly consists of * Decouv. Russ. ii, p. 248. + Damprter’s Voy. i, p. 70. _$ Never more than three, and seldom fewer. Phil. Trans. . Sometimes will lay the eggs on a projecting part of a low rock, if it be placed sufficiently convenient so as to admit of the legs being placed one on each side. — Linn vs. | Davies talks of the gunner disguising himself in an ox hide, and, by this means, getting within gunshot. Hist. of Barbadoes, p. 87. § Called there by the name of Tococo. 6 142 PLATALEA AJAJA. small fish,* or the eggs of them, and of water insects; which they search after, by plunging in the bill and part of the head; from time to time trampling with their feet to muddy the water, that their prey may be raised from the bottom. In feeding, they are said to twist the neck in such a manner, that the upper part of the billis applied to the ground ;+ during this, one of them is said to stand sentinel, and the moment he sounds the alarm, the whole flock take wing. This bird, when at rest, stands on one leg, the other being drawn up close to the body, with the head placed under the wing on that side of the body it stands on. i “ The flesh of these birds is esteemed pretty good meat, and the young thought, by some, equal to that of a partridge ;{ but the greatest dainty is the tongue, which was esteemed by the ancients an exquisite morsel.) They are sometimes caught young, and brought up tame; but are ever impatient of ak and in this state will seldom live a great while, gradually losing their colour, flesh, and appetite; and dying for want of that food, which, in a state of nature at e, they | were abundantly supplied with.” GENUS LX.— PLATALEA. 245. PLATALEA AJAJA.— LINNEZUS AND WILSON. ROSEATE SPOONBILL. WILSON, PLATE LXIL, FIG, I. —EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts stately and elegant bird inhabits the sea shores of America, from Brazil to Georgia. It also appears to wander up the Mississippi sometimes in summer, the present specimen haying been sent me from the neigh- * Small shell fish. — Gesner. + Lixnzvus, Brisson. ¢ Commonly fat, and accounted delicate. —Davies’s Hist. of Barbadoes, p: 88. The inhabitants of Provence always throw away the flesh, as it tastes fishy, and only make use of the feathers as ornaments to other birds at particular entertainments.—D1LLon’s Travels, p. 374. § See Pliny, IX; cap. 48, ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 143 bourhood of Natchez, in excellent order; for which fayour Lam indebted to the family of my late benevolent and scientific friend, William Dunbar, Esq. of that territory. It is now deposited in Mr Peale’s museum. This species, however, is rarely seen to the northward of the Alatamaha river; and even along the peninsula of Florida is a scarce bird. In Jamaica, several other of the West India islands, Mexico and Guiana, it is more common, but confines itself chiefly to the sea shore and the mouths of rivers. Captain Henderson says, it is frequently seen at Honduras. It wades about in quest of shell fish, marine insects, small crabs, and fish. In pursuit of these, it occasionally swims and dives. There are few facts on record relative to this very singular bird. According to Latham, the young are of a blackish chestnut the first year; of the roseate colour of the present the second year ; and of a deep scarlet the third. Having never been so fortunate as to meet with them in their native wilds, I regret my inability to throw any farther light on their history and manners. These, it is probable, may resemble, in many respects, those of the European: species, the white spoonbill once so common in Holland.* To atone for this deficiency, I have endeavoured faithfully to describe this American species. This bird measured two feet six inches in length, and near four feet in extent; the bill was six inches and a half long from the corner of the mouth, seven from its upper base, two inches over at its greatest width, and three quarters of an inch where narrowest ; of a black colour for half its length, and covered with hard scaly protuberances, like the edges of oyster shells ; * The European species breeds on trees, by the sea side; lays three or four white eggs, powdered with a few pale red spots, aud about the size of those of a hen; are very noisy during breeding time ; f€ed on fish, mussels, &c. which, like the bald eagle, they frequently take from other birds, irightening them by clattering their bill: they are also said to eat grass, weeds, and roots of reeds : they are migratory; their flesh reported to savour that of a goose ; the young are reckoned good food, 144 PLATALEA AJAJA. these are of a whitish tint, stained with red; the nostrils are oblong, and placed in the centre of the upper mandible; from the lower end of each there runs a deep groove along each side of the mandible, and about a quarter of an inch from its edge; whole crown and chin, bare of plumage, and covered with a greenish skin; that below the under mandible, dilatable like those of the genus pelicanus; space round the eye, orange; irides, blood red; cheeks and hindhead, a bare black skin; neck, long, covered with short white feathers, some of which, on the upper part of the neck, are tipt with crimson; breast, white, the sides of which are tinged with a brown burnt colour; from the upper part of the breast proceeds a long tuft of fine hair-like plumage, of a pale rose colour; back, white, slightly tinged with brownish; wings, a pale wild rose colour, the shafts lake; the shoulders of the wings are covered with long hairy plumage, of a deep and splendid carmine ; upper and lower tail-coverts, the same rich red; belly, rosy; rump, A oe. tail, equal at the end, consisting of twelve feathers of a bright brownish orange, the shafts reddish; legs and naked part of the thighs, dark dirty red; feet, half webbed ; toes, very long, particularly the hind one. The upper part of the neck had the plumage partly worn away, as if occasioned by resting it on the back, in the manner of the ibis. The skin on the crown is a little wrinkled ; the inside of the wing a much richer red than the outer. AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. a ORDER V. ANSERES, Linynavs. VOL. Ill. E , ot | 146 irae san: 6 reeds ed ed ce otha artim: are . ~ f < k eae Uh ay wall, cai etna: oi k ) CHA Fag! iw Ae , re S. Fis ve Hot ae ayia iBani yf } ay ; med a wy c uit Soe oes nit FAMILY XXIV. LONGIPENNES, Iu1cer. GENUS LXL—RHYNCHOPS, Linnavs. 246. RHYNCHOPS NIGRA, LINNXUS AND WILSON. BLACK SKIMMER, OR SHEERWATER,. WILSON, PLATE LX. FIG IV. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts truly singular fowl is the only species of its tribe hitherto discovered. Like many others, it is a bird of passage in the United States, and makes its first appearance on the shores of New Jersey early in May. It resides there, as well as along the whole Atlantic coast, during the summer, and retires early in September. Its favourite haunts are low sand bars, raised above the reach of the summer tides ; and also dry flat sands on the beach in front of the ocean. On such places it usually breeds along the shores of Cape May, in New Jersey. On account of the general coldness of the spring there, the sheerwater does not begin to lay until early in June, at which time these birds form themselves into small societies, fifteen or twenty pair frequently breeding within a few yards of each other. The nest is a mere hollow formed in the sand, without any other materials, The female lays three eggs, almost exactly oval, of a clear white, marked with large round spots of brownish black, and intermixed with others of pale Indian ink. These eggs measure one inch and three quarters, by one inch and a quarter. Half a bushel aud more of eggs has sometimes been collected from one sand bar, within the compass of half an acre. These eggs have something of a fishy taste, but are eaten by many people on the coast. The female sits on them 148 RHYNCHOPS NIGRA. only during the night, or in wet and stormy weather. The young remain for several weeks before they are able to fly; are fed with aes assiduity by both parents ; and seem to delight in lying with loosened wings, flat on the sand, enjoying its invigorating warmth. They © breed but once in the season. The singular conformation of the bill of this bird has excited much surprise; and some writers, measuri the divine proportions of nature by their own contracte standards of conception, in the plenitude of their vanity have pronounced it to be “a lame and defective weapon. Such ignorant presumption, or rather impiety, ought to hide its head in the dust on a calm display of the peculiar construction of this singular bird, and the wisdom by which it is so admirably adapted to the purposes or mode of existence for which it was intended. _ The sheerwater is formed for skimming, while on wing, the surface of the sea for its food, which consists of small fish, shrimps, young fry, &c. whose usual haunts are near the shore, and towards the surface. That the lower mandible, when dipt into and cleaving the water, might not retard the bird’s way, it is thinned and sharpened like the blade of a knife; the upper mandible, being, at such times, elevated above water, is curtailed in its length, as being less necessary, but tapering gradually to a point, that, on shutting, it may offer ess opposition. To prevent inconvenience from the rushing of the water, the mouth is confined to the mere opening of the gullet, which, indeed, prevents mastication taking place there; but the stomach, or gizzard, to which this business is solely allotted, is of uncommon hardness, strength, and ease mg far surpassing, in these respects, any other water bird with which I am acquainted. To all these is added a vast expansion of wing, to enable the bird to sail with sufficient celerity while dipping in the water. The general proportion of the lengt of our swiftest hawks and swallows, to their breadth, is as one to two; but, in the present case, as there is not only the resistance of the air, but also that of the water, to overcome, a BLACK SKIMMER, OR SHEERWATER. 149 still greater volume of wing is given, the sheerwater measuring nineteen inches in length, and upwards of forty-four in extent. In short, whoever has attentively examined this curious apparatus, and observed the possessor, with his ample wings, long bending neck, and lower mandible, occasionally dipt into and ploughing the surface, and the facility with which he procures his food, cannot but consider it a mere playful amusement, when compared with the dashing immersions of the tern, the gull, or the fish hawk, who, to the superficial observer, appear so superiorly accommodated. . The sheerwater is most frequently seen skimming close along shore about the, first of the flood, at which time the young fry, shrimp, &s. are most abundant in such places. There are also numerous inlets among the low islands between the sea beech and main land of Cape May, where I have observed the sheerwaters, eight or ten in company, passing and repassing, at high- water, particular estuaries of those creeks that ran up into the salt marshes, dipping, with extended neck, their open bills into the water, with as much apparent ease as swallows glean up flies from the surface. On_ examining the stomachs of several of these, shot at the time, they contained numbers of a smali fish, usually called silver sides, from a broad line of a glossy silver colour that runs from the gills to the tail. The mouths of these inlets abound with this fry, or fish, probably feeding on the various matters washed down from the marshes. The voice of the sheerwater is harsh and screaming, resembling that of the tern, but stronger. It flies with a slowly flapping flight, dipping occasionally, with steady expanded wings and bended neck, its lower mandible into the sea, and, with open mouth, receiving its food as it ploughs along the: surface. It is rarely seen swimming on the water, but frequently rests in large arties on the sand bars at low water. One of these irds which I wounded in the wing, and kept in the room beside me for several days, soon became tame, and even familiar. It generally stood with its legs 150 RHYNCHOPS NIGRA. erect, its body horizontal, and its neck rather extended. It frequently reposed on its belly, and, stretching its neck, rested its long bill on the floor. It spent most of its time in this way, or in dressing and its plumage with ite long panne ih bill, which it _ seemed to perform with great ease and dexterity. It refused every kind of food offered it, and, Iam persuaded, never feeds but when on the wing. As to the reports of its frequenting oyster beds, and feeding on these fish, they are contradicted by all those persons with whom Ihave conversed, whose long residence on the coast where these birds are common, has given them the best ig tn of knowing. he sheerwater is nineteen inches in length, from the point of the bill to the extremity of the tail; the tips of the wings, when shut, extend full four inches farther ; breadth, three feet eight inches ; length of the lower mandible, four inches and a half; of the upper, three inches and a half; both of a scarlet red, tinged with orange, and ending in black; the lower extremely thin ; the upper grooved, so as to receive the edge of the lower; the nostril is large and pervious, placed in a hollow near the base and edge of the upper mandible, where it projects greatly over the lower; upper part of the head, neck, back, and seapulars, deep black ; wings, the same, except the secondaries, which are white on the inner vanes, and also tipt with white ; tail, forked, consisting of twelve feathers, the two middle ones about an inch and a half shorter than the exterior ones, all black, broadly edged on both sides with white ; tail-coverts, white on the outer sides, black in the middle; front, passing down the neck below the - eye, throat, breast, and whole lower parts, pure white; legs and webbed feet, bright scarlet, formed almost exactly like those of the tern. Weight, twelve ounces avoirdupois. The female weighed nine ounces, and measured only sixteen inches in length, and three feet three inches in extent ; the colours and markings were the same as those of the male, with the exception of MARSH TERN. 151 - the tail, which was white, shafted, and broadly centred with black. The birds from which these descriptions were taken, were shot on the-25th of May, before they had begun to breed. The female contained a great number of eggs, the largest of which were about the size of duck shot ; the stomach, in both, was an oblong pouch, ending in a remarkably hard gizzard, curiously puckered or plaited, containing the half dissolved fragments of the small silver sides, pieces of shrimps, small crabs, and skippers, or sand fleas. : On some particular parts of the coast of Virginia these birds are seen, on low sand bars, in flocks of several hundreds together. There more than twenty nests have been found within the space of asquare rod. The young are, at first, so exactly of a colour with the sand on which they sit, as to be with difficulty discovered, unless after a close search. The sheerwater leaves our shores soon after his young are fit for the journey. He is found on various coasts of Asia, as well as America, residing principally near the tropics, and migrating into the temperate regions of the globe only for the purpose of rearing his young. He is rarely or never seen far out at sea, and must not be mistaken for another bird of the same name, a’species of petrel,* which is met with on every part of the ocean, skimming, with bended wings, along the summits, declivities, and hollows of the waves. GENUS LXII.—STERNA, Linnzus. 247. STERNA ARANEA, WILSON. —MARSH TERN. WILSON, PLATE LXXIlI. FIG. VI. Tuis new species I first met with on the shores of Cape May, particularly over the salt marshes, and darting down after a kind of large black spider, plenty in such places. This spider can travel under water as - * Procellaria Puffinus, the Sheerwater Petrel. 152 STERNA ARANEA. well as above, and, during summer at least, seems to constitute the ab we food of the present tern. In several which I opened, the stomach was crammed with a mass of these spiders alone; these they frequently ick up from the pools as well as from the grass, dashing own on them in the manner of their tribe. Their voice is sharper and stronger than that of the common tern; the bill is differently formed, being shorter, more rounded above, and thicker; the tail is also much shorter, and less forked. They do not associate with the others, but keep in small parties by themselves. ~» The marsh tern is fourteen inches in length, and thirty-four in extent; bill, thick, much rounded above, and of a glossy blackness; whole upper part of the head and find neck, black ; whole upper part of the body, hoary white; shafts of the quill and tail-feathers, pure white; line from the nostril under the eye, and whole lower parts, pure white; tail, forked, the outer. feathers about an inch and three quarters longer than the middle ones; the wings extend upwards of two inches beyond the tail; legs and feet, black; hind toe, small, straight, and pointed. The female, as to plumage, differs in nothing from the male. The yearling birds, several of which I met with, have the plumage of the crown white at the surface, but dusky below ; so that the boundaries of the black, as it will be in the perfect bird, are clearly defined ; through the eye a line of black passes down the neck for about an inch, reaching about a quarter of an inch before it; the bill is not so black as in the others; the legs and feet dull orange, smutted with brown or dusky; tips and edges of the primaries, blackish ; shafts, white. This species breeds in the salt marshes; the female drops her eggs, generally three or four in number, on the dry drift grass, without the slightest appearance of a nest; they are of a greenish olive, spotted with brown. A specimen of this tern has been deposited in the Museum of this city [Philadelphia.] GREAT TERN. 153 248. STERNA HIRUNDO, LINN XUS. — GREAT TERN. WILSON, PLATE LX. FIG. I.— EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts bird belongs to a tribe very generally dispersed over the shores of the ocean. Their generic characters are these :— Bill, straight, sharp pointed, a little com- pressed and strong; nostrils, lmear; tongue, slender, pointed; legs, short; feet, webbed; hind toe and its nail, straight; wings, long; tail, generally forked. Turton enumerates twenty-five species of this genus, scattered over various quarters of the world; six of which, at least, are natives of the United States. From their long pointed wings, they are generally known to seafaring people and others residing near the sea-shore by the name of sea swallows ; though some few, from their near resemblance, are confounded with the gulls. The present species, or great tern, is common to the shores of Europe, Asia, and America. It arrives on the coast of New Jersey about the middle or 20th of April, led, no doubt, by the multitudes of fish which at that season visit our shallow bays and inlets. By many it is called the sheep’s-head gull, from arriving about the same time with the fish of that name. About the middle or 20th of May this bird commences laying. The preparation of a nest, which costs most other birds so much time and ingenuity, is here altogether dispensed with. The eggs, generally three in number, are placed on the surface of the dry drift grass, on the beach or salt marsh, and covered by the female only during the night, or in wet, raw, or storm weather. At all other times the hatching of them 1s left to the heat of the sun. These eggs measure an inch and three-quarters in length, by about an inch and two-tenths in width, and are of a yellowish dun colour, sprinkled with dark brown and pale Indian ink. Not- withstanding they seem thus negligently abandoned during the day, it is very different in reality. One or both of the parents are generally fishing within view of 154 STERNA HIRUNDO. the place, and, on the near approach of any person, instantly make their appearance over head; utterin a hoarse jarring kind of ery, and flying about wi evident symptoms er anxiety and consternation, The young are generally produced at intervals of a day or so from each other, and are regularly and abundantly fed for several weeks, before their wings are sufficiently grown to enable them to fly. At first the parents alight with the fish which they have brought in their mouth or in their bill, and, tearing it in pieces, distribute it in such portions as their young are able to swallow. Afterwards they frequently feed them without alighting, as they skim over the spot; and, as the young become nearly ready to fly, they drop the fish among them where the strongest and most active has the best chance to gobble it up. In the mean time, the young themselves frequently search about the marshes, generally not far apart, for insects of various kinds ; but so well acquain are they with the peculiar language of their nts that warn them of the approach of an enemy, that, on hearing their cries, they instantly squat, and remain motionless until the danger be over. The flight of the great tern, and, indeed, of the whole tribe, is not in the sweeping shooting manner of the land swallows, notwithstanding their name; the motions of their long wings are slower, and more in the manner of the gull. They have, however, great powers of wing and strength in the muscles of the neck, which enable them to make such sudden and violent plunges, and that from a considerable height too, headlong on their prey, which they never seize but with their bills. ~In the evening, I have remarked, as they retired from the upper parts of the bays, rivers, and inlets, to the beach for repose, about breeding time, that each generally carried a small fish in his bill. As soon as the young are able to fly, they lead them to the sandy shoals and ripples where fish are abundant ; and, while they occasionally feed them, teach them by their example to provide for themselves. They some- times penetrate a great way inland, along the courses GREAT TERN. 155 of rivers, and are occasionally seen about all our nume- rous ponds, lakes, and rivers, most usually near the close of the summer. This species inhabits Europe as high as Spitzbergen ; is found on the arctic coasts of Siberia and Kamtschatka, and also on our own continent as far north as Hudson’s Bay. In New England, it is called by some the mackerel gull. It retires from all these places, at the approach of winter, to more congenial seas and seasons. The great tern is fifteen inches long, and thirt inches in extent; bill, reddish yellow, sometimes bril- liant crimson, slightly angular on the lower mandible, and tipt with black; whole upper part of the head, black, extending to a point half way down the neck behind, and including the eyes; sides of the neck and whole lower parts, pure white; wing-quills, hoary, as if bleached by the weather, long and pointed; whole back, scapulars, and wing, bluish white, or very pale lead colour; rump and tail-coverts, white ; tail, long, and greatly forked, the exterior feathers being three inches onger than the adjoining ones, the rest shortening gradually for an inch and a half to the middle ones, the whole of a pale lead colour ; the outer edge of the exterior ones, black; legs and webbed feet, brilliant red lead; membranes of the feet, deeply scalloped ; claws, large and black, middle one the largest. The primary quill-feathers are generally dark on their inner edges. The female differs in having the two exterior feathers ef the tail considerably shorter. The voice of these birds is like the harsh jarring of an opening door, rusted on its hinges. The bone of the skull is remarkably thick and strong, as also the membrane that surrounds the brain; in this respect resembling the woodpecker’s. In both, this provision is doubtless intended to enable the birds to support, without injury, the violent concussions caused by the plunging of the one, and the chiselling of the other. 156 STERNA MINUTA. 249. STERNA MINUTA, LINN ZUS, —LESSER TERN. : WILSON, PLATE LX. FIG. Il. ——-EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts beautiful little species looks like the preceding in miniature, but surpasses it far in the rich glossy satin-like white plumage with which its throat, breast, and whole lower parts, are covered. Like the former, it is also a bird of passage, but is said not to extend its migrations to so high a northern latitude, being more delicate and susceptible of cold. It arrives on the coast somewhat later than the other, but in equal and perhaps greater numbers ; coasts along the shores, and also over the pools in the salt marshes, in search of prawns, of which it is particularly fond; hovers, suspended in the air, for a few moments above its prey, exactly in the manner of some of our small hawks, and dashes head- long down into the water after it, generally seizing it with its bill ; mounts instantly again to the same height, and moves slowly along as before, eagerly examining the surface below. About the 25th of May, or begin- ning of June, the female begins to lay. The eggs are dropt on the dry and warm sand, the heat of which, during the day, is fully sufficient for the purpose of incubation. This heat is sometimes so great, that one can scarcely bear the hand in it for a few moments without inconvenience. The wonder would therefore be the greater, should the bird sit on her eggs during the day, when her warmth is altogether unnecessary and perhaps injurious, than that she should cover them only during the damps of night, and in wet and stormy weather; and furnishes another proof that the actions of birds are not the effect of mere blind impulse, but of volition, regulated by reason, depending on various incidental circumstances to which their parental cares are ever awake. I lately visited those parts of the beach on Cape May where this little bird breeds. The eggs, generally four in number, were placed on the flat sands, safe beyond the reach of the highest summer . LESSER TERN. 157 tide. They were of a yellowish brown colour, blotched with rufous, and measured nearly an inch and three uarters in length. During my whole stay, these birds flew in crowds around me, and often within a few yards of my head, squeaking like so many young pigs, which their voice strikingly resembles. A humming bird, that had accidentally strayed to the place, appeared suddenly among this outrageous group, several of whom darted angrily at him; but he shot like an arrow from them, directing his flight straight towards the ocean. I have no doubt but the distressing cries of the terns had drawn this little creature to the scene, having frequently witnessed his anxious curiosity on similar occasions in the woods. _ The lesser tern feeds on beetles, crickets, spiders, and other insects, which it picks up from the marshes, as well as on small fish, on which it plunges at sea, Like the former, it also makes extensive incursions inland along the river courses, and has frequently been shot several hundred miles from the sea. It sometimes sits for hours together on the sands, as if resting after the fatigues of flight to which it is exposed. The lesser tern is extremely tame and unsuspicious, often passing you on its flight, and within a few yards, as it traces the windings and indentations of the shore in search of its favourite prawns and skippers. Indeed, at such times it appears either altogether heedless of man, or its eagerness for food overcomes its apprehen- sions for its own safety. We read in ancient authors, thatthe fishermen used to float a-cross of wood, in the middle of which was fastened a small fish for a bait, with limed twigs stuck to the four corners, on which the bird darting was entangled by the wings. But this must have been for mere sport, or for its feathers, the value of the bird being scarcely worth the trouble, as . ay oh generally lean, and the flesh savouring strongly sh. _ The lesser tern is met with in the south of Russia, _and about the Black and Caspian Sea; also in Siberia 5 158 STERNA NIGRA. about the Irtish.