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Smithsonian Institution 
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GIFT OF 


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AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
EDINBURGH AND LONDON 


‘ 


- 


mio RICAN ORNITHOLOGY: 


OR, 


RHE NA RURA pHLSDRO RY: 


OF THE 


PDS OF Dae UNITED SAGES: 


BY 


ALEXANDER WILSON 
AND 


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PRINCE CHARLES LUCIEN BONAPARTE. 


Che Illustrative Motes and Life of Wilson 


Bee S Res Wel kale Ay VE) ij AC RAD SIRINSE BARDS | oRe Sakis suka esS: 


IN THREE VOLUMES.—VOL. 111. 


Ores SE iw Et mie GAL PWN: 


LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK. 


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CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME. 


The names printed in italics are species not contained in the original, which have 
been introduced into the notes. 


Antcatcher, Rocky Mountain 


Auk, Cerorhinca . 

Auk, Crested 

Auk, Great . 

Auk, Perrequet 

Auk, Tufted 

Brant . 3 : : 
Bullfinch, Crimson-necked . 
Bullfinch, Pine, Female, 
Buzzard, Turkey 

Cock of the Plains 
Condor 

Coot, American 

Coot, Cinereous . 
Cormorant 

Cormorant, African 
Cormorant, Brazilian . 
Cormorant, Crested 
Cormorant, Double-crested 
Cormorant, Pigmy 
Cormorant, Shag 
Courlan, Scolopaceous 


Crossbill, White-winged, Fem. 


Crow Blackbird, Com., Fem. 
Crow Blackbird, Great 


PAGE 


164 
123 
123 
124 
123 
123 

63 
203 
360 
125 
395 
400 

82 

82 
101 
101 
102 
101 
102 
101 
101 
496 
335 
oi 
191 


Crow, Carrion 

Curlew, Esquimaux 
Darter 

Darter, Female 

Darter, Vaillant’s 
Dipper, Pallas’ 

Diver, Great Northern 
Dove, Zenaida 

Duck, Canvas-back 
Duck, Dusky 

Duck, Eider : 
Duck, Eider, Female . 
Duck, Gadwall 

Duck, Harlequin 
Duck, Long-tailed 


Duck, Long-tailed, Female . 


Duck, Pied . 

Duck, Red-headed 
Duck, Ruddy 

Duck, Ruddy, Female . 
Duck, Scaup 

Duck, Scoter 

Duck, Velvet 

Duck, Wood 

Exder King 


PAGE 
135 
502 
100 
106 
100 
345 
107 
365 


vi 


Falcon, Peregrine 

Finch, Indigo, Female 

Finch, Lark 

Finch, Lazuli : 

Flycatcher, Arkansaw . 

Flycatcher, Fork-tailed 

Flycatcher, Say’s. ; 

Flycatcher, Swallow-tailed . 

Gadwall 

Gallinule, Florida 

Gallinule, Martinico 

Gannet, Booby 

Gannet, Common . 

Garrot, Rocky Mountain 

Goldcrest, Cuvier’ s 

Goldcrest, Fiery-crested . 

Goldcrest, Golden-crowned, 
Female ; 

Goldfinch, American, Ren AE 

Goose, Common Bean 

Goose, Hutchin’s . 

Goose, Snow, Young 

Goose, White-fronted 

Grebe, Carolina 

Grebe, Crested 

Grebe, Eared 

Grebe, Red-necked . 

Grosbeak, Evening 


Grosbeak, Rose-breasted, ae : 


Grouse, Dusky 
Grouse, Franklin's” 
Grouse, Richardson’s 
Grouse, Rock 
Grouse, Sharp-tailed 
Grouse, Spotted . 
Grouse, White-tailed 
Grouse, Willow 
Guillemot, Black . 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
151 
341 
201 
214 
7s 

159 
177 
173 


Guillemot, Brunich’s 
Guillemot, Foolish 
Guillemot, Little 
Guillemot, Marbled 
Gull, Arctic Silvery 
Gull, Black-backed 
Gull, Bonaparte’s , 
Gull, Common 
Gull, Franklin’s 
Gull, Fuscous 

Gull, Glaucous 
Gull, Harnessed 
Gull, Herring 


| Gull, Ivory . 


Gull, Kittiewake . 
Gull, Laughing 
Gull, Inttle . 


| Gull, Ring-billed Mew . 
| Gull, Rosy 


Gull, Sabine’s 


Gull, Short-billed ae 
| Gull, White-winged 


Hawk, Blue 


| Hawk, Cooper’s . 


Hawk, Great-footed 


| Hawk, White-tailed 


FHeliornis, Surinam 
Hen-harrier . 

Heron, Peale’s Egret 
Ibis, Glossy . 


| Jager or Skua, Buffor’s 8 


Jager, Common 
Jager, Richardson's 
Jay, Bullock's 

Jay, Florida 

Jay, Steller’s 


| Longspur, Lapland 


~ Mallard 


PAGE 
123 
123 
122 
123 
117 
118 
116 
UNG? 
116 
117 
118 
115 
118 
117 
117 
114 
115 
118 
116 
115 
118 
118 
287 
260 
150 
276 
102 
287 
482 
419 
119 
119 
119 
301 
315 
301 
309 
39 


Merganser, Hooded 
Merganser, Red-breasted 
Merlin . 
Owl, Burrowing . 
Pelican, Brown 
Pelican, White 
Phalarope, Arctic 
Phalarope, Brown 
Phalarope, Grey . 
Phalarope, Hyperborean 
Phalarope, Wilson’s 
Pigeon, Band-tailed 
Pigeon, White-crowned 
Plover, Piping : 
Plover, Semipalmated, 
Young 
Plover, Wilson’s 
Ptarmigan, Common 
Puffin, Arctic 
Puffin, Common . 
Rail, Yellow-breasted . 
Raven 
Razorbill : 
Sandpiper, Long-legged 
Sandpiper, Pectoral 
Sandpiper, Schinz’s 
Siskin, Arkansaw 
Smew, or White Nun. 
Snake-bird . 
Snipe, Red-breasted 


CONTENTS. vil 


PAGE 


a 
89, 452 
230 


PAGE 

| Swallow, Fulvous or Chiff . 216 
Swan, Bewich’s  . : pani(o 
Swan, Trumpeter . 2 pent: 
Swan, Wald ‘ i SN nAD 
Teal, Carolina . , 4: 
Teal, Green-winged . Me ae 
Tern, Arctic : ; seni) 
Tern, Cyaneus. : 3) 
Tern, Marsh : 5 Sy edeh 
Tern, Noddy : : Bh uat 
Tern, Sooty 5 : 2 Si) 
Tern, Southern . ee pie hele 
Tropic Burd : s © 
Troopial, Yellow- Henied 184 
Turkey, Wild 232 
Vulture, Black 135 
Vulture, Californian 127 
Vulture, Turkey . 125 
Warbler, Coerulean, Female 284 
Warbler, Cape May, Female 189 


Warbler, Golden-winged, Fem, 170 


Warbler, Orange-crowned 200 
| Warbler, Palm 270 
Waxwing, Bohemian . 302 
Widgeon, American . : 9 
Woodpecker, Northern Three- 
toed eis sols 
Woodpecker, Red-headed, 
Mouncaigr . 325 


Woodpecker, Vellom beled 228 


GENERAL INDEX OF ENGLISH AND LaTIN NAMES ; " 525 


WILSON’S 


AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


HOODED MERGANSER. (Mergus cucullatus.) 
PLATE LXIX.—Fie. 1. 


L’Harle Huppé de Virginie, Briss. vii. p. 258, 8.—Pl. enl. 935.—L’Harle Cou- 
ronné, Buff. viii. p. 280.—Round-crested Duck, Ldw. pl. 860.—Catesby. i. pl. 
94,—Arct. Zool. No. 467.—Lath. Syn. 10, p. 426.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2980. 


MERGUS CUCULLATUS.—LINNAUS. 


Mergus cucullatus, Cuv. Regn. Anim. i. p. 540.—Bonap. Synop. p. 397.—Selby, 
Lilust. Brit. Ornith. pl. 58. 


T'HIs species on the sea-coast is usually called the hairy-head. 
They are more common, however, along our lakes and fresh- 
water rivers than near the sea; tracing up creeks, and visit- 
ing millponds, diving perpetually for their food. In the 
creeks and rivers of the southern States they are very frequently 
seen during the winter. Like the red-breasted, they are migra- 
tory, the manners, food, and places of resort of both being very 
much alike. 

The hooded merganser is eighteen inches in length, and two 
feet in extent ; bill, blackish red, narrow, thickly toothed, and 
furnished with a projecting nail at the extremity ; the head is 
ornamented with a large circular crest, which the bird has 
the faculty of raising or depressing at pleasure ; the fore part 


of this, as far as the eye, is black, thence to the hind head, 
VOL, III. A 


Oe HOODED MERGANSER. 


white, and elegantly tipt with black; it is composed of two 
separate rows of feathers, radiating from each side of the head, 
and which may be easily divided by the hand ; irides, golden ; 
eye, very small; neck, black, which spreads to and over the 
back ; part of the lesser wing-coverts, very pale ash, under 
which the greater coverts and secondaries form four alternate 
bars of black and white; tertials, long, black, and streaked 
down the middle with white; the black on the back curves 
handsomely round in two points on the breast, which, with the 
whole lower parts, are pure white; sides, under the wings and 
flanks, reddish brown, beautifully crossed with parallel lines 
of black ; tail, pointed, consisting of twenty feathers of a sooty 
brown ; legs and feet flesh-coloured ; claws, large and stout. 
The windpipe has a small labyrinth. 

The female is rather less, the crest smaller, and of a light 
rust or dull ferruginous colour, entirely destitute of the white ; 
the upper half of the neck, a dull drab, with semicircles of 
lighter, the white on the wings is the same as in the male, but 
the tertials are shorter and have less white; the back is black- 
ish brown; the rest of the plumage corresponds very nearly 
with the male. 

This species is peculiar to America ;* is said to arrive at 
Hudson’s Bay about the end of May ; builds close to the lakes ; 
the nest is composed of grass, lined with feathers from the 
breast ; is said to lay six white eggs. The young are yellow, 


nd fit to fly in July.+ 


* The female, or a young male of this bird, has lately been killed in 
England, and is figured in the last part of Mr Selby’s “ Illustrations.” 
This, I believe, is the first Instance of its occurrence in Europe.—Eb. 

+ Hutchins, as quoted by Latham. 


RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 3 


RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. (Mergus serrator.) 
PLATE LXIX.—Fic. 2. 


L’Harle Huppé, Briss. vi. p. 237, 2, pl. 23.—Buff. viii. p. 273.—Pl. enl. 207.— 
Bewick, ii. p. 235.—Hdw. pl. 95.—Lath. Syn. iil. p. 432.—Peale’s Museum, 


No. 2936. 
MERGUS SERRATOR.—LINNEUS.* 


Mergus serrator, Linn. Syst. i. 208.—Bonap. Synop. p. 397.—L’Harle Huppé, 
Temm. Man. ii. p. 884.—Red-breasted Merganser, Mont. Ornith. Dict. ii. 
and Supp.—Llem. Brit. Anim. p. 129.—Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. pl. 58. 


T'HIs is much more common in our fresh waters than either 
of the preceding, and is frequently brought to the Philadelphia 
market from the shores of the Delaware. It is an inhabitant 
of both continents. In the United States it is generally 
migratory, though a few are occasionally seen in autumn, 
but none of their nests have as yet come under my notice. 
They also frequent the sea-shore, keeping within the bays 
and estuaries of rivers. ‘They swim low in the water, and, 
when wounded in the wing, very dexterously contrive to elude 
the sportsman or his dog by diving and coming up at a great 
distance, raising the bill only above water, and dipping 
down again with the greatest silence. The young males of 


* This beautiful species is also a native of both continents, and has 
similar manners with its congeners. In this country, during winter they 
frequent the sea, but even in severe weather do not so frequently ascend 
the rivers. They breed throughout the whole of the north of Scotland, 
by the edges or on the small islets of fresh-water lakes, both sexes 
being seen in company only so long as the female continues to lay. 
The nest is placed in some thicket of brushwood or rank herbage, and 
is composed of the same materials which Wilson has mentioned.= The 
eggs are arich yellowish fawn colour. Both Wilson and some of our 
British writers mention them as white, or bluish white. When they 
have been sat upon for some time and approach to maturity, they receive 
the latter tint from the transparency of the shell. 

The female sits very close, and will allow an intruder to approach 
within the distance of a yard. All the nests which I have seen had two 
runs in opposite directions, leading out of the cover, and when disturbed, 
she followed one of these for a few yards before taking flight.—Eb, 


4 RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 


a year old are often found in the plumage of the female; their 
food consists of small fry, and various kinds of shellfish. 

The red-breasted merganser is said by Pennant to breed 
on Loch Maree, in the county of Ross, in North Britain, and 
also in the isle of Islay. Latham informs us that it inhabits 
most parts of the north of Europe on the Continent, and as 
high as Iceland; also in the Russian dominions about the 
great rivers of Siberia and the Lake Baikal. Is said to be 
frequent in Greenland, where it breeds on the shores. The 
inhabitants often take it by darts thrown at it, especially in 
August, being then in moult. At Hudson’s Bay, according 
to Hutchins, they come in pairs about the middle of June, as 
soon as the ice breaks up, and build soon after their arrival, 
chiefly on dry spots of ground on the islands; lay from eight 
to thirteen white eggs the size of those of a duck; the nest 
is made of withered grass, and lined with the down of the 
breast. he young are of a dirty brown, like young goslings. 
In October they all depart southward to the lakes, where they 
may have open water. 

This species is twenty-two inches in length, and thirty-two 
in extent; the bill is two inches and three-quarters in length, 
of the colour of bright sealing-wax, ridged above with dusky ; 
the nail at the tip, large, blackish, and overhanging; both 
mandibles are thickly serrated ; irides, red; head, furnished 
with a long hairy crest, which is often pendant, but occasion- 
ally erected, as represented in the plate ; this and part of the 
neck is black glossed with green; the neck under this, for two 
or three inches, is pure white, ending in a broad space of red- 
dish ochre spotted with black, which spreads over the lower 
part of the neck and sides of the breast ; shoulders, back, and 
tertials, deep velvety black, the first marked with a number 
of singular roundish spots of white ; scapulars, white ; wing- 
coverts, mostly white, crossed by two narrow bands of black ; 
primaries, black ; secondaries, white; several of the latter 
edged with black; lower part of the back, the rump, and 
tail-coverts, grey, speckled with black ; sides under the wings, 


RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 5 


elegantly crossed with numerous waving lines of black ; belly 
and vent, white ; legs and feet, red; the tail, dusky ash ; the 
black of the back passes up the hind neck in a narrow band 
to the head. 

The female is twenty-one inches in length, and thirty in ex- 
tent ; the crested head and part of the neck are of a dull sorrel 
colour ; irides, yellow; legs and bill red, upper parts, dusky 
slate ; wings, black ; greater coverts, largely tipt with white ; 
secondaries nearly all white; sides of the breast, slightly 
dusky ; whole lower parts, pure white; the tail is of a lighter 
slate than the back. The crest is much shorter than in the 
male, and sometimes there is a slight tinge of ferruginous on 
the breast. 

The windpipe of the male of this species is very curious, 
and differs something from that of the goosander. About two 
inches from the mouth, it swells out to four times its common 
diameter, continuing of that size for about an inch and a half. 
This swelling is capable of being shortened or extended ; it 
then continues of its first diameter for two inches or more, 
when it becomes flattish, and almost transparent for other two 
inches; it then swells into a bony labyrinth of more than two 
inches in length by one and a half in width, over the hollow 
sides of which is spread a yellowish skin like parchment. The 
left side of this, fronting the back of the bird, is a hard bone. 
The divarications come out very regularly from this at the 
lower end, and enter the lungs. 

The intention of Nature in this extraordinary structure is 
probably to enable the bird to take down a supply of air to 
support respiration while diving ; yet why should the female, 
who takes the same submarine excursions as the male, be en- 
tirely destitute of this apparatus ? 


6 SCAUP DUCK. 


SCAUP DUCK. (dnas marilla.) 
PLATE LXIX.—Fic. 3. 


Le Petit Morillon Rayé, Briss. vi. p. 416, 26, A.—Arct. Zool. No. 498.—Lath. Syn. 
iii. p. 500.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2668. 
FULIGULA MARILLA.—Stnruens.* 
Fuligula marilla, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. xii. p. 108.—Bonap. Syn. p. 392.— 
North. Zool. ii. p. 457.—Anas marilla, Linn. i. p. 19.—Scaup Duck, Mont. 
Ormth. Dict. i. and Supp.—Bew. ii. p. 339.—Canard Milouinan, Temm. 


Man. ii. p. 865.—Nyroca marilla, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 122.—Common Scaup 
Pochard, Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. pl. 66. 


Tuts duck is better known among us by the name of the blue- 


bill. It is an excellent diver, and, according to Willoughby, - 


feeds on a certain small kind of shellfish called scaup, whence 
it has derived its name. It is common both to our fresh- 
water rivers and sea-shores in winter. Those that frequent 
the latter are generally much the fattest, on account of the 


* Common also to both continents, and in Britain a most abundant 
sea-duck. Though generally to be found in the poultry markets during 
winter, it is strong and ill flavoured, or what is called fishy, and of little 
estimation for the table. In the “Northern Zoology,” the American 
specimens are said to be smaller, but no other distinctions could be per- 
ceived ; a single northern specimen which I possess agrees nearly with 
the dimensions given of the smaller kind, and I can see no other im- 
portant difference ; but there are also larger-sized birds, known to the 
natives by the addition of “ Keetchee” to the name, and I think it pro- 
bable that two birds may be here confused, which future observations 
will allow us to separate. 

The young of both this bird and the tufted pochard have a white band 
circling the base of the bill, which has caused them to be described as 
distinct species. 

To the description of Wilson, Mr Ord has added the following 
observations :—“In the Delaware there are several favourite feeding 
grounds of the blue-bill along the Jersey shore from Burlington to 
Mantua Creek ; but the most noted spot appears to be the cove which 
extends from Timber Creek to Eagle Point, and known by the name of 
Ladd’s Cove. Thither the blue-bills repair in the autumn, never quitting 
it until they depart in the spring for the purpose of breeding, except 
when driven away in the winter by the ice. It is no uncommon circum- 


— 


SCAUP DUCK. Gf 


greater abundance of food along the coast. It is sometimes 
abundant in the Delaware, particularly in those places where 
small snails, its favourite shellfish, abound, feeding also, like 
most of its tribe, by moonlight. They generally leave us in 
April, though I have met with individuals of this species so 
late as the middle of May among the salt marshes of New 
Jersey. Their flesh is not of the most delicate kind, yet some 
persons esteem it. That of the young birds is generally the 
tenderest and most palatable. 

The length of the blue-bill is nineteen inches; extent, twenty- 
nine inches ; bill, broad, generally of a light blue, sometimes 
of a dusky lead colour; irides, reddish ; head, tumid, covered 
with plumage of a dark glossy green, extending half way down 
the neck; rest of the neck and breast, black, spreading round 
to the back ; back and scapulars, white, thickly crossed with 
waving lines of black; lesser coverts, dusky, powdered with 
veins of whitish; primaries and tertials, brownish black ; 
secondaries, white, tipped with black, forming the speculum ; 


stance to see many hundreds of these birds at once, constantly diving 
for food ; but so shy are they, that even with the aid of a very small 
and well-constructed skiff, cautiously paddled, it is difficult to approach 
them within gunshot. So very sagacious are they, that they appear to 
know the precise distance wherein they are safe ; and, after the shooter 
has advanced within this point, they then begin to spread their lines 
in such a manner, that, in a flock of a hundred, not more than three or 
four can be selected in a group at any one view. They swim lowin the 
water ; are strong feathered, and are not easily killed. When slightly 
‘wounded, and unable to fly, it is almost hopeless to follow them, in 
consequence of their great skill in diving. Their wings being short, 
they either cannot rise with the wind when it blows freshly, or they 
are unwilling to do so, for they are invariably seen to rise against the 
wind. In a calm they get up with considerable fluttering, Though 
often seen feeding in places where they can reach the bottom with their 
bills, yet they seldom venture on the shore, the labour of walking ap- 
pearing repugnant to their inclinations. When wounded, they will 
never take to the land if they can possibly avoid it ; and when com- 
pelled to walk, they waddle along in the awkward manner of those birds 
whose legs, placed far behind, do not admit of a free and graceful pro- 
gression,” —Ep, 


8 SCAUP DUCK. 


rump and tail-coverts, black; tail, short, rounded, and of a 
dusky brown ; belly, white, crossed near the vent with waving 
lines of ash ; vent, black ; legs and feet, dark slate. 

Such is the colour of the bird in its perfect state. Young 
birds vary considerably, some having the head black, mixed 
with gray and purple, others the back dusky, with little or no 
white, and that irregularly dispersed. 

The female has the front and sides of the same white ; head 
and half of the neck, blackish brown ; breast, spreading round 
to the back, a dark sooty brown, broadly skirted with whitish ; 
back, black, thinly sprinkled with grains of white; vent, whit- 
ish ; wings the same as in the male. 

The windpipe of the male of this species is of a large diame- 
ter ; the labyrinth similar to some others, though not of the 
largest kind; it has something of the shape of a single cockle- 
shell ; its open side, or circular rim, covered witha thin trans- 
parent skin. Just before the windpipe enters this, it lessens 
its diameter at least two-thirds, and assumes a flattish form. 

The scaup duck is well known in England. It inhabits 
Iceland and the more northern parts of the continent of Europe, 
Lapland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. It is also common on 
the northern shores of Siberia. It is very frequent on the 
river Ob. Breeds in the north, and migrates southward in 
winter. It inhabits America as high as Hudson’s Bay, and 
retires from this place in October.* 


* Latham, 


AMERICAN WIDGEON. 9 


AMERICAN WIDGHON. (Anas Americana.) 
PLATE LXIX.—Fie. 4. 


Le Canard Jenson, Pl. enl. 955.—Buff. ix. p. 174.—Arct. Zool. No. 502.— 
Lath, iii. p. 520.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2798. 


MARECA AMERICAN A.—STEPHENS.* 


Mareca Americana, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. xii. p. 185.—Worth. Zool. ii. p. 445.— 
Anas Americana, Bonap. Synop. p. 384. 


THis is a handsomely-marked and sprightly species, very 
common in winter along our whole coast from Florida to 


* This species is closely allied to the European widgeon, and may be 
taken asthe American analogue, They seem to meet each other about 
the arctic circle; that of America extending beyond it, and that of 
Europe reaching to the European verge. They will form the types of 
Stephens’s genus MMareca, which will probably stand in the rank of a 
more subordinate group only. The form is one of considerable interest, 
possessing many combinations, which may be found to connect some 
parts of the fiatural system. The bird of Europe, except in the breed- 
ing season, is mostly an inhabitant of the sea-shore ; during a severe win- 
ter, a few stray inland to the larger lakes and rivers, but as soon as a 
recurrence of moderate weather takes place, they return to their more 
favourite feeding grounds. In Britain they are mostly migratory, and 
at the first commencement of our harder weather, are found in vast 
flocks on the flatter coasts, particularly where there are beds of mussels 
and other shellfish. During day, they rest and plume themselves on 
the higher shelves, or doze buoyant on the waves, and only commence 
their activity with the approach of twilight. At this time they become 
clamorous, and rising in dense flocks from their day’s resort, proceed to 
the feeding grounds, generally according to the wind in the same tract. 
At the commencement of winter, they are fat and delicate, much sought 
after by the sea-sportsmen, and are killed in numbers by persons lying 
in watch in the track of the known flight, or what, in some parts, is 
called slaking. The most propitious night for this sport is about half 
moon and strong wind ; the birds then fly low, and their approach is 
easily known by the whistling of their wings, and their own shrill cry ; 
whence their coast name of hew. They are subject to an annual change 
of plumage. Mr Ord mentions that a few of these birds breed annually 
in the marshes in the neighbourhood of Duck Creek, in the State of 


IO AMERICAN WIDGEON. 


Rhode Island, but most abundant in Carolina, where it fre- 
quents the rice plantations. In Martinico, great flocks take 
short flights from one rice-field to another during the rainy 
season, and are much complained of by the planters. The 
widgeon is the constant attendant of the celebrated canvas- 
back duck, so abundant in various parts of the Chesapeake Bay, 
by the aid of whose labour he has ingenuity enough to contrive 
to make a good subsistence.. The widgeon is extremely fond 
of the tender roots of that particular species of aquatic plant 
on which the canvas-back feeds, and for which that duck is 
in the constant habit of diving. The widgeon, who never dives, 
watches the moment of the canvas-back’s rising, and, before 
he has his eyes well opened, snatches the delicious morsel from 
his mouth and makes off. On this account the canvas-backs 
and widgeons, or, as they are called round the bay, bald-pates, 
live in a state of perpetual contention ; the only chance the 
latter have is to retreat, and make their approaches at con- 
venient opportunities. .They are said to be in great plenty at 
St Domingo and Cayenne, where they are called vingeon, or 
gingeon. Are said sometimes to perch on trees, feed in com- 
pany, and have a sentinel on the watch, like some other birds. 
They feed little during the day, but in the evenings come out 
from their hiding-places, and are then easily traced by their 
particular whistle or whew-whew. This soft note or whistle 
is frequently imitated with success, to entice them within gun- 
shot. They are not known to breed in any part of the United 
States ; are common, in the winter months, along the bays of 
Ege Harbour and Cape May, and also those of the Delaware. 
They leave these places in April, and appear upon the coasts 
of Hudson’s Bay in May, as soon as the thaws come on, chiefly 
in pairs ; lay there only from six to eight eggs, and feed on 
flies and worms in the swamps ; depart in flocks in autumn,* 


Delaware. An acquaintance of the editor’s brought him thence, in the 
month of June, an egg which had been taken from a nest situated in a 
cluster of alders.—Ep. 

* Hutchins. 


AMERICAN WIDGEON. ; 1st 


These birds are frequently brought to the market of Balti- 
more, and generally bring a good price, their flesh being excel- 
lent. They are of a lively, frolicsome disposition, and, with 
proper attention, might easily be domesticated. 

The widgeon, or bald-pate, measures twenty-two inches in 
length, and thirty inches in extent; the bill is of a slate- 
colour, the nail black; the front and crown, cream-coloured, 
sometimes nearly white, the feathers inflated ; from the eye, 
backwards to the middle of the neck behind, extends a band 
of deep glossy green, gold, and purple ; throat, chin, and sides 
of the neck before, as far as the green extends, dull yellowish 
white, thickly speckled with black; breast, and hind part of 
the neck, hoary bay, running in under the wings, where it 1s 
crossed with fine waving lines of black; whole belly, white ; 
vent, black ; back and scapulars, black, thickly and beautifully 
crossed with undulating lines of vinous bay ; lower part of the 
back, more dusky ; tail-coverts, long, pointed, whitish, crossed 
as the back ; tail, pointed, brownish ash ; the two middle fea- 
thers an inch longer than the rest, and tapering ; shoulder 
of the wing, brownish ash ; wing-coverts, immediately below, 
white, forming a large spot ; primaries, brownish ash ; middle 
secondaries, black, glossed with green, forming the speculum ; 
tertials, black, edged with white, between which and the 
beauty-spot several of the secondaries are white. 

The female has the whole head and neck yellowish white, 
thickly speckled with black, very little rufous on the breast ; 
the back is dark brown. The young males, as usual, very 
much like the females during the first season, and do not 
receive their full plumage until the second year. They are also 
subject to a regular change every spring and autumn. 


12 YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. 


YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. (Anas hyperborea.) 
PLATE LXIX.—Fie. 5. 


Bean Goose, Lath. Syn. iii. p. 464.—White-fronted Goose, éd. iii. p. 463.—Arct. 
Zool. No. 476.—Blue-winged Goose, Lath. Syn. iii. p. 469.—Peale’s Museum, 
No. 2636. 

ANSER HYPERBOREAS.— BONAPARTE. 


Tx full-plumaged perfect male bird of this species has already 
been figured in the preceding plate, and I now hazard a con- 
jecture, founded on the best examination I could make of the 
young bird here figured, comparing it with the descriptions of 
the different accounts above referred to, that the whole of them 
have been taken from the various individuals of the present, 
in a greater or lesser degree of approach to its true and per- 
fect colours. 

These birds pass along our coasts, and settle in our rivers, 
every autumn; among thirty or forty, there are seldom more 
than six or eight pure white or old birds. The rest vary so 
much, that no two are exactly alike; yet all bear the most 
evident marks, in the particular structure of their bills, &c., of 
being the same identical species. A gradual change so great 
as from a bird of this colour to one of pure white must neces- 
sarily produce a number of varieties or differences in the ap- 
pearance of the plumage; but the form of the bill and legs 
remains the same, and any peculiarity in either is the surest 
means we have to detect a species under all its various appear- 
ances. It is therefore to be regretted that the authors above 
referred to in the synonyms have paid so little attention to 
the singular conformation of the bill ; for even in the description 
of the snow goose, neither that nor the internal peculiarities 
are at all mentioned. 

The length of the bird represented in our plate was twenty- 
eight inches ; extent, four feet eight inches; bill, gibbous at 
the sides both above and below, exposing the teeth of the upper 


YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. 13 


and lower mandibles, and furnished with a nail at the tip on 
both ; the whole being of a light-reddish purple or pale lake, 
except the gibbosity, which is black, and the two nails, which 
are of a pale light blue; nostril, pervious, an oblong slit, 
placed nearly in the middle of the upper mandible ; irides, 
dark brown ; whole head, and half of the neck, white; rest of 
the neck and breast, as well as upper part of the back, of a 
purplish brown, darkest where it joins the white ; all the fea- 
thers being finely tipt with pale brown ; whole wing-coverts, 
very pale ash, or light lead colour ; primaries and secondaries, 
black; tertials, long, tapering, centred with black, edged with 
light blue, and usually fall over the wing ; scapulars, cinereous 
brown ; lower parts of the back and rump, of the same light 
ash as the wing-coverts ; tail, rounded, blackish, consisting of 
sixteen feathers, edged and tipt broadly with white; tail-coverts 
white ; belly and vent, whitish, intermixed with cinereous ; 
feet and legs, of the same lake colour as the bill. 

This specimen was a female; the tongue was thick and 
fleshy, armed on each side with thirteen strong bony teeth, 
exactly similar in appearance, as well as in number, to those 
on the tongue of the snow goose; the inner concavity of the 
upper mandible was also studded with rows of teeth. The 
stomach was extremely muscular, filled with some vegetable 
matter and clear gravel. 

With this, another was shot, differing considerably in its 
markings, having little or no white on the head, and being 
smaller ; its general colour, dark brown, intermixed with pale 
ash, and darker below, but evidently of the same species with 
the other. 


14 PIED DUCK. 


PIED DUCK. (Anas Labradora.) 
PLATE LXIX'—Fie. 6. 


Arct. Zool. No. 488.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 497.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2858. 
FULIGULA LABRADORA.—BONAPARTE.* 
Fuligula Labradora, Bonap. Synop. p. 391. 


Tis is rather a scarce species on our coasts, and is never 
met with on fresh-water lakes or rivers. It is called by some 
gunners the sand-shoal duck, from its habit of frequenting 
sandbars. Its principal food appears to be shellfish, which 
it procures by diving. The flesh is dry, and partakes consider- 
ably of the nature of its food. It is only seen here during 
winter ; most commonly early in the month of March a few 
are observed in our markets. Of their principal manners, 
place, or mode of breeding, nothing more is known. Latham 
observes that a pair in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks 
were brought from Labrador. Having myself had frequent 
opportunities of examining both sexes of these birds, I find 
that, like most others, they are subject, when young, to a pro- 
gressive change of colour. The full-plumaged male is as 
follows :—Leneth, twenty inches ; extent, twenty-nine inches ; 
the base of the bill, and edges of both mandibles for two-thirds 
of their length, are of a pale orange colour; the rest, black ; ~ 
towards the extremity it widens a little in the manner of the 
shovellers, the sides there having the singularity of being only 
a soft, loose, pendulous skin ; irides, dark hazel; head and 
half of the neck, white, marked along the crown to the hind 
head with a stripe of black; the plumage of the cheeks is of 
a peculiar bristly nature at the points, and round the neck 
passes a collar of black which spreads over the back, rump, 


* The Prince of Musignano places this bird among the Fuligule. I 
have had no opportunity of seeing the bird itself, and cannot therefore 
speak from examination as to its station. It seems a true sea-duck, and 
agrees in general habits with the scaups and pochards.—Ep. 


PIED DUCK. 1s 


and tail-coverts ; below this collar the upper part of the breast 
is white, extending itself over the whole scapulars, wing-coverts, 
and secondaries; the primaries, lower part of the breast, 
whole belly, and vent, are black ; tail, pointed, and of a black- 
ish hoary colour; the fore part of the legs and ridges of the 
toes, pale whitish ash; hind part, the same, bespattered with 
blackish ; webs, black; the edges of both mandibles are 
largely pectinated. In young birds, the whole of the white 
plumage is generally strongly tinged with a yellowish cream 
colour; in old males, these parts are pure white, with the 
exception sometimes of the bristly pointed plumage of the 
cheeks, which retains its cream tint the longest, and, with the 
skinny part of the bill, form two strong peculiarities of this 
species. 

The female measures nineteen inches in length, and twenty- 
seven inextent; bill, exactly asin the male ; sides of the front, 
white ; head, chin, and neck, ashy grey ; upper parts of the 
back and wings, brownish slate; secondaries only white ; 
tertials, hoary ; the white secondaries form a spot on the wing, 
bounded by the black primaries, and four hoary tertials edged 
with black; whole lower parts, a dull ash, skirted with 
brownish white or clay colour ; legs and feet, as in the male; 
the bill in both is marked from the nostrils backwards by a 
singular heart-shaped outline. 

The windpipe of the male measures ten inches in length, 
and has four enlargements, viz., one immediately below the 
mouth, and another at the interval of an inch; it then bends 
largely down to the breast-bone, to which it adheres by two 
strong muscles, and has at that place a third expansion. It 
then becomes flattened, and, before it separates into the lungs, 
has a fourth enlargement much greater than any of the former, 
which is bony, and round, puffing out from the left side. The 
intestines measured six feet; the stomach contained small 
clams and some glutinous matter ; the liver was remarkably 
large. 


16 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 


LONG-TAILED DUCK. (Anas glacialis.) 


PLATE LXX.—Fic. 1, MAE. 


Le Canard alongue queue de Terre Neuve, Briss. vi. p. 382, 18.—Buff. ix. p. 202, 
Pl. enl. 1008.—Edw. pl. 280.—Arct. Zool. No. 501.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 
528.- Peale’s Museum, No. 2810. 


HARELDA GLACIALIS.—LEacu.* 


Anas glacialis and Anas hyemalis, Linn. Syst. i. p. 202 and 203.—Lath. Ind. 
li. p. 864.—Fuligula glacialis, Bonap. Synop. p. 395.—Long-tailed Duck, Mont. 
Ornith. Dict. i. and Supp.—Bew. Br. Birds, ii. 563.—Long-tailed Hareld, 
Selby’s Illust. Br. Ornith. pl. 61, m. and f.—Harelda glacialis, Worth. Zool. 
li. p. 460. 


Tus duck is very generally known along the shores of the 
Chesapeake Bay by the name of sowth-southerly, from the 
singularity of its cry, something imitative of the sound of those 
words, and also that, when very clamorous, they are supposed 
to betoken a southerly wind ; on the coast of New Jersey they 
are usually called old wives. They are chiefly salt-water 


* This bird forms the type of Dr Leach’s genus Harelda. It is 
remarkable for the decided change between the plumage of the breed- 
ing season and that of the winter, bearing analogy, in many particulars, 
to the Tringze and their allies—for the prolongation of the scapulary 
feathers, and for the narrow lengthened tail. It is a native of both 
continents, but in Britain is only met with during winter, in the dress 
of that season, or in the plumage of the first year. It keeps to the open 
sea, and seldom ventures inland to rivers or lakes. The following is a 
description of a specimen killed on the Ist May, from the “ Northern 
Zoology,” and which agrees nearly with skins in my possession. “The 
whole upper plumage, the central pairs of tail feathers, and the under- . 
plumage to the fore part of the belly, brownish black ; the lesser quills, 
paler. A triangular patch of feathers, between the shoulders and the 
scapulars, broadly bordered with orange brown.” (In the winter 
plumage, the long scapulars are pure white, and form a beautiful con- 
trast, hanging over the dark quills.) “Sides of head from the bill to 
the ears, ash grey ; eye stripe and posterior under-plumage, pure white ; 
flanks, sides of the rump, and lateral tail-feathers, white stained with 
brown ; axillaries and inner wing-coverts, clove brown ; bill, black, with 
an orange belt (bright vermilion) before the nostrils.”—Ep. 


‘OL 
PLOQOW LT PIP UIY-PYY (YIOY-SOAUDD O JOY PIGUINUBLY E (LBUUNS CG Jouay 7, song pam, GUuoT T 


SINT HM AQ proandug 


UOSTAN V AG. ANTON WOM UMD. 


LONG-TAILED DUCK. 17 


ducks, and seldom ramble far from the sea. They inhabit 
our bays and coasts during the winter only ; are rarely found 
in the marshes, but keep in the channel, diving for small shell- 
fish, which are their principal food. In passing to and from 
the bays, sometimes in vast flocks, particularly towards even- 
ing, their loud and confused noise may be heard in calm 
weather at the distance of several miles. They fly very swiftly, 
take short excursions, and are lively restless birds. Their 
native regions are in the north, where great numbers of them 
remain during the whole year, part only of the vast family 
migrating south to avoid the severest rigours of that climate. 
They are common to the whole northern hemisphere. In the 
Orkneys, they are met with in considerable flocks from Octo- 
ber to April; frequent in Sweden, Lapland, and Bussia ; are 
often found about St Petersburg, and also in Kamtschatka. 
Are said to breed at Hudson’s Bay, making their nest among 
the grass near the sea, like the eider duck, and about the 
middle of June lay from ten to fourteen bluish white eggs, the 
size of those of a pullet. When the young are hatched, the 
mother carries them to the water in her bill. The nest is 
jined with the down of her breast, which is accounted equally 
valuable with that of the eider duck, were it to be had in the 
same quantity.* They are hardy birds and excellent divers. 
Are not very common in England, coming there only in very 
severe winters, and then but in small straggling parties; yet 
are found on the coast of America as far south at least as 
Charleston, in Carolina, during the winter. Their flesh is held 
in no great estimation, having a fishy taste. The down and 
plumage, particularly on the breast and lower parts of the 
body, are very abundant, and appear to be of the best quality. 

The length of this species is twenty-two inches; extent, 
thirty inches ; bill, black, crossed near the extremity by a band 
of orange ; tongue, downy ; iris, dark red; cheeks and front- 
let, dull dusky drab, passing over the eye, and joining a large 


* Latham, 
VOL, III. B 


18 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 


patch of black on the side of the neck, which ends in dark 
brown ; throat and rest of the neck, white ; crown, tufted, and 
of a pale cream colour ; lower part of the neck, breast, back, 
and wings, black; scapulars and tertials, pale bluish white, 
long, and pointed, and falling gracefully over the wings; the 
white of the lower part of the neck spreads over the back an 
inch or two; the white of the belly spreads over the sides, and 
nearly meets at the rump; secondaries, chestnut, forming a 
bar across the wing ; primaries, rump, and tail-coverts, black ; 
the tail consists of fourteen feathers, all remarkably pointed, 
the two middle ones nearly four inches longer than the others ; 
these, with the two adjoining ones, are black; the rest, white ; 
legs and feet, dusky slate. 

On dissection, the intestines were found to measure five feet 
six inches. ‘The windpipe was very curiously formed ; besides 
the labyrinth, which is nearly as large as the end of the thumb, 
it has an expansion immediately above that of double its 
usual diameter, which continues for an inch and a half; this 
is flattened on the side next the breast, with an oblong window- 
like vacancy in it, crossed with five narrow bars, and covered 
with a thin transparent skin, like the panes of a window ; 
another thin skin of the same kind is spread over the external 
side of the labyrinth, which is partly of a circular form. This 
singular conformation is, as usual, peculiar to the male, the 
female having the windpipe of nearly an uniform thickness 
throughout. She differs also so much in the colours and 
markings of her plumage, as to render a figure of her in the 
same plate necessary ; for a description of which see the fol- 
lowing article. 


FEMALE LONG-TAILED DUCK. 19 


FEMALE LONG-TAILED DUCK. 
PLATE LXX.—Fia. 2. 
Anas hyemalis, Zinn. Syst. 202, 29.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 529.—Peale’s Museum, 
No. 2811. 
HARELDA GLACIALIS.—LE&Eacu. 


Tuer female is distinguished from the male by wanting the 
lengthened tertials, and the two long pointed feathers of the 
tail, and also by her size and the rest of her plumage, which 
is as follows:—Length, sixteen inches; extent, twenty-eight 
inches ; bill, dusky ; middle of the crown, and spot on the side 
of the neck, blackish ; a narrow dusky line runs along the 
throat for two inches ; rest of the head, and upper half of the 
neck, white ; lower half, pale vinaceous bay, blended with white; 
all the rest of the lower parts of the body, pure white; back, 
scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, bright ferruginous, centred 
with black and interspersed with whitish; shoulders of the 
wing and quills, black; lower part of the back, the same, 
tinged with brown ; tail, pale brown ash ; inner vanes of all 
but the two middle feathers, white ; legs and feet, dusky slate. 
The legs are placed far behind, which circumstance points out 
the species to be great divers. In some females, the upper 
parts are less ferruginous. 

Some writers suppose the singular voice, or call, of this 
species to be occasioned by the remarkable construction of its 
windpipe; but the fact that the females are uniformly the 
- most noisy, and yet are entirely destitute of the singularities 
of this conformation, overthrows the probability of this sup- 
position. 


20 SOMMER DUCK. 


SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK. (Anas sponsa.) 


PLATE LXX.—Fie. 3. 


Le Canard VEté, Briss. vi. p. 351, 11, pl. 32, fig. 2.—Le Beau Canard Huppé, 
Buff. ix. p. 245.—Pl. enl. 980, 981.—Summer Duck, Catesby, i. pl. 97.—Edw. 
pl. 101.—Arect. Zool. No. 943.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 546.—Peale’s Museum, 
No. 2872. 


DENDRONESSA SPONSA.—RICHARDSON, SWAINSON.* 
Anas sponsa, Bonap. Synop. p. 385.—Dendronessa sponsa, Worth. Zool. ii. 446. 


Tx1s most beautiful of all our ducks has probably no superior 
among its whole tribe for richness and variety of colours. It 
is called the wood duck from the circumstance of its breeding 
in hollow trees, and the summer duck from remaining with us 
chiefly during the summer. It is familiarly known in every 
quarter of the United States from Florida to Lake Ontario, 
in the neighbourhood of which latter place I have myself met 


* These lovely ducks may be said to represent an incessorial form 
among the Anatide ; they build and perch on trees, and spend as much 
time on land as upon the water. Dr Richardson has given this group, 
containing few members, the title of Dendronessa from their arboreal 
habits. Our present species is the only one belonging to America, 
where it ranges rather to the south than north ; the others, I believe, 
are all confined to India. They are remarkable for the beauty and 
splendour of their plumage, its glossy, silky, texture, and for the singular 
form of the scapulars, which, instead of an extreme development in 
length, receive it in the contrary proportion of breadth ; and instead 
of lying flat, in some stand perpendicular to the back. They are all 
adorned with an ample crest, pendulous, and running down the back of 
the neck. They are easily domesticated, but I do not know that they 
have been yet of much utility in this state, being more kept on account 
of their beauty, and few have been introduced except to our menageries, 
With a little trouble at first, they might form a much more common 
ornament about our artificial pieces of water. It is the only form of a 
tree duck common to this continent ; in other countries there are, how- 
ever, two or three others of very great importance in the natural system, 
whose structure and habits have yet been almost entirely overlooked or 
lost sight of. These seem to range principally over India, and more 
sparingly in Africa ; and the summer duck is the solitary instance, the 
United States the nearly extreme limit, of its own peculiarities in this 
division of the world.—Ep. 


SUMMER DUCK. 21 


with it in October. It rarely visits the sea-shore or salt marshes, 
its favourite haunts being the solitary, deep, and muddy creeks, 
ponds, and mill-dams of the interior, making its nest fre- 
quently in old hollow trees that overhang the water. 

The summer duck is equally well known in Mexico and 
many of the West India islands. During the whole of our 
winters, they are occasionally seen in the states South of the 
Potomac. On the 10th of January, I met with two on a 
creek near Petersburg, in Virginia. In the more northern 
districts, however, they are migratory. In Pennsylvania, the 
female usually begins to lay late in April or early in May- 
Instances have been known where the nest was constructed 
of a few sticks laid in a fork of the branches; usually, how- 
ever, the inside of a hollow tree is selected for this purpose. 
On the 18th of May I visited a tree containing the nest of a 
summer duck on the banks of Tuckahoe river, New Jersey, 
It was an old grotesque white oak, whose top had been torn 
off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the bank, about 
twenty yards from the water. In this hollow and broken top, 
and about six feet down, on the soft decayed wood, lay thirteen 
eggs, snugly covered with down, doubtless taken from the 
breast of the bird. These eggs were of an exact oval shape, 
less than those of a hen, the surface exceedingly fine grained, 
and of the highest polish, and slightly yellowish, greatly resem- 
bling old polished ivory. The egg measured two inches and 
an eighth by one inch and a half. On breaking one of them, 
the young bird was found to be nearly hatched, but dead, as 
neither of the parents had been observed about the tree during 
the three or four days preceding, and were conjectured to have 
been shot. 

This tree had been occupied, probably by the same pair, 
for four successive years, in breeding-time. ‘The person who 
gave me the information, and whose house was within twenty 
or thirty yards of the tree, said that he had seen the female, 
the spring preceding, carry down thirteen young, one by one, 
in less than ten minutes. She caught them in her bill by the 


22 SUMMER DUCK. 


wing or back of the neck, and landed them safely at the foot 
of the tree, whence she afterwards led them to the water. 
Under this same tree, at the time I visited it, a large sloop 
lay on the stocks, nearly finished; the deck was not more than 
twelve feet distant from the nest, yet, notwithstanding the pre- 
sence and noise of the workmen, the ducks would not abandon 
their old breeding-place, but continued to pass out and in, as 
if no person had been near. The male usually perched on an 
adjoining limb, and kept watch while the female was laying, 
and also often while she was sitting. A tame goose had 
chosen a hollow space at the root of the same tree to lay and 
hatch her young in. 

The summer duck seldom flies in flocks of more than three 
or four individuals together, and most commonly in pairs or 
singly. The common note of the drake is peet, peet ; but when, 
standing sentinel, he sees danger, he makes a noise not unlike 
the crowing of a young cock, oe eek! oe eek / Their food 
consists principally of acorns, seeds of the wild oats, and in- 
sects. Their flesh is inferior to that of the blue-winged teal. 
They are frequent in the markets of Philadelphia, 

Among other gaudy feathers with which the Indians orna- 
ment the calumet or pipe of peace, the skin of the head and 
neck of the summer duck is frequently seen covering the stem, 

This beautiful bird has often been tamed, and soon becomes 
so familiar as to permit one to stroke its back with the hand. 
I have seen individuals so tamed in various parts of the Union. 
Captain Boyer, collector of the port of Havre-de-Grace, in- 
forms me that, about forty years ago, a Mr Nathan Nicols, 
who lived on the west side of Gunpowder Creek, had a whole 
yard swarming with summer ducks, which he had tamed and 
completely domesticated, so that they bred and were as fami- 
liar as any other tame fowls; that he (Captain Boyer) himself 
saw them in that state, but does not know what became of 
them. Latham says that they are often kept in European 
menageries, and will breed there.* 


* General Synopsis, iii. 547. 


SUMMER DUCK. 23 


The wood duck is nineteen inches in length, and two feet 
four inches in extent ; bill, red, margined with black; a spot 
of black lies between the nostrils, reaching nearly to the tip, 
which is also of the same colour, and furnished with a large 
hooked nail; irides, orange red; front, crown, and pendant 
crest, rich glossy bronze green, ending in violet, elegantly 
marked with a line of pure white running from the upper 
mandible over the eye, and with another band of white pro- 
ceeding from behind the eye, both mingling their long pendant 
plumes with the green and violet ones, producing a rich effect ; 
cheeks and sides of the upper neck, violet; chin, throat, and 
collar round the neck, pure white, curving up in the form of 
a crescent, nearly to the posterior part of the eye; the white 
collar is bounded below with black; breast, dark violet brown, 
marked on the fore part with minute triangular spots of white, 
increasing in size until they spread into the white of the belly ; 
each side of the breast is bounded by a large crescent of white, 
and that again by a broader one of deep black; sides under 
the wings, thickly and beautifully marked with fine undulat- 
ing parallel lines of black, on a ground of yellowish drab; the 
flanks are ornamented with broad alternate semicircular bands 
of black and white; sides of the vent, rich light violet; tail- 
coverts, long, of a hair-like texture at the sides, over which 
they descend, and of a deep black, glossed with green ; back, 
dusky bronze, reflecting green; scapulars, black ; tail, taper- 
ing, dark glossy green above; below, dusky ; primaries, dusky, 
silvery hoary without, tipt with violet blue; secondaries, ereenish 
blue, tipt with white ; wing-coverts, violet blue, tipt with black ; 
vent, dusky ; legs and feet, yellowish red; claws, strong and 
hooked. 

The above is as accurate a‘ description as I can give of a 
very perfect specimen now before me, from which the figure 
in the plate was faithfully copied. 

The female has the head slightly crested; crown, dark 
purple; behind the eye, a bar of white; chin and throat, for 
two inches, also white; head and neck, dark drab; breast 


24 GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 


dusky brown, marked with large triangular spots of white; 
back, dark glossy bronze brown, with some gold and greenish 
reflections. Speculum of the wings nearly the same as in the 
male, but the fine pencilling of the sides, and the long hair- 
like tail coverts, are wanting ; the tail is also shorter. 


GREEN-WINGED TEAL. (Anas crecca.) 
PLATE LXX.—Fie. 4. 


Lath. Syn. iii. p. 554.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, v. i. p. 3388. —Peale’s Museum, 
No. 2882. 


BOSCHAS CAROLINENSIS.—JARDINE.* 


Anas Carolinensis, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. p. 874.—Anas migratoria, Least Green- 
winged Teal, Bart. Trav. p. 293.—Anas crecca, varietas, Forst. Phil. Trans. 
Ixii. p. 347. American Teal, Lath. Gen. Hist, x. p. 371.—Anas crecea, Bonap. 
Synop. p. 886.—Anas (Boschas) crecca, var. Worth. Zool. ii. p. 443. 


THE naturalists of Hurope have designated this little duck 
by the name of the American teal, as being a species different 
from their own. On an examination, however, of the figure 
and description of the European teal by the ingenious and 
accurate Bewick, and comparing them with the present, no 
difference whatever appears in the length, extent, colour, or 
markings of either, but what commonly occurs among indivi- 
duals of any other tribe ; both undoubtedly belong to one and 
the same species. 


* Most writers on the ornithology of America have considered this 
bird as a variety of the European teal. All, however, agree in their 
regarding the difference in the variety, and of its being constant in the 
northern specimens. Thus, Dr Latham mentions the white pectoral 
band. Foster says, “This is a variety of the teal, for it wants the two 
white streaks above and below the eyes; the lower one indeed is 
faintly expressed in the male, which has also a lunated bar of white 
over each shoulder; this is not to be found in the European teal.” 
Pennant, “That it wants the white line which the European one has 
above each eye, having only one below; has over each shoulder a 
lunated bar.” The authors of the “ Northern Zoology” observe, “The 
only permanent difference that we have been able to detect, after com- 
paring a number of specimens, is, that the English teal has a white 
longitudinal band on the scapulars, which the other wants. All the 


GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 25 


This, like the preceding, is a fresh-water duck, common 
in our markets in autumn and winter, but rarely seen here in 
summer. It frequents ponds, marshes, and the reedy shores 
of creeks and rivers; is very abundant among the rice planta- 
tions of the southern States; flies in small parties, and feeds 
at night; associates often with the duck and mallard, feeding 
on the seeds of various kinds of grasses and water plants, and 
also on the tender leaves of vegetables. Its flesh is accounted 
excellent. 

The green-winged teal is fifteen inches in length, and 
twenty-four inches in extent ; bill, black; irides, pale brown ; 
lower eyelid, whitish; head, glossy reddish chestnut; from 
the eye backwards to the nape, runs a broad band of rich silky 
green, edged above and below by a fine line of brownish 
white; the plumage of the nape ends in a kind of pendant 
crest ; chin, blackish ; below the chestnut, the neck, for three- 
quarters of an inch, is white, beautifully crossed with circular 
undulating lines of black; back, scapulars, and sides of the 
breast, white, thickly crossed in the same manner ; breast, 
elegantly marked with roundish or heart-shaped spots of black, 
on a pale vinaceous ground, variegated with lighter tints ; 
belly, white; sides waved with undulating lines ; lower part 
of the vent-feathers, black ; sides of the same, brownish white 
or pale reddish cream ; lesser wing-coverts, brown ash; greater, 


specimens brought home by the expedition have a broad transverse 
bar on the shoulder, which does not exist in the English one.” And 
our author, in his plate, has most distinctly marked the differences. 
From the testimony of all its describers marking the variety as perma- 
nent and similar, I am certainly inclined to consider this bird, though 
nearly allied, to be distinct; and, as far as we yet know, peculiar to 
the northern parts of America. I have not been able to procure a 
specimen for immediate comparison, and only once had an opportunity 
of slightly examining a northern bird: im it the distinctions were at 
once perceptible. From their great similarity, no observers have yet 
particularly attended to the manners of the American bird, or to the 
marking of the females. If the above observations are the means of 
directing further attention to these points, they will have performed 
their intended end. I by no means consider the point decided.—Ep. 


26 GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 


tipt with reddish cream ; the first five secondaries deep velvety 
black, the next five resplendent green, forming the speculum 
or beauty spot, which is bounded above by pale buff, below by 
white, and on each side by deep black; primaries, ashy brown ; 
tail, pointed, eighteen feathers, dark drab ; legs and feet, flesh- 
coloured. In some a few circular touches of white appear on 
the breast near the shoulder of the wing. The windpipe has 
a small bony labyrinth where it separates into the lungs; the 
intestines measure three feet six inches, and are very small 
and tender. 

The female wants the chestnut bay on the head, and the 
band of rich green through the eye, these parts being dusky. 
white speckled with black; the breast is grey brown, thickly 
sprinkled with blackish or dark brown ; the back, dark brown, 
waved with broad lines of brownish white ; wing nearly the 
same as in the male. 

This species is said to breed at Hudson’s Bay, and to have 
from five to seven young at a time.* In France it remains 
throughout the year, and builds in April among the rushes 
on the edges of the ponds. It has been lately discovered to 
breed also in England, in the mosses about Carlisle.t It is 
not known to breed in any part of the United States. The 
teal is found in the north of Europe as far as Iceland, and 
also inhabits the Caspian Sea to the south. Extends likewise 
to China, having been recognised by Latham among some 
fine drawings of the birds of that country. 


* Latham, + Bewick. 


CANVAS-BACK DUCK. OF, 


CANVAS-BACK DUCK. (Anas valisineria.) 
PLATE LXX.—Fie. 5. 


Peales Museum, No. 2816. 
FULIGULA VALISNERIANA.—StTEPHENS.* 


Fuligula valisneriana, Bonap. Synop. p. 392.—North. Zool. iv. p. 450.—Anas 
valisneriana, Wilson. 


Tis celebrated American species, as far as can be judged 
from the best figures and descriptions of foreign birds, is alto- 
gether unknown in Europe. It approaches nearest to the 
pochard of England (Anas ferina), but differs from that bird 
in being superior in size and weight, in the greater magnitude 
of its bill, and the general whiteness of its plumage. A short 
comparison of the two will elucidate this point. The canvas- 
back measures two feet in length by three feet in extent, 
and when in the best order weighs three pounds and upwards, 
The pochard, according to Latham and Bewick, measures 
nineteen inches in length, and thirty in extent, and weighs 


* This species is now well established, and can never be mistaken. 

IT am not aware that anything can be added to Wilson’s accurate 
description, and the additional remarks of Mr Ord, which we have 
printed, unless Wilson’s own description, in poetry, of his first capture 
of the canvas-back.— Ep. 

Slow round an opening point we softly steal, 

Where four large ducks in playful circles wheel, 

The far-famed canvas-backs at once we know, 

Their broad flat bodies wrapt in pencilled snow ; 

The burnished chestnut o’er their necks that shone 

Spread deepening round each breast a sable zone. 

Wary they gaze—our boat in silence glides, 

The slow-moved paddles steal along the sides ; 

Quick flashing thunders roar along the flood, 

And three lie prostrate, vomiting their blood ! 

The fourth aloft on whistling pinions soared, 

One fatal glance the fiery thunders poured, 

Prone drops the bird amid the dashing waves, 

And the clear stream his glossy plumage laves. 

—Foresters, p. 39. 


28 CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 


one pound twelve or thirteen ounces. The latter writer says 
of the pochard, “The plumage, above and below, is wholly 
covered with prettily-freckled slender dusky threads, disposed 
transversely in close-set zigzag lines, on a pale ground, more 
or less shaded. off with ash;” a description much more 
applicable to the bird figured beside it, the red-head, and 
which very probably is the species meant. In the figure of 
the pochard given by Mr Bewick, who is generally correct, 
the bill agrees very well with that of our red-head ; but is 
scarcely half the size and thickness of that of the canvas- 
back; and the figure in the Planches Enluminées corresponds 
in that respect with Bewick’s. In short, either these writers 
are egreciously erroneous in their figures and descriptions, 
or the present duck was altogether unknown to them, 
Considering the latter supposition the more probable of the 
two, I have designated this as a new species, and shall proceed 
to detail some particulars of its history. 

The canvas-back duck arrives in the United States from 
the north about the middle of October ; a few descend to the 
Hudson and Delaware, but the great body of these birds 
resort to the numerous rivers belonging to and in the 
neighbourhood of the Chesapeake Bay, particularly the 
Susquehannah, the Patapsco, Potomac, and James rivers, 
which appear to be their general winter rendezvous. Beyond 
this, to the south, I can find no certain accounts of them. 
At the Susquebannah, they are called canvas-backs; on the 
Potomac, white-backs; and on James river, sheldrakes. They 
are seldom found at a great distance up any of these rivers, 
or even in the salt-water bay; but in that particular part 
of tide-water where a certain grass-like plant grows, on 
the roots of which they feed. This plant, which is said to 
be a species of Valisineria, grows on fresh-water shoals of 
from seven to nine feet (but never where these are occasionally 
dry), in long narrow grass-like blades of four or five feet in 
length; the root is white, and has some resemblance to small 
celery. This grass is in many places so thick, that a boat 


“ 


CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 29 


can with difficulty be rowed through it, it so impedes the 
oars. The shores are lined with large quantities of it, torn 
up by the ducks, and drifted up by the winds, lying like hay 
in wind-rows. Wherever this plant grows in abundance, 
the canvas-backs may be expected either to pay occasional 
visits or to make it their regular residence during the winter. 
It occurs in some parts of the Hudson; in the Delaware, 
near Gloucester, a few miles below Philadelphia; and in 
most of the rivers that fall into the Chesapeake, to each of 
which particular places these ducks resort ; while in waters 
unprovided with this nutritive plant they are altogether 
unknown. 

On the first arrival of these birds in the Susquehannah, near 
Havre-de-Grace, they are generally lean; but such is the 
abundance of their favourite food, that, towards the beginning 
of November, they are in pretty good order. ‘They are excel- 
lent divers, and swim with great speed and agility. They 
sometimes assemble in such multitudes as to cover several 
acres of the river, and when they rise suddenly, produce a noise 
resembling thunder. They float about these shoals, diving and 
tearing up the grass by the roots, which is the only part they 
eat. They are extremely shy, and can rarely be approached, 
unless by stratagem. When wounded in the wing, they dive 
to such prodigious distances, and with such rapidity, continu- 
ing it so perseveringly, and with such cunning and active 
vigour, as almost always to render the pursuit hopeless. From 
the great demand for these ducks, and the high price they 
uniformly bring in market, various modes are practised to get 
within gunshot of them. The most successful way is said to 
be decoying them to the shore by means of a dog, while the 
gunner lies closely concealed in a proper situation. The dog, 
if properly trained, plays backwards and forwards along the 
margin of the water, and the ducks, observing his manceuvres, 
enticed perhaps by curiosity, gradually approach the shore, 
until they are sometimes within twenty or thirty yards of the 
spot where the gunner lies concealed, and from which he rakes 


30 CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 


them, first on the water, and then as they rise. This method 
is called tolling them in. If the ducks seem difficult to decoy, 
any glaring object, such as a red handkerchief, is fixed round 
the dog’s middle, or to his tail, and this rarely fails to attract 
them. Sometimes, by moonlight, the sportsman directs his 
skiff towards a flock whose position he has previously ascer- 
tained, keeping within the projecting shadow of some wood, 
bank, or headland, and paddles along so silently and impercep- 
tibly, as often to approach within fifteen or twenty yards of a 
flock of many thousands, among whom he generally makes 
creat slaughter. 

Many other stratagems are practised, and, indeed, every 
plan that the ingenuity of the experienced sportsman can sug- 
gest, to approach within gunshot of these birds; but of all the 
modes pursued, none intimidate them so much as shooting 
them by night; and they soon abandon the place where they 
have been thus repeatedly shot at. During the day they are 
dispersed about, but towards evening collect in large flocks, 
and come into the mouths of creeks, where they often ride, as 
at anchor, with their head under their wing asleep, there being 
always sentinels awake, ready to raise an alarm on the least 
appearance of danger. Even when feeding and diving in small 
parties, the whole never go down at one time, but some are 
still left above on the look-out. 

When the winter sets in severely, and the river is frozen, 
the canvas-backs retreat to its confluence with the bay, occa- 
sionally frequenting air-holes in the ice, which are sometimes 
made for the purpose, immediately above their favourite grass, 
to entice them within gunshot of the hut or bush, which is 
usually fixed at a proper distance, and where the gunner lies 
concealed, ready to take advantage of their distress. A Mr 
Hill, who lives near James river, at a place called Herring 
Creek, informs me that, one severe winter, he and another 
person broke a hole in the ice about twenty by forty feet, im- 
mediately over a shoal of grass, and took their stand on the 
shore in a hut of brush, each having three guns well loaded 


CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 235i 


with large shot. The ducks, which were flying up and down 
the river in great extremity, soon crowded to this place, so 
that the whole open space was not only covered with them, but 
vast numbers stood on the ice around it. They had three 
rounds, firing both at once, and picked up eighty-eight canvas- 
backs, and might have collected more, had they been able to 
get to the extremity of the ice after the wounded ones. In 
the severe winter of 1779-80, the grass on the roots of which 
these birds feed was almost wholly destroyed in James river. 
In the month of January, the wind continued to blow from 
W.N.W. for twenty-one days, which caused such low tides in 
the river, that the grass froze to the ice everywhere, and a thaw 
coming on suddenly, the whole was raised by the roots and 
carried off by the fresh. The next winter a few of these ducks 
were seen, but they soon went away again; and, for many 
years after, they continued to be scarce, and even to the pre- 
sent day, in the opinion of my informant, have never been so 
plenty as before. 

The canvas-back, in the rich juicy tenderness of its flesh, 
and its delicacy of flavour, stands unrivalled by the whole of 
its tribe in this or perhaps any other quarter of the world. 
Those killed in the waters of the Chesapeake are generally 
esteemed superior to all others, doubtless from the great 
abundance of their favourite food which these rivers produce. 
At our public dinners, hotels, and particular entertainments, 
the canvas-backs are universal favourites. They not only 
grace but dignify the table, and their very name conveys to 
the imagination of the eager epicure the most comfortable and 
exhilarating ideas. Hence, on such occasions, it has not been 
uncommon to pay from one to three dollars a pair for these 
ducks ; and, indeed, at such times, if they can, they must be 
had, whatever may be the price. 

The canvas-back will feed readily on grain, especially 
wheat, and may be decoyed to particular places by baiting 
them with that grain for several successive days. Some few 
years since a vessel loaded with wheat was wrecked near 


32 CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 


the entrance of Great Ege Harbour in the autumn, and went 
to pieces. The wheat floated out in vast quantities, and the 
whole surface of the bay was in a few days covered with ducks 
of a kind altogether unknown to the people of that quarter. 
The gunners of the neighbourhood collected in boats in every 
direction, shooting them; and so successful were they, that, 
as Mr Beasley informs me, two hundred and forty were killed 
in one day, and sold among the neighbours at twelve and a 
half cents apiece, without the feathers. The wounded ones 
were generally abandoned, as being too difficult to be come 
up with. They continued about for three weeks, and during 
the greater part of that time a continual cannonading was 
heard from every quarter. The gunners called them sea-ducks. 
They were all canvas-backs, at that time on their way from 
the north, when this floating feast attracted their attention, and 
for a while arrested them in their course. A pair of these 
very ducks I myself bought in Philadelphia market at the 
time from an Eee Harbour gunner, and never met with their 
superior either in weight or excellence of flesh. When it was 
known among those people the loss they had sustained in sell- 
ing for twenty-five cents what would have brought them from 
a dollar to a dollar and a half per pair, universal surprise and 
regret were naturally enough excited. 

The canvas-back is two feet long, and three feet in extent, 
and, when in good order, weighs three pounds ; the bill is large, 
rising high in the head, three inches in length, and one inch 
and three-eighths thick at the base, of a glossy black; eye, 
very small ; irides, dark red ; cheeks and forepart of the head, 
blackish brown ; rest of the head and greater part of the neck, 
bright glossy reddish chestnut, ending in a broad space of black 
that covers the upper part of the breast, and spreads round to 
the back ; back, scapulars, and tertials, white, faintly marked 
with an infinite number of transverse waving lines or points, 
as if done with a pencil ; whole lower parts of the breast, also 
the belly, white, slightly pencilled in the same manner, scarcely 
perceptible on the breast, pretty thick towards the vent ; wing- 


CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 33 


coverts, grey, with numerous specks of blackish ; primaries 
and secondaries, pale slate, two or three of the latter of which 
nearest the body are finely edged with deep velvety black, the 
former dusky at the tips; tail, very short, pointed, consisting of 
fourteen feathers of a hoary brown; vent and tail-coverts, 
black ; lining of the wing, white; legs and feet, very pale ash, 
the latter three inches in width, a circumstance which partly 
accounts for its great powers of swimming. 

The female is somewhat less than the male, and weighs two 
pounds and three-quarters ; the crown is blackish brown ; 
cheeks and throat of a pale drab ; neck, dull brown ; breast, 
as far as the black extends on the male, dull brown, skirted 
in places with pale drab; back, dusky white, crossed with 
fine waving lines; belly, of the same dull white, pencilled 
like the back; wings, feet, and bill, as in the male; tail- 
coverts, dusky ; vent, white, waved with brown. 

The windpipe of the male has a large flattish concave 
labyrinth, the ridge of which is covered with a thin transparent 
membrane; where the trachea enters this, it is very narrow, 
but immediately above swells to three times that diameter. 
The intestines are wide, and measure five feet in length. 

Mr Ord, in his reprint, has added the following interesting 
observations :—‘*‘ It is a circumstance calculated to excite our 
surprise, that the canvas-back, one of the commonest. species 
of our country, a duck which frequents the waters of the 
Chesapeake in flocks of countless thousands, should yet have 
been either overlooked by the naturalists of Europe, or con- 
founded with the pochard, a species whose characters are so 
obviously different. But that this is the fact the editor feels 
well assured, since he has carefully examined every author of 
repute to which he has had access, and has not been enabled 
to find any description which will correspond to the subject 
before us. The species, then, we hope, will stand as Wilson's 
own; anditis no small addition to the fame of the ‘‘ American 
Ornithology ” that it contains the first scientific account of the 


finest duck that any country can boast of. 
VOL. IIL. C 


34 CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 


“The canvas-back frequents the Delaware in considerable 
numbers. The Valisinerta grows pretty abundantly in various 
places from Burlington, New Jersey, to Hagle Point, a few 
miles below Philadelphia. Wherever this plant is found, 
there will the ducks be; and they will frequently venture © 
within reach of their enemies’ weapons rather than abstain 
from the gratification of their appetite for this delicious. food. 
The shooters in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia for many 
years were in the habit of supplying our markets with this 
species, which always bore the name of red-heads or red-necks ; 
and their ignorance of its being the true canvas-back was 
cunningly fostered by our neighbours of the Chesapeake, who 
boldly asserted that only their waters were favoured with this 
species, and that all other ducks which seemed to claim affinity 
were a spurious race, unworthy of consanguinity. Hence, 
at the same time, when a pair of legitimate canvas-backs, 
proudly exhibited from the mail-coach from Havre-de-Grace, 
readily sold for two dollars and fifty cents, a pair of the iden- 
tical species, as fat, as heavy, as delicious, but which had been 
unfortunately killed in the Delaware, brought only one dollar ; 
and the lucky shooter thought himself sufficiently rewarded 
in obtaining twenty-five per cent. more for his 7ed-necks than 
he could obtain for a pair of the finest mallards that our 
waters could afford. But the delusion is now past; every 
shooter and huckster knows the distinctive characters of the 
canvas-back and the red-head, and prejudice no longer con- 
troverts the opinion that this species is a common inhabitant 
of the Delaware ; and epicures are compelled to confess that 
they can discern no difference between our canvas-back, 
when in season, and that from Spesutie or Carrol’s Island, 
the notorious shooting ground of the bon vivants of Baltimore. 

“The Jast-mentioned place, thongh commonly termed an 
island, is properly a peninsula, situated on the western side of 
the Chesapeake Bay, a few miles from Baltimore. It is a 
spot highly favourable for the shooting of waterfowl. It 
extends for a considerable distance into the bay ; and being 


CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 38 


connected to the main land by a narrow neck, the shooters are 
enabled to post themselves advantageously on the isthmus, and 
intercept the fowl, who, in roving from one feeding ground to 
another, commonly prefer crossing the land to taking a long 
flight around the peninsula. In calm weather the shooters 
have not much luck, the ducks keeping out in the coves, and 
when they do move, flying high ; but should a fresh breeze 
prevail, especially one from the eastward, rare sport may be 
anticipated ; and it is no unusual circumstance for a party of 
four or five gentlemen returning home, after a couple of days’ 
excursion, with fifty or sixty canvas-backs, besides some other 
ducks of inferior note. The greatest flight of ducks commonly 
takes place between daybreak and sunrise ; and while it lasts,the 
roaring of the fowling-pieces, the bustle of the sportsmen, the 
fluttering of the fowl, and the plunging of the dogs, constitute 
a scene productive of intense interest. The dog in most 
esteem for this amusement is a large breed, partaking of the 
qualities of the Newfoundland variety. They trust altogether 
to their sight, and it is astonishing what sagacity they will’ 
manifest in watching a flock of ducks that had been shot at, 
and marking the birds that drop into the water, even at a 
considerable distance off. When at fault, the motion of their 
master’s hand is readily obeyed by them; and when unable 
to perceive the object of their search, they will raise them- 
selves in the water for this purpose, and will not abandon the 
pursuit while a chance remains of succeeding. A generous, 
well-trained dog, has been known to follow a duck for more 
than halfa mile; and, after having been long beyond the reach 
of seeing or hearing his master, to return puffing and snorting 
under his load, which seemed sufficient to drag him beneath 
the waves. The editor having been an eye-witness of similar 
feats of these noble animals, can therefore speak with con- 
fidence as to the fact. 

“On the Delaware, but few of this species, comparatively, 
are obtained, for the want of proper situations whence they 
may be shot on the wing. To attempt to approach them in 


36 CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 


open day with a boat is unproductive labour, except there be 
floating ice in the river, at which time, if the shooter clothe 
himself in white, and paint his skiff of the same colour, he 
may so deceive the ducks as to get within a few feet of them. 
At such times it is reasonable to suppose that these valuable 
birds get no quarter. But there is one caution to be ob- 
served, which experienced sportsmen never omit: it is to go 
always with the current; a duck being sagacious enough to 
know that a lump of ice seldom advances agaznst the stream. 
They are often shot with us by moonlight in the mode re- 
lated in the foregoing account; the first pair the editor ever 
killed was in this manner; he was then a boy, and was not 
a little gratified with his uncommon acquisition. 

“ As the Valisineria will grow in all our fresh-water rivers, 
in coves or places not affected by the current, it would be 
worth the experiment to transplant this vegetable in those 
waters where it at present is unknown. ‘There is little doubt 
the canvas-backs would, by this means, be attracted; and 
thus would afford the lovers of good eating an opportunity of 
tasting a delicacy which, in the opinion of many, is unrivalled 
by the whole feathered race. 

“Tn the spring, when the duck-grass becomes scarce, the 
canvas-backs are compelled to subsist upon other food, parti- 
cularly shellfish ; their flesh then loses its delicacy of flavour, 
and, although still fat, it is not esteemed by epicures; hence 
the ducks are not much sought after, and are permitted 
quietly to feed until their departure for the north. 

“Our author states that he had no certain accounts of this 
species to the southward of James river, Virginia. In the 
month of January 1818, the editor saw many hundreds of 
these ducks feeding in the Savannah river, not far from 
Tybee lighthouse. ‘They were known by the name of canvas- 
backs; but the inhabitants of that quarter considered them as 
fishing-ducks, not fit to be eaten: so said the pilot of the 
ship which bore the editor to Savannah. But a pair of these 
birds having been served up at table after his arrival, he was 


RED-HEADED DUCK. 37 


convinced by their delicate flavour that they had lost little by 
their change of residence, but still maintained their superio- 
rity over all the waterfowl of that region. In the river St 
John, in Kast Florida, the editor also saw a few scattered in- 
dividuals of this species; but they were too shy to be ap- 
proached within gunshot. 

“The canvas-backs swim very low, especially when fat ; 
and when pursued by a boat, they stretch themselves out in 
lines, in the manner of the scaup ducks, so that some of the 
flock are always enabled to reconnoitre the paddler, and give 
information to the rest of his motions. When the look-out 
ducks apprehend danger, the stretching up of their necks is 
the signal, and immediately the whole squadron, facing to 
the wind, rise with a noise which may be heard at the dis- 
tance of half a mile.” 


RED-HEADED DUCK. (Anas ferina ?) 


— PLATE LXX.—Fice. 6. 


Peale’s Museum, No. 2710. 


FULIGULA FERIN A.—STEPHENS.* 


Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. p. 193.—Fuligula ferina, Bonap. Synop. p. 392.—WNorth. 
Zool. ii. p. 451.—Nyroca ferina, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 108.—Le Canard Miloun, 
Temm. Man. ii. 868.—Pochard, or Red-headed Widgeon, Mont. Ornith. Dict. 
ii. and Supp.—Bew. Br. Birds, ii. p. 356.—Red-headed Widgeon, Selby’s Illust. 
Br. Ornith. pl. 63, fig. 1. 


THIs is a common associate of the canvas-back, frequenting 
the same places, and feeding on the stems of the same grass, 
the latter eating only the roots ; its flesh is very little inferior, 
and is often sold in our markets for the canvas-back to those 
unacquainted with the characteristic marks of each. Anxious 
as I am to determine precisely whether this species be the 


* A well-known duck common to both continents, keeping to the sea 
or large lakes, and only in very severe winters wandering to any extent 
inland. Sometimes seen in the decoys, but very seldom taken, from their 
expertness in diving under the tunnel.— Ep. 


38 RED-HEADED DUCK. 


red-headed widgeon, pochard, or dun bird* of England, I 
have not been able to ascertain the point to my own satisfac- 
tion, though I think it very probably the same, the size, ex- 
tent, and general description of the pochard agreeing pretty 
nearly with this. 

The red-head is twenty inches in length, and two feet six 
inches in extent; bill, dark slate, sometimes black, two inches 
long, and seven-eighths of an inch thick at the base, furnished 
with a large broad nail at the extremity; irides, flame- 
coloured; plumage of the head, long, velvety, and inflated, 
running high above the base of the bill ; head, and about two 
inches of the neck, deep glossy reddish chestnut ; rest of the 
neck and upper part of the breast, black, spreading round to 
the back; belly, white, becoming dusky towards the vent by 
closely marked undulating lines of black ; back and scapulars, 
bluish white, rendered grey by numerous transverse waving 
lines of black ; lesser wing-coverts, brownish ash ; wing-quills, 
very pale slate, dusky at the tips; lower part of the back and 
sides under the wings, brownish black, crossed with regular 
zigzag lines of whitish; vent, rump, tail, and tail-coverts, 
black ; legs and feet, dark ash. 

The female has the upper part of the head dusky brown, 
rest of the head and part of the neck, a light sooty brown ; 
upper part of the breast, ashy brown, broadly skirted with 
whitish ; back, dark ash, with little or no appearance of white 
pencilling ; wings, bill, and feet nearly alike in both sexes. 

This duck is sometimes met with in the rivers of North 
and South Carolina, and also in those of Jersey and New 
York, but always in fresh water, and usually at no great 
distance from the sea; is most numerous in the waters of 
the Chesapeake ; and, with the connoisseurs in good eating, 
ranks next in excellence to the canvas-back. Its usual 
weight is about a pound and three-quarters avoirdupois. 

The red-head leaves the bay and its tributary streams in 
March, and is not seen till late in October. 


* Local names given to one and the same duck. It is also called the 
poker. 


THE MALLARD. 39 


The male of this species has a large flat bony labyrinth on 
the bottom of the windpipe, very much like that of the can- 
vas-back, but smaller; over one of its concave sides is spread 
an exceeding thin transparent skin or membrane. The intes- 
tines are of great width, and measure six feet in length. 


THE MALLARD. (Anas boschas.) 
PLATE LXX.—Fi@. 7. 


Lath. Syn. iii. p. 489.—Bewick, ii. p. 291.—Le Canard Sauvage, Briss. vi. p. 318, 
4,— Buff. ix. p. 415, pl. 7, 8.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2864. 


BOSCHAS MAJOR.—Witiovcuy.* 


Anas boschas, Linn. Syst.—Gmel. i. p. 538.—Bonap. Synop. p. 382.—Flem. Br. 
Anim. p. 123.—Le Canard Sauvage, Z'emm. Man. p. 385.—Wild Duck, Mont. 
Ornith. Dict. ii. and Supp.—Common Wild Duck, Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. 
pl. 5.—Anas (Boschas) domestica, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 442. 


THe mallard, or common wild drake, is so universally known 
as scarcely to require a description. It measures twenty-four 


* This well-known species becomes interesting when considered as 
the stock whence the most flourishing duckeries of the poultry-yard have 
sprung ; it is most amply spread over Europe and America, and I have 
received it from India. Universally known, it is esteemed for the table, 
and will fetch a higher price in the markets than most of the others in 
this country, and in America seems only surpassed by the canvas-back. 
In structure and general economy, it presents a most interesting form, 
combining the peculiarities of the pelagic and more terrestrial. It will 
live and find a sustenance in the sea and its coasts, by lakes and rivers, 
and in the midst of extensive moors and fens ; it possesses a powerful 
frame, and its wings are adapted to strong flight ; it can derive its sus- 
tenance either from the waters or the more inland pastures and culti- 
vated fields ; it isan expert diver when necessity calls it ; and its breed- 
ing places are chosen by the sides of lakes and marshes, on the stumps 
of aged trees, like the summer duck, and on precipitous cliffs. In the 
latter situation, I once took the nest of a wild duck within ten yards 
distant from that of a peregrine falcon. It was situated on a projecting 
knoll of heather, jutting from an ivied cliff, and the tenants must often 
have seen each other in their passage to and from their precious deposits 
In this species we have the type of the genus Boschas. The centre feathers 


40 THE MALLARD. 


inches in length by three feet in extent, and weighs upwards 
of two pounds and a half; the bill is greenish yellow ; irides, 
hazel; head, and part of the neck, deep glossy changeable 
green, ending in a narrow collar of white; the rest of the 
neck and breast are of a dark purplish chestnut ; lesser wing- 
coverts, brown ash ; greater, crossed near the extremities with 
a band of white, and tipt with another of deep velvety black ; 
below this lies the speculum, or beauty-spot, of a rich and 
splendid light purple, with green and violet reflections, 
bounded on every side with black ; quills, pale brownish ash ; 
back, brown, skirted with paler; scapulars, whitish, crossed 
with fine undulating lines of black; rump and tail-coverts, 
black, glossed with green ; tertials, very broad, and pointed at 
the ends ; tail, consisting of eighteen feathers, whitish, centred 
with brown ash, the four middle ones excepted, which are 
narrow, black, glossed with violet, remarkably concave, and 
curled upwards to a complete circle; belly and sides, a fine 
grey, crossed by an infinite number of fine waving lines, 
stronger and more deeply marked as they approach the vent ; 
legs and feet, orange red. 

The female has the plumage of the upper parts dark brown, 
broadly bordered with brownish yellow ; and the lower parts 
yellow ochre, spotted and streaked with deep brown ; the chin 
and throat, for about two inches, plain yellowish white ; wings, 
bill, and legs, nearly as in the male. 

The windpipe of the male has a bony labyrinth, or bladder- 
like knob, puffing out from the left side. The intestines mea- 
sure six feet, and are as wide as those of the canvas-back. 
The windpipe is of uniform diameter until it enters the 
labyrinth. 

This is the original stock of the common domesticated duck, 
reclaimed, time immemorial, from a state of nature, and now 


of the tail are lengthened, but assume a different form, in being regu- 
larly rolled or curled up. Some specimens want the white ring round 
the neck, and in some parts this variety is so common, as to be distin- 
guished by the herds and country people.—Eb. 


THE MALLARD. Al 


become so serviceable to man. In many individuals, the 
general garb of the tame drake seems to have undergone little 
or noalteration ; but the stamp of slavery is strongly imprinted 
in his dull indifferent eye and grovelling gait, while the lofty 
look, long tapering neck, and sprightly action of the former, 
bespeak his native spirit and independence. 

The common wild duck is found in every fresh-water lake 
and river of the United States in winter, but seldom frequents 
the sea-shores or salt marshes. Their summer residence is the 
north, the great nursery of this numerous genus. Instances 
have been known of some solitary pairs breeding here in 
autumn. In England these instances are more common. 
The nest is usually placed in the most solitary recesses of the 
marsh or bog, amidst coarse grass, reeds, and rushes, and 
generally contains from twelve to sixteen eggs, of a dull greenish 
white. The young are led about by the mother in the same 
manner as those of the tame duck, but with a superior caution, a 
cunning and watchful vigilance peculiar to her situation. ‘The 
male attaches himself to one female, as among other birds in 
their native state, and is the guardian and protector of her 
and her feeble brood. The mallard is numerous in the rice- 
fields of the southern States during winter, many of the fields 
being covered with a few inches of water, and the scattered 
grains of the former harvest lying in abundance, the ducks 
swim about, and feed at pleasure. 

The flesh of the common wild duck is in general and high 
estimation ; and the ingenuity of man, in every country where 
it frequents, has been*employed in inventing stratagems to 
overreach these wary birds, and procure a delicacy for the 
table. ‘To enumerate all these various contrivances would far 
exceed our limits; a few, however, of the most simple and 
effective may be mentioned. 

In some ponds frequented by these birds, five or six wooden 
figures, cut and painted so as to represent ducks, and sunk, by 
pieces of lead nailed on their bottoms, so as to float at the 
usual depth on the surface, are anchored in a favourable posi- 


42 THE MALLARD. 


tion for being raked from a concealment of brush, &c., on shore. 
The appearance of these usually attracts passing flocks, which 
alight, and are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these 
painted wood ducks are fixed on a frame in various swim- 
ming postures, and secured to the bow of the gunner’s skiff, 
projecting before it in such a manner that the weight of the 
frame sinks the figures to their proper depth ; the skiff is then 
dressed with sedge or coarse grass in an artful manner, as low 
as the water’s edge; and under cover of this, which appears 
like a party of ducks swimming by a small island, the gunner 
floats down sometimes to the very skirts of a whole congregated 
multitude, and pours in a destructive and repeated fire of shot 
among them. In winter, when detached pieces of ice are 
occasionally floating in the river, some of the gunners on the 
Delaware paint their whole skiff or canoe white, and, laying 
themselves flat at the bottom, with their hand over the side, 
silently managing a small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into 
or near a flock, before the ducks have distinguished it from a 
floating mass of ice, and generally do great execution among 
them. A whole flock has sometimes been thus surprised asleep, 
with their heads under their wings. On land, another strata- 
gem is sometimes practised with great success. A large tieht 
hogshead is sunk in the flat marsh or mud, near the place 
where ducks are accustomed to feed at low water, and where 
otherwise there is no shelter ; the edges and top are artfully 
concealed with tufts of long coarse grass and reeds or sedge. 
From within this the gunner, unseen and unsuspected, watches 
his collecting prey, and, when a sufficient number offers, 
sweeps them down with great effect. The mode of catching 
wild ducks, as practised in India,* China,t the island of Cey- 
lon, and some parts of South America,¢ has been often de- 
scribed, and seems, if reliance may be placed on those accounts, 
only practicable in water of a certain depth. The sportsman, 

* Naval Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 473. 

7 Du Halde, History of China, vol. ii. p. 142. 

~ Ulloa’s Voyage, i, p. 53. 


THE MALLARD. 43 


covering his head with a hollow wooden vessel or calabash 
pierced with holes to see through, wades into the water, keep- 
ing his head only above, and, thus disguised, moves in among 
the flock, which take the appearance to be a mere floating 
calabash, while, suddenly pulling them under by the legs, he 
fastens them to his girdle, and thus takes as many as he can 
conveniently stow away, without in the least alarming the rest. 
They are also taken with snares made of horse-hair, or with 
hooks baited with small pieces of sheep’s lights, which, float- 
ing on the surface, are swallowed by the ducks, and with them 
the hooks. They are also approached under cover of a stalk- 
ing horse, or a figure formed of thin boards, or other proper 
materials, and painted so as to represent a horse or ox. But 
all these methods require much watching, toil, and fatigue, and 
their success is but trifling when compared with that of the 
decoy now used both in France and England,* which, from 
its superiority over every other mode, is well deserving the 
attention of persons of this country residing in the neighbour- 
hood of extensive marshes frequented by wild ducks, as by this 
method mallard and other kinds may be taken by thousands 
at a time. The following circumstantial account of these 
decoys, and the manner of taking wild ducks in them in Eng- 
land, is extracted from Bewick’s “ History of British Birds,” 
vol. 11. p. 294 :— 

“Tn the lakes where they resort,” says the correspondent of 
that ingenious author, “the most favourite haunts of the fowl 
are observed ; then, in the most sequestered part of this haunt, 
they cut a ditch about four yards across at the entrance, and 
about fifty or sixty yards in length, decreasing gradually in 
width from the entrance to the farther end, which is not more 
than two feet wide. It is of a circular form, but not bending 
much for the first ten yards. The banks of the lake, for about 
ten yards on each side of this ditch (or pipe, as it is called), 
are kept clear from reeds, coarse herbage, &c., in order that 


* Particularly in Picardy in the former country, and Lincolnshire 
in the latter. 


44 THE MALLARD. 


the fowl may get on them to sit and dress themselves. Across 
this ditch, poles on each side, close to the edge of the ditch, 
are driven into the ground, and the tops bent to each other and 
tied fast. These poles at the entrance form an arch, from the 
top of which to the water is about ten feet. This arch is made 
to decrease in height as the ditch decreases in width, till the 
farther end is not more than eighteen inches in height. The 
poles are placed about six feet from each other, and connected 
together by poles laid lengthwise across the arch and tied to- 
gether. Over them a net, with meshes sufficiently small to 
prevent the fowl getting through, is thrown across, and made 
fast to a reed fence at the entrance, and nine or ten yards up 
the ditch, and afterwards strongly pegged to the ground. At 
the farther end of the pipe, a tunnel net, as it is called, is fixed, 
about four yards in length, of a round form, and kept open by 
a number of hoops about eighteen inches in diameter, placed 
at a small distance from each other, to keep it distended. Sup- 
posing the circular bend of the pipe to be to the right, when 
you stand with your back to the lake, on the left-hand side a 
number of reed fences are constructed, called shootings, for 
the purpose of screening from sight the decoy-man, and in 
such a manner that the fowl in the decoy may not be alarmed 
while he is driving those in the pipe : these shootings are about 
four yards in length, and about six feet high, and are ten in 
number. They are placed in the following manner :— 


Tn 
a 


ils 


a 


From the end of the last shooting, a person cannot see the 
lake, owing to the bend of the pipe: there is then no further 
occasion for shelter. Were it not for those shootings, the 
fow] that remain about the mouth of the pipe would be alarmed 
if the person driving the fowl already under the net should be 


THE MALLARD. AS 


exposed, and would become so shy as to forsake the place en- 
tirely. The first thing the decoy-man does when he approaches 
the pipe is to take a piece of lighted turf or peat, and hold it 
near his mouth, to prevent the fowl smelling him. He is 
attended by a dog taught for the purpose of assisting him ; he 
walks very silently about half-way up the shootings, where a 
small piece of wood is thrust through the reed fence, which 
makes an aperture just sufficient to see if any fowl are in ; if 
not, he walks forward to see if any are about the mouth of the 
pipe. If there are, he stops and makes a motion to his dog, 
and gives him a piece of cheese or something to eat ; upon 
receiving it, he goes directly to a hole through the reed fence, 
(No. 1), and the fowl immediately fly off the bank into the 
water ; the dog returns along the bank, between the reed 
fences and the pipe, and comes out to his master at the hole 
(No. 2). The man now gives him another reward, and he 
repeats his round again, till the fowl are attracted by the mo- 
tions of the dog, and follow him into the mouth of the pipe. 
This operation is called working them. The man now retreats 
farther back, working the dog at different holes till the fowl 
are sufficiently under the net: he now commands his dog to 
lie down still behind the fence, and goes forward to the end of 
the pipe next the lake, where he takes off his hat and gives it 
a wave between the shooting ; all the fowl under the net can see 
him, but none that are in the lake can. ‘The fowl that are in 
sight fly forward ; and the man runs forward to the next shoot- 
ing and waves his hat, and so on, driving them along till they 
come to the tunnel net, where they creep in: when they are all 
in, he gives the net a twist, so as to prevent their getting 
back: he then takes the net off from the end of the pipe with 
what fowl he may have caught, and takes them out, one at a 
time, and dislocates their necks, and hangs the net on again ; 
and all is ready for working again. 

“Tn this manner, five or six dozen have been taken at one 
drift. When the wind blows directly in or out of the pipe, the 
fowl seldom work well, especially when it blows in. If many 


46 THE MALLARD. 


pipes are made in a lake, they should be so constructed as to 
suit different winds. 

“Duck and mallard are taken from August to June ; teal 
or widgeon from October to March; becks, smee, golden-eyes, 
arps, cricks, and pintails or sea-pheasants, in March and April. 

“Poker ducks are seldom taken on account of their diving 
and getting back in the pipe. 

“Tt may be proper to observe here, that the ducks feed 
during the night, and that all is ready prepared for this sport 
in the evening. The better to entice the ducks into the pipe, 
hempseed is strewn occasionally on the water. The season 


AN 


Oy 
My Qh 
We 


REFERENCES TO THE CUT. 
No. 
1. Dog’s hole, where he goes to unbank the fowl. 
2. Reed fences on each side of the mouth of the pipe. 
3. Where the decoy-man shows himself to the fowl first, and after- 
wards at the end of every shooting, 
4, Small reed fence to prevent the fowl seeing the dog when he goes 
to unbank them. 
5. The shootings. 
6. Dog’s holes between the shootings, used when working. 
7. Tunnel net at the end of the pipe. 
8. Mouth of the pipe. 


UU 
Olay 9 TAPP O mais '~£ ‘apmuag-e a APL & Yong Joupvy 7 


SORT TT yy Mg paav.itug UST FAQ araey ULL. UMD 


Ben UN ew 


THE GADWALL. 47 


allowed by Act of Parliament for catching these birds in this 
way is from the latter end of October till February. 

“ Particular spots or decoys in the fen countries are let to 
the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum ; 
and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand 
two hundred ducks, including teals and widgeons, were sold in 
London only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lin- 
colnshire. Formerly, according to Willoughby, the ducks 
while in moult, and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, 
furnished with long poles, with which they splashed the water 
between long nets, stretched vertically across the pools in the 
shape of two sides of a triangle, into lesser nets placed at the 
point ; and in this way, he says, four thousand were taken at 
one driving in Deeping Fen; and Latham has quoted an 
instance of two thousand six hundred and forty-six being 
taken in two days near Spalding, in Lincolnshire; but 


this manner of catching them while in moult is now pro- 
hibited.” 


THE GADWALL. (Anas strepera.) 
PLATE LXXI.—Fie. 1. 


Le Chipeau, Briss. vi. p. 359, 8, pl. 33, fig. 1.—Buff. ix. 187.—Pl. enl. 958.—Arct. 
Zool. p. 575.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 515.—Peale’s Musewm, No. 2750. 


CHAULIODUS STREPERA.—SWAINSON? * 


Anas strepera, Linn. Syst. i. p. 200.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. p. 859.—Bonap. Synop. 
p. 383.—Canard Chipeau, ou Ridenne, Temm. Man. ii. p. 887.—Gadwall or 
Grey, Mont. Ornith. Dict. i. and Supp.—Bew. Br. Birds, ii. 350.—Gadwall, 
Selby’s Illust. Br. Ornith. pl. 51.—Anas (Chauliodus) strepera, North. Zool. 
il. p. 440.—Genus Chauliodus, Swain. Journ. Royal Instit. No. iv. p. 19. 


Tuis beautiful duck I have met with in very distant parts 
of the United States, viz., on the Seneca Lake, in New York, 


* This beautiful duck is remarkable in presenting, next to the 
shovellers, the greatest developement of lateral lamine of the bill ; it 
is also an expert diver. 


In Britain they are rare, but appear more common in the lower 


48 THE GADWALL. 


about the 20th of October, and at Louisville, on the Ohio, in 
February. I also shot it near Big Bone Lick, in Kentucky. 
With its particular manners or breeding-place, Lam altogether 
unacquainted. 

The length of this species is twenty inches ; extent, thirty- 
one inches ; bill, two inches long, formed very much like that 
of the mallard, and of a brownish black ; crown, dusky brown ; 
rest of the upper half of the neck, brownish white, both thickly 
speckled with black ; lower part of the neck and breast, dusky 
black, elegantly ornamented with large concentric semicircles 
of white ; scapulars, waved with lines of white on a dusky 
ground, but narrower than that of the breast ; primaries, ash ; 
greater wing-coverts, black, and several of the lesser coverts, 
immediately above, chestnut red ; speculum, white, bordered 
below with black, forming three broad bands on the wing, of 
chestnut, black, and white ; belly, dull white; rump and tail- 
coverts, black, glossed with green ; tail, tapering, pointed, of 
a pale brown ash, edged with white ; flanks, dull white, ele- 
gantly waved ; tertials, long, and of a pale brown ; legs, orange 
red. 

The female I have never seen. Latham describes it as fol- 
lows :—‘* Differs in having the colours on the wings duller, 
though marked the same as the male; the breast, reddish 
brown, spotted with black; the feathers on the neck and back, 
edged with pale red ; rump, the same, instead of black ; and 
those elegant semicircular lines on the neck and breast wholly 
wanting.” 

The flesh of this duck is excellent, and the windpipe of the 
male is furnished with a large labyrinth, 

The gadwall is very rare in the northern parts of the United 
States ; is said to inhabit England in winter, and various parts 


countries of Europe, and towards the north. They seem very abun- 
dant in Holland; in the months of September and October they 
were the most common duck in the market, and were often seen 
in abundance on the lakes. It will show Mr Swainson’s genus Chau- 
liodus.—Ep, 


LEIDER DUCK. 49 


of France and Italy; migrates to Sweden, and is found through- 
out Russia and Siberia.* 

It is a very quick diver, soas to make it difficult to be shot ; 
flies also with great rapidity, and utters a note not unlike that 
of the mallard, but louder. Is fond of salines and ponds over- 
grown with reeds and rushes. Feeds during the day, as well 
as in the morning and evening. 


EIDER DUCK. (Anas mollissima.) 
PLATE LXXI.—Fia. 2, Mas. 


L’Oye 4 Duvet, ou Eider, Briss. vi. p. 294, pl. 29, 3.—Buff. ix. p. 103, pl. 6.— 
Pl. ent. 209.—Great Black and White Duck, Edw. pl. 98.—Bewick, ii. p. 279.— 
Arct. Zool. No. 480.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 470.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2706. 


SOMATERIA MOLLISSIM A.—LEACH.+ 


Anas mollissima, Linn. Syst. i. p. 198.—Canard Eider, Temm. Man. d@’Ornith. ii. 
p. 848.—Hider or Cuthbert’s Duck, Mont. Ornith. Dict. i. and Supp.—Eider, 
Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. p. 70.—Fuligula (subgen. Somateria) mollissima, 
Bonap. Synop. p. 388.—Somateria mollissima, North. Zool. ii. p. 448. 


Tue eider duck has been long celebrated in Europe for the 
abundance and excellence of its down, which, for softness, 


* Latham. 

+ This other form among the Anatide was proposed by Dr Leach, 
and will contain only two species, the eider and king ducks, both 
common to Europe and America, It is very well marked, and pos- 
sesses some peculiarities, The birds are truly sea-ducks, keep entirely to 
that element, and breed on its shores or islands, and are never, as Dr 
Richardson remarks, seen on fresh water. The form is thick, rather 
flat and heavy ; the plumage of the males possesses decided contrasting 
colours of black and white ; the females, reddish brown. The plumage 
of the head projects far upon the base of the bill, and is of a thick silky 
texture, which can be raised or swelled at pleasure, so as to increase the 
apparent size of the head and neck, and in both species exhibits remark- 
able colours not often seen among birds, and very difficult for colourists 
to represent—pistachia green, and a pleasing dull shade of blue verditer. 
In the scapulars of the Anatidw, we have already seen a variable 
structure ; they are here of considerable breadth, rigid texture, and 
curve over the quills, as if curled with an iron. The feet are placed 

VOL, IT. D 


50 LEIDER DUCK. 


warmth, lightness, and elasticity, surpasses that of all other 
ducks. The quantity found in one nest more than filled the 
crown of a hat, yet weighed no more than three-quarters of an 
ounce ;* and it is asserted that three pounds of this down 
may be compressed into a space scarce bigger than a man’s 
fist, yet is afterwards so dilatable as to fill a quilt five feet 
square. 

The native regions of the eider duck extend from 45° N. 
to the highest latitudes yet discovered, both in Europe and 
America. Solitary rocky shores and islands are their favourite 
haunts. Some wandering pairs have been known to breed on 
the rocky islands beyond Portland, in the district of Maine, 
which is perhaps the most southern extent of their breeding- 
place. In England, the Fern Isles, on the coast of Northum- 
berland, are annually visited by a few of these birds, being the 
only place in South Britain where they are known to breed. 
They occur again in some of the Western Isles of Scotland. 
Greenland and Iceland abound with them, and here, in parti- 
cular places, their nests are crowded so close together, that a 
person can scarcely walk without treading on them. The 
natives of these countries know the value of the down, and 


far back, and show great powers for diving. The males undergo a 
change of plumage, and leave the females as soon as they have com- 
menced sitting, when they may be seen in large flocks by themselves ; 
they commence their migrations much sooner than the females. It is 
to this bird that we are principally indebted for the valuable eider 
down, though many others of the northern aquatic fowl produce one 
equally fine, which is often mixed with it. Lemmius remarks, that 
the eiders are in immense profusion on the coasts of Norway and 
Lapland ; when hatching, the eggs are often the prey of the crows and 
of Larus marinus, who drag the female from her nest and destroy them 
or the young. The male, however, if he perceives the assault, makes 
furious attacks, and sometimes succeeds in beating them off, They are 
very familiar, building close to the houses of the fishermen ; the female 
will even allow herself to be lifted from the eggs and set down again ; 
and sometimes a countryman will carry the young in his hat from the 
nest to the sea, the duck running by his side, moaning gently with 
anxiety.— ED. 
* Pennant. + Salern. Ornith, p. 416. 


EIDER DUCK. cI 


carry on a regular system of plunder both of it and also of 
the eggs. The nest is generally formed outwardly of drift 
grass, dry seaweed, and such like materials ; the inside com- 
posed of a large quantity of down plucked from the breast of 
the female. In this soft elastic bed she deposits five eggs, 
extremely smooth and glossy, of a pale olive colour ; they are 
also warmly covered with the same kind of down. When the 
whole number is laid, they are taken away by the natives, and 
also the down with which the nest is lined, together with that 
which covers the eggs. The female once more strips her 
breast of the remaining down, and lays a second time; even 
this, with the eggs, is generally taken away, and it is said that — 
the male, in this extremity, furnishes the third quantity of 
down from his own breast ; but if the cruel robbery be a third 
time repeated, they abandon the place altogether. One female, 
during the whole time of laying, generally gives half a pound 
of down ; and we are told, that in the year 1750, the Iceland 
Company sold as much of this article as amounted to three 
thousand seven hundred and forty-five banco dollars, besides 
what was directly sent to Gluckstadt.* The down from dead 
birds is little esteemed, having lost its elasticity. 

These birds associate together in flocks, generally in deep 
water, diving for shellfish, which constitute their principal 
food. They frequently retire to the rocky shores to rest, par- 
ticularly on the appearance of an approaching storm. They 
are numerous on the coast of Labrador, and are occasionally 
seen in winter as far south as the Capes of Delaware. Their 
flesh is esteemed by the inhabitants of Greenland, but tastes 
strongly of fish. 

The length of this species is two feet three inches, extent, 
three feet ; weight, between six and seven pounds; the head 
is large, and the bill of singular structure, being three inches 
in length, forked in a remarkable manner, running high up in 
the forehead, between which the plumage descends nearly to 
the nostril ; the whole of the bill is of a dull yellowish horn 


* Letters on Iceland, by Uno Van Troil, p. 146. 


52 ' FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 


colour, somewhat dusky in the middle; upper part of the 
head, deep velvet black, divided laterally on the hind head by 
a whitish band ; cheeks, white; sides of the head, pale pea- 
green, marked with a narrow line of white dropped from the ear- 
feathers ; the plumage of this part of the head, to the throat, 
is tumid, and looks as if cut off at the end, for immediately 
below the neck it suddenly narrows, somewhat in the manner 
of the buffel-head, enlarging again greatly as it descends, and 
has a singular hollow between the shoulders behind ; the 
upper part of the neck, the back scapulars, lesser wing- 
coverts, and sides of the rump, are pure white ; lower part of 
the breast, belly, and vent, black; tail, primaries, and second- 
aries, brownish black; the tertials curiously curved, falling 
over the wing ; legs, short, yellow; webs of the feet, dusky. 

Latham has given us the following sketch of the gradual 
progress of the young males to their perfect colours :—‘“ In 
the first year the back is white, and the usual parts, except 
the crown, black; but the rest of the body is variegated with 
black and white. In the second year, the neck and breast are 
spotted black and white, and the crown black. In the third, 
the colours are nearly as when in full plumage, but less vivid, 
and a few spots of black still remaining on the neck; the 
crown, black, and bifid at the back part. 

“The young of both sexes are the same, being covered 
with a kind of hairy down ; throat and breast, whitish ; and 
a cinereous line from the bill through the eyes to the hind 
head.” * 


FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 


PLATE LXXI.— Fre. 3. 


Peale’s Museum, No. 2707. 


SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA.—LEacH. 


Tue difference of colour in these two birds is singularly great. 
The female is considerably less than the male, and the bill 


* Synopsis, ii. 471, 


THE SMEW. 53 


does not rise so high in the forehead; the general colour is a 
dark reddish drab, mingled with lighter touches, and every- 
where spotted with black ; wings, dusky, edged with reddish ; 
the greater coverts, and some of the secondaries, are tipt with 
white; tail, brownish black, lighter than in the male; the 
plumage in general is centred with bars of black, and broadly 
bordered with rufous drab; cheeks and space over the eye, 
light drab ; belly, dusky, obscurely mottled with black ; legs 
and feet, as in the male. 

Van Troil, in his “ Letters on Iceland,” observes respecting 
this duck, that “the young ones quit the nest soon after they 
are hatched, and follow the female, who leads them to the 
water, where, having taken them on her back, she swims with 
them a few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on 
the water! In this situation they soon learn to take care of 
themselves, and are seldom afterwards seen on the land, but 
live among the rocks, and feed on insects and seaweed.” 

Some attempts have been made to domesticate these birds, 
but hitherto without success. 


THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. (Wergus albellus.) 
PLATE LXXL—Fre. 4 


Le Petit Harle Huppé, ou la Piette, Briss. vi. p. 243, 3, pl. 24, fig. 1.—Buff. viii. 
p. 275, pl. 24.—Pl. enl. 449.—Bewick, ii. p. 258.—Lath. Syn. ili. p. 428.— 
Arct Zool. No. 468. 


MERGUS ALBELLUS.—LINNAUS.* 


Mergus albellus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 209.—Bonap. Synop. p. 397.—Harle Piette, 
Temm. Man. d Ornith. ii. p. 887.—Minute Merganser, Mont. Ornith. Dict. 1. 
and Suwpp.—Lough Diver, and Red-headed Smew, Penn., for young and 
female.—Smew, Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. pl. 69. 


Tuis is another of those mergansers commonly known in this 
country by the appellation of fishermen, fisher ducks, or divers. 


* The male of this merganser is one of the cleanest and most delicate- 
looking of the genus, the colours being entirely of the purest black and 
white. The bill presents a shorter and more dilated form than its con- 


54 THE SMEW. 


The present species is much more common on the coast of 
New England than farther to the south. On the shores of 
New Jersey it is very seldom met with. It is an admirable 
diver, and can continue for a long time under water. Its food 
is small fry, shellfish, shrimps, &c. In England; as with us, 
the smew is seen only during winter; it is also found in 
France, in some parts of which it is called la piette, as in 
parts of England it is named the magpie driver. Its breed- 
ing-place is doubtless in the arctic regions, as it frequents 
Iceland, and has been observed to migrate with other mer- 
gansers and several kinds of ducks up the river Wolga in 
February.* 

The smew, or white nun, is nineteen inches in length, and 
two feet three inches in extent ; bill, black, formed very much 
like that of the red-breasted merganser, but not so strongly 
toothed ; irides, dark; head, crested; crown, white; hind 
head, black ; round the area of the eye, a large oval space of 
black ; whole neck, breast, and belly, white, marked on the 
upper and lower part of the breast with a curving line of 
black ; back, black; scapulars, white, crossed with several 
faint, dusky bars; shoulder of the wing and primaries, black ; 
secondaries and greater coverts, black, broadly tipt with white ; 
across the lesser coverts, a large band of white; sides and 
flanks, crossed with waving lines ; tail, dark ash; legs and 
feet, pale bluish slate. 

The female is considerably less than the male; the bill, a 
dark lead colour; crest of the same peculiar form as that of 
the male, but less, and of a reddish brown; marked round the 
area of the eyes with dusky ; cheeks, fore part of the neck, and 
belly, white; round the middle of the neck, a collar of pale 


geners, approaching almost to some of the more aberrant ducks. It is 
very rare in this country, and appears only in winter. The propagation 
and extent of the breeding migrations are only surmised, and we possess 
no very authentic authority upon the subject ; they are said, however, 
to resemble the others.—Eb. 

* Dec. Russ. i. p. 145. 


RUDDY DUCK. 55 


brown ; breast and shoulders, dull brown and whitish inter- 
mixed : wings and back, marked like those of the male, but of 
a deep brownish ash in those parts which in him are black ; 
legs and feet, pale blue. The young birds, as in the other 
three species, strongly resemble the female during the first and 
part of the second year. As these changes of colour, from the 
garb of the female to that of the male, take place in the re- 
mote regions of the north, we have not the opportunity of 
detecting them in their gradual progress to full plumage. 
Hence, as both males and females have been found in the 
same dress, some writers have considered them as a separate 
species from the smew, and have given to them the title of 
the red-headed smew. 

In the ponds of New England, and some of the lakes in the 
State of New York, where the smew is frequently observed, 
these red-headed kind are often found in company, and more 
numerous than the other, for very obvious reasons, and bear, 
in the markings, though not in the colours, of their plumage, 
evident proof of their being the same species, but younger 
birds or females. The male, like the Muscovy drake and 
many others, when arrived at his full size, is nearly one-third 
heavier than the female; and this disproportion of weight 
and difference of colour, in the full-grown males and females, 
are characteristic of the whole genus. 


RUDDY DUCK. (Anzas rubidus.) 


PLATE LXXI.—Fic. 5, MALE. 


Peale’s Museum, No. 2808. 
FULIGULA RUBIDA.—BONAPARTE.* 
Fuligula (Oxyura) rubida, Bonap. Synop. p. 391.—Fuligula rubida, Worth. Zool. 
il. p. 455.—Anas Jamaicensis, Ord’s edit. p. 133. 
Tis very rare duck was shot some years ago on the river 
Delaware, and appears to be an entirely new species. The 


* Bonaparte has proposed this form as the type of a subgenus, under 
the name of Oxyura, from the form of the tail; and Mr Swainson ob- 


56 RUDDY DUCK. 


specimen here figured, with the female that accompanies it, 
and which was killed in the same river, are the only individuals 
of their kind I have met with. They are both preserved in 
the superb museum of my much respected friend, Mr Peale, 
of this city. 

On comparing this duck with the description given by 
Latham of the Jamaica shoveller, I was at first inclined to 
believe I had found out the species; but a more careful 
examination of both satisfied me that they cannot be the same, 
as the present differs considerably in colour; and, besides, has 
some peculiarities which the eye of that acute ornithologist 
could not possibly have overlooked in his examination of the 
species said to have been received by him from Jamaica. 
Wherever the general residence of this species may be, in this 
part of the world, at least, it is extremely rare, smce among 
the many thousands of ducks brought to our markets during 
winter, I have never heard of a single individual of the pre- 
sent kind having been found among them. 

The ruddy duck is fifteen inches and a half in length, and 
twenty-two inches in extent; the bill is broad at the tip, the 
under mandible much narrower, and both of a rich light 
blue ; nostrils small, placed in the middle of the bill ; cheeks 
and chin, white; front, crown, and back part of the neck, down 
nearly to the back, black; rest of the neck, whole back, 
scapulars, flanks, and tail-coverts, deep reddish brown, the 
colour of bright mahogany ; wings, plain pale drab, darkest at 
the points; tail, black, greatly tapering, containing eighteen 


narrow-pointed feathers; the plumage of the breast and 


serves, “‘We suspect that this bird, and one or two others of similar 
form, found by usin tropical Brazil, will constitute a subgenus.” There 
are many modifications from the Fuliyule in this bird, which would, 
with additional species, entitle a subgenus, and, in that case, Oxyura may 
be adopted. They seem very rare, and Wilson has the merit of first 
distinguishing them ; the bill becomes much broader at the tip, and the 
lamelle are more prominent than in the Fuligula; the feet are placed 
very far back, and the hind toe is furnished with a much narrower mem- 
brane.—Eb. 


FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 57 


upper part of the neck is of a remarkable kind, being dusky 
olive at bottom, ending in hard bristly points of a silvery grey, 
very much resembling the hair of some kinds of seal-skins ; 
all these are thickly marked with transverse curving lines of 
deep brown; belly and vent, silver grey, thickly crossed with 
dusky olive; under tail-coverts, white ; legs and feet, asli- 
coloured. 


FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
PLATE LXXI.— Fic. 6. 


Peale’s Museum, No. 2809. 
FULIGULA RUBIDA.—BOoNAPARTE.— YOUNG. 


Tuts is nearly of the same size as the male; the front, lores, 
and crown, deep blackish brown; bill, as in the male, very 
broad at the extremity, and largely toothed on the sides, of 
the same rich blue; cheeks, a dull cream; neck, plain dull 
drab, sprinkled about the auriculars with blackish; lower 
part of the neck and breast, variegated with grey, ash, and 
reddish brown ; the reddish dies off towards the belly, leaving 
this last of a dull white, shaded with dusky ash ; wings, as in 
the male; tail, brown; scapulars, dusky brown, thickly sprinkled 
with whitish, giving them a grey appearance ; legs, ash. 

A particular character of this species is its tapering, sharp-_ 
pointed tail, the feathers of which are very narrow; the body 
is short ; the bill, very nearly as broad as some of those called 
shoveilers ; the lower mandible much narrower than the 
upper. 

Mr Ord has added a very elaborate description in his edition 
of this work, completing the history of this bird, which we 
have thought best to print, as showing many points of discus- 
sion ; we, however, consider the species established as above 
named. 

“Tn the first edition of this work, the author states that the 
two ducks of this species figured in the plate as male and 


58 FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 


female were the only individuals that he had ever met with. 
They had been shot on the river Delaware, and were depo- 
sited in Peale’s Museum. ‘On comparing this duck,’ he ob- 
serves, ‘with the description given by Latham of the Jamaica 
shoveller, | was at first inclined to believe I had found out 
the species ; but a more careful examination of both satisfied 
me that they cannot be the same, as the present differs consi- 
derably in colour; and, besides, has some peculiarities which 
the eye of that acute ornithologist could not possibly have over- 
looked in his examination of the species said to have been 
received by him from Jamaica. Wherever the general resi- 
dence of this species may be, in this part of the world, at least, 
it is extremely rare, since among the many thousands of ducks 
brought to our markets during winter, I have never heard 
of a single individual of the present kind having been found 
among them.’ 

“Tt is a circumstance in ornithology well worthy of note, 
that migratory birds frequently change their route, and, con- 
sequently, become common in those districts where they had 
been either unknown, or considered very rare. Of the Sylvia 
magnolia, Wilson declares that he had seen but two indivi- 
duals, and these in the western country; the Wuscicapa cucul- 
lata he says is seldom observed in Pennsylvania and the nor- 
thern States; the Muscicapa pusilla, and the Muscicapa 
Canadensis, he considered rare birds with us ; notwithstand- 
ing, in the month of May 1815, all of these were seen in our 
gardens ; and the editor noted the last-mentioned as among 
the most numerous of the passenger birds of that season. 

“The subject of this chapter affords a case in point. The 
year subsequent to the death of our author, this duck began 
to make its appearance in our waters. In October 1814, the 
editor procured a female, which had been killed from a flock, 
consisting of five, at Windmill Island, opposite to Philadel- 
phia. In October 1818, he shot three individuals, two females 
and a male; and in April last another male, all of which, 
except one, were young birds. He has also, at various times, 


FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 59 


since 1814, seen several other male specimens of this species, 
not one of which was an adult. In effect, the only old males 
which he has ever seen are that in Peale’s Museum, and 
another in the Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, 

“The duck figured in the plate as the female was a young 
male, as the records of the Museum show; the great difference 
between its colours and markings and those of the full-plum- 
aged male having induced the author to conclude it was a 
female, although he was perfectly familiar with the fact that 
the young males of several species of this genus so nearly re- 
semble the other sex, that it requires a very accurate eye, aided 
by much experience, to distinguish them by their external char- 
acters. ‘This is precisely the case with the present species ; 
the yearlings of both sexes are alike; and it is not until the 
succeeding spring that those characters appear in the males 
which enable one to indicate them, independent of dissection. 

