z am, Be A z < Zz 4 O =e Smithsonian Institution Libraries GIFT OF Marcia ee Tucker AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON b SSS Learetina Cuckoo. 2.Black-billed Co FAL AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY: OR, TAGE ISA TINOTERAIL, | IE STOWE YO OF THE Bis. OF Bae) UNITED, Sires: BY a ALEXANDER WILSON AND PRINCE CHARLES LUCIEN BONAPARTE. Che Illustrative Motes ano Life of ILilson BY SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, Barr, F.R.S.E., F.LS. IN THREE VOLUMES.—VOL. II. GuSSh Lil ab Tl ieee ws GAL et Ne LONDON, PARIS & NEW VORK. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. The names printed in italics are species not contained in the original, which have been introduced into the notes. Ammodramus, Henslow’s Avoset, American Avoset, Long-legged , Bittern, American Bittern, Least Bunting, Bay-winged . Bunting, Towhe, Female Bunting, White-crowned Buzzard, American Crane, Blue Crane, Canadian Crane, Sandhill Crane, Whooping Chuck-will’s-widow Crossbill, American Crossbill, Parrot-billed Crossbill, White-winged Crow . : : Crow, Fish 3 ; Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Black-billed . Curlew, Common Curlew, Esquimaux Curlew, Long-billed Death-bird . Dove, Ground Dove, Turtle , Duck, Black or Surf . Duck, Buffel-headed . Duck, Golden-eye Duck, Pintail Duck, Shoveller Duck, Tufted Eagle, Bald | Eagle, Ring-tailed Eagle, Sea . Eagle, Washington's. Eagle, White-headed . Egret, Blue Falcon, Harlan’s , Falcon, Rough-legged . | Falcon, Winter , | Finch, Purple Finch, Savannah Finch, Seaside Finch, Sharp-tailed Flamingo, Red | Flycatcher, Small-headed Flycatcher, Warbling , Garrot, Rocky Mountain 90 9 vi Godwit, Great Marbled Godwit, Tell-tale Goosander Goosander, Female Goose, Canada Goose, Snow Grouse, Ruffed Grouse, Sabine’s . Hawk, American Sparrow . Hawk, Ash-coloured Hawk, Black Hawk, Black-cap Hawk, Broad-winged . Hawk, Fish Hawk, Gos Hawk, Marsh Hawk, Mexican . Hawk, Night Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Slate-coloured Hawk, Swallow-tailed Heron, Exile Heron, Great Heron, Great White Heron, Green Heron, Little Heron, Louisiana Heron, Night Heron, Peale’s Heron, Scapulary Heron, Snowy : Heron, Yellow-crowned Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Scarlet Ibis, White Ibis, Wood CONTENTS. PAGE 326 | Kestrel 302 | Lark, Brown ‘ 483 | Linnet, Gray-crowned . : 488 | Linnet, Mountain 468 | Magpie > : 493 | Magpie, Hudsonia 251 | Martin, Purple 256 | Martin,Sand . : : 52 | Oriole, Baltimore, Female . 287 | Ortyx, Californian 290, 292 | Ortyx, Douglas's 287 | Ortyx, Painted 298 | Osprey 104 | Owl, Barn . 289 | Owl, Barred 275 | Owl, Great Horned 216 | Owl, Hawk . 161 | Owl, Little 74, 294 | Owl, Long-eared 283 | Owl, Mexican Horned . 211 | Owl, Red 216 | Owl, Short-eared 278 | Owl, Snow . 395 | Owl, Tengmalm’s 444 | Owl, White 403 | Owl, White Horned ; 395 | Oyster-catcher, Arctie, Black 395 and White-footed . 428 | Oyster-catcher, Pied 399 | Partridge 404 | Petrel, Bullock's . 395 | Petrel, Stormy 417 | Pigeon, Carolina 442 | Pigeon, Passenger 456 | Pupit, Piping ; 458 | Plover, Black-bellied . 459 | Plover, Golden 455 | Plover, Kildeer . PAGE 54 185 35 34 76 77 153 141 295 225 225 225 104 267 58 259 273 66 281 281 180, 63 47 67 267 261 430 429 224 387 386 187 195 185 337 367 370 Plover, Ring Plover, Ringed Plover, Ruddy Plover, Sanderling Purre . Quail . Rail Rail, Clapper Rail, Land . Rail, Virginian Redpoll, Lesser . Redstart ; Sandpiper, Ash-coloured Sandpiper, Bartram’s . Sandpiper, Douglas's Sandpiper, Little Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red-backed Sandpiper, Red-breasted Sandpiper, Schinzs Sandpiper, Semipalmated . Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Shoveller : Shoveller, Pink-eared . Sheerwater . Skimmer, Black . Snipe . Snipe, Douglas’s . Snipe, Drummond's Snipe, Red-breasted Snipe, Sabine’s ; Snipe, Semipalmated . CONTENTS. PAGE 360 122 425 364 335 224 232 410 233 406 33 Snipe, Yellow Shanks Spoonbill, Roseate Starling, European Starling, One-coloured . Starling, Red-winged . Swallow, Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow, Chimney Swallow, Green-blue . Swallow, White-bellied Swallow, Window Teal, Blue-winged Tern, Great Tern, Lesser Tern, Short-tailed Thrush, Hermit . Thrusy, Tawny . Turnstone . Warbler, Black-poll Warbler, Black-poll, Female Warbler, Blue Mountain Warbler, Blue Yellow-back Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Connecticut . Warbler, Hemlock Warbler, Pine Swamp Warbler, Yellow Red-poll . Warbler, Yellow-rump Whip-poor-will . Woodcock . W oodpeckers : : Woodpecker, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Pileated WILSON’S AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. (Cuculus Carolinensis.) PLATE XXVIII.—Fie. 1. Cuculus Americanus, Linn. Syst. 170.—Catesb. i. 9.—Lath. i. 537.—Le Covcou de la Caroline, Briss. iv. 112.—Arct. Zool. 265, No. 155.—Peale’s Museum, No. 1778. COCCYZUS AMERICAN US.—BonaPARtTE.* Coccyzus Americanus, Bonap. Synop. p. 42.—The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Awd. pl. 2. Orn. Biog. i. p. 18. A sTRANGER who visits the United States, for the purpose of examining their natural productions, and passes through our woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, as * Bonaparte has preferred restoring the specific name of Linneeus to that given by Catesby and Brisson, and by this it should stand in our systems, This form will represent in America the true cuckoos, which other- wise range over the world ; it was first separated by Vaillant under the French name Conec, and the same division was adopted by Vieillot, under the name of Coccyzus, which is now retained, They differ from the cuckoos chiefly in habit,—building a regular nest, and rearing their young. North America possesses only two species, our present and the following, which are both migratory. Some beautiful species are met with in different parts of the southern continent. Mr Audubon has added little to their history farther than confirming the accounts of Wilson. In their migrations northward, they move VOL. II, A 2 VELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. he traverses the borders of deep, retired, high timbered hol- lows, an uncouth, guttural sound, or note, resembling the syllables, kowe, kowe, kowe kowe kowe, beginning slowly, but ending so rapidly, that the notes seem to run into each other ; and vice versa: he will hear this frequently, without being able to discover the bird or animal from which it proceeds, as it is both shy and solitary, seeking always the thickest foliage for concealment. ‘This is the yellow-billed cuckoo, the subject of the present account. From the imitative sound of its note, it is known in many parts by the name of the cow-bird ; it is also called in Virginia the rain crow, being observed to be most clamorous immediately before rain. This species arrives in Pennsylvania, from the south, about the 22nd of April, and spreads over the country, as far at least as Lake Ontario ; is numerous in the Chickasaw and Chactaw nations ; and also breeds in the upper parts of singly ; but when removing again to a warmer latitude, they appear to be gregarious, flying high in the air, and in loose flocks. They appear to delight more in deep woody solitudes than the true cuckoos, or those which approach nearest to the form of the European species. They, again, though often found near woods, and in richly clothed countries, are fond of open and extensive heaths or commons, studded or fringed with brush and forest: here they may expect an. abundant supply of the foster parent to their young. The gliding and turning motion when flying in a thicket, however, is similar to that of the American Coccyzus. Like them, also, they are seldom on the ground ; but, when obliged to be near it, alight on some hillock or twig, where they will continue for a considerable time, swinging round their body in a rather ludicrous manner, with lowered wings and expanded tail, and uttering a rather low, monotonous sound, resembling the owe of our American bird,— Turning round and round with cutty-coo. When suddenly surprised or disturbed from their roost at night, they utter a short, tremulous whistle, three or four times repeated ; it is only on their first arrival, during the early part of incubation, when in search of a mate, that their well known and welcome note is heard; by the first of July all is silent. The idea that the common cuckoo destroys egos and young birds, like the American Coccyzus, is also entertained ; I have never seen them do so, but the fact is affirmed by most country persons, and many gamekeepers destroy them on this account.—Eb. VELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 3 Georgia : preferring, in all these places, the borders of solitary swamps and apple orchards. It leaves us, on its return south- ward, about the middle of September. The singular—I will not say unnatural—conduct of the European cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), which never constructs a nest for itself, but drops its eggs in those of other birds, and abandons them to their mercy and management, is so universally known, and so proverbial, that the whole tribe of cuckoos have, by some inconsiderate people, been stigmatised as destitute of all parental care and affection. Without attempting to account for this remarkable habit of the Euro- pean species, far less to consider as an error what the wisdom of Heaven has imposed as a duty on the species, I will only remark, that the bird now before us builds its own nest, hatches its own eggs, and rears its own young ; and, in con- jugal and parental affection, seems nowise behind any of its neighbours of the grove. Early in May, they begin to pair, when obstinate battles take place among the males. About the tenth of that month, they commence building. The nest is usually fixed among the horizontal branches of an apple tree; sometimes in a solitary thorn, crab, or cedar, in some retired part of the woods. It is constructed, with little art, and scarcely any concavity, of small sticks and twigs, intermixed with green weeds, and blossoms of the common maple. On this almost flat bed, the eggs, usually three or four in number, are placed ; these are of a uniform greenish blue colour, and of a size proportionable to that of the bird. While the female is sitting, the male is generally not far distant, and gives the alarm, by his notes, when any person is approaching. ‘The female sits so close, that you may almost reach her with your hand, and then precipitates herself to the ground, feigning lameness, to draw you away from the spot, fluttering, trailing her wings, and tumbling over, in the manner of the partridge, wood- cock, and many other species. Both parents unite in pro- viding food for the young. This consists, for the most part, 4 VELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. of caterpillars, particularly such as infest apple trees. The same insects constitute the chief part of their own sustenance. They are accused, and with some justice, of sucking the eggs of other birds, like the crow, the biue jay, and other pillagers. They also occasionally eat various kinds of berries. But, from the circumstance of destroying such numbers of very noxious larvee, they prove themselves the friends of the farmer, and are highly deserving of his protection. The yellow-billed cuckoo is thirteen inches long, and sixteen inches in extent; the whole upper parts are of a dark, glossy drab, or what is usually called a quaker colour, with greenish silky reflections; from this must, however, be excepted the inner vanes of the wings, which are bright reddish cinnamon ; the tail is long, composed of ten feathers, the two middle ones being of the same colour as the back, the others, which gradually shorten to the exterior ones, are black, largely tipt with white; the two outer ones are scarcely half the length of the middle ones. The whole lower parts are pure white; the feathers covering the thighs being large, like those of the hawk tribe ; the legs and feet are light blue, the toes placed two before and two behind, as in the rest of the genus. The bill is long, a little bent, very broad at the base, dusky black above, and yellow below; the eye hazel, feathered close to the eyelid, which is yellow. The female differs little from the male; the four middle tail-feathers in her are of the same uniform drab; and the white, with which the others are tipt, not so pure as in the male. In examining this bird by dissection, the inner membrane of the gizzard, which in many other species is so hard and muscular, in this is extremely Jax and soft, capable of great distension ; and, what is remarkable, is covered with a growth of fine down, or hair, of a light fawn colour. It is difficult to ascertain the particular purpose which Nature intends by this excrescence ; perhaps it may serve to shield the tender parts from the irritating effects produced by the hairs of certain caterpillars, some of which are said to be almost equal to the sting of a nettle. BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. 5 BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. (Cuculus erythropthalma.) PLATE XXVIII.—Fic. 2. Peale’s Museum, No. 1854. COCCYZUS ERYTHROPTHALMUS.—BONAPARTE.* Coceyzus erythropthalmus, Bonap. Synop. p. 42.—The Black-billed Cuckoo, Aud. pl. 32, male and female; Orn. Biog. i. p. 170. Tis cuckoo is nearly as numerous as the former, but has hitherto escaped the notice of Huropean naturalists ; or, from its general resemblance, has been confounded with the pre- ceding. Its particular markings, however, and some of its habits, sufficiently characterise it as a distinct species. Its general colour above is nearly that of the former, inclining more to a pale ash on the cheeks and front; it is about an inch less in length ; the tail is of a uniform dark silky drab, except at the tip, where each feather is marked with a spot of white, bordered above with a slight touch of dull black ; the bill is wholly black, and much smaller than that of the preceding ; and it wants the bright cinnamon on the wings. But what constitutes its most distinguishing trait is, a bare wrinkled skin, of a deep red colour, that surrounds the eye. The female differs little in external appearance from the male. The black-billed cuckoo is particularly fond of the sides of creeks, feeding on small shell fish, snails, &c. I have also often found broken pieces of oyster shells in its gizzard, which, like that of the other, is covered with fine downy hair. The nest of this bird is most commonly built in a cedar, much in the same manner, and of nearly the same materials, as * Wilson, I believe, deserves the credit of distinguishing this species. It is closely allied to, but differs widely, both in its habits and feeding, from its congeners and the true cuckoos. In addition to shells and water insects, Audubon mentions having found in their stomachs a small black frog, which appears after a summer shower.— Ep. 6 BLUE YELLOW-BACK WARBLER. that of the other; but the eggs are smaller, usually four or five in number, and of a rather deeper greenish blue. This bird is likewise found in the state of Georgia, and has not escaped the notice of Mr Abbot, who is satisfied of its being a distinct species from the preceding. BLUE YELLOW-BACK WARBLER. (Sylvia pusilla.) PLATE XXVIII.—Fie. 3. Parus Americanus, Zinn. Syst. 341.—Finch Creeper, Catesb. i. 64.—Lath. ii. 558.—Creeping Titmouse, Arct. Zool. 423, No. 326.—Parus varius, Various coloured little Finch Creeper, Bart. p. 292.—Peale’s Museum, No. 6910. SYLVICOLA AMERICAN A.—SWAINSON.* Sylvia Americana, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 520.—Bonap. Synop. p. 83.—Sylvicola pusilla, Sw. Synop. Birds of Mex. Ann. of Phil. p. 433.—Zool. Journ. No. 10, p. 169.—The Blue Yellow-backed Warbler, Aud. pl. 15, male and female ; Orn. Biog. i. p. 78. NotTwiTHstaNnpDIneG the respectability of the above authorities, I must continue to consider this bird as a species of warbler. Its habits, indeed, partake something of the titmouse ; but the form of its bill is decidedly that of the Sylvia genus. It is remarkable for frequenting the tops of the tallest trees, where it feeds on the small winged insects, and caterpillars that infest the young leaves and blossoms. It has a few feeble chirruping notes, scarcely loud enough to be heard at the foot of the tree. It visits Pennsylvania from the south, early in May; is very abundant in the woods of Kentucky : and is also found in the northern parts of the state of New York. Its nest I have never yet met with. * There is nothing more annoying than the unravelling of names, That of Americana, without doubt, seems to have been the specific appellation first applied ; and if we are to adhere to any given rule in nomenclature, that should be now adopted. The present species has also been made typical of the group which is confined to the New World.—Eb. + According to Audubon, the nest is small, formed of lichens, beauti- fully arranged on the outside, and lined with the cotton substances found YELLOW RED-POLL WARBLER. | 7 This little species is four inches and a half long, and six inches and a half in breadth; the front, and between the bill and eyes, is black ; the upper part of the head and neck, a fine Prussian blue; upper part of the back, brownish yellow ; Jower, and rump, pale blue ; wings and tail, black ; the former crossed with two bars of white, and edged with blue ; the latter marked on the inner webs of the three exterior feathers with white, a circumstance common to a great number of the genus ; immediately above and below the eye, is a small touch of white: the upper mandible is black; the lower, as well as the whole throat and breast, rich yellow, deepening about its middle to orange red, and marked on the throat with a small crescent of black; on the edge of the breast is a slight touch of rufous; belly and vent, white; legs, dark brown ; feet, dirty yellow. 'The female wants both the black and orange on the throat and breast ; the blue, on the upper parts, is also of a duller tint. YELLOW RED-POLL WARBLER. (Sylvia petechia.) PLATE XXVIIL.—Fie. 4. Red-headed Warbler, Turton, i. 605.—Peale’s Museum, No. 7124. SYLVICOLA PETECHIA.—SWAINSON. Lath. Ind. ‘Orn. ii. p. 535.—Sylvia petechia, Bonap. Synop. p. 83.—Red-headed Warbler, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii, p. 401,—Sylvicola petechia, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 215. Turs delicate little bird arrives in Pennsylvania early in April, while the maples are yet in blossom, among the branches of which it may generally be found at that season, feeding on the stamina of the flowers, and on small winged insects. Low swampy thickets are its favourite places of resort. It is not numerous, and its notes are undeserving the on the edges of different mosses; it is placed in the fork of a small twig, near the extremity of the branch. The eggs are pure white, with a few reddish dots at the longer end. Mr Audubon thinks two broods are raised in the year.— Ed, 8 LVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. name of song. It remains with us all summer; but its nest has hitherto escaped me. It leaves us late in September. Some of them probably winter in Georgia, having myself shot several late in February, on the borders of the Savannah river, Length of the yellow red-poll, five inches; extent, eight ; line over the eye, and whole lower parts, rich yellow; breast, streaked with dull red; upper part of the head, reddish chest- nut, which it loses in winter; back, yellow olive, streaked with dusky ; rump, and tail-coverts, greenish yellow ; wings, deep blackish brown, exteriorly edged with olive ; tail, slightly forked, and of the same colour as the wings. The female wants the red cap; and the yellow of the lower parts is less brilliant; the streaks of red on the breast are also fewer and less distinct. IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. (Picus principalis.) PLATE XXIX.—Fic. 1. Picus principalis, Zinn. Syst. i. p. 173. 2.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 425.—Picus Niger Carolinensis, Briss. iv. p. 26.9; Id. 8vo. ii. p. 49.—Pic noir a bec blane, Buff. vii. p. 46. PZ. enl. 690.—King of the Woodpeckers, Kalm, ii. p. 85.—White- billed Woodpecker, Catesb. Car. i. 6.16.—Arct. Zool. ii. No. 156.—Lath. Syn. li. p. 553.—Bartram, p. 289.—Peale’s Museum, No. 1884. PICUS PRINCIPALIS.—LINN&zvs.* Picus principalis, Bonap. Synop. p. 44.— Wagl. Syst. Av. Picus, No. 1.—The Ivory- billed Woodpecker, Aud. pl. 66, male and female ; Orn. Biog. i. p. 341. T'n1s majestic and formidable species, in strength and mag- nitude, stands at the head of the whole class of woodpeckers, hitherto discovered. He may be called the king or chief of * The genus Picus, or woodpeckers, with the exception of the parrots, forms the most extensive group among the Scansores, and perhaps one of the most natural among the numerous divisions now assigned to the feathered race. Ina former note we mentioned the difference of form, and corresponding modification of habit, that nevertheless existed among them. Most ornithologisis have divided them into three groups only, taking the common form of woodpeckers for the type, making another Head gr apt Die te Pileated Woodpek™™ for. Head of he" trom, Nature by A. Wilson Engraved by WH Liars. Livory-bitled Woodpecker’ 2 Pileated W 3, Red-headed W a) LIVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. fe) his tribe; and Nature seems to have designed him a distin- guished characteristic in the superb carmine crest and bill ot polished ivory with which she has ornamented him. His eye of the golden-winged, and including in a third the very minute species which form Temminck’s genus Picwmnus, but which, I believe, will be found to rank in a family somewhat different. Mr Swainson, again, in following out the views which he holds regarding the affinities of living beings, has formed five groups,—taking our present form as typical, under the title Picus ; that of the green woodpecker, under Chrysoptilus ; that of the red-headed woodpecker, as Melanerpes; the golden-wings, as Colaptes ; and Malacolophus as the soft-crested Brazilian and Indian species. Of these forms, the northern parts of America will contain only three: two we have had occasion already to remark upon’; and the third forms the subject of our author’s present description—the most powerful of the whole tribe, and showing all the forms and peculiarities of the true woodpecker developed to the utmost. The Pict are very numerous, and are distributed over the whole world, New Holland excepted ; America, however, including both continents, may be termed the land of woodpeckers. Her vast and solitary forests afford abundance to satisfy their various wants, and furnish a secluded retirement from the inroads of cultivation. Next in number, I believe, India and her islands are best stored ; then Africa, and lastly, Europe. The numbers, however, are always greatest between the tropics, and generally diminish as we recede from and approach temperate or cold regions. They are mostly insectivorous ; a few species only feed occa- sionally on different fruits and berries. The various Coleoptera, that form their abodes in dead and decaying timber, and beneath their bark and moss, with their eggs and large larvee, form an essential part of their subsistence: for securing this prey, digging it out from their burrows in the wood, and the peculiar mode of life incident to such pursuits, they are most admirably adapted. The bill is strong and wedge-shaped ; the neck possesses great muscularity. The tongue—fitted by the curious construction of its muscles and the os hyoides, and lubricated with a viscous saliva, either gently to secure and draw in the weaker prey, or with great force and rapidity to dart out, and, it is said, to transfix the larger and more nimble insects—joined to the short legs and hooked scansorial claws, with the stiff, bent tail, are all provisions beautifully arranged for their wants. All the species are solitary, live in pairs only during the season of in- cubation, or are met with in small flocks, the amount of the years’ brood, in the end of autumn, before they have separated. This solitary habit, and their haunts being generally gloomy and retired, has given rise to the opinion entertained by many, that the life of the woodpecker was 10 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. is brilliant and daring; and hiswhole framesoadmirably adapted for his mode of life, and method of procuring subsistence, as to impress on the mind of the examiner the most reverential hard and laborious, dragged on in the same unvaried tract for one pur- pose,—the supply of food. It has been painted in vivid and imaginary colouring, and. its existence has been described to be painful and bur- densome in the extreme ; its cries have been converted into complaints, and its search for food into exertions of no use. We cannot agree to this. The cry of the woodpecker is wild, and no doubt the incessant hewing of holes without an adequate object would be sufficiently miser- able. These, however, are the pleasures of the bird. The knowledge to search after food is implanted in it, and organs most admirably formed to prevent exhaustion, and ensure success, have been granted to it. Its cries, though melancholy to us, are so from association with the dark forests, and the stillness which surrounds their haunts, but perhaps, at the time when we judge, are expressive of the greatest enjoyment. An answer of kindness in reply to a mate, the calling together of the newly fledged brood, or exultation over the discovery of some favourite hoard of food, are what are set down as painful and discontented. Mr Audubon’s remarks on this splendid species, “'The king of the woodpeckers,” I have transcribed at some length, as indicating the parti- cular manner of the typical family of this great group. “The ivory-billed woodpecker confines its rambles to a comparatively very small portion of the United States, it never having been observed in the middle states within the memory of any person now living there. In fact, in no portion of these districts does the nature of the woods ap- pear suitable to its remarkable habits. “ Descending the Ohio, we meet with this splendid bird for the first time near the confluence of that beautiful river and the Mississippi; after which, following the windings of the latter, either downwards toward the sea, or upwards in the direction of the Missouri, we frequently ob- serve it. On the Atlantic coast, North Carolina may be taken as the limit of its distribution, although now and then an individual of the species may be accidentally seen in Maryland. To the westward of the Mississippi, it is found in all the dense forests bordering the streams which empty their waters into that majestic river, from the very declivities of the Rocky Mountains. The lower parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Ala- bama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, are, however, the most favourite resorts of this bird, and in those states it constantly resides, breeds, ana passes a life of peaceful enjoyment, finding a profusion of food in all the deep, dark, and gloomy swamps dispersed throughout them. “The flight of this bird is graceful in the extreme, although seldom prolonged to more than a few hundred yards at a time, unless when it IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. II ideas of the Creator. His manners have also a dignity in them superior to the common herd of woodpeckers. ‘Trees, shrubbery, orchards, rails, fence posts, and old prostrate logs, are alike interesting to those, in their humble and indefatigable search for prey ; but the royal hunter now before us, scorns the humility of such situations, and seeks the most towering trees of the forest; seeming particularly attached to those prodigious cypress swamps, whose crowded giant sons stretch their bare and blasted or moss-hung arms midway to the skies. In these almost inaccessible recesses, amid ruinous piles of impending timber, his trumpet-like note and loud strokes resound through the solitary, savage wilds, of which he seems the sole lord and inhabitant. Wherever he frequents, he leaves numerous monuments of his industry behind him. We there see enormous pine trees with cartloads of bark lying around their roots, and chips of the trunk itself, in such quantities as to suggest the idea that half a dozen of axe-men has to cross a large river, which it does in deep undulations, opening its wings at first to their full extent, and nearly closing them to renew the propelling impulse. The transit from one tree to another, even should the distance be as much as a hundred yards, is performed by a single sweep, and the bird appears as if merely swinging itself from the top of the one tree to that of the other, forming an elegantly curved line. At this moment all the beauty of the plumage is exhibited, and strikes the beholder with pleasure. It never utters any sound whilst on wing, unless during the love season ; but at all other times, no sooner has this bird alighted than its remarkable voice is heard, at almost every leap which it makes, whilst ascending against the upper parts of the trunk of a tree, or its highest branches. Its notes are clear, loud, and yet very plaintive. They are heard at a considerable distance, perhaps half a mile, and re- semble the false high note of a clarionet. They are usually repeated three times in succession, and may be represented by the monosyllable pat, part, part, These are heard so frequently as to induce me to say that the bird spends few minutes of the day without uttering them, and this circumstance leads to its destruction, which is aimed at, not because (as is supposed by some) this species is a destroyer of trees, but more because it is a beautiful bird, and its rich scalp attached to the upper mandible forms an ornament for the war-dress of most of our Indians, or for the shot-pouch of our squatters and hunters, by all of whom the bird is shot merely for that purpose.”— Ep, I2 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. had been at work there for the whole morning. The body of the tree is also disfigured with such numerous and so large excavations, that one can hardly conceive it possible for the whole to be the work of a woodpecker. With such strength, and an apparatus so powerful, what havoc might he not commit, if numerous, on the most useful of our forest trees ! and yet with all these appearances, and much of vulgar pre- judice against him, it may fairly be questioned whether he is at all injurious; or, at least, whether his exertions do not contribute most powerfully to the protection of our timber. Examine closely the tree where he has been at work, and you will soon perceive, that it is neither from motives of mischief nor amusement that he slices off the bark, or digs his way into the trunk—For the sound and healthy tree is the least object of his attention. The diseased, infested with insects, and hastening to putrefaction, are his favourites; there the deadly crawling enemy have formed a lodgement between the bark and tender wood, to drink up the very vital part of the tree. It is the ravages of these vermin, which the intelligent proprietor of the forest deplores as the sole perpetrators of the destruction of his timber. Would it be believed that the Jarvee of an insect, or fly, no larger than a grain of rice, should silently, and in one season, destroy some thousand acres of pine trees, many of them from two to three feet in diameter, and a hundred and fifty feet high! Yet whoever passes along the high road from Georgetown to Charlestown, in South Carolina, about twenty miles from the former place, can have striking and melancholy proofs of this fact. In some places the whole woods, as far as you can see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-looking arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling in ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture of desolation. And yet ignorance and pre- judice stubbornly persist in directing their indignation against the bird now before us, the constant and mortal enemy of these very vermin; as if the hand that probed the wound to extract its cause, should be equally detested with that which inflicted IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 13 it; or as if the thief-catcher should be confounded with the thief. Until some effectual preventive or more complete mode of destruction can be devised against these insects, and their larvee, I would humbly suggest the propriety of protecting, and receiving with proper feelings of gratitude, the services of this and the whole tribe of woodpeckers, letting the odium of guilt fall upon its proper owners. In looking over the accounts given of the ivory-billed wood- pecker by the naturalists of Europe, I find it asserted, that it inhabits from New Jersey to Mexico. I believe, however, that few of them are ever seen to the north of Virginia, and very few of them even in that state. The first place I observed this bird at, when on my way to the south, was about twelve miles north of Wilmington in North Carolina. There I found the bird from which the drawing of the figure in the plate was taken. This bird was only wounded slightly in the wing, and, on being caught, uttered a loudly reiterated, and most piteous note, exactly resembling the violent crying of a young child; which terrified my horse so, as nearly to have cost me my life. It was distressing to hear it. I carried it with me in the chair, under cover, to Wilmington. In passing through the streets, its affecting cries surprised every one within hearing, par- ticularly the females, who hurried to the doors and windows with looks of alarm and anxiety. I drove on, and on arriving at the piazza of the hotel, where I intended to put up, the landlord came forward, and a number of other persons who happened to be there, all equally alarmed at what they heard ; this was greatly increased by my asking, whether he could furnish me with accommodations for myself and my baby. The man looked blank and foolish, while the others stared with still greater astonishment. After diverting myself for a minute or two at their expense, I drew my woodpecker from under the cover, and a general laugh took place. I took him up stairs and locked him up in my room, while I went to see my horse taken care of. In less than an hour I returned, and, on opening the door, he set up the same distressing shout, which 14 LVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. now appeared to proceed from grief that he had been discovered in his attempts at escape. He had mounted along the side of the window, nearly as high as the ceiling, a little below which he had begun to break through. The bed was covered with large pieces of plaster; the lath was exposed for at least fifteen inches square, and a hole, large enough to admit the fist, opened to the weather-boards ; so that, in less than another hour he would certainly have succeeded in making his way through. JI now tied a string round his leg, and, fastening it to the table, again left him. I wished to preserve his life, and had gone off in search of suitable food for him. As I reascended the stairs, I heard him again hard at work, and on entering had the mortification to perceive that he had almost entirely ruined the mahogany table to which he was fastened, and on which he had wreaked his whole vengeance. While engaged in taking the drawing, he cut me severely in several places, and, on the whole, displayed such a noble and uncon- querable spirit, that I was frequently tempted to restore him to his native woods. He lived with me nearly three days, but refused all sustenance, and I witnessed his death with regret. The head and bill of this bird is in great esteem among the southern Indians, who wear them by way of amulet or charm, as well as ornament; and, it is said, dispose of them to the northern tribes at considerable prices. An Indian believes that the head, skin, or even feathers of certain birds, confer on the wearer all the virtues or excellencies of those birds. Thus I have seen a coat made of the skins, heads, and claws of the raven ; caps stuck round with heads of butcher birds, hawks, and eagles; and as the disposition and courage of the ivory- billed woodpecker are well known to the savages, no wonder they should attach great value to it, having both beauty, and, in their estimation, distinguished merit to recommend it. This bird is not migratory, but resident in the countries where it inhabits. In the low countries of the Carolinas it usually prefers the large timbered cypress swamps for breeding in. In the trunk of one of these trees, at a considerable height, IVORYV-BILLED WOODPECKER. 15 the male and female alternately, and in conjunction, dig out a large and capacious cavity for their eggs and young. ‘Trees thus dug out have frequently been cut down, with sometimes the eggs and young in them. This hole, according to infor- mation,—for I have never seen one myself,—is generally a little winding, the better to keep out the weather, and from two to five feet deep. The eggs are said to be generally four, sometimes five, as large as a pullet’s, pure white, and equally thick at both ends—a description that, except in size, very nearly agrees with all the rest of our woodpeckers. The young begin to be seen abroad about the middle of June. Whether they breed more than once in the same season is uncertain.* * The description of the nestling, &c., is thus also given by Audubon. Wilson observes, that he had no opportunity of ever seeing their holes, and the following will tend to render his account more complete :— “The ivory-billed woodpecker nestles earlier in spring than any other species of its tribe. I have observed it boring a hole for that purpose in the beginning of March. The hole is, I believe, always made in the trunk of a live tree, generally an ash or a hagberry, and is at a great height. The birds pay great regard to the particular situation of the tree, and the inclination of its trunk; first, because they prefer retirement, and again, because they are anxious to secure the aperture against the access of water during beating rains. To prevent such a calamity, the hole is generally dug immediately under the junction of a large branch with the trunk. It is first bored horizontally for a few inches, then directly down- wards, and not in a spiral manner, as some people have imagined. Ac- cording to circumstances, this cavity is more or less deep, being some- times not more than ten inches, whilst at other times it reaches nearly three feet downwards into the core of the tree. I have been led to think that these differences result from the more or less immediate necessity under which the female may be of depositing her eggs, and again have thought that the older the woodpecker is, the deeper does it make its hole. The average diameter of the different nests which I have exa- mined was about seven inches within, although the entrance, which is perfectly round, is only just large enough to admit the bird. “Both birds work most assiduously at this excavation, one waiting outside to encourage the other, whilst it is engaged in digging, and when the latter is fatigued, taking its place. I have approached trees whilst these woodpeckers were thus busily employed in forming their nest, and by resting my head against the bark, could easily distinguish every blow given by the bird. I observed that in two instances, when the wood- 16 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. So little attention do the people of the countries where these birds inhabit pay to the minutiz of natural history, that, generally speaking, they make no distinction between the peckers saw me thus at the foot of the tree in which they were digging their nest, they abandoned it for ever. For the first brood there are generally six eggs. They are deposited on a few chips at the bottom of the hole, and are of a pure white colour. The young are seen creeping out of the hole about a fortnight before they venture to fly to any other tree. The second brood makes its appearance about the 15th of August. “In Kentucky and Indiana, the ivory-bills seldom raise more than one brood in the season. The young are at first of the colour of the female, only that they want the crest, which, however, grows rapidly, and towards autumn—particularly in birds of the first breed—is nearly equal to that of the mother. The males have then a slight line of red on the head, and do not attain their richness of plumage until spring, or their full size until the second year. Indeed, even then, a difference is easily observed between them and individuals which are much older. “The food of this species consists principally of beetles, larvee, and large grubs. No sooner, however, are the grapes of our forests ripe than they are eaten by the ivory-billed woodpecker with great avidity. I have seen this bird hang by its claws to the vines, in the position so often assumed by a titmouse, and reaching downwards, help itself to a bunch of grapes with much apparent pleasure. Persimmons are also sought for by them, as soon as the fruit becomes quite mellow, as are hagberries. “The ivory-bill is never seen attacking the corn, or the fruit of the orchards, although it is sometimes observed working upon and chipping off the bark from the belted trees of the newly cleared plantations. It seldom comes near the ground, but prefers at all times the tops of the tallest trees. Should it, however, discover the half-standing broken shaft of a large dead and rotten tree, it attacks it in such a manner as nearly to demolish it in the course of a few days. I have seen the re- mains of some of these ancient monarchs of our forests so excavated, and that so singularly, that the tottering fragments of the trunk appeared to be merely supported by the great pile of chips by which its base was surrounded. The strength of this woodpecker is such, that I have seen it detach pieces of bark seven or eight inches in length at a single blow of its powerful bill, and by beginning at the top branch of a dead tree, tear off the bark, to an extent of twenty or thirty feet, in the course of a few hours, leaping downwards, with its body in an upward position, tossing its head to the right and left, or leaning it against the bark to ascertain the precise spot where the grubs were concealed, and imme- IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 17 ivory-billed and pileated woodpecker, represented in the same plate; and it was not till I showed them the two birds to- gether, that they knew of any difference. ‘The more intelligent and observing part of the natives, however, distinguish them by the name of the large and lesser logcocks. They seldom examine them but at a distance, gunpowder being considered too precious to be thrown away on woodpeckers ; nothing less than a turkey being thought worth the value of a load. The food of this bird consists, I believe, entirely of insects and their larve.* The pileated woodpecker is suspected diately after renewing its blows with fresh vigour, all the while sound- ing its loud notes, as if highly delighted. “This species generally moves in pairs, after the young have left their parents, The female is always the most elamorous and the least shy. Their mutual attachment is, I believe, continued through life. Except- ing when digging a hole for the reception of their eggs, these birds seldom, if ever, attack living trees, for any other purpose than that of procuring food, in doing which they destroy the insects that would otherwise prove injurious to the trees. “T have frequently observed the male and female retire to rest for the night, into the same hole in which they had long before reared their young, This generally happens a short time after sunset. “When wounded and brought to the ground, the ivory-bill immedi- ately makes for the nearest tree, and ascends it with great rapidity and perseverance until it reaches the top branches, when it squats and hides, generally with great effect. Whilst ascending, it moves spirally round the tree, utters its loud pait, pait, part, at almost every hop, but becomes silent the moment it reaches a place where it conceives itself secure. They sometimes cling to the bark with their claws so firmly as to remain cramped to the spot for several hours after death. When taken by the hand, which is rather a hazardous undertaking, they strike with great violence, and inflict very severe wounds with their bill as well as claws, which are extremely sharp and strong. On such oceasions, this bird utters a mournful and very piteous cry.”—Ep. * Mr Audubon says, that though the greater part of their food consists of insects and their larve, no sooner are the grapes of our forests ripe, than they are eaten with the greatest avidity. I have seen this bird hang by its claws to the vines, in the position so often assumed by the titmouse, and, reaching down, help itself to a bunch of grapes. Per- simmons are also sought by them, as soon as the fruit becomes quite mellow, and hagberries.—Ep. VOL, II. B 18 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. of sometimes tasting the Indian corn: the ivory-billed never. His common note, repeated every three or four seconds, very much resembles the tone of a trumpet, or the high note of a clarionet, and can plainly be distinguished at the distance of more than half a mile; seeming to be immediately at hand, though perhaps more than one hundred yards off. This it utters while mounting along the trunk or digging into it. At these times it has a stately and novel appearance; and the note instantly attracts the notice of a stranger. Along the borders of the Savannah river, between Savannah and Augusta, I found them very frequently ; but my horse no sooner heard their trumpet-like note, than, remembering his former alarm, he became almost ungovernable. . The ivory-billed woodpecker is twenty inches long, and thirty inches in extent; the general colour is black, with a considerable gloss of green when exposed to a good light; iris of the eye, vivid yellow ; nostrils, covered with recumbent white hairs; fore part of the head, black; rest of the crest, of a most splendid red, spotted at the bottom with white, which is only seen when the crest is erected, as represented in the plate; this long red plumage being ash-coloured at its base, above that white, and ending in brilliant red; a stripe of white proceeds from a point, about half an inch below each eye, passes down each side of the neck, and along the back, where they are about an inch apart, nearly to the ramp; the first five primaries are wholly black; on the next five the white spreads from the tip, higher and higher, to the secondaries, which are wholly white from their coverts down- ward. ‘These markings, when the wings are shut, make the bird appear as if his back were white: hence he has been called by some of our naturalists the large white-backed woodpecker. ‘The neck is long; the beak an inch broad at the base, of the colour and consistence of ivory, prodigiously strong and elegantly fluted. The tail is black, tapering from the two exterior feathers, which are three inches shorter than the middle ones, and each feather has the singularity of being PILEATED WOODPECKER,. 19 greatly concave below; the wing is lined with yellowish white ; the legs are about an inch and a quarter long, the ex- terior toe about the same length, the claws exactly semicircular and remarkably powerful,—the whole of a light blue or lead colour. ‘The female is about half an inch shorter, the bill rather less, and the whole plumage of the head black, glossed with green ; in the other parts of the plumage, she exactly resembles the male. In the stomachs of three which I opened, I found large quantities of a species of worm called borers, two or three inches long, of a dirty cream colour, with a black head ; the stomach was an oblong pouch, not muscular like the gizzards of some others. The tongue was worm- shaped, and for half an inch at the tip as hard as horn, flat, pointed, of the same white colour as the bill, and thickly barbed on each side.* PILEATED WOODPECKER. (Picus pileatus.) PLATE XXIX.—Fic. 2. Picus niger, crista rubra, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 225, 4.—Picus pileatus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 173, 3.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 425.—Picus Virginianus pileatus, Briss. iv. p. 29, 10.—Jd. 8vo, ii. p. 50.—Pic noir 4 huppé rouge, Buff. vii. p. 48.— Pic noir huppé de la Louisiana, Pl. enl. 718.—Larger Crested Woodpecker, Catesb. Car. i. 6, 17.—Pileated Woodpecker, Arct. Zool. ii. No. 157.—Lath. Syn. ii. p. 554, 3.—Id. Supp. p. 105.—Bartram, p. 289.—Peale’s Museum, No. 1886. PICUS PILEATUS.—Umnevs.t Picus pileatus, Bonap. Synop. p. 44.— Wagl. Syst. Av. No. 2.—Picus (dryotomus) pileatus, North. Zool. ii. p. 304. Tuis American species is the second in size among his tribe, and may be styled the great northern chief of the woodpeckers, * Wilson seems to have been in some uncertainty regarding the nidi- fication of this species, and probably never saw the nest. The account of Mr Audubon will fill up what is here wanting.