* With the former, it inhabits the shores of England during the summer, where it breeds and migrates, as it does here, to the south, as the cold of autumn approaches. This species is nine and a half inches long, and twen inches in extent; bill, th reddish yellow ; anal pervious; lower mandible, angular; front, white, reaching in two narrow points over the eye; crown, band through the eye and hindhead, black, tapering to a point as it descends; cheeks, sides of the neck and whole lower parts, of the most rich and glossy white, like the brightest satin; upper parts of the back and wings, a pale glossy ash or light lead colour ; the outer edges of the three exterior primaries, black, their inner odges, white ; tail, pale ash, but darker than the back, and forked, the two outer feathers an inch longer, tapering to a point; legs and feet, reddish yellow ; webbed feet, claws, and hind toe, exaetly formed like those of the preceding. The female nearly resembles the male, with the exception of having the two exterior tail-feathers shorter. 250. STERNA NIGRA, LINNAUS.—STERNA PLUMBEA, WILSON. SHORT-TAILED TERN. WILSON, PLATE LX. FiG. Il, A specimen of this bird was first sent me by Mr Beasley of Cape May ; but being in an imperfect state, I could form no anges notion 0 er ron sometimes supposing it might be a yo bird of the preceding tee ince that time, howevell I have had a oppor- tunity of procuring a considerable number of this same kind, corresponding almost exactly with each other. On the 6th of September, 1812, after a violent north- east storm, which inundated the meadows of Schuylkill in many places, numerous flocks of this tern all at * PENNANT. SHORT-TAILED TERN. 159 ence made their appearance, flying over those watery spaces, picking up grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, and other insects, that were floating on the surface. Some hundreds of them might be seen at the same time, and all seemingly of one sort. They were busy, silent, and unsuspicious, darting down after their prey without hesitation, though perpetually harassed by gunners whom the novelty of their appearance had drawn to the place. Several flocks of the yellow shanks snipe, and a few purres, appeared also in the meadows at the same time, driven thither doubtless by the violence of the storm. I examined upwards of thirty individuals of this species by dissection, and found both sexes alike in colour. Their stomachs contained grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, &c. but no fish. The people on the sea coast have since informed me that this bird comes to them only in the fall, or towards the end of summir, and: is more frequently seen about the mill-ponds and fresh water marshes than in the bays; and add, that it feeds on grasshoppers and other insects which it finds on the meadows and marshes, picking them from the grass, as well as from the surface of the water. They have never known it to associate with the lesser tern, and consider it altogether a different bird. This opinion seems confirmed by the above circumstances, and by the fact of its greater extent of wing, being full three inches wider than the lesser tern, and also making its appearance after the others have gone off. ; he short-tailed tern measures eight inches and a half from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail, and twenty-three inches in extent; the bill is an inch and a quarter in length, sharp pointed, and of a deep black colour; a patch of black covers the crown, auriculars, spot before the eye, and hindhead; the forehead, eye- lds, sides of the neck, passing quite round below the hindhead, and whole lower parts, are pure white; the back is dark ash, each feather broadly tipt with brown; the wings, a dark lead colour, extending an inch and a half beyond the tail, which is also of the same tint, and 160 STERNA FULIGINOSA. pce yet shoulders of the wing, brownish ash ; legs and webbed feet, tawny. It had a sharp shrill whe wounded and taken. s go fF This is probably the brown tern mentioned by Wil- loughby, of which so many imperfect accounts have already been given. 251. STERNA FULIGINOSA.—GMELIN AND WILSON. SOOTY TERN. WILSON, PLATE LXXI. FIG. VII.—EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. ' Tuts bird has been long known to navigators, as its appearance at sea usually indicates the vicinity of land ; instances, however, have occurred, in which they have been met with one hundred leagues from shore.* The species. is widely dispersed over the various shores of the oceaw. They were seen by Dampier in New Holland, are in prodigious numbers in the island of Ascension, and in Christmas Island are said to lay, in December, one egg on the ground ; the egg is yellowish, with brown and violet spots.+ In passing along the northern shores of Cuba and the coast of Florida and Georgia, in the month of July, I observed this species very numerous and noisy, dashing down headlong after small fish. I shot and dissected several, and found their stomachs uniformly filled with fish. I could perceive little or no difference between the colours of the male and female. Length of the sooty tern, seventeen inches, extent, three feet six inches; bill, an inch and a half long, sharp pointed and rounded above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near the point; nostril, an oblong slit, colour of the bill, glossy black; irides, dusky; forehead, as far as the eyes, white; whole lower parts and sides of the neck, pure white; rest of the plumage, black; wings, very long and pointed, extending, when shut, nearly to the extremity of the tail, which is greatly * Coox, Voyage, i. p. 275. + Turron. iT 4 we bY oy] we ay pee hal) lent ae ee ist ah - — LAUGHING GULL. 161 forked, and consists of twelve feathers, the two exterior ones four inches janes than those of the middle, the whole of a deep black, except the two outer feathers, which are white, but towards the extremities a little blackish on the inner vanes; legs and webbed feet, black; hind toe, short. _ The secondary wing feathers are eight inches shorter than the longest primary. This bird frequently settles on the rigging of ships at sea, and, in common with another species, S. stolida, is called by sailors the noddy. GENUS LXIII.— LARUS, Linnzxvs. 252. LARUS ATRICILLA, LINN ZUS.—LARUS RIDIBUNDUS, WILSON. LAUGHING GULL. * WILSON, PLATE LXXIV. FIG. IV. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Lenetu, seventeen inches; extent, three feet six inches; bill, thighs, legs, feet, sides of the mouth, and eyelids, dark blood red ; inside of the mouth, vermilion ; bill, nearly two inches and a half long; the nostril is placed rather low ; the eyes are black ; above and below each eye there is a spot of white; the head and part of the neck are black, remainder of the neck, breast, whole lower parts, tail-coverts and tail, pure white ; the scapulars, wing-coverts, and whole upper parts, are of a fine blue ash colour; the first five primaries are black towards their extremities; the secondaries are tipt largely with white, and almost all the primaries slightly; the bend of the wing is white, and nearly three inches long; the tail is almost even, it consists of twelve feathers, and its coverts reach within an inch and a half of its tip; the wings extend two inches beyond the tail; a delicate blush is perceivable on the . breast and belly; length of tarsus, two inches. The head of the female is of a dark dusky slate colour ; in other respects, she resembles the male. | * Named in the plate, Black-headed Gull. ‘VOL, III. L a _ 4a 162 LARUS ATRICILLA. In some individuals, the crown is of a dusky gray; the a part and sides of the neek, of a lead colour; the bill and legs, of a dirty, dark, purplish brown. Others have not the white spots above and below the eyes; these are young birds. The changes of pl e, to which birds of this genus are subject, have tended not a little to confound the naturalist; and a considerable collision of opinion, arising from an imperfect yah ver mean with the living subjects, has been the result. To investigate thoroughly their history, it is obviously necessary that the orni- thologist should frequently explore their native haunts ; and, to determine the species of periodical or occasional visitors, an accurate comparative examination of many specimens, either alive or recently killed, is indispen- sable. Less confusion would arise among authors, if they would occasionally abandon their accustomed a uae ac studies and their museums, and seek correct knowledge in the only place where it is to be obtained —in the grand temple of nature. As it respects, in particular, the tribe under review, the zealous in- quirer would find himself amply compensated for all his toil, by observing these neat and clean birds coursing along the rivers and coast, enlivening the prospect by their airy movements, now skimming closely over the watery element, watching the motions of the surges, and now rising into the higher regions sporting with the winds, — while he inhaled the invigorating breezes of the ocean, and listened to the soothing murmurs of its billows. - The laughing gull, known in America by the name of the black-headed gull, is one of the most beautiful and most sociable of its genus. They make their appearance on the coast of New Jersey in the latter part of April; and do not fail to give notice of their arrival by their familiarity and loquacity. The inha- bitants treat them with the same indifference that they manifest towards all those harmless birds which do not minister either to their appetite or their avarice; and hence the black-heads may be seen in companies around LAUGHING GULL. 163 the farm house, coursing eri the river shores, glean- ing up the refuse of the fishermen, and the animal substances left by the tide; or scattered over the marshes and newly ploughed fields, regaling on the worms, insects and their larve, which, in the vernal season, the bounty of Nature provides for the sustenance of myriads of the feathered race. On the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, in the neighbourhood of Fishing Creek, about the middle of , May, the black-headed gulls assemble in great multi- tudes, to feed upon the remains of the king crabs which the hogs have left, or upon the spawn which those curious animals deposit in the sand, and which is scattered along the shore by the waves. At such times, if any one approach to disturb them, the gulls will rise up in clouds, every individual squalling so loud, that the roar may be heard at the distance of two or three miles. It is an interesting spectacle to behold this species when about recommencing their migrations. If the weather be calm, they will rise up in the air, spirally, chattering all the while to each other in the most sprightly manner, their notes at such times resembling the singing of a hen, but far louder, changing often into a haw, ha ha ha haw! the last syllable lengthened out like the excessive laugh of a negro. When mounting and mingling together, like motes in the sunbeams, their black heads and wing-tips, and snow white plumage, give them a very beautiful appearance. After gaining an immense height, they all move off, with one consent, in a direct line towards the point of their destination. This bird breeds in the marshes. The: eggs are three in number, of a dun clay colour, thinly marked with small irregular touches of a pale purple, and pale brown ; some are of a deeper dun, with larger marks, and less tapering than others ; the egg measures two inches and a quarter by one inch and a half. The black-heads frequentl etrate into the interior, especially as far as hilade phia; but they seem to dy 164 PROCELLARIA PELAGICA. prefer the neighbourhood of the coast for the purpose of breeding. They retire southward early in autumn, GENUS LXIV.—PROCELLARIA, Linnzvs. 253. PROCELLARIA PELAGICA, LANN AUS. STORMY PETREL. WILSON, PLATE LX, FIG. VI.——-EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM, THERE are few persons who have crossed the Atlantic, or traversed much of the ocean, who have not observed these solitary wanderers of the deep, skimming along the surface of the wild and wasteful ocean, flitting past the vessel like swallows, or following in her wake, gleaning their scanty pittance of food from the rough and whirling surges. Habitedin mourning, and making their appearance generally ini greater numbers previous to or during a storm, they have long been ft regarded by the ignorant and superstitious, not only as the foreboding messengers of tempests and to the hapless mariner, but as wicked agents, connected, somehow or other, in creating them. “ Nobody,” say they, “ can tell any thing of where they come from, or how they breed, though, as sailors sometimes say, it is supposed that they hatch their eggs under their wings as they sit on the water.” This mysterious un- certainty of their origin, and the circumstances above recited, have doubtless given rise to the opinion so prevalent among this class of men, that they are in some way or other connected with that personage who has been styled the Prince of the Power of the Air. In every country where they are known, their names have borne some affinity to this belief. They have been called witches,* stormy petrels, the devil’s birds, Mother Carey’s chickens,+ gare f from some cele- brated ideal hag of that name; and their unexpected * Arctic Zoology, p. 464. + This name seems to have been origi a oan Carteret’s sailors, who met with these birds on the coast of q See Hawkeswortn’s Voyages, vol. i, p. 203. | STORMY PETREL. 165 and numerous appearance has frequently thrown a momentary damp over the mind of the hardiest seaman. It is the business of the naturalist, and the glory of philosophy, to examine into the reality of these things, to dissipate the clouds of error and superstition where- ever they begin to darken and bewilder the human understanding, and to illustrate nature with the radi- ance of truth. With these objects in view, we shall _ now proceed, as far as the few facts we possess will permit, in our examination into the history of this. celebrated species. . The stormy petrel, the least of the whole twenty- four species of its tribe enumerated by ornithologists, and the smallest of all palmated fowls, is found over the whole Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to North America, at all distances from land, and in all weathers ; but is particularly numerous near vessels immediately receding and during a gale, when flocks of them crowd in her wake, seeming then more than usually active in picking up various matters from the surface of the water. This presentiment of a change of weather is not peculiar to the petrel alone, but is noted in many others, and common to all, even to those long domes- ticated. The woodpeckers, the snow-birds, the swal- lows, are all observed to be uncommonly busy before a storm, searching for food with great eagerness, as if anxious to provide for the privations of the coming tempest. The common ducks and the geese are infal- libly noisy and tumultuous before falling weather ; and though, with these, the attention of man renders any extra exertions for food at such times unnecessary, yet they wash, oil, dress, and arrange their plumage, with uncommon diligence and activity. The intelligent and observing farmer remarks this bustle, and wisely pre- pares for the issue ; but heis not so ridiculously absurd as to suppose, that the storm which follows is produced by the agency of these feeble creatures, who are them- selves equal sufferers by its effects with man. He looks on them rather as useful monitors, who, from the deli- cacy of their organs, and a perception superior to his 166 PROCELLARIA PELAGICA. own, point out the change in the atmosphere before it has become sensible to his grosser feelings; and thus, in a certain degree, contribute to bis security. And why should not those who navigate the ocean contem- _ the appearance of this unoffending little bird in ike manner, instead of eyeing it with hatred and exe- cration? As well might they curse the midnight light- house, that, star-like, guides them on their watery way, or the buoy, that warns them of the sunken a below, as this harmless wanderer, whose manner informs them of the approach of the storm, and thereby enables them to prepare for it. The stormy petrels, or Mother Carey’s chickens, breed in pons numbers on the rocky shores of the Bahama and the Bermuda Islands, and in some places on the coast of East Florida and Cuba. They breed in com- munities, like the bank swallows, making their nests - in the holes and cavities of the rocks above the sea, returning to feed their young only during the night, with the superabundant oily food from their stomachs. At these times they may be heard making a continued cluttering sound like frogs during the whole night. In the day they are silent, and wander widely over the ocean. This easily accounts for the vast distance they are sometimes seen from land, even in the breeding season. The rapidity of their flight is at least equal to — the fleetness of our swallows. Calculating this at the » rate of one mile per minute, twelve hours would be sufficient to waft them a distance of seven hundred and twenty miles; but it is probable that the far greater confine themselves much nearer land during that interesting period. In the month of July, while on a voyage from New Orleans to New York, I saw few or none of these birds in the Gulf of Mexico, although our ship was detained there by calms for twenty days, and carried by currents as far south as Cape Antonio, the western- most extremity of Cuba. On entering the Gulf stream, and passing along the coasts of Florida and the Caro- linas, these birds made their appearance in great STORMY PETREL. 167 numbers, and in all weathers, contributing much, by their sprightly evolutions of wing, to enliven the scene, and affording me every day several hours of amuse- ment. It is indeed an interesting sight to observe these little birds in a gale, coursing over the waves, down the declivities, up the ascents of the foaming surf that threatens to burst over their heads, sweeping along the hollow troughs of the sea, as in a sheltered valley, and again mounting with the rising billow, and just above its surface, occasionally dropping its feet, which, striking the water, throws it up again with additional force, sometimes leaping, with both legs parallel, on the surface of the roughest waves for several yards at a time. Meanwhile it continues coursing from side to side of the ship’s wake, making excursions far and wide, to the right and to the left, now a great way ahead, and now shooting astern for several hundred yards, returning again to the ship as if she were all the while stationary, though perhaps running at the rate of ten knots an hour. But the most sin- gular peculiarity of this bird is its faculty of standing, and even running, on the surface of the water, which it performs with apparent facility. When any greasy matter is thrown overboard, these birds instantly collect around it, and, facing to windward, with their long wings expanded, and their webbed feet patting the water, the lightness of their bodies, and the action of the wind on their wings, enable them to do this — with ease.. In calm weather they perform the same mancuvre, by keeping their wings just so much in action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the surface. According to Buffon,* it is from this singular habit that the whole genus have obtained the name Petrel, from the apostle Peter, who,as Scripture informs us, also walked on the water. As these birds often come up immediately under the stern, one can examine their form and plumage with nearly as much accuracy as if they were in the hand. * Burrow, tome xxiii, p. 299. te le : es 168 PROCELLARIA PELAGICA. They fly with the wings forming an almost straight hori- zoutal line with the body, the legs extended behind, and the feet partly seen stretching beyond the tail. Their common note of weet, weet, is scarcely louder than that of a young duck of a week old, and much resembling it. During the whole of a dark, wet, and boisterous night, which I spent on deck, they flew about the after-rigging, making a singular hoarse chattering, which in sound resembled the syllables patrét tu cuk cuk tu tu, laying the accent strongly on the second syllable tret. Now and then I conjectured that they ighted on the rigging, making then a lower curring noise. Notwithstanding the superstitious fears of the sea- men, who dreaded the vengeance of the survivors, I shot fourteen of these birds one calm day in lat. 33°, eighty or ninety miles off the coast of Carolina, and had the boat lowered to pick them up. These I examined with considerable attention, and found the most perfect specimens as follow :— . Length, six inches and three quarters, extent, thirteen inches and a half; bill, black; nostrils, united in a tubular projection, the r 47 mandible greoved from thence, and overhanging the lower like that of a bird of prey ; head, baek, and lower parts, brown sooty black ; greater wing-coverts, pale brown, minutely tipt with white; sides of the vent and whole tail-coverts, pure. white ; wings and tail, deep black, the latter néarly even at the tip, or very slightly forked; in some speci- mens two or three of the exterior tail-feathers were white for an inch or so at the root; legs and naked part of the thighs, black ; feet, webbed, with the slight rudiments of a hind toe; the membrane of the foot is marked with a spot of straw yellow, and finely serrated along the edges; eyes, black. Male and female differing nothing in colour. On opening these, I found the first stomach large, containing numerous round semitransparent substances of an amber colour, which I at first suspected to be the spawn of some fish; but on a more close and careful STORMY PETREL. 169 inspection, they proved to be a vegetable substance, evidently the ode of. some marine plant, and about as e as mustard seed. The stomach of one contained a-fish, half digested, so large that I should have sup- posed it too bulky for the bird to swallow ; another was filled with the tallow which I had thrown over- board, and all had quantities of the seeds already men- tioned both in their stomachs and gizzards; in the latter were also numerous minute pieces of barnacle shells. On a comparison of the seeds above mentioned with those of the gulf-weed, so common and abundant in this part of the ocean, they were found to be the same. Thus it appears, that these seeds, floating perhaps a little below the surface, and the barnacles with which ships’ bottoms usually abound, being both occasionally thrown up to the surface by the action of the vessel through the water in blowing weather, etitice these birds to follow in the ship’s wake at such times, and not, as some have imagined, merely to seek shelter from the storm, the greatest violence of which they seem to disregard. There is also the greasy dish washings, and other oily substances thrown over b the cook, on which they feed with avidity, but wit ye good nature, their manners being so gentle, that never observed the slightest appearance of quarrelling or dispute among them. One circumstance is worthy of being noticed, and shews the vast range they take over the ocean: In firing at these birds a quill-feather was broken in each wing of an individual, and hung fluttering in the wind, which rendered it so conspicuous among the rest as to be known to all on board. This bird, notwithstanding its inconvenience, continued with us for nearly a week, during which we sailed a distance of more than four hundred miles to the north. Flocks continued to follow us until near Sandy Hook, The length of time these birds remain on wing is no less surprising. As soon as it was light enough in —— the morning to perceive them, they were found roaming about as usual; and I have often sat in the evening, in 170 PROCELLARIA PELAGICA. the boat which was suspended by the ship’s stern, watching their movements, until it was so dark that the eye could no longer follow them, though I could still hear their low note of weet weet, as they approached near to the vessel below me. These birds are sometimes driven by violent storms to a considerable distance inland. One was shot some years ago on the river Schuylkill near Philadelphia; . and Bewick mentions their being found in various quarters of the interior of England. From the nature of their food, their flesh is rank and disagreeable ;. though they sometimes become so fat, that, as Mr Pennant, on the authority of Brunnich, asserts, “ the inhabitants of the Feroe Isles make them serve the purposes of a candle, by drawing a wick through the mouth and rump, which being lighted, the flame is fed by the fat and oil of the body.”’