“The opinion of our author that this species is not the 
Jamaica shoveller of Latham, the editor cannot subscribe to, 
it appearing to him that the specimen from which Latham 
took his description was a young male of the duck now before 
us. The latter informs us that the species appears in Jamaica 
in October or November, remains till March, and then retires 
to the north. This account coincides with ours: we see the 
_ bird on its way to the south in October ; it reaches Jamaica 
in November: it departs thence in March, and revisits us, in 
regular progression, in April. Where its summer residence is 
we are not informed; and we are equally ignorant whether 
the species is numerous in any part of our continent or not. 

“ Judging from the descriptions of the Ural duck of Euro- 
pean writers, there should seem to be a great affinity between 
that and the present. Through the polite attention of Mr 
Charles Bonaparte, the editor was enabled to examine a female 
specimen of the former; and as he perceived some differences, 
he will here note them. The bill of the Ural duck, from the 
angle of the mouth, is two inches long ; that of our duck is 


60 FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 


one inch and three-quarters ; it is also less gibbous at the base 
than in the former, and it is less depressed above: the tail- 
feathers of the Ural duck are guttered their whole length ; 
those of the ruddy duck are slightly canaliculated at their tips ; 
the lateral membrane of the inner toe of the latter is not half 
the breadth of that of the former. In other respects the females 
of the two species much resemble each other. In order to 
draw a just parallel, it would be necessary to examine a male 
specimen of the European bird, which our cabinets do not 
possess. 

“The adult male, figured in the plate, is thus described 
by our author :—‘ Length, fifteen inches and a half; extent, 
twenty-two inches ; bill, broad at the tip, the under mandible 
much narrower than the upper, and both of a rich light blue; * 
nostrils small, placed in the middle of the bill; cheeks and 
chin white; front, crown, and back part of the neck, down 
nearly to the back, black; rest of the neck, whole back, 
scapulars, flanks, and tail-coverts, deep reddish brown, the 
colour of bright mahogany ; wings, pale plain drab, darkest 
at the points ; tail, black, greatly tapering, containing eighteen 
narrow-pointed feathers; the plumage of the breast and 
upper part of the neck is of a remarkable kind, being dusky 
olive at bottom, ending in hard bristly points of a silvery . 
grey, very much resembling the hair of some kinds of seal- 
skins: this plumage is thickly marked with transverse curving 
lines of deep brown; belly and vent, silver grey, thickly 
crossed with dusky olive ; under tail-coverts, white; lees and 
feet, ash-coloured.’ 

“The female is fifteen inches in length; bill, to the angle 
of the mouth, one inch and three-quarters long, its lower half 
very broad, of a deep dusky olive, the nail resembling a narrow 
clasp of iron ; nostrils, oval, with a curved furrow below them ; 
eyes, small and dark; the upper part of the head, from the 
bill to the hind head, variegated with shining bronze and 


* So coloured in Peale’s specimen, but there is reason to conjecture 
that the colour of the upper mandible alone was a blue ash. 


FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 61 


blackish brown, the latter crossing the head in lines; cheeks, 
white, mixed with dusky, and some touches of bronze ; lores, 
drab and dusky, mixed with a small portion of white; neck, 
short and thick, its lower half above, extending between the 
shoulders, drab, mixed with dusky ; throat, and whole lower 
parts, dusky ash, the plumage tipt with dull white, having a 
silver grey appearance ; the upper parts are dusky, marked or 
pencilled with pale ferruginous and dull white ; breast, slightly 
tinged with reddish brown; the wings are small, greatly con- 
cave, and, when closed, are short of the extremities of the tail- 
coverts about three-quarters of an inch ; they are dusky, their 
coverts finely dotted or powdered with white; tail, dusky, 
marked at its extremity with a few very fine dots of reddish 
white ; it extends beyond its upper coverts two inches and a 
half; under tail-coverts, white; legs and feet, dusky slate; 
weight, sixteen ounces and a half. The gizzard of the above 
contained sand and some small seeds. Her eges were nume- 
_rous, and tolerably large ; hence, as she was shot in the month 
of October, it was conjectured that she was a bird of the pre- 
ceding year. 

“The young male, shot in April last, measured fifteen 
inches in length; its irides were dark brown; bill, elevated 
at the base, slightly gibbous, and blue ash, from the nostrils 
to the tip, mixed with dusky ; lower mandible, yellowish flesh 
colour, marbled with dusky ; crown, brown black; throat and 
cheeks, as far as the upper angle of the bill, white, stained 
with bright yellow ochre ; auriculars, almost pure white ; the 
black from the crown surrounded the eyes, and passed round 
the white of the auriculars; hind head, black, mixed with 
ferruginous ; breast and shoulders, bright ferruginous; belly, 
ash and silver white ; back and scapulars, liver brown, finely 
pencilled with grey and reddish white ; rump and upper tail- 
coverts, the same ground colour, but the markings not so 
distinct ; wings, light liver brown, the lesser coverts finely 
powdered with grey; on the back and scapulars, the flanks, 
and around the base of the neck, the brownish red, or bright 


62 FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 


mahogany-coloured plumage, which distinguishes the adult 
male, was coming out; inner webs of the tail, partly dusky, 
outer webs, for two-thirds of their length, and the tip, dirty 
ferruginous; legs, blue ash in front, behind, the toes and webs, 
dusky. When the tail is not spread, it is somewhat conical, 
and its narrow-pointed feathers are slightly guttered at their 
tips; when spread, it is wedge-shaped. The trachea is of 
nearly equal diameter throughout ; and has no labyrinth or 
enlargement at its lower part. 

“ Another young male, shot in October, measured fifteen and 
a quarter inches in length, and twenty-three inches in breadth ; 
bill, greenish black, lower mandible, yellowish flesh colour, 
mixed with dusky; from the bill to the hind head a deep 
liver brown, the tips of the plumage bronzed ; whole upper 
parts, dark umber brown, pencilled with pale ferruginous, buff, 
and white ; from the corner of the mouth, a brown marking 
extended towards the eye; tail, dusky, ash-coloured at its 
extremity; legs and feet, dusky ash; toes paler, having a 
yellowish tinge; webs, dusky ; claws sharp. 

“The shafts of the tail-feathers of all these specimens, 
except that shot in April, projected beyond the webs ; in one 
specimen, the shaft of one of the middle feathers projected an 
inch, and was ramified into rigid bristles, resembling those of 
the tail of Buffon’s Sarcelle a queue épineuse de Cayenne, PI. 
Enl. 967; in all the specimens, there was the appearance of 
the tail-feathers having been furnished with the like process, 
but which had been rubbed off. Can it be that this duck 
makes use of its tail in climbing up the fissures of rocks, or 
the hollows of trees? Its stiff narrow feathers, not unlike 
those of the tail of a woodpecker, would favour this supposi- 
tion. It is worthy of note, that the tail of Mr Bonaparte’s 
female specimen alluded to above is thus rubbed. 

“The plumage of the neck and breast, which Wilson says 
is of a remarkable kind, that is, stiff and bristly at the tips, is 
common to several ducks, and therefore is no peculiarity. 

“The body of this species is broad, flat, and compact; its 


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THE BRANT. 63 


wings, short and concave ; its legs placed far behind, and its 
feet uncommonly large; it consequently is an expert diver. 
Tt flies with the swiftness and in the manner of the buffel- 
head ; and it swims precisely as Latham reports the Ural duck 
to swim, with the tail immersed in the water as far as the 
rump; but whether it swims thus low with the view of em- 
ploying its tail as a rudder, as Latham asserts of the Ural, or 
merely to conceal itself from observation, as the scaup duck 
is wont to do when wounded, and as all the divers do when 
pursued, I cannot determine. 

“This is a solitary bird, and with us we never see more 
than five or six together, and then always apart from other 
ducks. It is uncommonly tame ; so much so, that, by means 
of my skiff, I have never experienced any difficulty in ap- 
proaching within a few yards of it. Its flesh I do not con- 
sider superior to that of the buffel-head, which, with us, is a 
duck not highly esteemed. 

“T should not be surprised if Buffon’s Sarcelle a queue 
épineuse de Cayenne should turn out to be this species. The 
characters of the two certainly approximate ; but as I have 
not been enabled to settle the question of their identity in my 
own mind, I shall, for the present, let the affair rest.” 


THE BRANT. (Anas bernicla.) 
PLATE LXXII.—Fic. 1. 


Le Cravant, Briss. vi. p. 304, 16, pl. 31.—Buff. ig. p. 87.—Bew. ii. p. 277.—Lath. 
Syn. iii. p. 467.—Arct. Zool. No. 478.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2704. 


BERNICLA BRENT A.—STEPHENS.* 


Bernicla brenta, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool.-xii. p. 46.—Oie Cravant, Temm. Man. ii. 
p. 824.— Anser brenta, lem. Br. Anim. p. 127.—Anser bernicla, North. Zool. 
ii. p. 469.—Brent, or Boord Goose, Mont. Orn. Dict. and Supp.—Bew. Br. 
Birds, ii. p. 311.—Brent Bernicle, Selby, Illust. Br. Orn. pl. 65. 


Tue brant, or, as it is usually written, brent, is a bird well 
known on both continents, and celebrated in former times 


* Stephens first applied this title, as a generic one, to a considerable 
number of birds, and gives, as their characters, ‘“ distinguished from the 


64 THE BRANT. 


throughout Europe for the singularity of its origin, and the 
strange transformations it was supposed to undergo previous 
to its complete organisation. Its first appearance was said to 
be in the form of a barnacle shell adhering to old water- 
soaked logs, trees, or other pieces of wood taken from the sea. 
Of this goose-bearing tree, Gerard, in his “ Herbal,” published 
in 1597, has given a formal account, and seems to have 
reserved it for the conclusion of his work, as being the most 
wonderful of all he had to describe. The honest naturalist, 
however, though his belief was fixed, acknowledges that his 
own personal information was derived from certain shells 
which adhered to a rotten tree that he dragged out of the sea 
between Dover and Romney, in England; in some of which 
he found “living things without forme or shape; in others, 
which were nearer come to ripeness, living things that were 
very naked, in shape like a birde ; in others, the birds covered 
with soft downe, the shell half open, and the birde readie to 
fall out, which no doubt were the foules called Barnakles.” * 
Ridiculous and chimerical as this notion was, it had many 
advocates, and was at that time as generally believed, and 
with about as much reason too, as the present opinion of the 
annual submersion of swallows, so tenaciously insisted on by 
some of our philosophers, and which, like the former absurdity, 
will in its turn disappear before the penetrating radiance and 
calm investigation of truth. 

The brant and barnacle goose, though generally reckoned 
two different species, I consider to be the same. Among those 
large flocks that arrive on our coasts about the beginning of 
October, individuals frequently occur corresponding in their 
markings with that called the bernacle of Europe; that is, in 
geese by their shorter and slenderer beak, the edges of which are 
reflected over the lamelle, and obstruct the view of them.” We shall 
consider the form to which that title should be restricted to be that of 
the present—the B. erythropus, and B. rujicollis. Many of those admitted 


by Stephen show very different characters, and will range elsewhere.— 


Ep. 
* See Gerard’s Herbal, Art. Goose-bearing Tree. 


THE BRANT. 6 5 


having the upper parts lighter, and the front, cheeks, and 
chin whitish. These appear evidently a variety of the brant, 
probably young birds: what strengthens this last opinion is 
the fact, that none of them are found so marked on their 
return northward in the spring. 

The brant is expected at Ege Harbour, on the coast of 
New Jersey, about the Ist of October, and has been sometimes 
seen as early as the 20th of September. The first flocks 
generally remain in the bay a few days, and then pass on to 
the south. On recommencing their journey, they collect in 
one large body, and, making an extensive spiral course, some 
miles in diameter, rise to a great height in the air, and then 
steer for the sea, over which they uniformly travel; often 
making wide circuits to avoid passing over a projecting point 
of land. In these aerial routes, they have been met with 
many leagues from shore, travelling the whole night. Their 
line of march very much resembles that of the Canada goose, 
with this exception, that frequently three or four are crowded 
together in the front, as if striving for precedency. F locks 
continue to arrive from the north, and many remain in the 
bay till December, or until the weather becomes very severe, 
when these also move off southwardly. During their stay, 
they feed on the bars at low water, seldom or never in the 
marshes ; their principal food being a remarkably long and 
broad-leaved marine plant, of a bright green colour, which 
adheres to stones, and is called by the country people sea- 
cabbage; the leaves of this are sometimes eight or ten inches 
broad, by two or three feet in length: they also eat small 
shellfish. They never dive, but wade about, feeding at low 
water. During the time of high water, they float in the bay 
in long lines, particularly in calm weather. Their voice is 
hoarse and honking, and, when some hundreds are screaming 
together, reminds one of a pack of hounds in full cry. They 
often quarrel among themselves, and with the ducks, driving 
the latter off their feeding ground. Though it never dives in 


search of food, yet, when wing-broken, the brant will go one 
VOL. IIL. “ 


66 THE BRANT. 


hundred yards at a stretch under water; and is considered, 
in such circumstances, one of the most difficult birds to kill. 
About the 15th or 20th of May, they reappear on their way 
north ; but seldom stop long, unless driven in by tempestuous 
weather. 

The breeding-place of the brant is supposed to be very far 
to the north. They are commonat Hudson’s Bay, very nume- 
rous in winter on the coasts of Holland and Ireland; are 
called in Shetland, Harra geese, from their frequenting the 
sand of that name; they also visit the coast of England. 
Buffon relates, that in the severe winters of 1740 and 1765, 
during the prevalence of a strong north wind, the brant visited 
the coast of Picardy, in France, in prodigious multitudes, and 
committed great depredations on the corn, tearing it up by 
the roots, trampling, and devouring it ; and, notwithstanding 
the exertions of the inhabitants, who were constantly employed 
in destroying them, they continued in great force until a 
change of weather carried them off. 

The brant generally weighs about four pounds avoirdupois, 
and measures two feet in length, and three feet six inches in 
extent ; the bill is about an inch and a half long, and black ; 
the nostril large, placed nearly in its middle; head, neck, and 
breast, black; the neck marked with a spot of white, about 
two inches below the eye; belly, pale ash, edged with white ; 
from the thighs backwards, white; back and wing-coverts, 
dusky brownish black, the plumage lightest at the tips; rump 
and middle of the tail-coverts, black; the rest of the tail- 
coverts, pure white, reaching nearly to the tip of the tail, the 
whole of which is black, but usually concealed by the white 
coverts; primaries and secondaries, deep black; legs, also 
black ; irides, dark hazel. 

The only material difference observable between the plumage 
of the male and female is, that in the latter the white spot 
on the neck is less, and more mottled with dusky. In young 
birds it is sometimes wanting, or occurs on the front, cheeks, 
and chin ; and sometimes the upper part of the neck only is 


SCOTER DUCK. 67 


black ; * but in full-plumaged birds of both sexes, the mark- 
ings are very much alike. 

The brant is often seen in our markets for sale. Its flesh, 
though esteemed by many, tastes somewhat sedgy, or fishy.+ 


SCOTER DUCK. (Anas nigra.) 
PLATE LXXIL— Fra, 2: 


Le Macreuse, Briss. vi. p. 420, pl. 38, fig. 2.— Buff. ix. p. 234, pl. 16.—Pl. enl. 
978.— Bewick, ii. p. 288.—Arct. Zool. No. 484.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 480.— 
Peale’s Museum, No. 2658. 

OIDEMIA NIGRA.—FLEMING.t 


Oidemia nigra, Flem. Br. Anim. p.119.—WNorth. Zool. ii. p. 450.—Bonap. Synop. 
p. 390.—Canard Macreuse, Zemm. Man. ii. p. 856.—Scoter, or Black Diver, 
Mont. Ornith. Dict. ii. and Supp.— Bew. Br. Birds, ii. p. 325.—Black Scoter, 


Selby, Illust. Br. Orn. pl. 68. 


Tuts duck is but little known along our sea-coast, being more 
usually met with in the northern than southern districts, and 
only during the winter. Its food is shellfish, for which it is 
almost perpetually diving. ‘That small bivalve so often men- 
tioned, small mussels, spout-fish, called on the coast, razor 
handles, young clams, &c., furnish it with abundant fare ; 
and wherever these are plenty, the scoter is an occasional 
visitor. They swim, seemingly at ease, amidst the very 
roughest of the surf, but fly heavily along the surface, and to 
no great distance. They rarely penetrate far up our rivers 


* The figure of this bird given by Bewick is in that state. 

+ Mr Ord adds :—“ The individual figured in the plate was shot by 
the editor, at Great Ege Harbour, on the 19th of May 1813. It had 
been compelled to land by a storm, which surprised it while travelling 
to the north. The procuring of this bird was a fortunate occurrence for 
Mr Wilson, he having omitted to make a drawing while specimens were 
to be obtained during their sojourn on our coast. The following day, 
the author and his friend returned home from their last shooting expe- 
dition to the sea-shore ; and on the 23d of August, the ingenious and 
excellent Wilson bade adieu to this world for ever,”—Ep. 

+ The plumage on the head and neck of this bird is remarkable for 
its rigid texture and the narrow hackled shape of the feathers.—Ep. 


68 SCOTER DUCK. 


but seem to prefer the neighbourhood of the ocean, differing 
in this respect from the cormorant, which often makes extensive 
visits to the interior. 

The scoters are said to appear on the coasts of France in 
great numbers, to which they are attracted by a certain kind 
of small bivalve shellfish, called vacmeaux, probably differing 
little from those already mentioned. Over the beds of these 
shellfish the fishermen spread their nets, supporting them, 
horizontally, at the height of two or three feet from the bot- 
tom. At the flowing of the tide the scoters approach in great 
numbers, diving after their favourite food, and soon get entan- 
gled in the nets. ‘Twenty or thirty dozen have sometimes 
been taken in a single tide. ‘These are sold to the Roman 
Catholics, who eat them on those days on which they are for- 
bidden by their religion the use of animal food, fish excepted ; 
these birds and a few others of the same fishy flavour, having 
been exempted from the interdict, on the supposition of their 
being cold-blooded, and partaking of the nature of fish.* 

The scoter abounds in Lapland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, 
and Siberia. It was also found by Osbeck, between the 
islands of Java and St Paul, lat. 30 and 34, in the month of 
June.+ 

This species is twenty-one inches in length, and thirty-four 
in extent, and is easily distinguished from all other ducks by 
the peculiar form of its bill, which has at the base a large ele- 
vated knob of a red colour, divided by a narrow line of yellow, 
which spreads over the middle of the upper mandible, reach- 
ing nearly to its extremity, the edges and lower mandible are 
black ; the eyelid is yellow; irides, dark hazel; the whole 
plumage is black, inclining to purple on the head and neck ; 
legs and feet, reddish. 

The female has little or nothing of the knob on the bill ; 
her plumage above a sooty brown, and below of a greyish 
white. 

* Bewick. + Voyage, i. p. 120. 


VELIMVET: DOCK, 69 


VELVET DUCK. (Anas fusca.) 
PLATE LXXII.—Fie. 3. 


Le Grande Macreuse, Briss. vi. p. 423, 29.—Buff. ix. p. 242:—PI. enl. 956.— 
Arct. Zool. No. 482.—Bewick, ii. p. 286.—Lath. Syn. ii. p. 482.—Peale’s 
Museum, No. 2658, female. 


OIDEMIA FUSCA.—FLEMING.* 


Oidemia fusca, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 119.—Bonap. Synop. p. 390.—North. Zool. ii. 
p. 450.—Canard Double Macreuse, Temm. Man. ii. p. 854.—Velvet Duck, 
Mont. Ornith. Dict.—Bew. Br. Birds, ii. 822.—Velvet Scoter, Selby, Illust. 
Br. Ornith. pl. 67. 


Tuts and the preceding are frequently confounded together 
as one and the same species by our gunners on the sea-coast. 
The former, however, differs in being of greater size; in 
having a broad band of white across the wing; a spot of the 
same under the eye; and in the structure of its bill. The 
habits of both are very much alike ; they visit us only during 
the winter ; feed entirely on shellfish, which they procure by 
diving ; and return to the northern regions early in spring to 
breed. They often associate with the scoters, and are taken 
frequently in the same nets with them, Owing to the rank 
fishy flavour of its flesh, it is seldom sought after by our sports- 
men or gunners, and is very little esteemed. 

The velvet duck measures twenty-three inches in length, 
and two feet nine inches in extent, and weighs about three 


* This, with the preceding, and the O. perspicillata, constitute the 
American species of Fleming’s genus Otdemia. They are all visitants 
also of the European continent during winter, and, with the exception 
ot the last, are of rather common occurrence. They are truly sea-ducks, 
and never almost leave that element except during the season of incu- 
bation. They are expert divers, and feed on fish and marine molusce ; 
we find, therefore, the foot expanded, the hallux furnished with a broad 
membrane, and the legs placed far back. The bill is expanded, and 
generally swollen at the base ; the plumage thick and compact, and of 
glossy smoothness; the wings short, but firm, and sharp-pointed, 
capable, apparently, of a strong flight for a short while, but unfitted for 
any prolonged exertion.—Ep. 


70 VELVET DT CLE 


pounds; the bill is broad, a little elevated at the base, where 
it is black, the rest red, except the lower mandible, which is 
of a pale yellowish white; both are edged with black, and 
deeply toothed ; irides, pale cream; under the eye is a small 
spot of white ; general colour of the plumage brownish black, 
the secondaries excepted, which are white, forming a broad 
band across the wing; there are a few reflections of purple 
on the upper plumage; the legs are red on the outside, and 
deep yellow, sprinkled with blackish, on the inner sides; tail, 
short and pointed. 

The female is very little less than the male, but differs 
considerably in its markings. The bill is dusky ; forehead 
and cheeks, white ; under the eye, dull brownish; behind 
that, a large oval spot of white; whole upper parts and neck, 
dark brownish drab; tips of the plumage, lighter ; secondaries, 
white ; wing-quills, deep brown; belly, brownish white; tail, 
hoary brown ; the throat is white, marked with dusky specks ; 
legs and feet, yellow. 

Latham informs us, that this species is sometimes seen on 
the coast of England, but is not common there ; that it inha- 
bits Denmark and Russia, and in some parts of Siberia is 
very common. It is also found at Kamtschatka, where it is 
said to breed, going far inland to lay ; the eggs are eight or 
ten, and white ; the males depart, and leave the females to re- 
main with the young until they are able to fly. In the river 
Ochotska they are so numerous that a party of natives, con- 
sisting of fifty or more, go off in boats, and drive these ducks 
up the river before them, and, when the tide ebbs, fall on them 
at once, and knock them on the head with clubs, killing such 
numbers that each man has twenty or thirty for his share.* 


* History of Kamtschatka, p. 160. 


HARLEQUIN DUCK. Gil 


HARLEQUIN DUCK. (Anas histrionica.) 
PLATE LXXII.—Fie, 4. 


Le Canard a collier de Terre Neuve, Briss. vi. p. 362, 14.—Buff. ix. p. 250,.— 
Pl. enl. 798.—Arct. Zool. No. 490.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 484. 


CLANGULA HISTRIONICA.—LEACH.* 


Clangula histrionica, Bonap. Synop. p. 394.—North. Zool. ii. p. 459.—Canard a 
collier, ou Histrion, Zemm. Man. ii. p. 878. 


THIS species is very rare on the coasts of the middle and 
southern States, though not unfrequently found off those of 
New England, where it is known by the dignified title of the 
lord, probably from the elegant crescents and circles of white 
which ornament its neck and breast. ‘Though an inhabitant 
of both continents, little else is known of its particular manners 
than that it swims and dives well, flies swift, and to a great 
height, and has a whistling note. Is said to frequent the 
small rivulets inland from Hudson’s Bay, where it breeds. 
The female lays ten white eggs on the grass ; the young are 
prettily speckled. It is found on the eastern continent as far 
south as Lake Baikal, and thence to Kamtschatka, particularly 
up the river Ochotska, and was also met with at Aoonalashka 
and Iceland.+ At Hudson’s Bay, it is called the painted 
duck ; at Newfoundland, and along the coast of New England, 
the lord. It is an active vigorous diver, and often seen in deep 
water, considerably out at sea. 

The harlequin duck, so called from the singularity of its 
markings, is seventeen inches in length, and twenty-eight 
inches in extent; the bill is of moderate length, of a lead 
colour, tipt with red; irides, dark; upper part of the head, 
black ; between the eye and bill, a broad space of white, ex- 


* Dr Richardson observes of this duck—“ C. histrionica haunts eddies 
under cascades, and rapid streams. It takes wing at once when dis- 
turbed, and is very vigilant. We never saw it associating with any 
other duck, and it is a rare bird.” —Ep. 

7 Latham. 


72 DUSKY DUCK. 


tending over the eye, and ending in reddish ; behind the ear, 
a similar spot; neck, black; ending below in a circle of 
white; breast, deep slate; shoulders or sides of the breast, 
marked with a semicircle of white; belly, black; sides, 
chestnut ; body above, black or deep slate, some of the 
scapulars, white; greater wing-coverts, tipt with the same; 
legs and feet, deep ash ; vent and pointed tail, black. 

The female is described as being less ; “ the forehead, and 
between the bill and eye, white, with a spot of the same be- 
hind the ear ; head, neck, and back, brown, palest on the fore 
part of the neck; upper part of the breast and rump, red 
brown ; lower breast and belly, barred pale rufous and white ; 
behind the thighs, rufous and brown; scapulars and wine- 
coverts, rufous brown; outer greater ones, blackish ; quills 
and tail, dusky, the last inclining to rufous ; legs, dusky.” * 

The few specimens of this duck which I have met with 
were all males; and from the variation in their colours it 
appears evident that the young birds undergo a considerable 
change of plumage before they arrive at their full colours. In 
some the white spot behind the eye was large, extending irre- 
cularly half way down the neck; in others confined to a 
roundish spot. 

The flesh of this species is said to be excellent. 


DUSKY DUCK. (Anas obscura.) 
PLATE LXXIL—Fic. 5. 


Arct. Zool. No. 469.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 545.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2880. 


BOSCHAS? OBSCURA.—JARDINE.} 
Anas obscura, Bonap. Synop. p. 384. 


Tals species is generally known along the sea-coast of New 
Jersey and the neighbouring country by the name of the black 


* Latham. 
+ Having now arrived at the conclusion of a group which holds a 
very prominent rank in the ornithology of Northern America, a few 


DUSKY DUCK. 73 


duck, being the most common and most numerous of all those 
of its tribe that frequent the salt marshes. It is only partially 


general observations regarding their economy, with an enumeration of 
those species onitted by Wilson which have been since discovered, may 
not be deemed improper. 

The Anatide, or those birds generally known under the denomination 
of ducks, geese, and swans, taken as a family, will range with groups 
of great extent and varied form, as the falcons, the parrots, or pigeons, 
and will present similar modifications. The characters of the greater 
part of the groups which inhabit the northern and temperate regions of 
the world have been already drawn by Dr Leach and Dr Fleming, and 
one sub-family has been more lately analysed by Mr Swainson, as far 
as our knowledge of them extends, apparently with tolerable accuracy. 
They, however, want comparison with the tropical forms, which depart 
so much in their manners from those we are accustomed to see, and by 
which our opinions have hitherto been led, The wood ducks, constitu- 
ting Mr Swainson’s genus Dendronessa, the long-legged whistling ducks 
of India, those birds allied to the little Gambia goose, and those approach- 
ing in their form to the Grallatores, all want our close examination. 

In distribution, the Anatide extend over the world, from the warmest 
tropics to the extreme arctic cold, but exist in greatest abundance near 
the confines of temperate regions and in northern latitudes. Their 
habits may be called truly aquatic, as the presence of water is necessary, 
even in the most aberrant forms, for their healthy support. Some 
groups are exclusively aquatic, and never quit the sea or large 
inland lakes, except during the season when the duties of incubation 
for a while call them to the shore. These may be termed pelagic or sea- 
ducks, and feed on fish and molusce ; others delight in lakes and rivers 
as well as the sea, resort more frequently to the land, seek the same 
nourishment, and both are expert divers. Some hold a middle way, 
are as much on land as on water, and, in addition to the food of the 
truly sea species, live on the spawn of fresh-water fish, insects peculiar 
to muddy banks and slimy pools, with vegetables, such as the tender 
shoots of the grasses or newly-sown grains, or, while on the shores, upon 
the Zostera marina ; while one or two forms resemble the grallatorial 
birds, and are more independent of water and aquatic nourishment. 
In their breeding-places, they show a like variety, choosing the reedy 
banks of lakes and rivers, the treacherous morass, the cliffs and desert 
sands of the sea-shore, the burrows of various animals, the hollows of 
decaying trees in the stupendous forests of America, or in India the 
welcome shade of the sacred banyan. 

Their uses are various and extensive, either as food, or their skins, 
feathers, and down, for commerce and articles of wearing apparel, or 


74. DUSKY DUCK. 


migratory. Numbers of them remain during the summer, and 
breed in sequestered places in the marsh, or on the sea islands 


household comfort. Many species are also domesticated, and in a way 
less precarious lend their aid to the wants and luxuries of their owners. 
In the northern parts of America, this extensive family is most boun- 
tifully supplied, and her sealike lakes and majestic rivers are suitable 
nurseries for the innumerable multitudes that annually resort to, and 
reassemble to perform the duties of incubation. In the warmer parts, 
many remain at all seasons ; but it is in what is called Arctic America 
and the Fur Countries that the prodigious concourse annually arrive, and 
are so much hunted, both for food and a profitable emolument. Several 
of the spring months have received appellations from the birds which 
are most plentiful during them. The expected visitants arrive with 
remarkable precision, nearly at the same period of the month. They 
extend over a large space in breadth, and continue flying, without 
intermission, for many days. The native tribes are prepared by 
experience and the signals of their watches for their appearance ; and 
the first bird, for there are generally a scattered few before, gives notice 
that the havoc should commence. 

“They are,” says Dr Richardson, ‘“ of great importance in the Fur 
Countries, as they furnish, at certain seasons in the year, in many 
extensive districts, almost the only article of food that can be procured. 
The arrival of the waterfowl marks the commencement of spring, and 
diffuses as much joy among the wandering hunters of the arctic regions 
as the harvest or vintage excites in more genial climes. The period of 
their migration southwards again, in large flocks, at the close of summer, 
is another season of plenty, bountifully granted to the natives, and 
fitting them for encountering the rigours and privations of a northern 
winter.” 

To the species of Anatidcee which were known to Wilson as inhabi- 
tants of Northern America, with which his eighth volume has been 
almost wholly occupied, the researches of later ornithologists and travel- 
lers have added considerably, and the following enumeration of them 
will serve to fill up the list to last discoveries, 


Somateria, Leach. 


1. S. spectabilis, Leach. —King, Hider.—Common to both continents, and has 
much of the habits of the common eider. One or two specimens have 
been killed on the northern shores of Great Britain. 


Clangula, Leach. 


2. C. Barrovit, Swain. and Richards.— Rocky Mountain Garrot.—See note to 
p. 476 of the second volume. 


DUSKY DUCK. 75 


of the beach. The eggs are eight or ten in number, very nearly 
resembling those of the domestic duck. Vast numbers, how- 


ever, 


recularly migrate farther north on the approach of spring. 


Cygnus, Steph. 


Wilson, in his List of Birds, mentions the ‘‘swan ;”’ but from three species 


3. 


4, 


5. 


at least being natives of the arctic countries, it is impossible to say whether 
or not he was aware of any distinctions. 

C. musicus, Bechst., or Wild Swan.—Inhabits the arctic circle, whence 
it migrates to both continents. 

C. buccinator, Richardson.—Trumpeter Swan.—Discovered to be unde- 
scribed by Dr Richardson during the last Overland Expedition ; distin- 
guished by the bill being entirely black, longer and more depressed than in 
the common wild swan, the tail containing twenty-four feathers, and by a 
difference in the folding of the windpipe. The Doctor remarks, it is the 
most common swan in the interior of the Fur Countries. It breeds as far 
south as lat. 61 deg., but principally within the arctic circle, and in its 
migrations generally precedes the geese a few days. It is to the trumpeter 
the bulk of the swan-skins imported by the Hudson’s Bay Company 
belong. 

C. Bewickit, Yarrel.—Bewick’s Swan.—This bird has lately been discovered 
as a migratory visitant to Britain. Dr Richardson met with it during the 
last expedition, and remarks :—‘‘ This swan breeds on the sea-coast 
with inthe arctic circle, and is seen in the interior of the Fur Countries in 
its passage only. It makes its appearance among the latest of the migra- 
tory birds in the spring, while the trumpeter swans are, with the exception 
of the eagles, the earliest.” 


Lewis and Clarke, Lawson, and Hearne, were all aware of the difference 


6. 


bo | 


8. 


9. 


among the American swans, but they have never, till lately, been really 
distinguished and characterised. 


Anser, Bechst. 


A, albifrons, Bechst.—White-fronted Goose.—Is mentioned by Bonaparte, 
and is introduced in the ‘‘ Northern Zoology.” Its breeding-places are 
the woody districts skirting the Mackenzie, to the north of the sixty- 
seventh parallel, and also the islands of the Arctic Sea. 


. A. segetum, Meyer.—Common Bean Goose.—Inhabiting the more arctic 


regions. Bonaparte mentions also four additional species as probably 
accidental inhabitants of the United States and the arctic countries—A. 


cinercus, Meyer ; A. rufescens, Brehm ; A. medius, Temm. ; and A. cener- 
aceus, Brehm. 


Bernicla, Steph. 


B. leucopsis (Anas erythropus, Linn.—A. leucopsis, Temm.)—Inhabiting 
the arctic circle, migrating during winter to more temperate regions, and 
very rare and accidental in the United States. 

B. Hutchinsit (Anser Hutchinsii, Richards.—Hutchin’s Bernacle, North. 
Zool. ii. p. 470).—Described by Dr Richardson as a variety of the brant 
in the appendix to Captain Parry’s second volume, and distinguished from 
it during the last Arctic Expedition.—Eb. 


76 DUSKY DUCK. 


During their residence here in winter they frequent the 
marshes, and the various creeks and inlets with which those 
extensive flats are intersected. Their principal food consists 
of those minute snail-shells so abundant in the marshes. They 
occasionally visit the sandy beach in search of small bivalves, 
and on these occasions sometimes cover whole acres with their 
numbers. They roost at night in the shallow ponds, in the 
middle of the salt marsh, particularly on islands, where many 
are caught by the foxes. They are extremely shy during the 
day ; and, on the most distant report of a musket, rise from 
every quarter of the marsh in prodigious numbers, dispersing 
in every direction. In calm weather they fly high, beyond 
the reach of shot; but when the wind blows hard, and the 
eunner conceals himself among the salt grass, in a place over 
which they usually fly, they are shot down in great numbers ; 
their flight being then low. Geese, brant, and black ducks 
are the common game of all our gunners along this part of 
the coast during winter; but there are at least ten black ducks 
for one goose or brant, and probably many more. ‘Their 
voice resembles that of the duck and mallard; but their 
flesh 1s greatly inferior, owing to the nature of their food. 
They are, however, large, heavy-bodied ducks, and generally 
esteemed. 

I cannot discover that this species is found in any of the re- 
mote northern parts of our continent; and this is probably 
the cause why it is altogether unknown in Europe. It is 
abundant from Florida to New England ; but it is not enume- 
rated among the birds of Hudson’s Bay or Greenland. Its 
chief residence is on the sea-coast, though it also makes 
extensive excursions up the tide waters of our rivers. Like 
the mallard, they rarely dive for food, but swim and fly with 
great velocity. 

The dusky or black duck is two feet in leneth, and three 
feet two inches in extent; the bill is of a dark greenish ash 
formed very much like the mallard, and nearly of the same 
length; irides, dark; upper part of the head, deep dusky 


MARSH TERN. Gy 


brown, intermixed on the fore part with some small streaks of 
drab; rest of the head and greater part of the neck, pale 
yellow ochre, thickly marked with small streaks of blackish 
brown ; lower part of the neck, and whole lower parts, deep 
dusky, each feather edged with brownish white, and with fine 
seams of rusty white; upper parts of the same, but rather 
deeper ; the outer vanes of nine of the secondaries, bright 
violet blue, forming the beauty-spot, which is bounded on all 
sides by black ; wings and tails, sooty brown; tail-feathers, 
sharp-pointed ; legs and feet, dusky yellow; lining of the 
wings, pure white. 

The female has more brown on her plumage ; but in other 
respects differs little from the male, both having the beauty- 
spot on the wing. 


MARSH TERN. (Sterna aranea.) 
PLATE LXXII.—Fic. 6. 


Peale’s Museum, No. 3521. 
STERNA ARANEA.—Wison.* 
Sterna aranea, Bonap. Synop. p. 354. 


Tis new species I first met with on the shores of Cape May, 
particularly over the salt marshes, and darting down after a 


* The Prince of Musignano writes the following observations in his 
“Nomenclature ;”— 

«A new species of Wilson, referred by Temminck to a bird which he 
calls Sterna Anglica, thinking that it is no other than S. Anglica of 
Montagu. But, as Brehm proves in his late work, the S. Anglica of 
Temminck is not the 8. Anglica of Montagu. To the latter he gives 
the name of 8, risoria (which cannot be adopted), and he calls the 
former S. meridionalis, He does not decide to which of the two species 
the American S. aranea belongs, and expresses the possibility of its 
being an independent species, but seems inclined to believe it identical 
with his §. meridionalis. Whether this bird is the S. Anglica, Mont., 
the S. meridionalis, Brehm, Anglica, Temm., or a distinct species pecu- 
liar to the north and south of this continent, it shall be the object of 


= 


78 MARSH TERN. 


kind of large black spider, plenty in such places. This spider 
can travel under water, as well as above, and, during summer 
at least, seems to constitute the principal food of the present 
tern. In several which I opened, the stomach was crammed 
with a mass of these spiders alone; these they frequently pick 
up from the pools, as well as from the grass, dashing down 
on them in the manner of their tribe. Their voice is sharper 
and stronger than that of the common tern; the bill is dif- 


those observations to determine. The specimen deposited by Wilson 
in the Philadelphia Museum (a single glance at which would have 
enabled us to decide the question) being unfortunately destroyed, and 
Wilson’s figure and description being too unessential to justify any con- 
clusion, we should have been obliged to have left the matter unsettled, 
had it not been for the successful zeal of Mr Titian Peale, whose prac- 
tical knowledge (the most important) of North American birds is equalled 
by none. Their favourite haunts, their note, their flight, are perfectly 
familiar to him. He succeeded in procuring a fine specimen at Long 
Beach, N.J., just as we were in want of one, and thus enabled us to 
give with more security the following opinion, which we had previously 
formed :— 

“S. aranea, Wils., was a nondescript, different from S. Anglica, Mont., 
but the same with S. Anglica, Temm., and S. meridionalis, Brehm, and 
therefore common to both continents. Wilson’s name having the 
priority, must be exclusively retained, and Brehm’s name of merv- 
dionalis must be rejected. Thus has our author here also first named 
and described a European bird. 

“Mr Ord was therefore right in not finding himself authorised to 
change the name, He was right in believing Montagu’s bird distinct, 
but wrong in thinking Temminck’s bird different, though Temminck 
had positively stated the specimens he had received from the United 
States and Brazil differed in nothing from his south Europeans. Even 
as respects the discrepance of S, Anglica, Mont., his reasons resting 
upon the slight difference of an unpublished drawing of Wilson respecting 
measurements of parts, to which Wilson did not attach great importance, 
were by no means conclusive. In fact, these measurements are incorrect, 
with the exception of the tarsus, which corresponds within a trifle of the 
bird. The bill is two and one-eighth inches to the corners of the mouth, 
and about one and one-half inches to the feathers of the forehead ; thus 
bearing more in favour of Mr Ord’s argument that it is not the Anglica, 
Mont., than he himself supposed ; but proving that it is no other than 
S. Anglica, Temm, (meridionalis, Brehm), to which, as above stated, 
Wilson’s name of aranea must be exclusively applied. 


MARSH TERN. 79 


ferently formed, being shorter, more rounded above, and 
thicker ; the tail is also much shorter, and less forked. They 
do not associate with others, but keep in small parties by 
themselves. 

The marsh tern is fourteen inches in length, and thirty-four 
in extent; bill, thick, much rounded above, and of a glossy 
blackness ; whole upper part of the head and hind neck, black ; 
whole upper part of the body, hoary white; shafts of the quill 
and tail-feathers, pure white ; line from the nostril under the 


‘The principal character we should assign for a ready distinction be- 
tween these two closely related species (in addition to the shorter, thicker, 
less compressed, and straighter bill, with its edges turned inwards in 
Anglica), consists in the tarsus, which in aranea (owing to its shortness 
and the extraordinary length of the nail) is of the same length as the 
middle toe, including the nail, whilst in Anglica it is nearly twice the 
length (owing to its superior length, and the shortness of the nail). 
The membranes of our bird are also much more scalloped. The habits of 
the two species are very different. The S. Anglica, confined to the sea- 
shores, feeds almost exclusively on strand birds,* and their eggs, some- 
times on fishes ; whilst the S. aranea, generally found on marshes, feeds 
exclusively on insects.” 

Bonaparte, and the authors of the “ Northern Zoology,” have men- 
tioned the following species as also found in North America :— 


1. S. cyana, Lath.—Inhabiting the tropical seas of America; common on 
the coasts of the southern States. 

2. S. Arctica, Temm.—WNorth. Zool., p. 114.—Bonaparte expresses a doubt 
that this is the true Arctica of Temm.; and the description in the ‘‘ North- 
ern Zoology ” points out some discrepancies. 

3. S. stolida.— Migrates to the North American coasts. 


Pheton, Linn, 


These birds, from general appearance, approach near to the terns 
(S. Caspia) ; but from the want of specimens, I am unable to enter into 
the proper situation of the form, except from the authority of others. 
Bonaparte places it between sula and plotus. The only American species 
is— 


1. P. thereus, Linn., tropic bird of Wilson’s List.—Common during sum- 
mer on the coasts of the southern States.—ED. 


* Is this correct? Does this tern kill other seafowl, and plunder their nests? 
—ED. 


8o SOOTY TERN, 


eye, and whole lower parts, pure white ; tail, forked, the outer 
feathers about an inch and three-quarters longer than “the 
middle ones ; the wings extend upwards of two inches beyond 
the tail; legs and feet, black ; hind toe, small, straight, and 
pointed. 

The female, as to plumage, differs in nothing from the 
male. The yearling birds, several of which I met with, have 
the plumage of the crown white at the surface, but dusky 
below ; so that the boundaries of the black, as it will be in the 
perfect bird, are clearly defined ; through the eye a line of 
black passes down the neck for about an inch, reaching about 
a quarter of an inch before it; the bill is not so black as in 
the others ; the legs and feet, dull orange, smutted with brown 
or dusky ; tips and edges of the primaries, blackish ; shafts, 
white. 

This species breeds in the salt marshes ; the female drops 
her eggs, generally three or four in number, on the dry drift 
crass, Without the slightest appearance of a nest ; they are of 
a greenish olive, spotted with brown. 

A specimen of this tern has been deposited in the Museum 
of this city (Philadelphia). 


SOOTY TERN. (Sterna fuliginosa.) 
PLATE LXXII.—Fic. 7. 


La Hirondelle de Mer a grande enverguer, Buff. viii. p. 345.—Egeg-bird, Forst. 
Voy. p. 113.—Noddy, Damp. Voy. iii. p. 142.—Arct. Zool. No. 447.—Lath. 
Syn. iii. p. 352.—Peale’s Museum, No. 3459. 


STERNA FULIGINOSA.—LatTHaM. 
8. fuliginosa, Bonap. Synop. p. 355. 


Tuts bird has been long known to navigators, as its appearance 
at sea usually indicates the vicinity of land ; instances, however, 
have occurred in which they have been met with one hundred 
leagues from shore.* The species is widely dispersed over the 


* Cook’s Voyages, i. 275, 


SOOTY TERN. Sr 


various shores of the ocean. ‘They were seen by Dampier in 
New Holland; are in prodigious numbers in the Island of 
Ascension and in Christmas Island; are said to lay in December 
one ege on the ground ; the egg is yellowish, with brown and 
violet spots.* In passing along the northern shores of Cuba 
and the coast of Florida and Georgia in the month of July, 
I observed this species very numerous and noisy, dashing down 
headlong after small fish. I shot and dissected several, and 
found their stomachs uniformly filled with fish. I could per- 
ceive little or no difference between the colours of the male 
and female. 

Length of the sooty tern, seventeen inches; extent, three 
feet six inches; bill, an inch and a half long, sharp pointed 
and rounded above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near 
the point; nostril, an oblong slit ; colour of the bill, glossy 
black ; irides, dusky; forehead, as far as the eyes, white ; 
whole lower parts and sides of the neck, pure white ; rest of 
the plumage, black ; wings, very long and pointed, extending, 
when shut, nearly to the extremity of the tail, which is greatly 
forked, and consists of twelve feathers, the two exterior ones 
four inches longer than those of the middle, the whole of a 
deep black, except the two outer feathers, which are white, but 
towards the extremities a little blackish on the inner vanes; 
legs and webbed feet, black; hind toe, short. 

The secondary wing-feathers are eight inches shorter than 
the longest primary. 

This bird frequently settles on the rigging of ships at sea, 
and, in common with another species, S. stolida, is called by 
sailors the noddy. 


* Turton. 


VOL, I1I F 


82 CINEREOUS COOT. 


CINEREOUS COOT. (Fulica Americana.) 
PLATE LXXIII.—Fre. 1. 


Fulica Americana, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 704, 23.—Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 779, 5.—Cinereous 
Coot, Gen. Syn. iii. p. 279.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4322. 


FULICA AMERICAN A.—GMELIN.* 


Fulica Amerieana, Sab. Append. to Capt. Frank. Exp. p. 690.—Bonap. Synop. 
p. 338.—Fulica atra, Wilson’s List. 


Tus species makes its appearance in Pennsylvania about 
the 1st of October. Among the muddy flats and islands of 
the river Delaware, which are periodically overflowed, and 
which are overgrown with the reeds or wild oats or rushes, 
the coots are found. ‘They are not numerous, and are seldom 


* This description commences the ninth and supplementary volume 
of the original printed by Mr Ord, after the decease of Wilson, from his 
notes, The volume was published in 1814, and a second edition ap- 
peared in 1825, correcting several mistakes which had occurred in the first. 
Our present bird was there described as identical with that of Europe, 
and a detail of the habits of our native species given as belonging to 
it ; these Mr Ord has corrected. The distinctions, I believe, were first 
pointed out by Mr Sabine, in the Appendix to Captain Franklin’s 
Narrative, and I now add them in that gentleman’s words :— 

“They are of the same length, though there isa general inferiority in 
the size of the body, as well as of the legs, head, and bill of the American ; 
the bill is smaller, less thick and strong, and shorter by a quarter of an 
inch ; the callus, independent of the difference in colour in the American 
bird, extends only half an inch over the head, but in the European, above 
an inch ; the whole head is smaller ; the plumage, generally, is similar 
in colour and character ; the outer margin of the first primary feathers 
of the wing is more conspicuously marked with white, and there are a 
few white feathers on the upper edge of the wing ; the secondaries in 
‘both are tipped with white ; the principal difference in the plumage is, 
that in the American the feathers at the vent are quite black, and the 
under tail-coverts white ; in the European coot, these correspond with the 
rest of the plumage ; the legs are much more slender in the American 
bird ; the tarse of the European measures near two inches and a half, 
that of the American not quite two inches ; the toes are smaller in like 
proportion ; the middle toe, including the claw, of the European coot 
is three inches and three-quarters long ; of the American, three inches 
and one quarter only.”—Ep. 


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CINEREOUS COOT. 83 


seen, except their places of resort be covered with water; in 
that case they are generally found sitting on the fallen reed, 
waiting for the ebbing of the tide, which will enable them to 
feed. Their food consists of various aquatic plants, seeds, 
insects, and, it is said, small fish. The coot has an aversion 
to take wing, and can seldom be sprung in its retreat at low 
water; for although it walks rather awkwardly, yet it con- 
trives to skulk through the grass and reeds with great speed, 
the compressed form of its body, like that of the rail genus, 
being well adapted to the purpose. Itswims remarkably well, 
and, when wounded, will dive like a duck. When closely 
pursued in the water, it generally takes to the shore, rising 
_ with apparent reluctance, like a wounded duck, and fluttering 
along the surface, with its feet pattering on the water.* It is 
known in Pennsylvania by the name of the mud-hen. 

I have never yet discovered that this species breeds with us ; 
though it is highly probable that some few may occupy the 
marshes of the interior, in the vicinity of the ponds and lakes, 
for this purpose, those retired situations being well adapted 
to the hatching and rearing of their young. In the southern 
States, particularly South Carolina, they are well known; but 
the Floridas appear to be their principal rendezvous for the 
business of incubation. ‘“ The coot,” says William Bartram, 
“is a native of North America, from Pennsylvania to Florida. 
They inhabit large rivers, fresh-water inlets or bays, lagoons, 
&c., where they swim and feed amongst the reeds and grass of 
the shores, particularly in the river St Juan, in East Florida ; 
where they are found in immense flocks. They are loquacious 
and noisy, talking to one another night and day ; are constantly 
on the water, the broad lobated membranes on their toes en- 
abling them to swim and dive like ducks.” + 

I observed this species to be numerous during the winter 


* Tn Carolina, they are called flusterers, from the noise they make in 
flying over the surface of the water.—A Voyage to Carolina, by John 
Lawson, p. 149. 

T Letter from Mr Bartram to the author, 


84 CINEREOUS COOT. 


in the fresh-water ponds situated in the vicinity of the river 
St Juan or St John, in East Florida; but I did not see them 
in the river. ‘The food which they obtain in these places must 
be very abundant and nutritious, as the individuals which I 
shot were excessively fat. One male specimen weighed twenty- 
four ounces avoirdupois. They associate with the common 
gallinule (Gallinula chloropus), but there is not, perhaps, one 
of the latter for twenty of the former. 

The cinereous coot is sixteen inches in length, and twenty- 
eight in extent ; bill, one and a half inch long, white, the 
upper mandible slightly notched near the tip,and marked across 
with a band of chestnut, the lower mandible marked on each 
side with a squarish spot of the like colour, edged on the lower 
part with bright yellow or gamboge, thence to the tip, pale 
horn colour ; membrane of the forehead, dark chestnut brown ; 
irides, cornelian red ; beneath the eyes, in most specimens, a 
whitish spot ; the head and neck are of a deep shining black, 
resembling satin ; back and scapulars, dirty greenish olive ; 
shoulders, breast, and wing-coverts, slate blue ; the under parts 
are hoary ; vent, black ; beneath the tail, pure white ; primaries 
and secondaries, slate, the former tipt with black, the latter 
with white, which does not appear when the wing is closed ; 
outer edges of the wings, white; legs and toes, yellowish 
green, the scalloped membrane of the latter, lead colour ; 
middle toe, including the claw, three inches and three-quarters 
long. 

The bird from which the foregoing description was taken 
was shot in the Delaware, below Philadelphia, the 29th of 
October 1813. It was an old male, an uncommonly fine 
specimen, and weighed twenty-three ounces avoirdupois. It 
is deposited in Peale’s Museum. 

The young birds differ somewhat in their plumage, that of 
the head and neck being of a brownish black ; that of the breast 
and shoulders, pale ash ; the throat, grey or mottled ; the bill, 
bluish white ; and the membrane on the forehead considerably 
smaller. 


CINEREOUS COOT. 8s 


The young females very much resemble the young males ; 
all the difference which I have been enabled to perceive is as 
follows :—Breast and shoulders, cinereous; markings on the 
bill, less ; upper parts of the head, in some specimens, mottled ; 
and being less in size. 

The lower parts of these birds are clothed with a thick 
down, and, particularly between the thighs, covered with close 
fine feathers. The thighs are placed far behind, are fleshy, 
strong, and bare above the knees. 

The gizzard resembles a hen’s, and is remarkably large 
and muscular. That of the bird which has been described 
was filled with sand, gravel, shells, and the remains of aquatic 
plants. 

Buffon describes the mode of shooting coots in France, par- 
ticularly in Lorraine, on the great pools of Tiaucourt and of 
Indre; hence we are led to suppose that they are esteemed as 
an article of food. But with us, who are enabled, by the abun- 
dance and variety of game, to indulge in greater luxuries in 
that season when our coots visit us, they are considered as of 
no account, and are seldom eaten. 

The European ornithologists represent the membrane on 
the forehead of the F'ulzca atra as white, except in the breed- 
ing season, when it is said to change its colour to pale red. 
In every specimen of the cinereous coot which I have seen, ex- 
cept one, the membrane of the forehead was of a dark chestnut 
brown colour. The one alluded to was a fine adult male, shot 
in the Delaware, at Philadelphia, on the 11th of May: the 
membrane was of a pure white; no white marking beneath 
the eye ; legs and feet of a bright grass green. 

In Wilson’s figure of the coot accompanying this volume 
there are some slight errors; the auriculars are designated, 
which should not have been done, as they are not distinguish- 
able from the rest of the plumage of the head and neck, which 
is all of a fine satiny texture; and the outline of the bill is 
not correct. 

Latham states that the common European coot (£ atra) is 


86 CINEREOUS COOT. 


“met with in Jamaica, Carolina, and other parts of North 
America.” This, I presume, is a mistake, as I have never 
seen but one species of coot in the United States. Brown, in 
speaking of the birds of Jamaica, mentions a coot which, in 
all probability, is the same as ours. The coot mentioned by 
Sloan is the common gallinule. So is also that spoken of in 
the “ Natural History of Barbadoes,” by Hughes, p. 71. 

In Lewis and Clark’s history of their expedition, mention 
is made of a bird which is common on the Columbia ; is said 
to be very noisy, to have a sharp, shrill whistle, and to asso- 
ciate in large flocks; it is called the black duck.* This is 
doubtless a species of coot, but whether or not different from 
ours cannot be ascertained. How much is it to be regretted 
that, in an expedition of discovery, planned and fitted out by 
an enlightened Government, furnished with every means for 
safety, subsistence, and research, not one naturalist, not one 
draughtsman, should have been sent to observe and _ per- 
petuate the infinite variety of natural productions, many of 
which are entirely unknown to the community of science, 
which that extensive tour must have revealed ! 

The coot leaves us in November for the southward. 

The foregoing was prepared for the press, when the author, 
in one of his shooting excursions on the Delaware, had the 
good fortune to kill a full-plumaged female coot. This was 
on the 20th of April. It was swimming at the edge of a 
cripple, or thicket of alder bushes, busily engaged in picking 
something from the surface of the water, and while thus em- 
ployed it turned frequently. The membrane on its forehead 
was very small, and edged on the fore part with gamboge. 
Its eggs were of the size of partridge-shot. And on the 13th 
of May, another fine female specimen was presented to him, 


* History of the Expedition, vol. ii. p.194. Under date of November 
30th, 1805, they say—‘ The hunters brought in a few black ducks of a 
species common in the United States, living in large flocks, and feeding 
on grass ; they are distinguished by a sharp white beak, toes separated, 
and by having no craw.” 


MARTINICO GALLINULE, 87 


which agreed with the above, with the exception of the mem- 
brane on the forehead being nearly as large and prominent 
as that of the male. From the circumstance of the eggs of all 
these birds being very small, it is probable that the coots do 
not breed until July. 


MARTINICO GALLINULE. (Gallinula Martinica.) 
PLATE LXXIIL.—Fie. 2. 


Gallinula Martinica, Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 769, 9; Gen. Syn. iii. p. 255, 7, pl. 88.— 
Fulica Martinica, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, i. p. 259, 7.—Fulica Martinicensis, 
Gmel. Syst. p. 700, 7.—La Petite Poule-sultane, Briss. Orn. v. p. 526, pl. 42, 
fig. 2.—Buff. Ois. viii. p. 206.—La Favourite de Cayenne, Pl. enl. No. 897, 
young ?—Peale’s Museum, No. 4294, 


GALLINULA? MARTINICA.—UatTHAmM.* 
Gallinula Martinica, Bonap. Synop. p. 336. 


Tuts splendid bird is a native of the southern parts of the 
continent of North America. I have never learnt that it 
migrates as far north as Virginia, though it is probable that 
it may be occasionally seen in that State. It makes its ap- 
pearance in the Sea Islands of Georgia in the latter part of 
April, and after spending the summer, it departs, with its 
young, in the autumn. ‘The marshes of Mexico appear to be 
its winter residence. It frequents the rice-fields and fresh- 
water ponds, in company with the common gallinule ; but the 
latter, being of a more hardy nature, remains all winter both 
in Georgia and Florida. 

During its migration, this bird is frequently driven to sea ; 
and I have known two or three instances of its having sought 
refuge on board of vessels. On the 24th May 1824, a brig 


* This species in form runs very much into the Porphyrio of Brisson ; 
but without specimens, I cannot decide whether it should rank there, 
or on the confines of Gallinula. The characters of the former group are 
the much greater strength of the bill, being almost as high as long, 
the greater proportional length of legs, and the splendid and metallic 
lustre of the plumage. In their manners they are partly granivorous, 
and live more upon land than the water-hens.—ED, 


88 MARTINICO GALLINULE. 


arrived at Philadelphia from New Orleans, bringing a fine 
living specimen, which had flown on board of her in the Gulf 
Stream. This bird is now (1825) alive in the Philadelphia 
Museum. In the month of August 1818, a storm drove 
another individual on board of a vessel in her passage from 
Savannah to Philadelphia. This also lived for some time in 
Peale’s Museum. . 

The Martinico gallinule is a vigorous and active bird. — It 
bites hard, and is quite expert in the use of its feet. When 
it seizes upon any substance with its toes, it requires a con- 
siderable effort to disengage it. Its toes are long, and spread 
greatly. It runs with swiftness ; and, when walking, it jerks 
its tail in the manner of the common rail. Its manners and 
food are somewhat similar to those of the far-famed purple 
gallinule, whose history is so beautifully detailed in the works 
of Buffon. 

In its native haunts, it is vigilant and shy; and it is not 
easy to spring it without the assistance of a dog. 

Length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, four- 
teen inches; bill, an inch and a quarter long, vermilion, 
greenish yellow at the tip; irides, pale cornelian ; naked 
crown, dull azure; head, part of the neck, throat, and breast, 
of a rich violet purple; back and scapulars, olive green ; 
rump, tail, and its coverts, brownish green; sides of the neck 
and wings, ultra-marine, the latter tinged with green; shoulders 
of wing, rich azure; inner webs of the quills and tail-feathers, 
dusky brown ; belly and thighs, dull purplish black; vent, 
pure white; tail, rounded; legs and feet, greenish yellow; 
claws, long, sharp, and of a pale flesh colour; span of the 
foot, five inches. 


BROWN PHALAROPE. 89 


BROWN PHALAROPE. (Phalaropus lobatus.) 


PLATE LXXIII.—Fie. 3. 


Tringa lobata, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, tom. i. p. 148, 5.—T. hyperborea, Jd. ed. 12, 
tom. i. p. 249, 9.—Tringa lobata, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 764, 6.—T. fusca, Id. p. 
675, 33.—T. hyperborea, Id. No. 9.—Phalaropus cinereus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 
15.—P. fuscus, Id. p. 18.—Le Phalarope Cendré, Buff. Ois. viii. p. 224.—PIl. 
enl. 766.—Coot-footed Tringa, Hdwards, pl. 46.—Cock Coot-footed Tringa, 
Id. pl. 143.—Red Phalarope, Penn. Brit. Zool. No. 219.—Brown Phalarope, 
Arct. Zool. No. 414.—Phalaropus hyperboreus, Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 775, 1.— 
P. fuscus, Id. p. 776, 4.—Red Phalarope, Gen. Syn. iii. p. 270, 1.—Jd. p. 
272, var. A.—Brown Phalarope, Jd. p. 274, 4.—Red Phalarope, Montagu, 
Orn. Dict. Id. Supp. and Appendix.—Phalaropus hyperboreus, Zemm. Man. 
@ Orn. p. 709.—Le Lobipéde a hausse-col, Cuv. Reg. Anim. i. p. 495. 


LOBIPES WILSONII.—JARDINE.* 


Phalaropus (subgen. Holopodius), Bonap. Synop. p. 342.—Phalaropus Wilsonii, 
Sab. App. to Frank. Nurrat. p. 691.—Lobipes incanus, Jard. and Selby, 
Lilust. Ornith. pl. 25.—Phalaropus Wilsonii, Worth. Zool. ii. pl. 69. 


OF this species, only one specimen was ever seen by Wilson, 
and that was preserved in Trowbridge’s Museum, at Albany, 


* Tn the small group known as Phalaropus we have two forms, dis- 
tinguished by the stouter make, the flat-formed bill, and the develop- 
ment of the webs to the toes in the one, and by the slender bill and 
greater alliance of the other to the Zotani. The Prince of Musignano 
has instituted another sub-group from what appears to me to be only the 
greater development of the latter form. Following the arrangement of 
Cuvier, I have retained Lobipes for those of slender make, and Phalaropus 
for that of this country, and only one yet discovered, 

I have little hesitation in considering the L, incanus of ornithological 
illustrations to be this bird in imperfect plumage. Bonaparte is of 
opinion that the American bird was a new species; Mr Ord, that it is 
some undescribed state of P. hyperboreus: with the former of these 
opinions I agree, and have accordingly adopted the specific name which 
Sabine had previously chosen for it, but have referred it to the genus 
Lobipes of Cuvier. This plate of our author is one of the very few ex- 
ceptions where an imperfect representation of the bird is given, the 
figure being much too stout and thick, and not of that more elegant form, 
one of the characteristics of the Totani. 

Under this division will also range the little red-necked phalarope, 
Lobipes hyperboreus of Temminck, and the present type of the genus. 
According to Bonaparte, this species is exceedingly rare and accidental 
in the United States. It will appear in the forthcoming volumes of 
that gentleman’s illustrations.—ED. 


90 BROWN PHALAROPE, 


in the State of New York. On referring to Wilson’s Journal, 
I found an account of the bird, there called a tringa, written 
with a lead pencil, but so scrawled and obscured, that parts 
of the writing were not legible. I wrote to Mr Trowbridge 
soliciting a particular description, but no answer was returned. 
However, having had the good fortune, since publishing the 
first edition, of examining a fine recent specimen of this rare 
bird, I hope I shall be enabled to fix the species by such 
characters as will prevent any ornithologist in future from 
confounding it with the species which follows ;—two birds 
which, owing to a want of precision, were involved in almost 
inextricable confusion, until Temminck applied himself to the 
task of disembroiling them ; and this ingenious naturalist has 
fully proved that the seven species of authors constituted in 
effect only two species. 

T’emminck’s distinctive characters are drawn from the bill ; 
and he has divided the genus into two sections—an arrange- 
ment of which the utility is not evident, seeing that each sec- 
tion contains but one species, unless we may consider that the 
barred phalarope of Latham constitutes a third, a point not 
yet ascertained, and not easy to be settled, for the want of 
characters. 

In my examination of these birds, I have paid particular 
attention to the feet, which possess characters equally striking 
with those of the bill; hence, a union of all these will afford 
a facility to the student, of which he will be fully sensible 
when he makes them the subject of his investigation. 

Our figure of this species betrays all the marks of haste ; it 
is inaccurately drawn, and imperfectly coloured ; notwith- 
standing, by a diligent study of it, I have been enabled to 
ascertain that it is the coot-footed tringa of Edwards, plate 46 
and 143, to which bird Linnzeus gave the specific denomina- 
tion of lobata, as will be seen in the synonyms at the head of 
this article. In the twelfth edition of the “Systema Nature,” 
the Swedish naturalist, conceiving that he might have been 
in error, omitted, in his description of the lobata, the syno- 


BROWN PHALAKOPE, OI 


nym of Edward’s, cock coot-footed tringa, No. 143, and 
recorded the latter bird under the name of hyperborea—a 
specific appellation, which Temminck and other ornithologists 
have sanctioned, but which the laws of methodical nomencla- 
ture prohibit us from adopting, as, beyond all question, hyper- 
borea is only a synonym of lobata, which has the priority, 
and must stand. 

M. Temminck differs from us in the opinion that the 7’. 
lobata of Gmelin, vol. i. p. 674, is the present species, and 
refers it to that which follows. But, if this respectable orni- 
thologist will take the trouble to look into the twelfth edition 
of Linneus, vol. i. p. 249, No. 8, he will there find two 
false references, Edward’s No. 308, and Brisson’s No, 1, 
which gave rise to Gmelin’s confusion of synonyms, and a 
consequent confusion in his description, as the essential 
character in both authors being nearly in the same words 
(vostro subulato apice inflexo, &c.), we are at no loss to infer 
that both descriptions have reference to the same bird ; and 
we are certain that the lobata of the twelfth edition of the 
former is precisely the same as that of the tenth edition, 
which cites for authority Edward’s 46 and 148, as before 
mentioned. 

I shall now give the short description of the bird figured in 
the plate, as I find it in Wilson’s notebook :— 

Bill, black, slender, and one inch and three-eighths in 
length. In the original, the bill is said to be one inch and 
three-quarters long. Lores, front, crown, hind head, and 
thence to the back, very pale ash, nearly white; from the 
anterior angle of the eye, a curving stripe of black descends 
along the neck for an inch or more, thence to the shoulders, 
dark reddish brown, which also tinges the white on the side 
of the neck next to it ; under parts, white ; above, dark olive ; 
wings and legs, black, Size of the turnstone. 

The specimen from which the following description was 
taken was kindly communicated to me by my friend Mr 
Titian RB. Peale, while it was yet in a recent state, and before 


92 BROWN PHALAROPE. 


it was prepared for the museum. It was this individual which 
enabled me to ascertain the species figured by Wilson. It 
was shot in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, on the 7th of 
May 1818. 

Bill, narrow, slender, flexible, subulate, of equal width ; 
nostrils, basal, and linear; lobes of the toes, thick, narrow, 
and but slightly scalloped. Outer toe connected to the middle 
one as far as the first joint; inner toe divided nearly to its 
base ; hind toe resting on the ground. Bill, black, one inch 
and three-eighths in length ; head above, of an ash grey; hind 
head, whitish, which colour extends a short distance down the 
neck ; over the eyes, a white stripe, below them, a white spot ; 
throat and lower parts, white; a line of black passes through 
the eyes, spreads out towards the hind head, and descends 
along the neck; lower part of the neck, pale ferruginous ; 
back part of the neck, deep ferruginous, which descends on 
each side, and mingles with the plumage of the back and 
scapulars, which are of a clove brown, the feathers tipt with 
whitish ; wings and tail, dark clove brown, some of the lesser 
coverts having a reddish tinge ; the upper tail-feathers, tinged 
with red at their tips, the under feathers marked with white 
on their inner webs ; irides, dark brown; legs and feet, dark 
plumbeous ; claws, long, of a dark horn colour ; hind toe, in- 
dependent of the claw, five-sixteenths of an inch long; the 
tertials, when the wing is closed, extend to within three-eighths 
of an inch of the tip of the primaries; weight, an ounce and 
three-quarters; length, nine inches and a half; breadth, six- 
teen inches. This was a female; her eggs very small. 

In the grand chain of animated nature, the phalaropes con- 
stitute one of the links between the waders and the web-footed 
tribes, having the form of the sandpipers, with some of the 
habits of the gulls; the scalloped membranes on their toes 
enabling them to swim with facility. They are clothed with 
a thick coat of feathers, beneath which, as in the ducks, lies a 
mass of down, to protect them from the rigours of the northern 
climates, of which they are natives. They do not appear to 
be fond of the neighbourhood of the ocean, and are generally 


BROWN PHALAROPE. 93 


found in the interior, about the lakes, ponds, and streams of 
fresh water, where they delight to linger, swimming near the 
margin in search of seeds and insects. ‘They are nowhere 
numerous, are commonly seen in pairs, and are so extremely 
tame and unsuspicious, that one may approach to within a few 
feet of them. 

The genus Lobipes of the Baron Cuvier is founded upon 
this species ; and it must be confessed that its characters are 
sufficiently distinct from those of the bird which follows to 
authorise such a separation; but unless some new species 
should be discovered, we see no impropriety in associating the 
two birds already known, taking care, however, to preserve a 
consistency in the generic characters, which Temminck, in his 
“Manuel,” has not sufficiently observed. 

In the Appendix to Montagu’s “Supplement to the Orni- 
thological Dictionary,’ we find the following remarks on this 
species, there named /wlicaria :—“ We have before mentioned 
that this bird had been observed in the Orkneys in consider- 
able abundance in the summer, and that no doubts were enter- 
tained of its breeding there, although the nest had not been 
found. ‘To Mr Bullock, therefore, we are indebted for the far- 
ther elucidation of the natural history of this elegant little bird. 
In a letter to the author, this gentleman says, ‘I found the red 
phalarope common in the marshes of Sanda and Westra, in 
the breeding season, but which it leaves in the autumn. This 
bird is so extremely tame, that I killed nine without moving 
ont of the same spot, being not in the least alarmed at the 
report of a gun. It lays four eggs, of the shape of that of a 
snipe, but much less, of an olive colour, blotched with dusky. 
It swims with the greatest ease, and when on the water, looks 
like a beautiful miniature of a duck, carrying its head close to 
the back, in the manner of a teal.’ Mr Bullock further ob- 
serves, ‘ That the plumage of the female is much lighter, and 
has less of the rufous than the other sex.’ ” * 


* All observations referring to European birds in this description 
cannot apply. ZL. Wilsonir is yet known only as American. The last 
may be referred with propriety, however, to Lobipes hyperboreus.—ED. 


04 GREY PHALAROPE. 


GREY PHALAROPE* (Phalaropus fulicarius.) 
PLATE LXXIII.—Fie. 4. 


Tringa fulicaria, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, tom. i. p. 148, 6.—Tringa glacialis, Gmel. 
Syst. i. p. 675, 2.—T. hyperborea, var. B, Jd. p. 676.—Le Phalarope, Briss. 
Orn. vi. p. 12, No. 1.—Phalaropus rufescens, Jd. p. 20.—Phalaropus lobatus, 
Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 776, 2.—P. glacialis, Jd. No. 3.—Red Phalarope, fem. Gen. 
Syn. iii. p. 271.—Grey Phalarope, Id. p. 272, 2.—Plain Phalarope, Id. p. 273, 
3.—Grey Phalarope, Penn. British. Zool. No. 218.—Arct. Zool. No. 412.— 
Red Phalarope, Jd. No. 413.—Plain Phalarope, Id. 415.—Red Coot-footed 
Tringa, Edw. pl. 142.—Grey Coot-footed Tringa, Id. Gleanings, pl. 308.—Le 
Phalarope Rouge, Buffon, Ots. viii. p. 225.—Le Phalarope 4 festons dentelés, 
Id. p. 226.—Grey Phalarope, Montagu, Orn. Dict. and Appendix to Supp.— 
Bewick, ii. p. 132.—Le Phalarope Gris, Cuv. Reg. Anim. i. p. 492.—Le Phala- 
rope Rouge, Jd. ibid.— Phalaropus platyrhinchus, Temm. Man. d’Orn. p. 712. 
—FPeale’s Museum, No. 4088. 


PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS.—BonAPARTE.t 


Phalaropus hyperborea, Ord, 1st edit. of Supp. p. 75.—Phalaropus fulicarius, 
Bonap. Synop. p. 341.—Nomenclature, No. 232.—Phalaropus lobatus, Grey 
Phalarope, lem. Br. Anim. p. 100.—Grey Phalarope, Selby, Illust. Br. 
Ornith. 2d ed. pl. 28. 


Br pretty stout and wide, slightly compressed at the tip, 

depressed on the lower half; upper mandible, carinate ; nos- 
trils, subovate, a short distance from the base ; feet, semipal- 
mate; lobes of the toes, broad, and greatly scalloped ; hind 
toe, barely touching the ground ; bill, reddish orange at the 


* Named in the plate, red phalarope. 

+ This bird is here represented in the change from the summer or 
breeding state to that of the grey plumage of its winter dress, in which 
alternations it bears a strong resemblance to the knots and godwits, &c. 
It will show an example of the genus Phalaropus ; indeed, it is the only 
one hitherto discovered.* The form appears more stout, from the short- 
ness of the legs, and it is also distinguished from Lobipes by the flattened 
or depressed bill, and more than usually fleshy tongue. They are 
expert swimmers, are often found out at sea, and their whole manners 
on the water resemble more those of a truly aquatic bird than of a form 
allied to the 7ringe. Bonaparte mentions, that this bird is rare and 
accidental, and during winter only found in the United States, extend- 
ing its migrations to Florida,—Eb. 


* Dr Richardson thinks that another species will be found in the plain phala- 
rope of Pennant, and proposes the name of P. glacialis for it,—ED. 


GREY PHALAROPE. 95 


base, the remainder black, an inch long; front and crown, 
black, barred transversely with lines of white ; throat, sides of 
the neck, and lower parts, white, thickly and irregularly barred 
with curving dashes of reddish chocolate ; upper parts, of a 
deep cinereous blue, streaked with brownish yellow and black ; 
the back scapulars, broadly edged with brownish yellow; wings 
and rump, dark cinereous ; greater wing-coverts, broadly tipt 
with white, forming a large band; primaries, nearly black, 
and crossed with white below their coverts ; tail, plain olive, 
middle of its coverts, black, their sides bright brownish yellow; 
vent, white, those feathers immediately next to the tail, red- 
dish chocolate; legs, black on the outside, yellowish within, 
Length, nine inches; breadth, fifteen inches and a half; length 
of hind toe, independent of the claw, one-eighth of an inch. 
Male. The inner toe is connected to the middle one by a 
membrane as far as the first joint, the outer toe much farther ; 
hence the feet may be properly termed semipalmate; webs and 
lobes, finely pectinated. This conformation of the feet is pretty 
accurately exhibited in Edwards’s plate, No. 308. The grey 
phalarope is a rare bird in Pennsylvania, and is not often met 
with in any part of the United States. The individual from 
which our description was taken was shot in a pond, in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia, in the latter part of May 1812. There 
were three in company. The person who shot it had never 
seen one of the species before, and was struck with their sin- 
gular manners. He described them as swimming actively near 
the margin of the pond, dipping in their bill very often, as if 
feeding, and turning frequently. In consequence of our speci- 
men being in a state of putridity when received, it was pre- 
served with considerable difficulty, and the sex could not be 
ascertained. 

In the spring of the year 1816, my friend Mr Le Sueur 
shot, in Boston Bay, a young individual of this species. Crown, 
dark slate, tinged with yellowish brown; front, throat, line 
over the eye, belly, and vent, white; shoulders, breast, and 
sides, tawny or fawn colour; back, dark slate, paler near the 


96 GREY PHALAROPE. 


rump, the feathers, edged with bright yellow ochre; wings, 
pale cinereous, some of the lesser coverts edged with white, 
the greater coverts largely so, forming the bar; primaries and 
tail, black; the latter edged with yellowish brown, the shafts 
of the former white; bill and feet, as in the first described. 

On the 20th of March 1818, I shot, in the river St John, 
in Hast Florida, an immature female specimen; irides, dark 
brown ; around the base of the bill, a slight marking of dark 
slate ; front and crown, white, mottled with pale ash; at the 
interior part of each eye, a black spot ; beneath the eyes, dark 
slate, which extends over the auriculars, the hind head, and 
upper part of the neck; upper parts, cinereous grey, with a 
few faint streaks of slate ; throat, breast, whole lower parts, 
and under tail-coverts, pure white; flanks, with a few faint 
ferruginous stains; wings, slate brown, the coverts of the 
secondaries, and a few of the primary coverts, largely tipt with 
white, forming the bar as usual ; tail, brown, edged with cine- 
reous; legs and feet, pale plumbeous; the webs, and part of 
the scalloped membranes, yellowish; bill and size as in the 
first specimen. 

The tongue of this species is large, fleshy, and obtuse. 

This bird has been described under a variety of names. 
What could induce that respectable naturalist, M. Temminck, 
to give it a new appellation, we are totally at a loss to conceive. 
That his name (Phalaropus platyrhinchus) is good,—that it is 
even better than all the rest, we are willing to admit,—but 
that he had no right to give it a new name we shall boldly 
maintain, not only on the score of expediency, but of justice. 
If the right to change be once conceded, there is no calculating 
the extent of the confusion in which the whole system of 
nomenclature will be involved. The study of methodical 
natural history is sufficiently laborious, and whatever will have 
a tendency to diminish this labour, ought to meet the cordial 
support of all those who are interested in the advancement of 
the natural sciences. 

“The study of natural history,” says the present learned 


GREY PHALAROPE. 97 


president of the Linneean Society, “is, from the multitude of 
objects with which it is conversant, necessarily so encumbered 
with names, that students require every possible assistance to 
facilitate the attainment of those names, and have a just right 
to complain of every needless impediment. Nor is it allow- 
able to alter such names, even for the better. In our science, 
the names established throughout the works of Linnzeus are 
become current coin, nor can they be altered without great 
inconvenience,” * 

That there is a property in names as well as in things will 
not be disputed ; and there are few naturalists who would not 
feel as sensibly a fraud committed on their nomenclature as on 
their purse. The ardour with which the student pursues his 
researches, and the solicitude which he manifests in promul- 
gating his discoveries under appropriate appellations, are proofs 
that at least part of his gratification is derived from the sup- 
posed distinction which a name will confer upon him ; deprive 
him of this distinction, and you inflict a wound upon his 
self-love which will not readily be healed. 

To enter into a train of reasoning to prove that he who 
first describes and names a subject of natural history agreeable 
to the laws of systematic classification is for ever entitled to 
his name, and that it cannot be superseded without injustice, 
would be useless, because they are propositions which all 
naturalists deem self-evident. Then how comes it, whilst we 
are so tenacious of our own rights, we so often disregard those 
of others ? 

I would now come to the point. It will be perceived that 
I have ventured to restore the long-neglected name of /uli- 
earia. That I shall be supported in this restoration I have 
little doubt, when it shall have been made manifest that it was 
Linneeus himself who first named this species, A reference 
to the tenth edition of the “Systema Naturae” + will show that 


* An Introduction to Physiological and Systematical Botany, chap. 12. 
+ Of all the editions of the “Systema Nature,” the tenth and the twelfth 

are the most valuable ; the former being the first which contains the 
VOL, IIL G 


98 WILSON’S PLOVER. 


the authority for Tringa fulicaria is Edwards's red coot-footed 
tringa, pl. 142, and that alone, for it does not appear that 
Linneeus had seen the bird. The circumstance of the change 
of the generic appellation can in nowise affect the specific 
name; the present improved state of the science requires the 
former, justice demands that the latter should be preserved. 

In this work I have preserved it; and I flatter myself that 
this humble attempt to vindicate the rights of Linnzeus will 
be approved by all those who love the sciences of which he was 
so illustrious a promoter. 


WILSON’S PLOVER. (Charadrius Wilsonius.) 


PLATE LXXIII.—Fie. 5. 


Peale’s Museum, No. 4159, male ; 4160, female. 


CHARADRIUS WILSONIUS.—Orp. 
Charadrius Wilsonius, Bonap. Synop. p. 296.—Nomenclature, No. 221. 


Or this neat and prettily marked species I can find no account, 
and have concluded that it has hitherto escaped the eye of the 
naturalist. The bird from which this description was taken 
was shot the 13th of May 1813, on the shore of Cape Island, 
New Jersey, by my ever-regretted friend ; and I have honoured 
it with his name.* It was a male, and was accompanied by 


Synonyma, and the latter being that which received the finishing hand 
of its author. In the United States, Linneeus is principally known 
through two editors—Gmelin, whose thirteenth edition of the “ Systema 
Nature” has involved the whole science in almost inextricable confusion ; 
and Turton, whose English translation of Gmelin is a disgrace to science 
and letters. All writers on zoology and botany should possess Linnzeus’s 
tenth and twelfth editions ; they will be found to be of indispensable 
use in tracing synonyms and fixing nomenclature, 

* Bonaparte thus observes in his ‘‘ Nomenclature :”—“ A very rare 
species, established by the editor (Mr Ord), and dedicated to Wilson. It 
is the first homage of the kind paid to the memory of this great and 
lamented self-taught naturalist. The descriptions of several species in 
the works of former authors come more or less near to it, but after a 
careful investigation we are satisfied that it is new.”—Eb. 


WILSON’S PLOVER. 99 


another of the same sex and a female, all of which were fortu- 
nately obtained. 

This bird very much resembles the ring plover, except in 
the length and colour of the bill, its size, and in wanting the 
yellow eyelids. he males and females of this species differ 
in their markings, but the ring plovers nearly agree. We 
conversed with some sportsmen of Cape May, who asserted that 
they were acquainted with these birds, and that they some- 
times made their appearance in flocks of considerable numbers ; 
others had no knowledge of them. That the species is rare 
we were well convinced, as we had diligently explored the 
shore of a considerable part of Cape May, in the vicinity of 
Great Ege Harbour, many times at different seasons, and had 
never seen them before. How long they remain on our coast, 
and where they winter, we are unable to say. Irom the cir- 
cumstance of the oviduct of the female being greatly enlarged, 
and containing an ege half grown, apparently within a week 
of being ready for exclusion, we concluded that they breed 
there. Their favourite places of resort appear to be the dry 
sand flats on the sea-shore. They utter an agreeable piping 
note. 

This species is seven inches and three-quarters in length, 
and fifteen and a half in extent ; the bill is black, stout, and 
an inch long, the upper mandible projecting considerably over 
the lower ; front, white, passing on each side to the middle of 
the eye above, and bounded by a band of black of equal breadth ; 
lores, black ; eyelids, white ; eye, large and dark; from the 
middle of the eye backwards the stripe of white becomes duller, 
and extends for half an inch ; the crown, hind head, and auri- 
culars, are drab olive ; the chin, throat, and sides of the neck, 
for an inch, pure white, passing quite round the neck, and 
narrowing to a point behind ; the upper breast below is marked 
with a broad band of jet black; the rest of the lower parts, 
pure white; upper parts, pale olive drab; along the edges of 
the auriculars and hind head, the plumage, where it joins the 
white, is stained with raw terra sienna; all the plumage is 


100 DARTER, OR SNAKE-FIRD. 


darkest in the centre; the tertials are fully longer than the 
primaries, the latter brownish black, the shafts and edges of 
some of the middle ones, white ; secondaries and greater coverts, 
slightly tipt with white; the legs are of a pale flesh colour; 
toes bordered with a narrow edge ; claws and ends of the toes, 
black ; the tail is even, a very little longer than the wings, and 
of a blackish olive colour, with the exception of the two ex- 
terior feathers, which are whitish ; but generally the two middle 


ones only are seen. 
The female differs in having no black on the forehead, lores, 


or breast, those parts being pale olive. 


DARTER, OR SNAKE-BIRD.* (Plotus anhinga.) 
PLATE LXXIV.—Fic. 1, Mazz. 


Plotus anhinga, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, tom. i. p. 218.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 580, 1.— 
Ind. Orn. p. 895, 1.—Plotus melanogaster, Id. p. 896, var. B, var. 0.—An- 
hinga Brasiliensis Tupinamb. Marcgrav. Hist. Nat. Bras. p. 218.—L’Anhinga, 
Briss. vi. p. 476.—Salerne, p. 375.—Buff. Ois. viii. p. 448.—Anhinga Noir de 
Cayenne, Pl. enl. 960.—W hite-bellied Darter, Lath. Gen. Syn. iii. p. 622, 1. 
—Black-bellied Darter, Jd. p. 624, var. a, pl. 106.—Jd. p. 625, var. B.— 
Colymbus colubrinus, Snake-bird, Bartram, p. 132, 295.—Peale’s Museum, 
No. 3188, male. 

PLOTUS ANHINGA.—LwNEzvs.+ 
Plotus anhinga, Bonap. Synop. p. 411.—Plotus melanogaster, Ord, 1st edit. of 
Supp. p. 79. 


Heap, neck, whole body, above and below, of a deep shining 
black, with a green gloss, the plumage extremely soft and 


* Named in the plate, black-bellied darter. 

+ This very curious genus contains only two known species—that of 
our author, common to both continents of America, and the Plotus 
Vaillantei of Temminck, a native of India, Africa, and the South Seas, 
It has been placed among the Pelicanide by most ornithologists ; but 
how far all the forms which are at present included in that family have 
a right to be there, I am not at present prepared to determine: if they 
are, that of Plotus will hold a very intermediate rank, particularly in 
habits which may lead to some discoveries in the relations to each other. 
The economy is ina considerable measure arboreal, and in their own family, 
as now constituted, they show the greatest development of the power 


“Wh 


PDOY-YIVIG. fF oar” “WlayqLoxy FVALO “Cr "CT APM WaT G MII PAMID-AIVVE 7 


yy? OPN '@ "21ND 


4 dy poavade 


DARTER, OR SNAKE-BIRD, IOI 


agreeable to the touch; the commencement of the back is 
ornamented with small, oblong, ashy white spots, which pass 


of diving, and activity in the water. They show also the extreme 
structure in the power of darting and suddenly again withdrawing their 
head, The cormorants and herons possess this power to a great extent, 
and they all possess a peculiar bend of the neck, observed in certain 
circumstances of the bird’s economy, and into which that part at once 
puts itself when the bird is dead. This is produced chiefly by the 
action of two muscles ; the one inserted within the cavity of the breast, 
and running up with a long tendon to the vertebra beneath the bend ; 
the other inserted in the joint above the bend, and running far down with 
another slender tendon. The action of these two powers, resisted by the 
muscles on the back part, produce the peculiar angular bend, and enable 
the head to be thrown forward with great force. The effect may be easily 
seen, and produced, by a jointed stick having cords affixed, and acted on in 
this way. We may here introduce the genera Pelicanus, Phalacracoraz, 
Tachypetes, Sula, and Heliornis, with a short notice of the species of 
America, as pointed out by the ornithologists who have described the 
productions of that country. 


Pelicanus, Linn. 


1. P. onocrotalus.—White Pelican.—According to Bonaparte, rare and acci- 
dental on the coasts of the middle States, and said by Dr Richardson to be 
numerous in the interior of the Fur Countries, up to the 61st deg. parallel. 

2. P. fuscus, Linnzeus.—Brown Pelican.—Common in the southern States, 
where it breeds. 

Phalacracorax, Briss. 


The species of this genus amount to a considerable number, and are 
distributed over the known world, but there yet exists confusion among 
them, from the near alliance of many to each other. The Prince of 
Musignano seems to have taken the authority of Dumont for the species 
he enumerates. They are as follow :— 


1. P. carbo.—Cormorant of Wilson’s List.—Tail of fourteen feathers; rare 
and migratory in the United States. 

2. P. graculus.—Tail, twelve feathers; not uncommon in spring and 
autumn in the middle States; very common in Florida, where it breeds ; 
though very abundant in the arctic and antarctic circles. 

3. P. cristatus.—Rather rare, and found during winter only in the United 
States. 

4, P. pygmeus.—Inhabiting the north of both continents. 

5. P. Africanus.—Inhabiting Africa and America; not found in Europe. 


The Prince of Musignano is doubtful whether the two last are en- 
titled to any place in the ornithology of America, the specimens which 
he has seen of both being only reported to have been killed in that country. 


102 DARTER, OR SNAKE-BIRD. 


down the shoulders, increasing in size according to the size of 
the feathers, and running down the scapulars ; wings and tail 
of a shining black, the latter broadly tipt with dirty white ; the 
lesser coverts are glossed with green, and are spotted with 
ashy white; the last row of the lesser coverts, and the coverts 
of the secondaries, are chiefly ashy white, which forms a large 
bar across the wing; the outer web of the large scapulars is 
crimped ; tail, rounded, the two under feathers the shortest ; 
the two upper feathers, for the greater part of their length, 
beautifully crimped on their outer webs, the two next feathers 
in a slight degree so; bill, dusky at the base and above ; the 
upper mandible brownish yellow at the sides, the lower man- 


He mentions also another inhabiting the United States, which he has 
not examined, but thinks may turn out P. Brazilianus. 

The first four species are common to Europe and America ; the three 
first are also British. In addition to these, Mr Swainson has described 
another in the “‘ Northern Zoology,’ under the title dilophus, or double- 
crested cormorant, which he cannot reconcile to any of these already 
described. His characters are :—‘‘ Tail of twelve feathers ; bill, three 
inches and a half long; a crested tuft of feathers behind each eye.” 


Tachypetes, Vieill. 


1. 7. aquilus, Vieill.—Not uncommon during summer on the coasts of the 
United States, as far south as Carolina, 


Sula, Briss. 

1. Sula Bassana, Briss:x—Common during summer over the coasts of the 
United States, especially the southern. 

2. L. fusca, Briss.—Booby.—Common in summer on the coasts of the 
southern States. 

Heliornis, Bonat. 

1. H. Surinamensis, Surinam Heliornis.—An accidental visitant in summer 

in the middle States. 


I have introduced Heliornis here, but without at all placing it in this 
station from my own opinion of its real place ; the form of the birds 
contained in it (amounting yet to only two species) is very curious, and 
though showing the form of the body, and, according to Bonaparte, of 
the skeleton of Plotus, yet the habits are much more that of the Grebes. 
This agrees with the arrangement by the Prince of Musignano in one 
range, but I do not so easily see its connection in the opposite direction 
with Phaeton and Sula, the immediately preceding genera.—Ep, 


DARTER, OR SNAKE-IRD, 103 


dible yellow ochre ; inside of the mouth, dusky ; irides, dark 
crimson ; the orbit of the eye, next to the plumage of the head, 
is of a greenish blue colour, this passes round, in the form of 
a zigzag band, across the front,—the next colour is black, 
which entirely surrounds the eye ; eyelids, of a bright azure, 
running into violet next the eyeball; lores, greenish blue ; 
naked skin in front, black ; jugular pouch, jet black ; hind head, 
suberested ; along the sides of the neck there runs a line of 
loose unwebbed feathers of a dingy ash colour, resembling the 
plumage of callow young ; here and there, on the upper part 
of the neck, one perceives a feather of the same ; on the fore- 
head there is a small knob or protuberance ; the neck, near its 
centre, takes a singular bend, in order to enable the bird to 
dart forward its bill with velocity when it takes its prey ; lees 
and feet of a yellowish clay colour, the toes and hind part 
of the legs with a dash of dusky ; claws greatly faleated ; when 
the wings are closed they extend to the centre of the tail. 

Length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, two 
feet ten inches,* breadth three feet ten inches ; bill to the angle 
of the mouth, full four inches ; tail, ten inches and a half, com- 
posed of twelve broad and stiff feathers ; weight, three pounds 
and a half.’ 

The serratures of the bill are extremely sharp, so much so, 
that when one applies tow, or such like substance, to the bird’s 
mouth, it is with difficulty disengaged. 

The lower mandible and throat, asin the divers, are capable 
of great expansion to facilitate the swallowing of fish, which 
constitute the food of this species. ‘The position of these birds, 
when standing, is like that of the gannets. 

The above description was taken from a fine adult male 


* The admeasurement of the specimen described in the first edition 
of the ninth volume was made by Wilson himself from the stuffed bird 
in Peale’s Museum. It differs considerably from that described above ; 
but as our specimen was a very fine one, there is room to conjecture 
that there was some error in the admeasurement of the former, ours 
being described immediately after death. 


104 DARTER, OR SNAKE-BIRD. 


specimen, which was shot by my fellow-traveller Mr T. Peale, 
on the 1st of March 1818, in a creek below the Cow Ford, 
situated on the river St John, in East Florida. Wesaw some 
others in the vicinity, but owing to their extreme vigilance 
and shyness, we could not procure them. 

From the description of the white-bellied darter of Latham 
and others, which is unquestionably this species, one would be 
inclined to conjecture that the bird figured as the female is the 
young male, But this point it is not in my power to ascertain. 
All the darters which I saw while in Florida were males. 

The snake-bird is an inhabitant of the Carolinas, Georgia, 
the Floridas, and Louisiana, and is common in Cayenne and 
Brazil. It seems to have derived its name from the singular 
form of its head and neck, which at a distance might be mis- 
taken for a serpent. In those countries where noxious ani- 
mals abound, we may readily conceive that the appearance of 
this bird, extending its slender neck through the foliage of a 
tree, would tend to startle the wary traveller, whose imagina- 
tion had portrayed objects of danger lurking in every thicket. 
Its habits, too, while in the water, have not a little contribu- 
ted to its name. It generally swims with its body immerged, 
especially when apprehensive of danger, its long neck extended 
above the surface, and vibrating in a peculiar manner. The 
first individual that I saw in Florida was sneaking away, to 
avoid me, along the shore of a reedy marsh which was lined 
with alligators, and the first impression on my mind was that 
I beheld a snake, but the recollection of the habits of the bird 
soon undeceived me. On approaching it, it gradually sank, 
and my next view of it was at many fathoms’ distance, its head 
merely out of the water. ‘lo pursue these birds at such times 
is useless, as they cannot be induced to rise, or even expose 
their bodies. 

Wherever the limbs of a tree project over, and dip into the 
water, there the darters are sure to be found, these situations 
being convenient resting-places for the purpose of sunning 
and preening themselves, and probably giving them a better 


ie, 


DARTER, OR SNAKE-BIRD. 105 


opportunity than when swimming of observing their finny 
prey. ‘They crawl from the water upon the limbs, and fix 
themselves in an upright position, which they maintain in the 
utmost silence. If there be foliage, or the long moss, they 
secrete themselves in if in such a manner that they cannot be 
perceived, unless one be close to them. When approached, 
they drop into the water with such surprising skill, that one is 
astonished how so large a body can plunge with so little noise, 
the agitation of the water being apparently not greater than 
that occasioned by the gliding of an eel. 

Formerly the darter was considered by voyagers as an ano- 
malous production, a monster partaking of the nature of the 
snake and the duck; and, insome ancient charts which I have 
seen, it is delineated in all the extravagance of fiction. 

From Mr William Bartram we have received the following 
account of the subject of our history :— 

“ Here is in this river,* and in the waters all over Florida, 
a very curious and handsome bird,—the people call them 
snake-birds ; I think I have seen paintings of them on the 
Chinese screens and other Indian pictures ; they seem to be a 
species of Colymbus, but far more beautiful and delicately 
formed than any other that Ihave ever seen, They delight to 
sit in little peaceable communities, on the dry limbs of trees, 
hanging over the still waters, with their wings and tails ex- 
panded, I suppose to cool and air themselves, when at the same 
time they behold their images in the watery,mirror. At such 
times, when we approach them, they drop off the limbs into 
the water as if dead, and for a minute or two are not to be 
seen ; when on a sudden, at a great distance, their long slender 
head and neck appear, like a snake rising erect out of the 
water ; and no other part of them is to be seen when swimming, 
except sometimes the tip end of their tail. In the heat of the 
day they are seen in great numbers, sailing very high in the 
air over lakes and rivers. 

“JT doubt not but if this bird had been an inhabitant of the 
Tiber in Ovid’s days, it would have furnished him with a sub- 


* The river St Juan, East Florida. 


106 FEMALE DARTER. 


ject for some beautiful and entertaining metamorphoses, I 
believe they feed entirely on fish, for their flesh smells and 
tastes intolerably strong of it: it is scarcely to be eaten, unless 
one is constrained by insufferable hunger. They inhabit the 
waters of Cape Fear river, and, southerly, Hast and West 
Florida.” * 


FEMALE DARTER, OR SNAKE-BIRD.+ 
PLATE LXXIV.—Fic. 2. 


Anhinga de Cayenne, Pl. enl. 959.—Peale’s Museum, No. 3189, female. 
PLOTUS ANHINGA.—LINNEUvS. 


Tae female darter measures three feet five inches in length, 
and differs in having the neck before of a roan colour, or iron 
erey ; the breast the same, but lighter, and tinged with pale 
chestnut ; the belly as in the male ; where the iron grey joins 
the black on the belly there is a narrow band of chestnut ; 
upper head and back of the neck, dark sooty brown, streaked 
with blackish ; cheeks and chin, pale yellow ochre; in every 
other respect the same as the male, except in having only a 
few slight tufts of hair along the side of the neck ; the tail is 
twelve inches long to its insertion, generally spread out like 
a fan, and crimped like the other on the outer vanes of the 
middle feathers only. 

The above is a description of the supposed female darter 
which is preserved in Peale’s Museum. 

The author having written to Mr John Abbott of Georgia 
relative to this species, and some others, received from this 
distinguished naturalist a valuable communication, from which 
the following extract is made :—“ Both the darters I esteem 
as but one species. I have now by me a drawing of the male 
or black-bellied only, but have had specimens of both at the 
same time. I remember that the upper parts of the female 
were similar to those of the male, except that the colour and 

* Bartram’s Travels, p. 132.—MS,. in the possession of the author 


[Mr Ord]. 
; This article was written by Mr Ord. 


q 


GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 107 


markings were not so pure and distinct ; length, thirty-six 
inches, extent, forty-six. These birds frequent the ponds, 
rivers, and creeks during the summer ; build in the trees of 
the swamps, and those of the islands in the ponds ; they con- 
struct their nests of sticks ; eggs of a sky-blue colour. I in- 
spected a nest, which was not very large ; it contained two 
eggs and six young ones, the latter varying much in size ; 
they will occupy the same tree for a series of years. They 
commonly sit on a stump which rises out of the water in the 
mornings of the spring, and spread their wings to the sun, 
from which circumstance they have obtained the appellation 
of sun-birds. They are difficult to be shot when swimming, 
in consequence of only their heads being above the water.” 

Never having seen a specimen of the black-bellied darter 
of Senegal and Java, I cannot give an opinion touching its 
identity with ours. 


GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON. 
(Colymbus glactalis.) 


PLATE LXXIV.—Fi«. 3.* 


Colymbus glacialis, Zinn. Syst. ed. 12, tom. i. p. 221, 5.—C. immer, Jd. p. 222, 
No. 6.—Ind. Orn. p. 799, 1.—C. immer, Jd. p. 800, 2.—Le Grand Plongeon, 
Briss. vi. p..105, pl. 10, fig. 1.—Le Grand Plongeon Tacheté, Jd. p. 120, pl. 11, 
fig. 2.—Le Grand Plongeon, Buff. Ois. viii. p. 251.—L’Imbrim, ou Grand Plon- 
geon de la Mer du Nord, Jd. p. 258, tab. 22.—Pl. enl. 952.—Northern Diver, 
Lath. Gen. Syn. iii. p. 357.—Imber Diver, Jd. p. 340.—Penn. Brit. Zool. 
No. 237, 238.—Arct. Zool. No. 489, 440.—Bewick, ii. p. 168, 170.—Montagu, 
Orn. Dict. Supp. App.—Low, Fauna Orcadensis, p. 108, 110.—Plongeon 
Imbrim, Temm. Man. d@ Orn. p. 910.—Peale’s Museum, No. 3262, male and 
young ; 3263, female. 


COLYMBUS GLACIALIS.—LInne&zvs.t 
Colymbus glacialis, Bonap. Synop. p. 420.—Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 132.—WNorth. 
Zool. ii. p. 474. 
Tris bird in Pennsylvania is migratory. In the autumn it 
makes its appearance with the various feathered tribes that 


* This article is by Mr Ord. 
+ The genus Colymbus, or the loons, have been restricted to those 


108 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 


frequent our waters; and, when the streams are obstructed 
with ice, it departs for the southern States.* In the montlis 


large divers, of which our present species will point out a good example. 
They are all birds of a large size, truly aquatic, are seldom on land 
except during incubation, and though endowed with a considerable 
power, seldom fly, unless very much pressed by necessity. The great 
northern diver is very frequent in the Firth of Forth, and there I have 
never been able either to make up with, or cause one to fly from the 
sea. I have pursued this bird ina Newhaven fishing-beat with four 
sturdy rowers, and, notwithstanding it was kept almost constantly under 
water, by firing as soon as it appeared, the boat could not succeed in 
making one yard upon it. They are sometimes caught in the herring- 
nets, and at set lines, when diving. 

The loons and guillemots approach very near in their characters, except 
in lesser size, and a particular modification of habit in the one preferring 
the sea-shores or the reedy banks of inland lakes for breeding-places, 
while the others are gregarious, and choose the most precipitous cliffs 
on the sea, and deposit their eggs, without the least preparation, on the 
bare rock. The construction of the feet and tarse at once points out in 
the large birds their great facility of diving, and rapid progression under 
water, the proportional expanse of web is much greater, and the form of 
it runs into that of Phalacracoraz and Sula; the legs are placed very 
far back, and the muscles possess very great power ; the tarsus is flat- 
tened laterally, and thus presents a small surface of resistance, and the 
whole plumage of the bird is close and rigid, presenting a smooth and 
almost solid resistance in passing through the water. The adults require 
at least the first season to attain maturity. Dr Richardson mentions 
the following method of shooting them during the winter :—“ They 
arrive in that season when the ice of the lakes continues entire, except, 
perhaps, a small basin of open water where a rivulet happens to flow in, 
or where the discharge of the lake takes place. When the birds are 
observed to alight in these places, the hunter runs to the margin of the 
ice, they instantly dive, but are obliged, after a time, to come to the 
surface to breathe, when he has an opportunity of shooting them, In 
this way upwards of twenty were killed at Fort Enterprise in the spring 
of 1821, in a piece of water only a few yards square.” 

The present species is the only one described in Wilson’s volumes 
as a native of America. Bonaparte mentions two others, which are 
also described in the “ Northern Zoology,”—the black-throated diver, 
Colymbus Arcticus, common in Arctic America, but rare, and only found 


* The loon is said to winter in the Chesapeake Bay. 


GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 109 


of March and April it is again seen, and, after lingering 
awhile, it leaves us for the purpose of breeding. The loons 
are found along the coast as well as in the interior ; but in 
the summer they retire to the fresh-water lakes and ponds. 
We have never heard that they breed in Pennsylvania, 
but it is said they do in Missibisci pond, near Boston, 
Massachusetts. The female lays two large brownish eggs, 
They are commonly seen in pairs, and procure their food, 
which is fish, in the deepest water of our rivers, diving after 
it, and continuing under for a length of time. Being a wary 
bird, it is seldom they are killed, eluding their pursuers by 
their astonishing faculty of diving. ‘They seem averse from 
flying, and are but seldom seen on the wing. They are never 
eaten. 

The loon is restless before a storm ; and an experienced 
master of a coasting vessel informed me that he always knew 
when a tempest was approaching by the cry of this bird, which 
is very shrill, and may be heard at the distance of a mile or 
more. The correctness of this observation I have myself since 
experienced in a winter voyage on the southern coasts of the 
United States. 


during winter, in the middle States ; and Colymbus septentrionalis, red- 
throated diver : all are common also to Europe and Great Britain, 
The vast lakes and rivers of America, and her interminable swamps, 
would seem proper nurseries for another family, the grebes ; and their 
recluse yet active aquatic manners must either have yet prevented the 
discovery of more species, or this form is comparatively wanting to that 
division of the world. Two species only are mentioned in Wilson’s 
“ History,” and Bonaparte adds other two. They are as follows, from 
that gentleman’s “ Synopsis :”— 
Podiceps. 
1. P. cristatus, Lath.—Crested grebe of Wilson’s List; rare in the middle 
States, and only during winter common in the interior and on the lakes. 
2. P. rubricollis, Lath.—Rare, and during winter only, in the middle States ; 
very common in Arctic America, 
3. P. cornutus, Lath.—Common during winter, the young especially, in 
the middle States. 
4. P. Carolinensis, Lath.—Little grebe, of Wilson’s List ; inhabits the whole 
continent of America, not extending far to the north. Common from 
Canada to Louisiana, migrating in the middle States.—ED. 


IIO GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 


This species seldom visits the shores of Britain, except in 
very severe winters ; but it is met with in the north of Europe, 
and spreads along the arctic coast as far as the mouth of the 
river Ob, in the dominions of Russia. It is found about Spitz- 
bergen, Iceland, and Hudson’s Bay. Makes its nest, in the 
more northern regions, on the little isles of fresh-water lakes : 
every pair keep a lake to themselves. It sees well, flies very 
high, and, darting obliquely, falls secure into its nest. Appears 
in Greenland in April or the beginning of May, and goes away 
in September or October, on the first fall of snow.* It is also 
found at Nootka Sound + and Kamtschatka. 

The Barabinzians, a nation situated between the river Ob 
and the Irtisch, in the Russian dominions, tan the breasts of 
this and other waterfowl, whose skins they prepare in such 
a manner as to preserve the down upon them, and, sewing a 
number of these together, they sell them to make pelisses, 
caps, &c. Garments made of these are very warm, never 
imbibing the least moisture, and are more lasting than could 
be imagined. f 

The natives of Greenland use the skins for clothing, and 
the Indians about Hudson’s Bay adorn their heads with cir- 
clets of their feathers, § 

Lewis and Clark’s party, at the mouth of the Columbia, 
saw robes made of the skins of loons,|| and abundance of these 
birds during the time that they wintered at Fort Clatsop on 
that river.4 

The Laplanders, according to Regnard, cover their heads 
with a cap made of the skin of a loom (loon), which word 
signifies, in their language, lame, because the bird cannot 
walk well. They place it on their head in such a manner 
that the bird’s head falls over their brow, and its wings cover 
their ears. 

“Northern divers,’ says Hearne, “though common in 

* Pennant. t+ Cook’s Last Voyage, vol. ii. p. 237, Am. ed. 


t Latham. § Arctic Zoology. || Gass’s Journal. 
“| History of the Expedition, vol. ii. p. 189. 


GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. IIT 


Hudson’s Bay, are by no means plentiful; they are seldom 
found near the coast, but more frequently in fresh-water lakes, 
and usually in pairs. They build their nests at the edge of 
small islands, or the margins of lakes or ponds; they lay only 
two eges, and it is very common to find only one pair and 
their young in one sheet of water; a great proof of their 
aversion to society. ‘They are known in Hudson’s Bay by the 
name of loons.” * 

The great northern diver measures two feet ten inches from 
the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, and four feet six 
inches in breadth ; the bill is strong, of a glossy black, and 
four inches and three-quarters long to the corner of the mouth ; 
the edges of the bill do not fit exactly into each other, and are 
ragged, the lower mandible separates into two branches, which 
are united by a thin elastic membrane, and are easily movable 
horizontally, or receding from each other, so as to form a wider 
gap to facilitate the swallowing of large fish; tongue, bifid ; 
irides, dark blood red ; the head and half of the length of the 
neck are of a deep black with a green gloss, and purple reflec- 
tions ; this is succeeded by a band consisting of interrupted 
white and black lateral stripes, which encompasses the neck, 
and tapers to a peint on its fore part, without joining,—this 
band measures about an inch and a half in its widest part, and, 
to appearance, 1s not continuous on the back part of the neck, 
being concealed by some thick, overhanging, black feathers, 
but, on separating the latter, the band becomes visible: the 
feathers which form these narrow stripes are white, streaked 
down their centre with black, and, what is a remarkable pecu- 
liarity, their webs project above the common surface ; below 
this, a broad band of dark glossy green and violet, which is 
blended behind with the plumage of the back ; the lower part 
of the neck, and the sides of the breast, are ribbed in the same 
manner as the band above; below the chin, a few stripes of 
the same ; the whole of the upper parts are of a deep black, 
slightly glossed with green, and thickly spotted with white, in 


* Hearne’s Journey, p. 429, 4to. 


112 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 


recular transverse or semicircular rows, two spots on the end 
of each feather—those on the upper part of the back, shoulders, 
rump, and tail-coverts, small and roundish, those on the 
centre of the back, square and larger ; those on the scapulars 
are the largest, and of an oblong,;square shape; the wing- 
feathers and tail are plain brown black, the latter composed 
of twenty feathers ; the lower parts are pure white, a slight 
dusky line across the vent; the scapulars descend over the 
wing when closed, and the belly feathers ascend so as to meet 
them, by which means every part of the wing is concealed, 
except towards the tip; the outside of the legs and feet is 
black, inside, lead colour; the leg is four inches in length, and 
the foot measures, along the exterior toe to the tip of its claw, 
four inches and three-quarters ; both legs and feet are marked 
with five-sided polygons; weight of the specimen described, 
eight pounds and a half. 

The female diver is somewhat less than the male; the bill 
is yellowish ; crown, back part of the neck, and whole upper 
parts, pale brown ; the plumage of part of the back and scapu- 
lars is tipt with pale ash; the throat, lower side of the neck, 
and whole under parts, are white, but not so pure as that of 
the male, having a yellowish tinge; the quill-feathers, dark 
brown. She has no appearance of bands on her neck, or of 
spots on her body. 

The young males do not obtain their perfect plumage until 
the second or third year. One which we saw, and which was 
conjectured to be a yearling, had some resemblance to the 
female, with the exception of its upper parts being of a darker 
and purer brown, or mouse colour, and its under parts of a 
more delicate white; it had likewise a few spots on the back 
and scapulars; but none of those markings on the neck which 
distinguish the full-grown male. 

The conformation of the ribs and bones of this species is 
remarkable, and merits particular examination. 

In the account which some of the European ornithologists 
vive of their northern diver, we presume there is an inaccu- 


3 
— 


GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. in 


racy. They say it measures three feet six inches in length, 
and four feet eight in breadth, and weighs sixteen pounds. If 
this be a correct statement, it would lead to the surmise that 
our diver is a different species; for, of several specimens which 
we examined, the best and largest has been described for this 
work, the admeasurement of which bird comes considerably 
short of that of the European mentioned above. The weight, 
as has been stated, was eight pounds and a half. 

According to Temminck, the adult male and female are 
alike in plumage. All the females which have passed under 
my examination differed from the old males; and it is the 
universal opinion among our sportsmen who reside on the 
coast, where the loons are common, that the adults of both 
sexes may always be distinguished by their garb. However, 
in confirmation of Temminck’s opinion, I can adduce the 
authority of the Prince of Musignano, Charles Lucian Bona- 
parte, who has informed me that he has in his collection a 
female which was shot in the Delaware, and which differs in 
no respect from the adult male. 

On a re-examination of the “Supplement to the Ornitho- 
logical Dictionary” of Montagu, I find upon this subject the 
following remarks, which should seem to put the question at 
rest respecting the identity of the Huropean and American 
species :—‘“It should appear that the size of this species has 
been commonly exaggerated, or they must vary very materially, 
since those which have come under our examination did not 
exceed ten pounds; and an old or matured male measured 
only two feet eight inches. A young female, before the plumage 
was perfected, weighed eight pounds six ounces, and measured 
two feet seven inches in length. 

“A northern diver, taken alive, was kept in a pond for 
some months, which gave us an opportunity of attending to 
its manners. In a few days it became extremely docile, 
would come at the call from one side of the pond to the 
other, and would take food from the hand. The bird had 


received an injury in the head, which had deprived one eye 
VOL, III. H 


II4 LAUGHING GULL. 


of its sight, and the other was a little impaired ; but, notwith- 
standing, it could, by incessantly diving, discover all the fish 
that was thrown into the pond. In defect of fish, it would 
eat flesh. 

“Tt is observable that the legs of this bird are so constructed 
and situated as to render it incapable of walking upon them. 
This is probably the case with all the divers, as well as the 
erebes. 

“When this bird quitted the water, it shoved its body along 
upon the ground, like a seal, by jerks, rubbing the breast 
against the ground, and it returned again to the water in a 
similar manner. In swimming and diving, only the legs are 
used, and not the wings, as in the guillemot and auk tribes ; 
and by their situation so far behind, and their little deviation 
from the line of the body, the bird is enabled to propel itself 
in the water with great velocity, in a straight line, as well as 
turn with astonishing quickness.” 


LAUGHING GULL.* (Larus atriciila.) 
PLATE LXXIV.—Fie. 4. 


Larus atricilla, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, tom. i. p. 136, 5.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 600, 8.— 
Ind, Orn. p. 815, 4.—Laughing Gull, Catesby, i. pl. 89.—Lath. Gen. Syn. 
lil. p. 383, 12.—Arct. Zool. No. 454.—La Mouette Rieuse, Briss. vi. p. 192, 
13, pl. 18, fig. 1.—Mouette 4 capuchon plombé, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p. 779.— 
Peale’s Museum, No. 3881. 
LARUS ATRICILLIA.—LInNNEzvSs. + 


Larus ridibundus, Ord. 1st edit. of Supp. p. 89.—Larus atricilla, Bonap. Synop. 
p. 309, 


LENGTH, seventeen inches; extent, three feet six inches; bill, 
thighs, legs, feet, sides of the mouth, and eyelids, dark blood 


* Named in the plate, black-headed gull. 

+ This gull is the only one figured by Wilson, though several are 
mentioned in his list, and, no doubt, had he survived to complete his 
great undertaking, many others would have been both added and 
figured. I have introduced a short description of those which have 


LAUGHING GULL. ion 


red; inside of the mouth, vermilion ; bill, nearly two inches 
and a half long; the nostril is placed rather low ; the eyes are 


been since noticed by writers on arctic and northern zoology, but any 
observations will be confined, for the present, to the form now before us, 
perhaps more familiar in the black-headed gull of Britain, 

The gulls are distributed over the whole world, and present various 
forms. They are mostly, however, of graceful appearance, and perform 
their motions with ease and lightness ; their plumage is often’ of snowy 
whiteness, or tinged with a pale blush, adding to its delicacy. By the 
poets they are employed as emblems of purity, when riding buoyantly 
on the waves, and weaving a sportive dance, or as accessories to the 
horrors of a storm, by their shrieks and wild piercing cries, In their 
manners they are the vultures of the ocean, feed indiscriminately on fish 
or on carrion, and frequently attack birds of inferior power. A dead 
horse, newly cast upon the beach, will present a picture little inferior to 
that drawn by Audubon of the American vultures on the discovery of 
some putrid carcass. 

Our present bird will rank under the genus XYema of Bojé, which will 
contain those of swallow-like form, apparently both a natural and well- 
defined group. They are not so truly pelagic as many of the other forms 
—ascend the course of rivers in search of food, and breed by the inland 
lochs or marshes—are extremely clamorous and intrepid in defence of 
their young, but during winter are one of the most shy and wary. They 
undergo an annual change of plumage during the breeding season, ob- 
taining the whole or part of the head of a dark and decided colour from 
the rest of the body, generally shades of deep and rich brown or grey ; 
in winter this entirely disappears, and is succeeded by pure white, except 
on the auriculars, which retain a trace of the darker shade. They feed 
on fish and insects, and some follow the plough in search of what it may 
turnup. In fishing, they exhibit occasionally the same manner of seizing 
their prey as the terns, hovering above, and striking it under water with 
the wings closed. 

The species which are noticed by the Prince of Musignano and the 
authors of the “Northern Zoology,” as inhabiting North America, are— 


1. L. Sabinii (Xema Sabinzi, Leach).—Discovered by Captain Edward Sabine, 
breeding in company with the arctic tern, on the west coast of Greenland ; 
they seem confined to high latitudes. 

2. Larus minutus, Pall.—Inhabiting the north, but seldom seen in the 
United States. 

3. Larus capistratus, Temm.—Inhabiting the north, and not very rare during 
autumn on the Delaware and Chesapeake, and found as far inland as Trenton. 
These will all rank in Xema, and Swainson and Richardson have described 
two under the titles of Z. Franklinii and L. Bonapartii. These gentlemen 
seem to think that the American ZL. atricilla is confounded with Temminck’s 


116 LAUGHING GULL. 


black ; above and below each eye there is a spot of white; the 
head and part of the neck are black; remainder of the neck, 


atricilla, and that they embrace two species. I have added the descriptions 
from Dr Richardson and Mr Swainson’s notes in their own words. I have 
no means at present of deciding this point. 