—Eb. + As we remarked in our last note, Mr Swainson, according to the views he entertains, has divided the large family Piciane into five great divisions, and the different forms in these again into groups of lesser 20 PILEATED WOODPECKER. though, in fact, his range extends over the whole of the United States from the interior of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. He is very numerous in the Gennesee country, and in all the tracts of high-timbered forests, particularly in the neighbour- hood of our large rivers, where he is noted for making a loud and almost incessant cackling before wet weather; flying at such times in a restless uneasy manner from tree to tree, making the woods echo to his outcry. In Pennsylvania and the northern states, he is called the black woodcock ; in the southern states, the logcock. Almost every old trunk in the forest where he resides bears the marks of his chisel. Where- ever he perceives a tree beginning to decay, he examines it round and round with great skill and dexterity, strips off the bark in sheets of five or six feet in length, to get at the hidden cause of the disease, and labours with a gaiety and activity really surprising. I have seen him separate the greatest part of the bark from a large dead pine tree, for twenty or thirty feet, in less than a quarter of an hour. Whether engaged in flying from tree to tree, in digging, climbing, or barking, he seems perpetually ina hurry. He is extremely hard to kill, clinging close to the tree even after he has received his mortal wound ; nor yielding up his hold but with his expiring breath. If slightly wounded in the wing, and dropt while flying, he instantly makes for the nearest tree, and strikes with great bitterness at the hand stretched out to seize him; and can rarely be reconciled to confinement. He is sometimes observed among the hills of Indian corn, and it is said by some that he frequently feeds on it. Complaints of this kind are, however, not general; many farmers doubting the fact, and conceiving that at these times he is in search of insects which lie concealed in the husk. I will not be positive that they never occasionally taste maize; yet I have opened and examined great numbers value. For the type of one of them, he has chosen the Picus pileatus, under the title of Dryotomus, differing from Picus, in the exterior outer toe being shorter than the anterior external one, exactly the reverse of the proportions of Picus.—Eb. PILEATED WOODPECKER. 21 of these birds, killed in various parts of the United States, from Lake Ontario to the Alatamaha river, but never found a grain of Indian corn in their stomachs. The pileated woodpecker is not migratory, but braves the extremes of both the arctic and torrid regions. Neither is he gregarious, for it is rare to see more than one or two, or at the most three, in company. Formerly they were numerous in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia; but gradually, as the old timber fell, and the country became better cleared, they retreated to the forest. At present few of those birds are to be found within ten or fifteen miles of the city. Their nest is built, or rather the eggs are deposited, in the hole of a tree, dug out by themselves, no other materials being used but the soft chips of rotten wood. The female lays six large eggs of a snowy whiteness ; and, it is said, they generally raise two broods in the same season. This species is eighteen inches long, and twenty-eight in extent; the general colour is a dusky brownish black; the head is ornamented with a conical cap of bright scarlet ; two scarlet mustaches proceed from the lower mandible; the chin is white; the nostrils are covered with brownish white hair- like feathers, and this stripe of white passes from thence down the side of the neck to the sides, spreading under the wings ; the upper half of the wings are white, but concealed by the black coverts; the lower extremities of the wings are black, so that the white on the wing is not seen but when the bird is flying, at which time it is very prominent; the tail is taper- ing, the feathers being very convex above, and strong; the legs are of a leaden gray colour, very short, scarcely half an inch; the toes very long; claws, strong and semicircular, and of a pale blue; the bill is fluted, sharply ridged, very broad at the base, bluish black above, below and at the point bluish white; the eye is of a bright golden colour, the pupil black; the tongue, like those of its tribe, is worm-shaped, except near the tip, where for one-eighth of an inch it is horny, pointed, and beset with barbs. 22 RED-WINGED STARLING. The female has the forehead, and nearly to the crown, of a light brown colour, and the mustaches are dusky, instead of red. In both a fine line of white separates the red crest from the dusky line that passes over the eye. RED-WINGED STARLING. (Sturnus predatorius.) PLATE XXX.—Fic. 1. MALE; Fic. 2. FEMALE. Bartram, 291.—Oriolus pheeniceus, Linn. Syst. 161.—Red-winged Oriole, Arct. Zool. 255, No. 140.—Le Troupiale 4 aisles rouges, Briss. ii. 97.—Le com- mandeur, Buff. iii. 214, Pl. enl. 402.—Lath. i. 428.—Acolchichi, Fernand. Nov. Hisp. p. 14.—Peale’s Museum, No. 1466, 1467. AGLAIUS PH@NICEUS.—V1®£1L10r.* Aglaius pheeniceus, Vietll. Gall. des Ois.—North. Zool. ii. p. 280.—Icterus pheeniceus, Bonap. Synop. p. 52.— The Red-Winged Starling, or Marsh Blackbird, Aud. pl. 67., male in different states, female and young; Orn. Biog. i. p. 348. Tis notorious and celebrated corn thief, the long reputed plunderer and pest of our honest and laborious farmers, now * This bird, I believe, will rank under the Jctes? of Brisson, but seems first mentioned by Daudin under that title. Like the others of this intricate family, it has been described under a multitude of names ; but the above seems the preferable one to be adopted. Wilson also changed the specific name to Predatorius, taken from its plundering habits, whereas, without doubt, he should have retained its original designation, North America possesses another beautiful species, figured in the continuation of the Ornithology by Bonaparte. Wilson is somewhat puzzled in what genus to place this bird, and is only reconciled to join it with our common starling, which it much resembles in its congregated flights. In this country, we cannot expect to see a flight of such numbers as Wilson mentions ; still they are some- times very numerous, and one might almost conceive the appearance of the one, from their recollections of the other. In the low meadows of Holland, again, some relative. proportion may be found. I have seen an extent of flat surface, as far as the eye could reach around, covered with flocks of starlings, associated with lapwings and golden plovers ; and the flocks that rose on the approach of night, were sometimes immense. In the islands of Sardinia, and those adjacent, and where they may be augmented by the presence of another species, the S¢ unrcolor of Temminck, I am told that the assemblage of birds is Engraved by WHLizare. pn trom Nature by AWilson 5 LRed winged Starling, 2.Female. 3. Black-poll Warbler, +Lesser Red poll. 30. RED-WINGED STARLING. 23 presents himself before us, with his copartner in iniquity, to receive the character due for their very active and distinguished services. In investigating the nature of these, I shall endeavour to render strict historical justice to this noted pair; adhering to the honest injunctions of the poet, ‘* Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice.” Let the reader divest himself equally of prejudice, and we shall be at no loss to ascertain accurately their true character. The red-winged starlings, though generally migratory in the states north of Maryland, are found during winter in immense flocks, sometimes associated with the purple grakles, - and often by themselves, along the whole lower parts of Vir- ginia, both Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana, particularly near the sea coast, and in the vicinity of large rice and corn fields. In the months of January and February, while passing through the former of these countries, I was frequently enter- tained with the aérial evolutions of these great bodies of starlings. Sometimes they appeared driving about like an enormous black cloud carried before the wind, varying its shape every moment; sometimes suddenly rising from the fields around me with a noise like thunder; while the glitter- ing of innumerable wings of the brightest vermilion amid the black cloud they formed, produced on these occasions a very striking and splendid effect. Then, descending like a torrent, innumerable in the lower valleys, and among the lakes and reedy marshes which cover so much of the lower parts of these countries. In their evolutions before retiring to rest among reeds or bushes, the two birds also resemble each other, That of Europe is thus described by an observing naturalist :—“ There is something singularly curious and mysterious in the conduct of these birds, previous to their nightly retire- ment, by the variety and intricacy of the evolutions they execute at that time. They will form themselves, perhaps, into a triangle, then shoot into a long, pear-shaped figure, expand like a sheet, wheel into a ball, as Pliny observes, each individual striving to get into the centre, &c., with a promptitude more like parade movements, than the actions of birds.” | have known them watched for, when coming to roost, and shot in considerable numbers. Their wings afford favourite feather for fishers.— Eb. 24 RED-WINGED STARLING. and covering the branches of some detached grove, or clump of trees, the whole congregated multitude commenced one general concert or chorus, that I have plainly distinguished at the distance of more than two miles; and, when listened to at the intermediate space of about a quarter of a mile, with a — slight breeze of wind to swell and soften the flow of its cadences, was to me grand, and even sublime. ‘The whole season of winter, that, with most birds, is passed in struggling to sustain life in silent melancholy, is, with the red-wings, one continued carnival. The profuse gleanings of the old rice, corn, and buckwheat fields, supply them with abundant food, at once ready and nutritious; and the intermediate time is spent either in aérial maneeuvres, or in grand vocal perform- ances, as if solicitous to supply the absence of all the tuneful summer tribes, and to cheer the dejected face of nature with their whole combined powers of harmony. About the 20th of March, or earlier, if the season be open, they begin to enter Pennsylvania in numerous, though small parties. These migrating flocks are usually observed from daybreak to eight or nine in the morning, passing to the north, chattering to each other as they fly along; and, in spite of all our antipathy, their well known notes and appearance, after the long and dreary solitude of winter, inspire cheerful and pleasing ideas of returning spring, warmth, and verdure. Selecting their old haunts, every meadow is soon enlivened by their presence. ‘They continue in small parties to frequent the low borders of creeks, swamps, and ponds, till about the middle of April, when they separate in pairs to breed; and, about the last week in April, or first in May, begin to construct their nest. The place chosen for this is generally within the precincts of a marsh or swamp, meadow, or other like watery situation,—the spot, usually a thicket of alder bushes, at the height of six or seven feet from the ground; sometimes in a detached bush, in a meadow of high grass; often in a tussock of rushes, or coarse rank grass; and not unfrequently on the ground: in all of which situations I have repeatedly RED-WINGED STARLING. 25 found them. When in a bush, they are generally com- posed outwardly of wet rushes, picked from the swamp, and long tough grass in large quantity, and well lined with very fine bent. ‘The rushes, forming the exterior, are generally extended to several of the adjoining twigs, round which they are repeatedly and securely twisted ; a precaution absolutely necessary for its preservation, on account of the flexible nature of the bushes in which it is placed. ‘The same caution is observed when a tussock is chosen, by fastening the tops together, and intertwining the materials of which the nest is formed with the stalks of rushes around. When placed on the ground, less care and fewer materials being necessary, the nest is much simpler and slighter than before.. The female lays five eggs, of a very pale light blue, marked with faint tinges of light purple, and long straggling lines and dashes of black. It is not uncommon to find several nests in the same thicket, within a few feet of each other. During the time the female is sitting, and still more parti- cularly after the young are hatched, the male, like most other birds that build in low situations, exhibits the most violent symptoms of apprehension and alarm on the approach of any person to its near neighbourhood. Like the lapwing of Kurope, he flies to meet the intruder, hovers at a short height over-head, uttering loud notes of distress ; and, while in this situation, displays to great advantage the rich glowing scarlet of his wings, heightened by the jetty black of his general plumage. As the danger increases, his cries become more shrill and incessant, and his motions rapid and restless ; the whole meadow is alarmed, and a collected crowd of his fellows hover around, and mingle their notes of alarm and agitation with his. When the young are taken away, or destroyed, he continues for several days near the place, restless and dejected, and generally recommences building soon after, in the same meadow. ‘Towards the beginning or middle of August, the young birds begin to fly in flocks, and at that age nearly resemble the female, with the exception of some reddish or 26 RED-WINGED STARLING. orange, that marks the shoulders of the males, and which increases in space and brilliancy as winter approaches. It has been frequently remarked, that, at this time, the young birds chiefly associate by themselves, there being sometimes not more than two or three old males observed in a flock of many thousands. ‘These, from the superior blackness and rich red of their plumage, are very conspicuous. Before the beginning of September, these flocks have become numerous and formidable ; and the young ears of maize, or Indian corn, being then in their soft, succulent, milky state, present a temptation that cannot be resisted. Reinforced by numerous and daily flocks from all parts of the interior, they pour down on the low countries in prodigious multitudes. Here they are seen, like vast clouds, wheeling and driving over the meadows and devoted corn-fields, darkening the air with their numbers. Then commences the work of destruction on the corn, the husks of which, though composed of numerous envelopments of closely wrapt leaves, are soon completely or partially torn off ; while from all quarters myriads continue to pour down like a tempest, blackening half an acre at a time ; and, if not disturbed, repeat their depredations, till little remains but the cob and the shrivelled skins of the grain ; what little is left of the tender ear, being exposed to the rains and weather, is generally much injured. All the attacks and havoc made at this time among them with the gun, and by the hawks,—several species of which are their constant attendants,—has little effect on the remainder. When the hawks make a sweep among them, they suddenly open on all sides, but rarely in time to disappoint them of their victims ; and, though repeatedly fired at, with mortal effect, they only remove from one field to an adjoining one, or to another quarter of the same enclosure. From dawn to nearly sunset, this open and daring devastation is carried on, under the eye of the proprietor; and a farmer, who has any considerable extent of corn, would require half-a-dozen men at least, with guns, to guard it; and even then, all their RED-WINGED STARLING. 27 vigilance and activity would not prevent a good tithe of it from becoming the prey of the blackbirds. The Indians, who usually plant their corn in one general field, keep the whole young boys of the village all day patrolling round and among it; and each being furnished with bow and arrows, with which they are very expert, they generally contrive to destroy great numbers of them. It must, however, be observed, that this scene of pillage is principally carried on in the low countries, not far from the sea coast, or near the extensive flats that border our large rivers ; and is also chiefly confined to the months of August and September. After this period, the corn having acquired its hard shelly coat, and the seeds of the reeds or wild oats, with a profusion of other plants, that abound along the river shores, being now ripe, and in great abundance, they present a new and more extensive field for these marauding multitudes. The reeds also supply them with convenient roosting places, being often in almost unapproachable morasses; and thither they repair every evening, from all quarters of the country. In some places, however, when the reeds become dry, advan- tage is taken of this circumstance to destroy these birds, by a party secretly approaching the place, under cover of a dark night, setting fire to the reeds in several places at once, which being soon enveloped in one general flame, the uproar among the blackbirds becomes universal; and, by the light of the conflagration, they are shot down in vast numbers, while hovering and screaming over the place. Sometimes straw is used for the same purpose, being previously strewed near the reeds and alder bushes, where they are known to roost, which being instantly set on fire, the consternation and havoc is prodigious ; and the party return by day to pick up the slaughtered game. About the first of November, they begin to move off towards the south ; though, near the sea-coast, in the states of New Jersey and Delaware, they continue long after that period. Such are the general manners and character of the red- 28 RED-WINGED STARLING. winged starling; but there remain some facts to be men- tioned, no less authentic, and well deserving the consideration of its enemies, more especially of those whose detestation of this species would stop at nothing short of total extirpation. It has been already stated, that they arrive in Pennsylvania late in March. Their general food at this season, as well as during the early part of summer (for the crows and purple erakles are the principal pests in planting time), consists of erub-worms, caterpillars, and various other larvee, the silent, but deadly enemies of all vegetation, and whose secret and insidious attacks are more to be dreaded by the husbandman than the combined forces of the whole feathered tribes to- gether. For these vermin, the starlings search with great diligence ; in the ground, at the roots of plants, in orchards, and meadows, as well as among buds, leaves, and blossoms ; and, from their known voracity, the multitudes of these in- sects which they destroy must be immense. Let me illustrate this by a short computation: If we suppose each bird, on an average, to devour fifty of these larvee in a day (a very mode- rate allowance), a single pair, in four months, the usual time such food is sought after, will consume upwards of twelve thousand. It is believed, that not less than a million pair of these birds are distributed over the whole extent of the United States in summer; whose food, being nearly the same, would swell the amount of vermin destroyed to twelve thou- sand millions. But the number of young birds may be fairly estimated at double that of their parents; and, as these are constantly fed on larvee for at least three weeks, making only the same allowance for them as for the old ones, their share would amount to four thousand two hundred millions ; making a grand total of sixteen thousand two hundred millions of noxious insects destroyed in the space of four months by this single species! The combined ravages of such a hideous host of vermin would be sufficient to spread famine and desolation over a wide extent of the richest and best cultivated country on earth. All this, it may be said, is RED-WINGED STARLING. 29 mere supposition. It is, however, supposition founded on known and acknowledged facts. I have never dissected any of these birds in spring without receiving the most striking and satisfactory proofs of those facts; and though, in a matter of this kind, it is impossible to ascertain precisely the amount of the benefits derived by agriculture from this, and many other species of our birds, yet, in the present case, I cannot resist the belief, that the services of this species, in spring, are far more important and beneficial than the value of all that portion of corn which a careful and active farmer permits himself to lose by it. The great range of country frequented by this bird extends from Mexico, on the south, to Labrador. Our late enterpris- ing travellers across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, observed if numerous in several of the valleys at a great distance up the Missouri. When taken alive, or reared from the nest, it soon becomes familiar, sings frequently, bristling out its feathers, something in the manner of the cow bunting. These notes, though not remarkably various, are very peculiar. The most common one resembles the syllables conk-quer-rée ; others, the shrill sounds produced by filing a saw: some are more guttural; and others remarkably clear. The usual note of both male and female is a single chuck. Instances have been produced where they have been taught to articulate several words distinctly ; and, contrary to what is observed of many birds, the male loses little of the brilliancy of his plumage by confinement. A very remarkable trait of this bird is, the great difference of size between the male and female; the former being nearly two inches longer than the latter, and of proportionate magni- tude. They are known by various names in the different states of the Union; such as the swamp blackbird, marsh blackbird, red-winged blackbird, corn or maize thief, starling, &c. Many of them have been carried from this to different parts of Europe; and Edwards relates, that one of them, which had, no doubt, escaped from a cage, was shot in the 30 RED-WINGED STARLING. neighbourhood of London ; and, on being opened, its stomach was found to be filled with grub-worms, caterpillars, and beetles ; which Buffon seems to wonder at, as, “in their own country,’ he observes, “they feed exclusively on grain and maize.” Hitherto this species has been generally classed by naturalists with the orioles. By a careful comparison, however, of its bill with those of that tribe, the similarity is by no means sufficient to justify this arrangement; and its manners are altogether different. I can find no genus to which it makes so near an approach, both in the structure of the bill and in food, flight, and manners, as those of the stare ; with which, following my judicious friend Mr Bartram, I have accordingly placed it. To the European, the perusal of the foregoing pages will be sufficient to satisfy him of their similarity of manners. Tor the satisfaction of those who are unacquainted with the common starling of Europe, I shall select a few sketches of its character, from the latest and most accurate publication I have seen from that quarter.* Speaking of the stare, or starling, this writer observes, “In the winter season, these birds fly in vast flocks, and may be known at a great distance by their whirling mode of flight, which Buffon com- pares to a sort of vortex, in which the collective body performs an uniform circular revolution, and, at the same time, con- tinues to make a progressive advance. The evening is the time when the stares assemble in the greatest numbers, and betake themselves to the fens and marshes, where they roost among the reeds: they chatter much in the evening and morning, both when they assemble and disperse. So attached are they to society, that they not only join those of their own species, but also birds of a different kind ; and are frequently seen in company with red-wings (a species of thrush), fieldfares, and even with crows, jackdaws, and pigeons. Their principal food consists of worms, snails, and caterpillars ; they likewise eat various kinds of grain, seeds, and berries,” * Bewick’s “ British Birds,” part i. p. 119. Newcastle, 1809. RED-WINGED STARLING. 31 He adds, that, “in a confined state, they are very docile, and may easily be taught to repeat short phrases, or whistle tunes with great exactness.” The red-winged starling (fig. 1.) is nine inches long, and fourteen inches in extent ; the general colour is a glossy black, with the exception of the whole lesser wing-coverts, the first, or lower row of which is of a reddish cream colour, the rest a rich and splendid scarlet ; legs and bill, glossy brownish black ; irides, hazel ; bill, cylindrical above, compressed at the sides, straight, running considerably up the forehead, where it is prominent, rounding and flattish towards the tip, though sharp-pointed ; tongue, nearly as long as the bill, tapering and lacerated at the end; tail, rounded, the two middle feathers also somewhat shorter than those immediately adjoining. The female (fig. 2.) is seven inches and a quarter in length, and twelve inches in extent ; chin, a pale reddish cream ; from the nostril over the eye, and from the lower mandible, run two stripes of the same, speckled with black; from the posterior angle of the eye backwards, a streak of brownish black covers the auriculars ; throat, and whole lower parts, thickly streaked with black and white, the latter inclining to cream on the breast; whole plumage above, black, each feather bordered with pale brown, white, or bay, giving the bird a very mottled appearance ; lesser coverts, the same ; bill and legs as in the male. The young birds at first greatly resemble the female ; but have the plumage more broadly skirted with brown. The red early shows itself on the lesser wing-coverts of the males, at first pale, inclining to orange, and partially disposed. The brown continues to skirt the black plumage for a year or two, so that it is rare to find an old male altogether destitute of some remains of it; but the red is generally complete in breadth and brilliancy by the succeeding spring. The females are entirely destitute of that ornament. The flesh of these birds is but little esteemed, being, in general, black, dry, and tough. Strings of them are, however, frequently seen exposed for sale in our markets. 32 BLACK-POLL WARBLER. BLACK-POLL WARBLER. (Sylvia striata.) PLATE XXX.—Fic. 3. Lath. ti. 460.—Arct. Zool. 401.—Turton, 600.—Peale’s Museum, No. 7054. SYLVICOLA STRIATA.*—SWAINSON. Sylvia striata, Bonap. Synop. p. 81.—Sylvicola striata, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 218. Tuts species has considerable affinity to the flycatchers in its habits. It is chiefly confined to the woods, and even there, to the tops of the tallest trees, where it is descried skipping from branch to branch, in pursuit of winged insects. Its note is a single screep, scarcely audible from below. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the 20th of April, and is first seen on the tops of the highest maples, darting about among the blossoms. As the woods thicken with leaves, it may be found pretty generally, being none of the least numerous of our summer birds. It is, however, most partial to woods in the immediate neighbourhood of creeks, swamps, or morasses, probably from the greater number of its favourite imsects frequenting such places. It is also pretty generally diffused over the United States, having myself met with it in most quarters of the Union; though its nest has hitherto defied all my researches. This bird may be considered as occupying an intermediate station between the flycatchers and the warblers, having the manners of the former, and the bill, partially, of the latter. The nice gradations by which nature passes from one species to another, even in this department of the great chain of beings, will for ever baffle all the artificial rules and systems of man. And this truth every fresh discovery must impress more forcibly on the mind of the observing naturalist. These birds leave us early in September. The black-poll warbler is five and a half inches long, and * This is an aberrant Sylvicola, approaching Setophaga in the form and bristling of the bill, and also in the manners of the flycatchers.—Ep. LESSER REDPOLL. 33 eight and a half in extent; crown and hind head, black ; cheeks, pure white; from each lower mandible runs a streak of small black spots, those on the side, larger; the rest of the lower parts, white; primaries, black, edged with yellow ; rest of the wing, black, edged with ash ; the first and second row of coverts, broadly tipt with white; back, ash, tinged with yellow ochre, and streaked laterally with black ; tail, black, edged with ash, the three exterior feathers marked on the inner webs with white; bill, black above, whitish below, furnished with bristles at the base; iris, hazel; legs and feet, reddish yellow. The female differs very little in plumage from the male. LESSER REDPOLL. (fringilla linaria.) PLATE XXX.—Fie. 4. Lath. ii. 305.—Arct. Zool. 379.—Le Sizeren, Buff. iv. 216. Pl. ent. 151, 2.— Peale’s Museum, No. 6579. LINARIA MINOR.—WILLOUGHBY. Fringilla linaria, Bonap. Synop. p. 112. Tuts bird corresponds so exactly in size, figure, and colour of plumage, with that of Europe of the same name, as to place their identity beyond a doubt. They inhabit, during summer, the most northern parts of Canada, and still more remote northern countries, from whence they migrate at the com- mencement of winter. ‘They appear in the Gennesee country with the first deep snow, and on that account are usually called by the title of snow birds. As the female is destitute of the crimson on the breast and forehead, and the young birds do not receive that ornament till the succeeding spring, such a small proportion of the individuals that form these flocks are marked with red, as to induce a general belief among the inhabitants of those parts that they are two different kinds associated together. TF locks of these birds have been occasionally seen in severe winters in the neighbourhood of VOL. II. c 34 LESSER REDPOLL. Philadelphia. They seem particularly fond of the seeds of the common alder, and hang, head downwards, while feeding, in the manner of the yellow bird. They seem extremely unsuspicious at such times, and will allow a very near approach without betraying any symptoms of alarm. The specimen represented in the plate was shot, with several others of both sexes, in Seneca county, between the Seneca and Cayuga lakes. Some individuals were occasionally heard to chant a few interrupted notes, but no satisfactory account can be given of their powers of song. This species extends throughout the whole northern parts of Europe, is likewise found in the remote wilds of Russia, was seen by Steller in Kamtschatka, and probably inhabits corresponding climates round the whole habitable parts of the northern hemisphere. In the Highlands of Scotland they are common, building often on the tops of the heath, sometimes in a low furze bush, like the common linnet, and sometimes on the ground. The nest is formed of light stalks of dried grass, intermixed with tufts of wool, and warmly lined with feathers. The eggs are usually four, white, sprinkled with specks of reddish.* * IT have not been able to procure American specimens of this bird, but comparing the description of Wilson and of Ord, there seems little doubt of their identity. Wilson is certainly confounding the mountain linnet (Z. montium), when he says, “ In the Highlands of Scotland they are common, building often on the tops of the heath, sometimes in a low furze bush, like the common linnet, and sometimes on the ground.” This is exactly the habit of the mountain linnet, and Mr Ord is wrong in saying the young possess the crimson head ; I have many in my pos- session without it, and have shot them at all seasons ; they receive that mark at the commencement of the first breeding season, when the adult birds also receive an addition of plumage and lustre. They seem very fond of the beech, as well as of the birch and alder, and appear to find insects in the husks of the old mast, which they are constantly picking and looking into. I have found their nests also pretty frequently in a young fir plantation: it was in a low situation, but they were invari- ably lined with the wool of willow catkins. I shall here add Mr Selby’s correct description of the manners of this species, which are in every way confirmed by my own observations. “It is only known in the LESSER REDPOLE. 35 [Mr Ord has added to the description of Wilson as follows : —‘ Contrary to the usual practice of Mr Wilson, he omitted southern parts of Britain as a winter visitant, and is at that period gregarious, and frequently taken in company with the other species by the bird-catchers, by whom it is called the stone redpoll. In the northern counties of England, and in Scotland, and its isles, it is resident through the year. It retires, during the summer, to the under- wood that covers the basis of many of our mountains and hills, and that often fringes the banks of their precipitous streams, in which sequestered situations it breeds, The nest is built in a bush or low tree (such as willow, alder, or hazel), of moss and the stalks of dry grass, intermixed with down from the catkin of the willow, which also forms the lining, and renders it a particularly soft and warm receptacle for the eggs and young. From this substance being a constant material of the nest, it follows, that the young are produced late in the season, and are seldom able to fly before the end of June, or the beginning of July. The eggs are four or five in number ; their colour, pale bluish green, spotted with orange brown, principally towards the larger end. In winter, thelesser redpoll descends to the lower grounds, in considerable flocks, frequenting woods and plantations, more especially such as abound in birch or alder trees, the catkins of which yield it a plentiful supply of food. When feeding, its motion affords both interest and amusement ; since, in order to reach the catkins, which generally grow near the extremities of the smaller branches, it is obliged, like the titmouse, to hang with its back downwards, and assume a variety of constrained attitudes, and, when thus engaged, it is so intent upon its work, as frequently to allow itself to be taken by a long stick smeared with bird-lime, in which way I have occasionally captured it when in want of specimens for examination. It also eats the buds of trees, and (when in flocks) proves in this way seriously injurious to young plantations. Its call note is very frequently repeated when on wing, and by this it may be always distinguished from the other species. The notes it produces during the pairing season, although few, and not delivered in continuous song, are sweet and pleasing.” “This bird is widely diffused through all the northern parts of Europe ; inhabits Northern Asia as far as Siberia and Kamtschatka ; and is also abundant in North America.” The authors of the “ Northern Zoology” describe another bird allied to the linnets, of which one individual only was obtained in the last northern expedition. It is said to be new, and is described as Linaria (Leocosticte) Teprocotis, Sw. grey-crowned linnet. It is an aberrant form of Iinaria, which Mr Swainson proposes to designate under the above sub-generic title.— Ep, 36 LESSER REDPOLL. to furnish a particular description of this species. But this sup- plementary notice would not have been considered necessary, if our author had not fallen into a mistake respecting the mark- ings of the female and the young male; the former of which he describes as ‘ destitute of the crimson on the forehead,’ and the latter, ‘not receiving that ornament till the succeeding spring. When Mr Wilson procured his specimens, it was in the autumn, previously to their receiving their perfect winter dress ; and he was never afterwards aware of his error, owing to the circumstance of these birds seldom appearing in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. Considerable flocks of them, however, have visited us this winter (1813-14) ; and we have been enabled to procure several fine specimens of both sexes, from the most perfect of which we have taken the following description. We will add, that having had the good fortune to observe a flock, consisting of nearly an hundred, within a few feet of them, as they were busily engaged in picking the seeds of the wild orache,* we can, with confidence, assert, that they all had the red patch on the crown; but there were very few which had the red rump and breast: the young males, it is probable, are not thus marked until the spring, and the females are destitute of that ornament altogether. ‘“‘The lesser redpoll is five inches and a quarter in length, and eight inches and a half in breadth ; the bill is pale yellow, ridged above and below with dark horn colour, the upper mandible projecting somewhat over the lower at the tip ; irides, dark hazel ; the nostrils are covered with recumbent, hair-like feathers, of drab colour ; a line of brown extends from the eyes, and encircles the base of the bill, forming, in some specimens, a patch below the chin; the crown is ornamented with a pretty large spot of deep shining crimson; the throat, breast, and rump, stained with the same, but of a more delicate red ; the belly is of a very pale ash, or dull white; the sides are streaked with dusky ; the whole upper parts are brown or dusky ; the plumage, edged with yellowish white and pale ash, * Atriplex hastata, Linn. Drawn from Nature by dA Wilson Engraved by WH. Lixars Sy 1 American Crossiill. 2.Female. 3 White-winged Crossbil.4. White-crowned Bunting. 3. Bavy-winged B, ol. AMERICAN CROSSBILL. Bi the latter most predominant near the rump; wings and tail, dusky ; the latter is forked, and consists of twelve feathers edged with white ; the primaries are very slightly tipt and edged with white, the secondaries more so; the greater and lesser coverts are also tipt with white, forming the bars across the wings ; thighs, cinereous ; legs and feet, black ; hind claw, considerably hooked, and longer than the rest. The female is less bright in her plumage above ; and her under parts incline more to an ash colour; the spot on her crown is of a golden crim- son, or reddish saffron colour. One male specimen was consi- derably larger than the rest ; it measured five inches and three quarters in length, and nine inches and a quarter in extent ; the breast and rump were tawny ; itsclaws were uncommonly long, the hind one measured nearly three-eighths of an inch ; and the spot on the crown was of a darker hue than that of the rest. “The call of this bird exactly resembles that of the /ringilla wristis, or common yellow bird of Pennsylvania. The redpolls linger in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia until about the middle of April; but whither they retire for the business of incubation, we cannot determine. In common with almost all our finches, the redpolls become very fat, and are then accounted delicious eating. During the last winter, many hundreds of them were exposed to sale in the Philadelphia market, and were readily purchased by those epicures, whose love of variety permits no delicacy to escape them.” | AMERICAN CROSSBILL. (Curvirostra Americana.) PLATE XXXI.—Fic. 1. MALE; Fic. 2. FEMALE. Peale’s Museum, No. 5640. LOXIA CURVIROSTRA?—BonAPARTE.* Loxia curvirostra, Bonap. Synop. p. 117. On first glancing at the bill of this extraordinary bird, one is apt to pronounce it deformed and monstrous; but on atten- * Brisson first limited the crossbills to a genus, and proposed for them the title Loxia, which has been adopted by most ornithologists. Crucz- 3 8 AMERICAN CROSSBILL. tively observing the use to which it is applied by the owner, and the dexterity with which he detaches the seeds of the pine tree from the cone, and from the husks that enclose them, we rostra and Ourvirostra, have also been formed for it from the shape of the bill; but ought to be rejected, from the priority of the former. They are a very limited group, being composed of at most four species, pro- vided that of America be proved distinct, or one differing from those of Europe be found in the former continent. Their distribution appears to extend pretty generally over the north of Europe, decreasing in num- bers to the south, and over North America. In form, all the members are similar. They are endowed with considerable power of flight ; are of a thick, stout make, and in addition to the curiously formed bill, possess scansorial habits, using their bills and feet to disengage the seeds from the fir cones, when in confinement, holding their food like a parrot in the latter member, and by the same means climbing about the wires of the cage. Regarding the identity of our author’s species with that of this coun- try, | am uncertain, not having a specimen of the bird from America. Wilson thinks it distinct, and I have been told the same thing by Audu- bon. On the other hand, we have the authority of Bonaparte, who thus writes in his Observations on Wilson’s Nomenclature :—‘‘ 1 think Wilson was in error when he considered this bird a new species, and stated that it differs considerably from the European. He probably compared it with the L. pytiopsittacus, and not with the curvirostra, with which latter it is identical. Wilson’s new names must therefore be rejected, and the name of Loxia curvirostra must be restored to this bird.” Our author was also incorrect in remarking, that “the young males, as is usual with most other birds, very much resemble the female.” The fact is, that the young of all the crossbills, as well as that of Pyrrhula enucleator, contrary to the habit of the generality of birds, lose their red colour as they advance in age, instead of gaining an additional brilliancy of plum- age. The figure which our author gives as that of an adult male, repre- sents a young bird of about one year, and his supposed female is a remarkably tine adult male. The species of this group, then, are,—L. pytiopsittacus, or parrot-billed crossbill of Europe, and which Bonaparte also hints the possibility of finding in America, a circumstance I should think very likely,—the Z. leucoptera, and the L. curvirostra ; but I fear we must remain uncertain whether the last constitutes one or two, until the examination of nume- rous specimens from both countries decide the point. The haunts of our common species in Europe are the immense northern pine forests, where their chief food is the seeds of the fir cones; from thence, after breeding, they appear to migrate to various parts southward, in comparatively AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 39 are obliged to confess, on this, as on many other occasions, where we have judged too hastily of the operations of Nature, that no other conformation could have been so excellently adapted to the purpose; and that its deviation from the common form, instead of being a defect or monstrosity, as the celebrated French naturalist insinuates, is a striking proof of the wisdom and kind superintending care of the great Creator. small flocks, at uncertain intervals. This is the case with those which visit Britain. They must hatch very early, arriving in this country by the middle of June ; the females at that time bear all the marks of in- cubation, but have never yet been authentically proved to breed in this country, as supposed by Mr Knap, from the bareness of the breast. They descend, at the same season, to the orchards, where they do considerable damage, by splitting the apples for the pips, thus leaving the fruit use- less, and incapable of farther growth ; and, at the same time, giving us a good instance of the power of their bills. Some old writers accuse them of visiting Worcester and Herefordshire, “in great flocks, for the sake of the seeds of the apple. Repeated persecution on this account perhaps lessened their numbers, and their depredations at the present day are unnoticed or unknown:” their visitations, at least, are less frequent ; for a later writer in Loudon’s Magazine observes, that, in 1821, and the commencement of 1822 (the same season of their great appearance mentioned by Mr Selby), a large flock of crossbills frequented some fir groves at Cothoridge, near Worcester, where they used to visit the same spot pretty regularly twice a-day, delighting chiefly on the Weymouth pines. When feeding, they seem in this country, as well as with our author, to be remarkably tame, or so much engrossed with their food, as to be unmindful of danger. Montague relates, that a birdcatcher at Bath had taken a hundred pairs in the month of June and July, 1791 ; and so intent were these birds when picking out the seeds of a cone, that they would suffer themselves to be caught with a hair noose at the end of a long fishing-rod. In 1821, this country was visited with large flocks ; they appeared in June, and gradually moved northward, as they were observed by Mr Selby in September among the fir tracts of Scotland, after they had disappeared to the southward of the river Tweed. In 1828, a pretty large flock visited the vicinity of Ambleside, Westmoreland. Their favourite haunt was a plantation of young larches, where they might be seen disporting almost every day, particularly be- tween the hours of eleven and one. I have quoted no synonyms which belong to our British species. The American birds appear to me much smaller ; that is, to judge from our author’s plate, and the usually correct drawings of Mr Audubon.— Ep, 40 AMERICAN CROSSBILL. This species is a regular inhabitant of almost all our pine forests situated north of 40°, from the beginning of September to the middle of April. It is not improbable that some of them remain during summer within the territory of the United States to breed. Their numbers must, however, be comparatively few, as I have never yet met with any of them in summer; though lately I took a journey to the Great Pine Swamp beyond Pocano mountain, in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, in the month of May, expressly for that pur- pose; and ransacked, for six or seven days, the gloomy recesses of that extensive and desolate morass, without being able to discover a single crossbill. In fall, however, as well as in winter and spring, this tract appears to be their favourite rendezvous ; particularly about the head waters of the Lehigh, the banks of the Tobyhanna, Tunkhannock, and Bear Creek, where I have myself killed them at these seasons. They then appear in large flocks, feeding on the seeds of the hemlock and white pine, have a loud, sharp, and not unmusical note; chatter as they fly; alight, during the prevalence of deep snows, before the door of the hunter, and around the house, picking off the clay with which the logs are plastered, and searching in corners where urine, or any substance of a saline quality, had been thrown. At such times they are so tame as only to settle on the roof of the cabin when disturbed, and a moment after descend to feed as before. They are then easily caught in traps; and will fre- quently permit one to approach so near as to knock them down with a stick. Those killed and opened at such times are generally found to have the stomach filled with a soft greasy kind of earth or clay. When kept in a cage, they have many of the habits of the parrot ; often climbing along the wires; and using their feet to grasp the cones in, while taking out the seeds. This same species is found in Nova Scotia, and as far north as Hudson’s Bay, arriving at Severn. River about the latter end of May; and, according to accounts, proceeding farther AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 4 north to breed. It is added by Pennant, that “they return at the first setting in of frost.” Hitherto this bird has, as usual, been considered a mere variety of the European species ; though differing from it in several respects, and being nearly one-third less, and although the singular conformation of the bill of these birds, and their peculiarity of manners, are strikingly different from those of the grosbeaks, yet many, disregarding these plain and obvious discriminations, still continue to consider them as belonging to the genus Lowa; as if the particular structure of the bill should, in all cases but this, be the criterion by which to judge of a species; or perhaps, conceiving themselves the wiser of the two, they have thought proper to associate together what Nature has, in the most pointed manner, placed apart. In separating these birds, therefore, from the grosbeaks, and classing them as a family by themselves, substituting the specific for the generic appellation, I have only followed the steps and dictates of that great Original, whose arrangements ought never to be disregarded by any who would faithfully copy her. The crossbills are subject to considerable changes of colour ; the young males of the present species being, during the first season, olive yellow, mixed with ash; then bright greenish yellow, intermixed with spots of dusky olive, all of which yellow plumage becomes, in the second year, of a light red, having the edges of the tail inclining to yellow. When con- fined in a cage, they usually lose the red colour at the first moulting, that tint changing to a brownish yellow, which remains permanent. ‘The same circumstance happens to the purple finch and pine grosbeak, both of which, when in con- finement, exchange their brilliant crimson for a motley garb of light brownish yellow ; as I have had frequent opportunities of observing. The male of this species, when in perfect plumage, is five inches and three quarters long, and nine inches in extent ; 42 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. the bill is a brown horn colour, sharp, and single-edged towards the extremity, where the mandibles cross each other ; the general colour of the plumage is a red-lead colour, brightest on the rump, generally intermixed on the other parts with touches of olive ; wings and tail, brown black, the latter forked, and edged with yellow ; legs and feet, brown ; claws, large, much curved, and very sharp; vent, white, streaked with dark ash ; base of the bill, covered with recum- bent down, of a pale brown colour ; eye, hazel. The female is rather less than the male ; the bill of a paler horn colour; rump, tail-coverts, and edges of the tail, golden yellow ; wings and tail, dull brownish black ; the rest of the plumage, ‘olive yellow mixed with ash; legs and feet, as in the male. The young males, during the first season, as is usual with most other birds, very much resemble the female. In moulting, the males exchange their red for brownish yellow, which gradually brightens into red. Hence, at dif- ferent seasons, they differ greatly in colour. WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. (Curvirostra leucoptera. ) PLATE XXXI.