* * British Zoology, vol. ii, p. 4534. : FAMILY XXV. LAMELLOSODENTATTI, Ituicer. GENUS LXV.— ANAS, Linnxvs. SUBGENUS I. —ANSER, BRISSON. 254. ANAS tan cama GMELIN AND WILSON. SNOW GOOSE. WILSON, PLATE LXVIII. FIG. V.— MALE. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts bird is particularly deserving of the farther investigation of naturalists; for, if Ido not greatly mistake, English writers have, from the various appear- ances which this species assumes in its progress to erfect plumage, formed no less than four different Kinds, which they describe as so many distinct species, viz. the snow goose, the white fronted or laughing goose, the bean goose, the blue-winged goose, all of which, I have little doubt, will hereafter be found to be nothing more than perfect and imperfect individuals, male and female, of the snow goose, now before us. This species, called on the sea coast the red goose, arrives in the river Delaware from the north, early in November, sometimes in considerable flocks, and is extremely noisy, their notes being shriller and more squeaking than those of the Canada, or common wild goose. On their first arrival, they make but a short stay, proceeding, as the depth of winter approaches, farther to the south; but from the middle of February until the breaking up of the ice in March, they are frequently numerous along both shores of the Dela- ware, about and below Reedy Island, particularly near Old Duck Creek, in the State of Delaware. They feed on the roots of the reeds there, tearing them up from the marshes like hogs. Their flesh, like most i} | 172 ANAS HYPERBOREA. oats of their tribe that feed on vegetables, is excel- ent. The snow goose is two feet eight inches in length, and five feet in extent; the bill is three inches in length, remarkably thick at the base, and rising high in the forehead, but becomes small and compressed at the extremity, where each mandible is furnished with a whitish rounding nail; the colour of the bill is a purplish carmine; the edges of the two mandibles separate from each other in a singular manner for their whole length, and this gibbosity is occupied by dentated rows we pared teeth, these and the parts adjoining being of a blackish colour; the whole plumage is of a snowy whiteness, with the exception, first, of the fore part of the head all round as far as the eyes, which is of a yellowish rust. colour intermixed with white ; and, second, the nine exterior quill-feathers, which are black, shafted with white, and white at the root; the coverts of these last, and also the bastard wing, are sometimes of a pale ash colour; the legs and feet of the same purplish carmine as the bill; iris, dark hazel; the tail is rounded, and consists of sixteen feathers ; that and the wings, when shut, nearly of a length. ‘The bill of this bird is singularly curious ; the edges of the upper and lower gibbosities have each twenty- three indentations, or strong teeth, on each side; the inside or concavity of the upper mandible has also seven lateral rows of strong projecting teeth; and the tongue, which is horny at the extremity, is armed on each side with thirteen long and sharp bony teeth, laced like those of a saw, with their points directed kwards; the tongue, turned up uedviamtea on its lower side, looks very much like a human finger with _ its nail. This conformation of the mandibles, exposing two rows of strong teeth, has probably given rise to the epithet laughing, bestowed on one of its varieties, though it might with as much propriety have been named the grinning goose. , The specimen from which the above description SNOW GOOSE. 173 was taken,-was shot on the Delaware, below Phila- delphia, on the 15th of February, and on dissection roved to be a male; the windpipe had no labyrinth, Put, for an inch or two before: its divarication into the lungs, was inflexible, not extensile like the rest, and rather wider in diameter. The gullet had an expansion before entering the stomach, which last was remarkably strong, the two great grinding muscles being nearly five inchesin diameter. The stomach was filled with fragments of the roots of reeds and fine sand. The intestines measured eight feet in length, and were not remarkably thick. The liver was small. For the young and female of this species, see next article. Latham observes that this species is very numerous at Hudson’s Bay, that they visit Severn River in May, and stay a fortnight, but go farther north to breed ; they return to Severn Fort the beginning of September, and stay till the middle of October, when they depart for the south, and are observed to be attended by their young in flocks innumerable. They seem to occupy also the western side of America, as they were seen at Aoonalashka* as well as at Kamtschatka.- White brant, with black tips to their wings, were also shot by Captains Lewis and Clark’s exploring party, near the mouth of the Columbia River, which were probably the same as the present species.[ Mr Pennant says, “ they are taken by the Siberians in nets, under which they are decoyed by a person covered with a white skin, and crawling on all-fours; when others driving them, these stupid birds mistaking him for their leader, follow him, when they are entangled in the nets, or led into a kind of pond made for the purpose!” We might here with propriety add— This wants confir- mation. * Exuis’s Narrative. . + History of Kamtschatha. ¢ Gass’s Journal, p. 161. 174 ANAS HYPERBOREA. 255. ANAS HY PERBOREA.—YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. WILSON, PLATE LXIX. FIG. Y. Tue full plumaged perfect male bird of this species has already been described in the preceding article, and I now hazard a conjecture, founded on the best examination I could make of the young bird, comparing it with the descriptions of the different accounts, that the whole of them have been taken from the various individuals of the present, in a greater or lesser degree of approach to its true and perfect colours, &c. These birds pass along our coasts, and settle in our rivers, every autumn ; among thirty or forty, there are seldom more than six or eight pure white, or old birds. The rest vary so much, that no two are exactly alike ; yet all bear the most evident marks, in the particular structure of their bills, &c. of being the same identical tin A gradual change so great, as from a bird of this colour to one of pure white, must necessarily produce a number of varieties, or differences in the appearance of the plumage, but the form of the bill and legs remains the same, and any peculiarity in either is the surest mean we have to detect a species under all its various appearances. It is therefore to be regretted, that authors have paid so little attention to the singular conformation of the bill ; for neither that nor the internal peculiarities are at all mentioned. The length of the bird was twenty-eight inches; extent, four feet eight inches ; bill, gibbous at the sides both above and below, exposing the teeth of the upper and lower mandibles, and furnished with a nail at the tip"on both ; the whole being of a light reddish purple, or pale lake, except the gibbosity, which is black, and the two nails, which are of a pale light blue; nostril, pervious, an oblong slit, plabed nearly in the middle of the upper mandible; irides, dark brown; whole head, and half of the neck, white; rest of the neck CANADA GOOSE. 175 and breast, as well as upper part of the back, of a purplish brown, darkest where it joins the white; all the feathers being finely tipt with pale brown; whole wing-coverts, very pale ash, or light lead colour, pri- maries and secondaries, black ; tertials, long, tapering, centred with black, edged with light blue, and usually fall over the wing; scapulars, cinereous brown; lower parts of the back and rump, of the same light ash as the wing-coverts; tail, rounded, blackish, consisting of sixteen feathers, edged and tipt broadly with white ; tail-coverts, white; belly and vent, whitish, intermixed with cinereous; feet and legs, of the same lake colour as the bill. This specimen was a female ; the tongue was thick and fleshy, armed on each side with thirteen strong bony teeth, exactly similar in appearance, as well as in number, to those on the tongue of the snow goose; the inner concavity of the upper mandible was also studded with rows of teeth. The stomach was extremely muscular, filled with some vegetable matter, and clear vel. With this, another was shot, differing considerably in its markings, having little or no white on the head, and being smaller; its general colour, dark brown, intermixed with pale ash, and darker below, but evidently of the same species with the other. 256. ANAS CANADENSIS, LINNEUS AND WILSON. CANADA GOOSE. * WILSON, PLATE LXVII. FIG. IV. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts is the common wild goose of the United States, universally known over the whole country; whose regular periodical migrations are the sure signals of returning spring, or approaching winter. The tracts of their vast migratory journeys are not confined to the sea coast, or its vicinity. In their aerial voyages to and from the north, these winged pilgrims pass over the ‘ ee eo . an 176 ANAS CANADENSIS. interior on both sides of the mountains, as far west, at least, as the Osage river, and I have never yet visited any quarter of the country where the inhabitants are not familiarly acquainted with the regular passing and repassing of the wild geese. Thé general opinion here is, that they are on their way to the lakes to breed; but the inhabitants on the confines of the great lakes that separate us from Canada, are equally ignorant with ourselves of the particular breeding places of those birds. There, their journey north is but commencing; and how far it extends it is impossible for us at present to ascertain, from our little acquaintance with these frozen regions. They were seen by Hearne in large flocks within the Aretic circle, and were then pursuing their way still farther north. Captain Phipps speaks of seeing wild geese feeding at the water’s edge, on the dreary coast of Spitzbergen, in lat. 80° 27’. It is highly probable that they extend their ro wT under the very pole itself, amid the silent desolation of unknown countries, shut out since creation from the prying eye of man by everlasting and insuperable barriers of ice, That such places abound with their suitable food, we cannot for a moment doubt; while the absence of their at destroyer, man, and the splendours of a perpetual y, may render such regions the most suitable for their ose. tone fulfilled the great law of nature, the approach- ing rigours of that dreary climate oblige these vast ers flocks to steer‘for the more genial regions’ of the south. And no sooner do they arrive at those countries of the earth inhabited by man, than carn and slaughter is commenced on their ranks. e° English at Hudson’s Bay, says Pennant, depend greatly on geese, and in favourable years kill three or four thousand, and barrel them up for use. They send ont , their servants as well as Indians, to,shoot these birds - on their passage. It is in vain to pursue them; they therefore form a row of huts, made of boughs, at musket-shot distance from each other, and place them . in a line across the vast marshes of the country. Each CANADA GOOSE, 177 stand, or hovel, as they are called, is occupied by only . a single person. These attend the flight of the birds, and, on their approach, mimic their cackle so well, that the geese will answer, and wheel, and come nearer the stand. The sportsman keeps motionless, and. on his knees, with his gun cocked the whole time, and never fires till he has seen the eyes of the geese. He fires as they are going from him, then picks up another gun that lies by him and discharges that. The geese which he has killed he sets upon sticks, as if alive, to decoy others ; he also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a good day, for they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers, a single Indian will kill two - hundred. Notwithstanding every species of goose has a different call, yet the Indians are admirable in their imitations of every one. The autumnal flight lasts from the middle of August to the middle of October; those which are taken in this season, when the frosts begin, are preserved in their feathers, and left to be frozen for the fresh provisions of the winter stock, The feathers constitute an article of commerce, and are sent t England. . ) The vernal flight of the geese lasts from the middle of April until the middle of May. Their first appear- ance coincides with the thawing. of the swamps, when they are very lean. Their arrival from the south is impatiently attended ; it is the harbinger of the spring, and the month named by the Indians the goose moon. They appear usually at their settlements about St _ George’s day, O. S, and fly northward, to nestle in security. They prefer islands to the continent, as farther from the haunts of man. * After such prodigious havoc as thus appears to be made among these birds, and their running the gauntlet, if I may so speak, for many hundreds of miles through such destructive. fires, no wonder they should have become more scarce, as well as shy, by the time they reach the shores of the United States. * Arctic Zoology. VOL, III, M 178 ANAS CANADENSIS. Their first arrival on the coast of New Jersey is early in October, and their first numerous appearance is the sure prognostic of severe weather. Those which continue all winter frequent the shallow bays and marsh islands ; their — food being the broad tender green leaves of a marine plant which grows on stones and shells, and is usually called sea cabbage ; and also the roots of the sedge, which they are frequently observed in the act of tearing up. Every few days, they make an excursion to the inlets on the beach for gravel. They cross, indiscriminately, over land or water, generally taking the nearest eourse to their object ; differing in this respect from the brant, which will often go a great way round by water rather than cross over the land. They swim well; and, if wing- broken, dive and go a great way under water, causi the sportsman a great deal of fatigue before he can ki them. Except in very calm weather, they rarely sleep on the water, but roost all night in the marshes. When the shallow bays are frozen, they seek the mouths of inlets near the sea, occasionally visiting the air holes in the ice ; but these bays are seldom so completely frozen as to prevent them from feeding on the bars. ' The flight of the wild geese is heavy and laborious, generally in a straight line, or in two lines approximating to a point, thus, > ; in both eases, the van is led by an old gander, who, every now and then, pipes his well known honk, as if to ask how they eome on, and the honk of “ all’s well” is generally returned by some of the party. Their course is in a straight line, with the exception of the undulations of their flight. When bewildered in foggy weather, they appear sometimes to be in great distress, flying about in an irregular manner, and for a considerable time, over the same quarter, making a great clamour, On these occasions, should they approach the earth, and alight, which mon some- times do, to rest and recollect themselves, the only hospitality they meet with is death and destruction from a whole neighbourhood already in arms for their ruin. CANADA GOOSE. 179 - Wounded geese have, in numerous instances, been completely domesticated, and readily pair with the tame geese. The offspring are said to be larger than either; but the characteristic marks of the wild goose still predominate. The gunners on the sea shore have long been in the practice of taming the wounded of both sexes, and have sometimes succeeded in getting them to pair and produce. The female always seeks out the most solitary place for her nest, not far from the water. On the approach of every spring, however, these birds discover symptoms of great uneasiness, frequently looking up into the air, and attempting to go off. Some whose wings have been closely cut, have travelled on foot in a northern direction, and have been found at the distance of several miles from home. They hail every flock that passes overhead, and the salute is sure to be returned by the voyagers, who are only prevented from alighting among them by the presence and habitations of man. The gunners take one or two of these domes- ticated geese with them to those parts of the marshes over which the wild ones are accustomed to fly; and, concealing themselves within gunshot, wait for a flight, which is no sooner perceived by the decoy geese, than they begin calling aloud, until the whole flock approaches. so near as to give them an opportunity of discharging two and sometimes three loaded muskets among it, by which great hayoe is made. The wild goose, when in good order, weighs from ten to twelve, and sometimes fourteen pounds. They are sold in the Philadelphia markets at from seventy- five cents to one dollar each; and are estimated to yield half a pound of feathers a-piece, which produces twenty-five or thirty cents more, The Canada goose is now domesticated in numerous quarters of the country, and is remarked for being extremely watchful, and more sensible of approaching changes in the atmosphere than the common gray goose. In England, France, and Germany, they have also been long ago domesticated. Buffon, in his account of this bird, observes, “ within these few years, many 180 ANAS CANADENSIS. hundreds inhabited the great canal at Versailles, where they breed familiarly with the swans; they were oftener on the grassy margins than in the water ;” and adds, “there is at present a great number of them on the magnificent pools that decorate the charming gardens _ of Chantilly.” Thus has America already added to the stock of domestic fowls two species, the turkey and: the Canada goose, superior to most in size, and inferior to none in usefulness ; for it is acknowledged by an English naturalist, of good observation, that this last species “ is as familiar, breeds as freely, and is in every: respect as valuable as the common goose.” * _ The strong disposition of the wounded wild geese to migrate to the north in spring, has been already taken notice of. Instances have occurred where, their wounds. having healed, they have actually succeeded in mounting into the higher regions of the air, and joined a passing ps to the north ; and, extraordinary as it may appear, am well assured by the testimony of several respec~ table persons, who have been eye-witnesses to the fact, that they have been also known to return again in the succeeding autumn to their former habitation. These accounts are strongly corroborated by a letter which I some time ago received from an obliging correspondent at New York; which I shall here give at large, permitting him to tell his story in his own way, and conclude my history of this species: — ' © Mr Platt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being out shooting in one of the bays which, in that part of the country, abound with water-fowl, wounded a wild goose. Being wing-tipped, and unable to fly, he caught it, and brought it home alive, It proved to be a female ; and, turning it into his yard, with a flock of tame geese, it soon became quite tame and familiar, and in a little time its wounded wing entirely healed, In the following spring, when the wild geese migrate to the northward, a flock passed oyer Mr Platt’s barn yard; and, just at that moment, their leader happening * Bewicx, vol. ii, p. 255. CANADA GOOSE: 181 to sound his bugle note, our goose, in whom its new habits and enjoyments had not quife extinguished the love of liberty, remembering the well known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the air, joined the travellers, and soon disappeared. In the succeeding autunin, the wild geese, as was usual, returned from the northward in great numbers, to pass the winter in our bays andrivers. Mr Platt happened to be standing in his yard when a flock passed directly over his barn. At that instant, he observed three geese detach themselves from the rest, and, after wheeling round several times, non in the middle of the yard. Imagine his surprise and pleasure, when, by certain well remembered signs, he recognized in one of the three his long lost fugitive. It was she indeed! She had travelled many hundred miles to the lakes; had there hatched and reared her offspring ; and had now returned with her little family, to share with them the sweets of civilized life. « The truth of the foregoing relation can be attested by many respectable people, to whom Mr Platt has related the circumstance as above detailed. The birds were all living, and in his possession, about a year ago, and had shewn no disposition whatever to leave him.” The length of this species is three feet; extent, five feet two inches ; the bill is black; irides, dark hazel; upper half of the neck, black, marked on the chin and lower part of the head with a large patch of white, its distinguishing character ; lower part of the neck before, white; back and wing-coverts, brown, each feather tipt with whitish; rump and tail, black; tail-coverts and yent, white; primaries, black, reaching to the extremity of the tail; sides, pale ashy brown ; legs and feet; blackish ash. .- The male and female are exactly alike in plumage. 182 ANAS BERNICLA. 257. ANAS BERNICLA, LINN AUS AND WILSON. —THE BRANT. WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG, 1, EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tue brant, or, as it is usually written, brent, is a bird well known on both continents, and celebrated in former times throughout Europe for the singularity of its origin, and the strange transformations it was supposed to undergo previous to its complete organization. Its first ap ce was said to be in the form of a barnacle shell adhering to old water-soaked logs, trees, or other ieces of wood taken from the sea. Of this goose- Leatinie tree, Gerard, in his Herbal, published in 1597, has given a formal account, and seems to have reserved it for the conclusion of his work as being the most won- derful of all he had to describe. The honest naturalist, however, though his belief was fixed, acknowledges that his own personal information was derived from certain shells which adhered to a rotten tree that he dragged out of the sea between Dover and Romney, in England ; in some of which he found “ living things without forme or shape; in others which were nearer come to ripeness, living things that were very naked, in shape ike a birde; in others, the birds covered with soft downe, the shell half open, and the birde readie to fall out, which no doubt were the foules called Barnakles.” * Ridiculous and chimerical as this notion was, it had many advocates, and was at that time as generally believed, and with about as much reason too, as the present opinion of the annual submersion of swallows, so tenaciously insisted on by some of our philosophers, and which, like the former absurdity, will in its turn disappear before the penetrating radiance and calm investigation of truth. The brant and barnacle goose, though generally reckoned two different species, I consider to be the same. Among those large flocks that arrive on our coasts about the beginning of October, individuals * See Gerarn’s Herbal, Art. Goose-bearing Tree. THE BRANT. 183 frequently occur corresponding in their markings with that called the barnacle of Europe, that is, in having the upper parts lighter, and the front, cheeks, and chin whitish. These appear evidently a variety of the brant, probably young birds: what strengthens this last opinion is the fact, that none-of them are found so marked on their return northward in the spring. The brant is expected at Egg Harbour, on the coast of New Jersey, about the Ist of October, and has been sometimes seen as early as the 20th of September. The first flocks generally remain in the bay a few days, and then pass on to the south. On recommencing their journey, they collect in one large body, and, making an extensive spiral course, some miles in diameter, rise to a great height in the air, and then steer for the sea, over which they uniformly travel; often making wide circuits to avoid passing over a projecting point of land. In these aerial routes, they have been met with many leagues from shore, travelling the whole night. Their line of march very much resembles that of the Canada oose, with this exception, that frequently three or our are crowded together in the front, as if striving for precedency. Flocks continue to arrive from the north, and many remain in the bay till December, or until the weather becomes very severe, when these also move off southwardly. During their stay, they feed on the bars at low water, seldom or never in the marshes; their principal food being a remarkably long and broad-leaved marine plant, of a bright green colour, which adheres to stones, and is called, by the country people, sea cabbage ; the leaves of this are sometimes eight or ten inches broad, by two or three feet in length: they also eat small shell-fish. They never dive, but wade about, feeding at low water. During the time of high water, they float in the bay in long lines, particularly in calm weather. Their voice is hoarse and honking, and, when some hundreds are screaming together, reminds one of a pack of hounds in full ery. They often quarrel among themselves, and with the ducks, driving the latter off their feeding ground. Though it never dives in search 184 ANAS BERNICLA. of food, yet, when wing-broken, the brant will go one hundred yards at a stretch under water; and is con- sidered, in such circumstanees, one of the most difficult birds to kill. About the 15th or 20th of May, they reappear on their way north; but seldom stop long, unless driven in by tempestuous weather. The breeding place of the brant is supposed to be very far to the north. They are common at Hudson’s Bay, very numerous in winter on the coasts of Holland and Ireland; are called in Shetland Harra geese, from their frequenting the sound of that name; they also visit the coast of England. Buffon relates, that in the severe winters of 1740 and 1765, during the prevalence of a strong north wind, the brant visited the coast Picardy, in France, in prodigious multitudes, and committed great depredations on the corn, tearing it up by the roots, trampling, and devouring it; and, not- withstanding the exertions of the inhabitants, who were constantly employed in destroying them, they continued ok great force until a change of weather carried them off. - The brant generally weighs about four pounds avoir- dupois, and measures two feet in lengih, and three feet six inches in extent; the bill is about an inch and a half long, and black ; the nostril large, placed nearly in its middle ; head, neck, and breast, black, the neck marked with a spot of white, about two inches below the eye; belly, pale ash, edged with white; from the thighs backwards, white ; back and wing-coverts, dusky brownish black, the plumage lightest at the tips ; rump and middle of the tail-coverts, black; the rest of the tail-coverts, pure white, reaching row. to the tip of the tail, the whole of which is black, but usually . oncealed by the white coverts; primaries and secon- daries, deep black ; legs, also black ; irides, dark hazel. The only material difference observable between the plumage of the male and female, is, that in the latter the white spot on the neck is less, and more mottled with dusky. In young birds it is sometimes wanting, or occurs on the front, cheeks, and chin ; and sometimes -) SHOVELLER. ~ 185 the upper part of the neck only is black ;* but in full plumaged birds of both sexes, the markings are very much alike. The brant is often seen in our markets for sale. Its flesh, though esteemed by many, tastes somewhat sedgy, or fishy. . SUBGENUS II. —ANAS, BREHM. 