4. L. Franklinii, Swain. and Richards.—Franklin’s rosy gull, with vermilion 
bill and feet ; mantle, pearl grey; five exterior quills broadly barred with 
black, the first one tipped with white for an inch; tarsus, twenty lines 
long; hood, black in summer. 


“«This is a very common gull in the interior of the Fur Countries, where it fre- 
quents the shores of the larger lakes. It is generally seen in flocks, and is very 
noisy. It breeds in marshy places. Ord’s description of his black-headed gull 
(Wilson, vol. ix. p. 89—present edition, vol. ili. p. 114) corresponds with our 
specimens, except that the conspicuous white end of the first quill is not noticed : 
the figure (pl. 74, fig. 4) differs in the primaries being entirely black.* The 
Prince of Musignano gives the totally black primaries, and a tarsus nearly two 
inches long, as part of the specific character of his Z. atricilla, to which he refers 
Wilson’s bird ; though, in his ‘‘Observations,” he states that the adult specimens 
have the primaries, with the exception of the first and second, tipped with white. © 
L. Franklinii cannot be referred either to the Z. atricilla or L. melanocephalus 
of M. Temminck : the first has a lead-coloured hood, and deep black quill-feathers, 
untipped by white ; and the black hood of the second does not descend lower on 
the throat than on the nape; its quill-feathers are also differently marked, and 
its tarsus is longer. His L. ridibundus and capistratus have brown heads, and 
the interior of the wings grey ; the latter has also a much smaller bill than our 
L. Franklinii.” 

5. L. Bonapartii, Swain. and Richards.—Bonapartian Gull.—Worth. Zool. ii. 
p. 425.—‘‘ With a black bill; the mouth and feet, carmine red; wings, 
bordered with white anteriorly ; posteriorly, together with the back, pearl 
grey ; six exterior quills, black at the end, slightly tipped with white ; the 
first quill entirely black exteriorly ; tarsus, scarcely an inch and a half 
long ; head, greyish black in summer. 

*“This handsome small gull is common in all parts of the Fur Countries, where 
it associates with the terns, and is distinguished by its peculiar shrill and 
plaintive cry. The Z. capistratus of the Prince of Musignano differs, accord- 
ing to his description, in the first quill being white exteriorly, pale ash 
interiorly ; in the light brown colour of its head, and in its tail being slightly 
emarginated ; while the tail of Z. Bonapartii is more inclined to be rounded 
laterally than notched in the middle.” 

6. L. roseus, Macgilliv.—A rare species confined to high latitudes, discovered 
during Sir Edward Parry’s second voyage, when two specimens were ob- 
tained ; the one is now in the Edinburgh Museum, the other was presented 
to Mr Sabine, whose collection has heen lately sold to the Andersonian 
Museum in Glasgow. 


* “Four American specimens.of ZL. atricilla are now before me. Itis a larger 
and a totally different species. The three outer quills are wholly black; the 
fourth tipped for about one inch, and the fifth for half an inch, with black ; the 
extreme white spot at the point of the five first quills is very small in some, and 
not seen in adult specimens, having these feathers worn.”—Sw. 


LAUGHING GULL. 117 


breast, whole lower parts, tail-coverts and tail, pure white ; 
the scapulars, wing-coverts, and whole upper parts are of a 


7. L. tridactylus, Linn.—Kittiewake, Wilson’s List.—Inhabiting both con- 
tinents. 

8. Z. canus, Linn.—Common Gull, Wilson’s List.—Inhabiting both conti- 
nents, and numerous during winter in the middle States of America, 

9. L. eburneus, Gmel.—Inhabits the arctic circle; migrating occasionally 
to the temperate regions. A few specimens have been killed in Britain. 
10. L. fuscus, Linn.—Very common during winter near Philadelphia and 

New York. 

11. LZ. argentatoides, Brehm.—This bird is separated from Larus argentatus 
by Bonaparte, who mentions having shot it on the southern coasts of 
England. At the same time that he separates it from the herring-gull, 
he expresses a doubt of its being the Z. argentatoides of Brehm. This I 
cannot at present decide, but have appended, without any abridgment, the 
observations and description of a bird referred to this, from the ‘* Northern 
Zoology ;” it is very closely allied, at all events, tothe Z. argentatus ; and 
it is of importance that the characters of a species said to be killed on our 
coasts should be properly investigated. 


Larus argentatoides,—Arctie Silvery Gull. 


**Tarus argentatus, Richards. Append. Parry’s Second Voy., p. 358, No. 22.— 
Larus argentatoides, Bonap. Syn., No. 299.—Novya, Esquimaux. 

**The Prince of Musignano has distinguished this gull from Larus argentatus, 
with which it had been confounded by most other writers. It is impossible, 
therefore, to separate its history, or to cite the descriptions of other authors 
correctly. It was found breeding on Melville Peninsula; and the eggs that were 
brought home have an oil-green colour, marked with spots and blotches of black- 
ish brown and subdued purplish grey. It preys much on fish, and is noted at 
Hudson’s Bay for robbing the nets set in the fresh-water lakes. I have seen no 
specimens from Arctic America which I can unequivocally refer to the Larus 
aryentatus, as characterised by the Prince of Musignano.” 


Description of a Male in the Edinburgh Museum, killed on Melville 
Peninsula, June 29, 1822. 


“*Colour, mantle pearl grey. Six outer quills crossed by a brownish-black band, 
which takes in nearly the whole of the first one, but becoming rapidly narrower 
on the others, terminates in a spot near the tip of the sixth. The first quill has 
a white tip an inch and a half long, marked interiorly with a brown spot; the 
second has a round white spot on its inner web, and, together with the rest of the 
quill-feathers, is tipped with white. Head, neck, rump, tail, and all the under 
plumage, pure white. Bill, wine-yellow, with an orange-coloured spot near the 
tip of the under mandible. Ivrides, primrose-yellow. Legs, flesh-coloured. 

‘‘Form.—Bill moderately strong, compressed ; upper mandible, arched from 
the nostrils; nostrils, oblong oval ; wings, about an inch longer than the tail ; 
thighs, naked for three-quarters of an inch; hind toe, articulated rather high. 

“The young have the upper plumage hair-brown, with reddish brown borders ; 
the head and under plumage, grey, thickly spotted with pale brown; the tail 
mostly brown, tipped with white. 


118 LAUGHING GULL. 


fine blue ash colour ; the first five primaries are black towards 
their extremities ; the secondaries are tipt largely with white, 


“ DIMENSIONS.—Length, total, 23 inches; of tail, 7 inches, 3 lin. ; of wing, 16 
inches, 6 lin. ; of bill above, 2 inches ; of bill to rictus, 3 inches; from nostrils to 
tip, 11 lin. ; of nostrils, 43 lin. ; of tarsus, 2 inches, 45 lin. ; of middle toe, 2 
inches, 1 lin. ; of middle nail, 5 lin.; of inner toe, 1 inch, 6 lin. ; of inner nail, 4 
lin. ; of hind toe, 3 lin. ; length of hind nail, 25 lin. 

‘Six individuals, killed on Melville Peninsula in June, July, and September, 
varied in total length from 23 to 25 inches, and in the length of their tarsi from 
27 to 31 lines. 

‘Bonaparte thus gives the distinctive characters of the two species :— 

“‘T,. argentatoides.— Back and wings, bluish grey; quills, black at the point, 
tipped with white, reaching but little beyond the tail; shafts, black; first 
primary, broadly white at tip; second, with a round white spot besides ; tarsus, 
less than two and a half inches; nostrils, oval ; length, twenty inches. 

“7. argentatus.—Mantle, bluish grey; quills, black at the point, tipped with 
white, reaching much beyond the tail; shafts, black; first primary only with a 
white spot besides the narrow tip; tarsus, nearly three inches ; nostrils, linear ; 
length two feet. They are closely allied, and may at once be distinguished by 
the size.” 


12. ZL. aryentatus, Brunn.—Herring Gull, Wilson’s List.—Common to both 
continents, and not uncommon near New York and Philadelphia. 

13. L. leucopterus, Faber.—Inhabiting the arctic circle, whence it migrates 
in winter to the boreal regions of both continents, advancing farther south 
in America: not rare in the northern and middle States. 

14. L. glaucus, Brunn.—Inhabiting the arctic regions, and exceedingly rare 
in the United States. 

15. L. marinus, Linn.—Black-backed Gull, Wilson’s List.—Not uncommon 
during winter in the middle States. 

16. D. zonorhynchus, Richards.—Ring-billed Mew Gull, a new species, de- 
scribed in ‘‘ Northern Zoology.” —Bill, ringed, rather longer than the tarsus, 
which measures two and a half inches; mantle, pearl grey; ends of the 
quills and their shafts, blackish ; a short white space on the two exterior 
ones. 

17. L. bachyrhynchus, Richards.—Short-billed Mew Gull.—Another species, 
described as new in the ‘* Northern Zoology.”—From the description of the 
present bird copied from that work, it will be seen that the authors them- 
selves are not decided in their opinions as to the absolute distinction of this 
and the preceding from ZL. canus, and I have placed them here for the 
same reason that they are admitted into that valuable work. It is not 
unlikely that they, or at least the same varieties, may be discovered on 
our own coasts. 


“Short-billed mew gull, with a short, thickish bill; a tarsus scarcely two inches 
long; quills, not tipped with white ; a short white space on the two exterior ones, 
and blackish shafts. 

** Our specimen of this gull is a female, killed on the 23d of May 1826, at Great 
Bear Lake. Some brown markings on the tertiaries, primary coverts, and bastard 
wing, with an imperfect sub-terminal bar on the tail, point it out as a young bird, 
most probably commencing its second spring. The rest of its plumage corresponds 
with that of LZ. zonorhynchus, except that it wants the extreme white tips of the 


LAUGHING GULL. 119 


and almost all the primaries slightly ; the bend of the wing 
is white, and nearly three inches long ; the tail is almost even ; 


quill-feathers, which, on the third and following ones, are very conspicuous in 
L. zonorhynchus. It differs, however, remarkably, in its bill being shorter, though 
considerably stouter, than that of our L. canus, and, like it, it is wax-yellow, 
with a bright yellow rictus and point. Its tarsus is nearly one-third shorter than 
that of Z. zonorhynchus. Many may be disposed to consider this and the preced- 
ing as merely local varieties of ZL. canus; and it might be urged, in support of 
this opinion, that there are considerable differences in the length and thickness 
of the bills of individuals of the common and winter gulls killed on the English 
coasts, which are all usually referred to L. canus. We have judged it advisable, 
however, to call the attention of ornithologists to these American birds, by giving 
them specific names, leaving it to future observation to determine whether they 
ought to retain the rank of species, or be considered as mere varieties.”— 
RICHARDS. 


In this place must be introduced the genus Lestris or Skua, of which 
only one species was enumerated by Wilson in his List—the L. cataractes, 
Nliger—the common Skua gull of British ornithologists. The Prince of 
Musignano mentions, in addition, the now well-known European and 
British species, LZ. parasiticus and pomarinus, another somewhat allied, 
but not yet well distinguished, LZ. Buffonii, Boje ; and a fifth species is 
described as new in the “ Northern Zoology,’ and is dedicated to Dr 
Richardson—Z. Richardsonii. It seems closely allied to LZ. Buffoni, 
but the distinctions yet want clearness and confirmation, It was found 
breeding in considerable numbers in the barren grounds at a distance 
from the coast. The following are Bonaparte’s characters of L. Buffonii, 
by which it is alone known :— 


Lestris Buffonii, Bojé.—Bill, one inch and a quarter from the front, straight, 
notched ; middle tail-feathers, gradually tapering, narrow for several inches, 
ending in a point; tarsus, one inch and a half long, almost smooth. Adult, 
brown; neck and beneath, white, the former tinged with yellow. Young, 
wholly brownish. 

“* Arctic bird, Edw. pl. 148; Buff. Pl. enl. 762; Lestris crepidata, Brehm.”— 
Bonap. Syn. No. 306. 


And I add the observations of Mr Swainson regarding LZ. Richard- 
sont :— 


‘‘Richardson’s jager, whole plumage, brown; two middle tail-feathers, ab- 
ruptly acuminated ; tarsi, black, twenty-two lines long. 

‘‘This specimen appears to us to be in full and mature plumage; we cannot, 
therefore, view it as the young, or even as the female, of the Lestris Buffonii of 
Bojé, which we only know from the characters assigned to it by the Prince of 
Musignano. According to this account, the LZ. Buffonii has the bill an inch and 
a quarter long from the front; ours is only an inch: the tarsi are described as 
almost smooth, whereas in ours they are particularly rough. The adult, as 
figured on plate 762 of the Pl. Enl., has the chin, throat, and sides of the neck 
quite white ; but, in our bird, these parts are of the same pure and decided tint 
as that of the body, except that the ear-feathers, and a few lower down the neck, 


120 LAUGHING GULL. 


it consists of twelve feathers, and its coverts reach within an 
inch and a half of its tip; the wings extend two inches be- 
yond the tail; a delicate blush is perceivable on the breast 
and belly ; length of tarsus, two inches. 

The head of the female is of a dark dusky slate colour; in 
other respects she resembles the male. 

In some individuals, the crown is of a dusky grey; the 
upper part and sides of the neck of a lead colour; the bill and 
legs of a dirty, dark purplish brown. Others have not the 
white spots above and below the eyes ; these are young birds, 

The changes of plumage to which birds of this genus are 
subject have tended not a little to confound the naturalist ; 
and a considerable collision of opinion, arising from an imper- 
fect acquaintance with the living subjects, has been the result. 
To investigate thoroughly their history, it is obviously neces- 
sary that the ornithologist should frequently explore their na- 
tive haunts ; and, to determine the species of periodical or occa- 
sional visitors, an accurate; comparative examination of many 
specimens, either alive or recently killed, is indispensable. 
Less confusion would arise among authors if they would oc- 
casionally abandon their accustomed walks—their studies and 
their museums—and seek correct knowledge in the only place 
where it is to be obtained—in the grand temple of Nature. As 
respects, in particular, the tribe under review, the zealous 


have a slight tinge of ochre.* The tarsi also, in both the plates cited by the 
Prince, are coloured yellow. These differences, with the more important one 
exhibited in the feet, will not permit us to join these birds under one name. 
Another distinction, which must not be overlooked, is in the colour of the feet. 
Edwards expressly says of his ‘ Arctic Bird’ (pl. 149, which much more resembles 
ours than that figured on the plate immediately preceding), that ‘the legs and 
toes are all yellow;’ whereas, in our bird, these members are of a deep and 
shining black, while the hinder parts of the tarsi, toes, and connecting mem- 
brane, are particularly rough.”—Sw. 

This jager breeds in considerable numbers in the barren grounds at a distance 
from the coast. It feeds on shelly mollusce, which are plentiful in the small 
lakes of the Fur Countries, and it harasses the gulls in the same way with others 
of the genus.—ED. 


* The pure colour or uniform tint of the lower parts will not stand as charac- 
ters ; in our native species they vary constantly.— Eb, 


LAUGHING GULL. T21 


inquirer would find himself amply compensated for all his toil 
by observing these neat and clean birds coursing along the 
rivers and coast, enlivening the prospect by their airy move- 
ments, now skimming closely over the watery element, watch- 
ing the motions of the surges, and now rising into the higher 
regions sporting with the winds, while he inhaled the invi- 
gorating breezes of the ocean, and listened to the soothing 
murmurs of its billows. 

The laughing gull, known in America by the name of the 
black-headed gull, is one of the most beautiful and most soci- 
able of its genus. They make their appearance on the coast 
of New Jersey in the latter part of April, and do not fail to 
give notice of their arrival by their familiarity and loquacity. 
The inhabitants treat them with the same indifference that 
they manifest towards all those harmless birds which do not 
minister either to their appetite or their avarice ; and hence 
the black-heads may be seen in companies around the farm- 
house, coursing along the river-shores, gleaning up the refuse 
of the fisherman, and the animal substances left by the tide, 
or scattered over the marshes and newly-ploughed fields, 
regaling on the worms, insects, and their larvee, which, in the 
vernal season, the bounty of Nature provides for the sustenance 
of myriads of the feathered race. 

On the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, in the neighbour- 
hood of Fishing Creek, about the middle of May, the black- 
headed gulls assemble in great multitudes, to feed upon the 
remains of the king-crabs which the hogs have left, or upon 
the spawn which those curious animals deposit in the sand, 
and which is scattered along the shore by the waves. At such 
times, if any one approach to disturb them, the gulls will rise 
up in clouds, every individual squalling so loud, that the roar 
may be heard at the distance of two or three miles. 

It is an interesting spectacle to behold this species when 
about recommencing their migrations. If the weather be calm, 
they will rise up in the air spirally, chattering all the while 
to each other in the most sprightly manner, their notes at 


122 LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 


such times resembling the singing of a hen, but far louder, 
changing often into a haw, ha ha ha haw! the last syllable 
lengthened out like the excessive laugh of a negro. When 
mounting and mingling together, like motes in the sunbeams, 
their black heads and wing-tips and snow-white plumage 
give them a very beautiful appearance. After gaining an 
immense height, they all move off, with one consent, in a 
direct line towards the point of their destination. 

This bird breeds in the marshes. The eggs are three in 
number, of a dun clay colour, thinly marked with small irre- 
gular touches of a pale purple and pale brown ; some are of 
a deeper dun, with larger marks, and less tapering than others; 
the egg measures two inches and a quarter by one inch and 
a half. 

The black-heads frequently penetrate into the interior, 
especially as far as Philadelphia; but they seem to prefer the 
neighbourhood of the coast for the purpose of breeding. They 
retire southward early in autumn. 


LITTLE GUILLEMOT. (Uria alle.) 
PLATE LXXIV.—Fie. 5. 


Uria alle, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p. 928.—Alca alle, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, tom. i. p. 
211, 5.—Gimel. Syst. i. p. 554, 5.—Ind. Orn. p. 795, 10.—Uria minor, Briss. 
vi. p. 73, 2.—Le Petit Guillemot Femelle, Pl. enl. 917.—Small Black and 
White Diver, Edwards, pl. 91.—Little Auk, Lath. Gen. Syn. iii. p. 327.— 
Penn. Arct. Zool. No. 429.—Bewick, ii. p. 158.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2978. 


MERGULUS MELANOLEUCOS.—Ray.* 


Mergulus melanoleucos, Ray, Synop. p. 125.—Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 135.—Uria 
(subgen. Mergulus) alle, Bonap. Synop. p. 425.—Little Auk, Mont. Orn. Dict. 
and Supp.—Selby, Illust. pl. lxxxi.—Uria alle, North. Zool. ii. p. 479. 


Or the history of this little stranger, but few particulars are 
known. With us it is a very rare bird, and, when seen, it is 


* T have chosen the name of Ray for this species, as both appropriate, 
and, as far as my inquiries have led me, entitled to the priority—and 
the difference in form from the guillemots fully entitles it to the rank of 
asubgenus. It is the only bird allied in any way to the auks, puffins, 


LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 123 


generally in the vicinity of the sea. The specimen described 
was killed at Great Egg Harbour, in the month of December 


&c., which has been figured by Wilson, though several forms occur in 
the northern seas, and have been pointed out by him, which may be now 
mentioned, but which will be hereafter figured from the remaining 
volumes of the “‘ Continuation,” by the Prince of Musignano, now in the 
press. I have therefore only added an enumeration from the “ Synopsis” 
of that ornithologist, commencing with the guillemots, for which the genus 
Uria has been adopted ; by some the black guillemot is separated, on ac- 
count of straightness of the mandibles, whereas in the common they are 
both bent at the tip. In our present state of knowledge I prefer retain- 
ing them together. 
Uria, Briss. 

1. U. troile.—Foolish Guillemot.—Common to both continents, and found 
during winter on the coasts of the United States. 

2. U. brunichit, Sab.—Inhabits both continents, and is common in Davis’ 
Straits, Baffin’s Bay, &c. It has been said to have occurred once or twice 
on the British coasts. 

3. U. grylle.—Black Guillemot.—Common to both continents, and found 
during winter along the coasts of the United States. A few pairs breed 
annually on the rocky islands on the Firth of Forth. I have repeatedly 
found them on the Isle of May. 

4, U. marmorata, Lath.—Brown, undulated with chestnut ; beneath, dusky, 
spotted with white; feet, orange ; bill, black, one inch long. Inhabits the 
north-western coasts of America, and the opposite shore of Asia. 


These are the characters given by Bonaparte to the last bird. Will it 
not be the immature state of some other species ¢ 


Phaleris, Temm. 


1. P. psittacula, Temm.—Perrequet Auk.—Inhabits the north-western coasts 
of America, and the opposite ones of Asia. Common in Kamtschatka. 

2. P. christatella, Temm.—Crested Auk.—The Prince of Musignano is only 
of opinion that this may be found on the western shores of America; it is 
known in the Japan seas and the north-eastern coast of Africa. He thinks 
also that the Alca antiqua of Latham may prove a third North American 

» species of Phaleris. 


Another bird (Phaleris cerorhinca), entering formerly into this genus, 
has been separated by the Prince of Musignano, and placed ina subgenus, 
Cerorhinca, to be figured in his fourth volume. 


Cerorhinca, Bonap. 


1. C. occidentalis, Bonap.—Inhabits the western coasts of North America. 


Mormon, Illig. 
1. M. cirrhatus, Temm.—Tufted Auk, Lath.—Inhabits the sea between 


124 LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 


1811, and was sent to Wilson as a great curiosity. It mea- 
sured nine inches in length, and fourteen in extent; the bill, 
upper part of the head, back, wings, and tail, were black ; the 
upper part of the breast and hind head were grey, or white 
mixed with ash ; the sides of the neck, whole lower parts, and 
tips of secondaries, were pure white ; feet and legs, black ; 
shins, pale flesh colour; above each eye there was a small 
spot of white;* the lower scapulars, streaked slightly with the 
same. 

The little guillemot is said to be but a rare visitant of the 
British Isles. It is met with in various parts of the north, 
even as far as Spitzbergen ; is common in Greenland, in com- 
pany with the black-billed auk, and feeds upon the same kind 
of food. The Greenlanders call it the ice-bird, from the cir- 
cumstance of its being the harbinger of ice. It lays two bluish 
white eges, larger than those of the pigeon. It flies quick, 
and dives well; and is always dipping its bill into the water 
while swimming, or at rest on that element ; walks better on 

North America and Kamtschatka ; often seen on the western coasts of the 
United States in winter. 
2. M. glacialis, Leach.—Puffin of Wilson’s List.—Inhabits the arctic parts 


of both continents ; not uncommon in winter on the coasts of the United 
States. 

This species has of late been looked for on the coasts of Britain, but 
yet, I believe, without success. The chief and easiest detected difference 
is in the size and form of the bill Mr Pennant observed a difference in 
the bills of several species from different parts, and Dr Fleming puts the 
question—“ Have we two species?” I think it more than probable that 
this bird has been overlooked from its near alliance, and that, though 
comparatively rare, it will be yet found to occur on our own coasts. 

3. Mormon arcticus.—Puffin of Wilson’s List.—The common puffin of Europe, 
and migratory to the temperate shores of the United States. 


Alca, Linn. 


1. A. torda.—Razorbill of Wilson’s List. -Common in winter along the coasts 
of the United States. 

2. A. impennis.—Great Auk.—Inhabits the arctic seas of both continents, 
where it is almost constantly resident. 


* In Peale’s Museum there is an excellent specimen of this species, 
which has likewise a smaller spot below each eye. 


Head of Black Vulture 


veal tall , 
Drawn fom Katie ¥y A Widvon Fnanwed bv WU Barak 


1. Turkey Buzzard. ?. Black: Vulture. 3. Raven. 
i? 


TURKEY VULTURE. 125 


Jand than others of the genus. It grows fat in the stormy 
season, from the waves bringing plenty of crabs and small fish 
within its reach. It is not a very crafty bird, and may be 
easily taken. It varies to quite white, and sometimes is found 
with a reddish breast.* 

To the anatomist, the internal organisation of this species 
is deserving attention : it is so constructed as to be capable of 
contracting or dilating itself at pleasure. We know not what 
Nature intends by this conformation, unless it be to facilitate 
diving, for which the compressed form is well adapted ; and 
likewise the body, when expanded, will be rendered more 
buoyant, and fit for the purpose of swimming upon the surface 
of the water. 


TURKEY VULTURE, OR TURKEY BUZZARD. 
(Vultur aura.) 


PLATE LXXV.—Ficg. 1. 


Vultur aura, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, tom. i. p. 86, 4.—Ind. Orn. p. 4, No. 8.— 
Vieillot, Ois. deVAm. Sep. i. p. 25, pl. 2, vis.—Carrion Crow, Sloane, Jam. ii. 
p. 294, fol. 254.—Carrion Vulture, Lath. Gen. Syn. i. p. 9.—Le Vautour du 
Brésil, Briss. i. p. 468.—Turkey Buzzard, Catesby, Car. i. p. 6.—Bartram’s 
Travels, p. 289.—Cozca quantitti, Clavigero, Hist. Mex. i. p. 47, Eng. trans. 
—American Vulture, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vii. p. 36.—Peale’s Museum, No. 11, 


m.; 12, fem. 
CATHARTES AURA.—ILLIGER.+ 


Cathartes aura, Illig. Prod.—Bonap. Synop. p. 35.—North. Zool. ii. p. 4. 


THis species is well known throughout the United States, but 
is most numerous in the southern section of the Union. In 


* Latham ; Pennant. 

+ The vultures are comparatively a limited race, and exist in every 
quarter of the world, New Holland excepted ;* but their range is 
chiefly in the warm latitudes. 

Those of the New World seem to be contained in two genera, Sarco- 


* I have said ‘‘ New Holland excepted,” because we have yet no well authen- 
ticated instance of anything approaching this form from that very interesting 
country. The New Holland vulture of Latham rests, to a certain extent, on 
dubious authority, and cannot now be referred to. I have no doubt that some 
representing group will be ultimately discovered, which may perhaps elucidate 


126 TURKEY VULTURE. 


the northern and middle States it is partially migratory, the 
greater part retiring to the south on the approach of cold 


ramphus of Dumeril, and Cathartes of Illiger ; the one containing the 
condor and Californian vultures ; the other, the turkey buzzards, &c., 
of Wilson. They are, perhaps, generally, the most unseemly and dis- 
gusting of the whole feathered race, of loose and ill-kept plumage, of 
sluggish habits when not urged on by hunger, feeding on any animal 
food which they can easily tear to pieces, but often upon the most put- 
rid and loathsome carrion. They have been introduced by the ancients 
in their beautiful but wild conceptions and imagery, and have been em- 
bodied in the tales of fiction and poems of the modern day as all that 
is lurid, disgusting, and horrible. They are the largest of the feathered 
race, if we except the Struthionide, or that group to which the ostrich, 
cassowary, and bustards belong, and have long been celebrated on account 
of their great strength. Many fabulous stories are recorded of the for- 
midable condor carrying off men, bullocks, and even elephants. 

They have been called the scavengers of nature ; and in warm climates, 
where all animal matter so soon decays, they are no doubt useful in 
clearing off what would soon fill the air with noxious miasmata. In 
many parts of Spain and southern Europe, the Meophron percnopterus, 
or Egyptian vulture of Savieny, and in America, the native species, are 
allowed to roam unmolested through the towns, and are kept in the 
market-places, as storks are in Holland, to clear away the refuse and 
offal ; and a high penalty is attached to the destruction of any of them. 
In this state they become very familiar and independent. Mr Audubon 
compares them to a garrisoned half-pay soldier : “'To move is for them 
a hardship ; and nothing but extreme hunger will make them fly down 
from the roof of the kitchen into the yard. At Natchez, the number 
of these expecting parasites is so great, that all the refuse within their 
reach is insufficient to maintain them.” They appear also to have been 
used for a most revolting purpose among barbarous nations, or at least, 
in conjunction with wild animals, were depended upon to assist in de- 
stroying and clearing away the dead, which were purposely exposed to 
their ravages, Some, however, are elegant and graceful in their form 
and plumage, and vie with the eagles in strength and activity. Such 
is the Vultur barbatus of Edwards, the lammergeyer of the European 
Alps. 

Independent of the species mentioned by our author, three others 


the principal forms wanting to the Raptores, and I know that Mr Swainson pos- 
sesses a New Holland bird, whose station he has been unable to decide, whether 
it will enter here, orrange with the gallinaceous birds. I trust that that gentle- 
man will, ere long, work out its affinities as far as possible, and give it to the 
public.—Eb. 


dj 
b 


TURKEY VULTURE. ay) 


weather; but numbers remain all the winter in Maryland, 
Delaware, and New Jersey, particularly in the vicinity of the 


have been described as natives of this continent, Sarcoramphus gryphus 
and Californianus of Dumeril, and the Cathartes papa of Illiger; the 
former supposed to be the celebrated Roc of Sinbad, the no less noted 
condor of moderns. They are found on the north-west chain of the 
Andes, frequenting, and not indeed generally met with until near, the 
limits of eternal snow, where they may be seen perched on the summit 
of a projecting rock, or sweeping round on the approach of an intruder, 
in expectation of prey, and looking, when opposed to a clear sky, of 
double magnitude. 


Moving athwart the evening sky, 
Seem forms of giant height. 


The stories of their destructive propensities are, to a certain extent, 
unfounded. No instance is recorded by any late travellers of children 
being carried off, and all their inquiries proved the reverse. It is a 
much followed occupation by the peasantry at the base of the Andes to 
ascend in search of ice for the luxury of the towns, and their children, 
at a very tender age, carried with them, are frequently left at con- 
siderable distances unprotected ; they always remain in security. The 
S. Calvfornianus was first known from a specimen in the British Museum, 
brought from California. Mr Douglas found it more lately in the woody 
districts of that country ; and I have transcribed his interesting account 
of its manners, &c. “ These gigantic birds, which represent the condor 
in the northern hemisphere, are common along the coast of California, 
but are never seen beyond the woody parts of the country. I have 
met with them as far to the north as 49° north lat. in the summer 
and autumn months, but nowhere so abundantly as in the Columbian 
valley, between the Grand Rapids and the sea, They build their nests 
in the most secret and impenetrable parts of the pine forests, invariably 
selecting the loftiest trees that overhang precipices, on the deepest and 
least accessible parts of the mountain valleys. The nest is large, com- 
posed of strong thorny twigs and grass, in every way similar to that of 
the eagle tribe, but more slovenly constructed. The same pair resort for 
several years to the same nest, bestowing little trouble or attention in 
repairing it. Eggs, two, nearly spherical, about the size of those of a 
goose, jet black. Period of incubation twenty-nine or thirty-one days, 
They hatch generally about the lst of June. The young are covered 
with thick whitish down, and are incapable of leaving the nest until 
the fifth or sixth week. Their food is carrion, dead fish, or other dead 
animal substance ; in no instance will they attack any living animal, 
unless it be wounded and unable to walk. Theirsenses of smelling and 
seeing are remarkably keen. In searching for prey, they soar to a very 


128 TURKEY VULTURE. 


large rivers and the ocean, which afford a supply of food at 
all seasons. 

In New Jersey,* the turkey buzzard hatches in May, the 
deep recesses of the solitary swamps of that State affording 
situations well suited to the purpose. The female is at no 
pains to form a nest with materials; but having chosen a suit- 
able place, which is either a truncated hollow tree, an exca- 
vated. stump, or log, she lays on the rotten wood from two to 
four eges, of a dull dirty white or pale cream colour, splashed 


great altitude, and when they discover a wounded deer or other animal, 
they follow its track, and when it sinks, precipitately descend on their 
object. Although only one is at first seen occupying the carcass, few 
minutes elapse before the prey is surrounded by great numbers ; and 
it is then devoured to a skeleton within an hour, even though it be one 
of the larger animals—C¢rvus elaphus, for instance—or a horse. Their 
voracity is almost insatiable, and they are extremely ungenerous, suffer- 
ing no other animal to approach them while feeding. After eating, they 
become so sluggish and indolent, as to remain in the same place until 
urged by hunger to go in quest of another repast. At such times they 
perch on decayed trees, with their heads so much retracted, as to be 
with difficulty observed through the long, loose, lanceolate feathers 
of the collar. The wings, at the same time, hang down over the feet. 
This position they invariably preserve in dewy mornings or after 
rains.” 

The third species, C. papa, not mentioned by Wilson, is introduced in 
the “ Synopsis of Birds of the United States” by the Prince of Musignano, 
who mentions its occurrence only in the warmer parts of North America ; 
it appears occasionally in Florida during summer. The other two are 
of much more frequent occurrence, and are of less noble dispositions, 
more sluggish, very easily intimidated, and dirty in the extreme. 
Truly clearing away all animal matter, they assemble in vast troops 
upon the discovery of some dead or nearly dying animal, and exhibit 
at their feasts scenes of the utmost gluttony and filth. Their power of 
scenting their quarry from afar has been proved erroneous by the well- 
managed experiments of Mr Audubon ; and, indeed, I never was in- 
clined to think that any birds were endowed with any remarkable 
development of this particular sense.—Ep, 

* Mr Ord mentions New Jersey in particular, as in that State he has 
visited the breeding-places of the turkey buzzard, and can therefore 
speak with certainty of the fact. Pennsylvania, it is more than pro- 
bable, affords situations equally attractive, which are also tenanted by 
this vulture for hatching and rearing its young. 


TURKEY VULTURE. 129 


all over with chocolate, mingled with blackish touches, the 
blotches largest and thickest towards the great end ; the form 
something like the egg of a goose, but blunter at the small 
end; leneth, two inches and three-quarters ; breadth, two inches. 
The male watches often while the female is sitting ; and, if 
not disturbed, they will occupy the same breeding-place for 
several years. The young are clothed with a whitish down, 
similar to that which covers young goslings. If any person 
approach the nest and attempt to handle them, they will im- 
mediately vomit such offensive matter, as to compel the in- 
truder to a precipitate retreat. 

The turkey buzzards are gregarious, peaceable, and harmless, 
never offering any violence to a living animal, or, like the plun- 
derers of the Falco tribe, depriving the husbandman of his 
stock. Hence, though, in consequence of their filthy habits, 
they are not beloved, yet they are respected for their useful- 
ness; and in the southern States, where they are most needed, 
they, as well as the black vultures, are protected by a law which 
imposes a fine on those who wilfully deprive them of life. 
They generally roost in flocks, on the limbs of large trees ; and 
they may be seen on a summer morning, spreading out their 
wings to the rising sun, and remaining in that posture for a con- 
siderable time. Pennant conjectures that this is “to purify 
their bodies, which are most offensively fetid.’ But is it 
reasonable to suppose that that effluvia can be offensive to 
them which arises from food perfectly adapted to their nature, 
and which is constantly the object of their desires? Many 
birds, and particularly those of the granivorous kind, have a 
similar habit, which doubtless is attended with the same exhil- 
arating effects as an exposure to the pure air of the morning 
has on the frame of one just risen from repose. 

These birds, unless when rising from the earth, seldom flap 
their wings, but sweep along in ogees, and dipping and rising 
lines, and move with great rapidity. They are often seen in 
companies, soaring at an immense height, particularly previous 


to a thunderstorm. Their wings are not spread horizontally, 
VOL, IL. z 


130 TURKEY VOLTORE. 


but form a slight angle with the body upwards, the tips having 
an upward curve. Their sense of smelling is astonishingly 
exquisite, and they never fail to discover carrion, even when 
at the distance of several miles from it. When once they have 
found a carcass, if not molested, they will not leave the place 
until the whole is devoured, At such times they eat so immo- 
derately, that frequently they are incapable of rising, and may 
be caught without much difficulty; but few that are acquainted 
with them will have the temerity to undertake the task. <A 
man in the State of Delaware, a few years since, observing 
some turkey buzzards regaling themselves upon the carcass of 
a horse which was in a highly putrid state, conceived the de- 
sign of making a captive of one, to take home for the amuse- 
ment of his children. He cautiously approached, and spring- 
ing upon the unsuspicious group, grasped a fine plump fellow 
in his arms, and was bearing off his prize in triumph ; when 
lo! the indignant vulture disgorged such a torrent of filth in 
the face of our hero, that it produced all the effects of the most 
powerful emetic, and for ever cured him of his inclination for 
turkey buzzards. 

On the continent of America, this species inhabits a vast 
range of territory, being common,* it is said, from Nova Scotia 
to Tierra del Fuego. How far to the northward of North 
Californiat they are found, we are not informed; but it is 
probable that they extend their migrations to the Columbia, 


* In the northern States of our Union, the turkey buzzard is only 
occasionally seen. It is considered a rare bird by the inhabitants. 

+ “ Great numbers of a species of vulture, commonly called carrion 
crow by the sailors (Vultwr awra), were seen upon this island (New- 
Year’s Island near Cape Horn, lat. 55 8. 67 W.), and probably feed on 
young seal-cubs, which either die in the birth, or which they take an 
opportunity to seize upon.” Cook calls them turkey buzzards. Forster's 
Voyage, ii. p. 516, 4to, London, 1777. We strongly suspect that the 
sailors were correct, and that these were black vultures, or carrion crows. 

+ Pérouse saw a bird, which he calls the black vulture, probably 
the Vultur aura, at Monterey Bay, North California.—Voyage, ii. p. 
203. 


DOT AGE Va VAC TE TE. 131 


allured thither by the quantity of dead salmon which, at cer- 
tain seasons, line the shores of that river. 

They are numerous in the West India islands, where they are 
said to be “far inferior in size to those of North America.”* 
This leads us to the inquiry whether or not the present species 
has been confounded by all the naturalists of Europe with 
the black vulture or carrion crow, which is so common in the 
southern parts of our continent. If not, why has the latter 
been totally overlooked in the numerous ornithologies and 
nomenclatures with which the world has been favoured, when 
it is so conspicuous and remarkable that no stranger visits 
South Carolina, Georgia, or the Spanish provinces, but is 
immediately struck with the novelty of its appearance? We 
can find no cause for the turkey buzzards of the islands} being 
smaller than ours, and must conclude that the carrion crow, 
which is of less size, has been mistaken for the former. In 
the history which follows, we shall endeavour to make it evident 
that the species described by Ulloa as being so numerous in 
South America is no other than the black vulture. The 
ornithologists of Europe, not aware of the existence of a new 
species, have without investigation contented themselves with 
the opinion that the bird called by the above-mentioned 
traveller the gallinazo was the Vultur aura, the subject of 
our present history. This is the more inexcusable, as we 
expect in naturalists a precision of a different character from 
that which distinguishes vulgar observation. If the EKuropeans 


* Pennant ; Arctic Zoology. 

7 The vulture which Sir Hans Sloane has figured and described, and 
which he says is common in Jamaica, is undoubtedly the Vultur aura. 
“The head, and an inch in the neck, are bare, and without feathers, of 
a flesh colour, covered with a thin membrane, like that of turkeys, 
with which the most part of the bill is covered likewise ; bill, below 
the membrane, more than an inch long, whitish at the point ; tail, 
broad, and nine inches long ; legs and feet, three inches long ; it flies 
exactly like a kite, and preys on nothing living ; but when dead, it 
devours their carcasses, whence they are not molested.”—/Sloane, 
Natural History of Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 294, folio. 


132 TURKEY VULTURE. 


had not the opportunity of comparing living specimens of the 
two species, they at least had preserved subjects in their 
extensive and valuable museums, from which a correct judg- 
ment might have been formed. The figure in the Planches 
Enluminées, though wretchedly drawn and coloured, was evi- 
dently taken from a stuffed specimen of the black vulture. 

Pennant observes, that the turkey vultures “are not found 
in the northern regions of Europe or Asia, at least in those 
latitudes which might give them a pretence of appearing 
there. I cannot find them,” he continues, “in our quarter 
of the globe higher than the Grison Alps,* or Silesia,} or at 
farthest Kalish, in Great Poland.” + 

Kolben, in his account of the Cape of Good Hope, mentions 
a vulture which he represents as very voracious and noxious. 
“T have seen,” says he, “many carcasses of cows, oxen, and 
other tame creatures, which the eagles had slain. I say car- 
casses, but they were rather skeletons, the flesh and entrails 
being all devoured, and nothing remaining but the skin and 
bones. But the skin and bones being in their natural places, 
the flesh being, as it were, scooped out, and the wound by 
which the eagles enter the body being ever in the belly, you 
would not, till you had come up to the skeleton, have had the 
least suspicion that any such matter had happened. The 
Dutch at the Cape frequently call those eagles, on account of 
their tearing out the entrails of beasts, strwnt-vogels—z.e., dung- 
birds. It frequently happens that an ox that is freed from 
the plough, and left to find his way home, lies down to rest 
himself by the way ; and if he does so, it is a great chance 
but the eagles fall upon him and devour him. They attack 
an OX or cow in a body, consisting of an hundred and 
upwards.” § 

Buffon conjectures that this murderous vulture is the tur- 
key buzzard, and concludes his history of the latter with the 
* Willoughby, Ornithology, p. 67. + Schwenckfeldt, Av. Silesia, 375. 


{ Rzaczynski, Hist. Nat. Poland, 298. 
§ Medley’s Kolben, vol. ii. p. 135. 


TURKEY VULTURE. 133 


following invective against the whole fraternity :—‘ In every 
part of the globe they are voracious, slothful, offensive, and 
hateful, and, like the wolves, are as noxious during their life 
as useless after their death.” 

If Kolben’s account of the ferocity of his eagle,* or vulture, 
be just, we do not hesitate to maintain that that vulture is not 
the turkey buzzard, as, amongst the whole feathered creation, 
there is none, perhaps, more innoxious than this species ; and 
that it is beneficial to the inhabitants of our southern conti- 
nent, even Buffon himself, on the authority of Desmarchais, 
asserts. But we doubt the truth of Kolben’s story ; and, in 
this place, must express our regret that enlightened natural- 
ists should so readily lend an ear to the romances of travellers, 
who, to excite astonishment, freely give currency to every 
ridiculous tale which the designing or the credulous impose 
upon them. We will add further, that the turkey buzzard 
seldom begins upon a carcass until invited to the banquet by 
that odour which in no ordinary degree renders it an object 
of delight. 

The turkey vulture is two feet and a half in length, and six 
feet two inches in breadth; the bill from the corner of the 
mouth is almost two inches and a half long, of a dark horn 
colour for somewhat more than an inch from the tip, the nostril 
a remarkably wide slit or opening through it; the tongue is 
greatly concave, cartilaginous, and finely serrated on its edges ; 
ears inclining to oval ; eyes dark, in some specimens reddish 
hazel ; the head and neck, for about an inch and a half below 
the ears, are furnished with a reddish wrinkled skin, beset with 
short black hairs, which also cover the bill as far as the interior 
angle of the nostril, the neck not so much caruncled as that 
of the black vulture ; from the hind head to the neck-feathers 


* These bloodthirsty eagles, we conjecture, are black vultures, they 
being in the habit of mining into the bellies of dead animals to feast 
upon the contents. With respect to their attacking those that are living, 
as the vultures of America are not so heroic, it is a fair inference that 
the same species elsewhere is possessed of a similar disposition. 


134 TURKEY VULTURE. 


the space is covered with down of a sooty black colour ; the 
fore part of the neck is bare as far as the breast-bone, the 
skin on the lower part, or pouch, very much wrinkled; this 
naked skin is not discernible without removing the plumage 
which arches over it ; the whole lower parts, lining of the 
wings, rump, and tail-coverts, are of a sooty brown, the feathers 
of the belly and vent hairy ; the plumage of the neck is large 
and tumid, and, with that of the back and shoulders, black ; 
the scapulars and secondaries are black on their outer webs, 
skirted with tawny brown, the latter slightly tipped with 
white ; primaries and their coverts, plain brown, the former 
pointed, third primary the longest ; coverts of the secondaries 
and lesser coverts, tawny brown centred with black—some of 
the feathers at their extremities slightly edged with white ; 
the tail is twelve inches long, rounded, of a brownish black, 
and composed of twelve feathers, which are broad at their 
extremities; inside of wings and tail, light ash; the wings 
reach to the end of the tail; the whole body and neck beneath 
the plumage are thickly clothed with a white down, which 
feels like cotton; the shafts of the primaries are yellowish 
white above, and those of the tail brown, both pure white 
below; the plumage of the neck, back, shoulders, scapulars, 
and secondaries is glossed with green and bronze, and has 
purple reflections ; the thighs are feathered to the knees ; feet 
considerably webbed ; middle toe three inches and a half in 
length, and about an inch and a half longer than the outer 
one, which is the next longest; the sole of the foot is hard 
and rough; claws, dark horn colour; the legs are of a pale 
flesh colour, and three inches long. The claws are larger, but 
the feet slenderer than those of the carrion crow. The bill of 
the male is pure white; in some specimens the upper man- 
dible is tipped with black. There is little or no perceptible 
difference between the sexes, 

The bird from which the foregoing description was taken 
was shot for this work, at Great Eee Harbour, on the 30th of 
January. It was a female, in perfect plumage, excessively fat, 


BLACK VULTURE. 135 


and weighed five pounds one ounce avoirdupois. On dissection 
it emitted a slight musky odour. 

The vulture is included in the catalogue of those fowls de- 
clared unclean and an abomination by the Levitical law, and 
which the Israelites were interdicted eating.* We presume 
that this prohibition was religiously observed, so far at least 
as it related to the vulture, from whose flesh there arises such 
an unsavoury odour, that we question if all the sweetening 
processes ever invented could render it palatable to Jew, Pagan, 
or Christian. 

Since the above has been ready for the press, we have seen 
the History of the expedition under the command of Lewis 
and Clark, and find our conjecture with respect to the migra- 
tion of the turkey buzzard verified, several of this species 
having been observed at Brant Island, near the Falls of the 
Columbia. 


BLACK VULTURE, OR CARRION CROW. 
(Vultur jota.) 


PLATE LXXV.—Fie. 2. 


Vultur jota, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 247.—Molina, Hist. Chili, i. p. 185, Am. trans. 
—Zalipot, Clavigero, Hist. Mex. i. p. 47, Eng. trans.—Gallinazo, Ulloa, Voy. 
i. p. 52, Amsterdam ed.—Vultur atratus, Bartram, p. 289.—Vautour du 
Brésil, Pl. enl. 189.—Vultur aura, B. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 5.—Le Vautour 
urubu, Viel. Ois. del Am. Sep. i. p. 23, pl. 2.—Peale’s Museum, No. 18. 


VULTUR JOLA.—BONAPARTE.t 
Vultur jota, Bonap. Synop. p. 23.—Cathartes atratus, North. Zool. ii. p. 6. 


AtrHoucH an account of this vulture was published more 
than twenty years ago by Mr William Bartram, wherein it 


* Leviticus xi. 14 ; Deuteronomy xiv. 13. 

+ History of the Expedition, vol. i1. p. 233, 

~ Mr Swainson, in a note to the description of this bird in the 
“Northern Zoology,” remarks, as a reason for changing the name given by 
Bonaparte—“ We have not considered it expedient to apply to this bird 
the scientific name of Iota, given by Molina to a black vulture of Chili, 


I 36 BLACK VULTURE. 


was distinctly specified as a different species from the pre- 
ceding, yet it excites our surprise that the ornithologists should 
have persisted in confounding it with the turkey buzzard ; an 
error which can hardly admit of extenuation when it is con- 
sidered what a respectable authority they had for a different 
opinion. 

The habits of this species are singular. In the towns and 
villages of the southern States, particularly Charleston and 
Georgetown, South Carolina, and in Savannah, Georgia, the 
carrion crows may be seen either sauntering about the streets, 
sunning themselves on the roofs of the houses and the fences, 
or, if the feather be cold, cowering along the tops of the 
chimneys, to enjoy the benefit of the heat, which to them is a 
peculiar gratification. They are protected by a law or usage, 
and may be said to be completely domesticated, being as com- 
mon as the domestic poultry, and equally familiar. The in- 
habitants generally are disgusted with their filthy, voracious 
habits ; but notwithstanding, being viewed as contributive to 
the removal of the dead animal matter, which, if permitted to 
putrify during the hot season, would render the atmosphere im- 
pure, they have a respect paid them as scavengers, whose labours 
are subservient to the public good. It sometimes happens 
that, after having gorged themselves, these birds vomit down 
the chimneys, which must be intolerably disgusting, and must 
provoke the ill-will of those whose hospitality is thus requited. 

The black vultures are indolent, and may be observed in 
companies loitering for hours together in one place. They do 
not associate with the turkey buzzards; and are much darker 
in their plumage than the latter. Their mode of flight also 
varies from that of the turkey buzzard. The black vulture 
flaps its wings five or six times rapidly, then sails with them 
extended nearly horizontally ; the turkey buzzard seldom flaps 
its wings, and when sailing, they form an angle with the body 


because there is no evidence to prove that it is the turkey buzzard of 
North America.” Neither is there present proof that it is not, therefore 
we retain Bonaparte’s name,—ED. 


BLACK VULTURE. Ly 


upwards. The latter, though found in the vicinity of towns, 
rarely ventures within them, and then always appearing cau- 
tious of the near approach of any one. It is not so impatient 
of cold as the former, and is likewise less lazy. The black vul- 
ture, on the ground, hops along very awkwardly ; the turkey 
buzzard, though seemingly inactive, moves with an even gait. 
The latter, unless pressed by hunger, will not eat of a carcass 
until it becomes putrid; the former is not so fastidious, but de- 
vours animal food without distinction. 

It is said that the black vultures sometimes attack young 
pigs, and eat off their ears and tails; and we have even heard 
stories of their assaulting feeble calves, and picking out their 
eyes. But these instances are rare: if otherwise, they would 
not receive that countenance or protection which is so univer- 
sally extended to them in the States of South Carolina and 
Georgia, where they abound. 

‘This undescribed species,” says Mr Bartram, “is a native 
of the maritime parts of Georgia and of the Floridas, where 
- they are called carrion crows. They flock together, and feed 
upon carrion, but do not mix with the turkey buzzard (Vultur 
aura). Their wings are broad, and round at their extremities. 
Their tail, which they spread like a fan when on the wing, is 
remarkably short. They have a heavy, laborious flight, flap- 
ping their wings, and sailing alternately. The whole plumage 
is of a sable or mourning colour.” * 

In one of Mr Wilson’s journals, I find an interesting detail 
of the greedy and disgusting habits of this species ; and shall 
give the passage entire, in the same unadorned manner in 
which it is written. 

“ February 21, 1809.—Went out to Hampstead + this fore- 
noon. A horse had dropped down in the street in convulsions, 
and dying, it was dragged out to Hampstead, and skinned. 
The ground, for a hundred yards around it, was black with 
carrion crows; many sat on the tops of sheds, fences, and houses 


* MS. in the possession of Mr Ord. 
+ Near Charleston, South Carolina. 


| 7 
. é 
ma) 
Bs 
% 
Py 


138 BLACK VULTURE. 


within sight; sixty or eighty on the opposite side of a small 
run. I counted at one time two hundred and thirty-seven, but 
I believe there were more, besides several in the air over my 
head and at a distance. I ventured cautiously within thirty 
yards of the carcass, where three or four dogs and twenty or 
thirty vultures were busily tearing and devouring. Seeing them 
take no notice, I ventured nearer, till I was within ten yards, 
and sat down on the bank. Still they paid little attention to 
me. The dogs, being sometimes accidentally flapped with the 
wings of the vultures, would growl and snap at them, which 
would occasion them to spring up for a moment, but they im- 
mediately gathered in again. I remarked the vultures fre- 
quently attack each other, fighting with their claws or heels, 
striking like a cock, with open wings, and fixing their claws 
in each other’s head. 'The females, and, I believe, the males 
likewise, made a hissing sound, with open mouth, exactly re- 
sembling that produced by thrusting a red-hot poker into 
water ; and frequently a snuffling, like a dog clearing his nos- 
trils, as 1 suppose they were theirs. On observing that they 
did not heed me, I stole so close that my feet were within one 
yard of the horse’s legs, and again sat down. ‘They all slid 
aloof a few feet ; but, seeing me quiet, they soon returned as 
before. As they were often disturbed by the dogs, I ordered 
the latter home : my voice gave no alarm to the vultures. As 
soon as the dogs departed, the vultures crowded in such num- 
bers, that I counted at one time thirty-seven on and around the 
carcass, with several within ; so that scarcely an inch of it was 
visible. Sometimes one would come out with a large piece of 
the entrails, which in a moment was surrounded by several 
others, who tore it in fragments, and it soon disappeared. 
They kept up the hissing occasionally. Some of them, having 
their whole legs and heads covered with bleod, presented a 
most savage aspect. Still as the dogs advanced, I would order 
them away, which seemed to gratify the vultures; and one 
would pursue another to within a foot or two of the spot 
where I was sitting. Sometimes I observed them stretching 


BLACK VULTURE. 139 


their necks along the ground, as if to press the food down- 
wards.” 

The carrion crow is seldom found on the Atlantic to the 
northward of Newbern, North Carolina,* but inhabits the 
whole continent to the southward, as far as Cape Horn. Don 
Ulloa, in noticing the birds of Carthagena, gives an account 
of a vulture, which we shall quote, in order to establish the 
opinion, advanced in the preceding history, that it is the pre- 
sent species. We shall afterwards subjoin other testimony 
in confirmation of this opinion. With respect to the mar- 
vellous tale of their attacking the cattle in the pastures, it is 
too improbable to merit a serious refutation. 

“Tt would be too great an undertaking to describe all the 
extraordinary birds that inhabit this country ; but I cannot 
refrain from noticing that to which they give the name of 
gallinazo, from the resemblance it has to the turkey-hen. 
This bird is of the size of a pea-hen, but its head and neck are 
something larger. From the crop to the base of the bill it 
has no feathers: this space is surrounded with a wrinkled, 
glandulous, and rough skin, which forms numerous warts and 
other similar inequalities. ‘This skin is black, as is the plumage 
of the bird, but usually of a brownish black. The bill is well 
proportioned, strong, and a little hooked. These birds are 
familiar in Carthagena; the tops of the houses are covered with 
them ; it is they which cleanse the city of all its animal im- 
purities. ‘There are few animals killed whereof they do not 
obtain the offals; and when this food is wanting, they have 
recourse to other filth. Their sense of smelling is so acute, 
that it enables them to trace carrion at the distance of three 
or four leagues, which they do not abandon until there remains 
nothing but the skeleton. 

“The great number of these birds found in such hot 
climates is an excellent provision of nature, as otherwise the 


* Since writing the above, I have been informed by a gentleman who 
resides at Detroit, on Lake Erie, that the carrion crow is common at 
that place. 


140 BLACK VULTURE. 


putrefaction caused by the constant and excessive heat would 
render the air insupportable to human life. When first they 
take wing, they fly heavily ; but afterwards, they rise so high ° 
as to be entirely invisible. On the ground they walk sluggishly, 
Their legs are well proportioned; they have three toes for- 
ward, turning inwards, and one on the inside, inclining a little 
backwards, so that, the feet interfering, they cannot walk with 
any agility, but are obliged to hop: each toe is furnished with 
a long and stout claw. 

“When the gallinazos are deprived of carrion or food in 
the city, they are driven by hunger among the cattle of the 
pastures. If they see a beast with a sore on the back, they 
alight on it, and attack the part affected; and it avails not 
that the poor animal throws wtself upon the ground, and en- 
deavours to intimidate them by its bellowing: they do not 
quit their hold! and by means of their bill they so soon 
enlarge the wound, that the animal finally becomes their 
preyanr 

The account, from the same author, of the beneficial effects 
resulting from the fondness of the vultures for the eggs of the 
alligator merits attention :— 

“The gallinazos are the most inveterate enemies of the 
alligators, or rather, they are extremely fond of their eggs, and 
employ much stratagem to obtain them. During the summer, 
these birds make it their business to watch the female alli- 
gators ; for it is in that season that they deposit their eggs in 
the sand of the shores of the rivers, which are not then over- 
flowed. The gallinazo conceals itself among the branches and 
leaves of a tree, so as to be unperceived by the alligator ; and 
permits the eggs quietly to be laid, not even interrupting the 
precautions that she takes to conceal them. But she is no 
sooner under the water than the ga!linazo darts upon the nest ; 
and, with its bill, claws, and wings, uncovers the eggs, and 


.* Voyage Historique de ’Amerique Meridionale, par Don George 
Juan et Don Antoine de Ulloa, liv. i. chap. vill. p. 52, 4 Amsterdam 
et a Leipzig, 1752, 4to. 


BLACK VULTURE. I4I 


gobbles them down, leaving nothing but the shells. This 
banquet would, indeed, richly reward its patience, did not a 
multitude of gallinazos join the fortunate discoverer, and share 
in the spoil. 

“How admirable the wisdom of that Providence which 
hath given to the male alligator an inclination to devour its 
own offspring, and to the gallinazo a taste for the eggs of the 
female! Indeed, neither the rivers nor the neighbouring 
fields would otherwise be sufficient to contain the multitudes 
that are hatched; for, notwithstanding the ravages of both 
these insatiable enemies, one can hardly imagine the numbers 
that remain.” * 

The Abbé Clavigero, in his “ History of Mexico,” has clearly 
indicated the present species as distinguished from the turkey 
buzzard :— 

“The business of clearing the fields of Mexico is reserved 
principally for the zopilots, known in South America by the 
name of gallinazzi, in other places by that of awre, and 
in some places, though very improperly, by that of ravens. 
There are two very different species of these birds: the one, 
the zopilot, properly so called; the other, called the cozca- 
quauhtli: they are both bigger than the raven. These two 
species resemble each other in their hooked bill and crooked 
claws, and by having upon their head, instead of feathers, a 
wrinkled membrane with some curling hairs. They fly so 
high, that, although they are pretty large, they are lost to the 
sight ; and especially before a hailstorm they will be seen 
wheeling in vast numbers under the loftiest clouds, till they 
entirely disappear. They feed upon carrion, which they dis- 
cover, by the acuteness of their sight and smell, from the 
sreatest height, and descend upon it with a majestic flight, 
in a great spiral course. They are both almost mute. The 
two species are distinguished, however, by their size, their 
colour, their numbers, and some other peculiarities. ‘The 
zopilots, properly so called, have black feathers, with a brown 

* Liv. iv. chap. ix. p. 172. 


142 BLACK VULTURE. 


head, bill, and feet ; they go often in flocks, and roost together 
upon trees. ‘This species is very numerous, and is to be found 
in all the different climates ; while, on the contrary, the coz- 
caquauhtli is far from numerous, and is peculiar to the 
warmer climates alone.* The latter bird is larger than the 
zopilot, has a red head and feet, with a beak of a deep red 
colour, except towards its extremity, which is white. Its 
feathers are brown, except upon the neck and parts about the 
breast, which are of a reddish black. The wings are of an 
ash colour upon the inside, and upon the outside are varie- 
gated with black and tawny. 

“The cozcaquauhtli is called by the Mexicans king of the 
zopilots ; + and they say that when these two species happen 
to meet together about the same carrion, the zopilot never 
begins to eat till the cozcaquauhtli has tasted it. The zopilot 
is a most useful bird to that country, for it not only clears 
the fields, but attends the crocodiles, and destroys the eggs 
which the females of those dreadful amphibious animals leave 
in the sand to be hatched by the heat of the sun. The de- 
struction of such a bird ought to be prohibited under severe 
penalties.” { 

We are almost afraid of trespassing upon the patience of 
the reader by the length of our quotations ; but as we are 
very anxious that the subject of this article should enjoy that 
right to which it is fairly entitled, of being ranked as an in- 
dependent species, we are tempted to add one testimony more, 
which we find in the “ History of Chili,” by the Abbé Molina. 

“The jota (Vultur jota) resembles much the aura, a species 
of vulture of which there is, perhaps, but one variety. It is 
distinguished, however, by the beak, which is grey, with a 
black point. Notwithstanding the size of this bird, which is 
nearly that of the turkey, and its strong and crooked talons, 

* This is a mistake. 

+ This is the Vultur aura. The bird which now goes bythe name 


of king of the zopilots in New Spain is the Vultur papa of Linnzus. 
t Clavigero’s Mexico, translated by Cullen, vol. i. p. 47, London. 


BLACK VULTURE. 143 


it attacks no other, but feeds principally upon carcasses and 
reptiles. It is extremely indolent, and will frequently remain 
for a long time almost motionless, with its wings extended, 
sunning itself upon the rocks or the roofs of the houses. When 
in pain, which is the only time that it is known to make any 
noise, it utters a sharp cry like that of a rat; and usually 
disgorges what it has eaten. ‘The flesh of this bird emits a 
fetid smell that is highly offensive. The manner in which it 
builds its nest is perfectly correspondent to its natural indo- 
lence: it carelessly places between rocks, or even upon the 
ground, a few dry leaves or feathers, upon which it lays two 
egos of a dirty white.” * 

The black vulture is twenty-six inches in length, and four 
feet four inches in extent; the bill is two inches and a half 
long, of a dark horn colour as far as near an inch; the re- 
mainder, the head, and a part of the neck, are covered with a 
black, wrinkled, caruncled skin, beset with short black hairs, 
and downy behind; nostril, an oblong slit; irides, reddish 
hazel; the throat is dashed with yellow ochre; the general 
colour of the plumage is of a dull black, except the primaries, 
which are whitish on the inside, and have four of their broad- 
ened edges below of a drab or dark cream colour, extending 
two inches, which is seen only when the wing is unfolded ; 
the shafts of the feathers white on both sides; the rest of the 
wing-feathers dark on both sides ; the wings, when folded, are 
about the length of the tail, the fifth feather being the longest ; 
the secondaries are two inches shorter than the tail, which is 
slightly forked; the exterior feathers, three-quarters of an 
inch longer than the rest ; the legs are limy, three inches and 
a half in length, and, with the feet, are thick and strong ; the 
middle toe is four inches long, side toes, two inches, and con- 
siderably webbed, inner toe rather the shortest; claws strong, 
but not sharp, like those of the Falco genus; middle claw, 
three-quarters of an inch long ; the stomach is not lined with 


* Hist. Chili, Am. Trans. i. p. 185. 


144 RAVEN. 


hair, as reported. When opened, this bird smells strongly of 
musk. 

Mr Abbot informs me that the carrion crow builds its nest 
in the large trees of the low wet swamps, to which places they 
retire every evening to roost. “They frequent,’ says he, - 
“that part of the town of Savannah where the hog-butchers 
reside, and walk about the streets in great numbers, like 
domestic fowls. It is diverting to see, when the entrails and 
offals of the hogs are thrown to them, with what greediness 
they scramble for the food, seizing upon it, and pulling one 
against another, until the strongest prevails. The turkey 
buzzard is accused of killing young lambs and pigs by picking 
out their eyes; but I believe that the carrion crow is not 
cuilty of the like practices. The two species do not asso- 
ciate.” 


RAVEN. (Corvus coraz.) 
PLATE LXXV.—Fie. 3. 


Gmel. Syst. i. p. 864.—Ind. Orn. p. 150.—Le Corbeau, Briss. ii. p. 8, et var.— 
Buff. Ois. iti. p. 13.—Pl. enl. 495.—Temm. Man. @Orn. p. 107.—Raven, 
Lath. Gen. Syn. i. p. 367.—Id. Supp. p. 74.—Penn. Brit. Zool. No. 74.— 
Arct. Zool. No. 134.—Shaw, Gen. Zool. vii. p. 341.—Bewick, i. p. 100.—Low, 
Fauna Orcadensis, p. 45.—Peale’s Museum, No. 175. 


CORVUS CORAX.—Liny2vs. 
Corvus corax, Bonap. Synop. p. 56.—Flem. Br. Anim. p. 87.—Raven, Mont. Orn. 
Dict. and Supp. p. 67.—Selby, Illust. Br. Orn. pl. 27. 
A KNOWLEDGE of this celebrated bird has been handed 
down to us from the earliest ages; and its history is almost 
coeval with that of man, In the best and most ancient of all 
books, we learn that, at the end of forty days after the great 
flood had covered the earth, Noah, wishing to ascertain whether 
or no the waters had abated, sent forth a raven, which did not 
return into the ark.* This is the first notice that is taken of 
this species. Though the raven was declared unclean by the 
law of Moses, yet we are informed that when the prophet 


* Genesis vill. 7. 


RAVEN. TAS 


Elijah provoked the enmity of Ahab by prophesying against 
him, and hid himself by the brook Cherith, the ravens were 
appointed by Heaven to bring him his daily food.* The 
colour of the raven has given rise to a similitude, in one of the 
most beautiful of eclogues, which has been perpetuated in all 
subsequent ages, and which is not less pleasing for being trite 
or proverbial. The favourite of the royal lover of Jerusalem, 
in the enthusiasm of affection, thus describes the object of her 
adoration, in reply to the following question :— 

What is thy beloved more than another beloved, 

O thou fairest among women? 

My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among 


Ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold ; 
His locks are bushy, and black as a raven ! + 


The above-mentioned circumstances taken into considera- 
tion, one would suppose that the lot of the subject of this chap- 
ter would have been of a different complexion from what his- 
tory and tradition inform us is the fact. But in every country 
we are told the raven is considered an ominous bird, whose 
croakings foretell approaching evil; and many a crooked beldam 
has given interpretation to these oracles, of a nature to infuse 
terror into a whole community. Hence this ill-fated bird, 
from time immemorial, has been the innocent subject of vulgar 
obloquy and detestation. 

Augury, or the art of foretelling future events by the flight, 
cries, or motions of birds, descended from the Chaldeans to the 
Greeks, thence to the Etrurians, and from them it was trans- 
mitted to the Romans.{ The crafty legislators of those cele- 

* 1 Kings xvii. 5, 6. 

+ Song of Solomon v. 9, 10, 11. 

+ That the science of augury is very ancient we learn from the 
Hebrew lawgiver, who prohibits it, as well as every other kind of divi- 
nation— Deut. chap. xviii. The Romans derived their knowledge of 
augury chiefly from the Tuscans or Etrurians, who practised it in the 
earliest times, This art was known in Italy before the time of Romulus, 
since that prince did not commence the building of Rome till he had 
taken the auguries. The successors of Romulus, from a conviction of 
the usefulness of the science, and at the same time not to render it con- 


temptible by becoming too familiar, employed the most skilful augurs 
VOL. ILI. ae 


146 RAVEN. 


brated nations, from a deep knowledge of human nature, made 
superstition a principal feature of their religious ceremonies, 
well knowing that it required a more than ordinary policy to 
govern a multitude ever liable to the fatal influences of passion, 
and who, without some timely restraints, would burst forth 
like a torrent, whose course is marked by wide-spreading de- 
solation. Hence to the purposes of polity the raven was made 
subservient ; and the Romans having consecrated it to Apollo, 
as to the god of divination, its flight was observed with the 
greatest solemnity, and its tones and inflections of voice were 
noted with a precision which intimated a belief in its infallible 
prescience. 

But the ancients have not been the only people infected 
with this species of superstition ; the moderns, even though 
favoured with the hight of Christianity, have exhibited as much 
folly, through the impious curiosity of prying into futurity, as 
the Romans themselves. It is true that modern nations have 
not instituted their sacred colleges or sacerdotal orders for the 
purposes of divination, but in all countries there have been 
self-constituted augurs, whose interpretations of omens have 
been received with religious respect by the credulous multi- 
tude. Even at this moment, in some parts of the world, if a 
raven alight on a village church, the whole fraternity is in an 
uproar, and Heaven is importuned, in all the ardour of devo- 
tion, to avert the impending calamity. 

The poets have taken advantage of this weakness of human 
nature, and, in their hands, the raven is a fit instrument of 
terror. Shakespeare puts the following malediction into the 
mouth of his Caliban :— 


As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed 
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen, 
Drop on you both !* 


from Etruria tointroduce the practice of it into their religious ceremonies ; 
and by a decree of the senate, some of the youth of the best families 
in Rome were annually sent into Tuscany to be instructed in this art.— 
Vide Ciceron. de Divin.; also Calmet and the Abbé Banier. 

* Tempest, act i. scene 2. 


RAVEN. 147 


The ferocious wife of Macbeth, on being advised of the ap- 
proach of Duncan, whose death she had conspired, thus ex- 
claims— 


The raven himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
Under my battlements.* 


The Moor of Venice says— 


It comes o’er my memory, 
As doth the raven o’er the infected house, 
Boding to all. + 


The last quotation alludes to the supposed habit of this 
bird’s flying over those houses which contain the sick, whose 
dissolution is at hand, and thereby announced. Thus Marlowe 
in the “ Jew of Malta,” as cited by Malone— 


The sad presaging raven tolls 

The sick man’s passport in her hollow beak ; 
And, in the shadow of the silent night, 

Doth shake contagion from her sable wing. 


But it is the province of philosophy to dispel these illusions 
which bewilder the mind, by pointing out the simple truths 
which Nature has been at no pains to coneeal, but which the 
folly of mankind has shrouded in all the obscurity of mystery. 

The raven is a general inhabitant of the United States, but 
is more common in the interior. On the lakes, and particu- 
larly in the neighbourhood of the Falls of the Niagara river, 
they are numerous; and it is a remarkable fact, that where 
they so abound, the common crow (C. corone) seldom makes 
its appearance ; being intimidated, it is conjectured, by the 
superior size and strength of the former, or by an antipathy 
which the two species manifest towards each other. This I 
had an opportunity of observing myself, in a journey during 
the months of August and September along the Lakes Hrie 
and Ontario. The ravens were seen every day prowling 


* Macbeth, act i. scene 5. t Othello, act. iv. scene 1. 


148 RAVEN. 


about in search of the dead fish which the waves are continu- 
ally casting ashore, and which afford them an abundance of a 
favourite food ; but I did not see or hear a single crow within 
several miles of the lakes, and but very few throngh the whole 
of the Genesee country. 

The food of this species is dead animal matter of all kinds, 
not excepting the most putrid carrion, which it devours in 
common with the vultures ; worms, grubs, reptiles, and shell- 
fish, the last of which, in the manner of the crow, it drops 
from a considerable height in the air on the rocks, in order 
to break the shells ; it is fond of birds’ eggs, and is often ob- 
served sneaking around the farmhouse in search of the eggs of 
the domestic poultry, which it sucks with eagerness ; it 1s like- 
wise charged with destroying young ducks and chickens, and 
lambs which have been yeaned in a sickly state. ‘The raven, 
it is said, follows the hunters of deer for the purpose of falling 
heir to the offal ;* and the huntsmen are obliged to cover 
their game, when it is left in the woods, with their hunting 
frocks, to protect it from this thievish connoisseur, who, if he 
have an opportunity, will attack the region of the kidneys, 
and mangle the saddle without ceremony. 

Buffon says that “ the raven plucks out the eyes of buffaloes, 
and then, fixing on the back, it tears off the flesh deliberately ; 
and what renders the ferocity more detestable, it is not incited 
by the cravings of hunger, but by the appetite for carnage ; 
for it can subsist on fruits, seeds of all kinds, and indeed may 
be considered as an omnivorous animal.” ‘This is mere fable, 
and of a piece with many other absurdities of the same roman- 
cing author. 

This species is found almost all over the habitable globe. 
We trace it in the north from Norway to Greenland, and hear 
of it in Kamtschatka. It is common everywhere in Russia 


* This is the case in those parts of the United States where the deer 
are hunted without dogs ; where these are employed, they are generally 
rewarded with the offal. 


RAVEN. 149 


and Siberia, except within the arctic circle ;* and all through 
Kurope. Kolben enumerates the raven among the birds of the 
Cape of Good Hope ;} De Grandpré represents it as numerous 
in Bengal, where they are said to be protected for their use- 
fulness ;{ and the unfortunate La Pérouse saw them at Baie 
de Castries, on the east coast of Tartary, likewise at Port des 
Francois, 58° 37’ north latitude, and 139° 50’ west. longitude; 
and at Monterey Bay, North California.¢ The English cir- 
cumnavigators met with them at Nootka Sound, || and at the 
Sandwich Islands, two being seen in the village of Kakooa ; 
also at Owhyhee, and supposed to be adored there, as they 
were called Eatooas.4 Our intrepid American travellers, 
under the command of Lewis and Clark, shortly after they 
embarked on the Columbia river, saw abundance of ravens, 
which were attracted thither by the immense quantity of dead 
salmon which lined the shores.** ‘They are found at all sea- 
sons at Hudson’s Bay ;}f are frequent in Mexico; {{ and it is 
more than probable that they inhabit the whole continent of 
America. : 

The raven measures, from the tip of the bill to the end of 
the tail, twenty-six inches, and is four feet in extent; the bill 
is large and strong, of a shining black, notched near the tip, 
and three inches long ; the setaceous feathers which cover the 
nostrils extend half its length; the eyes are black; the gen- 
eral colour is a deep glossy black, with steel-blue reflections ; 
the lower parts are less glossy ; the tail is rounded, and ex- 
tends about two inches beyond the wings; the legs are two 
inches and a half in length, and, with the feet, are strong and 
black ; the claws are long. 

This bird is said to attain to a great age; and its plumage 


* Latham. 7+ Medley’s Kolben, ii. p. 136. 

£ Voy. in the Indian Ocean, p. 148. 

§ Voy. par J. F. G. de la Pérouse, i. p. 129, 203, 443, 

i| Cook’s Last Voy., ii. p. 236, Am. ed. 

J Idem, iii. p. 329. ** Gass’s Journal, p. 153, 

++ Charlevoix ; Kalm ; Hearne’s Journey. t Fernandez. 


150 GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 


to be subject to change from the influence of years and of cli- 
mate. It is found in Iceland and Greenland entirely white. 

The raven was the constant attendant of Lewis and Clark’s 
party in their long and toilsome journey. During the winter, 
at Fort Mandan, they were observed in immense numbers, 
notwithstanding the cold was so excessive that, on the 17th 
December 1804, the thermometer stood at 45° below 0. 

Like the crow, this species may be easily domesticated, and 
in that state would afford amusement by its familiarity, frolics, 
and sagacity. But such noisy and mischievous pets, in com- 
mon with parrots and monkeys, are not held in high estima- 
tion in this quarter of the globe, and are generally overlooked 
for those universal favourites, which either gratify the eye by 
the neatness or brilliancy of their plumage, or gladden the ear 
by the simplicity or variety of their song. 


GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. (Falco peregrinus.)* 
PLATE LXXVI.—FEMALE, 


Falco peregrinus, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 272, 88.—Briss. i. p. 341, 6, and var. A.—Ind. 
Orn. p. 33, No. 72.—Falco barbarus, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, tom. i. p. 88, No. 6.— 
Gmel. Syst. i. p. 272, 8.—Ind. Orn. p. 33, No. 71.—Falco hornotinus, Briss. 
i. p. 824, A.—Falco niger, Id. p. 327, E.—Falco maculatus, Jd. p. 329, F.— 
Peregrine Falcon, Lath. Syn. i. p. 73, No. 52.—Id. Sup. p. 18.—Penn. Brit. 
Zool. No. 48, pl. 20.—Arct. Zool. No. 97.—Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. vii. p. 128.— 
Montagu, Orn. Dict. and Supp.—Low, Fauna Orcadensis, p. 150.—Common 
Falcon, Lath. Syn. i. p. 65, No. 49, var. A; p. 67, var. E; p. 68, var. F.— 
Spotted Hawk or Falcon, Edwards, i. p. 3.—Black Hawk or Falcon, Id. pl. 4, 
both from Hudson’s Bay.—Le Lannier, P/. enl. 430, old male.—Le Faucon Noir 
et Passager, Id. 469, young female ?—Le Faucon Hors, Jd. p. 470, yearly.— 
Faucon pélerin, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p. 22.—Peale’s Museum, No. 386, female. 


FALCO PEREGRINUS.—LmNN&vs.t 
Falco peregrinus, Bonap. Synop. p. 27.—WNorth. Zool. ii. p. 25.—Peregrine Falcon, 
Selby, Illust. Br. Orn. pl. 15, p. 37.—Flem. Br. Anim. p. 49.—Falco pere- 
grinus? Anst. Birds in Coll. Linn. Soc. by Vig. and Horsf. vol. xv. p. 183. 
Tats noble bird had excited our curiosity for a long time. 
Every visit which we made to the coast was rendered doubly 


* It is also a European species. 
+ Among the Falconide this bird will present that form best adapted 


N 
N 
N 
> 
Ng 
N 
I 


Great-Footed. Hawk 


76. 


. GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. I51 


interesting by the wonderful stories which we heard of its ex- 
ploits in fowling, and of its daring enterprise. There was not 


for seizing the prey in an open manner by the exercise of their own 
organs, Noble in bearing and carriage, the falcons are as much dis- 
tinguished from the vultures by their graceful proportions, ‘as those of 
the lion place him in the ranks of creation above the gaunt, ravenous, 
erisly, yet dastard wolf.” Placed by their strong and powerful frames 
far beyond them in all rapacious powers, they feed nearly exclusively 
on living prey, despising all upon which they have not themselves 
acted as executioners, and particularly any carrion which has the least 
savour of beginning putrescence. For these purposes they are possessed 
with a compactly-formed body, the neck comparatively short, and 
supported by muscles of more than ordinary strength ; the feet and 
thighs remarkably powerful, and the wings of that true hirundine form 
and texture which points out the greater development of their power. 
The prey is generally struck while upon the wing with a rapid sweep, 
and is at once borne off, unless completely above the weight of the 
assailer, when it is struck to the ground, and despatched more at leisure. 

The peregrine falcon has a considerable geographical range, extending 
over the whole of temperate Europe, North America, and New Holland. 
The specimens from the latter country, 1 may remark, are all smaller 
in size, but hardly any other distinction can be fixed upon. In Britain, 
it is abundant on all the rocky coasts towards the north, breeding and 
frequenting the precipitous headlands ; in many districts inland it is 
also frequent, but the choice of them is more arbitrary and local. The 
vale of Moffat, in Dumfriesshire, is one of the most favourite stations 
IT am aware of ; many pairs breed there, and on the confines of Selkirk- 
shire, choosing their eyries among the precipitous cliffs and streams of 
that mountainous district. They return to the same rock year after year, 
and often fix upon the same nest for their breeding-place. When either 
of the birds are killed, a mate is speedily found by the survivor, and 
returns with him to the old abode, and some of the eyries there have 
been known, and handed down to recollection, as far as the annals of 
the district extend. The Bass Rock and Isle of May in the Firth of 
Forth each possess a pair long renowned in deeds of falconry, and the 
Isle of Man can boast of many a noble bird, whose ancestors have joined 
in that now nearly forgotten sport. I am aware of no instance in this 
country where the peregrine builds on trees, as mentioned by Ord in 
America ; nor does it seem its true habit there. Dr Richardson remarks, 
that it is a rare bird in the wooded districts of the Fur Countries, and 
the greater part of the specimens which have reached this country have 
been procured upon the coast. 

To the American falcons may be added the merlin F. esalon, which 


152 GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 


a gunner along the shore but knew it well, and each could 
relate something of it which bordered on the marvellous, It 
was described as darting with the rapidity of an arrow on the 
ducks when on the wing, and striking them down with the 
projecting bone of its breast. Even the wild geese were said 
to be in danger from its attacks, it having been known to 
sacrifice them to its rapacity. 

To behold this hero, the terror of the wildfowl and the 
wonder of the sportsmen, was the chief object of our wishes. 
Day after day did we traverse the salt marshes, and explore 
the ponds and estuaries which the web-footed tribes frequent 
in immense multitudes, in the hope of obtaining the imperial 
depredator ; even all the gunners of the district were sum- 
moned to our aid, with the assurance of a great reward if they 
procured him, but without success. At length, in the month 
of December 1812, to the unspeakable joy of Mr Wilson, he 
received from Ege Harbour a fine specimen of the far-famed 
duck-hawk, which was discovered, contrary to his expectations, 
to be of a species which he had never before beheld. 

If we were to repeat all the anecdotes which have been re- 
lated to us of the achievements of the duck-hawk, they would 
swell our pages at the expense, probably, of our reputation. 
Naturalists should be always on their guard when they find 
themselves compelled to resort to the observations of others, 
and record nothing as fact which has not been submitted to 
the temperate deliberations of reason. The reverse of this 
procedure has been a principal cause why errors and absurdi- 
ties have so frequently deformed the pages of works of science, 
which, like a plain mirror, ought to reflect only the genuine 
images of nature. 

From the best sources of information, we learn that this 


was met with by Dr Richardson, who thinks it has been there confounded, 
from its similarity in some states, with the pigeon-hawk. We may 
also mention a bird described by Mr Audubon as new under the name 
of F. temerartus, but which appears nothing more than the adult 
plumage of F, columbarius.—Eb. 


GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 153 


species is uncommonly bold and powerful ; that it darts on its 
prey with astonishing velocity ; and that it strikes with its for- 
midable feet, permitting the duck to fall previously to securing 
it. The circumstance of the hawk’s never carrying the duck 
off on striking it has given rise to the belief of that service 
being performed by means of the breast, which vulgar opinion 
has armed with a projecting bone adapted to the purpose. 
But this cannot be the fact, as the breast-bone of this bird 
does not differ from that of others of the same tribe, which 
would not admit of so violent a concussion. 

When the waterfowl perceive the approach of their enemy, 
a universal alarm pervades their ranks; even man himself, 
with his engine of destruction, is not more terrible. But the 
effect is different. When the latter is beheld, the whole 
atmosphere is enlivened with the whistling of wings ; when 
the former is recognised, not a duck is to be seen in the air: 
they all speed to the water, and there remain until the hawk 
has passed them, diving the moment he comes near them. 
It is worthy of remark, that he will seldom, if ever, strike over 
the water, unless it be frozen, well knowing that it will be 
difficult to secure his quarry. This is something more than 
instinct. 

When the sportsmen perceive the hawk knock down a 
duck, they frequently disappoint him of it, by being first to 
secure it. And as one evil turn, according to the maxim of 
the multitude, deserves another, our hero takes ample re- 
venge on them, at every opportunity, by robbing them of 
their game, the hard-earned fruits of their labour. 

The duck-hawk, it is said, often follows the steps of 
the gunner, knowing that the ducks will be aroused on 
the wing, which will afford it an almost certain chance of 
success. 

We have been informed that those ducks which are struck 
down have their backs lacerated from the rump to the neck. 
If this be the fact, it is a proof that the hawk employs only 
its talons, which are long and stout, in the operation. One 


154 GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 


respectable inhabitant of Cape May told us that he has seen 
the hawk strike from below. 

This species has been long known in Europe, and in the 
age of falconry was greatly valued for those qualifications 
which rendered it estimable to the lovers and followers of that 
princely amusement. But we have strong objections to its 
specific appellation. The epithet peregrine is certainly not 
applicable to our hawk, which is not migratory, as far as our 
most diligent inquiries can ascertain ; and, as additional evi- 
dence of the fact, we ourselves have seen it prowling near the 
coast of New Jersey in the month of May, and heard its 
screams, which resemble somewhat those of the bald eagle, 
in the swamps wherein it is said to breed. We have there- 
fore taken the liberty of changing its English name for one 
which will at once express a characteristic designation, or 
which will indicate the species without the labour of inves- 
tigation.* 

“This species,’ says Pennant, ‘breeds on the rocks of 
Llandidno, in Caernarvonshire, Wales. That promontory has 
been long famed for producing a generous kind, as appears 
by a letter extant in Gloddaeth Library from the Lord Trea- 
surer Burleigh to an ancestor of Sir Roger Mostyn, in which 
his lordship thanks him for a present of a fine cast of hawks, 
taken on those rocks, which belong to the family. They are 
also very common in the north of Scotland, and are sometimes 
trained for falconry by some few gentlemen who still take 
delight in this amusement in that part of Great Britain. 
Their flight is amazingly rapid ; one, that was reclaimed by a 
gentleman in the shire of Angus, a county on the east side of 
Scotland, eloped from its master with two heavy bells attached 


* “Specific names, to be perfect, ought to express some peculiarity 
common to no other of the genus.” Am. Orn., i. p. 65. 

+ We suspect that Pennant is mistaken ; its name denotes that it is 
not indigenous in Great Britain. Bewick says, “The peregrine or 
passenger falcon is rarely met with in Britain, and consequently is but 
little known with us.”—British Birds, part i. 


GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. Iss 


to each foot on the 24th September 1772, and was killed on 
the morning of the 26th, near Mostyn, Flintshire.’* 

The same naturalist in another place observes, that “the 
American species is larger than the Huropean.t They are 
subject to vary. The black falcon, and the spotted falcon of 
Edwards, are of this kind ; each preserves a specific mark in 
the black stroke which drops from beneath the eyes down 
towards the neck. 

“Tnhabits different parts of North America, from Hudson’s 
Bay as low as Carolina; in Asia, is found on the highest parts 
of the Uralian and Siberian chain ; wandersin summer to the 
very arctic circle; is common in Kamtschatka.’’t 

In the breeding season, the duck-hawk retires to the recesses 
of the gloomy cedar swamps, on the tall trees of which it con- 
structs its nest, and rears its young secure from all molestation. 
In those wilds, which present obstacles almost insuperable to 
the foot of man, the screams of this bird, occasionally mingled 
with the hoarse tones of the heron, and the hooting of the great 
horned owl, echoing through the dreary solitude, arouse in 
the imagination all the frightful imagery of desolation. Mr 
Wilson and the writer of this article explored two of these 
swamps in the month of May 1813, in pursuit of the great 
heron and the subject of this chapter ; and although they were 
successful in obtaining the former, yet the latter eluded their 
research. 

The great-footed hawk is twenty inches in length, and three 
feet eight inches in extent ; the bill is inflated, short and strong, 
of a light blue colour, ending in black; the upper mandible 
with a tooth-like process, the lower, with a corresponding 
notch, and truncate ; nostrils round, with a central point like the 
pistil of a flower; the eye is large and dark, surrounded with 


* British Zoology. 

+ If we were to adopt the mode of philosophising of the sapient Count 
de Buffon, we should infer that the European species is a variety of our 
more generous race, degenerated by the influence of food and climate ! 

{ Arctic Zoology. 


156 GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 


a broad bare yellowish skin, the cartilage over it yellow and 
prominent; frontlet, whitish ; the head above, cheeks running 
off like moustaches, and back, are black; the wings and scapu- 
lars are brownish black, each feather edged with paler, the 
former long and pointed, reaching almost to the end of the tail ; 
the primaries and secondaries are marked transversely on the 
inner vanes with large oblong spots of ferruginous white ; the 
exterior edge of the tip of the secondaries curiously scalloped, 
as if a piece had been cut out; the tertials incline to ash 
colour ; the lining of the wings is beautifully barred with black 
and white, and tinged with ferruginous ; on a close examina- 
tion, the scapulars and tertials are found to be barred with 
faint ash ; all the shafts are black; the rump and tail-coverts 
are light ash, marked with large dusky bars; the tail is round- 
ing, black, tipped with reddish white, and crossed with eight 
narrow bars of very faint ash; the chin and breast, encircling 
the black moustaches, are of a pale buff colour ; breast below and 
lower parts, reddish buff or pale cinnamon, handsomely marked 
with roundish or heart-shaped spots of black; sides, broadly 
barred with black ; the femorals are elegantly ornamented with 
herring-bones of black, on a buff ground; the vent is pale buff, 
marked as the femorals, though with less numerous spots ; the 
feet and legs are of a corn-yellow, the latter short and stout, 
feathered a little below the knees, the bare part one inch in 
length ; span of the foot, five inches, with a large protuberant 
sole; the claws are large and black, hind claw the largest. 
Whether the cere is yellow or flesh-coloured, we were un- 
certain, as the bird had been some time killed when received ; 
supposed the former. 

The most striking characters of this species are the broad 
patch of black dropping below the eye, and the uncommonly 
large feet. It is stout, heavy, and firmly put together. 

The bird from which the above description was taken was 
shot in a cedar swamp in Cape May county, New Jersey. It 
was a female, and contained the remains of small birds, among 
which were discovered the legs of the sanderling plover. 


CONTINUATION 


OF 


WILSON’ 
AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


BY 


CHARLES LUCIAN BONAPARTE. 


Drawn thom Nance by ten R Peele. ; Engraved by WE Liars. 
1. Fork tailed Flycatcher 2. Rocky Mountain Anteater 3. Female Golden winged Warbler: 


Muscicapa Savana Myothera Obsoleta Sylvia Chrysoptera. 


il 5 


CONTINUATION 


OF 


WILSON'’S 
AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa savanna.) 
PLATE I.—Fre. 1. 


Muscicapa tyrannus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 325, sp. 4.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 931, sp. 4.— 
Lath. Ind. p. 484, sp. 69.—Tyrannus savanna, Vieill. Ois. del Am. Sept. i. p. 
72, pl. 43 (a South American specimen).—Vietll. Nouv. Dict. d Hist. Nat. 
xxxv. p. 87.—Muscicapa tyrannus cauda bifurca, Briss. Av. ii. p. 395, sp. 20, 
pl. 39, fig. 3.—Le Moucherolle Savanna, Buff. iv. p. 557, pl. 26.—Le Tyran 
4 queue fourchue de Cayenne, Buff. Pl. enl. 571, fig. 2.—Fork-tailed Fly- 
catcher, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 265.—Lath. Syn. ii. part 1, p. 355, sp. 59.— 
Phil. Museum, No. 6620. 


MILVULUS SAVANNA.—SWAINSON.* 


Tyrannus savanna, Brand’s Journ. No. lx. p. 282.—Muscicapa savanna, Bonap. 
Synop. p. 67. 


THoucH Brisson, Linné, and Pennant have stated the fork- 
tailed flycatcher to inhabit this region as far north as Canada, 


* The latter part of the description of this bird will show that more 
than one species has been confounded with it ; and I am not sure that 
those very closely allied are yet properly unravelled, The present 
species has more decidedly marked habits, and will most probably be 
found entirely restricted to the northern parts of the south continent, 
and extending slightly, and in small numbers, into the north. 

The peculiar form of the tail, and the extreme development of the 
organs of flight, induced Mr Swainson to use these birds as typical of 


160 FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 


still the fact seemed more than doubtful, since this bird 
escaped the researches of Vieillot, and, what is more extra- 
ordinary, those of the indefatigable Wilson. It is, therefore, 
a very gratifying circumstance that we are able to introduce 
this fine bird with certainty into the ornithology of the 
United States, and, by the individual represented in the an- 
nexed plate, to remove all doubt on the subject. The speci- 
men from which our drawing was made is a beautiful male 
in full plumage; it was shot near Bridgetown, New Jersey, 
at the extraordinary season of the first week in December, 
and was presented by Mr J. Woodcraft, of that town, to Mr 
Titian Peale, who favoured me with the opportunity of exa- 
mining it. 

Brisson published the first account of this bird. That we 
have rejected the name given by Linné may appear contrary 
to our principles; but, in this instance, we certainly have no 
option, inasmuch as the same name has been very properly 
retained by Wilson, agreeably to Brisson, for the Lantus 
tyrannus of Linné. Had Linné himself included them both 
in the same genus, he would doubtless have retained that 
specific name for the kingbird, which is unquestionably a 
Muscicapa, and not a Lanius. As the kingbird is a very 
abundant species, known to every zoological reader by the 
name of 7'yrannus, it is obvious that less inconvenience will 
be produced by changing the name of an almost unknown 
species, than would result from altering that of one with 
which we are so familiar. We have, therefore, adopted 
Vieillot’s specific name of savanna, taken by that author 
from Montbeillard, who in Buffon’s work thereby endeavoured 
to commemorate this bird’s habit of frequenting inundated 
a section among the tyrants, to which he has given the characters of 
“ Ale longe remigum pogoniis internis emarginatis; cauda longissima for- 
ficata ;” * and afterwards to give it the rank of a subgenus, under the 
title of Jfilvulus, with which will also range the swallow-tailed flycatcher 
of next plate, Milvulus longipennis, &c. ; making this curious group to 
contain at least six or seven known species.—Eb. 


* See Monographical Sketch, Brand’s Journal, No. LX. p. 282. 


FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 161 


savannas. Naturalists who separate Tyrannus from Musct- 
capa generically, disagree with respect to the arrangement of 
this species. For ourselves, we consider the former as a sub- 
genus of Muscicapa, including the larger species, among which 
our fork-tailed flycatcher must be placed. 

This species is fourteen inches long, its tail measuring 
nearly ten ; the extent, from the tip of one wing to that of the 
other, is fourteen inches. The bill is somewhat more slender 
and depressed at base than that of the kingbird, and, as well 
as the feet, is black. The irides are brown. The upper part 
of the head, including the cheeks and superior origin of the 
neck, is velvet black. The feathers of the crown are some- 
what slender, elevated, and of a yellow orange colour at base, 
constituting a fine spot, not visible when they are in a state of 
repose ; the remaining part of the neck above and the back 
are greyish ash; the rump is of a much darker greyish ash, 
and gradually passes into black, which is the colour of the 
superior tail-coverts ; the inferior surface of the body, from 
the base of the bill, as well as the under wing and under tail- 
coverts, is pure white. The wings are dusky, the coverts being 
somewhat lighter at tip and on the exterior side; the first 
primary is edged with whitish on the exterior web, and is 
equal in length to the fourth; the second primary is longest ; 
the three outer ones have a very extraordinary and profound 
sinus or notch on their inner webs, near the tip, so as to ter- 
minate in a slender process. ‘The tail is very profoundly 
forked, the two exterior feathers measuring nearly ten inches 
in perfect individuals, whilst the two succeeding are but five 
inches long, and the other feathers become gradually and pro- 
portionally shorter, until those in the middle are scarcely two 
inches in length; the-tail is, in fact, so deeply divided, that if 
the two exterior feathers were removed, it would still exhibit 
avery forked appearance. All the tail feathers are black, the 
exterior one on each side being white on the remarkably 
narrow outer web, and on the shaft beneath, for nearly three- 


fourths of its length. 
VOL, II. i 


” a 
~ t 
¥ 


162 FORK- TAILED FLYCATCHER. 


I cannot agree with those who say that the female is distin- 
guished from the other sex by wanting the orange spot on 
the head, as I think we may safely conclude, from analogy, 
that there is hardly any difference between the sexes. The 
young birds are readily recognised by being destitute of that 
spot, as well as by having the head cinereous instead of black ; 
the colour of the whole upper part of the body is also darker, 
the tail considerably shorter, and the exterior feathers not so 
much elongated as those of the adult. It is proper to remark, 
that the elongated tail-feathers of the full-grown bird are some- 
times very much worn, in consequence of the rapidity with 
which it passes through the bushes. 

Two coloured figures have been given of the fork-tailed 
flycatcher—the one by Buffon, which is extremely bad, al- 
though the rectilinear form of the tail is correctly represented ; 
the other by Vieillot, which has the exterior tail-feathers 
unnaturally curved, and notwithstanding it is preferable to 
Buffon’s figure, yet it is far from being accurate. This author 
having been unable to procure a North American specimen, 
chose nevertheless to introduce the species in his ‘‘ Natural 
History of North American Birds,” on the authority of former 
authors, giving a figure from a South American specimen. 
The error in representing the exterior tail-feathers curved 
doubtless arose from the manner in which the dried skin was 
packed for transportation. ‘That our drawing of this graceful 
bird is far superior to those above mentioned will at once be 
evident on comparison ; this superiority is owing to the cir- 
cumstance of this drawing, like all the others given in the 
present work, being made from the recent specimen. Buffon’s 
plain figure is a more faithful poe than that given 
in his Eslemed engravings. 

From the very great rarity of the fork-tailed flycatcher in 
this region, and the advanced season in which this individual 
was killed, it is evident that it must have strayed from its 
native country under the influence of extraordinary circum- 
stances; and we are unable to believe that its wanderings 


= 


FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 163 


have ever extended as far as Canada, notwithstanding the 
statements of authors to the contrary. It may be proper to 
observe, that the difference indicated by Linné and Latham 
between the variety which they suppose to inhabit Canada 
and that of Surinam, appears to have no existence in nature. 

Although this bird is so very rare and accidental here, we 
should be led to suppose it a more regular suramer visitant 
of the southern States, were it not impossible to believe that 
so showy a bird could have escaped the observation of travel- 
lers ; hence we infer that the fork-tailed flycatcher must be 
included in the catalogue of those species which are mere 
fortuitous visitors to the United States. As but a single 
specimen of this bird has been obtained, I cannot give any 
account of its manners and habits from personal observation. 

The native country of the fork-tailed flycatcher is Guiana, 
where it is rather common, and is improperly called veuve 
(widow), from the great length of its tail, in which character 
only it resembles the African birds of that name. 

The habits of the fork-tailed flycatcher resemble those of 
other species of the same genus. It is a solitary bird, remain- 
ing for a long time perched on the limb of a tree, whence it 
occasionally darts after passing insects ; or, flying downwards, 
it alights on the tufts of herbage which appear above the water, 
affording it a resting-place in the midst of those partially 
inundated lands called savannas, beyond the limits of which 
it is not frequently seen. While on the tuft, this bird moves 
its tail in a manner similar to that of the wagtails. Besides 
insects, the fork-tailed flycatcher feeds occasionally on vegetable 
substances, as, on dissection, the stomach of our specimen was 
found to be filled with pokeberries (Phytolacca decandra, L.) 

Beyond these particulars, we have no positive knowledge of 
the manners of our flycatcher, though Vieillot has recorded a 
history of some length, taken from D’Azara; but the bird 
observed by the latter author in Paraguay and Buenos Ayres, 
though closely allied, appears to be specifically distinct from 
the one we are describing. Vieillot has since been convinced 


164 ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER, 


of this difference, and in the (French) “‘ New Dictionary of 
Natural History,” he has separated the more southern species, 
under the name of Tyrannus violentus. In colour, that bird 
strongly resembles our Muscicapa savanna, but it is consider- 
ably smaller, and has different habits, being gregarious; whilst 
the savanna, as we have already stated, is a solitary bird. 

Another species for which ours may be readily mistaken is 
the Tyrannus bellulus, Vieill., which, however, is much larger, 
with a still longer tail, differing also by having a large black 
collar extending to each corner of the eye, margining the white 
throat ; and the head of the same bluish grey colour with the 
other superior parts of the body; the remaining under parts 
being of the same colour, with a narrow brown line in the 
middle of each feather ; and by having a whitish line on each 
side of the head behind the eye, extending to the occiput. The 
Tyrannus bellulus is a native of Brazil. 


ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 
(Myiothera obsoleta.) 


PLATE I.—Fie. 2. 

Troglodytes obsoleta, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 
vol. li. p. 4.—Philadelphia Museum, No. 2420. 
TROGLODYTES OBSOLETA.—Say.* 

Myiothera obsoleta, Bonap. Synop. p. 73. 


Tuts bird is one of those beings which seem created to puzzle 
the naturalist, and convince him that Nature will never conform 
to his systems, however perfect his ingenuity may be capable 
of devising them. ‘This will become sufficiently apparent 
when we consider in what manner different authors would have 
arranged it. 

We cannot positively decide whether Vieillot and his fol- 

* We prefer retaining this bird for the present in Troglodytes. The 
habits, colour, and marking, nest and call, of this bird, bring it nearer to 
thewrens. There is no question, however, of its being an aberrant form, 
wherever it may rank.—ED. 


ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 165 


lowers would have referred this species to Myrmothera, a name 
they have substituted for MZyiothera ; to their genus Thryotho- 
rus, Which we unite to T’roglodytes ; or to their slender-billed 
section of Thamnophilus, rejected by us from that genus, and 
of which some recent authors have made a genus called For- 
micivora : yet we have very little hesitation in stating our 
belief that they would have assigned its place among the spe- 
cies of the latter. According to our classification, it is certainly 
not a Thamnophilus, as we adopt the genus, agreeably to the 
characters given by Temminck, who, not admitting the genus 
Troglodytes, would undoubtedly have arranged this bird with 
Myiothera, as Wliger would also have done. 

The only point, therefore, to be established by us is, whether 
this bird is a Myiothera or a Troglodytes. It is, in fact, a link 
intermediate to both. After a careful examination of its form, 
especially the unequal length of the mandibles, the notch of 
the superior mandible, and the length of the tarsus, and after 
a due consideration of the little that is known relative to its 
habits, we unhesitatingly place it with Wyiothera, though, in 
consequence of its having the bill more slender, long, and 
arcuated than that of any other species I have seen, it must 
occupy the last station in the genus, being still more closely 
allied to Troglodytes than those species whose great affinity 
to that genus has been pointed out by Cuvier. ‘This may be » 
easily ascertained by comparing the annexed representation 
with the figures given by Buffon and Temminck. ‘The figure 
which our Rocky Mountain antcatcher resembles most is Buf- 
fon’s Pl. Enl. 823, fig. 1 (yiothera lineata). The colours of 
our bird are also similar to those of a wren; but this simi- 
litude is likewise observed in other Myiothere. 

The bird now before us was brought from the Arkansaw 
river, in the neighbourhood of the Rocky Mountains, by Major 
Long’s exploring party, and was described by Say under the 
name of Troglodytes obsoleta, from its close resemblance to the 
. Carolina wren (T'roglodytes Ludovictanus), which Wilson con- 
sidered a Certhia, and Vieillot a Thryothorus. 


166 ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 


As the Rocky Mountain antcatcher is the first and only spe- 
cies hitherto discovered in North America, we shall make 
some general observations on the peculiarities of a genus thus 
introduced into the fauna of the United States. 

Buffon first formed a distinct group of the antcatchers, 
under the name of Fourmiliers, and considered them as allied 
to his Bréves, now forming the genus Pztta of Vieillot, they 
having been previously placed in that of Turdus, Lacépéde 
adopted that group as a genus, and applied to it the name 
of Myrmecophaga. Illiger added such species of the genus 
Lanius of Linné and Latham as are destitute of prominent 
teeth to the bill, and gave to the genus, thus constituted, 
the name of Myzothera, rejecting Lacépéde’s designation, as 
already appropriated to a genus of mammalia. 

Cuvier perceived that some of the Fowrmiliers of Buffon 
were true thrushes; but he retained the remainder as Myio- 
theree, among which he also included the Pitta. Vieillot, 
besides the Pité@, removed some other species, in order to 
place them in his new genera Conopophaga and Thamnophilus, 
giving the name of Myrmothera to the remaining species, with 
the exception of the Myiothera rex, for which he formed a 
distinct genus, with the name of Grallaria. We agree with 
Vieillot in respect to the latter bird; but as regards the 
other species, we prefer the arrangement of Temminck, who 
has adopted the genus Myiothera nearly as constituted by 
Hlliger, including some of the slender-billed Zhamnophili of 
Vieillot, of which our Myiothera obsoleta would probably be 
one, as above stated. 

The genus thus constituted contains numerous species, which 
inhabit the hottest parts of the globe, a greater number of 
them existing in South America than elsewhere. For the 
sake of convenience, several sections may be formed in this 
genus, founded on the characters of the bill, tail, and tarsus ; 
but as we have only one species, it does not rest with us to 
make divisions ; and we shall merely remark, that our obsoleta 
is referable to the last section, consisting of those whose bills 


ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 167 


are the most slender, elongated, and arcuated, in company 
with the Turdus lineatus of Gmelin. 

The antcatchers may justly be enumerated amongst the 
benefactors of mankind, as they dwell in regions where the 
ants are so numerous, large, and voracious, that, without their 
agency, co-operating with that of the Myrmecophaga jubata, 
and a few other ant-eating quadrupeds, the produce of the 
soil would inevitably be destroyed in those fertile parts of the 
globe. The anthills of South America are often more than 
twenty feet in diameter, and many feet in height. These 
wonderful edifices are thronged with two-hundred-fold more 
inhabitants, and are proportionally far more numerous, than 
the small ones with which we are familiar. Breeding in vast 
numbers, and multiplying with great celerity and profusion, 
the increase of these insects would soon enable them to swarm 
over the greatest extent of country, were not their propaga- 
tion and diffusion limited by the active exertions of that part 
of the animal creation which continually subsist by their de- 
struction. 

The anteatchers run rapidly on the ground, alighting but 
seldom on trees, and then on the lowest branches ; they gene- 
rally associate in small flocks, feed exclusively on insects, and 
most commonly frequent the large anthills before mentioned. 
Several different species of these birds are often observed to 
live in perfect harmony on the same mound, which, as it sup- 
plies an abundance of food for all, removes one of the causes 
of discord which is most universally operative throughout 
animated nature. On the same principle, we might explain 
the comparative mildness of herbivorous animals, as well as 
the ferocity and solitary habits of carnivorous, and particularly 
of rapacious animals, which repulse all others from their 
society, and forbid even their own kind to approach the limits 
of their sanguinary domain. 

The antcatchers never soar high in the air, nor do they ex- 
tend their flight to any great distance without alighting to 
rest, in consequence of the shortness of their wings and tail, 


168 ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 


which, in fact, seem to be seldom employed for any other pur- 
pose than to assist them in running along the ground, or in 
leaping from branch to branch of bushes and low trees,—an 
exercise in which they display remarkable activity. Some 
species, like the woodpeckers, climb on the trunks of trees in 
pursuit of insects; and it would appear, from their restless 
habits and almost constant motion, that their limited excur- 
sions are entirely attributable to the want of more ample pro- 
vision for flight. The antcatchers are never found in settled 
districts, where their favourite insects are generally less abun- 
dant ; but they live in the dense and remote parts of forests, 
far from the abodes of man and civilisation. They also dislike 
open and wet countries. 

The note of the antcatchers is as various as the species are 
different; but it is always very remarkable and peculiar. 
Their flesh is oily, and disagreeable to the taste; and, when 
the bird is opened, a very offensive odour is diffused from the 
remains of half-digested ants and other insects contained in 
the stomach. 

The plumage of the antcatchers very probably undergoes 
considerable changes in colour. The size of the sexes is dif- 
ferent, the female being much larger than the male. Such 
variations may have induced naturalists to consider many as 
species that really do not exist as such in nature. 

The nest of these birds is hemispherical, varying in magni- 
tude according to the size of the species, composed of dried 
grass rudely interwoven ; it is fixed to small trees, or attached 
by each side to a branch, at the distance of two or three feet 
from the ground. The eggs are nearly round, and three or 
four in number. 

The discovery of any species of this genus in the Old World 
is quite recent, and it had previously been believed that the 
genus was peculiar to South America; and though the exist- 
ence of ant-destroying birds was suspected in other tropical 
regions, they were supposed to be generically distinct from 
those of the corresponding parts of America, as was known to 


ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 169 


be the fact in the case of the ant-eating quadrupeds. This 
opinion was founded on the admitted axiom that Nature 
always varies her groups in remote tropical regions having no 
communication with each other. The reverse, however, is the 
fact in the case of the ant-catching birds, as we find perfect 
analogies between the species residing in those distant parts 
of the globe, even throughout the different sections into which 
the genus may be divided. 

The Rocky Mountain antcatcher is six inches long. The 
bill, measured from the corner of the mouth, is more than one 
inch in length, being slightly curved almost from the base ; 
it is very slender, being nearly two-eighths of an inch in dia- 
meter at the base, and only the sixteenth of an inch in the 
middle, whence it continues to diminish to the tip; and is of 
a dark horn colour, paler beneath. The feet are dusky, and 
the length of the tarsus is seven-eighths of aninch. The irides 
are dark brown; the whole plumage above is of a dusky 
brownish, slightly undulated with pale, tinted with dull fer- 
ruginous on the top of the head and superior portions of the 
back. ‘The sides of the head are dull whitish, with a broad 
brown line passing through the eye to the commencement, of 
the neck. The chin, throat, and breast are whitish, each 
feather being marked by a longitudinal line of light brown. 
The belly is white, and the flanks are slightly tinged with 
ferruginous. ‘The primaries are entirely destitute of undula- 
tions or spots ; the tail-coverts are pale, each with four or five 
fuscous bands ; the inferior tail-coverts are white, each being 
bifasciate with blackish brown. ‘The tail is nearly two inches 
long, rounded, broadly tipped with ferruginous yellow, and 
having a narrow black band before the tip: the remaining 
part of the tail is of the same colour with the wings, and is 
obsoletely banded, these bands being more distinct on the two 
middle feathers, which are destitute of the black and yellowish 
termination ; the exterior feather is dusky at tip, marked by 
four yellowish white spots on the exterior, and by two larger 
ones on the inner web. 


170 FEMALE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 


The specimen of the Rocky Mountain antcatcher we are de- 
scribing is a male, shot in the month of July, and possibly 
not adult. As it is the only one brought by Major Long’s 
party, we cannot determine the extent or nature of the varia- 
tions the species may undergo from age, sex, or season. 

The note of this bird is peculiar, resembling the harsh voice 
of the terns. It inhabits the sterile country bordering on the 
river Arkansaw, in the neighbourhood of the Rocky Mountains, 
where it is frequently observed hopping on the ground, or flit- 
ting among the branches and weatherbeaten, half-reclining 
trunks of a species of juniper: when it flies among the crooked 
limbs of this tree, it spreads its tail considerably, but was never 
seen to climb. ‘They were generally observed in small asso- 
ciations of five or six individuals, perhaps composing single 
families. 


FEMALE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 
(Sylvia chrysoptera.) 


PLATE I.—Fia. 3. 


See Wilson’s American Ornithology, ii. p. 113, pl. 15, fig. 5, for the male.—Mota- 
cilla chrysoptera, Linn. Syst. i. p. 333, sp. 20.—G'mel. Syst. i. p. 971, sp. 
20 (male).—Sylvia chrysoptera, Lath. Ind. p. 541, sp. 123.—Viéeill. Ois. de 
VAm. Sept. li. p. 37, pl. 97 (male).—Motacilla flavifrons, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 
976, sp. 126 (male).—Sylvia flavifrons, Lath. Ind. p. 527, sp. 69 (male).— 
Ficedula Pennsylvanica Cinerea Gutture Nigro, Brisson, Av. Supp. p. 109, sp. 
80 (male).—Figuier aux ailes dorées, Buff. Os. v. p. 311 (male).—Golden- 
winged Flycatcher, Edwards, Gilean. ii. p. 189, pl. 299 (male).—Gold-winged 
Warbler, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 295.—Lath. Syn. ii. part 2, p. 492, sp. 118 
(male).—Yellow-fronted Warbler, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 296.—Lath. Syn. ii. 
part 2, p. 461, sp. 67 (male).—Parus alis aureis, the Golden-winged Fly- 
catcher, Bartram, Trav. p. 292 (male).—Philadelphia Museum, No. 7010, 
male; No. 7011, female. 


VERMIVORA CHRYSOPTERA.—SWAINSON. 
Male, vol. i. p. 259. 


Tne female of this pretty little warbler, hitherto unknown to 
any naturalist, is now figured and described for the first time. 
For the opportunity of presenting it to the reader, we are 
indebted to Mr Titian Peale, who shot it on the 24th of May, 


FEMALE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 171 


near Camden, New Jersey, and, with his usual kindness and 
zeal for natural history, communicated it to us for this work. 

This little warbler differs so materially from its mate as to 
require a distinct figure and description in order to be recog- 
nised ; yet we cannot fail to perceive a kind of family resem- 
blance between the sexes ; and by comparing the two descrip- 
tions and accompanying figures, our readers will agree with 
us that they are but one and the same species, in a different 
garniture of plumage. ‘The distribution of markings is really 
similar in both sexes, but in the female the colours are paler, 
and green prevails on those parts which in the male are of a 
dark slate colour. 

The female of the golden-winged warbler is four and a half 
inches long. ‘The bill is blackish, straight, entire, rounded, 
and gradually tapering to a sharp point. ‘The feet are 
brownish ash ; the irides, dark brown. The front is golden 
yellow ; the top of the head, bright olive yellow; the back of 
the head, and superior parts of the neck and body, are of a 
pale plumbeous hue, the feathers being tipped with yellow 
olive, more particularly on the rump; the superior tail-coverts 
are pure pale plumbeous. A wide slate-coloured stripe passes 
through the eye from the bill, and dilates on the cheeks; this 
is margined by a white line above the eye, and by a wider one 
on each side of the throat. The throat is of a pale slate 
colour, becoming still paler on the breast. The remaining 
under parts are whitish, occasionally tinged with yellow, and 
with slate colour on the flanks. he wings are of the same 
colour as the back, but somewhat darker, and are crossed by 
two wide bands of bright yellow, formed by the tips of the 
first and second rows of wing-coverts. The primaries are 
dusky, margined on the exterior web with pale, and on the 
inner broadly with white. The secondaries are broadly mar- 
gined with yellow olive on the outer web, and with white on 
the inner web. The tail is nearly even at tip, of a dusky 
plumbeous colour ; the three lateral feathers have a large pure 
white spot on the inner web. 


WZ FEMALE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 


This last essential character also exists in the male, though 
Wilson has not mentioned it. As to the manners and habits 
of the species, he has given us no information, except that it is 
rare, and remains only a few days in Pennsylvania. He says 
nothing of the female, and Vieillot never saw it. 

We regret that we are unacquainted with the form of its 
nest, and the peculiarity of its song. We can only state, that 
during its short stay in Pennsylvania, it is solitary and silent, 
gleaning amongst the branches of trees, and creeping much 
after the manner of the titmouse, with its head frequently 
downwards, in pursuit of larvee and insects, which constitute 
exclusively the food of this species. 

Wilson was impressed with the opinion that the shape of 
the bill would justify the formation of a distinct subgenus, 
which would include this bird, the Sylvia vermivora, and some 
other species. In this opinion Cuvier has coincided, by form- 
ing his subgenus Dacnis, which he places under his extensive 
eenus Cassicus, remarking that they form the passage to Mota- 
cilla. This subgenus we shall adopt, but we differ from 
Cuvier by arranging it under Sylvia ; it will then form the 
transition to the more slender-billed Zcterz. Temminck and 
Vieillot have arranged them also under Sylvia ; the latter 
author, in the (French) “ New Dictionary of Natural History,” 
vives them the name of pztpzts ; and it is most probably from 
want of examination that he has not considered the present 
bird as belonging to that section.* 


* The opinion of Wilson, now mentioned by his continuator, shows 
the accurate perception he had of the generic forms and modifications of 
birds : the subdivision he mentions} has actually been made by various 
ornithologists. Holding different views, we certainly also prefer placing 
it among the Sylviade, but it may lead off in other directions according 
to the ideas of the systematist and the mode of analysis he pursues, 
Vermivora is now retained, on account of, as far as we are aware, the 
more restricted form.—ED. 


Drawn trom Nature by Enax PR Peale 


Enaraved by White 
1. Swallow tailed Flycatcher. 2d4rkansaw Flycatcher. 3.Savs Flycatcher. + Female Golden creste) © 


Yuscicapa Forficata. Musctcapa. Fornicalis Muscicapa Saya Regulus Cristams, 


te 


SWALLOW-TAILED FLYCATCHER, 7? 


SWALLOW-TAILED FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa 
Jorficata.) 


PLATE II.—Fie. 1. 


Muscicapa forficata, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 9351, sp. 22.—Lath. Ind. p. 485, sp. 70.— 
Vieill. Ois. de VAm. Sep. i. p. 71.—Stephens, Cont. of Shaw’s Zool. xx. p. 413, 
pl. 3.—Tyranuus forficatus, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 
ii. p. 224.—Moucherolle 4 queue fourchue du Mexique, Buff. Otis. iv. p. 564.— 
Gobe-mouche 4 queue fourchue du Mexique, Buff. Pl. enl. 677.—Swallow- 
tailed Flycatcher, Lath. Syn. ii. parti. p. 356, sp. 50.—Philadelphia Museum, 
No. 6623. 

MILVULUS FORFICATUS.—SWAINSON. 


Muscicapa forficata, Bonap. Synop. p. 67. 