—Fic. 3. Turton, Syst. i. p. 515. LOXIA LEUCOPTERA.—GMELIN.* Loxia leucoptera, Bonap. Synop. p. 117. THis is a much rarer species than the preceding; though found frequenting the same places, and at the same seasons ; * Bonaparte has fulfilled Wilson’s promise, and figured the female of this species, with some valuable remarks regarding its first discovery and habits, which will be found in Vol. III. From these it appears to be very like its congeners, performing its migrations at uncertain periods and in various abundance, enjoying the pine forests, though not farther known by any destructive propensities among orchards. It may be looked upon yet as exclusively North American. The only record of WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 43 differing, however, from the former in the deep black wings and tail, the large bed of white on the wing, the dark crimson of the plumage ; and a less and more slender conformation of body. The bird represented in the plate was shot in the neighbourhood of the Great Pine Swamp, in the month of September, by my friend Mr Ainsley, a German naturalist, collector in this country for the emperor of Austria. The individual of this species, mentioned by Turton and Latham, had evidently been shot in moulting time. The present specimen was a male in full and perfect plumage. The white-winged crossbill is five inches and a quarter long, and eight inches and a quarter in extent; wings and tail, deep black, the former crossed with two broad bars of white ; general colour of the plumage dark crimson, partially spotted with dusky; lores and frontlet, pale brown; vent, white, streaked with black ; bill, a brown horn colour, the mandibles crossing each other as in the preceding species, the lower sometimes bending to the right, sometimes to the left, usually to the left in the male, and to the right in the female of the American crossbill. The female of the present species will be introduced as soon as a good specimen can be obtained, with such additional facts relative to their manners as may then be ascertained. its being found in another country is in extracts from the minute book of the Linnean Society for 1803. ‘“ Mr Templeton, A.L.S. of Orange- grove, near Belfast, in a letter to Mr Dawson Turner, F.L.S., mentions that the white-winged crossbill, Loria falcirostra of Latham, was shot within two miles of Belfast, in the month of January 1802. It was a female, and perfectly resembled the figure in Dixon’s Voyage to the North-west Coast of America.” Such is the only record we have of this bird as a British visitor. When Ireland becomes more settled, and her naturalists more devoted to actual observation, we may hear more of L. leucoptera, Cypselus melba, &c, Bonaparte, in his description of the female, has entered fully into the reasons for adopting the specific name of leucoptera.— Ep, 44 WHITE-CROWNED BUNTING. WHITE-CROWNED BUNTING. (Emberiza leucophrys.) PLATE XXXI.—Fie. 4. Turton, Syst. p. 536.—Peale’s Museum, No. 6587. ZONOTRICHIA LEUCOPHRYS.—SwWAINsoNn. Fringilla leucophrys, Bonap. Synop. p. 107.—Fringilla (Zonotrichia) HELETIDLES IS: North. Zool. ii. p. 255. THis beautifully marked species is one of the rarest of its tribe in the United States, being chiefly confined to the northern districts, or higher interior parts of the country, except in severe winters, when some few wanderers appear in the lower parts of the state of Pennsylvania. Of three speci- mens of this bird, the only ones I have yet met with, the first was caught in a trap near the city of New York, and lived with me several months. It had no song, and, as I afterwards discovered, was a female. Another, a male, was presented to me by Mr Michael of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. ‘The third, a male, and in complete plumage, was shot in the Great Pine Swamp, in the month of May, and is faithfully represented in the plate. It appeared to me to be unsuspicious, silent, and solitary ; flitting in short flights among the underwood and piles of prostrate trees, torn up by a tornado, that some years ago passed through the swamp. All my endeavours to dis- cover the female or nest were unsuccessful. From the great scarcity of this species, our acquaintance with its manners is but very limited. Those persons who have resided near Hudson’s Bay, where it is common, inform us, that it makes its nest in June, at the bottom of willows, and lays four chocolate-coloured eggs. Its flight is said to be short and silent; but, when it perches, it sings very melodiously.* The white-crowned bunting is seven inches long, and ten inches in extent; the bill, a cinnamon brown; crown, from * Arctic Zoology. BAY-WINGED BUNTING. AS the front to the hind head, pure white, bounded on each side by a stripe of black proceeding from each nostril; and these again are bordered by a stripe of pure white passing over each eye to the hind head, where they meet ; below this, another narrow stripe of black passes from the posterior angle of the eye, widening as it descends to the hind head; chin, white ; breast, sides of the neck, and upper parts of the same, very pale ash ; back, streaked laterally with dark rusty brown and pale bluish white ; wings, dusky, edged broadly with brown ; the greater and lesser coverts tipt broadly with white, forming two handsome bands across the wing; tertials, black, edged with brown and white; rump and tail-coverts, drab, tipt with a lighter tint; tail, long, rounded, dusky, and edged broadly with drab; belly, white; vent, pale yellow ochre ; legs and feet, reddish brown; eye, reddish hazel; lower eyelid, white. The female may easily be distinguished from the male, by the white on the head being less pure, the black also less in extent, and the ash on the breast darker ; she is also smaller in size. There is a considerable resemblance between this species and the white-throated sparrow, already described in this work. Yet they rarely associate together; the latter re- maining in the lower parts of Pennsylvania in great numbers, until the beginning of May, when they retire to the north and to the high inland regions to breed ; the former inhabiting much more northern countries, and though said to be common in Canada, rarely visiting this part of the United States. BAY-WINGED BUNTING. (imberiza graminea.) PLATE XXXI.—Fie. 5. Grass Finch, Arct. Zool. No. 253.—Lath. iii. 273.—Turton, Syst. i. p. 565. ZONOTRICHIA GRAMINEA.—SWAINSON. Fringilla graminea, Bonap. Synop. p. 108.—Fringilla (Zonotrichia) graminea, North. Zool. ii. p. 254. Tue manners of this bird bear great affinity to those of the common bunting of Britain. It delights in frequenting grass 46 BAY-WINGED BUNTING. and clover fields, perches on the tops of the fences, singing, from the middle of April to the beginning of July, with a clear and pleasant note, in which particular it far excels its European relation. It is partially a bird of passage here, some leaving us, and others remaining with us, during the winter. In the month of March I observed them numerous in the lower parts of Georgia, where, according to Mr Abbot, they are only winter visitants. They frequent the middle of fields more than hedges or thickets; run along the ground like a lark, which they also resemble in the great breadth of their wings. They are timid birds, and rarely approach the farmhouse. Their nest is built on the ground, in a grass or clover field, and formed of old withered leaves and dry grass, and lined with hair. The female lays four or five eggs, of a grayish white. On the first week in May, I found one of their nests with four young, from which circumstance I think it probable that they raise two or more broods in the same season. This bird measures five inches and three quarters in length, and ten inches and a half in extent; the upper parts are cinereous brown, mottled with deep brown or black; lesser wing-coverts, bright bay ; greater, black, edged with very pale brown; wings, dusky, edged with brown; the exterior primary, edged with white; tail, sub-cuneiform, the outer feather white on the exterior edge, and tipt with white; the next, tipt and edged for half an inch with the same ; the rest, dusky, edged with pale brown ; bill, dark brown above, paler below ; round the eye is a narrow circle of white ; upper part of the breast, yellowish white, thickly streaked with pointed spots of black that pass along the sides; belly and vent, white; legs and feet, flesh-coloured ; third wing-feather from the body, nearly as long as the tip of the wing when shut. I can perceive little or no difference between the colours and markings of the male and female. rm yj) Ce Hiya Anni, gt 1 Oo Di ame By) ue LSnow Owl. 2. Male Sparrow Hawk. 32. Yreasn tron Nacire by A Wilsor SNMOW OWL. 47 SNOW OWL. § (Strix nyctea.) PLATE XXXII.—Fie. 1. MAE. Lath. i. 132. No. 17.—Buff. i. 387.—Great White Owl, Hdw. 61.—Snowy Owl, Arct. Zool. 233. No. 121.—Peale’s Museum, No. 458. SURNIA NYCTEA.—DUvUMERIL. Snowy Owl, Mont. Orn. Dict. Supp.—Bewickh’s Brit. Birds, Supp.—Snowy Owl, Strix nyctea, Selby’s Brit. Orn. p. 58, pl. 23.—Strix nyctea, Zemm. Man. i. p. 82.—Flem. Br. Anim. p. 58.—Bonap. Synop. p. 36.—North. Zool. ii. p. 88. THE snow owl represented in the plate is reduced to half its natural size. ‘To preserve the apparent magnitude, the other accompanying figures are drawn by the same scale. This great northern hunter inhabits the coldest and most dreary regions of the northern hemisphere on both continents. The forlorn mountains of Greenland, covered with eternal ice and snows, where, for nearly half the year, the silence of death and desolation might almost be expected to reign, furnish food and shelter to this hardy adventurer; whence he is only driven by the extreme severity of weather towards the sea-shore. He is found in Lapland, Norway, and the country near Hudson’s Bay, during the whole year ; is said to be common in Siberia, and numerous in Kamtschatka. He is often seen in Canada and the northern districts of the United States; and sometimes extends his visits to the borders of Florida. Nature, ever provident, has so effectually secured this bird from the attacks of cold, that not even a point is left exposed. ‘The bill is almost completely hid among’a mass of feathers that cover the face; the legs are clothed with such an exuberance of long, thick, hair-like plumage, as to appear nearly as large as those of a middle-sized dog, nothing being visible but the claws, which are large, black, much hooked, and extremely sharp. The whole plumage below the surface is of the most exquisitely soft, warm, and elastic kind, and so closely matted together as to make it a difficult matter to penetrate to the skin. 48 SNOW OWL. The usual food of this species is said to be hares, grouse, rabbits, ducks, mice, and even carrion. Unlike most of his tribe, he hunts by day as well as by twilight, and is particu- larly fond of frequenting the shores and banks of shallow rivers, over the surface of which he slowly sails, or sits on a rock a little raised above the water, watching for fish. These he seizes with a sudden and instantaneous stroke of the foot, seldom missing his aim. In the more southern and thickly settled parts, he is seldom seen; and when he appears, his size, colour, and singular aspect, attract general notice.* In the month of October, I met with this bird on Oswego River, New York State, a little below the Falls, vigilantly watching for fish. At Pittsburg, in the month of February, I saw another, which had been shot in the wing some time before. Ata place on the Ohio, called Long Reach, I exa- mined another, which was-the first ever recollected*to have been seen there. In the town of Cincinnati, State of Ohio, two of these birds alighted on the roof of the court house, and alarmed the whole town. A people more disposed to super- stition would have deduced some dire or fortunate prognos- tication from their selecting such.a place ; but the only solicitude was how to get possession of them, which, after several volleys, was at length effected. One of these, a female, * The following observations by Mr Bree of Allesly, taken from Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, will show that other owls also fish for their prey :—‘‘ Probably it may not be generally known to naturalists, that the common brown owl (Strix stridula), is in the habit—occasionally, at least—of feeding its young with live fish,—a fact which I have ascertained beyond doubt. Some years since several young owls were taken from the nest, and placed in a yew tree, in the rectory garden here. In this situation, the parent birds repeatedly brought them live fish, bull heads (Cottus gobbius), and loach (Colitis barbatula), which had doubtless been procured from a neighbouring brook, in which these species abound. Since the above period, I have, upon more than one occasion, found the same fish, either whole or in fragments, lying under the trees on which I have observed the young owls to perch after they have left the nest, and where the old birds were accustomed to feed them.” —Ep. SNOW OWL. 49 J afterwards examined, when on my way through that place to New Orleans. Near Bairdstown, in Kentucky, I met with a large and very beautiful one, which appeared to be altogether unknown to the inhabitants of that quarter, and excited general surprise. A person living on the eastern shore of Maryland, shot one of these birds a few months ago, a female; and, having stuffed the skin, brought it to Philadelphia, to Mr Peale, in expectation, no doubt, of a great reward. I have examined eleven of these birds within these fifteen months last past, in different and very distant parts of the country, all of which were shot either during winter, late in the fall, or early in spring; so that it does not appear certain whether any remain during summer within the territory of the United States ; though I think it highly probable that a few do, in some of the more northern inland parts, where they are most numerous during winter. The colour of this bird is well suited for concealment, while roaming over the general waste of snows ; and its flight strong and swift, very similar to that of some of our large hawks. Its hearing must be exquisite, if we Judge from the largeness of these organs in it; and its voice is so dismal, that, as Pennant observes, it adds horror even to the regions of Greenland, by its hideous cries, resembling those of a man in deep distress. The male of this species measures twenty-two inches and a half in length, and four feet six inches in breadth ; head and neck, nearly white, with a few small dots of dull brown interspersed ; eyes, deep sunk, under projecting eyebrows, the plumage at their internal angles, fluted or prest in, to admit direct vision ; below this it bristles up, covering nearly the whole bill; the irides are of the most brilliant golden yellow, and the countenance, from the proportionate smallness of the head, projection of the eyebrow, and concavity of the plumage at the angle of the eye, very different from that of any other of the genus; general colour of the body, white, marked with lunated spots of pale brown above, and with semicircular VOL. II. D Oe SNOW OWL. dashes below ; femoral feathers, long, and legs covered, even over the claws, with long shaggy hair-like down, of a dirty white ; the claws, when exposed, appear large, much hooked, of a black colour, and extremely sharp pointed ; back, white ; tail, rounded at the end, white, slightly dotted with pale brown near the tips; wings, when closed, reach near the extremity of the tail; vent-feathers, large, strong shafted, and extending also to the point of the tail ; upper part of the breast and belly, plain white; body, very broad and flat. The female, which measures two feet in length, and five feet two inches in extent, is covered more thickly with spots of a much darker colour than those on the male; the chin, throat, face, belly, and vent, are white; femoral feathers, white, long, and shaggy, marked with a few heart-shaped spots of brown ; legs, also covered to the claws with long white hairy down; rest of the plumage white, every feather spotted or barred with dark brown, largest on the wing-quills, where they are about two inches apart; fore part of the crown, thickly marked with roundish black spots ; tail, crossed with bands of broad brownish spots ; shafts of all the plumage, white; bill and claws, as in the male, black; third and fourth wing-quill the longest ; span of the foot, four inches. From the various individuals of these birds which I have examined, I have reason to believe that the male alone approaches nearly to white in his plumage, the female rarely or never. The bird from which the figure in the plate was drawn, was killed at Ege Harbour, New Jersey, in the month of December. The conformation of the eye of this bird forms a curious and interesting subject to the young anatomist. The globe of the eye is immoveably fixed in its socket, by a strong elastic hard cartilaginous case, in form of a truncated cone ; this case being closely covered with a skin, appears at first to be of one continued piece; but, on removing the exterior membrane, it is found to be formed of fifteen pieces, placed like the staves of a cask, overlapping a little at the base, or narrow end, and seem as if capable of being enlarged SNOW OWL. SY or contracted, perhaps by the muscular membrane with which they are encased. In five other different species of owls, which I have since examined, I found nearly the same con- formation of this organ, and exactly the same number of staves. The eye being thus fixed, these birds, as they view different objects, are always obliged to turn the head; and Nature has so excellently adapted their neck to this purpose, that they can, with ease, turn it round, without moving the body, in almost a complete circle.* * In prefixing the generic appellations to this curious family, I must at once confess my inability to do it in a manner satisfactory to myself. They have been yet comparatively unstudied ; and the organs of greatest importance have been seemingly most neglected. Neither my own collection, nor those accessible in Britain, contain sufficient materials to decide upon: I will, therefore, consider any attempt now to divide them in the words of Mr Swainson, “as somewhat speculative, and certainly not warranted by any evidence that has yet been brought for- ward on the subject.” The names are applied, then, on the authority of ornithologists of high standing. This owl, and some others, will form the genus Woctua of Savigny and Cuvier, and are closely allied to the Surnia of Dumeril. In fact, the characters of the latter appear to me to agree better than those of Woctua ; and Lesson says, ‘“‘ Les cheveches ne se font pas reconnaitre trés nette- ment des chouettes.” The snowy owl feeds by day as well as by night, and is much more active than the night feeding birds ; it approaches nearer to the hawk owls. The head is less; the tail and wings, elongated, and the plumage is more compact and rigid. It appears to extend as far north in America as any inhabited country, and is found in the coldest districts of Europe. It is also mentioned by Pennant to reach beyond the Asiatic frontier to the hot latitude of Astracan (a contrast, uf it should turn out the same species), and was discovered to breed in Orkney and Shetland by Mr Bullock, who procured several specimens. Its visits to the mainland of Britain are, again, more rare ; indeed, I believe one of the only instances on record is that of a male and female killed near Rothbury in Northumberland, in January 1823, —a winter remarkable for a severe snow storm. They were killed on an open moor, in a wild and rocky part of the country, and were gene- rally seen perched upon the snow, or upon some large stone projecting fromit. Both now form beautiful specimens in the collection of Mr Selby. They become very familiar in winter, approaching close to the dwell- ings of the Indians. In Lapland they are shot with ball when hunting after moles and lemmings, and in that country, like many other owls, 52 AMERICAN SPARKOW HAWK. AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. (Falco sparverius.) PLATE XXXIL—Fic. 2, MaLe. Little Hawk, Arct. Zool. 211, No. 110.—Emerillon de Cayenne, Buff. i. 291. Pl. enl. No. 444.—Lath. i. 110.—Peale’s Museum, No. 340. FALCO SPARVERIUS.—LINNAUS. Falco sparverius, Bonap. Synop. p. 27.—Falco sparverius, Little Rusty-crowned Falcon, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 31. Tue female of this species has been already figured and described in Vol. I. of this work. As they differ considerably in the markings of their plumage, the male is introduced here, drawn to one half its natural size, to conform with the rest of the figures on the plate. The male sparrow hawk measures about ten inches in length, and twenty-one in extent ; the whole upper parts of the head are of a fine slate blue, the shafts of the plumage being black, the crown excepted, which is marked with a spot of bright rufous ; the slate tapers to a point on each side of the neck ; seven black spots surround the head, as in the female, on a they are looked upon with superstition. They utter a sound at night when perched, like the grunting of pigs, which, by the common and uninformed people, is thought to be some apparition or spectre. By Hearne the snow owl is said to be known to watch the grouse shooters a whole day, for the purpose of sharing inthe spoil. On such occasions, it perches on a high tree, and when a bird is shot, skims down and carries it off before the sportsman can get nearit. We have the fol- lowing remarks by Dr Richardson in the ‘“ Northern Zoology ” :— “‘ Frequents most of the arctic lands that have been visited, but retires with the ptarmigan, on which it preys, to more sheltered districts in winter ; hunts by day. When I have seen it on the barren grounds, it was generally squatting on the earth; and if put up, it alighted again after a short flight, but was always so wary as to be approached with difficulty. In woody districts it shows less caution. I have seen it pursue the American hare on the wing, making repeated strokes at the animal with its feet. In winter, when this owl is fat, the Indians and white residents in the Fur Countries esteem it to be good eating, Its flesh is delicately white.” By the Cree Indians it is called Wapow- keethoo, or Wapahoo ; by the Esquimaux, Oookpééguak ; by the Nor- wegians, Lemensgriis and Gysfugl; by the Swedes, Harfang.—Ep. AMERICAN SPARROW HAWE. 53 reddish white ground, which also borders each sloping side of the blue; front, lores, line over and under the eye, chin, and throat, white; femoral and vent-feathers, yellowish white ; the rest of the lower parts, of the same tint, each feather being streaked down: the centre with a long black drop ; those on the breast, slender, on the sides, larger; upper part of the back and scapulars, deep reddish bay, marked with ten or twelve transverse waves of black; whole wing-coverts and ends of the secondaries, bright slate, spotted with black ; primaries, and upper half of the secondaries, black, tipt with white, and spotted on their inner vanes with the same ; lower part of the back, the rump, and tail-coverts, plain bright bay ; tail rounded, the two exterior feathers, white, their inner vanes beautifully spotted with black; the next, bright bay, with a broad band of black near its end, and tipt for half an inch with yellowish white; part of its lower exterior edge, white, spotted with black, and its opposite interior edge, touched with white ; the whole of the others are very deep red bay, with a single broad band of black near the end, and tipt with yellowish white ; cere and legs, yellow; orbits, the same ; bill, light blue; iris of the eye, dark, almost black ; claws, blue black. The character of this corresponds with that of the female, given at large in Vol. I. p. 262. I have reason, however, to believe, that these birds vary considerably in the colour and markings of their plumage during the first and second years ; having met with specimens every way corresponding with the above, except in the breast, which was a plain rufous white, without spots ; the markings on the tail also differing a little in different specimens. ‘These I uniformly found, on dissection, to be males ; from the stomach of one of which I took a con- siderable part of the carcass of a robin (Turdus migratorvus), in- cluding the unbroken feet and claws; though the robin actually measures within half an inch as long as the sparrow hawk.* * Bonaparte has separated the small American falcons from the larger kinds, characterising the group as having the wings shorter than the tail, 54 ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. (Falco lagopus.) PLATE XXXIII.—Fic. 1. Arct. Zool. p. 200, No. 92.—Lath. i. 75.—Peale’s Museum, No. 116. BUTEO LAGOPUS.—BECHSTEIN? Rough-legged Falcon, Mont. Ornith.'Dict. Supp.—Bew. Br. Birds, Supp.— Rough-legged Buzzard, Selby’s Illust. Br. Ornith. i. p. 20. pl. 7.—Falco lagopus, Zemm. Man. i. p. 65.—Bonap. Synop. p. 32.—Buteo lagopus, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 54.—WNorth. Zool. ii. p. 52. Tris handsome species, notwithstanding its formidable size and appearance, spends the chief part of the winter among tarsi scutellated ; and Mr Swainson says, that the group seems natural, differing somewhat in their manners from the larger falcons, and having analogies in their habits to the shrikes. With both these we agree. It is long since we thought the general form and habits of our common kestrel—analogous to Wilson’s bird in Europe—differed from those of the true falcons, as much, certainly, as Astur does from Accipiter, and both should be only by subordinate divi- sions. The manner of suspending itself in the air is exactly similar to that of our windhover ; and I am not aware that this peculiar manner of hunting is made use of by any other of the Falconide, with the excep- tion of the kestrels, that is, those of Europe or Africa, #. rupicola, tunun- culoides, &c. The true falcons survey the ground by extensive sweeps, or a rapid flight, and stoop at once on their prey with the velocity and force of lightning; the others quietly watch their quarry when suspended or perched on a bare eminence or tree in the manner described, and take it by surprise. Insects, reptiles, and small animals form part of their food; and to the old falconists they were known by the name of “Tonoble.” The whole of the kestrels are very familiar, easily tamed, and when in confinement become even playful. Their great breeding- place is steep rocks, clothed with ivy, and fringed with the various wild plants incident to the different climes; in the chinks and hearts of these they nestle, often in security from any clamberer that has not the assist- ance of a rope ; though the appearance of a stranger immediately calls forth peculiarly shrill and timid notes of alarm. When the young are hatched, and partly advanced, they may be seen stretching out from their hole, and, on the appearance of their parent, mutual greetings are heard, and in a tone at once different from those before mentioned. Our native species, in addition to rocks, delights in ruined buildings as a breeding- place ; and it is remarkable, that perhaps more kestrels build and bring d Rough - ed F z 3 gh -legged Falcon. 2. Barred Owl. 5. Short eared 0. ERs cele AD. upmritecl. Py: WH Lr zun's ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. 55 our low swamps and meadows, watching for mice, frogs, lame ducks, and other inglorious game. ‘T'wenty or thirty individuals of this family have regularly taken up their winter quarters, for several years past, and probably long anterior to that date, in the meadows below this city, between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, where they spend their time watching along the dry banks like cats; or sailing low and slowly over the surface of the ditches. ‘Though rendered shy from the many attempts made to shoot them, they seldom fly far, usually from one tree to another at no great distance, making a loud squeeling as they arise, something resembling the neighing of a young colt, though in a more shrill and savage tone. The bird represented in the plate was one of this fraternity, to maturity their young in London, than in any space of the same dimen- sions: the breeding-places there are the belfries of the different churches, where neither the bustle beneath, nor the jingle of the bells, seems to have any effect upon them. We have the following characteristic observations on this species in the “ Northern Zoology” :—. “Tn the vicinity of Carlton House, where the plains are beautifully ornamented by numerous small clumps of aspens, that give a rich pic- turesque effect to the landscape, which I have never seen equalled in an English park, this small falcon was frequently discovered, perched upon the most lofty tree in the clump, sitting with his eye apparently closed, but, nevertheless, sufficiently awake to what was going on, as it would occasionally evince, by suddenly pouncing upon any small bird that happened to come within its reach. It is the least shy of any of the American hawks ; and, when on its perch, will suffer the fowler to ad- vance to the foot of the tree, provided he has the precaution to make a slow and devious approach. He is not, however, unnoticed ; for the bird shows, by the motion of its head, that he is carefully watching his manceuvres, though, unless he walks directly towards it, it is not readily alarmed. When at rest, the wings are closely applied to the sides, with their tips lying over the tail, about one-third from its end ; and the tail itself, being closely shut up, looks long and narrow. If its suspicion be excited, it raises and depresses its head quickly two or three times, and spreads its tail, but does not open its wings until the instant it takes its flight. ‘The individuals shot at Carlton House, had mice and small birds in their stomachs. They were not observed by the expedition beyond the 54th degree of latitude.”—Ep, 56 ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. and several others of the same association have been obtained and examined during the present winter. On comparing these with Pennant’s description referred to above, they cor- respond so exactly, that no doubts remain of their being the same species. Towards the beginning of April, these birds abandon this part of the country, and retire to the north to breed. | They are common, during winter, in the lower parts of Maryland, and numerous in the extensive meadows below Newark, New Jersey; are frequent along the Connecticut River ; and, according to Pennant, inhabit England, Norway, and Lapmark. ‘Their flight is slow and heavy. They are often seen coursing over the surface of the meadows, long after sunset, many times in pairs. They generally roost on the tall detached trees that rise from these low grounds ; and take their stations, at day-break, near a ditch, bank, or hay stack, for hours together, watching, with patient vigilance, for the first unlucky frog, mouse, or lizard, to make its appearance. ‘The instant one of these is descried, the hawk, sliding into the air, and taking a circuitous course along the surface, sweeps over the spot, and in an instant has his prey grappled and sprawling in the air. The rough-legged hawk measures twenty-two inches in length, and four feet two inches in extent; cere, sides of the mouth, and feet, rich yellow ; legs, feathered to the toes, with brownish yellow plumage, streaked with brown ; femorals, the same; toes, comparatively short ; claws and bill, blue black ; iris of the eye, bright amber ; upper part of the head, pale ochre, streaked with brown; back and wings, chocolate, each feather edged with bright ferruginous ; first four primaries, nearly black about the tips, edged externally with silvery in some lights; rest of the quills, dark chocolate ; lower side, and interior vanes, white; tail-coverts, white ; tail, rounded, white, with a broad band of dark brown near the end, and tipt with white; body below, and breast, light yellow ochre, blotched and streaked with chocolate. What constitutes a ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. LY, characteristic mark of this bird, is a belt, or girdle, of very dark brown, passing round the belly just below the breast, and reaching under the wings to the rump; head, very broad, and bill uncommonly small, suited to the humility of its prey. The female is much darker, both above and below, parti- cularly in the belt, or girdle, which is nearly black; the tail- coverts are also spotted with chocolate ; she is also something larger.* * From their different form, Buteo has been now adopted for the buzzards. They will also rank in two divisions; those with clothed, and those with bare tarsi. The American species belonging to the first, will be our present one, Wilson’s Falco niger, and Audubon’s Ff. Har- lanii ;1 to the second, Wilson’s B. borealis, hyemalis, and the common European buzzard, which was met with in the last Overland Arctic Expedition, The buzzards are sluggish and inactive in their habits ; their bills, feet, and claws, comparatively weak ; the form heavy, and the plumage more soft and downy, as if a smooth flight was to supply in part their want of activity. Their general flight is in sweeping circles, after mounting from their resting-place. They watch their prey either from the air, or on some tree or eminence, and sometimes pounce upon it when sailing near the ground. When satiated, they again return to their perch, and if undisturbed, will remain in one situation until hunger again calls them forth. Our present species is one of the more active, and is common also to the European continent. In Britain, it is an occasional visitant. They seem to appear at uncertain intervals, in more abundance ; thus, in 1823, I received two beautiful specimens from East Lothian ; and, in the same year, two or three more were killed on that coast. Mr Selby mentions, that in the year 1815, Northumberland was visited by them, and several specimens were obtained. He remarks, “Two of these birds, from having attached themselves to a neighbouring marsh, passed under my frequent observation. Their flight was smooth but slow, and not unlike that of the common buzzard ; and they seldom continued for any length of time on the wing. They preyed upon wild ducks and other birds, frogs and mice, which they mostly pounced upon on the ground.” They appear to prefer trees for their breeding-place, whereas rocks, and the sides of deep ravines, are more frequently selected by the common buzzard. No instance has occurred of them breeding in this country. In plumage, they vary as much as the common species, the colour of the upper parts being of lighter or darker shades ; the 1 See description of F. Miger. 58 BARRED OWL. BARRED OWL. § (Strix nebulosa.) PLATE XXXIII.—Fic. 2. Turton, Syst. 169.—Arct. Zool. p. 234, No. 122.—Lath. 133.—-Strix acclamator, The Whooting Owl, Bartram, 289.—Peale’s Museum, No. 464. STRIX NEBULOSA.—FOoRSTER.* La chouette du Canada (Ulula), Cuv. Regn. Anim. i. p. 328.—Strix nebulosa, (sub-gen. Ulula, Cuv.) Bonap. Synop. p. 38.—Chouette nébuleuse, Zemm. _ Man. i. p. 86.—Strix nebulosa, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 81. T'n1sis one of our most common owls. In winter particularly, it is numerous in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, among the breast sometimes largely patched with deep brown, and sometimes en- tirely of that colour ; and the white bar at the base of the tail, though always present, is of various dimensions. Dr Richardson says it arrives in the Fur Countries in April and May ; and having reared its young, retires southward early in October. They were so shy, that only one specimen could be got by the Expedition.—Ep. * Cuvier places this bird in his genus Ulula, It may be called nocturnal, though it does show a greater facility of conducting itself during the day than the really night-living species, and will approach nearer to the tawny owl of this country than any other ; indeed, it almost seems the American representative of that species. The tawny owl, though not so abundant, has the very same manners ; and when raised from its dormitory in a spruce or silver fir, or holly, or oak that still carries its leaves, it will flit before one for half a day, moving its station whenever it thinks the aggressor too near. It does not utter any cry during flight. It is common to both continents, visiting, however, only the more northern parts of the European, and does not extend so generally as many of those which inhabit both. According to Mr Audubon, this owl was a most abundant visitor to his various solitary encampments, often a most amusing one ; and, by less accustomed travellers, might easily have been converted into some supposed inhabitant of another world. “ How often,” says this distinguished ornithologist, “when snugly settled under the boughs of my temporary encampment, and preparing to roast a venison steak, or the body of a squirrel, on a wooden spit, have I been saluted with the exulting bursts of this nightly disturber of the peace, that, had it not been for him, would have prevailed around me, as well as in my lonely retreat! How often have I seen this - BARRED OWL. 59 © woods that border the extensive meadows of Schuylkill and Delaware. It is very frequently observed flying during day, and certainly sees more distinctly at that time than many of nocturnal marauder alight within a few yards of me, exposing his whole body to the glare of my fire, and eye mein such a curious manner, that, had it been reasonable to do so, I would gladly have invited him to walk in and join me in my repast, that I might have enjoyed the pleasure of forming a better acquaintance with him, The liveliness of his motions, joined to their oddness, have often made me think that his society would be at least as agreeable as that of many of the buffoons we meet with in the world. But as such opportunities of forming acquaintance have not existed, be content, kind reader, with the imper- fect information which I can give you of the habits of this Sancho Panga of our woods. “Such persons as conclude, when looking upon owls in the glare of day, that they are, as they then appear, extremely dull, are greatly mistaken. Were they to state, like Buffon, that woodpeckers are miserable beings, they would be talking as incorrectly ; and, to one who might have lived long in the woods, they would seem to have lived only in their libraries. “The barred owl is found in all those parts of the United States which I have visited, and is a constant resident. In Louisiana, it seems to be more abundant than in any other state. It is almost impossible to travel eight or ten miles in any of the retired woods there, without seeing several of them even in broad day; and, at the approach of night, their cries are heard proceeding from every part of the forest around the plantations. Should the weather be lowering, and indica- tive of the approach of rain, their cries are so multiplied during the day, and especially in the evening, and they respond to each other in tones so strange, that one might imagine some extraordinary féte about to take place among them. On approaching one of them, its gesticula- tions are seen to be of a very extraordinary nature. The position of the bird, which is generally erect, is immediately changed. It lowers its head and inclines its body, to watch the motions of the person beneath ; throws forward the lateral feathers of its head, which thus has the appearance of being surrounded by a broad ruff ; looks towards him as if half blind, and moves its head to and fro in so extraordinary a manner, as almost to induce a person to fancy that part dislocated from the body. It followsall the motions of the intruder with its eyes ; and should it suspect any treacherous intentions, flies off to a short dis- tance, alighting with its back to the person, and immediately turning about with a single jump, to recommence its scrutiny. In this manner, the barred owl may be followed to a considerable distance, if not shot 60 BARRED OWL. its genus. In one spring, at different times, I met with more than forty of them, generally fying or sitting exposed. I also once met with one of their nests, containing three young, in at, for to halloo after it does not seem to frighten it much. But if shot at and missed, it removes to a considerable distance, after which, its whah-whah-whah is uttered with considerable pomposity. This owl will answer the imitation of its own sounds, and is frequently decoyed by this means. “The flight of the barred owl is smooth, light, noiseless, and capable of being greatly protracted. I have seen them take their departure from a detached grove in a prairie, and pursue a direct course towards the skirts of the main forest, distant more than two miles, in broad day- light. I have thus followed them with the eye until they were lost in the distance, and have reason to suppose that they continued their flight until they reached the woods. Once, whilst descending the Ohio, not far from the well known Cave-in-rock, about two hours before sunset, in the month of November, I saw a barred ow] teased by several crows, and chased from the tree in which it was. On leaving the tree, it gradually rose in the air, in the manner of a hawk, and at length attained so great a height, that our party lost sight of it. It acted, I thought, as if it had lost itself, now and then describing small circles, and flapping its wings quickly, then flying in zigzag lines. This being so uncommon an occurrence, I noted it down at the time. I felt anxious to see the bird return towards the earth, but it did not make its appearance again. So very lightly do they fly, that I have frequently discovered one passing over me, and only a few yards distant, by first seeing its shadow on the ground, during clear moonlight nights, when not the faintest rustling of its wings could be heard. “Their power of sight during the day seems to be rather of an equi- vocal character, as I once saw one alight on the back of a cow, which it left so suddenly afterwards, when the cow moved, asto prove to me that it had mistaken the object on which it had perched for something else. At other times, I have observed that the approach of the gray squirrel intimidated them, if one of these animals accidentally jumped on a branch close to them, although the owl destroys a number of them dur- ing the twilight.” Audubon has heard it said, in addition to small animals and birds, and a peculiar sort of frog, common in the woods of Louisiana, that the barred owl catches fish, He never saw this performed, though it may be as natural for it as those species which have been ascertained to feed on them. It is often exposed for sale in the New Orleans market, and the creoles make gumbo of it, and pronounce it palatable. In this place may be introduced another species, mentioned by BARRED OWL, 61 the crotch of a white oak, among thick foliage. The nest was rudely put together, composed outwardly of sticks, intermixed with some dry grass and leaves, and lined with smaller twigs. At another time, in passing through the woods, I perceived something white, on the high shaded branch of a tree, close to the trunk, that, as I thought, looked like a cat asleep. Unable to satisfy myself, I was induced to fire, when, to my surprise and regret, four young owls, of this same species, nearly full grown, came down headlong, and, fluttering for a few moments, died at my feet. Their nest was probably not far distant. I have also seen the eggs of this species, which are nearly as large as those of a young pullet, but much more globular, and perfectly white. Bonaparte as inhabiting Arctic America, and met with by Dr Richardson during the last northern expedition. It is the largest of the American owls, exceeding even the size of the Virginian horned owl, and seems to have been first noticed and described by Dr Latham, from Hudson’s Bay specimens. Dr Richardson has more lately given the following sketch of its manners :—“ It is by no means a rare bird in the Fur Countries, being an inhabitant of all the woody districts lying between Lake Superior and latitudes 67° or 68°, and between Hudson’s Bay and the Pacific. It is common on the borders of Great Bear Lake; and there and in the higher parallels of latitude it must pursue its prey, during the summer months, by daylight. It keeps, however, within the woods, and does not frequent the barren grounds, like the snowy owl, nor is it so often met with in broad daylight as the hawk owl, but hunts principally when the sun is low ; indeed, it is only at such times, when the recesses of the woods are deeply shadowed, that the American hare and the marine animals, on which this owl chiefly preys, come forth to feed. On the 23d of May, I discovered a nest of this owl, built, on the top of a lofty balsam poplar, of sticks, and lined with feathers. It con- tained three young, which were covered with a whitish down. We could get at the nest only by felling the tree, which was remarkably thick ; and whilst this operation was going on, the two parent birds flew in circles round the objects of their care, keeping, however, so high in the air as to be out of gunshot: they did not appear to be dazzled by the light. The young ones were kept alive for two months, when they made their escape. They had the habit, common also to other owls, of throwing themselves back, and making a loud snapping noise with their bills, when any one entered the room in which they were kept.” —ED. 62 BARRED OWL. These birds sometimes seize on fowls, partridges, and young rabbits ; mice and small game are, however, their most usual food. The difference of size between the male and female of this owl is extraordinary, amounting sometimes to nearly eight inches in the length. Both scream during day, like a hawk. The male barred owl measures sixteen inches and a half in length, and thirty-eight inches in extent; upper parts a pale brown, marked with transverse spots of white; wings, barred with alternate bands of pale brown, and darker ; head, smooth, very large, mottled with transverse touches of dark brown, pale brown, and white; eyes, large, deep blue, the pupil not perceivable; face, or radiated circle of the eyes, eray, surrounded by an outline of brown and white dots ; bill, yellow, tinged with green; breast, barred transversely with rows of brown and white ; belly, streaked longitudinally with long stripes of brown, on a yellowish ground; vent, plain yellowish white; thighs and feathered legs, the same, slightly pointed with brown; toes, nearly covered with plum- age; claws, dark horn colour, very sharp ; tail, rounded, and remarkably concave below, barred with six broad bars of brown, and as many narrow ones of white; the back and shoulders have a cast of chestnut; at each internal angle of the eye, is abroad spot of black ; the plumage of the radiated circle round the eye ends in long black hairs; and the bill is encompassed by others of a longer and more bristly kind, These probably serve to guard the eye when any danger approaches it in sweeping hastily through the woods; and those usually found on flycatchers may have the same inten- tion to fulfil; for, on the slightest touch of the point of any of these hairs, the nictitant membrane was instantly thrown over the eye. The female is twenty-two inches long, and four feet in extent ; the chief difference of colour consists in her wings being broadly spotted with white; the shoulder being a plain chocolate brown; the tail extends considerably beyond the “SHORT-EARED OWL. 63 tips of the wings; the bill is much larger, and of a more golden yellow; iris of the eye, the same as that of the male. The different character of the feathers of this, and, I believe, of most owls, is really surprising. Those that surround the bill differ little from bristles ; those that surround the region of the eyes are exceedingly open, and unwebbed ; these are bounded by another set, generally proceeding from the ex- ternal edge of the ear, of a most peculiar small, narrow, velvety kind, whose fibres are so exquisitely fine, as to be invisible to the naked eye; above, the plumage has one general character at the surface, calculated to repel rain and moisture ; but, towards the roots, it is of the most soft, loose, and downy substance in nature—so much so, that it may be touched without being felt ;.the webs of the wing-quills are also of a delicate softness, covered with an almost impercep- tible hair, and edged with a loose silky down, so that the owner passes through the air without interrupting the most profound silence. Who cannot perceive the hand of God in all these things ! | SHORT-EARED OWL. (Strix Brachyotos.) PLATE XXXIII.