258. 4N 4S CLYPEATA, LINNAZUS AND WILSON. —SHOVELLER. | WILSON, PLATE LXVII. FIG. VII.— EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Ir we except the singularly formed and disprdpor- tionate size of the bill, there are few ducks more beautiful or more elegantly marked than this. The excellence of its flesh, which is uniformly juicy, tender, and well tasted, is another recommendation to which it is equally entitled. It occasionally visits the sea coast, but is more commonly found on our lakes and rivers, particularly along their muddy shores, where it spends great part of its time in searching for small worms, and the larve of insects, sifting the watery mud through the long and finely set teeth of its curious bill, which is admirably constructed for the purpose, being large, to receive a considerable quantity of matter, each mandible bordered with close-set, pectinated rows, exactly resembling those of a weaver’s reed, which, fitting into each other, form a kind of sieve, capable of retaining very minute worms, seeds, or insects, which constitute the principal food of the bird. The shoveller visits us only in the winter, and is not known to breed in any part of the United States. It is a common bird of Europe, and, according to M. Baillon, the correspondent of Buffon, breeds yearly in the marshes in France. The female is said to make her nest on the ground, with withered grass, in the midst of the largest tufts of rushes or coarse herbage, in the ' * The figure of this bird, given by Bewick, is in that state. 186 ANAS CLYPEATA. most inaccessible part of the slaky marsh, and lays ten or twelve pale rust coloured eggs; the young, as soon as hatched, are conducted to the water by the parent birds. They are said to be at first very shapeless and ugly, for the bill is then as broad as the body, and seems too great a weight for the little bird to carry, Their eae does not acquire its full colours until after the ’ second moult, The blue-winged shoveller is twenty inches long, and two feet six inches in extent; the bill is brownish black, three inches in length, greatly widened near the extremity, closely pectinated on the sides, and furnished with a nail on the tip of each mandible ; irides, bright orange ; tongue, large and fleshy ; the inside of the upper and outside of the lower mandible are grooved, so as to receive distinctly the long separated reedlike teeth; there is also a gibbosity in the two mandibles, which do not meet at the sides, and this vacuity is occupied by the sifters just mentioned; head and upper half of the neck, glossy, changeable green; rest of the neck and breast, white, passing round and nearly meeting above ; whole belly, dark reddish chestnut ; flanks, a brownish yellow, penciled transversely with black, between which and the vent, which is black, is a band of white; back, blackish brown; exterior edges of the seapulars, white; lesser wing-coverts, and some of the tertials, a fine light sky blue; beauty spot on the wing, a changeable resplendent bronze green, bordered above by a band of white, and below with another of velvety black; rest of the wing, dusky, some of the tertials streaked down their middles with white ; tail, dusky, pointed, broadly edged with white ; legs and feet, reddish orange, hind toe not finned. With the above another was shot, which differed in having the breast spotted with dusky, and the back with white; the green plumage of the head intermixed with gray, and the belly with circular touches of white, evidently a young male in its imperfect plumage. | The female has the crown of a dusky brown ; rest of the head and neck, yellowish white, thickly spotted with THE MALLARD. 187 dark brown; these spots on the breast become larger, and crescent shaped; back and scapulars, dark brown, edged and centred with yellow ochre; belly, slightly ‘ous, mixed with white; wing, nearly as in the male. On dissection, the labyrinth in the windpipe of the male was found to be small; the trachea itself seven inches long ; the intestines nine féet nine inches in length, and about the thickness of a crow quill. 259. ANAS BOSCHAS, LINN.ZUS. —THE MALLARD. WILSON, PLATE LXX. FIG. VII. —EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tue mallard, or common wild drake, is so universally known as scarcely to require a description. It measures twenty-four inches in length, by three feet in extent, and weighs upwards of two pounds and a half; the bill is greenish yellow; irides, hazel; head and part of the neck, deep glossy changeable green, ending in a narrow collar of white; the rest of the neck and breast are of _a dark purplish chestnut; lesser wing-coverts, brown ash, greater crossed near the extremities with a band of white, and tipt with another of deep velvety black ; below this lies the speculum, or beauty spot, of a rich and splendid light purple, with green and violet reflec- tions, bounded on every side with black; quills, pale brownish ash ; back, brown, skirted with paler; scapulars, whitish, crossed with fine undulating lines of black ; rump and tail-coverts, black, glossed with green} tertials, very broad, and pointed at the ends; tail, consisting of eighteen feathers, whitish, centred with brown ash, the four middle ones excepted, which are narrow, black, glossed with violet, remarkably concave, and curled upwards to a complete circle; belly and sides, a fine gray, crossed by an infinite number of fine waving lines, stronger and more deeply marked as they approach the vent; legs and feet, orange red. The female has the plumage of the upper parts dark _ brown, broadly bordered with brownish yellow; and the lower parts yellow ochre, spotted and streaked with 188 ANAS BOSCHAS. deep brown; the chin and throat for about two inches, plain yellowish white; wings, bill, and legs, nearly as in the male. The windpipe of the male has a bony labyrinth, or bladder-like ok puffing out from the left side. The intestines measure six feet, and are as wide as those of the canvass bach. The windpipe is of uniform diameter until it enters the labyrinth. This is the original stock of the common domesti- cated duck, reclaimed, time immemorial, from a state of nature, and now become so serviceable to man, In . many individuals, the general garb of the tame drake seems to have undergone little or no alteration; but the stamp of slavery is strongly imprinted in his dull indifferent eye and grovelling gait, while the lofty look, long tapering neck, and sprightly action of the former, bespeak his native spirit and independence. The common wild duck is found in every fresh water lake and river of the United States in winter, but seldom frequents the sea shores or salt marshes. Their summer residence is the north, the great nursery of this nume- rous genus. Instances have been known of some solitary pairs breeding here in autumn, In England these instances are more common. The nest is usually placed in the most sep: recesses of the marsh, or bog, amidst _ coarse grass, reeds, and rushes, and generally contains from twelve to sixteen eggs of a dull greenish white, The young are led about by the mother in the same manner as those of the tame duck, but with a superior caution, a cunning and watchful vigilance peculiar to her situation. The male attaches himself to one female, as among other birds in their native state, and is the guardian and protector of her and her feeble brood. The mallard is numerous in the rice fields of the Southern States during winter, many of the fields being covered with a few inches of water; and, the scattered grains of the former harvest lying in abundance, the ducks swim about and feed at pleasure. The flesh of the common wild duck is in general and high estimation; and the ingenuity of man, in every THE MALLARD. 189 country where it frequents, has been employed in inventing stratagems to overreach these wary birds, and procure a delicacy for the table: To enumerate all these various contrivances would far exceed our limits ; a few, however, of the most simple and effective may be mentioned. , _In some ponds frequented by these birds, five or six wooden figures, cut and painted so as to represent ducks, and sunk, by pieces of lead nailed on their bottoms, so as to float at the usual depth on the surface, are. anchored in a favourable position for being raked from a concealment of brush, &c. on shore. The appearance of these usually attracts passing flocks, which alight, and are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these painted wooden ducks are fixed on a frame in various swimming postures, and secured to the bow of. the gunner’s skiff, projecting before it in such a manner that the weight of the frame sinks the figures to their proper depth; the skiff is then dressed with sedge or coarse grass in an artful manner, as low as the water’s edge; and under cover of this, which appears like a perty of ducks swimming by a small island, the gunner oats down sometimes to the very skirts of a whole congregated multitude, and pours in a destructive and repeated fire of shot among them, In winter, when detached pieces of ice are occasionally floating in the river, some of the gunners on the Delaware paint their whole skiff or canoe white, and, laying themselves flat at the bottom, with their hand over the side, silently managing a small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or near a flock, before the ducks have distinguished it from a floating mass of ice, and generally do great execution among them. A whole flock has sometimes been thus surprised asleep, with their heads under their wings. On land, another stratagem is sometimes practised with eat success. A large tight hogshead is sunk in the at marsh, or mud, near the place where ducks are accustomed to feed at low water, and where otherwise ‘there is no shelter; the edges and tops are artfully concealed with tufts of long coarse grass and reeds or 190 ANAS BOSCHAS, sedge, From within this the gunner, unseen’ and. unsuspected, watches his collecting prey, and, when a sufficient number offers, sweeps them down with great effect, The mode of catching wild ducks, as practised in India,* China, the island of Ceylon, and some parts of South America, t has been often described, and seems, if reliance may be placed on these accounts, only practicable in water of a certain depth. The sportsman, covering his head with a hollow wooden vessel or calabash, pierced with holes to see through, wades into the water, keeping his head only above, and, thus disguised, moves in among the flock, which take the appearance to be a mere floating calabash, while, suddenly pulling them under by the legs, he fastens them to his girdle, and thus takes as many as he can conveniently stow away, without in the least alarming the rest. They are also taken with snares made of horse hair, or with hooks baited with small pieces of sheep’s lights, which, floating on the surface, are swallowed by the ducks, and with them the hooks. They are also approached under cover of a stalking horse, or a figure formed of thin boards, or other proper materials, and painted so as to represent a horse or ox, But all these methods require much watching, toil, and fatigue, and their success is but trifling when compared with that of the decoy now used both in France and England, § which, from its superiority over every other mode, is well deserving the attention of persons of this country residing in the neighbourhood of extensive marshes frequented by wild ducks, as, by this method, mallard and other kinds may be taken by thousands at a time. The following circumstantial account of these decoys, and the manner of taking wild ducks in them in England, is extracted from Bewick’s History of British Birds, vol. ii, p. 294; * Naval Chronicle, vol. ii, p. 473. + Du Have, History of China, vol. ii, p. 142. ¢ Uttoa’s Voyage, i, p. 53. ; Particularly in Picardy, in the former country, and Lincoln- shire in the latter. THE MALLARD. 191 “ In the lakes where they.resort,” says the corres- ondent of that ingenious author, “ the most favourite unts of the fowl are observed: then, in the most sequestered part of this haunt, they cut a ditch about four yards across at the entrance, and about fifty or sixty yards in length, decreasing gradually in width from the entrance to the farther end, which is not more than two feet wide. It is of a circular form, but not bending much for the first ten yards. The banks of the lake, for about ten yards on each side of this ditch (or pipe, as it is called) are kept clear from reeds, coarse herbage, &c. in order that the fowl may get on them to sit and dress themselves. Across this ditch, poles on each side, close to the edge of the ditch, are driven into the ground, and the tops bent to each other and tied fast. These poles at the entrance form an arch, from the top of which to the water is about ten feet. This arch is made to decrease in height, as the ditch decreases in width, till the farther end is not more than eighteen inches in height. The poles are placed about six feet from each other, and connected together by poles laid lengthwise across the arch and tied together. Over them a net, with meshes sufficiently small to prevent the fowl getting through, is thrown across, and made fast to a reed fence at the entrance, and nine or ten yards up the ditch, and afterwards strongly pegged to the ground. At the farther end of the pipe, a tunnel net, as it is called, is fixed, about four yards in length, of a round form, and kept open by a number of hoops about eighteen inches in diameter, placed at a small distance from each other, to keep it distended. Supposing the circular bend of the pipe to be to the right, when you ‘stand with your back to the lake, on the left hand side a number of reed fences are constructed, called shootings, for the purpose of screening from sight the decoy-man, and in such a manner, that the fowl in the decoy may not be alarmed while he is driving those in the pipe: these shootings are about four yards in length, and about six feet high, and are ten in number. They are placed ‘in the following manner— 6 . 192 ANAS BOSCHAS. From the end of the last shooting, a person cannot see the lake, owing to the bend of the pipe: there is then no farther occasion for shelter. Were it not for those shootings, the fowl that remain about the mouth of the pipe would be alarmed, if the person driving the fowl already under the net should be exposed, and would become so shy as to forsake the place entirely. The first thing the decoy-man does when he approaches the ipe, is to take a piece of lighted turf or peat, and hold — it near his mouth, to prevent the fowl smelling him, He is attended by a dog taught for the purpose of assisting him; he walks very silently about half way 3 the shootings, where.a small piece of wood is thrust through the reed fence, which makes an aperture just sufficient to see if any fowl are in; if not, he walks forward to see if any are about the mouth of the pipe. If there are, he stops and makes a motion to his dog, and gives him a pre of cheese or something to eat ; upon receiving it reed fence, (No. 1,) and the fowl eeetey fly off the bank into the water ; the dog returns along the bank, between the reed fences and the pipe, and comes out to his master at the hole (No. 2.) The man now gives him another reward, and he repeats his round again, e goes directly to a hole through the ~ : - : ; till the fowl are attracted by the motions of the dog, | and follow him into the mouth of the pipe. This operation is called working them, The man now © retreats farther back, working the dog at different holes till the fowl are sufficiently under the net: he now commands his dog to lie down still behind the fence, . 4 | ) —_ s : THE MALLARD. 193 and goes forward to the end of the pipe next the lake, where he takes off his hat and gives it a wave between the shooting; all the fowl under the net can see him, but none that are in the lake can. The fowl that are in sight fly forward; and the man runs forward to the next shooting and waves his hat, and so on, drivin them along till they come to the tunnel net, where they | creep in: when they are all in, he gives the neta twist, so as to prevent their getting back: he then takes the net off from the end of the pipe with what fowl he may have caught, and takes them out, one at a time, and dislocates their necks, and hangs the net on again; and all is ready for working again. REFERENCES TO THE CUT. No. 1. Dog’s hole, where he goes to unbank the fowl. . Reed fences on each side of the mouth of the pipes . Where the decoy-man shews himself to the fowl first, and afterwards at the end of every shooting. Small reed fence to prevent the fowl seeing the dog when he goes to unbank them. . The shootings. : - Dog’s holes between the shootings, used when working. - Tunnel net at the end of the pipe. 8. Mouth of the pipe. VOL. III. N 7 P gr a3 SO Or 194 ANAS BOSCHAS. “In this manner, five or six dozen have been take at one drift.. When the wind blows directly in or out of the pipe, the fowl] seldom work well, especially when it blows in. If many pipes are made in a lake, they should be so constructed as to suit different winds. © © Duck and mallard are taken from August to June ; teal or wigeon from October to March; becks, smee, Iden eyes, arps, cricks, and pintails or sea pheasants, in March and April: . “ Poker ducks are seldom taken, on account of their diving and getting back in the pipe. . “ It may be proper to observe here, that the ducks feed during the night, and that all is ready prepared for this sport in the evening. The better to entice the ducks into the pipe, hemp seed is strewed occasionally on the water. The season allowed, by act of Parliament, for catching these birds in this way, is from the latter end of October till February. . “ Particular spots, or decoys, in the fen countries are let to the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum; and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand two hundred-ducks, including teals and wigeons, were sold in London only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire. Formerly, according to Willoughby, the ducks while in moult, and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, furnished with long poles, with which they splashed the water between Jong nets, stretched vertically across the pools, in the shape of two sides of a triangle, into lesser nets placed at the point; and, in this way, he says, four thousand were taken at one driving in Deeping-Fen; and Latham has quoted an instance of two thousand six hundred and forty-six being taken in two days, near Spalding, in Lincolnshire; but this manner of catching them, while in moult, is now prohibited.” THE GADWALL. 195 260, ANAS STREPERA, LINN. AND WILSON. —THE GADWALL. WILSON, PLATE LXXI. FIG. I. ——-EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tus beautiful duck I have met with in very distant arts of the United States, viz. on the Seneca Lake, in New York, about the 20th of October, and at Louisville, on the Ohio, in February. Lalso shot it near Big Bone Lick, in Kentucky. With its particular manners or breeding place, [ am altogether unacquainted. The length of this species is twenty inches; extent, thirty-one inches; bill, two inches long, formed very much like that of the mallard, and of a brownish black ; crown, dusky brown; rest of the upper half of the neck, brownish white, both thickly speckled with black ; lower part of the neck and breast, usky black, elegantly ornamented with large concentric semicircles of white ; scapulars, waved with lines of white ona dusky ground, but narrower than that of the breast; primaries, ash ; greater wing-coverts, black, and several of the lesser coverts, immediately above, chestnut red; speculum, white, bordered below with black, forming three broad bands on the wing of chestnut, black, and white ; belly, dull white ; rump and tail-coverts, black, glossed with green ; tail, tapering, pointed, of a pale brown ash, edged with white ; flanks, dull white, elegantly waved ; tertials, long, and of a pale brown; legs, orange red. The female 1 have never seen. Latham describes it as follows : “ Differs in having the colours on the wings duller, though marked the same as the male ; the breast, reddish brown, spotted with black ; the feathers on the neck and back, edged with pale red; rump, the same, _ instead of black ; and those elegant semicircular lines on the neck and breast wholly wanting.” The flesh of this duck is excellent, and the windpipe of the male is furnished with a large labyrinth. The gadwall is very rare in the northern parts of the United States; is said to inhabit England in winter, 196 ANAS ACUTA. and various parts of France and Italy; migrates to Sweden, and is found throughout Russia and Siberia.* It is a very quick diver, so as to make it difficult to be shot; flies also with great rapidity, and utters a note not unlike that of the mallard, but louder. Is fond of salines and ponds overgrown with reeds and rushes. Feeds during the day, as well as in the morning and evening. | 261. ANAS ACUTA, LINNEUS AND WILSON. —PINTAIL DUCK, WILSON, PLATE LXVIII. FIG, I11.— EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. . Tue pintail, or, as it is sometimes called, the sprigtail, is acommon and well known duck in our markets, much esteemed for the excellence of its flesh, and is generally in good order. It is a shy and cautious bird, feeds in the mud flats, and shallow fresh water marshes; but rarely resides on the sea coast. It seldom dives, is very noisy, and has a kind of chattering note. When wounded, they will sometimes dive, and, coming up, conceal themselves under the bow of the boat, moving round as it moves. Are vigilant in giving the alarm on the approach of the gunner, who often curses the watchfulness of the sprigtail, Some ducks, when aroused, disperse in different directions ; but the sprig- tails, when alarmed, cluster confusedly together as they mount, and thereby afford the sportsman a fair oppor- tunity of raking them with advantage. They generally leave the Delaware about the middle of March, on the way to their native regions, the north, where they are most numerous. They inhabit the whole northern parts of OS and Asia, and, doubtless, the corres- pontine latitudes of America. Are said, likewise, to be ound in Italy. Great flocks of them are sometimes s along the isles and shores of. Scotland and Ireland, and on the interior lakes of both these countries, On the ; * LarnaM, | { PINTAIL DUCK. 197 marshy shores of some of the bays of Lake Ontario they are often plenty in the months of October and November. I have also met with them at Louisville, on the Ohio. The pintail duck is twenty-six inches in length, and two feet ten inches in extent; the bill, is a dusky lead colour; irides, dark hazel; head and half of the neck, pale brown, each side of the neck marked with a band of 4 279. ANAS CLANGULA, LINNAEUS AND WILSON. —GOLDEN-EYE. WILSON, PLATE LXVII. FIG. VI. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts duck is well known in Europe, and in various regions of the United States, both along the sea coast and about the lakes and rivers of the interior. It associates in small parties, and may easily be known b the vigorous whistling of its wings as it passes thro the air. It swims and dives well, but seldom w on shore, and then in a waddling, awkward manner, Feeding chiefly on shell fish, small fry, &c. their flesh ‘is less esteemed than that of the preceding. In the United States they are only winter visitors, leaving us again in the month of April, being then on their poomse to the north to breed. They are said to build, like the weod duck, in hollow trees. The golden-eye is nineteen inches long, and twenty- nine in extent, and weighs on an average about two pounds ; the bill is black, short, rising considerably up in the forehead; the plumage of the head and part of the neck is somewhat tumid, and of a dark green, with violet reflections, marked near the corner of the mouth with an oval spot of white; the irides are golden yellow; rest of the neck, breast, and whole lower pia: white, except the flanks, which are dusky; back and wings, black ; over the latter a broad bed of white extends from the middle of the lesser coverts to the extremity of the secondaries; the exterior scapulars are also white; tail, hoary brown; rump and tail-coverts, black; legs and toes, reddish orange ; webs very large, and of a dark purplish brown; hind toe and exterior edge of the inner { | ; ; { | GOLDEN EYE. 231 one, broadly finned ; sides of the bill, obliquely dentated 3 tongue, covered above with a fine thick velvety down of a whitish colour. The full plumaged female is seventeen inches in length, and twenty-seven inches in extent; bill, brown, orange near the tip ; head and part of the neck, brown, or very dark drab, bounded below by a ring of white ; below that the neck is ash, tipt with white; rest of the lower parts, white ; wings, dusky, six of the secondaries and their greater coverts, pe white, except the tips of the last, which are touched with dusky spots ;: rest of the wing-coverts, cinereous, mixed with whitish ; back and scapulars, dusky, tipt with brown; feet, dull orange ; across the vent, a band of cinereous; tongue, covered with the same velvety down as the male. The young birds of the first season very much resemble the females, but may generally be distinguished by the white spot, or at least its rudiments, which marks the corner of the mouth. Yet, in some cases, even this is variable, both old and young male birds occasionally wanting the spot. From an examination of many individuals of this species of both sexes, I have very little doubt that the morillon of English writers (anas glaucion) is nothing more than the young male of the golden-eye. The conformation of the trachea, or windpipe, of the male of this species, is singular: Nearly about its middle it swells out to at least five times its common diameter, the concentric hoops or rings, of which this part is formed, falling obliquely into one another when the windpipe is relaxed ; but when stretched, this part swells out to its full size, the rings being then drawn apart; this expansion extends for about three inches ; three more below this, it again forms itself into a hard cartilaginous shell of an irregular figure, and nearly as large as a walnut; from the bottom of this labyrinth, as it- has been called, the trachea branches off to the two lobes of the lungs; that branch which goes to the left lobe being three times the diameter of the right. 232 ANAS ALBEOLA. The female has nothing of all this, The intestines measure five feet in length, and are and thick. | I have examined many individuals of this species, of both sexes and in various stages of colour, and can therefore affirm, with certainty, that the foregoing descriptions are correct. Europeans have differed greatly in their accounts of this, from finding males in the same rb as the females, and other full plumaged males Gestitute of the spot of white on the cheek; but all these individuals bear such evident marks of belonging to one peculiar species, that no judicious naturalist, with all these varieties before him, can long hesitate to pronounce them the same. 280. ANAS ALBEOLA, LINNZUS AND WILSON. BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK. WILSON, PLATE LXVII. FIG. Il. MALE. —FIG, Ill. FEMALE. Tus pretty little species, usually known by the name of the butter-box, or butter-ball, is common to the sea shores, rivers, and lakes of the United States, in every quarter of the country, during autumn and winter. About the middle of April, or early in May, they retire to the north to breed. They are dexterous divers, and + —qreembdaated we — fly with extraordinary velocity. So early as the latter — part.of February the males are observed to have violent disputes for the females; at this time they are more commonly seen in flocks, but, during the preceding of winter, they usually fly in pairs. Their note is a short guak. They feed much on shell fish, shrimps, &e. They are sometimes exceedingly fat, though their flesh is inferior to many others for the table. The male exceeds the female in size, and greatly in beauty of plumage. ; The buffel-headed duck, or rather, as it has originally been, the buffalo-headed duck, from the disproportionate size of its head, is fourteen inches long, and twenty- three inches in extent; the bill is short, and of a light — 5 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 2933 ‘blue or leaden colour; the plumage of the head and half of the neck is thick, long, and velvety, projecting greatly over the lower part of the neck; this plumage on the forehead and nape is rich glossy green, changing into a shining purple on the crown and sides of the neck; from the eyes backward passes a broad band of pure white ; iris of the eye, dark; back, wings,-and part of the scapulars, black ; rest of the scapulars, lateral band along the wing, and whole breast, snowy white; belly, vent, and tail-coverts, dusky white ; tail, pointed, and of a hoary colour. : The female is considerably less than the male, and entirely destitute of the tumid plumage of the head ; the head, neck, and upper parts of the body, and wings, are sooty black, darkest on the crown; side of the head marked with a small oblong spot of white ; bill, dusky; lower part of the neck, ash, tipt with white ; belly, dull white; vent, cinereous ; outer edges of six of the secondaries and their incumbent coverts, white, except the tips of the latter; which are black; legs and feet a livid blue; tail, hoary brown; length of the intestines three feet six inches; stomach filled -with small shell fish. This is the spirit duck of Pennant, so called from its dexterity in diving, (Arctic Zoology, No. 487.) likewise the little brown duck of Catesby (Natural History of Carolina, pl. 98.) This species is said to come into Hudson’s Bay, about Severn River, in June, and make their nests in trees in the woods near ponds.*¥ The young males, during the first year, are almost exactly like the females in colour. 281, AN4S GLACIALIS, LINN US AND WILSON. LONG-TAILED DUCK. WILSON, PL. LXX. FIG. I. MALE.—EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. _ Tuts duck is very generally known along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, by the name of south-southerly, * LATHAM, 234 ANAS GLACIALIS. from the as wee of its cry, something imitative of the sound of those words, and also, that, when very clamorous, they are supposed to betoken a southerly wind; on the coast of New Jersey, they are usually called old wives. They are chiefly salt water ducks, and seldom ramble far from the sea. They inhabit our bays and coasts during the winter only ; are rarely found in the marshes, but keep in the channel, divi for small shell-fish, which are their principal food. passing to and from the bays, sometimes in vast flocks, particularly towards evening, their loud and confused noise may be heard in calm weather at the distance of several miles. They fly very swiftly, take short excursions, and are lively restless birds. Their native regions are in the north, where great numbers of them remain during the whole year; part only of the vast family migrating south to avoid the severest rigours of that climate. They are common to the whole northern hemisphere. In the Orkneys, they are met with in considerable flocks, from October to April; frequent in Sweden, Lapland, and Russia; are often found about St Petersburg, and also in Kamtschatka. Are said to breed at Hudson’s Bay, making their nest among the grass near the sea, like the eider duck, and about the middle of June, lay from ten to fourteen bluish white eggs, the size of those of a pullet. When the young are hatched, the mother carries them to the water in her bill. The nest is lined with the down of her breast, which is accounted equally valuable with that of the eider duck, were it to be had in the same quantity.* They are hardy birds, and excellent divers. Are not very common in England, coming there only in very severe winters ; and then but in small straggling parties ; et are found on the coast of America as far south at east, as Charleston, in Carolina, during the winter, Their flesh is held in no great estimation, having a fishy — taste. The down and plumage, particularly on the breast and lower parts of the body, are very abundant, and appear to be of the best quality. * LATHAM, a Y LONG-TAILED DUCK. 235 The length of this species is twenty-two inches; extent, thirty inches; bill, black, crossed near the extremity by a band of orange; tongue, downy ; iris, dark red; cheeks and frontlet, dull dusky drab, passing over the eye, and joining a large patch of black on the side of the neck, which ends in dark brown; throat and rest of the neck, white; crown, tufted, and of a e cream colour; lower part of the neck, breast, k, and wings, black; scapulars and tertials, pale bluish white, long, and pointed, and falling gracefully over the wings; the white of the lower part of the neck spreads over the back an inch or two; the white of the belly spreads over the sides, and nearly meets at. the rump; secondaries, chestnut, forming a bar across the wing; primaries, rump, and tail-coverts, black ; the tail consists of fourteen feathers, all remarkably pointed, the two middle ones nearly four inches longer than the others; these, with the two adjoining ones, are black; the rest, white; legs and feet, dusky slate. On dissection, the intestines were found to measure five feet six inches. The windpipe was very curiously formed ; besides the labyrinth, which is nearly as large as the end of the thumb, it has an expansion immediately above that, of double its usual diameter, which continues for an inch and a half; this is flattened on the side next the breast, with an oblong window-like vacancy in it, crossed with five narrow bars, and covered with a thin transparent skin, like the panes of a window ; another thin skin of the same kind is spread over the external side of the labyrinth, which is partly of'a circular form, This singular conformation is, as usual, peculiar to the male, the female having the windpipe of nearly an uniform thickness throughout. She differs also so much in the colours and markings of her plumage as to render a separate description of her necessary; for which see the following article. 236 ANAS HISTRIONICA. 282. ANAS GLACIALIS, LINN EUS AND WILSON. FEMALE LONG-TAILED DUCK. WILSON, PLATE LXX. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. TuHE female is distinguished from the male by wanting _ the lengthened tertials, and the two long pointed feathers — of the tail, and also by her size, and the rest of her plumage, which is as follows: length, sixteen inches; extent, twenty-eight inches ; bill, dusky ; middle of the crown, and spot on the side of the neck, blackish; a— narrow dusky line runs along the throat for two inches; rest of the head, and upper half of the neck, white, lower half, pale vinaceous bay, blended with white ; all the rest of the lower parts of the body, pure white; back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, bright fi i nous, centred with black, and interspersed with whitis shoulders of the wing, and quills, black ; lower part the back, the same, tinged with brown; tail, pale bro ash, inner vanes -of but the two middle fea white ; legs and feet, dusky slate. The legs are p far behind, which circumstance points out the species to be great divers. In some females, the upper parts are less ferruginous, ¥ Some writers suppose the singular voice, or call, of this species, to be occasioned by the remarkable con- struction of its windpipe ; but the fact, that the fe are uniformly the most noisy, and yet are entirel destitute of the singularities of this conformati overthrows the probability of this supposition, 283. ANAS HISTRIONICA, LINNZUS AND WILSON, PM, ,. Pil HARLEQUIN DUCK. WILSON, PLATE LXIL. FIG. IV. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. — Tus species is very rare on the coasts of the Middle and Southern States, though not unfrequently found off those of New England, where it is known by the dignified title of the lord, probably from the elegant HARLEQUIN DUCK. 237 crescents and circles of white which ornament its neck and breast. Though an inhabitant of both continents, little else is known of its particular manners than that it swims and dives well; flies swift, and to a great height ; and has a whistling note. Is said to frequent the small rivulets inland from Hudson’s Bay, where it breeds. The female lays ten white eggs on the grass; the young are prettily speckled. It is found on the ‘eastern continent as far south as Lake Baikal, and thence to Kamtschatka, particularly up the river Ochotska; and was also met with at Aoonalashka.and Iceland.* At Hudson’s Bay, it is called the painted duck ; at Newfoundland, and along the coast of New England, the lord; it is an active vigorous diver, and often seen in deep water, considerably out at sea. The harlequin duck, so called from the singularity of ‘its markings, is seventeen inches in length, and twenty- eight inches in extent; the bill is of moderate length, of a lead colour, tipt with red; irides, dark ; upper part of the head, black; between the eye and ‘bill, a broad space of white, extending over the eye, and ending in reddish ; behind the ear, a similar spot; neck, black ; ending below in a circle of white; breast, deep slate ; shoulders or sides of the breast, marked with a semicircle of white; belly, black; sides, chestnut; body above, black, or deep slate, some of the scapulars, white ; greater wing-coverts, tipt with the same; legs and feet, deep ash; vent and pointed tail, black. The female is described as being less, “ the forehead, and between the bill and eye, white, with a spot of the same behind the ear; head, neck, and back, brown, palest on the fore part of the neck; upper part of the breast, and rump, red brown; lower breast and belly, barred pale rufous and white ; behind the thighs, rufous and brown ; scapulars and wing-coverts, rufous brown; outer greater ones, blackish ; quills and tail, dusky, the ‘dast inclining to rufous; legs, dusky.” * _ The few specimens of this duck which I have met met 7 * Laruam, 238 MERGUS MERGANSER. with, were all males; and, from the variation in their colours, it appears evident, that the young birds undergo a considerable change of plumage before they arrive at their full colours. In some, the white spot behind the eye was large, extending irregularly half way down the neck ; in others, confined to a roundish spot. The flesh of this species is said to be excellent. GENUS LXVL—MERGUS. 284, MERGUS MERGANSER, LINN. AND WILSON. —GOOSANDER. WILS. PL. LXVIII. FIG. I. MALE. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tuts large and handsomely marked bird belongs to a genus different from that of the duck, on account of the icular form and serratures of its bill. The genus is characterized as follows: “ Bill, toothed, slender, lindrical, hooked at the point; nostrils, small, oval, placed in the middle of the bill; feet, four-toed, the outer toe longest.” Naturalists have denominated it merganser. In this country, the birds composing this genus are generally known by the name of fishermen, or fisher ducks. The whole number of known species amounts to only nine or ten, dispersed through various — uarters of the world; of these, four species, of which — the present is the largest, are known to inhabit the United States. From the common habit of these birds in feedi almost entirely on fin and shell fish, their flesh is hel in little estimation, being often lean and rancid, both — smelling and tasting strongly of fish; but such are thes various peculiarities of tastes, that persons are not wanting who pretend to consider them capital meat. The goosander, called by some the water pheasant, and by others the sheldrake, fisherman, diver, &c. is a winter inhabitant only, of the sea shores, fresh water lakes, and rivers of the United States. They usually associate in small parties of six or eight, and are almost continually diving in search of food. In the month of April they disappear, and return again early in Noyem- GOOSANDER. 239 ber. Of their particular place, and manner of breeding, we haye no account. Mr Pennant observes, that they continue the whole year in the Orkneys ; and have been shot in the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scotland, in summer. They are also found in Iceland and Green- land, and are said to breed there; some asserting that they build on trees; others, that they make their nests among the rocks. The male of this species is twenty-six inches in length, and three feet three inches in extent; the bill, three inches long, and nearly one inch thick at the base, serrated on both mandibles; the upper overhanging at the tip, where each is furnished with a large nail; the ridge of the bill is black; the sides, crimson red ; irides, red; head, crested, tumid, and of a black colour glossed with green, which extends nearly half way down the neck, the rest of which, with the breast and belly, are white, tinged with a delicate yellowish cream; back, and adjoining scapulars, black ; primaries, and shoulder of the wing, brownish black ; exterior part of the scapulars, lesser coverts, and tertials, white; secondaries, neatly edged with black ; greater coverts, white; their upper halves, black, forming a bar on the wing; rest of the upper parts, and tail, brownish ash; legs and feet, the colour of red sealing wax; flanks, marked with fine semicircular dotted lines of deep brown ; the tail extends about three inches beyond the wings. This description was taken from a full plumaged male. The young males, which are generally much more numerous than the old ones, so exactly resemble the females in their plumage for at least the first, and part of the second ‘year, as scarcely to be distinguished from them ; and, what is somewhat singular, the crests of these and of the females are actually longer than those of the full grown male, though thinner towards its extremities. These circumstances have induced some late ornithologists to consider them as two different species, the young, or female, having been called the dun diver. By this arrangement, they have entirely deprived the goosander of his female; for, in a ? the whole of my examinations and dissections of the © a species, I have never yet found the female in : is dress. What I consider as undoubtedly the true female of this species is described at page 243. They were — both shot in the month of April, in the same creek, | unaccompanied by any other ; and, on examination, the 240 MERGUS MERGANSER. sexual parts of each were strongly and prominen marked. The windpipe of the female had nothing remarkable in it; that of the male had two very 1 | expansions, which haye been briefly described by Willoughby, who says: “ It hath a large bony labyrint on the windpipe, just above the divarications; and the windpipe hath, besides, two swellings out, one above’ another, each resembling a powder puff.” These laby- rinths are the distinguishing characters of the males ; and are always found, even in young males who have not yet thrown off the plumage of the female, as well as in the old ones. If we admit these dun divers to be — a distinct species, we can find no difference between — their pretended females and those of the goosander, — only one kind of female of this sort being known ; and this is contrary to the usual analogy of the other three species, viz. the red-breasted merganser, the hooded, and the smew, all of whose females are well known, and bear the same comparative resemblance in colour to their — respective males, the length of crest excepted, as the female goosander we are about to describe bears to him, Having thought thus much necessary on this disputed point, I leave each to form his own opinion on the facts and reasoning produced. ; [*The goosander is a broad, long-bodied, and flat-— backed bird. It is a great diver, and remains under — ~ water for a considerable time, It is very shy, and hard to be obtained, unless there is ice in the river, at which time it may be approached by stratagem, the shooter and his boat being clothed in white, so as to resemble — od | } ; , j ' $ 2 | * From this to the end of the article, marked off with brackets, is an addition to Wilson’s description by Mr Ord. The articles, Grex] Ehalatoge (p+ 182,) and Laughing Gull (p. 161,) are also 8. GOOSANDER. 241 floating ice. It appears to live chiefly upon fish, which its sharp toothed and hooked bill is admirably calculated for securing. It rises from the water with considerable fluttering, its wings being small and short; but, when. in the air, it flies with great swiftness. It is a singular circumstance, that those goosanders which are seen in the Delaware and Schuylkill, in the vicinity of Phila- delphia, are principally old males. The male goosander is twenty-six inches in length, and thirty-seven inches in breadth; the bill, to the angles of the mouth, is three inches long, nearly an inch thick at the base, strongly toothed on both mandibles, the upper mandible with two corresponding rows of fine teeth within, the lower divided to the nail, and connected by a thin elastic membrane, which admits of considerable expansion, to facilitate the passage of fish; nostrils, subovate, broader on the hind part; the bill is black above and below, its sides crimson ; the tongue is long, pointed, furnished with a double row of papillz running along the middle, and has a hairy border; irides, golden; the frontlet, lores, area of the eyes, and throat, jet black ; head, crested, tumid, and of a beautiful glossy bottle green colour, extending nearly half way down the neck, the remainder of which, with the exterior part of the _ seapulars, the lesser coverts, the greater part. of the secondaries, the tertials and lining of the wings, white, delicately tinged with cream. colour; the breast and whole lower parts are of a rich cream colour; the upper — of the back, and the interior scapulars, a fine glossy lack ; the primaries and exterior part of the secondaries, with their coverts, are brownish black ; the lower part of nearly all the coverts of the secondaries, white, the upper part, black, forming a bar across the wing ; the shoulder of the wing is brownish ash, the feathers _tipt with black; the middle and lower parts of the back and tail-coverts, ash, the plumage cen red with i brown; tail, brownish ash, rounded, composed of eighteen feathers, and extends about three inches beyond the wings ; the flanks are marked with waving, finely dotted lines of ash on a white ground; tertials on VOL. lll. Q ? Gin long radiating flexible stripes; upper part of the primaries, black ; middle secondaries, white, forming a . 242 MERGUS MERGANSER. the outer vanes, edged with black; the legs and feet are of arich orange ; toes, long, middle one somewhat | the longest ; claws, flesh coloured. The whole plumage — is of a silky softness, particularly that of the head and — neck, which feels like the most delicate velvet. Naturalists represent the feet and legs of this species as of the colour of red sealing wax. This is an error which arose from the circumstance of their having seen their specimens some time after they had been killed. When the bird is alive, these parts are of a beautiful orange, which changes after death to the colour they — mention. __ The above description was taken from a fine full lumaged male, which was shot in the vicinity of © hiladelphia in the month of January. It was in good condition, and weighed three pounds thirteen ounces avoirdupois.] | 285. MERGUS MERGANSER, LINNZUS AND WILSON. FEMALE GOOSANDER. | WILSON, PLATE LXVIII. FIG. LI. —EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Py Tuts generally measures an inch or two shorter than the male; the length of the present specimen was twenty-five inches; extent, thirty-five inches; bill, crimson on the sides, black above; irides, reddish; crested head and part of the neck, dark brown, lightes on the sides of the neck, where it inclines to a sorrel — colour; chin*and throat, white; the crest shoots out— body, tail, and flanks, an ashy slate, tinged with brown; speculum on the wing; greater coverts, black, tipt for half an inch with white; sides of the bre: from the sorrel-coloured part of the neck downwar¢ very pale ash, with broad semicircular touches of white ; belly and lower part of the breast, a fine yellowish cream colour—a distinguishing trait also in the male; legs and feet, orange ten HOODED. MERGANSER. 243. [It is truly astonishing with what pertinacity Montagu. adheres to the opinion that the dun diver is a species distinct from the goosander. Had this excellent ornithologist had the same opportunities for examining these birds that we have, he would never have published an opinion, which, in this quarter of the globe, would subject: one, even from the vulgar, to the imputation of ignorance. ]* 286. MERGUS CUCULLATUS, LINNXZUS AND 'WILSON.. HOODED MERGANSER, WILSON, PLATE LXIX. FIG. I. THIs species, on the sea coast, is usually called the hairy head. They are more common, however, along our lakes and fresh water rivers than near the sea; tracing up creeks, and visiting mill ponds, diving per- petually for their food. In the creeks and rivers of the Southern States, they are very frequently seen during the winter. Like the red-breasted, they are migratory, ° the manners, food, and places of resort: of both being -yery much alike. The hooded merganser is eighteen inches in length, and two feet in extent; bill, blackish red, narrow, thickly toothed, and furnished with a projeeting nail at the extremity; the head is ornamented with a large circular crest, which the bird has the faculty of raising or depressing at pleasure; the fore-part of this, as far as the eye, is black, thence to the hindhead, white, and elegantly tipt with black ; it is composed of two separate rows of feathers, radiating from each side of the head, and which may be easily divided by the hand; irides, golden; eye, very small; neck, black, which spreads to and over the back ; part of the lesser wing-coverts, very pale ash, under which the greater coverts and secondaries form four alternate bars of black and white ; * The concluding paragraph, marked off with brackets, is an addition by Mr Ord. oa 944 MERGUS CUCULLATUS. tertials, long, black, and streaked down the middle with white; the black on the back curves handsomely’ round in two points on the breast, which, with the whole lower parts, are pure white; sides, under the wings and flanks, reddish brown, beautifully crossed’ - with parallel lines of black; tail, pointed, consisting of twenty feathers of a sooty brown; legs and feet, flesh coloured ; claws, large and stout. The windpipe hasa small labyrinth, The female is rather less, the crest smaller, and of a ight rust or dull ferruginous colour, entirely destitute the white ; the upper half of the neck, a dull drab, with semicircles of lighter, the white on the wings is the same as in the male, but the tertials are shorter and have less white ; the back is blackish brown; the rest of the plumage corresponds very nearly with the male. This species is peculiar to America; is said to arrive — at Hudson’s Bay about the end of May; builds close to © the lakes; the nest is composed of grass, lined with — feathers from the breast; is said to lay six white eggs. The young are yellow, and fit to fly in July.