Tis rare and beautiful bird is, I believe, now figured from 
nature for the second time; and as the plate given by Buffon 
conveys but an imperfect idea of its characters, the represen- 
tation in the accompanying engraving will certainly prove the 
more acceptable to naturalists. That author had the merit 
of publishing the first account of this species; and the indi- 
vidual he described was received from that part of Louisiana 
which borders on Mexico. Neither Latham, Gmelin,’ nor 
Vieillot seem to have had an opportunity of examining this 
bird, as they have evidently drawn on Buffon for what they 
have said relative to it. Hence it appears that the swallow- 
tailed flycatcher has never been obtained from the time of 
Buffon to the period of Major Long’s expedition to the unex- 
plored region it inhabits. ‘The specimen before us, which is 
a fine adult male, was shot by Mr Titian Peale, on the 24th 
of August, on the Canadian fork of the Arkansaw river. 
Although this bird is very different from the fork-tailed fly- 
catcher, yet, on account of the form of the tail, and the simi- 
larity of the common name, they are apt to be mistaken for 
each other, and when both are immature, some caution is 
required to avoid referring them to the same species. Not- 
withstanding this similarity, some authors have placed the 
fork-tailed flycatcher in their genus Z’yrannus, and the present 


174 SWALLOW-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 


bird in Muscicapa, whereas, from an inspection of the bills, it 
will at once be seen that the latter would be still more pro- 
perly placed in their genus Tyrannus, as the form of its bill 
is exactly the same with that of the kingbird, the type of the 
subgenus. 

The swallow-tailed flycatcher, when in full plumage, is 
eleven inches long. The bill and feet are blackish; the irides 
are brown (red, according to authors). The upper part of the 
head and neck is of a light grey; the back and scapulars are 
dark cinereous, tinged with reddish brown; the rump is of the 
same colour, but strongly tinged with black, and the superior 
tail-coverts are deep black; the under part of the body is milk- 
white, the flanks being tinged with red ; the inferior tail-coverts 
are pale rosaceous ; the wings are brownish black, the upper 
coverts and secondaries being margined externally, and at tip 
with dull whitish; the under wing-coverts are whitish rosa- 
ceous ; the axillary feathers, above and beneath, are of a vivid 
scarlet colour. The tail is greatly elongated and excessively 
forked ; it is of a deep velvet black colour, each feather having 
the terminal margin of a dull whitish tint, and the shafts white 
at their bases. The three exterior feathers on each side are 
of a delicate pale rosaceous colour on a considerable part of 
their length from the base. The external one is five inches 
and a half long; the second and third gradually decrease in 
length, but the fourth is disproportionately shorter, and from 
this feather there is again a gradual decrease to the sixth, 
which is little more than two inches long. 

The female of the swallow-tailed flycatcher is probably very 
similar to the male, but the colours of the young bird are much 
Jess vivid, and the exterior tail-feathers are much shorter than 
those of the adult. 

The swallow-tailed flycatcher is as audacious as the king- 
bird, attacking with unhesitating intrepidity, and turning the 
flight of the most powerful of the feathered tribe. Its note 
consists of a chirping sound, like ¢sch, tsch, much resem- 
bling that of the prairie dog (Arctomys Ludoviciana, Ord), by 


ARKANSAW FLYCATCHER. 175 


which it deceived the members of Long’s party into a belief 
that they were approaching one of the villages of this animal. 

‘A note like that of the prairie dog,” writes Say, “for a 
moment induced the belief that a village of the marmot was 
near, but we were soon undeceived by the appearance of the 
beautiful Tyrannus forficatus in full pursuit of a crow. Not 
at first view recognising the bird, the fine elongated tail-plumes, 
occasionally diverging in a furcate manner, and again closing 
together to give direction to the aerial evolutions of the bird, 
seemed like extraneous processes of dried grass or twigs of 
a tree adventitiously attached to the tail, and influenced by 
currents of wind. The feathered warrior flew forward to a 
tree, whence, at our too near approach, he descended to the 
earth at a little distance, continuing at intervals his chirping 
note. This bird seems to be rather rare in this region; and 
as the very powder within the barrels of our guns was wet, we 
were obliged to content ourselves with only a distant view of it.” 

The range of the swallow-tailed flycatcher appears to be 
limited to the trans-Mississippian territories, lying on the 
south-western frontier of the United States, more especially 
frequenting the scanty forests, which, with many partial and 
often total interruptions, extend along the Arkansaw, Cana- 
dian, and Platte rivers, where in some districts they do not 
seem to be very uncommon. 


ARKANSAW FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa verticalis.) 
PLATE II.—-Fic. 2. 
Tyrannus verticalis, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii. p. 60.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 6624. 


TYRANNUS VERTICALIS.—Say. 
Muscicapa verticalis, Bonap. Synop. p. 67. 


Tus bird, brought from the Rocky Mountains by Major 
Long’s exploring party, is so closely allied to many imperfectly 
described species of the extensive genus to which it belongs, 
that ornithologists, at first sight, may very reasonably doubt 


176 ARKANSAW FLYCATCHER. 


its pretensions to rank as a new species. But notwithstanding 
any doubt that may be produced by its similarity to others, it 
is certainly an addition to the already numerous catalogue of 
flycatchers. . 

The total length of the Arkansaw flycatcher is eight inches. 
The billis similar to that of the crested flycatcher, but is more 
rounded above, and more abruptly inflected at tip, being of 
a blackish colour, as well as the feet. The head above, and 
nucha, are pure pale plumbeous ; the crown has a restricted 
bright orange spot in the middle, invisible when the feathers 
are at rest; there is a dusky spot between the bill and eyes. 
The cervix and back are pale plumbeous, tinged with oliva- 
ceous, and deepening on the rump almost to blackish, which 
is the colour of the superior tail-coverts. The chin is whitish ; 
the throat and upper part of the breast are of the same colour 
as the head, but paler; the remaining under surface, including 
the inferior wing and tail-coverts, is yellow. ‘The wings are 
brown, the secondaries being margined exteriorly with whitish ; 
the inner webs of the primaries are whitish towards the base, 
and near the tips they are narrowed ; the first is remarkably 
so, being almost falciform. The tail is of a deep brown black 
colour, and very slightly emarginated ; the exterior feather is 
white on the outer web, the shaft being white on the exterior 
half, and brown on the interior. 

Say first described and named this bird in the second volume 
of the work above quoted ; and he remarks that it is allied to 
the Tyrannus griseus and Tyrannus sulphuratus of Vieillot. 
There are many species for which the Arkansaw flycatcher 
might more readily be mistaken: of these, we may mention 
the crested flycatcher (Iluscicapa crinita), so well described 
and figured by Wilson in his second volume; and particularly 
the Muscicapa ferox * of Gmelin, a South American bird, the 


* This bird has been incorrectly considered by Vieillot, in his “ Natural 
History of North AmericanBirds,” as identical with the Wuscicapa crinita, 
but afterwards perceiving it to be a distinct species, he named it Tyr- 
an nus ferox, A specimen is in the Philadelphia Museum, designated 


SAYV'S FLYCATCHER. 177 


description of which agrees so well with the species we are 
now considering, that it might be equally applied to either. 
Our bird differs from the two latter by that striking character, 
the white exterior web of the outer tail-feather. From the 
crinita it may more especially be known by the spot on the 
crown, which does not exist in that species; by not having 
the tail and wing-feathers rufous in any part; and by having 
the primaries narrowed at tip, while the crinita has them 
quite large, entire, and rounded. On a particular comparison 
with the ferow, we shall perceive that the bill of that bird 
is flattened, broad, and carinate, whilst in the verézcalis it is 
almost rounded above. The general colour of the latter is, 
besides, much paler, and the tail is less deeply emarginated. 

The Arkansaw flycatcher appears to inhabit all the region 
extending west of the Missouri river. The specimen we have 
been describing is a male, killed in the beginning of July, on 
the river Platte, a few days’ march from the mountains. 


SAY’S FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa Saya.) 
PLATE II.—Fic. 3. 


Philadelphia Museum, No. 6831. 
TYRANNULA SAY A.—SwWAInNson.* 


Muscicapa Saya, Bonap. Synop. p. 67.—Tyrannula pallida, Sw. Synop. Mex. Phil. 
Mag. No. 15.—Tyrannula Saya, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 142. 


WE now introduce into the fauna of the United States a 
species which is either a nondescript, or one that has been im- 
properly named ; and I dedicate it to my friend Thomas Say, 
a naturalist of whom America may justly be proud, and whose 
talents and knowledge are only equalled by his modesty. The 


by the fanciful name of ruby-crowned flycatcher (with this Say com- 
pared his Tyrannus verticalis before he stated it to be new), and in the 
New York Museum three specimens are exhibited with the erroneous 
title of whiskered flycatcher (Muscicapa barbata). 

* One or two specimens ,of this apparently uncommon bird were 
procured by the Overland Arctic Expedition, agreeing generally with 
the birds now described. Mr Swainson has received it from Mexico.—Ep, 

VOL, Ill. M 


178 SAY’S FLYCATCHER. 


specimen now before us is a male, shot by Mr T. Peale, on 
the 17th of July, near the Arkansaw river, about twenty miles 
from the Rocky Mountains. 

We cannot be perfectly sure that this flycatcher has not 
heretofore been noticed, since we find in the books two short 
unessential descriptions which might be supposed to indicate 
it. One of these is the Jfuscicapa obscura of Latham (dusky 
flycatcher of his “Synopsis”), from the Sandwich Islands ; 
but, besides the difference of the tail-feathers, described as 
acute in that bird, the locality decides its identity with ours. 
The other description is that of a bird from Cayenne, the 
Muscicapa obscura of Vieillot,* given by that author as very 
distinct from Latham’s, although he has applied the same 
name to it, no doubt inadvertently. This may possibly be our 
bird ; but, even in this case, the name we have chosen will 
necessarily be retained, as that of obscura attaches to Latham’s 
species by the right of priority. 

This flycatcher strongly resembles the common pewee 
(Muscicapa fusca), but differs from that familiar bird by the 
very remarkable form of the bill ; by the colour of the plumage, 
which verges above on cinnamon brown, instead of greenish, 
and beneath is cinereous and rufous, instead of yellowish 
ochreous ; and by the proportional length of the primary 
feathers, the first being longer than the sixth in our bird, 
whereas it is shorter in the pewee. 

The total length of Say’s flycatcher is seven inches; the 
bill is long, straight, and remarkably flattened; the upper 
mandible is blackish, and but very slightly emarginated ; the 
lower mandible is much dilated, and pale horn-colour on 
the disk. The feet are blackish ; the irides are brown. The 
general colour of the whole upper parts is dull cinnamon 
brown, darker on the head; the plumage at base is of a lead 
colour. ‘The throat and breast are of the same dull cinnamon 
tint, gradually passing into pale rufous towards the belly, 
which is entirely of the latter colour; the under wing-coverts 

* Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., xxi. p. 451. 


FEMALE GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. iG) 


are white, slightly tinged with rufous. The primaries are 
dusky, tinged with cinnamon, and having brown shafts; they 
are considerably paler beneath. The first primary is a quarter 
of an inch shorter than the second, which is nearly as long as 
the third; the third is longest; the fourth and fifth gradually 
decrease, and the sixth is decidedly shorter than the first. 
The tail is hardly emarginated, and of a blackish brown colour. 

We know nothing of the habits of this flycatcher, except 
what has been communicated by Mr T. Pesle, from his 
manuscript notes. The bird had a nest in July, the time 
when it was obtained ; its voice is somewhat different from 
that of the pewee, and first called attention to its nest, which 
was built on a tree, and consisted chiefly of moss and clay, 
with a few blades of dried grass occasionally interwoven. The 
young birds were, at that season, just ready to fly. 


FEMALE GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. 
(Regulus cristatus.) 


PLATE II.—Fic. 4. 


Wilson’s American Ornithology, i. p. 126, pl. 8, fig. 2, for the male.—Motacilla 
regulus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 338, sp. 48.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 995, sp. 48.—Sylvia 
regulus, Lath. Ind. p. 548, sp. 152.—Temm. Man. @ Orn. p. 229.—Ranzani, 
Elem.di Zool. iii. part 5, p. 105, pl. 16, fig. 3.— Regulus cristatus, Ray, Syn. 
p- 79, sp. 9.—Aldr. Orn. ii. p. 649.— Will. Orn. p. 163, pl. 42.—Vieill. Nouv. 
Dict. d Hist. Nat. xxix. p. 420.—Regulus vulgaris, Stephens, Cont. of Shaw’s 
Zool. xx. p. 758, pl. 59.—Parus calendula, Regulus cristatus vulgo dicta, 
Briss. Av. iil. p. 579, sp. 17.—Le Roitelet, Gerardin, Tabl. Klem. @ Orn. i. p. 
318, sp. 26, pl. 15 (not of Buff. Otis. v. pl. 863, pl. 16, fig. 2, nor Pl. enl. 651, 
fig. 3, which represent Sylvia ignicapilla of Brehm).—Regolo, Storia degli 
uccelli, iv. pl. 890.—Gold-crested Wren, Lath. Syn. ii. part 2, p. 508, sp. 
145.—Penn. Brit. Zool. sp. 153.—Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 321.—Golden-crowned 
Wren, Edw. Glean. v. p. 95, pl. 254, lower fig. male.— Philadelphia Museum, 
No. 7246, male ; No. 7247, female. 


REGULUS REGULOIDES.—Jaxvine.* 
For male and note, see vol. i. p. 127. 
Two distinct species of gold-crest have been, until lately, con- 
sidered by naturalists as but one. Are they both inhabitants 


* For the distinctions of the American bird and the true RP. cristatus, see 
as noted above. The Prince of Musignano is now aware of the distinctions 


7" 


180 FEMALE GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. 


of this continent ? and if not, which is the American species ? 
These questions cannot be readily answered, since we have 
nothing better than negative evidence to offer relative to the 
first. The present female, however, is decisive as to which of 
them inhabits this country, and we have therefore concluded 
that the faithful representation in the accompanying plate will 
be acceptable to ornithologists. A slight inspection of this 
specimen leaves no doubt as to its being the female of the 
Regulus cristatus ; and should the Regulus tgnicapillus, con- 
trary to our expectations, also prove to be an inhabitant of this 
country, it will appear, along with its mate, in another volume 
of this work. All the ornithologists state that the latter is a 
native of this continent, whilst they take no notice whatever 
of the Regulus cristatus, which, if not the only indigenous, is 
certainly the more common species. This error seems to have 
originated with Vieillot, who, considering the two species as 
but one, probably was not careful in selecting the individual 
from which his drawing was made ; he may, therefore, have 
chosen a European bird, and, unluckily, of the other species, 
as both are found in Europe. 

However this may be, his figure is certainly that of the ign7- 
capillus ; and it is equally obvious that his short description 
of the female can only apply to the female of the cristatus, 
which corroborates my opinion. In the (French) “ New Dic- 
tionary of Natural History,” Vieillot distinguishes two varieties 
of Regulus cristatus, and again describes the ignicapillus as 
the one he saw in America. If this observation could be relied 
upon, we should admit that both species are inhabitants of this 
country, although the present, which must be by far the most 
numerous, is certainly not the zgnicapillus. 

I agree with Ray, Vieillot, and other authors, and dissent 


between the American and British species, which he will himself detail 
hereafter. The &. zgnicapillus has not yet been discovered in America, 
unless the bird which Mr Audubon has figured as 2. Cuverit may prove 
to be it ; but which it is impossible to determine from the plate alone. 
—Ep. 


FEMALE GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. ISI 


from Linné, Latham, Wilson, and Temminck, respecting the 
propriety of placing these birds im a separate genus from 
Sylvia, and I have therefore changed the generic name 
adopted by Wilson. ‘This genus forms a link intermediate to 
the genera Sylvia and Parus. It is small, both in the number 
and size of its species, consisting of the two smallest of the 
Kuropean birds, one of which is the subject of this article ; 
an American species, the ruby-crowned gold-crest (Regulus 
calendulus), so well figured and described by Wilson; and a 
fourth from Asia. 

The most obvious characters that distinguish the genus 
Regulus from Sylvia are, the bill remarkably slender through- 
out, and two small decomposed feathers, directed forwards so 
as to cover the nostrils. 

The habits of the gold-crests resemble, in many respects, 
those of the titmouse. They delight in cold weather, and then 
often perch on evergreen trees. ‘They display great activity 
and agility in search of their food, being almost constantly in 
motion, hopping from branch to branch, or climbing on trees, 
frequently with the head downwards, searching the chinks of 
the bark for their prey. These little birds commonly feed on 
the smallest insects, which they catch adroitly while on the 
wing. In the winter they seek them in their retreats, where 
they lie torpid or dead. They are also very expert at finding 
larvee and all sorts of small worms, of which they are so fond 
as to gorge themselves exceedingly. During summer, they oc- 
casionally eat little berries and small grains. In autumn, they 
are fat, and fit for the table, notwithstanding their very dimi- 
nutive size. ‘lhe species we are describing is found in great 
quantities in the neighbourhood of Nuremberg, in Germany, 
and sold in the markets of that city, where they command a 
high price. 

Wilson, in his account of the present species, observes that 
“the very accurate description given by the Count de Buffon 
agrees, in every respect, with ours.” Notwithstanding this 
observation, Buffon’s plate and description designate the egni- 


182 FEMALE GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. 


capillus beyond the possibility of doubt, whilst those of Wilson 


are intended for the cvistatus. 

This statement of Wilson, joined to the testimony of Vieil- 
lot, would have led us to believe the zgnzcapillus to be an 
American bird, if Wilson’s plate, and more especially his de- 
scription, as well as the inspection of the very individual he 
delineated, and a hundred others, had not confirmed our own 
belief. It may, however, be considered extraordinary that so 
diminutive a being should extend its range so widely as to 
participate equally in the bounties of two continents, and that 
another, so closely allied to it as to be generally mistaken for 
a mere variety, should be limited in its wanderings by the 
boundaries of but one. 

That the reader may be assured of the specific difference 
between these two birds, I add a short comparative description. 
The Regulus cristatus has the bill very feeble, and quite suba- 
late, whilst that of the zgnicapillus is also subulate, but is 
wider at base. The cheeks of the former are pure cinereous, 
without any white lines, having only a single blackish one 
through the eye ; those of the latter, in addition to the black 
line through the eye, have a pure white one above and another 
below, whence Temminck calls it Loztelet triple bandeau. 
he English name also may be derived from this character, 
or the bird may rather be called fire-crowned gold-crest, from 
its Latin name. The crest of the male golden-crowned gold- 
crest is yellowish orange, that of the fire-crowned is of the most 
vivid orange; but the most obvious difference is between the 
females, that of the golden-crowned having a lemon yellow 
crest, which in the female of its congener is orange, like that 
of the male, only much less vivid. The cheek-bands of the 
female fire-crowned are by no means so obvious as in its mate ; 
thus the female of this species resembles the male golden- 
crowned, than which the colours of its crest are not less bril- 
liant. If to these traits we add that the latter is a little 
larger, we shall complete the enumeration of their differences. 

The two species are also somewhat distinguished by their 


FEMALE GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. 183 


manner of living. The golden-crowned gold-crest associates 
in small bands, consisting of a whole family, whilst the fire- 
crowned is only observed in pairs. The latter is more shy, 
and frequents the tops of the highest trees; whereas the 
former is more generally observed amongst low branches and 
bushes ; the voice of the fire-crowned gold-crest is also stronger. 
Their nests, however, are both of the same admirable con- 
struction, having the entrance on the upper part; but the 
egos are different in colour, and those of the fire-crowned are 
fewer in number. 

The female golden-crowned gold-crest is three inches and 
three-quarters long, and six in extent. The bill is black ; the 
feet dusky; the toes and nails wax colour; the irides are 
dark brown. The frontlet is dull whitish grey, extending in 
a line over and beyond the eye; above this is a wide black 
line, confluent on the front, enclosing on the crown a wide 
longitudinal space of lemon yellow, erectile, slender feathers, 
with disunited webs ; a dusky line passes through the eye, 
beneath which is a cinereous line, margined below by a narrow 
dusky one. The cervix and upper part of the body are dull 
olive green, tinged with yellowish on the rump. ‘The whole 
inferior surface is whitish; the feathers, like those of the 
superior surface, being blackish plumbeous at base. The 
lesser and middling wing-coverts are dusky, margined with 
olive green, and tipped with whitish ; the greater coverts are 
dusky, the outer ones immaculate, the inner ones have white 
tips, which form a band on the wings. ‘he inferior wing- 
coverts, and all the under surface of the wings, are more or 
less whitish grey; the primaries are dusky, with a narrow 
greenish yellow outer margin, wider at base, and attenuated 
to the tip, where it is obsolete. The secondaries are dusky ; 
on the outer web, they are whitish near the base, then black, 
then with a greenish yellow margin, extending nearly to the 
tip; the margin of the inner web is white; the secondaries 
uearest to the body are, moreover, whitish on the terminal 
margin. The tailisemarginated; the feathers are dusky olive 


184 VELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 


green on the margin of the outer web; the inner margins, 
with the exception of the two middle ones, are whitish. 

Until their first moult, the young of both sexes are much 
like the adult female, except in being destitute of the yellow 
spot on the crest, which is greenish olive. In this state, how- 
ever, they are not seen here, as they breed farther to the north, 
and moult before their arrival in the autumn. 


YELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. (leterus ictero- 
cephalus.) 


PLATE III.—Fic. 1, MALE; Fic. 2, FEMALE. 


Oriolus icterocephalus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 163, sp. 16.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 392, sp. 
16.—Lath. Ind. p. 183, sp. 32, male.—Icterus icterocephalus, Daudin, Orn. 
ii. p. 337, sp. 9, male.—Pendulinus icterocephalus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d Hist. 
Nat. v. p. 317, male.—Icterus xanthornus icterocephalus Cayanensis, Briss. 
Av, ii, p. 124, sp. 27, pl. 12, fig. 4, male.—Cornix atra; capite, collo, pec- 
toreque flavis, Koelreuter, Nov. Comm. Ac. Sc. Petrop. xi. p. 435, pl. 15, fig. 
7, maale.—Les Coiffes Jaunes, Buff. Ois. iii. p. 250, male. —Carouge de Cayenne, 
Buff. Pl. enl. 343, male-—Yellow-headed Starling, Edw. Glean. iil. p. 241, pl. 
323, male.—Yellow-headed Oriole, Lath. Syn.i. part 2, p. 441, sp. 30, male.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 1528, male; No. 1529, female. 

AGLAIUS ICTEROCEPHALUS.—Jarvine.* 


Icterus (subgen. Xanthornus) xanthocephalus, Bonap. Synop. p. 52.—Aglaius 
xanthocephalus, North. Zool. ii. p. 281. 


AurHoucH this species has long been known to naturalists as 
an inhabitant of South America, and its name introduced into 
all their works, yet they have given us no other information 
concerning it than that it is black with a yellow head and 
neck. It was added to the fauna of the United States by the 
expedition of Major Long to the Rocky Mountains. 


* T have retained what appears to be the old specific name for this 
bird, and which also seems to be the view of our author. Another has 
been selected in the ‘‘ Northern Zoology,” where this bird is described 
from species obtained during the last expedition. It is mentioned as 
reaching the Saskatchewan about the 20th of May, and being even more 
numerous than the redwings; commits great havoc among the corn- 
fields. —Eb. 


Drawn from Nature by Titian PF. Peale. Eneraved hy Wi Ttze 


L¥ctlow-headed Blackbird. 2hematle. ikemale tape Mav Warbler 


teterus Lctcrocephatus. Seliva Masitinea. 


VELLOW-HREADED TROOPIAL. 185 


The female has been hitherto entirely unknown, and all the 
figures yet given of the male being extremely imperfect, from 
the circumstance of their having been drawn from wretchedly 
stuffed specimens, we may safely state that this sex also is 
for the first time represented with a due degree of accuracy 
in our plate. The figures published by Edwards and Buffon 
approach the nearest to the real magnitude; but they are 
mere masses of black, surmounted by a yellow cap: those of 
Brisson and others are considerably smaller. 

As that striking character, the white spot on the wing, is 

neither indicated in the figure nor description of any author, 
we might have been induced to believe that our species is dif- 
ferent from the South American, if a close comparison of the 
two had not proved their identity. Another circumstance 
might have been equally deceptive: Brisson, who gave the first 
account of this bird, from a Cayenne specimen sent to Reau- 
‘mur’s Museum, and who seems to have been copied by all sub- 
sequent authors, states its length to be less than seven inches, 
a size considerably inferior to that of the living bird. Had 
this admeasurement been taken from a recent specimen, we 
could hardly hesitate to believe our bird distinct ; but as he 
had only a dried skin, and as Buffon’s figure represents a 
nearer approach to the size of nature, we conclude that Brisson’s 
estimate is not to be implicitly relied upon. Vieillot, who never 
saw the bird, states the length to be six inches and a half, and 
refers it to his genus Pendulinus, but it certainly belongs to his 
genus Agelaius. 

The male yellow-headed troopial is ten inches and a half 
long. The bill is dark horn-colour, and formed exactly like 
that of the red-winged troopial. The feet are black; the 
irides, dark brown. ‘The whole head, neck, and breast are 
brilliant orange yellow, more vivid and sericeous on the head, 
and terminating in a point on the belly ; the feathers around 
the base of the bill, the chin, and a wide stripe passing from 
the bill through the eye, are black. The remaining parts, 
excepting some feathers of the belly, and some of the under 


136 VELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 


tail-coverts, which are yellow at base, are glossy black, very 
slightly tinged with brownish. Some of the exterior wing- 
coverts are pure white, with black tips, constituting two very 
remarkable white spots on the wing, the larger of which is 
formed by the greater coverts of the primaries, and the smaller 
one by the middling coverts. The first, second, and third 
primaries are longest and equal. ‘The tail is four inches long, 
slightly rounded, the two middle feathers being somewhat 
shorter than those immediately adjoining. This character 
Wilson remarked in the red-winged troopial ; and as other 
notable traits are common to both species, we must regard 
them, not only as congeneric, but as very closely allied species 
of the same subgenus. They differ, however, in colour; and 
the yellow-headed troopial is larger, having the bill, feet, and 
claws consequently stronger, and the first primary longer than 
the second and third, or at least as long; whereas, in the red- 
winged, the third is the longest. 

The female of our troopial is eight inches and a quarter long, 
a size remarkably inferior to that of the male, and exactly cor- 
responding with the difference existing between the sexes of 
the red-winged troopial. The bill and feet are proportionally 
smaller than those of the male, the feet being blackish ; the 
irides are dark brown. The general colour is uniform dark 
brown, a shade lighter on the margin of each feather. ‘The 
frontlet is greyish ferruginous, as well as a line over the eye, 
confluent on the auricles, with a broad line of the same colour 
passing beneath the eye, including a blackish space varied with 
greyish. An abbreviated blackish line proceeds from each 
side of the lower mandible ; the chin and throat are whitish ; 
on the breast is a large rounded patch, of a pretty vivid yellow, 
occupying nearly all its surface, and extending a little on the 
neck. On the lower part of the breast and beginning of the 
belly the feathers are skirted with white. The form of the 
wings and tail is the same as in the male; the wings are im- 
maculate. 


VELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 187 


The young of this species are very similar to the female; the 
young male gradually changing to the rich adult covering. 

The yellow-headed troopials assemble in dense flocks, which, 
in all their varied movements and evolutions, present appear- 
ances similar to those of the red-winged, which have been so 
well described by Wilson. ‘They are much on the ground, 
like the cow-troopial (cow-bunting of Wilson) ; on dissection, 
their stomachs have been found filled with fragments of small 
insects, which seem to constitute their chief food, though 
doubtless they also feed on vegetable substances, Their notes 
resemble those of the red-winged troopial, but are more musi- 
cal. The range of the yellow-headed troopial is very extensive, 
as it is found from Cayenne to the river Missouri; although 
it passes far north in the western region, yet it does not visit 
the settled parts of the United States, 

The fine specimens represented in our plate were killed near 
the Pawnee villages, on the river Platte, where they were seen 
in great numbers about the middle of May. The males and 
females were sometimes observed in separate flocks. 

We adopt the genus Jcterus, nearly as it was established by 
Brisson, and accepted by Daudin and Temminck. Authors 
have variously estimated this genus, both in regard to its de- 
nomination and limits. One of Wilson’s most important 
nomenclatural errors consisted in placing one of the species 
under the genus Sturnus, with which it has but little simi- 
larity, if we except some of its habits, and particularly its ¢re- 
garious disposition. Linné considered these birds as Oriola, 
in which he was followed by Gmelin and Latham, notwith- 
standing the remarkable difference existing between them and 
the Oriolus galbula of Kurope, the type of that genus. Llliger, 
and some other naturalists, considering that bird a Coracvas, 
appropriated the name of Orzolus to our Icterws, and separated 
from it the largest species, which he called Cassicz. Linné 
had declared all generic names previously given to arts, dis- 
eases, &c., to be inadmissible in natural history; Illiger, on 


188 VELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 


that principle, altogether rejected the name Jcterus, as being 
pre-occupied by a disease. ‘his may account for the intro- 
duction of new names for genera, one of which, at least, ought 
to have retained its first appellation. Vieillot, however, would 
have caused less confusion if he had adopted the name of 
Icterus (which, with Saaicola, and all other names of that 
class, we do not think objectionable) instead of Agelaius, Pen- 
dulinus, or Yphantes, three of his four genera corresponding to 
our Icterus. Butif the latter name was considered as utterly 
inadmissible, we see no reason why he did not accept that of 
Xanthornus, applied to this genus by Pallas. 

All the species of troopial are peculiar to America. We 
divide them into four subgenera, the present bird belonging 
to the second, to which we apply the name of Xanthornus. 
The species of this subgenus are peculiarly social in their dis- 
positions, and their associations are not liable to interruption 
from the influence of love itself. Not only do many indivi- 
duals of the same family combine and labour in concert, but 
they also unite with very different species. ‘Their aspect is 
animated, and their movements are quick, bold, and vigorous ; 
they fly rapidly, at a good height, and are much attached to 
the places of their birth. Their song is a kind of whistling ; 
they walk with the body nearly erect, with a slightly hurried 
step, and are seen sitting on the ground, or perched on the 
branches of trees. ‘They seek no concealment, and never 
enter the woods, though they are very careful to construct 
their nests in a safe situation, The troopials eat no fruits, but 
derive their subsistence from insects, worms, grains, and small 
seeds. They leave the teraperate climates at the approach of 
winter, and are amongst the first birds of passage that return 
with the spring. 


FEMALE CAPE MAY WARBLER. 189 


FEMALE CAPE MAY WARBLER. (Sylvia maritima.) 
PLATE III.—Fic. 3. 


My Collection. 
SYLVICOLA MARITIMA.—Swartnson. 
Sylvia maritima, Bonap. Synop. p. 79. 


I was so fortunate as to obtain this undescribed little warbler 
in a small wood near Bordentown, New Jersey, on the 14th of 
May, at which season ornithologists would do well to be on 
the alert to detect the passenger warblers, whose stay in this 
vicinity is frequently limited to a very few days. 

Judging by the analogical rules of our science, this bird is 
no other than the female of Wilson’s Cape May warbler. Its 
appearance is so different from the male he described, that the 
specific identity is not recognised at first sight ; but, by care- 
fully comparing the two specimens, a correspondence in the 
least. variable characters may readily be perceived, especially 
in the remarkable slenderness of the bill, which distinguishes 
the Cape May from all other resembling species of North Ame- 
rican warblers. 

Wilson has given no information relative to the history and 
habits of this species, having never procured more than a male 
specimen ; and we have equally to regret that, having obtained 
but a single female, we are unable to supply the deficiency, 
even in regard to its song. 

The female Cape May warbler is four inches and three- 
quarters long, and more than eight in extent. The bill is 
slender, delicate, and slightly curved, being black, as well as 
the feet. The irides are dark brown; the upper part of the 
head, olive cinereous, each feather having a small blackish spot 
on the middle. A yellow line extends from the bill over the 
eye, and is prolonged in an obsolete trace around the audi- 
tory region, thence returning to the corner of the mouth. A 
blackish line passes through the eye, which is circumscribed 
by a whitish circle; the cheeks are dull cinereous, with very 


190 FEMALE CAPE MAY WARBLER. 


small pale spots; the upper parts of the neck and of the 
body are olive cinereous, tinged with more cinereous on the 
neck, and with yellow olive on the rump. The chin is 
whitish; the throat, breast, and flanks are whitish, slightly 
tinged with yellowish, each feather having a blackish spot on 
the middle; the belly is immaculate; the vent and inferior 
tail-coverts are shaded in the middle of each feather with 
dusky. The smaller wing-coverts are dull olive green, 
blackish in the centre; the middling wing-coverts are black, 
margined exteriorly, and tipped with pure white; the greater 
wing-coverts are blackish, margined with olive white; the 
primaries are dusky, finely edged with bright olive green on 
the exterior web, obsolete on that of the first primary, which 
is of the same length as the fourth; the second and third are 
longest, and but little longer than the fourth. The tail is 
slightly emarginated, the feathers being dusky, edged with 
bright olive green on the exterior side, and with white on the 
interior; the two or three exterior feathers on each side have 
a pure white spot on their inner webs near the tip. 

The female Cape May warbler may be very easily mistaken 
for an imperfect Sylvia coronata, of which four or five nominal 
species have already been made. The striking resemblance it 
bears to the young, and to the autumnal condition of the plu- 
mage in that species, requires a few comparative observations 
to prevent their being confounded together. The present bird 
is smaller than the coronata, with a more slender, and rather 
more elongated bill; it is altogether destitute of the yellow 
spot on the head, as well as of the yellow on the rump, which 
is a striking character of the coronata in all its states, and 
vives rise to the English name adopted by Wilson. 

The colour of the outer edging of the wing and tail-feathers 
is a very good distinctive mark; in the maritima it is olive 
ereen, Whilst in the coronata it is white. The white spot on 
the inner webs of the exterior tail-feathers is also four times 
larger in the coronata than in the maritima. 


SuBIT HM AG pavoeb uy] 


‘b 


woln}y Sppasiapy 


DOU AY E> “PAgyIn{T MOL) VOILD 7 


apL | 


PMOQUPRP fUYOL Ag Aeriyo ye dads UKE] 


GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. IQ! 


GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. (Quitscalus major.) 


PLATE IV.—Fie. 1, MALE; Fic. 2, FEMALE, 


Quiscalus major, Vieill. Nowv. Dict. @ Hist. Nat. xxviii. p. 487.—Gracula quis- 
cala, Ord, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. i. p. 253.—Gracula barita, Wilson, 
Am. Orn. vi. Index, p. 8.—Gracula quiscala, the Purple Jackdaw of the sea- 
coast, Bartram, Travels, p. 290.—Corvus Mexicanus? Gimel. Syst. i. p. 375, 
sp. 42.—Lath. Ind. p. 164, sp. 36, male.—Corvus zanoe? Gimel. Syst. i. p. 
375, sp. 44.—Lath. Ind. p. 164, sp. 37, female.— Pica Mexicana major? Briss, 
Av. ii. p. 43, sp. 4, male.—Pica Mexicana minor? Briss. Av. ii. p. 44, sp. 5, 
female.—L’Hocizana? Buff. Ois. iii. p. 103, male.—Le Zanoé? Buff. Ois. iii. 
p. 106, female.—Mexican Crow? Lath. Syn. i. p. 396, sp. 34, male.—Lesser 
Mexican Crow? Lath. Syn. i. p. 397, sp. 36, female.—Hocitzanatl, seu Magnus 
Sturnus? Hernand. Hist. An. Nov. Hisp.p. 21, male.—Tzanahoei? Hernand. 
Hist. An. Nov. Hist. p. 22, female.—Hoitzanatl? Ray, Syn. Av. p. 162, 
male. —Tzanahoei, seu Pica Mexicana Hernandezii? Ray, Syn. Av. p. 162, 
female.— Philadelphia Museum, No. 1582, male ; No. 1583, female. 


QUISCALUS MAJOR.—VIEILLOT. 


Quiscalus major, Bonap. Synop. p. 54. 


-No part of natural history has been more confused than that 
relating to North and South American birds of black plumage; 
which is by no means surprising, when we recollect that they 
are chiefly destitute of coloured markings, and that the 
ereater number of admitted species are founded on the short 
and inexact descriptions of travellers who have neglected to 
observe their forms, habits, and characters. But little aid has 
been derived from the wretched plates hitherto given, for they 
seem better suited to increase the confusion than to exemplify 
the descriptions to which they are annexed, and every suc- 
ceeding compiler has aggravated, rather than diminished, this 
complication of error. It is, therefore, solely. by a studious 
attention to nature, that we can extricate these species from 
the uncertainty involving them, and place them in a distinct 
and cognisable situation. With these views we now give a 
faithful representation of both sexes of the great crow black- 
bird, drawn by that zealous observer of nature, and skilful 
artist, Mr John J. Audubon, and hope thereby to remove all 
doubt relative to this interesting species. 


For the same purpose we give in the following plate a 
figure of the female common crow blackbird, which differs 
so little from its mate (admirably represented in the third 
volume of Wilson’s “ Ornithology”), that it would be otherwise 
unnecessary. ‘This measure, we believe, will be acceptable to 
ornithologists, as it furnishes them with means of comparing 
the females of both the species in question, whence the most 
striking distinctive characters are obtained; that of one 
species differing considerably in size and colour from the 
male, while the sexes of the other are very similar in ap- 
pearance. 

Wilson having mentioned this species in his catalogue of 
land birds, evidently intended to describe and figure it; but 
this he deferred, probably, in expectation of obtaining better 
opportunities of examination, which are not so readily pre- 
sented, as the bird does not inhabit this section of the United 
States. 

It would be difficult to ascertain whether or not Linné and 
Latham have mentioned this bird in any part of their works, 
but the reader may perceive our opinion on this point by re- 
ferring to our synonyms, which, however, are given with much 
doubt, since we do not hesitate to say that those authors have 
not published any satisfactory description of this species. 

We shall not endeavour to settle the question relative to 
the species inhabiting South America, or even Mexico and the 
West Indies; but we may assert that this is the only black- 
bird found in the United States, besides those of Wilson, 
which, as is the case with all that his pencil or pen has 
touched, are established incontestably. He may occasionally 
have been mistaken as to his genera, or incorrect in a specific 
name, but by the plate, description, and history he has always 
determined his bird so obviously as to defy criticism and pre- 
vent future mistake. 

Mr Ord has published an excellent paper in the Journal of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences, proving the existence, in 
the United States, of two allied species of crow blackbird, in 


192 GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. 


GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. 193 


which he gives new descriptions, indicates stable characters, 
and adds an account of their respective habits; but in attempt- 
ing to correct Wilson, he has unfortunately misapplied the 
names. In this instance he should not have charged Wilson 
with error, who is certainly correct in regard to the species he 
published ; and even had this been doubtful, he who so well 
described and figured the common crow blackbird ought to have 
been followed by ornithologists. Therefore, notwithstanding, 
Mr Ord’s decision, we consider the guiscala of Wilson unques- 
tionably the true qguiscala of authors. This is so obvious, that 
it is unnecessary to adduce any evidence in support of our 
opinion, which, indeed, is sufficiently afforded by Mr Ord’s 
paper itself. 

It is impossible to decide with certainty what bird authors 
intended to designate by their Gracula barita ; but after a 
careful review of the short and unessential indications, re- 
pective synonyms, and habitat given by different writers, we 
feel assured that they have not referred to one and the same 
species. Thus the barita of Linné is a species not found in 
the United States, but common in the West Indies, called 
Icterus niger by Brisson, and afterwards Oriolus niger by 
Gmelin and Latham; the barzta of Latham, his boat-tailed 
grakle, is evidently the same with the quiscala ;* Gmelin’s 
barita is taken parily from that of Linné, and partly from the 
boat-tailed grakle of Latham, being compounded from both 
species: we shall not be at the trouble of deciphering the 
errors of subsequent compilers. 

Ornithologists are all at variance as to the classification of 
these species. Linné and Latham improperly,referred them to 
Gracula ; Daudin, with no better reason, placed them under 
Sturnus ; Temminck considers them as Jcteri, Cuvier as Cas- 
sict, and Vieillot has formed a new genus for their reception. 
I have no hesitation in agreeing with the latter author, and 


* It was probably by Latham that Mr Ord was led to misapply the 
names of the two species ; for, perceiving that the barita of that author 
was the quiscala, he inferred that the quiscala was the éarita. 

VOL, III. N 


194. GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. 


adopt his name of Quiscalus ; but I add to the genus, as con- 
stituted by him, the Gracula ferruginea, which he regarded 
as a Pendulinus, and which other authors have arranged in 
several different genera, making of it a profusion of nominal 
species. Wilson judiciously included that species in the same 
genus with those above mentioned, although other authors 
had placed it in Turdus, Oriolus, &. 

The genus Quiscalus is peculiar to America, and is com- 
posed of four well-ascertained species, three of which are found 
in the United States; these are Quiscalus major,* versicolor, 
and ferrugineus ; the fourth, Quiscalus baritus, inhabits the 
West Indies, and probably South America. 

The species of this genus are gregarious and omnivorous, 
their food being composed of insects, corn, and small grains, 
thus assisting and plundering the agriculturist at the same 
time. When the first EKuropean settlements were formed in 
North America, the havoc made by these birds and the 
troopials in the grain-fields was so great that a premium was 
given for their heads. ‘Their destruction was easily effected, 
as they are not shy, and are more easily approached as their 
numbers decrease; but the evil which resulted from exter- 
minating so many of these birds was as unexpected as irre- 
mediable. The corn and pastures were so devoured by worms 
and insects, that the inhabitants were obliged to spare the 
birds in order to avert a scourge which had been previously 
unknown. As population increases, and a greater quantity 
of grain is cultivated, the ravages of these birds become less 
perceptible, and the injury they cause comparatively trifling. 

The great crow blackbird is more than sixteen inches long, 
and twenty-two in extent. The bill, from the angle of the 
mouth, is one inch and three-quarters, and its colour, like that 
of the feet, is black; the roof of the mouth is furnished with a 
slight osseous carina; the irides are pale yellow. The general 

* We call the present species Quiscalus major, agreeably to Vieillot, 
who certainly intended this bird, although his description is a mere in- 
dication. 


GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. 195 


appearance of the bird is black; the whole head and neck 
having bluish purple reflections ; the interscapular region, 
breast, belly, sides, and smaller wing-coverts are glossy steel- 
blue; the back, rump, and middling wing-coverts are glossed 
with copper-green ; the vent, inferior tail-coverts, and thighs 
are plain black. ‘The undescribed parts of the wings are deep 
black, slightly glossed with green, as well as the tail, which is 
cuneiform, capable of assuming a boat-shaped appearance, and 
measures nearly eight inches in length from its insertion, sur- 
passing the tip of the wings by five inches. 

The female is considerably shorter, measuring only twelve 
and a half inches in length, and seventeen inches and a half 
in extent. The bill, from the angle of the mouth, is one 
inch and a half long, and, with the feet, is black; the irides 
are of a still paler yellow than those of the male. The head 
and neck above are light brown, gradually passing into dusky 
towards the back, which, with the scapulars and lesser wing- 
coverts, has slight greenish reflections; a whitish line passes 
from the nostrils over the eye, to the origin of the neck. The 
chin, throat, and breast, are dull whitish ; the anterior part of 
the breast is slightly tinged with brownish; the flanks are 
brownish ; the belly brownish white; and the vent and in- 
ferior tail-coverts are blackish brown, each feather being mar- 
gined with pale. The remaining parts are of a dull brownish 
black, slightly glossed with greenish ; the secondaries, tail- 
coverts, and tail-feathers, having a slight banded appearance, 
which is equally observable in the male. 

The young at first resemble the female, but have the irides 
brown, and the males gradually acquire the brilliant plumage 
of the adult. 

The great and common crow blackbirds are both alike dis- 
tinguished by the very remarkable boat-like form of the tail, 
but the great difference of size, appearance of the females, 
length of the tail, prominence of the osseous carina, and bril- 
liancy of colouring, most obviously prove them to be altogether 
specifically distinct. 


196 GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. 


The great crow blackbird inhabits the southern part of 
the Union, where it is called jackdaw ; Georgia and Florida 
appear to be its favourite residence. The disposition of this 
species is extremely social, and they frequently mingle with the 
common crow blackbird; vast flocks are seen among the sea 
islands and neighbouring marshes on the mainland, where 
they feed at low water on the oyster beds and sand flats. 

The chuck of our species is shriller than that of the common 
crow blackbird, and it has other notes, which resemble the 
noise made by a watchman’s rattle; their song is only heard 
in the spring, and though the concert they make is somewhat 
melancholy, it is not altogether disagreeable. Their nests are 
built in company, on reeds and bushes, in the neighbourhood 
of marshes and ponds; they lay about five eggs, which are 
whitish, spotted with dark brown, as represented in the plate. 

Mr Ord mentions in his paper that the first specimens he 
saw of this bird were obtained on the 22d of January at 
Ossabaw Island, when but a few males were seen scattered over 
the cotton plantations. Advancing towards the south, they 
became more numerous; and in the early part of February, 
the males, unaccompanied by females, were common near 
the mouth of the river St Juan in Florida. A few days after, 
the females appeared, and associated by themselves on the 
borders of fresh-water ponds; they were very gentle, and 
allowed themselves to be approached within a few feet, with- 
out becoming alarmed. TF locks composed of both sexes were 
seen about the middle of March. 

About the latter end of November, they leave even the 
warm region of Florida to seek winter quarters farther south, 
probably in the West Indies. Previous to their departure, 
they assemble in very large flocks, and detachments are seen 
every morning moving southward, flying at a great height. 
The males appear to migrate later than the females, as not 
more than one female (easily distinguishable, even in the 
higher regions of the air, by its much smaller size) is observed 
for a hundred males, in the last flocks. 


Drawn Trem Nawure by Tran R Feale Engraved by WA Liza: 
i Female Crow Blackbird. 2.0range-crowned Warbler. 3.Lark Finch. 


Cutscalus Versicolor Sylvia Celuta Fring dla Grammaca. 


2. 


FEMALE COMMON CROW BLACKBIRD. 197 


The great crow blackbird is also very numerous in the West 
Indies, Mexico, and Louisiana ; but it does not frequent the 
northern, or even the middle States, like the common crow 
blackbird. Our opinion, that the Corvus Mexicanus of authors 
is the male of this species, and their Corvus zanoe the female, 
is corroborated by the male and female great crow blackbird 
being seen in separate flocks. 


FEMALE COMMON CROW BLACKBIRD. (Quiscalus 


versicolor.) 
PLATE V.—Fie. 1. 


Wilson’s American Ornithology, iii. p. 44, pl. 21, fig. 4, for the male, and history. 
—Quiscalus versicolor, Viewll. Nouv. Dict. d Hist. Nat. xxviii. p. 488.—WNobis, 
Obs. Nom. Wils. Orn. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. iii..p. 365.—Gracula 
quiscala, Linn. Syst. i. p. 165, sp. 7.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 397, sp. 7.—Lath. 
Ind. p. 191, sp. 7.—Gracula barita, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 396, sp. 4.—Lath. Ind. 
p. 191, sp. 6.—Ord, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. i. p. 254 (not of Linn.) 
—Oriolus Ludovicianus, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 387, sp. 31 (pied variety). —Oriolus 
leucocephalus, Lath. Ind. p. 175, sp. 4 (pied variety).—Pica Jamaicensis, 
Briss. Av. ii. p. 41, sp. 3. —Monedula purpurea, the Purple Jackdaw, Catesby, 
Carolina, i. p. 12, pl. 12.—Gracula purpurea, the Lesser Purple Jackdaw, or 
Crow Blackbird, Bartram, Trav. p. 291.—Pie de la Jamaique, Buffon, Ois. 
lili. p. 97.—Cassique de la Louisiane, Buff. Ois. iii. p. 242.—Pl. enl. 646 
(pied variety).—Purple Grakle, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 153.—Lath. Syn. i. 
part 2, p. 462, sp. 6.—Boat-tailed Grakle, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 154.—Lath. 
Syn. i. part 2, p. 460, sp. 5.—White-headed Oriole, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 
147.—Lath. Syn. i. part 2, p. 422, sp. 4 (pied variety).—Philadelphia 
Museum, No. 1578, male; No. 1579, female; No. 1602, whitish variety. 


QUISCALUS VERSICOLOR.— VIEILLoT. 


Tue female common crow blackbird is figured in the annexed 
plate, that naturalists may have an opportunity of comparing 
it with the corresponding sex of the great crow blackbird, 
and thus receive a distinct idea of the difference between the 
two species, so well manifested in their females. 

The specific name of this bird (quiscala) has been changed, 
im consequence of its having been applied to the genus: we 
have substituted the name given by Vieillot, which is admi- 
rably appropriate. The English name employed by Wilson 


198 FEMALE COMMON CROW BLACKBIRD. 


being now rendered inadmissible by the generic change, we 
have thought proper to adopt a local appellation. 

The female common crow blackbird is eleven inches in 
length, and sixteen and a half in extent. The bill is nearly 
an inch and a half long, and, as well as the feet, black ; the 
irides are yellowish white ; the whole head, neck, and upper 
part of the breast, are blackish, with steel-blue, green, and 
violet reflections, which are not so vivid as in the male. The 
general colour of the body, wings, and tail is deep sooty 
brown; the feathers of the back are margined with coppery 
and purplish ; the rump, tail-coverts, and wing-coverts are 
glossed with purplish; the lower part of the breast and flanks 
have a coppery reflection ; the inferior tail-coverts are obscurely 
glossed with violet. The tail is cuneiform, but slightly con- 
cave in flight, and is five inches long, extending two and a 
half inches beyond the tip of the wings; the feathers are 
elossed with very obscure greenish. In the male, the tail is 
also cuneiform, and greatly concave, exhibiting a singular 
boat-shaped appearance, as in the preceding species, and even 
more remarkably so, according to Mr Ord, which induced him 
to change the name. 

We shall not attempt to make any additions to the almost 
complete and very excellent history of this species given by 
Wilson ; but as the four species of Quescalus are liable to be 
confounded, we shall proceed to give a few comparative obser- 
vations, that the student may be enabled to distinguish them 
from each other. 

Amongst other remarkable traits, the Quiscalus ferrugineus 
is at once known in all its various states by its even tail and 
comparatively smaller bill, which somewhat resembles that 
of a thrush. In addition to the characters drawn from its 
dimensions, the Quiscalus versicolor can always be distin- 
cuished from its congeners by the slight difference in size and 
colour between the sexes; while, in the other species, the 
males and females are remarkably dissimilar: the mouth of 
this species is, moreover, armed with a prominent osseous 


FEMALE COMMON CROW BLACKBIRD. 199 


carina, a quarter of an inch long, which, in the others, is much 
smaller. That the Qwiscalus major and Quiscalus baritus 
should have been confounded together, is not a little surprising, 
as the former is sixteen inches long, the tail being eight inches, 
and extending five inches beyond the tip of the wings ; whilst 
the latter is only ten inches, the tail much less cuneiform, four 
inches and a half long, and extending but two inches beyond 
the tip of the wings; the osseous carina is similar in these 
two species, and the markings of the females are much alike. 
From this statement it is apparent that the females of the 
largest and smallest crow blackbirds correspond in the disposi- 
tion of their colours—a parity that does not exist in the inter- 
mediate species. In comparative size, however, they ditfer 
considerably: the female of the baritus, though smaller, as we 
have already stated, is, in proportion to its mate, considerably 
larger than that of the other, being only half an inch, whilst 
the female of the major is nearly four inches, smaller. 

The individual represented in the annexed plate is a re- 
markably fine one, in the most perfect state of plumage. It 
therefore more strongly resembles the male than is usual with 
its sex, which are generally much less brilliant in colouring, 
and more sooty brown. This bird was obtained at Great Ege 
Harbour on the 21st of May, and was selected as the best female 
of several pairs, assembled to breed at one of the identical 
fish-hawk nests, in the interstices of which Wilson mentions 
having seen them building. One of their nests contained 
three eggs, and the species had not ceased to lay. 

These birds, as we have had occasion personally to observe, 
like most of the feathered tribes, are subject to become either 
wholly or partially albinos. From this circumstance, nume- 
rous errors have been introduced in the pages of ornithological 
works, 


200 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. 


ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. (Sylvia celata.) 
PLATE V.—Fie. 2. 
Sylvia celata, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, i. p. 169.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 7013. 


VERMIVORA? CELATA.—JARDINE. 
Sylvia celata, Bonap. Synop. p. 88. 


Tuts little bird, discovered, early in May, at Engineer Can- 
tonment on the Missouri river, was first described and named 
by Say; the species was not uncommon at that season, and 
appeared to be on its passage farther north. It is more par- 
ticularly interesting, inasmuch as it enriches the fauna of the 
United States with another species of the small subgenus 
Dacnis, which may be ascertained by inspecting the bill, re- 
presented in the annexed plate. 

The orange-crowned warbler is full five inches long, and 
seven in extent. The bill is dark horn-colour, slender, straight 
entire, and tapering to an acute point; the base of the inferior 
mandible is whitish beneath ; the legs are dusky; the irides 
dark brown. The general plumage above is dull greenish 
olive, the rump and tail-coverts being bright yellowish olive. 
The head is very slightly and inconspicuously crested; the 
feathers of the crest are orange at base, constituting a spot on 
the crown, visible only when they are elevated, being tipped 
with the common colour. The whole bird beneath is dull 
olive yellow ; the inferior tail-coverts are pure yellow. The 
wings are destitute of spots or bands; the primaries are dark 
brown, olive green on the exterior margin, which is much 
paler on the outer ones; the interior margin is whitish ; the 
four outer primaries are subequal; the fifth is but very little 
shorter. The tail is even, the feathers being dark brown, 
edged with olive green on the outer, and with white on the 
inner web. 

The orange-crowned warbler resembles several species of 
indigenous and foreign warblers; and the females of others, 


LARK FINCH. 201 


such as that of the Sylvia trichas, may also be mistaken for 
it ; but it may be distinguished from each of them respectively 
by particular characters, which it is not necessary to detail, 
as the concealed orange spot of the crown is a peculiarity not 
possessed by either of the allied species. The Nashville 
warbler (Sylvia rubricapilla) of Wilson seems to be more 
closely related to the orange-crowned warbler than any other. 
That bird, also, is evidently a Dacnis, and scarcely differs 
from our species, except in the white belly, the light ash 
colour of the head and neck, and the deep chestnut colour 
disposed in small touches on the crown, instead of an uniform 
orange colour. 

The figure given in our plate is that of a male; and the 
only difference observable between the sexes is, that the rump 
of the male is of a brighter colour, approaching in old birds 
to a pure yellow. 

During winter, the orange-crowned warbler is one of the 
most common birds in the neighbourhood of St Augustin, 
Florida, almost exclusively frequenting the orange-trees. 
Their manners resemble those of the kindred species, though 
they have a remarkable habit of constantly inflecting the tail, 
like the pewee. The note consists of a chuck and a faint 
squeak, but little louder than that of a mouse. 


LARK FINCH. (Fringilla grammaca.) 
PLATE V.—Fia. 3. 
Fringilla grammaca, Say, in Long’s Expedition, i. p. 139.—Phil. Museum, 


No. 6288, 


PLECTROPHANES? GRAMMACA.—JARDINE. 
Fringilla grammaca, Bonap, Synop. p. 108. 


For this very interesting new species, ornithology is again 
indebted to Long’s Expedition, and particularly to Say, who 
gave it the name we have adopted, and informs us, in his 
notes, that many of these birds were shot in the month of 


202 LARK FINCH. 


June, at Bellefontaine, on the Missouri; and others were 
observed, the following spring, at Engineer Cantonment, near 
Council Bluffs. 

Tt seems probable that the range of this bird is limited, in 
a great measure, by the Mississippi on the east. Like the 
larks, they frequent the prairies, and very seldom, if ever, 
alight on trees. They sing sweetly, and often continue their 
notes while on the wing. 

The lark finch is six inches and a half long; its bill, a 
little notched at tip, is of a pale horn-colour, with a slight 
elevation on the roof of the upper mandible. The feet are 
pale flax-colour, tinged with orange; the irides are dark 
brown. On the top of the head are two dilated lines, blackish 
on the front, and passing into ferruginous on the crown and 
hind head, separated from each other by a whitish ciaereous 
line; from the eye to the superior mandible is a black line, 
which, as well as the eye, is enclosed by a dilated white line, 
contracted behind the eye ; from the angle of the mouth pro- 
ceeds a black line, which is much dilated into a ferruginous 
spot on the auricles; below this is a broad white line, 
margined beneath by a narrow black one, originating at the 
inferior base of the lower mandible; the chin and throat are 
pure white. The neck above, the back, and rump, are dull 
cinereous brown, each feather of the interscapular region 
having a blackish brown disk; the neck beneath and breast 
are dull whitish cinereous; a small blackish brown spot is on 
the middle of the breast ; the belly and vent are white. The 
wings are dusky brown; the lesser wing-coverts are margined 
with dull cinereous; the exterior primary is equal to the 
third; both are very little shorter than the second, which is 
longest; the outer webs of the second, third, and fourth 
primaries, being whitish near their bases, form a distinct spot 
on the wing. The tailis rounded, the feathers being blackish 
brown; the two intermediate ones are immaculate, somewhat 
paler than the others. The adjoining ones have a small 
white spot at tip, which, on the lateral feathers, increases in 


Drom: from Nature by Tritun RP caic Engraved by Wil Iaizar 


1. Crimson-necked Bulttinch. 2. Female. 3. Arkunsaw Siskin. Female American Goldtinch. 5 Lazuli Finch. 


Pyrrhula Frontalis. Fringtila Peattria Fringiila Tristis. Fringilla dmana. 
6. 


CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 203 


size, until, on the exterior one, it occupies half the total length 
of the feather, whilst its exterior web is white to the base. 

The female is very similar to the male, but the colours are 
duller, and the stripes on the head are not so decided; the 
auriculars, moreover, are yellowish brown. 

This species has the bill and feet precisely similar to those 
of Wilson’s black-throated bunting, and those other Pringille 
and supposed H’mberizce, of which I have constituted the sub- 
genus Spiza in my “ Observations on Wilson’s Ornithology.” 
It cannot be mistaken for any other species, being very peculiar 
in its markings and manners. 


CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. (Pyrrhula 
Srontalis.) 
PLATE VI.—Fic. 1, Mate; Fic. Z, FEMALE. 
Fringilla frontalis, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii. p. 40.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 6279, male ; No. 6277, female. 


ERVTHROSPIZA FRONTALIS.—BONAPARTE. 


Erythrospiza, Bonap. Oss. Sulla, 2d ed. Del Regn. Anim. Cuv. p. 80.—See note, 
vol. i. p. 121. 


Mucus confusion exists in the works of naturalists respecting 
those finches and bullfinches that are tinged with red; and, 
in fact, their great resemblance to each other, and their intri- 
cate synonymy, render them very difficult to elucidate. The 
only species in Wilson’s work with which the present may be 
confounded is the Fringilla purpurea, a bird closely related 
to ours, and for the first time well figured and permanently 
established by that author.* But several other allied species 


* He was rather precipitate in asserting the Fringilla rosea and Loxia 
erythrina to be identical with his bird, as they are actually two very 
distinct species, belonging to the genus Pyrrhula, and proper to the 
old continent, whilst the purpurea is a true Fringilla, and peculiar to 
America. To those who have not critically investigated the subject, it 
may appear somewhat inconsistent to state that the erythrina is not an 
inhabitant of this continent, when it is a well-known fact that many 
authors speak of it as an American bird. This apparent contradiction 


204 CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 


may be mistaken for the crimson-necked bullfinch ; two of 
these, belonging to the genus Pyrrhula, present so much 
analogy with the present species, judging from their descrip- 
tions, that we doubted the correctness of giving the latter a 
separate place, considering it identical with Pyrrhula ery- 
thrina of ’emminck, whose description agrees better with it 
than that of any other. Yet, in addition to some differences 
discoverable by comparing the crimson-necked bullfinch with 
his description, we cannot admit that an arctic bird of the 
old continent, known to visit even the more northern portion 
of the temperate climates only during very cold winters, and 
then not very regularly, should be found in the month of 
July on the sultry plains of the Arkansaw, and of course 
breeding there. We therefore conclude that our bird is not 
the erythrina, although we regret our inability to give differ- 
ential characters, having never seen that species, as our en- 
deavours to obtain a specimen have not been attended with 
success. ‘I’he southern residence of our bird might lead us to 
suppose it the Lowia (Pyrrhula) violacea, which we have not 
seen, neither do we think the species well established. But if 
we are to rely on the short description given of it, and on 
Catesby’s figure, we cannot perceive much resemblance between 
them ; their identity, however, would not much surprise us, 
when we consider that Catesby’s figure of the Pyrrhula 
violacea is as much like our bird as his figure of the purple 
finch is like what it is intended to represent. Having the 


may be readily removed by considering what bird those authors alluded 
to when they stated the erythrina to be a native of North America. 
When Latham expressed a doubt in his “ Synopsis” whether the birds in 
the neighbourhood of New York so much resembling the erythrina were 
not specifically the same, he alluded to the Fringilla purpurea: Gmelin, 
as usual, in his miserable compilation, inserted this doubt of Latham as 
a certainty. As to the crimson-headed finch of Pennant, it is evidently 
the purpurea, thus excusing, in part, the strange assertion of Wilson. 
Latham also committed an error in his index, by placing the Lozxia ery- 
thrina of Pallas and Gmelin, his own crimson-head finch, as a variety 
of Fringilla rosea. 


CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 205 


authority of Say, we consider it as new, notwithstanding these 
doubts. 

The crimson-necked bullfinch was procured by Lone’s party 

near the Rocky Mountains, and Say described it in the 
journal of that expedition under the name of Pringilla fron- 
talis, adopting that genus in the comprehensive limits assigned 
by Illiger and Cuvier. The specific name given by Say is 
preoccupied in that genus by an African species, but as we 
consider our bird a Pyrrhula, we think proper to retain his 
name, 
The crimson-necked bullfinch is five inches and a half long. 
The bill and feet are horn colour; the lower mandible is 
paler; the irides are dark brown; the head, neck beneath, 
and superior portion of the breast, are brilliant crimson, most 
intense near the bill and over the eye; the space between the 
bill and the eye is cinereous grey, as well as the cheeks, and 
the small feathers immediately around the bill; the crimson 
feathers are brown at base, being red only at tip; the occiput, 
and the neck above and on each side, are brown, with a 
reddish cast, the feathers being margined with pale ; the back 
is dusky brownish ; the rump and superior tail-coverts are 
crimson, but less vivid than that of the head; the inferior 
portion of the breast, the belly, and vent, are whitish, each 
feather having a broad fuscous line; the general plumage is 
lead colour at base.. The wings are blackish brown, the 
primaries being broadly margined within, towards the base, 
with whitish, and exteriorly edged with greyish ; the coverts 
and secondaries are edged with dull greyish ; the tail is black- 
ish brown, hardly emarginated; the lateral feathers are edged 
on the inner side with whitish. 

Such is the description of our male specimen ; but as it 
was procured when summer was far advanced, a season in 
which the plumage begins to fade, it is proper to observe 
that the colouring of this bird is probably much more brilliant 
in its full spring dress, the erimson extending much farther 
down on the back, &c. As the season advances, the tips of 


206 CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 


the feathers, which are the only parts of a crimson colour, 
being gradually worn off, the bird as gradually loses its 
brilliancy, and in the autumnal and winter plumage exhibits 
the humble appearance of the female, 

The female is altogether destitute of the brillant colour, 
being dusky brown above, the feathers margined on each side 
with dull whitish ; the whole inferior surface is whitish, each 
feather having a brown longitudinal line in the middle, obso- 
lete on the vent, which is almost pure white. 

A change similar to that above mentioned-takes place in 
the purple finch, whose habits also much resemble those of 
the crimson-necked bullfinch; but the form of its bill is 
certainly that of a finch, and will always distinguish it from 
the species we are describing, the bill of which is unequivocally 
of the bullfinch form. The different tints of red adorning 
these birds will also at once strike the eye of the least expert 
in discriminating species ; in the present bird the tint is vivid 
crimson, whilst in the purple finch it is rosaceous. In addi- 
tion to these characters, the latter is a somewhat larger bird, 
with a pure white belly, inferior tail-coverts, and a deeply 
emarginated tail; whilst the former has a nearly even tail, 
and its belly and inferior tail-coverts are striped with dusky. 

Some persons, without doubt, may think it highly improper 
to separate generically two birds so closely allied as the pre- 
sent species and the purple finch, which may be mistaken for 
the same species ; but we may remark, that they stand at the 
extreme limit of their respective genera, and form the links 
of union between Pyrrhula and Fringilla. It is true that the 
intimate alliance of these two groups would seem to justify 
Illiger, Meyer, and others in uniting them under the same 
genus; but as #7ingilla is so vast in the number of its species, 
and Pyrrhula has a few distinctive characters, we choose to 
follow Temminck, Vieillot, and other naturalists, by arranging 
them generically separate. The closeness of affinity between 
these two birds, when thus properly disposed, affords no good 
reason for the unity of their genera; for, if we proceed to the 


CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 207 


abolition of all artificial distinctions between genera united by 
almost imperceptible gradations, Sylvia would be joined to 
Turdus, Myrothera to Troglodytes, Lanius to Muscicapa, the 
whole of these would be confused together, and, in fact, orders 
and classes would be considered as genera ; and even the vast 
groups thus formed would be still observed to unite insepa- 
rably at their extremes, and we should finally be compelled to 
consider all living bodies, both animal and vegetable, as be- 
longing to one genus. This argument, however, may not 
convince every naturalist of the propriety of our arrangement, 
and they must, therefore, place the two species strictly accord- 
ing to nature in one genus, and consider the present as a 
Fringilla ; but how unnatural will then be the situation of 
Pyrrhula vulgaris, and Pyrrhula enucleator ! 

The inflated form of the bill, the curvature of both man- 
dibles, very apparent in the superior one, as well as the com- 
pression of both at tip, are obvious characters which distinguish 
the species of Pyrrhula from the Fringillew, in which both 
mandibles are nearly straight, and present a conic form on 
every side. 

Berries and seeds which they extract from the pericarp, 
buds and young shoots of different plants, constitute the food 
of the bullfinches. They generally frequent forests and bushy 
places, building their nests on small trees or low branches of 
large ones. ‘The females lay four or five eges. The greater 
number of the species moult twice a year; the sexes differ 
considerably in appearance. ‘They reside in cold and tempe- 
rate climates, with the exception of a few species that inhabit 
Africa and South America. 

The crimson-necked bullfinch is found in the district of 
country extending along the base of the Rocky Mountains, 
near the Arkansaw river, and has not been observed else- 
where. In the month of July, when our specimens were ob- 
tained, these birds occur in small scattered flocks, keeping 
mostly on the tops of the cotton-wood trees, on whose buds 
they partially feed. Their voice considerably resembles that 
of their relative the Pringilla purpurea. 


208 ARKANSAW SISKIN. 


ARKANSAW SISKIN. (fringilla psaltaria.) 
PLATE VI.—Fie. 3. 
Fringilla psaltaria, Say, in Long’s Exped. ii. p. 40.—Phil. Museum, No. 6278. 
See note, vol. i. pp. 12 and 15. 


CARDUELIS PSALTARIA.—BONAPARTE. 
Fringilla (subgen. Carduelis) psaltaria, Bonap. Synop. p. 111. 


“A very pretty little bird,” writes Say, in his precious zoolo- 
gical notes to the Journal of Long’s Expedition, “was fre- 
quently seen hopping about in the low trees or bushes, singing 
sweetly, somewhat in the manner of the American goldfinch 
or hempbird, Fringilla tristis. ‘The tints, and the distribution 
of the colours of its plumage, resemble in a considerable de- 
cree those of the autumnal and less brilliant vesture of that 
well-known species. It may, however, be distinguished, in 
addition to other differences, by the black tip of its tail-feathers 
and the white wing spot.” 

The Arkansaw siskin inhabits the country near the base of 
the Rocky Mountains, south of the river Platte, and probably 
is also to be found in Mexico. The only specimen brought 
by the party was shot on the 16th of July, near Boiling Spring 
Creek : on the annexed plate, it is figured in company with 
the American goldfinch in autumnal plumage, for the sake of 
comparison. 

The Arkansaw siskin is four inches and a quarter long; the 
bill is yellowish, tipped with blackish; the feet are flesh 
colour ; the irides, burnt umber. The top of the head is blue 
black ; the cheeks are dusky olivaceous ; the neck above, and 
half its side, the back and rump, are olivaceous, more or less 
intermixed with dusky and yellowish, particularly on the 
rump ; the superior tail-coverts are black, varied with oliva- 
ceous ; all the under parts, from the very base of the bill to the 
under tail-coverts inclusively, are of a pure bright yellow. 
The wings are brownish black, the smaller wing-coverts being 
very slightly tinged with blue, and edged with olivaceous ; the 


ARKANSAW SISKIN. 209 


greater wing-coverts are tipt with white, which forms a 
narrow band across the wing; the primaries, excepting the 
exterior one, are slightly edged with white ; the third, fourth, 
fifth, sixth, and seventh are white towards the base, so as to 
exhibit a white spot beyond the wing-coverts ; the first four 
primaries are nearly equal in length, the fifth is a quarter of 
an inch shorter ; the secondaries are broadly margined with 
white exteriorly towards their tips. The tail is slightly emar- 
einated, the feathers being blackish, slightly edged with dull 
whitish ; the three exterior ones are widely pure white on the 
middle of their inner webs. 

The specimen we have just described is a male, evidently 
in perfect plumage ; the female, and state of imperfect plu- 
mage, are unknown ; but, without risking any great deviation 
from the truth, we may state, from analogy, that the young 
resemble the female, which must be destitute of the black cap, 
and have the colours less vivid and less pure. 

The Arkansaw siskin certainly resembles the American 
goldfinch in its winter dress; but a still more striking 
similarity exists in some other birds, such as the Kuropean 
siskin (fringilla spinus), and the Olivarez (#ringilla Magel- 
lanica, Vieill.) of South America ; and it is so similar to the 
European, that it might, with a much greater degree of pro- 
priety, be considered as a variety, than those regarded as such 
by authors. They can, however, be easily distinguished by 
the following comparative characters :—All the under parts of 
the Arkansaw siskin are bright yellow, whilst the corresponding 
parts of the European siskin are tinged with greenish, the throat 
being black, and the belly, vent, and flanks, whitish, spotted 
longitudinally with black ; the margins and spots of the wing 
and tail-feathers are white in our bird, and yellow in the 
Kuropean siskin ; the white spots on the tail of the Arkansaw 
siskin are confined to the three outer feathers, whilst, in the 
foreign bird, all the feathers, excepting the two middle ones, 
are marked with yellow ; the bill of our species is also a little 


shorter, less compressed, and less acuminated; finally, we 
VOL, UL 90 


210 ARKANSAW SISKIN. 


may notice another trifling difference, which consists in the 
proportional length of the primaries, the four first being 
nearly equal in the American bird, and the three first only in 
the European, the fourth being almost a quarter of an inch 
shorter. The other approximate species, Pringilla Magel- 
lanica, Vieill., considered by Gmelin and Latham as a variety 
of the European siskin, is readily distinguishable by having 
the head entirely black. 

Though the Mexican siskin (fringilla Mexicana, Gmel.) 
may prove to be the female of our bird, or the male in an im- 
perfect state of plumage (and, from the locality, we should 
possibly have referred it to that name, had the classification of 
it fallen to our lot), yet, as nothing positive can be drawn from 
so unessential an indication as that of the Mexican siskin, we 
have no hesitation in following the same course with Say, who 
considers it as entirely new, and have retained his elegant 
name of Fringilla psaltaria. It is very possible that not 
only the Fringilla Mexicana, but also the black Mexican sis- 
kin (ringilla catotol, Gmel.), may be the same bird as our 
Fringilla psaltaria ; but how can we determine from the 
vague descriptions that have been given of those species? 
They are equally applicable to the American goldfinch in its 
dull state of plumage; and Wilson expresses a doubt whether 
or not the black Mexican siskin is the same as his new 
species, Pringilla pinus. 

All these pretty little birds belong to the subgenus Car- 
duelis, having a more slender, acute, and elongated bill than 
other Fringille. 


FEMALE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 211 


FEMALE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. (fringilla 
tristis. ) 


PLATE VI.—Fic. 4. 


Wilson’s American Ornithology, i. p. 20, pl. 1, fig. 2, for the male and history. — 
Fringilla tristis, Zinn. Syst. i. p. 320, sp. 12, male.—G'mel. Syst. i. p. 907, sp. 
12.—Lath. Ind. p. 452, sp. 64.—Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. xii. p. 167. 
—Fringilla spinus, var. y, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 914, sp. 25, male in winter 
plumage.—Carduelis Americana, Briss. Av. iii. p. 64, sp. 3.—Carduelis 
Americanus, the American Goldfinch, Catesby, Carolina, i. p. 43, pl. 43, male 
in spring dress.—Bart. Trav. p. 291.—Chardonneret jaune, Buff. Ois. iv. p. 
212.—Chardonneret du Canada, Buff. Pl. enl. 202, fig. 2, male in spring 
dress.—Tarin de la Nouvelle York, Buff. Otis. iv. p. 231.—Pl. enl. 292, 
fig. 1, male changing; fig. 2, male in winter dress.—Golden Finch, Penn. 
Arct. Zool. sp. 242.—American Goldfinch, Hdwards, Glean. ii. p. 183, pl. 
274, male and female.— Lath. Syn. ii. part 1, p. 288, sp. 57; Id. 1st Suppl. 
p. 196.—Siskin, var. B; Lath. Syn. ii. part 1, p. 291, sp. 58, male changing.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 6344, male ; No. 6345, female ; No. 6346, albino. 


CARDUELIS AMERICAN A.—EDWARDS. 
Male and note, see vol. i. pp. 11, 15. 


We have been induced, by the analogy existing between the 
preceding new species and this common bird, to figure them 
as companions on the same plate, that they may be immedi- 
ately and readily compared. ‘To give the present figure more 
interest, we have chosen the female, though we might, with 
equal propriety, have selected the male in winter plumage, as 
the latter differs but slightly from its mate during that season, 
The very great dissimilarity between the sexes in their spring 
dress will justify the reappearance of a bird already given by 
Wilson, more especially as it has, in this state, been mistaken 
for a distinct species, and most unaccountably arranged in the 
systems as a variety of the European siskin. 

The history of this bird, which so completely resembles the 
goldfinch of Europe in song and habits, being nearly com- 
pleted by the golden pen of Wilson, we shall not attempt to 
add any observations of our own, but shall refer the reader to 
his volume, quoted above, for its biography. As we cannot 
but observe that his description is short and somewhat imper- 


212 FEMALE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 


fect, probably owing to the opinion he at first entertained, but 
afterwards judiciously relinquished, that a minute description 
of common birds is superfluous, we shall proceed to describe 
the species in all its different states. 

The male American goldfinch in summer dress, represented 
by Wilson in his first plate, is four and a half inches long, and 
eight in extent. The bill resembles that of the European 
goldfinch, and, as well as the feet, is of a reddish cinnamon 
colour ; the irides are dark brown ; the front and vertex are 
clossy black; the remaining part of the head, and all the 
body, rich lemon yellow; the superior and inferior tail-coverts 
are white, as well as the thighs ; the wings and tail are black, 
the small coverts of the wings being yellow externally, and 
white on the inner side and at tip; the greater coverts are 
tipt with white, an arrangement which exhibits two white 
bands across the wings; the first and third primaries are 
equal, hardly shorter than the second, which is the longest, 
the fourth being nearly as long as the third ; the secondaries 
are margined with white. The tail is emarginated, the feathers 
being black, slightly edged with white, and having a large 
pure white spot on the inner web at tip. 

The female, as is usual in this family of birds, is rather 
smaller than the male, and is widely different from that sex in 
the colours of its plumage. The bill and feet are brownish ; 
the lower mandible is whitish at base; the head has no appear- 
ance of black, and, with the neck, the back, and rump, is 
brownish olive, the latter part being of a lighter shade than 
the preceding portions; the upper tail-coverts are greenish 
white; the frontlet, cheeks, sides of the neck, throat, and 
upper part of the breast, are pale greenish yellow; the lower 
portion of the breast, belly, vent, flanks, under wing and under 
tail-coverts, are whitish. The wings and tail, which always 
afford the most constant specific characters, are like those 
of the male, except that the black colour is less intense, and 
the white is less pure, being slightly tinged with rufous. 

In this state of plumage, the bird closely resembles the 


FEMALE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 213 


Fringilla citrinella of the south of Kurope, which, however, 
can always be distinguished from it by several characters, but 
more particularly by its greenish yellow rump, and by being 
destitute of the whitish spot at the tip of the inner web of the 
tail-feathers. The young are so like the females as to be dis- 
tinguished with difficulty ; their colours, however, are still less 
lively ; they assume the adult livery in the spring, but do not 
exhibit all the brilliancy of the perfect bird until the third 
moult. 

The American goldfinch moults twice a year, in the seasons 
of spring and autumn. At the spring moult, the males obtain 
their vivid colouring, which is lost at the autumnal change, 
and replaced by a more humble dress, similar to that of the 
female, from which sex they cannot then be readily distin- 
euished. The black of the wings is, however, somewhat more 
intense ; the white of the wings and of the tail is dull and 
dirty, and a yellowish tint prevails around the eyes, as well as 
on the neck. From this statement it follows, that Wilson’s 
figure represents the adult male in that brilliant dress in which 
it appears for the space of four or five months only; whilst the 
ficure in the annexed plate exhibits the invariable colours of 
the female and young, as well as the appearance of the male 
for the remaining seven months in the year. 

As the season advances, the plumage of the adult male 
gradually changes, but not simultaneously in the different in- 
dividuals,’so that in the spring and autumn we rarely find two 
that are alike; some being more or less yellow, having a rudi- 
ment of black on the head, &c., according as the moulting 
process is more or less advanced. 

A remarkable variety is exhibited in a changing male, which 
IT shot near Philadelphia in the month of April, and which is 
therefore considerably advanced towards perfect plumage. AIL 
the primaries are pure white on the outer web towards the 
base, thus constituting, in the most obvious manner, that 
white spot beyond the wing-coverts assigned by Say as a 
good discriminating mark between this species and the pre- 


214 LAZULI FINCH. 


ceding. The fact we have related diminishes the value of 
this character, which is nevertheless a very good one; but as 
many other distinctions are observable, we need not rely 
exclusively upon it. The deviation we have here mentioned 
isthe more remarkable, as. the greater number of species allied 
to this bird have that spot, either white or yellow. 

Since writing the above, I obtained, from one of the large 
flocks in which these birds congregate in the autumn, several 
specimens of both sexes, more or less distinguished by the 
marking above stated as peculiar to the variety. 


LAZULI FINCH. (Pringilla amena.) 
PLATE VI.—Fize. 5. 
Emberiza amoena, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ti. p. 47.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 5919. 


SPIZA AM(@NA.—BONAPARTE.* 
Fringilla (subgen. Spiza), Bonap. Synop. p. 106. 


Tne genus Hmberiza, though very natural, and distinguished 
by well-marked characters, has, notwithstanding these ad- 
vantages, been often misunderstood; and authors, without 
consulting the boundaries assigned to it by themselves, have 
recorded a copious list of species, whilst in nature its limits 
are much restricted. We are not therefore surprised that so 
acute a zoologist as Say should have arranged his bird in that 
genus, particularly as it is more closely allied to Hmberza than 
many of those, not only of Wilson, but even of Linné and 
Latham. 


* In the Prince of Musignano’s “ Synopsis of the Birds of the United 
States,” in the “Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York,” 
he has instituted a subgenus under the name of Spiza, to contain a portion 
of the Fringillide, dividing it into two sections. The first contains our 
present bird, with the F. cyanea and ciris of Wilson, and to which we 
think the subgenus should be restricted. Those which form the second 
section run much more into the Hmberize, and although it may “form 
the passage to the buntings,” it is of sufficient importance to constitute a 
small swb-group.— Ep. 


LAZULI FINCH. 216 


This bird, which we have no hesitation in pronouncing one 
of the most beautiful of its tribe, would be placed by Vieillot in 
his genus Passerina ; but, according to my classification, it be- 
longs to the genus Fringilla, and to that American subgenus 
lately established in my “ Observations on the Nomenclature of 
Wilson’s Ornithology,” under the name of Spiza. Asa species, 
- it is more intimately allied to Pringilla ciris and Fringilla 
cyanea,* which I stated in that paper to differ so much from 
their congeners, particularly in the greater curvature of the 
upper mandible, as to deserve, perhaps, a separation into a 
small subgenus by themselves. This would unite Pringilla to 
Tanagra, as Spiza, on the other hand, shows its transition to 
Embervza. 

The lazuli finch is five inches and three-quarters long ; the 
bill is formed like that of the indigo-bird (Fringilla cyanea 
Wilson), but is emarginated near the tip, being horn colour, 
as wellasthe feet ; the irides are dark brown ; the whole head 
and neck are brilliant verdigris-blue; the back is brownish 
black, intermixed with blue, and a little ferruginous brown ; 
the rump is pure verdigris-blue ; the superior portion of the 
breast is pale ferruginous; the lower part of the breast, the 
belly, and inferior tail-coverts are white; the smaller wing- 
coverts are blue; the middling coverts are blackish at base, 
and broadly tipped with white, forming a wide band across the 
wing; the greater wing-coverts are blackish, obscurely mar- 
gined with blue, and slightly .tipt with white on the exte- 
rior web, constituting a second band across the wings parallel 
to the first, but much narrower ; the primaries and secondaries 
are blackish, obscurely margined with blue on the outer web; 
the under wing-coverts are whitish, a little intermixed with 
blue; the tail is slightly emarginated, the feathers being black- 
ish, edged with blue on the outer web, and with white on the 
inner web at tip. 

The above description of this handsome bird is taken from 


* Its relation to Fringilla cyanea, considered as Emberiza, probably 
induced Say to place it under that genus, 


216 FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 


a male in summer plumage, the only specimen brought by 
Long’s exploring party ; hence we are unable to give any posi- 
tive information relative to the female and young, though, 
from analogy, we must believe them in great part destitute of 
the blue colour, and otherwise less brilliantly adorned. 

This species appears to be rather rare; it is found along 
the Arkansaw river, near the base of the Rocky Mountains, 
during the summer months; they frequent the bushy valleys: 
keeping much in the grass, and seldom alight on shrubs or 
trees. In this respect also they resemble the indigo-bird, and 
probably their habits are the same, although the note is entirely 
dissimilar. 


FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. (Hirundo fulva.) 
PLATE VII.—Fice. 1. 


Hirundo fulva, Vieill. Ois. de VAm. Sept. i. p. 62, pl. 32.—Stephens, Cont. of 
Shaw's Zool. x. part i. p. 126.—De Witt Clinton, Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. NV. 
Y. i. p. 156.— Hirundo lunifrons, Say, in Long’s Exp. to the Rocky Mountains, 
ii. p. 47.—Philadelphia Museum, No. 7624. 


HIRUNDO FULVA,.—ViEt1101? 

Hirundo fulva, Bonap. Synop. p. 64.—The Republican, or Cliff Swallow, Aud. pl. 
68, m. and y.—Orn. Biog. i. p. 353.—Hirundo lunifrons, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 
331. 

Wir the exception of a very imperfect description, little 

was known relative to this interesting bird anterior to Loneg’s 

expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Oue of the notes annexed 
to the account of that journey contains an excellent descrip- 
tion of this swallow, with a notice of its habits, and remarkable 
manner of building. Mr De Witt Clinton has recently pub- 
lished a paper on the same subject, accompanied by some 
observations from Mr Audubon. Combining what these gen- 
tlemen have made known with the information previously 
given by Vieillot and Say, we can present a tolerably com- 

plete history of the cliff swallow. . 

Some doubts having been entertained whether the Hirundo 
lunifrons of the Rocky Mountains be the same species as the 


Drawn trom Nature by Titian FP eale. 


/ Fudvous or Clift Swallow. 2 Burrowing Owl. 


Hirundo Futva. Shriw Gunicidarie. 


4 


Lnararad ay i 


FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 217 


Hirundo fulva of the western part of New York, I was desi- 
rous of deciding the question by comparing the specimens; this 
I accomplished through the politeness of Dr Dekay of New 
York, who, with the kindness and liberality distinctive of those 
who cultivate science for its own sake, sent me the specimen 
and nest deposited by Mr Clinton in the Cabinet of the Ly- 
ceum. Thus being possessed of the individuals in question, 
we are enabled to place their specific identity beyond the reach 
of future uncertainty.* 


* There can benothing more annoying than being in a manner obliged 
to give an opinion regarding adisputed point from descriptions and plates, 
without the actual comparison of the birds themselves. The authors 
of the “ Northern Zoology” consider the HZ. lunifrons of Say different 
from the H. fulva of Vieillot, on account of the pure white front and 
slightly forked tail of the former ; but the Prince of Musignano makes 
them identical, from actual comparison with authentic specimens of Z. 
fulva. The alternative, therefore, must be, that the specintens brought 
by the Northern Expedition are distinct from either, and yet unnamed. 
Audubon’s figure, however, is very nearly pure white in the frontlet, and 
he insists upon that colour even in the young ;—the tail is square, a 
decided mark of our author. There are either two species confused in 
these, or inattention has been paid to the drawing and colouring of those 
parts where distinction chiefly is insisted on. 

On the precipitous coast of the Firth of Forth, near Tantallon Castle, 
in Haddingtonshire, there was, in 1826, and for several years previous, a 
colony of fifty or sixty pairs of H. urbica, building their nests in the 
usual form, but in the same manner, undera huge projecting cliff, as 
represented of the H. fulva. They struck me at the time of first seeing 
them as a remarkable situation for the species, and the plate here im- 
mediately recalled them tomy memory. Mr Audubon’s description of 
their manner of building may add to that of our author:— 

“ About daybreak they flew down to the shore of the river, one hun- 
dred yards distant, for the muddy sand of which the nests were constructed, 
and worked with great assiduity until near the middle of the day, as if 
it were that the heat of the sun was necessary to dry and harden their 
moist tenements. They then ceased from labour for a few hours amongst 
themselves, by performing aerial evolutions, courted and caressed their 
mates with much affection, and snapped at flies and other insects on the 
wing. They often examined their nests to see if they were sufliciently 
dry ; and as soon as these appeared to have acquired the requisite firm- 
ness, they renewed their labours. Until the females began to sit, they 


218 FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 


That Say considered his Hirundo lunifrons as a new bird, 
is entirely attributable to the incorrectness of Vieillot’s figure, 
which is one of those better suited to mislead than to assist the 
naturalist in his researches. ‘The most striking characteristic 
of the Hirundo fulva is its even tail; yet Vieillot has repre- 
sented this partas forked. We are therefore not surprised that 
our learned zoologist, who had no opportunity of consulting 
the coloured plate, should not have even thought of comparing 
his bird with that of Vieillot, who probably figured it with a 
forked tail merely because it was a swallow. The characters 
of the cliff swallow are so remarkable, and its manner of build- 
ing is so peculiar, that, when these are accurately delineated, 
it cannot be mistaken for any other species. 

The cliff swallow is five and a half inches long. The bill 
is black, and the feet dusky; the irides are dark brown. A 
narrow black line extends over the bill to each eye ; the front 
is pale rufous, and the remaining part of the crown, black vio- 
laceous ; the chin, throat, and cheeks are dark ferruginous, 
extending in a narrow band on the hind head; the upper part 
of the body is black, glossed with violaceous ; the inferior part 
of the rump, and some of the tail-coverts, are pale ferruginous ; 
all roosted in the hollow limbs of the sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) 
growing on the banks of the Licking river, but when incubation com- 
menced, the males alone resorted to the trees. A second party arrived, 
and were so hard pressed for time, that they betook themselves to the 
holes in the wall where bricks had been left out for the scaffolding. These 
they fitted with projecting necks, similar to those of the complete nests 
of the others. Their eggs were deposited on a few bits of straw, and 
great caution was necessary in attempting to procure them, as the 
slightest touch crumbled their frail tenement into dust. By means of 
a table-spoon, I was enabled to procure many of them, Each nest con- 
tained four eggs, which were white, with dusky spots. Only one brood 
israised ina season. The energy with which they defended their nests 
was truly astonishing. Although I had taken the precaution to visit 
them at sunset, when I supposed they would all have been on the 
sycamores, yet a single female happened to be sitting, and gave the alarm, 
which immediately called out the whole tribe. They snapped at my 


hat, body, and legs, passed between me and the nests within an inch of 
my face, twittering their rage and sorrow.”—Ep. 


FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 219 


the breast is of a pale rufous ash colour, and the remaining 
under parts are whitish, tinged with brownish ferruginous ; 
the wings and tail are blackish, the small wing-coverts being 
glossed with violaceous; the inferior wing-coverts are ashy 
brown ; the tail is nearly entire, somewhat shorter than the 
tips of the wings; the exterior tail-feather is slightly edged 
with whitish on the inner vane; the wing and tail-feathers 
have their shafts black above and white beneath. 

This description is taken from our finest male, which is also 
represented in the plate ; no difference exists between the sexes, 
and the young, even during early age, can scarcely be distin- 
guished from the parents, except by having the front white, in- 
stead of rufous. We are informed by Vieillot that some indi- 
viduals have all the inferior surface of the body tinged with 
the same colour as that of the throat: these are probably very 
old males. 

A very singular trait distinguishes the migrations of this 
bird. While the European, or white variety of the human 
race, is rapidly spreading over this continent, from its eastern 
borders to the remotest plains beyond the Mississippi, the cliff 
swallow advances from the extreme western regions, annually 
invading a new territory farther to the eastward, and induces 
us to conclude, that a few more summers will find it sporting 
in this immediate vicinity, and familiarly established along the 
Atlantic shores. 

Like all other North American swallows, this species passes 
the winter in tropical America, whence in the spring it mi- 
grates northward for the purpose of breeding. It appears to 
be merely a spring passenger in the West Indies, remaining 
there but a few days according to Vieillot, who, not seeing any 
in the United States, and observing some while at sea, in 
August, in the latitude of Nova Scotia, supposed that they pro- 
pagated in a still more northern region. As we have not re- 
ceived any account of their inhabiting the well-explored coun- 
tries around Hudson’s Bay, we are led to the conclusion that 
the western wilds of the United States have hitherto been their 


220 FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 


summer resort, and that not until recently have they ventured 
within the domains of civilised man. Be this as it may, they 
were observed in great numbers by Major Long’s party near 
the Rocky Mountains in the month of July, and a few were 
also seen on the banks of the Missouri river. Within ten or 
twelve years they have become familiar in different localities 
of Ohio, Kentucky, &c., whence they are extending very 
rapidly, and have recently appeared in the western part of New 
York. In order to show the rapid progress of this little 
stranger, we quote the following passage from Mr Clinton's 
interesting paper :— 

The fulvous swallow “first made its appearance at Winchell’s 
Tavern, on the highroad, about five miles south of Whitehall, 
near Lake Champlain, and erected its nest under the eaves of 
an outhouse, where it was covered by the projection of a roof. 
This was in 1817, and in this year there was but one nest ; 
the second year, seven; the third, twenty-eight ; the fourth, 
forty ; and in 1822 there were seventy, and the number has 
since continued to increase. 

“Tt appeared in 1822 at Whitehall on the 5th of June, 
and departed on the 25th of July; and these are the usual 
times of its arrival and disappearance.” 

This active little bird is, like its congeners, almost continually 
on the wing, and feeds on flies and other insects, while per- 
forming its aerial evolutions. Its note is different from that 
of other swallows, and may be well imitated by rubbing a 
moistened cork around in the neck of a bottle. The species 
arrive in the west from the south early in April, and immedi- 
ately begin to construct their symmetrical nests, which are 
perfected by their united and industrious efforts. At the 
dawn of day they commence their labours by collecting the 
necessary mud from the borders of the river or ponds adjacent, 
and they persevere in their work until near midday, when 
they relinquish it for some hours, and amuse themselves by 
sporting in the air, pursuing insects, &c. As soon as the nest 
acquires the requisite firmness, it is completed, and the female 


FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 221 


begins to deposit her eggs, which are four in number, white, 
spotted with dusky brown. ‘The nests are extremely friable, 
and will readily crumble to pieces: they are assembled in 
communities, as represented in the background of our plate. 
In unsettled countries, these birds select a sheltered situation 
under a projecting ledge of rock; and in civilised districts, 
they have already evinced a predilection for the abodes of 
man, by building against the walls of houses, immediately 
under the eaves of the roof, though they have not in the least 
changed their style of architecture. A nest from the latter 
situation is now before me; it is hemispherical, five inches 
wide at its truncated place of attachment to the wall, from 
which it projects six inches, and consists exclusively of a 
mixture of sand and clay, lined on the inside with straw and 
dried grass, negligently disposed for the reception of the eggs. 
The whole external surface is roughened by the projection of 
the various little pellets of earth which compose its substance. 
The entrance is near the top, rounded, projecting, and turning 
downward, so that the nest may be compared to a chemist’s 
retort, flattened on the side applied to the wall, and with the 
principal part of the neck broken off. 

So great is the industry of these interesting little architects, 
that this massive and commodious structure is sometimes 
completed in the course of three days. About the middle of 
July, some nests found near the Rocky Mountains contained 
young ones, while in others the process of incubation had not 
terminated. It is probable that the cliff swallows rear two 
broods in that region, though in Kentucky and Ohio, agree- 
ably to Mr Audubon, they have but one in the year. During 
the first few days of August they assemble in flocks, and, 
after several attempts to commence their migration, they 
finally succeed in obtaining a unanimity of purpose, and they 
disappear as suddenly as they came. 


222, BURROWING OWL. 


BURROWING OWL. (Strix cunicularia.) 
PLATE VII.—Fie. 2. 


Strix cunicularia, Molina, Hist. Chili (Am. ed.) i. p. 184.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 292, 
sp. 28.—Lath. Ind. p. 63, sp. 38.—Vieil. Otis. de. VAm. Sept. 1. p. 48.—Say, 
in Longs Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii. p. 86 and 200.—Ulula 
cunicularia, Meuillée, Journ. Obs. Phys. p. 562.—Noctua Coquimbana, Briss. 
Av. i, p. 525, sp. 11.—Coquimbo Owl, Lath. Syn. i. p. 145, sp. 33.—Phila- 
delphia Muscum, No. 472. 


ULULA CUNICULARIA.—FEUILLEE.* 


Strix (subgen. Surnia) cunicularia, Bonap. Synop. p. 36. 


VENERABLE ruins, crumbling under the influence of time and 
vicissitudes of season, are habitually associated with our re- 
collections of the owl; or he is considered as the tenant of 
sombre forests, whose nocturnal gloom is rendered deeper and 
more awful by the harsh dissonance of his voice. In poetry 
he has long been regarded as the appropriate concomitant of 
darkness and horror; and when heard screaming from the 
topmost fragments of some mouldering wall, whose rugged- 
ness is but slightly softened by the mellowing moonlight, 
imagination loves to view him as a malignant spirit, hooting 
triumphantly over the surrounding desolation! But we are 
now to make the reader acquainted with an owl to which none 
of these associations can belong—a bird that, so far from seek- 
ing refuge in the ruined habitations of man, fixes its residence 
within the earth, and, instead of concealing itself in solitary 
recesses of the forest, delights to dwell on open plains, in 
company with animals remarkable for their social disposition, 
neatness, and order. Instead of sailing heavily forth in the 


* T am far from being satisfied with the generic appellation I have 
now provisionally bestowed on this bird. It is completely a day owl 
in its habits, but in many parts of its structure resembles the nocturnal 
species. Wherever it may be hereafter placed by a strict analysis, it 
will prove a most interesting form, and perhaps show some connections 
that we do not at present anticipate. The Prince of Musignano has 
properly incorporated Mr Say’s remarks with his description.—Eb. 


BURROWING OWL. 223 


obscurity of the evening or morning twilight, and then retreat- 
ing to mope away the intervening hours, our owl enjoys the 
broadest glare of the noonday sun, and flying rapidly along, 
searches for food or pleasure during the cheerful light of 
day. 

The votaries of natural science must always feel indebted 
to the learned and indefatigable Say for the rich collection of 
facts he has made whenever opportunities have been presented, 
but more especially in the instance of this very singular bird, 
whose places of resort in this country are too far distant to 
allow many the pleasure of examining for themselves. We 
feel doubly disposed to rejoice that the materials for the 
history of our bird are drawn from his ample store, both on 
account of their intrinsic excellence, and because it affords us 
an opportunity of evincing our admiration of the zeal, talents, 
and integrity which have raised this man to the most honour- 
able and enviable eminence as a naturalist. 

In the trans-Mississippian territories of the United States, 
the burrowing owl resides exclusively in the villages of the 
marmot or prairie dog, whose excavations are so commodious, 
as to render it unnecessary that our bird should dig for 
himself, as he is said to do in other parts of the world, where 
no burrowing animals exist. ‘These villages are very nume- 
rous, and variable in their extent, sometimes covering only a 
few acres, and at others spreading over the surface of the 
country for miles together. They are composed of slightly 
elevated mounds, having the form of a truncated cone, about 
two feet in width at base, and seldom rising as high as eighteen 
inches above the surface of the soil. The entrance is placed 
either at the top or on the side, and the whole mound is beaten 
down externally, especially at the summit, resembling a much- 
used footpath. 

From the entrance, the passage into the mound descends 
vertically for one or two feet, and is thence continued obliquely 
downwards, until it terminates in an apartment, within which 
the industrious marmot constructs, on the approach of the cold 


224. BURROWING OWL. 


season, a comfortable cell for his winter's sleep. This cell, 
which is composed of fine dry grass, is globular in form, with 
an opening at top capable of admitting the finger; and the 
whole is so firmly compacted, that it might, without injury, 
be rolled over the floor. 

It is delightful, during fine weather, to see these lively little 
creatures sporting about the entrance of their burrows, which 
are always kept in the neatest repair, and are often mbhabited 
by several individuals. When alarmed, they immediately 
take refuge in their subterranean chambers, or, if the dreaded 
danger be not immediately impending, they stand near the 
brink of the entrance, bravely barking and flourishing their 
tails, or else sit erect to reconnoitre the movements of the 
enemy. 

The mounds thrown up by the marmot in the neighbourhood 
of the Rocky Mountains have an appearance of greater antiquity 
than those observed on the far distant plains. ‘They sometimes 
extend to several yards in diameter, although their elevation 
is trifling, and, except immediately surrounding the entrance, 
are clothed with a scanty herbage which always distinguishes 
the area of these villages. Sometimes several villages have 
been observed almost entirely destitute of vegetation, and 
recollecting that the marmot feeds exclusively on grasses and 
herbaceous plants, it seems singular that this animal should 
always choose the most barren spot for the place of his abode. 
However this may be accounted for, it at least affords an 
opportunity of beholding the approach of his enemies, and 
allows him to seek, within the bosom of the earth, that security 
which he has neither strength nor arms to command. 

In all these prairie-dog villages, the burrowing owl is seen 
moving briskly about, or else in small flocks scattered among 
the mounds, and, at a distance, it may be mistaken for the 
marmot itself when sitting erect. They manifest but little 
timidity, and allow themselves to be approached sufficiently 
close for shooting; but if alarmed, some or all of them soar 
away, and settle down again at a short distance; if further 


BURROWING OWL. 225 


disturbed, their flight is continued until they are no longer in 
view, or they descend into their dwellings, whence they are 
difficult to dislodge. 

The burrows into which these owls have been seen to descend, 
on the plains of the river Platte, where they are most numerous, 
were evidently excavated by the marmot ; whence it has been 
inferred by Say, that they were either common though unfriendly 
residents of the same habitation, or that our owl was the sole 
occupant of a burrow acquired by the right of conquest. The 
evidence of this was clearly presented by the ruinous condition 
of the burrows tenanted by the owl, which were frequently 
caved in, and their sides channelled by the rains, while the 
neat and well-preserved mansion of the marmot showed the 
active care of a skilful and industrious owner. We have no 
evidence that the owl and marmot habitually resort to one 
burrow, yet we are well assured by Pike and others that a 
common danger often drives them into the same excavation, 
where lizards and rattlesnakes also enter for concealment and 
safety. 

The owl observed by Vieillot in St Domingo digs itself a 
burrow two feet in depth, at the bottom of which its eggs are 
deposited on a bed of moss, herb stalks, and dried roots. These 
eggs are two in number, of a very pure white, nearly spheroidal, 
and about as large as those of the dove. When the young are 
only covered with down, they frequently ascend to the entrance 
to enjoy the warmth of the sun, but as soon as they are 
approached, they quickly retire into the burrow. 

The note of our bird is strikingly similar to the ery of the 
marmot, which sounds like cheh, cheh, pronounced several 
times in rapid succession ; and were it not that the burrowing 
owls of the West Indies, where no marmots exist, utter the 
same sound, it might be inferred that the marmot was the 
unintentional tutor to the young owl: this cry is only uttered 
as the bird begins its flight. Vieillot states that the burrowing 
owl inhabiting St Domingo sometimes alights on farmhouses 


at night, and produces a note which resembles that of the syl- 
VOL, III, P 


226 BURROWING OWL. 


lables hoo, hoo, 00, 00 ; but has he not mistaken a nocturnal 
species for it in this case ? 

The food of the bird we are describing appears to consist 
entirely of insects, as, on examination of its stomach, nothing 
but parts of their hard wing-cases were found. The authors 
we have quoted inform us that in Chili and St Domingo the 
burrowing owls also feed on rats, mice, and reptiles, which we 
cannot suppose to be the case with the bird found in the 
United States, as our explorers never could discover the 
slightest reason for believing that they preyed on the mar- 
mots whose dwellings they invade. 

Throughout the region traversed by the American expedi- 
tion, the marmot was unquestionably the artificer of the burrow 
inhabited by the owl, while the testimony of Vieillot is equally 
conclusive that the owl digs for himself when he finds no 
burrow to suit his purpose ; but, preferring one already made, 
his fondness for the prairie-dog villages is readily explained. 

Whether only a single species of burrowing owl inhabits the 
vast continent of North and South America, or whether that 
of Chili mentioned by Molina, that of St Domingo described 
by Vieillot, and the owl of the Western American territory, 
be distinct though closely allied species, can only be determined 
by accurate comparisons.* When we consider the extra- 
ordinary habits attributed to all those, as well as their corre- 
spondence in form and colours noted in the several descriptions, 
we are strongly inclined to believe that they are all of the same 
species ; nevertheless, Vieillot states his bird to be somewhat 
different from that of Molina, and the eggs of the burrowing 
owl of the latter are spotted with yellow, whilst those of the 
former are immaculate. We have to regret that no figure 
has hitherto been published, and we cannot well understand 
why Vieillot did not thus exemplify so interesting a bird. Our 


* Should they prove to be different species, new appellations must 
be given; and as that of Strix cunicularia will, by right of priority, be 
exclusively retained for the Coquimbo owl, we would propose for the 
present bird the name of Striz hypugea. 


BURROWING OWL. 227 


figure will be the more acceptable to ornithologists, as it is the 
first which has been given of the burrowing owl: in the dis- 
tance we have introduced a view of the prairie-dog village. 

The peculiar subgenus of this bird has not hitherto been 
determined, owing to the neglect with which naturalists have 
treated the arrangement of extra-Huropean owls. Like all 
diurnal owls, our bird belongs to the subgenus Noctua of 
Savigny, having small oval openings to the ears, which are 
destitute of operculum, the facial disk of slender feathers, small 
and incomplete, and the outer edges of the primaries not re- 
curved ; but it differs from them in not having the tarsus and 
toes covered by long thick feathers. 

The burrowing owl is nine inches and a half long, and two 
feet in extent. The bill is horn colour, paler on the margin, 
and yellow on the ridges of both mandibles; the inferior man- 
dible is strongly notched on each side: the capistrum before 
the eyes terminates in black rigid bristles, as long as the bill: 
the irides are bright yellow. The general colour of the 
plumage is a light burnt-umber, spotted with whitish, paler 
on the head and upper part of the neck; the lower part of 
the breast and belly are whitish, the feathers of the former 
being banded with brown: the inferior tail-coverts are white 
immaculate. The wings are darker than the body, the feathers 
being much spotted and banded with whitish ; the primaries 
are five or six banded, each band being more or less widely 
interrupted near the shaft, and margined with blackish, which 
colour predominates towards the tip; the extreme tip is dull 
whitish ; the shafts are brown above and white beneath: the 
exterior primary is finely serrated, and equal in length to the 
fifth, the second and fourth being hardly shorter than the 
third, which is the longest. The tail is very short, slightly 
rounded, having its feathers of the same colour as the primaries, 
and, like them, five or six banded, but more purely white at 
tip. The feet are dusky, and remarkably granulated, extend- 
ing, when stretched backwards, an inch and a half beyond the 
tail; the tarsi are slender, much elongated, covered before and 


228 YOUNG YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 


on each side with loose webbed feathers, which are more 
thickly set near the base, and become less crowded towards 
the toes, where they assume the form of short bristles ;-those — 
on the toes being altogether setaceous, and rather scattered. 
The lobes beneath the toes are large, and much granulated ; 
the nails are black, and rather small, the posterior one having 
no groove beneath. 

The individual we have described is a male, and no differ- 
ence is observable in several other specimens: the female dif- 
fers in nothing except that her eyes are of a pale yellow 
colour. 


YOUNG YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 


(Picus varius.) 
PLATE VIII.—Fie. 1, 2. 


See Wilson’s American Ornithology, 1. p. 147, pl. 9, fig. 2, for the adult and his- 
tory.—Picus varius, Linn. Syst. 1,176, sp. 20.—G mel. Syst. i. p. 438, sp. 20.— 
Lath. Ind. p. 232, sp. 21.—Vieill. Ois. de. VAm. Sept. ii. p. 63, pl. 118, adult 
male ; pl. 119, very young.—Picus varius Carolinensis, Briss. Av. iv. p. 62, 
sp. 24.—Picus varius minor, Ventre luteo, the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, 
Catesby, Carolina, i. p. 21, pl. 21, left figure, adult male.—Bartram, Trav. 
p. 291.—Epeiche ou Pic varié de la Caroline, Buff. Ois. vii. p. 77, Pl. ent. 785, 
adult male.—Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 166.— 
Latham, Syn. i. p. 574, sp. 20.—Philadelphia Museum, 2004, adult male ; 
No. 2005, adult female.—My Collection, young and variety. 


PICUS VARIUS.—BONAPARTE. 
Picus varius, Bonap. Synop. p. 45. 


As Wilson’s history of this well-known woodpecker is com- 
plete, and his description obviously discriminates the sexes 
and young, we shall refer the reader entirely to him for infor- 
mation on those points. The present bird is introduced. on 
account of its anomalous plumage; for although the colour of 
the head is but slightly advanced towards its red tint, having 
only two or three reddish points visible on the forehead, yet 
the patch on the breast is quite as obvious as it is found in 
the adult state. In young birds of the first and second years, 


Drawn trom Natare by Titan It. Peale. Engraved. by WH Lizars 


Lana 2¥oung Yellow-belicil Woodpeckers. 5 Band-tailed Pigeon 


Ficus Varues. Columba Fasctata. 


8 


YVOUNG VYELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 2290 


this patch is usually obsolete, the breast being chiefly dusky 
grey, although the crown is entirely red. 

The specimen before us, possibly exhibiting one of the peri- 
odical states of plumage of this changeable bird, is the only 
one we have been able to procure, amongst a great number of 
the young of both sexes in the ordinary dress. The well- 
marked patch on the breast might induce the belief that this 
individual is an adult female, and that this sex, as several 
writers have erroneously remarked, is destitute of the red 
crown ; but, in addition to the fact that our specimen proved, 
on dissection, to be a male, we obtained, almost every day 
during the month of November, young birds of both sexes, 
with the crown entirely red, or more or less sprinkled with 
that colour, the intermixture arising altogether from age or 
advanced plumage, and not from sex. We are unable to state, 
with any degree of certainty, at what period the bird assumes 
the plumage now represented ; and we rather incline to the 
opinion that it is an accidental variety. 

For the purpose of comparison, we have added, on the same 
plate, the most interesting portion of a young bird, as it usu- 
ally appears in November of the first year; and though the 
sexes are then alike in plumage, we had the figure taken from 
a young male, in order to complete the iconography of that 
SeX. 

Vieillot’s figure represents the young before the first moult, 
when, like our anomalous specimen, they have no red on the 
crown ; differing, however, in not having the head of a glossy 
black, but of a dull yellowish grey, and the patch on the 
breast also of a dull grey tint. 


230 BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 


BAND-TAILED PIGEON. (Columba fasciata.) 
PLATE VIII.—Fice. 3. 


Columba fasciata, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii. p. 10.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 4988. 


COLUMBA PASCIATA.—Say.* 
Columba fasciata, Bonap. Synop. p. 119.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, No. 47? 


Tats bird, which is a male, was shot in July, by Mr Titian 
Peale, at a saline spring on a small tributary of the river Platte, 
within the first range of the Rocky Mountains ; it was accom- 
panied by another individual, probably its mate, which escaped. 
As no other specimens have been discovered, the reader will 
not be surprised that our specific description is unaccompanied 
by a general history of their manners. 

The band-tailed pigeon is thirteen inches long; the bill is 
yellow, black at tip, and somewhat gibbous behind the nos- 
trils ; the feet are yellow, and the nails black; the irides are 
blackish ; the head is of a purple cinereous colour ; the neck, 
at its junction with the head, has a white semiband, beneath 


* We have already passed two distinct forms among the Columbide 
in the passenger and Carolina pigeons, of long and slender form and 
wedge-shaped tails ; and the diminutive ground doves, whose size and 
strength sometimes hardly exceed that of a sparrow. In the bird now 
described with the lewcocephala, figured in the present volume, we see a 
third form, and perhaps that to which the title Columba should be 
restricted, including, as more familiar examples, the common tame pigeon 
and the cushat of Europe. Some of the other forms in this beautiful 
group seem more restricted in their distribution. Thus the ground doves 
and passenger pigeons will nearly claim America; Vinagowill claim India 
and different parts of the Asiatic continent ; and that lovely group, with 
feathered tarsi, known under Ptilonopus, Swain., takes India, New Hol- 
land, and the range of the South Pacific, while those of the present division 
will extend over the world. Their form is strongly made, with highly 
developed means of a powerful flight ; plumage remarkably dense and 
strong. They are gregarious, except during the breeding season, easily 
domesticated, and their flesh generally good ; breed more than once 
during the season, and feed on grain or on the leaves and soft parts of 
vegetables, according to circumstances. In disposition they are timid 
and watchful, but rather pugnacious among themselves.—Ep. 


BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 231 


which its back and sides are brilliant golden green, the feathers 
being brownish purple at base; the under part of the neck is 
pale vinaceous purplish, this colour becoming paler as it ap- 
proaches the vent, which, together with the inferior tail-coverts, 
is white. The anterior portion of the back, the wing-coverts, 
and scapulars, are brownish ash; the primaries are dark 
brown, edged with whitish on the exterior webs; the lower 
part of the back, the rump, tail-coverts, inferior wing-coverts, 
and sides, are bluish ash, brighter beneath the wings. The 
shafts of the body feathers and tail-coverts are remarkably 
robust, tapering rather suddenly near the tip. The tail, which 
consists of twelve feathers, is slightly rounded at tip, with a 
definite blackish band at two-thirds the length from the base, 
visible on both sides; before this band the colour is bluish 
ash, and behind dirty greyish; the tail is much lighter on 
the inferior surface. 

This species is closely allied to Columba caribea of Gmelin, 
with which Say stated its analogy, and also to Columba 
leucocephala of Linné. In fact, it possesses some characters 
in common with each of these species, such as the band on the 
tail of the former, and an indication of white on the head of 
the latter. This character may induce some naturalists to 
suppose it the young of the lewcocephala ; but by a careful 
compavison all doubt will be removed, and it will be admitted 
to the rank of a distinct species. 

The caribea may readily be distinguished from the present 
species by its superior size, and by being destitute of the 
white band on the neck; by having a reddish bill, tipt with 
yellow, and dark red feet. The lewcocephala, in the adult 
state, has the whole head white above; but as it is destitute 
of this distinction when young, acquiring it gradually as it 
advances in age, other discriminating characters must be 
employed ; the tail is without a band, the bill is red, with 
a white tip, and the feet are red. 


232 WILD TURKEY. 


WILD TURKEY. (Meleagris gallopavo.) 


PLATE IX.—MaueE anp FEMALE. 


Meleagris gallopavo, Linn. Syst. i. p. 268, sp. 1.—@mel. Syst. i. p. 732. sp. 1.— 
Lath. Ind. p. 618, sp. 1.—Temm. Hist. Nat. des Pig. et Gall. Index, iii. p. 
676. —Wilson, Am. Orn. vi. Index, p. xvii.—Stephens, Cont. of Shaw’s Zool. 
xi. parti. p. 156, pl. 8.—Ranzani, Elem. di Zool. iii. part i. p. 154.—Melea- 
gris sylvestris, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. ix. p. 447.—Gallopavo, 
Aldrovandi, Orn. ii. p. 35, fig. on p. 39, domestic variety, male; fig. on p. 
40, id. female.— Willoughby, Orn. p. 113, pl. 27, fig. 4, dom. var. male.— 
Johnston, Theatrum Universale de Avibus, p. 55, pl. 24, fig. 1, dom. var. male ; 
fig. 2, id. female.—Briss. Av. i. p. 158, pl. 16, dom. var. male.—Gallus 
Indicus, Welscher Han, Johnston, Th. Av. p. 83, pl. 29, fig. 1, dom. var. 
male.—Gallopavo sylvestris Nove-Angliz, a New England Wild Turkey, Ray, 
Syn. p. 51, sp. 3.—Gallopavo sylvestris, Catesby, Carolina, i. App. p. xliv.— 
Meleagris Americanus, the Wild Turkey, Bartr. Trav. p. 290.—Gallo Pavo, 
Gallo Pavone volgarmente Pollo d’India, Storia degli Uccelli, ii. pl. 222, 
dom. crested var. male; pl. 223, dom. white, black spotted var. young; pl. 
224, dom. white, yellowish spotted var. young ; pl. 225. dom. black, var. 
young ; pl. 226, dom. black, white spotted var. young.—Coc d’Inde, Belon, 
Histoire de la Nature des Oiseaux, p. 248, with fig. dom. var. male.—Dindon, 
Buff. Otis. ii. p. 132, pl. 3.—Pl. enl. 97, dom. whitish, var. male.—TZemm. 
Hist. Nat. des Pig. et Gall. ii. p. 374.—Gerardin, Tabl. Elem. d Orn. ii. p- 
103, pl. 21, fig. 2. dom. var. male.—Turkie, Josselyn, Voyages to New 
England, p. 99.—New England’s Rarities, p. 8.—Wild Turkey, Clayton, 
Virginia Phil. Trans. xvii. p. 992.—Id. Abridg. iii. p. 590.—Lawwson, 
Carolina, p. 149.—Penn. Phil. Trans. \xxi. p. 67.—Arct. Zool. sp. 178.— 
American Turkey, Lath. Syn. ii. part ii. p. 676, sp. 1.—Domestic Turkey, 
Penn. Brit. Zool. i. sp. 97. 


MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO.—\Unvevs.* 


Meleagris gallopavo, Bonap. Synop. p. 123.—The Wild Turkey, Aud. m. pl. 1, 
fem. and young, p. vi.—Orn. Biog. i. pp. 1 and 33.—Gard. and Menag. of 
Zool. Soc. Birds, p. 209. 