—F1e. 3. Turton, Syst. p. 167.—Arct. Zool. p. 229, No. 116.—Lath. i. 124.—La chouette, ou la grand chevéche, Buff. i. Pl. enl. 438.—Peale’s Museum, No. 440. OTUS BRACHYOTOS.—CvvIiEr.* Short-eared Owl, Bew. Br. Birds, i. p. 48, 50.—Selby, Illust. Br. Orn. i. p. 54, pl. 21.—Hibou brachyote, Temm. Man. i. p. 99.—La Chouette, ou le moyen duc, 4 Huppes courtes, Cuv. Regn. Anim. i. p. 328.—Otus brachyotus, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 56.—Strix brachyotos, Bonap. Synop. p. 37.—Strix brachyota, North. Zool. p. 75. Tus is another species common to both continents, being found in Britain as far north as the Orkney Isles, where it * This owl, as Wilson observes, is also common to both continents, but the British history of it is comparatively unknown. The following observations may perhaps advance some parts of it :-— In England it bears the name of woodcock owl, from its appearance 64 SHORT-EARED OWL. also breeds, building its nest, upon the ground, amidst the heath ; arrives and disappears in the south parts of Hagland with the woodcock, that is, in October and April; conse- quently does not breed there. It is called at Hudson’s Bay, nearly about the same time with that bird, and its reappearance again in the spring. Very few, if any, remain during the whole season, and they are only met with in their migrations to and from the north, their breeding-places, similar to the appearance, for a few days, of the rin- gousels and dotterels ; in spring, singly or in pairs ; and in the fall, in small groups, the amount of their broods when again retiring. They do not appear to be otherwise gregarious ; and it is only in this way that we can account for the flock of twenty-eight in a turnip field, quoted by our author, and the instances of five or six of these birds frequently found roosting together, as mentioned by Mr Selby. They appear at the same seasons (according to Temminck), and are plentiful in Holland. It is only in the north of England, and over Scotland, that they will rank as summer visitants. Hoy, and the other Hebrides, where they were first discovered to breed, were considered the southern limit of their incubation. It extends, however, much farther; and may be, perhaps, stated as the extensive muirland ranges of Cumberland, West- moreland, and Northumberland. Over all the Scottish muirs, it occurs in considerable abundance ; there are few sportsmen who are unac- quainted with it ; many are killed during the grouse season, and those individuals which Mr Selby mentions as found on upland moors, 1 have no doubt bred there. On the extensive moors at the Head of Dryfe (a small rivulet in Dumfriesshire), I have, for many years past, met with one or two pairs of these birds, and the accidental discovery of their young first turned my attention to the range of their breeding ; for, pre- vious to this, I also held the opinion, that they had commenced their migration southward. The young was discovered by one of my dogs pointing it ; and, on the following year, by searching at the proper season, two nests were found with five eggs. They were formed upon the ground among the heath ; the bottom of the nest scraped until the fresh earth appeared, on which the eggs were placed, without any lining or other accessory covering. When approaching the nest or young, the old birds fly and hover round, uttering a shrill cry, and snapping with their bills, They will then alight at a short distance, survey the ageres- sor, and again resume their flight and cries. The young are barely able to fly by the 12th of August, and appear to leave the nest some time before they are able to rise from the ground. I have taken them, on that great day to sportsmen, squatted on the heath like young black game, at no great distance from each other, and always attended by the parent birds. Last year (1831) I found them in their old haunts, to which SHORT-EARED OWL. 65 the mouse hawk ; and is described as not flying, like other owls, in search of prey, but sitting quiet, on a stump of a tree, watching for mice. It is said to be found in plenty in the woods near Chatteau Bay, on the coast of Labrador. In the United States, it is also a bird of passage, coming to us from the north in November, and departing in April. The bird represented in the plate was shot in New Jersey, a few miles below Philadelphia, in a thicket of pines. It has the stern aspect of a keen, vigorous, and active bird; and is reputed to be an excellent mouser. It flies frequently by day, and particularly in dark cloudy weather, takes short flights ; and, when sitting and looking sharply around, erects the two slight feathers that constitute its horns, which are at such times very noticeable ; but, otherwise, not perceivable. No person on slightly examining this bird after being shot, would suspect it to be furnished with horns; nor are they discovered but by careful search, or previous observation, on the living bird. Bewick, in his “ History of British Birds,” remarks that this species is sometimes seen in companies,—twenty-eight of them having been once counted in a turnip field in November. Length, fifteen inches; extent, three feet four inches ; general colour above, dark brown, the feathers broadly skirted with pale yellowish brown; bill, large, black; irides, rich they appear to return very regularly; and the female, with a young bird, was procured; the young could only fly for sixty or seventy yards.! In form, this species will bear the same analogy to those furnished with horns which the snowy owl bears to the earless birds, The name of hawk owl implies more activity and boldness, and a different make ; and we find the head small, the body more slender, the wings and tail powerful. They hunt regularly by day, and will sometimes soar to a great height. They feed on small birds, and destroy young game, as well as mice and moles, It seems to have a pretty extensive geographical range. Pennant mentions it as inhabiting the Falkland Isles. It extends to Siberia ; and I have received it from the neighbourhood of Canton, in China.— Ep. 1 A specimen was shot in December (1831) on the same ground, and one was seen when drawing a whin covert for a fox, on 31st January 1832. I believe some reside during the whole year.—ED, ViONi LY, E 66 LITTLE OWL. golden yellow, placed in a bed of deep black, which radiates outwards all around, except towards the bill, where the plumage is whitish ; ears, bordered with a semi-circular line of black, and tawny yellow dots; tail, rounded, longer than usual with owls, crossed with five bands of dark brown, and as many of yellow ochre—some of the latter have central spots of dark brown, the whole tipt with white quills also banded with dark brown and yellow ochre; breast and belly streaked with dark brown, on a ground of yellowish ; legs, thighs, and vent, plain dull yellow ; tips of the three first quill-feathers, black ; legs, clothed to the claws, which are black, curved to about the quarter of a circle, and exceedingly sharp. The female I have never seen ; but she is said to be some- ~ what larger, and much darker, and the spots on the breast larger, and more numerous.* LITTLE OWL. § (Strix passerina.) PLATE XXXIV.—Fic. 1. Arct. Zool. 236, No. 126.—Turton, Syst. 172.—Peale’s Museum, No. 522. STRIX ACADICA.—GmMELin.{ Chouette chevéchette, Temm. Man. i. p. 96.—Strix acadica, Bonap. Synop. p. 38. —Monog. sinot strigiinauric. osservy. sulla, 2d edit. del. Reg. Anim. Cuv. p. 52. —Strix acadica, American Sparrow Owl, North. Zool. p. 97. Tats is one of the least of its whole genus; but, like many other little folks, makes up, in neatness of general form * The female is nearly of the same size with the male ; the colours are all of a browned tinge, the markings more clouded and indistinct ; the white of the lower parts, and under the wings, is less pure, and the belly and vent are more thickly dashed with black streaks; the ears are nearly of the same length with the other feathers, but can be easily distinguished. She is always foremost to attack any intruder on her nest or young.— Ep. + There is so much alliance between many of the small owls, that it is a matter of surprise more species have not been confounded. Wilson appears to have been mistaken, or to have confounded the name at least of the little owl; and on the authority of Temminck and Bonaparte, we 4 (de 4 hy Mae al, LOLA ath, ™ Noture by A Viloon Engraved-by WM Lars L. Little Owl. 2. Sea-side Finch. 3. Sharp tailed Le. aA. 4 Savannah F. LITTLE OWE. 67 and appearance, for deficiency of size, and is, perhaps, the most shapely of all our owls. Nor are the colours and markings of its plumage inferior in simplicity and effect to most others. Tt also possesses an eye fully equal in spirit and brilliancy to the best of them. This species is a general and constant inhabitant of the middle and northern states ; but is found most numerous in the neighbourhood of the sea-shore, and among woods and swamps of pine trees. It rarely rambles much during day ; but, if disturbed, flies a short way, and again takes shelter from the light: at the approach of twilight it is all life and activity, being a noted and dexterous mouse catcher. It is found as far north as Nova Scotia, and even Hudson’s Bay ; is frequent in Russia; builds its nest generally in pines, half way up the tree, and lays two eggs, which, like those of the have given it as above, that of acadica. It is anative of both continents, but does not yet appear to have reached the British shores. According to Temminck, it is found in the deep German forests, though rarely, but is plentiful in Livonia. Bonaparte hints at the probability of the S¢ passerina being yet discovered in America, which seems very likely, con- sidering the similarity of its Huropean haunts. The last Overland Arctic Expedition met with this and another allied species, St Tengmalmi, which will rank as an addition to the ornithology of that continent. Dr Richardson has the following observations regarding the latter: “ When it accidentally wanders abroad in the day, it is so much dazzled by the light of the sun as to become stupid, and it may be easily caught by the hand. Its cry in the night is a single melancholy note, repeated at in- tervals of a minute or two, and it is one of the superstitious practices of the natives to whistle when they hear it. If the bird is silent when thus challenged, the speedy death of the inquirer is thus augured ; hence its Cree appellation of Death Bird. On the banks of the Sascatchewan it is so common, that its voice is heard almost every night by the traveller, wherever he selects his bivouac. Both the latter species extend over the north of Europe, and are found occasionally in Britain, The specimens which I have seen in confine- ment seem to sleep or dose away the morning and forenoon, but are remarkably active when roused, and move about with great agility. Both are often exposed for sale, with other birds, in the Dutch and Belgian markets.— Ep, 7 68 LITTLE OWL. rest of its genus, are white. The melancholy and gloomy umbrage of those solitary evergreens forms its favourite haunts, where it sits dozing and slumbering all day lulled by the roar of the neighbouring ocean. The little owl is seven inches and a half long, and eighteen inches in extent ; the upper parts are a plain brown olive, the scapulars and some of the greater and lesser coverts being spotted with white ; the first five primaries are crossed obliquely with five bars of white ; tail, rounded, rather darker than the body, crossed with two rows of white spots, and tipt with white; whole interior vanes of the wings, spotted with the same ; auriculars, yellowish brown ; crown, upper - part of the neck, and circle surrounding the ears, beautifully marked with numerous points of white on an olive brown ground ; front, pure white, ending in long blackish hairs ; at the internal angle of the eyes, a broad spot of black radiating outwards ; irides, pale yellow ; bill, a blackish horn colour ; lower parts, streaked with yellow ochre and reddish bay ; thighs, and feathered legs, pale buff; toes, covered to the claws, which are black, large, and sharp-pointed. The bird, from which the foregoing figure and description were taken, was shot on the sea-shore, near Great Ege Harbour, in New Jersey, in the month of November, and, on dissection, was found to be a female. Turton describes a species called the white fronted owl (S. albifrons,) which, in everything except the size, agrees with this bird, and has, very probably, been taken from a young male, which is sometimes found considerably less than the female. ae SEA-SIDE FINCH. 69 SEA-SIDE FINCH. (fringilla maritima.) PLATE XXXIV. Fic. 2. AMMODRAMUS MARITIMUS.—SWAINSON.* Ammodramus, Swain. Zool. Journ. No. 11. p. 348.—Fringilla maritima, Bonap. Synop. p. 110.—The Sea-side Finch, Aud. Orn. Biog. i. p. 470, pl. 93, male and female. Or this bird I can find no description. It inhabits the low rush-covered sea islands along our Atlantic coast, where I first found it; keeping almost continually within the boundaries of tide water, except when long and violent east or north- easterly storms, with high tides, compel it to seek the shore. On these occasions it courses along the margin, and among the holes and interstices of the weeds and sea-wrack, with a rapidity equalled only by the nimblest of our sandpipers, and very much in their manner. At these times also it roosts on the ground, and runs about after dusk. * The sea-side and short-tailed finches constitute the genus Ammo- dramus of Swainson. The former was discovered by Wilson; the latter is the sharp-tailed oriole of Latham. They are both peculiar to North America, and are nearly confined to the salt marshes on the coast. They are very curious in their structure, combining, as remarked by our author, properties for either running or climbing. The tail is truly scansorial ; the feet partly so ; the hallux formed for running, having the claw elongated, and of a flat bend, as among the larks. Mr Audubon has figured this bird with the nest. He says it is placed so near the ground, that one might suppose it sunk into it, although this is not actually the case. It is composed externally of coarse grass, and is lined with finer kinds, but exhibits little regularity. The eggs are from four to six, elongated, grayish white, freckled with brown all over. They build in elevated shrubby places, where many nests may be found in the space of an acre. When the young are grown, they betake them- selves to the ditches and sluices which intersect the salt marshes, and find abundant food. They enter the larger holes of crabs, and every crack and crevice of the drying mud. In this they much resemble the wrens, who enjoy entering and prying into every chink or opening of their own haunts. Mr Audubon had some dressed in a pie, but found them quite unpalatable. —Eb. 70 SEA-SIDE FINCH. This species derives its whole subsistence from the sea. I examined a great number of individuals by dissection, and found their stomachs universally filled with fragments of shrimps, minute shell-fish, and broken limbs of small sea crabs. Its flesh, also, as was to be expected, tasted of fish, or was what is usually termed sedgy. Amidst the recesses of these wet sea marshes, it seeks the rankest growth of grass and sea weed, and climbs along the stalks of the rushes with as much dexterity as it runs along the ground, which is rather a singular circumstance, most of our climbers being rather awkward at running. The sea-side finch is six inches and a quarter long, and eight and a quarter in extent; chin, pure white, bordered on each side by a stripe of dark ash, proceeding from each base of the lower mandible; above that is another slight streak of white; from the nostril over the eye extends another streak, which immediately over the lores is rich yellow, bor- dered above with white, and ending in yellow olive; crown, brownish olive, divided laterally by a stripe of slate blue, or fine light ash; breast, ash, streaked with buff; belly, white ; vent, buff coloured, and streaked with black ; upper parts of the back, wings, and tail, a yellowish brown olive, intermixed with very pale blue; greater and lesser coverts, tipt with dull white ; edge of the bend of the wing, rich yellow ; primaries edged with the same immediately below their coverts; tail, cuneiform, olive brown, centered with black ; bill, dusky above, pale blue below, longer than is usual with finches ; legs and feet, a pale bluish white; irides, hazel. Male and female nearly alike in colour. SHARP-TAILED FINCH, Fs SHARP-TAILED FINCH. (Fringilla caudacuta.) PLATE XXXIV.—Fic. 3. Sharp-tailed Oriole, Lath. Gen. Synop. ii. p. 448. pl. 17.— Peale's Museum, No. 6442. AMMODRAMUS CAUDACUTUS.—SWAINsoON.* Ammodramus, Swain. Zool. Journ. No. ii. p. 348.—Fringilla caudacuta, Bonap. Synop. p. 110. A sirp of this denomination is described by Turton, Syst. p. 562, but which by no means agrees with the present. This, however, may be the fault of the describer, as it is said to be a bird of Georgia: unwilling, therefore, to multiply names unnecessarily, I have adopted his appellation. In some future part of the work I shall settle this matter with more precision. This new (as I apprehend it) and beautiful species is an associate of the former, inhabits the same places, lives on the same food; and resembles it so much in manners, that but for their dissimilarity in some essential particulars, I would be disposed to consider them as the same in a different state of plumage. They are much less numerous than the preced- ing, and do not run with equal celerity. The sharp-tailed finch is five inches and a quarter long, and seven inches and a quarter in extent ; bill, dusky ; auriculars, ash ; from the bill over the eye, and also below it, run two broad stripes of brownish orange ; chin, whitish; breast, pale buff, marked with small pointed spots of black ; belly, white ; vent, reddish buff; from the base of the upper mandible a broad stripe of pale ash runs along the crown and hind head, * Mr Audubon has figured a bird, very closely allied in plumage, under the title of Ammodramus Henslowii, and, in the letter-press, has described it as Henslow’s bunting, Emberiza Henslowit. It will evi- dently come under the first genus, and if new and distinct, will form a third North American species. It is named after Professor Henslow of Cambridge, and was obtained near Cincinnati. There is no account of its history and habits,—Eb, 72 _ SAVANNAH FINCH. bordered on each side by one of blackish brown ; back, a yel- lowish brown olive, some of the feathers curiously edged with semicircles of white; sides under the wings buff, spotted with black ; wing-coverts and tertials black, broadly edged with light reddish buff; tail, cuneiform, short; all the feathers - sharp pointed ; legs, a yellow clay colour ; irides, hazel. I examined many of these birds, and found but little dif- ference in the colour and markings of their plumage. Since writing the above, I have become convinced that the bird described by Mr Latham, under the name of sharp-tailed oriole, is the present species. Latham states, that his descrip- tion and figure were taken from a specimen deposited in Mrs Blackburn’s collection, and that it came from New York.. SAVANNAH FINCH. (fringilla Savanna.) PLATE XXXIV.—Fic. 4. Maz.* Peale’s Museum, No. 6583. ZONOTRICHIA? SAVANNA.—JARDINE. Fringilla Savanna, Bonap. Synop. p. 108. T's delicately marked sparrow has been already taken notice of, in a preceding part of this work, where a figure of the female was introduced. ‘The present figure was drawn from a very beautiful male, and is a faithful representation of the original. The length is five and a half inches; extent, eight anda half; bill, pale brown ; eyebrows, Naples yellow; breast and whole lower parts, pure white, the former marked with small pointed spots of brown; upper parts, a pale whitish drab, mottled with reddish brown; wing-coverts, edged and tipt with white ; tertials, black, edged with white and bay ; legs, © pale clay ; ear-feathers, tinged with Naples yellow. The female and young males are less, and much darker. * The female is described in Vol. I. p. 342. : & & ‘ : 5 NS 2 (row a 2. Magpre WINTER FALCON. 73 This is, probably, the most timid of all our sparrows. In winter it frequents the sea-shores ; but, as spring approaches, migrates to the interior, as I have lately discovered, building its nest in the grass nearly in the same form, though with fewer materials, as that of the bay-winged bunting. On the 23d of May, I found one of these at the root of a clump of rushes in a grass field, with three young, nearly ready to fly. The female counterfeited lameness, spreading her wings and tail, and using many affectionate stratagems to allure me from the place. The eggs I have never seen. WINTER FALCON. (Falco hyemalis.) PLATE XXXV.—Fic. 1. Turton, Syst. p. 156.—Arct. Zool. p. 209, No. 107.—Peale’s Museum, No. 272 and 273. ASTUR? HY EMALIS.—JaRvDINE.* The Winter Hawk, Aud. pl. 71; Orn. Biog. p. 164. Tars elegant and spirited hawk is represented in the plate of one-half its natural size; the other two figures are reduced in the same proportion. He visits us from the north early in November, and leaves us late in March. * This species, with the Falco lineatus of our author, have been the subject of dispute, as to their identity. The Prince of Musignano thinks they are the same, but in different states of plumage, according to age. Audubon says they are decidedly distinct, and has given plates of each, with an account of the differences he observed in their habits. I have transcribed his observations at some length, that these distinctions may be seen and judged of individually. I am inclined to consider them distinct, and cannot reconcile the great difference of habit to birds of one species, particularly in the same country, With regard to their station, again, they present a most interesting form. They are inter- mediate, as it were, between Buteo, Astur, and Circus. The colours are those of Buteo and Circus ; while the form and active habits of the one is that of Astur; those of the winter hawk more of Circus; the wings are short for a true Buzzard, and possess the proportional length of the feathers of the goshawks. The feet of both are decidedly Astur, run- ning perhaps into the more slender form of Circus; and from the pre- 74. WINTER FALCON. This is a dexterous frog catcher ; who, that he may pursue his profession with full effect, takes up his winter residence ponderance of their form to the goshawks, I have chosen that as their present appellation, but certainly with a query. I have transcribed the habits of both species as given by Audubon, that the comparison may be the more easy, and at the description of F. lineatus have referred to this page :— “The winter hawk is not a constant resident in the United States, but merely visits them, making its first appearance there at the approach of winter. The flight is smooth and light, although greatly protracted, when necessity requires it to be so. It sails, at times, at a considerable elevation ; and, notwithstanding the comparative shortness of its wings, performs this kind of motion with grace, and in circles of more than ordinary diameter. It is a remarkably silent bird, often spending the greater part of the day without uttering its notes more than once or twice, which it does just before it alights, to watch with great patience and perseverance for the appearance of its prey. Its haunts are the extensive meadows and marshes which occur along our rivers. There it pounces with a rapid motion on the frogs, which it either devours on the spot, or carries to the perch, or the top of the hay-stack, on which it previously stood. It generally rests at night on the ground, among the tall sedges of the marshes, I have never seen this hawk in pursuit of any other birds than those of its own species, each individual chasing the others from the district which it had selected for itself. The cry of the winter hawk is clear and prolonged, and resembles the syllables kay-o.” . “The red-shouldered hawk, or, as I would prefer calling it, the red- breasted hawk, although dispersed over the greater part of the United States, is rarely observed in the middle districts, where, on the contrary, the winter falcon usually makes its appearance from the north at the approach of every autumn, and is of more common occurrence. This bird is one of the most noisy of its genus, during spring especially, when it would be difficult to approach the skirts of woods bordering a large plantation, without hearing its discordant shrill notes, ha-hee, ka- hee, as it is seen sailing in rapid circles at a very great elevation. Its ordinary flight iseven and protracted. It is a more general inhabitant of the woods than most of our other species, particularly during the summer. ‘“The interior of woods seems, as I have said, the fittest haunts for the red-shouldered hawk. He sails through them a few yards above the ground, and suddenly alights on the low branch of a tree, or the top of a dead stump, from which he silently watches in an erect posture for the appearance of squirrels, upon which he pounces directly, and kills them in an instant, afterwards devouring them on the ground. “ At the approach of spring, this species begins to pair, and its flight is accompanied with many circlings and zigzag motions, during which WINTER FALCON. 75 almost entirely among our meadows and marshes. He some- times stuffs himself so enormously with these reptiles, that the prominency of his craw makes a large bunch, and he appears to fly with difficulty. I have taken the broken fragments and whole carcasses of ten frogs, of different dimensions, from the crop of a single individual. Of his genius and other exploits, I am unable to say much. He appears to be a fearless and active bird, silent, and not very shy. One which I kept for some time, and which was slightly wounded, dis- dained all attempts made to reconcile him to confinement ; and would not suffer a person to approach without being highly irritated, throwing himself backward, and striking, with expanded talons, with great fury. Though shorter winged than some of his tribe, yet I have no doubt but, with proper care, he might be trained to strike nobler game, in a bold style, and with great effect. But the education of hawks in this country may well be postponed for a time, until fewer im- provements remain to be made in that of the human subject. Length of the winter hawk, twenty inches ; extent, forty-one inches, or nearly three feet six inches ; cere and legs, yellow, the latter long, and feathered for an inch below the knee ; bill, bluish black, small, furnished with a tooth in the upper mandible ; eye, bright amber, cartilage over the eye, very prominent, and of a dull green; head, sides of the neck, and it emits its shrill cries. The top of a tall tree seems to be preferred, as I have found its nest most commonly placed there, not far from the edges of woods bordering plantations ; it is seated in the forks of a large branch, towards its extremity, and is as bulky as that of the common crow ; it is formed externally of dry sticks and Spanish moss, and is lined with withered grass and fibrous roots of different sorts, arranged in a circular manner. The eggs are generally four, sometimes five, of a broad oval form, granulated all over, pale blue, faintly blotched with brownish red at the smaller end.” From the above account it is seen that the red-shouldered hawk has much more the habits of an Astur than the other, which seems to lean towards the Circi; the breeding places of the latter are, however, not mentioned by any writer. The different states of plumage in these birds are deserving of farther research,—Ep. 76 MAGPIE. throat, dark brown, streaked with white; lesser coverts with a strong glow of ferruginous ; secondaries, pale brown, indis- tinctly barred with darker ; primaries, brownish orange, spotted with black, wholly black at the tips; tail long, slightly rounded, barred alternately with dark and pale brown ; inner vanes, white; exterior feathers, brownish orange; wings, when closed, reach rather beyond the middle of the tail; tail-coverts, white, marked with heart-shaped spots of brown ; breast and belly, white, with numerous long drops of brown, the shafts blackish ; femoral feathers, large, pale yellow ochre, marked with numerous minute streaks of pale brown ; claws, black. The legs of this bird are repre- sented by different authors as slender ; but I saw no appear- ance of this in those I examined. The female is considerably darker above, and about two inches longer. MAGPIE. (Corvus pica.) PLATE XXXV.—Fic. 2. Arct. Zool. No. 136.—Lath. i. 392.—Buff. iii. 85.—Peale’s Museum, No. 1333. PICA CAUDATA.—Ray.* Tuis bird is much better known in Europe than in this country, where it has not been long discovered; although it is now found to inhabit a wide extent of territory, and in * The common magpie of Europe is typical of that section among the Corvide, to which the name of Pica has been given. They retain the form of the bill as in Corvus; their whole members are weaker ; the feathers on the rump are more lax and puffy, and the tail is always very lengthened. The Appendix to Captain Franklin’s narrative, by Mr Sabine, first gave rise to the suspicion that two very nearly allied species of magpie were found in the northern parts of America ; and that gentleman has accord- ingly described the specimens killed at Cumberland House, during the first Arctic expedition, under the name of Corvus Hudsonicus—of which the following are the principal distinctions—and he seems to consider that bird more particularly confined to the more northern parts of the MAGPIE. el great numbers. The drawing was taken from a very beautiful specimen, sent from the Mandan nation, on the Missouri, to Mr Jefferson, and by that gentleman presented to Mr Peale of this city, in whose museum it lived for several months, and where I had an opportunity of examining it. On carefully comparing it with the European magpie in the same collection, no material difference could be perceived. The figure on the plate is reduced to exactly half the size of life. This bird unites in its character courage and cunning, turbulency and rapacity. Not inelegantly formed, and dis- tinguished by gay as well as splendid plumage, he has long been noted in those countries where he commonly resides, and his habits and manners are there familiarly known. He is continent, while the other was met with in the United States and the Missouri country. “The Hudson’s Bay magpie is of less size in all its parts than the common magpie, except in its tail, which exceeds that of its congener in length ; but the most remarkable and obvious difference is, in a loose tuft of grayish and white feathers on the back. Length of the body, exclusive of the tail, seven inches, that of the tail from eleven to twelve inches, that of the common being from nine to ten.” In the “ Northern Zoology,” Corvus Hudsonicus is quotedas a synonym, The authors remark, “ This bird, so common in Europe, is equally plen- tiful in the interior prairie lands of America ; but it is singular, that, though it abounds on the shores of Sweden, and other maritime parts of the Old World, it is very rare on the Alantic, eastward of the Missis- sippi, or Lake Winipeg.” “The manners of the American bird are pre- cisely what we have been accustomed tu observe in the English one. On comparing its eggs with those of the European bird, they were found to be longer and narrower; and though the colours are the same, the blotches are larger and more diffused.” The distinctions mentioned by Mr Sabine seem very trivial ; indeed they may be confined entirely toa less size. The grayish tuft of feathers on the rump is the same in the common magpie of Britain. I have had an opportunity of examining only one North American specimen, which is certainly smaller, but in no other respect different. The authors of the “ Northern Zoology” mention their having compared Arctic specimens with one from the interior of China, and they found no difference. The geosraphical distribution may therefore extend toa greater range than was supposed,—Europe, China, and America.—Ep. 78 MAGPIE. particularly pernicious to plantations of young oaks, tearing up the acorns; and also to birds, destroying great numbers of their eggs and young, even young chickens, partridges, grouse and pheasants. It is perhaps on this last account that the whole vengeance of the game laws has lately been let loose upon him in some parts of Britain, as appears, by accounts from that quarter, where premiums, it is said, are offered for his head, as an arch poacher ; and penalties inflicted on all those who permit him to breed on their premises. Under the lash of such rigorous persecution, a few years will probably exterminate the whole tribe from the island. He is also de- structive to gardens and orchards ; is noisy and restless, almost constantly flying from place to place ; alights on the backs of the cattle, to rid them of the larve that fester in the skin ; is content with carrion when nothing better offers ; eats various kinds of vegetables, and devours greedily grain, worms, and insects of almost every description. When domesticated, he is easily taught to imitate the human voice, and to articulate words pretty distinctly; has all the pilfering habits of his tribe, fillmg every chink, nook, and crevice, with whatever he can carry off; is subject to the epilepsy, or some similar dis- order ; and is, on the whole, a crafty, restless, and noisy bird. He generally selects a tall tree, adjoining the farm house, for his nest, which is placed among the highest branches ; this is large, composed outwardly of sticks, roots, turf, and dry weeds, and well lined with wool, cow hair, and feathers ; the whole is surrounded, roofed, and barricaded with thorns, leaving only anarrow entrance. Theeggs are usually five of a greenish colour, marked with numerous black or dusky spots. In the northern parts of Europe, he migrates at the com- mencement of winter. In this country, the magpie was first taken notice of at the factories, or trading houses, on Hudson’s Bay, where the Indians used sometimes to bring it in, and gave it the name of heart-bird,—for what reason is uncertain. It appears, how- ever, to be rather rare in that quarter. These circumstances MAGPIE. 79 are taken notice of by Mr Pennant and other British naturalists. In 1804, an exploring party under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, on their route to the Pacific Ocean across the continent, first met with the magpie somewhere near tlie great bend of the Missouri, and found that the number of these birds increased as they advanced. Here also the blue jay disappeared ; as if the territorial boundaries and jurisdic- tion of these two noisy and voracious families of the same tribe had been mutually agreed on, and distinctly settled. But the magpie was found to be far more daring than the jay, dashing into their very tents, and carrying off the meat from the dishes. One of the hunters who accompanied the expedi- tion informed me, that they frequently attended him while he was engaged in skinning and cleaning the carcass of the deer, bear, or buffalo he had killed, often seizing the meat that hung within a foot or two of his head. On the shores of the Koos-koos-ke river, on the west side of the great range of Rocky Mountains, they were found to be equally numerous. It is highly probable that those vast plains, or prairies, abounding with game and cattle, frequently killed for the mere hides, tallow, or even marrow bones, may be one great inducement for the residency of these birds, so fond of flesh and carrion. Even the rigorous severity of winter in the high regions along the head waters of Rio du Nord, the Arkansaw, and Red River, seems insufficient to force them from those favourite haunts ; though it appears to increase their natural voracity to a very uncommon degree. Colonel Pike relates, that in the month of December, in the neighbourhood of the North Mountain, N. lat. 41° W. long. 34°, Reaumut’s ther- mometer standing at 17° below O, these birds were seen in great numbers. “Our horses,” says he, ‘‘were obliged to scrape the snow away to obtain their miserable pittance; and, to increase their misfortunes, the poor animals were attacked by the magpies, who, attracted by the scent of their sore backs, alighted on them, and, in defiance of their wincing and 80 CROW. kicking, picked many places quite raw; the difficulty of pro- curing food rendering those birds so bold, as to alight on our men’s arms, and eat meat out of their hand.” * The magpie is eighteen inches in length ; the head, neck, upper part of the breast and back, are a deep velvety black ; primaries, brownish black, streaked along their inner vanes with white; secondaries, rich purplish blue; greater coverts, green blue; scapulars, lower part of the breast and belly, white; thighs and vent, black; tail, long ; the two exterior feathers scarcely half the length of the longest, the others increasing to the two middle ones, which taper towards their extremities. The colour of this part of the plumage is very splendid, being glossy green, dashed with blue and bright purple ; this last colour bounds the green ; nostrils, covered with a thick tuft of recumbent hairs, as are also the sides of the mouth; bill, legs, and feet, glossy black. The female differs only in the less brillianey of her plumage. CROW. (Corvus corone.t) PLATE XXXV.—Fic. 3. Peale’s Museum, No. 1246. CORVUS CORONE ?—LINNEUvs. Tuts is perhaps the most generally known, and least beloved, of all our land birds; having neither melody of song, nor * Pike’s Journal, p. 170. + “The voice of this bird is so remarkably different from that of the Corone of Europe, that I was at first led to believe it a distinct species ; but the most scrupulous examination and comparison of European and American specimens proved them to be the same,” are the words of Bonaparte in his Nomenclature to Wilson ; and Corvus corone is quoted, as the name and synonym to this species in the “ Northern Zoology,” from a male killed on the plains of the Saskatchewan. This is one of the birds I have yet been unable to obtain for compari- son with European specimens, and it may seem presumption to differ from the above authorities, without ever having seen the bird in question. CROW. 8I beauty of plumage, nor excellence of flesh, nor civility of manners, to recommend him; on the contrary, he is branded as a thief and a plunderer—a kind of black-coated vagabond, who hovers over the fields of the industrious, fattening on their labours, and, by his voracity, often blasting their expec- tations. Hated as he is by the farmer, watched and persecuted by almost every bearer of a gun, who all triumph in his destruction, had not Heaven bestowed on him intelligence and sagacity far beyond common, there is reason to. believe that the whole tribe (in these parts at least.) would long ago have ceased to exist. The crow is a constant attendant on agriculture, and a general inhabitant of the cultivated parts of North America. Tn the interior of the forest he is more rare, unless during the season of breeding. He is particularly attached to low flat corn countries, lying in the neighbourhood of the sea, or of large rivers; and more numerous in the northern than southern states, where vultures abound, with whom the crows are unable to contend. A strong antipathy, it is also said, prevails between the crow and the raven, insomuch, that where the latter is numerous, the former rarely resides. Many of the first settlers of the Gennesee country have informed me, that, for a long time, ravens were numerous with them, but no crows, and even now the latter are seldom observed in that country. In travelling from Nashville to Natchez, a I cannot, nevertheless, reconcile Wilson’s account of the difference of habits and cry to those of Britain and Europe. It seems a species more intermediate between the common rook, C. frugilequs, and the C. corone ; their gregarious habits, and feeding so much on grain, are quite at vari- ance with the carrion crow ; Wilson’s account of the crow roost on the Delaware is so different, that, as far as habit: is concerned, it is impos- sible to refer them to one ; and though some allowance might be made for the diversity of habit in the two countries, I do not see in what manner the cry of the bird should be so distinctly affected as to be remarked by nearly all authors who have mentioned them. Burns’s line in the “ Cottar’s Saturday Night ” alludes certainly to the common rook, and he, I am sure, knew the difference between a crow and a corbie.-—Ep. VOL. II. F 82 CROW. distance of four hundred and seventy miles, I saw few or no crows, but ravens frequently, and vultures in great numbers. The usual breeding time of the crow, in Pennsylvania, is in March, April, and May, during which season they are dispersed over the woods in pairs, and roost in the neighbour- hood of the tree they have selected for their nest. About the middle of March they begin to build, generally choosing a high tree; though I have also known them prefer a middle- sized cedar. One of their nests, now before me, is formed externally of sticks, wet moss, thin bark, mixed with mossy earth, and lined with large quantities of horse hair, to the amount of more than half a pound, some cow hair, and some wool, forming a very soft and elastic bed. The eggs are four, of a pale green colour, marked witl numerous specks and blotches of olive. During this interesting season, the male is extremely watchful, making frequent excursions of half a mile or so in circuit, to reconnoitre ; and the instant he observes a person approaching, he gives the alarm, when both male and female retire to a distance till the intruder has gone past. He also regularly carries food to his mate, while she is sitting ; occa- sionally relieves her; and, when she returns, again resigns up his post. At this time, also, as well as until the young are able to fly, they preserve uncommon silence, that their retreat may not be suspected. It is in the month of May, and until the middle of June, that the crow is most destructive to the corn fields, digging up the newly planted grains of maize, pulling up by the roots those that have begun to vegetate, and thus frequently oblig- ing the farmer to replant, or lose the benefit of the soil; and this sometimes twice, and even three times, occasioning a considerable additional expense, and inequality of harvest. No mercy is now shown him. The myriads of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, and beetles, which he has destroyed, are altogether overlooked on these occasions. Detected in robbing the hens’ nests, pulling up the corn, and killing the — CROW, 83 young chickens, he is considered as an outlaw, and sentenced to destruction. But the great difficulty is, how to put this sentence in execution. In vain the gunner skulks along the hedges and fences ; his faithful sentinels planted on some commanding point, raise the alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its object. The coast again clear, he returns once more in silence, to finish the repast he had begun. Sometimes he approaches the farm house by stealth, in search of young chickens, which he is in the habit of snatching off, when he can elude the vigilance of the mother hen, who often proves too formidable for him. RA Liars naraved by WHE. ie, Lark. 4 Brown 1 hh, ai b Wy AURA ee Cr \ ay ty ch \ Wt if NING a tment \ Ei Ca Drawn from ] d Nature by A Wilson 3 LurplesL Flycatcher. Warbhing a Az L Red Owl. 42. RED OWL. 181 other from various parts of the fields or orchard ; roost during the day in thick evergreens, such as cedar, pine, or juniper trees, and are rarely seen abroad in sunshine. In May, they construct their nest in the hollow of a tree, often in the orchard in an old apple tree; the nest is composed of some hay and a few feathers; the eggs are four, pure white, and nearly round. The young are at first covered mith a whitish down. The bird represented on the plate I kept for several weeks in the room beside me. It was caught in a barn, where it had taken up its lodging, probably for the greater convenience of mousing ; and being unhurt, I had an opportunity of remark- ing its manners. At first, it struck itself so forcibly against the window, as frequently to deprive it, seemingly, of all sen- sation for several minutes: this was done so repeatedly, that I began to fear that either the glass or the owl’s skull must give way. Ina few days, however, it either began to comprehend something of the matter, or to take disgust at the glass, for it never repeated its attempts; and soon became quite tame and familiar. Those who have seen this bird only in the day can form but an imperfect idea of its activity, and even spright- liness, in its proper season of exercise. Throughout the day, it was all stillness and gravity,—its eyelids half shut, its neck contracted, and its head shrunk seemingly into its body ; but scarcely was the sun set, and twilight began to approach, when its eyes became full and sparkling, like two living globes of fire; it crouched on its perch, reconnoitered every object around with looks of eager fierceness ; alighted and fed ; stood on the meat with clenched talons, while it tore it in morsels with its bill; flew round the room with the silence of thought, and perching, moaned out its melancholy notes with many lively gesticulations, not at all accordant with the pitiful tone of its ditty, which reminded one of the shivering moanings of a half-frozen puppy. This species is found generally over the United States, and is not migratory. The red owl is eight inches and a half long, and twenty- 182 WARBLING FLYCATCHER. one inches in extent ; general colour of the plumage above, a bright nut brown or tawny red ; the shafts, black ; exterior edges of the outer row of scapulars, white ; bastard wing, the five first primaries, and three or four of the first greater coverts, also spotted with white; whole wing-quills, spotted with dusky on their exterior webs ; tail, rounded, transversely barred with dusky and pale brown ; chin, breast, and sides, bright reddish brown, streaked laterally with black, intermixed with white ; belly and vent, white, spotted with bright brown ; legs, covered to the claws with pale brown hairy down ; extremities of the toes and claws, pale bluish, ending in black; bill, a pale bluish horn colour ; eyes, vivid yellow ; inner angles of the eyes, eyebrows, and space surrounding the bill, whitish; rest of the face, nut brown; head, horned or eared, each horn consisting of nine or ten feathers of a tawny red, shafted with black. WARBLING FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa melodia.) PLATE XLII.—Fie. 2. VIREO GILVUS.—BoNAPARTE. Muscicapa gilva, Vieill. pl. 34. (auct. Bonap.)—Vireo gilvus, Bonap. Synop. p. 70. Nomen. sp. 123, Tis sweet little warbler is for the first time figured and described. In its general appearance it resembles the red- eyed flycatcher ; but, on a close comparison, differs from that bird in many particulars. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the middle of April, and inhabits the thick foliage of orchards and high trees; its voice is soft, tender, and soothing, and its notes flow in an easy, continued strain, that is extremely pleasing. It is often heard among the weeping willows and Lombardy poplars of this city; is rarely observed in the woods, but seems particularly attached to the society of man. It gleans among the leaves, occasionally darting after winged insects, and searching for caterpillars; and seems by its PURPLE FINCH. 183 manners to partake considerably of the nature of the genus sylvia. It is late in departing, and I have frequently heard its notes among the fading leaves of the poplar in October. This little bird may be distinguished from all the rest of our songsters by the soft, tender, easy flow of its notes while hid among the foliage. In these there is nothing harsh, sudden, or emphatical ; they glide along in a kind of meandering strain, that is peculiarly its own. In May and June it may be generally heard in the orchards, the borders of the city, and around the farmhouse. This species is five inches and a half long, and eight inches and a half in extent; bill, dull lead colour above, and notched near the point, lower, a pale flesh colour; eye, dark hazel ; line over the eye, and whole lower parts, white, the latter tinged with very pale greenish yellow near the breast ; upper parts, a pale green olive ; wings, brown, broadly edged with pale olive green ; tail, slightly forked, edged with olive; the legs and feet, pale lead ; the head inclines a little to ash ; no white on the wings or tail. Male and female nearly alike. PURPLE FINCH. (fringilla purpurea.) PLATE XLII.—Fie. 3. ERYTHROSPIZA PURPUREA.— BONAPARTE. * Tus bird is represented as he appears previous to receiving his crimson plumage, and also when moulting. By recurring to the figure in Vol. I. pl. 7, fig. 4, of this work, which exhibits him in his full dress, the great difference of colour will be observed to which this species is annually subject. It is matter of doubt with me whether this species ought not to be classed with the Zoxia; the great thickness of the bill, and similarity that prevails between this and the pine grosbeak, almost induced me to adopt it into that class. But * See description of adult male, Note and Synonyms, Vol. I. p. 119. 