* 287. MERGUS SERRATOR, LINNZUS AND WILSON. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. WILSON, PLATE LXIX. FIG. Il. —EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM, : Tus is much more common in our fresh waters than the preceding, and is frequently brought to the — Philadelphia market from the shores of the Delaware, It is an inhabitant of both continents. In the United — States, it is generally migratory; though a few are occasionally seen in autumn, but none of their nests” have as yet come under my notice. They also frequent — the sea shore, keeping within the bays and estuaries ; of rivers. They swim low in the water, and, when wounded in the wing, very dexterously contrive to * Hurtcutns, as quoted by Latham. RED-BREASTED MERGMNSER. 245 elude the sportsman or his dog, by diving and coming up at a great distance, raising the bill only above water, and dipping down again with the greatest silence. The young males of a year old are often found in the plumage of the female; their food consists of small: fry, and various kinds of shell-fish. ' The red-breasted merganser is said, by Pennant, to breed on Loch Mari in the county of Ross, in North Britain, and also in the Isle of Ilay. Latham informs us, that it inhabits most parts of the north of Europe on the continent, and as high as Iceland; also in the Russian dominions about the great rivers of Siberia, and the Lake Baikal. Is said to be frequent in Greenland, where it breeds on the shores. The inha- bitants often take it by darts thrown at it, especially in August, being then in moult. At Hudson’s Bay, according to Hutchins, they come in pairs about the beginning of June, as soon as the ice breaks up, and build soon after their arrival, chiefly on dry spots of _ ground in the islands; lay from eight to thirteen white eggs, the size of those of a duck; the nest is made of withered grass, and lined with the down of the breast. The young are of a dirty brown, like young goslings. In October they all depart southward to the lakes, where they may have open water. This species is twenty-two inches in length, and thirty-two in extent; the bill is two inches and three ‘quarters in length, of the colour of bright sealing wax, ridged above with dusky; the nail at the tip, large, blackish, and overhanging ; both mandibles are thickly serrated; irides, red; head, furnished with a long hairy crest, which is often pendent, but occasionally erected ; this, and part of the neck, is black, glossed with green ; the neck under this for two or three inches, is pure white, ending in a broad space of reddish ochre spotted with black, which spreads over the lower part of the neck and sides of the breast; shoulders, back, and tertials, deep velvety black, the first marked with a number of singular roundish spots of white ; scapulars, white ; wing-coverts, mostly white, crossed by two Hi sf 246. @WERGUS SERRATOR. narrow bands of black; primaries, black ; secondaries, white; several.of the latter edged with black; lower — part of the back, the rump, and tail-coverts, gray, speckled with black; sides under the wings, elegantly — crossed with numerous waving lines of black; belly and vent, white; legs and feet, red; the tail, dusky ash; the black of the back passes up the hind neck in # narrow band to the head. The female is twenty-one inches in length, and thirty — ‘in extent; the crested head and part of the neck are of — a dull sorrel colour; irides, yellow; legs and bill red, — upper parts, dusky slate; wings, black ; greater coverts, _ _ largely tipt with white ; secondaries, nearly all white ; sides of the breast, slightly dusky ; whole lower parts, — me white; the tail is of a lighter slate than the back. The crest is much shorter than in the male, and some-— times there is a slight tinge of ferruginous on the breast. The windpipe of the male of this species is very” curious, and differs something from that of the goosander. - -Abott two inches from the mouth, it swells out to four times its common diameter, continuing of that size for about an inch and a half. This swelling is capable of being shortened or extended ; it then continués of its_ first diameter for two inches or more, when it becomes flattish, and almost transparent for other two inches; _ it then swells into a bony labyrinth of more than tw inches in length by one and a half in width, over hollow sides of which is spread a yellowish skin li parchment, The left side of this, fronting the back the bird, is a hard bone. The divarications come very regularly from this at the lower end, and en the lungs. _ The intention of Nature in this extraordinary stru ture is,probably to enable the bird to take down supply of air to support respiration while diving; y: why should the foamnle, who takes the same sub excursions as the male, be entirely destitute of apparatus ? I a on “ ' _ ‘THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 247 288, MERGUS ALBELLUS, LINNEZUS AND WILSON. THE SMEW,; OR WHITE NUN. WILSON, PLATE LXXI. FIG. IV. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Turis is another of those mergansers commonly known in this country by the appellation of fishermen, fisher ducks, or divers. The present species is much more common on the coast of New England than farther to the south. On the shores of New Jersey it is very seldom met with. It is an admirable diver, and can continue for a long time under water. Its food is small fry, shell-fish, shrimps, &c. In England, as with us, the smew is seen only during winter; it is also found in France, in some parts of which it is called da Piette, as in parts of England it is named the magpie diver. Its breeding place is doubtless in the Arctic regions, as it frequents Iceland; and has been observed to migrate with other mergansers and several kinds of ducks up the river Wolga in February.* The smew, or white nun, is nineteen inches in length, and two feet three inches in extent; bill, black, formed very much like that of the red-breasted merganser, but not so strongly toothed ; irides, dark; head, crested ; crown, white; hindhead, black; round the area of the eye, a large oval space of black; whole neck, breast, and belly, white, marked on the upper and lower part of the breast with a curving line of black ; back, black ; scapulars, white, crossed with several faint dusky bars; __ shoulder of the wing and primaries, black ; secondaries and greater coverts, black, broadly tipt with white; across the lesser coverts, a large band of white; sides and flanks, crossed with waving lines; tail, dark ash; legs and feet, pale bluish slate. The female is considerably less than the male; the bill, a dark lead colour; crest of the same peculiar * Dec. Russ. ii, p. 145. - 2 “| 4 4 248 MERGUS ALBELLUS. form as that of the male, but less, and of a reddish brown; marked round the area of the eyes with dusky; cheeks, fore part of the neck, and belly, white; round the middle of the neck, a collar of pale brown; breast and shoulders, dull brown and whitish intermixed: wings and back, marked like those of the male, but of a deep brownish ash in those parts which in him are black; legs and feet, pale blue. The young birds, as in the other three species, strongly resemble the female during the first and part of the second-year. As these changes of colour, from the garb of the female to that of the male, take place in the remote regions of the north, we have not the opportunity of detecting them in their gradual progress to full plumage. Hence, as both males and females have been found in the same dress, some writers have considered them as a separate species from the smew, and have given to them the title of the red-headed smew. In the ponds of New England, and some of the lakes in the State of New York, where the smew is frequently observed, these red-headed kind are often found in company, and more numerous than the other, for very obvious reasons, and bear, in the markings, though not in the colours, of their plumage, evident proof of their being the same species, but younger birds or females, The male, like the Muscovy drake, and many others, when arrived at his full size, is nearly one-third heavier than the female, and this disproportion of weight, and difference of colour, in the full-grown males and females, are characteristic of the whole genus. P : aa : oS es a | DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. 249 GENUS LXVII.—PLOTUS, Linnzvs. 289. PLOTUS ANHINGA, LINNZUS. PLOTUS MELANOGASTER, WILSON. DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. * WILS,. PL. LXXIV. FIG. I. MALE.—EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Heap, neck, whole body, above and below, of a deep shining black, with a green gloss, the plumage extremely soft and agreeable to the touch; the commencement of the back is ornamented with small, oblong, ashy white spots, which pass down the shoulders, increasing in size according to the size of the feathers, and running down the scapulars; wings and tail of a shining black, the latter broadly tipt with dirty white; the lesser coverts are glossed with gréen, and are spotted with ashy white; the last row of the lesser coverts, and the coverts of the secondaries, are chiefly ashy white, which forms a large bar across the wing ; the outer web of the large scapulars is crimped; tail, rounded, the two under feathers the shortest, the two upper feathers, for the greater part of their length, beautifully crimped on their outer webs, the two next feathers in a slight degree so; bill, at 4 at the base and above; the upper mandible brownis ellow at the sides, the lower mandible yellow ochre; inside of the mouth dusky; irides, dark crimson ; the orbit of the eye, next to the plumage of the head, is of a greenish blue colour, this passes round, in the form of a zigzag band, across the front,—the next colour is black, which entirely surrounds the eye; eyelids, of a bright azure, running into violet next the eyeball; lores, greenish blue; naked skin in front black ; jugular pouch, jet black ; hindhead subcrested ; along the sides of the neck there runs a line of loose unwebbed feathers of a dingy ash colour, resembling the plumage of callow * Named in the Sa Black-bellied Darter. The article is the composition of Mr Ord. a , Cent: + 950 PLOTUS ANHINGA. | young; here and there, on the upper part of the neck, one perceives a feather of the same; on the forehead there is a small knob or protuberance; the neck, near its centre, takes a singular bend, in order to enable the bird to dart forward its bill with velocity when it takes _ its prey; legs and feet of a yellowish clay colour, the _ toes, and the hind part of the legs, with a dash of dusky; claws greatly falcated; when the wings. are . closed they extend to the centre of the tail. Length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, two feet ten inches,* breadth three feet ten inches; bill to the angle of the mouth full four inches ; tail, ten inches and a half, composed of twelve broad and stiff — feathers; weight three pounds and a half. The serratures of the bill are extremely sharp, so much so that when one applies tow, or such like substance, to the bird’s mouth, it is with difficulty disengaged. The lower mandible and throat, as in the divers, are capable of great expansion to facilitate the swallowing _ of fish, which constitute the food of this species. The — position of these birds, when standing, is like that of — the gannets. 4 The above description was taken from a fine adult male specimen, which was shot by my fellow-traveller, — Mr T. Peale, on the Ist of March, 1818, in a creek below the Cow Ford, situated on the river St John, in East Florida. We saw some others in the vicinity, but, owing to their extreme vigilance and shyness, we could | not procure them. | From the description of the white-bellied darter of Latham and others, which is unquestionably this species, one would be inclined to conjecture, that the bird figured as the female is the young male. But this point it is * The admeasurement of the specimen described in the first edition of the ninth volume, was made by Wilson himself from stuffed bird in Peale’s museum. It differs considerably from described above ; but as our specimen was a very fine one, there is room to conjecture that there was some error in the admeasurement — of the former, ours being described immediately after death, _ DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. 251 not in my power to ascertain. All the darters which I saw, while in Florida, were males, The snake bird is an inhabitant of the Carolinas, ‘Georgia, the Floridas, and Louisiana, and is common.in .Cayenne and Brazil. It seems to have derived its name from the singular form of its head and neck, which at a distance might be mistaken for a serpent. In those countries where noxious animals abound, we may readily conceive that the appearance of this bird, extending its ‘slender neck through the foliage of a tree, would tend ‘to startle the wary traveller, whose imagination had eine mp objects of danger lurking in every thicket. ‘Its habits, teo, while in the water, have not a little contributed to its name. It generally swims with its body immerged, especially when apprehensive of danger, its long neck extended above the surface, and vibrating in a pecaliar manner, The first individual that I saw in Florida was sneaking away, to avoid me, along the shore of a reedy marsh, which was lined with alligators, and the first impression on my mind was that I beheld a snake, but the recollection of the habits of the bird soon undeceived me. On approaching it, it gradually sank, and my next view of it was at many fathoms distance, its head merely out of the water. To pursue ‘these birds at such times is useless, as they cannot be induced to rise, or even expose their bodies. Wherever the limbs of a tree project over, and dip ‘into the water, there the darters are sure to be found, these situations being convenient resting places for the’ purpose of sunning and preening themselves, and, probably, giving them a better opportunity than when swimming of observing their finny prey. They crawl from the water upon the limbs, and fix themselves in an upright position, which they maintain in the utmost silence. If there be foliage, or the long moss, they secrete themselves in it in such a manner that they cannot be perceived, unless one be close to them. When approached, they drop into the water with such surprising skill, that one is astonished how so large a body can plunge with so little noise, the agitation of 952 PLOTUS ANHINGA. the water being apparently not greater than that occasioned by the ghding on eel. ie Formerly the darter was considered by voyagers as an anomalous production, a monster partaking of the nature of the snake and the duck ; and, in some ancient charts which I have seen, it is delineated in all the extravagance of fiction. From Mr William Bartram we have received the following account of the subject of our history :— “ Here is in this river,* and in the waters all over Florida, a very curious and handsome bird,— the people call them snake birds; I think I have seen paintings of them on the Chinese screens and other Indian pictures ; they seem to be a species of colymbus, but far more beautiful and delicately formed than any other that I have ever seen. They delight to sit in little peaceable communities, on the dry limbs of trees, hanging over the still waters, with their wings and tails expanded, I suppose to cool and air themselves, when at the same time they behold their images in the watery mirror. At such times, when we approach them, they drop off the limbs into the water, as if dead, and for a minute or two are not to be seen; when on a sudden, at a great distance, their long slender head and neck appear, like a snake rising erect out of the water; and no other part of them is to be seen when swimming, except sometimes the tip end of their tail. In the heat of the day they are seen in great numbers, sailing very high in the air over lakes and rivers. “ I doubt not but if this bird had been an inhabitant of the Tiber in Ovid’s days, it would have furnished him with a subject for some beautiful and entertaining metamorphoses. I believe they feed entirely on fish, for their flesh smells and tastes intolerably strong of it: it is searcely to be eaten, unless one is constrained by insufferable Laaeer. They inhabit the waters of Cape Fear River, and, southerly, East and West Florida.” + * The river St quam t East Florida. an wee + Barrram’s Travels, p. 132. —MS. in the possession of t author [Mr Ord. ] ° 4 & FEMALE DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. 253 290. PLOTUS MELANOGASTER, WILSON. FEMALE BLACK-BELLIED DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD.* WILSON, PLATE LXXIV. FIG. Il. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. Tue female darter measures three feet five inches in length, and differs in having the neck before of a roan colour or iron gray, the breast the same, but lighter, and tinged with pale chestnut; the belly as in the male; where the iron gray joins the black on the belly there is a narrow band of chestnut; upper head and back of the neck, dark sooty brown, streaked with blackish; cheeks and chin, pale yellow ochre; in every other respect the same as the male, except in having only a few slight tufts of hair along the side of the neck; the tail is twelve inches long to its insertion, generally spread out like a fan, and crimped like the other on the outer vanes of the middle feathers only. The above is a description of the supposed female darter, which is preserved in Peale’s museum. The author having written to Mr John Abbott of Georgia, relative to this species, and some others, received from this distinguished. naturalist a valuable communication, from which the following extract is made :— “ Both the darters I esteem as but one species. I have now by me a drawing of the male, or black- bellied, only, but have had specimens of both at the same time. I remember that the upper parts of the female were similar to those of the male, except that the colour and markings were not so pure and distinct; length, thirty-six inches, extent, forty-six. These birds frequent the ponds, rivers, and creeks, during the summer; build in the trees of the swamps, and those of the islands in the ponds; they construct their nests of sticks ; eggs of a sky blue colour. I inspected a nest, which was not very large; it contained two eggs and six young ones, the latter varying much in size ; they * This article was written by Mr Ord. will occupy the same tree for a series of years. They commonly sit on a stump, which rises out of the water, in the mornings of the spring, and spreed their wings to the sun, from which circumstance they have obtained the appellation of sun birds. They are difficult to be shot when swimming, in consequence of only their heads being above the water.” Never having seen a specimen of the black-bellied darter of Senegal and Java, I cannot give an opinion touching its identity with ours. — 954 PLOTUS MELANOGASTER. ~ FAMILY XXVL PYGOPODES, I1uicer. GENUS LXVIII.—COLYMBUS, Linxzus. 291. coLYMBUS GLACIALIS, LINNZUS AND WILSON. GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON.* WILSON, PLATE LXXIV. FIG. Ill. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM, Tuts bird in Pennsylvania is migratory. In the autumn it makes its appearance with the various feathered tribes that frequent our waters ; and, when the streams are obstructed with ice, it departs for the Southern: States.>. In the months of March and April it is again seen, and, after lingering awhile, it leaves us for the purpose of breeding. The loons are found along the coast as well as in the interior; but in the summer they retire to the fresh water lakes and ponds. We have never heard that they breed in Pennsylvania, but it is said they do in Missibisci pond, near Boston, Massachusetts. The female lays two large brownish eggs. They are commonly seen in pairs, and procure their food, which is fish, in the deepest water of our * rivers, diving after it, and continuing under for a length of time. Being a wary bird, it is seldom they are killed, eluding their pursuers by their astonishing faculty of diving. They seem averse from flying, and are but eldom seen on the wing. They are never eaten. The loon is restless Pefore a storm; and an expe- rienced master of a coasting vessel informed me, that he always knew when a tempest was approaching by the ery of this bird, which is very shrill, and may be heard at the distance of a mile or more.’ The * This article is by Mr Ord. + The loon is said to waned the Chesapeake Bay. 956 COLYMBUS GLACIALIS. -correctness of this observation I have myself since experienced in a winter voyage on.the southern coasts of the United States. This species seldom visits the shores of Britain, except in very severe winters; but it is met with in the north of Etirope, and spreads along the arctic coast as far as the mouth of the river Ob, in the dominions of Russia. It is found about Spitzbergen, Iceland, and Hudson’s Bay. Makes its nest, in the more northern regions, on the little isles of fresh water lakes: every ¥en keep a lake to themselves. It sees well, flies very igh, and, darting obliquely, falls secure into its nest. Appears in Greenland in April or the beginning of May, and. goes away in September or October, on the first fall of snow.* It is also found at Nootka Sound + and Kamtschatka. : | The Barabinzians, a nation situated between the river Ob and the Irtisch, in the Russian dominions, tan the breasts of this and other water fowl, whose skins they prepare in such a manner as to preserve the down upon them, and, sewing a number of these together, they sell them to make pelisses, caps, &c. Garments made of these are very warm, never imbibing the least moisture, and are more lasting than could be imagined. { The natives of Greenland use the skins for clothi and the Indians about Hudson’s Bay adorn their pe = with circlets of their feathers. 