THE native country of the wild turkey extends from the 
north-western territory of the United States to the Isthmus 


* The natural history of the turkey is so well and fully detailed by 
our author, that almost nothing can be added, even from the later 
observations of Audubon. From the evidence that has been col- 
lected, there seems to be little doubt that Great Britain is indebted, in 
a secondary way, for the introduction of these valuable domestic birds ; 
and I have added the observations of Mr Bennet on the subject of its 


Drawn romNature by Titian & Peale -fnoraved bv WH fran 


Wild Turkev, Male & Female . 


Gallopave . 


g), 


| 


WILD TURKEY. 233 


-of Panama, south of which it is not to be found, notwithstand- 


ing the statements of authors, who have mistaken the curassow 


original introduction from the Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological 
Society. 

“The turkey domesticated by the Spaniards seems to have found its 
way to England almost immediately. This fact may be easily accounted 
for by the extensive intercourse subsisting between the two great mari- 
time nations at that early period ; but it is somewhat sineular that no 
traces of its transmission from Spain should remain, either in the name 
of the bird, or in popular tradition. On the other hand, it is barely 
possible that it may have been brought directly from America to England 
by Chabot, who made such extensive discoveries on the coast of the 
newly found continent, According to a popular rhyme, quoted by Baker 
in his Chronicle— 


‘Turkeys, carps, hoppes, pinaret, and beer, 
Came into England all in one year ;’ 


which remarkable year is said to have been about the 15th of King 
Henry the Eighth, or 1524. Barnaby Googe, an old writer on hus- 
bandry, who published: in 1614, speaking of ‘those outlandish birds 
called ginny-cocks and turkey-cocks,’ says that ‘before the yeare of our 
Lord 1530, they were not seene with us ;’ but in this he merely trans- 
lates from Heresbach, a German author, whose treatise forms the basis 
of his work. A more positive authority is Hakluyt, who, in certain 
instructions given by him to a friend at Constantinople, bearing date 
in 1582, mentions, among other valuable things introduced into England 
from foreign parts, ‘turkey cocks and hennes,’ as having been brought 
in ‘about fifty years past.’ We may therefore fairly conclude that they 
became known in this country about the year 1530. Why they were 
denominated turkeys, an appellation which bears no resemblance to their 
name in any other language, we have no probable grounds even for 
conjecture. Willoughby supposes the name to be derived from a notion 
that they were brought from Turkey. Such an erroneous opinion may 
possibly have arisen from that confusion which appears to have at first 
existed between them and the guinea-fowls, the latter being probably 
commonly obtained from the Levant ; and being also, in the sixteenth 
century, exceedingly rare in England. 

“The turkey, on the country, speedily became a common inhabitant 
of our poultry yards, and a standing dish at all festivals. So early as 
the year 1541, we find it mentioned in a constitution of Archbishop 
Cranmer, published in Leland’s Collectanea, by which it was ordered, 
that of such large fowls as cranes, swans, and turkey-cocks, ‘there should 
be but one inadish.’ The serjeants-at-law created in 1555 provided, 


234 WILD TURKEY. 


for it. In Canada, and the now densely peopled parts of the 
United States, wild turkeys were formerly very abundant; 
but, like the Indian and buffalo, they have been compelled to 
yield to the destructive ingenuity of the white settlers, often 
wantonly exercised, and seek refuge in the remotest parts of 
the interior. Although they relinquish their native soil with 
slow and reluctant steps, yet such is the rapidity with which 
settlements are extended and condensed over the surface 
of this country, that we may anticipate a day, at no dis- 


according to Dugdale, in his ‘Origines Juridicales, for their inauguration 
dinner, among other delicacies, two turkeys and four turkey chicks, 
which, as they were rated at only four shillings each, while swans and 
cranes were charged ten shillings, and capons half-a-crown, could not 
have been esteemed very great rarities. Indeed, they had become so 
plentiful in 1573, that honest Tusser, in his ‘ Five Hundred Points of 
Good Husbandry, enumerates them among the usual Christmas fare at 
a farmer’s table, and speaks of them as ‘ ill neighbors’ both to ‘ peason’ 
and to hops. 

“A Frenchman, named Pierre Gilles, has the credit of having first 
described the turkey in this quarter of the globe, in his editions to a 
Latin translation of AZlian, published by him in 1535, His description 
is so true to nature, as to have been almost wholly relied on by every 
subsequent writer down to Willoughby. He speaks of it as a bird that 
he had seen ; and he had not then been farther from his native country 
than Venice ; and states it to have been brought from the New World. 
That turkeys were known in France at this period is further proved by 
a passage in Champier’s treatise ‘ De re Cibaria,’ published in 1560, and 
said to have been written thirty years before. This author also speaks 
of them as having been brought but a few years back from the newly 
discovered Indian islands. From this time forward, their origin seems 
to have been entirely forgotten ; and for the next two centuries we 
meet with little else in the writings of ornithologists concerning them 
than an accumulation of citations from the ancients, which bear no 
manner of relation to them. In the year 1566, a present of twelve 
turkeys was thought not unworthy of being offered by the municipality 
of Amiens to their King, at whose marriage, in 1570, Anderson states 
in his ‘ History of Commerce,’ but we know not on what authority, they 
were first eaten in France. Heresbach, as we have before seen, asserts 
that they were introduced into Germany about 1530; and a sumptuary 
law made at Venice, 1557, quoted by Zanoni, particularises the tables 
at which they were permitted to be served.”—Eb. 


WILD TURKEY. 235 


tant period, when the hunter will seek the wild turkey in 
vain, 

We have neglected no means of obtaining information from 
various parts of the Union relative to this interesting bird ; 
and having been assisted by the zeal and politeness of several 
individuals, who, in different degrees, have contributed to our 
stock of knowledge on this subject, we return them our best 
thanks. We have particular satisfaction in acknowledging . 
the kindness of Mr John J. Audubon, from whom we have 
received a copious narrative, containing a considerable portion 
of the valuable notes collected by him on this bird during 
twenty years that he has been engaged in studying ornithology, 
in the only book free from error and contradiction, the great 
book of Nature. His observations, principally made in Ken- 
tucky and Louisiana, proved the more interesting, as we had 
received no information from those States; we have, in con- 
sequence, been enabled to enrich the present article with 
several new details of the manners and habits of the wild 
turkey. 

The wooded parts of Arkansaw, Louisiana, Tennessee, and 
Alabama ; the unsettled portions of the States of Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, Indiana, and Illinois; the vast expanse of territory 
north-west of these States on the Mississippi and Missouri, as 
far as the forests extend, are more abundantly supplied than 
any other parts of the Union with this valuable game, which 
forms an important part of the subsistence of the hunter and 
traveller in the wilderness. It is not probable that the range 
of this bird extends to, or beyond, the Rocky Mountains; the 
Mandan Indians, who, a few years ago, visited the city of 
Washington, considered the turkey one of the greatest curi- 
osities they had seen, and prepared a skin of one, to carry 
home for exhibition. 

The wild turkey is not very plenty in Florida, Georgia, 
and the Carolinas ; is still less frequently found in the western 
parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania; and is extremely rare, if 
indeed it exists at all, in the remaining northern and eastern 


236 WILD TURKEY. 


parts of the United States; in New England, it even appears 
to have been already destroyed one hundred and fifty years 
back. I am, however, credibly informed that wild turkeys 
are yet to be found in the mountainous districts of Sussex 
county, New Jersey. The most eastern part of Pennsylvania 
now inhabited by them appears to be Lancaster county ; and 
they are often observed in the oak woods near Philipsburg, 
Clearfield county. Those occasionally brought to the Phil- 
adelphia and New York markets are chiefly obtained in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

The wild turkeys do not confine themselves to any particu- 
lar food; they eat maize; all sorts of berries, fruits, grasses, 
beetles, and even tadpoles, young frogs, and lizards, are 
occasionally found in their crops; but where the becan-nut 1s 
plenty, they prefer that fruit to any other nourishment ; their 
more general predilection is, however, for the acorn, on which 
they rapidly fatten. When an unusually profuse crop of 
acorns is produced in a particular section of country, great 
numbers of turkeys are enticed from their ordinary haunts in 
the surrounding districts. About the beginning of October, 
while the mast still remains on the trees, they assemble in 
flocks, and direct their course to the rich bottom lands. At 
this season they are observed in great numbers on the Ohio 
and Mississippi. The time of this irruption is known to the 
Indians by the name of the turkey month. 

The males, usually termed gobbdlers, associate in parties 
numbering from ten to a hundred, and seek their food apart 
from the females ; whilst the latter either move about singly 
with their young, then nearly two-thirds grown, or, in com- 
pany with other females and their families, form troops, some- 
times consisting of seventy or eighty individuals, all of whom 
are intent on avoiding the old males, who, whenever oppor- 
tunity offers, attack and destroy the young by repeated blows 
on the skull. All parties, however, travel in the same direc- 
tion, and on foot, unless they are compelled to seek their 
individual safety by flying from the hunter’s dog, or their 


WILD TURKEY. 237 


march is impeded by a large river. When about to cross a 
river, they select the highest eminences, that their flight may 
be the more certain ; and here they sometimes remain for a 
day or more, as if for the purpose of consultation, or to be duly 
prepared for so hazardous a voyage. During this time the 
males gobble obstreperously, and strut with extraordinary im- 
portance, as if they would animate their companions, and in- 
spire them with the utmost degree of hardihood ; the females 
and young also assume much of the pompous air of the males, 
the former spreading their tails, and moving silently around. 
At length the assembled multitude mount to the tops of the 
highest trees, whence, at a signal note from a leader, the whole 
together wing their way towards the opposite shore. All the 
old and fat ones cross without difficulty, even when the river 
exceeds a mile in width ; but the young, meagre, and weak, 
frequently fall short of the desired landing, and are forced to 
swim for their lives; this they do dexterously enough, spread- 
ing their tails for a support, closing their wings to the body, 
stretching the neck forwards, and striking out quickly and 
forcibly with their legs. If, in thus endeavouring to regain 
the land, they approach an elevated or inaccessible bank, their 
exertions are remitted, they resign themselves to the stream 
for a short time, in order to gain strength, and then, with one 
violent effort, escape from the water. But in this attempt all 
are not successful ; some of the weaker, as they cannot rise 
sufficiently high in air to clear the bank, fall again and again 
into the water, and thus miserably perish. Immediately after 
these birds have succeeded in crossing a river, they for some 
time ramble about without any apparent unanimity of purpose, 
and a great many are destroyed by the hunters, although they 
are then least valuable. 

When the turkeys have arrived in their land of abundance, 
they disperse in small flocks, composed of individuals of all 
sexes and ages intermingled, who devour all the mast as they 
advance; this occurs about the middle of November. It 
has been observed, that, after these long journeys, the turkeys 


238 WILD TURKEY. 


become so familiar as to venture on the plantations, and even 
approach so near the farmhouses as to enter the stables and 
corn-cribs in search of food; in this way they pass the autumn 
and part of the winter. During this season great numbers 
are killed by the inhabitants, who preserve them in a frozen 
state in order to transport them to a distant market. 

Early in March they begin to pair; and, for a short time 
previous, the females separate from, and shun their mates, 
though the latter pertinaciously follow them, uttering their 
gobbling note. The sexes roost apart, but at no great dis- 
tance, so that, when the female utters a call, every male within 
hearing responds, rolling note after note in the most rapid suc- 
cession ; not as when spreading the tail and strutting near the 
hen, but in a voice resembling that of the tame turkey when 
he hears any unusual or frequently repeated noise. Where the 
turkeys are numerous, the woods, from one end to the other, 
sometimes for hundreds of miles, resound with this remarkable 
voice of their wooing, uttered responsively from their roosting 
places. This is continued for about an hour; and, on the 
rising of the sun, they silently descend from their perches, and 
the males begin to strut, for the purpose of winning the admi- 
ration of their mates, 

If the call be given from the ground, the males in the vici- 
nity fly towards the individual, and, whether they perceive her 
or not, erect and spread their tails, throw the head backwards, 
distend the comb and wattles, strut pompously, and rustle 
their wings and body feathers, at the same moment ejecting a 
puff of air from the lungs. Whilst thus occupied, they occa- 
sionally halt to look out for the female, and then resume their 
strutting and puffing, moving with as much rapidity as the 
nature of their gait will admit. During this ceremonious ap- 
proach, the males often encounter each other, and desperate 
battles ensue, when the conflict is only terminated by the flight 
or death of the vanquished. 

This pugnacious dispositien is not to be regarded as acci- 
dental, but as resulting from a wise and excellent law of 


WILD TURKEY. 239 


nature, which always studies the good of the species, without 
regard to the individuals. Did not females prefer the most 
perfect of their species, and were not the favours of beauty 
most willingly dispensed to the victorious, feebleness and de- 
generacy would soon mark the animal creation ; but, in con- 
sequence of this general rule, the various races of animals are 
propagated by those individuals who are not only most to be 
admired for external appearance, but most to be valued for 
their intrinsic spirit and energy. 

When the object of his pursuit is discovered, if the female 
be more than one year old, she also struts, and even gobbles, 
evincing much desire ; she turns proudly round the strutting 
male, and suddenly opening her wings, throws herself towards 
him, as if to terminate his procrastination, and, laying herself 
on the earth, receives his dilatory caresses. But should he 
meet a young hen, his strut becomes different, and his move- 
ments are violently rapid ; sometimes rising in air, he takes a 
short circular flight, and on alighting, drags his wings for a 
distance of eight or ten paces, running at full speed, occasion- 
ally approaching the timorous hen, and pressing her, until 
she yields to his solicitations. Thus are they mated for the 
season, though the male does not confine himself exclu- 
sively to one female, nor does he hesitate to bestow his atten- 
tions and endearments on several, whenever an opportunity 
offers. 

One or more females, thus associated, follow their favourite, 
and roost in his immediate neighbourhood, if not on the same 
tree, until they begin to lay, when they change their mode of 
life, in order to save their eggs, which the male uniformly 
breaks, if in his power, that the female may not be withdrawn 
from the gratification of his desires, At this time the females 
shun the males during the greater part of the day; the latter 
become clumsy and careless, meet each other peacefully, and 
so entirely cease to gobble, that the hens are obliged to court 
their advances, calling loudly and almost continually for 
them. The female may then be observed caressing the male, 


240 WILD TURKEY. 


and imitating his peculiar gestures, in order to excite his 
amorousness. 

The cocks, even when on the roost, sometimes strut and 
gobble, but more generally merely elevate the tail, and utter 
the puff; on which the tail and other feathers suddenly sub- 
side. On light or moonshining nights, near the termination 
of the breeding season, they repeat this action, at intervals of 
a few minutes, for several hours together, without rising from 
their perches. 

The sexes then separate; the males, being much emaciated, 
cease entirely to gobble, retire and conceal themselves by 
prostrate trees, in secluded parts of the forest, or in the almost 
impenetrable privacy of a cane-break. Rather than leave 
their hiding-places, they suffer themselves to be approached 
within a short distance, when they seek safety in their speed 
of foot; at this season, however, they are of no value to the 
hunter, being meagre and covered with ticks. By thus re- 
tiring, using very little exercise, and feeding on peculiar 
grasses, they recover their flesh and strength, and when this 
object is attained, again congregate, and recommence their 
rambles. 

About the middle of April, when the weather is dry, the 
female selects a proper place in which to deposit her eggs, 
secure from the encroachment of water, and, as far as possible, 
concealed from the watchful eye of the crow: this crafty bird 
espies the hen going to her nest, and having discovered the 
precious deposit, waits for the absence of the parent, and re- 
moves every one of the eggs from the spot, that he may de- 
vour them at leisure. ‘The nest is placed on the ground, either 
on a dry ridge, in the fallen top of a dead leafy tree, under a 
thicket of sumach or briars, or by the side of a log; it is of a 
very simple structure, being composed of a few dried leaves. 
In this receptacle the eggs are deposited, sometimes to the 
number of twenty, but more usually from nine to fifteen ; they 
are whitish, spotted with reddish brown, like those of the 
domestic bird. Their manner of building, number of eggs, 


WILD TURKEY. 241 


period of incubation, &c., appear to correspond throughout 
the Union, as I have received exactly similar accounts from 
the northern limits of the turkey range to the most southern re- 
gions of Florida, Louisiana, and the western wilds of Missouri. 

The female always approaches her nest with great caution, 
varying her course so as rarely to reach it twice by the same 
route ; and, on leaving her charge, she is very careful to cover 
the whole with dry leaves, with which she conceals it so art- 
fully, as to make it extremely difficult, even for one who has 
watched her movements, to indicate the exact spot; hence 
few nests are found, and these are generally discovered by 
fortuitously starting the female from them, or by the appear- 
ance of broken shells, scattered around by some cunning lynx, 
fox, or crow. When laying or sitting, the turkey-hen is not 
readily driven from her post by the approach of apparent 
danger; but, if an enemy appears, she crouches as low as 
possible, and suffers it to pass. A circumstance related by 
Mr Audubon will show how much intelligence they display on 
such occasions: having discovered a sitting hen, he remarked 
that, by assuming a careless air, whistling, or talking to him- 
self, he was permitted to pass within five or six feet of her ; 
but, if he advanced cautiously, she would not suffer him to 
come within twenty paces, but ran off twenty or thirty yards 
with her tail expanded, when, assuming a stately gait, she 
paused on every step, occasionally uttering a chuck. They 
seldom abandon their nests on account of being discovered by 
man, but should a snake, or any other animal, suck one of the 
eggs, the parent leaves them altogether. If the eggs be re- 
moved, she again seeks the male, and recommences laying, 
though otherwise she lays but one nest of eges during the 
season. Several turkey-hens sometimes associate, perhaps for 
mutual safety, deposit their eggs in the same nest, and rear 
their broods together. Mr Audubon once found three females 
sitting on forty-two eggs. In such cases the nest is constantly 
guarded by one of the parties, so that no crow, raven, nor even 


polecat, dares approach it. 
VOL, III. Q 


242 WILD TURKEY. 


= 


The mother will not forsake her eggs, when near hatching, 
while life remains; she will suffer an enclosure to be made 
around and imprison her, rather than abandon her charge. 
Mr Audubon witnessed the hatching of a brood, while thus 
endeavouring to secure the young and mother. “TI have laid 
flat,” says he, “within a very few feet, and seen her gently 
rise from the eggs, look anxiously towards them, chuck with 
a sound peculiar to the mother on such an occasion, remove 
carefully each half-empty shell, and with her bill caress and 
dry the younglings, that already stand tottering and attempt- 
ing to force their way out of the nest.” 

When the process of incubation is ended, and the mother 
is about to retire from the nest with her young brood, she shakes 
herself violently, picks and adjusts the feathers about the belly, 
and assumes a different aspect; her eyes are alternately inclined 
obliquely upwards and sidewise ; she stretches forth her neck 
in every direction, to discover birds of prey or other enemies ; 
her wings are partially spread, and she softly clucks to keep 
her tender offspring close to her side. They proceed slowly ; 
and as the hatching generally occurs in the afternoon, they 
sometimes return to pass the first night in the nest. While 
very young, the mother leads them to elevated dry places, as 
if aware that humidity during the first few days of their life 
would be very dangerous to them, they having then no other 
protection than a delicate, soft, hairy down. In very rainy 
seasons wild turkeys are scarce, because, when completely 
wetted, the young rarely survive. 

At the expiration of about two weeks, the young leave the 
eround, on which they had previously reposed at night under 
the female, and follow her to some low, large branch of a tree, 
where they nestle under the broadly curved wings of their 
vigilant and fostering parent. The time then approaches in 
which they seek the open ground or prairie land during the 
day in search of strawberries, and subsequently of dewberries, 
blackberries, and grasshoppers, thus securing plenty of food, 
and enjoying the influence of the genial sun. They frequently 


WILD TURKEY. 243 


C4 


dust themselves in shallow cavities of the soil, or on anthills, 
in order to clean off the loose skin of their growing feathers, 
and rid themselves of ticks and other vermin. 

The young turkeys now grow rapidly, and in the month of 
August, when several broods flock together, and are led by 
their mothers to the forest, they are stout, and quite able to 
secure themselves from the unexpected attacks of wolves, foxes, 
lynxes, and even cougars, by rising quickly from the ground, 
aided by their strong legs, and reaching with ease the upper 
limbs of the tallest tree. Amongst the numerous enemies of 
the wild turkey, the most dreaded are the large diurnal and 
nocturnal birds of prey, and the lynx (felis rufa), who sucks 
their eges, and is extremely expert at seizing both parent and 
young ; he follows them for some distance, in order to ascertain 
their course, and then, making a rapid circular movement, 
places himself in ambush before them, and waits until, by a 
single bound, he can fasten on his victim. 

The following circumstance is thus related by Bartram :— 
“Having seen a flock of turkeys at some distance, I approached 
them with great caution, when, singling out a large cock, and 
being just on the point of firing, I observed that several young 
cocks were affrighted, and in their language warned the rest 
to be on their guard against an enemy, whom I plainly per- 
ceived was industriously making his subtle approaches towards 
them behind the fallen trunk of a tree about twenty yards 
from me. This cunning fellow-hunter was a large fat wild 
cat or lynx: he saw me, and at times seemed to watch my 
motions, as if determined to seize the delicious prey before me ; 
upon which I changed my object, and levelled my piece at 
him. At that instant, my companion, at a distance, also dis- 
charged his piece, the report of which alarmed the flock of 
turkeys, and my fellow-hunter, the cat, sprang over the log, 
and trotted off. 

These birds are guardians of each other, and the first who 
sees a hawk or eagle gives a note of alarm, on which all within 
hearing lie close to the ground. As they usually roost in flocks, 


244 WILD TURKEY. 


perched on the naked branches of trees, they are easily dis- 
covered by the large owls, and, when attacked by these prowl- 
ing birds, often escape by a somewhat remarkable manceuvre. 
The owl sails around the spot to select his prey ; but notwith- 
standing the almost inaudible action of his pinions, the quick 
ear of one of the slumberers perceives the danger, which is 
immediately announced to the whole party by a chuck ; thus 
alarmed, they rise on their legs, and watch the motions of the 
owl, who, darting like an arrow, would inevitably secure the 
individual at which he aimed, did not the latter suddenly drop 
his head, squat, and spread his tail over his back ; the owl then 
glances over without inflicting any injury, at the very instant 
that the turkey suffers himself to fall headlong towards the 
earth, where he is secure from his dreaded enemy. 

On hearing the slightest noise, wild turkeys conceal them- 
selves in the grass or among shrubs, and thus frequently 
escape the hunter, or the sharp-sighted birds of prey. The 
sportsman is unable to find them during the day, unless he 
has a dog trained for the purpose. It is necessary to shoot 
them at a very short distance, since, when only wounded, they 
quickly disappear, and, accelerating their motion by a sort of 
half flight, run with so much speed, that the swiftest hunter 
cannot overtake them. The traveller driving rapidly down 
the declivity of one of the Alleghanies may sometimes see 
several of them before him, that evince no urgent desire to 
get out of the road; but on alighting, in hopes of shooting 
them, he soon finds that all pursuit is vain. 

In the spring, when the males are much emaciated by their 
attendance on the females, it sometimes may happen that, in 
cleared countries, they can be overtaken by a swift cur-dog, 
when they will squat, and suffer themselves to be caught by 
the dog, or hunter, who follows on horseback. But from the 
knowledge we have gained of this bird, we do not hesitate to 
affirm, that the manner of running down turkeys, like hares or 
foxes, so much talked of, is a mere fable, as such a sport would 
be attended with very trifling success. A turkey-hound will 


WILD TURKEY. 245 


sometimes lead his master several miles before he can a second 
time jlush the same individual from his concealment; and 
even on a fleet horse, after following one for hours, it is often 
found impossible to put zt up. During a fall of melting snow, 
turkeys will travel extraordinary distances, and are often pur- 
sued in vain by any description of hunters ; they have then a 
long, straddling manner of running, very easy to themselves, 
but which few animals can equal. ‘This disposition for run- 
ning during rains or humid weather is common to all gal- 
linaceous birds. 

The males are frequently decoyed within gunshot in the 
breeding season by forcibly drawing the air through one of 
the wing-bones of the turkey, producing a sound very similar 
to the voice of the female ; but the performer on this simple 
instrument must commit no error, for turkeys are quick of 
hearing, and, when frequently alarmed, are wary and cunning. 
Some of these will answer to the call without advancing a 
step, and thus defeat the speculations of the hunter, who 
must avoid making any movement, inasmuch as a single 
glance of a turkey may defeat his hopes of decoying them. 
By imitating the cry of the barred owl (Strix nebulosa), the 
hunter discovers many on their roosts, as they will reply by 
a gobble to every repetition of this sound, and can thus be 
approached with certainty about daylight, and easily killed. 

Wild turkeys are very tenacious of their feeding grounds, 
as well as of the trees on which they have once roosted. 
Flocks have been known to resort to one spot for a succession 
of years, and to return after a distant migration in search of 
food. ‘Their roosting-place is mostly on a point of land jut- 
ting into a river, where there are large trees. When they 
have collected at the signal of a repeated gobbling, they 
silently proceed towards their nocturnal abodes, and perch 
near each other: from the numbers sometimes congregated in 
one place, it would seem to be the common rendezvous of the 
whole neighbourhood. But no position, however secluded or 
difficult of access, can secure them from the attacks of the 


246 WILD TURKEY. 


artful and vigilant hunter, who, when they are all quietly 
perched for the night, takes a stand previously chosen by day- 
light, and, when the rising moon enables him to take sure 
aim, shoots them down at leisure, and, by carefully singling 
out those on the lower branches first, he may secure nearly 
the whole flock, neither the presence of the hunter nor the 
report of his gun intimidating the turkeys, although the 
appearance of a single owl would be sufficient to alarm the 
whole troop: the dropping of their companions from their 
sides excites nothing but a buzzing noise, which seems more 
expressive of surprise than fright. ‘This fancied security, or 
heedlessness of danger, while at roost, is characteristic of all 
the gallinaceous birds of North America. 

The more common mode of taking turkeys is by means of 
pens, constructed with logs, covered in at top, and with a pas- 
sage in the earth under one side of it, just large enough to 
admit an individual when stooping. The ground chosen for 
this purpose is generally sloping, and the passage is cut on 
the lower side, widening outwards. These preparations being 
completed, Indian-corn is strewed for some distance around 
the pen, to entice the flock, which, picking up the grain, is 
eradually led towards the passage, and thence into the enclo- 
sure, Where a sufficient quantity of corn is spread to occupy 
the leader until the greater part of the turkeys have entered. 
When they raise their heads and discover that they are 
prisoners, all their exertions to escape are directed upwards 
and agaiust the sides of the pen, not having sagacity enough 
to stoop sufficiently low to pass out by the way they entered, 
and thus they become an easy prey, not only to the experienced 
hunter, but even to the boys on the frontier settlements. 

In proportion to the abundance or scarcity of food, and its 
good or bad quality, they are small or large, meagre or fat, 
and of an excellent or indifferent flavour: in general, however, 
their flesh is more delicate, more succulent, and better tasted 
than that of the tame turkey: they are in the best order late 
in the autumn, or in the beginning of winter. ‘The Indians 


WILD TURKEY. 247 


value this food so highly when roasted, that they call it “the 
white man’s dish,” and present it to strangers as the best they 
can offer. It seems probable that in Mexico the wild turkey 
cannot obtain such substantial food as in the United States, 
since Hernandez informs us that their flesh is harder, and in 
all respects inferior to that of the domestic bird. 

The Indians make much use of their tails as fans; the 
women weave their feathers with much art on a loose: web 
made of the rind of the birch-tree, arranging them so as to keep 
the down on the inside, and exhibit the brilliant surface to 
the eye. A specimen of this cloth is in the Philadelphia 
Museum ; it was found enveloping the body of an Indian 
female in the great saltpetre cave of Kentucky. 

Among the benefits conferred by America on the rest of the 
world, the gift of this noble bird should occupy a distinguished 
place, as unquestionably one of the most useful of the feathered 
tribe, being capable of ministering largely to the sustenance 
and comfort of the human race. Though the turkey is sur- 
passed in external beauty by the magnificent peacock, its flesh 
is greatly superior in excellence, standing almost unrivalled 
for delicacy of texture and agreeable sapidity. On this account 
it has been eagerly sought by almost all nations, and has been 
naturalised with astonishing rapidity throughout the world, 
almost universally constituting a favourite banquet-dish. 

The turkey, belonging originally to the American continent, 
was necessarily unknown to the ancients, who, in this as in a 
thousand other instances, were deficient in our most common 
and essential articles of food. Readers unacquainted with the 
fact may well be surprised to learn, that although the intro- 
duction of this bird into Europe is comparatively modern, 
its’ origin has already been lost sight of, and that eminent 
naturalists of the last century, who lived so much nearer to the 
time of its first appearance, have expressed great uncertainty 
concerning its native country. Thus Belon, Aldrovandi, Ges- 
ner, Ray, &., thought that it came originally from Africa and 
the Hast Indies, and endeavoured to recognise it in some of 


248 WILD TURKEY. 


the domestic birds of the ancients. Belon and Aldrovandi 
supposed it to have been mentioned by ancient authors, but 
they mistook for it the Nuwmida meleagris of Linné, which 
is actually an African bird, now almost naturalised in America, 
even in a wild state, so that it would be apparently more rea- 
sonable for America to regard that bird as indigenous, than 
that the old continent should lay claim to the turkey. In so 
soon losing sight of the origin of this bird, we see a strong 
exemplification of the ungrateful disposition of man, who can 
durably treasure up the memory of wrongs and injuries, but 
fails to recollect the greatest benefits he has received. It 
would be loss of time to combat the arguments advanced by 
authors, who have deceived themselves in attempting to de- 
prive America of her just title to this bird, since they have 
been fully refuted by the eloquent Buffon ; but we may here 
introduce a sketch of its progress from America througheut 
Europe. 

The first unquestionable description of the turkey was writ- 
ten by Oviedo in 1525, in the summary of his “ History of the 
Indies.” This bird was sent from Mexico to Spain early in the 
sixteenth century; from Spain it was introduced into England 
in 1524. Turkeys were taken to France in the reign of Francis 
the First, whence they spread into Germany, Italy, &c.; a 
few, however, had been carried to the latter country by the 
Spaniards some years previously. ‘The first turkey eaten in 
France appears to have been served up at the wedding banquet 
of Charles the Ninth, in the year 1570. Since that period, 
they have been bred with so much care, that in England, as 
we read in ancient chronicles, their rapid increase rendered 
them attainable at country feasts, where they were a much 
esteemed dish as early as 1585. Europeans conveyed them to 
all their colonies, and thus were they gradually introduced into 
Asia, Africa, and even Oceanica. 

The French distinguished them by the name of Coq et Poule 
d’ Inde (cock and hen from India), because they were natives 
of the West Indies. Subsequently, for the sake of brevity, — 


WILD TURKEY. 249 


they called them Dindon, an appellation which is yet retained. 
The English name is still worse, as it conveys the false idea 
that the turkey originated in Asia, owing to the ridiculous 
habit, formerly prevalent, of calling every foreign object by 
the name of Turk, Indian, &e. 

Although the turkey is generally considered a stupid bird, 
it is probable that his intellectual qualifications have not been 
fairly appreciated, as he is susceptible of very lively emotions. 
If any new and remarkable object attracts the attention of 
the male, his whole appearance and demeanour undergo a 
sudden and extraordinary change: relinquishing his peaceful 
aspect, he boldly raises himself, his head and neck become 
turgid, and the wattles, from an influx of blood, glow with 
vivid red; he bristles up the feathers of the neck and back, 
his tail is vertically raised and expanded like a fan, and the 
wing- feathers are extended until they touch the ground. ‘hus 
transformed, he utters a low, humming sound, and advances 
with a grave and haughty strut, occasionally accelerating his 
steps, and, at the same time, rubbing the tips of the primary 
feathers violently against the earth. During these manceuvres, 
he now and then utters a harsh, interrupted, and dissonant 
note, apparently expressive of the highest degree of rage : 
this cry, sounding like rook, oorook, oorook, will be repeated 
at the pleasure of any person who should whistle, or strike the 
ear of the bird by any other acute or unusual sound. ‘The 
appearance of any red cloth is sure to awaken his anger, and 
induce him to rush fearlessly on the disagreeable object, exert- 
ing all his power to injure or destroy it. 

In connection with the peculiar character of this bird, we 
may advantageously quote the sentiments of the great Fran- 
klin, who expressed a regret that the turkey should not have 
been preferred to the bald eagle as an emblem of the United 
States. Certainly this eagle is a tyrannical and pusillanimous 
bird, by no means an appropriate representative of a great and 
Inagnanimous nation, as was the eagle chosen by the Romans. 

“ Others object to the bald eagle,” says Franklin, in one of 


250 WILD TURKEY. 


his letters, “as looking too much like a dindon, or turkey. 
For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen 
as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral 
character ; he does not get his living honestly ; you may have 
seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish 
for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing-hawk, and, 
when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is 
bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young 
ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from lim. 
With all this injustice, he is never in good case, but, like 
those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is 
generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank 
coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks 
him boldly, and drives him out of the district. He is, there- 
fore, by no means, a proper emblem for the brave and honest 
Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the kingbirds from 
our country, though exactly fit for that order of knights which 
the French call Chevaliers @industrie. Iam, on this account, 
not displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, 
but looks more like a turkey. For, in truth, the turkey is, in 
comparison, a much more respectable bird, and withal a true 
original native of America. Eagles have been found in all 
countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours. He is, besides 
(though a little vain and silly, tis true, but not the worse 
emblem for that), a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to 
attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume 
to invade his farmyard with a red-coat on.” 

But since the choleric temper and vanity of the tame turkey 
are proverbial in various languages, in some of which its very 
name 1s opprobrious, and often applied in derision to vain- 
glorious and stupid people, we are better satisfied that its 
effigy was not placed on the escutcheon of the United States. 

Those who have not observed the turkey in its wild state, 
have only seen its deteriorated progeny, which are greatly in- 
ferior in size and beauty. So far from having gained by the 
care of man, and the abundance of food accessible in its state 


WILD TURKEY. 251 


of domestication, this bird has degenerated, not only in Europe 
and Asia, but, what is certainly extraordinary, even in its 
native country. ‘The domesticated turkey of America, accus- 
tomed as it is to roam in the woods and open fields almost 
without restraint, is in no respect superior to that of the 
European poultry-yard. I have, however, seen several very 
beautiful ones from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and 
Sussex county, New Jersey, that were said to be a cross-breed 
between the wild cock and tame hen. ‘This crossing often 
occurs in countries where wild and tame turkeys are found ; 
it is well known that they will readily approach each other ; 
and such is the influence of slavery even upon the turkey, 
that the robust inhabitant of the forest will drive his degene- 
rate kinsfolk from their own food and from their females, 
being generally welcomed by the latter and by their owners, 
who well know the advantages of such a connection. The 
produce of this commixture is much esteemed by epicures, 
uniting the luscious obesity of the one with the wild flavour 
of the other. A gentleman residing in Westchester county, 
New York, a few years since, procured a young female wild 
turkey, in order to make the experiment of crossing the breed ; 
but, owing to some circumstance, it did not succeed, and in 
the ensuing spring this female disappeared. In the following 
autumn she returned, followed by a large brood ; these were 
quite shy, but, by a little management, they were secured in a 
coop, and the mother allowed her liberty. She remained on 
the farm until the succeeding spring, when she again dis- 
appeared, and returned in autumn with another brood. This 
course she has repeated for several successive years. 

Hegs of the wild turkey have been frequently taken from 
their nests, and hatched under the tame hen; the young pre- 
serve a portion of their uncivilised nature, and exhibit some 
knowledge of the difference between themselves and their 
foster-mother, roosting apart from the tame ones, and in other 
respects showing the force of hereditary disposition. The 
domesticated young, reared from the eggs of the wild turkey, 


252 WILD TURKEY. 


are often employed as decoy birds to those in a state of nature. 
Mr William Bloom, of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, caught five 


or six wild turkeys, when quite chickens, and succeeded in - 


rearing them. Although sufficiently tame to feed with his 
taine turkeys, and generally associate with them, yet they 
always retained some of their original propensities, roosting by 
themselves, and higher than the tame birds, generally on the 
top of some tree, or of the house. They were also more 
readily alarmed ; on the approach of a dog, they would fly off, 
and seek safety in the nearest woods. On an occasion of this 
kind, one of them flew across the Susquehanna, and the owner 
was apprehensive of losing it; in order to recover it, he sent 
a boy with a tame turkey, which was released at the place 
where the fugitive had alighted. This plan was successful ; 
they soon joined company, and the tame bird induced his 
companion to return home. Mr Bloom remarked, that the 
wild turkey will thrive more, and keep in better condition, 
than the tame, on the same quantity of food. 

Besides the above-mentioned half-breed, some domesticated 
turkeys, of a very superior metallic tint, are sold in the Phila- 
delphia and New York markets as wild ones. Many of these 
require a practised eye to distinguish their true character, but 
they are always rather less brilliant, and those I examined had 
a broad whitish band at the tip of the tail-coverts, and another 
at the tip of the tail itself, which instantly betrayed their 
origin, the wild ones being entirely destitute of the former, and 
the band on the tip of the tail being neither so wide nor so 
pure. 

In the following description, we give the generic as well as 
the specific characters of the wild turkey, in order to make it 
complete. 

The male wild turkey, when full grown, is nearly four feet 
in length, and more than five in extent. The bill is short and 
robust, measuring two inches and a half to the corner of the 
mouth; it is reddish, and horn colour at tip; the superior man- 
dible is vaulted, declining at tip, and overhangs the inferior, 


WILD TURKEY. 253 


being longer and wider; it is covered at base by a naked cere- 
like membrane, in which the nostrils are situated, they being 
half closed by a turgid membrane, and opening downwards ; 
the inferior mandible slightly ascends towards the tip; the 
aperture of the ear is defended by a fascicle of small decom- 
posed feathers ; the tongue is fleshy and entire; the irides are 
dark brown ; the head, which is very small in proportion to 
the body, and half of the neck, are covered by a naked bluish 
skin, on which are a number of red wart-like elevations on the 
superior portion, and whitish ones on the inferior, interspersed 
with a few scattered black, bristly hairs, and small feathers, 
which are still less numerous on the neck; the naked skin ex- 
tends farther downwards on the inferior surface of the neck, 
where it is flaccid and membraneous, forming an undulating 
appendage, on the lower part of which are cavernous elevations, 
or wattles. A wrinkled, fleshy, conic, extensible caruncle, hairy 
and pencillated at tip, arises from the bill at its junction with 
the forehead ; when the bird is quiescent, this process is not 
much more than an inch and a half long; but when he is 
excited by love or rage, it becomes elongated, so as to cover the 
bill entirely, and depend two or three inches below it. The 
neck is of a moderate length and thickness, bearing on its in- 
ferior portion a pendant fascicle of black rigid hairs, about nine 
inches long. The body is thick, somewhat elongated, and 
covered with long truncated feathers; these are divided into 
very light fuliginous down at base, beyond which they are 
dusky; to this dusky portion succeeds a broad, effulgent, me- 
tallic band, changing now to copper colour or bronze gold, 
then to violet or purple, according to the incidents of light ; 
and at tip is a terminal, narrow, velvet black band, which does 
not exist in the feathers of the neck and breast; the lower por- 
tion of the back, and the upper part of the rump, are much 
darker, with less brilliant golden violaceous reflections ; the 
feathers of the inferior part of the rump have several concealed, 
narrow, ferruginous, transverse lines, then a black band before 
the broad metallic space, which is effulgent coppery ; beyond 


Beh, | WILD TURKEY. 


the terminal narrow black band is an unpolished bright bay 
fringe. The upper tail-coverts are of a bright bay colour, with 
numerous narrow bars of bright shining greenish; all these 
coverts are destitute of the metallic band, and the greater num- 
ber have not the black subterminal one ; the vent and thighs 
are plain brownish cinereous, intermixed with paler; the under 
tail-coverts are blackish, glossed with coppery towards the tip, 
and at tip are bright bay. 

The wings are concave and rounded, hardly surpassing the 
origin of the tail; they have twenty-eight quill-feathers, of 
which the first is shortest, and the fourth and fifth longest, the 
second and ninth being nearly equal; the smaller and middling 
wing-coverts are coloured like the feathers of the body; the 
ereater coverts are copper violaceous, having a black band 
near the whitish tip; their concealed web is blackish, sprinkled 
with dull ferruginous: in old birds, the exterior web is much 
worn by friction amongst the bushes, in consequence of which 
those feathers exhibit a very singular, unwebbed, curved ap- 
pearance, faithfully represented in the plate. The spurious 
wing, the primary coverts, and the primaries, are plain blackish 
banded with white, which is interrupted by the shaft, and 
sprinkled with blackish; the secondaries have the white por- 
tion so large, that they may as well be described as white 
banded with blackish, and are, moreover, tinged with ferrugi- 
nous yellow; this colour gradually encroaches on the white, 
and then on the blackish, in proportion as the feathers ap- 
proach the body, so that the tertials are almost entirely of that 
colour, being only sprinkled with blackish, and having metallic 
reflections on the inner web ; the anterior under wing-coverts 
are brownish black, the posterior ones being grey; the tail 
measures more than a foot and a quarter, is rounded, and com- 
posed of eighteen wide feathers; it is capable of being ex- 
panded and elevated, together with the superior tail-coverts, 
so as to resemble a fan, when the bird parades, struts, or wheels. 
The tail is ferruginous, mottled with black, and crossed by 
numerous narrow undulated lines, of the same colour, which 


WILD TURKEY. es 


become confused on the middle feathers ; near the tip is a broad 
black band, then the feathers are again mottled for a short dis- 
tance, and are widely tipped with ferruginous yellow. 

The feet are robust and somewhat elongated; the tarsus 
measures more than six inches in length, being covered before 
by large alternate pentagonal plates, and furnished, on the 
inner posterior side, with a rather obtuse, robust, compressed 
spur, nearly one inch long. The toes are three before, con- 
nected at base by a membrane, and one behind, touching the 
eround only at tip, being articulated higher on the tarsus than 
the others, and one-half shorter than the lateral toes, which are 
equal ; the middle toe is more than four inches long, and the 
posterior but little more than one inch ; they are all covered 
by entire plates ; the sole is granulated: the colour of the feet 
is red, the margins of the plates and scales, the membrane and 
nails, being blackish ; the nails are oblong, wide, obtuse at tip, 
rounded above, and perfectly plain beneath. 

The female, or hen-turkey, is considerably smaller in size, 
being three feet and a quarter long ; the billand feet resemble 
those of the male, but are proportionally smaller, the latter 
being destitute of even a rudiment of spur ; the irides are like 
those of the male; the head and neck are not so naked as in 
that sex, but are covered by small, decomposed feathers, of a 
dirty greyish colour; those of the back of the neck are tipt 
with ferruginous, constituting a longitudinal vitta on that part; 
the caruncle on the frontlet is rudimental, not susceptible of 
being elongated; the pectoral appendage is entirely wanting 
in our specimen; the general plumage is dusky grey, each 
feather having a metallic band, less brilliant than that of the 
male ; then a blackish band and a greyish terminal fringe ; 
the black subterminal band is obsolete on the feathers of the 
neck and of the whole inferior surface; those of the latter part, 
with the feathers of the lower portion of the back, of the rump, 
and the flanks, have their tips yellowish ferrnginous, becoming 
sradually brighter towards the tail. The vent and thighs are 
dirty yellowish grey, without any reflections ; the under tail- 


256 WILD TURKEY. 


coverts are tipt and varied with rather deep ferruginous ; 
the superior tail-coverts are like those of the male, but duller, 
and tipt with a broad, whitish ferruginous fringe. The 
wings are also duller, each covert being tipt with greyish ; 
less white exists on the primaries, the bands being narrower, 
and the secondaries entirely destitute of them. ‘The tail is 
similar in colour to that of the male. It is proper to remark, 
that the female which furnished the above description, and is 
figured in the plate, thongh certainly adult, had not attained 
to its full size and perfect beauty. It was procured in the 
month of March, on St John’s river, Florida. 

The young of both sexes resemble each other so closely, 
before the naked membrane acquires its tinge of red, as to be 
scarcely distinguishable ; the females, however, when a few 
days old, are somewhat larger than the males, and have a 
weaker piping note ; the males then begin to stand higher on 
their legs, which are stronger than those of the females, and 
soon exhibit the rudiments of spurs. On the approach of the 
first winter, the young males show a rudiment of the beard or 
fascicle of hairs on the breast, consisting of a mere tubercle, 
and attempt to strut and gobble; the second year, the hairy 
tuft is about three inches long; in the third, the turkey attains 
its full stature, although it certainly increases in size and 
beauty for several years longer. In a fine male specimen, 
evidently young, which I obtained in the Philadelphia market, 
the plumage is equally brilliant with that of the finest adult, 
although the frontal caruncle is only one inch in length, the 
pectoral appendage two inches, and the spur merely rudi- 
mental. The concealed portion of the plumage on the anterior 
part of the back is sprinkled with pale ferruginous, which dis- 
appears as the bird advances in age. 

Females of four years old have their full size and colouring ; 
they then possess the pectoral fascicle four or five inches long 
(which, according to Mr Audubon, they exhibit a little in the 
second year, if not barren), but this fascicle is much thinner 
than that of the male. The barren hens do not obtain this 


WILD TURKEY. 257 


distinction until a very advanced age; and being preferable 
for the table, the hunters single them from the flock, and kill 
them in preference to the others. The female wild turkey is 
more frequently furnished with the hairy tuft than the tame 
one, and this appendage is gained earlier in life. The number 
of young hens without it has given rise to the incorrect asser- 
tion of a few writers, that the female is always destitute of it. 
The weight of the hen generally averages about nine pounds 
avoirdupois. Mr Audubon has shot barren hens, in straw- 
berry time, weighing thirteen pounds; and he has seen some 
few so fat as to burst open by falling from a tree, after being 
shot. The male turkeys differ more in bulk and weight : 
from the accounts I have received from various parts of the 
Union, fifteen or twenty pounds may be considered a fair state- 
ment of their medium weight; but birds of thirty pounds are 
not very rare, and I have ascertained the existence of some 
weighing forty. In relation to those surpassing the last-men- 
tioned weight, according to the report of authors who do not 
speak from personal observation, I have not been able to find 
any, and am inclined to consider them as fabulous. Mr 
Audubon informs us he saw one in the Louisville market that 
weighed thirty-six pounds ; the pectoral appendage of this bird 
measured more than a foot in length. Bartram describes a 
specimen of remarkable size and beauty, reared from an ege 
found in the forest, and hatched by acommon hen. When 
this turkey stood erect, the head was three feet from the ground. 
The animal was stately and handsome, and did not seem in- 
sensible of the admiration he excited. Our plate, which is the 
first that has been given of the wild turkey, represents both 
sexes, reduced to one-third of their natural size; the male was 
selected from among many fine specimens, shot in the month of 
April, near Engineer Cantonment, on the Missouri. It weighed 
twenty-two pounds; but as the males are very thin at that 
season,* when in good order it must have weighed much more. 


* The extraordinary leanness of this bird, at particular seasons of the 
year, has become proverbial in many Indian languages. An Omawhaw, 
who wishes to make known his abject poverty, says, “ Vah pawne zezecah 
ha go ba,’—“ T am as poor as a turkey in summer.” 

VOL, III, R 


258 WILD TURKEY. 


Though comparatively recent, the domestic state of the 
turkey has been productive of many varieties ; we need not, 
therefore, be surprised at the existence of numerous and re- 
markable differences in those animals which have been domes- 
ticated from time immemorial. The most striking aberration 
from the standard of the species, is certainly the tufted turkey, 
which is very rare, the crest being white in some specimens, 
and black in others. 'Tame turkeys sometimes occur of an im- 
maculate black colour ; others are exclusively white ; some are 
speckled or variegated ; and all these varieties are continued by 
propagation under analogous circumstances. In the wild state, 
a white, or even a speckled turkey, is unknown; and we may 
venture to say, that a plain black one has hardly ever occurred. 

Moehring proposed the name of Cynchramus for this genus, 
as the term Meleagris was used by the ancients to indicate a 
different bird. All other naturalists have agreed with Linné, 
who, though fully aware of the fact, made use of the name we 
have adopted. But he included in the genus two allied species, 
which Gmelin very properly rejected, and placed in a separate 
genus, which he called Penelope, considering the turkey as sw 
generis. Latham again rendered the genus unnatural by re- 
storing one of the objectionable Linnean species, perceiving 
that it was not properly placed in Penelope ; it is, in truth, a 
Phasianus. As now characterised, the present genus is exclu- 
sively American; and by the discovery of a beautiful species 
closely allied to that of the United States, it now consists of 
two species. The ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocelata) inhabits 
Honduras, and may be distinguished from the common species 
by its smaller size, more brilliant plumage, and principally by 
having ocellated spots on the tail. . It was first described by 
Cuvier, and has lately been figured in that magnificent per- 
iodical work, the “Planches Colorées” of Temminck and 
Laugier. A beautiful specimen has long been exhibited in 
the Charleston Museum.” 

* Mr Audubon has recorded the following anecdote of a turkey, 


which he kept for some years in a tame state :-— 
“ While at Henderson, on the Ohio, I had, among many other wild 


WILD TURKEY. 259 


M. Duponceau, so well known by his philological researches, 
has favoured us with the following table of names for the wild 
turkey in the different languages. 


E, English pronunciation.—F. French.—S, Spanish.—G. German. 
Algonkin . - : 5 Mississay, E, . 6 é Mackenzie, 
Adayes Z : 3 : Owachuk, 8S. . 6 5 MS. Voc. 
Atacapas . : c 4 Skillig, 8. : 0 i MS. Voc. 
Caddoes 5 5 ; Noe, BE. . : Dr Sibley. 
Chetimachas 5 i : Tsante hatineche THe Ss. MS. Voc. 
Cherokee . : : : Kainna; Oocoocoo, EK. . MS. Voc. 
Chickasaws 5 5 * Fukit, E. . : : MS. Voce. 
Choctaws . : Z Z Oopuh, E. : 5 MS. Voc, 
Creeks Sess 5 4 Pinewau, FE. . 3 : MS. Voc. 
Delaware proper . , 4 Tschikenum, G. . . Heckewelder and Zeisberger. 
Delaware of New Jersey . Tshikuuna, E. ; . MS. Voc, 
Delaware of New Sweden . Sickenem (Swedish) é Luther's Catechism. 
Huron 5 9 Ondetontak, F. 0 6 Pere Sagard. 
Wyandot (same peonte : Daigh-ton-tah, E. . Attwater in Archeol. Amer, 
Illinois ; : Pireouah, F. . ; 0 MS. Voce. 
Knisteneaux 4 _ : Mes-sey-thew, E, . 6 Mackenzie. 
Miamis : : 5 : Pilauoh . 6 . : MS. Voc. 
Nenticoke . : 0 ss Pahquun, E. . 5 ; MS. Voc. 
Nottoway * Kunum, Ek... 9 3 MS. Voc. 
Omawhaw @ pranen of Sioux) Ze-ze-kah, E. . 0 Say. 
Onondagos (Iroquois) . : Netachrochwa patschinak, G. Zeisberger’s Dictionary, MS. 
Osage cock _ ‘ Sukah tingah, E. . : MS. Voc. 

hen ; Inchuga Sukah, E. . 6 MS. Voc. 
Ottos, or Wahtoktatah (Sioux) Wa-ek-kung-ja, E. . : Say. 
Shawanese . F 5 Z Peléwa, G. : 4 4 Heckewelder, 
Ucheet Witch-pshah, BE. . 3 MS. Voc. 
Unquachog (Long Tetanicyy! Nahiam, KE. . 6 5 MS. Voce. 


birds, a fine male turkey, which had been reared from its earliest youth 
under my care, it having been caught by me when probably not more 
than two or three days old. It became so tame that it would follow 
any person who called it, and was the favourite of the little village. 
Yet it would never roost with the tame turkeys, but regularly betook 
itself, at night, to the roof of the house, where it remained until dawn. 
When two years old, it began to fly to the woods, where it remained for 
a considerable part of the day, to return to the enclosure as night ap- 
proached. One morning I saw it fly off, at a very early hour, to the 
woods, and took no particular notice of that circumstance. Several 
days elapsed, but the bird did not return. I was going towards some 
lakes near Green River to shoot, when, having walked about five miles, 
I saw a fine large gobbler cross the path before me, moving leisurely 
along. Turkeys being then in prime condition for the table, I ordered 
my dog to chase it, and put it up. The animal went off with great 


* Indians of Virginia, a branch of the Tuscaroras. 
+ Uchees, a nation of Florida Indians, speaking a curious language, full of 
particular sounds, not found in any other language ; they live among the Creeks 


260 COOPER'S HAWK. 


COOPER'S HAWK. (Falco Cooperit.) 
PLATE X:—Fice. 1 


Philadelphia Museum, No. 403.—My Collection. 


ASTUR COOPERIT.—BONAPARTE ?* 


Falco Cooperii, Bonap. Synop. App. p. 433.— The Stanley Hawk, Falco Stanleii ? 
Aud. pl. 36, m. and f., Orn. Biog. i. p. 186. 


BuFFon complained of the difficulty of writing a history of 
birds, because he already knew eight hundred species, and 
supposed that there might actually exist fifteen hundred, or 
even, said he, venturing, as he thought, to the limit of proba- 
bility, two thousand! What then would be his embarrass-. 
ment at present, when nearly six thousand species are known, 
and fresh discoveries are daily augmenting the number ? 


rapidity, and, as it approached the turkey, I saw with great surprise 
that the latter paid little attention. Juno was on the point of seizing 
it, when she suddenly stopped, and turned her head towards me. I 
hastened to them, but you may easily conceive my surprise, when I saw 
my own favourite bird, and discovered that it had recognised the dog, 
and would not fly from it, although the sight of a strange dog would 
have caused it to run off at once.” 

I have more than once known the domestic turkey-cock drive the 
hen from her nest, sit upon the eggs until hatched, and perform all the 
duties to the young incumbent on the female, and never during the 
time allow her to approach. I once knew it take its place upon two 
addled eggs, which a hen had long persevered upon, and was at last suc- 
ceeded by the male, who kept his place for nearly a fortnight Ep. 

* We have the authority of the Prince of Musignano for considering 
the Stanley hawk of Audubon identical with Astwr Cooperii ; and from 
a comparison, as far as plates and descriptions will allow, they seem 
at all events very closely allied. The bird is comparatively rare. Mr 
Audubon observed them in Louisiana, and about the Falls of Niagara, 
and describes them as very bold and intrepid ; so much so, that one which 
had seized a cock in a farm-yard, was repeatedly forced to the ground 
before it could master its victim. 

We would recommend for perusal the manners of the genus Astur, 
as portrayed in this description. Any one who has witnessed the com- 
mon species of Europe will at once perceive the truth of the delinea- 


tion.—ED. 


Craun trom Nature by ARaer 


Zngraved by WE Lizars 


1. Cooper's Hawk. 2. Palm Warbler. 


Fateo Coopers. Sylvia Paimarium. 


HOF 


COOPER'S HAWK. 261 


The difficulties attending a general work on this subject are 
not, perhaps, experienced in an equal degree by one who con- 
fines himself to the history of a particular group, or of the 
species inhabiting a single district. Nevertheless, in a work 
like the present, which is not a monography limited to one 
genus or family, but embraces within its scope species belong- 
ing to all the different tribes, it is requisite, in order to ex- 
plain their various relations and analogies, that the author 
should be more or less acquainted with the whole system of 
nature. To attempt, without the aid of methodical arrange- 
ment, a subject so vast, and apparently unlimited, would be 
hopeless. Hence the importance of a correct system of clas- 
sification ; and the construction of one which shall exhibit, as 
far as practicable, the true affinities of objects, has exercised 
the attention of the most powerful minds that have been 
employed in the study of nature. 

That division of the feathered class popularly called birds 
of prey has always been recognised as a separate and well- 
defined group. In the Linnean System they form the order 
ACCIPITRES, and were, by that father of the science, distributed 
into three great natural divisions, which comprise nearly, if 
not quite, one-fifteenth part of all the known species of birds. 
The ulterior arrangement of one of these groups, the genus 
Falco of Linné, at present composed of between two and three 
hundred species, has much divided the opinions of naturalists. 
From the majestic eagle, the terror of the husbandman, to the 
feeblest hawk, preying on grasshoppers, it is undeniable that 
there exists in all these birds a great resemblance in some of 
the most prominent characteristics, which, being found to pre- 
dominate in the fish-hawk, as well as the kite, and all other 
species of the falcon tribe, however dissimilar, indicate their 
separation as a peculiar family from all other birds. But that 
they are susceptible of division into smaller groups of inferior 
rank, no practical ornithologist will for a moment deny. 
Whether these minor groups shall be considered as trivial 
and secondary, or whether some of them ought not to be 


262 COOPERS HAWK. 


admitted as distinct and independent genera, is a question that 
has been much agitated, and respecting which ornithologists 
will probably for a long time continue to disagree. Equally 
ereat authorities might be cited in favour of either of these 
opinions, which, like many others of more importance that 
have divided mankind from the beginning of the world, may 
perhaps, after all, be considered as merely a dispute about 
words. 

Admitting, however, as seems to be done by all parties, that 
this great genus may be subdivided with propriety, we look 
upon it as altogether a secondary question whether we shall 
call the minor groups genera, subgenera, or sections ; and we 
deem it of still less consequence, in a philosophical view, 
whether the names by which these groups are designated be 
taken from a learned or a vernacular language. It is our in- 
tention to pursue a middle course. We are convinced of the 
necessity of employing numerous subdivisions, not only in this, 
but also in its allied genus Sivrzz. These, however, we cannot 
agree to admit as genera, preferring to call them subgenera, 
and giving them a name, but, when having occasion to mention 
a species belonging to any of them, to employ the name of the 
great genus. 

The desire of avoiding too great a multiplication of groups, 
has caused some, even of the first ornithologists of our time, to 
employ sections that are not natural, and with false or in- 
applicable characters, and, as if they would compel nature to 
conform to their preconceived and narrow views, after having 
assigned decided limits to their groups, to force into them 
species not only widely different, but that do not even possess 
the artificial character proposed. We shall not imitate this 
irrational example. It shall rather be our object to compose 
natural groups, and, in obedience to this principle, whenever 
we meet with a group, or even asingle species, clearly insulated, 
it shall at least be pointed out, not so much regarding the num- 
ber of our subgenera, as the characters that unite the species 
of which they are respectively composed. 


COOPER'S HAWKE. 263 


It is objected to the numerous subdivisions that have been 
proposed in our day, that they pass into and blend insensibly 
with each other. ‘This is no doubt true ; but is it not the same 
with regard to natural groups of every denomination ? It is 
this fact which has induced us to consider them as subgenera, 
and not as distinct genera. We are told, however, by the ad- 
vocates for numerous genera, that, in giving a name, we adopt 
a genus; but we do not see that this necessarily follows. 

There are, we confess, other grounds on which we might be 
attacked with more advantage. We may, perhaps, be charged 
with inconsistency in refusing to admit, as the foundation of 
generic groups in the Lapaces, characters which are allowed, 
not only by ourselves, but by some of those who are most stre- 
nuously opposed to the multiplication of genera, to have quite 
sufficient importance for such distinction in other families. 
With what propriety, it might be asked, can we admit Hydro- 
bates (Fuligula, Nob.), as distinct from Anas, and the various 
genera that have been dismembered from Lanzus, at the same 
time that we reject, as genera, the different groups of hawks ? 
To this we can only reply, that we are ourselves entirely con- 
vinced that all the subgenera adopted in our Synopsis among 
the Falcones of North America are quite as distinct from each 
other as Coccyzus and Cuculus, or Corvus and Garrulus. The 
latter genus we have admitted after Temminck, who is opposed 
to new genera among the hawks, though Astur and Hlanus 
certainly require to be separated no less than the two genera 
that Temminck himself has established in the old genus 
Vultur. 

No living naturalist (with the exception of those who, 
through a sort of pseudo-religious feeling, will only admit as 
genera groups indicated as such by Linné) has adhered Jonger 
than ourselves to large genera, at the same time that we could 
not deny the existence of subordinate natural groups. We will 
not pretend to deny that these are of equal rank with some re- 
cognised as genera in other families; and we can only say, that 
we consider it doubtful, in the present unsettled state of the 


264. COOPER’S HAWK. 


science, what this rank ought to be. We therefore, in the 
instances above quoted, consider it of little importance whether 
these groups be considered as genera or subgenera. 

But what is certainly of great importance, is to preserve 
uniformity in all such cases, to make co-ordinate divisions, 
and give corresponding titles to groups of equal value. This 
uniformity, however desirable, cannot, in the actual state of 
ornithology, be easily attained ; and we have decided, after 
much hesitation, to continue to employ subgenera. In doing 
this, we are moreover influenced by the great difficulty that is 
met with, in some cases, in determining the proper place of a 
species partaking of the characters of several groups, yet not 
in the least deserving to be isolated ; such as Falco borealis, 
which is almost as much an Astur as a Buteo, and has been 
placed by authors, according to their different views, in both 
these groups. 

An extensive reform is evidently needed in the department 
of classification that relates to genera; and we propose, with 
this view, to undertake at some future period a general work, 
when, erecting our system on a more philosophical basis, 
though we may restrict some, and enlarge other genera, we 
shall, in the instances to which we have alluded, as well as in 
a multitude of others, at least place them all on an equal 
footing. 

Among the several groups into which the falcon tribe is 
divided, we come to one, composed of about sixty species, well 
marked, and, if kept within its proper bounds, very natural, 
to which authors have variously applied the name of Accipiter, 
Sparvius, and Astui, which last we have adopted. 

Found in all parts of the globe, and destroying everywhere 
great numbers of birds and small quadrupeds, the hawks (by 
which English name we propose to distinguish this group more 
particularly) closely resemble each other in colour and changes 
of plumage, especially the North American and European 
species. They are eminently distinguished from all other 
falcons by their short wings, not reaching, by a considerable 


COOPER'S HAWK. 265 


length, to the tip of their tail, which is even, or but very slightly 
rounded, and by their first quill-feather or primary, which is 
very short, while the fourth is constantly the longest. Their 
bill, suddenly curved from the base, is very strong and sharp ; 
their head is narrowed before, with the eyes placed high, large, 
and fiery. ‘Their feet are very long, and the toes especially, 
the middle one of which is much the longest, and all are armed 
with very strong sharp talons, well seconding the sanguinary 
nature of these fierce creatures ; their outer toe is connected at 
base by a membrane to the middle one. The female is always 
one-third larger than the male, and the plumage of both is, 
in most species, dark above and white beneath—in the adult, 
barred with reddish or dusky. In the young bird the colour is 
lighter, the feathers skirted with ferruginous, and the white of 
the under parts streaked longitudinally with dusky, instead of 
being barred. The tail is uniform in colour with the back, 
with almost always a few broad bands of black, and sometimes 
of white, and a whitish tip. 

The hawks (Astwres) combine cunning with agility and 
strength. Sudden and impetuous in their movements, they 
make great havoc, especially among birds that keep in flocks, 
as pigeons, blackbirds, &c., and are the terror of the poultry 
yard. Fearless and sanguinary, they never feed, even when 
pressed by hunger, except on red and warm-blooded animals, 
whose quivering limbs they tear with savage delight. Birds 
they pluck very carefully, and quarter, before eating them, but 
swallow small quadrupeds entire, afterwards ejecting their 
skins rolled up into a ball. They always pursue and seize 
their prey upon the wing, not falling upon it from aloft, but, 
rapidly skimming the earth, make their insidious approaches 
sideways, and singling out their victim, dart upon it with fatal 
velocity. ‘They never soar, like the kites and eagles, to the 
upper regions of the atmosphere ; and it is only during the 
nuptial season that they are observed sailing in wide circles in 
the air. Their favourite,haunts, during summer, are forests, 
building their nests on trees; in winter they spread over the 


266 COOPER'S HAWREK. 


plains. Though generally observed alone, the male and his 
companion are seldom far apart. During the youth of their 
progeny, the parents keep them company, in order to teach 
them to hunt their prey, and at such times they are observed 
in families. 

This group may be further subdivided into two sections, 
to one of which the name of Astur has more strictly been 
assigned, while the other has been distinguished by those of 
Sparvius and Accipiter. The former, of which the goshawk of 
Kurope and North America (black-capped hawk of Wilson) is 
the type, is characterised by its wings being somewhat longer, 
body more robust and shorter, and much thicker tarsi. This 
is the only species that inhabits the United States and Europe. 

The second section, to which the present new species be- 
longs, possessing all its characters in a pre-eminent degree, 
equally with the hawk described by Wilson in its adult state 
as Falco Pennsylvanicus, and in its youth as Falco velox, was 
established on the sparrow-hawk of Europe, Falco nisus, but 
the American species just mentioned are no less typical. The 
hawks of this section are more elegantly shaped, being much 
more slender; their wings are still shorter than in the other 
section, reaching little beyond the origin of the tail, and their 
tarsi slender and elongated, with a smooth and almost con- 
tinuous covering. 

Notwithstanding their smaller size and diminished strength, 
their superior courage and audacity, and the quickness of their 
movements, enable them to turn the flight of the largest birds, 
and even sometimes, when in captivity together, to overcome 
them. We have kept a sparrow-hawk (alco nisus), which, 
in the space of twenty-four hours that he was left unobserved, 
killed three falcons which were confined with him. 

The inextricable confusion reigning throughout the works 
of authors who have not attended to the characters of the dif- 
ferent groups of this genus, renders it next to impossible to de- 
cide, with any degree of certainty, whether our Falco Cooperiz 
has or has not been recorded. Though agreeing imper- 


COOPER’S HAWK. 267 


fectly with many, we have not been able, notwithstanding our 
most sedulous endeavours, to identify it with any. It is evi- 
dently a young bird, and we should not be surprised at its 
proving, when adult, a known species, perhaps one of the nu- 
merous species figured of late, and possibly Le Grand Epervier 
de Cayenne of Daudin, Sparvius major, Vieillot, stated to be 
one-third larger than the European sparrow-hawk. At all 
events, however, it is an acquisition to the ornithology of these 
States ; and we have ventured to consider it as a new species, 
and to impose on it the name of a scientific friend, William 
Cooper of New York, to whose sound judgment, and liberality 
in communicating useful advice, the naturalists of this country 
will unite with us in bearing testimony, and to whom only the 
author, on the eve of his departure for Europe, would have 
been willing to intrust the ultimate revision and superinten- 
dence of this work. 

The perfect accuracy with which Mr Lawson may be said 
to have outdone himself in the delineation of this bird, in ail 
the details of its plumage, bill, and feet, will now at least have 
established the species in the most incontestable manner. 

Our bird agrees very well with the falcon gentle, Falco gen- 
tilis, Linné; but as that species is referred to the young of 
the goshawk, we have preferred giving it a new name, to 
reviving one that might have created an erroneous supposi- 
tion of identity. To the young goshawk, our hawk is, in Zact, 
extremely similar in colour and markings, being chiefly dis- 
tinguished from it by the characters of their respective sections, 
having the tarsi much more slender and elongated, and the 
wings still shorter ; the tail is also considerably more rounded. 

But it is to the sharp-shinned hawk (falco velox) of Wilson, 
the Falco Pennsylvanicus, or Falco fuscus in its immature 
plumage, that our Cooper’s hawk bears the most striking 
resemblance, and is in every particular most closely allied. 
Even comparing feather by feather, and spot by spot, they 
almost perfectly agree ; but the much larger size of the present, 
it being more than twice the bulk, will always prevent their 


268 COOPER'S HAWK. 


being confounded, even by the most superficial observer. 
Another good mark of discrimination may be found in the 
comparative length of the primaries ; the second in £. Cooperw 
being subequal to the sixth, while in Ff’. velox it is much shorter. 
The latter has also the fifth as long as the fourth; that, in our 
species, being equal to the third. The tail is also much more 
rounded, the outer feather being nearly an inch shorter than 
the middle one. In F” velox the tail is even, the outer feather 
being as long, or, if anything, longer than the middle. ‘There 
is no other North American species for which it can be mis- 
taken. 

The bird represented in the plate, of which we have seen 
seven or elght specimens perfectly similar in size and plumage, 
was a male, killed in the latter part of September, near Bor- 
dentown, New Jersey. The stomach contained the remains 
of a sparrow. Another that we procured was shot on the 12th 
of December, while in the act of devouring on the ground 
a full-grown ruffed grouse which he had killed, though a 
larger and heavier bird than himself. Mr Cooper, the friend 
to whom we have dedicated this species, has recently favoured 
us with an accurate description of a specimen of a somewhat 
larger size, shot in the early part of November on the eastern 
part of Long Island. 

The male Cooper’s hawk is eighteen inches in length, and 
nearly thirty in extent. The bill is black, or rather blackish 
brown; the cere, greenish yellow; the angles of the mouth, 
yellow. he irides are bright yellow. The general colour 
above is chocolate brown, the feathers being whitish grey at 
base ; on the head and neck above, they are blackish, margined 
with rufous, pure white towards the base, and greyish at the 
bottom, the white colour showing itself on the top and sides 
of the neck, and being much purer on the nucha. The back 
and rump are the same, but the feathers larger and lighter 
coloured, less margined with rufous, more widely greyish at 
base, and bearing each four regular spots of white in the 
middle of their length, which are not seen unless when the 


7 


COOPER'S HAWK. 269 


feathers are turned aside. The whole body beneath is white, 
each feather, including the lower wing-coverts and femorals, 
marked with a long, dusky medial stripe, broader and oblan- 
ceolate on the breast.and flanks (some of the feathers of which 
have also a blackish band across the middle), the throat, and 
under wing-coverts; the long feathers of the flanks (or long 
axillary feathers) are white, banded with blackish ; the vent 
and lower tail-coverts, pure white; the wings are nine inches 
long, and, when folded, hardly reach to the second bar of the 
tail from the base; the smaller wing-coverts and scapulars 
are like the back, the quills brown above (lighter on the 
shaft), and silvery grey beneath, regularly crossed by blackish 
bands, less conspicuous above; the space between the bands 
is white on the inner vanes at base; some of the secondaries 
and tertials are tipt and edged with rusty, and have more 
and more of white as they approach the body, so that those 
nearest may in fact be described as white banded with blackish. 
The first primary is very short, more so than the secondaries ; 
the second is equal to the sixth, the third to the fifth, these 
two last mentioned being hardly shorter than the fourth, which, 
as in all Astures, is longest. The tail is full eight inches long, 
reaching five beyond the wings ; its colour is ashy brown, much 
paler. beneath, tipped with whitish, and crossed by four equi- 
distant blackish bands, nearly one inch in breadth; the tail- 
coverts at their very base are whitish; the lateral feathers are 
lighter, and with some white on the inner webs. The legs 
and feet are yellow, slender, and elongated, but still do not 
reach, when extended, to the tip of the tail; the tarsus, 
feathered in front for a short space, is two and three-quarter 
inches long; as in other Astures, the middle toe is much the 
longest, and the inner, without the nail, is shorter than the 
outer, but taken with its much longer nail, is longer. The 
talons are black, and extremely sharp, the inner and the hind 
ones subequal, and much the largest, while the outer is the 
most delicate. 

The female is larger, and measures two inches more in 


270 PALM WARBLER. 


length, but in plumage is perfectly similar to the male. As 
the male we have described and figured is evidently a young 
bird, it is very probable that the adult, after undergoing the 
changes usual in this group, obtains a much darker and more 
uniform plumage above, and is beneath lineated transversely 
with reddish. That in this supposed plumage the bird has 
not yet been found, is no reason to doubt its existence, as the 
species is comparatively rare. Hven of the common Falco 
Juscus, though constantly receiving numerous specimens of the 
young, we have only been able to procure a single one in adult 
plumage during a period of four years. 

We regret that this is all that is in our power to offer of 
the history of this species, which, as will be seen from the 
description, possesses in an eminent degree the characters of 
the group. From the circumstance of its being found here in 
autumn and winter, we are led to infer that it comes to us 
from the north. 


PALM WARBLER. (Sylvia palmarum.) 
PLATE X.—Fic. 2, 


Motacilla palmarum, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 951, sp. 53, winter dress.— Sylvia palmarum, 
Lath. Ind. p. 544, sp. 136.—Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. ii. p. 21, pl. 73 (and the 
other works of the same author), winter plumage.—WVob. Add. Orn. U. S. im 
Jour. Ac. Ph. v. p. 29.—Id. Cat. Birds U. S. in Contr. Macl. Lyc. Ph. i. p. 
16, sp. 105.—Id. Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 105, in Ann. Lycewm, WN. Y. ii. p. 78. 
—Motacilla ruficapilla, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 971, sp. 106, summer dress.—Sylvia 
ruficapilla, Lath. Ind. summer dress (not of Viei//.)—Ficedula Martinicana, 
Briss. Av. i. p. 490, sp. 50, pl. 22, fig. 4, perfect plumage.—Le Bimbhelé, ou 
Fausse Linotte, Buff. Otis. v. p. 330, winter dress.—Figuier 4 tete rousse, 
Buff. Ois. v. p. 306, summer dress.—Palm Warbler, Lath. Syn. iv. p. 489, sp. 
151, winter dress.—Bloody-side Warbler, Lath. Syn. iv. p. 489, sp. 115 (not 
of Penn.), summer plumage.—Philadelphia Museum. 


SYLVICOLA PALMARUM.—JarvInE. 


Sylvia palmarum, Bonap. Synop. p. 78. 


Tus is one of those lively, transient visitants, which, coming 
in spring from warmer regions, pass through the middle 
States on their way to still colder and more northern countries, 


PALM WARBLER. 27a 


to breed. From the scarcity of the species, its passage has 
hitherto been unobserved ; and it is now, for the first time, 
introduced as a bird of the United States. Authors who have 
heretofore made mention of it, represent it as a permanent resi- 
dent of St Domingo, and other islands of the West Indies, and 
even describe its nest and habits, as observed there. 

In the United States, it is found during winter in Florida, 
where it is, at that season, one of the most common birds. In 
the month of November, they are very abundant in the neigh- 
bourhood of St Augustine, in East Florida, even in the town, 
and in other parts of the territory wherever the orange tree is 
cultivated, being rare elsewhere. They are found in great 
numbers in the orange groves near Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, at the same season, and have also been observed at Key 
West and the Tortugas, in the middle of February, and at 
Key Vacas in the middle of March. Their manners are 
sprightly, and a jerking of the tail, like the pewee, charac- 
terises them at first sight from a distance. The only note we 
have heard them utter is a simple chirp, very much like that 
of the black and yellow warbler, Sylvia maculosa (Magnolia 
of Wilson). ‘They are fond of keeping among the thick foliage 
of the orange trees. A few are observed every year in spring 
on the borders of the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, as well 
as in the central parts of New Jersey, on their passage to 
the north. They breed in Maine, and other parts of New 
England, where they are common during summer, and per- 
haps also in Canada, though probably not extending to the 
inhospitable climates of Hudson’s Bay, whose natural produc- 
tions are so well known. 

The bird represented in the plate was shot near Borden- 
town, on the 17th of April, in the morning. It was a fine 
adult male, in the gayer plumage of the breeding season, in 
which it is now for the first time figured, and a description is 
subjoined. 

Length, five inches and a quarter; extent, more than eight 
inches ; bill, five-eighths of an inch long, very slender, straight, 


272 PALM WARBLER. 


hardly notched, blackish, paler beneath; feet, dusky grey, 
yellowish inside; irides, dark brown, nearly black; crown, 
bright chestnut bay ; bottom of the plumage lead colour all 
over, much darker beneath; a well-defined superciliar line, 
and the rudiment of another, on the medial base of the upper 
mandible, rich yellow ; the same colour also encircles the eye; 
streak through the eyes and cheeks, dusky olive, somewhat 
intermixed with dull chestnut ; upper parts olive green, each 
feather being dusky in the middle; rump and upper tail- 
coverts yellow olive, all beneath bright yellow; sides of the 
neck, breast, and flanks, with chestnut streaks ; superior 
wing-coverts blackish, margined and tipt with olive green, 
and somewhat tinged with chestnut; inferior wing-coverts 
yellowish ; quills dusky, edged exteriorly with green, the 
outer one with white on the outer side, two exterior with a 
large white spot on the inner web at tip. 

In the plumage here described, it has been mentioned by 
several authors, under the name of Sylvia ruficapilla, and by 
Latham is called the Bloody-side warbler. In that which we 
are about to describe, it was first made known by Buffon, who 
adopted the name of Bimbelé, given to it in the West Indies, 
and in this state it is figured by Vieillot as the Sylvia palma- 
rum. The following description is drawn up from a specimen 
procured in Florida in winter. 

Length, five inches; bill, half an inch, slender, almost 
straight, and very slightly notched, blackish, paler beneath ; 
the feet are blackish ; irides, very dark brown. ‘he general 
plumage above is olive brown, each feather being dusky along 
the middle; the feathers of the head are dusky at base, as is 
the whole plumage; then they are chestnut nearly to the tip 
(forming a concealed spot of that colour on the crown), where 
they are of the common colour, but somewhat darker ; the 
rump and superior tail-coverts are yellow olive ; a well-defined 
yellowish white line passes over the eye which is encircled 
with white ; the cheeks are dusky, as well as a streak through 
the eye; the inferior parts are whitish, slightly tinged with 


PALM WARBLER. 273 


yellowish, and with a few blackish streaks on each side of the 
throat, and on the breast and flanks ; the belly is immaculate, 
and more richly tinged with yellow, the inferior tail-coverts 
being pure yellow ; the wing-coverts are of the colour of the 
feathers of the back, the blackish centre being more extended 
and deeper; the wings have no bands; the quill-feathers are 
blackish, edged externally with pale yellow olive, becoming 
whitish towards the tip ; the five outer ones are subequal ; the 
tail is even, its feathers are somewhat pointed, edged ex- 
ternally with yellow olive, internally with whitish, the outer 
one also externally whitish ; the two outer ones with a large 
pure white spot on their inner vane at tip; the third and 
fourth, each side, with an inner white terminal margin. 

In this plumage, this bird resembles so nearly Sylvia coro- 
nata in its most humble dress, that it is distinguishable only 
on a close examination. However, the bill is longer and 
more slender, the crown-spot chestnut instead of yellow, the 
feathers being destitute of the white which is observable in 
the other by separating the feathers; the rump is olive 
yellow, not pure yellow, and that colour extending on the 
tail-coverts, which it does not in Sylvia coronata. The under 
parts tinged with yellow, and especially the pure yellow tail- 
coverts, which are pure white in S. coronata, will sufficiently 
distinguish them. 

It is a remarkable circumstance that there is no obvious 
difference to be observed between the plumage of the sexes, 
notwithstanding the statements of authors to the contrary. 
This is the case, however, in S. coronata, and in almost all 
the warblers that change periodically from a dull to a bright 
plumage ; and, in fact, in most birds in which this change 
takes place. 

According to Buffon and Vieillot, this bird is a permanent 
resident in the West Indies, where, as they state, the name is 
sometimes applied to it of Fausse linotte. We, however, can 
perceive scarcely any resemblance, except in its dull state of 


plumage, to a similar state of the red-poll finch. The name 
VOL, IIL. s 


274 PALM WARBLER. 


of Bimbelé, by which it is known among the negroes of those 
countries, is derived from the recollection of an African bird, 
to which, probably, the resemblance is not more evident. Un- 
fortunately, this propensity of limited minds to refer new ob- 
jects, however distinct, to those with which they are acquainted, 
seems to have prevailed throughout the world, and is found 
exemplified nowhere more absurdly than in the Anglo-Amer- 
ican names of plants and animals. 

The food of this little warbler consists chiefly of fruits and 
small seeds. Its song is limited to five or six notes; but 
though neither brilliant nor varied, it is highly agreeable, the 
tones being full, soft, and mellow. While other birds of its 
kind build in thickets and humble situations, this proud little 
creature is said always to select the very lofty tree from which 
it takes its name, the palmist (a species of palm), and to place 
its nest in the top, in the sort of hive formed at the base or 
insertion of the peduncle which sustains the clusters of fruit. 

Such are the facts we have gathered from authors; but as 
the singular description of the nest coincides exactly with the 
manner of building of the Tanagra Dominica, and as, more- 
over, the palm warbler appears not to be known in its gayer 
vesture in the West Indies, we cannot easily believe that it 
breeds elsewhere than where we have stated—that is, in the 
temperate, and even colder regions of America—and that what 
has been mistaken for its nest in reality belongs to the above- 
named, or some other bird. 

The first accounts of this species were given, as we have 
already stated, by Buffon, and from him subsequent writers 
appear to have copied what they relate of it. The bird which 
he described must have been a very young specimen, as its 
colours are very dull, much more so than the one figured and 
described by Vieillot, who supposes, though erroneously, Buf- 
fon’s specimen to have been a female. Even Vieillot’s, which 
is certainly our species in its winter dress, is much duller in 
colour than those we received from Florida ; and these again 
are far less brilliant than the bird in our plate, represented as 


PALM WARBLER. 275 


it appears for a few days in the spring in Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, and is found throughout summer in Maine; thus 
exhibiting the several gradations of change which the plumage 
undergoes. 

Naturalists cannot be too circumspect in receiving reports, 
even from the most respectable sources,—their own senses 
affording the only authentic testimony to be relied on. From 
information derived from Mr T. Peale, who had no opportu- 
nity for making comparisons, we erroneously stated in the first 
volume of this work that Sylvia celata (Say) was one of the 
most common birds in Florida during winter, keeping among 
the orange trees, &c. All this statement had reference to the 
present species ; and as soon as the specimens brought by Mr 
Peale as Sylvia celata were shown to us, the error was imme- 
diately perceived. We therefore hasten to correct this mis- 
take, which would be otherwise of more consequence, inasmuch 
as no one else could, for a long time, detect it. This species 
resembles, it is true, S. celata (whose range must remain 
limited to the Rocky Mountains), and perhaps still more S-. 
rubricapilla (Wilson), but it is not of the same subgenus, 
Dacnis, and it may readily be known by the white spots of the 
tail-feathers. 

When the genus Sylvia, containing upwards of two hundred 
and fifty species, shall have been properly studied, it will 
be found practicable to divide it into several more sections, 
subgenera, and even perhaps genera. This bird, along with 
many other North American species, will constitute a highly 
natural group, very distinct from the true Sylvia, of which S. 
atricapilla may be considered as the type. We presume that 
it is the group we have in view to which Mr Swainson has 
given the name of Sylvicola, in his “Synopsis of Mexican Birds.” 
Our species is erroneously placed by Buffon among his Demi- 
jins, corresponding to our Dacnis and Wilson’s Worm-eaters. 


276 WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 


WHITE-TAILED HAWK. (falco dispar.) — 
PLATE XI.—Fic. 1. 


Falco dispar, Temm. et Laug. Pl. Col. 319, young female.—Wob. App. to Synop- 
sis of N. A. Birds in Ann. Lyc. New York, p. 435.—Milvus (now Elanoides) 
leucurus, Veil. (Alcon blanco, D’Azara), Nouv. Dict. @ Hist. Nat. xx. p. 556. 
—Falco melanopterus, WVob. Jour. Ac. Ph. v. p. 28.—Id. Cat. Birds U.S. sp. 
16, in Contr. Macl. Lyc. i. p. 11.—Id. Synopsis of N. A. Birds, sp. 16, in 
Con. Lyc. N. Y.—Le Faucon Blane, Sonnini’s d Azara, iii. p. 96, sp. 36.—My 


Collection. 
ELANUS DISPAR.—JARDINE. 


Falco dispar, Bonap. Synop. App. p. 435. 


Tus beautiful hawk, which we recently discovered to be an 
inhabitant of North America, is so strikingly similar to the 
black-winged hawk (falco melanopterus *) of the old conti- 
nent, that we have hitherto considered them as identical, con- 
trary to the opinion of Vieillot, whose authority, it is true, 
could in this case be of little weight, as he had not seen the 
species, but, like many others, had merely given it a name ; 
his sole knowledge of it being derived from the work of 
D’Azara. We have now yielded only to the decision of T'em- 
minck (who has lately introduced the young into his Planches 
Colorées), but not without much reluctance, especially as that 
distinguished ornithologist has evidently not been at the trouble 
of comparing the two species, otherwise he would certainly 
not have omitted noticing their affinities and differential char- 
acters, since, in the history of species so closely allied as these 


* Falco melanopterus, Daud. Orn. ii. p. 152, sp. 124 ; Lath. Ind. Suppl. 
p- 6, sp. 16. Falco Sonninensis, Lath. Ind. Suppl. p. 12, sp. 38. Elanus 
cesius, Savigny, Ors. d’Egyp. p. 98, pl. 2,f. 2; Vieill. Vouv. Dict. d Hist. 
Nat. viii. p. 240 (now Elanoides). ELlanus melanopterus, Leach, Zool. Misc. 
iii. p. 4, pl. 122 ; Vigors, Descr. Austral. Birds, in Tr. Lin. Soe. xv. p. 185. 
Le Blac, Le Vaillant, Ois. d’Afr. i. p. 147, pl. 86 male, 37 young male. 
Black-winged falcon, Lath. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 28, sp. 28. Sonnini’s falcon, 
Lath. Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 52, sp. 59. 

The inspection of original drawings, in a collection that Mr Gray, of 
the British Museum, was kind enough to show me lately in London, 
has enabled me to add to these already numerous synonyms, Falco azil- 
laris, Lath. Ind. Suppl. (Circus axillaris, Vieill. !), from New Holland. 


Figoon 
COLE. 


cere MMe 


Vrawn from Natipe Uy tA, Midey 


Valeo Dispur 


1] 


WHITE-TAILED HAWE. 277 


two, the differential characters are of more importance and 
utility than the most laboured descriptions. 

This comparison we have carefully instituted between our 
American specimens and others from Africa and Java. They 
agreed perfectly, especially with that from Java, in every, the 
minutest character, even feather by feather, much better than 
birds of prey of the same species and from the same country 
do generally. They are even more alike than different speci- 
mens from the old continent of the black-winged itself, since 
that species is said to vary considerably in the black markings, 
which extend more or less on the wings in different individuals. 
Nevertheless, a constant, though trivial, differential character, 
added to the difference of locality, has induced us to follow 
Temminck’s course, in which we should never have ventured 
to take the lead. ‘This character consists in the tail being in 
Falco dispar constantly irregular, while in F. melanopterus 
it is even ; or, to explain it more clearly, the outer tail-feather 
is rather the longest in the African, and more than half an 
inch shorter than the next in the American species. his 
essential character is much more conspicuous in Temminck’s 
plate than in ours, owing to the tail being spread. In the 
black-winged, also, the lower wing-coverts are destitute of the 
black patch so conspicuous in the American bird ; a female 
from Java has, however, a slight indication of it, but no trace 
of it is observable in our African males. 

By admitting this to be a distinct species from the black- 
winged hawk, we reject one more of those supposed instances, 
always rare, and daily diminishing upon more critical obser- 
vation, of a common habitation of the same bird in the warm 
parts of both continents, without an extensive range also to 
the north. A steady and long-protracted exertion of its 
powerful wings would have been requisite to enable it to pass 
the vast and trackless sea which lies between the western coast 
of Africa, the native country of the black-winged hawk, and 
the eastern shores of South America. Yet, were the species 
identical, this adventurous journey must have been performed. 


278 WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 


For, even admitting several centres of creation, we cannot 
believe that Nature,* who, notwithstanding her luxuriant abun- 
dance, evidently accomplishes all her ends with the greatest 
economy of means, has ever placed, aboriginally, in different 
parts of the globe, individuals of the same species, but has 
always given to each the power of extending its range accord- 
ing to volition, in any direction where it should find climate, 
food, or other circumstances most appropriate. 

The white-tailed hawk is one of those anomalous species 
which connect the generally received divisions of the great 
genus Falco. It participates in the form and habits of the 
kites (AZilvus), while in its other relations it approaches the 
true falcons (Falco), and at the same time presents traits 
peculiar to itself. Savigny has, therefore, very properly con- 
sidered its near relative, the black-winged, as the type of a 
peculiar group, which he elevates to the rank of a genus, but 
which we for the present shall adopt as a subgenus only. 
Subsequent observations have confirmed Le Vaillant’s opinion 
that the swallow-tailed hawk (Falco jfurcatus) is closely 
related to it; and associated with a few other recently dis- 
covered species, they have been considered as a distinct group, 
under Savigny’s name of Hlanus. Vieillot adopted the group 
as a genus, but, for what reason we know not, has since 
changed the name to Hlanoides. The hawks of this group 
are readily distinguished from all others by the superior 
length of the second primary of their elongated wings ; by 
their bill, rounded above, curved from the base, and not 
toothed ; their hirsute cere, thick, short, and wholly reticulated 
tarsi, half-feathered before; toes entirely separated, and 
powerful nails. ‘The head is flattened above, the gape wide, 
and the eyes large, deep sunk, and with the orbits greatly 
projecting above. ‘The colours are also similar in the different 


* The word nature being taken in so many different acceptations, we 
think proper to state, that, with Ranzani, we mean by it “ the aggregate 
ot all created beings, and of the laws imposed on them by the Supreme 
Creator.” 


WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 279 


species, being white, or pale (bluish white, &c.), with more or 
less of black. ‘The comparatively even tail of the two allied 
species of which we are treating eminently distinguishes 
them from the others of the subgenus, which have the tail 
exceedingly forked. They are remarkable also for another 
characteristic, that of having the nails rounded beneath, and 
not canaliculate, a circumstance that occurs besides only in 
the subgenus Pandion.* This character, which we formerly 
attributed to all the Hlanz, and which we believe we first 
observed not to exist in the fork-tailed species, has induced 
Mr Vigors, the English ornithologist, to separate the latter 
as a new genus, under the name of Nauclerus. 

The female white-tailed hawk is sixteen and a half inches 
long, and three feet five and a half inches in extent. The 
bill is black, and measures from the corners of the mouth 
one inch and a half; the sides of the mouth, posterior portion 
of the lower mandible, and cere, bright yellow orange ; bristles 
on the cere white, as well as those first on the lores; those 
nearest the eye, black; irides, brownish red; eyelids, white ; 
cilia, long and black; orbits, black, wider before the eye; 
front line over the orbits, sides of the head, neck, and body, 
and whole inferior surface of the bird, together with the 
thighs, pure white; head, pearl grey, becoming gradually 
darker from the pure white front towards the neck and back, 
which are entirely bluish ash, as well as the rump, scapulars, 
secondaries, and greater wing-coverts; smaller and middle 
wing-coverts, deep glossy black; spurious wing, blackish ; 
lining of the wing and inferior coverts, pure white, the latter 
with a wide black patch ; primaries on both surfaces, slate 
colour, the shafts black, and, the first excepted, margined 
exteriorly, and slightly at tip with dusky, and interiorly with 
whitish ; the margin of the inner web is of a remarkably close 
texture, with a very soft surface ; the first primary is a little 
shorter than the third, the second longest; the two outer 


* In Pandion, however, it is the middle nail that is rounded ; in this 
species, it is the lateral and posterior only. 


280 WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 


ones are slightly serrated on their outer web. When closed, 
the wings reach within less than an inch of the tip of the 
tail. The tail is seven inches long, slightly emarginated, 
and with the outer feather more than half an inch shorter 
than the adjoining one ; the middle feathers are very pale 
bluish slate, all the others pure white; shafts above, black 
towards the tip, and beneath white; that of the exterior 
tail-feather white, tipt with dusky above towards the base; 
feet, bright yellow orange ; tarsus, one inch and a half long, 
feathered in front half its length, the remainder covered with 
small reticulated scales; toes separated to the base ; nails, 
large, black, very acute, and, with the exception of the 
middle one, perfectly rounded beneath; the middle one is 
very sharp on the inner side. 

The male is of a smaller size; the upper surface, instead of 
being bluish slate, is more of a dirty greyish, slightly tinged 
with ferruginous ; the tail is less purely white. These sexual 
differences are the more worthy of note, as they are the reverse 
of what is exhibited in other hawks. It is, however, possible 
that they are not to be found in very old males. 

The young of both sexes, but especially the young males, 
are somewhat darker, and are strongly tinged with ferruginous, 
principally on the head, neck, and wings; the breast being 
entirely of that colour. A specimen of the African species in 
this state is figured by Le Vaillant, whose plates in general 
are tolerably accurate ; but how great is the disappointment 
of the ornithologist to find the tarsi represented as covered 
distinctly with plates, as in other hawks! We cannot let pass 
this opportunity of exhorting engravers, draughtsmen, and all 
artists employed on works of natural history, never to depend 
on what they are accustomed to see, but in all cases to copy 
faithfully what they have under their eyes ; otherwise, taking 
for granted what they ought not, they will inevitably fall into 
these gross errors. Even the accurate Wilson himself, or 
rather perhaps his engraver, has committed the same error in 
representing the feet of the swallow-tailed hawk. Of what 


WHITE-TAILED HAWK.  ' 281 


consequence, it will perhaps be said, is the form of the scales 
covering the foot of a hawk? But these afford precisely one 
of the best representative characters of groups, and it will, 
therefore, not be thought unnecessary to caution artists in this 
_and similar cases. 

The young, as described by Temminck, is in a more ad- 
vanced stage of plumage; the front, forepart of the neck, 
thighs, flanks, and under tail-coverts, are of pure white; the 
breast and belly are of the same colour, but are marked with 
reddish spots and brown lines; the occiput, nucha, back, and 
scapulars are brownish, mixed with whitish, and more or less 
tinged with cinereous ; all these feathers having wide margins 
of whitish and reddish ; the upper tail-coverts are black, with 
reddish margins; the inferior, marbled with black and white ; 
the quills are bluish, terminated with white; the tail is of a 
ereyish white, with black shafts ; all the feathers have dark 
cinereous towards the point, and are tipt with white. 

This species is an inhabitant of a great portion of the Ame- 
rican continent, as the Alcon blanco of Paraguay, so well de- 
scribed by D’Azara, is undoubtedly the same bird.  Vieillot 
undertook to classify it from D’Azara’s description, applying 
to it the name of Milvus leucurus ; but, after more attentive 
consideration, he perceived that it was not a J/ilvus, but an 
Elanus. He consequently removed it to that genus which he 
called Hlanoides, at the same time asserting, that, with the 
swallow-tailed hawk, it ought to constitute a different section 
from the black-winged hawk ; from which, upon actual com- 
parison, it is with difficulty shown to be even specifically 
distinct! Such are the absurdities into which authors are 
betrayed, through the highly reprehensible practice, to which 
some are addicted, of attempting to classify and name animals 
they have never seen, from the descriptions or mere indica- 
tions of travellers. Though, by such means, they may some- 
times gain the credit of introducing a new species, and thus 
deprive future observers, who may risk their fortunes, or even 
their lives, in pursuit of imperfectly known animals, of their 


“ie 

/ 5 7 

\ 8s + 
d 


282 WHITE-TAILED HAWR. 


best reward, they cannot fail to incur the merited reprobation 
of all honourable and fair-dealing naturalists. 

Though this bird ranges so widely over the American con- 
tinent, it is everywhere a rare species, and in the United States 
appears to be confined to the southern extremity. The speci- 
men figured in the plate, of the natural size, was shot in De- 
cember, in the neighbourhood of St Augustine, Hast Florida, 
at the residence of my near relation, Colonel Achilles Murat, 
whose kind hospitality afforded to Mr Titian Peale every faci- 
lity for the prosecution of his scientific researches. It was 
observed by Mr Peale, about the dawn of day, sitting on the 
dead branch of an old live oak, attentively watching the borders 
of an adjacent salt marsh, which abounded with Arvicola his- 
pidus, and the different species of sparrow which make their 
residence in the southern parts of the Union. It was very 
shy, and, on his approach, it flew in easy circles at a moderate 
elevation ; and such was its vigilance, that the greater part of 
a day was spent in attempting to get within gunshot. At 
length, the cover of interposing bushes enabled him to effect 
his purpose. It was a beautiful female, in perfect adult 
plumage. This sex, in the perfect state, is now for the first 
time represented, '’emminck’s plate representing the young 
female only ; and even the figures of the African analogue, in 
Le Vaillant’s works, exhibit only the male in the young and 
adult states. As usual in the tribe of predaceous birds, the 
female is much larger than the male, and is therefore entitled 
to precedence. 

Though this species is so rare, its near relative, the black- 
winged hawk, appears, on the contrary, to be very numerous. 
In Africa, where it was first discovered, and which is probably 
its native country, it is rather a common species, and has a very 
extensive range. Le Vaillant frequently observed it on the 
eastern coast of that little known continent, from Duyven- 
Hoek to Caffraria, where, however, it is less common. The 
same traveller found it to inhabit also in the interior, in the 
Cambdebo, and on the shores of the Swart-kop and Sunday 


WHITE-TAILED HAWRK. 283 


rivers. Jt is very common in Congo, and numerous also in 
Barbary, Egypt, and far distant Syria. The researches of 
Ruppel in the interior of north-eastern Africa, already so 
productive, and from which so much more may be expected, 
have furnished specimens of this species, of which we owe two 
to the kindness of Dr Creitzschmaer, the learned and zealous 
director of the museum of the free city of Frankfort—an in- 
stitution which has risen up with such wonderful rapidity. 
We are also informed that it is an inhabitant of India, which 
is rendered probable by a specimen from Java in my collection. 
Tt isfound in New Holland, being numerous in the autumn of 
New South Wales, where it is migratory, and preys chiefly on 
field-mice, but is seldom known to attack birds. It is there 
observed at times to hover in the air, as if stationary and mo- 
tionless. Though occasionally met with on the African coast 
of the Mediterranean, not a solitary individual has ever been 
known to visit the opposite shores of Italy, Spain, or Turkey, 
nor has it been met with in any other part of Europe. 

When at rest, it is generally seen perched on high bushes, 
where the pure white of the lower parts of its body renders it 
very conspicuous at a distance. It utters a sharp piercing cry, 
which is often repeated, especially when on the wing, though 
Mr Peale assures us that our individual uttered no ery. Like 
its closely related species, it does not attack small birds, except 
for the purpose of driving them from its favourite food, which 
consists of hemipterous insects, chiefly of the Gryllus and Man- 
tis genera, as well as other insects, and some reptiles. In the 
stomach of our specimen, however, Mr Peale found, besides the 
usual food, fragments of an Arvicola hispidus, and one or 
two feathers, apparently of a sparrow : but it is not a cowardly 
bird, as might be suspected from its affinity to the kites, and 
from its insignificant prey, since it successfully attacks crows, 
shrikes, and even the more timid birds of its own genus, com- 
pelling them to quit its favourite haunts, which it guards with 
a vigilant eye. They build in the bifurcation of trees. The 
nest is broad and shallow, lined internally with moss and 


284 FEMALE CG@RULEAN WARBLER. 


feathers. The female is stated to lay four or five eggs; the 
nestlings at first are covered with down, of a reddish-grey 
colour. 

The African species is said to diffuse a musky odour, which 
is retained even after the skin is prepared for the museum ; 
but we are inclined to believe that it is in the latter state only 
that it possesses this quality. Mr Peale did not observe any 
such odour in the bird he shot, but being obliged, for-want of 
better food, to make his dinner of it in the woods, found it not 
unpalatable. 


FEMALE CQ3RULEAN WARBLER. (Sylvia azurea.) 
PLATE XI.—Fic. 2. 


Wilson’s American Ornithology, Coerulean Warbler, Sylvia ccerulea, vol. ii. 141, 
pl. 17, fig. 5, for the male.—Sylvia azurea, Stephens, Cont. Shaw’s Zool. x. p. 
653.—Wob. Obs. Jour. Ac. Nat. Sc. Ph. iv. p. 193, male.—Sylvia bifasciata, 
Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, i. p. 170, male.— Phila- 
delphia Museum, No. 7309, male ; 7310, female. 

SYLVICOLA C@RULEA.—SWAINSON. 


Male, vol. i. p. 283. 


Tae merit of having discovered this bird is entirely due to. 
the Peale family, whose exertions have contributed so largely 
to extend the limits of natural history. The male, which he 
has accurately described and figured, was made known to 
Wilson by the late venerable Charles Wilson Peale, who alone, 
and unaided, accomplished an enterprise, in the formation of 
the Philadelphia Museum, that could hardly have been ex- 
ceeded under the fostering hand of the most powerful Govern- 
ment. ‘To the no less zealous researches of Mr Titian Peale 
the discovery of the female is recently owing, who, moreover, 
evinced his sagacity by determining its affinities, and pointing 
out its true place in the system. Although it preserves the 
principal characters of the male, yet the difference is suffi- 
ciently marked to deserve an especial notice in this work. 


FEMALE C@RULEAN WARBLER. 285 


The specimen here represented was procured on the banks 
of the Schuylkill, near Mantua village, on the Ist of August 
1825. It was very active, skipping about on the branches of 
an oak, attentively searching the leaves, and crevices of the 
bark, and at intervals taking its food on the wing, in the 
manner of the flycatchers. It warbled in an undertone, not 
very unlike that of the blue-grey flycatcher of Wilson (Sylvia 
coerulea, L.), a circumstance that would lead to the supposi- 
tion of its being a male in summer dress ; but on dissection it 
proved to be a female. 

The female azure warbler is four and three-quarter inches 
long, and eight and a quarter in extent.* Bill, blackish above, 
pale bluish beneath ; feet, light blue ; irides, very dark brown ; 
head and neck above, and back, rich silky green, brighter on 
the head, and passing gradually into dull bluish on the rump ; 
line from the bill over the eye, whitish, above which is the 
indication of a blue-black line widening behind ; a dusky streak 
passes through the eye; cheeks, dusky greenish ; beneath, 
entirely whitish, strongly tinged with yellow on the chin; 
sides of the neck, breast, flanks, and vent, streaked with dark 
bluish ; the base of the whole plumage is bluish white ; inferior 
tail-coverts, pure white; wings and tail, very similar to those 
of the male, though much less brilliant ; smaller wing-coverts, 
bluish, tipt with green; middling and large wing-coverts, 
blackish, widely tipt with white, constituting two very appa- 
rent bands across the wings, the white slightly tinged with 
yellowish at tip; spurious wing, blackish; quill-feathers, 
blackish, edged externally with green, internally and at tip 
with whitish, the three nearest the body more widely so; the 
inferior wing-coverts, white; tail, hardly rounded, feathers, 
dusky slate, slightly tinged with bluish externally, and lined 
with pure white internally, each with a white spot towards the 
tip on the inner web. ‘This spot is larger on the outer feathers, 


* The dimensions given by Wilson of the male must be rather below 
the standard, as they are inferior to those of the female ; whereas all 
the specimens we examined were larger, as usual. 


286 FEMALE CG@RULEAN WARBLER. 


and decreases gradually until it becomes inconspicuous on the 
two middle ones. 

The description of the male need not here be repeated, 
having been given already with sufficient accuracy by Wilson, 
to whose work the reader is referred. Ona comparison of the 
description and figures, he will find that the chief difference 
between the sexes consists in the female being green instead 
of blue, in her wanting the black streaks, and in being tinged 
with yellow beneath. 

We have to regret our inability to add much to Wilson’s 
short and imperfect account of the species. It is by no means 
more common at this time than it was when he wrote, which 
may account for the difficulty of ascertaining the period of its 
migrations, and for the circumstance of our having never met 
with the nest, and our want of acquaintance with its habits. 
We can only add to its history, that it is found in the trans- 
Mississippian territory, for the Sylvia bifasciata of Say, accu- 
rately described in Long’s first expedition, is no other than the 
male. We have examined the specimen shot at Hngineer 
Cantonment. 

Although the undisputed merit of first making known this 
species belongs to Wilson, yet the scientific name that he ap- 
plied to it cannot be retained, inasmuch as it is preoccupied 
by the blue-grey warbler, a Linnean species, which Wilson 
placed in MWuscicapa, but which we consider a Sylvia, notwith- 
standing that it does in some degree aberrate from the typical 
species of that genus.* Under such circumstances, we cannot 
hesitate in adopting the name substituted by Mr Stephens, the 
continuator of Shaw’s compilation. 


* See my “Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson’s Ornithology.” 
v to} 


Drawn tiem Nawre bv A. Rider Prsvaved by Wil Lazare 
Blue Hawk or Hen Harrier: 


Falco Craneus: 


12. 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 287 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. (Lalco cyaneus.) 
PLATE XII. 


Wilson’s American Ornithology, vol. vi. p. 67, pl. 51, fig. 1, for the young (under 
the name of Marsh Hawk, Falco uliginosus).—Falco cyaneus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 
126, sp. 10.—G'mel. Syst.i. p. 276, sp. 10.—Iter Poseg. p. 27, adolescent male, — 
Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 39, sp. 94.—Montagu, in Trans. Lin. Soc. ix. p. 182.— 
Meyer, Tasch. Deutschl. Vog. i. p. 145.—Temm. Man. Orn. i. p. 72.—Ranz. 
El. Zool. iii. pl. 7, p. 187, sp. 28.—Brehm, Lehrd. Kur. Vog. i. p. 59.—Selby, 
Ill. Br. Orn. i. p. 26, pl. 10, fig. 1, male ; fig. 2, female.—Savi. Orn. T'osc. 
i. p. 63.—Nob. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 22.—Falco pygargus, Linn. 
Syst. i. p. 126, sp. 11.—Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 277, sp. 11, female and young.— 
Falco Hudsonius, Linn. Syst. i. p. 128, sp. 19.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 277, sp. 19, 
young, American.—Falco Bohemicus, Gimel, Syst. i. p. 276, sp. 107.—Lath. 
Ind. p. 38, sp. 93, adult male.— Falco albicans, Gimel. Syst. i. p. 276, sp. 102.— 
Lath. Ind. p. 38, sp. 93, adult male.—Falco griseus, Gimel. Syst. i. p. 275, 
sp. 100.—Zath. Ind. p. 37, sp. 86.—Gerard, Tabl, Hlem. p. 37, adolescent 
male.—Falco montanus, var. B, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 278, sp. 106.—Lath. Ind. p. 
48, sp. 116.—Falcocinereus, It. Poseg. p. 27, adolescent male.— Falcoalbicollis, 
Lath. Ind. p. 36, sp. 81, adult South American male.—Falco Buffonii, Gmel. 
Syst. i. p. 277, sp. 103, female and young, American.—Falco uliginosus, 
Gmel. Syst. i. p. 278.—Lath. Ind. p. 40, sp. 95.—Sabine, Zool. App. to 
Frankl. Exp. p. 671, young American.—Falco rubiginosus, J¢. Posey. p. 29.— 
Lath. Ind. p. 27, sp. 56, young.—Falco ranivorus, Daud. Orn. ii. p. 170.— 
Lath. Ind. Suppl. p. 7, young.—Falco europogistus, Daud. Orn. ii. p. 110, 
adolescent male.—Circus europogistus, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. 1. p. 36, pl. 8, 
adolescent male.—Circus Hudsonius, Vieill. 1. c. i. p. 36, pl. 9, young.— 
Circus uliginosus, Vieil/. 1. c. i. p. 37, female and young. —Circus variegatus, 
Vieill. U. c. i. p. 87, male changing.—Circus gallinarius, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. 
d@ Hist. Nat. iv. p. 459.—Cireus cyaneus, Jd. xxxi. p. 410.—Circus cyaneus, 
Boie.—Circus ranivorus, Vietll. Nouv. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. iv. p. 456, young 
African.—Falco strigiceps, Wills. Orn. Suec. i. p. 21.—Falco torquatus, 
Briss. Orn. i. 845, sp. 7; Id. 8vo, p. 100, male andfemale; Brunn.sp. 14.— 
Falco montanus cinereus, Briss. Orn. i. p. 355, sp. 9, var. A; Id. 8vo, p. 
112, adolescent male.—Accipiter freti Hudsonis, Briss. Orn. vi. App. p. 18, 
sp. 47.—Lanarius cinereus, Briss. Orn. i. p. 365, sp. 17 ; Id. 8vo, p. 106.— 
Lanarius albicans, Briss. i. p. 367, sp. 18.—Subbuteo, Gesner, Av. p. 48.— 
Pygargus accipiter, Ray, Syn. p. 17, sp. 5.—Will. Orn. p. 40, pl. 7.—Falco 
plumbeus, cauda tesselata, Klein, Av. p. 52, sp. 22.—Lanarius, Aldr. Orn. 
i. pl. 581, 382, adult male.—Lanarius cinereus, sive Falco cinereo-albus, 
Frisch, pl. 79, 80, adult male.—Falco montanus secundus, Ald7r.— Will. pl. 
9, adult male.—Albanella, Storia degli Uce. i. pl. 35, adult male.—Falco 
pygargo, Id. i. pl. 31, female.—Autre Oiseau St Martin, Belon, Hist. Ois. p. 
104.—L’Oiseau St Martin, Buff. Ois. i. p. 212; Id. Pl. Enl. 459, adult 
male.—Gerardin, Tabl. Elem. Orn. i. p. 43.—La Soubuse, Buff. Otis. i. p. 
215, pl. 9; Id. Pl. Enl. 443, young female ; 480, young male.—Gerardin, 
Tabl. Elem. Orn. i. p. 37, female and young.—Le Grenouillard, Le Vaill. 
Ois. Afrique, i. p. 63, pl. 23, young. —Kore oder Halbweyhe, Lechst. Tasch. 


288 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 


Deutsch. p. 25, sp. 20.—Meyer and Wolf, Ois. d’Allem. liv. 27, pl. 5, adult 
male; pl. 6, female.—Naumann, Vog. Deutsch. ed. 2, i. pl. 39, fig. 1, adult 
male; fig. 2, adult female; pl. 38, fig. 2, young male.—Mause Habicht, 
Missilauche, Meyer, Bochm. Abh. vi. p. 313, adult male.—Blue Hawk, Hdw. 
v. p. 33, pl. 225, adult male.—Marsh Hawk, Edw. p. 173, pl. 291.—Penn. 
Arct. Zool. sp. 105.—Lath. Syn. i. p. 90, sp. 75, var. A, female and young.— 
Ash-coloured Mountain Falcon, Lath. Syn. i. p. 94, sp. 78, var. A, adolescent 
male.—Hen-harrier, Edw. pl. 225, very old male.— Will. (Angl.) p. 172.—Alb. 
ii. pl. 5.—Hayes, Brit. Birds, pl. 1.—Lewin, Brit. Birds, i. p. 18.—Penn. 
Brit. Zool. i. sp. 58, p. 28.—Lath. Syn. i. p. 88, sp. 74; Id. Suppl. p. 22, 
adult male.—Ring-tail Hawk, Edw. iii. pl. 107.—Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 106, 
female and young.—Ring-tail, Will. (Ang.) p. 72.—Alb. iii. pl. 3.—Hayes, 
Brit. Birds, pl. 2.—Lewin, Brit. Birds, i. pl. 18, female ; Id. pl. 2, fig. 4, 
the egg.—Penn. Brit. Zool. sp. 59.—Lath. Syn. i. p. 89, sp. 75; Id. Suppl. 
p. 22, female and young.—White-rumped Bay Falcon, Lath. Syn. p. 54, sp. 
-34, var. B, young.—Hudson’s Bay Ring-tail, Lath. Syn. i. p. 91, sp. 76, 
young.—White Lanner, Lath. Syn. i. p. 87, sp. 78, adult male.—Grey 
Falcon, Penn. Brit. Zool. i. sp. 49.—Lewin, Brit. Birds, i. pl. 15.—Lath. 
Syn. i. p. 82, sp. 67, adolescent male.—New York Falcon, Penn. Arct. Zool. 
ii. p. 209, adolescent male.—Ranivorous Falcon, Lath. Syn. Suppl. female 
and young.—White-necked Falcon, Lath. Syn. Suppl. p. 30, sp. 101, adult 
male, South American.—Cayenne Ring-tail, Lath. Syn. i. p. 91, sp. 76, var. 
A, young,—Falco glaucus, the Sharp-winged Hawk, of a pale sky-blue colour, 
the tip of the wings black, Bartr. Trav. p. 290, adult male.—Falco sub- 
cceruleus, the Sharp-winged Hawk, of a dark or dusky blue colour, Bartr. 
Trav. p. 290, adolescent male.—Falco ranivorus, the Marsh Hawk, Bartr. 
Trav. p. 290, young.—Philadelphia Museum.—My Collection. 


CIRCUS CYANEUS.—BEcHSTEIN.* 


Falco (subgen. Circus) cyaneus, Bonap. Synop. p. 32.—Buteo (Circus) cyaneus ? 
var. Americanus.—Hen-harrier, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 55. 


As will be perceived upon a slight inspection of our long and 
elaborate list of synonyms, this well-known species is found 


* There still appears to be a difference of opinion regarding the 
identity of the European Circus cyaneus, or hen-harrier, and the North 
American Falco uliginosus of Wilson. 

Wilson was of opinion that they were the same, but only judged 
from descriptions, being unable to obtain specimens from Britain for 
comparison. The Prince of Musignano thinks they are the same, and 
repeats the“asseveration in his latest correspondence, but still perceives 
some differences of habit and in the changes of plumage that would 
weigh farif something more decided could be established. Mr Swainson 
and Dr Richardson describe it with a query, under the name of 
C. Americanus, and give numerous measurements of specimens, which 
neither agree with each other, or generally with those of Britain, 
Though I cannot at present fix on characters, I strongly suspect that 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 289 


in almost every part of the globe; and not only does it seem 
to have been considered everywhere distinct, but nearly every 


North America will at least possess one species distinct from that of 
Europe, and that the real European one, from -its close alliance, is yet 
confounded with it ;—there is no bird where I have found so much 
variation in the dimensions. I have always observed the American 
birds larger than those of this country, and the tarsi stronger and pro- 
portionally longer. In America, the species seems remarkably abundant, 
and certainly differs slightly in habit, &c.; but it is well known that 
animals, as well as birds, will accommodate themselves to a difference 
of circumstances, 

The group to which this species belongs is intimately connected on 
both sides by, as it were, intermediate species—on the one by Astur, on 
the other by Buteo. Those true to the type are, however, at once known, 
and may be named as that now under discussion, the C. histrionicus, 
Montagui, &e. It seems distributed over the world. The colours and 
changes of plumage in all are very similar ; both sexes are clothed with 
the same livery until after the second moult, and are so similar as hardly 
to be distinguished, except by the difference of size. In the males, the 
change is to shades of grey; in the females, to a lighter tinge of the 
reddish or darker browns, which appear to be the prevalent colours of 
the whole. The feathers of the rump assume a different colour, generally 
pure white, and show a prominent bar or band during flight. Their 
form is long and slender, and of no great power ; the wings are of con- 
siderable capacity, exhibiting the form adapted for a buoyant rather 
than rapid flight; the tailample. When sitting on the ground or on 
a rock, for they very seldom perch on trees, the attitude is very erect, 
like that of the sparrow-hawks ; but the most remarkable feature is the 
owl-like disk which surrounds the face, and is, in fact, nearly similar to 
that in the long-tailed hawk-owls. 