184 PURPLE FINCH. respect for other authorities has prevented me from making this alteration. When these birds are taken in their crimson dress, and kept in a cage till they moult their feathers, they uniformly change to their present appearance, and sometimes never after receive their red colour. They are also subject, if well fed, to become so fat as literally to die of corpulency, of which I have seen several instances; being at these times subject to something resembling apoplexy, from which they sometimes recover in a few minutes, but oftener expire in the same space of time. The female is entirely without the red, and differs from the present only in having less yellow about her. These birds regularly arrive from the north, where they breed, in September, and visit us from the south again early in April, feeding on the cherry blossoms as soon as they appear. Of the particulars relative to this species, the reader is referred to the account in Vol. I., already mentioned. The individual figured in the plate measured six inches and a quarter in length, and ten inches in extent; the bill was horn coloured; upper parts of the plumage, brown olive, strongly tinged with yellow, particularly on the rump, where it was brownish yellow ; from above the eye, backwards, passed a streak of white, and another more irrecular one from the lower mandible ; feathers of the crown, narrow, rather long, and generally erected, but not so as to form a crest; nostrils and base of the bill, covered with reflected brownish hairs ; eye, dark hazel; wings and tail, dark blackish brown, edged with olive ; first and second row of coverts, tipt with pale yellow; chin, white; breast, pale cream, marked with pointed spots of deep olive brown; belly and vent, white; legs, brown. This bird, with several others marked nearly in the same manner, ‘was shot 25th April, while engaged in eating the buds from the beech tree. BROWN LARK: 185 BROWN LARK. (Alauda rufa.) PLATE XLII.—Fie. 4. Red Lark, Zdw. 297.—Arct. Zool. No. 279.—Lath. ii. 376.—L’ Alouette aux joues brunes de Pennsylvanie, Buff. v. 58.—Peale’s Museum, No. 5158. ANTHUS LUDOVICIANUS.— BONAPARTE.” Synonyms of Anthus Ludovicianus, Bonap. (from his Nomenclature) :—‘‘ Alauda rubra, Gmel. Lath.—Alauda Ludoviciana, Gmel. Lath.—Alauda Pennsyl- vanica, Briss.—Farlouzanne, Buff. Ois.—Alouette aux joues brunes de Pennsylvanie, Buf. Ois.—Lark from Pennsylvania, Hd. Gillean. p. 297.—Red Lark, Penn. Brit. and Arct. Zool. Lath. Syn.—Louisiana Lark, Lath. Syn.”— Anthus spinoletta, Bonap. Synop. p. 90. In what particular district of the northern regions this bird breeds, Iam unable to say. In Pennsylvania, it first arrives from the north about the middle of October ; flies in loose scattered flocks ; is strongly attached to flat, newly-ploughed * Anthus is a genus of Bechstein’s, formed to contain birds which have been generally called larks, but which have a nearer resemblance to the Motacille, or wagtails, and the accentors, They are also allied to Sewuwrus of Swainson. The Prince of Musignano made this identical with the European rock lark, Anthus aquaticus, Bechst., Alauda spinoletta, Linn. ; but in his observations on Wilson’s nomenclature, saw reason to change his opinion, and it will now stand as A, Ludovicianus of that gentleman. Audubon has, on the other hand, placed it in his “ Biography” as the European bird, but I fear, with too slender comparison ; and the same name is mentioned in the “ Northern Zoology,” without comparing the arctic specimens with those of Britain or Europe. On these accounts, I rather trust to the observations of Bonaparte, which have been made from actual comparison. It must also be recollected, that the summer and winter dress of the Anthi differ very considerably in their shades. Audubon has introduced in his “ Biography” another Anthus, which he considers new, under the title of pipiens. It was only met with once, in the extensive prairies of the north-western States, where two were killed; and though allied to the common brown titlark, were distinguished by the difference of their notes. If these specimens were not preserved, the species must rest on the authority of Mr Audubon’s plate, and, of course, admitted with doubt.—Eb. 186 BROWN LARK. fields, commons, and such like situations; has a feeble note, characteristic of its tribe ; runs rapidly along the ground ; and, when the flock takes to wing, they fly high, and generally to a considerable distance before they alight. Many of them continue in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia all winter, if the season be moderate. In the southern States, particularly in the lower parts of North and South Carolina, I found these larks in great abundance in the middle of February. Loose flocks of many hundreds were driving about from one corn- field to another; and, in the low rice-grounds, they were in great abundance. On opening numbers of these, they appeared to have been feeding on various small seeds, with a large quantity of gravel. On the 8th of April, I shot several of these birds in the neighbourhood of Lexington, Kentucky. In Pennsylvania, they generally disappear, on their way to the north, about the beginning of May, or earlier. At Port- land, in the district of Maine, I met with a flock of these birds in October. I do not know that they breed within the United States. Of their song, nest, eggs, &c., we have no account. The brown lark is six inches long, and ten inches and a half in extent; the upper parts, brown olive, touched with dusky ; greater coverts and next superior row, lighter ; bill, black, slender; nostril, prominent; chin and line over the eye, pale rufous ; breast and belly, brownish ochre, the former spotted with black; tertials, black, the secondaries brown, edged with lighter; tail, slightly forked, black ; the two ex- terior feathers, marked largely with white; legs, dark purplish brown ; hind heel, long, and nearly straight; eye, dark hazel. Male and female nearly alike. Mr Pennant says that one of these birds was shot near London. Drawn tromNature be A Wilson : F Engraved by WH Lizars. l. Turtle Dove. 2. Hermit Thrush. 3. Lawnev: Thrush. 4. Pine swamp Warbler. 43. CAROLINA PIGEON. 187 CAROLINA PIGEON OR TURTLE DOVE. (Columba Carolinensis.) PLATE XLITI.—Fice. 1. Linn. Syst. 286.—Catesb. Car. i. 24. — Buff. ii. 557, Pl. ent. 175.—La Tourterelle de la Caroline, Brisson, i. 110.—Peale’s Museum, No. 5088.—Turton, 479.— Arct. Zool. ii. No. 188. ECTOPISTES CAROLINENSIS.—SwWAINSON. Genus Ectopistes, Swain. N. Groups. Zool. Journ. No. xi. p. 362.—Columba Carolinensis, Bonap. Synop. p. 119.—The Carolina Turtle Dove, Aud. Orn. Biog. i. 91, pl. 17, male and female. Tis is a favourite bird with all those who love to wander among our woods in spring, and listen to their varied harmony. They will there hear many a singular and sprightly performer, but none so mournful as this. The hopeless woe of settled sorrow, swelling the heart of female innocence itself, could not assume tones more sad, more tender and affecting. Its notes are four; the first is somewhat the highest, and preparatory, seeming to be uttered with an inspiration of the breath, as if the afflicted creature were just recovering its voice from the last convulsive sobs of distress; this is followed by three long, deep, and mournful moanings, that no person of sensibility can listen to without sympathy. A pause of a few minutes ensues, and again the solemn voice of sorrow is renewed as before. This is generally heard in the deepest shaded parts of the woods, frequently about noon and towards the evening. There is, however, nothing of real distress in all this; quite the reverse. ‘The bird who utters it wantons by the side of his beloved partner, or invites her by his call to some favourite retired and shady retreat. It is the voice of love, of faithful connubial affection, for which the whole family of doves are so celebrated ; and, among them all, none more deservingly so than the species now before us. 188 CAROLINA PIGEON. The turtle dove is a general inhabitant in summer of the United States, from Canada to Florida, and from the sea-coast to the Mississippi, and far to the westward. They are, how- ever, partially migratory in the northern and middle States ; and collect together in North and South Carolina, and their corresponding parallels, in great numbers, during the winter. On the 2d of February, in the neighbourhood of Newbern, North Carolina, I saw a flock of turtle doves of many hundreds ; in other places, as I advanced farther south, particularly near the Savannah river, in Georgia, the woods were swarming with them, and the whistling of their wings was heard in every direction. On their return to the north in March and early in April, they disperse so generally over the country, that there are rarely more than three or four seen together—most frequently only two. Here they commonly fly in pairs, resort constantly to the public roads to dust themselves and procure gravel; are often seen in the farmer’s yard before the door, the stable, barn, and other outhouses, in search of food, seeming little inferior in familiarity, at such times, to the domestic pigeon. They often mix with the poultry while they are fed in the morning, visit the yard and adjoining road many times a day, and the pump, creek, horse-trough, and rills for water. Their flight is quick, vigorous, and always accompanied by a peculiar whistling of the wings, by which they can easily be distinguished from the wild pigeon. They fly with great swiftness, alight on trees, fences, or on the ground indiscrimi- nately ; are exceedingly fond of buckwheat, hempseed, and Indian-corn ; feed on the berries of the holly, the dogwood, and poke, huckleberries, partridge-berries, and the small acorns of the live oak and shrub oak. They devour large quantities of gravel, and sometimes pay a visit to the kitchen garden for peas, for which they have a particular regard. In this part of Pennsylvania, they commence building about the beginning of May. The nest is very rudely con- structed, generally in an evergreen, among the thick foliage CAROLINA PIGEON. I 89 of the vine, in an orchard, on the horizontal branches of an apple tree, and, in some cases, on the ground. It is composed of a handful of small twigs, laid with little art, on which are scattered dry fibrous roots of plants; and in this almost flat bed are deposited two eggs of a snowy whiteness. The male and female unite in feeding the young, and they have rarely more than two broods in the same season. The flesh of this bird is considered much superior to that of the wild pigeon; but its seeming confidence in man, the tenderness of its notes, and the innocency attached to its character, are with many its security and protection; with others, however, the tenderness of its flesh, and the sport of shooting, overcome all other considerations. About the com- mencement of frost, they begin to move off to the south; numbers, however, remain in Pennsylvania during the whole winter. The turtle dove is twelve inches long, and seventeen inches in extent; bill, black; eye, of a glossy blackness, surrounded with a pale greenish blue skin ; crown, upper part of the neck and wings, a fine silky slate blue; back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, ashy brown; tertials spotted with black ; primaries, edged and tipt with white; forehead, sides of the neck, and breast, a pale brown vinous orange ; under the ear- feathers, a spot or drop of deep black, immediately below which the plumage reflects the most vivid tints of green, gold, and crimson ; chin, pale yellow ochre; belly and vent, whitish ; legs and feet, coral red, seamed with white; the tail is long and cuneiform, consisting of fourteen feathers ; the four exterior ones, on each side, are marked with black, about an inch from the tips, and white thence to the extremity ; the next has less of the white at the tip; these gradually lengthen to the four middle ones, which are wholly dark slate ; all of them taper towards the points, the two middle ones most so. The female is an inch shorter, and is otherwise only dis- tinguished by the less brilliancy of her colour; she also wants ICO HERMIT THRUSH. a the rich silky blue on the crown, and much of the splendour of the neck; the tail is also somewhat shorter, and the white with which it is marked less pure.* HERMIT THRUSH. (Turdus solitarius.) PLATE XLIII.—Fic. 2. Little Thrush, Catesby, i. 31.—Hdwards, 296.—Brown Thrush. Arct. Zovl. 337, No. 199.—Peale’s Museum, No. 3542. TURDUS SOLITARIUS.—WItson. t Turdus minor, Bonap. Synop. p. 75.—The Hermit Thrush, Aud. Orn. Biog. i. p. 303, pl. 58, male and female. Tne dark solitary cane and myrtle swamps of the southern States are the favourite native haunts of this silent and recluse species ; and the more deep and gloomy these are, the more certain we are to meet with this bird flitting among them. This is the species mentioned in the first volume of this work, while treating of the wood thrush, as having been figured and described, more than fifty years ago, by Edwards, from a dried specimen sent him by my friend Mr William Bartram, under the supposition that it was the wood thrush (Turdus * In addition to their history by Wilson, Audubon mentions, that though regularly migrating in numbers, they are never in such vast extent as the passenger pigeon, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred being considered a large flock. He also mentions them differ- ing in another more important particular—the manner of roosting. They prefer sitting among the long grass of abandoned fields, at the foot of the dry stalks of maize, and only occasionally resort to the dead foliage of trees, or the different species of evergreens. They do not sit near each other, but are dispersed over the field, whereas the passenger pigeon roosts in compact masses on limbs of trees, In every respect they run more into the ground doves, or bronze-winged pigeons, which similarity some parts of the plumage will strengthen.—Ep, + Bonaparte has wished to restore Gmelin’s old name of minor to this bird, which Wilson had thought in some manner erroneous, on account of solitarius being preoccupied by another species. That, however, will rank in the genus Petrocincla; and Mr Swainson has since de- scribed a small species under the name of minor.—Eb. HERMIT THRUSH. IOI melodus). It is, however, considerably less, very differently marked, and altogether destitute of the clear voice and musical powers of that charming minstrel. It also differs in remaining in the southern States during the whole year ; whereas the wood thrush does not winter even in Georgia, nor arrive within the southern boundary of that State until some time in April. The hermit thrush is rarely seen in Pennsylvania, unless for a few weeks in spring, and late in the fall, long after the wood thrush has left us, and when scarcely a summer bird remains in the woods. In both seasons it is mute, having only in spring an occasional squeak, like that of a young stray chicken. Along the Atlantic coast, in New Jersey, they remain longer and later, as I have observed them there late in November. In the cane swamps of the Choctaw nation, they were frequent in the month of May, on the 12th of which J examined one of their nests on a horizontal branch, imme- diately over the path. The female was sitting, and left it with great reluctance, so that I had nearly laid my hand on her before she flew. The nest was fixed on the upper part of the body of the branch, and constructed with great neat- ness, but without mud or plaster, contrary to the custom of the wood thrush. The outside was composed of a consider- able quantity of coarse rooty grass, intermixed with horse hair, and lined with a fine, green-coloured, thread-like grass, perfectly dry, laid circularly, with particular neatness. The eggs were four, of a pale greenish blue, marked with specks and blotches of olive, particularly at the great end. I also observed this bird on the banks of the Cumberland river in April. Its food consists chiefly of berries, of which these low swamps furnish a perpetual abundance, such as those of the holly, myrtle, gall bush (a species of vaccinium), yapon shrub, and many others. A superficial observer would instantly pronounce this to be only a variety of the wood thrush ; but taking into consi- deration its difference of size, colour, manners, want of song, secluded habits, differently formed nest, and spotted eggs, all 192 TAWNY THRUSH. unlike those of the former, with which it never associates, it is impossible not to conclude it to be a distinct and separate species, however near it may approach to that of the former. Its food, and the country it inhabits for half the year, being the same, neither could have produced those differences ; and we must believe it to be now, what it ever has been, and ever will be, a distinct connecting link in the great chain of this part of animated nature ; all the sublime reasoning of certain theoretical closet philosophers to the contrary notwithstanding. Length of the hermit thrush, seven inches; extent, ten inches and a half; upper parts, plain deep olive brown ; lower, dull white; upper part of the breast and throat, dull cream colour, deepest where the plumage falls over the shoulders of the wing, and marked with large dark brown pointed spots ; ear-feathers, and line over the eye, cream, the former mottled with olive; edges of the wings, lighter ; tips, dusky ; tail-coverts and tail, inclining to a reddish fox colour. In the wood thrush, these parts incline to greenish olive. Tail, slightly forked ; legs, dusky; bill, black above and at the tip, whitish below ; iris, black and very full; chin, whitish. The female differs very little—chiefly in being generally darker in the tints, and having the spots on the breast larger and more dusky. TAWNY THRUSH. (Yurdus mustelinus.) PLATE XLUI.—Fie. 3. Peale’s Museum, No. 5570. TURDUS WILSONII.—BonAPARTE.* Turdus Wilsonii, Bonap. Synop. p. 76.—Merula Wilsonii, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 183. THis species makes its appearance in Pennsylvania from the south regularly about the beginning of May, stays with us a * The wood thrush of Vol. I., the hermit thrush, and our present species, have so much similarity to each other, that they have been con- fused together, and their synonyms often misquoted by different authors. TAWNY THRUSH. 193 week or two, and passes on to the north and to the high mountainous districts to breed. It has no song, but a sharp chuck. About the 20th of May I.met with numbers of them in the Great Pine Swamp, near Pocano; and on the 25th of September in the same year, I shot several of them in the neighbourhood of Mr Bartram’s place. I have examined many of these birds in spring, and also on their return in fall, and found very little difference among them between the male and female. In some specimens the wing-coverts were brownish yellow; these appeared to be young birds. I have no doubt but they breed in the northern high districts of the United States; but I have not yet been able to discover their nests. The tawny thrush is ten inches long, and twelve inches in extent; the whole upper parts are a uniform tawny brown ; the lower parts, white; sides of the breast and under the wings, slightly tinged with ash; chin, white; throat, and upper parts of the breast, cream coloured, and marked with pointed spots of brown; lores, pale ash or bluish white ; cheeks, dusky brown ; tail, nearly even at the end, the shafts of all, as well as those of the wing-quills, continued a little beyond their webs ; bill, black above and at the point, below From these circumstances, the name of mustelinus, given by Wilson to this species, is incorrect ; and Bonaparte has deservedly dedicated it to its first describer, aname which ought now to be used in our systems. Another bird has been also lost sight of in the alliance which exists among those, and which will now rank as an addition to the northern fauna, the Turdus parvus of Edwards, and confounded by Bonaparte with the 7’ solitaria. From the observations of Dr Richardson and Mr Swainson, in the second volume of the “ Northern Zoology,” there can be little doubt of its being distinct from any of the others just men- tioned, and will be distinguished by the more rufous tinge of the upper parts. It was met by the Overland Expedition on the banks of the Saskatchewan, where it is migratory in summer, and appears as nearly allied to the others in its habits as it is in its external appearance. It spreads, no doubt, over the other parts of North America, getting more abundant, perhaps, towards the south, Mr Swainson has received it from Georgia, and remarks that the rufous tinge of the plumage is much clearer and more intense in the southern specimens,—Ep. VOL. II. N 194 PINE-SWAMP WARBLER. at the base, flesh coloured ; corners of the mouth, yellow ; eye, large and dark, surrounded with a white ring ; legs, long, slender, and pale brown. Though I have given this bird the same name that Mr Pennant has applied to one of our thrushes, it must not be considered as the same; the bird which he has denominated the tawny thrush being evidently, from its size, markings, &c., the wood thrush, already described. No description of the bird here figured has, to my know- ledge, appeared in any former publication. PINE-SWAMP WARBLER. (Sylvia pusilla.) PLATE XLIII.—Fie. 4. VIREO SPHAGNOSA.—JARDINE.* Sylvia sphagnosa, Bonap. Synop. p. 85. Tis little bird is for the first time figured or described. Its favourite haunts are in the deepest and gloomiest pine and hemlock swamps of our mountainous regions, where every tree, trunk, and fallen log is covered with a luxuriant coat of moss, that even mantles over the surface of the ground, and prevents the sportsman from avoiding a thousand holes, springs, and swamps, into which he is incessantly plunged. Of the nest of this bird J am unable to speak. I found it associated with the Blackburnian warbler, the golden-crested wren, ruby- crowned wren, yellow rump, and others of that description, in such places as I have described, about the middle of May. It seemed as active in flycatching as in searching for other insects, darting uimbly about among the branches, and flirting its * This species seems evidently a Vireo. Bonaparte thus observes, in his “ Nomenclature,” and we have used his name :—“ A new species, called by a preoccupied name, but altered in the index to that of leucoptera, which is used for one of Vieillot’s species, and was, therefore, changed to that of palustris by Stephens ; but as this also is preoccupied, I propose for it the name of S. sphagnosa.”— Ep. “bP YY yoonuayy Ge wazg.iny urpyunoul- IVY G “UOT LPDUISIV T > p. Loop FY aumaD yy Wisp URL IT YAY BRAT PASSENGER PIGEON. 195 wings ; but I could not perceive that it had either note or song. I shot three, one male and two females. I have no doubt that they breed in those solitary swamps, as well as many other of their associates. The pine-swamp warbler is four inches and a quarter long and seven inches and a quarter in extent; bill, black, not notched, but furnished with bristles; upper parts, a deep green olive, with slight bluish reflections, particularly on the edges of the tail and on the head; wings, dusky, but so broadly edged with olive green as to appear wholly of that tint ; immediately below the primary coverts, there is a single triangular spot of yellowish white; no other part of the wings is white ; the three exterior tail-feathers with a spot of white on their inner vanes; the tail is slightly forked; from the nostrils over the eye extends a fine line of white, and the lower eyelid is touched with the same tint; lores, blackish ; sides of the neck and auriculars, green olive; whole lower parts, pale yellow ochre, with a tinge of greenish ; duskiest on the throat; legs, long, and flesh coloured. The plumage of the female differs in nothing from that of the male. PASSENGER PIGEON. (Columba migratoria.) PLATE XLIV.—Fie. 1. Catesby, i. 23.— Linn. Syst. 285.—Turton, 479.—Arct. Zool. p. 322, No. 187.— Briss. i. 100.—Buff. ii. 527.—Peale’s Museum, No. 5084. ECTOPISTES MIGRATORIA.—SWAINSON.* Ectopistes, Swain. N. Groups, Zool. Journ. No. xi. p. 362.—Columba migratoria, Bonap. Synop. p. 120.—The Passenger Pigeon, Aud. Orn. Biog. i. p. 319, male and female.—Columba (Ectopistes) migratoria, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 363, Tus remarkable bird merits a distinguished place in the annals of our feathered tribes,——a claim to which I shall endeavour to do justice; and though it would be impossible, * Tn all the large natural groups which have already come under our notice, we have seen a great variation of form, though the essential parts of it were always beautifully kept up. In the present immense 196 PASSENGER PIGEON. in the bounds allotted to this account, to relate all I have seen and heard of this species, yet no circumstance shall be omitted with which I am acquainted (however extraordinary some of these may appear) that may tend to illustrate its history. family, Mr Swainson has characterised the passenger pigeons under the name of Ectopistes, at once distinguished by their graceful and lengthened make, and well represented by the common Columba migratoria and the Carolina pigeon of our author. The nicer distinctions will be found in the slender bill, and the relative proportions of the feet and wings. As far as our knowledge extends, the group is confined to both the continents of America. A single individual of this species was shot, while perched on a wall, in the neighbourhood of a pigeon-house at Westhall, in the parish of Monymail, Fifeshire, in December 1825. It came into the possession of Dr Fleming of Flisk, who has recorded its occurrence in his “British Zoology.” He remarks that the feathers were quite fresh and entire, like a wild bird ; but we can only rank it as a very rare straggler. Mr Audubon mentions having brought over 350 of these birds, when he last visited this country, and distributed them among different country gentlemen. Lord Stanley received fifty of them, which he intended to turn out in his park, in the neighbourhood of Liverpool. We have the following additional account from Audubon of their flights, roosting, and destruction, in everything corroborating the history of Wilson, but too interesting to pass by :— “Their great power of flight enables them to survey and pass over an astonishing extent of country in a very short time. Thus pigeons have been killed in the neighbourhood of New York, with their crops full of rice, which they must have collected in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, these districts being the nearest in which they could possibly have procured a supply of food. As their power of digestion is so great that they will decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must, in this case, have travelled between three and four hundred miles in six hours, which shows their speed to be, at an average, about one mile in a minute. A velocity such as this would enable one of these birds, were it so inclined, to visit the European continent in less than three days. “Tn the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens, a few miles beyond Hardensburg, I observed the pigeons flying from north-east to south-west, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before. I travelled on, and still met more, the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with pigeons. The light of the noonday was obscured as by an eclipse. The dung fell in spots not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose. PASSENGER PIGEON. 197 The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide and extensive region of North America, on this side of the great Stony Mountains, beyond which, to the westward, I have not “ Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburg fifty-five miles. The pigeons were still passing in undiminished num- bers, and continued to do so for three days in succession. The people were allinarms. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men and boys, incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower as they passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or more, the population fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons. The atmosphere, during this time, was strongly impregnated with the peculiar odour which emanates from the species.” In estimat- ing the number of these mighty flocks, and the food consumed by them daily he adds—“ Let us take a column of one mile in breadth, which is far below the average size, and suppose it passing over us at the rate of one mile per minute. This will give us a parallelogram of 180 miles by 1, covering 180 square miles ; and allowing two pigeons to the square yard, we have one billion one hundred and fifteen millions one hundred and thirty-six thousand pigeons in one flock: and as every pigeon consumes fully half a pint per day, the quantity required to feed such a flock, must be eight millions seven hundred and twelve thousand bushels per day.” The accounts of their roosting places are as remarkable :— ‘Let us now, kind reader, inspect their place of nightly rendezvous : —It was, as is always the case, in a portion of the forest where the trees were of great magnitude, and where there was little underwood, I rode through it upwards of forty miles, and, crossing it at different parts, found its average breadth to be rather more than three miles. Few pigeons were to be seen before sunset; but a great number of persons, with horses and waggons, guns and ammunition, had already established encampments on the borders, Two farmers from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant more than a hundred miles, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs, to be fattened on the pigeons which were to be slaughtered. Here and there, the people employed in plucking and salting what had already been procured were seen sit- ting in the midst of large piles of these birds. The dung lay several inches deep, covering the whole extent of the roosting place like a bed of snow. Many trees, two feet in diameter, I observed, were broken off at no great distance from the ground ; and the branches of many of the largest and tallest had given way, as if the forest had been swept by a tornado, Everything proved to me that the number of birds resorting to this part of the forest must be immense beyond conception. As the period of their arrival approached, their foes anxiously prepared ‘to 198 PASSENGER PIGEON. heard of their being seen. According to Mr Hutchins, they abound in the country round Hudson’s Bay, where they seize them. Some were furnished with iron pots, containing sulphur, others with torches of pine-knots, many with poles, and the rest with guns. The sun was lost to our view; yet not a pigeon had arrived. Everything was ready, and all eyes were gazing on the clear sky, which appeared in glimpses amidst the tall trees. Suddenly, there burst forth a general cry of, ‘ Here they come!’ The noise which they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea passing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived, and passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were soon knocked down by polemen. The current of birds, how- ever, still kept increasing. The fires were lighted, and a most magni- ficent, as well as a wonderful and terrifying sight, presented itself. The pigeons, coming in by thousands, alighted everywhere, one above another, until solid masses, as large as hogsheads, were formed on every tree, in all directions. Here and there the perches gave way under the weight with a crash, and, falling to the ground, destroyed hundreds of the birds beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which every stick was loaded. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I found it quite useless to speak, or even to shout, to those persons who were nearest me. The reports, even, of the nearest guns, were seldom heard ; and I knew of the firing only by seeing the shooters reloading. Noone dared venture within the line of devastation ; the hogs had been penned up in due time, the picking up of the dead and wounded being left for the next morning’s employment. The pigeons were constantly coming ; and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease in the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued, however, the whole night ; and, as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound reached, I sent off a man, accustomed to perambulate the forest, who, returning two hours afterwards, informed me that he had heard it distinctly when three miles from the spot. Towards the approach of day, the noise rather subsided ; but, long ere objects were at all distinguishable, the pigeons began to move off in a direction quite different from that in which they had arrived the evening before ; and at sunrise, all that were able to fly had disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached our ears; and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, racoons, opossums, and pole-cats, were seen sneaking off from the spot, whilst eagles and hawks, of differ- ent species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came to supplant them, and enjoy their share of the spoil. It was then that the authors of all this devastation began their entry amongst the dead, the dying, and the mangled. The pigeons were picked up, and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dispose of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder.”—Eb. PASSENGER PIGEON. 199 usually remain as late as December, feeding, when the ground is covered with snow, on the buds of juniper. They spread over the whole of Canada; were seen by Captain Lewis and his parity near the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards of 2500 miles from its mouth, reckoning the meanderings of the river; were also met with in the interior of Louisiana by Colonel Pike; and extend their range as far south as the Gulf of Mexico; occasionally visiting or breeding in almost every quarter of the United States. But the most remarkable characteristic of these birds is their associating together, both in their migrations, and also during the period of incubation, in such prodigious numbers as almost to surpass belief, and which has no parallel among any other of the feathered tribes on the face of the earth with which naturalists are acquainted, These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest of food, than merely to avoid the cold of the climate, since we find them lingering in the northern regions, around Hudson’s Bay, so late as December ; and since their appear- ance is so casual and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain districts for several years in any considerable numbers, while at other times they are innumerable. I have witnessed these migrations in the Gennesee country, often in Pennsylvania, and also in various parts of Virginia, with amazement; but all that I had then seen of them were mere straggling parties when compared with the congregated millions which I have since beheld in our western forests, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indiana territory. These fertile and ex- tensive regions abound with the nutritious beech-nut, which constitutes the chief food of the wild pigeon. In seasons when these nuts are abundant, corresponding multitudes of pigeons may be confidently expected. It sometimes happens that, having consumed the whole produce of the beech trees in an extensive district, they discover another, at the distance perhaps of sixty or eighty miles, to which they regularly repair every morning, and return as regularly in the course of 200 PASSENGER PIGEON. the day, or in the evening, to their place of general rendez- vous, or, as it is usually called, the roosting place. These roosting places are always in the woods, and sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. When they have frequented one of these places for some time, the appearance it exhibits is sur- prising. The ground is covered to the depth of several inches with their dung; all the tender grass and underwood de- stroyed ; the surface strewed with large limbs of trees, broken down by the weight of the birds clustering one above another ; and the trees themselves, for thousands of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an axe. The marks of this desolation remain for many years on the spot ; and numerous places could be pointed out where, for several years after, scarcely a single vegetable made its appearance. When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants, from considerable distances, visit them in the night, with guns, clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, and various other engines of destruction. In a few hours, they fill many sacks, and load their horses with them. By the Indians, a pigeon roost or breeding place is considered an important source of national profit and dependence for that season, and all their active ingenuity is exercised on the occasion. The breeding place differs from the former in its greater extent. In the western countries above mentioned, these are generally in beech woods, and often extend, in nearly a straight line, across the country for a great way. Not far from Shelbyville, in the State of Kentucky, about five years ago, there was one of these breeding places, which stretched through the woods in nearly a north and south direction ; was several miles in breadth, and was said to be upwards of forty miles in extent! In this tract, almost every tree was furnished with nests, wherever the branches could accommodate them. The pigeons made their first appearance there about the 10th of April, and left it altogether, with their young, before the 25th of May. As soon as the young were fully grown, and before they left the nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants, from all PASSENGER PIGEON. 201 parts of the adjacent country, came with wageons, axes, beds, cooking utensils, many of them accompanied by the greater part of their families, and encamped for several days at this immense nursery. Several of them informed me that the noise in the woods was so great as to terrify their horses, and that it was difficult for one person to hear another speak without bawling in his ear. The ground was strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab pigeons, which had been precipitated from above, and on which herds of hogs were fattening. Hawks, buzzards, and eagles were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing the squabs from their nests at pleasure; while, from twenty feet upwards to the tops of the trees, the view through the woods presented a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber; for now the axe-men were at. work, cutting down those trees that seemed to be most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them in such a manner, that, in their descent, they might bring down several others ; by which means the falling of one large tree some- times produced two hundred squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one mass of fat. On some single trees, upwards of one hundred nests were found, each con- taining one young only ; a circumstance in the history of this bird not generally known to naturalists. It was dangerous to walk under these flying and fluttering millions from the frequent fall of large branches, broken down by the weight of the multitudes above, and which, in their descent, often destroyed numbers of the birds themselves ; while the clothes of those engaged in traversing the woods were completely covered with the excrements of the pigeons. These circumstances were related to me by many of the most respectable part of the community in that quarter, and were confirmed, in part, by what I myself witnessed. I passed for several miles through this same breeding place, where every tree was spotted with nests, the remains of those 202 PASSENGER PIGEON. above described. In many instances, I counted upwards of ninety nests on a single tree ; but the pigeons had abandoned this place for another, sixty or eighty miles off towards Green River, where they were said at that time to be equally numerous. From the great numbers that were constantly passing overhead to or from that quarter, I had no doubt of the truth of this statement. The mast had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky, and the pigeons, every morning, a little before sunrise, set out for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten o'clock, and the great body generally appeared on their return a little after noon. T had left the public road to visit the remains of the breed- ing place near Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, on my way to Frankfort, when, about one o’clock, the pigeons, which I had observed flying the greater part of the morning northerly, began to return, in such immense numbers as I never before had witnessed. Coming to an opening, by the side of a creek called the Benson, where I had a more uninterrupted view, I was astonished at their appearance. They were flying, with great steadiness and rapidity, at a height beyond gunshot, in several strata deep, and so close together, that, could shot have reached them, one discharge could not have failed of bringing down several individuals. From right to left, far as the eye could reach, the breadth of this vast procession extended, seeming everywhere equally crowded. Curious to determine how long this appearance would continue, I took out my watch to note the time, and sat down to observe them. It was then half-past one. I sat for more than an hour, but instead of a diminution of this prodigious procession, it seemed rather to increase both in numbers and rapidity; and anxious to reach Frankfort before night, I rose and went on. About four o'clock in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky River, at the town of Frankfort, at which time the living torrent above my head seemed as numerous and as extensive as ever. Long after PASSENGER PIGEON. 203 this I observed them in large bodies, that continued to pass for six or eight minutes, and these again were followed by other detached bodies, all moving in the same south-east, direc- tion, till after six in the evening. The great breadth of front which this mighty multitude preserved would seem to intimate a corresponding breadth of their breeding place, which, by several gentlemen, who had lately passed through part of it, was stated to me at several miles. It was said to be in Green county, and that the young began to fly about the middle of March. On the 17th of April, forty-nine miles beyond Dan- ville, and not far from Green River, I crossed this same breed- ing place, where the nests, for more than three miles, spotted every tree: the leaves not being yet out, I had a fair prospect of them, and was really astonished at their numbers. A few bodies of pigeons lingered yet in different parts of the woods, the roaring of whose wings was heard in various quarters around me. All accounts agree in stating that each nest contains only one young squab. These are so extremely fat, that the Indians, and many of the whites, are accustomed to melt down the fat for domestic purposes as a substitute for butter and lard. At the time they leave the nest, they are nearly as heavy as the old ones, but become much leaner after they are turned out to shift for themselves. | It is universally asserted in the western countries, that the pigeons, though they have only one young at a time, breed thrice, and sometimes four times, in the same season: the circumstances already mentioned render this highly probable. It is also worthy of observation, that this takes place during that period when acorns, beech nuts, &c., are scattered about in the greatest abundance, and mellowed by the frost. But they are not confined to these alone,—buckwheat, hempseed, Indian-corn, hollyberries, hackberries, huckleberries, and many others, furnish them with abundance at almost all seasons. The acorns of the live oak are also eagerly sought after by these birds, and rice has been frequently found in individuals 204 PASSENGER PIGEON. killed many hundred miles to the northward of the nearest rice plantation. The vast quantity of mast which these multi- tudes consume is a serious loss to the bears, pigs, squirrels, and other dependants on the fruits of the forest. I have taken from the crop of a single wild pigeon a good handful of the kernels of beech-nuts, intermixed with acorns and chestnuts. T'o form a rough estimate of the daily consumption of one of these immense flocks, let us first attempt to calculate the numbers of that above mentioned, as seen in passing between Frankfort and the Indiana territory. If we suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth (and I believe it to have been much more), and that it moved at the rate of one mile in a minute, four hours, the time it continued passing, would make its whole length two hundred and forty miles. Again, supposing that each square yard of this moving body compre- hended three pigeons, the square yards in the whole space, multiplied by three, would give two thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred and seventy-two thousand pigeons !—an almost inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below the actual amount. Computing each of these to consume half a pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate would equal seventeen millions, four hundred and twenty- four thousand bushels per day! Heaven has wisely and eraciously given to these birds rapidity of flight and a dis- position to range over vast uncultivated tracts of the earth, otherwise they must have perished in the districts where they resided, or devoured up the whole productions of agriculture, as well as those of the forests. A few observations on the mode of flight of these birds must not be omitted. ‘The appearance of large detached bodies of them in the air, and the various evolutions they display, are strikingly picturesque and interesting. In descending the Ohio by myself, in the month of February, I often rested on my oars to contemplate their aerial manceuvres. A column, eight or ten miles in length, would appear from Kentucky, high in air, steering across to Indiana. The leaders of this PASSENGER PIGEON. 205 great body would sometimes gradually vary their course, until it formed a large bend, of more than a mile in diameter, those behind tracing the exact route of their predecessors. This would continue sometimes long after both extremities were beyond the reach of sight; so that the whole, with its ¢littery undulations, marked a space on the face of the heavens resem- bling the windings of a vast and majestic river. When this bend became very great, the birds, as if sensible of the unnecessary circuitous course they were taking, suddenly changed their direction, so that what was in column before became an immense front, straightening all its indentures, until if swept the heavens in one vast and infinitely extended line. Other lesser bodies also united with each other as they happened to approach, with such ease and elegance of evolu- tion, forming new figures, and varying these as they united or separated, that I never was tired of contemplating them. Sometimes a hawk would make a sweep on a particular part of the column, from a great height, when, almost as quick as lightning, that part shot downwards out of the common track ; but, soon rising again, continued advancing at the same height as before. This reflection was continued by those behind, who, on arriving at this point, dived down, almost perpendicularly, to a great depth, and rising, followed the exact path of those that went before. As these vast bodies passed over the river near me, the surface of the water, which was before smooth as glass, appeared marked with innumerable dimples, occasioned by the dropping of their dung, resembling the commencement of a shower of large drops of rain or hail. Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon, to purchase some milk at a house that stood near the river, and while talking with the people within doors, I was suddenly struck with astonishment at a loud rushing roar, succeeded by instant darkness, which on the first moment I took for a tornado about to overwhelm the house and everything around in destruction. The people, observing my surprise, coolly said, “Tt is only the pigeons;” and, on running out, I beheld a 206 PASSENGER PIGEON. flock, thirty or forty yards in width, sweeping along, very low, between the house and the mountain, or height, that formed the second bank of the river. These continued passing for more than a quarter of an hour, and at length varied their bearing, so as to pass over the mountain, behind which they disappeared before the rear came up. In the Atlantic States, though they never appear in such unparalleled multitudes, they are sometimes very numerous, and great havoc is then made amongst them with the gun, the clap-net, and various other implements of destruction. As soon as it is ascertained in a town that the pigeons are flying numerously in the neighbourhood, the gunners rise en masse ; the clap-nets are spread out on suitable situations, commonly on an open height in an old buckwheat field ; four or five live pigeons, with their eyelids sewed up, are fastened on a movable stick—a small hut of branches is fitted up for the fowler, at the distance of forty or fifty yards—by the pulling of a string, the stick on which the pigeons rest is alternately elevated and depressed, which produces a fluttering of their wings similar to that of birds just alighting ; this being per- ceived by the passing flocks, they descend with great rapidity, and finding corn, buckwheat, &c., strewed about, begin to feed, and are instantly, by the pulling of a cord, covered by the net. In this manner, ten, twenty, and even thirty dozen, have been caught at one sweep. Meantime, the air is darkened with large bodies of them, moving in various directions ; the woods also swarm with them in search of acorns; and the thundering of musketry is perpetual on all sides from morning to night. Waggon loads of them are poured into market, where they sell from fifty to twenty-five, and even twelve cents, per dozen; and pigeons become the order of the day at dinner, breakfast, and supper, until the very name becomes sickening. When they have been kept alive, and fed for some time on corn and buckwheat, their flesh acquires great superiority ; but, in their common state, they are dry and blackish,and far inferior to the full-grown young ones, or squabs. PASSENGER PIGEON. 