6 rivet Lewis and Clark’s party, at the mouth of the Columbia, saw robes made of the skins of loons, || and abundance of these birds during the time that they wintered at — Fort Clatsop on that river. ** | The Laplanders, according to Regnard, cover their heads with a cap made of the skin of a loom, (loon,) which word signifies in their language lame, because: — the bird cannot ‘walk well. They place it on their head in such a manner, that the bird’s head falls over their brow, and its wings cover their ears. af ¥ * Pennant. Coox’s Last Voyage, ii. p. 237, Am. ed. LarHamM. ° Arctie Zoology. || Gass’s Journal, * History of the Expedition, = ii, p. 189, GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON. 257 “ Northern divers,” says Hearne, “ though common in Hudson’s Bay, are by no means plentiful; they are seldom found near the coast, but more frequently in fresh water lakes, and usually in pairs. They build - their nests at the edge of small islands, or the margins of lakes or ponds; they lay only two eggs, and it is very common to find only one pair and their young in one sheet of water: a great proof of their aversion to society. They are known in Hudson’s Bay by the name of loons.” * The great northern diver measures two feet ten inches from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, and four feet six inches in breadth; the bill is strong, of a glossy black, and four inches and three quarters long to the corner of the mouth; the edges of the bill do not fit exactly into each other, and are ragged, the lower mandible separates into two branches, which are united by a thin elastic membrane, and are easily movable horizontally or receding from each other, so as to form a wider gap to facilitate the swallowing of large fish ; tongue, bifid; irides, dark blood red; the head and half of the length of the neck, are of a deep black with a green gloss, and purple reflections ; this is succeeded by a band consisting of interrupted white and black lateral stripes, which encompasses the neck, and tapers to a point on its fore part, without joining,—this band measures about an inch and a half in its widest part, and, to appearance, is not continuous on the back part of the neck, being concealed by some thick, overhanging, black feathers, but, on separating the latter, the band becomes visible : the feathers which form these narrow stripes are white, streaked down their centre with black, and, what is a remarkable peculiarity, their webs project above the common surface ; below this a broad band of dark glossy green and violet, which is blended behind with the plumage of the back ; the lower art of the neck and the sides of the breast, are ribbed in the same manner as the band above ; below the chin * Hrarne’s Journey, p. 429, quarto. VOL. Ill. R 258 COLYMBUS GLACIALIS. a few stripes of the same; the whole of the upper parts are of a Seas black, slightly glossed with ended and thickly spotted with white, in regular transverse or semicir rows, two spots on the end of each feather, —those on the upper part of the back, shoulders, rump, and tail-coverts, small and roundish, those on the centre of the back, square and larger; those on the scapulars are the largest, and of an oblong square shape ; the wing- feathers and tail are plain brown black, the latter composed of twenty feathers ; the lower parts are pure white, a slight dusky line across the vent; the scapulars descend over the wing when closed, and the belly feathers ascend so as to meet them, by which means every part of the wing is concealed, except towards the tip; the outside of the legs and feet is black, inside lead colour; the leg is four inches in length, and the foot measures, along the exterior toe to the tip of its claw, four inches and three quarters ; both legs and feet are marked with five-sided polygons; weight of the specimen described, eight pounds and a half. The female diver is somewhat less than the male; the bill is yellowish; crown, back part of the neck, and whole upper parts, pale brown; the plumage of part of the back and scapulars is tipt with pale ash; the throat, lower side of the neck, and whole under parts, are white, but not so pure as that of the male, having a ellowish tinge ; the quill feathers dark brown. She — as no appearance of bands on her neck, or of spots on her body. | The young males do not obtain their perfect plumage until the second or third year. One which we saw, and which was conjectured to be a yearling, had some resemblance to the female, with the exception of its upper parts being of a darker and purer brown or mouse colour, and its under parts of a more delicate white; it had likewise a few spots on the back and scapulars; but none of those markings on the neck which distinguish the full grown male. wn The conformation of the ribs and bones of this species is remarkable, and merits particular examination. GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON. 259 In the account which some of the European orni- thologists give of their northern diver, we presume there is an inaccuracy. They say it measures three feet six inches in length, and four feet eight in breadth, and weighs sixteen pounds. If this be a correct state- ment, it would lead to the surmise that our diver is a different species; for of several specimens which we examined, the best and largest has been described for this work, the admeasurement of which bird comes considerably short of that of the European mentioned above. The weight, as has been stated, was eight pounds and a half. - According to Temminck, the adult male and female are alike in plumage. All the females which have passed under my examination differed from the old males; and it is the universal opinion among our sportsmen who reside on the coast, where the loons are common, that the adults of both sexes may always be distinguished by their garb. However, in confirmation of Temminck’s opinion, I can adduce the authority of the Prince of Musignano, Charles Lucian Bonaparte, who has informed me, that he has in his collection a female which was shot in the Delaware, and which differs in no respect from the adult male. On a re-examination of the Supplement to the Ornithological Dictionary of Montagu, I find upon this subject the following remarks, which should seem to put the question at rest respecting the identity of the | European and American species :—“ It should appear that the size of this species has been commonly exag- gerated, or they must vary very materially, since those which have come under our examination did not exceed ten pounds; and an old or matured male measured only two feet eight inches. A young female, before the plumage was perfected, weighed eight pounds six ounces, and measured two feet seven inches in length. * A northern diver, taken alive, was kept in.a pond for some months, which gave us an opportunity of attending to its manners. In a few days it became extremely docile, would come at the call from one side 260 URIA ALLE. of the pond to the other, apd would take food from the hand. The bird had received an injury in the head, which had deprived one eye of its sight, and the other was alittle impaired; but, notwithstanding, it could, by incessantly diving, discover all the fish that was thrown into the pond. In defect of fish, it would eat flesh. — “It is observable, that the legs of this bird are so constructed and situated as to render it incapable of walking upon them. This is probably the case with all the divers, as well as the grebes. “ When this bird quitted the water, it shoved its body along upon the ground, like a seal, by jerks rubbing the breast against the ground, and it return again to the water in a similar manner. In swimming and diving* only the legs are used, and not the wings, as in the guilleinot and auk tribes, and by their situation so far. behind, and their little deviation from the line of the body, the bird is enabled to propel itself in the water with great velocity in a straight line, as well as turn with astonishing quickness.”: ' 292. URIA ALLE, TEMMINCK. —ALCA ALLE, WILSON. LITTLE GUILLEMOT. + WILSON, PLATE LXXIV. FIG. VY. Or the history of this little stranger, but few parti- culars are known. With us it is a very rare bird, and, when seen, it is generally in the vicinity of the sea. The specimen described was killed at Great Egg Harbour in the month of December, 1811, and was sent to © Wilson as a great curiosity. It measured nine inches in length, and fourteen in extent; the bill, upper part of * I have never seen this bird diving in pursuit of fish, but I have seen it in the act of diving to avoid danger, and took notice that its wings, when beneath the surface of the water, did not lie close to tlie body, but they were not as much extended as when in the act of flying. They had no visible motion, hence the presump- tion is that their only use is to balance the body. ail coats in the plate, Little Auk. This article is written by r Ord. . LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 261 the head, back, wings, and tail, were black; the upper part of the breast and hindhead, were gray, or white, mixed with ash; the sides of the neck, whole lower parts, and tips of secondaries, were pure white; feet and legs, black; shins, pale flesh colour; above each eye, there was a small spot of white;* the lower seapulars, streaked slightly with the same. The little guillemot is said to be but a rare visitant of the British isles. 1t is met with in various parts of the north, even as far as Spitzbergen; is common in Green- land, in company with the black-billed auk, and feeds upon the same kind of food. The Greenlanders call it the ice-bird, from the circumstance of its being the harbinger of ice. It lays two bluish white eggs, larger than those of the pigeon. It flies quick, and dives well; and is always dipping its bill into the water while swimming, or at rest on that element; walks better on land than others of the genus. It grows fat in the stormy season, from the waves bringing plenty of crabs and small fish within its reach. It is nota very crafty bird, and may be easily taken. It varies to quite white, and sometimes is found with a reddish breast. To the anatomist, the internal organization of this species is deserving attention: it is so constructed as to be capable of contracting or dilating itself at pleasure. We know not what Nature intends by this conformation, unless it be to facilitate diving, for which the compressed form is well adapted; and likewise the body, when expanded, will be rendered more buoyant, and fit for the purpose of swimming upon the surface of the water. * In Peale’s Museum, there is an excellent specimen of this species, which has likewise a smaller spot below each eye. + LaTHaM ; PENNANT. , bination (Ws vi any hy Sai th ue arw eked y fy ; : ee has Fg ee ye % pet, AGT My, ob Ty, ok | ep Ai +! Y - hip agg, met br us ! Rett patel d Ma : | fora ae aati a ao. eas ii 5, aie BOT E A ae oN / if %, es ial OTE ule a Lat hs Ae’ is Apa ‘ea BF Seeeaibatipprnies si oegoainilyt eta as ot, rs whzeah Sic ae. Bh ean any Bei a. pegnagg wi . a Huet aap bsrs! Mma i 34 we to ipa aes ora inher ory rae ud end) weil 4Y iy 1 inal th wl coats id udeagy ¥ "1 yt yh eh ay Tk ie mao) +A, Bh ond Ses ak er? : i Barth ban: hens agi ee ROG alt i aa da. M ‘ i t¢ LS {atu yw At ating that \, mi SOeTa: Le ah Li bong vy ; fx dottyyit, ak bac jing dated t 0 Jatt 20 gelesen st? gy: RLY. wT th ae! re MtAt co & 4: 4 Baa e FE Ve, ie rare Kl , it “« ze hae ct . apaesgt hi , 4 REALE SEAS ye a x : tvs Nes af si ight; ae mY abou bad drul wansite i OF vg lviisott yen) oa 3h. Sau tains = yi Tweed ph ota ‘: * Paaalee Se. Baath enctalif wi i veoh Td Sidsana a OTA O Yea “16 aboot sattin tc KHOR SE my Vey vide sat caer thy eget hae ue Ls — rity tiene ih k Bt aie bap sboty nba, obey. i = > tol, 1 Bites oe Lt Pyttees Pa ae i es ea of a re ee x ete okt be teaetion 5 a ff 4D AST mat: z=? te Gea aber ’ 00 abit’ AT THF a kee ee et Bodh qe neh valesit edad thn elt amy’ , a Wes os ee ae V weed sloaaler, 3 i , teseunt. § \“ vais a Me A: O oot: Vek . ‘ eye wee 4 “ ne i “Fl a je a ‘ mos . * ‘ ie tee ~ ees ‘ af 4 , F 4 : < ee - 1% ~ 4, Sy ar yr ‘ha lily) es ee ok P 7 * : "a + Ez.) ", ga Ser ee ; 4 ‘. “ . - mn ‘ i 4 i. . wey te ; L = AN § : - : Ve ks — ws oh we “ih 4 “te A , * . a } . ‘ / SYNONYMS ; OR, NAMES GIVEN TO THE DIFFERENT BIRDS, IN WILSON’S AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY, BY TRAVELLERS AND NATURALISTS. NOTICE. ; . “ w is wash aba peeps Mapa ‘Wilson as they stand in the original work. ‘They are here | to the system adopted by us in this the British edition of the Retcen Fires) | 4 2 on Lf itt ae - > ~— Fae le ~ » sam F.- ? - , e ~- olf woe SYNONYMS TO VOLUME FIRST, I. — Page 3. TURKEY VULTURE, OR TURKEY BUZZARD. CATHARTES AURA, ILLIGER., — VULTUR AURA, WILSON. Witson, Plate rxxv. Fig. 1.—Uruba, aura Tzopilotl, Marc- grave, Mexico, 207, 208.— Hernandez, Mex. 331.— Vultur Galline Africane facie, Carrion Crow, Sloane, Jam. 2, p. 294, tab. 254.— Brown, Jam. 471.—Damp. Voy. 2, pt. 2, p. 67.— Bartram’s Travels, p. 289.—Catesby’s Carolina, 1, 6. — Corvus sylvaticus, Barrere, 129. —Lawson’s Carolina, 138. — Bancroft, 152. — Du Pratz, 2, 77. — Will. Orn. 68. —Raii Syn. No. 180. — Linn. Syst. 122.—Carrion Vulture, Lath. Gen. Syn. 1, 9. No. 5. Jd. Sup. p. 2.— Penn. Arct. Zool. 1, p. 221.— Vautour du Brésil, De Buff. Ois. 1, 246. Pl. enl. No. 187. — Brisson, 1, 468. — Cozcaquauhtli, Clavigero, Hist. Mex. 1, 47. — Peale’s ny — Arct. Zool. 1, , No. 97. — Lath. Syn. 1, p. 73, — Peregrine, or ard Falcon, Will. Orn. p. 76, tab. Fee Spotted Hawk or Falcon, Edwards, 1, p- 3.— Black Hawk or Falcon, Idem, 1, p. 4. —Le Faucon pelerin, Briss. Aves, 1, 341. — Buff. Ois. 1, p. 249, pl. 16, et suiv. —Peale’s Museum, No. 386. — Edinburgh College Museum, SYNONYMS. 267 VIII. — Page 56. AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. FALCO SPARVERIUS, LINNAEUS. Witson, Plate xvi. Fig. 1. female. —Emerillon de St Domingue, Buff. 1, 291. Pl. enl. 465.— Arct. Zool. 212. —Little Falcon, Lath. Syn. vy. 1, p. 110, No. 94. Ib. 95.— Peale’s Museum, No. 389. — Edinburgh College Museum. , IX. —Page 60. AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. FALCO SPARVERIUS, LINN US. Witson, Plate xxx. Fig. 2. male. — Little Hawk, Arct. Zool. 211, No. 110.—Emerillon de Cayenne, Buff. 1,291. Pl. enl. No. 444. — Lath. 1, 110, — Peale’s Museum, No. 340, —Edin- burgh College Museum. X. — Page 61. PIGEON HAWK. FALCO COLUMBARIUS, LINNEUS. Witson, Plate xv. Fig. 3. male.— Linn. Syst. p. 128, No. 21. —Lath. Syn. v. 1, p. 101, No. 86. — L’Epervier de la Caroline, Briss. Orn. 1, p. 238. — Catesb. 1, p. 3, t. 3. —Bartram, p. 290. — Turton, Syst. v. 1, p. 162. — Peale’s Museum, No. 352. — Edinburgh College Museum. XI. — Page 63. ASH-COLOURED, OR BLACK.CAP HAWK. FALCO PALUMBARIUS, LINN. —FALCO ATRICAPILLUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate rir. Fig. 3.— Peale’s Museum, No. 406. = Edinburgh College Museum. XII. — Page 65. BROAD-WINGED HAWK. FALCO PENNSYLVANICUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate trv. Fig. 1.— Peale’s Museum, No. 407. XIII. — Page 68. SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. FALCO VELOX. Witsow, Plate xiv. Fig. 1. young bird. 268 SYNONYMS. XIV. — Page 70. SLATE-COLOURED HAWK. FALCO PENNSYLVANICUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xnvi. Fig. 1. old bird. XV. — Page 72. MISSISSIPPI KITE, FALCO MISSISSIPPIENSIS, WILSON. Witsoy, Plate xxv, Fig. 1. male. —Peale’s Museum, No. 403. XVI. — Page 75. SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. FALCO FURCATUS. Witson, Plate 11. Fig. 2. male. —Linn. Syst. 129. — Lath. 1, 60.—Hirundo maxima Peruviana avis predatoriis calcaribus in- structa, Fewillee, Voy. Peru, tom. 2, 33.— Catesb. 1, 4.—Le Melan de la Caroline, Briss. 1, 418. —Buff. 1, 221. — Turt. Syst. 149.— Arct. Zool. p. 210, No. 108. — Peale’s Museum, No, 142. —Edinburgh College Museum. XVIL. — Page 77. ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. FALCO LAGOPUS, WILSON. Wutson, Plate xxxiu. Fig. 1. — Arct. Zool. p. 200, No. 92, — Latham, 1, 75.— Peale’s Museum, No. 116. — Edinburgh College Museum. XVIII. — Page 79. BLACK HAWK. FALCO NIGER, WILSON. — FALCO SANCTI-JOHANNIS, GMELIN. Wison, Plate tm. Fig. 1. adult bird. —Peale’s Museum, No. 404. XIX. — Page 80. BLACK HAWK. Wutson, Plate ru. Fig. 2. young bird. — Peale’s Museum, No. 405. - a a SYNONYMS. 269 XX. — Page 82. RED-TAILED HAWK. FALCO BOREALIS, WILSON. Witson, Plate tu. Fig. 1. adult— Arct. Zool. p. 205, No. 100.—-American Buzzard, Lath. 1, 50.— Turt. Syst. p. 151. —F. Aquilinus cauda ferruga, Great Eagle Hawk, Bartram, p, 290. — Peale’s Museum, No. 182. . XXI. —Page 84. - AMERICAN BUZZARD, OR WHITE-BREASTED HAWK. FALCO LEVERIANUS. Witson, Plate tu. Fig. 1. — Peale’s Museum, No. 400. XXII. — Page 85. WINTER FALCON. FALCO HYEMALIS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxxy. Fig. 1. adult male.— Turton, Syst. p- 156. —Arct. Zool. p. 209, No. 107. — Peale’s Museum, No. 272 and 273. XXIII.— Page 87. RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. FALCO LINEATUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate tim. Fig. 3.— Arct. Zool. p. 206, No. 102. — Lath. 1, 56, No. 36.— Turt. Syst. p. 153.— Peale’s Museum, No. 205. XXIV. — Page 88. MARSH HAWK. FALCO ULIGINOSUS, WILSON. — FALCO CYANEUS, LINNAUS. — Witson, Plate x1. Fig. 1. young female. — Edw. 4, 291. — Lath. 1, 90.— Arct. Zool. p. 208, No. 105. — Bartram, p. 290. — Peale’s Museum, No. 318. XXV.— Page 90. HAWK OWL, STRIX HUDSONIA, WILSON, Witson, Plate t. Fig. 6.— Little Hawk Owl, Edw. 62.— Lath. 1, 142, No. 29. — Phil. Trans. 61, 385. — Le Chat-huant de Canada, Briss. 1, 518. — Buff. 1, 391.—Chouette 4 longue 5 a de Siberie, Pl. enl. 463.— Arct. Zool. p. 234, No. 123,— eale’s Museum, No. 500. —Edinburgh College Museum. 270 SYNONYMS. XXVI. —Page 92. SNOW OWL. STRIX NYCTEA, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxx. = 4. ‘male. —Zath. 1, 132, No. 17. — Buffon, 1, 387. — Great White Owl, Edw. 61.— Snowy Owl, Arct. Zool. 233, No. 121.— Peale’s Museum, No. 458. — Edinburgh College Museum. | XXVII. — Page 96. MOTTLED OWL. STRIX NAIVIA, WILSON. Witson, Plate xix. Fig. 1. adult.— Arct. Zool. 231, No. dri — Lath. 1, 126. — Turton, 1, 167. — Peale’s Museum, No. XXVIII. — Page 99. RED OWL. STRIX ASIO, WILSON. Witson, Plate xtu. Fig. 1.— Little Owl, Catesh. 1, 7. — Lath. 1, 123. — Linn. Syst. 132.— Arct. Zool. 2, No. 117.— Turt. Syst. 1, p. 166. — Peale’s Museum, No. 428. XXIX. — Page 100. GREAT HORNED OWL. STRIX VIRGINIANA, WILSON. Witson, Plate v. Fig. 1.— Arct. Zool. p. 228, No. 114.— Edw. 60.— Lath. 1, 119.— Turt. Syst. p. 166. — Peale’s Museum, No. 410. — Edinburgh College Museum. XXX. — Page 104. LONG-EARED OWL. STRIX OTUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate 11. Fig. 1. — Turt. Syst. p- 167. — Bewickh, 1, p. 84. — Peale’s Museum, No. 434,— Edinburgh College Mu- seum. XXXI. — Page 106. SHORT-EARED OWL. STRIX BRACHYOTOS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxx1u. Fig. 3. male. — Turton, Pe 9 167. — Arct. Zool. p. 229, No. 116. — Lath. 1, 124.— ouetté, 2S . eee et — SYNONYMS. 271 ou la grand Chevéche, Buff. 1. Pl. enl. 438. — Peale’s Museum, No. 440, — Edinburgh College Museum. XXXII. — Page 107. BARRED OWL. STRIX NEBULOSA, LINNEUS. Witson, Plate xxvii. Fig. 2.— Turton, Syst. 169. — Arct. Zool. p. 234, No. 122. — Lath. 133. — Strix acclamator, the Whooting Owl, Bartram, 289. — Peale’s Museum, No. 464. — Edinburgh College Museum. XXXIII. — Page 109. LITTLE OWL. STRIX PASSERINA, LINN HUS. — STRIX ACADICA, GMELIN. Witson, Plate xxxiv. Fig. 1.— Arct. Zool. 236, No. 126.— Turton, Syst. 172. —Peale’s Museum, No. 522. — Edinburgh College Museum. XXXIV. — Page 111. WHITE OR BARN OWL. STRIX FLAMMEA, LINNZEUS. Witson, Plate 1. Fig. 2.— Zath. 1, 138.— Arct. Zool. Pp 235, No. 124.— Phil. Trans. 3, 138.— L’Effraié, ou L’Effrasaie, Buff. 1, 366, plate 26. Pl. enl. 440. —Bewich’s British Birds, 1, p. 89. —Common Owl, Turt. Syst. p. 170. —Peale’s Museum, No. 486. — Edinburgh College Museum. XXXV.— Page 117. CAROLINA PARROT. PSITTACUS CAROLINENSIS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxvi. Fig. 1.— Zinn. Syst. 141. — Catesby, 1, 11. —Latham, 1, 227. —-Arct. Zool. 242, No. 182. Ibid. 183.— Peale’s Museum, No. 762. — Edinburgh College Museum. XXXVI. — Page 128. YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. COCCYZUS AMERICANUS, BON. —CUCULUS CAROLINENSIS, WILS. Witson, Plate xxvint. Fig. 1.—Cuculus Americanus, Zinn. Syst. 170.— Catesb. 1, 9.— Lath. 1, 587.—Le Coucou de la Caroline, Briss. 4, 112.—Arct. Zool. 265, No. 155.— Peale’s Museum, No. Rt a Museum. ; 972 SYNONYMS: — XXXVIL.— Page 31. BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. COCCYZUS ERYTHROPTHALMUS, BONAPARTE. CUCULUS ERYTHROPTHALMUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxv. Fig. 2.— Peale’s Museum, No. 1854. ; — Edinburgh College Museum. X XXVIII. — Page 132. IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER, PICUS PRINCIPALIS, LINN EUS. Witson, Plate xxix. Fig. 1. male. —Picus principalis, Linn. Syst. 1, : 173, 2. — Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 425. 'Piens iger Caro- linensis, Briss. 4, p. 26, 9. Id. 8vo. 2, p- 49. —Pic noir a bec blane, Buff. 7, p. 46. Pl. enl. 690. — Kang of the Woodpeckers, Kalm, vol. 2, p. 85. — White-billed Woodpecker, Catesb. Oar. 1, 6, 16.—Arct. Zool. 2, No. 156.—Lath. Syn. 2, ? 553. — Bartram, p. 289.—Peale’s Museum, No. 1884.— Edinburgh College Museum. = a XXXIX.— Page 138. PILEATED WOODPECKER. PICUS PILEATUS, LINN XUS. _ Wiison, Plate xxrx. Fig. 2. male. —Picus niger, erista rubra, Lath. Ind. Orn. 1, I 225, 4. — Picus pileatus, Linn. “F . 173, 3. — Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 425. — Picus Virginianus riss. 4, p. 29, 10. Jd. 8vo, 2, p. 50.—Pic noir a hupp rouge, Buff. 7, p. 48.—Pic noir huppé de la Louisiane, enl. 718. — Larger crested Reccanees Catesb, Car. 1, 6, 17.— Pileated Woodpecker, Arct. . 2, No. 157. — Lath. eek p- 554, 3. dd. Sup. p. 105.— Bartram, p. 289. — "8 Museum, No. 1886.— Edinburgh College Museum. XL. —Page 141. Ys GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER,. iy PICUS AURATUS, LINN EUS. ; - Witsoy, Plate mi. Fig. 1. —Le Pic aux ailes dorée, De Buffon, f 7, 39. Pl. enl. 695. —Picus Auratus, Zinn. Syst. 174. —Cueulus — alis deauratis, Klein. p. 30.—~ Catesby, 1, 18. —Latham, 2y597. — Edinburgh College Museum. jO¥ SYNONYMS. 278 _XLI. — Page 149. RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. PICUS ERYTHROCEPHALUS, LINNZEUS. Witson, Plate rx. Fig. 1.—Picus erythrocephalus, Zinn. Syst. 1, 174, 7.— G@mel. Syst. 1, 429.—Pic noir 4 domino rouge, Buffon, 7, 55. Pl. enl. 117.— Catesb. 1, 20.— Arct. Zool. 2, No. 160. —Zath. Syn. 2, 561. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1922, — Edinburgh College Museum. XLIl. — Page 154. RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. PICUS CAROLINUS, LINNUS. Wiutson, Plate vir. Fig. 2. — Picus Carolinensis, Zinn. Syst. 1, 174, 10. — Pic varié de la Jamaique, Buffon, 7,72. Pl. enl. 597. — Picus varius medius Jamaicensis, Sloan. Jam. 299, 15. — Jamaica Woodpecker, Edw. 244.— Cates. 1, 19, fig. 2. — Arct. Zool. 2, No. 161. — Lath. Syn. 2, 570,17. Jd. 571,17. A. Id, B. —L’Epeiche rayé de la Louisiane, Buff. 7, 73. Pl. enl. 692.—Peale’s Museum, No. 1944. —Edinburgh College Museum. XLII. — Page 157. YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. PICUS VARIUS, LINN US. Witson, Plate 1x. Fig. 2. adult male. — Picus varius, Zinn. Syst. 1, 176, 20.— Gmel. Syst. 1, 485.—Le pic.varié de la Caroline, Buffon, 7,77. Pl. enl. 785. — Yellow-bellied Wood- pecker, Cates. 1, 21.— Arct. Zool. 2, No. 166.— Lath. Syn. 2, 574, 20. Id. Sup. p. 109. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2004, — Edinburgh College Museum. XLIV. — Page 159. HAIRY WOODPECKER. PICUS VILLOSUS, LINN US. Witson, Plate 1x. Fig. 3. male. —Picus Villosus, Zinn. Syst. 1, 175, 16.—Pic chevelu de Virginie, Buffon, 7, 74. — Pic varié male de Virginie, Pl. enl. 754.— Hairy Wuodpecker, Cates. 1, 19, . 2.—Arct. Zool. 2, No. 164. ~~ fathe Syn. 2, 572, 18. Id. a 108,— Peale’s Museum, No. 1988.— Edinburgh College useum. VOL. III. : $ 10 274 SYNONYMS. XLV. — Page 162. DOWNY WOODPECKER., PICUS PUBESCENS, LINN RUS. Wiutson, Plate rx. Fig. 4. male.—Picus pubescens, Zinn. Syst. i, 175, 15.20 Syst. 1, 435.— Petit Pie varié de Virginie, Buffon, 7, 76. —Smallest Woodpecker, Catesby, 1, 21. —Aret. Zool. 2, No. 163. — Little Woodpecker, Lath. _ 2, 573, 19. Id. Sup. 106.— Peale’s Museum, No. 1986.— Edi burgh College Museum. XLVI. —Page 167. RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER. Vh, PICUS QUERULUS, WILSON. sa Witson, Plate xv. Fig. 1. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2027. . XLVII. — Page 168. LEWIS’S WOODPECKER, PICUS TORQUATUS, WILSON. Wixsoy, Plate xx. Fig. 3.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2020. XLVIII. — Page 170. BELTED KINGSFISHER, ALCEDO ALCYON, LINNZUS. Witson, Plate xxut. Fig. 1. female. — Bartram, p. 289.— Turton, A 278. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2154. = Bainburgh College XLIX. — Page 174. MEADOW LARK. STURNUS LUDOFICIANUS, LINN. —ALAUDA MAGNA, WILSON. — Witson, Plate x1x. Fig. 2,— Zinn. Syst. 289.— Crescent Stare, Arct. Zool. 330, No. 192. — Latham, 3, 6, Var. A.—Le Fer-a-cheval, ou Merle a Collier d’Amerique, Bg. 3, p. 371. — Catesb. Car. 1, pl. 33.— Bartram, p. 290.— Peale’s Museum, No. 5212. — Edinburgh College Museum. L. — Page 177. BALTIMORE BIRD, OR ORIOLE. ICTERUS BALTIMORUS, DAUD. —ORIOLUS BALTIMORUS, WILS, Witsoyn, Plate 1. Fig. 3. male. — Edinburgh College Museum. ; rer tyes SYNONYMS. 975 FEMALE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. ICTERUS BALTIMORUS, DAUD. Witson, Plate rut. Fig. 4.— Amer. Orn. vy. i. p. 23. LI. — Page 183. _ ORCHARD ORIOLE. ICTERUS SPURIUS, BONAPARTE. — ORIOLUS MUTATUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate iv. Fig. 1. female; Fig. 2. male, two years old ; 4 3. male, three years old; Fig. 4. the adult male. — Peale’s useum, No. 1508,—Bastard Baltimore, Catesby, 1, 49.— Le Baltimore Batard, De Buffon, 3, 233. Pl. enl. 506. — Oriolus Spurius, Gmelin, Syst. 1, p. 889. —Zath. Syn. 2, p. 483, 20. p- 437, 24. —Edinburgh ege Museum. LITI. — Page 192. RED-WINGED STARLING. ICTERUS PHENICEUS, DAUD. —STURNUS PREDATORIUS, WILS. Witson, Plate xxx. Fig. 1. male; Fig. 2. female. — Bartram, 291. — Oriolus Pheniceus, Zinn. Syst. 161. — Red-winged Oriole, Arct. Zool. 255, No. 140. — Le Troupiale a aisles rouges, Briss. 2, 97.—Le Commandeur, Buff. 3, 214. Pl. enl. 402.— Lath, 1, 428.—Acolchichi, Fernand. Nov. Hisp. p. 14.— Peale’s Museum, No. 1466, 1467. COW BUNTING. ICTERUS PECORIS, TEMM.—EMBERIZA PECORIS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xvut. Fig. 1. male ; Fig. 2. female. — Le Brunet, Buff. 4, 138. — Le Pingon de Virginie, Briss. 3, 165. — Cowpen- bird, Catesb. 1, 34 —Lath. 2, 269. — Arct. Zool. p. 371, No. 241. — Sturnus stercorarius, Bartram, p. 291. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6378, male ; 6379, female. ave LV. — Page 219. RICE BUNTING. ICTERUS AGRIPENNIS, BONA. —EMBERIZA ORYZIVORA, WILS. Witson, Plate x1. Fig. 1. male, in spring; Fig. 2. female. — Emberiza oryzivora, Zinn. Syst. p. 311, 16.—L’Ortolan de: la Caroline, Briss. Orn. 3, p. 282, 8, pl. 15, fig. 3, Pl. enl. 388, fig. 1.— L’Agripenne, ou L’Ortolan de Riz, Buff. Ois. 4, p. 337. — Rice-bird, Catesb. Car. 1, pl. 14. — Edw. pl. 2. — Latham, 2, 188, No. 25. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6026. 276. SYNONYMS... LVI. — Page 225. RUSTY GRAKLE, QUISCALUS FERRUGINEUS, BON. — GRACULA FERRUGINEA, WILS. Witson, Plate xx1. Fig. 3, adult male, in eptintc= Rigek Oriole, Arct. Zool. p. 259, No. 144. — Rusty Oriole, Ibid. p 260, No. 146.— New York Thrush, Jbid. p, 339, No. 205. —Hudso- nian Thrush, Jbid. No. 284, female. —Labrador Thrush, Ibid. p- 340, No. 206. — Peale’s Museum, No. 5514. LVII. — Page 227. PURPLE GRAKLE. ; ' QUISCALUS VERSICOLOR, VIEILL. —GRACULA QUISCALAs WILS. * Witson, Plate xxi. Fig. 4. male.— Zinn. Syst. 165.—La Pie de la Jamaique, Brisson, 2, 41. — Buffon, 3, 97, Pl. enl. 538. —Arct. Zool. p. 263, No. 153.—Gracula Purpurea, the lesser Purple Jackdaw, or Crow Blackbird, Bartram, p. 289. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1582. LVIII. — Page 231. RAVEN. CORPUS CORAX. Witson, Plate rxxv. Fig. 8.— Turt. Syst. 1, 218.— Kerp. Faun. Suec. No. 85.—- Faun. Grenl. p. 62. — Leems, 240. — Le Corbeau, De Buff. 5, 16, Pl. enl. No. 495. — Briss. 2, 8. — Penn. Br. Zool. 1, No. 74.— Arct. Zool. No. 134. — Lath. 1, 367. — Bewick, 1, 100. — Raii Syn. p. 39.— Will. Orn. p. 121, pl. 18. — Albin, 2, pl. 20.— Corvus carnivorus, Bartram, p. 290.. — Peale’s Museum, No. 175. — Edinburgh College Museum. LIX. — Page 237. CROW. CORVUS CORONE, LINNUUS. Witson, Plate xxxvi. Fig. 8. — Peale’s Museum, No, 1246, Edinburgh College Museum. LX. — Page 246. FISH CROW, CORVUS OSSIFRAGUS, WILSON. Wiuson, Plate xxxvu. Fig. 2. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1369. ae hemes SYNONYMS. | 277 LXI. — Page 249. CLARK’S CROW. CORPUS COLUMRIANUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xx. Fig. 2. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1371. LXII. — Page 250. MAGPIE. CORVUS PICA. Wiuson, Plate xxxv. Fig. 2, —Arct. Zool. No. 186.— Lath. 1, 392. — Buff. 3, 85. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1833.— Edinburgh College Museum. LXIII. — Page 253. BLUE JAY. CORVUS CRISTATUS, LINN ZUS. Witson, Plate 1. Fig. 1. —Edinburgh College Museum. LXIV.— Page 262. CANADA JAY. CORPUS CANADENSIS, LINN EUS. Wutson, Plate xxi. Fig. 1.— Zinn. Syst. 158. —Cinereous Crow, de la Caroline, Briss. Orn. 3, p. 716, No. 18, t. 36, iy 6. — Le Rubis, Buff. Ois. 6, p. 13. — Humming bird, Catesb. . 1, 65. — Red-throated Humming bird, Edw. 1, 38, male and female. — Zuth. Syn. 2, 769, No. 35.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2520. — Edinburgh College Museum. CLI. —Page 215. BLACK-CAPT TITMOUSE, PARUS ATRICAPILLUS, LINNEUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate viu. Fig. 4. — Parusatricapillus, Zinn. Syst. 1, 341, 6.— Gmel. Syst. 1, 1008.—La Mesange a téte noire de Canada, Buff. 5, 408.—Canada Titmouse, Arct. Zool. 2, No. 328.— Lath. Syn. 4, 542, 9.— Peale’s Museum, No. 7380. CLI. — Page 217. CRESTED TITMOUSE. PARUS BICOLOR, LINN ZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate vin. Fig. 5.