The habits of those in Great Britain differ considerably according to 
the district they inhabit. In a country possessing a considerable pro- 
portion of plain and mountain, where I have had the greatest oppor- 
tunities of attending to them, they always retire, at the commencement 
of the breeding season, to the wildest hills, and during this time not 
one individual will be found in the low country. For several days 
previous to commencing their nest, the male and female are seen soaring 
about, as if in search of, or examining, a proper situation, are very noisy, 
and toy and cuff each other in the air. When the place is fixed, and 
the nest completed, the female is left alone, and, when hatching, will 
not suffer the male to visit the nest, but on his approach rises and drives 
him with screams to a distance! The nest is made very frequently in 
a heath-bush by the edge of some ravine, and is composed of sticks, 

VOL, IIL. Ty 


290 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 


different appearance which it assumes during its progress 
through the various and extraordinary changes that its plumage 


with a very slender lining. It is sometimes also formed on one of those 
places called scars, or where there has been a rush on the side of a steep 
hill after a mountain thunder-shower ; here little or no nest is made, 
and the eggs are merely laid on the bare earth, which has been scraped 
hollow. Ina flat or level country, some common is generally chosen, 
and the nest is found in a whin or other scrubby bush, sometimes a 
little way from the ground, as has been remarked in the descriptions of 
the American birds. The young are well supplied with food, I believe, 
by both parents, though I have only seen the female in attendance ; 
and I have found in and near the nest the common small lizard, stone- 
chats, and young grouse. 

When the young are perfectly grown, they, with the old birds, leave 
the high country, and return to their old haunts, hunting with reeu- 
larity the fields of grain, and now commit great havoc among the young 
came. At night they seem to have general roosting-places, either among 
whins or long heath, and always on some open spot upon the ground. 
On a moor of considerable extent, I have seen seven in the space of one 
acre. They began to approach the sleeping ground about sunset, and 
before going to the roost, hunted the whole moor, crossing each other, 
often three or four in view at a time, gliding along in the same manner 
as that described by Dr Richardson of the C. Americanus. Half an 
hour may be spent in this way. When they approach the roost, they 
skim three or four times over it, to see that there is no interruption, 
and then at once drop into the spot. These places are easily found in 
the day ; and the birds may be caught by placing a common rat-trap, 
or they may be shot in a moonlight night. In both ways I have pro- 
cured many specimens. 

When kept in confinement, they generally roosted on the ground, in 
a corner of the cage, three or four huddled together ; once or twice I 
have found them perching ; during the day, they rested mostly on the 
ground ; and only when alarmed rose to the cross-bars, I have never 
seen them perch in a wild state. 

Their flight is accurately described by our author ; and when hunt- 
ing in this country, it is performed in the same manner, flying low 
over the ground, beating the brushwood or rough cover, and along the 
hedges. They never take their prey on the wing ; but when pursuing, 
make a slight dash, and follow it to the place chosen for refuge. I 
once shot an old female which had driven a covey of partridges into a 
thick hedge, and was so intent upon watching her prey, that she allowed 
me to approach openly from a distance of nearly half a mile. They 
are often met with about the sea-coast ; and I have seen one repeatedly 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER, 291 


undergoes according to sex and age, has in each country given 
rise to a nominal species. At the same time, however, that 
names were thus inconsiderately multiplied for one bird, two 
really distinct were always confounded together. Analogous 
in their changes, similar in form and plumage, it was reserved 
for the acute and ingenious Montagu to point out the differ- 
ence, and establish the two species by permanent characters. 
The new one was called by him Falco cineraceus, and is known 
by the English name of ash-coloured harrier. It is figured and 
accurately described in all its states of plumage by Vieillot in 
his “Galerie des Oiseaux,” where he has dedicated it to its 
discoverer, calling it Circus Montagut ; thus fully apologising 
for having in his article Buzzard of the ‘“ New Dictionary of 
Natural History,” declared it to be a state of the other. How 
far, however, it may be considered a compliment to change 
the name given to a species by its discoverer, in order to apply 
even his own to it, we are at a loss to imagine. 

The principal distinctive characters of the two species are 
to be found in the relative length of the wings and tail, and in 
the proportional lengths of the primaries. In the ash-coloured 
harrier, the sixth primary is shorter than the first, the second 
is much longer than the fifth, and the third is the longest ; the 
wings, when closed, reach to the tip of the tail. In the hen- 
harrier, the first primary is shorter than the sixth, the second 
subequal to the fifth, and the third equal to the fourth, the 
longest ; the wings closed, not reaching, by more than two 
inches, to the tip of the tail, which is also but slightly rounded 
in the latter, while in the ash-coloured it is cuneiform. Other 


come to the stake-nets on the Solway Firth, and eat the dead fish that 
were left there, In hunting, they pursue a regular beat or tract for 
many days together. I have repeatedly watched a bird for miles, day 
after day, follow nearly the same line, only diverging on the appearance 
of prey ; and so nearly at one time do they pass the different ranges 
of their course, that I have placed myself in cover about the time 
they were expected, often with success : if they returned at all, there was 
never more than a quarter of an hour of variance from their usual 
time.—Eb. 


2092 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 


minor differences are besides observable in the respective sexes 
and states of both; butas those we have indicated are the only 
ones that permanently exist, and may be found at all times, 
we shall not dwell on the others, especially as Montagu’s 
species appears not to inhabit America. We think proper to 
observe, however, that the adult male of Falco cineraceus has 
the primaries wholly black beneath, while that of the F’. 
cyaneus has them black only from the middle to the point ; 
and that the tail-feathers, pure white in the latter, are in the 
former spotted beneath. The female in our species is larger 
than the corresponding sex of the other, though the males in 
both are nearly of equal size; and the collar that surrounds 
the face is strongly marked in ours, whereas it is but little 
apparent in the other. The £. czneraceus has two white spots 
near the eyes, which are not in the /. cyaneus. The young 
of the former is beneath rusty, without spots. Thus slight 
but constant differences are seen to represent a species, while 
the most striking discrepancies in colour, size, and (not in this, 
but in other instances) even of form, prove mere variations 
of sex or age! We cannot wonder at the two real species 
having always been confounded amidst the chaotic indications 
of the present. 

Even Wilson was not free from the error which had pre- 
vailed for so long a period in scientific Europe, that the ring- 
tail and hen-harrier were two species. Though he did not 
publish a figure of the present in the adult plumage of the 
male, he was well acquainted with it as an inhabitant of the 
southern States; for there can be no doubt that itis the much 
desired blue hawk which he was so anxious to procure—the 
ouly land bird he intended to add to his “ Ornithology,” or at 
least the only one he left registered in his posthumous list. 
It was chiefly because he was not aware of this fact, and 
thought that no blue hawk existed in America corresponding 
to the European hen-harrier, that Mr Sabine, in the Appendix 
to Franklin’s “‘ Expedition,” above quoted, persisted in declar- 
ing that the marsh-hawk was a distinct species peculiar to 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 293 


< 


America, of which he supposed the Hudson’s Bay ring-tail to 
be the young. The differences which he detected on compar- 
ing it with the European ring-tail must have been owing 
to a different state of plumage of his specimen of this ultra- 
changeable species. If, however, he had not mentioned the 
colours merely, as bringing it nearer to the ash-coloured 
falcon of Montagu, we might be inclined to believe that 
the specimen he examined was indeed a young bird of that 
species, which, though as yet unobserved, may, after all, 
possibly be found in North America. At all events, Wilson’s, 
and the numerous American specimens that have passed 
under our examination, were all young hen-harriers. 

After having stated that the error of considering the hen- 
harrier and ring-tail as different species had prevailed for 
years in Europe, it is but just to mention, that Aldrovandi, 
Brisson, Ray, and others of the older authors, were perfectly 
in accordance with Nature on this point. It was perhaps with 
Linné, or at least with Buffon, Gmelin, Pennant, and Latham 
himself, who afterwards corrected it, that the error originated. 
Latham, confident of his own observations and those of Pen- 
nant, who had found males of the species said to be the female 
of the Falco cyaneus (hen-harrier), and not reflecting that 
these males might be the young, exclaims, “ Authors have 
never blundered more than in making this bird (the ring-tail) 
the same species with the last mentioned (hen-harrier) ;” an 
opinion that he was afterwards obliged to recant. In physical 
science we cannot be too cautious in rejecting facts, nor too 
careful in distinguishing, in an author’s statement, what has 
passed under his own eyes, however extraordinary it may 
seem, from the inference he draws from it. Thus, to apply 
the principle in this instance, Latham might have reconciled 
the fact of males and females being found in the plumage of 
the ring-tail, with the others, that no females were ever found 
under the dress of the hen-harrier, and that some ring-tails 
would gradually change into hen-harriers. 

Whether or not the marsh-hawk of America was the same 


2904 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 


with the ring-tail of Europe, Wilson would not take upon 
himself to pronounce, as he has left to his bird the distinctive 
name of Falco uliginosus ; though he positively states that, 
in his opinion, they are but one species, and even rejects as 
false, and not existing, the only character on which the specific 
distinction was based, that of the American having “strong, | 
thick, and short legs,” instead of having them long and slender. 
For want of opportunity, however, of actually comparing 
specimens from both continents, he could choose no other 
course than the one he has followed ; and so great appears to 
have been the deference of ornithologists for this extraordinary 
man, that, while they have unhesitatingly quoted as synony- 
mous with the European hen-harrier the African specimens 
described by Le Vaillant, and even the various nominal species 
created or adopted by Vieillot as North American, the Falco 
uliginosus of former authors has been respected, probably, as 
the marsh-hawk of Wilson! But the latter is not, more than 
the others, entitled to be admitted as distinct, being merely 
the present in its youthful dress, 

The hen-harrier belongs to the subgenus C?rcus, which in 
English we shall call harrier, the name of buzzard being ap- 
propriated to the Buteones. Though perfectly well marked in 
the typical species, such as this, the group to which our bird 
belongs passes insensibly into others, but especially into that 
called Buteo, some even of the North American species being 
intermediate between them. Whenever the groups of falcons 
shall be elevated to the rank of genera, it will perhaps be found 
expedient to unite Circus and Buteo, as they do not differ much 
more from each other than our two sections of hawks—those 
with long and slender legs, and those with short stout legs, 
Astur and Sparvius of authors, the line of demarcation being 
quite as difficult to be drawn. 

The harriers are distinguished in their tribe by their weak, 
much compressed bill, destitute of a tooth or sharp process, 
but with a strongly marked lobe; their short and bristly cere; 
their long, slender, and scutellated tarsi ; their slender toes, of 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER, 295 


which the outer are connected at base by a membrane ; their 
nails, subequal, weak, channelled beneath, much incurved, and 
extremely sharp. A very remarkable characteristic is exhibited 
in their long wings, subequal to the tail, which is large, and 
even, or slightly rounded at tip: their first quill is very short, 
always shorter than the fifth, and the third or fourth is the 
longest. ‘Their slender body and elegant shape chiefly dis- 
tinguish them from their allies the buzzards. They may be 
further subdivided into those in which the female at least is 
possessed of that curious facial ring of scaly or stiff feathers, 
so remarkable in the owls, and those entirely destitute of it. 
One species only is found in the United States which belongs 
to the first section, and cannot be confounded with any other 
than that from which we have thought proper to distinguish 
it at the beginning of this article. In this section, the female 
differs essentially from the male, the young being similar to her 
in colour. The latter change wonderfully as they advance in 
age, to which circumstance is owing the wanton multiplication 
that has been made of the species. In those which compose 
the second section, the changes are most extraordinary, since, 
while the adult male is of a very uniform light colour, approach- 
ing to white, the female and young are very dark, and much 
spotted and banded: they are also much more conspicuously 
distinguished by the rigid facial ring. 

These birds are bold, and somewhat distinguished for their 
agility, especially when compared with the buzzards; and in 
gracefulness of flight they are hardly inferior to the true fal- 
cons. ‘They do not chase well on the wing, and fly usually at 
no great height, making frequent circuitous sweeps, rarely 
flapping their wings, and strike their prey upon the ground. 
Their food consists of mice, and the young of other quadru- 
peds, reptiles, fishes, young birds, especially of those that build 
on the ground, or even adult water-birds, seizing them by sur- 
prise, and do not disdain insects; for which habits they are 
ranked among the ignoble birds of prey. Unlike most other 
large birds of their family, they quarter their victims previously 


200 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 


to swallowing them, an operation which they always perform 
on the ground. Morasses and level districts are their favourite 
haunts, being generally observed sailing low along the surface, 
or, in the neighbourhood of waters, migrating when they are 
frozen. ‘They build in marshy places, among high grass, 
bushes, or in the low forks or branches of trees; the female 
laying four or five round eggs, entirely white or whitish, with- 
out spots. During the nuptial season, the males are observed 
to soar to a considerable height, and remain suspended in the 
air for a length of time. 

The male hen-harrier is eighteen inches long, and forty-one ~ 
in extent ; the bill is blackish horn colour ; the cere greenish 
yellow, almost hidden by the bristles projecting from the base 
of the bill ; the irides are yellow. The head, neck, upper 
part of the breast, back, scapulars, upper wing-coverts, and 
middle tail-feathers, pale bluish grey, somewhat darker on the 
scapulars; the upper coverts, being pure white, constitute 
what is called a white rump, though that part is of the colour 
of the back, but a shade lighter ; breast, belly, flanks, thighs, 
under wing-coverts, and under tail-coverts, pure white, with- 
out any spot or streak. The wings measure nearly fourteen 
inches, and, when closed, reach only two-thirds the length of 
the tail, which is eight and a half inches long, extending by 
more than two inches beyond them ; the primaries, of which — 
‘the first is shorter than the sixth, the second and fifth sub- 
equal, and the third and fourth longest, are blackish, paler on 
the edges, and white at their origin, which is more conspicuous 
on their inferior surface ; the secondaries have more of the 
white, being chiefly bluish grey on the outer web only, and at 
the point, which is considerably darker. The tail is but very 
slightly rounded. All the tail-feathers have white shafts, and 
are pure white beneath; the middle ones are bluish grey, the 
lateral almost purely white; somewhat greyish on the outer 
vane, and obsoletely barred with blackish grey on the inner. 
The feet are bright yellow, and the claws black; the tarsus is 
three inches long, and feathered in front for an inch, 


=< 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 297 


The female is larger, being between twenty and twenty-one 
inches long, and between forty-four and forty-seven in extent ; 
the tarsi, wings, and tail, proportionally longer, but strictly 
corresponding with those of the male. The general colour 
above is chocolate-brown, more or less varied with yellowish 
rufous ; the space round the orbits is whitish, and the auri- 
culars are brown ; the small stiff feathers forming the well- 
marked collar or ruff are whitish rusty, blackish brown along 
the shaft; the feathers of the head and neck are of a darker 
brown, conspicuously margined with yellowish rusty ; on the 
nucha, for a large space, the plumage is white at the base, as 
well as on the sides of the feathers, so that a little of that col- 
our appears, even without separating them ; those of the back 
and rump are hardly, if at all, skirted with yellowish rusty, but 
the scapulars and wing-coverts have each four regular large 
round spots of that colour, of which those farthest from the 
base he generally uncovered ; the upper tail-coverts are pure 
white, often, but not always, with a few rusty spots, constitu- 
ting the so-called white rump, which is a constant mark of the 
species in all its states of plumage. The throat, breast, belly, 
vent, and femorals, pale yellowish rusty, streaked lengthwise 
with large acuminate brown spots, darker and larger on the 
breast, and especially the under wing-coverts, obsolete on the 
lower parts of the body, which are not spotted. The quills are 
dark brown, whitish on the inner vane, and transversely banded 
with blackish; the bands are much more conspicuous on the 
inferior surface, where the ground colour is greyish white. 
The tail is of a bright yellowish rusty, the two middle tail- 
feathers dark cinereous ; all are pure white at the origin, and 
regularly crossed with four or five broad blackish bands ; their 
tips are more whitish, and the inferior surface of a greyish 
white, like that of the quills, but very slightly tinged with 
rusty, the blackish bands appearing to great advantage, except 
on the outer feathers, where they are obsolete, being less de- 
fined even above. 

The young male is almost perfectly similar in appearance to 


298 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 


the adult female (which is not the case in the ash-coloured 
harrier), being, however, more varied with rusty, and easily 
distinguished by its smaller size, It is in this state that Wil- 
son has taken the species, his very accurate description being 
that of a young female. The male retains this plumage until 
he is two years old, after which he gradually assumes the grey 
plumage peculiar to the adult: of course they exhibit almost 
as many gradations as specimens, according to their more or 
less advanced age. ‘The ash and white appear varied or min- 
gled with rusty ; the wings, and especially the tail, exhibiting 
more or less indications of the bands of the young plumage. 
The male, when he may be called already adult, varies by 
still exhibiting the remains of bands on the tail, more or less 
marked or obliterated by the yellowish edges of the feathers 
of the back and wings, and especially by retaining on the 
hind head a space tinged with rusty, with blackish spots. 
This space is more or less indicated in the greater part both 
of the American and European specimens I have examined. 
Finally, they are known by retaining traces of the yellowish 
of the inferior surface, in larger or smaller spots, chiefly on the 
belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts. 

For the greater embellishment of the plate, we have chosen 
to represent one of these very nearly but not quite adult males, 
in preference to a perfectly mature bird, which may easily be 
figured to the mind by destroying every trace of spot or bar. 
It is, moreover, in this dress that the adult is met with in the 
middle and northern States, where it is very rare, and we 
have never seen a specimen quite mature, though the young 
are tolerably common; as if the parents sent their children on 
a tour to finish their education, then to return and marry, and 
remain contentedly at home. ‘The specimen here figured was 
shot on Long Island, and was preserved in Scudder’s Museum, 
New York. 

Its total length is eighteen inches ; breadth, forty-one; the 
bill, bluish black; cere, irides, and feet, yellow; claws, black. 
The plumage above is bluish ashy, much darker on the scapu- 


BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 299 


lars, and, with the feather-shafts, blackish; beneath, white, 
slightly cream-coloured on the breast; the belly, flanks, and 
lower tail-coverts with small arrow-shaped spots of yellowish 
rusty ; the long axillary feathers are crossed with several such 
spots, taking the appearance of bands; the upper tail-coverts 
are pure white; the primaries, dusky blackish at the point, 
edged with paler, and somewhat hoary on the outer vane; at 
base, white internally and beneath. The tail is altogether of 
a paler ash than the body, tipped with whitish, and with a broad 
blackish subterminal band; all the tail-feathers are pure white 
at their origin under the coverts, the lateral being sub-banded 
with blackish and white on their inner vanes, and the outer on 
the greater part of the outer web also; the shafts are varied 
with black and white. 

The hen-harrier’s favourite haunts are rich and extensive 
plains and low grounds. Though preferring open and cham- 
paign countries, and seeming to have an antipathy to forests, 
which it always shuns, it does not, like the ash-coloured harrier, 
confine itself to marshes, but is also seen in dry countries, if 
level. We are informed by Wilson, that it is much esteemed 
by the Southern planters, for the services it renders in prevent- 
ing the depredations of the rice-birds upon their crops. Cau- 
tious and vigilant, it is not only by the facial disk that this 
bird approaches the owls, but also by a habit of chasing in the 
morning and evening, at twilight, and occasionaily at night, 
when the moon shines. TF alconers reckon it among the ignoble 
hawks. Cruel, though cowardly, it searches everywhere for 
victims, but selects them only among weak and helpless objects. 
It preys on moles, mice, young birds, and is very destructive to 
game ; and does not spare fishes, snakes, insects, or even worms. 
lis flight is always low, but notwithstanding, rapid, smooth, 
and buoyant. It is commonly observed sailing over marshes, or 
perched on trees near them, whence it pounces suddenly upon 
its prey. When it has thus struck at an object, if it reap- 
pears quickly from the grass or reeds, it is a proof that it has 
iissed its aim ; for, if otherwise, its prey is devoured on the spot. 


300 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 


It breeds in open wastes, frequently in thick furze coverts, 
among reeds, marshy bushes, the low branches of trees, but 
cenerally on the ground. The nest is built of sticks, reeds, 
straw, leaves, and similar materials heaped together, and is 
lined with feathers, hair, or other soft substances; it contains 
from three to six, but generally four or five, pale bluish-white 
eggs, large and round at each end; the young are born covered 
with white down, to which succeed small feathers of a rust 
colour, varied with brown and black. If any one approaches 
the nest during the period of rearing the young, the parents 
evince the greatest alarm, hovering around, and expressing 
their anxiety by repeating the syllables, geg, geg, gag ; or ge, 
ge, ne, ge, ge. Crows manifest a particular hostility to this 
species, and destroy numbers of their nests. 

The hen-harrier is widely spread over both continents, per- 
haps more than any other land-bird, though it is nowhere 
remarkably numerous. In the northern countries of America 
it is a migratory species, extending its wanderings from Florida 
to Hudson’s Bay. It is not known to breed in the northern, 
or even in the middle States, where the adults are but rarely 
seen. In the southern parts of the Union, and especially in 
Florida, they are rather common, in all their varieties of 
plumage. The species is also found in the West Indies, 
Cayenne, and probably has an extensive range in South 
America. It is found throughout Britain, Germany, Italy, 
the north of Africa, and the northern portion of Asia. It is 
very common in France and the Netherlands, is found in 
Russia and Sweden, but does not inhabit the north of Norway, 
being by no means an arctic bird. It is again met with in 
the southern parts of Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope, 
and is not uncommon all along the eastern coast of that con- 
tinent. In Switzerland, and other mountainous countries, it 
is of very rare occurrence. 


Lapland Longspur. 5 Female. 
Emberiza Lappontca 


15. 


1. Steller’s Jay 


garrulus Steere. 


STELLER’S FAY. 20T 


STELLER'S JAY. (Garrulus Stelleri.) 
PLATE XIII.—Fte. 1. 


Corvus Stelleri, Ginel. Syst. i. p. 870, sp. 27.—Lath. Ind. p. 158, sp. 20.—Wob. 
Suppl. Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 63, bis, in Zool. Journ. Lond. v. p. 2; Id. in 
App. Gen. N. A. Birds in Ann. Lyc. N. Y. p. 438.—Garrulus coronatus ? 
Swainson, Syn. Birds Mex. sp. 67, in Phil. Mag. N. 8. i. p. 487, old bird? 
—Garrulus Stelleri, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d Hist. Nat. xii. p. 481.—Geai de 
Steller, Daud. Orn. ii. p. 248.—Steller’s Crow, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 139.— 
Lath. Syn. i. p. 387, sp. 21; Id. 2d Suppl. viii. p. 111, sp. 8; Id. Gen. Hist. 
iii. p. 56, sp. 58.—Collection of Mr Leadbeater, in London. 


GARRULUS STELLERI.—VIEILLOT.* 


Garrulus Stellaris, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 294.—Pica Stelleri, Wagl. Syst. Av. Pica, 
No. 10. 


To the enlightened liberality and zeal for science of that 
distinguished collector, Mr Leadbeater, of London, we, and the 
American public, are now indebted for the appearance of 
the first figure ever given of this handsome jay. Trusting his 
precious specimens twice to the mercy of the waves, he confided 
to us this, together with several other still more rare and valu- 
able North American birds, which no consideration would have 
induced him to part with entirely, to have them drawn, 
engraved, and published, on this side of the Atlantic. It is 
the frequent exercise of similar disinterestedness in the pro- 
motion of scientific objects that has procured for Mr Lead- 
beater the distinction with which he is daily honoured by 
learned bodies and individuals. 

The Steller’s jay is one of those obsolete species alluded to 
in the preface to this volume. It is mentioned by Pallas as 


* This species, though very similar, is distinct from the Garrulus 
coronatus, Swainson, which it is not impossible may yet be added as a 
straggler to the northern continent. We may here mention the splendid 
Columbia jay, the Pica Bullockit of Wagler, which Mr Audubon has 
figured. It is a native of Mexico and California, and a specimen was 
procured by Mr Audubon from the Columbia river. It may be con- 
sidered only as a straggler, and very rare. This, and one or two others, 
the Indian Garrulus erythrophynchus, are remarkable for the length of 
their tail, The body of the American bird is not so large as that of the 
common jay, but the total length is thirty-one inches.—Ep, 


302 STL OIG RRS, GANG 


having been shot by Steller, when Behring’s crew landed 
upon the coast of America. It was first described by Latham, 
from a specimen in Sir Joseph Banks’s collection, from Nootka 
Sound, and on his authority has been admitted into all sub- 
sequent compilations. The species is indeed too well charac- 
terised to be doubted, and appears, moreover, to have been 
known to Temminck, as it is cited by him as a true jay in 
his “ Analysis of a General System.” Nevertheless, adhering 
strictly to our plan of not admitting into the ornithology of the 
United States any but such as we had personally examined, 
we did not include this species either in our Catalogue or 
Synopsis of the birds of this country ; and it is but recently 
that Mr Leadbeater’s specimen has enabled us to add it to 
our list. 

In elevating our subgenus Garrulus to the rank of a genus, 
we merely conform to the dictates of Nature, in this instance 
coinciding with '’emminck, whose intention it is, as he in- 
forms us, to include in it the jays and magpies, leaving the 
name of Corvus for those species which are distinguished by 
their black plumage and short and even tails. These birds 
are on every account well worthy of this distinction, and we 
cheerfully adopt an arrangement which we deem consonant 
with nature ; but we cannot agree to the change of termina- 
tion (Garrula) which he has attempted to introduce, under 
the pretence that his genus is more extensive than the genus 
Garrulus of former authors. That genus was, in fact, formed 
by Brisson, and afterwards by Linné united with Corvus. 
This latter genus of Linné certainly contained within itself 
the constituents of several very natural genera ; but the addi- 
tions made to it by Gmelin and Latham rendered it an utter 
chaos, where every new species with a stout bill took its place, 
in defiance of the genuine characters. Under such circum- 
stances the task of the ornithologist who professed to be guided 
by philosophical principles was, doubtless, not merely to sub- 
divide, but to make an entire reformation, Tlliger, with his 
usual judgment, perceived thie evil, and attempted its remedy ; 


SATIIEIGIEIR OS AR 303 


but his genus was still too extensive, and, besides, was not 
natural, as it included the wax-wings, a very distinct genus, 
that had always been forced into others. The only advantage 
it possessed over that of Latham was,.that all the species it 
comprised exhibited its artificial characters. As restricted by 
Brisson, Vieillot, and lately adopted by Temminck, by whom 
it was previously much limited, it is perfectly natural ; though 
we cannot help remarking that some even of the eighteen 
species enumerated by the latter in his article on the gene- 
ralities of the crows, in the Planches Colorées, may again be 
separated, such as Corvus Columbianus, Wils., which ought, 
perhaps, to constitute a genus by itself. Vieillot, and other 
recent writers on ornithology, have long since adopted the 
genus Garrulus as distinct even from P7ca, though we prefer 
retaining the latter merely as a subgenus of Garrulus, since 
it is absolutely impossible to draw the line of separation 
between them without resorting to minute and complicated 
distinctions. 

The jays and magpies, in fact, require to be distinguished 
from the crows, as a genus, on account of their form, colour, 
habits, and even their osseous structure. Their upper man- 
dible, somewhat inflected at tip, and the navicular shape of 
the lower, afford obvious characteristic marks, Their wings, 
too, are rather short, and do not reach by a considerable space 
to the tip of the tail, which is long, and more or less rounded, 
sometimes greatly wedge-shaped. On the contrary, the crows 
have long wings, reaching almost or quite to the extremity of 
the tail, which is short, and even at tip. The identity in the 
shape of the wings and tail, and even the colours of their 
plumage, which agree in all the species and in different 
climates, render the crows a very natural and well-marked 
eroup. The black plumage and offensive odour, which cause 
them to be viewed everywhere with disgust, and even some- 
what of superstitious dread, are far from being characteristics 
of the neat and elegant jays. 

The true Corvéare distinguished by the following traits :— 


304 SURE RAILS Al Ve 


Bill, very stout; feet, very strong; general form, robust ; 
flight, highly sustained, straight or circular, as if performing 
evolutions in the air. They live, travel, and breed in large 
bands; affect wide plains and cultivated grounds, only retiring 
to the adjacent forests to roost, and are always seen on high 
and naked trees, but never on thickets, shrubs, or bushes. 
Their voice is deep and hoarse. ‘hey are more or less fond 
of cattle, some species preying on the vermin that infest them. 
Though devouring all kinds of food, yet their propensity is 
decidedly carnivorous. Their black, unvaried colours are 
remarkably opposed to the bright and cheerful vesture of the 
jays, whose plumage is of a much looser texture, the feathers | 
being longer and much more downy. 

The jays are again more particularly distinguished from 
the magpies by their head-feathers being long and silky, and 
always erectile (especially when the bird is excited or angry), 
even when they are not decidedly crested, as is the case in 
many species. ‘Their colours are also gayer, and more brilliant, 
with more or less of blue. The species of both these sections 
are garrulous, noisy, and inquisitive. ‘Together with the crows, 
they are eminently distinguished by their stout, cultrate bill, 
generally covered at base with setaceous, incumbent, porrect 
feathers, hiding the nostrils. The female is similar to the 
male in appearance, and the young differ but little, and only 
during the first year, from the adult. They are very shy, 
suspicious, possessed of an acute sense of smelling, and 
evince great sagacity in avoiding snares. They are omni- 
vorous in the fullest extent of the word, feeding on grains, 
insects, berries, and even flesh and eggs. When they have 
caught a small bird, which they can only do when feeble and 
sickly, or ensnared, they place it under their feet, and with 
their bill tear it to pieces, swallowing each piece separately. 
Nevertheless, they give the preference to grains or fruits. 
The northern species are wary and provident, collecting stores 
of food for the winter. ‘They are very petulant ; their motions 
quick and abrupt, and their sensations lively. When alarmed, 


SLLLEEBR S FAY. 305 


by the appearance of a dog, fox, or other living or dead object, 
they rally together by a peculiar note, as if they would impose 
upon it by their numbers and disagreeable noise. When on 
the ground, they display great activity; or if on trees, they 
are continually leaping about from branch to branch, and 
hardly ever alight on dead or naked ones. They are gene- 
rally met with in forests, seldom in open plains ; their favourite 
resort is among the closest and thickest woods. Less suspi- 
cious and cunning than the crows, or even the magpies, they 
may be decoyed into snares and taken in great numbers, espe- 
cially by imitating the voice of one of their own species in 
difficulties, or by forcing a captive individual to cry. They 
live in families or by pairs the greater portion of the year; 
and though considerable numbers may be seen travelling at 
once, they always keep at intervals from each other, and never 
in close flocks like the crows. They are easily tamed, and are 
susceptible of attachment; learn readily to articulate words 
and imitate the cries of different animals. They have a 
troublesome propensity to purloin and conceal small objects not 
useful to themselves ; and as jewels and precious metals are 
peculiarly apt to attract their notice, they have been the cause, 
when kept as pets, of serious mischief. Every one is familiar 
with the story of the thieving magpie, become so celebrated by 
the music of Rossini, and which is founded on fact. 

The jays breed in woods, forests, orchards, preferring old 
and very shaded trees, placing their nests in the centre against 
the body, or at the bifurcation of large limbs. The nest is 
built without art, and is formed of twigs and roots, whose 
capillary fibres serve as a lining inside ; the eggs are from four 
to six. The old ones keep the food for their young in the 
cesophagus, whence they can bring it up when wanted. The 
young are born naked, and remain for a long period in the 
nest, being still fed for some time by the parents after they 
are full fledged. 

Unlike the melancholy crows, which step gravely, lifting 


one foot after the other, the jays and magpies move about 
VOL. III. U 


3206 STELLERS FAY. 


nimbly by hopping, and are constantly in motion while on the 
ground. Their flight is, moreover, neither protracted nor ele- 
vated, but merely from tree to tree, and from branch to branch, 
shooting straight forward at once when wishing to go any 
distance, now and then flapping their wings, and hovering as 
they descend, when abont to alight. It is quite the reverse 
with the crows; and all these characters are of the greatest 
importance in the establishment of natural groups. 

While the true Corvi, by their stout and almost hooked 
bill, and the carnivorous habits of some species, exhibit on the 
one hand the gradual passage from the vultures, and on the 
other, by the slender-billed species, the transition to the crow, 
blackbirds, and troopials; the affinities of the jays present nice 
gradations to the genera already dismembered from Corvus, 
such as Nucifraga, Pyrrhocorax, Bombycilla, and at the same 
time form other links with Zandus, and even with Zurdus and 
Acridotheres. 

There is one remarkable analogy of the jays which we can- 
not pass over in silence. It is, however, singular, and hitherto 
unsuspected, with the titmouse (Parus). Form, habits, even 
the peculiar looseness of texture of the plumage, all are 
similar in these genera, hitherto estimated so widely different. 
This resemblance extends even to colour in some species: it 
might even be asked, what else, in fact, is the Canada jay 
than a large titmouse ; and what the crested titmouse but a 
small jay? The blue colour of the typical jays predominates, 
moreover, in other Part; and the P. caudatus of Kurope has 
also the long, cuneiform tail of some, no less than P. bicolor 
their crest. 

The genus Garrulus has an extensive geographical range, 
being found in all latitudes and longitudes. It is composed 
of about thirty species, nearly half of which may more properly 
be called jays : of the latter, there are but two in Europe ; and 
though we have doubled the number given by Wilson, we 
think that others will yet be discovered in the wild western 
tracts of this continent. There exist imperfect accounts of 


STELLER'S FAY, 307 


two or three species inhabiting the countries near the Rocky 
Mountains, one of which is probably that here described, and 
others may prove to be some of the newly discovered Mexican 
species, one of which, the Garrula gubernatric of Temminck, 
is so proudly beautiful. 

The Steller’s jay is more than twelve inches long. The bill 
measures one inch and a half, is entire, and totally black ; the 
bristly feathers over the nostrils are also wholly black. The 
feathers of the head are greatly elongated, forming a large 
crest, more than two and a half inches long, and, with the 
whole head and neck, entirely deep brownish black, greyish 
on the throat ; the feathers on each side of the front are slightly 
tipped with bright and light azure, thus forming a dozen or 
more of small dots on that part; on the neck, the brown be- 
comes lighter, and extends down on the back, occupying the 
scapulars as well as the inner wing-coverts ; on the middle of 
the back the brown becomes somewhat tinged with bluish, 
and blends gradually into a fine bright blue colour, covering 
the rump and the upper tail-coverts; all the inferior parts 
from the neck, at the lower part of which the dusky colour 
passes into blue, are blue, somewhat tinged with grey, which 
is the general colour of the base of the plumage. The wings 
are nearly six inches in length; the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
primaries being subequal and longest. All the outer wing- 
coverts and the secondaries are blue, faintly crossed with 
obsolete blackish lines; the under wing-coverts are dusky ; 
the primaries are dark dusky, and, with the exception of the 
outer ones, at tip are edged or tinged with blue ; on the inner 
vane, the secondaries are blackish, but on the outer, they are 
deep glossy blue. The tail is five inches and a half long, and 
but slightly rounded ; it is of a deep glossy azure blue, more 
briliant on the outer vanes of the feathers, the inner being 
slightly tinged with dusky ; an indication of obliterated trans- 
verse blackish lines may be perceived in certain lights on 
almost all the tail-feathers in our specimen, and we have no 
doubt that on others they are more marked; the shafts both 


308 STELLER’S FAY. 


of the quills and tail-feathers are black. The tarsus is an 
inch and three-quarters long; the femorals, blackish, slightly 
mixed with bluish at the joint ; the feet and nails are entirely 
black. 

This description is taken from the imdividual represented 
in the plate, which was killed near the Oregon or Columbia 
river. Another specimen, from Mexico, also in Mr Lead- 
beater’s collection, exhibited greater brilliancy of plumage, 
being principally distinguished, as nearly as our recollection 
serves, by the black colour of the anterior parts being less 
extended, and by having more of silvery bluish (indicated in 
our bird) on the front, extending to the throat and eyebrows, 
and somewhat round the head. This, without any hesitation, 
we considered as a more perfect specimen, a mere variety of 
age, and would have had our figure made from it ; but having 
been informed that an English ornithologist (his name and 
that of the species were not mentioned, or, if they were, we 
have forgotten them) considered it as a new Mexican species, 
we have preferred, notwithstanding our conviction, strictly 
copying the less brilliant specimen procured in the United 
States territory to the more beautiful one from Mexico, The 
appearance of Garrulus coronatus- of Mr Swainson in the 
Synopsis before quoted reminded us of the circumstance, and 
we have therefore quoted it with doubt. Our two birds agree 
perfectly in markings and dimensions. Of the habits of the 
Steller’s jay, little or nothing is known. It inhabits the west- 
ern territory of the United States beyond the Rocky Mountains, 
extending along the western coasts of North America, at least 
from California to Nootka Sound ; is common on the Oregon, 
and found also in Mexico on the tableland, and in Central 
America. 

It is a curious fact in ornithological geography, that of the 
four jays now admitted into the fauna of the United States, 
while the common blue jay, the only eastern representative of 
the genus, spreads widely throughout the continent, the three 
others should be confined in their range each to a particular 


LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 309 


section of country. Thus, the Canada jay is the northern, 
the Florida jay is the southern, and the present the western 
representative of the genus. It is probable that another 
species at least, our Garrulus ultramarinus, from Mexico, 
will soon be admitted as the central jay. ‘To the latter bird, 
Mr Swainson, who had probably not seen my paper describing 
it (published more than two years ago in the Journal of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences), gives the name of G. 
sordidus ; at least, judging from his short phrase, and «the 
dimensions and locality, they are the same. 


LAPLAND LONGSPUR. (inberiza Lapponica.) 
PLATE XIII.—Fic. 1, MALE; Fic. 2, FEMALE. 


Fringilla Lapponica, Linn. Syst.i. p. 517, sp. 1.—Faun. Suec. sp. 235.—G@imel. Syst. 
i. p. 900, sp. 1.—Retz. Faun. Suec. p. 242, sp. 119.—Porst. Ph. Tr. \xii. p. 
404.—Fabr. Faun. Grenl. p. 119, sp. 8.—Lath. Ind. p. 440, sp. 18.—Ubers. 
i. p. 289, sp. 18.—Fringilla montana, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 160, sp. 88.—Klein, 
Av. p. 92, sp. 10.—Fringilla calcarata," Pallas, It. p. 710, sp. 20, t. H; Jd. in 
4to, French transl. iii. pl. 1.—Meyer and Wolf, Tasch. Deutschl. i. p. 176, sp. 
13.—Emberiza Lapponica, WVilsson, Orn. Suec. i. p. 157, sp. 76.—Ranz. EI. 
Zool. vi. p. 24.—Emberiza calearata, Temm. Man. Orn.i. p. 322.—Brehm, 
Lebhr. Eur. Vog. i..p. 221.—Richardson, App. to Parry’s 2d Voy. p. 345.— 
Passerina Lapponica, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. dW’ Hist. Nat. xxv. p. 12.—Plectro- 
phanes calcaratus, Meyer, Tasch. iii. p. 176, sp. 15.—Plectrophanes Lapponica, 
Selby, in Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. p. 156, pl. 1, young.—Montifringilla congener, 
Aldrov. Orn. ii. p. 821, pl. 823.—Le Grand Montain, Buff. Ois. iv. p. 134.— 
Le Pinson de Montagne, Gerardin, Tabl. Elem. @Orn. i. p. 186.—Lerchen 
Finck, Bechst. Naturg. Deutsch. ui. p. 246, sp. 16.—Naum. Nachtr. ii. p. 25, 
pl. 20, B., female ; plate 40, male in autumn.—Greater Brambling, AJp. iii. 
p- 59, pl. 65.—Lapland Finch, Penn. Arct. ii. sp. 259.—Lath. Syn. iv. p. 263, 
sp. 14.—Ubers. iii. p. 256, sp. 14.—My Collection. 


PLECTROPHANES LAPPONICA.—SELBY.* 


Emberiza (subgen. Plectrophanes) Lapponica, Bonap. Synop. App. p. 440.— 
North. Zool. ii. p. 248. 


Tus species, long since known to inhabit the desolate arctic 
regions of both continents, is now for the first time introduced 
into the fauna of the United States, having been omitted 
both in our Synopsis and Catalogue. It is entitled to be 


* See vol. i. p. 325. 


310 LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 


ranked among the birds of this country from the fact that a 
few stragglers out of the numerous bands which descend in 
winter to comparatively warm latitudes show themselves 
almost every year in the higher unsettled parts of Maine, 
Michigan, and the north-western territory. Hven larger flocks 
are known not unfrequently to enter the territory of the 
Union, where, contrary to what is generally supposed, they 
are observed to alight on trees, as well as on the ground, 
notwithstanding their Jong and straight hind nail. We 
think it highly probable that some individuals, especially in 
their youth, visit in cold winters the mountainous districts of 
the middle States, as they are well known in Europe to 
wander or stray to the more temperate climates of Germany, 
France, England, and especially Switzerland; in all which 
countries, however, the old birds are never seen. It is not 
extraordinary that they should never have been observed in 
the Atlantic States, as they are nowhere found in maritime 
countries. 

No figure of the adult male in perfect plumage has before 
now, we believe, been given; and no representation at all is 
to be met with in the more generally accessible books or 
collections of plates. Mr Selby has lately published a figure 
of the young in the Linnean Transactions and it will also, — 
we presume, appear in his splendid work, which yields to 
none but Naumann’s, Wolf's, and Wilson’s, in point of accuracy 
and character. ‘That recorded by him appears to be the first 
instance of an individual having been found in Britain. The 
species is common in the hilly districts of eastern Europe, 
but is chiefly confined within the polar circle, though found 
abundantly in all the northern mountainous districts of 
Europe and Asia, particularly Siberia and Lapland. It is 
sometimes known to descend in autumn and winter, and, 
though very rarely, in spring, either singly and astray, or 
in immense clouds, into the north and middle of Germany. 
Great numbers were seen in the neighbourhood of Frankfort 
on the Main in the middle of November 1821. In France, 


LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 311 


they are restricted to the loftiest and most inaccessible moun- 
tains, where they are very rare ; so much so, that in those of 
the Vosges, Gerardin only met with a single specimen after 
six years’ researches, though more frequent in the mountains 
of Dauphiné. 'They are common during summer in arctic 
America, and are found at Hudson’s Bay in winter, not 
appearing before November: near the Severn river they 
haunt the cedar trees, upon whose berries they feed exclusively. 
These birds live in large flocks, and are of so social a dis- 
position, that when separated from their own species, or when 
in small parties, they always join company with the common 
lark of Kurope, or in America, with some of the different, 
snow-birds. ‘They feed chiefly on seeds, especially of the 
dwarf willows growing in frozen and mountainous countries, 
but occasionally also on leaves, grass, and insects. ‘They 
breed on small hillocks, in open marshy fields ; the nest is 
loosely constructed with moss and grasses, lined with a few 
feathers. The female lays five or six oblong eggs, yellowish 
rusty, somewhat clouded with brown. The Lapland longspur, 
like the larks, never sings but suspended aloft in the air, 
at which time it utters a few agreeable and melodious notes. 

As may be seen by the synonyms at the head of this article, 
this bird has been condemned by nomenclators to fluctuate 
between different genera. But between Mringilla and Emberiza 
it is not difficult to decide, as it possesses all the characters 
of the latter in an eminent degree, even more so than its near 
relative the snow-bunting, which has never been misplaced. 
It has even the palatine knob of Emberiza, and much more 
distinctly marked than in the snow-bunting (Limberiza nivalis). 
It has been erroneously placed in Fringilla merely on account 
of its bill being somewhat wider and more conic. 

Meyer has lately proposed, for the two just mentioned nearly 
allied species, a new genus under the name Plectrophanes 
(corresponding to the English name we have used). ‘I'his we 
have adopted as a subgenus, and are almost inclined to admit 
as an independent genus, being well characterised both by form 


312 LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 


and habits. The two species of Plectrophanes to which we 
apply the name of longspur, together with the buntings, are 
well distinguished from the finches by their upper mandible, 
contracted and narrower than the lower, their palatine tubercle, 
&c. From the typical Hmberize they differ remarkably by the 
length and straightness of their hind nail, and the form of 
their wings, which, owing to the first and second primaries 
being longest, are acute. In the true buntings, the first quill 
is shorter than the second and third, which are longest. This 
species, in all its changeable dresses, may at once be known by 


its straight and very long hind nail, which is twice as long as _ 


the toe. The bill is also stronger and longer than in the other 
species. 

The longspurs are strictly arctic birds, only descending in 
the most severe and snowy winters to less rigorous climates, 
and never to the temperate zone, except on the mountains. 
Hence they may, with the greatest propriety, be called snow 
birds. They frequent open countries, plains, and desert regions, 
never inhabiting forests. They run swiftly, advancing by suc- 
cessive steps like the lark (which they resemble in habits, 
as well as in the form of their hind nail), and not by hopping, 
like the buntings. The conformation of their wings also 
gives them superior powers of flight to their allied genera, the 
buntings and finches. Their moult appears to be double, and, 
notwithstanding Temminck’s and my own statement to the 
contrary, they differ much in their summer and winter plum- 
age. Owing to this, the species have been thoughtlessly mul- 
tiplied: there are, in reality, but two, the present, and snow- 
bunting of Wilson. 

The male Lapland longspur, in full breeding dress, is nearly 
seven inches long, and twelve and a quarter in extent ; the bill 
is nearly half an inch long, yellow, blackish at the point ; the 
irides are hazel and the feet dusky ; the head is thickly fur- 
nished with feathers ; the forepart of the neck, throat, and the 
breast are glossy black; the hind head is of a fine reddish 
rusty ; a white line arises from the base of the bill to the eye, 


LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 313 


behind which it becomes wider, descending on the sides of the 
neck somewhat round the breast; the belly and vent are 
white ; the flanks posteriorly with long blackish streaks ; the 
back and scapulars are brownish black, the feathers being 
skirted with rusty; the smaller wing-coverts are blackish, 
margined with white; the greater coverts margined with 
rufous, and white at tip, forming two white bands across the 
wings ; the primaries are blackish, edged with white ; second- 
aries emarginated at tip, dusky, edged with rusty ; the wings, 
when closed, reach to three-fourths the tail; the tail is two 
and a half inches in length, rather forked, and of a blackish 
colour ; the outer feather on each side with a white cuneiform 
spot, and the outer web almost entirely white; the second 
with a white cuneiform spot only. The hind nail is almost 
an inch long. 

The adult female is somewhat smaller than the male. In 
spring, she has the top of the head, the shoulders, back, and 
wing-coverts, brownish black, the feathers being edged with 
rusty ; the sides of the head, blackish, intermixed with rusty ; 
over the eyebrows a whitish line, as in the male, tinged with 
rusty; the nucha and rump are brownish rusty, with small 
black spots; the throat is white, encircled with brown ; re- 
maining inferior parts, white; wings and tail as in the other 
sex. 

The male in autumn and winter has the bill brownish 
yellow ; irides and feet, brownish. Head, black, varied with 
small spots of rusty ; auriculars, partly encircled with black 
feathers ; throat, yellowish white, finely streaked with deep 
black. Fore neck and breast, black, mixed with greyish white; 
the line passing through the eye down the breast, yellowish 
white, becoming darker on the breast ; lower surface from the 
breast, white, spotted on the flanks. Wings, deep blackish 
chestnut, crossed by two white lines; primaries on the inside 
at tip, margined with white. ‘Tail, forked, brownish black, all 
the feathers margined with rusty, the two outer with a white 
cuneiform spot at tip. 


3 EA! LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 


The dress of the female in autumn and winter is as follows: 
Head, and neck above, shoulders, and back, greyish rusty, with 
blackish spots, the rusty predominating on the neck and rump ; 
the superciliar line, whitish rusty, uniting with a white streak 
from the angle of the bill; throat, white each side, with a 
brownish line; upper part of the breast, greyish, spotted with 
black ; inferior parts, white; the flanks with longitudinal 
blackish marks. 

The young of both sexes, during the first year, are of a 
yellowish brown above, tinged with greyish, streaked and 
spotted with blackish, the shafts of the feathers being of that 
colour; the cheeks and auriculars are brownish, the latter 
mixed with black ; a small blackish spot, that spreads as the 
bird advances in age, is already visible near the opening of the 
ears; above the eye isa broad streak of pale brownish; the 
throat is yellowish white, slightly streaked with brown, and 
with a blackish line on each side coming from the corner of 
the lower mandible ; the lower portion of the neck and breast 
is of a dingy reddish white, more intense, and thickly spotted 
with blackish brown on the breast and flanks; the belly and 
vent are almost pure whitish. ‘lhe wing-coverts and second- 
aries are blackish brown, margined with dark rusty, and tipped 
with white; the primaries are dusky brown, paler at the edge. 
The tail-feathers are dusky, and also margined with deep rusty ; 
the outer bearing a reddish white conic spot, which is merely 
longitudinal, and narrow on the next. The bill is entirely of 
a dirty yellowish brown; the feet are dusky brown; the hind 
nail, though still longer than its toe, is much shorter, and not 
quite so straight. The figures represent an old male and a 
young female. 


oo DSSS: 
3 


ery 


Iraaem fume Necnre bey A Enaraved kv WH Dis 
1. Florida Jay. 2 Northern Three-toed Noedpecker. 3 Young Red-headed Woodpecker: 


Garrulus Floridanus, Ficus Tridacwlus. Picus Krvthvocephatus 


14+ 


FLORIDA JAY. Ais 


FLORIDA JAY. (Garrulus Floridanus.) 
PLATE XIV.—Fic. 1. 


Garrulus cyaneus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d Hist. Nat. xii. p. 476.—Garrulus cceru- 
lescens, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. @Hist. Nat. xii. p. 480.—Garrulus ccerulescens, 
Ord, in Jour. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. i. p. 346.—Corvus Floridanus, ob. Syn. 
Am. Birds, sp. 64, in Ann. Lyc. N. Y.—Id. Cat. Birds U. 8. sp. 64, in 
Contr. Mact. Lyc. Phil.—Corvus Floridanus, Pica glandaria minor, the Little 
Jay of Florida, Bart. Trav. p. 290.—Pica glandaria coerulea non cristata, Bart. 
Trav. p. 172.—Le Geay azurin, and Le Geay gris-bleu, Vietll. Nouv. Dict. 
l. c.—Philadelphia Museum, No. 1378, male ; 1379, female.—My Collection. 


GARRULUS FLORIDAN US.—BoONAPARTE. 


A SINGLE glance at the plate on which this fine bird is re- 
presented, and at that of the preceding, or Steller’s jay, will 
suffice, better than the longest description, to show the error 
committed by Latham in quoting, in his recent work, “General 
History of Birds,” the name of this species among the synonyms 
of that dedicated to Steller. In fact, the large crest of that 
species (of which the present is altogether destitute), and its 
black head, the light brown back, and bluish collar of this ;— 
but it is needless to carry the comparison between them any 
further; they are too dissimilar to suffer it, and we shall re- 
serve pointing out differences until required by closely related 
species, of which more striking examples will not long be 
wanting. 

Mistakes of this kind are perhaps unavoidable in a compila- 
tion of such extent as the work we have mentioned, and if they 
proceeded from a laudable desire of excluding nominal species, 
evinced throughout, we should refrain from censure; but when, 
on the contrary, we find in the same work such repeated in- 
stances of an inconsiderate multiplication of species, they can- 
not be too severely condemned. 

Vieillot, in the case of this bird, has fallen into the contrary, 
and much more common error, of making two species out of 
it—one from personal observation, and the other by compila- 
tion. This mistake has already been corrected by Mr Ord, 


316 FLORIDA FAY. 


in a valuable paper which he drew up on his return from 
Florida, where he enjoyed the advantage of studying this spe- 
cies in its native haunts. 

“When we first entered East Florida,’ says Mr Ord, 
“which was in the beginning of February, we saw none of 
these birds; and the first that we noticed were in the vicinity 
of St Augustine, on the 13th of the above-mentioned month. 
We afterwards observed them daily in the thickets near the 
mouth of the St Juan. Hence we conjectured that the species 
is partially migratory. Their voice is not so agreeable as that 
of the Garrulus cristatus, or crested blue jay of the United 
States ; they are quarrelsome, active, and noisy, and construct 
their nests in thickets. Their eggs I have not seen.” “The 
blue jay, which is so conspicuous an ornament to the groves 
and forests of the United States, is also common in Florida. 
This beautiful and sprightly bird we observed daily, in com- 
pany with the mocking-bird and the cardinal grosbeak, around 
the rude habitations of the disheartened inhabitants, as if will- 
ing to console them amid those privations which the frequent 
Indian wars, and the various revolutions which their province 
has experienced, have compelled them to bear.’ The Florida 
jay, however, is a resident in that country, or only removes 
from section to section. It is not confined to Florida, where 
it was first noticed by Bartram, being found also in Louisiana, 
and in the west extends northward to Kentucky, but along 
the Atlantic not so far. In East Florida it is more abundant, 
being found at all seasons in low thick covers, clumps, or 
bushes. They are most easily discovered in the morning 
about sunrise, on the tops of young live oaks, in the close 
thickets of which they are found in numbers. Their notes are 
ereatly varied, and in sound have much resemblance to those 
of the thrush and the blue jay, partaking a little of both. Later 
in the day it is more difficult to find them, as they are more 
silent, and not so much on the tree-tops as among the bushes, 
which are too thickly interwoven with briers and saw-palmettos, 
to be traversed; and unless the birds are killed on the spot, 


LLORIDA FAY. BG! 


which they seldom are when struck with fine shot, it is next 
to impossible to come at them in such situations. This species, 
like its relatives, is omnivorous, but being inferior in strength, 
does not attack large animals. ‘The stomachs of our specimens 
contained small fragments of shells, sand, and half-digested 
seeds. 

The blue jays, though also found in the same localities, are 
not so numerous ; they keep more in the woods, and their note 
is louder. 

The Florida jay is eleven and a half inches long, and nearly 
fourteen in extent ; the bill is one mech and a quarter lone, 
hardly notched, and of a black colour, lighter at tip; the in- 
cumbent setaceous feathers of the base are greyish blue, mixed 
with a few blackish bristles ; the irides are hazel brown ; the 
head and neck above and on the sides, together with the 
wings and tail, are bright azure ; the front, and a line over 
the eye, bluish white ; the lores and cheeks of a duller blue, 
somewhat mixed with black; the back is yellowish brown, 
somewhat mixed with blue on the rump, the upper tail-coverts 
being bright azure ; the inner vanes and tips of the quills are 
dusky, their shafts, as well as those of the tail-feathers, being 
black. All the lower parts are of a dirty pale yellowish grey, 
more intense on the belly, and paler on the throat, which is 
faintly streaked with cinereous, owing to the base of the plu- 
mage appearing from underneath, its feathers having blackish, 
bristly shafts, some of them without webs. From the cheeks 
and sides of the neck, the blue colour passes down along the 
breast, and forms a somewhat obscure collar ; the under wing 
and under tail coverts are strongly tinged with blue, which 
colour is also slightly apparent on the femorals; the inferior 
surface of the wings and tail is dark silvery grey; the base of 
the plumage is plumbeous ash, blackish on the head; the wings 
are four and a half inches long, and reach, when closed, hardly 
beyond the coverts of the tail, which is five and a half inches 
long, extending beyond the wings three and a half; the spu- 
rious feather is extremely short ; the first primary (often mis- 


318 NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 


taken for the second), is as short as the secondaries ; the five 
succeeding are subequal, the third and fourth being rather the 
longest. The tail is somewhat wedge-shaped, the outer fea- 
ther being half an inch shorter than the next, and one inch and 
ahalf shorter than the middle one. The tarsus isan inch and 
a quarter long, and black, as well as the toes and nails. 

The female is perfectly similar to the male, being but a 
trifle less in size, and quite as brilliant in plumage. 

Two years since it fell to our lot to describe and apply the 
name of ultramarine jay (Garrulus ultramarinus) to a species 
found in Mexico, closely resembling this, and to which Mr 
Swainson, in his “ Synopsis of Mexican Birds,” has lately given 
the name of Garrulus sordidus, his specimen being probably a 
young one. The principal distinctive characters may be found 
in its larger dimensions, but especially in the shape of its tail, 
which is perfectly even, and not in the least cuneiform, as it 
generally isin the jays, The back, though it is also somewhat 
intermixed with dusky, is much more blue than in our species, 
and indeed the whole azure colour is somewhat more brilliant 
and silky; the bluish collar is wanting, and the under wing, 
but especially the under tail coverts, are much less tinged with 
blue. ‘The wings, moreover, are proportionally larger. 


NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 
(Picus tridactylus) 


PLATE XIV.—Fie. 2. 
Picus tridactylus, Zinn. Syst. i..p. 177, sp. 21.—Gme!. Syst. i. p. 439, sp. 21.— 


Scop. Ann. i. sp. 56.—Georgi, Reise, p. 165.—Borowsk, Nat. ii. p. 138. sp. 8.— 
Lath. Ind. p. 243, sp. 56.—Meyer and Wolf, Tasch. Deutsch. Vog. i. p. 125, 
sp. 8.—Temm. Man. Orn. i. p. 401, young.—Brehm, Lehr. Eur. Vog. i. p. 
142.— Ranz. Elem. Orn. ii. p. 184, sp. 9, tab. 7, fig. 4. —Picus hirsutus, Viel. 
Ois, Am. Sept. ii. p. 68, pl. 124, adult male.—Picoides, Lacepede.—Dendroco- 
pos tridactylus, Koch, Baierische Zool.—Tridactylia hirsuta, Stephens in 
Shaw’s Zool. ix. p. 219.—Picus tridactylus anomalus, Mus. Petr. 368.— 
Picchio a tredita, Stor. degli Ucc. ii. pl. 180.—Pic. tridactyle ou Picoide, 
Temm.l. c.—Dreizehiger Specht, Bechst. Nat. Deutschl. ii. p. 1044.—Naum- 


NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 319 


Vog. Nachtr. pl. 41, fig. 81.—Meyer and Wolf, Ois. d’Allem. Cah. 26, pl. 4, 
male ; pl. 6, female—Northern Three-toed Woodpecker, Hdwards, pl. 114, 
male.—Three-toed Woodpecker, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 168.—Lath. Syn. ii. 
p. 600, sp. 51; Id. Suppl. p. 112.—Phaladelphia Museum, male.—My Collec- 
tion, male, female, and young. 


APTERNUS ARCTICUS.—Swatnson. 
Picus (Apternus) Arcticus, Sw. North. Zool. ii. p. 313. 


Tuts species is one of those which, from their habitation being 
in the extreme north, have a wide range round the globe. It 
is, in fact, met with throughout northern Asia and Europe, 
from Kamtschatka to the most eastern coasts of the old con- 
{inent ;-and in America, is very common at Hudson’s Bay, 
Severn river, Fort William on Lake Superior, and throughout 
the north-west in hilly and wooded tracts. In the United 
States it is only a rare and occasional winter visitant, never 
having been received by us, except from the northern terri- 
tory of the State of Maine. The species, contrary to what is 
observed of most other arctic birds, does not appear to extend 
so far south, comparatively, as in Europe, though it is not 
improbable that on this continent it may also inhabit some 
unexplored mountainous districts, resembling the wild regions 
where only it is found in Europe. In both continents, the 
species affects deep forests among mountains, the hilly coun- 
tries of northern Asia and Europe, and the very lofty chains 
of central Europe, whose elevation compensates for their more 
southern latitude. It is exceedingly common in Siberia, is 
abundant in Norway, Lapland, and Dalecarlia, among the 
gorges of Switzerland and the Tyrol, especially in forests of 
pines. It is not uncommon in the Canton of Berne, in the 
forest near Interlaken, though very rare in Germany and the 
more temperate parts of Europe. It 1s well known to breed 
even in Switzerland, and deposits, in holes formed in pine 
trees, four or five eggs of a brilliant whiteness ; its voice and 
habits are precisely the same as those of the spotted wood- 
peckers. Its food consists of insects and their larvee and 
egos, and sometimes seeds and berries. It is easily decoyed 
by imitating its voice. 


320 NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 


This species is eminently distinguished among the North 
American and European woodpeckers by having only three 
toes, the inner hind toe being wanting ; besides which it has 
other striking peculiarities, its bill being remarkably broad 
and flattened, and its tarsi covered with feathers half their 
length; the tongue is, moreover, not cylindrical, but flat and 
serrated at the point, which conformation we have, however, 
observed in the three European spotted woodpeckers, and in 
the American Picus varius, villosus, pubescens, and querulus. 
In ail these species the tongue is flat, with the margins pro- 
jecting each side, and serrated backwards, plain above, convex 
beneath, and acute at the tip.* 

- Linné, Brisson, and other anterior writers, confounded this 
northern bird with a tropical species, the southern three- 
toed woodpecker, Picus undulatus of Vieillot, which inhabits 
Guiana, and, though very rarely, Central America, but never so 
far north as the United States. It is the southern species of 
which Brisson has given us the description, while Linné de- 
scribed the present. It is nevertheless probable that he had 
the other in view when he observes, that in European speci- 
mens the crown was yellow, and in the American red, though, 
as he states, from Hudson’s Bay. The latter mistake was cor- 
rected by Latham, who, however, continued to consider the 

* Mr Swainson has thought the three-toed woodpeckers of sufficient 
importance to form a subgenus ; and I rather think that he will be 
right in his views. These birds were included by Koch in his genus 
Dendrocopus, of which they possess the general form and colour, but 
differ chiefly in the structure of the foot. I believe more species will 
be discovered in the south parts of America ; and Mr Swainson, although 
he does not enter minutely into the distinctions, considers that there 
are two confounded under the northern three-toed woodpecker. The 
present bird he denominates Apternus Arcticus, and retains tridactylus 
for the three-toed woodpecker of Pennant and Edwards, the Picus 
tridactylus of Forster. The chief differences are in the greater size of 
the former, the difference of marking, and the relative proportion of 
the wings. The Northern Expedition observed the first only on the 
eastern declivities of the Rocky Mountains, where the common species 


was also procured. This investigation may be worth the while of those 
persons who have the opportunity.—Ep., 


NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 321 


southern as no more than a variety, in which he was mistaken, 
since they are widely distinct ; but as he had no opportunity 
of seeing specimens, he is not to be censured, especially as he 
directed the attention of naturalists to the subject. The merit 
of firmly establishing the two species is, we believe, due to 
Vieillot. Besides several other traits, the northern bird is 
always to be distinguished in every state of plumage from its 
southern analogue by that curious character whence Vieillot 
took his highly characteristic name (Picus hirsutus, Pic a 
pieds vétus), the feathered tarsi, a peculiarity which this atone 
possesses to the same extent. The plumage is a uniform 
black above in the adult, with the top of the head yellow in 
the male, while the southern, whose tarsi are naked, is black 
undulated with white, the male having the sinciput red. It 
is worthy of remark that the three-toed group found in arctic 
and in tropical America should have no representative in the 
intermediate countries. 

Although these are the only three-toed woodpeckers noted 
as such in the books, several others are known to exist, some 
of which, long since discovered, have through inadvertence, or 
want of proper discrimination, been placed among the four-toed 
species. ‘The three-toed woodpeckers have been formed into 
a separate genus, a distinction to which they might indeed be 
considered entitled if they all possessed the other characters 
of the present ; but, besides that this character appears to be 
insulated, and of secondary importance (since all forms of the 
bill known among the four-toed species are met with among 
the three-toed, which ought, therefore, to make as many groups 
as there are forms, instead of a single one), the naturalist is 
perplexed by the anomalous species that inhabit India, of 
which one has only a stump destitute of nail, and another 
merely a very small nail without the toe; and, as if Nature took 
delight in such slow and gradual transitions, two others, fur- 
nished with both toe and nail, have the toe exceedingly short, 
and the nail extremely small! ‘This serves to demonstrate 


that Picus, like other natural groups, admits of subdivision. 
VOL. IIL. x 


222 NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 


These, however, ought not to be separations; and the genus 
has been left comparatively untouched by the great innovators 
of our day, who have only established three genera from it. 
The first of these, Colaptes, of which P. auratus of North 
America may be considered the type, comprises the species 
that have four toes and slightly curved bills, forming the 
passage to Cuculus ; another, for which the name of Pzcws is 
retained, includes the four-toed species with straight bills, and 
the third for the three-toed species indiscriminately. The 
only foreign three-toed species in our collection, the beautiful 
Picus Bengalensis of authors (Picus tiga of Horsfield), widely 
spread through tropical Asia and the adjacent islands, and, 
though long since known, always ranked as four-toed, has the 
bill precisely similar to the four-toed species, being even re- 
markably compressed, and very sharp on the ridge. 

The male northern three-toed woodpecker is ten inches 
long, and sixteen in extent ; the bill measures one inch and a 
quarter, is of a blackish lead colour, bluish white at the base 
of the lower mandible; it is very broad at base, cuneiform and 
obtuse at tip, and much depressed throughout, the ridge being 
very much flattened: both mandibles are perfectly straight, 
the upper pentagonal, the lower obtusely trigonal ; the tongue 
is somewhat shorter than that of other species of the genus ; 
the bristly feathers at the base of the bill are very thick and 
long, a provision which Nature has made for most arctic birds ; 
in this they measure half an inch, and are blackish, white at 
base, somewhat mixed with reddish white; the irides are bluish 
black ; the whole head and neck above and on the sides, back, 
rump, scapulars, smaller wing and tail coverts, constituting 
the whole upper surface of the bird, of an uniform, deep, glossy 
black, changing somewhat to green and purple, according to 
the incidence of light; the feathers of the front are tipt 
with white, producing elegant dots of that colour (which per- 
haps disappear with age); the crown of the head is ornamented 
with a beautiful oblong spot one inch in length, and more than 
half an inch broad, of a bright silky golden yellow, faintly 


NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. B08 


tinged with orange, and the feathers in this place very fine, 
and somewhat rigid ; they are black at their base, and marked 
with white at the limits of the two colours; the base of the 
plumage elsewhere is uniformly plumbeous ash: each side, 
from the corner of the mouth, arises a broad white line, form- 
ing a white space before the eye, prolonged on the neck ; 
beneath this there is a black one, which, passing from the 
base of the lower mandible, joins the mass of black of the 
body ; a tuft of setaceous white feathers advances far upon 
the bill beneath ; the throat, breast, middle of the belly, and 
tips of the under tail-coverts are pure white ; the sides of the 
breast, flanks broadly, and base of the tail-coverts, and even of 
some of the belly feathers, are thickly waved with lines of 
black and white, as well as the femoral and short tarsal 
feathers: in very old birds, as the one represented in the 
plate, these parts are considerably less undulated, being of a 
much purer white ; the wings are five inches long, reaching 
two-thirds the length of the tail; the spurious feather is 
exceedingly short, the first primary hardly longer than the 
seventh; and the four following subequal and longest ; the 
smaller wing-coverts, as mentioned, glossy black ; all the other 
upper coverts, as well as the quills, are of a dull black, the 
primaries being somewhat duller ; these are regularly marked 
on both webs with square white spots, larger on the inner 
webs, and as they approach the base; the secondaries are 
merely spotted on the inner vane, the spots taking the appear- 
ance of bands; the tips of all the quills are unspotted, the 
lower wing-coverts are waved with black and white, similar 
to the flanks ; the tail is four inches long, of the shape usual 
in the woodpeckers, and composed of twelve feathers, of which 
the four middle, longest, and very robust and acute, are plain 
deep black, the next on each side is also very acute, and black 
at base, cream white at the point, obliquely and irregularly 
tipt with black; the two next to these are cream white to 
the tip, banded with black on the inner vane at base, the more 


224 NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 


exterior being much purer white and somewhat rounded ; the 
exterior of all is very short and rounded, and banded through- 
out with black and pure white: the tarsus is seven-eighths of 
an inch long, feathered in front for nearly half its length, and, 
with the toes and nails, dark plumbeous ; the nails are much 
curved and acute, the hind one being the largest. 

The above is a minute description of our finest male speci- 
men, with which all those we have examined coincide more or 
less. By comparing, however, this description with the detailed 
ones found in some works, we must conclude that the species 
is subject to variations in size and plumage, which, according 
to the erroneous impression given by authors, could not be 
satisfactorily accounted for by difference of sex, age, or locality : 
thus in some specimens the cervix is described white, or partly 
whitish, instead of being wholly black ; the back is also said 
to be waved with white, which is indeed the case, and with 
the cervix also, but only in young birds. There is a circum- 
stance, however, that could not be explained by supposing a 
difference of age, for while some specimens are seen with no 
appearance of white or yellow on the crown, but having that 
part, as well as the body, rich shining black, others, with a 
good deal of lemon yellow on that part, are of a duller black, 
much varied with white. As in other doubtful and intricate 
cases, these obscurities are dissipated by a close inspection and 
unprejudiced observation of nature, and we feel much gratifi- 
cation in being enabled to unveil to ornithologists the mystery 
of these diversities of plumage in this species, by merely point- 
ing out the sexual differences, as well as those originating in 
the gradual change from youth to maturity in both sexes; 
which, when understood, will not be found more extraordinary 
than in other species. 

The adult female has never been recognised by any author, 
nor, hitherto, even by ourselves, having been misled by others 
in taking the young for her; and this we have only discovered 
by inspecting a great many specimens. She is precisely similar 


YOUNG RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. B25 


to the male, even in the minutest particulars, excepting the 
absence of yellow on the head, this part being of a rich and 
glossy black. 

The young of both sexes are of a dull blackish; the seta- 
ceous feathers of the nostrils are greyish, somewhat tinged 
with rusty; all the feathers of the crown are tipt with 
white, constituting thick dots on that part, to which they 
give a silvery appearance; the cheek-bands are obscure and 
much narrower; the cervix is more or less varied with white, 
and the feathers of the back being banded with white, gives 
to that part a waved appearance; the under parts are more 
thickly waved with black: six, instead of four, of the middle 
tail-feathers are almost wholly black, the outer of the six 
having only two or three whitish spots on the outer web. The 
remaining parts, with due allowance, are similar to the 
adult. 

The young male gradually assumes the yellow, which is at 
first but little extended, and of a pale lemon colour, through 
which are yet for some time seen the white dots attributed to 
the female. She indeed has them very conspicuous in youth, 
as they are not confounded with any yellow, but loses them 
entirely as she advances to the adult state. 


YOUNG RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 


(Picus erythrocephalus.) 
PLATE XIV.—Fice. 3. 


See Wilson’s American Ornithology, vol. i. p. 142, pl. 9, fig. 1, for the adult.— 
Picus erythrocephalus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 174, sp. 7.—Mus. Adolph. Frid. ii. 
p. 21.—Briss. Orn. iv. p. 52, sp. 19, pl. 3, fig. 1; Id. 8vo, ii. p. 50.—Gmel. 
Syst. i. p. 429, sp. 7.—Borowsk. Nat. ii. p. 136, sp. 4.—Lath. Ind. p. 227, 
sp. 9, adult.—Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. ii. p. 60, pl. 112, adult; pl. 113, young. 
—Picus obscurus, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 429.—Lath. Ind. p. 228, sp. 11, young.— 
Picus capite toto rubro, the Red-headed Woodpecker, Catesby, Car. i. pl. 20, 
adult.—Picus capite colloque rubris, Klein, Av. p. 28, sp. 12, adult.—Picus 
capite toto rubro, Kalm, It. iii. pl. 43, adult.—Picchio di testa rossa, Storia 
degli Uce. pl. 170, adult.—Pic noir 4 domino rouge, Buf. Ois. vii. p. 55, adult. 
—Pic de Virginie, Buff. Pl. enl. 117, adult.—Pic tricolor, Vieill. l. c. adult 


326 YOUNG RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 


and young.—Red-headed Woodpecker, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 160.—Kalm, 
Trav. (Angl.) ii. p. 86.—Lath. Synop. ii. p. 561, adult.—White-rumped 
Woodpecker, Lath. Syn. ii. p. 563, sp. 10, young. 

MELANERPES ERYTHROCEPHALUS.—SWAINSON. 


See vol. i. p. 146, male. 


THE state in which the common red-headed woodpecker is here 
represented has given rise to a nominal species; and it is, in 
fact, so difficult to recognise for that bird, that we have thought 
proper, after the example of Vieillot, to give an exact figure 
of it. We feel no diffidence in affirming, that in this, through 
the exertions of Messrs Rider and Lawson, we have fully suc- 
ceeded ; and it will perhaps be allowed to be the best repre- 
sentation of a bird ever engraved. We have nothing to add 
to Wilson’s excellent account of the manners of this very 
common species, and, therefore, shall limit ourselves to the 
description of the young as represented. 

The young red-headed woodpecker is nine and a half inches 
long and seventeen inches in extent. The bill is short and 
robust, being but one-eighth more than an inch in length ; 
the upper mandible has the ridge slightly curved; the bill is 
horn colour, whitish at base beneath; the setaceous feathers 
covering the nostrils are very short, and not thick, rufous grey, 
tipt with black; the whole head, neck, and upper parts of 
the breast (which are red in the adult), are blackish, each 
feather broadly edged with whitish, giving the throat the 
appearance of being whitish, streaked with blackish; the 
auriculars are plain dusky black; from the breast beneath all 
is dingy white, the feathers of the breast and lower tail-coverts 
having dusky shafts; the back and scapulars are black, the 
feathers being margined with whitish grey; the rump and 
upper tail-coverts pure white; the wings are five inches and 
a half long ; the spurious feather very short, the first primary 
subequal to the fifth, the second to the fourth, the third being 
longest ; the smaller wing-coverts are uniform with the back ; 
the larger are of a deeper black, and tipt with pure white ; 
the spurious wing is wholly deep black; the under wing- 


YOUNG RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 327 


coverts are pure white, blackish along the margin of the wing ; 
the primaries are plain black, tipt and edged externally with 
whitish; the secondaries are white, shafted with black, and 
with an acuminate, broad, subterminal band, which, running 
from one to the other, takes a zigzag appearance; the tail is 
four inches long, and, like those of all the woodpeckers we have 
examined, composed of twelve feathers, of which the outer on 
each side is extremely short and inconspicuous, and pure white, 
with a black shaft. All the others, which are very acute, 
longer, and more acuminate, and stiffer as they approach the 
centre, are black, and, except the two middle ones, slightly 
whitish each side of the shaft at tip, the outer being also of 
that colour on its outer margin. The feet are dark plumbeous, 
the tarsus being seven-eighths of an inch long, and feathered 
for a short space in front. 

The young of both sexes are, no less than the adult, per- 
fectly alike; as they advance in age, the margins of the 
feathers disappear, and the black becomes deep and glossy, 
and all the colours much purer; the scarlet of the head comes 
on very gradually, so that specimens are found with merely 
a reddish tinge, and generally with a few dots on the hind 
neck ; it is one of these specimens, with a few streaks of red, 
that we have selected for the sake of ornamenting the plate, 
as well as to exemplify the manner in which the change takes 
place. No such mark appears at first. 

In the adult, the whole head, neck, and breast, are bright 
and deep scarlet, with the feathers black at base ; the back, 
scapulars, and smaller wing-coverts, are rich glossy black; the 
rump, upper tail-coverts, and from the breast beneath, white, 
the bottom of the plumage being plumbeous, and the tail- 
coverts with blackish shafts; the wings and tail are black; the 
lower wing-coverts pure white, with the margin of the wing 
deep black; the secondaries are white, shafted to near the tip 
with black ; the last of the primaries being also white at tip, 
and on the greater part of the base of the outer vane; the 
small lanceolate outer feather is white, black on the shaft and 


328 EVENING GROSBEAK. 


base of the inner vane; the two next only being tipt with 
white, the outer of which is also white on the exterior 
margin. 


EVENING GROSBEAK. (fringilla vespertina.) 
PLATE XV.—Fie. 1. 


Fringilla vespertina, Cooper, in Ann. Lyc. New York, i. p. 220.—WNob. Cat. Bird 
U.S. sp. 188, in Contr. Macl. Lyc. Phila. i. p. 21.—Id. Syn. Birds, U.S. 
sp. 188, in Ann. Lyc. NV. Y. ii. p. 113.—Id. Suppl. in Zool. Journ. London, 
iv. p. 2.—Cabinet of the Lyceum of Nat. Hist. of New York.—Myr Lead- 
beater’s Collection in London. 


COCCOTHRAUSTES? VESPERTINA.—CooPrEr.* 


Coccothraustes vespertina, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 269. 


Few birds could form a more interesting acquisition to the 
fauna of any country than this really fine grosbeak. Beautiful 
in plumage, peculiar in its habits, important to systematical 
writers, if combines advantages of every kind. It was named 
and first described by Mr Cooper, and little has since been 
discovered of its history to be added to the information he 
has collected and given us in the journal above quoted. The 
species appears to have an extensive range in the northern 
and north-western parts of this continent, being met with 
from the extremity of the Michigan territory to the Rocky 
Mountains, within the same parallels. It is common about 
the head of Lake Superior, at Fond du Lac, and near the 
Athabasca Lake. A few were observed by Mr Schooleraft, 
during the first week of April 1823, about Sault Sainte Marie, 
Michigan territory, where they remained but a short time, 


* In another note we remarked, that this genus was supplanted in 
America by Mr Swainson’s genus Guirauca, At that time we overlooked 
the evening grosbeak, which approaches nearer to our idea of the genus 
Coccothraustes than some of those which have lately been placed within 
it. And it will remain at present a question whether the present form 
be retained under that title, and the aberrant species separated, or the 
reverse. We do not consider that this bird can range with Gudraca.— 
Ep, 


Lraxn trom Nature by A. Wuler naraved iv BE Lin 


1 Evenin: Grosbeak. 2 Female hose trvasted tavosbeak. 3. Female White-winged Cressbul. + Femate Indigo Finch. 
tringlte, Vesperting. Pringilla cudeviciana Lovta dencoplera bringila (vanea 


15. 


EVENING GROSBEAK. 329 


and have not appeared since ; and by Major Delafield, in the 
month of August of the sume year, near the Savannah river, 
north-west from Lake Superior. ‘They appear to retire during 
the day to the deep swamps of that lonely region, which are 
covered with a thick growth of various trees of the coniferous 
order, and only leave them in small parties at the approach 
of night. Their note is strange and peculiar ; and it is only 
at twilight that they are heard crying in a singular strain. 
This mournful sound, uttered at such an unusual hour, strikes 
the traveller’s ear, but the bird itself is seldom seen ; though, 
probably from its unacquaintance with man, it is so remarkably 
tame and fearless as almost to suffer itself to be caught with 
the hand. 

The specimen of the evening grosbeak presented to the 
Lyceum of New York by Mr Schoolcraft, from which Mr 
Cooper established the species, was thought, until lately, the 
only one in possession of civilised man; but we have since 
examined two others shot early in the spring on the Atha- 
basca Lake, near the Rocky Mountains, and preserved among 
the endless treasures of Mr Leadbeater of London. From 
the more perfect of these, our plate, already engraved from 
Mr Cooper’s specimen, has been faithfully coloured ; and the 
subjoined description is carefully drawn up from a perfect 
specimen now before us, which Mr Leadbeater, with the most 
obliging liberality, has confided to our charge. 

Although we consider the grosbeaks (Coccothraustes) as 
only a subgenus of our great genus Lringilla, they may with 
equal propriety constitute one by themselves, as the insensible 
degrees by which intermediate species pass from one form 
into another (which determined us in considering them as a 
subgenus, and not a genus) are equally observable between 
other groups, though admitted as genera. Coccothraustes is as 
much entitled to be distinguished generically from Fringilla, 
as Turdus from Sylvia ; and at all events, its claim is fully 
as good, and perhaps better, than its near relation, Pyrrhula. 
In the present work, however, we have preferred retaining 


330 EVENING GROSBEAK. 


things as we found them, until we can apply ourselves to the 
work of a general reform, as announced in a previous article 
of this work. ‘Though we regard the grosbeaks as a subgenus, 
others, going to the opposite extreme, have erected them into 
a separate family, composed of several genera. ‘The evening 
erosbeak is, however, so precisely similar in form to the haw- 
finch-type of the group, as to defy the attempts of the most 
determined innovators to separate them. Its bill is as broad, 
as high, quite as strong and turgid, with both mandibles equal, 
the upper depressed and rounded above, and the commissure 
straight, It conforms even, in a slight degree, in the rhom- 
boidal shape of the ends of the secondaries—a character so 
conspicuous in its analogue, to which, in the distribution and 
transitions of its tints, though very different, it also bears a 
resemblance. It is, however, of the four North American 
species of its group, the only one so strictly allied, for even 
the cardinal grosbeak, the most nearly related of these species, 
on account of its short, rounded wings and other minor traits, 
might be separated, though fortunately it has not as yet, to 
our knowledge ; the others have been already. 

The evening grosbeak is eight and a half inches long; its 
bill is of a greenish yellow, brighter on the margins, seven- 
eighths of an inch long, five-eighths broad, the same in height ; 
the capistrum and lora are black; the front is widely bright 
yellow, prolonged in a broad stripe over the eye to the ears ; 
the hind crown is black, intermixed with yellow, visible only 
on separating the feathers, but leading to the suspicion that 
at some period the yellow extends perhaps all over the crown ; 
the sides and inferior parts of the head, the whole neck, above 
and beneath, together with the interscapulars and breast, are 
of a dark olive brown, becoming lighter by degrees; the sca- 
pulars are yellow, slightly tinged with greenish ; the back, 
rump, with the whole lateral and inferior surface, including 
the under wing and under tail coverts, yellow, purer on the 
rump, and somewhat tinged with olive brown on the belly. 
Although these colours are all very pure, they are not definitely 


EVENING GROSBEAK. Bei 
separated, but pass very insensibly into each other; thus the 
black of the crown passes into the dark brown of the necl, 
which, becoming lighter by degrees, is blended with the yellow 
of the back. he same thing takes place beneath, where the 
olive brown of the breast passes by the nicest gradations into 
the yellow of the posterior parts ; the whole base of the plu- 
mage is pale bluish plumbeous, white before the tips of the 
feathers ; the femorals are black, skirted with yellow; the 
wings are four and a half inches long; the smaller, middling, 
and exterior larger wing-coverts, are deep black, as well as 
the spurious wing; those nearest the body are white, black at 
the origin only ; the quills are deep black, the three outer 
being subequal and longest, attenuated on their outer web 
at the point, and inconspicuously tipt with whitish ; the 
secondaries are marked with white on their inner web, that 
colour extending more and more as they approach the body, 
the four or five nearest being entirely pure white, like their 
immediate coverts, and slightly and inconspicuously edged 
with yellow externally ; the tail is two and a half inches long, 
slightly forked, and, as well as its long superior coverts, very 
deep black ; the outer feather on each side has, on the inner 
vane, towards the tip, a large, roundish, white spot, which seems 
disposed to become obliterated, as 1t is much more marked on 
one than on that of the other side which corresponds to it, 
and does not exist in all specimens; a similar spot is per- 
ceptible on the second tail-feather, where it is, however, nearly 
obliterated ; the feet are flesh-colour, the nails blackish, the 
tarsus measuring three-quarters of an inch. 

No difference of any consequence is observable between the 
sexes, though it might be said that the female is a little less 
in size, and rather duller in plumage. 


332 FEMALE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 


FEMALE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. (fringilla 
Ludoviciana.) 


PLATE XV.—Fic. 2. 


See Rose-breasted Grosbeak Loxia rosea (Ludoviciana) Wils. Am. Orn. ii. p. 135, 
pl. 17, fig. 1, for the male.— Loxia Ludoviciana, Linn. Syst. i. p. 306, sp. 88.— 
Gmel. Syst. i. p. 862, sp. 38.—Lath. Ind. p. 379, sp. 25.—Fringilla punicea, 
Gmel. Syst. i. p. 921, sp. 81.—Lath. Ind. p. 444, sp. 34, adult male.—Loxia 
maculata, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 861, sp. 87.—Lath. Ind. p. 379, sp. 26, young.— 
Loxia obscura, Gmel. i. p. 862, sp. 88.—Lath. Ind. p. 379, sp. 27, female.— 
Coccothraustes Ludoviciana, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 247, sp. 14, pl. 12, fig. 2; Id. 
8vo, i. p. 378.—Coccothraustes rubricollis, Vieil/. Gal. Ois. i. part ii. p. 67, 

' pl. 58 (very bad), and Dict.—Pyrrhula Ludoviciana, Sabine, Zool. App. to 
Frankl. Exp. p. 675.—Fringilla Ludoviciana, ob. Obs. Nom. Wils. Orn. sp. 
80,.—Id. Cat. Birds U. S. sp. 189.—Id. Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 189.—Guiraca 
Ludoviciana, Swainson, Syn. Mex. Birds, sp. 76, in Phil. Mag. N. S. i. p. 
438.—Le Rose-gorge, Buff. Ois. iii. p. 460.—Gros-bec de la Louisiane, Buff. 
Pl. enl. 153, fig. 2, male.—Moineau a poitrine et ventre pourprés, Sonn. 
Buff. x\viii. p. 240.—Red-breasted Grosbeak, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 212.—Lath. 
Syn. iii. p. 126, sp. 24.—Red-breasted-Finch, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 275.— 
Lath. Syn. iii. p. 272, sp. 30, adult male.—Dusky Grosbeak, Penn. Arct. 
Zool. sp. 216.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 127, sp. 26, female.-—Spotted Grosbeak, 
Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 213.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 126, sp. 25, young.—Phila- 
delphia Museum, No. 5806, male ; 5807, female. 


GUIRACA LUDOVICIA NA.—SWAInNson. 


See vol. i. p. 277. 


TnouGH several figures have been published of the very showy 
male rose-breasted grosbeak, the humble plumage of the 
female and young has never been represented. It would, 
however, have better served the purposes of science if the pre- 
ference had been given to the latter, though less calculated to 
attract the eye, inasmuch as striking colours are far less liable 
to be misunderstood or confounded in the description of species 
than dull and blended tints. It will be seen by the synonymy 
that nominal species have in fact been introduced into the 
systems. But if it be less extraordinary that the female and 
young should have been formed into species, it is certainly 
unaccountable that the male itself should have been twice 
described in the same works, once as a finch, and once as a 
erosbeak. This oversight originated with Pennant, and later 
compilers have faithfully copied it, though so easy to rectify. 


LEMALE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, 333 


The female rose-breasted grosbeak is eight inches long, and 
twelve and a half inches in extent. The bill has not the form 
either of the typical grosbeaks or of the bullfinches, but is 
intermediate between them, though more compressed than 
either. It is three-quarters of an inch long, and much higher 
than broad ; instead of being pure white, as that of the male, 
it is dusky horn-colour above, and whitish beneath and on 
the margins; the irides are hazel brown; the crown is of a 
blackish-brown, each feather being skirted with lighter olive 
brown, and faintly spotted with white on the centre; from the 
nostrils a broad band passes over the eye, margining the crown 
to the neck ; a brown streak passes through the eye, and the 
inferior orbit is white; more of the brown arises from the 
angle of the mouth, spreading on the auriculars ; on the upper 
part of the neck above, the feathers are whitish, edged with 
pale flaxen, and with a broad, oblong, medial, blackish brown 
spot at tip; on the remaining part of the neck and inter- 
scapulars, this blackish spot is wider, so that the feathers 
are properly of that colour, broadly edged with pale flaxen ; 
the back and rump, and the upper tail-coverts, are of a lighter 
brown, with but a few merely indicated and lighter spots; the 
whole inferior surface of the bird is white, but not very pure ; 
the sides of the throat are dotted with dark brown, the dots 
occupying the tips of the feathers; the breast and flanks are 
somewhat tinged with flaxen (more dingy on the latter), and 
each feather being blackish along the middle at tip, those parts 
appear streaked with that colour; the middle of the throat, 
the belly, and under tail-coverts are unspotted ; the base of 
the plumage is everywhere plumbeous ; the wings are rounded, 
less than four inches long, entirely dusky brown, somewhat 
darker on the spurious wing, all the feathers, both quills and 
coverts, being lighter on their edges; the exterior webs of the 
middle and larger wing-coverts are whitish at tip, constituting 
two white bands across the wings ; the primaries are whitish 
at the origin beneath the spurious wing; the secondaries are 
inconspicuously whitish externally at tip, that nearest the body 


334 FEMALE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 


having a very conspicuous whitish spot; the lower wing- 
coverts are of a bright buff; and as they are red in the male, 
afford an excellent essential character for the species; the tail 
is three inches long, nearly even, and of a paler dusky brown ; 
the two outer feathers are slightly edged internally with 
whitish, but without the least trace of the large spot so con- 
spicuous in the male, and which is always more or less ap- 
parent in the young of that sex; the feet are dusky, the 
tarsus measuring seven-eighths of an inch. 

The young male is at first very similar to the female, and is, 
even in extreme youth, paler and somewhat more spotted; but 
a little of the beautiful rose colour, of which the mother is 
quite destitute, soon begins to make its appearance, principally 
in small dots on the throat: this colour spreads gradually, and 
the wings and tail, and soon after the head, blacken, of course 
presenting as they advance in age a great variety of combina- 
tions. 

For the description of the beautiful adult male we shall 
refer to Wilson, whose description is good, and the figure 
accurate; but not having stated any particulars about the 
habits of the species, we shall subjoin the little that is known 
of them. ‘Though long since recorded to be an inhabitant 
of Louisiana, whence it was first received in Europe, recent 
observations, and the opinion of Wilson, had rendered this 
doubtful, and it was believed to be altogether an arctic bird, 
averse to the warm climates of the southern States, and hardly 
ever appearing even in the more temperate. Its recent dis- 
covery in Mexico is, therefore, a very interesting and no less 
remarkable fact ; and we may safely conclude that this bird 
migrates extensively according to season, spending the summer 
in the north, or in the mountains, and breeding there, and 
in winter retiring southward, or descending into the plains; 
being, however, by no means numerous in any known district, 
or at any season, though perhaps more frequent on the borders 
of Lake Ontario. Its favourite abode is large forests, where 


FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 335 
it affects the densest and most gloomy retreats. ‘The nest is 
placed among the thick foliage of trees, and is constructed of 
twigs outside, and lined with fine grasses within ; the female 
lays four or five white eggs, spotted with brown. This may 
also be called an “ evening grosbeak,” for it also sings during 
the solemn stillness of night, uttering a clear, mellow, and 
harmonious note. 

We have placed this species in our subgenus Coccothraustes. 
It is probably because he laboured under the mistake that all 
the grosbeaks removed from ZLoxta had been placed in Pyrr- 
hula by ''emminck, that Mr Sabine has made it a bullfinch; 
and in truth the bill very much resembles those of that genus, 
so that the species is intermediate between the two. Mr 
Swainson places it, together with the blue grosbeak, Fringilla 
(Ooccothraustes) cwrulea, in a new genus which he calls Gu0- 
raca, but without as yet characterising it. ‘These species have, 
it is true, a bill somewhat different from that of the typical 
Coccothraustes (as may be seen by comparing this with the 
evening grosbeak), being much less thick and turgid, and 
higher than broad ; the upper mandible being larger than the 
lower, and covering its margins entirely, compressed on the 
sides, making the ridge very distinct (not rounded above), 
and curved from the base, but at tip especially ; the margins 
of both are angular. The representation of the bill in Wil- 
son’s plate of the male is remarkably exact. 


FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. (Loxia 
leucoptera.) 


PLATE XV.—Fic. 3. 


See Wilson’s American Ornithology, iv. p. 48, pl. 31, for the young male.—Loxia 
leucoptera, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 844, sp. 12.—Vieill. Gal. Otis. 1. p. 56, pl. 52, 
young male.—WVob. Obs. sp. 84.—Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 195.— 
Loxia falcirostra, Lath. Ind. p. 371, sp. 2.—Le Bec-croisé leucoptére, Sonn. 
Buff. xlvii. p. 65.—Vieill. Nowy. Dict. Hist. Nat. 2d ed. iii. p. 339.—White- 


3 36 FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 


winged Crossbill, Lath. Syn. iii. p. 108, sp. 2; Id. Suppl. p. 148.—Dizxon, 
Voy. t. 20, p. 358, female.—Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. sp. 208.—MWy Collection, male, 
female, young, and middle-aged. 


LOXIA LEUCOPTERA,—GMELIN ? 
See vol. ii. p. 42. 


Te white-winged crossbill, first made known by Latham in 
his celebrated “Synopsis,” was subsequently introduced on his 
authority into all the huge compilations of the last century. 
Wilson gave us the first figure of it, which is that of the male, 
and promised a representation of the female, together with 
“such additional facts relative to its manners as he might be 
able to ascertain.” It is to fulfil Wilson’s engagement that we 
now give a correct figure of the other sex of this species, which 
we are also enabled to describe minutely, in all its different 
states of plumage. ‘This has never before been done, though 
Vieillot, since Wilson’s time, has compiled some account of 
its habits, described the female, and recently published a bad 
enough figure of the male in his “Galerie des Oiseaux.” 

The English name was bestowed by its discoverer, the 
scientific was imposed on it by the compiler Gmelin, who, 
like the daw in the fable, though with much better success, 
appropriated to himself the borrowed plumes of others, making 
Latham’s new species his own, by being the first to give them 
scientific names, which the discoverer himself was afterwards 
obliged to adopt in his “Index Ornithologicus.” In the pre- 
sent instance, however, he took the liberty of altering Gmelin’s 
name, most probably with the view of giving one analogous 
to that of Loxta curvirostra, and indicative of the remarkable 
form of the bill. That character having since been employed 
as generic, the propriety of Latham’s change has ceased to 
exist, and, in fact, the advantage is altogether on the side of 
Gmelin. We have therefore respected the right of priority, 
even in the case of an usurper. 

The female white-winged crossbill is five inches and three- 
quarters long, and nearly nine in extent; the bill is more than 
five-eighths long, of a dark horn-colour, paler on the edges: 
as is the case in the whole genus, it is very much compressed 


FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 337 


throughout, but especially at the point, where the edges almost 
unite into one: both mandibles are curved (the lower one up- 
wards) from the base, the ends crossing each other; the upper 
has its ridge distinct, and usually crosses to the left in both 
sexes, and not, as Wilson appears to intimate, generally in 
one sex only; the lower mandible is considerably shorter; the 
tongue is short, cartilaginous, and entire; the irides are of 
avery dark hazel; the small setaceous feathers covering the 
nostrils, which is one of the characteristics of the genus, are 
whitish grey ; the bottom of the plumage is everywhere slate 
colour ; the head, and all the upper parts, down to the rump, 
are of a greyish green, strongly tinged with olive, each feather 
being marked with black in the centre, giving the plumage a 
streaked appearance, as represented in the plate; the rump is 
pure pale lemon yellow; the upper tail-coverts are blackish, 
margined with whitish olive ; the front, and a broad line over 
and round the eye and bill, are slightly distinguished from the 
general colour of the head by the want of olivaceous, being 
ereyish white, and as the feathers are very small, appear 
minutely dotted with black: the curved blackish spot, more 
apparent in the colours of the male, is slightly indicated on the 
sides of the head ; the sides of the head and neck, the throat, 
and the breast, are of a greyish white, also streaked with 
blackish, and somewhat tinged with yellowish on the sides of 
the breast ; the flanks become of a dingy yellowish grey, and 
have large, dull, blackish blotches ; the belly and vent are of 
a much purer whitish, and the streaks are on that part long, 
narrow, and well defined; the under tail-coverts are blackish, 
with broad white margins; the wings are three inches and a 
half long, reaching, when closed, to the last of the tail-coverts; 
the first three primaries are subequal and longest, the fourth 
being but little shorter, and much longer than the succeeding; 
the general colour of the wing is black, the smaller coverts each 
margined with olive; the middle and longer coverts broadly 
tipt with white, forming a double band across the wings, so 


conspicuous as to afford the most obvious distinguishing cha- 
VOL. II. Yj 


338 FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 


racter of the species; all the quills are slightly edged with 
paler, the tertials being also tipt with white; the under 
wing-coverts are of a dark silvery, as well as the whole inferior 
surface of the wing; the tail measures two and a half inches, 
being as usual composed of twelve feathers; it is black, and 
deeply emarginate, the feathers acute, and slightly edged 
with paler; the feet are short, rather robust, and blackish ; 
the tarsus five-eighths of an inch in length, somewhat sharp 
behind, with its covering entire before ; the toes are divided 
to the base, very short, the middle one considerably the longest, 
but much less than half an inch long, the lateral one subequal 
(all these being remarkable characters of the genus); the hind 
toe long, and stoutest; the nails strong, much curved, and sharp, 
the hind one the longest, and twice as large as the lateral. 

The male described by Latham, Wilson, and Vieillot as in 
full plumage, but which, with Temminck, we have good rea- 
sons for believing to be between one and two years old, differs 
from the female in being a trifle larger, and of a crimson red 
where she is olive grey ; the base of the plumage is also con- 
siderably darker, approaching to black on the head, which 
colour predominates in several parts of the plumage, round 
the eye, on the front, in a broad line curving and widening 
from the eye, each side of the neck, and appearing distinctly 
on the back, where it generally forms a kind of band descend- 
ing from the base of the wing: the rump is of a beautiful 
rose-red; the black of the wings and tail is deeper; the white, 
pure, and more extended ; the lining of the quills, and espe- 
cially of the tail-feathers, more conspicuous ; the belly is of a 
pure whitish, much less streaked, &c. 

The bird which, from analogy, we take for the adult male, 
though we have no positive evidence for deciding whether it 
is in the passage to or from the preceding, differs only in 
having a light buff orange tinge where the other has crimson: 
it agrees with it in all its minute markings, the patch on the 
sides of the head is better defined, and the wings and tail are 
of a still deeper black, the edges of the quills and tail-feathers 


FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 339 


being very conspicuous, and almost pure white. All these 
facts conspire to favour our opinion. In this state, the bird is 
rare, as might be expected, and has not before been noticed 
by any naturalist: we have not represented it, only that we 
might not multiply figures of the same species. 

The very young male before assuming the red, at the age 
of one year, exactly resembles the female, being only more 
greyish, and less tinged with olive, and having the rump green- 
ish yellow, instead of yellow. 

The four above-described states of plumage are selected 
from a number of specimens shot on the same day and out of 
the same flock. The changes of these birds must still rank 
among the unexplained phenomena of natural history. An 
illustration might be attempted, by supposing a double moult 
to take place in the birds of this genus; but besides that we 
ought to be cautious in admitting an hypothesis like this, not 
founded on observation, it would be entirely untenable in the 
present instance, from the fact that all the variations of plu- 
mage are found at the same period of the year ; thus proving 
that age, and of course sex, but not season, produce these 
changes ; and we must provisionally admit that, contrary to 
what takes place in all other birds, these (the crossbills), 
together with the pine bullfinches, lose, instead of acquiring, 
briiliancy of colours as they advance in age. 

This species inhabits, during summer, the remotest regions 
of North America, and it is therefore extraordinary that it 
should not have been found in the analogous climates of the 
old continent. In this, its range is widely extended, as we 
can trace it from Labrador westward to Fort de la Fourche, 
in latitude 56°, the borders of Peace river, and Montague 
island on the north-west coast, where it was found by Dixon. 
Round Hudson’s Bay it is common and well known, probably 
extending far to the north-west, as Mackenzie appears to allude 
to it when speaking of the only land bird found in the desolate 
regions he was exploring, which enlivened, with its agreeable 
notes, the deep and silent forests of those frozen tracts. It 


340 FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 


is common on the borders of Lake Ontario, and descends in 
autumn and winter into Canada and the northern and middle 
States. Its migrations, however, are very irregular. During 
four years it had escaped my careful researches, and now, 
while writing (in the first week of November 1827), they are 
so abundant, that I am able to shoot every day great numbers 
out of flocks that are continually alighting in a copse of Jersey 
scrub-pine (Pinus imops) even opposite my window. It is 
proper to mention, that owing perhaps to the inclemency of 
the season, which has so far been distinguished by rains, early 
frost, and violent gales of wind, there have been extraordinary 
flights of winter birds. Many flocks of the purple finch are 
seen in all directions. The American siskin (fringilla pinus, 
Wils.), of which I never saw a living specimen before, covers 
all the neighbouring pines and its favourite thistles with its 
innumerable hosts. The snow-bunting (Zmberiza nivalis) has 
also made its appearance in New Jersey, though in small 
parties, after an absence of several years.” 

The white-winged crossbills generally go to Hudson’s Bay 
on their return from the south, and breed there, none remain- 
ing during summer, even in the most northern parts of the 
United States, where they are more properly transient irre- 
cular visitors than even winter residents. ‘They are seldom 
observed elsewhere than in pine-swamps and forests, feeding 
almost exclusively on the seeds of these trees, together with a 
few berries. All the specimens I obtained had their crops filled 
to excess entirely with the small seeds of Pinus tnops. They 
kept in flocks of from twenty to fifty, when alarmed suddenly 
taking wing all at once, and after a little manceuvring in the 
air, generally alighting again nearly on the same pines whence 
they had set out, or adorning the naked branches of some dis- 
tant, high, and insulated tree. In the countries where they 
pass the summer, they build their nest on the limb of a pine, 


* This is the case also with the common crossbills and European 
siskin, and has hardly yet met with any reasonable solution. See notes 
to these birds.—Ep. 


FEMALE INDIGO FINCH. 341 


towards the centre ; it is composed of grasses and earth, and 
lined internally with feathers, The female lays five eggs, 
which are white, spotted with yellowish. The young leave 
their nest in June, and are soon able to join the parents in 
their autumnal migration, 

In the northern countries, where these birds are very 
numerous, when a deep snow has covered the ground, they 
appear to lose all sense of danger, and by spreading some 
favourite food, may be knocked down with sticks, or even 
caught by the hand, while busily engaged in feeding. Their 
manners are, in other respects, very similar to those of the 
common crossbill, as described by Wilson, and they are said 
also to partake of the fondness for saline substances so re- 
markable in that species. 


FEMALE INDIGO FINCH. (fringilla cyanea.) 
PLATE XV.—Fic. 4. 


See Wilson’s American Ornithology, i. p. 99, pl. 6, fig. 5, for the male.—Tanagra 
cyanea, Linn. Syst. i. p. 315, sp. 6, adult male in full plumage.—Emberiza 
cyanea, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 876, sp. 54.—Lath. Ind. p. 415, sp. 60.—Emberiza 
cyanella, Sparm. Mus. Carls. ii. pl. 42, 48.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 887, sp. 74.— 
Emberiza coerulea, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 876.—Lath. Ind. p. 415, sp. 59, male in 
moult.—Tanagra cerulea? Gimel. Syst.i. p. 891, sp. 27.—Lath. Ind. p. 427, 
sp. 27, adult male.—Tanagra Carolinensis coerulea, Briss. Av. iii. p. 13, sp. 6, 
adult male in full dress:—Emberiza Canadensis ccerulea, Briss. Av. iii. p. 
298, sp. 12, pl. 14, fig. 2, male moulting.—Passerina cyanea, Vieill. Nouv. 
Dict. Hist. Nat.—¥ringilla cyanea, Wob. Obs. sp. 112.—Id. Cat. and Synop. 
Birds U.S. sp.164.—Linaria cyanea Bartram’s Trav. p. 296.—Linaria ccerula, 
the Blue Linnet, Catesby, Carolina, i. p. 45, pl. 45.—Le Ministre, Buff. Ois. 
iv. p. 86.—L’Azuroux, Buff. Ois. iv. p. 369, male moulting.—Passe-bleu ? 
Buff. Ois. iii. p. 495, adult male in full plumage.— Moineau Bleu de Cayenne ? 
Buff. Pl. ent. 208, fig. 2, adult male in full dress.—Blue Linnet, Hdwards, 
Av. iv. p. 132, pl. 273, lower figure.—Indigo Bunting, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. 
sp. 235.—Lath. Syn. iv. p. 205, sp. 53.—Blue Bunting, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. 
sp. 234.—Latham, Syn. ili. p. 205, sp. 52, male moulting.—Blue Tanager? 


Lath. Syn. ii. p. 234, sp. 28.—Philadelphia Museum, No. 6002, male ; 6003, 
female. 


SPIZA CYANEA.—BONAPARTE. 


Male, see vol. i. p. 99, and note to F. amena of present volume. 


TE remarkable disparity existing between the plumage of 
the different sexes of the commen indigo bird renders it 


342 FEMALE INDIGO FINCH. 


almost indispensably requisite that the female, unaccountably 
neglected by Wilson, as he generally granted this distinction 
in similar, and often less important cases, should be figured in 
this work. Hardly any North American bird more absolutely 
stands in need of being thus illustrated than the beautiful 
finch which is now the subject of our consideration. It could 
scarcely be expected that the student should easily recognise 
the brilliant indigo bird of Wilson’s first volume in the humble 
garb in which it is represented in the annexed plate. But, 
however simple in its appearance, the plumage of the female 
is far more interesting and important than that of the male, 
as it belongs equally to the young, and to the adult male after 
the autumnal moult, and previous to the change which 
ensues in the spring,—a large proportion of the life of the 
bird. 

The importance of a knowledge of these changes will also 
be duly estimated on recurring to the copious synonymy at 
the head of our article, by which it will be seen that several 
nominal species have been made by naturalists who chanced 
to describe this bird during its transitions from one state to 
another. Errors of this kind too frequently disfigure the fair 
pages of zoology, owing to the ridiculous ambition of those 
pseudo-naturalists, who, without taking the trouble to make 
investigations, for which, indeed, they are perhaps incompetent, 
glory in proclaiming a new species established on a single in- 
dividual, and merely on account of a spot, or some such trifling 
particular! The leading systematists who have enlarged the 
boundaries of our science have too readily admitted such 
species, partly compelled to it perhaps by the deficiency of 
settled principles. But the more extensive and accurate 
knowledge which ornithologists have acquired within a few 
years relative to the changes that birds undergo will render 
them more cautious, in proportion as the scientific world will 
be less disposed to excuse them for errors arising from this 
source. Linné may be profitably resorted to as a model of 
accuracy in this respect, his profound sagacity leading him im 


FEMALE INDIGO FINCH. 343 


many instances to reject species which had received the sanc- 
tion even of the experienced Brisson. Unfortunately, Gmelin, 
who pursued a practice directly the opposite, and compiled 
with a careless and indiscriminating hand, has been the oracle 
of zoologists for twenty years. The thirteenth edition of the 
“Systema Naturee” undoubtedly retarded the advancement of 
knowledge instead of promoting it; and if Latham had erected 
his ornithological edifice on the chaste and durable Linnean 
basis, the superstructure would have been far more elegant. 
But he first misled Gmelin, and afterwards suffered himself 
to be misled by him, and was therefore necessarily betrayed 
into numerous errors, although he at the same time perceived 
and corrected many others of his predecessor. We shall not 
enumerate the nominal species authorised by their works in 
relation to the present bird, since they may be ascertained by 
consulting our list of synonyms. On comparing this list with 
that furnished by Wilson, it will be seen that the latter is very 
incomplete. Indeed, as regards synonymy, Wilson’s work is 
not a little deficient ; notwithstanding which, however, it will 
be perpetuated as a monument of original and faithful obser- 
vation of nature, when piles of pedantic compilations shall be 
forgotten. 

We refer our readers entirely to Wilson for the history of 
this very social little bird, only reserving to ourselves the task 
of assigning its true place in the system. As we have already 
mentioned in our “ Observations,” he was the first who placed 
it inthe genus Fringilla (to which it properly belongs), after 
it had been transferred from Tanagra to Emberiza by former 
writers, some of whom had even described it under both in 
one and the same work. But although Wilson referred this 
bird to its proper genus, yet he unaccountably permitted its 
closely allied species, the Fringzlla ctris, to retain its station 
in Emberiza, being under the erroneous impression that a large 
bill was characteristic of that genus. This mistake, however, 
is excusable when we consider that almost all the North 
American birds which he found placed in it, through the 


344 FEMALE INDIGO FINCH. 


negligence or ignorance of his predecessors, are in fact dis- 
tinguished by large bills. 

The transfer of this species to the genus Fringilla renders 
a change necessary in the name of Loxza cyanea of Linné, an 
African bird, now a /ringilla of the subgenus Coccothraustes. 
The American bird belongs to Spzza, and, together with the 
Lringilla ctris and the beautiful Fringilla ameena, it may form 
a peculiar group, allied to Pringilla, Emberiza, and Tanagra, 
but manifestly nearest the former. 

The adult male, in full plumage, having been described by 
Wilson, may be omitted here. The female measures four 
inches and three-quarters in length, and nearly seven in extent, 
The bill is smal], compressed, and less than half an inch long ; 
is blackish above, and pale horn-colour beneath; the irides are 
dark brown; above she is uniformly of a somewhat glossy 
drab; between the bill and eyes, and on the cheeks, throat, and 
all the inferior parts, of a reddish clay colour, much paler on 
the belly, dingy on the breast, and strongly inclining to drab 
on the flanks, blending into the colour of the back, the shafts 
of the feathers being darker, giving somewhat of a streaked 
appearance ; the whole base of the plumage is lead colour ; 
the wings and tail are of a darker and less glossy brown, each 
feather being edged with lighter, more extended on the secon- 
daries, and especially the wing-coverts; the wings are two inches 
and a half long, not reaching, when folded, beyond the tail- 
coverts ; the first primary is subequal to the fourth, the second 
and third being longest ; the three outer, besides the first, are 
greatly attenuated on the outer web, half an inch from the 
point, where it is extremely narrow ; the tail is two inches in 
length, and but slightly emarginated ; the feet are dusky, the 
tarsus measuring three-quarters of an inch. 

The male, after his autumnal moult, exhibits pretty much 
the same dress, except being more or less tinged with bluish. 
We shall here observe, that we do not believe that the indi- 
vidual kept by Wilson in a cage through the winter, in which 
the gay plumage did not return for more than two months, 


Engraved bw WAT 1axar® 


 Bullfinch 


Vallas Dipper 2 Bohemian Worn. 3 Female J) 


nel Rasn anibvettita Carri Lurrluda Enuoleato 


Lo 


PALLAS’ DIPPER. 345 


formed an exception to the general law, as he supposed. We 
have no doubt that this circumstance is characteristic of the 
species in its wild state. | 

The young strongly resemble the female ; the drab colour 
is, however, much less pure and glossy, being somewhat inter- 
mixed with dusky olive, owing to the centre of the feathers 
being of the latter hue. Consequently, during the progress 
from youth to adolescence, and even during the two periodical 
changes, the plumage of this bird is more or less intermixed 
with drab, blue, and white, according to the stage of the moult- 
ing process, some being beautifully and regularly spotted with 
large masses of those colours symmetrically disposed. In one 
of these males, but little advanced in its changes, we readily 
recognise the Hmberiza cerulea of authors, Azwroux of Buffon, 
&e.; and in another, which has made further progress towards 
the perfect state, the shoulders only retaining the ferruginous 

tinge, we can trace the Hmberiza cyanella of Sparmann. 


PALLAS DIPPER. (Cinclus Pallasii.) 
PLATE XVI.—Fie. 1. 


Cinclus Pallasii, Temm. Man. Orn. i. p. 177.—Nob. Suppl. Gen. Am. Birds, sp. 
94, bis, in Zool. Journ. London, iv. p. 4.—Ld. in Ann. Lyc. New Vork, ii. 
p. 4388.—Cinclus Mexicanus, Swainson, Syn. Birds of Mexico, sp. 27, in 
Phil. Mag. New Series, i. p. 368.— Collection of Mr Leadbeater, in London. 


CINCLUS AMERICA NUS.—RICHARDSON AND SWAINSON.* 
Cinclus Americanus, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 173. 


Tue recent discovery of the genus Cinclus in America, furnishes 
an interesting fact in the‘history of the geographical distribu- 


* The Prince of Musignano has considered this identical with the 
C, Pallas of Temminck ; and Mr Swainson, from specimens procured 
by Mr Drummond near the sources of the Athabasca river, and by Mr 
Bullock in Mexico, has judged them to be distinct. As far as figures 
and descriptions can be taken as criterions of species, I should consider 
that of Pallas different, and perhaps the analogue in its own country to 
that of America. There is great similarity in the few birds that com- 
pose this genus, and their locality renders the possession and comparison 


346 PALLAS DIPPER. 


tion of birds, this genus being one of the twenty-five European 
enumerated in our Observations as not known to inhabit this 


of them difficult, and it is probable that in three or four will be com- 
prised the whole of the nearly nominal species at present recorded. 
The various generic names that have been given to these birds, with the 
changes of place in the different systems, at once pronounce it a form of 
no ordinary interest ; and there is perhaps none that shows so much 
combination between the truly aquatic birds and those of the incessores. 
The peculiar form is familiar to most persons at all conversant with 
birds, and has been detailed in the description ; the habits, however, 
are not so easily observed. The present remarks will be confined to the 
species of Great Britain, which, I believe, may stand as typical of the 
genus. 

The common water crow, or pyet, is abundant on most of the more 
alpine and rugged streams of Scotland and North of England, enliven- 
ing the picturesque and sometimes solitary scenery by its clean and 
cheerful appearance, or associating more sedate recollections with the 
low and pensive melody of its song. They live generally in pairs, 
keeping entirely to the line of the brook ; and in their flight fly directly 
up or down, with a rapid motion of the wings, uttering a single mono- 
tonous alarm note, and when about to alight, fall, or splash as it were, 
in the stream, and swim to shore. Previous to the season of incuba- 
tion, they become more noisy. The nest is formed exactly like that of 
the common wren, with a single entrance, and is' composed of the 
ordinary mosses found near the stream, without much lining. It is 
generally placed under a projecting rock, a few yards above the water, 
and often where a fall rushes over, in which situation the parent birds 
must dash through it to gain the nest, which they do with apparent 
facility, and even seem to enjoy it. At night they roost in similar 
situations, perched, with the head under the wing, on some little pro- 
jection, often so much leaning as to appear hanging with the back 
downwards. I recollect a bridge over a rapid stream, which used to 
be a favourite nightly retreat, under the arch ; I have there seen four 
at a time sitting asleep in this manner, and used to take them with a 
light. Before settling for their nightly rest, they would sport in the 
pool beneath, chasing each other with their shrill and rapid cry, and at 
last suddenly mount to their perch ; when disturbed, they would return 
again in five minutes. During winter, they migrate to the lower 
stream ;—flowing into the Annan, in Dumfriesshire, there are many 
alpine tributary rivulets where these birds are abundant in summer ; 
during winter they remove almost entirely to the latter, where they 
find a more abundant supply of food, and their aquatic powers are more 
easily observed. On every reach one or two may be seen perched upon 


PALLAS DIPPER. 347 


continent. A specimen from the northern countries, communi- 
cated by Mr Leadbeater, first enabled us to introduce it into 
the American fauna; and, almost simultaneously, Mr Swainson, 
in his Synopsis of the birds discovered in Mexico by Mr Bullock, 
announced it as occurring in that country, but in no other part, 
as he thought, of America. Judging from his short descrip- 
tion (and the species does not admit of a long one), we have 
no hesitation in affirming that both Mr Swainson’s and that 
described by Temminck, and supposed to have been found by 
Pallas in the Crimea, are identical with ours, notwithstand- 
ing the localities are so widely distant from each other, as 
well as from that whence ours comes, which, however, it will 
be perceived, is intermediate between them. 

It has been frequently remarked by us (and the fact is now 
well established), that many birds of Mexico, entirely unknown 
in the Atlantic territories of the United States, are met with 
in the interior, and especially along the range of the Rocky 


some projecting stone or stick, or watching by the very edge of the ice, 
whence they drop at once on their prey, consisting now almost entirely 
of the smaller fishes; when successful, they return to the edge and 
devour the spoil. They are most active in their motions during this 
occupation, and dive and return with such rapidity, as to seem con- 
stantly dipping and rising, or, as perhaps better expressed by a quaint 
poet, it 

Comes.and goes so quickly and so oft, 

As seems at once both under and aloft. 


In milder weather, when the river was less choked with ice, I have 
seen them swimming and diving in the centre of the pools, and so 
expertly, that I have mistaken and followed them for the little grebe. 
But in all their activity, I have never been able to see them walk upon 
the bottom, where the depth exceeded a few inches, and I believe it is 
contrary to the habit of any aquatic bird ; the motion has been in all 
cases, like all others, performed by the wings. 