207 The nest of the wild pigeon is formed of a few dry slender twigs, carelessly put together, and with so little concavity, that the young one, when half grown, can easily be seen from below. The eggs are pure white. Great numbers of hawks, and sometimes the bald eagle himself, hover about those breeding places, and seize the old or the young from the nest amidst the rising multitudes, and with the most daring effrontery. he young, when beginning to fly, confine them- selves to the under part of the tall woods where there is no brush, and where nuts and acorns are abundant, searching among the leaves for mast, and appear like a prodigious torrent rolling along through the woods, every one striving to be in the front. Vast numbers of them are shot while in this situation. A person told me that he once rode furiously into one of these rolling multitudes, and picked up thirteen pigeons, which had been trampled to death by his horse’s feet. Ina few minutes they will beat the whole nuts from a tree with their wings, while all is a scramble, both above and below, for the same. They have the same cooing notes common to domestic pigeons, but much less of their gesticulations. In some flocks you will find nothing but young ones, which are easily distinguishable by their motley dress. In others, they will be mostly females; and again, great multitudes of males, with few or no females. I cannot account for this in any other way than that, during the time of incubation, the males are exclusively engaged in procuring food, both for themselves and their mates ; and the young, being unable yet to undertake these extensive excursions, associate together accordingly. But, even in winter, I know of several species of birds who separate in this manner, particularly the red-winged starling, among whom thousands of old males may be found with few or no young or females along with them. Stragelers from these immense armies settle in almost every part of the country, particularly among the beech woods, and in the pine and hemlock woods of the eastern and northern parts of the continent. Mr Pennant informs us 208 PASSENGER PIGEON. that they breed near Moose Fort at Hudson's Bay, in N. lat. 51°, and I myself have seen the remains of a large breeding place as far south as the country of Choctaws, in lat. 32°. In the former of these places they are said to remain until December ; from which circumstance it is evident that they are not regular in their migrations, like many other species, but rove about, as scarcity of food urges them. Every spring, however, as well as fall, more or less of them are seen in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia; but it is only once in several years that they appear in such formidable bodies, and this commonly when the snows are heavy to the north, the winter here more than usually mild, and acorns, &c., abundant. The passenger pigeon is sixteen inches long, and twenty- four inches in extent; bill, black ; nostril, covered by a high rounding protuberance ; eye, brilliant fiery orange ; orbit, or space surrounding it, purplish flesh-coloured skin ; head, upper part of the neck, and chin, a fine slate blue, lightest on the chin; throat, breast, and sides, as far as the thighs, a reddish hazel ; lower part of the neck, and sides of the same, resplendent changeable gold, green, and purplish crimson, the latter most predominant; the ground colour, slate; the plumage of this part is of a peculiar structure, ragged at the ends ; belly and vent, white ; lower part of the breast, fading into a pale vinaceous red; thighs, the same; legs and feet, lake, seamed with white; back, rump, and tail-coverts, dark slate, spotted on the shoulders with a few scattered marks of black ; the scapulars, tinged with brown; greater coverts, light slate ; primaries and secondaries, dull black, the former tipt and edged with brownish white ; tail, long, and greatly cuneiform, all the feathers tapering towards the point, the two middle ones plain deep black, the other five, on each side, hoary white, lightest near the tips, deepening into bluish near the bases, where each is crossed on the inner vane with a broad spot of black, and nearer the root with another of ferruginous ; primaries, edged with white ; bastard wing, black. BLUE MOUNTAIN WARBLER. 209 The female is about half an inch shorter, and an inch less in extent ; breast, cinereous brown; upper part of the neck, inclining to ash; the spot of changeable gold, green, and carmine, much less, and not so brilliant; tail-coverts, brownish slate ; naked orbits, slate coloured ; in all other respects like the male in colour, but Jess vivid, and more tinged with brown ; the eye not so brilliant an orange. In both, the tail has only twelve feathers. BLUE MOUNTAIN WARBLER. (Sylvia montana.) PLATE XLIV.—Fic. 2. SYLVICOLA MONTANA.—JARDINE.* Sylvia tigrina, Bonap. Synop. p. 82. THIS new species was first discovered near that celebrated ridge or range of mountains with whose name I have honoured it. Several of these solitary warblers remain yet to be gleaned up from the airy heights of our alpine scenery, as well as from the recesses of our swamps and morasses, whither it is my design to pursue them by every opportunity. Some of these, I believe, rarely or never visit the lower cultivated parts of the country, but seem only at home among the glooms and silence of those dreary solitudes. The present species seems of that family or subdivision of the warblers that approach the flycatcher, darting after flies wherever they see them, and also searching with great activity among the leaves. Its song was a feeble screep, three or four times repeated. This species is four inches and three-quarters in length ; the upper parts, a rich yellow olive; front, cheeks, and chin, yellow, also the sides of the neck; breast and belly, pale * Bonaparte is inclined to think that this is the Sylvia tigrina of Latham. He acknowledges, however, not having seen the bird, and, as we have no means at present of deciding the question, have retained Wilson’s name. Both this and the following will range in Sylvicola.— Ep. VOL. IT. O 210 HEMLOCK WARBLER. yellow, streaked with black or dusky; vent, plain pale yellow; wings, black; first and second row of coverts, broadly tipt with pale yellowish white; tertials, the same ; the rest of the quills edged with whitish ; tail, black, handsomely rounded, edged with pale olive; the two exterior feathers on each side, white on the inner vanes from the middle to the tips, and edged on the outer side with white ; bill, dark brown ; legs and feet, purple brown ; soles, yellow; eye, dark hazel. This was a male. The female I have never seen. HEMLOCK WARBLER. (Sylvia parus.) PLATE XLIV.—Fic. 3. SYLVICOLA PARUS.—JARDINE. Sylvia parus, Bonap. Synop. p. 82. Tuts is another nondescript, first met with in the Great Pine Swamp, Pennsylvania. From observing it almost always among the branches of the hemlock trees, I have designated it by that appellation, the markings of its plumage not affording me a peculiarity sufficient for a specific name. It is a most lively and active little bird, climbing among the twigs, and hanging like a titmouse on the branches, but possessing all the external characters of the warblers. It has a few low and very sweet notes, at which times it stops and repeats them for a short time, then darts about as before. It shoots after flies to a considerable distance; often begins at the lower branches, and hunts with great regularity and admirable dexterity upwards to the top, then flies off to the next tree, at the lower branches of which it commences hunt- ing upwards as before. This species is five inches and a half long, and eight inches in extent; bill, black above, pale below; upper parts of the plumage, black, thinly streaked with yellow olive; head above, yellow, dotted with black; line from the nostril over the eye, sides of the neck, and whole breast, rich yellow; belly, n om Nature by 4 Pilon Engraved by WE Lizars. 1. Shamp-shinnd Hawk, 2.Redstart. 4 Yellow-rump. rc 45. SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 215 paler, streaked with dusky ; round the breast, some small streaks of blackish ; wing, black, the greater coverts and next superior row, broadly tipt with white, forming two broad bars across the wing; primaries edged with olive, tertials with white; tail-coverts, black, tipt with olive ; tail, slightly forked, black, and edged with olive; the three exterior feathers altogether white on their inner vanes ; legs and feet, dirty yellow ; eye, dark hazel; a few bristles at the mouth ; bill, not notched. This was a male. Of the female I can at present give no account, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. (falco velow.) PLATE XLV.—Fic. 1. ACCIPITER PENNSYLVANICUS.—SWAINSON.— YOUNG FEMALE. Autour & bec sineuse, Z’emm. Pl. Col. 67. Tats is a bold and daring species, hitherto unknown to natu- ralists. The only hawk we have which approaches near it in colour is the pigeon hawk, already figured in this work, Plate XV.; but there are such striking differences in the present, not only in colour, but in other respects, as to point out decisively its claims to rank as a distinct species. Its long and slender legs and toes—its red fiery eye, feathered to the eyelids—its triangular grooved nostril, and length of tail,— are all different from the pigeon hawk, whose legs are short, its eyes dark hazel, surrounded with a broad bare yellow skin, and its nostrils small and circular, centered with a slender point that rises in it like the pistil of a flower. There is no hawk mentioned by Mr Pennant, either as inhabiting Europe or America, agreeing with this. I may, therefore, with con- fidence, pronounce it a nondescript, and have chosen a very sin- gular peculiarity which it possesses for its specific appellation. This hawk was shot on the banks of the Schuylkill, near Mr Bartram’s. Its singularity of flight surprised me long before I succeeded in procuring it. It seemed to throw itself 22 SHARP-SHINNED HAWE. from one quarter of the heavens to the other with prodigious velocity, inclining to the earth, swept suddenly down into a thicket, and instantly reappeared with a small bird in its talons. This feat I saw it twice perform, so that it was not merely an accidental manceuvre. The rapidity and seeming violence of these zigzag excursions were really remarkable, and appeared to me to be for the purpose of seizing his prey by sudden surprise and main force of flight. I kept this hawk alive for several days, and was hopeful I might be able to cure him; but he died of his wound. On the 15th of September, two young men whom I had despatched on a shooting expedition met with this species on one of the ranges of the Alleghany. It was driving around in the same furious headlong manner, and had made a sweep at a red squirrel, which eluded its grasp, and itself became the victim. ‘These are the only individuals of this bird I have been able to procure, and fortunately they were male and female. The female of this species (represented in the plate) is thirteen inches long, and twenty-five inches in extent; the bill is black towards the point on both mandibles, but light blue at its base ; cere, a fine pea green ; sides of the mouth, the same; lores, pale whitish blue, beset with hairs; crown and whole upper parts, very dark brown, every feather narrowly skirted with a bright rust colour; over the eye a stripe of yellowish white, streaked with deep brown; primaries, spotted on their inner vanes with black; secondaries, crossed on both vanes with three bars of dusky, below the coverts; inner vanes of both primaries and secondaries, brownish white ; all the scapulars marked with large round spots of white, not seen unless the plumage be parted with the hand ; tail long, nearly even, crossed with four bars of black and as many of brown ash, and tipt with white; throat and whole lower parts, pale yellowish white; the former marked with fine long pointed spots of dark brown, the latter with large oblong spots: of reddish brown ; femorals, thickly marked with spade-formed spots on a pale rufous ground; legs, long, and feathered a little below the knee, of a greenish yellow colour, most yellow at the SHARE-SHINNED HAWK. 213 joints ; edges of the inside of the shins, below the knee, pro- jecting like the edge of a knife, hard and sharp, as if in- tended to enable the bird to hold its prey with more security between them ; eye, brilliant yellow, sunk below a projecting cartilage. | The male was nearly two inches shorter ; the upper parts, dark brown; the feathers skirted with pale reddish, the front streaked with the same; cere, greenish yellow; lores, bluish ; bill, black, as in the female; streak over the eye, lighter than in the former; chin, white; breast the same, streaked with brown; bars on the tail, rather narrower, but in tint and number the same; belly and vent, white; feet and shins, exactly as in the female; the toes have the same pendulous lobes which mark those of the female, and of which the representation in the plate will give a correct idea; the wings barred with black, very noticeable on the lower side. Since writing the above, I have shot another specimen of this hawk, corresponding in almost every particular with the male last mentioned, and which, on dissection, also proves to be a male. This last had within the grasp of its sharp talons a small lizard, just killed, on which he was about to feed. How he contrived to get possession of it appeared to me matter of surprise, as lightuing itself seems scarcely more fleet than this little reptile. So rapid are its motions, that, in passing from one place to another, it vanishes, and actually eludes the eye in running a distance of twelve or fifteen feet. It is frequently seen on fences that are covered with grey moss and lichen, which in colour tt very much resembles ; it seeks shelter in hollow trees, and also in the ground about their decayed roots. ‘They are most numerous in hilly parts of the country, particularly on the declivities of the Blue Mountain, among the crevices of rocks and stones. When they are disposed to run, it is almost impossible to shoot them, as they disappear at the first touch of the trigger. For the satisfaction of the curious, I have introduced a full-sized figure of this lizard, which is known in many parts of the country by the name of the Swift. 214 REDSTART. REDSTART. (Muscicapa ruticilla.) PLATE XLV.—Fic. 2. Edw. 257.—Yellow Tail, Arct. Zool. ii. p. 466, No. 301. SETOPHAGA RUTICILLA.—SWAInson. By recurring to Vol. I. Plate VI. fig. 6, the male of this species may be seen in his perfect dress. ‘The present figure represents the young bird as he appears for the first two seasons ; the female differs very little from this, chiefly in the green olive being more inclined to ash. This is one of our summer birds, and, from the circumstance of being found off Hispaniola in November, is supposed to winter in the islands. ‘They leave Pennsylvania about the 20th of September ; are dexterous flycatchers, though ranked by European naturalists among the warblers, having the bill notched and beset with long bristles. In its present dress the redstart makes its appearance in Pennsylvania about the middle or 20th of April; and, from being heard chanting its few sprightly notes, has been sup- posed by some of our own naturalists to be a different species. I have, however, found both parents of the same nest in the same dress nearly ; the female, eggs, and nest, as well as the notes of the male, agreeing exactly with those of the redstart— evidence sufficiently satisfactory to me. Head above, dull slate; throat, pale buff; sides of the breast and four exterior tail-feathers, fine yellow, tipt with dark brown; wings and back, greenish olive ; tail-coverts, blackish, tipt with ash ; belly, dull white ; no white or yellow on the wings ; legs, dirty purplish brown ; bill, black. The redstart extends very generally over the United States, having myself seen it on the borders of Canada, and also on the Mississippi territory. This species has the constant habit of flirting its expanded tail from side to side, as it runs along the branches, with its head levelled almost in a line with its body, occasionaily VELLOW-RUMP WARBLER. 215 shooting off after winged insects in a downward zigzag direction, and, with admirable dexterity, snapping its bill as it descends. Its notes are few and feeble, repeated at short intervals, as it darts among the foliage ; having at some times a resemblance to the sounds, sic ste sdic ; at others, weesy weesy weesy ; which last seems to be its call for the female, while the former appears to be its most common note. YELLOW-RUMP WARBLER. (Sylvia coronata.) PLATE XLV.—Fic. 3. Edw. 255.—Arct. Zool. ii. p. 400, No. 288. SYLVICOLA CORONATA.—SWAINSON.— WINTER PLUMAGE. Sylvia coronata, Bonap. Synop. p. 78.—Sylvicola coronata, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 210. I must again refer the reader to the first volume, Plate XVII. fig. 4, for this bird in his perfect colours; the present figure exhibits him in his winter dress, as he arrives to us from the north early in September; the former shows him in his spring and summer dress, as he visits us from the south about the 20th of March. These birds remain with us in Pennsylvania from September until the season becomes severely cold, feeding on the berries of the red cedar ; and, as December’s snows come on, they retreat to the lower countries of the southern States, where, in February, I found them in great numbers among the myrtles, feeding on the berries of that shrub; from which circumstance they are usually called, in that quarter, myrtle birds. Their breeding place I suspect to be in our northern districts, among the swamps and evergreens so abundant there, having myself shot them in the Great Pine Swamp about the middle of May. They range along our whole Atlantic coast in winter, seeming particularly fond of the red cedar and the myrtle ; and I have found them numerous in October, on the low islands along the coast of New Jersey, in the same pursuit. They also dart after flies, wherever they can see them, gene- rally skipping about with the wings loose. 216 SLATE-COLOURED HAWK. Length, five inches and a quarter; extent, eight inches ; upper parts and sides of the neck, a dark mouse brown, obscurely streaked on the back with dusky black; lower parts, pale dull yellowish white ; breast, marked with faint streaks of brown; chin and vent, white; rump, vivid yellow ; at each side of the breast, and also on the crown, a spot of fainter yellow; this last not observable without separating the plumage ; bill, legs, and wings, black ; lesser coverts, tipt with brownish white ; tail-coverts, slate; the three exterior tail-feathers marked on their inner vanes with white ; a touch of the same on the upper and lower eyelid. Male and female at this season nearly alike. They begin to change about the middle of February, and in four or five weeks are in their slate-coloured dress, as represented in the figure referred to. SLATE-COLOURED HAWK. (falco Pennsylvanicus.) PLATE XLVI.—Fic. 1. ACCIPITER PENNSYLVANICUS.—Swatnson.* Falco velox, Bonap. Synop. p. 29.—Autour a bec sineuse, Temm. Pl. Col. 67 (young).—Accipiter Pennsylvanicus, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 44. Tus elegant and spirited little hawk is a native of Penn- sylvania, and of the Altantic States generally, and is now for the first time introduced to the notice of the public. It frequents the more settled parts of the country, chiefly in winter ; is at all times a scarce species; flies wide, very * It is now satisfactorily ascertained that this and the Falco velox of the last plate are the same species, the Jatter representing the plumage of the young female. The changes and differences are the same with those of the common European sparrow hawk, Acczpiter nisus. This bird most probably extends to the intertropical parts of South America. Its occurrence far to the northward is not so common. It was not met with by Dr Richardson, and the authority of its existence in the Fur Countries rests on a specimen in the Hudson’s Bay Company museum, killed at Moose Factory. It very nearly resembles two small species from Mexico, the A, fringilloides of Mr Vigors, and one newly characterised by Mr Swainson as A. Mexicanus.—Ep. Dron tiem Watureby dWilson. L. Slate Colonred Hawk. 2. Greund Dove. 5 female. 4G. SLATE-COLOURED HAWK. 217 irregular and swiftly ; preys on lizards, mice, and small birds, and is an active and daring little hunter. It is drawn of full size, from a very beautiful specimen shot in the neighbour- hood of Philadelphia. The bird within his grasp is the Tanagra rubra, or black-winged red bird, in its green or first year’s dress. In the spring of the succeeding year the green and yellow plumage of this bird becomes of a most | splendid scarlet, and the wings and tail deepen into a glossy black. For a particular account of this tanager, see Vol. I. p. 192, of the present work. The great difficulty of accurately discriminating between different species of the hawk tribe, on account of the various appearances they assume at different periods of their long lives, at first excited a suspicion that this might be one of those with which I was already acquainted, in a different dress, namely, the sharp-shinned hawk just described; for such are the changes of colour to which many individuals of this genus are subject, that unless the naturalist has recourse to those parts that are subject to little or no alteration in the full-grown bird, viz., the particular conformation of the legs, nostril, tail, and the relative length of the latter to that of the wings, also the peculiar character of the countenance, he will frequently be deceived. By comparing these, the same species may often be detected under a very different garb. Were all these changes accurately known, there is no doubt but the number of species of this tribe at present enumerated would be greatly diminished, the same bird having been described by certain writers three, four, and even five different times, as so many distinct species. ‘Testing, however, the present hawk by the rules above mentioned, I have no hesitation in considering it as a species different from any hitherto described, and I have classed it accordingly. The slate-coloured hawk is eleven inches long, and twenty- one inches in extent; bill, blue black; cere and sides of the mouth, dull green ; eyelid, yellow ; eye, deep sunk under the projecting eyebrow, and of a fiery orange colour ; upper parts 218 GROUND DOVE. of a fine slate; primaries, brown black, and, as well as the secondaries, barred with dusky ; scapulars, spotted with white and brown, which is not seen unless the plumage be separated by the hand ; all the feathers above are shafted with black ; tail, very slightly forked, of an ash colour, faintly tinged with brown, crossed with four broad bands of black, and tipt with white ; tail, three inches longer than the wings; over the eye extends a streak of dull white ; chin, white, mixed with fine black hairs; breast and belly beautifully variegated with ferruginous and transverse spots of white; femorals, the same; vent, pure white; legs, long, very slender, and of a rich orange yellow; claws, black, large, and remarkably sharp ; lining of the wing, thickly marked with heart-shaped spots of black. This bird, on dissection, was found to be a male. In the month of February, I shot another indivi- dual of this species, near Hampton, in Virginia, which agreed almost exactly with the present. GROUND DOVE. (Columba passerina.) PLATE XLVI.—Fic. 2, MALE; Fic. 3, Femane. Linn. Syst. 285.—Sloan. Jam. ii. 305.—Le Cocotzin, Fernandez, 24.—Buff. ii. 599, Pl. enl. 243.—Turt. Syst. 478.—Columba minuta, Ibid. p. 479.—Arct. Zool. p. 328, No. 191.—Catesb. i. 26.—La Petite Tourterelle d’Amerique, Briss. i. 113, pl. 9, fig. 1. CH #MEPELIA PASSERINA.—SWAtnson. Chemepelia, Swain. NV. Groups, Zool. Journ. No. XI. p. 361.—Columba passerina (sub-genus Goura), Bonap. Synop. p. 120. Tuis is one of the least of the pigeon tribe, whose timid and innocent appearance forms a very striking contrast to the ferocity of the bird-killer of the same plate. Such as they are in nature, such I have endeavoured faithfully to represent them. I have been the more particular with this minute species, as no correct figure of it exists in any former work with which I am acquainted. The ground dove is a native of North and South Carolina, GROUND DOVE. 219 Georgia, the new State of Louisiana, Florida, and the islands of the West Indies. In the latter, it is frequently kept in cages ; is esteemed excellent for the table, and honoured by the French planters with the name of ortolan. They are numerous in the sea islands on the coast of Carolina and Georgia ; fly in flocks or coveys of fifteen or twenty ; seldom visit the woods, preferring open fields and plantations; are almost constantly on the ground, and, when disturbed, fly to a short distance, and again alight. They have a frequent jetting motion with the tail; feed on rice, various seeds and berries, particularly those of the toothache tree,* under or near which, in the proper season, they are almost sure to be found. Of their nest or manner of breeding, I am unable at present to give any account. These birds seem to be confined to the districts lying south of Virginia. They are plenty on the upper parts of Cape Fear river, and in the interior of Carolina and Georgia ; but I never have met with them either in Maryland, Delaware, or Pennsylvania. They never congregate in such multitudes as the common wild pigeon, or even as the Carolina pigeon or turtle dove ; but, like the partridge, or quail, frequent the open fields in small coveys. ‘They are easily tamed, have a low, tender, cooing note, accompanied with the usual gesticula- tions of their tribe. The ground dove is a bird of passage, retiring to the islands, and to the more southerly parts of the continent, on the ap- proach of winter, and returning to its former haunts early in April. It is of a more slender and delicate form, and less able to bear the rigours of cold, than either of the other two species common in the United States, both of which are found in the northern regions of Canada, as well as in the genial climate of Florida. The dove, generally speaking, has long been considered as the favourite emblem of peace and innocence, probably from the respectful manner in which its name is mentioned in various parts of Scripture; its being selected from among all the * Xanthoxylum clava Herculis, 220 GROUND DOVE. birds by Noah to ascertain the state of the deluge, and re- turning to the ark bearing the olive leaf, as a messenger of peace and good tidings; the Holy Ghost, it is also said, was seen to descend like a dove from heaven, &. In addition to these, there is in the dove an appearance of meekness and innocency very interesting, and well calculated to secure our partiality in its favour. These remarks are applicable to the whole genus, but are more particularly so to the species now before us, as being among the least, the most delicate, and inoffensive of the whole. The ground dove is six inches and a quarter long; bill, yellow, black at the point ; nostril, covered with a prominent membrane, as is usual with the genus; iris of the eye, orange red; front, throat, breast, and sides of the neck, pale vinaceous purple ; the feathers strongly defined by semicircular outlines, those on the throat centered with dusky blue; crown and hind head, a fine pale blue, intermixed with purple, the plumage, like that on the throat, strongly defined; back, cinerous brown, the scapulars deeply tinged with pale purple, and marked with detached drops of glossy blue, reflecting tints of purple; belly, pale vinaceous brown, becoming dark cinerous towards the vent, where the feathers are bordered with white; wing-quills, dusky outwardly, and at the tips; lower sides, and whole interior vanes, a fine red chestnut, which shows itself a little below their coverts ; tail, rounded, consisting of twelve feathers, the two middle ones cinereous brown, the rest black, tipt and edged with white; legs and feet, yellow. The female has the back and tail-coverts of a mouse colour, with little or none of the vinaceous tint on the breast and throat, nor any of the light blue on the hind head ; the throat is speckled with dull white, pale clay colour, and dusky ; sides of the neck, the same, the plumage strongly defined ; breast, cinerous brown, slighly tinctured with purple; scapulars, marked with large drops of a dark purplish blood colour, reflecting tints of blue; rest of the plumage, nearly the same as that of the male. LY ebpLany .woqwng g edieeyT SNIPE. 221 SNIPE. (Scolopax gallinago ?) PLATE XLVII.—Fic. 1. La Beccassine, Briss. v. 298, pl. 26, fig. 1.—ZLath. Syn. iti. 134. SCOLOPAX WILSONIT.—TEMMINOK.* Scolopax Wilsonii, Temm. Pl. Col., Note to description of S. gigantea—Bonap. Synop. p. 330.—Monog. del Gen. Scolopax Osserv. Sulla, 2d edit., Del. Reg. Anim. p. 120.—Scolopax Brehmii, Bonap. Observ. on Nomencl. Tus 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 name of the English * Five or six species of snipes are so much allied in the colours and general marking of the plumage, that a very narrow examination is often necessary for their determination ; from this reason, the birds from America, Asia, and the Indian continent were considered as identical, and a much wider geographical range allotted to the European snipe than it was generally entitled to. Wilson had some doubts of this bird being the same with the European snipe, as he marks his name with a query, and observed the difference in the number of tail-feathers. Bonaparte observed the difference as soon as his attention was turned to the ornithology of America ; and, about the same time, a new snipe was described by Mr Kaup, in the Isis, as found occasionally in cold winters in the north of Germany. The Prince of Musignano, on com- paring this description with the American species, from their very close alliance, judged them identical ; while, in the meantime, Temminck, comparing both together, perceived distinctions, and dedicated that of America to her own ornithologist, an opinion which Bonaparte after- wards confirmed and adopted in his monograph of that genus. Mr Swainson has introduced a snipe, which he thinks is distinct, killed on the Rocky Mountains, and named by him S. Drummondii ; and another, killed on the Columbia, which he calls 8. Douglasii. The first “is common in the Fur Countries up to lat. 65°, and is also found in the recesses of the Rocky Mountains. It is intermediate in size, between the S. major and gallinago ; it has a much longer bill than the latter, and two more tail-feathers. Its head is divided by a pale central stripe, as in S. gallinula and major ; its dorsal plumage more distinctly striped than that of the latter ; and the outer tail-feather is a quarter of an inch shorter than that of S. Douglas.” The latter, in Mr Swainson’s collection, has the tail of sixteen feathers, not narrowed, all banded with ferruginous except the outer pair, which are paler ; total length, eleven and a half inches. 222 SMIPE. 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 greater part then move off to the north, and to the higher inland districts, to breed. A few are occasionally 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 accounted excellent eating. They are perhaps the most difficult 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 appeared 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 neighbour- hood of Lexington, in the same State, as late as the 10th of Most of the snipes partially migrate in their native countries, and some perform a regular distant migration. Such is the case with the S. gallinula of Europe. The American species is a winter visitant in the northern States, and will most probably breed farther to the south, without leaving the country. In India, the snipes move according to the supply of water in the tanks, and at the season when they are com- paratively dry, leave that district entirely. In this country, although many breed in the mosses, we have a large accession of numbers about the middle of September, both from the wilder high grounds, and from the continent of Europe ; and these, according to the weather, change their stations during the whole winter. Their movements are com- menced generally about twilight, when they fly high, surveying the country as they pass, and one day may be found in abundance on the highest moorland ranges, while the next they have removed to some low and sheltered glade or marsh. In this we have a curious instance of that instinctive knowledge which causes so simultaneous a change of station in a single night. By close observation, during the winter months it may be regularly perceived, sometimes even daily, and some change certainly takes place before and after any sudden variation of weather.—Eb. 2's SNIPE. 223 April. I 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 Alle- ghany, from the sea to the mountains. They have the same soaring irregular flight in the air in gloomy weather as the snipe of Europe; the same bleating note and occasional rapid descent; spring from the marshes with the like feeble squeak ; and in every respect resemble the common snipe 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 cir- cumstances, 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. 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. The snipe is eleven inches long, and seventeen inches in extent ; the bill is more than two inches anda 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 waving lines of ferruginous, and broadly edged exteriorly with white ; 224 QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 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 bright 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, as in the figure on the plate. The female differs in being more obscure in her colours ; the white on the back being less pure, and the black not so deep. QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. (Perdix Virginianus.) PLATE XLVII.—Fre. 2. Arct. Zool. 318, No. 185.—Catesb. App. p. 12.—Virginian Quail, Turt. Syst. p. 460.—Maryland Quail, Zbtd.—La Perdrix d’Amerique, Briss. i. 230.—Buff. ii. 447. ORTYX VIRGINIANUS.—BonNAPARTE.* Perdix Virginiana, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 650.—Colin Colgnicui, Temm. Pig. et Gall. iii. p. 436.—Perdix Borealis, Temm. Pig. et Gall. Ind. p. 735.—Ortyx Borealis, Steph. Cont. Shaw’s Zool. xi. p. 377.—Perdix (Ortyx) Virginiana, Bonap. Synop. p. 124.—The Virginian Partridge, Aud. i. p. 388, pl. 76. Tuis well-known bird is a general inhabitant of North America, from the northern parts of Canada and Nova Scotia, in which latter place it is said to be migratory, to the extremity * The genus Ortyx was formed by Mr Stephens, the continuator of Shaw’s Zoology, for the reception of the thick and strong-billed par- tridges peculiar to both continents of the New World, and holding the place there with the partridges, francolins, and quails of other countries. They live on the borders of woods, among brushwood, or on the thick grassy plains, and since the cultivation of the country, frequent culti- vated fields. During the night they roost on trees, and occasionally perch during the day ; when alarmed, or chased by dogs, they fly to the middle branches ; and Mr Audubon remarks, “ they walk with ease on the branches.” In all these habits they show their alliance to the perch- ing Galline, and a variation from the true partridge. The same naturalist also remarks, that they occasionally perform partial migra-- QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 225 of the peninsula of Florida ; and was seen in the neighbour- hood of the Great Osage village, in the interior of Louisiana. They are numerous in Kentucky and Ohio. Mr Pennant tions, from north-west to south-east, in the beginning of October, and that for a few weeks the north-western shores of the Ohio are covered with partridges. Their general form is robust, the bill very strong, and apparently fitted for a mode of feeding requiring considerable exertion, such as the digging up. of bulbous and tuberous roots. The head is crested in all the known species, the feathers sometimes of a peculiar structure, the shafts bare, and the extremity of the webs folding on each other. The tail also exhibits different forms ; in the more typical species short, as in the partridges, and in others becoming broad and long, as seen in the Indian genus Crez, or the more extensively distributed genus Penelope. Considerable additions to the number of species have been lately made. Those belonging to the northern continent, and consequently coming under our notice, are two, discovered by Mr Douglas,—Ortyx picta, described in the last volume of the “ Linnean Transactions,” and O. Douglasii, so named by Mr Vigors, in honour of its discoverer, and also described with the former. To these may be added the lovely O. Californica, which, previous to this expedition, and the voyage of Captain Beechey to the coast of California, was held in the light of a dubious species. I have added the descriptions of these new species from Mr Douglas’s account in the “ Transactions of the Linnean Society.” Ortyx picta.—DOovuGLAS. Male,—Bill, small, black ; crown of the head and breast, lead colour ; crest, three linear black feathers, two inches long ; irides, bright hazel red ; throat, purple red, bounded by a narrow white line, forming a gorget above the breast, and extending round the eye and root of the beak ; back, scapulars, and outer coverts of the wings, fuscous brown ; belly, bright tawny or rusty colour, waved with black ; the points of the feathers white; quills, thirteen feathers, the fourth the longest ; under coverts, light brown, mixed with a rusty colour; tail, twelve feathers, of unequal length, rounded, lead colour, but less bright than the breast or crown of the head ; tarsi, one inch and a quarter long, reddish ; toes, webbed nearly to the first joint. Female,—Head and breast, light fuscous brown; the middle of the feathers, black ; crest, half an inch long ; throat, whitish or light gray ; belly, light gray, waved with black, less bright than the male ; under coyerts of the tail, foxy red ; length, ten inches ; girth, sixteen inches ; weight, about twelve ounces ; flesh, brown, well-flavoured. From October until March, these birds congregate in vast flocks, and seem to live in a state of almost perpetual warfare; dreadful conflicts VOL. II. P 226 QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. remarks, that they have been lately introduced into the island of Jamaica, where they appear to thrive greatly, breeding in that warm climate twice in the year. Captain Henderson mentions them as being plenty near the Balize, at the Bay of ensue between the males, which not unfrequently end in the destruction of one or both combatants, if we may judge from the number of dead birds daily seen plucked, mutilated, and covered with blood. When feeding, they move in compact bodies, each individual endeavouring to outdo his neighbour in obtaining the prize. The voice is quick-quick- quick, pronounced slowly, with a gentle suspension between each syllable. At such times, or when surprised, the crest is usually thrown forward over the back ; and the reverse when retreating, being brought back- wards, and laid quite close. Their favourite haunts are dry upland, or undulating, gravelly, or sandy soils, in open woods or coppice thickets of the interior ; but during the severity of winter, when the ground is covered with snow, they migrate in large flocks to the more temperate places in the immediate vicinity of the ocean. Seeds of Bromus altissimus, Madia sativa, and a tribe of plants allied to Wadelia, catkins of Corylus, leaves of Fragaria, and various insects, are their common food. Nest on the ground, in thickets of Pteris, Aspidiwm, Rubus, Rhamnus, and Ceanothus ; neatly built with grass and dry leaves ; secreted with so much caution, that, without the help of a dog, they can hardly be found. Eggs, eleven to fifteen, yellowish white, with minute brown spots ; large in proportion to the bird. Pair in March. Common in the in- terior of California ; and, during the summer months, extending as far northward as 45° north latitude, that is, within a few miles of the Col- umbian Valley. Ortyx Douglasii.—VIGORS. Male.—Bill, brown ; crest, linear, black, one inch long; irides, hazel red ; body, fuscous brown, with a mixture of lead colour, and rusty or yellow streaks ; throat, whitish, with brown spots ; belly, foxy red or tawny, white spotted; scapulars and outer coverts, bright brown; under coverts, light reddish brown ; tail, twelve unequal rounded feathers ; legs, reddish ; length, nine inches; girth, twelve inches; weight, ten ounces; flesh, pleasant, dark coloured. Female.—Crest, scarcely perceptible, dark. This species appears to be an inhabitant of a more temperate climate than the preceding one, as it is never seen higher than 42° N. latitude, and even that very sparingly in comparison to O. Picta and Californica. The species do not associate together. In manner they are similar, at least as far as the opportunity I had of observing them went. I have never seen them but in winter dress, and know nothing of their nesting. —Eb. QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 227 Honduras. They rarely frequent the forest, and are most numerous in the vicinity of well-cultivated plantations, where grain is in plenty. They, however, occasionally seek shelter in the woods, perching on the branches or secreting them- selves among the brushwood; but are found most usually in open fields, or along fences sheltered by thickets of briers. Where they are not too much persecuted by the sportsmen, they become almost half domesticated ; approach the barn, particularly in winter, and sometimes, in that severe season, mix with the poultry to glean up a subsistence. They remain with us the whole year, and often suffer extremely by long, hard winters, and deep snows. At such times, the arts of man combine with the inclemency of the season for their destruction. To the ravages of the gun are added others of a more insidious kind ; traps are placed on almost every plan- tation, in such places as they are known to frequent. These are formed of lath, or thinly-split sticks, somewhat in the shape of an obtuse cone, laced together with cord, having a small hole at top, with a sliding lid to take out the game by. This is supported by the common figure 4 trigger ; and grain is scattered below and leading to the place. By this con- trivance, ten or fifteen have sometimes been taken at a time.* * Jn addition to the common traps now described, Mr Audubon men- tions that they are also netted, or driven, as it is called. He thus de- scribes the method of driving :— “A number of persons on horseback, provided with a net, set out in search of partridges, riding along the fences or brier thickets which the birds are known to frequent. One or two of the party whistle in imi- tation of the call-note, and, as partridges are plentiful, the call is soon answered by a covey, when the sportsmen immediately proceed to ascer- tain their position and number, seldom considering it worth while to set the net when there are only afew birds. They approach in a care- less manner, talking and laughing as if merely passing by. When the birds are discovered, one of the party gallops off in a circuitous manner, gets in advance of the rest by a hundred yards or more, according to the situation of the birds, and their disposition to run, while the rest of the sportsmen move about on their horses, talking to each other, but, at the same time, watching every motion of the partridges. The person in advance being provided with the net, dismounts, and at once falls to 228 QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. These are sometimes brought alive to market, and occasionally bought up by sportsmen, who, if the season be very severe, sometimes preserve and feed them till spring, when they are humanely turned out to their native fields again, to be put to death at some future time secundum artem. Between the months of August and March, great numbers of these birds are brought to the market of Philadelphia, where they are sold at from twelve to eighteen cents apiece. The quail begins to build early in May. The nest is made on the ground, usually at the bottom of a thick tuft of grass, that shelters and conceals it. The materials are leaves and fine dry grass in considerable quantity. It is well covered above, and an opening left on one side for entrance. The female lays from fifteen to twenty-four eggs, of a pure white, without any spots. The time of incubation has been stated to me, by various persons, at four weeks, when the eggs were placed under the domestic hen. The young leave the nest as soon as they are freed from the shell, and are conducted about in search of food by the female; are guided by her voice, which at that time resembles the twittering of young chickens, and sheltered by her wings in the same manner as those of the domestic fowl, but with all that secrecy and precaution for their safety which their helplessness and greater danger require. In this situation, should the little timid family be unexpectedly surprised, the utmost alarm and consternation instantly prevail. The mother throws herself in the path, placing it, so that his companions can easily drive the partridges into it. No sooner is the machine ready, than the net-bearer remounts and rejoins the party. The sportsmen separate to a short distance, and fol- low the partridges, talking, whistling, clapping their hands, or knocking the fence-rails. The birds move with great gentleness, following each other, and are kept in the right direction by the sportsmen. The lead- ing bird approaches and enters the mouth of the net—the others follow in succession, when the net-bearer leaps from his horse, runs up and secures the entrance, and soon despatches the birds. In this manner fifteen or twenty partridges are caught at one driving, and sometimes many hundreds in the course of the day.”—Ep. QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 229 fluttering along, and beating the ground with her wings, as if sorely wounded ; using every artifice she is master of to entice the passenger in pursuit of herself, uttering at the same time certain peculiar notes of alarm, well understood by the young, who dive separately amongst the grass, and secrete themselves till the danger is over ; and the parent, having decoyed the pursuer to a safe distance, returns by a circuitous route to collect and lead them off. This well-known manceuvre, which nine times in ten is successful, is honourable to the feelings and judgment of the bird, but a severe satire on man. ‘The affectionate mother, as if sensible of the avaricious cruelty of his nature, tempts him with a larger prize, to save her more helpless offspring ; and pays him, as avarice and cruelty ought always to be paid, with mortification and disappointment. The eggs of the quail have been frequently placed under the domestic hen, and hatched and reared with equal success as her own; though, generally speaking, the young partridges, being more restless and vagrant, often lose themselves, and disappear. The hen ought to be a particular good nurse, not at all disposed to ramble, in which case they are very easily raised. Those that survive acquire all the familiarity of common chickens; and there is little doubt that, if proper measures were taken, and persevered in for a few years, they might be completely domesticated. They have been often kept during the first season, and through the whole of the winter, but have uniformly deserted in the spring. 