—Parus bicolor, Zinn. Syst. 1, 544, 1.—La Mesange huppé de la Caroline, Buff. 5, 451.— Toupet Titmouse, Arct. Zool. 1, No. 324.—Lath. Syn. 4, 544, 11.— Peale’s Museum, No. 7364. CLIII. — Page 219. “ SHORE LARK. ALAUDA ALPESTRIS, LINNAXUS AND WILSON. _ Wutsoy, Plate v. Fig. 4. — Alauda alpestris, Zinn. Syst. 289. —Lath. Syn. 2, 385. —Peale’s Museum, No. 5190. —L’ Alouette de Virginie, De Buff. 5, 55. — Catesb. 1, 32. — Edinburgh Col- lege Museum. CLIV. — Page 221. SNOW BUNTING, EMBERIZA NIVALIS, LINNHXUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate xxi. Fig. 2. — Zinn. Syst. 308. — Arct. Zool. p- 555, No, 222, — Tawny Bunting, Br, Zool. No, 121.—L’Or- tolan de Neige, Buff. 4, 329, Pl. enl. 497.— Peale’s Museum, 5900. — Edinburgh College Museum. CLV. — Page 226. SCARLET TANAGER. TANAGRA RUBRA, WILSON. Witson, Plate x1. Fig. 3, male. —Fig. 4, female. — Tanagra rubra, Liaw. Syst. 1, p. 314, 3, Cardinal de Canada, Briss. 294 SYNONYMS. Orn. 3, p. 48, pl. 2, fig. 5. —Lath. 2, p. 217, No. 8, — Scarlet Sparrow, Edw. pl. 343, — Canada Tanager, and Olive T: . yf sg Zool. p. 369, No. 237, 238, — Peale’s Museum, No. 6128. —~ Edinburgh College Museum. CLVI. — Page 231. SUMMER RED BIRD. TANAGRA ASSTIVA, GMELIN AND WILSON, Witson, Plate vi. Fig. 3, male. —Fig. 4, female. — Tanagra Mississippensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. 1, 421, 5.— Mexican Tanager, Lath 4 3, 219, 5, B.—Tanagra variegata, Ind. Orn. 1, 421, 6. — Tanagra estiva, Ind. Orn. 1, 422, 7. —Muscicapa rubra, Linn. Syst. 1, 326, 8. — Buff. 6, 252. Pl. enl. 741. — Catesby, Car. 1, 56. —Merula flammula, Sandhill Red-bird, Bartram, 299. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6134. CLVII. — Page 235. LOUISIANA TANAGER, TANAGRA LUDOVICIANA, WILSON- Witson, Plate xx. Fig. 1.— Peale’s Museum, No. 6236. 4 CLVIII. — Page 236. INDIGO BIRD. FRINGILLA CYANEA, WILSON. Witson, Plate vi. Fig. oi Leaeere Same Linn. Syst. 1, 315. —Le Ministre, Buff. 4, 86. —Indigo Bunting, Arct. Zool. 2, No. 235.— Lath. Syn. 3, 205, 63.— Blue Linnet, Edw. 273. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6002. CLIX. — Page 239. PAINTED BUNTING. FRINGILLA CIRIS, WILSON AND TEMMINCK. Wrison, Plate xxiv. Fig. 1, male. —Fig. 2, female. — Linn. - 313. — Painted*Finch, Catesb. 1, 44. — Edw. 130, 173. — ret. Zool. P: 362, No. 226.— Le Verdier de la Louisiane, dit vulgairement le Pape, Briss. 3, 200. App. 74. — Buffon, 4, 76. _ Pl. enl. 159. — Lath. 2, 206. —Linaria ciris, the Painted Finch, or Nonpareil, Bartram, p. 291. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6062, and wie See See” SYNONYMS. 295 CLX. —Page 242. BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. FRINGILLA AMERICANA, BONAPARTE. Witsoy, Plate 111. Fig. 2. — Calandra Pratensis, the May Bird, Bartram, p. 291.— Peale’s Museum, No. 5952.— Arct. Zool. 298, — Emberiza Americana, Ind. Orn. p. 44. CLXI. — Page 244. WHITE-CROWNED BUNTING. FRINGILLA LEUCOPHRYS, TEM. — EMBERIZA LEUCOPHRYS, WILS. Witson, Plate xxx1. Fig. 4.— Turton, su p. 536. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6587. CLXII. — Page 245. BAY-WINGED BUNTING. FRINGILLA GRAMINEA, GMEL. — EMBERIZA GRAMINEA, WILS. Witson, Plate xxx1. Fig. 5. — Grass Finch, ae Zool, No. CLXIII. — Page 246. SWAMP SPARROW. FRINGILLA PALUSTRIS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxu. Fig. 1, adult male. —Passer palustris, Bartram, p. 291. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6569. CLXIV.— Page 248. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. FRINGILLA ALBICOLLIS, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxrv. Fig. 2. — Fringilla fusca, Bartram, p. 291. — Lath. 2, 272. — Edw. 304. — Arct. Zool. p. 373, No. 248 — Peale’s Museum, No. 6486. CLXV. —Page 249. SAVANNAH SPARROW. FRINGILLA SAVANNA, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxu. Fig. 3, female. — Peale’s Museum, No. 296 SYNONYMS. CLXVI. — Page 250. SAVANNAH FINCH. FRINGILLA SAVANNA, WILSON. Witson, Plate xxx1y. Fig. 4, male. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6583. CLXVII. — Page 250. FIELD SPARROW, FRINGILLA PUSILLA. Witson, Plate xvi. Fig. 2. — Passer agrestis, Bartram, p. 291. — Peale’s "“Mxseum, | No. 6560. Ae CLXVIII. —Page 252. TREE SPARROW. FRINGILLA ARBOREA, WILS. —FRINGILLA CANADENSIS, LATH, Witson, Plate xvi. Fig. 3.— Le Soulciet, Buffon, 3, 500. — Moineau de Canada, Prizes 8, 101. Pl. enl. 223. — Latham, 2, 252. — Edw. 269. — Arct. Zool. p. 373, No. 246. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6575. —Edinburgh College Museum. CLXIX. — Page 253. SONG SPARROW. FRINGILLA MELODIA, WILSON. Witson, Plate xvi. Fig. 4.— Fasciated Finch? av! GREAT MARBLED GODWIT. LIMOSA FEDO4y VIEILL, —SCOLOPAX FEDOA, WILSON. Witson, Plate ivi. Fig. 4, female. — Aret Zool. p. 465, No. 371.—La Barge rousse de Baie de Hudson, . 1, i. Peale’s Museum, No. 4019. CCXXXIII. — Page 93. RED-BREASTED SNIPE. SCOLOPAX GRISEA, GMELIN. —SCOLOPAX NOV EBORACENSIS, WILS- Witson, Plate xiv. Fig. 1.— Aret. Zool. p. 464, No. 368. + Peale’s Museum, No. 3932. SNIPE. SCOLOPAX BREHMII, KAUP, —SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO, WILSON: Witson, Plate vi. Fig: 1. ; "3 CCXXXV. — Page 98. AMERICAN WOODCOCK. SCOLOPAX MINOR, GMELIN AND WILSON. Witson, Plate xtvi. Fig. 2— Arct. Zool. p. 463, No. 365. — Turt. Syst. 896. CCKXXVI. —Page 103... oo CLAPPER RAIL. - or RALLUS CREPITANS, LINNAXUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate uxm. Fig. 2. ~— Arct. Zool."No. 407.— Turt. se p- 430.— Lath. Syn. vy. 3, p. 229, No. 2.— Peale’s useum, No. 4400, . SYNONYMS: 8309 CCXXXVIE.—Page 107. VIRGINIAN RAIL, RALLUS VIRGINIANUS, LINNZZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txu. Fig. 1. — Arct. Zool. No. 408.— Edw, 279. — Lath. Syn. v. 3, p. 228, No. 1. var. A.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4426. — Edinburgh College Museum. a CCXXXVII. — Page 110. CAROLINA RAIL. RALLUS CAROLINUS, LINNAZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate xtvus. Fig. 1. —Soree, Catesb. 1, 70. —Arct. Zool. p. 491, No. 409. — Little American Water Hen, Edw. 144. we Rale de Virginie, Buff. 8, 165.—Edinburgh College seum. CCXXXIX. —Page 122. MARTINICO GALLINULE. “ GALLINULA MARTINICA, LATHAM. GALLINULA PORPHYRIO, WILSON. - Wrison, Plate txxi. Fig. 2.—Gallinula Martinica, Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 769, 9. Gen. Syn. 3, p. 255, 7, pl. 88. — Fulica Martinica, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, 1, p. 259, 7.—Fulica Martini- censis, Gmel. Syst. p. 700, 7. — La petite Poule-Sultane, Briss. Orn. 5, p. 526, pl. 42, fig. 2. — Buff. Ois. 8, p. 206.— La’ Favourite de Cayenne, Pl. enl. No. 897; young ?— Peale’s Museum, No. 4294. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCXL. — Page 123.” CINEREOUS COOT, FULICA AMERICANA, GMELIN. —FULICA ATRAy WILSONe Witson, Plate txxuu. Fig. 1.—Fulica Americana, Gmel. Syst. 1, p- 704; 23. — Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 779, 5.—Cinereous Coot, Gen. Syn. 3, p. 279.— Peale’s Museum, No. 4822, — Edinburgh College Museum, CCXLI. — Page 128. BROWN PHALAROPE. PHALAROPUS FULICARNIS, BONAPARTE. PHALAROPUS HY PERBOREUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate txxut. Fig. 3— Tringa lobata, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, tom. 1, p. 148, 5. _T. hyperborea, Id. ed. 12, tom. 1, 2; 249, 9, Tringa lobata, Gmel. Syst. 1, p- 674, 6. T. fusca, Id. 310 SYNONYMS, p- 675, 88. T. hyperborea, Id. No. 9.—Phalaropus cinereus, Briss. Orn. 6, dy 15. P. fusens, Id. p. 18.—Le Phalarope cendré, Buff. Ois. ys p- 224. Pl. enl. 766. — Coot-footed Tringa, Edwards, pl. 46. Cock Coot-footed Tringa, Jd. pl. 143. — Red ee e, Pee? Brit. ae No. ee —Brown Pha- ] ret. . No, 414,—Phalaropus hyperboreus, Lath. pm Phin p- 775, 1. P. fuscus, Id. p. 776, 4. — Red Phalarope, Gen. Syn. 3, p. 270, 1.. Id. p. 272, var. A. Brown Phalarepe, Id. p. 274, 4. — Red Phalavope, Montagu, Orn. Dic. Id. Sup. and Appendix. —Phalaropus hyperboreus, Tem. Man. d Orn. p- 709. — Le Lobipéde a hausse-col, Cuv. Reg. An. 1, p. 495. CCXLII. — Page 152. GRAY PHALAROPE. PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate uxxu1. Fig. 4.— Tringa Fulicaria, Zinn. Syst. ed. 10, tom. 1, p. 148, 6. — Tringa glacialis, Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 675, 2. T. hyperborea, var. B. p- 676. — Le Phalarope, Briss. Orn. 6, p. 12, No. 1. Phalaropus rufescens, Jd. p. 20.— Phalaropus lobatus, Lath. Ind. Orn. p.776,2. P. glacialis, Id. No. 3.—Red Phalarope, fem. Gen. Syn. 3, p. 271.. Gray Phalarope, Jd. p. 272, 2. Plain Phalarope, Jd. p. 278, 3. — Gray Phalarope, Penn. British Zool. No. 218. Arct. Zool. No, 412. Red Phalarope, Id. No. 415. Plain Phalarope, Jd. No. 415. — Red Coot-footed Tringa, Hdw. pl. 142. Gray Coot-footed Tringa, Id. Gleanings, pl. 308. —Le Phalaro rouge, Buffon, Ois. 8, p. 225, — Le Phalarope a festons dentel d. p. 226. — Gray Phalarope, Montagu, Orn. Dic. and Appen- dix to Sup. — Bewich, 2, p. 132. Le Phalarope gris, Cuv, Rég. An. 1, p. 492. — Le Phalarope rouge, Jd. ibid. — Phalaro- por platyrhinchus, Zemm. Man. d’Orn. p. 712. — Pealeé’s ‘useum, No. 4088. CCXLIII. — Page 137. AMERICAN AVOSET. RECURVIROSTRA AMERICANA, LINNEUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txim. Fig. 2.— Arct. Zool. No 421. — Lath. Syn. v. 3, p. 295, No. 2.— Peale’s Museum, No. 4250. — _ Edinburgh College Museum. RED FLAMINGO. PHENICOPTERUS RUBER, LINN RUS. | Witson, Plate txvi. Fig. 4. — Le Flammant, Briss. 6, 'p. 583, pl. 47, fig. Se a 8, p. 475, pl. 39. Pl. enl. 63. — Lath. Syn. 3, p. 299.—Arct. Zool. No. 422. — Catesby, 1, pl. 73, T4- SYNONYMS. 383i — Peale’s Museum, No. 2545, bird of the first year; No. 3546, bird of the second year. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCXLV. — Page 142. ROSEATE SPOONBILL. PLATALEA AJAJA, LINN EUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate rxur. Fig. 1. — Arct. Zool. No. 3838. — Lath. Syn. vy. 3, p. 16, No. 2.—La Spatule couleur de Rose, Briss. Orn. 5, p. 356, 2, pl. 30. Pl.enl. p. 116. — Buff. 7, 456. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3553.— Edinburgh College Museum. CCXLVI. — Page 147. BLACK SKIMMER, CR SHEERWATER. RHYNCHOPS NIGRA, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate tx. Fig. 4.— Arct. Zool. No. 445. — Catesb. 1, 90. —Le Bec en Ciseaux, Buff. 8, 454, tab. 36. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3530. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCXLVII. — Page 151. MARSH. TERN. STERNA ARANEA, WILSON. witson, Plate txxu. Fig. 6. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3521. CCXLVIII. — Page 153. GREAT TERN. STERNA HIRUNDO, LINN.ZUS. Wirson, Plate ux. Fig. 1. —-Arct. Zool. p. 524, No. 448. — Le pierre garin, ou grande Hirondelle de mer, Buff. 8, 351. Pl. enl. 987. — Bewich, 2, 181. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3485. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCXLIX.— Page 156. LESSER TERN, STERN A MINUTA, LINNEUS. | Witson, Plate ux. Fig. 2. — Aret. Zool. No. 449. —La petite Hirondelle de mer, Buff. 8, 337. Pl. enl. 996. — Bewich, 2, 188. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3505. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCL. —Page 158. SHORT-TAILED TERN. STERNA NIGRA, LINNZUS.—STERNA PLUMBEA, WILSON. '_“‘Wirsow, Plate tx. Fig. 3. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3519. 312 SYNONYMS. CCLI. — Page 160. SOOTY TERN. STERNA FULIGINOSA, GMELIN AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txxu. Fig. 7. — Le Hirondelle de Mer a grande env iff. 8, p. 345. — Egg-bird, Forst. Voy. p. 113. — Noy, Damp. le Airey * — Arct. Zool. No. 447. — Loe Syn. hee OO adie ME Museum, No, 3459, — burgh College. CCLII. —Page 161. LAUGHING GULL. LARUS ATRICILLA, LINN US. —- LARUS RIDIBUNDUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate txx1v. Fig. 4. — Larus pyres? ‘_ ts ss ay ed. 10, tom. 1, p. 136, 5: — Gmel. Syst. 1, Orn. p — Lath, . 813, te Laughing Gull, Cates, I pe ; Gen. & . 3p "Beh Ie dines Boot Ne O. AB4, Takia rieuse, 8 é p- 192, 53, pl. 18, Fig. 1. — Mouette&eapuchon ombé, Temm. Man. d Orn. p- 779. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLIIL — Page 164. STORMY PETREL. PROCELLARIA PELAGICA, LINN EUS. Witson, Plate ix. Fig wwe ou I’Oiseau tempéte, Pl. enl. 993. — Bewich, 2, oor — eale’s Museum, No. 3034, — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLIV. — Page 171. SNOW GOOSE. ; ANAS HYPERBOREA, GMELIN AND WILSON. ' Witson, Plate txvmi. Fig. 5,-male. — L’Oye de Neige, Briss. 6, p. 288, 10. —- White Brant, Zawson’s Carolina, gr he Arct. Zool. No. 47%. — Phil. Trans. 62, p. 4135. — 3, p. 445. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2635. — Edinburg Museum. . CCLY.—Page 174. YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. ANAS HYPERBOREA. Wutson, Plate rx1x. Fig. 5.— Bean Goose? Lath. Syn. 3 ~ , 464. —- White-fronted Goose? Ibid. 3, p. 463: Arct. Zool. o. 476. — Blue-winged Goose? Lath. Syn. p- 8, 469. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2636. SYNONYMS. 313 CCLVI. — Page 175. CANADA GOOSE. ANAS CANADENSIS, LINNXUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txvit. Fig. 4.—L’Oye pete Brisson, 6, p. 272, 4. pl. 26. — L’Oie a cravate uff. Pere 82. — Edw, pl..151. — Arct. Zool. No. 471. — Catesby, 1, pl. 92.— Lath. Syn. 3, p. 450.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2704.—Edinburgh College Museum. CCLVII. — Page 182. - THE BRANT. ANAS BERNICLA, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txxu. Fig. 1. — Le Cravant, Brisson, 6, ps 304, 16, Pe 31. — Buff. 9, p. 87. — Bewick, 2, p. 277. — Lath. Syn -— Arct. Zool. No. 478. — Peale's Museum, No. 2704. inburgh College Museum. CCLVIII. — Page 185. SHOVELLER. ANAS CLYPEATA, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txvu. Fig. 7. — Le Souchet, Briss. 6, p. 329, 6, pl. 32, Fig. 1. —Buff. 9,191. Pl. enls 971. —Aret. Zool. No. 485. — atesby, 1, pl. 96, female. — Lath. Syn. 3, p. 509. — Peale’s “Museum, No. 2734. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLIX. — Page 187. THE MALLARD. | ANAS BOSCHAS, LINN EUS. Witcon, Plate ixx, Fig. 7.— Lath. Syn. 3,p.489.—Bewick, 2, p. 291. —Le Canard Sauvage, Briss. 6, p. 318, 4.— Buff. 9, p. 115, pl. 7, 8. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2864. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLX. — Page 195. THE GADWALL. ANAS STREPERA, LINN EZUS AND WILSON. ea ae Fie Lxxi. Fig. 1. — Le Chipeau, Briss. 6, p. 339, Zou, p-_ 575. ete SP, Syn. 3, p- 515, — Peale’s “Museum, No. 2750. — Edinburgh pierre Museum. 314 SYNONYMS, CCLXI.— Page 196. PINTAIL DUCK. | ANAS ACUTA, LINNAUS AND WILSON. Wutson, Plate txvin. Fig. 3.— Le Canard a longue Briss. 6, p. 369, 16. pl. 84, fig. 1, 2. —Buff. 9 cs Pl cole’ 95k. Avet! Zool, No. 800.—Latks Sem. 8 — Peale’s Museum, No. 9806. Edinburgh Culine eee CCLXII. — Page 198. AMERICAN WIDGEON. ANAS AMERICANA, GMELIN AND WILSON. Witson, Plate rxix. Fig. 4. — Le Canard bene PI. enl. 955. — Buff. 9, p. 174. —Arct. Zool. No. 502. — Lath. mend 3, p- 520. —Peale’s Museum, No. 2798. CCLXIII. —Page 200. DUSKY DUCK. ANAS OBSCURA, GMELIN AND WILSON. Witson, Plate uxxu. Fig. 5.— Arct. Zool. No. 469. Lath. Syn. 3, p. 545. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2880. CCLXIV. — Page 201. SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK. ANAS SPONSA, LINN AUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txx. Fi ig 3.— Le Canard d’Eté, Briss. 6, Bi 11. pl. 32, fig. 2. —Le beau Canard huppé, Buff. 9, p. 245. enl. 980, 981.—Summer Duck, Catesby, 1, pl. 97.— iS = 101. — Arct. Zool. No. 943. — Lath. Syn. 3, p. 546. s Museum, No. 2872. — Edinburgh College Museum. _ CCLXV. — Page 205. BLUE-WINGED TEAL. ANAS DISCORS, LINNAUS AND WILSON. a a ie Plate Lxvitt. Vier 4. — Le Sarcelle ay we mee p- 452, 35.— Buff. 9, p. 279.— Pl. enl. 966 = Moo. —White-faced Duck, Lath. Syn. 3, p. 502.—Arct. a hag Peale’s Museum, No. 2846. — Edinburgh College SYNONYMS. 315 CCLXVI. — Page 207. GREEN-WINGED TEAL. ANAS CRECCA, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate xx. Fig. 4.— Lath. Syn. 3, p. 554. —_Bewich’s Br. Birds, y. 2, p. 338. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2832. — Edin- burgh College Museum. CCLXVII. — Page 208. EIDER DUCK. ANAS MOBLISSIMA, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txx1. Fig. 2, male. —L’Oye a duvet, ou l’Eider, Brisson, 6, p. 294, pl. 29, 80.— Buff. 9, p. 103, pl. 6. Pl. enl. 209. ac Great Black sad White Duck, Edw. pl. 98. — Bewick, 2, p- 279.—Arct. Zool. No. 480.— Lath. Syn. 3, p. 470. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2706. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLXVIII. — Page 211. FEMALE EIDER DUCK. ANAS MOLLISSIMA, LINNZXUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txx1. Fig. 3. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2707. — Edinburgh College Museum, CCLXIX. — Page 212. SCOTER DUCK. ANAS NIGRA, LINNXXUS AND WILSON, Witson, Plate rxxu. Fig. 2.—Le Macreuse, Briss, 6, p. 420, pl. 38, fig. 2. — Buff. 9, p. 234, pl. 16. Pl. enl. 978.— ewick, 2, -p. 288.— Arct. Zool. No. 484.— Lath. Syn. 3, p. 480.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2658. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLXX. — Page 213, VELVET DUCK. ANAS FUSCA, LINN EUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate rxx1. Fig. 3. — Le grande Macreuse, Briss. 6, p: 423, 29.—B cough: . 242. Pl. enl. 956.— Arct. Zool. No. 162. — Bewick, ” 386. — Lath. Syn. 3, p. 482. — Peale’s. Museum, No. 2658, aia: diabeaneht College Museum. 316 SYNONYMS. CCLXXI. — Page 215. BLACK, OR SURF DUCK. ANAS PERSPICILLATA, LINNRUS AND WILSON. ‘Witson, Plate txvit. Fig- 1. —Le Macreuse dela B de Hudson, ipetae ~ 30. —Le a large bee, . 9, p. 244. Pl. enl. 995. — Edw. pl. 155. — Lath. Syn. 3, p. 479. — Phil. Thonn 62, p. 417. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2788. CCLXXII. — Page 216. RUDDY DUCK, “ ANAS RUBIDUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate uxx1. Fig. 5, male.— Peale’s Museum, No, 2808. : CCLX XIII. — Page 217. FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. ANAS RUBIDUS, WILSON. Witson, Plate txx1. Fig. 6. — Peale’s Museum, No, 2809.. Y CCLXXIV.— Page 218. , PIED DUCK. ANAS LABRADORA, GMELIN AND WILSON. Witson, Plate Lxix. Fig. 5 ae Zool. No. 488. — Lath. Syn. 3, p. 497. — Peale’s eum, No. 2858. CCLXXV.— Page 219. ot CANVASS-BACK DUCK. ANAS VALISINERIA, WILSON, * Witsoy, Plate txx. Fig. 5. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2816. CCLX XVI. —Page 225. RED-HEADED DUCK. ANAS FERINA, LINNAZUS AND WILSON, | Witson, Plate ixx. Fig. 6.— Peale’s Museum, .No. 2710, ~ SYNONYMS. 317 CCLXXVII. —Page 227. SCAUP DUCK. ANAS MARILA, LINNZZUS AND WILSON: Witson, Plate rx1x. Fig. 3.— Le petit Morillon rayé, Briss. 6, p- 416, 26, A.—Arct. Zool. No. 4 Wa ABiath: Syn. 3, p- 500. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2668. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLXXVIII. ~— Page 229. TUFTED DUCK. ANAS RUFITORQUES, BONAPARTE. —-ANAS FULIGULA, WILSON. Witson, Plate rxvu. Fig. 5. — Aret.. Zool. weedy = petit , g- 3 uf. 9, 15. — Lath. “Syn. 3, p. 540. L Pedlcs Melia 2904. — Painburgh an Museum. - CCLX XIX. Page 230. GOLDEN EYE. ANAS CLANGULA, LINNAUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txvu. Fig. 6.—Le Garrat, Briss. 6, p. 416, 27, —aue 37, fig. 2. re trise 9, p- 222, — Arct. Zool. No. 486. 8 Syn. 3, p. 535. — Museum, No. 2921. Edinburgh College Museum. CCLXXX. — Page 282. BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK. ANAS ALBEOLA, LINNZXUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate txvu. Fig. 2, male. — Fig. 3. female. — La Sarcelle de la Louisiane, Briss. 6, p. 461, pl. 41, fig. is —Le petit Canard a grosse téte, Buff. 9, p. 249. Edw. pl. ret, Zool. No. 487. — emp 1, 95.— Lath. Syn. 3 p. "533. _ Peale’s Museum, No. 2730 CCLXXXI. — Page 233. LONG-TAILED DUCK. ANAS GLACIALIS, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate 1xx. Fig. 1. male. —La Canard a longue queue de Terre Neuve, Briss. 6, p. 382, 18. — Buff. 9, p. 202. Pl. 1008. — Edw. pl. 280. — Arct. Zool. No. 501. — Lath. Syn. 3, - 528.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2810.—Edinburgh College (useum. 318 SYNONYMS, CCLXXXII. — Page 236. FEMALE LONG-TAILED DUCK. ANAS GLACIALIS, LINNAUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate xx. Fig. 2.—Anas hyemalis, Zinn. 202, 29. — Lath. Syn. 3, p. 529. — Peale's Museum, No. 1. — Edinburgh College Museum. | CCLX XXIII. — Page 236. HARLEQUIN DUCK. ANAS HISTRIONICA, LINNZUS AND WILSON, Witson, Plate rxu. Fig. 4. Le Canard a Collier de Terre Neuve, Briss. 6, p. 362, 14. — Buff. 9, p. 250. Pl. enl. 798. —Aret. Zool. No. 490. —Lath. Syn. 3, p. 484. — Edit College Museum. ~nue et CCLXXXIV. — Page 238, Ta GOOSANDER. “4 MERGUS MERGANSER, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate rxviu. Fig. 1, male. — Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 544, No. 2.— Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 828, No. 1, Gen. Syn. 8 acho Hd. Sup. 2, p. 336. — Bewickh, 2, : 228. — L’Harle,. . 6, p- 231, pl. 22; L’Harle cendré, ou le Biévre, Id. p. 254, Nov 7, pl. 25, young male ?— Le Harle, Buff. 8, p. 267, pl. 23. Pl-enl. 951. — Arct. Zool. No. 465. — Br. No. 260, pl. 92, male and female. —Grand Harle, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p. 88l.—Le Harle vulgaire, Cuv. Rg. An. 1, p. 540.— Montagu, Orn, Dic. Sup. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2932.— Edinburgh College Museum. CCLXXXV. —Page 242. VY FEMALE GOOSANDER. sth MERGUS MERGANSER, LINNXESUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate rxvut. Fig. 2. — Mergus castor, Gmel. Syst. 2, p- 545, et var.—Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 829, No. 2. Dun Diver, Gen. Syn. 3, p. 420, 421.—Bewick, 2, p 231. — Montagu, Orn. Dic. Sup. — Briss. 6, p. 236.—Le Harle femelle, Buff. 8, p. 272. Pl. enl. 953. — Peale’s Museum, No, 2933. — Edin- burgh College Museum. i CCLXXXVI.— Page 245. HOODED MERGANSER. ad MERGUS CUCULLATUS, LINNAZUS AND WILSON. Winson, Plate rxix. Fig 1,— Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 544, No, 1. — Ind. Orn: p. 830, No. 5. Gen. Syn. 3, p. 426, No. 4, SYNONYMS. 319 I. 101. —L’Harle huppé de Virginie, Briss. 6, p. 258, 8. —Le le couronné, Buff. 8, p. 280. Pl. enl. 935; 936, female. — Round-crested Duck, Edw. pl. 360.— Catesby, 1, pl. 94.— — Zool. No. 467. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2930; female, a. z CCLXX XVII. — Page 244. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER., MERGUS SERRATOR, LINNZUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate rx1x. Fig. 2. — L’Harle huppé, Briss. 6, p. 237, 2, pl. 23; L’Harle blanc et noir, Id. p. 250, No. 4; L’Harle noir, Id. p. 251, No. 5, young male. — Buff. 8, p. 273, 277. Pl. enl. 207. — Bewich, 2, p. 235.— Temm. Man. d Orn. p. 884. — Red-breasted. Goosander, Edw. pl. 95.— Montagu, Orn. Dic. Sup. — Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 546, et var.—Ind. Orn. p. 829, No. 4. Gen. Syn. 3, p. 423, No. 3, et var.; Jd. Sup. 2, p- 337, No. 2.— Br. Zool. No. 261, pl. 93, male and female. — Arct. Zoal. No. 466.— Ouv. Reg. An. 1, p. 540. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2936. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLX XXVIII. — Page 247. THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. MERGUS ALBELLUS, LINNZUS. AND WILSON. Witson, Plate rxx1. Fig. 4. —— Gmel. Syst. 1, p 547, No. 55 M. minutus, Id. p..548, No. 6.—Ind. Orn. p. 831, No. 6; Td. p. 832, No. 7. Gen. Syn. 3, p. 428, No. 5; Minute Merganser, Jd. p. 429. —Le petit Harle huppé, ou la Piette, Briss. 6, p. 248, 3, pl. 24, fig. 1,2; L’Harle étoilé, Id. p. 252, young male. — Buff. 8, p. 276, pl. 245 Jd. p. 278. Pl. enl. 449; 450, female. — Bewick, 2, p. 238. — Arct. Zool. No. 468. Br. Zool. No. 262, 263. — Harle Piette, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p- 887. — Peale’s Museum, No, 2944, a specimen from Europe. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCLXXXIX. — Page 249. DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. PLOTUS ANHINGA, LINNZUS.—PLOTUS MELANOGASTER, WILSON. Witson, Plate txxiv. Fig. 1, male. — Plotus anhinga, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, tom. 1, P; 218. — Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 580, 1.— Ind. Orn. p. 895, 1. Plotus melanogaster, Id. p. 896, var. B, var. C. — Anhinga Brasiliensibus Tupinamb. Marcgrav. Hist. Nat. Bras. p. 218. —L’Anhinga, Briss. 6, p. 476. — Salerne, p- 375. — Buff. Ois. 8, p. 448. Anhinga noir de Cayenne, Pi. enl. 960. — White-bellied Darter, Zath. Gen. Syn. 3, p. 622, 1. Black-bellied Darter, Id. p. 624, var. A, pl. 106. . Id. p. 625, 820 SYNONYMS, var. B.—Colymbus colubrinus, Snake Bird, Bartram, p. 1 295. — Peale's Museum, No. 3188, male. — Edinburgh College CCXC. — Page 258. FEMALE BLACK-BELLIED DARTER, OR SNAKE BIRD. PLOTUS MELANOGASTER, WILSON, Witson, Plate rxxrv. Fig. 2. — a eee de Cayenne, Pl. eni. 0 — Peale’s Museum, No. 3189, female. — Edinburgh College useum. CCXCI. — Page 255. GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON. COLYMBUS GLACIALIS, LINNAUS AND WILSON. Witson, Plate uxxiv. Fig. 3.— Colymbus hr Linn, Syst. ed. 12, tom. 1, ? 221, C. immer. Jd. °. 222, No. 6.— Ind. Orn. p. 799, 1. C. immer, ze be p- 800, 2..— Le grand Plongeon, riss. 6, p. 105, 10, 1. | Pi tacheté, Id. p. 120, pl. 11, ae a longeon, fen Ois. 8, p. 251. L’ Imbrim, ou ou grand Plo sa: ae la mer moary 2 oo, ~ oh Pi tab. 22. Pl. orthern Diver, Zath. poe ae te 3, p- 337. Inber E Diver Ta. p- 340. — Penn. Brit. 237, 238. Arct. Zool. No. 439, 440. —Bewick, 2, p- sad 170. — Montagu, Orn. Dic. Sup. Ap. — Low, Fauna Orcadensis, p. 108, 110.—Plongeon rim, Zemm. Man, d Orn. p. 910.— Peale’s Museum, No. male and young ; 3263, female. — Edinburgh College Museum. CCXCI. — Page 260. LITTLE GUILLEMOT. URIA ALLE, TEMMINCK. — ALCA ALLE, WILSON. ) Witson, Plate txxiv. Fig. 5.— Uriaalle, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p- 928.—Alca alle, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, tom. 1, p. 211, 5.— Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 554, 5.—Ind. Orn. p. 795, 10. — Uria minor, Briss. 6, p. 73, “y —Le Petit Guillemot. femelle, Pl. enl. 917. — Small bl a and white Diver, Edwards, pl. 91.— Little Auk, Lath. Gen. Syn. 3, p. 827. — Penn. Aret. Zool.. No. 429, — Bewich, 2, p. 158. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2978. 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