The species of the genus at present stand nominally as follows :—The 
common European Cinclus aquaticus, C. Pallasii, Temm., C. Americanus, 
Swain., C. Asiaticus ?, from India, and the C. septentrionalis and melano- 
gaster of Brehm, mentioned by our author, 

Mr Gould has figured a bird, in his beautiful illustrations of Himalaya, 
under C. Pallasii, which is decidedly different from the American ; but 
I do not see any proof why it should be called C. Pallasiz.—Ep. 


348 (PAV EAS, DEP PIER. 


Mountains, at considerably higher latitudes. But it was not 
to be expected that a Mexican species should extend so far 
north as the Athabasca Lake, where our specimen was pro- 
cured. The circumstance is, however, the less surprising in 
birds of this genus, as their peculiar habits will only allow 
them to live in certain districts. The case is similar with the 
dipper of the old continent, which, though widely dispersed, 
is only seen in mountainous and rocky countries. Though we 
do not see any improbability in the American species inhabit- 
ing the eastern Asiatic shore, we prefer believing that the 
specimens on which '’emminck established the species, and 
whose supposed native place was the Crimea, were in fact 
American. ‘The two species are so much alike in size, shape, 
and even colour, as to defy the attempts of the most deter- 
mined system-maker to separate them into different groups. 

The single species of which the genus Cinclus had hitherto 
consisted was placed in Sturnus by Linné, and by Scopoli, 
with much more propriety, in Motacilla. Latham referred 
it to Turdus. Brisson, mistaking for affinity the strong and 
curious analogy which it bears to the waders, considered it as 
belonging to the genus Tinga (sandpipers). Bechstein, Illi- 
ger, Cuvier, and all the best modern authorities, have regarded 
it as the type of a natural genus, for which they have unani- 
mously retained the name of Cinclus, given by Bechstein, 
Vieillot alone dissenting, and calling it Hydrobata. This 
highly characteristic name, notwithstanding its close resem- 
blance in sound and derivation to one already employed by 
Illiger as the name of a family, appears to be a great favourite 
with recent ornithologists, as they have applied it successively 
to several different genera, and Temminck has lately attempted 
to impose it on the genus of ducks which I had named 
Fuligula. In my system, the genus Crnclus must take its 
place in the family Canorz, between the genera Turdus and 
Myiothera. 

The dippers, or water-ouzels, are well distinguished by their 
peculiar-shaped bill, which is compressed-subulate, slightly 


PALLAS! DIPPER. 349 


bent upwards, notched, and with its edges bent in, and finely 
denticulated from the middle; but more especially by their 
long, stout, perfectly smooth tarsi, with the articulation ex- 
posed, a character which is proper to the order of waders, of 
which they have also the habits, nay, are still more aquatic 
than any of them. Their plumage also being thick, compact, 
and oily, is impermeable to water, as much so as that of the 
most decidedly aquatic webfooted birds ; for when dipped into 
it, that fluid runs and drops from the surface. Their head 
is flat, with the forehead low and narrow ; the neck is stout ; 
the body short and compact; the nostrils basal, concave, lon- 
gitudinal, half covered by a membrane; tongue cartilaginous 
and bifidattip. Their wings are short and rounded, furnished 
with a very short spurious feather, and having the third and 
fourth primaries longest; the tail short, even, and composed 
of wide feathers; the nails large and robust ; the lateral toes 
are subequal, the outer united at base to the middle one, the 
hind toe being short and robust. The female is similar to the 
male in colour, and the young only more tinged with reddish. 
They moult but once in the year. 

These wild and solitary birds are only met with singly, or 
in pairs, in the neighbourhood of clear and swift-running 
mountain streams, whose bed is covered with pebbles, and 
strewed with stones and fragments of rock. They are remark- 
ably shy and cautious, never alight on branches, but keep 
always on the border of the stream, perched, in an attitude 
peculiar to themselves, on some stone or rock projecting over 
the water, attentively watching for their prey. ‘Thence they 
repeatedly plunge to the bottom, and remain long submerged, 
searching for fry, crustacea, and the other small aquatic 
animals that constitute their food. They are also very destruc- 
tive to mosquitoes, and other dipterous insects, and their aquatic 
larvee, devouring them beneath the surface. They never 
avoid water, nor hesitate in the least to enter it, and even pre- 
cipitate themselves without danger amidst the falls and eddies 
of cataracts. Their habits are, in fact, so decidedly aquatic, 


250 JPAILJLALS) WOIUPIVEIE: 


that water may be called their proper element, although 
systematically they belong to the true land birds. The web- 
footed tribes swim and dive; the long-legged birds wade as 
long as the water does not touch their feathers; the dippers 
alone possess the faculty of walking at ease on the bottom, as 
others do on dry land, crossing in this manner from one shore 
to the other, under water. ‘They may be often seen gradually 
advancing from the shallows, penetrating deeper and deeper, 
and, careless of losing their depth, walking with great facility 
on the gravel against the current. As soon as the water is 
deep enough for them to plunge, their wings are opened, 
dropped, and agitated somewhat convulsively, and, with the 
head stretched horizontally, as if flying, they descend to the 
bottom, where they course up and down in search of food. 
As long as the eye can follow them, they appear, while in the 
water, covered with bubbles of air, rapidly emanating from 
their bodies, as is observed in some coleopterous insects. 

The dippers run very fast: their flight is direct, and swift 
as an arrow, just skimming the surface, precisely in the manner 
of the kingfisher. ‘They often plunge under at once, without 
alighting, reappearing at a distance. When on their favourite 
rocks, these birds are constantly dipping in the water, at the 
same time flirting their erected tail. While on the wing, they 
utter a feeble cry, their voice being weak and shrill, but some- 
what varied ; and they sing from their perch, not loud, but 
sweetly, even in the depth of winter. arly in the spring, 
they begin to utter clear and distinct notes, and are among 
the first to cheer the lonely and romantic haunts which they 
frequent with their simple melody. 

These birds, like others that live about the water, pair early, 
and have two broods in the season. The young can leave their 
nest before being full fledged ; and, at the approach of danger, 
drop from the height where it is generally placed into the 
water. In order that this may be done, they build in some 
place overhanging the water, the ledge of a rock, or the steep 
bank of a rivulet; or sometimes, in inhabited countries, 


PAL EAS DIPPER 351 


take advantage of mills, bridges, or other works of man. The 
nest is large, composed of moss, and vaulted above ; the eves 
are from four to six, and of a milky white. Though very 
carefully hid, it may be easily discovered by the incessant 
chirping of the young. 

Having seen nothing but the dried skin cf the American 
dipper, and being utterly unacquainted with its habits, we 
have been describing as common to the genus those of the 
European species, which are well known, and which we have 
stopped to watch and admire among the precipices of the Alps 
and Apennines, where it struggles with the steepest and most 
noisy cascades and the wildest torrents. The exceedingly 
great similarity of form in the two species strongly warrants 
the belief of equal similarity in habits. The more uniform 
and cinereous hue of the American, the want of reddish, but 
especially the striking absence of the white on the throat and 
breast, are the sole, but sufficient marks of difference between 
the two species. 

Pallas’ dipper is longer than the common species, measuring 
eight and a half inches. ‘The bill is perfectly similar, and 
three-quarters of an inch long, blackish, paler beneath and on 
the edges. The whole bird, without any exception, is of a 
dark greyish slate colour, with the base of the plumage some- 
what lighter; at the superior orbit is a slight indication of 
whitish. The uniform general colour is somewhat darker on 
the head, and a shade lighter beneath. The wings are three 
and a half inches long, as in the genus; the coverts and ter- 
tials slightly tipt with dingy whitish; the primaries incline 
somewhat to brown ; the tail measures one inch and a half, 
and is perfectly even. The feet are of a flesh-colour, and the 
nails dusky white ; the tarsus is precisely one inch long. 

If we could rely on Brehm, four species of this genus exist, 
which are all found in the old continent. ‘lwo are new ones, 
proposed by himself, under the names of Cinclus septentrion- 
alis, and Cinclus melanogaster. he latter, according to him, 
is a Siberian species, appearing occasionally on the northern 


352 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 


coast of European Russia in winter, and is, perhaps, a genuine 
species, easily distinguished from the Cinclus aquaticus by 
having but ten feathers in the tail, whilst all others have 
twelve, in addition to its smaller size, darker colour, and dingy 
throat ; but the former can hardly be regarded even as a 
northern variety produced by climate. Mr Brehm is probably 
quite correct in observing that both his new species are per- 
fectly similar to the old one. 


BOHEMIAN WAXWING. (Bombycilla garrula.) 
PLATE XVI.—Fie. 2. 


Ampelis garrulus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 297, sp. 1.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 838, sp. 1.—Lath. 
Ind. p. 363, sp. 1.—Muller, p. 30.—Kram. El. p. 363, sp. 1.—Borowsh. Nat. 
iii. p. 171, sp. 68.—MWeyer and Wolf, Tasch. Deutsch. i. p. 204.—Lanius 
garrulus, Faun. Suec. ii. sp. 82.—Scop. Ann. i. sp. 20.—Brunn. sp. 25, 26.— 
Bombyciphora polioccelia, Meyer, Vog. Liv. and Esth. p. 104.—Bombycivora 
garrula, Temm. Man. Orn. i. p. 124.—Selby, Ill. Br. Orn. i. p. 87, pl. 384.— 
Bombyciphora garrula, Brehm, Lehr. Eur. Vog. ii. p. 980.—Bombycilla 
garrula, Vieill. Nouv. Dict.—Nob. Suppl. Syn. Am. Birds in Zool. Journ. 
London, iv. p. 3, sp. 65; bis, Ranz. Elem. Orn. iv. p. 136, sp. 1.—Bombycilla 
Bohemica, Steph. Cont. Shaw's Zool. x. p. 421.—Garrulus, Gesn. Av. p. 
703.—Aldr. Orn. i. p. 796, pl. 798.—Mus. p. 674, pl. 675.—Rari, Syn. p. 85, 
A.—Will. Orn. p. 96, pl. 20.—Alb. Av. ii. p. 25, pl. 26.—Turdus cristatus, 
Wirsing, Vog. pl. 4.—Frisch, pl. 32, fig. 1, male.—Klein, Stenuvm. p. 11, p. 13, 
fig. 5, a-c.—Turdus Bombycilla Bohemica, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 333, sp. 63; 
Id. 8vo, i. p. 250.—Garrulo di Boemia, St degli Uce. ii. pl. 16.—Le Jaseur, 
Buff. Ois. iii. p. 426, pl. 26.—Le Vaill. Ois. Para. i. p. 137, pl. 49.—Le 
Jaseur de Bohéme, Buff. Pl. enl. 261.—Cuv. Regn. Anim. i. p. 349.—Euro- 
paischer Seidenschwanz, Bechst. Nat. Deutschl. iii. p. 410, pl. 34, fig. 1.— 
Rothlichgraver, Seidenschwanz, Wawmn. Vog. pl. 82, fig. 66.—Meyer und 
Wolf, Ois. @Allem. Livr. 22, pl. 6, fig. 1, male; fig. 2, female.—Silk-tail, 
Ray, Syn. p. 85, A.—Phil. Trans. xv. p. 1165, pl. 1, fig. 9.—Bohemian 
Chatterer, Penn. Brit. Zool. sp. 112, pl. 48; Id. fol. 7, pl. 1, c.—Zath. 
Syn. tii. p. 91, sp. 1.— Ubersetz, iu. p. 86, sp. 1.—Bell, Travels, i. p. 98.— 
Flor. Scot. i. sp. 92.—Mont. Orn. Dict.—Lewin, Brit. Birds, i. pl. 2.— 
Bewick, Br. Birds.—Donovan, Br. Birds, i. pl. 11.—Pult. Cat. Dorsetsh. p. 
11.—My Collection. 


BOMBYCILLA GARRULA.—BONAPARTE. 
Bombycilla garrula, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 237. 


Ig the absurd theory advanced by Buffon, that European ani- 
mals degenerate, or become more or less changed, in other 


BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 353 


climates, needed in our time any additional refutation, the 
discovery of this bird in the north-western territory, near the 
Rocky Mountains, would afford it. By appearing in its full 
size and perfection, exactly similar to the Huropean individuals 
of its species, it would vindicate its smaller relation, the com- 
mon and familiar cedar-bird, from the reproach of degeneracy. 
But with the more enlightened opinions that now prevail, its 
occurrence in that unexplored portion of the globe is impor- 
tant, chiefly as tending to solve the problem of the place of 
abode of this mysterious wanderer ; especially as, by a singular 
coincidence, whilst we were proclaiming this species as Ameri- 
can, it was received by Temminck from Japan, together with 
a new species, the third known of the genus, which he has 
caused to be figured and distinguished by the appropriate name 
of Bombycilla phenicoptera, Boié. Besides the red band 
across the wing, whence its name is derived, the length of its 
crest, adorned with black feathers, and the uniform absence, 
in all states, of the corneous appendages of the wings, this 
new species, resembling more in size and shape the Carolina 
waxwing (cedar-bird) than the present, is eminently distin- 
guished from both by wanting the small, closely-set feathers 
covering the nostrils, hitherto assigned as one of the characters 
of the genus. This example evinces the insufficiency of that 
character, though Illiger considered it of such importance as 
to induce him to unite in his great genus Corvus (comprehend- 
ing this as well as several other distinct groups) all the spe- 
cies possessing it. It shows especially how erroneous it is to 
form two separate families for the allied genera with covered 
or naked nostrils. In fact, the genus as it now stands is, not 
the less for this aberration, an exceedingly natural one, though 
the two species that are now known to inhabit America are 
still more allied to each other than either of them to the 
Japanese, the present (Bohemian) differing chiefly by its larger 
size, mahogany-brown tail-coverts, and cinereous belly, the 
first being white and the second yellowish in the cedar-bird, 


which also wants the yellow and white markings on the wing. 
VOL, IL. Z 


354 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 


Of the three species now comprehended in the genus, one is 
peculiar to America, a second to eastern Asia, and the present 
common to all the arctic world. 

This small but natural group, at one time placed by Linné 
in the carnivorous genus Landus, notwithstanding its exclu- 
sively frugivorous habits, was finally restored by him to Am- 
pelis, in which he was followed by Latham. Brisson placed 
it in Turdus, and Illiger in Corvus. Ornithologists now con- 
cur in regarding it as a genus, disagreeing only as to the name, 
some calling it Bombyciphora, others Bombycivora, though 
they all appear to have lately united in favour of the more 
elegant and prior termination of Bombycilla. 

The waxwings, which we place in our family Sericata, 
having no other representative in Europe or North America, are 
easily recognised by their short, turgid bill, trigonal at base, 
somewhat compressed and curved at tip, where both mandibles 
are strongly notched; their short feet, and rather long sub- 
acute wings. But their most curious trait consists in the small, 
flat, oblong appendages, resembling in colour and substance 
red sealing-wax, found at the tips of the secondaries in the 
adult. These appendages are merely the coloured corneous 
prolongation of the shafts beyond the webs of the feathers. 
‘he new species from Japan is, as we have mentioned, at all 
times without them, as well as the young of the two others. 
The plumage of all is of a remarkably fine and silky texture, 
lying extremely close; and they are all largely and pointedly 
crested, the sexes hardly differing in this respect. 

The waxwings live in numerous flocks, keeping by pairs 
only in the breeding season ; and so social is their disposition, 
that, as soon as the young are able to fly, they collect in large 
bands from the whole neighbourhood. They perform exten- 
sive journeys, and are great and irregular wanderers. Far 
from being shy, they are simple and easily tamed, but gene- 
rally soon die in confinement. Their food consists chiefly of 
juicy fruits, on which they fatten, but to the great detriment 
of the orchard, where they commit extensive ravages. When 


BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 355 
fruits are scarce, they seize upon insects, catching them dex- 
terously in the same manner as their distant relatives the fly- 
catchers. No name could be more inappropriate for these 
birds than that of chatterers, as there are few less noisy, and 
they might even be called mute with much better reason. 
They build in trees, and lay, twice in a year, about five eges. 

Whence does the Bohemian waxwing come at the long and 
irregular periods of its migrations ? Whither does it retire 
to pass its existence and give birth to its progeny? These 
are circumstances involved in darkness, and which it has not 
been given to any naturalist to ascertain. It has been stated, 
and with much appearance of probability, that these birds 
retire during summer within the arctic circle; but the fact is 
otherwise, naturalists who have explored these regions assert- 
ing that they are rarer and more accidental there than in 
temperate climates. It seems probable that their chief place 
of abode is in the oriental parts of the oid continent, and, if 
we may hazard an opinion, we should not be surprised if the 
extensive and elevated tableland of Central Asia were found 
to be their principal rendezvous, whence, like the Tartars in 
former times, they make their irregular excursions. 

As we can only arrive at the truth in this matter by ob- 
serving facts and collecting localities, we shall endeavour to 
do this with the greatest accuracy. In northern Russia and 
the extreme north of Norway they are seen in great numbers 
every winter, being observed there earlier than in temperate 
countries, In northern Asia and eastern Europe their mi- 
erations are tolerably regular ; very numerous flocks generally 
pass through Scania in November, and are again seen on 
their return in the spring. But they appear only at very 
remote and irregular periods, and merely as occasional and 
rare visitants in western, southern, or even central and 
northern Europe, and then only in the coldest months of the 
most severe winters. Notwithstanding that they at times 
invade peculiar districts in vast numbers, so remarkable is 
the appearance of these winged strangers then considered, 


350 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 


that we find it placed upon record. However extraordinary 
it may seem to those who live in this enlightened age and 
country that the unusual appearance of “cedar-birds of a 
large kind” should strike terror into the souls of men, such, 
notwithstanding, was the effect in more ignorant times. They 
have been looked upon as the precursors of war, pestilence, 
and other public calamities. One of their irruptions was 
experienced in Italy in 1571, when flocks of hundreds were 
seen flying about in the north of that country in the month 
of December, and were easily caught. A similar visit had 
taken place in 1530, in February, marking the epoch when 
Charles V. caused himself to be crowned at Bologna. Aldro- 
vandi, from whom we learn the above particulars, also in- 
forms us that large flocks of them appeared in 1551, when 
it was remarked, that, though they spread in numbers 
through the Modenese, the Plaisantine, and other parts of 
Italy, they carefully avoided entering the Ferrarese, as if to 
escape the dreadful earthquake that was felt soon after, 
causing the very birds to turn their flight. In 1552, Gesner 
informs us, they appeared along the Rhine, near Mentz in 
Germany, in such numbers as to obscure the sun. They 
have, however, of late years, in Italy and Germany, and in 
France especially, at all times been extremely rare, being 
seen only in small companies or singly, appearing as if they 
had strayed from their way. In England, the Bohemian 
waxwing has always been a rare visitant, coming only at 
long and uncertain intervals. In the winter of 1810 large 


flocks were dispersed through various parts of that kingdom, . 


from which period we do not find it recorded by English 
writers till the month of February 1822, when a few came 
under Mr Selby’s inspection, and several were again observed 
during the severe storm in the winter of 1823. Upon the 
Continent, its returns are subject to similar uncertainty. In 
M. Necker’s very interesting memoir, lately published, on 
the birds of Geneva, we read, that from the beginning of this 
century only two considerable flights have been observed in 


° 


BOHEMIAN WAXWING. AiG) 


that, canton, one in January 1807, and the other in January 
1814, when they were very numerous, and spent the winter 
there, all departing in March. In 1807 they were dispersed 
over a great portion of western Europe, and were seen near 
Edinburgh in the first day of that year. 

What extent of country they inhabit or frequent in this 
continent, and whether numerous or not, we are unable to 
state. ‘The specimen here figured was obtained, together with 
others, from the north-western range of the Rocky Mountains, 
and the species appears to spread widely, as we have been 
credibly informed by hunters that ‘‘cedar-birds of a large 
kind” have been shot a little beyond the Mississippi, at a very 
ereat distance from the spot where ours were obtained. Thus 
does this species extend its range round the whole earth, from 
the coasts of Europe eastwardly to the Rocky Mountains in 
America, and we are at a loss to conceive why it should never 
have been observed on this side of the Mississippi. 

Very little is known of the peculiar habits of this elegant 
bird. It assembles in large flocks, and feeds on different kinds 
of juicy berries or on insects, which during summer constitute 
its principal food. In common with many other birds, they 
are fond of the berries of the mountain-ash and phytolacca, 
are extremely greedy of grapes, and also, though in a less de- 
gree, of juniper and laurel berries, apples, currants, figs, and 
other fruits. They drink often, dipping in their bill repeat- 
edly. Besides their social disposition and general love of 
their species, these birds appear susceptible of individual at- 
tachment, as if they felt a particular sentiment of benevolence, 
even independent of reciprocal sexual attraction. Not only 
do the male and female caress and feed each other, but the 
same proofs of mutual kindness have been observed between 
individuals of the same sex. This amiable disposition, so 
agreeable for others, often becomes a serious disadvantage to 
its possessor, It always supposes more sensibility than energy, 
more confidence than penetration, more simplicity than pru- 
dence, and precipitates these, as well as nobler victims, into 


358 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 


the snares prepared for them by more artful and selfish beings. 
Hence they are stigmatised as stupid, and, as they keep gene- 
rally close together, many are easily killed at once by a single 
discharge of a gun. They always alight on trees, hopping 
awkwardly on the ground. Their flight is very rapid: when 
taking wing, they utter a note resembling the syllables, 22, 27, 
rt, but are generally silent, notwithstanding the name that 
has been given them. ‘They are, however, said to have a sweet 
and agreeable song in the time of breeding, though at others 
it is a mere whistle. The place of breeding, as we have inti- 
mated, is not known with any certainty, though they are said 
to build in high northern latitudes, preferring mountainous 
districts, and laying in the clefts of rocks, which, however, 
judging from analogy, we cannot believe. 

What can be the cause of their leaving their unknown 
abodes, of their wide migrations and extraordinary irruptions, 
it is very difficult to determine. That they are not compelled 
to them by cold is well proved. Are they to be ascribed to 
necessity from excessive multiplication, as is the case with the 
small quadrupeds called lemmings, and even with man him- 
self in a savage state or in over-populous countries ? or shall 
we suppose that they are forced by local penury to seek else- 
where the food they cannot be supplied with at home? Much 
light may be thrown on the subject by carefully observing 
their habits and migrations in America. 

The Bohemian chatterer being so well known, we shall here 
only give a description of our best American specimen, which 
is a female shot on the 20th March 1825, on the Athabasca 
river, near the Rocky Mountains. ‘The sexes hardly differ in 
plumage. 

Length, eight and a half inches ; extent, fifteen ; bill, three- 
quarters of an inch long, black, paler at the base of the under 
mandible ; irides, reddish, often quite red ; nostrils, entirely 
uncovered. From the base of the ridge of the bill arises, on 
each side, a velvety black line, bordering the forehead, and 
spreading on the ophthalmic region, and surrounding almost 


BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 359 


the whole crown ; throat also deep black. The anterior part 
of the head is bright bay, behind passing gradually into vina- 
ceous drab ; the feathers of the crown are elongated into a crest 
measuring nearly an inch and a half; base of these feathers, 
blackish ; middle, white ; whole neck and hind head and breast, 
cinereous drab, slightly tinged with vinaceous, and passing by 
degrees on the posterior parts above and beneath into pure 
cinereous, slightly tinged with bluish, which predominates on 
the rump and upper tail-coverts. The black of the throat is 
somewhat margined with bright bay, and is separated from 
the black of the eye by a slight obliterated white line. The 
cinereous of the belly and femorals is paler; the vent and 
lower tail-coverts are chestnut rufous, and the feathers very 
long. The wings measure four and a half inches in length; the 
second primary is somewhat longer than the first, the others 
decreasing in succession rapidly. The upper tail-coverts are 
cinereous drab, like the back, the lower whitish grey ; quills, 
dusky black, much paler on their inner vane towards the base. 
The first is unspotted, the second has a slight mark of white 
on the outer web at tip. This mark increases in size succes- 
sively on the following, becoming a longitudinal spot, much 
Jarger on the secondaries, four of which are furnished with 
bright red appendages. Hach feather of the winglet is broadly 
white at tip, constituting a remarkable white spot on the wing, 
which appears to be on the primaries. No yellow whatever is 
observable on the wing. The tail is three inches long, black, 
broadly tipt with pale yellow for half an inch, dark bluish 
grey at base. ‘'Tarse, which is three-quarters of an inch long, 
and feet, black.* 


* See vol. i. p. 106, for B. Americana and notes.—Ep, 


360 FEMALE PINE BULLFINCH. 


FEMALE PINE BULLFINCH. (Pyrrhula enucleator.) 


PLATE XVI.—Fie. 3. 


See Wilson’s American Ornithology, Pine Grosbeak, Loxia enucleator, vol. i. p. 
79, pl. 5, fig. 2, for the male at the age of one year.—Loxia enucleator, 
Linn. Syst. i. p. 299, sp. 3.—Faun. Suec. sp. 223.—Schen. Act. Holm. 
1757, p. 139.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 845, sp. 3.—Brunn. sp. 239.—Muller, sp. 
246.—Borowsk. Nat. iii. p. 133, sp. 8.—Lath. Ind. i. p. 372, sp. 5.—Retz. 
Faun. Suec. p. 234, sp. 211.—Meyer and Wolf, Taschenb. Vog. Deutschl. 
i. p. 142.—Loxia flamingo, Mus. Carls. i. pl. 17.—G mel. Syst. i. p. 864, 
accid. var.—Loxia pyrrhula, var. 6.—Lath. Ind. i. p. 388, sp. 56, accid. var. 
—Coccothraustes Canadensis, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 250, sp. 15, pl. 12, fig. 3 ; Ld. 
8vo, i. p. 878.—Pyrrhula enucleator, Zemm. Man. Orn. i. p. 383.—Sabine, 
Zool. App. to Frank. Exp. p. 675.—Brehm, Lehr. Hur. Vog. i. p. 169.—Ranz. 
Elem. Orn. vi. p. 70, sp. 2.—Selby, Ill. Brit. Orn. i. p. 256, pl. 53, fig. 1, 
male; fig. 2, female.—WVob. Obs. Wils. Nom.—-Cat. and Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 
193.—Corythus enucleator, Cuv. Regn. Anim. 1. p. 892.—Strobilophaga enu- 
cleator, Vieill. Gal. Ois. i. pl. 53, young male.—Fringilla enucleator, Meyer, 
Syst. Taschenb. iii. p. 250, sp. 2.—Ciufolotto snocciolatore, Ranz. loc. cit.— 
Dur-bec, Buff. Ois. iii. p. 457.—Gros-bec du Canada, Jd. Pl. enl. 135, fig. 1, 
male a year old.—Haken Kernbeisser, Bechst. Nat. Deutsch. iii. p. 28,— 
Naum. Vog. Nachtr. pl. 19, fig. 36, male ; fig. 37, female.—Der Fichten Kern- 
beisser, Meyer and Wolf, Vog. Deutschl. xii. pl. 5, fig. 1, young male; fig. 2, 
old female.—Greatest Bullfinch, Edwards, pl. 123, young male ; pl. 24, adult 
female.—Pine Grosbeak, Penn. Brit. Zool. sp. 114, pl. 49, fig. 2.—Arct. Zool. 
ii. sp. 209.—Eilis, Nar. ii. p. 15.—Lewin, Brit. Birds, ii. pl. 68.—Lath. Syn. 
li. p. 111, sp. 5; Ld. Supp. p. 148.—Mont. Orn. Dict. i.— Walck. Syn. pl. 
207.—Donov. Brit. Birds, i. pl. 17.—Bewick, Brit. Birds, i. p. 135.—Shaw’s 
Zool. ix. p. 238, pl. 43.—Ubers. ii. p. 106, sp. 5.—Flamingo Grosbeak, Lath. 
Syn. Suppl. p. 155, accid. var.—My Collection, male, female, and young. 


CORYTHUS ENUCLEATOR.—CUvIER.* 
Pyrrhula (Corythus) enucleator, North. Zool. ii. p. 262. 


Tue female pine bullfinch is eight and a half inches long, and 
thirteen and a half in extent; the biil measures more than 
half an inch, is blackish, with the lower mandible paler at 
base ; the feathers of the whole head, neck, breast, and rump, 
orange, tipt with brownish, the orange richer on the crown, 
where are a few blackish dots ; the plumage at base plumbeous; 
the back is cinereous, somewhat mixed with orange; the 
shafts darker ; belly and femorals, pure cinereous; lower tail- 


* See description of the male, note, &c., vol. i. p. 79. 


FEMALE PINE BULLFINCH. 361 


coverts, whitish, shafted with dusky ; the wings are four and 
a half inches long, reaching beyond the middle of the tail ; 
the smaller coverts are similar to the back, cinereous, slightly 
tinged with orange; middle and larger, blackish, margined 
with whitish exteriorly and widely at tip; the lower coverts 
are whitish grey; quills, blackish, primaries margined with 
pale greenish orange, secondaries and tertials with broad 
white exterior margins; the tail is three and three-quarter 
inches long, blackish, the feathers with narrow pale edges ; 
feet, dusky; nails, blackish. 

In the young female, the head and rump are tinged with 
reddish. The male represented and most accurately described 
by Wilson is not adult, but full one year old ; at which period, 
contrary to the general law of nature, it is the brightest, as 
was first stated by Linné, though his observation has since 
been overlooked or unjustly contradicted. In the adult male, 
the parts that were crimson in the immature bird exhibit a 
fine reddish orange, the breast and belly being also of that 
colour, but paler; the bars of the wings, tinged with rose in 
the young, become pure white. 

We have nothing to add to Wilson’s history of this bird. 
Although, after the example of Temminck and others, we 
place this species at the head of the bullfinches, we cannot 
avoid remarking, that its natural affinities connect it most 
intimately with the crossbills, being allied to them closely in 
its habits and in its form, plumage, general garb, and even 
in its anomalous change of colours. ‘The bill, however, pre- 
cisely that of a bullfinch, induces us to leave it in that genus, 
between which and the crossbills it forms a beautiful link; 
the obtuse point of the lower mandible, but especially the 
small porrect, setaceous feathers covering the nostrils, as in 
these latter, eminently distinguish it from all others of its own 
genus. ‘These characters induced Cuvier to propose it as a 
subgenus under the name of Corythus, and Vieillot as an 
entirely distinct genus, which he first named Pinicola, but 
has since changed it to Strobilophaga. These authors have 


362 WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON. 


of course been followed by the German and English ornitho- 
logists of the new school, who appear to consider themselves 
bound to acknowledge every genus proposed, from whatever 
quarter, or however minute and variable the characters on 
which it is based. 


WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON. (Columba leucocephala.) 


PLATE XVII.—Fia. 1. 


Columba leucocephala, Linn. Syst. i. p. 281, sp. 14.—Gimel. Syst. i. p. 772, sp. 
14.—Lath. Ind. p. 594, sp. 5.—Temm. Ind. Col. in Hist. Pig. et Gall. i. p. 
459.—Vieill. Gal. Ois. ii. p. 331, pl. 194.—Columba minor leucocoryphas, 
Raii, Syn. p. 63, sp. 16, and p. 184, sp. 24.—Klein, Av. p. 120, sp. 18.— 
Columba saxatilis, Jamaicensis, Briss. Orn. i. p. 187, sp. 33; Id. 8vo, i. p. 
34.—Columba capite albo, the White-crowned Pigeon, Catesby, Car. i. p. 
25, pl. 25.—Seligman, Saml. Selt. Vog. 2, col. plate.—Le Pigeon de Roche 
de la Jamaique, Buff. Ois. ii. p. 529.—Sonn. Buff. vii. p. 216.—Colombe a 
calotte blanche, Vem. Hist. Pig. et Gall. i. p. 204; Id. folio, pl. 18 of the 
second family.—IMy Collection.—Edinburgh College Muscum. 


COLUMBA LEUCOCEPHALA.—LINNAUS. 
Columba leucocephala, Bonap. Synop. p. 119. 


Tus bird has been already alluded to in our first volume, 
when pointing out the difference between it and the new 
Columba fasciata of Say. We were then far from supposing 
that we should so soon have to become its historian; but 
having ascertained that it inhabits Florida, as well as the 
West Indies, we are enabled to give it a place in these pages, 
A glance at the plate will now render the difference strikingly 
obvious to the American student, who will thus perceive, better 
than can be explained by words, how entirely distinct the above- 
named species is from the present. 

The white-crowned pigeon, well known as an inhabitant of 
Mexico and the West Indies, is likewise found in great numbers 
on some of the Florida keys, such as Key Vacas, and others, 
early in spring, where it feeds almost exclusively on a kind of 
wild fruit, usually called beach-plum, and some few berries 
of a species of palmetto, that appears to be peculiar to those 
keys. It is also extensively spread in Jamaica and St Domingo, 


Drawntrom Nature by ARidep 


L White-crowned Pigeon, 2. Zvnaida Dove. 
Colunbatenucocgphala,  Coluiniba Zernaida. 
ae 


WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON. 363 


and is very abundant in the island of Porto Rico, frequenting 
deep woods, and breeding on rocks, whence they are called 
by some rock pigeons. They are very numerous on all the 
Bahama Islands, and form an important article of food with 
the inhabitants, particularly when young, being then taken in 
ereat quantities from the rocks where they breed. On the 
Florida keys also they breed in large societies, and the young 
are much sought after by the wreckers. They there feed 
principally on berries, and especially on those of a tree called 
sweetwood. When the fruit of this is ripe, they become fat 
and well-flavoured, but other fruits again make their flesh 
very bitter. 

Buffon, in accordance with his whimsical idea of referring 
foreign species to those of Europe, considers the present as a 
variety of the biset (Columba livia, Briss.) To that bird it is 
in fact allied, both in form and plumage, and has, moreover, 
the same habit of breeding in holes and crevices of rocks ; but 
it is, at the same time, entirely distinct. 

The size of the white-crowned pigeon has been underrated 
by authors. Its length is fourteen inches, and its extent 
twenty-three ; the bill is one inch long, carmine red at the 
base, the end from the nostrils being bluish white; the irides 
are orange yellow, the bare circle round the eye, dusky white, 
becoming red in the breeding season; the entire crown, in- 
cluding all the feathers advancing far on the bill, is white, 
with a tinge of cream colour, and is narrowly margined with 
black, which passes insensibly into the general deep slate 
colour: on the nape of the neck is a small deep purplish 
space changing to violet ; the remainder of the neck above, 
and on the sides, is covered by scale-like feathers, bright green, 
with bluish and golden reflections, according as the light 
falls; the sides of the head, the body above, and whole inferior 
surface, the wings and tail above and beneath—in short, the 
whole bird, without any exception but the parts described, is 
of a uniform deep bluish slate, much lighter on the belly, 
more tinged with blue on the stout-shafted rump-feathers, 


364 ’ WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON. 


somewhat glossy, and approaching to brownish black on the 
scapulars : the quills are more of a dusky black; the wings 
are nearly eight inches long, reaching, when closed, to two- 
thirds of the tail; the first primary is somewhat shorter than 
the fourth, and the second and third are longest; the third is 
curiously scalloped on the outer web, which is much narrowed 
for two inches from the tip; all are finely edged with whitish; 
the tail is five inches long, perfectly even, of twelve uniform 
broad feathers, with rounded tips; the feet are carmine red, 
the nails dusky ; the tarsus measures less than an inch, being 
subequal to the lateral toes, and much shorter than the middle 
one. ‘The female is perfectly similar. It is one of this sex, 
shot in the beginning of March, that is represented in the 
plate, and is perhaps a young, or not a very old bird; for it 
would seem that as they advance in age these pigeons become 
somewhat lighter coloured, the crown acquiring a much purer 
white. This, however, we only infer from authors, our plate 
and description being faithfully copied from nature. 

The young are distinguished by duller tints, and the crown 
is at first nearly uniform with the rest of their dark plumage: 
this part, after a time, changes to grey, then greyish white, 
and becomes whiter and whiter as the bird grows older. It is 
proper to remark, after what has been said under the article 
of the band-tailed pigeon in vol. i., that the white colour 
extends equally over the whole crown, not more on one part 
than another; thus never admitting of a restricted band or 
line, as in that much lighter coloured bird. 

Another species closely allied to, and perhaps identical with, 
our band-tailed pigeon (though we have equally good reasons 
for believing it the Columba rufina of Temminck), and of 
which we have not yet been able to procure specimens, is also 
well known to breed on the Florida keys, whither probably 
almost all the West Indian species occasionally resort. 


ZENAIDA DOVE. 366 


ZENAIDA DOVE, (Columba Zenaida.) 
PLATE XVII.—Fic. 2. 


Columba Zenaida, Nob. Add. Orn. U. S. in Journ. Acad. Phil.— Id. Cat. Birds 
U. S. sp. 198, in Contr. Macl. Lyc. Ph. i. p. 22.—Id. Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 
198, in Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y. ii. p. 119.—Id. Suppl. in Zool. Journ. 
Lond. v. p. 6.—My Collection. 


COLUMBA? ZEN AID A.—BONAPARTE. 


Tsar name of dove is not commonly used to designate a 
systematic group, but is employed for all the small pigeons 
indiscriminately, whilst the larger doves are known as pigeons. 
Even this distinction of size, however, does not seem to be 
agreed upon, as we find authors calling the larger species doves 
and the smaller ones pigeons, and sometimes even applying 
both appellations to different sexes or ages of the same 
species, as in the case of the common American pigeon, 
Columba migratoria. This extensive family of birds—so re- 
markable for richness and splendour of colours—so important 
as contributing largely to supply the wants of mankind— 
so interesting as forming so perfect a link between the two 
great divisions of the feathered tribes—has been divided on 
more philosophical principles into three groups, which some 
naturalists consider as genera, and others as subgenera or 
sections. Of these, two only are found represented in America ; 
the third, a very natural group, being confined to Africa and 
the large eastern islands of the old world. That to which the 
present bird, and all the North American species but one, 
_belong, is the most typical of all, being characterised by a 
straight and slender bill, both mandibles of which are soft and 
flexible, and the upper turgid towards the end; by their short 
tarsi, divided toes, and long, acute wings, with the first pri- 
mary somewhat shorter than the second, which is the longest. 
This group (the true pigeons and doves) is, however, so 
numerous in species, that we cannot but wonder that it should 
still remain comparatively untouched by the reforming hand 
of our contemporaries; especially seeing that as good reasons 


366 ZENAIDA DOVE. 


may be found for subdividing them as the parrots and other 
large natural groups. We may indicate the differences exhi- 
bited in the form of the scales covering the tarsus, and the 
shape of the tail, &c., as offering characters on which sections 
or genera could be founded. But as the species of the United 
States, which are those we are to treat of, are but few, we shall 
leave the promising task to any one whose researches may 
lead him to engage in it; and shall only observe, that the 
two species described by Wilson belong to a different group 
from the three we have since introduced into the fauna of this 
country. Of these, the present beautiful dove is the only one 
hitherto undescribed. 

This new and charming little species inhabits the Florida 
keys with the preceding, but is much more rare. We have 
also received it from Cuba, and noticed a specimen in a collec- 
tion of skins sent from that island by Mr MacLeay to the 
Zoological Society of London, They are fond of being on the 
eround, where they are most commonly observed, dusting 
themselves, and seeking for the gravel which, like the galli- 
naceous birds, they swallow to assist digestion. When flushed, 
they produce the same whistling noise with their wings as the 
common turtle-dove, Columba Carolinensis. 

The Zenaida dove measures ten inches in length. ‘The bill 
is somewhat more robust than that of the common dove, but 
otherwise perfectly similar, Jess than an inch long, black, the 
corners of the mouth being lake ; the irides are dark brown, 
the pupil of the eye large, and the eye itself full, giving the 
whole bird a mild and pleasing expression ; the naked orbits 
are of a bluish grey. The whole plumage above is yellowish 
ashy brown, tinged with vinaceous on the crown, and paler on 
the sides of the head and neck ; under the ears is a small bright 
rich and deep violaceous spot, rivalling the amethyst in 
splendour, and above this a similar smaller one, not very 
distinguishable; the sides of the neck before the bend of the 
wing exhibit splendid golden violaceous reflections, slightly 
passing into greenish in different lights; the scapulars are 


ZENAIDA DOVE. 367 


spotted with black, the spots being large and roundish ; the 
exterior wing-coverts, spurious wing and quill feathers, are 
blackish; the primaries are edged with white externally, 
and, with the exception of the outer ones, at tip also; the 
secondaries are broadly terminated with white; the chin is 
yellowish white; the whole inferior surface is bright vinaceous, 
paler on the throat, and gradually passing into richer on the 
belly ; the flanks and under wing-coverts are delicate lilac, 
and the under tail-coverts are mixed with the same colour, 
some of the longest being entirely lilac, which is also found 
at the base of the plumage on the belly and rump; the wings 
are six inches and a quarter long; reaching within one inch 
of the tip of the tail; the primaries are entire on both vanes ; 
the first is longer than the fourth, the second longest, though 
scarcely longer than the third; the tail is four and a half 
inches long, composed of twelve broad, full, rounded feathers, 
extending but one inch beyond their coverts; it is nearly even, 
and of the colour of the body, with a broad black band at two- 
thirds of its length, obsolete on the two middle feathers 
(which are of the colour of the body), purer on the three ex- 
terior; the lateral feathers are pearl grey for half an inch 
towards the tip, the outer plume being, moreover, of that 
colour on the outer vane; all the tail-feathers are blackish on 
the inferior surface to within three-quarters of an inch of 
their tips. The feet are red ; the nails blackish ; the tarsus 
measures three-quarters of an inch in length. 

The female is very similar to the male in size and colour ; 
the head, however, is but slightly tinged with vinaceous, the 
golden violet reflections of the neck are not quite so vivid, and 
the inferior surface of a paler vinaceous, but graduated as in 
the male. The lateral tail-feathers are also much more uniform 
with the middle one, and of course with the back, the three 
outer only on each side being pearl grey at tip. This latter 
character, however, we should rather attribute to age than sex, 
if we had not good reason to believe that our female is a per- 
fectly adult bird. 


368 DUSKY GROUSE. 


At first sight, the Zenaida dove might perhaps be mistaken 
for the common turtle-dove (Columba Oarolinensis and margi- 
nata of authors), having the same general colour and several 
common markings ; but, to mention no other differential cha- 
racter, the short even tail, composed of but twelve feathers, all 
rounded, the outer bluish grey at tip, will at once distinguish 
it from the latter, which belongs to a different group, having 
the tail long, cuneiform, and (what is found in no other Ame- 
rican species, not even its close relation the passenger pigeon) 
composed of fourteen tapering and acute feathers, the two 
middle remarkably so, and the lateral pure white at tip. If 
any other distinction should be required, the white tips of the 
secondaries of our new species will afford a good one, as well 
as the outer tail-feather, the exterior web of which is blue 
erey, crossed, as well as the others, by the black band ; whilst 
in the C. Carolinensis it is entirely pure white, the black band 
being confined to the inner web. 


DUSKY GROUSE. (Tetrao obscurus.) 
PLATE XVIII.—-FEMALE. 


Tetrao obscurus, Say, in Long’s Exped. to Rocky Mount. ii. p. 14.—WNob. Cat. 
Birds U.S. sp. 209, in Contr. Macl. Lyc. Phila. i. p. 23.—Id. Syn. Birds 
U.S. sp. 207, in Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y. pp. 127, 442.—Philadelphia 
Museum, female.—Collection of Mr Sabine, in London, male and female. 


TETRAO OBSCURUS.—Say.* 


Tetrao obscurus, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 334, plate 59, male ; 60, female. 


Liynf, in his genus Vetrao, brought together so great a 
number of species bearing no more than a distant resemblance 


* The authors of the “ Northern Zoology” have given a beautiful figure 
of this bird, and have quoted the 7’. Richardsonii of Douglas as identical 
with it. This I am unable to decide, but should certainly give some 
weight to the comparisons of Dr Richardson, who thinks that those de- 
posited in the Edinburgh Museum are only younger specimens. 

The characters given by Mr Douglas are :— 


“ST 
SRLNISY) COLA], 
epoutay snoLg AYSNGT 
WBE YW AQ PRCT MLVY Y NY BATON Ug UNDLY 


Bite Se — 


DUSKY GROUSE. 369 


to each other, and differing not only in their external charac- 
ters, but even in their peculiar habits, that he might, with 
almost the same propriety, have included in it all typical gal- 
linaceous birds. Latham very judiciously separated the genus 
Tinamus, as well as that of Perdix, which latter he restored 
from Brisson. Illiger likewise contributed to our better know- 
ledge of these birds, by characterising two more natural genera, 
Syrrhaptes and Ortygis. 'Temminck, in his “ Histoire des Galli- 
nacés,”’ carried the number to seven, but has since reduced it 
by reuniting Coturnix to Perdix. 

The true Tetraones are divided by Vieillot into two genera, 
the Lagopodes forming a distinct one by themselves. These, 
however, we regard as no more than a subgenus, of which we 
distinguish three in our genus Tetrao. I. Lagopus, which re- 
presents it in the arctic polar regions, for whose climate they 
are admirably adapted by being clothed to the very nails in 
plumage suited to the temperature, furnished abundantly with 
thick down, upon which the feathers are closely applied. The 
colour of their winter plumage is an additional protection 
against rapacious animals, by rendering it difficult to distin- 
suish them from the snows by which they are surrounded. 

T. RicHarpsonu, Mas.—Pallidé plumbeo-griseus fusco sparsim undulatus : 
gule plumis in medio albis: abdomine saturatiore albo parcé maculato: 
macula laterali sub nucha alba : rectricibus nigris, apice albicante. 


Fem.—Minor, brunnescenti-grisea, dorso brunneo fasciato ; subtts albo fre- 
quenter notato rectricibus duobus mediis ferrugineo fasciatis. 


That gentleman mentions a trait in their manners, which he thinks 
is peculiar to this species. “On being started from the dark shadowy 
pine-trees, their usual roosting-place, they descend, or, more properly, 
allow themselves to fall within a few feet of the ground, before they 
commence flying, a circumstance which often leads the sportsman to 
think he has secured his bird, until the object of his attention leaves 
him, darting and floating through the forest.” 

They were very abundant on the subalpine regions of the Rocky 
Mountains, in lat. 52 deg., and still more numerous on the mountainous 
districts of the river Columbia, in lat. 48 deg. They were rare, how- 
ever, on the north-west coast. 

The specimens in the Edinburgh Museum have been accurately figured 


by Mr J. Wilson in his “ Illustrations of Zoology,” under the name of 
T. hichardsonit.—Ep. 
VOL, IIL, 2A 


370 DUSKY GROUSE. 


If. Zetrao, which is distributed over the more temperate cli- 
mates; the legs being still feathered down to the toes. III. 
Bonasia, a new division, of which we propose Tetrao bonasia, 
L., as the type, in which only the upper portion of the tarsus 
is feathered. These occasionally descend still farther south 
than the others, inhabiting wooded plains as well as mountain- 
ous regions, to which those of the second section are more par- 
ticularly attached. But the entire genus is exclusively boreal, 
being only found in Europe, and the northern countries of 
America and Asia. The long and sharp-winged grouse, or 
Pterocles of Temminck, which represent, or rather replace, 
these birds in the arid and sandy countries of Africa and Asia, 
a single species inhabiting also the southern extremity of 
Europe, we consider, in common with all modern authors, as 
a totally distinct genus. ‘That group, composed of but few 
species, resort to the most desert regions, preferring dry and 
burning wastes to the cool shelter of the woods. These oceans, 
as they might be termed, of sand, so terrific to the eye and the 
imagination of the human traveller, they boldly venture to 
cross in large companies in search of the fluid so indispensable 
to life, but there so scarce, and only found in certain spots. 
Over the intervening spaces they pass with extraordinary ra- 
pidity, and at a great elevation, being the only gallinaceous 
birds furnished with wings of the form required for such flights. 
This, however, is not the only peculiarity in which they aber- 
rate from the rest of their order, and approach the pigeons, 
being said to lay but few eggs, the young remaining in the 
nest until they are full fledged, and fed in the meantime by 
the parents. ; 

The grouse dwell in forests, especially such as are deep, 
and situated in mountainous districts ; the Bonasic, however, 
and the Tetrao Cupido, frequenting plains where grow trees of 
various kinds. The Lagopodes of the arctic regions, or ptar- 
migans, are also found on the very elevated mountains of Cen- 
tral Europe, where the temperature corresponds to that of 
more northern latitudes. Here they keep among the tufts of 


DUSKY GROUSE. 271 


dwarf-willows, which, with pines, form the principal vegeta- 
tion of these climates. The grouse feed almost exclusively 
on leaves, buds, berries, and especially the young shoots of 
trees, pines, spruce, or birch, resorting to seeds only when 
compelled by scarcity of other food, or when their usual means 
of subsistence are buried beneath the snow. They sometimes, 
especially when young, pick up a few insects and worms, and 
are fond of ants’ eggs. Like other gallinaceous birds, they 
are constantly employed in scratching the earth, are fond 
of covering themselves with dust, and swallow small pebbles 
and gravel to assist digestion. No birds are more decidedly 
and tyrannically polygamous. As soon as the females are 
fecundated, the male deserts them, caring no further about 
them nor their progeny, to lead a solitary life. Like perfidious 
seducers, they are full of attention, however, and display the 
greatest anxiety to secure the possession of those they are 
afterwards so ready to abandon. The nuptial season com- 
mences when the leaves first appear in spring. The males 
then appear quite intoxicated with passion ; they are seen, 
either on the ground, or on the fallen trunks of trees, with a 
proud deportment, an inflamed and fiery eye, the feathers of 
the head erected, the wings dropped, the tail widely spread, 
parading and strutting about in all sorts of extravagant 
attitudes, and expressing their feelings by sounds so loud as 
to be heard at a great distance. This season of ardour and 
abandonment is protracted till June. The deserted female 
lays, unnoticed by the male, far apart on the ground, among 
low and thick bushes, from eight to sixteen eggs, breeding but 
once in a season. ‘They sit and rear their young precisely in 
the manner of the common fowl, the chicks being carefully 
protected by the mother only, with whom they remain all the 
autumn and winter, not separating until the return of the 
breeding season. It is only at this period that the males seek 
the society of the females. 

The grouse are remarkably wild, shy, and untamable birds, 
dwelling in forests or in barren uncultivated grounds, avoid- 


372 DUSKY GROUSE. 


ing cultivated and thickly inhabited countries, and keeping 
together in families. The Lagopodes only live in very num- 
erous flocks, composed of several broods, parting company 
when the return of spring invites them to separate in pairs 
of different sexes, which is always done by the birds of this 
division. Except in the breeding season, the grouse keep 
always on the ground, alighting on trees only when disturbed 
or when going to roost at night ; by day retiring to the deep- 
est part of the forest. The flesh of all grouse is delicious food, 
dark-coloured in some, and white in others, the dark being 
more compact, juicy, and richly flavoured, asin Tetrao Cupido ; 
while the white, though somewhat dry, is distinguished for 
delicacy and lightness. Such are the Bonasice, T. umbellus 
of America, and 7’. bonasia of Europe. 

The grouse are distinguished by a short stout bill, feathered 
at base, and they are, of all gallinaceous birds, those in which 
the upper mandible is the most vaulted; the feathers of the 
bill are very thick and close, and cover the nostrils entirely ; 
the tongue is short, fleshy, acuminate, and acute; the eye is 
surmounted by a conspicuous red and papillous naked space ; 
the tarsi are generally spurless in both sexes, and partly or 
wholly covered with slender feathers, which in the Lagopodes 
are thicker and longer than in the rest, extending not only 
beyond the toes, but growing even on the sole of the foot—a 
peculiarity which, agreeably to the observation of Buffon, of 
all animals is again met with only in the hare. These feathers 
in winter become still longer and closer. All the others have 
the toes scabrous beneath, and furnished with a pectinated 
row of processes on each side.* This roughness of the sole of 
the feet enables them to tread firmly on the slippery surface 
of the ground or frozen snow, or to grasp the branches of trees 
covered with ice. ‘Their nails are manifestly so formed as to 


* These processes are liable to fall off, at least in preserved skins 
It is owing to this circumstance that we committed several errors in 
characterising these birds in our “Synopsis of the Birds of the United 
States.” 


DUSKY GROUSE. 373 


suit them for scratching away the snow covering the vegetables 
which compose their food. The wings of the grouse are short 
and rounded ; the first primary is shorter than the third and 
fourth, which are longest. The tail is usually composed of © 
eighteen feathers, generally broad and rounded. The red 
crouse, 7’. Scoticus, however, and the European Bonasiv, and 
T. Canadensis, or spotted grouse, have but sixteen ; while our 
two new North American species have twenty, one of them 
having these feathers very narrow and pointed, the narrowness 
being also observed in the sharp-tailed grouse. They have 
the head small, the neck short, and the body massive and 
very fleshy. 

The females of the larger species differ greatly from the 
males, which are glossy black or blackish, while the former 
are mottled with grey, blackish, and rufous: such are all the 
typical Zetraones of Europe, and the cock of the plains, the 
dusky and the spotted grouse of America. ‘T’he smaller species, 
in which both sexes are mottled, such as 7. phasianellus and 
T. Cupido, exhibit little or no difference in the plumage of the 
two sexes; which is also the case in all the Bonasie and 
Lagopodes. The young in their first feathers are in all 
respects like the female, and the males do not acquire their 
full plumage until after the second moult. All moult twice 
a year, and most of the Lagopodes change their colours with 
the seasons in a remarkable manner. 

The genus Tetrao is now composed of thirteen species,— 
three Lagopodes, two Bonasie, and eight typical Tetraones. 
This enumeration does not include the T'etrao rupestris, which 
we do not consider well established, any more than the new 
species of Mr Brehm. The species of Lagopus, as might be 
inferred from their inhabiting high northern latitudes, are 
common to both continents, with the exception of the red 
grouse, 7. Scoticus, which is peculiar to the British islands, 
and which, from its not changing the colours of its plumage 
with the seasons, may be considered as forming the passage 
to the true Zetraones. Of these, there are five in North 


374 DUSKY GROUSE. 


America, each and all distinct from the three European. Of 
the two Bonasiw, one is peculiar to the old, and the other 
to the new continent, the former having sixteen, the latter 
eighteen feathers to the tail. hus the entire number is seven 
in Europe, while it is eight in North America. Setting aside 
the two common to both, and the respective Bonasice, we 
may consider the cock of the woods of Europe as the parallel 
of the cock of the plains of America. The black grouse, 7’ 
tetria, will find its equivalent in the dusky grouse, 7’. obscurus ; 
but the 7. hybridus has no representative in America, any 
more than the 7. Scoticus, These, however, are more than 
replaced as to number by the 7’. phastanellus, 7. Cupido, and 
T. Canadensis, all American species, which have none corre- 
sponding to them in the old world. 

Perhaps no other naturalist has personally inspected all the 
known species of this genus of both continents, and having 
examined numerous specimens even of some of the rarest, and 
possessing all but one in my own collection, my advantages 
are peculiar for giving a monography of this interesting genus. 
Such a work it is my intention hereafter to publish, illustrated 
with the best figures, and accompanied with further details 
repecting their habits. In the meantime, I shall merely 
state, that, being replaced in Africa by Péterocles, and in South 
America by Tinamus, all the known species of grouse are 
found in North America or in Europe, the European also 
inhabiting Asia, from whose elevated central and northern 
regions, yet unexplored, may be expected any new species 
that still remain to be discovered. The extensive wilds of 
North America may also furnish more, though we do not 
think so; for since we have become acquainted with both 
sexes of the dusky grouse and the cock of the plains, we have 
been able to refer satisfactorily to known species all those of 
which any indications occur in the accounts of travellers in 
this country. 

North America is exceeded by no country in the beauty, 
number, and valuable qualities of her grouse; and she is even 


DUSKY GROUSE. 375 
perhaps superior to all others in these respects since the dis- 
covery of the cock of the plains. Although the careful and 
accurate researches of Wilson had led him to the belief that 
there existed but two species of grouse in the territory of the 
United States, no less than six are now known to inhabit 
within their boundaries. But we are not aware that any of the 
subgenus Lagopus ever enters the confines of the Union, not- 
withstanding the pains we have taken to obtain information 
on this point from the high northern districts of Maine and 
Michigan, in which, if anywhere, they are most likely to be 
discovered. It would, however, be very extraordinary if these 
birds, which are found in the Alps of Switzerland, should not 
also inhabit the lofty ranges of the Rocky Mountains, which 
are known to be the resort of the various species of grouse. 
With the exception, therefore, of the well-known Tetrao wm- 
bellus, which belongs to Bonasza, all the others are true grouse, 
Tetraones. 

The spotted and the sharp-tailed grouse were lone since 
known as inhabitants of that part of America north of the 
United States, but the two others are newly added, not only 
to our fauna, but to the general system, being found for the 
first time in the American territory, and not elsewhere. For 
the history of the discovery, the manners, habitation, and a 
particular description of each of these, we shall refer the reader 
to their several articles. 

The dusky grouse is eminently distinguished from all other 
known species by having the tail slightly rounded, and com- 
posed of twenty broad and rounded feathers. This peculi- 
arity of the extraordinary number of tail-feathers is only found 
besides in the cock of the plains, in which, however, they are 
not rounded, but very slender, tapering, and acute. In size 
and colour, the dusky grouse may be compared to the black 
grouse of Kurope, so remarkable for the outward curvature 
of the lateral feathers of the tail. 

The figure in our plate is taken from the specimen on which 
Say established the species ; this was killed on a mountain in 


3706 DUSKY GROUSE. 


the great chain dividing the waters of the Mississippi from 
those which flow towards the Pacific, at a spot where, on the 
10th of July 1820, the exploring party of Major Long were 
overlooking, from an elevation of one or two thousand feet, a 
wide extent of country. A small river poured down the side 
of the mountain, through a deep and inaccessible chasm, form- 
ing a continued cascade of several hundred feet. The surface 
of the country appeared broken for several miles, and in many 
of the valleys could be discerned columnar and pyramidal 
masses of sandstone, some entirely naked, and others bearing 
small tufts of bushes about their summits. When the bird 
flew, and at the unexpected moment of its death, it uttered 
a cackling note, somewhat resembling that of the domestic 
fowl. 

The female dusky grouse is eighteen inches in length. The 
bill measures precisely an inch, which is small in proportion ; 
it is blackish, with the base of the under mandible whitish. 
The general colour of the plumage is blackish brown, much 
lighter on the neck and beneath, all the feathers having two 
or three narrow bars of pale ochreous, much less pure and 
bright on the neck and breast ; the small short feathers at the 
base of the bill covering the nostrils are tinged with ferrugi- 
nous, those immediately nearest the forehead have but a single 
band, and are slightly tipt, while the larger ones of the neck, 
back, rump, and even the tail-coverts, as well as the feathers 
of the breast, have two bands and the tip. These rufous ter- 
minal margins on the upper portion of the back and on the 
tail-coverts are broad, and sprinkled with black, so as to be 
often blended with the lower band. ‘The sides of the head 
and the throat are whitish, dotted with blackish, the black 
occupying both sides of each feather, deepening and taking a 
band-like appearance on the inferior portion of the upper sides 
of the neck ; on each feather of the breast is a whitish band 
that becomes wider on those nearest the belly ; the flanks are 
varied with rufous, each feather having, besides the small tip, 
three broad cross lines of that colour, and a white spot at the 


DUSKY GROUSE. 4 BUG, 


tip of the shaft, increasing in size as they are placed lower ; 
the belly feathers are plain dull cinereous, the lower tail-coverts 
are white, black at their base, with one or two black bands be- 
sides, and tinged between the bands with greyish ochreous ; 
the wings are nine and a half inches long, with the third and 
fifth primaries subequal ; the coverts, as well as the scapulars, 
are of the general colour, with about two bands, the second of 
which is sprinkled as well as the tip, each feather being white 
on the shaft at tip; the primaries, secondaries, and outer 
wing-coverts, including their shafts, are plain dusky; the 
secondaries have ochreous zigzag marks on their outer webs, 
and are slightly tipt with dull whitish ; the primaries them- 
selves are somewhat mottled with dingy white externally, 
but are notwithstanding entirely without the regular white 
spots so remarkable in other grouse; the lower wing-coverts 
and long axillary feathers are pure white. The tail measures 
in length seven and a half iaches, is very slightly rounded, of 
twenty broad feathers, of which the lateral are plain blackish, 
with the exception of a few whitish dots at the base of their 
outer webs, and the middle ones being varied with rufous dots 
disposed like the bands across their whole width ; all are thickly 
dotted with grey for half an inch at tip, which in the specimen 
figured, but by no means so much so in others, gives the tail 
an appearance of having a broad terminal band of cinereous 
sprinkled with blackish. This circumstance evinces the in- 
utility of describing with the extreme minuteness to which 
we have descended in this instance, as, after all the pains 
bestowed, the description is only that of an individual. The 
tail is pure black beneath, considerably paler at tip and on 
the undulations of the middle feathers. The tarsus is three- 
quarters of an inch long; the feathers with which it is covered, 
together with the femorals, are pale greyish ochreous, undu- 
lated with dusky ; the toes are dusky, and the nails blackish. 
The male is but little larger, and entirely, but not intensely, 
black. Wecan, however, say very little about it, having taken 
but a hasty and imperfect view of a specimen belonging to 


378 SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 


Mr Sabine of London, and writing merely from recollection. 
The tail-feathers are wholly black, perfectly plain and un- 
spotted ; and in the female and young, they are but slightly 
mottled, as is seen in almost all grouse. Mr Sabine has long 
had this bird in his possession, and intended dedicating it, as 
a new species, to that distinguished traveller, Dr Richardson. 


SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. (Tetrao phasianellus.) 
PLATE XIX. 


Tetrao phasianellus, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, p. 160.—Gimel. Syst. i. p. 747.—Forst. 
Phil. Trans. \xii. pp. 394 and 425.—Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 635, sp. 2.—Briss. 
Suppl. p. 9.—LTemm. Ind. Gall. in Hist. Pig. and Gall. tii. p. 702.— Vieill. 
Nowy. Dict. Hist. Nat.—Sabine, Zool. App. to Frankl. Exped. p. 681.—WNob. 
Cat. Birds U.S. sp. 208.—Id. Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 209.—Tetrao urogallus, 
var. B, Linn. Syst. i. p. 273, sp. 1.—Gelinotte a longue queue, Buff. Ois. ii. 
p. 286.—Sonn. Buff. vi. p. 72.—Bonap. Tabl. Encyc. Orn. p. 196, pl. 91, fig. 
1.—Francolin a longue queue, Hearne, Voy. & VOcean du Nord (Fr. transl.) 
p. 386.—Tetras phasianelle, Temm. Pig. et Gall. iii. p. 152.—Long-tailed 
Grouse, Edwards, Glean. pl. 117.—Lath. Syn. iv. p. 732; Id. Suppl. p. 21. 
—Sharp-tailed Grouse, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 181.—The Grouse, or Prairie 
Hen, Lewis and Clark, Exp. ii. p. 180, sp. 1.—Philadelphia Museum, female. 
—Mvy Collection, male and female. 


TETRAO PHASTANELLUS.—LmNnNEvs. 


Tetrao (Centrocercus) phasianellus, Swain. North. Zool. ii. p. 361. 


THis species of grouse, though lone since said to inhabit 
Virginia, is, in fact, a recent acquisition to the fauna of the 
United States ; for it was only through an awkward mistake 
that it was ever attributed to that country. Mitchell, upon 
an inspection of Edwards's bad drawing of this bird, mistaking 
it for the ruffed grouse of that and the neighbouring States, 
declared it to be an inhabitant of Virginia ; and upon his 
authority Edwards gave it as such This statement, however, 
led Wilson into the erroneous belief of the identity of the two 
species, in which he was further confirmed when, after the 
most careful researches, he became satisfied that the ruffed 
grouse was the only species to be found in Virginia. 

The gallant and lamented Governor Lewis gave the first 


Gl 
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SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 379 


authentic information of the existence of this bird within the 
limits of these States. He met with it on the upper waters 
of the Missouri, but observes that it is peculiarly the inhabi- 
tant of the great plains of the Columbia. He states also, that 
the scales, or lateral processes of the toes, with which it is 
furnished in winter, like the rest of its genus, drop off in 
summer. 

Say introduced the species regularly into the scientific 
records of his country. The expedition under Major Long 
brought back a specimen now in the Philadelphia Museum, 
from which, though a female, and unusually light coloured, we 
have had our drawing made, on account of its having been 
procured in the American territory. The bird is never seen 
in any of the Atlantic States, though numerous in high northern 
latitudes. It is common near Severn river and Albany Fort, 
inhabiting the uncultivated lands in the neighbourhood of 
the settlements, and particularly near the southern parts of 
Hudson’s Bay, being often killed in winter near Fort York ; 
but it does not extend its range to Churchill. Near Fort 
William, on Lake Superior, the sharp-tailed grouse is also 
found in spring, and we have seen specimens killed in winter 
at Cumberland House, and others at York Factory in summer. 
In collections it is very rare ; and Temminck, when he wrote 
his history of gallinaceous birds, had never seen a specimen, 
nor did it exist at the time in any Kuropean museum. 

It is by the shape of the tail that this grouse is eminently 
distinguished from all others. The English name, which we 
have, with Mr Sabine, selected from Pennant, is much more 
applicable than that of long-tailed, given by Edwards; for 
instead of being long, it is, except the middle feathers, remark- 
ably short, cuneiform, and acute, more resembling that of some 
ducks than of the pheasant. By the elongated feathers, but 
in no other particular, this species approaches the African 
genus Pterocles, At Hudson’s Bay it is called pheasant, a 
name which, though inappropriate, seems at least better 
applied to this than the ruffed grouse. 


380 SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 


The original writers that have mentioned this grouse-are 
Edwards, who first introduced it, and has figured the female 
from a badly stuffed specimen, being, however, the only figure 
before ours ; Pennant; Hearne, who has given the most infor- 
mation concerning its habits, derived from personal observation ; 
and Forster, who has described it with accuracy. Linné at first 
adopted it from Edwards, but afterwards most unaccountably 
changed his mind, and considered it as a female of the Huropean 
cock of the woods. It was restored by Latham and others to 
its proper rank in the scale of beings. 

The sharp-tailed grouse is remarkably shy, living solitary 
or by pairs during summer, and not associating in packs till 
autumn, remaining thus throughout the winter. Whilst the 
ruffed grouse is never found but in woods, and the pinnated 
grouse only in plains, the present frequents either indifferently. 
They, however, of choice, inhabit what are called the juniper 
plains, keeping among the small juniper bushes, the buds con- 
stituting their principal food. They are usually seen on the 
eround, but when disturbed, fly to the highest trees. Their 
food in summer is composed of berries, the various sorts of 
which they eagerly seek: in winter they are confined to the 
buds and tops of evergreens, or of birch and alder, but espe- 
cially poplar, of which they are very fond. They are more 
easily approached in autumn than when they inhabit large 
forests, as they then keep alighting on the tops of the tallest 
poplars, beyond the reach of an ordinary gun. When disturbed 
in that position, they are apt to hide themselves in the snow ; 
but Hearne informs us that the hunter’s chance is not the 
better for that ; for so rapidly do they make their way beneath 
the surface, that they often suddenly take wing several yards 
from the spot where they entered, and almost always in a 
different direction from that which is expected. 

Like the rest of its kind, the sharp-tailed grouse breeds on 
the ground near some bush, making a loose nest with grass, 
and lining it with feathers. Here the female lays from nine 
to thirteen eggs, which are white spotted with blackish. The 


SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 381 


young are hatched about the middle of June ; they utter a 
piping noise, somewhat like chickens. Attempts have been 
repeatedly made to domesticate them, but have as constantly 
failed, all the young, though carefully nursed by their step- 
mother, the common hen, dying one after another, probably for 
want of suitable food. This species has several cries: the cock 
has a shrill crowing note, rather feeble ; and both sexes, when 
disturbed, or whilst on the wing, repeat frequently the cry of 
cack, cack. This well-known sound conducts the hunter to 
their hiding-place, and they are also detected by producing 
with their small, lateral, rigid tail-feathers a curious noise, 
resembling that made by a winnowing fan. When in good 
order, one of these grouse will weigh upwards of two pounds, 
being very plump. Their flesh is of a light brown colour, 
and very compact, though, at the same time, exceedingly juicy 
and well tasted, being far superior in this respect to the com- 
mon ruffed, and approaching in excellence the delicious pin- 
nated grouse. 

The adult male sharp-tailed grouse, in full plumage, is 
sixteen inches long, and twenty-three in breadth. The bill 
is little more than an inch long, blackish, pale at the base of 
the lower mandible, and with its ridge entering between the 
small feathers covering the nostrils: these are blackish, edged 
with pale rusty, the latter predominating ; the irides are 
hazel. The general colour of the bird is a mixture of white, 
and different shades of dark and light rusty, on a rather deep 
and glossy blackish ground, the feathers of the head and neck 
have but a single band of rusty, and are tipt with white ; 
those, however, of the crown, are of a much deeper and more 
glossy black, with a single marginal spot of rusty on each side, 
and a very faint tip of the same, forming a tolerably pure 
black space on the top of the head. The feathers between the 
eye and bill, those around the eye, above and beneath, on the 
sides of the head, and on the throat, are somewhat of a dingy 
yellowish white, with a small black spot on each side, giving 
these parts a dotted appearance; but the dots fewer and 


382 SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 


smaller on the throat. The feathers of the back and rump 
are black, transversely varied on the margin and at tip with 
pale bright rusty sprinkled with black, forming a confused 
mixture of black and rusty on the whole upper parts of the 
bird; the long loose-webbed upper tail-coverts being similar, 
but decidedly and almost regularly banded with black, and 
sprinkled with rusty, this colour being there much lighter, 
and approaching to white, and even constituting the ground 
colour. The breast 1s brown, approaching to chocolate, each 
feather being terminated by a white fringe, with a large arrow- 
shaped spot of that colour on the middle of each feather, so 
that, when the plumage lies close, the feathers appear white 
with black crescents, and are generally described so. On the 
lower portion of the breast, the white spots, as they descend, 
become longer and narrower, the branches forming the angle 
coming closer and closer to each other, till the spot becomes 
a mere white streak along the shaft, but, at the same time, 
the white marginal fringe widens so considerably, that the 
feathers of the belly may be properly called white, being brown 
only at their base, but the shaft is white even there, with no 
more than a brown heart-shaped spot visible on the middle. 
he heart-shaped brown spots of the belly become so very 
small at the vent, that this part appears pure white, with 
a few very small blackish spots; the long flank feathers 
are broadly banded with black and white, somewhat tinged 
with ochreous exteriorly ; the under tail-coverts are white 
blackish along the shafts, and more or less varied with black 
in different specimens ; also vary considerably as to the size 
and shape of all the spots, being in some more acute, in others 
more rounded, &c. The wings are eight inches long, the third 
and fourth primaries being the longest; the scapulars are 
uniform with the back, but, besides the rusty sprinkling of the 
margins and tip, the largest have narrow band-like spots of a 
pure bright rufous, a slight whitish streak along the shaft in 
the centre, and a large white spot at the end. The smaller 
wing-coverts are plain chocolate brown; the spurious wing 


SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 383 


and outer coverts are of the same brown, but each feather 
bears at the point a large and very conspicuous pure white 
spot ; all the other superior coverts are blackish, sprinkled, 
and banded with rusty, each furnished with a conspicuous 
terminal spot ; the under wing-coverts, together with the long 
axillary feathers, are pure white, each with a single small 
dusky spot, and are marbled with white and brownish on the 
outer margin ; the quills are plain dusky brown, the primaries 
being regularly marked with pure white spots half an inch 
apart on their outer webs, except at the point of the first ; 
the longest feather of the spurious wing, and the larger outer 
coverts, have also a pair of these spots ; the secondaries, be- 
sides the outer spots, which assume the appearance of bands, 
are tipt with pure white, forming a narrow terminal mar- 
gin ; those nearest the tertials are also slightly marked with 
rusty; the tertials themselves are similar to the scapulars, 
that is, they are black, banded and sprinkled with different 
shades of rusty; the tail is strongly cuneiform and graduated, 
of eighteen feathers, with the middle five inches long, which 
is three more than the outer. According to some accounts, 
the two middle feathers are by more than two inches longer 
than the adjoining, but in all we have examined, the difference 
was little more than an inch; the four middle are similar in 
shape, texture, and colour, beimg narrow, flaccid, equal in 
breadth throughout, though somewhat dilated and cut square 
at the end. In colour, they vary considerably in different 
specimens, the ground being generally black, and the tips 
white, but more or less varied, in some with white, and in 
others with rusty ; these colours being at one time pure, at 
another sprinkled with blackish, and assuming various tints ; 
in one specimen they are disposed in spots, in another in 
bands, lines, chains, angles, &c.; but generally in a long stripe 
on each side of the shaft at base, and in transverse spots at the 
point of the two longest, while they are in round spots all 
along each side of the two shortest: in one specimen, the 
latter are even almost plain, being dingy white, sprinkled with 


384 SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 


blackish on the whole of their outer web; all the other lateral 
feathers, entirely concealed by the coverts, are pure white at 
the point, but with dusky shafts, and are more or less broadly 
dark cinereous at base ; these feathers are very rigid, and of a 
curious form, tapering from the base to the point, where they 
suddenly dilate; they are deeply emarginated at tip, and their 
inner lobe projects considerably; the tarsus is two inches 
long; the slender hair-like feathers covering it are, as well 
as the femorals, of a dingy greyish white, obsoletely waved 
with dusky ; the toes are strongly pectinated, and are, as well 
as the nails, of a blackish dusky, while the long processes are 
whitish. 

The foregoing minute description is chiefly taken from a 
handsome male specimen from Arctic America. ‘There is no 
difference between the sexes, at least we have not been able 
to detect any in all the specimens of both that we have 
examined; hence we conclude that the difference generally 
described by authors, and which we have ourselves copied in 
our Synopsis, that of the breast being chocolate-brown in the 
male, and uniform with the rest of the plumage in the female, 
does not exist. The female is merely less bright and glossy. 
Both sexes, like other grouse, have a papillous red membrane 
over the eye, not always seen in stuffed skins, and which is 
said to be very vivid in the male of this species in the breed- 
ing-season. ‘This membrane, an inch in length, becomes dis- 
tended, and projects above the eye in the shape of a small 
crest, three-eighths of an inch high. 'T'he male at this season, 
like that of other species, and indeed of most gallinaceous 
birds, struts about in a very stately manner, carrying himself 
very upright; the middle feathers of the tail are more or less 
elongated, in young birds scarcely exceeding the adjoining by 
half an inch. 

The spring plumage is much more bright and glossy than 
the autumnal, and also exhibits differences in the spots and 
markings. ‘The specimen we have selected for our plate, on 
account of its being the only one we had from the United 


SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 385 


States territory, is a female in the autumnal dress, and was 
brought from the Rocky Mountains. We think proper to in- 
sert here in detail the description we took from it at the time, 
thus enabling the reader to contrast it with that made from a 
northern specimen in spring plumage, rather than point out 
each and all of the numerous, and at the same time minute 
and unimportant variations. 

The female represented in the figure was fifteen inches long ; 
its general colour mottled with black and yellowish rufous; 
the feathers of the head above are yellowish rufous banded 
with black, the shaft yellowish; a line above the eye, the 
cheeks and the throat, are pure yellowish rusty, with very 
few blackish dots, and a band of the latter colour from the 
bill beneath the eye, and spreading behind; all the lower 
parts are whitish cream, with a yellowish rusty tinge ; each 
feather of the neck and breast, with a broad blackish sub- 
terminal margin, in the shape of a crescent, becoming more 
and more narrow and acute as they are lower down on the 
belly, until the lowest are reduced to a mere black mark in 
the middle; the lower tail-coverts and the femorals are en- 
tirely destitute of black. All the upper parts, viz., the back, 
rump, upper tail-coverts, and scapulars, have a uniform mottled 
appearance of black and rusty, each feather being black, with 
rusty shafts, spots, bands, or margins, the rusty again minutely 
dotted with black ; on the rump, but especially on the tail- 
coverts, the rusty predominates in such a manner that each 
feather becomes first banded with black and rusty, then 
decidedly rusty varied with black, which, however, does not 
change in the least the general effect. The wing-coverts are 
dusky, each with a large round white spot at tip, the inner 
eradually taking the markings of the back and scapulars ; 
the linmg of the shoulder is plain dusky, as well as the 
spurious wing and the primaries, each feather of the spurious 
wing having about five large round spots of white on its outer 
web ; the primaries are regularly marked on the same side with 
eight or ten squarish, equi-distant, white spots, with a few in- 

VOL, III. 2B 


386 SPOTTED GROUSE. 


conspicuous whitish dots on their inner web besides; the 
secondaries are also dusky, but in them the spots take the 
appearance of bands continued across the whole feather, of 
which bands there are three or four, including the terminal ; 
the inner secondaries become darker and darker as they approach 
the body, the white becomes rufous, the dots are more frequent, 
and they become confounded with the scapulars, and are 
banded and mottled with various tints of black and rusty ; 
the lower wing-coverts, and long axillary feathers, are pure 
white, the outer coverts being marbled with dusky. The tail 
is composed of eighteen feathers; it is cuneiform, very short, 
and entirely hidden by the coverts, except the four middle 
feathers ; the two middle feathers are flaccid, narrow, equal in 
breadth throughout, longer than the others by more than an 
inch, rusty, crossed by chained bands of black, and dotted with 
black and whitish at tip; the two next are also longer than the 
others, nearly whitish, but almost similar in shape, markings, 
and texture, to the longest; the lateral decrease in size very 
fast from the centre, but by regular degrees, and are remark- 
ably stiff, somewhat like those of woodpeckers, wider at base 
and tip than in the middle, pure white at the end and on the 
inner web, the shaft black, and the outer web dotted with 
blackish ; they are deeply emarginate at tip, the inner lobe 
being longer, acute, and singularly shaped. 


SPOTTED GROUSE. (Zetrao Canadensis.) 
PLATE XX.—Matt. PLATE XXI.—Fie. 1, FEMALE. 


Tetrao Canadensis, Linn. Syst. i. p. 274, sp. 3.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 749, sp. 3.— 
Lath. Ind. p. 637, sp. 6.— Forster, in Phil. Tr. lxii. p. 389.—Lemm. Ind. 
Gall. in Hist. Pig. et Gall. iii. p. 702.—Vieill. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Nat.— 
Sabine, Zool. App. Frankl. Exped. p. 683.—Nob. Cat. Birds U. S. sp. 207.—Id. 
Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 208.—Tetrao canace, Linn. Syst. i. p. 25, sp. 7, female. 
—Lagopus Bonasa, Freti Hudsonis, Briss. Orn. i. p. 201, sp. 6 ; Id. Suppl. p. 
10; Id. 8vo, iv. p. 56, male.—Lagopus Bonasa Canadensis, Briss. Orn. i. p. 
203, sp. 7, pl. 20, fig. 2; Id. 8vo, iv. p. 57, female.—Lagopus, Freti Hudsonis, 


Klein, Av. p. 117, sp. 6.—La Gelinotte du Canada, Buff. Ois. ii. p, 279; Id. » 


Pl. enl. 131, male, 162, female.—Sonn. Buff. vi. p. 58.—Bonap. Tabl. Enc. 


Oe 


SISBPOULD Wie T- 
SNOLD OFHOAS 


7 PLNLAT ULI UML 
LVI VAY PLNPEA 


SPOTTED GROUSE. 387 


Orn. p. 197, pl. 91, fig. 2,—Tetras Tacheté, ou Acaho, Temm. Pig. et Gall. 
iii. p. 160, bis.—Black and Spotted Heathcock, Edw. Gillean. p. 118, pl. 118, 
male.—Brown and Spotted Heathcock, Hdw. Glean. p. 71, pl. 71, female. 
—Hllis, Hudson’s Bay, i. t. p. 50.—Spotted Grouse, Penn. Arct. Zool. sp. 182. 
—Lath. Syn. iv. p. 735, sp. 6; Id. Suppl. p. 214, accid. var.—The Small 
Speckled Pheasant, Lewis and Clark, Exp. ii. p. 182, male.—The Small 
Brown Pheasant, Jd. ii. p. 182, female.—Philadelphia Museum, male.—IMy 
Collection, male and female. 


TETRAO CANADENSIS.—LINNAUS.* 
Tetrao Canadensis, Spotted Grouse, Worth. Zool. ii. p. 346, pl. 62. Temm. 


As may be seen by the synonymy, two separate species hive 
been made of the present, the male and female being taken 


* Tn this place must be introduced the Tetrao Franklinii of Douglas 
first noticed by that gentleman in the “Transactions of the Linnaan 
Society.” It is a species which has been involved in confusion with the 
T. Canadensis, from the different opinions which those persons who 
‘have met with it have formed. By the Prince of Musignano and Mr 
Drummond, an acute observer, it is thought to be a variety only, while 
Mr Douglas and the authors of the “ Northern Zoology” consider it 
distinct. 

I have added the description of the latter naturalists, and some obser- 
vations on its habits by Mr Douglas. I cannot decide, not having 
specimens of both to compare ; but, from the known variation of the 
markings of those birds, which will stand in the division Tetrao, a very 
accurate comparison indeed of numerous specimens, with the investiga- 
tion of their habits, would be necessary to distinguish those which are 
seemingly so nearly allied. 


Tetrao Franklinti, Douglas. 
Tetrao Franklinii, Dougl. Trans. Linn. xvi. p. 139. North. Zool. i. p. 384. 


“There is such a close resemblance between this and the common 
Canadian grouse, that the Prince of Musignano considers it only as a 
variety ; and this opinion is entertained also by Mr Drummond, a very 
acute practical observer. The latter had ample opportunities of study. 
ing the manners of both, and he assures us that he is not aware of any 
difference between them ; Mr Douglas, on the other hand, who has also 
seen these birds in their native regions, thinks differently, and although 
he observes that in habits it assimilates more with 7. Canadensis than 
any other, he considers the ‘unusually long, square tail,’ and its colour- 
ing, as sufficiently distinctive characters, In our species, the tail is not 
longer than that in Canadensis; and, did we look to the colouring 


388 SPOTTED GROUSE. 


for different birds. This error, which originated with Edwards 
and Brisson, from whom it was copied by Linné, was recti- 


alone, however strikingly different it is in the two birds, we should be 
disposed to class them as varieties. But a more accurate examination 
will detect some essential difference in the structure of the feathers 
themselves. Those of Canadensis are more graduated, giving the tail a 
rounder appearance ; and they are all slightly, but distinctly emarginate 
in the middle, from whence arises a little mucro, or point, formed by 
the end of the shafts. Now, this emargination is not seen in franklinii, 
nor is there any appearance of the mucro. Again, in the latter bird, 
the*tail-feathers are much broader, fully measuring one inch and a fifth 
across ; whereas those of Canadensis are barely one inch broad. Until, 
therefore, we become persuaded that distinctions drawn from structure 
are not to be relied upon, we must coincide with Mr Douglas in con- 
sidering the present as a distinct species.”—W. 8. 

“T have never heard,” says Douglas, “the voice of this bird, except 
its alarm note, which is two or three hollow sounds, ending in a yearn- 
ing, disagreeable, grating noise, like the latter part of the call of the 
well-known Vumida meleagris. It is one of the most common birds in 
the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, from latitude 50 to 54 degs., near 
the sources of the Columbia River, It may perhaps be found to inhabit 
higher latitudes. Sparingly seen in some small troops on the high 
mountains which form the base or platform of the snowy peaks ‘ Mount 
Hood,’ ‘ Mount St Helen’s,’ and ‘ Mount Baken,’ situated on the western 
parts of the continent.” 


Those grouse known under the name of ptarmigan, or the form more 
familiar as represented by the common red grouse of Britain, typical of 
the genus Lagopus, should be also enumerated here. 

The species mentioned by Mr Douglas, and further described in the 
“ Northern Zoology,” are all that have yet been authentically described 
as natives of North America. Mr Douglas hints at his knowledge of 
other two, but this was too imperfect to offer any detailed description. 
The species are : 

Lagopus, Ray. 


1. Z. mutus, Leach.—Common ptarmigan.—According to Sabine, inhabits 
the island on the south-west side of Bafiin’s Bay. Dr Richardson never 
met with it himself in the Fur Countries, and thinks that the only authen- 
tic specimens from the New World are in the possession of Lord Stanley, 
to whom they were presented by Mr Sabine. 

. L. saliceti, Swain.—Willow grouse.—Inhabits the Fur Countries from 
the 50th to the 70th degs. of latitude, within which limits it is partially 
migratory ; breeds in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, the barren 
grounds, and arctic coasts. It seems identical with the willow grouse 


bo 


SPOTTED GROUSE. 389 


fied by Buffon, Forster, and others; and in their decision 
Gmelin, Latham, and all subsequent writers, have acquiesced. 
Both sexes were tolerably well figured by Buffon, as they had 
also been previously by Edwards; but we feel justified in say- 
ing that none of their plates will bear a comparison with the 
present. 

The spotted grouse is well characterised by its much rounded 
tail, of but sixteen broad and rounded feathers, and may be 
at once distinguished from all others by the large and 
conspicuous white spots ornamenting the breast, flanks, and 
under tail-coverts. It has been inaccurately compared with 
the European Tetrao bonasia, from which it differs very 
materially, not even being of the same subgenus, and 
approaching nearer, if indeed it can be compared with any, to 
the Tetrao urogallus. 

This bird is common at Hudson’s Bay throughout the year, 
there frequenting plains and low grounds, though in other 
parts of America it is found on mountains, even of great 
elevation. It inhabits Canada in winter, and was seen by 
Vieillot in great numbers during the month of October in 
Nova Scotia. Lewis and Clark met with it on the elevated 
range of the Rocky Mountains, and brought back from their 
western expedition a male specimen, now deposited in the 
Philadelphia Museum, where it has been long exhibited under 
the name of Louisiana grouse. This, as truly observed by 
Say, first entitled it to rank among the birds of the United 


of the old continent, which inhabits the greater part of Scandinavia, 
Kamtschatka, Greenland, Iceland, and the valleys of the Alps. 

. L. rupestris.—Rock grouse.—Closely allied, and long confused with L. 
mutus ; inhabits Melville Peninsula, and the barren grounds, and descends 
along the coast of Hudson’s Bay, as far as lat. 58 degs.; found on the 
Rocky Mountains as far south as lat. 55 degs. 

. L. leucurus, Swain.—White-tailed grouse.—Hyeme albus: cstate varie- 
gatus, rectricibus semper albis.—This species is first described and figured 
in the ‘‘ Northern Zoology.” The specimens were killed on the Rocky 
Mountains, and it is said to inhabit the snowy peaks near the mouth of 
the Columbia. Its summer dress is intermediate between LZ. mutus and 
rupestris, and it is at once distinguished from all the others by its smaller 
size aud the pure white colour of the tail at all seasons.—ED. 


QO 


Ho 


ee yee ie 


390 SPOTTED GROUSE. 


States. But the Rocky Mountains are not the only region of 
the United States territory where the spotted grouse is found. 
We have traced it with certainty as a winter visitant of the 
northern extremity of Maine, Michigan, and even of the State 
of New York, where, though very rare, it is found in the 
counties of Lewis and Jefferson. On the frontiers of Maine 
it is abundant, and has been seen by Professor Holmes, of the 
Gardiner Lyceum, near Lake Umbagog, and others. In these 
countries, the spotted grouse is known by the various names of 
wood partridge, swamp partridge, cedar partridge, and spruce 
partridge. The American settlers of Canada distinguish it 
by the first. In Michigan and New York, it goes generally 
by the second ; in Maine it bears the third, and in other parts 
of New England, New Brunswick, &c., more properly the last. 
We have been informed by General Henry A. 8. Dearborn 
that they are sent from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to 
Boston in a frozen state, as in the north they are known to 
be so kept hanging throughout the winter, and, when wanted 
for use, they need only be taken down, and placed in cold 
water to thaw. General Dearborn, to whom we are much 
indebted for the information which his interest for science has 
induced him voluntarily to furnish, further mentions, that he 
has heard from his father, that during the progress of the 
expedition under Arnold, through the Wilderness to Quebec, 
in 1775, these grouse were occasionally shot between the tide 
waters of Kennebeck river and the sources of the Chaudiere, 
now forming part of the State of Maine. Fine specimens of 
the spotted grouse have been sent to the Lyceum of Natural 
History of New York, from the Sault de Ste. Marie, by Mr 
Schooleraft, whose exertions in availing himself of the oppor- 
tunities which his residence affords him for the advancement 
of every branch of zoology merit the highest praise. He 
informs us that this bird is common from Lake Huron to 
the sources of the Mississippi, being called in the Chippeway 
language, mushcodasee—t.e., partridge of the plains. 

The favourite haunts of the spotted grouse are pine woods 


SPOTTED GROUSE. 391 


and dark cedar swamps, in winter resorting to the deep forests 
of spruce, to feed on the tops and leaves of these evergreens, 
as well as on the seeds contained in their cones, and on juni- 
per berries. Hence their flesh, though at all times good, is 
much better in summer, as in winter it has a strong flavour 
of spruce. At Hudson’s Bay, where they are called indiffer- 
ently wood or spruce partridge, they are seen throughout the 
year. Like other grouse, they build on the ground, laying 
perhaps fewer eggs; these are varied with white, yellow, and 
black. They are easily approached, being unsuspicious, and 
by no means so shy as the common ruffed grouse, and are killed 
or trapped in numbers, without much artifice being necessary 
for this purpose. When much disturbed, like their kindred 
species, they are apt to resort to trees, where, by using the 
precaution of always shooting the lowest, the whole of the 
terrified flock may be brought down to the last bird. 

The spotted grouse is smaller than the common partridge or 
pheasant, being but fifteen inches in length. The bill is black, 
seven-eighths of aninch long. The general colour of the plu- 
mage is made up of black and grey, mingled in transverse 
wavy crescents, with a few of greyish rufous on the neck. 
The small feathers covering the nostrils are deep velvety 
black. The feathers may all be called black as to the ground 
colour, and blackish plumbeous at the base; on the crown, 
upper sides of the head above the eye, and the anterior portion 
of the neck, they have each two grey bands or small crescents, 
and tipped with a third ; these parts, owing to the grey margin 
of the feathers being very broad, appear nearly all grey ; these 
longer feathers of the lower part of the neck above, and be- 
tween the shoulders, are more broadly and deeply black, each 
with a reddish band, and grey only at tip; the lowest have 
even two reddish bands, which pass gradually into greyish ; a 
few of the lateral feathers of the neck are almost pure white ; 
all the remaining feathers of the upper parts of the body have 
two greyish bands, besides a slight tip of the same colour ;- 
some of the lowest and longest having even three of these 


392 SPOTTED GROUSE. 


bands, besides the tip. The very long upper tail-coverts are 
well distinguished, not only by their shape, but also by their 
colours, being black brown, thickly sprinkled on the margins 
with greyish rusty, and a pretty well defined band of that 
colour towards the point, then a narrow one of deep black, 
and are broadly tipt with whitish grey, more or less pure in 
different specimens; their shafts, also, are brownish rusty. 
The sides of the head beneath the eyes, together with the 
throat, are deep black, with pure white spots, the white lying 
curiously upon the feathers, so as to form a band about the 
middle, continued along the shaft, and spreading at the point ; 
but the feathers being small on these parts, the white spots are 
not very conspicuous. The breast, also, is deep black, but 
each feather broadly tipt with pure white, constituting the 
large spots by which this species is so peculiarly distinguished. 
On the flanks, the feathers are at first, from their base, waved 
with black and greyish rusty crescents; but these become 
eradually less pure and defined, and by getting confused, make 
the lowest appear mottled with the two colours ; all are marked 
along the shaft with white, dilating at tip, forming on the 
largest a conspicuous terminal spot. The vent is for a space 
pure white, the tips of its downy feathers being of that colour: 
the under tail-coverts are deep black, pure white for half an 
inch at their tip, and with a white mark along the shaft be- 
sides. The wings are seven inches long, the fourth primary 
alone being somewhat longer than the rest. The upper co- 
verts and scapularies are blackish, waved and mottled with 
greyish rusty ; the longest scapularies have a small terminal 
spot of pure white along their shaft. The smaller coverts are 
merely edged with greyish rusty, and in very perfect speci- 
mens they are even plain; the under wing-coverts are brown- 
ish dusky, edged with greyish, some of the largest, as well as 
the long axillary feathers, having white shafts, dilating into 
a terminal spot ; the remaining inferior surface of the wing is 
bright silvery grey ; the spurious wing and the quills are plain 
dusky brown, the secondaries being slightly tipt and edged 


SPOTTED GROUSE. 303 


externally with paler, and those nearest the body somewhat 
mottled with greyish rusty at the point and on the inner 
vane ; the primaries, with the exception of the first, are slightly 
marked with whitish grey on their outer edge, but are entirely 
destitute of white spots. The tail is six inches long, well 
rounded, and composed of only sixteen feathers. ‘These are 
black, with a slight sprinkling of bright reddish on the outer 
web at base, under the coverts, which disappears almost en- 
tirely with age; all are bright dark rusty for half an inch 
at their tip, this colour itself being finely edged and shafted 
with black. The tarsus measures an inch and a half; its 
feathers, together with the femorals, are dingy grey, slightly 
waved with dusky; the toes are dusky; the lateral scales 
dingy whitish, and the nails blackish. 

The female is smaller than the male, being more than an 
inch shorter. The general plumage is much more varied, with 
less of black, but much more of rusty. There is a tinge of 
rufous on the feathers of the nostrils; those of the head, neck, 
and upper part of the back are black, with two or three bright 
bands of orange rusty, and tipt with grey; there is more of 
the grey tint on the neck, on the lower part of which above, 
the orange bands are broader ; all the remaining parts of the 
body above, including the tail-coverts, are more confusedly 
banded and mottled with duller rusty, orange, and grey, on a 
blackish ground, these colours themselves being also sprinkled 
with a little black ; the sides of the head, the throat, and all 
the neck below, are dull rusty orange, each feather varied 
with black; on the lower portion of the breast, the black 
bands are broad and very deep, alternating equally with the 
orange rusty, and even gradually encroaching upon the ground 
colour ; the breast is deep black, each feather, as well as those 
of the under parts, including the lower tail-coverts, are broadly 
tipt with pure white, forming over all the inferior surface 
very large and close spots, each feather having besides one or 
two rusty orange spots, much paler and duller on the belly, 
and scarcely appearing when the plumage lies close: the 


304. SPOTTED GROUSE. 


feathers of the flanks are blackish, deeper at first, and barred 
with very bright orange, then much mottled with dull greyish 
rusty, each having a triangular white spot near the tip. The 
wings and tail are similar to those of the male, the variegation 
of the scapulars and upper coverts being only of a much more 
rusty tinge, dull orange in the middle of the shaft, all the 
larger feathers having, moreover, a white streak along the 
shaft, ending in a pure white spot, wanting in the male. The 
outer edge of the primaries is more broadly whitish, and the 
tertials are dingy white at the point, being also crossed with 
dull orange; the tail-feathers, especially the middle ones, are 
more thickly sprinkled with rusty orange, taking the appear- 
ance of bands on the middle feathers, their orange-coloured 
tip being, moreover, not so pure, and also sprinkled. 

The bird represented in the plate comes from the Rocky 
Mountains: it is a male, and remarkably distinguished from 
the common ones of his species by having the tail-feathers 
entirely black to the end. ‘This difference I have observed to 
be constant in other specimens from the same wild locality ; 
whilst all the northern specimens, of which I have examined 
a great number, are alike distinguished by the broad rufous 
tip, as in those described, and as also described by Linné and 
all other writers, who have even considered that as an essen- 
tial mark of the species. 'The Rocky Mountain specimens are, 
moreover, somewhat larger, and their toes, though likewise 
strongly pectinated, are, perhaps, somewhat less so, and the 
tail-coverts are pure white at tip, as represented in the plate. 
But Heaven forbid that our statements should excite the 
remotest suspicion that these slight aberrations are character- 
istic of different species! If we might venture an opinion not 
corroborated by observation, we would say, that we should not 
be astonished if the most obvious discrepancy, that of the tail, 
were entirely owing to season, the red tip being the full spring 
plumage ; though it is asserted that this species does not vary 
in its plumage with the seasons. However this may be, we 
have thought proper to give a representation of the anomalous 


12 
‘SIsuepvUnyg Ov.427, SUUDISUY AOL] OWL, 
‘snowy panods apnuey Z “@POUbAT SUD] Ah JO YIOD T 


ALOU FAQ PLNTOY UL J UNO F 


SUPT MAY PIAOLOUT 


ses DER en (C2222 DE 


COCKBROR RAL LE ATNS. 395 


male bird from the Rocky Mountains in our plate, whilst the 
female, placed with the cock of the plains, that its reduced 
size may be properly estimated, has been chosen among the 
ordinary specimens having the tails tipt with red; the red 
tip being still more conspicuous in the common males, from 
which, in order to comprehend all, our description has been 
drawn up. 


COCK OF THE PLAINS. (Tetrao urophasianus.) 
PLATE XXI.—Fie. 2. 


Tetrao urophasianus, Vob. in Zool. Journ. Lond.—Id. App. to Syn. Birds U.S. 
p. 442, in Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. N. York.—The Cock of the Plains, 
Lewis and Clark, Exp. ii. p. 180, sp. 2. 


TETRAO UROPHASIANUS.—BONAPARTE.* 


Tetrao (Centrocercus) urophasianus, Swain. North. Zool. ii. p. 358, pl. 53. 


Ir is with the liveliest satisfaction that we are enabled finally 
to enrich the North American fauna with the name, portrait, 
and description of this noble bird, which must have formed 
from the earliest periods a principal ornament of the distant 
wilds of the west. Hardly inferior to the turkey in size, 
beauty, and usefulness, the cock of the plains is entitled to 
the first place in the beautiful series of North American 
grouse, in the same rank that the cock of the woods so justly 
claims among those of Hurope and Asia. 

This fine bird, like its Huropean analogue, seems to be 
restricted within certain bounds, and is probably nowhere 
numerous, owing to its bulk, limited powers of flight, and the 
eagerness with which it is pursued ; but chiefly to its polyga- 

* This fine species, with the Tetrao phasianellus, have been made into 
a subgenus by Mr Swainson. I have provisionally retained these birds 
in Tetrao, but have little doubt that this form will show its own and 
separate station among the Zetraonide. Mr Swainson thinks that it 
will represent the scansorial form among these birds, from the structure 
of the tail ; while the blackcock of Europe is placed by him to show 


the fistirostral form, by its lyre-shaped tail and glossy colour bearing a 
faint resemblance to the Drongo Shrikes.—Ep. 


306 COCK OF THE PLAINS. 


mous habits, which are the cause of desperate combats between 
the males for the possession of the females. However long 
the period since it was first heard of in the accounts of hunters 
and travellers, no more was known than that there existed 
in the interior of America a very large species of grouse, 
called by the hunters of the west the prairie turkey. We 
have little to add, it is true, to what is known of its habits, 
but we have it in our power to say that we have seen it; we 
can determine its place in the system ; and now give a faithful 
representation of at least one sex. 

We have again to acknowledge ourselves indebted, no less 
to the industry and sagacity, than to the liberal views of Mr 
Leadbeater, for the present opportunity of representing this 
bird. His invaluable collection contains the only specimen 
known to be anywhere preserved. 

The name of cock of the plains was given by Lewis and 
Clark, and we have retained it, as being not only appropriate, 
but at the same time analogous to that of the large European 
species called cock of the woods. Similar reasons have influ- 
enced us in selecting the scientific name, which, though 
perhaps too long, and ill compounded, has nevertheless the 
advantage of combining analogy in meaning with the indica- 
tion of a most remarkable characteristic of the bird. This 
species 1s in fact distinguished from all others of its genus, 
and especially from its European analogue, by its long tail, 
composed of twenty narrow, tapering, acute feathers ; thus 
evincing the fallacy of the character erroneously attributed to 
all the grouse, of having broad and rounded tail-feathers. It 
is a singular fact, that both of the newly-discovered species 
from the north-western part of America, and they only, should 
be distinguished by the extraordinary number of the feathers 
of the tail. In the dusky grouse, however, they are broad 
and rounded. The cock of the woods, like the greater part 
of the species, has but eighteen, which are also broad and 
rounded. The only grouse in which they are found narrow 
is the sharp-tailed, though without being either acute or taper- 


COCK OF THE PLAINS. 307 


ing, but, on the contrary, square at tip, and of equal breadth 
throughout, or, if anything, the lateral rather broader at the tip. 

Lewis and Clark first met with this bird on their journey 
westward, near the fountain of the Missouri, in the heart of 
the Rocky Mountains. They inform us that it is found on 
the plains of the Columbia in great abundance, from the 
entrance of the south-east fork of the Columbia to that of 
Clark’s river. It appears also to extend to California, for 
there can be but little doubt that it is the bird erroneously 
called bustard by the travellers who have visited that country. 
Tiewis and Clark state, that in its habits it resembles the 
grouse (meaning probably J. phastanellus), except that 
its favourite food is the leaf and buds of the pulpy-leafed 
thorn. The gizzard is large, and much less compressed and 
muscular than in most gallinaceous birds, and perfectly re- 
sembles a maw. When the bird flies, he utters a cackling 
note, not unlike that of the domestic fowl]. The flesh of the 
cock of the plains is dark, and only tolerable in point of flavour, 
and is not so palatable as either that of the pheasant or grouse. 
It is invariably found in the plains. 

The cock of the plains is precisely equal in size to the cock 
of the woods ; at least such is the result of a comparison of the 
female with the corresponding sex of the European bird, both 
lying before us. Hach part exactly coincides in form and 
dimension, excepting that the tail rather gives the superiority 
to the American, so that if the male bears the same relative 
proportion to his female, the cock of the plains must be pro- 
claimed the largest of grouse. ‘The two females are strikingly 
similar. The cock of the plains is, however, a much more 
greyish bird, wanting entirely the reddish that mottles and 
occupies so much of the plumage of its analogue. This, the 
total want of beard-like appendages, and the singular shape of 
the tail, are the prominent discriminative features ; to which 
may be added, that the under wing-coverts, marbled with 
black in the European, are pure white in our new species, 
though this, as well as the want of reddish, might be ascribed 
to the youth of our specimen. However this may be, the 


398 COCK OF THE PLAINS. 


remaining differences will be better estimated by attending to 
the following minute and accurate description. 

The female of the cock of the plains, represented in the 
plate of one-half the natural size, is from twenty-eight to 
thirty inches in length. The bill is one inch and a quarter 
long, perfectly similar to that of 7. wrogallus, perhaps a trifle 
less stout, and with the base (if this remarkable character be 
not accidental in our specimen) farther produced among the 
feathers of the front ; the whole plumage above is blackish, 
most minutely dotted, mottled, and sprinkled with whitish, 
tinged here and there with very pale yellowish rusty, hardly 
worth mentioning ; on the head, and all the neck, the feathers 
being small, minutely crossed transversely with blackish and 
whitish lines, gives the plumage quite a minutely dotted ap- 
pearance; the superciliar line is slightly indicated by more 
whitish ; on a spot above the eye, in the space between the 
bill and eye, and along the mouth beneath, the black predomi- 
nates, being nearly pure: on the throat, on the contrary, it is 
the white that prevails, so as to be whitish dotted with black ; 
on the lower portion of the neck, the black again is the pre- 
vailing colour, the black feathers there being nearly tipt 
with greyish; the sides of the neck are pure white for a space ; 
from the lower portion of the neck to the upper tail-coverts 
inclusively, the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries, 
the blackish feathers have each two or three yellowish white 
bands, which are broader, especially on the upper part of the 
back and are moreover sprinkled with white somewhat tinged 
with rusty; the scapulars and wing-coverts are besides shafted 
with white, somewhat dilating towards the point, the scapulars 
being of a deeper black ; the spurious wing and primaries are 
plain dusky, with paler edges, the outer with some indications 
of whitish dots (generally found in grouse) on the outer vane, 
but no regular white spots; the secondaries are tipt with white, 
and those which are next to the primaries nearly plain on their 
inner web; the primaries are rather slender, the inferior surface 
of the wings is of a very pale silvery grey; the under ‘wing- 
coverts and long axillary feathers being pure silvery white, 


COGS OF LAE PEAINS. 399 


excepting on the lining of the wing, which is dusky blackish; 
the wings are twelve inches long ; the breast is greyish, some- 
what mottled with black ; on each side below is a pure white 
space, some of the feathers of which are tipt or banded with 
black ; the large feathers of the flanks are blackish, shafted 
with white, crossed by several whitish bands, and sprinkled 
with yellowish ; a broad oblong patch of deep brownish black 
occupies the whole of the belly and vent, the outer feathers 
being shafted with white, and broadly white at the point of their 
outer webs ; the femorals and small feathers of the tarsus ex- 
tending between the toes are yellowish grey, minutely waved 
with blackish; the tarsus measures two inches; the toes 
are dusky black, and the pectinated row of processes long, 
strong, and dingy whitish ; the nails, blackish ; the whole base 
- of the plumage, with the exception of that of the neck beneath, 
which is. white, is of a dusky grey. The tail is ten inches 
long, and in colour is, as well as its coverts, in harmony with 
the rest of the plumage; the ground colour is blackish, and 
crossed, or rather mottled, with bands of whitish spots dis- 
posed irregularly, between which are small additional darker 
spots ; the two middle ones are mottled all over, but the others 
are almost immaculate on their inner vane, and at the point ; 
hence the lower surface of the unexpanded tail is of a silvery 
grey, much darker than that of the wings; at the very tip of 
the tail-feathers, the middle excepted, appears a very small 
whitish spot, the two outer pairs being rather broadly yellowish 
white, dotted with blackish on that part ; the tail is composed 
of twenty feathers, the highest, number ever met with in any 
tribe of birds. Although it appears strongly cuneiform, owing 
to the remarkable shape and curve of the feathers, it is, when 
expanded and properly examined, nothing more than much 
rounded ; the two in the middle, which are the longest, reach- 
ing but a trifle beyond the adjoining, and so on in succession, 
the difference in length increasing progressively, but very 
eradually at first, and more and more as they are distant from 
the centre, there being nearly an inch difference between the 
third and second, and full that between the second and the 


400 CONDOR. 


outer, which is only six inches long, while the middle is ten. 
All the twenty are narrow, tapering, acute, and falciform, 
turning inward. Those towards the middle are less curved, 
but more conspicuously acuminate and narrow for nearly two 
inches, all but the middle ones being slightly square at their 
narrow tips. 

Though we have reason to believe that the specimen de- 
scribed and figured is a female, yet, from the broad patch upon 
the belly, and other marks unnecessary to be specified, we 
should not be surprised at its being a young male just begin- 
ning to change. In that case, and supposing him to have 
attained his full growth, this species would prove to be inferior 
in size to the cock of the woods, as its male would only be 
equal to the female of the latter. 


CONDOR. (Cathartes gryphus.) 
PLATE XXII.—Youne MALE. 
Vultur gryphus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 121, sp. 1.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 245, sp. 1.—Lath. 


Ind. Orn. i. p. 1, sp.1.—Eneyel. Brit. xviii. p. 695, pl. 510.—Humboldt, 
Hist. Nat. in Obs. Zool. i. p. 26, pl. 8, 9.—Vultur Magellanicus, Lever. Mus. 


p. 1, pl. 1, female.—Vultur condor, Daud. Orn. ii. p. 8.—Shaw, Zool. vii. . 


p. 2, pl. 2, 3, 4.—Cathartes gryphus, Temm. Ranz. Nob. Cat. and Syn. Bds. 
U.S. sp. 2.—Gypagus griffus, Vieill. Enc. iii. p. 1174.—Id. Nouv. Dict.— 
Sarcoramphus cuntur, Dumeril.—Sarcoramphus gryphus, Goldfuss, Nat. 
Atlas, pl. 107, adult male.—Sarcorampbus condor, Less. Orn. i. pl. 7, 
adult male.—Vultur gryps gryphus, Klein, Av. p. 45.—Briss. Av. i. p. 
473; Id. 8vo, p. 187.—Borowski, Nat. li. p. 62.—Cuntur, Laet. Am. p. 401. 
—Ray, Av. p. 11.—Catarte condoro, Ranz. Elem. vii. p. 24, sp. 2, tab. xxii. 
fig. 2, adult male.—Il Condoro, Molina, St. Nat. Chili, p. 223.—Manque, 
Molina, Chili, p. 236 (French edition).—Condor, Frezier, Voy. p. iti.—DLa 
Condamine, Voy. Amaz. p. 175.—Briss. Orn. i. p. 463, sp. 12.—Buff. Ois. 1. 
p. 184; Id. (ed. 1770) i. p. 143, v.—Martinet, Hist. Ois.—Le Condor, ou 
Grand Vautour des Andes, Cuv. Regn. An. i. p. 306; Id. 2d ed. p. 316.— 
Catharte Condor, Temm. and Laug. Pl. Col. 133, adult male, 494, head of 
the adult living male, 408, young female.—Condur Vulture, Lath. Syn. p. 
4; Id. Suppl. p.1; Id. Suppl. ii. p. 1, pl. exx.—Id. Gen. Hist. i. p. 4, pl. 
1, adult male.—Hawkesw. Voy. i. p. 75.— Wood’s Zoography, i. p. 371.— 
Stevenson, Voy. Am. ii. p. 59.—Der Condor Geier, of German authors.— 
Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 


To such a degree has its history been exaggerated by fable, 
that the mention of the condor immediately recalls to mind 


Baie 
Ses 


Drawn trom Nature by ALider: 


Young Male Condor. 
Caihartes Gryphus. 


22 


CONDOR. 401 


the roc of Marco Polo and the Arabian Tales. Some authors 
have indeed referred this name to it, and even go so far as to 
make it the subject of one of the labours of Hercules, the 
destruction of the Stymphalian birds. Such, in fact, were the 
stories related by the early travellers, that, even when reduced 
to what in the judgment of Buffon was their real value, it 
cannot but now appear unaccountable that they should ever 
have found credence, and still more so that compilers should 
have gone on accumulating under the condor’s history, not 
merely the tales told of it, but others collected from every 
quarter of the globe, however remote or different in climate, 
not hesitating to give currency to the most revolting absur- 
dities. The accounts of Father Feuillée, who was the first 
describer, Frezier, and especially Hawkesworth’s, appear, how- 
ever, to be tolerably correct; while the ardent imagination 
of Garcilasso led him to indulge in the wildest extravagances 
in relation to this bird. Abbeville and De Laet, no less than 
Acosta in his “ History of the Indies,” ascribed to this cowardly 
vulture the strength, courage, and raptorial habits of an eagle, 
and even in a higher degree, thus doing him the honour to 
represent him as formidable to every living creature, and the 
dreaded enemy of man himself. Desmarchais improves if 
possible upon these stories, giving the condor still greater 
size and strength, and stating that it is well known to carry 
off in its prodigious talons a hind, or even a heifer, with as 
much ease as an eagle would a rabbit! Such a creature could 
not of course dwell in forests, for how could it among trees 
display its enormous wings? They were therefore limited to 
savannahs and open grounds. Antonio de Solis, Sloane in the 
‘“ Philosophical Transactions,” and even the learned La Conda- 
mine, who saw the bird himself, and certainly witnessed no 
such exploits as had been related of it, indulged in wild theories 
depending on popular tales and superstitions. The obscurity 
created by so much misrepresentation could not, however, con- 
ceal its true vulture-like nature from the acuteness of Ray, 


who pointed out its appropriate place in the system. His 
VOL, III. 2C 


402 CONDOR. 


opinion was adopted by Brisson and Linné, and it became 
among naturalists generally a settled point, notwithstanding 
the eloquently expressed doubts of Buffon, who wanted rather, 
on account of its supposed great strength and agility, to elevate 
the condor to the rank of an eagle, these qualities not permit- 
ting him to degrade it so low as the vultures. But a still 
greater error of the French Pliny, as he may be on every 
account so appositely styled, was to consider the condor as not 
peculiar to America, but as a genuine cosmopolite, of which 
happily there were but few, however, for otherwise the human 
race would not have been able to stand against them. But it 
was only in its imaginary character that the condor of Buffon 
was truly cosmopolite, having no other existence than what 
was based upon absurd and ridiculous fictions gathered in all 
parts of the globe ; for no livmg bird could be placed in com- 
petition with one for whose powers of flight distance was no 
impediment, and whose strength and swiftness united would 
have rendered him lord of creation. 

We should, however, make some allowance for the credulity 
of our forefathers in believing, upon the reports of weak or 
lying travellers, all the romantic and extravagant tales related 
of this wondrous condor. They had not, as we have, the means 
of personally ascertaining the sober truth. But it is almost 
incredible, and remarkably illustrates the force of preconceived 
opinions, that in the year 1830 a traveller could be found with 
assurance enough to impose upon us, and journals, even of 
respectable standing, to copy as positive and authentic, a de- 
ecription of a condor of moderate size, just killed, and actually 
lying before the narrator, so large that a single quill-feather 
was twenty good paces long! ‘This indeed might have lifted 
an elephant, and it is quite unfortunate that Peru and Chili 
should no longer produce them for prey for such a bird, and 
that the mastodon is now extinct. So much for human credu- 
lity, which is often exercised upon more serious occasions, with 
equal impudence and much worse results. 

As in so many other instances of power based upon prejudice 


CONDOR. 403 


or great reputation unjustly usurped, a near and close exami- 
nation has shown the falsity of these pretensions. The won- 
derful condor now proves to be nothing more than a rather 
large vulture. The same has happened, as Humboldt observes, 
with its countrymen, the gigantic Patagonians, who are found 
at last not to exceed the stature of ordinary men. 

Notwithstanding the faithful accounts of a few of the older 
authors, the true history of the condor had remained involved 
in the obscurity created by mingling it with so many childish 
tales, when the celebrated Humboldt, studying it living with 
the sober eye of truth and philosophy, furnished a correct de- 
scription, a good drawing, and an excellent memoir upon it. 
Since that time several stuffed as well as living specimens 
have reached the menageries and museums of the United 
States and Europe, which, with the three plates published by 
Temminck, have rendered it familiar to all. It is but just, 
however, to mention that Latham had, long before Humboldt, 
given in his second Supplement a tolerably correct description 
of both sexes, with a figure of the adult male, and taken also 
from the identical specimens, now at Vienna, and originally 
brought to England by Captain Middleton from the Straits of 
Magellan, that furnished the subjects of 'Temminck’s plates. 

The adults of both sexes, and a young female, having been 
tolerably well represented, it is the young male that we have 
preferred to figure in this work, in order thus to complete the 
iconography of so interesting a species. And we trust that, 
through the exertions of our artists, our figure, which is 
reduced three and a half times from nature, will be found for 
minuteness of accuracy much superior to all, owing to the 
extraordinary pains taken by Mr Lawson, who, besides being 
furnished with a correct drawing, made repeated visits to the 
living bird, carefully verifying its form and dimensions in all 
their details. 

The genus Vuléur of Linné, now the family Vulturine (or 
Vulturide), a family first established by Duméril under the 
appellation of Pulodéres, or Nudicolles, though much less 


404 CONDOR. 


numerous as well as less intricate in the characters of the 
species than the Falconidce, of which we have treated under 
the head of Falco Cooperit, has nevertheless much exercised 
the ingenuity of ornithologists, who nearly all disagree both 
as to its limits and its subdivisions. With respect to the 
former, those recognised by us will be clear and well defined, 
this family being constituted of the two modern genera Vultur 
and Cathartes of Illiger, which we adopt with some modifi- 
cations, as will be seen hereafter. Contrary to the general 
practice, we discard from it the aberrant genera forming the 
passage to other groups, in which we prefer arranging them. 
The groups towards which a direct passage is the most 
obvious are the family of apaces or Falconide, and some 
typical Galline and aberrant waders. With neither the 
FPasseres nor the webfooted orders (unless it may be with 
the frigate-bird) do we perceive any immediate relations. 
The passage to these takes place through the intervention of 
the three other orders, in the first of which the genera 
‘Gypaétus and Gypogeranus approach so near them as even 
to have strong claims to be included in the same family, 
being almost exactly intermediate between Falconide and 
Vulturide. 