'T'wo young partridges that were brought up by a hen, when abandoned by her, associated with the cows, which they regularly followed to the fields, returned with them when they came home in the evening, stood by them while they were milked, and again accompanied them to the pasture. These remained during the winter, lodging in the stable, but as soon as spring came, they disappeared. Of this fact I was informed by a very respectable lady, by whom they were particularly observed. It has been frequently asserted to me, that the quails lay occasionally in each other’s nests. Though I have never 230 QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. myself seen a case of this kind, I do not think it altogether improbable, from the fact that they have often been known to drop their eggs in the nest of the common hen, when that happened to be in the fields, or at a small distance from the house. The two partridges above mentioned were raised in this manner; and it was particularly remarked by the lady who gave me the information, that the hen sat for several days after her own eggs were hatched, until the young quails made their appearance. The partridge, on her part, has sometimes been employed to hatch the eges of the common domestic hen. A friend of mine, who himself made the experiment, informs me, that, of several hen’s eggs which he substituted in place of those of the partridge, she brought out the whole; and that, for several weeks, he occasionally surprised her in various parts of the plantation with her brood of chickens ; on which occasions she exhibited all that distressful alarm, and practised her usual manceuvres for their preservation. Even after they were considerably grown, and larger than the partridge her- self, she continued to lead them about; but, though their notes or call were those of common chickens, their manners had all the shyness, timidity, and alarm of young partridges ; running with great rapidity, and squatting in the grass exactly in the manner of the partridge. Soon after this, they disap- peared, having probably been destroyed by dogs, by the gun, or by birds of prey. Whether the domestic fowl might not by this method be very soon brought back to its original savage state, and thereby supply another additional subject for the amusement of the sportsman, will scarcely admit of a doubt. But the experiment, in order to secure its success, would require to be made in a quarter of the country less exposed than ours to the ravages of guns, traps, dogs, and the deep snows of winter, that the new tribe might have full time to become completely naturalised, and well fixed in all their native habits. About the beginning of September, the quails being now nearly fully grown, and associated in flocks or coveys of from QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 231 four or five to thirty, afford considerable sport to the gunner. At this time the notes of the male are most frequent, clear, and loud. His common call consists of two notes, with some- times an introductory one, and is similar to the sound produced by pronouncing the words “ Bob White.” This call may be easily imitated by whistling, so as to deceive the bird itself, and bring it near. While uttering this, he is usually perched on a rail of the fence, or on a low limb of an apple tree, where he will sometimes sit, repeating, at short intervals, “ Bob White,” for half an hour at a time. When a covey are assembled in a thicket or corner of a field, and about to take wing, they make a low twittering sound, not unlike that of young chickens; and when the covey is dispersed, they are called together again by a loud and frequently repeated note, peculiarly expressive of tenderness and anxiety. The food of the partridge consists of grain, seeds, insects, and berries of various kinds. Buckwheat and Indian-corn are particular favourites. In September and October the buck- wheat fields afford them an abundant supply, as well as a secure shelter. They usually roost at, night in the middle of a field on high ground; and from the circumstance of their dung being often found in such places in one round heap, it is generally conjectured that they roost in a circle, with their heads outwards, each individual in this position forming a kind of guard to prevent surprise. hey also continue to Jodge for several nights in the same spot. The partridge, like all the rest of the gallinaceous order, flies with a loud whirring sound, occasioned by the shortness, concavity, and rapid motion of its wings, and the comparative weight of its body. ‘he steadiness of its horizontal flight, however, renders it no difficult mark to the sportsman, parti- cularly when assisted by his sagacious pointer. The flesh of this bird is peculiarly white, tender, and delicate, unequalled in these qualities by that of any other of its genus in the United States. The quail, as it is called in New England, or the partridge, aii) 232 RAIL. as in Pennsylvania, is nine inches long, and fourteen inches in extent; the bill is black; line over the eye, down the neck, and whole chin, pure white, bounded by a band of black, which descends and spreads broadly over the throat; the eye is dark hazel; crown, neck, and upper part of the breast, red brown; sides of the neck, spotted with white and black on a reddish brown ground ; back, scapulars, and lesser coverts, red brown, intermixed with ash, and sprinkled with black ; tertials, edged with yellowish white; wings, plain dusky ; lower part of the breast and belly, pale yellowish white, beautifully marked with numerous curving spots, or arrow- heads of black; tail, ash, sprinkled with reddish brown; legs, very pale ash. The female differs in having the chin and sides of the head yellowish brown, in which dress it has been described as a different kind. There is, however, only one species of quail at present known within the United States. RAIL. (Rallus Carolinus.) PLATE XLVIII.—Fie. 1. Soree, Catesb. i. 70.—Arct. Zool. p. 491, No. 409.—Little American Water-hen, Edw. 144.—Le Rale de Virginie, Buff. viii. 165. CREX CAROLINUS.—BONAPARTE.* Rallus (Crex) Carolinus, Bonap. Synop. p. 335. Or all our land or water fowl, perhaps none afford the sportsmen 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 * Almost every ornithologist has been at variance with regard to the propriety and limitation of the genera Lallus, Crex, and Gallinula. They appear to be sufficiently distinct, and not to run more into each other than many other groups, and, in the present state of ornithology, their separation is indispensable. Crex may be characterised by the bill shorter than the head, strong at the base, and tapering, the forehead feathered ; the common land rail or corncrake of Europe, and our TOGA WUD) MUL “Ag CEU) RAIL. 238 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 such places as the birds frequent with great eagerness and enthusiasm. present species, may be taken as very good typical examples. In Gallinula, the forehead is defended with a flat cartilaginous shield, and the habits are more open. In fallus, the bill is longer than the head, and comparatively slender. In habit they nearly agree ; timid, and fond of concealment during the day, they frequent low meadows or marshy grounds, and run swiftly : the common land rail will beat a good runner for a short way, as T have sometimes experienced. They run with the body near the ground, and make their turns with astonishing celerity. When raised or sur- prised during the day, they fly clumsily ; but in the evening, and when that faculty is exerted with their will, it is much more actively per- formed ; their time for exertion is evening and morning, often during the night: then they feed, and, during breeding season, utter the in- cessant and inharmonious cry which almost all possess. The cry is remarkable in all that I have heard, appearing to be uttered sometimes within a few yards, and, in a second or two, as if at an opposite part of the ground. The land rail possesses this ventriloquism to a great extent, and, knowing their swift running powers, I at first thought that the bird was actually traversing the field, and it was not until I had observed one perched upon a stone utter its cry for some time, and give full evidence of its powers, that I became convinced of the contrary. The corncrake, and, indeed, I rather think most of the others, and also the rails, seem to remain stationary when uttering the cry. A stone, clod of earth, or old sod wall, is the common calling place of our own bird ; and they may be easily watched, in the beginning of summer, if approached with caution, before the herbage begins tothicken. They seem to feed on larger prey than what are assigned to them: large water insects and the smaller reptiles may assist in sustaining the aquatic species, while slugs and larger snails will furnish subsistence to the others. I have found the common short-tailed field mouse in the stomach of our land rail. Their flesh is generally delicate, some as much esteemed as the American bird, and the young, before commencing their migrations, become extremely fat. Crexz Carolinus is the only species of the genus yet discovered in North America, and is peculiar to that continent.— Ep. 234 | RAIL. 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 improbable to most people that they could possibly make their way over an extensive tract of country. Yet, on the first smart frost that occurs, the whole 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 employed in repairing the banks, without any of those sleepers being found, where but a few weeks before these birds were in- numerable, this theory has been generally abandoned. And here their researches into this mysterious matter generally end in the common 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 the 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 sora changing into a frog! What further confirms this grand discovery is the well-known circumstance of the frogs ceasing to hollow as soon as the sora comes in the fall. RAIL. 235 This sagacious discoverer, however, like many others re- nowned 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, leaving 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 naturalists ; and those are distributed over almost every region of the habitable parts of the earth. 'The general character of these is everywhere 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 crek, crek, from 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 part of the herbage, and runs so nimbly through it, winding and doubling in every direction, that it is difficult to come near it; when hard pushed by the dog, it sometimes 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, * Bewick’s British Birds, vol. i. p. 308. ————— — PL Cr + ~—— 236 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 sometimes 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 possess 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 they inhabit. It is not, therefore, at all surprising, that the reeular migra- tions of the American rail, or sora, should in like 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 con- cealment, 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 May following, I shot another in a 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 ee RAIL. 220, for the south early in autumn. That many of them also remain here to breed is proven by the testimony of persons of credit and intelligence with whom I 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 acquainted 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, be no reasonable doubt as to the resi- dence of many of these birds, both here and to the northward, during the summer. That there can be as little doubt rela- tive to their winter retreat will appear more particularly towards the sequel of the present account. During their residence here, in summer, their manners exactly correspond with those of the water crake of Britain, already quoted, 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 Delaware have 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 el a as - ——— c < 238 RAIL. Zizania panicula effusa of Linneeus, and the Zizania elavulosa 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 green leaves with avidity, and wade in after them as far as 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 top 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 river at this season, you hear them squeaking in every direction like young puppies. If a stone be thrown among the reeds, there is a general outcry, and a reiterated kuk, kuk, kuk, something like that of a guineafowl. Any sudden noise, or the discharge of a gun, produces the same effect. In the meantime 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, 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 RATL. 239 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, and 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 shallowness of the water, and the strength and weight of the 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. 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 | | | 240 RAIL. reeds under the water, and at other times skulking under the floating reeds, with their bill just above the surface. Some- times, when wounded, they dive, and rising under the gun- wale of the boat, secrete themselves there, moving round as the boat moves, until they have an opportunity of escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and delicate in everything 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 and a 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 width. Such is the mode of rail-shooting in the neighbourhood 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 on the top of a stout pole, which is placed like a mast in a light canoe, and filled with fire. The darker the night the more successful is the sport. The person who 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 space, for a considerable way round the canoe, is completely 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 numer- ous in the lagoons near Detroit, on our northern frontiers, where another species of reed (of which they are equally fond) RAIL. 241 grows in shallows in great abundance. Gentlemen who have shot them there, and on whose judgment 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 Delaware, and where- ever 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 probable from their being so frequently met with at sea, between our shores and the West India islands. A Captain Douglas informed me, that on his voyage from St Domingo to Philadelphia, and more than a hundred 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 im 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, Virginia, 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 people. 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 VOL, II. Q 8 Se 242 RAIL. 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 tracts of land or sea? Inhabiting, as they do, the remote regions of Hudson’s Bay, where it is impossible they could subsist dur- ing the rigours of their winter, they must either emigrate from thence or perish ; and as the same places in Pennsyl- vania 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 suitable food. The rail is nine inches long, and fourteen inches in extent; bill, yellow, blackish towards the point; lores, front, crown, chin, and stripe down the throat, black; line over the eye, cheeks, and breast, fine light ash ; sides of the crown, neck, and upper parts generally, 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 RAIL. 243 white, the breast pale brown, and little or no black on the head. The males may always be distinguished 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, are worthy of being recorded, and merit further investigation. “My personal experience,’ says Mr Ord, “has made me acquainted with a fact in the history of the rail which per- haps is not generally known, and I shall, as briefly as possible, communicate it to yon. Some time in the autumn of the year 1809, as I was walking in a yard, after a severe shower of rain, I perceived the feet of a bird projecting from a spout. I pulled it out, and 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 [ was amusing myself with it, when, in the act of pointing my finger at it, it suddenly sprang forward, apparently much uritated, 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, but 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 not the passion of anger had produced 244 RAIL. the fit. I entered the room at the appointed time, and ap- proached 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 shooting amongst the reeds, I perceived a rail rise but afew 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 immedi- ately fell. Its feet and neck were extended asin the instances above mentioned, and, before it had time to recover, I killed it. Some few days afterwards, as a friend and I were shooting in the same place, he killed 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 latter, 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 expli- cation of the phenomenon to those pathologists who are com- petent and willing to investigate it. It may be worthy of remark, that the birds affected as described were all females of the Gallinula Carolina, 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 in- dispensable 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 endeavours. Even should he succeed in a tolerable degree, the reward is not commensurate 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 RAIL. 245 conceal themselves beneath the fallen reed, merely projecting their heads above the surface of the water for air, and re- main 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 on by 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. Hels and catfish swarm in every direction prowling for prey, and it is ten to one if a wounded rail escapes them. I myself have be- held 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 belly. ‘“‘T 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 have conceited that the remark was just. If it be a 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.” I have had my doubts as to the propriety of classing this bird under the genus Rallws. Both Latham and Pennant call it a Gallinule; and when one considers the length and forma- tion of its bill, the propriety of their nomenclature is obvious. As the article was commenced by our printers before I could make up my mind on the subject, the reader is requested to consider this species the Gallinula Carolina of Dr Latham, 246 WOODCOCK. WOODCOCK. (Scolopax minor.) PLATE XLVIIL—Fie. 2. Arct. Zool. p. 463, No. 365.—Turt. Syst. 396.—Lath. Syn. iii. 131. RUSTICOLA MINOR.—VIEIuwoT.* Rusticola minor, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. 242.—Great Red Woodcock, Scolopax Americana rufa, Bart. Trav. p. 292.—Scolopax rusticola minor, Bonap. Synop. p. 331.—Monog. del Gen. Scolopax Osser. Sulla, 2d ed. del Reg. Anim. Cur. Tis bird, like the preceding, is universally known to our sportsmen. It arrives in Pennsylvania early in March, some- * Among many natural groups, such as Scolopax of Linnzeus, there are gradations of form which have not been thought of sufficient im- portance to constitute a genus, but have been mentioned as divisions only. Such is the case with the present, which is generally classed under those with the tibie feathered and the tibize bare. Vieillot, following this division, proposed Austicola for the woodcocks, or those with plumed tibiz ; and, as far as artificial systems are concerned, and facility of reference, we should prefer keeping them as a sub-genus. The woodcocks, in addition to the plumed tibiz, differ in other respects ; and an individual, technically unacquainted with ornithology, would at once pick them out from the snipes from a something in their tourneur, as Mr Audubon would call it. The tarsi are much shorter, and show that the bird is not intended to wade, or to frequent very marshy situations, like the snipes. They are all inhabitants of woods, and it is only during severe storms that they are constantly found near arill or streamlet. Their food is as much found by searching under the fallen leaves and decayed grasses as in wet places; and in this country, where woodcocks are abundant, they may be traced through a wood by the newly scratched-up leaves. There is a marked difference, also, in the plumage ; it is invariably of a more sombre shade, some- times the under parts are closely barred with a darker colour ; while, in the snipes, the latter part is oftener pure white. We have a beautiful connection between the divisions in the Scolopax Sabini of Vigors,* which, though of the lesser size of the snipes, has the entire plumage of the woodcock, and also the thighs feathered to a greater length down- wards, The species are few in number, amounting only to three or four. America, Europe, and India seem as yet their only countries. The habits of most agree, and all partially migrate from north to south to breed.— Ep. * Is this the Scolopax Sakhalina of Vieillot, Nouv. Dict ?—Ep. WOODCOCK. 247 times sooner ; and 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 even- ing seek the springs and open watery places to feed in. They soon disperse 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, viz., deep mire intersected with old logs, which are covered and hid from sight by high reeds, 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, fre- quently at the root of an oldstump. It 1s formed of a few withered leaves and stalks of grass, laid with very little art. The female lays four, sometimes five eggs, about an inch and a half long, and an inch or rather more in diameter, taper- ing suddenly to the small end. These are of a dun clay colour, thickly marked with spots of brown, particularly at the great 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 eges 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 248 WOODCOCK. 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 hiscommon note on the ground, he seems to do it with difficulty, throwing his head towards the earth, and frequently jetting up his tail. These notes and manceuvres are most usual in spring, and are the call of the male to his favourite female. Their food consists of various larva, 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 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 winter. The one migrates from the torrid to the temperate regions, the other, from the temperate to the arctic. The two birds, therefore, notwithstanding their names are the same, WOODCOCK. 249 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. How far to the north our woodccck is found, I am unable to say. Itis 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 general rule, 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, large, somewhat trian- cular, and the eye fixed at a remarkable distance from the bill, and high in the head. This construction was necessary to give a greater range of vision, and to secure the eye from injury while the owner is 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 instantly drops behind them again at a short distance, generally running off for several yards as soon as he touches the ground. The notion that there are two species of wood- cock in this country probably originated from the great dif- ference of size between the male and female, the latter being considerably the larger. The male woodcock is ten inches and a half long, and six- teen inches in extent; Dill, a brownish flesh colour, black towards the tip, the upper mandible ending in a slight knob, that projects about one-tenth of an inch beyond the lower,* each grooved, and in length somewhat more than two inches * 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. 250 WOODCOCK. and a half; forehead, line over the eye, and whole lower parts, 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 six. 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 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 pale purplish ash colour, the latter about an inch long. When taken, they utter a long, clear, but feeble peep, not louder than that of a mouse. They are far inferior to young par- tridges in running and skulking; and, should the female unfortunately be killed, may easily be taken on the spot. ieee late ae ‘6P ‘JUDSVIYT AO SNOAL) Pappy MOST PAY ALNIONF Ue WaHED.L ET SDT yy 4 peavwhiug 7 RUFFED GROUSE. 251 RUFFED GROUSE. (Tetrao wmbellus ) PLATE XLIX. Arct. Zool. p. 301, No. 179.—Ruffed Heathcock or Grouse, Hdw. 248.— La Gelinote Huppée de Pennsylvanie, Briss. i. 214, Pl. enl. 104.—Buff. ii. 281.—Phil. Trans. 62, 393.—Turt. Syst. 454.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4702. BONASIA UMBELLUS.—BONAPARTE.* Tetrao umbellus, Temm. Pig. et Gall. Ind. p. 704.—Tetrao hurpecal, Temm. Pig. et Gall. iii. p. 161.—Bonasia umbellus, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. xi. p. 300.— Bonasia umbellus, Bonap. Synop. p. 126.—The Ruffed Grouse, Aud. Orn. Biog. i. p. 211, pl. 41, male and female. Tuts is the partridge of the eastern States, and the pheasant of Pennsylvania and the southern districts. It is repre- sented in the plate of its full size, and was faithfully copied from a perfect and very beautiful specimen. This elegant species is well known in almost every quarter of the United States, and appears to inhabit a very extensive range of country. It is common at Moose Fort, on Hudson’s Bay, in lat. 51°; is frequent in the upper parts of Georgia ; very abundant in Kentucky and the Indiana territory ; and was found by Captains Lewis and Clarke in crossing the great range of mountains that divide the waters of the Columbia and Missouri, more than three thousand miles, by their measure- ment, from the mouth of the latter. Its favourite places of resort are high mountains, covered with the balsam pine, hemlock, and such like evergreens. Unlike the pinnated grouse, it always prefers the woods; is seldom or never found in open plains; but loves the pine-sheltered declivities of mountains near streams of water. This great difference of disposition in two species, whose food seems to be nearly the same, is very extraordinary. In those open plains called the Barrens of Kentucky, the pinnated grouse was seen in great numbers, but none of the ruffed; while in the high groves * Bonasia is a sub-genus, formed by the Prince of Musignano for the reception of this bird. The distinctions are, the unplumed tarsi and toes, contrasted with Zetrao, where the former are thickly clothed.—Eb. 252 RUFFED GROUSE. with which that singular tract of country is interspersed, the latter, or pheasant, was frequently met with ; but not a single individual of the former. The native haunts of the pheasant being a cold, high, mountainous, and woody country, it is natural to expect that, as we descend from thence to the sea-shores, and the low, flat, and warm climate of the southern States, these birds should become more rare; and such indeed is the case. In the lower parts of Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, they are very seldom observed ; but as we advance inland to the mountains, they again make their appearance. In the lower parts of New Jersey, we indeed occasionally meet with them ; but this is owing to the more northerly situation of the country ; for even here they are far less numerous than among the mountains. Dr Turton, and several other English writers, have spoken of a long-tailed grouse, said to inhabit the back parts of Virginia, which can be no other than the present species ; there being, as far as I am acquainted, only these two, the ruffed and pinnated grouse, found native within the United States. The manners of the pheasant are solitary ; they are seldom found in coveys of more than four or five together, and more usually in pairs, or singly. They leave their sequestered haunts in the woods early in the morning, and seek the path or road, to pick up gravel, and glean among the droppings of the horses. In travelling among the mountains that bound the Susquehanna, I was always able to furnish myself with an abundant supply of these birds every morning without leaving the path. If the weather be foggy or lowering, they are sure to be seen in such situations. They generally move along with great stateliness, their broad fanlike tail spread out in the manner exhibited in the drawing. The drumming, as it is usually called, of the pheasant, is another singularity of this species. This is performed by the male alone. In walking through solitary woods frequented by these birds, a stranger is surprised by suddenly hearing a kind of thump- ing very similar to that produced by striking two full-blown RUFFED GROUSE. 252 ox-bladders together, but much louder ; the strokes at first are slow and distinct ; but gradually increase in rapidity, till they run into each other, resembling the rumbling sound of very distant thunder, dying away gradually on the ear. After a few minutes’ pause, this is again repeated, and, in a calm day, may be heard nearly half a mile off. This drumming is most common in spring, and is the call of the cock to his favourite female. It is produced in the following manner :— The bird, standing on an old prostrate log, generally in a retired and sheltered situation, lowers his wings, erects his expanded tail, contracts his throat, elevates the two tufts of feathers on the neck, and inflates his whole body, something in the manner of the turkey cock, strutting and wheeling about with great stateliness. After a few manceuvres of this kind, he begins to strike with his stiffened wings in short and quick strokes, which become more and more rapid until they run into each other, as has been already described. This is most common in the morning and evening, though I have heard them drumming at all hours of the day. By means of this, the gunner is led to the place of his retreat ; though, to those unacquainted with the sound, there is great deception in the supposed distance, it generally appearing to be much nearer than it really is.* * Mr Audubon confirms the correctness of Wilson’s comparison of the drumming noise produced by this bird. He mentions having often called them within shot by imitating the sound, which he accomplished “by beating a large inflated bullock’s bladder with a stick, keeping up as much as possible the same évme as that in which the bird beats. At the sound produced by the bladder and the stick, the male grouse, inflamed with jealousy, has flown directly towards me, when, being prepared, I have easily shot it. An equally successful stratagem is employed to decoy the males of our little partridge, by imitating the call-note of the female during spring and summer ; but in no instance, after repeated trials, have I been able to entice the pinnated grouse to come towards me whilst imitating the booming sounds of that bird.” Most game are very easily called by those expert at imitating sounds. Grouse are often called by poachers, and partridges may be brought near by a quill and horse-hair. Many of the 7ringe and Totani are easily whistled.— Ep, 264 RUFFED GROUSE. The pheasant begins to pair in April, and builds its nest early in May. ‘This is placed on the ground, at the root of a bush, old log, or other sheltered and solitary situation, well surrounded with withered leaves. Unlike that of the quail, it is open above, and is usually composed of dry leaves and grass. The eggs are from nine to fifteen in number, of a brownish white, without any spots, and nearly as large as those of a pullet. The young leave the nest as soon as hatched, and are directed by the cluck of the mother, very much in the manner of the common hen. On being surprised, she exhibits all the distress and affectionate manceuvres of the quail, and of most other birds, to lead you away from the spot. I once started a hen pheasant with a single young one, seemingly only a few days old: there might have been more, but I observed only this one. ‘The mother fluttered before me for a moment; but, suddenly darting towards the young one, seized it in her bill, and flew off along the surface through the woods, with great steadiness and rapidity, till she was beyond my sight, leaving me in great surprise at the incident. I made a very close and active search around the spot for the rest, but without success. Here was a striking instance of something more than what is termed blind instinct, in this remarkable deviation from her usual manceuvres when she has a numerous brood. It would have been impossible for me to have injured this affectionate mother, who had exhibited such an example of presence of mind, reason, and sound judg- ment, as must have convinced the most bigoted advocates of mere instinct. ‘To carry off a whole brood in this manner at once would have been ‘impossible, and to attempt to save one at the expense of the rest would be unnatural. She therefore usually takes the only possible mode of saving them in that case, by decoying the person in pursuit of herself, by such a natural imitation of lameness as to impose on most people. But here, in the case of a single solitary young one, she in- stantly altered her plan, and adopted the most simple and effectual means for its preservation. RUFFED GROUSE. 255 The pheasant generally springs within a few yards, with a loud whirring noise,* and flies with great vigour through the ’ * Mr Audubon has the following observations on the flight and whirring noise produced during it :—“‘ When this bird rises from the ground, at a time when pursued by an enemy or tracked by a dog, it produces a loud whirring sound, resembling that of the whole tribe, excepting the blackcock of Europe, which has less of it than any other species. This whirring sound is never heard when the grouse rises of its own accord for the purpose of removing from one place to another ; nor, in similar circumstances, is it commonly produced by our little partridge. In fact, I do not believe that it is emitted by any species of grouse, unless when surprised and forced to rise. I have often been lying on the ground in the woods or the fields for hours at a time, for the express purpose of observing the movements and habits of different birds, and have frequently seen a partridge or a grouse rise on wing from within a few yards of the spot in which I lay, unobserved by them, as gently and softly as any other bird, and without producing any whirring sound. Nor even when this grouse ascends to the top of a tree does it make any greater noise than other birds of the same size would do.” The structure of the wings among all the’ Tetraonzde and Phasianide is such as to preclude the possibility of an entirely noiseless flight when the members are actively used ; but I have no doubt that it can be, and is sometimes, increased. When any kind of game is suddenly sprung or alarmed, the wings are made use of with more violence than when the flight is fairly commenced, or a rise to the branch of a tree is only contemplated. I have heard it produced by all our British game to a certain extent, when flying over me perfectly unalarmed, The noise is certainly produced by the rapid action of the wings, and I believe the birds cannot exert that with a totally noiseless flight. Sounds at variance from that occasioned by ordinary flight are produced by many birds, particularly during the breeding season, when different motions are employed ; and it appears to me to be rather a consequence depending on the peculiar flight, than the flight employed to produce the sound as a love or other call. Such is the booming noise produced by snipes in spring, always accompanied by the almost imperceptible motion of the wings in the very rapid descent of the bird. A somewhat similar sound is produced by the lapwing when flying near her nest or young, and is always heard during a rapid flight performed diagonally downwards. The cock pheasant produces a loud whirr by a violent motion of his wings after calling. A very peculiar rustling is heard when the peacock raises his train, and the cause, a rapid, trembling motion of the feathers, is easily perceived ; and the strut of the turkey 256 RUFFED GROUSE. woods, beyond reach of view, before it alights. With a good dog, however, they are easily found; and at some times exhibit a singular degree of infatuation, by lookmg down from the branches where they sit on the dog below, who, the more noise he keeps up, seems the more to confuse and stupify them, so that they may be shot down, one by one, till the whole are killed, without attempting to fly off. In such cases, those on the lower limbs must be taken first ; for, should the upper ones be first killed, in their fall they alarm those below, who immediately fly off. In deep snows they are usually taken in traps, commonly dead traps, supported by a figure 4 trigger. At this season, when suddenly alarmed, they frequently dive into the snow, particularly when it has newly fallen, and coming out at a considerable distance, again take wing. They are pretty hard to kill, and will often carry off a large load to the distance of two hundred yards, and drop down dead. Sometimes, in the depth of winter, they approach the farmhouse, and lurk near the barn or about the garden. They have also been often taken young, and tamed, so as to associate with the fowls ; and their eggs have frequently been hatched under the common hen; but these rarely survive until full grown. They are exceedingly fond of the seeds of cock is produced apparently by the rapid exertion of the muscles acting on the roots of the quills, Under this species may be mentioned the 7. Sabina of Douglas. It is so very closely allied, that Dr Richardson remarks, “ After a careful comparison of Mr Douglas’s 7. Sabiniz, deposited in the Edinburgh Museum, they appeared to me to differ in no respect from the young of T. umbellus.” The characters of 7. Sabiniz, given by Mr Douglas, are—Rufus, nigro notatus ; dorso maculis cordiformibus, nucha alisque lineis ferrugineo- flovis; abdomine albo brunneo fasciato ; rectricibus fasciatis, fascia subapical lata nigra. Mr Douglas thinks that there is some difference between the specimens of 7. umbellus killed on the Rocky Mountains and more northern parts, from those in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and proposes, if they should be hereafter found distinct, that it should stand as 7. umbellovdes.—Ep, RUFFED GROUSE. 257 grapes; occasionally eat ants, chestnuts, blackberries, and various vegetables. Formerly they were numerous in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia ; but as the woods were cleared and population increased, they retreated to the interior. At present there are very few to be found within several miles of the city, and those only singly, in the most solitary and retired woody recesses. The pheasant is in best order for the table in September and October. At this season they feed chiefly on whortle- berries, and the little red aromatic partridge-berries ; the last of which give their flesh a peculiar delicate flavour. With the former our mountains are literally covered from August to November, and these constitute, at that season, the greater part of their food. During the deep snows of winter, they have recourse to the buds of alder and the tender buds of the laurel. I have frequently found their crops distended with a large handful of these latter alone; and it has been confidently asserted, that, after having fed for some time on the laurel buds, their flesh becomes highly dangerous to eat of, partaking of the poisonous qualities of the plant. The same has been asserted of the flesh of the deer, when, in severe weather and deep snows, they subsist on the leaves and bark of the laurel. Though I have myself ate freely of the flesh of the pheasant, after emptying it of large quantities of laurel buds, without experiencing any bad consequences, yet, from the respec- tability of those, some of them eminent physicians, who have particularised cases in which it has proved deleterious, and even fatal, I am inclined to believe that, in certain cases, where this kind of food has been long continued, and the birds allowed to remain undrawn for several days, until the contents of the crop and stomach have had time to diffuse themselves through the flesh, as is too often the case, it may be unwhole- some, and even dangerous. Great numbers of these birds are brought to our markets at all times during fall and winter, some of which are brought from a distance of more than a — hundred miles, and have been probably dead a week or two, VOL. TI. R 258 RUFFED GROUSE. unpicked and undrawn, before they are purchased for the table. Regulations prohibiting them from being brought to market unless picked and drawn would very probably be a sufficient security from all danger. At these inclement seasons, however, they are generally lean and dry; and, indeed, at all times their flesh is far inferior to that of the pinnated grouse. They are usually sold in Philadelphia market at from three-quarters of a dollar to a dollar and a quarter a pair, and sometimes higher. The pheasant, or partridge, of New England, is eighteen inches long, and twenty-three inches in extent; bill, a horn colour, paler below; eye, reddish hazel, immediately above which is a small spot of bare skin of a scarlet colour ; crested ; head and neck, variegated with black, red brown, white, and pale brown ; sides of the neck furnished with a tuft of large black feathers, twenty-nine or thirty in number, which it occasionally raises ; this tuft covers a large space of the neck destitute of feathers ; body above, a bright rust colour, marked with oval spots of yellowish white, and sprinkled with black ; wings, plain olive brown, exteriorly edged with white, spotted with olive; the tail is rounded, extends five inches beyond the tips of the wings, is of a bright reddish brown, beautifully marked with numerous waving transverse bars of black, is also crossed by a broad band of black, within half an inch of the tip, which is bluish white, thickly sprinkled and specked with black ; body below, white, marked with large blotches of pale brown ; the legs are covered half way to the feet with hairy down of a brownish white colour; legs and feet, pale ash ; toes, pectinated along the sides; the two exterior ones joined at the base, as far as the first joint, by a membrane; vent, yellowish rust colour. The female and young birds differ in having the ruff or tufts of feathers on the neck of a dark brown colour, as well as the bar of black on the tail inclining’ much to the same tint. “rawn from Mature by A Wilson Engraved by Wit hizars /. Great Horned Owl. 2. Barn 0. 3. Meadow Mouse. 4 Red Bat. 5. Small-headed Flycatcher. 6. Hawk Owl. 50. GREAT HORNED OWL. 259 GREAT HORNED OWL. (Strix Virginiana.) PLATE L.—Fic. 1. Arct. Zool. p. 228, No. 114.—Hdw. 60.—Lath. i. 119.—Turt. Syst. p. 166.— Peale’s Museum, No. 410. BUBO VIRGINIAN A.—CUVIER.* Le Grand Hibou d’Amerique, Cuv. Reg. Anim. i. p. 329.—Strix Virginiana, Bonap. Synop. p. 37.—The Great Horned Owl, Aud. Orn. Biog. i. p. 313, pl. 61, male and female.—Strix (Bubo) Virginiana, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 82. Tue figure of this bird, as well as of those represented in the same plate, is reduced to one half its natural dimensions. * Cuvier uses the title Bubo to distinguish those species which, as in the genus Otus, have the tarsi feathered, and are furnished with egrets, but have the disk surrounding the face less distinctly marked, and have a small external conch. He assumes as the type the eagle owl of Europe, but places the Virginian species in his genus Otus, with the small long-eared owl of Britain: the latter has the disk very dis- tinct, and the ears large, the characters of Otus ; but the American bird is in every way a true Bubo, as defined by the great French naturalist. It is a genus of very extensive geographical distribution ; individuals exist in almost every latitude, and in the four quarters of the world. Their abodes are the deep and interminable forests, their habits nocturnal, though they are not so much annoyed or stupified if dis- turbed in the day, and much more difficult to approach, earnestly watching their pursuer. An eagle owl in my possession remains quiet during the day, unless he is shown some prey, when he becomes eager to possess it, and when it is put within his reach, at once clutches it, and retires to a corner to devour itatleisure. During night heis extremely active, and sometimes keeps up an incessant bark. It is so similar to that of a cur or terrier as to annoy a large Labrador house-dog, who expressed his dissatisfac- tion by replying to him, and disturbing the inmates nightly. I at first mistook the cry also for that of a dog, and, without any recollection of the owl, sallied forth to destroy this disturber of our repose ; and it was not until tracing the sound to the cage, that I became satisfied of the author of the annoyance. I have remarked that he barks more inces- santly during a clear winter night than at any other time, and the thin air at that season makes the cry very distinctly heard to a considerable distance. This bird also shows a great antipathy to dogs, and will per- ceive one at a considerable distance, nor is it possible to distract his 2600 GREAT HORNED OWL. By the same scale the greater part of the hawks and owls of the present volume are drawn, their real magnitude render- ing this unavoidable. attention so long as the animal remains in sight. When first perceived, the feathers are raised and the wings lowered as when feeding, and the head moved round, following the object while in sight : if food is thrown, it will be struck with the foot and held, but no further attention paid to it. The Virginian owl seems to be very extensively distributed over America, is tolerably common over every part of the continent, and Mr Swainson has seen specimens from the tableland of Mexico. The southern specimens present only a brighter colouring in the rufous parts of the plumage. According to all authorities, owls have been regarded as objects of superstition ; and this has sometimes been taken advantage of by the well-informed for purposes far from what ought to be the duty of a better education to inculcate, None are more accessible to such super- stitions than the primitive natives of Ireland and the north of Scotland. Dr Richardson thus relates an instance, which came to his own know- ledge, of the consequences arising from a visit of this nocturnal wanderer, “A party of Scottish Highlanders, in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, happened, in a winter journey, to encamp after nightfall in a dense clump of trees, whose dark tops and lofty stems, the growth of more than one century, gave a solemnity to the scene that strongly tended to excite the superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The effect was heightened by the discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural taste often exhibited by the Indians, had been placed in this secluded spot. Our travellers having finished their supper, were trimming their fire preparatory to retiring to rest, when the slow and dismal notes of the horned owl fell on the ear with a startling nearness. None of them being acquainted with the sound, they at once concluded that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed by inadvertently making a fire of some of the wood of which his tomb had been con- structed. They passed a tedious night of fear, and, with the first dawn of day, hastily quitted the ill-omened spot.” In India there is a large owl, known by the native name of Googoo, or Ooloo, which, according to some interesting notices, accompanying a large box of birds sent to Mr Selby from the vicinity of Hyderabad, is held as an object of both fear and veneration. “If an Ooloo should alight on the house of a Hindoo, he would leave it immediately, take the thatch off, and put fresh on. The eyes and brain are considered an infallible cure for fits in children, and both are often given to women GREAT HORNED OWL. 261 This noted and formidable owl is found in almost every quarter of the United States. His favourite residence, how- in labour. The flesh, bones, &c., boiled down to a jelly, are used to cure spasms or rheumatism. Somme of the fat, given to a child newly born, averts misfortune from him for life.” indenendone of these, says our correspondent, “ there are innumerable superstitions regarding this bird, and a native will always kill one when he has an opportunity. We must mention here a very beautiful species, which is certainly first accurately described in the second volume of the “Northern Zoology,” though Wilson appears to have had some information regard- ing a large white owl ; and Dr Richardson is of opinion that the Strix Scandiaca of Linneeus, if not actually the species, at least resembles it. It is characterised and figured by the northern travellers under the name of Bubo Arctica, arctic or white-horned owl; and we add the greater part of their description. “This very beautiful owl appears to be rare, only one specimen having been seen by the members of the expedition. It was observed flying, at mid-day, in the immediate vicinity of Carlton House, and was Tenor down with an arrow by an Indian boy. I obtained no information respecting its habits. “The facial disk is very imperfect ; the ears, small, and without an operculum, as in Strix Virginiana; the ear-feathers, ample ; but the disk even smaller than in the last-mentioned bird, and the tarsi some- what longer. The toes are similarly connected. The tail is of mode- rate length, and considerably rounded. The bill is strong, and rather short. “* Description.—Colour of the bill and claws, bluish black. Irides, yellow. The face is white, bounded posteriorly by blackish brown, succeeded by white, which two latter colours are continued in a mixed band across the throat, LEgrets, coloured at the base, like the adjoining plumage ; the longer feathers tipped with blackish brown, their inner webs, white, varied with wood brown. The whole dorsal aspect is marked with undulated lines, or fine bars, of umber brown, alternating with white ; the markings bearing some resemblance to those of the Virginian owl, but being much more lively and handsome. On the greater wing-coverts, on the inner half of the scapularies, and also partially on the neck and lesser wing-coverts, the white is tinged or replaced by pale wood brown. The primaries and secondaries are wood brown, with a considerable portion of white along the margins of their inner webs. They are crossed by from five to six distant umber brown bars on both webs, the intervening spaces being finely speckled with the same. Near the tips of the primaries, the fine sprinkling of the dark colour nearly obscures the wood brown. On the tertiaries, the 262 GREAT HORNED OWL. ever, is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps, covered with a crowth of gigantic timber; and here, as soon as evening draws wood brown is mostly replaced by white. The tail-feathers are white, deeply tinged on their inner webs by wood brown, and crossed by six bars of umber brown, about half as broad as the intervening spaces ; their tips are white. “ Under surface.—Chin, white. Throat, crossed by the band above mentioned, behind which there is a large space of pure snow white, that is bounded on the breast by blotches of liver brown, situated on the tips of the feathers. The belly and long plumage of the flanks are white, crossed by narrow, regular bars of dark brown. The vent- feathers, under tail-coverts, thighs, and feet, are pure white. The linings of the wings are also white, with the exception of a brown spot on the tips of the greater interior coverts.” Audubon has the following remarks on their incubation, which are somewhat at variance with Wilson. It would also appear that this bird makes love during the day :— “Early in February, the great horned owls are seen to pair. The curious evolutions of the male in the air, or his motions when he has alighted near his beloved, it is impossible to describe. His bowings, and the snappings of his bill, are extremely ludicrous ; and no sooner is the female assured that the attentions paid her by the beau are the result of a sincere affection, than she joins in the motions of her future mate. “The nest, which is very bulky, is usually fixed on a large horizontal branch, not far from the trunk of the tree, It is composed externally of crooked sticks, and is lined with coarse grasses and some feathers, The whole measures nearly three feet in diameter. The eggs, which are from three to six, are almost globular in form, and of a dull white colour. The male assists the female in sitting on the eggs. Only one brood is raised in the season. The young remain in the nest until fully fledged, and afterwards follow the parents for a considerable time, utter- ing a mournful sound, to induce them to supply them with food. They acquire the full plumage of the old birds in the first spring, and until then are considerably lighter, with more dull buff in their tints, I have found nests belonging to this species in large hollows of decayed trees, and twice in the fissures of rocks. In all these cases, little pre- paration had been made previous to the laying of the eggs, as I found only a few grasses and feathers placed under them. “The great horned owl lives retired, and it is seldom that more than one is found in the neighbourhood of a farm after the breeding season ; but as almost every detached farm is visited by one of these dangerous and powerful marauders, it may be said to be abundant. The havoc GREAT HORNED OWL, 263 on, and mankind retire to rest, he sends forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this world, startling the solitary pilgrim as he slumbers by his forest fire— Making night hideous. Along the mountainous shores of the Ohio, and amidst the deep forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the woods, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me of the approach of morning, and amused me with his singular exclamations, sometimes sweeping down and around my fire, uttering a loud and sudden Waugh O! Waugh O! sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal solos, no less melodious, one of which very strikingly resembles the half- suppressed screams of a person suffocating or throttled, and cannot fail of being exceedingly entertaining to a lonely be- nighted traveller, in the midst of an Indian wilderness ! This species inhabits the country round Hudson’s Bay ; and, according to Pennant, who considers it a mere variety of the eagle owl (Strix bubo) of Europe, is found in Kamtschatka ; extends even to the arctic regions, where it is often found white, and occurs as low as Astrakan. It has also been seen white in the United States, but this has doubtless been owing to disease or natural defect, and not to climate. It preys on which it commits is very great. I have known a plantation almost stripped of the whole of the poultry raised upon it during spring by one of these daring foes of the feathered race in the course of the ensuing winter. “This species is very powerful, and equally spirited. It attacks wild turkeys when half grown, and often masters them. Mallards, guinea- fowls, and common barn fowls prove an easy prey; and on seizing them, it carries them off in its talons from the farmyards to the interior of the woods. When wounded, it exhibits a revengeful tenacity of spirit, scarcely surpassed by any of the noblest of the eagle tribe, dis- daining to scramble away like the barred owl, but facing its enemy with undaunted courage, protruding its powerful talons and snapping its bill as long as he continues in its presence. On these occasions, its large goggle eyes are seen to open and close in quick succession, and the feathers of its body, being raised, swell out its apparent bulk to nearly double the natural size.”—Ep. 264. GREAT HORNED OWL. young rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, partridges, and small birds of various kinds. It has been often known to prowl about the farmhouse, and carry off chickens from roost. adidpun sy painojo7 YsKgZ -auojsusny 7 SOUTH 4 Y peanidug “YOST YY FA] PLOT UDY. UML = eccsie - ONS a 3 Be = = ARH oo SOOO a ~ SESS ees = : - NE TURNSTONE. 329 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, dur- ing 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 JJonoculus poly- phemus of entomologists. Its usual size is from twelve to fifteen inches in breadth, by two feet in length, though some- times it is found much larger. The head, or forepart, is semi- circular, 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 distin- guished 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 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 influ- ence of the sun, and are then very troublesome to the fisher- men, 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 regularly driven down, every spring, to feed on them, which they do with great avidity ; though by this kind of food their flesh 330 TURNSTONE. acquires a strong disagreeable fishy taste. Even the small turtles, or terrapins, so eagerly sought 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 up in wagons for manure, and when placed at the hills 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 singularity 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 exceedingly dexterous ; and even when taken and domesticated, is said to retain the same habit.* Its bill seems particularly 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 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 search- ing 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 individuals 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 speci- mens I have examined are as follows :— * Catesby. TURNSTONE, 331 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, aspot 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 turnstone ; one of which, he says, is chiefly confined to the southern, and the other to the northern parts of Great Britain. The diffe- rence, 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, many varieties must necessarily appear, according to the different ages of the individuals, 332 ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. ASH-COLOUBRED SANDPIPER. (Tringa cinerea.) PLATE LYII.—Ftie. 2. Arct. Zool. p. 474, No. 386.—Bewick, ii. p. 102.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4060. TRINGA CANUTUS.—LINNAZUS.—PLUMAGE OF THE YOUNG. * Synonyms of young: Tringa calidris, Linn. i. 252.—Tringa neevia, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. 732.—Maubeche tachete, Bujff.—Freckled Sandpiper, Arct. Zool. ii. p. 480. Tur 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 flowing and recession of the waves along the sandy * This beautiful sandpiper has also from its changes been described under various names, and our author has well represented the states of the young and summer plumage in his ash-coloured and red-breasted sandpipers of the present plate. In the winter plumage of the adult, the upper parts are of a uniform gray, and want the black and light edges represented in fig. 2. America and Europe seem the only countries of the Knot. I have never seen it from India, but have a single specimen of a knot from New Holland, very similar, and which I considered identical, until a closer examination has led me to have doubts on the subject. Like the other migratory species, they only appear on our coasts in autumn, on their return with their broods, or more sparingly in spring, when on their way north. The young possess a good deal of the rufous colour on the under parts, which leaves them as the winter approaches. I once met a large flock on the east side of Holy Island, in the month of September, which were so tame as to allow me to kill as many as I wanted with stones from the beach: it may have been on their first arrival, when they were fatigued. I have a specimen, in full plumage, killed by a boy on Portobello sands by the same means. In general they are rather shy, and it is only in their wheeling round that a good shot can be obtained. Before the severity of the winter sets in, they are fat, and are sought after by persons who know them, for the table. There is a peculiarity in the gregarious Zringe, and most of the Charadriade, which is very nearly confined to these tribes,—the simul- taneous flight, and the acting as it were by concert in their wheels and evolutions. Among none is it more conspicuous than in this species ; and every one who has been on the shore during winter, on a day ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 333 beach with 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 toa 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 they follow and elude the tumbling surf, while at the same time they seem wholly intent on collecting their food. The ash-coloured sandpiper, the subject of our present 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 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 shore during the winter season.* With us they are also migratory, being only seen in spring and autumn. They cleaming and cloudy, may have seen the masses of these birds at a dis- tance, when the whole were only visible, appear like a dark and swiftly moving cloud, suddenly vanish, but in a second appear at some dis- tance, glowing with a silvery light almost too intense to gaze upon, the consequences of the simultaneous motions of the flock, at once changing their position, and showing the dark gray of their backs, or the pure white of their under parts.—Ep, * Arctic Zoology, p. 474. Bane ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 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 hind head, 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 turn- stone ; claws and eye, black. These birds vary a little in colour, some being considerably darker above, others entirely white below ; but, in all, the con- centric semicircles on the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, are conspicuous. I think it probable that these birds become much lighter coloured during the summer, from the circumstance 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 com- panions. Early in December I examined the same coast every day for nearly two weeks, without meeting with more than one solitary individual of this species, although in October they were abundant. How far to the southward 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. THE PURRE. 33 Sa THE PURRE. (Tringa cinclus.) PLATE LVII.—Fie. 3. Linn. Syst. 251.—Arct. Zool. p. 475, No. 390.—Bewick, ii. p: 115.—L’ Alouette de Mer, Buff. vii. 548.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4126. TRINGA ALPINA.—PENNANT. Ts 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 preced- ine, that, except in being still more active and expert in run- ning 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 of the two preceding; 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 along the shores of the ocean, with great rapidity, in a kind of waving serpentine flight, alter- nately 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 body often alight, or descend to the surface with them, till the sportsman is completely satiated with destruction. On some of those occasions, while crowds of these victims are fluttering 336 THE PURRE. along the sand, the small pigeon-hawk, constrained by necessity, ventures to make a sweep among the dead in presence of the proprietor, 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 point 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 distinguishing 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 altogether plain, while others were thickly marked, particularly 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, probably young birds, were destitute of the ferruginous spots. On the 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. BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 337 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. (Charadrius apricarius.) PLATE LVII.—Fic. 4. Alwagrim Plover, A7rcé. Zool. p. 483, No. 398.—Le Pluvier Doré a gorge noire, Buf. viii. 85.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4196. SQUATAROLA CINEREA.—F¥LEMING.* Pluvialis cinerea, Wil. Orn. 229.—Gray Squatarola, Squatarola grisea, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. vol. xi. p. 505.—Le Vanneau Gris, Cuv. Reg. Anim. vol. i. p. 467.— Squatarola cinerea, Flem. Br. Zool. p. 3.—Vanellus melanogaster, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 370. Tis bird is known in some parts of the country by the name of the large whistling field plover. It generally makes its first appearance in Pennsylvania late in April; fre- quents the countries towards the mountains; seems parti- * This species, with some others, forms the division Vanneaw pluviers, the genus Squatarola of Cuvier, and, according to modern ornithologists, has been separated from the Charadrwi on account of the presence of a hinder toe. In the arrangement of this group, as in many others, I fear the characteristic marks have been taken in a manner too arbitrary. Those birds known by the name of Plovers form a small but apparently dis- tinct group ; they contain the C. pluvialis, Virginianus, &c., and, but for the rudimentary toe, the gray plover would also enter it: they agree in their manners, their incubation, and changes of plumage. We, again, have another well-defined group, which is called the Dotterels, agreeing in similar common habitudes ; but, in one species, bearing according to arrangement the name of Squatarola, we have all the marks and form of plumage, but the hinder toe much developed. It therefore becomes a question whether the presence or want of this appendage should be brought into the generic character (as it always has been), or should be looked upon as one of the connections of forms. In the latter way the plovers should form the genus Squatarola, the dotterels Charadrius, and the two birds in question be placed opposite in their respective circles. Vanellus, or the Lapwings, again, form another group, as well marked in their different habits, and intimately connected with Pluvianus ; neither of these, however, have any representative in North America. Many gray plovers breed in the English fens, and, like the migratory sandpipers, flocks appear on the shores at the commencement of winter, where they mingle with the other species. The plate is that of the summer or breeding plumage.—Ep. VOL. IT. nYG 338 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. cularly 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 broods 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 above are like- wise 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 exqui- site eating. About the beginning of September they descend with 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 killdeer. 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 conspicuous in the bird, as to determine, at the first glance, the tribe it belongs to. They continue about the sea-coast until early in Nov- ember, 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 RED-BREASTED SANDFWIPER. 339 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 hind head, 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. From 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 appear mottled with black, and finally become totally black. The spots of orange or golden on the crown, hind head, 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. RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. (Tringa rufa.) PLATE LVII.—Fic. 5. Peale’s Museum, No. 4050. TRINGA CANUTUS.—LINNAUS. Tringa Islandica, Zinn. and Lath.—Red Sandpiper, Mont. Orn. Dict. Supp.— Aberdeen Sandpiper, Penn. Brit. Zool. ii. No. 203. Or this prettily-marked species I can find no description. The Tringa Icelandica, or Aberdeen sandpiper of Pennant and others, is the only species that has any resemblance to it ; the descriptions of that bird, however, will not apply to the present. 340 RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. The common name of this species on our sea-coast is the eray-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 they 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, hind head from the upper mandible backwards, and neck, dull white, streaked with black ; back, a pale slaty olive, the feathers tipt with white, barred and spotted with black and pale ferruginous ; tail-coverts, white, elegantly barred with black ; wings, plain, dusky black towards the extremity ; the greater coverts, tipt with white; shafts of the primaries, 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. DMUG SYUOYS MOPAL fp Aa hpUn >> Ath “SS yn0s¢ psoap pebhbay UOTE “I LUS PIHSVAL-PIY T *y OSL PMY PULLIN, UG) CUM RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 341 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. (Scolopax noveboracensis.) PLATE LVIII.—Fie. 1. Arct. Zool. p. 464, No. 368.—Peale’s Museum, No. 3932. MACRORHAMPUS GRISEUS.—LeEacu.* Macrorhampus griseus, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. vol. xii. p. 61.—Scolopax grisea, Flem. Br. Zool. p. 106.—Bonap. Cat. p. 27.—Le Becassine Grise, Scolopax leucopheea, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. pl. 241.—Limosa scolopacea, Say’s Haped. to Rocky Mount. i. p. 170, 171, note.— Brown Snipe, Mont. Orn. Dict.—Becassine Ponctuée, Zemm. Man. ii. p. 679.—Brown Snipe, Selby’s llust. Br. Orn. pl. 24, fig. 2. THis 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 esti- mation. It differs, however, greatly from the common snipe * This bird will stand in the rank of a sub-genus. It was first in- dicated by Leach, in the Catalogue to the British Museum, under the above title. It is one of those beautifully connecting forms which it is impossible to place without giving a situation to themselves, and in- timately connects the snipes with Yotanus and Limosa. The bill is truly that of Scolopax, while the plumage and changes ally it to the other genera ; from these blending characters it had been termed Limosa, scolopacea by Say, who gave the characters of the form without apply- ing the name, He has the following observations in the work above quoted :— “Several specimens were shot in a pond near the Bowyer Creek. Corresponds with the genus Scolopax, Cuvier, in having the dorsal grooves at the tip of the upper mandible, and in having this part dilated and rugose ; but the eye is not large, nor is it placed far back upon the head ; which two latter characters, combined with its more elevated and slender figure, and the circumstance of the thighs being denudated of feathers high above the knee, and the exterior toe being united to the middle toe by a membrane which extends as far as the first joint, and the toes being also margined, combine to distinguish this species from those of the genus to which the form and characters of its bill would refer it, and approach it more closely to Limosa. In one speci- men, the two exterior primaries on each wing were light brown, but the quills were white, It may, perhaps, with propriety be considered as the type of a new genus, and, under the following characters, be placed between the genera Scolopax and Limosa. Bill, longer than the 342 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. in its manners, and in 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, sometimes very high, and has then a loud and shrill whistle, making many evolutions over the marshes, forming, dividing, and reuniting. ‘They sometimes settle in such 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 manceuvres in air before they descend. ‘They frequent the sandbars 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 large as garden peas. Their head, dilated, and rugose at tip, slightly curved downwards, and with a dorsal groove ; nasal groove, elongated ; feet, long, an extensive naked space above the knee ; toes, slightly margined, a membrane connecting the joints of the exterior toes ; first of the primaries, rather longest.” It is of rare occurrence in Europe, a few specimens only being men- tioned, and a solitary instance of its appearance on the coast of Britain is recorded by Montagu.—Ep. RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 343 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 towards the point, and of a dirty eel-skin 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, very 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 seaside snipes, it is the most numerous, and the most delicious for the table. From these circumstances, 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. * See his brown snipe, Arct. Zool., No. 369. ee a 344 LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. (Recurvirostra himantopus.) PLATE LVIII.—Fie. 2. Long-legged Plover, Arct. Zool. p. 487, No. 405.—Turton, p. 416.—Bewick, ii. 21.—L’Echasse, Buff. viii. 114, Pl. enl. 878.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4210. HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS.—V1£1.10T.* Himantopus Mexicanus, Ovd’s edit. of Wils.—Himantopus nigricollis, Bonap. Synop. p. 322. Narturatists have most unaccountably classed this bird with the genus Charadrius, or plover, and yet affect to make the particular confirmation of the bill, legs, and feet, the rule of their arrangement. In the present subject, however, ex- cepting the trivial circumstance of the want of a hind toe, there is no resemblance whatever of those parts to the bill, legs, or feet, of the plover; on the contrary, they are so en- tirely 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 reprehensible, 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 extend- ing to the voice, manners, 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 observer of Nature, the true relationship of these remarkable birds. Strongly impressed with these facts, from an intimate Wilson confounded this species with the long-legged plover of Europe, and ranged it with the Avosets. Mr Ord, in his reprint, placed it in the genus Himantopus, properly established for these birds, but under the name Mexicanus. The Prince of Musignano is of opinion that it cannot range under this, being much smaller, and refers it to the H. nigricollis of Vieillot. The genus contains only a few species, all so closely allied, that near examination is necessary to distinguish them. They are all remarkable for the great disproportion of their legs. —Eb. LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 345 acquaintance 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 proceed to detail some particulars 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 again 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 larvee, besides the eggs and spawn of others deposited in the soft mud below, these birds find here an abundant 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 by the country people, and at the distance of forty or fifty yards off, among the thick tufts of grass, one of these small associa- tions, 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 suffi- cient 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, seaweed, and various other 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 a re RS ee 346 LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 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 trembling, as if unable to sustain the burden of their bodies. Jn 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 manoeuvre 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 avoset, whom we have introduced in the present volume, practises the very same deception, 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 inter- mediate 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 food, which they scoop up very dexter- ously with their delicately-formed bills. On being wounded while in the water, they attempt to escape by diving, at which LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 347 they are by no means expert. Inautumn, their flesh is tender and well tasted. They seldom raise more than one brood in, the season, and depart for the south early 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 empty 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 Kast Indies. ; | All the figures and descriptions which I have seen of this curious bird represent the bill as straight, and of almost an equal thickness throughout, but I have never found it 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 beautiful specimen, newly shot, were as follows :— 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, 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, auri- culars, back part of the neck, scapulars, and whole wings, 348 LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 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 break- ing. 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 having 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 contained 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 buckshot. 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 avoset. 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 com- parison of the two is sufficient to satisfy the most scrupulous observer that Nature has classed these two birds together ; and so believing, we shall not separate them. SOLITARY SANDPIPER. 349 SOLITARY SANDPIPER. (Tringa solitaria.) PLATE LVIIL.—Fic. 3. Peale’s Museum, No. 7763. TOTANUS CHLOROPIGIUS.—VI®EILLOT.* Totanus glareolus, Ord’s reprint, p. 57.—Totanus chloropigius, Vicill.—Bonap. Cat. p. 26.—Synop. p. 325. Tats new species inhabits the watery solitudes of our highest mountains during the summer, from Kentucky to New York ; but is nowhere 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 perpe- tually nodding the head. It is so unsuspicious, or so little acquainted with man, as to permit one to approach 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 to the muddy shores of our large rivers, where it is occa- sionally 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 * In the second edition of the seventh part, under the inspection of Mr Ord, this bird is described as new, by the name of 7’, glareolus. Ord thought it identical with the 7. glareolus of Europe, and named it as such ; hissynonyms are, therefore, all wrong. The Prince of Musignano thus points out the differences: “ 7. chloropigius differs from 7, glareola, not only as regards the characters of the tail-feathers, but also in being more minutely speckled, the white spots being smaller; by its longer tarsus ; by the lineation of all the tail-feathers, but especially the lateral ones, the bands being broader, purer, and much more regular, whilst the latter tail-feathers of the European species are almost pure white on the inner webs ; by having the shaft of the exterior primary black, whilst that of the glareolus is white.” The two specimens which Mr Ord shot, in which all the tail-feathers were barred, and which corresponded with 7. glareola, may have been in fact that species. The Prince of Musignano is of opinion that it is also a native of North America.—Ep. 350 YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 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. 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 I am unable to say The 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, dark olive, streaked with white; back, scapulars, and rump, dark brown olive, each feather marked along the edges with small round spots of white ; wings, plain, 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. YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. (Scolopawx flavipes.) PLATE LVIII.—Fie. 4. Arct. Zool. p. 463, No. 878.—Turt. Syst. 395.—Peale’s Museum, No. 3938. TOTANUS FLAVIPES.—ViEI110T.* Totanus flavipes, Ord’s edit. p. 59.—Bonap. Cat. p. 26. Or this species I have but little to say. It inhabits our sea- coasts and salt marshes during summer ; frequents the flats at low water, and seems particularly fond of walking among the * T, flavipes seems exclusively American.— ED. VELLOW-SHANES SNIPE. 351 mud, where it doubtless finds its favourite food in abundance. Having never met with its nest, nor with any person acquainted with its particular place or manner of breeding, I must reserve these matters for further observation. It is a plentiful species, and great numbers are brought to market in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, particularly ‘in autumn. Though these birds do not often penetrate far inland, yet, on the 5th of September, I shot several dozens of them in the meadows of Schuylkill, below Philadelphia. There had been a violent north-east 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, appeared 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, alter 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, and 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 white ; tail-coverts, white ; tail, also white, handsomely barred with dark olive; wings, plain dusky, the secondaries 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. 352 TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. (Scolopax voctferUus. ) PLATE LVIII.—Fie. 5. Stone Snipe, Avct. Zool. p. 468, No. 376.—Turt. Syst. p. 396.—Peale’s Museum, No. 3940. TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS.—VIEILLOT.* T. melanoleucus, Ord’s reprint of Wils. p. 61.—Bonap. Synop. p. 324. ~ THIs species and the preceding are both well known to our duck-gunners along the sea-coast and marshes, by whom they are detested, and stigmatised 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 the 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 of the latter are frequently more than a match for all of them ; and before the poor tell-tale is aware, his warning voice is hushed for ever, and his dead body mingled with those of his associates. * Bonaparte in his “ Nomenclature” remarks, “ This bird is undoubt- edly the S. melanoleuca of Gmelin and Latham, first made known by Pennant. Why Wilson, who was aware of this, should have changed the name, we are at a loss to conceive. Mr Ord was, therefore, rightin restoring it.” The species has not been discovered out of North America, and will take the place in that country of the European greenshank. Totanus is a genus of Bechstein, now generally acknowledged as the proper place for the sandpipers of this form. Many of them do not undergo so decided a change during the breeding season, breed more inland, and, during winter, are as frequently found on the banks of rivers and lakes, or in inland marshes, as upon the shores. They are extremely noisy when first disturbed ; a single individual readily gives the note of alarm ; and when their nests are approached, they display more of the habit of the Plovers,—Ep. TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. 353 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, J have been informed, is built in a tuft of thick grass, gene- rally on the borders of a bog or morass. The female, it is said, lays 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 part of Chatteaux Bay, continually nodding their heads; and were called there stone curlews.* The tell-tale seldom flies in large flocks, at least during summer. It delights in watery bogs and the muddy margins of creeks and inlets; is either seen searching about for food, or standing in a watchful posture, alternately raising and lowering the head, and, on the least appearance of danger, utters its shrill whistle, and mounts on wing, generally accom- panied by all the feathered tribes that are near. It occasionally 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 curvature of the bill, the description of one might serve for both. 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 * Arctic Zoology, p. 468. VOL. II. Z cy 354 LTELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE, with black; wing-quills, black; some of the primaries, and all 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 membrane to the middle, the whole of a rich orange 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 ducks feed in the bogs and marshes without the least suspicion. The great object of the gunner is to escape the penetrating glance of this guardian, which it is sometimes 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. {Mr Ord adds, “ Pennant’s spotted snipe is undoubtedly this species. He states that it arrives at Hudson’s Bay in the spring ; feeds on small shellfish and worms, and frequents the banks of rivers ; called there by the natives, from its noise, Sa-sa-shew.* This Indian word, pronounced with rapidity, gives a tolerable idea of the whistle of the tell-tale; and is a proof of the advantage of recording the vulgar names of animals, when these names are expressive of any peculiarity of voice or habit.” | * Arctic Zoology, vol. ii. p. 170. ‘6G LVR 9 Lp > YF upwplop py wig haye p supmnmgs uadidpuns periods 7 RS rae = I sree AO Sees < os SOUT Hh 4q poavsbug SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 355 SPOTTED SANDPIPER. (TLringa macularia.) PLATE LIX.—Fie. 1. Arct. Zool. p. 473, No. 385.—-La Grive d’Eau, Buff. viii. 140.—Edw. 277.—Peule’s Museum, No. 4056. TOTANUS MACULARIUS.—TEMMINCK.* Ord’s reprint of Wils. part vii. p. 64.—Temm. Man. d’Orn. ii. p. 656.—Bonap. p p ip Synop. p. 325.—Flem. Br. Zool. p. 102.—Spotted Sandpiper, Mont. Orn. Dict. ii. and Supp. Selby’s Illust. of Br. Orn. W. B. pl. 17. THIS 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 cornfields to breed, where I have frequently found and examined their nests. One of these now before me, and which was built at the root of a 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 * This is one of the most beautiful and most delicately marked among the smaller Zotani. Closely allied to our common sand lark, 7. hypo- leucos, it is at once distinguished by the spotted marking on the under parts, which contrasts finely with their pure white. They frequent the banks of rivers more than the larger species, and have all a peculiar motion of the body and tail while running. The spotted sandpiper is common to both continents, and has been once or twice killed in Great Britain.—Ep. 356 SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 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 are then covered with down of a dull drab colour, 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 i the ground with seeming difficulty. On the appearance of a | dog, this agitation is greatly increased ; and if is very inter- 4 esting to observe with what dexterity she will lead him from : her young, by throwing herself repeatedly before him, flutter- ing off, and keepmg 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, IH 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 re- iH turning, 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 young crowded together behind her, apparently sensible of 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 evi- dently to flag, and the attacks of the squirrel became more daring and frequent, when my good friend, like one of those celes- tial 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 destruction. .) SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 357 The flight of this bird is usually low, skimming along the surface of the water, its long wings making a 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 cornfields there, frequenting the shore in search of food; but rarely associating with the other Zringe. 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, with the figure; will enable Huropeans to determine this matter to their satisfaction :— Length of the spotted sandpiper, seven inches and a half, ex- tent, 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 reflections, 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. Those circumstances I have verified on numerous individuals. 358 BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. (Tringa Bartramia.) PLATE LIX.—Fie. 2. Peale’s Museum, No. 4040. TOTANUS BARTRAMIUS.—TEMMINCK.* Totanus Bartramius, Ord’s reprint of Wils. vol. vii. p. 67.—Chevalier 4 longue queue, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. ii. p. 650.—Totanus Bartramius, Bonap. Synop. p. 325. Tuis 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 indi- viduals of the species, and have thereby had an opportunity of taking an accurate drawing as well as description of it. Unlike most of their tribe, these birds appeared to prefer running about among the grass, feeding on beetles and other winged insects. ‘There were three or four in company ; they seemed extremely watchful, 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. Having never met with them on the sea-shore, I am persuaded that their principal residence is in the interior, in meadows and such like places. They run with great rapidity, sometimes spreading their tail and * The discovery of this species, I believe, is due to our author, who dedicated it to his venerable friend Bartram. It is admitted by Temminck as an occasional straggler upon the Dutch and German coasts, and is mentioned as having been only once met with by himself. Bonaparte asserts, on the authority of Say, that it is very common in some districts of the extensive Missouri prairies ; thus confirming the opinion of Wilson, that its residence is in the interior, and not on the sea-coast, like most of its congeners. The lengthened form, more con- spicuous in the wedge shape of the tail, is at variance with the greater part of the Totant, and reminds us of the killdeer plover.—Ep. BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. 359 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 remarkably 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 down- wards, 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 pectinated 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 concentric semicircle of black; rump and tail-coverts, deep brown black, shghtly bordered with white, tail, tapering, of a pale brown orange colour, beautifully spotted with black, the middle feathers centred with 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 the eye, dark, or blue black ; eye, very large. The male and female are nearly alike. 360 RING PLOVER. RING PLOVER. (Tringa hiaticula.) PLATE LIX.—Fie. 3. Arct. Zool. p. 485, No. 401.—Le Petit Pluvier a Collier, Buff. viii. 90.—Bewick, i. 326.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4150. CHARADRIUS SEMIPALM ATUS.—BonAPARTE.* Charadrius semipalmatus, Bonap. Synop. p. 296.—American Ring Plover, North. Zool. ii. p. 367.—Charadrius semipalmatus? Wagl. Syst. Av. No. 23. Iv a preceding part of this work (see Plate xxxvul. Fig. 3), a bird by this name has been figured and described, under the supposition that it was the ring plover, then 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 con- sideration of the reader the reasons on which my present sus- picions are founded. * The smaller Charadriade of America have been much confused, owing to their close alliance to each other and to those of Europe, with some of which they were thought to be identical. The Prince 6f Musignano has clearly pointed out the differences which exist between this and the species figured at Plate XX XVII, and which bears a more close resemblance to the little African C. pecwariuvs than either the present species or the kiaticula of Europe (see also our note ‘on that species) ; and although he has not been able to point out such distinctive characters between the latter species and that now under discussion, I have no doubt whatever of their being eventually found quite distinct ; and it will be found, by those persons who are inclined to allow somuch for the influence of climate in rendering form, colour, and plumage distinct, that it is comparatively of no importance, and that identical species, running through a great variety of latitude, will in fact differ little or nothing from each other. I have transcribed the observations of Bonaparte from his ‘‘ Nomenclature of Wilson,” which will show his opinion. He thus observes,—“ The remark made by Mr Ord, relative to the difference between the union of the toes in American and European specimens, is no less extraordinary than correct; I have verified it on the specimens in my collection. This character would seem to show, RING PLOVER. 361 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 broods in the season. THarly 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 birdshot ; in the most positive manner, that they are distinct but allied species, differing from each other as Zringa semipalmata of Wilson differs from his Tringa pusilla,” The synonyms of Mr Ord, who noticed one of the principal distinc- tions in the palmation of the feet, are consequently wrong, and they should stand as above. I have added a synonym of Wagler, (. sem7- palmatus, which he takes, without any acknowledgment, from Cont. Isis, 1825, and which seems to be this species. He also refers to the C. hiaticula of Wilson, Plate XXXVII., under the name of C. Okeniwi. The true CU, hiaticula has not yet, I believe, been found in North America. “T have been endeavouring,” again writes Bonaparte, “to discover some other markings on my stuffed specimens, that might enable me to establish the species on a more solid basis; but though certain small differences are discernible, such as the somewhat smaller size, and the black narrow collar of the American, &c., yet we are aware that such trifling differences occur between individuals of the same species ; we shall, therefore, not rely on them until our observations shall have been repeated on numerous recent or living specimens, In the meantime, should the species prove to be distinct, it may be distinguished by the appropriate name of C. semipalmatus.”—Ep. 362 RING PLOVER. 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 to reconcile such difference of habit in one and the same bird. The ring plover 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 ring plover, makes the following remarks :—‘‘ Almost all 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, de- scribed in our fifth volume.* But this excellent naturalist was perhaps not awate that we have the true ring plover here in spring and autumn, agreeing in every respect with that of Britain, and at least in equal numbers; why, therefore, has not the climate equally affected the present and the former sort, if both are the same species? ‘These inconsistencies cannot be reconciled 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, * Vol. II. p. 122 of this edition. yj It is mentioned as abundant in all “ Arctic America” by the authors of the “ Northern Zoology,” “ where it breeds in similar situations to the golden plover. Mr Hutchins reports that the eggs, generally four, are dark coloured, spotted with black. The natives say, that, on the approach of stormy weather, this plover makes a chirruping noise, and claps its wings.” —ED. RING PLOVER. 363 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, deepening into black, and tipt with white; legs, dull yellow ; eye, dark hazel; eyelids, yellow. This bird is said to make no nest, but to lay four eges of a pale ash colour, spotted with black, which she 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 a 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 Owyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, and as heht coloured as those of the highest latitudes. + [Mr Ord adds to this description in his reprint: “ After writing the above I had an opportunity of examining, com- paratively, two or three specimens of the European ring plover which are in Mr Peale’s collection. These birds corresponded with the subject of this article, except in the feet, and here I found a difference which is worthy of note. The outer toes of both the European and the American birds were united to the middle ones by a membrane of an equal size; but the inner toes of the latter were also united by a smaller web, while those of the former were divided to their origin. The naturalists of Europe state that the inner toes of their species are thus divided. Here, then, is a diversity which, if constant, would constitute a specific difference. The bottoms of the toes of the present are broad as in the sanderling. “The plover given in our fifth volume, under the name of * Bewick. + Arct. Zool., p. 485, 364 SANDERLING PLOVER. hiaticula, has its inner toes divided to their origin, and the web of the outer toes is much smaller than that of the present article. All my doubts on the subject of our two plovers being now removed, I shall take the liberty of naming that of the fifth volume, the piping plover, Charadrius melodus.” SANDERLING PLOVER. (Charadrius calidris.) PLATE LIX. —Fie. 4, Linn. Syst. 255.—Arct. Zool. p. 486, No. 403.—Le Sanderling, Buff. vii. 532,— Bewick, ii. 19.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4204. CALIDRIS ARENARIA.—I.1xIGER.* Charadrius calidris, Wils. Ist edit. vii. p. 68 ; and Ch. rubidus, Wits. 1st edit. vii. p. 129.—Calidris, I/lig. Prod. Mam. et Av. p. 249.—Ruddy Plover, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 486, summer plumage.—Sanderling variable (Calidris arenaria), Zemm. Man. @’Orn. ii. 524.—Tringa (Calidris) arenaria, Bonap. Synop.—Calidris arenaria, Flem. Br. Zool. p. 112.—North. Zool. ii. p. 366. In this well-known bird we have another proof of the imper- fection 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 characterised by several strong family traits, one of which is that of wanting the hind toe. The sandpipers have also their peculiar external characters of bill, general * Calidris was established for this single species, common over the world, and of form intermediate between the plovers and sandpipers. Their make is thicker ; they are less slender than the sandpipers ; the bill stronger, but, as in that group, the feet similar to those of the Charadrwi ; and with their manner of running and walking, they possess that peculiar crouch of the head upon the back seen in the common ring plover and its allies. The ruddy plover of the plate represents it in the summer plumage, in which it more resembles the changes exhibited in the knot and pigmy curlew than those of the dunlns. On the shores of Britain, it is generally met with in winter in small flocks, or in spring and autumn when going to or returning from their breeding quarters. By Mr Hutchins it is said to make its nest rudely of grass in the marshes, and lays four dusky coloured eggs, spotted with black.—Epb. SANDERLING PLOVER. 365 form, &¢., by which they are easily distinguished from the former., The present species, though possessing the bill, gene- ral figure, manners, and voice of the sandpipers, feeding in the same way, and associating with these in particular, yet want- ing the hind toe, has been classed with the plovers, with whom, this single circumstance excepted, it has no one character- isticincommon. Though we have not, in the present instance, presumed to alter this arrangement, yet it appears both reason- able and natural that, where the specific characters in any bird seem to waver between two species, that 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 in- terest 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 picking up its food from the sand amid the roar of the ocean. It flies in numerous flocks, keeping a low mean- dering course along the ridges of the tumbling 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 aerial meanders, again alight, and pursue their usual avocation as busily and unconcernedly as before. These birds are most numerous on extensive sandy beaches in front of the ocean. Among rocks, marshes, or stones covered with seaweed, they seldom make their appearance. The sanderling is eight inches long, and fourteen inches in ESS ony Sn terete 366 SANDERLING PLOVER. extent ; thebill 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 October ; so that perhaps the gray may be their winter, and the spotted their summer, dress. 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 description of his “ruddy plover” agreeing exactly with this.*