Although the Vultwride are far from exhibiting the same 
diversity of conformation, habits, and appetites as the numerous 
tribe of the falcons, and form indeed as a whole a much more 
compact mass, and much less numerous in species, yet even 
those naturalists, with Illiger at their head, who have left 
untouched the great genus Falco, have joined unanimously 
with the reformers in dividing that of Vaultur into two great 
equivalent genera. This course, though we imitate it ourselves, 
we must confess to be more expedient than -consistent, and it 
is probable that, for the very reason that differential traits are 
less numerous and complicated in the different species, the 
divisions have been more easily made and admitted. Let 
us analyse them. [Iliger was the first to separate the species 
into his two genera Cathartes and Vultur: we say the first, 


CONDOR. 405 


excluding Storr and Lacépéde, who long since, with so much 
reason, withdrew G'ypaétus from the genus, and not adverting 
to the artificial section made by Duméril in the year 1806, 
under the name of Sarcoramphus, for the stout-billed carun- 
culated species indiscriminately. The characters assigned by 
_ Illiger were precise and natural, and the species he cited as 

examples correctly typical. But Temminck, in adopting 
Illiger’s two genera, misapplied the characters and rendered 
them unnatural by declaring the Vultur percnopterus a 
Cathartes, whilst it is in fact a slender-billed Vultur, as 
the condor is a stout-billed Cathartes. Deceived by ‘Tem- 
minck, we at first adopted this erroneous view, which we have 
finally rectified in our observations on the second edition of 
the “ Régne Animal” of Cuvier. In returning to what we con- 
sider the principles of Illiger, as they certainly are the dictates 
of reason, it so happens that this genus Cathartes, as is often 
the case, is found to correspond to a geographical division, 
being exclusively American, whilst that of Vultwr is in like 
manner confined to the old continent. The other genera which 
have been proposed among the Vultwridw may be considered 
as groups of secondary importance. 

Thus the three Huropean species * belong, according to 
Savigny, to as many separate genera, namely, Gyps, Afgypius, 
and Neophron. The last, restricted to its proper limits, is a 
very well-marked subgenus, which we adopt under the name 
of Percnopterus, Cuvier. It contains to my knowledge but 
two well-ascertained species, which are the slender-billed vul- 
tures of the old continent. 

The other European vultures, with stout bills, are comprised 
in my subgenus Vultwr, composed often well-known species. 
But we must confess that the Vultur cinereus and Vultur 
Julvus differ materially, and that even their skeletons present 
differences that in other cases might be considered as even 
more than generic, while one uniform osseous structure is 


* Ruppel reckons four. He makes two of V, fulvus, considering the 
Chassefiente of Le Vaillant a distinct species. 


406 CONDOR. 


found to prevail throughout the numerous species of falcons. 
This observation I believe has never before been made. 
Savigny founded his groups, which are excellent as subdivi- 
sions, on the different conformation of the nostrils, on the 
tongue, aculeated on its margin in Gyps, and not in Agypius, 
and on the number of tail-feathers, which is twelve in the 
latter, as in the American genus, and fourteen in his genus 
Gyps, as well as in Neophron. 

Thus are the twelve species constituting my genus Vuléwr 
divided into two very natural subgenera, corresponding to the 
two genera of Vieillot, Vultur (comprising ten species) and 
Neophron (comprising but two), the first being subdivisible 
into the two minor. groups of Savigny. The three might in- 
deed be considered as co-ordinate subgenera. 

As for the genus Cathartes, it is by no means so easy to 
divide, and the two groups or subgenera which we admit are 
perhaps artificial and blended too much together. The first, 
comprising the condor, the Californian condor, and the king 
vulture, that is, the stowt-billed American vultures, may be 
called Sarcoramphus, a name confined by Duméril and Cuvier 
to those that have caruncles or fleshy appendages on the head, 
but to which Vieillot very justly added C. Californiaius, call- 
ing the group Gypagus. 

The second subgenus of Cathartes may be called Catharista, 
Vieillot, or the slender-billed American vultures, analogous 
in a parallel series, where the strength of the bill is considered, 
to the Percnoptert, but having no immediate affinity with 
them. The only known species are the two of Wilson’s work, 
Cathartes aura, and Cathartes iota of my Synopsis, the former 
of which is a link between its own group and the preceding. 

The best discriminating mark between the two principal 
genera of this family, one which is obvious and easily under- 
stood, is the striking character of the perviousness of the 
nostrils in Cathartes, through which light appears broadly 
from one side to the other, while in the vultures they are 
separated by an internal cartilaginous partition, This will 


CONDOR. 407 


make it at once evident that it was for want of proper exami- 
nation that the Percnopterus, merely on account of its slender 
bill, was ever considered a Cathartes. The remaining cha- 
racters being more of a relative than a positive kind, we shall 
not here notice them, except remarking that the hind toe 
being much shorter and set on higher up in the American 
genus, shows a greater affinity with the gallinaceous birds, 
an affinity which may be traced in other features of their 
organisation. The number of tail-feathers is fourteen in 
several species of vultures, whilst no Cathartes has ever been 
found to have more than twelve. The principal traits, both 
moral and physical, are the same in all the birds composing 
this highly natural family. 

All, in fact, are distinguished by having their head, which is 
small, and their neck, more or less naked, these parts being 
deprived of feathers, and merely furnished with a light down, 
or a few scattered hairs. Their eyes are prominent, being set 
even with the head, and not deep sunk in the socket, as in 
eagles and other rapacious birds. They have the power of 
drawing down their head into a sort of collar formed by 
longer feathers at the base of the neck: sometimes they 
withdraw the whole neck and part of the head into this 
collar, so that the bird looks as if it had drawn its whole neck 
down into the body. They have acrop covered with setaceous 
feathers, or sometimes woolly or entirely naked, and prominent, 
especially after indulging their voracious appetite. Their feet 
are never feathered, like those of an eagle, although they have 
been unnaturally so represented in the plates of some authors. 
The tarsus is shorter than the middle toe, which connected at 
its base by a membrane with the outer one. The claws are 
hardly retractile, comparatively short, and from these birds’ 
habit of keeping much on the ground, instead of always 
perching, as the falconide, they are neither sharp-pointed 
nor much curved. Their wings are long and subacuminate, 
the third and fourth primaries being longest: they are lined 
beneath with a thick down of a peculiar and very soft nature. 


408 CONDOR. 


The young birds have their head entirely covered with down, 
which gradually falls off as they advance in age. ‘The female 
is larger than the male: their plumage varies greatly with age, 
and they moult but once a year. The young are easily dis- 
tinguished by their downy head and neck, these parts in the 
adult being naked, and by the absence of the caruncles which 
in some species are found on the adult. These fleshy appen- 
dages are of the same nature as the wattles, &., of gallina- 
ceous birds. 

No part of ornithology has been more confused in its details 
than that relative to the vultures, and their synonymy, espe- 
cially the Huropean species, is almost inextricable: the old 
authors have heedlessly multiplied and even composed species, 
whilst the modern have brought together the most confused 
citations under those which at last they founded on the actual 
observation of nature. We congratulate ourselves that the 
task of pointing out all these errors, from which no writer 
without exception appears free, does not belong to us. 

Vile, gluttonous, and pre-eminently unclean, the Vulturide 
are the only birds of prey that keep together in flocks all the 
year round: as cowardly as they are indiscriminately voracious, 
they are too pusillanimous, notwithstanding their numbers, to 
attack living prey, and content themselves with the abundant 
supply of food which is offered by the putrid carcasses of dead 
animals. In fact, they appear to give the preference to these, 
with all their disgusting concomitants, and only resort to 
freshly slaughtered animals when impelled by extreme 
hunger. Their want of courage is denoted by their crouch- 
ing attitude and the humility of their demeanour. Creatures 
with such dispositions did not require from Nature strength 
or powerful weapons; nothing was needed but perfection of 
smelling, that they might from a distance discover their 
appropriate food, and this faculty they possess in an eminent 
degree. ‘Their nostrils have two large external apertures, and 
an extensive olfactory membrane within. 

Though regarded with disgust for their filthy habits, these 


CONDOR. y 409 


well-known birds are extremely serviceable in hot climates, 
by devouring all sorts of filth and impurities, and thus pre- 
serving the atmosphere from the contamination of noxious 
effuvia. On this account their cowardice is protected by 
man, who in civilised as well as savage life always looks to 
his own advantage, and does not disdain to make use of those 
for whom he cannot help feeling contempt. Besides their 
usefulness during life, the vultures have an additional security 
in their utter uselessness when dead. In consequence of their 
food, their body exhalesa disgusting effluvium, and their flesh 
is so rank, stringy, and unsavoury, that nothing short of abso- 
lute famine can bring any one to taste of it. No skill nor 
precautions in cooking can overcome its natural bad odour, 
which prevails over the most powerful spices. But though 
not eatable themselves, they excel in picking clean to the very 
bones the carrion they feed upon, leaving them as bare as if 
they had been carefully scraped. With this food they gorge 
themselves to such a degree as to be incapable of flight, and 
hardly able to move for some time, and then allow of a very 
close approach. In fact, their indolence, filthiness, and vora- 
city are almost incredible. 

They are birds of slow flight at all times, and raise them- 
selves from the ground with difficulty, though, when surprised 
and closely pursued after overfeeding, when they are almost 
helpless, they can lighten themselves by vomiting up their 
superfluous meal, sometimes to the great annoyance of the 
pursuer, and then at once take flight. Their sight is exceed- 
ingly keen, and is only inferior in power to their sense of 
smelling, which enables them to discover their peculiar food 
at great and incredible distances. They are dull and heavy, 
fond of assembling in flocks upon trees, where they may be 
seen perched for hours together, sitting with their wings 
open as if ventilating their plumage, They walk with the 
body inclined forward, the wings drooping, the tail brushing 
the ground. When they wish to take flight, they are obliged 
to run a few paces, and then contract the body violently. 


AIO CONDOR. 


Their flight, though slow, is protracted for a greater length 
of time than even perhaps that of the eagle, though more 
laborious and heavy. ‘They elevate themselves to such won- 
derful heights, that as they describe circle after circle they 
gradually appear no larger than a swallow, next a mere speck 
is visible, then disappearing altogether from the limited power 
of human vision. Not, however, beyond their own, for as they 
hover over the country beneath, they can discover a carcass or 
carrion anywhere over a very wide district. In the Hast they 
are well known to follow the caravans; in Africa and South 
America they accompany and wait upon the hunter’ssteps. If 
a beast is flayed and abandoned, calling to each other with 
shrill but resounding voice, they pour down upon the carcass, 
and in a short time, so dexterously do they manage the opera- 
tion, nothing remains but the naked skeleton. Jf the skin 
should be left on the prey they discover, an entrance is soon 
made through the belly, by which they extract all but the 
bones, which are left so well covered by the skin as hardly to 
show that they have been at work there. Should a sickly ox 
or smaller animal be accidentally exposed defenceless, or from 
any cause unable to resist, the vultures fall upon and devour 
him without mercy in the same manner. Thus in the moun- 
tainous districts of hot countries, in which they are very 
numerous, the hunter who wishes to secure his game dares 
not quit an animal he may have killed, for fear of its immedi- 
ately becoming their prey. Le Vaillant, while in Africa, met 
with frequent losses through the rapacity of these parasites, 
which, immediately notified by the calling of the crows, flocked 
around in multitudes, and speedily devoured large animals 
that he had killed, depriving him not only of his own meal, 
but of many a valuable specimen intended as a contribution 
to science. ‘They may be frequently seen tearing a carcass in 
company with dogs or other ravenous quadrupeds, such associ- 
ations producing no quarrel, however Jean and hungry both 
may be. Harmony always subsists, so long as they have 
plenty, among creatures of dispositions so congenial. But 


CONDOR. All 


the eagle drives them to a distance till he is satisfied, and 
only permits them to enjoy the fragments of the prey he has 
couquered. With the same expectation of feeding upon the 
leavings, they attend upon the ferocious quadrupeds of the 
ceat-kind, and may thus indicate the vicinity of these danger- 
ous beasts. That it is cowardice which prevents them from 
attacking animals capable of making any defence is evident. 
The innate cruelty of their disposition is often manifested 
towards the helpless. To a deserted lamb they show no 
mercy, and living serpents and whatever other minor animals 
they can overpower are their usual food. They are also, it is 
said, extremely fond of crocodiles’ and alligators’ eges, to 
obtain which they keep watch unseen in the adjacent forest 
while the female is laying, and as soon as she is gone descend, 
and removing the sand where they are buried, greedily devour 
them. 

The vultures are mostly found in warm climates, although 
by no means afraid of cold, as they prefer the vicinity of lofty 
mountains ; those which inhabit in the north retiring south- 
ward in winter in the northern hemisphere. ‘Their favourite 
abodes are rocks and caverns among broken precipices, where 
they retire to sleep and to digest their meals when overfed, 
which happens as often as an opportunity offers: in such re- 
treats they may be often observed in great numbers together, 
enjoying the exhilarating air of the morning. Their nest is 
made, with hardly any preparation, on inaccessible cliffs or 
other places where they can seldom be found by man. ‘They 
reside generally where they breed, seldom coming down into 
the plains, except when frost and snow have driven all living 
things from the heights: they are then compelled to brave 
danger in pursuit of food. The vultures generally lay but 
two eges at a time, sometimes three or four, especially the 
North American species; and are faithfully monogamous. 
In their mode of supplying their young with food, there is a 
striking difference between them and other rapacious birds. 
The latter place before their progeny the quivering limbs of 


AI2 CONDOR. 


their prey, that they may learn to employ their beak and talons. 
The vultures, whose claws are not fitted for seizing and bear- 
ing off their spoils, disgorge into the mouth of their young 
the contents of their crop, from the{nature of which, this oper- 
ation, so interesting when performed by a dove or a canary, 
becomes in this case one of the most disgusting imaginable. 

According to Belon, the Latin name Vuléwr is but a con- 
traction of volatu tardo: the name Cathartes, imagined by 
Illiger, means in Greek, purger. Condor is a corruption of 
cuntur, the true appellation of our species in the Qquichua 
language, derived, according to Humboldt, from the verb 
cunturt, to smell. 

Although the largest of American vultures, the condor is 
inferior in size to several of those which inhabit the old con- 
tinent, and even to the large golden vulture of Hastern Europe. 
Both sexes are very nearly of equal size; but the superiority, 
if any, is found, as usual, upon the side of the female; so that 
the common statement of writers, that this sex is of less size, 
has no foundation in fact. 

The adult male is always more than three feet long, and 
measures nine feet from tip to tip of the extended wings. 
Some gigantic individuals are met with four feet long and 
twelve in extent. The bill is dark brown colour at the base, 
somewhat of a lemon white at tip. The tongue is entire, 
cartilaginous, membranous, ovate-cuneate, concave beneath, 
serrated with spines on the margin. A longitudinal com- 
pressed caruncle, or firm fleshy crest, extends from, the top 
of the head to the front, and to the brown portion of the bill. 
It is rounded before and behind, a sinus on the upper border, 
the lower free for a short space at each extremity, papillous, 
or strongly wrinkled, and, as well as the cere, of a bluish 
colour. The nostrils are oval-linear, and with no hairs 
surrounding them. The skin of the neck and crop is 
bare, with the exception of some scattered short and rigid 
hairs ; it is reddish, and has two short pear-shaped processes 
depending from it. Two intertwisted fleshy strings arise from 


CONDOR. A413 


the bill, pass over the auditory region, and descend along the 
sides of the neck: these fleshy cords acquire by desiccation, 
in stuffed specimens, the appearance of a series of tubercles 
or wrinkled protuberances: a double string of a similar sub- 
stance passes above the eye, which is small, much lengthened, 
and lateral, being set far back from the bill: the irides are of 
an olive grey. ‘Their cavernous structure enables the bird to 
swell out all these appendages at pleasure, like the turkey : 
the crest, however, must be excepted, which is very dissimilar 
to the flaccid, pendulous cone of the turkey, and incapable of 
dilatation. The orifice of the ear is very large, subrounded, 
but hidden under the folds of the temporal membrane. The 
occiput exhibits a few short brown bristles. Around the 
lower part of the neck above is a beautiful half collar of silky 
and very soft down, as white as snow, which separates the 
naked parts from the feathered body. In front this collar is 
interrupted, and the neck is bare down to the black plumage : 
this gap in the collar can however only be discovered on‘close 
inspection. The whole plumage is of a very deep blue black ; 
the tips of the secondaries and the greater wing-coverts on 
the outer web only being of a whitish pearl-grey: the first 
seven outer quills are wholly black, twenty-seven being white 
on their outer web : the third quill is the longest. The wings 
are three feet nine inches long, reaching nearly to the tip of 
the tail, but not passing beyond, as in the closely related 
species the Californian condor. The tail is very slightly 
rounded at the end, rather short in proportion to the bird, 
measuring thirteen inches. The feet are bluish: toes con- 
nected at their base by a membrane. 

The female is entirely destitute of crest or other appendages. 
The skin which covers the head is uniformly blackish, like 
the plumage, in which there is only a little cinereous on the 
wings: in this sex the wing-coverts, which in the male are 
white at tip from the middle, are of a blackish grey. This 
circumstance is very conclusive, inasmuch as the white forms 
a very conspicuous mark on the wings of the male, which has 


414 * CONDOR. 


occasioned it to be said that some condors had a white 
back. ; 

For several months during the early part of their life, the 
young are covered with very soft whitish down, curled, and 
resembling that of young owls: this down is so loose as to 
make the bird appear a large shapeless mass. Even at two 
years old the condor is by no means black, but of an obscure 
fulvous brown, and both sexes are then destitute of the white 
collar. 

The following description and admeasurements are from a 
pair of young living birds, said to be nine months old, caught 
on the Peruvian Andes. One of these (which are precisely 
alike) was captured by an Indian, who discovering two in the 
nest, ran up at great speed, fearing to be overtaken by the old 
ones, and succeeded in securing it by putting it in his pocket, 
not larger than a full-grown chicken. I have carefully com- 
pared this with, and found perfectly similar to it, a bill and a 
quill-feather brought from the Columbia river by Lewis and 
Clark, and preserved in the Philadelphia Museum. These 
remains prove the existence of the condor within the United 
States, and sufficiently authorise its introduction into this 
work. 

Length, three feet nine inches; breadth, nine feet. Bill to 
the corner of the mouth, two inches six-eighths ; to the cere, 
one inch and a half; to the down, three and a quarter inches. 
Bill curved and hooked, with several flexures ; upper mandible 
passing over the lower, which is rounded and scalloped: 
nostrils pervious, rounded-elliptical, cut in the cere. Bill 
outside, cere, and all the surrounding naked parts, black ; 
ears without any covering ; the skin rugose: inside of the 
bill yellowish white, margined with black, palate furnished 
with a fleshy skin, having the appearance of a row of teeth in 
the middle, then of a hard ridge looking like a file, and two 
marginal rows: tongue broadly concave, and serrated on the 
turned-up edges with sharp-pointed cutting serratures: an 
elevation of the skin indicating the frontal caruncle; the place 


where the bristles begin to appear is also indicated by an 
elevation. Eye full and rounded; iris blackish; membrane 
of the throat very dilatable; head and neck covered by a thick 
silky down of a brownish black colour, on the front more 
dark and bristly; general colour dark brown, each feather 
having a banded appearance, tipt with more or less of 
umber; quill and tail feathers black, with a gloss of blue. 
The number of tail-feathers is twelve, the closed wings not 
reaching beyond, though very nearly to the tip. Feet black ; 
acrotarsus beautifully colligate ; acrodactylus scutellated: the 
whole leg measures one foot in length, of which the tarsus is 
five and a quarter inches, and the middle toe and nail six, 
the nail being one and a half: lateral toes connected with 
the middle as far as the first jot by a membrane ; the inner, 
two and a half inches long without the nail, which is one and 
a half; the outer, with the nail, a quarter of an inch shorter ; 
hind toe articulated inside, bearing on the ground only with 
the point of the nail, an inch and a half long, the nail one 
inch more, and much incurved ; sole of the foot granulated ; 
fat part of the heel large and rough. The feet have been 
generally described as white or whitish, owing to their being 
commonly stained with the excrements, which the bird throws 
much forward, but they are in fact of a fine blue horn-colour 
when washed clean; and these birds seemed to be fond of 
washing themselves. 

The condor is diffused over the continent of South America 
from the Straits of Magellan, extending its range also to 
Mexico and California, and the western territory of the 
United States beyond the Rocky Mountains. It was not seen 
by Lewis and Clark until they had passed the great Falls of 
the Columbia, and it is by no means common or numerous 
anywhere in the northern parts of America; those individuals 
that have been observed here appear to have been stragglers 
from their native country, which is no doubt South America. 
It might even be limited to the great chain of the Andes, 
especially their most elevated ranges, being plentiful in Quito, 
Peru, New Granada, and Antioquia, and much more rare 


416 CONDOR. 


where they are less lofty ; the condor inhabiting pretty nearly 
the same altitude with the Cinchone and other subalpine 
plants. It is, moreover, according to the observations of 
Humboldt, the invariable companion of the guanaco for an 
extent of nearly three thousand miles of coast, after which 
this animal is no longer seen ; but the condor continues to be 
met with much beyond this, as if quite indifferent to climate, 
or because it can regulate it by varying its elevation with the 
change of latitude. In the eastern or even southern United 
States a condor has never been seen, though the king vulture 
of South America has been occasionally observed. The chief 
abode of the condor is indeed on the highest summits of the 
Andes, some of which are covered with perpetual snow, and is 
fixed by Humboldt at between three thousand one hundred 
and four thousand nine hundred metres. Every time, says he, 
that I have been herborising near the limits of perpetual snow, 
we were sure to be surrounded by condors. These mountains 
and the forests that clothe their sides are the condor’s home, 
and from these their excursions are extended over the whole 
neighbourhood to the very sea, from which they may be 
often seen hovering at prodigious heights and describing vast 
circles, but always ready to lower themselves by degrees when- 
ever they espy a chance of satisfying their voracious appetite. 
They are only known, however, to descend towards the sea- 
shore during the rainy season, corresponding to our winter, 
when they come in search of food and warmer weather: they 
then obtain the bodies of large fishes or marine animals, such 
as whales or seals, and the prospect of finding these is their 
principal attraction to the shore: they arrive here at evening, 
and as a journey of several hundred miles requires for them 
but little time or exertion, as soon as their meal is digested, 
and they begin to feel lighter, they return to their favourite 
rocks, often during the following day. They have sometimes 
been killed at sea, floating on the dead body of a whale which 
they were tearing for food. They exhibit the common pro- 
pensity of their tribe for carrion, and nothing but the urgent 


CONDOR. 417 


stimulus of hunger can bring them to attack living creatures, 
and then their cowardice will not allow them to meddle with 
any but the feeble or diseased which are incapable of defend- 
ing themselves. 'They will also combine together to overpower 
their prey, if they see the least danger of resistance. A single 
cougar, or even a courageous bird, will drive from their prey 
a whole troop of condors, which, however, seldom amounts to 
more than five or six, as they do not collect in such numerous 
bodies as their fellow-vultures. When feeding on a cow, a 
guanaco, or a paco, they first pick out the eyes, then tear away 
and devour the tongue, and next the entrails, at last picking 
the flesh from the bones. Smaller animals they generally 
swallow whole. Guided by their amazingly acute faculty of 
smell, the condor will arrive, performing circular evolutions, 
from the highest regions of the atmosphere upon a carrion, 
and often, trusting to their powers of digestion, they swallow 
bones and flesh together. The Indians, too indolent to keep 
clean their butchering or similar places, and often neglecting 
to bury their dead with sufficient carefulness, have a great 
veneration for this bird and others of its kind, to which they 
trust to rid them of such nuisances, The regard with which 
they are treated makes them so familiar, that Humboldt 
relates his being able to approach within two yards of a troop 
of condors before they retreated, though he had other persons 
in his company. When full-fed the condor will remain 
motionless on a projecting rock, and has then a sinister 
appearance ; if on the ground, however, he allows of a close 
chase before having recourse to his ample wings, hopping 
along before his pursuer. When, on the contrary, he is pressed 
by hunger and light from emptiness, he will soar to extreme 
heights in the atmosphere, especially in clear weather, whence 
he can discover prey at any possible distance. ‘They lay in 
the most inaccessible parts of the Andes, near the limit of 
perpetual snow, on the most broken and terrific precipices, 
where no other living creature can dwell. Nests have been 


found at the extraordinary elevation of fifteen thousand feet. 
VOL. III, 2D 


418 CONDOR. 


Their eggs are usually laid on the naked rock, or with very 
little preparation, and never on trees, which they even avoid 
alighting on, unlike their congeners in this respect, and always 
on rocks or the ground, the straightness of their nails making 
this easier for them. The eggs are white, and three or four 
inches long. The young are entirely covered with very soft 
whitish down, and the mother is said to provide for them dur- 
ing along time. The facts relative to their propagation are 
not, however, sufficiently ascertained, for how are we to verify 
assertions relating to operations performed so much beyond 
the reach of ordinary observation ? 

Authors describe various modes that have been resorted to 
for destroying the condors in their native countries, where 
they sometimes become a nuisance ; such as poisoning carrion, 
seizing them by the legs by hiding under the skin of a calf, 
and by building narrow enclosures in which is placed putrid 
flesh, when the birds flying down and feeding greedily, are 
unable to take wing again for want of space to get a start by 
running. But we scarcely see any advantage in such strata- 
gems, since they may be caught with running knots while 
disabled by repletion, or even, as it is reported, knocked down 
with clubs ; and in any case, we are at a loss to reconcile such 
persecutions with the protection so wisely granted them both 
by civilised and savage man. 

In captivity, the condor is easily tamed if taken young, and 
does not refuse any kind of animal food whatever, nor do they 
appear to dread or suffer in the least from the extreme changes 
of the climate in Kurope and the north-eastern parts of 
America. But it is almost impossible to keep the adults, 
which are always exceedingly wild and mischievous. They 
are incredibly tenacious of life: the bones are so hard as to 
resist a musket-ball, to which also the thick down of their 
plumage is impenetrable. They can resist strangulation for 
hours, even when hanged and hard pulled by the feet. A 
remarkable fact is that in domesticity they will not refuse 
water, drinking it in a very peculiar manner, by holding their 


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GLOSSY IBIS. 419 


lower mandible in it for some time, and using it as a spoon 
to throw the liquid into their throat. The individual repre- 
sented in our plate was remarkable for playfulness and a kind 
of stupid good nature. During Mr Lawson’s almost daily 
visits for the purpose of measuring and examining accurately 
every part for his engraving, he became so familiar and well 
acquainted that he would pull the paper out of the artist's 
hands, or take the spectacles from his nose, so that Mr Lawson, 
seduced by these blandishments, and forgetting its character 
in other respects, does not hesitate to declare the condors the 
gentlest birds he-ever had to deal with. 


GLOSSY IBIS. (Lbis falcinellus.) 
PLATE XXIII.—Fie. 1. 


Tantalus falcinellus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 241, sp. 2.—Gmel. Syst. i. p. 648, sp. 2. — 
Lath. Ind. ii. p. T07, sp. 14.—Brunn. Orn. sp. 167.—Scop. Ann. i. sp. 131.— 
Kran. Austr. p. 350.—Borowsky, ii. p. 72.—Faun. Helv.—Reiz, Faun. 
Suec. p. 171, sp. 135.—WNilss. Orn. Suec. ii. p. 43, sp. 160.—Ibis falcinellus, 
Vieill. Now. Dict. ; Id. Enc. Met. Orn.—Temm. Man. Orn. ii. p. 598.— 
Savi. Orn. Tose. ii. p. 827.—Nob. Obs. Nom. Wils. Orn. note to No. 199 ; 

Id. Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 241; Id. Cat.; Id. Spec. Comp.—Wagler, Syst. 

Av. Ibis, sp. 1.—Roux, Orn. Prov. pl. 309.—Goldfuss, Nat. Atlas, pl. 95. 

—lIbis sacra, Temm. Man. Orn. 1st ed. p. 385.—Tantalus igneus, G'mel. 

Syst. i. p. 649, sp. 9.—Lath. Ind. ii. p. 708, sp. 16, very old individual.— 

Tantalus viridis, Gel. Syst. i. p. 648, sp. 8.—Lath. Ind. i. p. 707, sp. 15.— 

Montagu, in Linn. Trans. ix. p. 198.—Tantalus Mexicanus? Ord, in Journ. 

Ac. Philad. i. p. 53 (and perhaps of other authors; in that case the Acalot 

of Ray and Buffon, and its derivatives).*—Numenius castaneus, Briss. Orn. 

v. p. 329, sp. 5.; Id. 8vo, ii. p. 294 (old indiv.)—Numenius viridis, Briss. 

Orn. v. p. 326, sp. 4, t. 27, fig. 2.; Id. 8vo, ii. p. 293, two years old. — 


* The following are the indications of that obscure species, the 
Mexican Ibis :—Tantalus Mexicanus, Gimel. Syst. 1. p. 652, sp. 18.— 
Lath. Ind, ii. p. 704, sp. 4.—Ibis Mexicana of later compilers ; Ibis 
acalot of French compilers and dictionaries—Numenius Mexicanus 
varius, Briss. v. p. 385, sp. 7; Id. 8vo, 1. p. 295.—Acacolotl, Ray, 
Syn. p. 104, sp. 5—Will. p. 218; Id. Engl. p. 296.—Acalot, Buff. Otis. 
viii. p. 45.—Mexican Ibis, Lath. Syn. ili. pt. 1, p. 108, sp. 5 ; Ld. Gen. 
Hist, ix. p. 146, sp. 5. This bird is said to inhabit Mexico : it will not 
be superfluous to remark that the proportions assigned to it are much 
larger than those of our [bis falcinellus, 


420 GLOSSY IBIS. 


Numenius viridis, S. G. Gmel. Reis. i. p. 167.; Id. in Nov. Comm. Petrop. 
xv. p. 462, t. 19, young.—Numenius igneus, S. G. Gimel. Reis. i. p. 166; 
Id. in Nov. Comm. Petrop. xv. p. 460, t. 18, old specimen.—Tringa 
autumnalis, Hasselquist, Iter Palest. ii. p. 306, sp. 26, 27, two years old.— 
Falcinellus, Gesner, Av. p. 220.—Faleata, Gesner, Ic. Av. p. 116, with a 
bad figure.—Falcinellus, sive Avis falcata, Aldrov. Av. ili. p. 422 and 423. 
—Johnston, Av. p. 105.—Charleton, Hxcit. p. 110, sp. 7; Ld. Onomatz, p. 
103, sp. 7.—Falcinellus Gesneri et Aldrovandi, Willoughby, Orn. p. 218.— 
Arcuata minor, &c., Marsigli, Danub. v. p. 42, tab. 18, adult ; 20, young.— 
Numenius subaquilus, Alein, Av. p. 110, sp. 8.—Falcinellus or Sithebill, 
Ray, Av. p. 103, sp. 3.—Will. Orn. p. 295, tab. 54; Id. Engl. p. 295, 
tab. 54, fig. 4.—Le Fauconneau ! Falcinellus, Salerne, Orn. p. 322.—Courlis 
Vert, Buff. Ois. viii. p. 29 (ed. 1783), viii. p. 379.—Vers. Germ. Otto, xxii. p. 
170.—Courlis d’Italie, Buff. Pl. ent. 819, adult male.—Courlis Brillant, 
Sonnini, Buff. Otis. xxii. p. 238, old female.—Ibis Vert, Cuv. Regn. Anim. 
i. p. 485; Id. 2d ed. i. p. 520.—Roux, loco citato.—Savigny, Egypt. Ois. 
tab. vii. left-hand fig., two years old.—Ibis Noir, Savign. Hist. Nat. e¢ 
Mythol. de VIbis, p. 36, tab. 4.—Ibis Sacré, Temm. Man. Orn. 1st ed., but 
not of Cuvier.—Ibis Falcinelle, of most French authors and of the Diction- 
aries.—Chiurlo, &c., Storia degli Uccelli, ix. p. 439, old male.—Ibi Falcinello, 
Ranzani, Elem. ii. pt. viii. p. 185, sp. 3.—Mignattajo, Savi. loco citato.— 
Bay Ibis, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 460, A.—Lath. Syn. iii. pt. i. p. 118, sp. 
13; Id. Suppl. p. 67, Germ. trans. by Bechst. v. p. 67, tab. 81, young.— 
Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 152, sp. 15.—Brit. Miscell. tab. 18.—Montag. Orn. 
Dict. Suppl.—Green Ibis, Lath. Syn. iii. pt. 1, p. 114, sp. 13, young.—Lin- 
nean Trans. ix. p. 198.—Montag. Orn. Dict. Suppl.—Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 
154, sp. 18.—Glossy Ibis, Zath. Syn. iii. pt. 1, p. 115, sp. 14, old specimen ; 
Id. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 154, sp. 17.—Brit. Zool. 1812, ii. p. 30.—Montag. 
Orn. Dict. Suppl.—Brazilian Curlew, Vat. Miscell. tab. 705 ?—Sichelsnab- 
liger Nimmerzatt, Bechst. Nat. Deutschl. iv. p. 116.—Meyer and Wolf, Tasch. 
Deutschl. Vog. ii. p. 352.—Naum. Vog. Nacht. t. 28, adult male.—Braune 
Ibis, Brehm, Lehrb. Eur. Vog. ii. p. 528.—Philadelphia Museum. 


THOUGH if may appear very extraordinary, it is not less true, 
that one of the two species of ibis worshipped by the ancient 
Egyptians, their black ibis, has a claim to be included in our 
work as being an occasional visitant of the eastern shores of 
these States. This fact, which we would be among the first 
to disbelieve were we to read of it in the eloquent pages of 
Buffon, is authenticated by the specimen here figured, which, 
moreover, is not a solitary instance of the kind. Thus, instead 
of being limited to a peculiar district of Egypt, as stated by 
Pliny, Solinus, and others, and reiterated by the host of com- 
piers, this celebrated bird is only limited in its irregular 
wanderings by the boundaries of the globe itself. 


GLOSSY IBIS. A421 


The credit of having added this beautiful species to the 
fauna of the United States is due to Mr Ord, the well-known 
friend and biographer of Wilson, who several years ago gave 
a good history and minute description of it in the Journal 
of the Academy of Philadelphia, under the name of Tantalus 
Mexicanus? His excellent memoir would have been sufficient 
to establish its identity with the species found so extensively 
in the old world, even if the specimen itself, carefully preserved 
in the Philadelphia Museum, did not place this beyond the 
possibility of doubt. 

Among the natural productions which their priests had 
through policy taught the superstitious Egyptians to worship, 
the ibis is one of the most celebrated for the adoration it 
received, though for what reason it is not easy to understand. 
The dread of noxious animals, formidable on account of their 
strength or numbers, may induce feelings of respect and vene- 
ration, or they may be felt still more naturally for others that 
render us services by destroying those that are injurious, or 
ridding man of anything that interferes with his enjoyments, 
or by ministering to his wants. We can conceive how a sense 
of gratitude should cause these to be held sacred, in order to 
insure their multiplication, and that this sentiment should 
even be carried to adoration. But why grant such honours 
to the wild, harmless, and apparently useless ibis? It is per- 
fectly well proved at this day that the ibis is as useless as it 
is inoffensive, and if the Egyptian priests who worshipped the 
Deity in his creatures declared it pre-eminently sacred; if, 
while the adoration of other similar divinities was confined to 
peculiar districts, that of the ibis was universal over Hegypt ; 
if it was said, that should the gods take mortal forms it would 
be under that of the ibis that they would prefer to appear on 
earth, and so many things of the kind, we can assign no other 
reason than the fact of their appearing with the periodical 
rains, coming down from the upper country when the freshen- 
ing Etherian winds began to blow, when they were driven in 
search of a better climate by the very rains that produce the 


422 GLOSSY IBIS. 


inundation of the Nile, doing Egypt such signal benefit. The 
ibis, whose appearance accompanied these blessings, would 
disappear also at the season when the south desert winds 
from the internal parts of Africa brought desolation in their 
train, which could be averted only by the periodical return of 
the circumstances represented by the bis, which seemed like 
Providence to control them, and was therefore declared the 
real providence of Egypt, though merely the concomitant, 
and by no means the cause of those blessings by which they 
profited in common with all. It thus became so identified 
with the country as to be used as its hieroglyphic representa- 
tive, and was said to be so attached to its native land that it 
would die of grief if carried out of it, and it was on account 
of its fidelity to the soil that it was honoured as its emblem. 
So good a citizen could not of course from selfish motives 
migrate periodically, and its absence must have been for its 
country’s sake! Hence the ridiculous tale current through- 
out antiquity, and strengthened by the testimony of Hero- 
dotus, A®lian, Solinus, Marcellinus, copied by Cicero (who 
went so far as to assign to the ibis proper instruments for the 
purpose, such a strong bill), by Pliny and others, and credited 
in our days to a certain extent by Buffon, who thus accounted 
for the divine honours it received. I allude to the story of 
their attacking and destroying periodically on the limits of 
civilisation immense flocks of small but most pernicious 
winged serpents generated by the fermentation of marshes, 
which, without the generous protection afforded by the a 
would cause the utter ruin of Egypt. 

Still more unaccountable is it that naturalists and philo- 
sophers should have been so long in finding out the true mean- 
ing of this oriental figure. How could the ibis with its feeble 
bill, whose pressure can be hardly felt on the most delicate 
finger, and which is only calculated for probing in the mud 
after small mollusca and worms in places just left bare after 
an inundation, how could such a weapon cut to pieces and 
destroy so many monsters if they had existed? How could 


GLOSSY IBIS. 423 


these learned men (notwithstanding that Herodotus relates 
his seeing heaps of their bones or spines) believe for an 
instant in the existence of these winged serpents? and why 
try to reconcile truth with a barefaced falsehood, or with 
expressions manifestly figurative 2 We are aware that some 
modern translators of Herodotus, by forcing the Greek original 
to meet their own views, have attempted to write, instead of 
winged serpents, the word locustew, which insects are known 
to come in vast swarms, causing periodically great devastation 
even in some parts of Hurope. But nothing is gained by this 
plausible and apparently learned supposition, since the confor- 
mation of the ibis would prevent it from making any havoc 
among these enemies, whose being winged would not, moreover, 
save their author from the difficulty, locusts having certainly 
neither bones nor spines. The figure intended is still plainer, 
and Savigny, who first pointed it out, could in my opinion 
have saved himself many a page of his classical dissertation, 
and without any recourse to the idea of the Cerastes, for to 
me it is evident that by the winged serpents were originally 
signified the exhalations from the marshes, so noxious in 
Keypt when brought by the south-easterly or. Typhonian 
winds, against which the ibis was observed to direct its flight 
and to conquer, aided, it is true, by the powerful sweeping 
Lthervan winds. 

Be this as it may, no animal was more venerated by the 
Hgyptians than the ibis: there was none whose history was 
more encumbered with fictions. Notwithstanding the ridicule 
thrown upon it by Aristotle, the ibis was believed to be so 
essentially pure and chaste, as to be incapable of any immodest 
act. The priests declared the water to be only fit for ablutions 
and religious purposes when the ibis had deigned to drink of 
it. Yet by some unaccountable contradiction Roman authors 
made of it an unclean animal. It is needless here to repeat 
all the fanciful and extravagant things said of the ibis among 
a people whose credulity, superstition, and wildness of imagin- 
ation knew no bounds. It was represented by the priests as 


424 GLOSSY IBIS. 


a present from Osiris to Isis, or the fertilised soil, and as such 
was carefully brought up in the temples, those first menageries 
of antiquity. It was forbidden under pain of severest punish- 
ment to kill or injure in the least these sacred beings, and 
their dead bodies even were carefully preserved in order to 
secure eternity for them. It is well known with what art the 
Eeyptians endeavoured to eternise death, notwithstanding the 
manifest will of Nature that we should be rid of its dreaded 
images, and that many animals held sacred shared with man 
himself in these posthumous honours. In the Soccora plains 
many wells containing mummies are rightly called birds’ wells, 
on account of the embalmed birds, generally of the ibis kind, 
which they contain. ‘These are found enclosed in long jars of 
baked earth, whose opening is hermetically closed with cement, 
so that it is necessary to break them to extract the mummy. 
Buffon obtained several of these jars, in each of which there 
was a kind of doll enveloped in wrappers of linen cloth, and 
when these were removed, the body fell in a blackish dust, 
but the bones and feathers retained more consistence, and 
could be readily recognised. Dr Pearson, who received some 
of these jars from Thebes, gives a more minute description, 
as does also Savigny. E. Geoffroy, and Grobert, also brought 
from Egypt some very perfect embalmed ibises, and I have 
availed myself of every opportunity to examine such as were 
within my reach, and especially those preserved in the Kir- 
cherian Museum at Rome, one of which, containing a most 
perfect skeleton, is now before me. 

By far the greater part of the jars contain nothing but a 
kind of fat black earth, resulting from the decomposition of 
the entrails and other soft parts buried exclusively in them. 
Each bird is enclosed in a small earthen jar with a cover used 
for the purpose. The body is wrapped up in several layers 
of cloth, about three inches broad, saturated with some resin- 
ous substance, besides a quantity of other layers fixed in their 
place by a great many turns of thread crossed with much art, 
so much, indeed, that it is by no means easy to lay the parts 


GLOSSY IBIS. 425 


bare for inspection without injuring them. Space appears to 
have been considered of much value in preparing these mum- 
mies, and every means was used to secure them within the 
least possible.compass, by bending and folding the limbs one 
upon another. The neck is twisted so as to bring the crown 
of the head on the body, a little to the left of the stomach, 
the curved bill with its convexity upward is placed between 
the feet, thus reaching beyond the extremity of the tail: each 
foot with its four claws turned forward, one bent upward and 
elevated on each side of the head; the wings brought close 
to the sides, much in their natural position. In separating 
them to discover the interior, nothing of the viscera nor any 
of the soft parts remain, the bones exhibit no traces of muscle 
or tendon adhering to them, and the joints separate at the 
least touch. Most of these mummies, it must be admitted, 
are not of the species of which we are writing (and which 
also is but seldom represented hieroglyphically), but of the 
white kind, which was more venerated, the Ibis religiosa of 
Cuvier; and some authors even’ deny that a well-authenti- 
cated black ibis has ever been unwrapped. Complete birds 
even of the white species are extremely rage. Cuvier obtained 
the entire skeleton from an embalmed subject, and Dr Pearson 
was so fortunate as to discover the perfect bird in two brought 
among other mummies from Thebes. ‘They have been accu- 
rately described in the scientific journals of England under 
the name of true Egyptian or Theban ibis. The Hgyp- 
tian ibis of Latham is, however, nothing but the Tantalus 
abis. 

Buffon by means of his mummies was enabled to verify the 
real size of the ibis, and as he found two bills entire among 
those he examined, he settled the genus to which the sacred 
bird belonged, and stated very correctly that its place was 
between the stork and the curlew, where later naturalists have 
arranged it. But it is to be regretted that a preconceived 
opinion should have so blinded him that he could not see the 
furrows of the upper mandible, which do exist in a very 


426 GLOSSY IBIS. 


. eminent degree, as I have personally ascertained, notwith- 
standing his statements to the contrary, in making which he 
must have had before him the bill of the tantalus, which he 
mistook for the ibis. These furrows it is of the more conse- 
quence to note, inasmuch as they form the principal discrim- 
ination between the genera Zantalus and Ibis, and serve to 
put an end to a controversy to which the sacred ibis has given 
rise. 

Although every traveller in Egypt has used his exertions 
to collect all the facts relative to a bird which plays such a 
part in the sacred legends of that country, a bird associated 
with so many of the wonders of antiquity, yet it was for a long 
period a question among naturalists and scholars to what 
species the name of ibis was properly to be applied. As, 
however, contrary to the general practice of the ancients, the 
description of the bird did exist, and even a representation, 
tolerably good, among their sculptured hieroglyphics, it could 
only be because it was supposed that divine honours must 
have been the reward of signal service that any dispute could 
ever arise on the subject. A sacred bird must of course, it 
was concluded, be a great destroyer of venomous animals, 
which the timid ibis 7s not; hence the misapplication of the 
name. ‘To such an extent did this idea prevail, and predomi- 
nate over all others, that Buffon, who could only feel contempt 
for the idle tales related of the ibis, so involved their true 
history as to attribute to them the most violent antipathy to 
serpents, on which he supposed they fed, and destroyed them 
by all possible means, and assigns to them the habits of a 
species of vulture. Others maintained, notwithstanding its 
long and faleate bill, that it was in fact a vulture, which was 
indeed the most natural conclusion after they had begun by 
giving it such habits. Cuvier himself, who cleared up and 
rectified everything else in relation to the ibis, because he 
found in a mummy some skins and scales of serpents, most 
probably embalmed as companions, which was frequently done 
with different kinds of animals, declared it a true snake-eater. 


GLOSSY LE1S. 427 


Two different kinds of ibis were known to the ancients, and 
looked upon by the Eeyptians as sacred—the white, common 
throughout Egypt, and the black, which was said to be found 
only in a peculiar district. It is the latter of which we are 
now to treat, a bird long known to, but not recognised by, 
naturalists ; whilst the white was only rediscovered, in later 
times, by the courageous Abyssinian traveller, Bruce, who first 
among the moderns obtained correct notions respecting it. 
Bruce’s ibis has been since proclaimed by Cuvier and Savigny 
the true ibis, in place of the Tantalus ibis of Linné, which he so 
called for want of knowing the real ibis, believing this to be it, 
though but very seldom even found in Egypt. This opinion, 
which though more plausible than that which it superseded, 
was still erroneous, originated with Perrault, and was adopted 
and maintained by Buffon, Brisson, Linné, Blumenbach, and 
all others until lately, when Colonel Grobert returning from 
Egypt presented Fourcroy with mummies which enabled 
Cuvier first to perceive that the ibis was not a Tantalus, but 
a true Jbzs, which genus he did not then distinguish from 
Numenius. Savigny in the year 1806, by an admirable work 
on the ibis, put the question at rest. 

The sacred white ibis, though not in reality peculiar to 
Egypt, where it is seen only at certain seasons of the year, 
does not, however, migrate to far distant countries: it is spread 
throughout Africa, and species extremely similar to it are 
found in India and Ceylon. But it is not our province to 
treat of it, and it has already formed the subject of several 
volumes. 

We have already remarked that Buffon justly indicated the 
natural relations of the ibis by stating that it was intermediate 
between the stork and the curlew. What he said of the 
species we shall extend to the three families to which the 
three birds belong in our system. In the transition from one 
sroup to another, Nature seems often to make the passage by 
insensible intermediate steps, and it sometimes happens that 
the species placed on the limits of two groups belong decidedly 


428 GLOSSY IBIS. 


to one or the other, and even when it may be impossible to say 
to which they ought to be referred, we still cannot admit them 
as types of an intermediate group. At other times the inter- 
mediate species form a small group by themselves, and although 
a portion of such a connecting group shows great affinity to 
that which follows it, while another portion is equally con- 
nected with a preceding group, yet the two parts are still 
more related between themselves. So it is with the family 
of Tantalide or Falcati, formed from the genus Tantalus 
of Linné, and composed of but two very natural genera, 
Tantalus and Ibis, the former of which retains a resemblance 
to the Ardeide or Cultrirostres, while the latter claims a 
stronger affinity with the Scolopacide or Limicole. Nothing, 
in our opinion, shows more the propriety, and even necessity, 
of distinguishing this small intermediate group from those 
which touch upon it. 
Buffon and Brisson, who used as a character the artificial 
one of the curved bill, did not separate the Tantalide from 
the curlews, which are real Scolopacide, though somewhat 
allied to 2bzs. Linné, whose philosophical tact was seldom at, 
fault, and who crowded all the Scolopacide into his arbitrary 
genera Zringa and Scolopax, did not, however, confound the 
two families, for he employed as a distinguishing mark of his 
genus Tantalus the important character of the naked face. 
He was followed by Latham and others. The Jbzs of Lacépeéde 
is equivalent to the Zantalus of Linné, though by giving the 
genus this name, (which Latham had done in English), he 
obtained the credit of being the founder of the genus Jbzs, but 
unjustly, as he included in it all the smooth and thick-billed 
Tantal. To Illiger belongs the merit of having first made 
the distinction between them, and Cuvier, Vieillot, Temminck, 
and most others have followed his course, though some German 
authors call the restricted genus Falcinellus. The present 
family was instituted by Illiger under the name of Falcatz, 
Vieillot and Ranzani adopted it under the name of Falcirostres, 
Boié called it “ of the Zbzdes,” but Cuvier and Latreille placed 


P24) 


GLOSSY IBIS. 429 


the two genera of which it is composed within the respective 
limits of the two families which they connect, and which they 
called Cultrirostres and Longirostres. Although Mr Vigors 
and the modern English school have not adopted it (probably 
because it interfered with their whimsical quinary arrange- 
ment), they do not dismember it, but force the whole into 
their family Ardetde, with which even Ibis has, it is true, 
more real though less apparent affinity than with Scolopacide : 
as for Tantalus, there could be nodoubt. Goldfuss has done 
the same. 

The Zantalide all have a very long bill, stout at the base, 
subulate, falcate, and cylindrical at tip, the edges bent in and 
sharp. Their corneo-membranous tongue is remarkably short, 
flat, cuneate-acuminate, entire, posteriorly furcate-emarginate. 
Their face is destitute of feathers, and their throat somewhat 
dilatable into a pouch. Their neck is long. Their feet long, 
equilibrate, and always four-toed: the naked space of the tibia 
considerable: the toes long, bordered with a narrow membrane 
connecting the fore toes at base. The hind toe is articulated, 
with the tarsus low down, and is half as long as the middle, 
bearing with its whole length on the ground. The wings are 
moderate, obtuse, tubercular. The tail short, composed of 
but twelve feathers. The falcate shape of the bill will at once 
distinguish them from any of the Ardeide; and the naked- 
ness of the face from the Scolopacidee. 

The Zbis may be known from the true Tantalus by having 
a comparatively slender bill, depressed and curved from the 
base ; instead of being very stout at the base, compressed, and 
curved only towards the tip. In Ibis, the upper mandible is 
deeply furrowed its whole length, and entire. In Zantalus it 
is not furrowed, and is notched. The nostrils are pervious 
and wide open in the latter; half-closed by a membrane in 
the former. The head is warty and entirely bald in Zantalus, 
while in J6cs the nakedness generally extends over the face 
and throat merely. 

Tantalus only contains four species, one in each of the five 


430 GLOSSY IBIS. 


divisions of the globe, Europe excepted. In Jbis there are 
about twenty well-ascertained species, three inhabiting the 
United States, of which the present is the only one that ever 
visits Europe. In South America are found several beautiful 
species. ‘The true ibises may be subdivided into two secondary 
groups; those with the tarsi reticulated, and those which, like 
the present species, have them scutellated. ‘The former have 
shorter feet, and by their stouter bill, and the more extended 
nudity of the face, approach nearest to the Zantalc. 'Temminck 
wishes to divide them into the sections Sylvains and Riverains, 
Dr Wagler distributes them into three sections, which he 
calls Ibides lepopodiw, Ibides aspido-lepopodic, and Ibides 
aspidopodie / this last section being formed for our species 
alone, principally on account of its having the middle toe- 
nail pectinated. 

In the ibises, as in their kindred Zantalz, the females are 
considerably smaller than the males, but perfectly like them 
in colours. The young differ greatly from the adults until 
the third year. Their moult is annual and regular. 

They are dull and stupid birds, fearless, and allowing of a 
very close approach, so that they are easily shot. They fre- 
quent inundated places, the shores of lakes and rivers, and 
particularly grounds just left bare by floods, where their 
favourite food abounds. They live in flocks, but when once 
paired the sexes remain united for life. They feed on insects, 
worms, mollusca, and the ibises also on vegetable substances : 
they search their food in mud, and often throw it up with 
their bill, catching it as it descends in their throat. Shells, 
even of considerable size, they swallow entire, trusting to the 
muscular power of their stomach to crush them, for which 
their bill is too weak. The Vantalc are also well known to 
use their powerful bills against fishes and reptiles, but the 
true ibis never, notwithstanding the popular belief to the con- 
trary. When satisfied with feeding, they retire for digestion 
to the highest trees, where they stand in an erect posture, 
resting their heavy bill upon their breast. The Zbédes more 


ts. 


GLOSSY IBIS. 431 


than the Zantali migrate periodically and to vast distances. 
The habit of resting upon trees, as indeed the whole animal 
economy (a thing never sufficiently considered in the forma- 
tion of natural families of the ibis), separate them from the 
Scolopacide. They are monogamous ; build on high trees, 
both sexes assisting in the construction of the nest: the female 
lays two or three whitish eggs, which she alone incubates, but 
is then fed by the male, and both feed the young, which 
require for a long period the care of the parents, and do not 
leave the nest till able to flutter. They walk slowly, often 
sinking deeply in the mud while watching for prey: their 
gait is measured, and they never run rapidly. Their flight 
is heavy, but high and protracted. ‘Their voice is loud and 
monotonous. In domesticity, like many other birds, they 
become omnivorous. As to anatomical conformation, the 
ibises resemble the genera of Scolopacide: a very thick 
muscular stomach occupies nearly two-thirds of the anterior 
capacity of the abdomen: the swelling of the cesophagus at 
its origin is considerable and very glandulous: the intestines 
form an elliptic mass, composed of a double spiral, besides first 
a turn bordering the gizzard ; they measure upwards of three 
feet in length in the species we treat of. There are two rather 
short and obtuse caecums. 

The bay or glossy ibis is twenty-six inches in length, and 
more than three feet in extent. The bill is of a greenish 
lead colour, somewhat reddish at tip, and varies much in 
length in different specimens,—the longest we have measured 
was five and a half inches from the corners of the mouth : in 
many it is but four inches : it is slender, thicker at base, and 
higher than broad, rather compressed and obtusely rounded 
at tip, and less arcuated than in the other North American 
species; the upper mandible is somewhat longer than the 
lower, thickened and subangulated at base, and flattened 
at its origin: two deep furrows run from the nostrils to 
the extremity, dividing it into three portions; the edges 
of both mandibles are quite entire, and being bent in, they 


432 GLOSSY IBIS. 


form together when closed another deep channel: the upper 
mandible is filled inside to a great extent with the bony sub- 
stance of the bill, so as to be hardly concave. The under 
mandible follows exactly the curve of the upper, and is but 
half as high on the sides: it is strongly canaliculated below 
from the base to the tip; the channel from the tip to the 
middle is narrow, but then widens considerably, and is 
extremely wide at base, where it is filled by a naked 
membrane forming a kind of jugular pouch. The nostrils 
are placed near the base of the mandible, at the origin of the 
lateral furrows, and are oblong, narrow, longitudinal, furnished 
in the upper part with a naked membrane. The tongue is 
sagittate and less than three-fourths of an inch from the acute 
point of its lateral lobe to its tip: the jugular pouch is dusky : 
the small naked part of the face, the lora and region around 
the eyes are of a greenish grey, which passes into whitish on 
the limits of the feathers: the irides are dark brown. The 
crown of the head and cheeks are of a brownish black with 
purplish reflections; the throat immediately below the pouch 
is of the same colour, though somewhat less brilliant, and with 
more green reflections; the feathers of the head are pointed, 
those of the occiput being, moreover, suberectile: the whole 
base of the plumage is of a pale sooty grey. The feathers of 
the back and wing-coverts are compact and rounded; those 
of the inferior parts are rather loose in texture at their mar- 
gins; hind head, neck, upper portion of the back, inner wing- 
coverts to the shoulder of the wing, and all the internal parts 
of the body, together with the thighs, of a vivid brownish 
chestnut, very brilliant and purplish on the interscapular 
region: lower portion of the back, rump, vent, tail and wings 
entirely, including the upper and lower coverts and the long 
axillary feathers, glossy golden green, with purple reflections, 
except the primaries, which are pure golden green. The wings 
are one foot long, and when closed reach precisely to the tip 
of the tail, which is four and a half inches in length, and even 
at the tip: the first primary is hardly shorter than the third, 


GLOSSY IBIS. 433 


the second longest. The feet are rather slender, and the tar- 
sus much longer than the middle toe: their colour is greenish 
lead, somewhat reddish at the joints: tarsus scutellated, four 
inches long; the naked part of the tibia nearly three inches ; 
the toes are slender, the middle without the nail is two and a 
half, and the hind toe one inch long: the nails are long and 
slender, but truncated and of a dark horn colour: the middle 
one is the longest, and slightly curved outwards, dilated on 
the inner side to a thin edge, which is irregularly and broadly 
pectinated. This character is particularly worthy of remark, 
inasmuch as none of the genus but this exhibit it, and it may 
be of great use in deciding at once whether mummies belong 
to this species or not, though we regret that no one appears 
ever to have thought of having recourse to it to determine 
this controverted question. 

The adult female is perfectly similar to the male in all 
except size, being very sensibly smaller. 

Under two years of age they resemble the adult, but the 
head and neck are of a much darker colour, the chestnut hav- 
ing nothing vivid, but rather verging upon blackish brown, 
and all speckled with small dashes of white disposed longi- 
tudinally on the margins of the feathers, and disappearing 
gradually as the bird advances in age: the under parts and 
the thighs are of a blackish grey, more or less verging upor 
chestnut according to age, the back acquiring its brilliant 
colours in the same manner. It is in this state that most 
authors, Brisson especially, have described their Numenius 
viridis, which for a long time usurped the privilege of some« 
what representing the type of the species. 

The young has these white lines longer and more numerous, 
and the lower parts of a darker blackish grey. 

This bird does not appear in its full plumage until the 
third year, and is so different from the adult as to furnish an 
excuse for those who in that state have considered it as a dis- 
tinct species. ‘The bill is brown: the feathers of the head 


and of the throat are dark brownish with a whitish margin, 
VOL, II. 25 


434. GLOSSY IBIS. 


wider in proportion as the bird is younger: the breast, belly,. 
vent, under tail-coverts, and thigh-feathers are greyish brown 
or slate colour: the lower portion of the back, wings, and: tail 
of a somewhat golden green, passing into reddish, with but 
very little gloss in specimens under one year old, and richer 
as they advance in age. The feet are wholly blackish. 

No bird ranges more widely over the globe than the glossy 
ibis ; if has long been known to inhabit Europe, Asia, Oceania, 
and Africa, where it gained its celebrity. It is now proclaimed. 
as American, though we are not able to tell how numerous or 
extended the species may be on this continent. We can 
hardly doubt, however, that it is found along almost all the 
shores of North and South America, though far from common 
in any of these States. From the fact of this bird having 
been known to stray occasionally from Europe to far distant 
Iceland, we may infer that the individuals met with in the 
United States are merely stragglers from that part of the 
world, just as the Scolopax grisea of the same plate is an 
American bird well known to push its accidental migrations 
as far as the old continent. 

Lest the discovery of the glossy ibis on the continent of 
America should give weight to an erroneous supposition of 
Vieillot, we think proper to mention that the Cayenne ibis of 
Latham, Zantalus Cayanensis, Gmel., represented by Buffon, 
pl. enl. 820 (Vieillot’s own wnseen [bis sylvatica), is by no 
means this bird, but a real species examined by us, and which 
must be called Lbis Cayanensis. 

Let it come whence it may, the glossy ibis is only an occa- 
sional visitant of the United States, appearing in small flocks 
during the spring season at very irregular periods, on the 
coasts of the middle states. ‘The specimen Mr Ord described, 
and which produced a strong sensation even among experi- 
enced gunners and the oldest inhabitants as a novelty, was 
shot on the 7th of May 1817, at Great Ege Harbour, and 
we have seen others from the same locality and obtained 
at the same season, as also from Maryland and Virginia, A 


GLOSSY IBIS. 435 


beautiful specimen preserved in the American Museum at 
New York, was shot a few miles from that city in June 1828. 
In Central Italy they arrive periodically about the middle of 
April, or the beginning of May, and pass a month among us, 
after which they disappear entirely, and a pair of the glossy 
ibis is of very rare occurrence, though they have been known 
to remain here so late as August. A few pairs are brought 
every year in spring to the market of Rome, and in Tuscany 
and near Genoa they are more plentiful. The Italian and 
United States specimens that have come under my observation 
were all adults. During their stay among us they occupy 
places near marshes and grounds subject to be overflowed, 
where there are no trees, but abundance of grass, and plenty 
of their favourite food. They search for this collected in flocks 
of from thirty to forty, and explore the ground with great 
regularity, advancing in an extended line, but closely side 
by side: when they wish to leave one side of the meadow for 
another, they do not take wing, but walk to the selected spot. 
When they have alighted on a newly-discovered rich spot of 
ground, they may be observed on it for hours, continually 
boring the mud with their bill. They never start and run 
rapidly like the curlew and sandpiper, but always walk with 
poised and measured steps, so that Allian says the ibis’s 
motions can only be compared to those of a delicate virgin. 
The body is kept almost horizontal, the neck much bent, like 
the letter 8, and lifting their feet high. If alarmed, or when 
about to depart, they rise to wonderful heights, ascending first 
in an inclined but straight flight, and then describing a wide 
spiral, the whole flock are heard to cry out in a loud tone, 
their voice resembling that of geese: finally having reached 
what they consider the proper height, taking a horizontal 
direction, they soon disappear from the sight: their flight is 
vigorous and elevated, their pectoral muscles being very thick : 
they fly with the neck and legs extended horizontally, like 
most waders, and as they float along, send forth from time to 
time a low and very hoarse sound. ‘heir food consists chiefly 


436 GLOSSY IBIS. 


of small aquatic testaceous mollusca, and they do not disdain 
such small worms and insects as they may meet with: they are 
supposed to live chiefly on leeches (whence their Tuscan name 
Mignattajo), but erroneously, none of these having ever been 
found in their stomachs either by Professor Savi or myself. 
From what is observed in Europe, the regular migration of 
these birds appears to be in the direction of south-west and 
north-east. Every circumstance leads to the belief that they 
come to us in Central Italy through Sardinia and Corsica from 
the coasts of Barbary, and continue their journey hence to the 
vast marshes of Eastern Europe and the Caspian Sea, where 
they are well known to breed, though nothing is yet ascertained 
of their mode of propagation. Be this as it may, the glossy 
ibis in the north and west of Europe is a very rare bird, and 
merely a straggler, whilst it is common at its passage in 
Poland, Hungary, Southern Russia, Turkey and Greece, 
especially the islands of the Archipelago. It is found also 
in Austria and Bavaria, and in other parts of Germany, 
especially on the Danube; and occasionally near the lakes 
of Switzerland, but hardly ever in Holland, the north of 
France, or England. In Sweden it is also met with, though 
extremely rare: it has been observed in Gothland, along the 
marshes of the interior parts of the island, and been killed in 
Scania: it is registered among the rare birds that visit Iceland. 
It has been found common along the rivers of the islands of 
Java and the Celebes; is periodically known during seven 
months in Egypt, coming in October and disappearing in 
March : it is later in coming, and disappears after, and in 
quite a different direction from the white sacred kind: like 
this, they follow the overflowing of the Nile, retiring gradually 
as the water becomes too deep. It is very common about the 
Black, and especially the Caspian Seas, the great rendezvous 
and breeding-place of waders, where appears to be their chief 
quarters, and whence they spread into Siberia and Tartary. 
Great numbers are also met with in the Ural Desert. The 
Arabs in Egypt kill the glossy ibis by shooting them, and 


PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 437 


catch many in nets, so that in autumn the markets of the 
cities of Lower Egypt, that of Damietta especially, are abun- 
dantly furnished with ibises of this species, as well as the white, 
now no longer sacred, which are exposed for sale with the heads 
cut off. When taken alive, these birds appear really very low 
spirited, and reject food: they stand upright, the body hori- 
zontal, the neck much bent, the head inclined, moving it from 
right to left, advancing or withdrawing it, and striking the 
ground with the point of their bill. They often stand on one 
leg like the stork: are by no means shy, and will open their 
bill to defend themselves if you stretch out your hand, but 
their bite is scarcely felt. 

It should be mentioned that although this is the black ibis 
of antiquity, it is by no means that of systematical writers, 
which they describe as really black, with a red bill and feet. 
Such a species is very seldom if ever seen in Eeypt. 


PECTORAL SANDPIPER. (Tringa pectoralis.) 
PLATE XXIII.—Fie. 2. 


Pelinda pectoralis, Say, in Long’s Exp. i. p.171.—Tringa pectoralis, Nob. Cat. 
Birds, U.S. ; Id. Synops. sp. 250; Id. Speech. comp.—Tringa campestris ? 
Cat. ii.—Vogel. p. 74, sp. 764.—Tringa cinclus dominicensis? Briss. Licht. 
Av. v. p. 219, sp. 12, pl. 24, fig. 1.—Chorlito a cou brun? Azara, iv. p. 284, 
sp. 404.—Alouettede mer de St Domingue, Briss. loc. cit.—Philadelphiu 
Museum. 

Tis humble species, well marked, though closely allied to 

several other sandpipers, is, as well as I can judge, accurately 

described and figured by Brisson; but since then unnoticed 
even by compilers. His description had become obsolete, when 

Say found the bird in the western territory, and we replaced 

it in the records of the science. We have since shot it re- 

peatedly on the shores of New Jersey, where it is common. 

The species appears to be spread throughout the States, 

extending farther into the interior than most of its family : 

beyond the Mississippi it is very common; many flocks of 
them were seen by Major Long’s party both in the spring and 


438 PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 


autumn at Engineer Cantonment, and it is often met with in 
small parties on the coasts of the middle states in the latter 
part of autumn. It also inhabits the West Indies, and, if we 
are correct in our reference to Azara, is found in Brazil and 
Monte Video. 

Unlike other sandpipers, this is not addicted to bare sandy 
places, but, on the contrary, is fond of damp meadows, where 
it shows some of the habits of the snipe. Solitary individuals 
are often seen, starting up from before the sportsman’s feet 
much in the manner of that bird. 

The family to which this bird belongs has been admitted 
by all authors, under various names, and comprehending more 
or less aberrant genera. It was first established by Illiger, 
but he excluded from it those which by an unimportant devi- 
ation are destitute of a hind toe, which he placed in his arti- 
ficial family of ZLttorales, while he included in it some true 
Charadriade on account of the presence of a rudiment of this 
member. Vieillot took the same view, calling the two arti- 
ficial families Helionomi, and Avgialites ; as did Ranzani 
and Savi under the names of Zzmicole and Tachidrome ; and 
Mr Vigors erred in like manner by distributing the genera 
between his too extensive families of Charadriade and Scolo- 
pacide. he arrangement of Cuvier and Latreille is in this 
instance much more consonant to nature: these authors called 
their better composed, though still far from perfect family, 
Longtrostres. 

This family, which we shall call Limicole or Scolopacide, 
is strictly natural, especially since we have still farther re- 
formed it by withdrawing the genus Himantopus, with which 
we had encumbered it in our synopsis. The family now 
comprises the six genera Numenius, Tringa, Totanus, Limosa, 
Scolopax, and Rhynchea, all possessing the most marked 
affinity in form and habits. 

The Scolopacide have either a moderate or generally a 
long bill, slender, feeble, and extremely soft, being partially 
or entirely covered with a nervous and sensitive skin: it is 


PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 439 


nearly cylindrical, and mostly obtuse at the point. Their 
face is completely feathered, and their neck of a moderate 
length and size. The feet, though rather long, are moderate 
and quite slender; the tarsus is scutellated: but the chief 
character which, combined with the bill, will always distin- 
cuish them from the allied families, consists in the hind toe, 
which is short, slender, articulated high up on the tarsus, 
and the tip hardly touching the ground: in some quite 
typical species this toe is entirely wanting, and this fact cor- 
roborates what we have so often repeated in our writings, that 
the mode of insertion, or use made of this toe is of more 
importance than its being absent or present. In all the 
Iimicole the wings are elongated, falciform, acute, and 
tuberculated ; and the tail rather short. 

The females are generally larger than the males, but, luckily 
for naturalists, similar to them in colour. I say luckily, for 
as the young differ greatly from the adults, and as the moult 
which takes place twice a year produces additional changes 
in the confused plumage of most of these birds, sexual diver- 
sity, if it existed, would render the species still more difficuit 
to determine. 

All the Scolopacide inhabit marshy, muddy places, and 
around waters; and never alight on trees. On the ground 
they run swiftly. Their food consists of insects, worms, mol- 
lusca, and other aquatic animals, which they seek in the mud, 
feeling and knowing where to seize their prey without seeing 
it, by means of the delicacy of touch of their bill. They are 
monogamous; breed on the ground in grassy marshes, or on 
the sand ; and lay mostly four pyriform eges, both parents 
sitting upon them, and afterwards attending their young with 
care, though these latter leave the nest, run about, and pick 
up food as soon ashatched. All these habits contrast strongly 
with those of the ibis, which can only be forced into this 
family on account of the softness of the bill, and its great 
similarity to that of the curlews. 

Our genus Zringa is much more extensive than that of 


440 PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 


most modern, though much less so than that of former writers ; 
for we arrange in it all the Scolopacide, whose bill, short, or 
moderately so, straight or slightly curved, is soft or flexible 
for its whole length, and with the poimt smooth, depressed, 
somewhat dilated and obtuse; not taking into consideration 
the feet, especially the hind toe, which we think in this case 
hardly proper to represent subgeneric divisions. Ornitho- 
logists will perceive at once from this that our genus thus 
constituted reunites in a natural group species that were dis- 
persed by Linné in his genera Zringa Scolopax and Chara- 
drius, and even some that Latham placed in his restricted 
genius Numenius. It coincides more nearly with the better 
formed genus Zringa of Brisson, and especially of Vieillot, 
TYemminck, and Ranzani, but with the addition of their 
Arenaria or Calidris ; and with the same addition, is wholly 
included in the Actztis of Illiger; although that learned 
systematist does not cite under his comprehensive genus a 
single typical Zringa, and probably never examined one, as 
they do not possess the character he assigns to the group 
“nedes colligati.” Our Zringa embraces and is formed of 
the groups Calidris, Pelidna, Falcinellus, Machetes, Hury- 
norhyncus and Arenaria of Cuvier; and we subdivide it 
pretty nearly into these very groups, which we regard as 
subgenera, adding, moreover, to them another which we call 
Hemipalama. 

All our Tiringee have a bill compressed at the base, with 
both mandibles furrowed each side their whole length, the 
lower a little the shorter; the nostrils are in the furrows, 
basal, linear, and pervious, but half closed by a membrane: 
their tongue is moderately long, slender, subfiliform, canali- 
culated above, entire, and acute. The tarsus is slender, longer, 
or subequal to the middle toe, and always scutellated: the 
fore toes rather elongated and slender, the hind toe when 
present is extremely short, slender, much elevated, and 
hardly reaching the ground: the nails are moderate, com- 
pressed, curved, and acute. The wings moderate for this 


PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 441 


family, though in reality long, with the first primary longest ; 
the tertials and scapulars shorter than the primaries. The 
tail is rather short, subequal to the wings when closed, and 
always of twelve feathers and no more. 

With the exception of thesubgenera Falcinellus, distinguished 
by an arched bill, and Calidris, by a short, straight one, and, 
both three-toed, all our Zringw are tetradactyle, having the 
short hind toe. With the exception of my subgenus Hemi- 
palama, whose character is to have the fore toes all connected 
at base by a membrane, and of Machetes, which has only the 
outer ones connected, all the 7ringe have the feet cleft to the 
base. Of the species that remain after the separation of these 
four well-marked groups, and which are still the most numer- 
ous, we form our subgenus Zringa. We must not, however, 
pass by unnoticed the Hurynorhyncus of Nilsson, a group so 
important as perhaps to merit generic distinction: it is the 
Platalea pygmeea of Linné, of which a single specimen of un- 
certain nativity is known.* In this, by an extreme develop- 
ment of the Tinga character, the bill is remarkably flattened 
and widened at tip, somewhat in the manner of the spoon- 
bill. 

In the sandpipers the female is similar to the male, being 
only somewhat larger. The young differ from the adult, and 
they moult twice a year, changing greatly the colours of their 
plumage. These are a mixture of white and cinereous, 
changing in summer to rufous and black. 

The sandpipers are maritime birds that live in flocks, 
oftentimes composed of different species, on sandy beaches or 
muddy shores, preferring mostly salt water. They migrate 
with the changes of the seasons along coasts and rivers, and 
are seldom seen in the temperate climates of North America 
and Hurope, except during autumn, winter, and more especially 
in spring, when they are the most numerous. ‘They retire to 
the north to breed, which they do socially among the grass 
near the water, but never in our climates. They feed on 

* See Thunberg, Ay. Sv. Holm. 1816, p. 194, tab. vi. 


442 PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 


insects, mollusca, and other small animals, which they seek 
in soft ground by thrusting in their flexible bill, or among 
the rejectamenta of the sea. They run rapidly, and generally 
fly near the surface of the water in a straight line, and during 
the day, cnly short distances. heir flesh, though esculent, 
is by no means palatable, being too fishy: they grow amaz- 
ingly fat in autumn, though their fat is not firm, but very oily. 
They are caught, however, in Italy by spreading nets on their 
feeding-grounds, and in the United States great numbers are 
destroyed by the gun. 

Spread over all the globe, some of the species even, the 
sandpipers are very difficult to distinguish from one another, 
marked traits being few, and detailed descriptions applying 
mostly to individual specimens. The species have been 
wantonly multiplied by superficial observers, and too much 
reduced perhaps by scientific men. We must chiefly rely on 
the relative dimensions of the bill and the length of the tarsus 
in fixing them. In North America are found at least ten of 
the subgenus 7’rznga, most of which likewise inhabit Europe, 
that has eight: the pectoral sandpiper is the only one beside 
the 7. pusilla of those American registered in our synopsis 
that is not found in Europe. 

This new species, though it is quite as large, if not larger 
than the Zringa alpina, has a shorter bill; which is besides 
reddish at base, distinguishing it at once from all the species 
it could be confounded with, since each of them has the bill 
entirely black: the 7. maritima and T. platyrhynca have a 
similarly-coloured bill, but are otherwise too well marked to 
be mistaken ; the former by the restricted naked space of the 
tibia, and the latter by the depressed form of its bill. 

The pectoral sandpiper is eight and a half inches long, some 
females being nearly nine: the bill is little more than an inch 
long, compressed throughout, reddish yellow at base, the rest 
black, and with a few snipe-like punctures near the tip. The 
crown of the head is black, each feather margined with rufous : 
the orbits, a line over the eye, and the forehead narrowly are 


PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 443 


whitish, minutely dotted with blackish ; the irides are dark : 
a very distinct brown line passes from the eye to the upper 
mandible: the cheeks, neck above, sides of the neck, and 
beneath down to the breast are greyish with a rufous tinge, 
and beautifully streaked with blackish, occupying the middle 
of each feather, along the shaft: surrounded and well defined 
(in perfect specimens) by these markings, the throat and chin 
are of a purer white than in other Tringe: the remaining 
lower parts from the breast to the lower tail-coverts, including 
the flanks and long axillary feathers, are white, the base of 
the plumage dark plumbeous, and a few blackish streaks along 
the shafts of some of the flank and vent feathers: the feathers 
of the neck above, owing to the circumstance of the blackish 
central line widening considerably, become gradually dusky, 
the feathers there being merely bordered with the greyish 
buff. The interscapular region, the scapulars, and small 
wing-coverts are shining black with. greenish reflections ; 
they are margined with ferruginous, and near the exterior 
tips with whitish: the lower part of the back, the rump, and 
the upper tail-coverts are jet black and without margins. 
The wings are five inches long, lined with white, which pre- 
dominates on the under wing-coverts: these are, however, a 
little varied with blackish and grey: the primaries are dusky 
as well as the outer wing-coverts, and are slightly edged with 
whitish: the shaft of the outer quill is white; of the others 
entirely dusky: the first primary is longest, and after the 
second they decrease rapidly. The tail is two inches to the 
tip of the lateral feathers, and a quarter of an inch more to 
the tip of the middle ones, which are longest by that much, 
and somewhat tapering, and are black edged with rufous, 
while the others are pale dusky, margined with white all 
around the tip. The feet are greenish yellow, the bare space 
above the knee five-eighths of an inch: the tarsus very nearly 
one inch, and equal to the middle toe; the outer toe is con- 
nected at the very base with the middle by a very small 
membrane hardly visible in young individuals, which is also 


444 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 


the case with 7. platyrhynca: the nails are of a blackish horn 
colour. Such is this bird as it appears in the end of summer 
and early in autumn on the New Jersey coasts, still apparently 
in its perfect nuptial dress, or nearly so. Mr Say informs us 
that all the individuals of the many flocks observed at Engineer 
Cantonment both in the spring and autumn were of equal 
size; and we have also found the sexes to agree in this respect, 
perhaps more than is usual in other sandpipers: in the spring 
dress, according to the same author, the colour of the upper 
part of the bird is much paler, almost destitute of black, and 
the feathers margined with pale cinereous. The upper part 
of the head is always darker than any part of the neck, and 
margined with ferruginous: the plumage of the neck beneath 
and the breast does not appear to undergo so much change as 
that of the upper part of the body. We have not seen the 
bird in this plumage, but it will be evident to every ornitho- 
logist conversant with the sandpipers that the specimens 
described by Say were still in the winter dress, and we may 
conclude that the changes in this species are analogous to 
those of its allies. 

Several specimens of both sexes that we shot in New Jersey, 
evidently young birds, as they were killed at the same season 
as the adults described, are considerably paler and duller, the 
tints being blended and ill defined: the white even of the 
throat is dingy, the quills and tail-feathers almost uniformly 
dusky and destitute of margins: they have not the least trace 
of the outer toe membrane. 


RED-BREASTED SNIPE. (Scolapax grisea.) 
PLATE XXIII.—Fre. 3. 


Scolopax grisea, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 658, sp. 27.—ZLath. Ind. ii. p. 724, sp. 33. 
Suppl. i. p. 444, sp. 42, winter dress.—Temm. Man. Orn. ii. p. 679.—WNob. 
Obs. Wils. sp. 205; Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 267 ; Id. Specch. Comp. 
sp. 206; Id. Monog. Scolop. in Obs. Cuv. p. 115, sp. 2.—Scolopax novebora- 
censis, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 658, sp. 28.—Lath. Ind. ii. p. 723, sp. 32, summer 
dress.—Scolopax Paykulli, Wilss. Orn. Suec. ii. p. 106, sp. 186, tab. xi.— 


RED-BREASTED SNIPE. AAS 


Scolopax leucophea, Viel. Gal. Ois. ii. p. 110, tab. 291, changing to 
the summer dress.—Scolopax grisea, Vietll. Nouv. Dict. winter dress.— 
Totanus griseus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. winter dress.—Totanus ferrugineicollis, 
Vieill. summer dress.—Totanus noveboracensis, Sabine, Zool. App. Franklin’s 
Eap. p. 687, summer dress.—Macroramphus griseus, Leach, Cat. Mus. Brit. 
—Limosa scolopacea, Say, in Long’s Lxp. ii. p. 170, winter plumage.—Bec- 
caccia grigia, Ranz. Elem. iii. pt. viii. p. 162, sp. 5.—Becassine grise, Vieill. 
Nouv. Dict. iii. p. 358.—Becassine ponctuée, Temm. loc. cit.—Brown Snipe, 
Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. sp. 369.—Lath. Syn. v. p. 154, sp. 26; Id. Gen. Hist. 
ix, p. 216, sp. 25.—Mont. Orn. Dict. with a good fig. in the Suppl. winter 
dress. —Red-breasted Snipe, Penn. Arct. Zool. il. sp. 368.—Lath. Syn. v. p. 
153, sp. 26; Id. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 215, sp. 24, summer dress.—Graubraune 
Schnepfe, Meyer and Wolf, Tasch. iii. p. 46.—Philadelphia Museum. 


We can add nothing to the excellent account given by our 
predecessor of this remarkable species, but as he only figured 
it in its summer and more familiar dress, our representation 
of the winter plumage will not be thought superfluous upon 
referring to our elaborate synonymy, and still less if we bear 
in mind that even a distinct genus has been instituted for it 
in this vesture, when it chanced to come under more critical 
inspection. We shall therefore merely dwell upon the literary 
and systematical history of the species, referring the reader to 
Wilson for its natural one. 

In its winter plumage the adult red-breasted snipe, then 
called brown snipe, is so different from the young and from 
the perfect bird in summer dress, that it is no wonder that it 
should have been considered a distinct species, especially as it 
is the only snipe that undergoes such changes, and analogy 
could therefore no longer serve to guide us. While passing 
gradually from one plumage to another, the feathers assume 
so many appearances as to excuse in some degree even the 
errors of those who have been led to multiply the nominal 
species by taking a wrong view of the genus to which it 
belonged. 

Pennant, soon followed by Latham, was the first to make 
known our snipe, which they described in both vestures, and 
the bird was registered accordingly in the ill-digested com- 
pilation of Gmelin. Wilson perceived that the twe supposed 
species were one and the same, retaining for it the name of 


446 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 


Scolopax noveboracensis, which appertained originally to the 
summer dress alone. That given to the winter dress is now, 
however, with more propriety adopted by all modern ornitho- 
logists. As some birds of the old continent are known occa- 
sionally to stray to the American shores,* so this common 
American bird visits accidentally the north of Europe, and 
especially its islands, There are several instances of its 
having been killed in the British Isles, where more than one 
English specimen is preserved, small parties even of these 
birds having been seen there at different periods and in their 
different dresses. But these instances are by no means so 
frequent as reported in authors, the Limosa rufa and Tringa 
islandica having been mistaken for it. A specimen in ambi- 
guous plumage, straying into Sweden from the marshes of 
Lapland (where they may be more common), afforded Nilsson 
the opportunity of contributing his part to the confusion ; but 
as he gave a figure, besides describing the bird with his char- 
acteristic accuracy, it was at once detected. Since T’emminck, 
it is only wilful obstinacy or gross ignorance that can persist 
in regarding as species the different states of a bird so well 
marked in its natural genus as to deserve a subgenus for itself, 
and still more on account of its habits than its conformation 
(notwithstanding ’emminck’'s statements to the contrary), as 
will be evident from the following generalities on the genus 
Scolopax. 

This genus, as instituted by Linné, and adopted by authors 
from Latham to Wilson, was, like Z’ringa, a great receptacle, 
though with the advantage of not containing a single species 
that is not still admitted as of at least the same family. 
But however extensive it may have been, had Linné been con- 
sistent in arranging under it all the species that possessed the 
character he assigned to it, he ought to have added to it the 


* The Tringa pugnax of Europe, we are informed by Mr Cooper, who 
has compared the specimen with one of the species from Austria in 
analogous plumage, has been shot on Long Island, in the State of New 
York. 


4 


RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 4A7 


greater part of his Tringce, many of which took rank unper- 
ceived in both genera. Cuvier rectified this course, thus 
forming a vast genus Scolopax, more extensive than our whole 
family of Scolopacide. His subgenus Scolopax corresponds, 
however, exactly to my genus of that name, which I subdivide 
into three natural subgenera, Rusticola, Scolopax, and Mac- 
roramphus, which is the present bird.  Illiger first reduced 
the genus Scolopax within proper limits, but including, it 
is true, Rhynchwa, since established by Cuvier as a genus. 
Modern ornithologists in general agree with us, except that 
some, as Vieillot and Savi, consider Lusticola a true genus, 
leaving the name of Scolopax to the rest. Macroramphus 
and Scolopax are, in fact, more closely related than is Rusti- 
cola to any of them. 

All the species of our genus Scolopax are very similar as to 
the bill, which in all is long, slender, straight, compressed, 
especially at base, where it is elevated, soft and flexible its 
whole length, with the point depressed, dilated, tumid, and 
obtuse: owing to the desiccation of the delicate nervous 
apparatus of this part, it becomes wrinkled after death, 
exhibiting at the point a dorsal groove and numerous inden- 
‘tations. Both manibles are furrowed to the middle on each 
side ; the upper, serrated inside along the palate with spine- 
like processes pointing backwards, is terminated by an internal 
knob; the lower being shorter, channelled, and somewhat 
truncated: the nostrils are in the furrows, basal, marginal, 
linear, and pervious, but half closed by a membrane. The 
tongue is moderate, filiform, and acute. The head is in all 
large, compressed, and angular, low forward and high behind: 
the eyes are very large, placed high and far back, but perhaps 
less so in the bird which is more immediately the subject of 
our remarks: the neck is of moderate length, and stout ; the 
body compressed and very fleshy. 

But if they have all these traits in common, the feet, tail, 
and wings present material differences. ‘The feet are in all, 
it is true, moderately long, slender, and four-toed, there being 


448 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 


to this no exception as in the Zringe. But in Rusticola 
there is no naked space on the tibia, whilst it exists, though 
small, in Scolopax, and is considerable in the present sub- 
genus. In this the tarsus is much longer than the middle 
toe, while in the true snipes it is subequal, and in the wood- 
cocks decidedly shorter. In the present the outer toe is 
connected to the first joint with the middle by a membrane, 
whilst in the two others all the toes are cleft: in this and 
Scolopax the hind nail is falculate and acute, as well as 
the others, and projects beyond the toe, which is not the case 
in the woodcocks, which have that nail quite blunt and drawn 
back. On the other hand, J/acroramphus agrees with Rust- 
cola in the tail, that part having the regular number of 
twelve feathers, whilst in the typical snipes the number of 
feathers as well as their shape varies amazingly in the differ- 
ent, and otherwise strikingly similar species. Some have it of 
twelve, others of fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and one even of 
twenty-four feathers, a number before unheard of in any other 
bird whatsoever. In all these groups the tail is nevertheless 
short, equal, or more or less rounded. In both the groups 
of snipes the first quill is the longest; but in the species of 
woodcocks the quills vary in length and shape, affording the 
same anomalies and useful marks as the tail-feathers in the 
true snipes. In the European woodcock the primaries are 
of equal breadth and the two first longest, while in the 
American the three outer quills are very narrow, linear, and 
the fourth and fifth longest. 

The females in this genus are similar in colour to the 
males, but larger, considerably so in the American wood- 
cock. ‘They moult twice in the year, but the present is the 
only one that varies much with age or season. 

It will not be wronging any to call them all stupid birds, 
though the present is less so: this only of its genus is grega- 
rious, associating and flying in numerous flocks. Like the 
snipes, and contrary to the woodcocks, they do not dwell in 
damp woods or forests, but frequent open marshy grounds 


RED-BREASTED SNIPE. AA 


and morasses ; but, unlike the snipes, they prefer the vicinity 
of the sea. They might indeed be called salt-water snipes, 
in contradistinction to the others, which are fresh-water 
snipes. Their flight is high, rapid, and irregular, having 
nothing of the heaviness of the woodcocks. 'The flesh of all 
these birds is exquisite food, and much sought after. 

The Rusticola of Vieillot, which we adopt as a subgenus 
for the woodcocks, is distinguished, even from most water 
birds, by the want of nudity of the tibia, which is completely 
covered with feathers, as in land birds. It contains but the 
two species alluded to, that are closely allied, though they 
have specific traits that might constitute genera in other cases. 
This shows the difficulty in our science of knowing where to 
seek for generic and specific traits in the different groups. 
The two species of woodcocks vary greatly in their respective 
habits, one being a summer, the other a winter visitant in 
temperate climates, and one of course retiring south, the other 
northward from them. Some authors prefer for this group 
the name of Scolopax, because it is to its type that the Greeks 
gave this name. 

Our subgenus Scolopax, of which we have published a 
monograph in our observations on the second edition of 
Cuvier’s ‘Animal Kingdom,” is composed of nine or ten species, 
all of which, with their characteristic details, will be carefully 
figured in our inedited work “ Lithographic Monography of 
Obscure Genera of Aquatic Birds.” In these the tail-feathers 
furnish the specific characters. The number, shape, and 
disposition of these afford a sure clue, asin Nuwmenius it is 
the rump, under wing-coverts, and long axillary feathers 
which are our best guide to a knowledge of the species. 
Without this clue they cannot well be distinguished, and 
those who undertake to make phrases with this object in a 
group to which they have not the clue, will only make 
pedantic nonsense, as is done every day. This very natural 
group is called Telmatias by Boie, and Gallinago by the 
English. 

VOL, III. 2F 


450 . RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 


As for Macroramphus, as we have observed, it forms the 
transition to Totanus, which would be enough to show the 
impropriety of Boie’s course in considering the genus Scolopax 
as a family of itself. Temminck’s name of Becassine chevalier 
is peculiarly descriptive, and alone contradicts his unjust 
censure of Dr Leach’s genus, a group whose scientific char- 
acters were first laid down by our friend Mr Say, though he 
referred the species to Limosa. 

In its winter plumage the red-breasted snipe, instead of the 
mottled garb in which it is familiar, is of an uniform dusky 
cinereous: the specimen lying before us is eleven and a half 
inches long and nineteen in extent. The bill is two and a 
quarter inches long, of a dull greenish; the tip is black, and 
obtains the strongly marked dorsal groove that so well distin- 
cuishes a Scolopax from the allied genera. The prevailing 
dusky cinereous colour extends over the head, neck, and wine- 
coverts, the back and scapulars being of a lighter dusky cine- 
reous, and each feather darker on its margin and tip: a broad 
line from the upper mandible passing over the eye, and the 
lower orbit, are white: between the eye and bill is a dusky 
line ; the irides are brown: the cheeks, throat, and upper por- 
tion of the breast are pale cinereous, each feather being 
margined with whitish: the lower part of the back, the rump, 
and upper tail-feathers are white, beautifully and closely 
fasciated with black: the breast, belly, and thighs are white, 
the sides being spotted and waved with blackish: the lower 
tail-coverts are white with short black bands, narrower than 
those of the upper parts. The wings are six inches long: the 
lesser wing-coverts of the colour of the body, but they are 
margined with whitish ; the middle and greater wing-coverts 
are darker, with pure white margins and a little white along 
the shafts: the primaries are plain blackish dusky, the mner 
one slightly edged with white: the secondaries are broadly 
margined and narrowly shafted with white: the first quill is 
longest, the shaft white: the under wing-coverts and long 
axillary feathers are white, fasciated with black. The tail 


RED-BREASTED SNIPE. ASI 


is two and a half inches long, composed of twelve feathers, 
all full and rounded, the two middle a little longer, and 
marked like the coverts already described, that is, white and 
densely fasciated with black bands. The feet are of a dull 
green : naked space on the tibia one inch long: tarsus nearly 
one inch and a half: middle toe without the nail hardly an 
inch: hind toe more than a quarter: the toes webbed at base, 
the outer web reaching to the first joint of the outer toes, the 
inner being hardly visible. 

Wilson’s description of the summer plumage being suffi- 
cient, we omit it here, though admitting of much more detail. 
In few words it may be stated, that however great the apparent 
difference, it may be reduced to this: 1. All those parts that 
are plain cinereous in winter take on a mottled appearance, 
being strongly tinged with reddish, and varied with black and 
yellowish. 2. The anterior parts that are white, such as the 
superciliar line, and breast, become reddish. The strongly 
characteristic marks of the other parts remain unchanged. 

The young birds of the year have the plumage above gene- 
rally black, the back of the head dusky, and the feathers 
broadly margined with bright rufous; the superciliar line 
and the inferior parts are of a dingy white, inclining to 
rufous; this colour predominates on the breast, where the 
feathers, as well as on the flanks and the superciliar line, 
have numerous dusky dots: the middle tail-feathers are 
terminated by reddish. 

Notwithstanding the statements of Wilson, we do not per- 
ceive any difference in plumage in the female, which is 
merely of a larger size. As the species breeds in hich 
northern latitudes, visiting the temperate regions of America 
in spring and autumn, on its passage to and from its winter 
quarters, it is the more extraordinary that it should not equally 
extend these regular migrations to Europe. 


452 WILSON’S PHALAROPE. 


WILSON’S PHALAROPE. (Phalaropus Wilsonii.) 
PLATE XXIV.—Fic. 1, ApuLT. PLATE XXV.—Fie. 1, Youne. 


See Wilson's American. Ornithology, Grey Phalarope, Phalaropus lobatus, 
vol. iii. p. 94, pl. 73, fig. 2, for a very bad figure and imperfect account ; 
and a much better one illustrating the same figure in the second edition of 
the same volume, called by Mr Ord, Supplement to the American Ornitho- 
logy of Wilson, under the name of Brown Phalarope, Phalaropus lobatus, p. 
232.—Phalaropus Wilsonii, Sabine, Zool. App. Franklin’s Exp. p. 691.— 
Nobs. Obs. Wils. sp. 233; Id. Add. Orn. U. S. in Ann. Lyc. N. Y. i. p. 
159; Id. Suppl. Syn. in Zool. Journ. Lond. ,; Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds 
U.S. sp. 279; Id. Specch. Comp.—Phalaropus freenatus, Viedll. Gal. Ois. i1. 
p. 178, pl. 271.—Phalaropus fimbriatus, Zemm. Pl. Col. 370.—Lobipes fim- 
briatus, Selby and Jardine, Orn. Ill. 1, Syn. sp. 2, adult.—Lobipes incanus, 
Selby and Jard. Orn. Lil. 1, Syn. sp. 3, tab. 16, young.—Phalarope liseré, 
Temm. loc. cit.—Phalarope bridé, Vieill. loc. cit.—American Phalarope, 
Sabine, loc. cit. Lath. Gen. Hist. x. p. 4, sp. 2.—Philadelphia Museum, 
adult.—Leadbetter’s Collection, young. 


Tris beautiful, and, as regards system, so remarkable bird, was 
first discovered by Wilson, who, had he lived to publish the 
species himself, would doubtless have fixed it on the same 
firm basis as in other instances of the kind. But death put 
an end to his labours, and to the advantage which science daily 
realised from them, when, among other important materials, 
this phalarope remained in his portfolio. It became the task 
of friendship to publish a few rough notes and unfinished 
sketches, the present among the rest, and a figure was thus 
produced impossible to be recognised except upon actual 
reference to the specimen itself. The description which 
accompanied it was as defective as the figure, the author’s 
pencil-notes having been found partly illegible, and it was 
marked by him asa 7’ringa. In a second and much improved 
edition, which it has pleased the author to call an original 
work, though the plates are identical with the former, Mr 
Ord’s description and personal observations are very correct 
and ingenious, but the name and synonyms are altogether 
misapplied, through his mistaking it for the Phalaropus 
hyperboreus. In a paper published in the Annals of the 
Lyceum of New York, I availed myself of the first opportunity 


cara 


MRUIMYIL Whe T SOPOT? SOILPVIOYD MUOSTIN STMA.cOpRY, 7 
ie LapuUns GULLY OL MBAQzY LUI fF 


PUOMPTOY | SHOSTIY J 


P2VAT TL Kg PUAID I MOL UMDUT 


epee 


WILSON’S PHALAROPE. Ab 3 


that offered to explain the confusion respecting the three 
species, and finally distinguished among them three groups, 
which were exemplified in my Synopsis. 

Mr Sabine was not aware, when he applied to this bird the 
name of our predecessor, that he was performing not merely 
an act of courtesy and respect, but one of justice also towards 
its first discoverer. It was only by actual inspection of the 
specimen examined by Wilson, and preserved in the Albany 
Museum, that we could identify the species, and it does not 
appear surprising to us that some who have not thus verified 
the fact for themselves should still express doubts, as Baron 
Cuvier has done by implication in the new edition of his “ Regne 
Animal.” We ourselves, when we first procured the bird, had 
not the least suspicion that it was contained in Wilson’s work. 
Every one will therefore be sensible of the propriety of pub- 
lishing a new figure, more needed, in fact, in this case than if 
the species had been new. The description in Sabine’s Appen- 
dix to Franklin’s Expedition could not, however, be misunder- 
stood, and T’emminck and Vieillot by its perusal would have 
spared this bird two synonyms, as they simultaneously figured 
and described it in their respective works under the different 
names quoted in our list, though Vieillot perceived it to be the 
species intended by Wilson. ‘The authors of the “‘ Illustrations 
of Ornithology ” did not recognise in their Lobipes incanus the 
young of this, which is not much to be wondered at; but it 
is rather extraordinary that writers so justly scrupulous about 
the rights of priority should adopt, though greatly posterior, 
Temminck’s name instead of Sabine’s, thus slighting over one 
of the best of the few positive zoological labours of their own 
countrymen, and after it had been already sanctioned by 
strangers. 

That the Lobipes incanus is the young of this species, which 
any one familiar with the changes of plumage of the phalaropes 
might have suspected, will, it is hoped, be placed beyond future 
question by the figure we now give also of it. 

If the bill only were considered, this species might with 


A54 WILSON’S PHALAROPE. 


some propriety be united subgenerically with the P. hyper- 
boreus, but as by its feet it differs considerably from both the 
other phalaropes, which agree in this particular, we have 
instituted for it a peculiar subgenus under the name of Holo- 
podius, which we regard as in all respects more essentially 
different from the old groups than they are from each other. 
In what respect Mr Sabine found this species, which he so 
well established, intermediate between the two, we are at a 
loss to imagine. 

In fact, in Holopodius, so opposite to Cuvier’s Lobipes both 
in name and character, the toes have a narrow border formed 
by a subentire membrane; the outer connected to the first 
joint only; the inner almost cleft, and the hind toe long and’ 
resting on the ground: the two other groups having the toes 
broadly bordered with a deeply scalloped membrane, and 
semipalmated: the hind toe is very short, the nail only 
touching the ground. The Lobipes of Cuvier differs from 
the Crymophilus of Vieillot only in the shape of the bill, 
stout, flattened, and carinated in the latter, slender and 
cylindrical in the former, as well as in ours. 

Edwards first brought the phalaropes into notice, and it 
was from his works that Linnzeus and Brisson registered 
these singular birds in their general works: the former, 
however, thrust them into that storehouse of species, his 
Tringa, whilst the latter established for them the genus 
Phalaropus, than which no group is more natural, and, in our 
opinion, equivalent to a family. 

Latham and all modern authors have retained very pro- 
perly this genus in their systems. But if they are so far 
unanimous, they are greatly at variance when they come to 
assign it a place, some referring to one order or family, and 
some to another. ‘That these birds belong to the Gralle or 
waders, though still more aquatic in their habits even than 
some of the webfooted birds, does not, in my opinion, admit 
of doubt. 

Before the recent discovery of the species now under con- 


WILSON’S PHALAROPE. A455 


sideration, Phalaropus contained but two real species, out of 
which as many had been formed as their changeable plumage 
exhibits phases, and, what is worse, the nominal species 
founded on the one had been confounded with those taken 
from the other, and the different plumage of each taken for 
varieties of its relative, so that not even the two real species 
were accurately known apart, though so different as to form 
each of them the type of a peculiar group, in the same manner 
as we have observed is the case with the P. Walsonti. They 
are found in the north of both continents, the present being 
peculiar to America, which possesses them all. Cuvier, losing 
sight of the strong common tie that connects the phalaropes, 
has separated his two groups, Phalaropus and Lobipes, and 
has placed the one near Tinga, and the other near Totanus, 
on account of the analogy of the bill, regarding the Phala- 
ropus as a pinnate-footed Tringa, and the Lobipes as a 
pinnate-footed Totanus. Vieillot, in adopting these groups 
as genera, placed them adjoining each other in a separate 
family, but he changed Cuvier’s names into Crymo- 
philus and Phalaropus, transposing the latter name to 
the other group, the Lobipes of Cuvier. All the three 
known phalaropes are distinguished by a moderate, slender, 
straight, and subcylindrical bill: both mandibles are fur- 
rowed each side nearly their whole length, and the upper 
somewhat curved at the point; the lower is hardly shorter, 
quite straight, and the point subulate. ‘The nostrils are in 
the furrows, basal, longitudinal, linear, half closed by a mem- 
brane. ‘Their head is small, completely feathered, compressed 
and rounded above ; the eyes are small, the neck well-propor- 
tioned, and the body roundish. ‘The feet are moderately long, 
four-toed ; the naked space on the tibia rather extensive ; the 
tarsus as long as the middle toe, moderate, robust, somewhat 
compressed, and scutellated ; the toes are moderate and rather 
slender, the three anterior bordered by a festooned membrane, 
and the outer at least is always connected at base to the 
middle one; the hind toe is short, bordered only on the 


456 "  WILSON’S PHALAROPE. 


inside with a small entire membrane, articulated rather high 
and internally, touching the ground at tip: the nails are 
short, curved, and acute: the wings long, falciform, and 
acute, the first primary being the longest: the quills twenty- 
five in number. The tail is short, and consists of twelve 
feathers, with its under-coverts extending quite to the tip. 
The female is but little different from the male, but larger 
and handsomer in full plumage. The young are very differ- 
ent from the adults, and they vary much with age. They 
moult twice in the year, their colours changing strangely, 
which has occasioned the wanton multiplication of species. 
Their plumage is close, thick, abundantly furnished with 
down, and impermeable to water. Their colours are princi- 
pally brownish and reddish, changing in winter to grey and 
white, which is always to be found on their under parts. 
Their habits are essentially aquatic. They inhabit the 
sea-coasts, the shores of lakes and occasionally of rivers ; are 
eregarious, but never collect in large flocks. Probably from 
being so seldom met with, they show little dread of mankind, 
and allow of the nearest approach; and not being alarmed at 
the report of a gun, it is easy to kill several without moving 
from one spot. Their food consists of aquatic insects and other 
small animals that are found in the water. They are strictly 
monogamous, and are generally seen in pairs, carrying fidelity 
to an extreme: delighting in their peculiar element, they even 
copulate on the sea, and reluctantly leave it to build their nest 
on shore, among grasses: they lay from four to six eggs, which 
both sexes incubate, the male being even more strongly marked 
on the belly by the naked places which this causes: they share 
between them all the parental duties, and the young leave the 
nest, run about and swim, as soon as they are hatched. The 
phalaropes are hardly ever seen on dry ground, where, how- 
ever, they walk and run swiftly, without the embarrassment of 
some other birds of less aquatic propensities. Though cer- 
tainly the smallest of swimmers, they perform this operation 
with great dexterity, resisting the heaviest waves, or rising over 


WILSON’ S PHALAROPE. 457 


their top, but are never known to dive: they notwithstanding 
swim with perfect ease, when they have all the appearance 
of a miniature duck, with their head carried close to their back. 
While swimming, they dip their bill often in the water, fre- 
quently turning round, with much elegance in all their motions. 
Their flight is rapid. Their flesh is oily and unpalatable. 

The abode of these diminutive swimmers is the arctic and 
polar regions, to which their thick coat of feathers is well 
adapted. Hence they migrate in autumn to the temperate 
regions of both continents, where they are also seen in spring. 
They are essentially arctic birds, and breed in the most 
northern parts of the world, and although they retire 
more to the south in winter, yet their visits to our tem- 
perate climates are rare and casual. From such a com- 
bination of traits as are above related, it will be evident 
that, though much restricted in the number of species, the 
phalaropes are entitled to a conspicuous rank in classification. 
They can only be compared with the allied genera Himan- 
topus and Lecurvirostra, and we see how materially they 
differ from them. They may be said to connect the Scolo- 
pacide with the Laride, forming a beautiful link between 
the order of waders and that of the webfooted birds. 

Our subgenus Holopodius, which resembles Lobzpes in the 
bill, while Crymophilus resembles it in the feet, is furnished 
with a long, very slender, smooth, flexible, and cylindrical bill, 
of equal breadth throughout, subulate to the tip, with the 
point narrow, sharp, and slightly curved: the nostrils are 
quite basal, and linear-elongated: the tongue is filiform and 
acute. ‘The tarsi are elongated, and much compressed, in 
which it comes nearer to the ANsERES, and compensates for 
the other traits which remove it further from them than the 
other phalaropes. Thus do we find ourselves baffled in all 
attempts at a regularly symmetrical or mathematical arrange- 
ment. Nature acknowledges no artificial nor contracted limits. 
The toes are long, and by no means semipalmated, the outer 
being connected to the middle only as far as the first joint, 


458 WILSON’S PHALAROPE. 


and the inner almost divided; the bordermg membrane 
narrow and subentire; the hind toe long, and resting on 
the ground. The wings are long, even for the genus, and 
the tertials very long, reaching nearly to the tip of the 
primaries when the wings are closed. ‘The tail is moderate, 
being neither so long as in Crymophilus, nor so short as that 
of Lobipes. The general form is slender, and, together with 
the bill and other traits, gives this bird a strong resemblance 
to the Totant—a bare analogy, however, which we should not 
with Cuvier mistake for affinity. 

The American or Wilson’s phalarope has been so well 
described from the recent specimen, by Mr Ord, as not to 
be susceptible of improvement, and the following description 
is merely intended to elucidate our figure, which represents 
of the natural size a beautiful female in the perfect plumage 
of spring. ‘This individual was nine and a half inches long, 
and sixteen in extent of wings. The form of the bill we have 
described above: it is black, and more than an inch and a 
quarter long, though only a line in thickness: the irides are 
dark brown. The upper part of the head is of a bluish delicate 
pale ash colour; the hind head and that part of the neck ad- 
joining it are whitish ; a white stripe passes over the eye, and 
beneath it is a spot of the same colour: a large curving band 
of black includes the eye and spreads out towards the nucha, 
descending a good space down the neck, and gradually passes 
into a reddish brown, which becomes the colour of the sides of 
the neck ; this tint deepens into bright chestnut on the back 
part of the neck, and descends on each side, thus mingling 
with the plumage of the back and scapulars, which are dark 
ash, each feather slightly tipt with whitish: the upper tail-’ 
coverts are ash colour. The throat and sides of the head to 
the black mark, and all beneath, including the lower tail- 
coverts, are pure white, somewhat tinged with rufous on the 
lower part of the neck beneath. The wings are five inches 
long, and in colour dark ash ; larger coverts and secondaries 
very slightly edged with white; under coverts white, most 


WILSON’S PHALAROPE, 459 
of the smaller wing-coverts being marked with ferruginous ; 
the upper tail-feathers are tinged with reddish at their tips, 
and the under marked with white on their inner webs. ‘The 
feet are dark plumbeous; the claws of a dark horn-colour ; 
the naked part of the tibia is nearly au inch long ; the tarsus 
more than one inch and a quarter, and sharpish ; the middle 
toe without the nail is scarcely one inch, and the remarkably 
long hind toe five-sixteenths without the nail. 

There are fewer variations caused in this phalarope than in 
the others by sex and season: the young, however, is surpris- 
ingly different, for which reason we have figured it also of the 
full size. The bill is like that of the adult, somewhat gaping 
beyond the middle: the face is whitish mixed with dusky, 
and with a dusky stripe from the bill to the eye: the crown, 
neck above, back and wings are dusky brown, darker on the 
middle of the feathers: the rump, upper tail-coverts, and flanks 
are broadly white ; the throat is pure white: the sides of the 
neck are tinged with rusty: the neck beneath and breast are 
white, slightly tinged with reddish-dusky; the belly of a 
purer white, with a little dusky; the vent, and long lower 
tail-coverts, which reach to the tip of the tail, are pure white ; 
the wings are four and three-quarter inches long, the lower 
coverts white; the scapulars blacker, with pale rusty edges: 
the primaries are blackish, with pale brown shafts, of which 
the outer is white. The tail is broad and rounded, the middle 
and outer feathers somewhat longest, all of a pale dusky grey 
with white shafts, the exterior being also white on the best 
part of the inner web. All the tail-feathers are also edged 
with white. The feet are reddish black, the tarsus an inch 
and a quarter long. 

We are acquainted as yet with no peculiarity of this fine 
phalarope, and even the few facts registered concerning it 
have been obscured by the heedlessness of compilers. ‘Though 
it appears to extend its migrations more to the south than its 
congeneric species, it 1s decidedly, like them (notwithstanding 
Temminck’s supposition to the contrary), an arctic bird, and 


460 SCHINZ’S SANDPIPER. 


the only remarkable circumstance about it is that it should 
not also be found in Europe. As far as we know, it is exclu- 
sively North American, for the specimen of the young inadver- 
tently said by the authors of the “ Ornithological Illustrations ” 
to have come from South America, was found in the Vera 
Cruz market, as appears from their own account. As for 
Senecal, it was merely a gratuitous supposition on the part 
of 'emminck, too rashly converted by the same English 
authors into certainty, and it therefore remains strictly North 
American, for which country we have, besides Wilson’s and 
our experience, the unquestioned authorities of Vieillot and 


Sabine. 
SCHINZS SANDPIPER. (Zringa Schinziz.) 


PLATE XXIV.—Fie. 2. 


Tringa cinclus, var. Say, in Long’s Exp. i. p. 172.—Tringa Schinzii, Brehm, 
Lehrb. Eur. Vog. ii. p. 571.—Nob. Obs. on Wils. before sp. 213; Id. Cat. 
and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 249.—Scolopax pusilla? Gimel. Syst. i. p. 663, sp. 
40?—Tringa cinclus, var. A, minor? Briss.—Tringa alpina? Vieill. (not of 
authors).—My Collection. 


In Mr Say’s valuable notes to Long’s Expedition, he describes 
as follows the bird which we have had carefully represented 
in the annexed plate, in order that naturalists may judge 
whether or not we are right in referring it to the new EHuropean 
species hitherto confounded with Tringa alpina, and lately 
separated by Brehm in his work on the birds of Europe, under 
the name of Zringa Schinziv. It is so difficult to say what is 
a species and what a variety in this most intricate genus, that 
we shall not undertake to decide from a single specimen, 
especially when, as in this case, it involves the identity of the 
bird in the two continents. 

“Pelidna cinclus, var. Above blackish brown, plumage 
edged with cinerous or whitish ; head and neck above cine- 
reous with dilated fuscous lines; eyebrows white; a brown 
line between the eye and the corner of the mouth, above which 
the front is white; cheeks, sides of the neck, and throat 


SCHINZ’S SANDPIPER, 461 


cinereous lineated with blackish brown ; bill short, straight, 
black; chin, breast, belly, vent, and inferior tail-coverts pure 
white; plumage plumbeous at base ; scapulars and lesser wing- 
coverts margined with white; greater wing-coverts with a 
broad white tip; primaries surpassing the tip of the tail, 
blackish, shghtly edged with whitish ; exterior shaft white, 
shafts whitish on the middle of their length ; rump blackish, 
plumage margined at tip with cinereous tinctured with rufous ; 
tail-coverts white, submargins black; tail-feathers cinereous 
margined with white ; two middle ones slightly longer, black 
margined with white ; legs blackish. Adult male, length to 
tip of tail, seven inches; bill, seven-eighths of an inch.” 

This bird was shot in November near Engineer Cantonment. 
and Mr Say thought it was probably a variety of the very 
changeable cinclus (Tringa alpina) in its winter plumage. 
It is this very specimen that we have had represented of its 
full size in the annexed figure, in order that naturalists may 
judge if we are right in the course that we have chosen. 
Be it as it may, we are satisfied that Tringa Schinzti is a good 
species, well distinguished from Zringa alpina by its smaller 
size, and proportionally even shorter bill. The more exten- 
sively white upper tail-coverts are the best and most conspi- 
cuous mark ; it isalso to be observed that in the summer dress 
the ferruginous colour of the upper part is paler, the black spot 
of the breast more restricted and less pure, and the neck more 
broadly streaked. Both sexes are, moreover, perfectly alike in 
colour, which is never the case in the alpina in spring dress. 
It belongs to the subgenus 7rvnga, of which we have already 
treated, and it is common to both continents, In America it 
is found from far beyond the Mississippi to the Atlantic shores, 
and is rather common in autumn on the coasts of New Jersey, 
either in flocks by themselves, or mixing in company with 
other sandpipers, with which it has every habit in common. 

The specimens that we shot in New Jersey measured seven 
inches in length and above fourteen in extent. The bill is 
very nearly, but not quite, an inch long, compressed and black 


462 SCHINZ’S SANDPIPER. 


from the base: the crown, neck above, and interscapulary 
region are of an ashy brown, much darker in the centre of 
each feather and lighter on their margins ; on the lower por- 
tion of their back this darker colour widening, predominates, 
and becomes black, so that the tips of the feathers only are of 
the general pale ashy colour; the upper tail-coverts are white, 
blackish along the shaft and towards the margin of the outer 
vane: a whitish stripe runs from the very origin of the bill 
over each eye; the cheeks, sides of the neck, and breast are 
whitish streaked with ashy dusky along the shaft of the 
feathers, giving these parts an obscurely lineated appearance ; 
the throat quite to the bill, and all the remaining under parts 
are white, the bottom of the plumage being plumbeous, and a 
few bands of that colour appearing across the lower flank- 
feathers. ‘The wings are four inches and a quarter long, with 
the tertials and scapularies remarkably tapering and acuminate, 
shorter by a good inch than the two first quill-feathers: all 
the wing-coverts are of the colour of the body, but a little 
darker, each having a pale grey margin, the inner great 
coverts have a very pure white tip: the shafts of all the quill- 
feathers are pure white, at least for a good portion near the 
centre: the primaries are blackish ash: the secondaries paler 
and margined with whitish, the tertials are again blackish 
edged with pale greyish: the under surface of the wing is of 
a silvery grey; the under wing-coverts white, marked with 
dusky. The tail is two and a quarter inches long: the four 
lateral feathers each side are very nearly equal in length, of 
a pale ash colour, margined and shafted with white: they 
become gradually darker as they are nearer the centre; the 
fifth each side is blackish ash, a trifle longer than those already 
described, and has a very conspicuous pure white marginal 
tip on the inner web ; the two middle surpass the others by a 
quarter of an inch, are somewhat pointed, and entirely blackish. 
The feet are blackish ; the naked space above the heel half an 
inch; the tarsus seven-eighths of an inch long, and mucli 
longer than the middle toe, the toes are cleft to the base; the 


SCHINZ’S SANDPIPER. 463 


nails are blackish. As will easily be perceived, the specimen 
described is in the winter dress. 

This sandpiper is well known to appear in a summer vesture 
analogous to that of Zringa alpina at the same season ; but 
we have never met with an American specimen in that state. 

In the full-plumaged males the bill and feet are black; 
irides brown: before the eye a small blackish patch sur- 
mounted by a white stripe dotted with blackish grey, head 
above, back, and wing-coverts bright rufous, the feathers with 
merely a black centre: colours not so bright as in Tringa 
alpina : wings above blackish grey with black shafts ; point 
ot the primaries black, with white shafts: the ten middle tail- 
feathers as well as their upper coverts are blackish ; the lateral 
cinereous with their coverts white: the chin is white, the sides 
of the head and hind neck are of a ferruginous grey: throat 
white, longitudinally spotted with rufous grey; the breast 
almost entirely of a jet-black colour, always interrupted by 
some insulated white feathers, and never so broadly black as 
in Tringa alpina ; all the remaining under parts are white, 
with a very few dusky streaks on the sides. 

At one year of age the male is on the back of a less bri¢ht 
rufous spotted with black: on the breast the black consists 
merely of a spot, and is mixed with many white feathers. 
The female much resembles the male at the same age. The 
very young is above of a ferruginous colour varied with white, 
yellowish, and black ; all beneath white, streaked with dusky 
ferruginous on the throat. 

They frequent marshy shores, and the borders of lakes and 
brackish waters. They are very social even in the breeding 
time, and are then by no means shy: during autumn they 
join company even with different birds, and become very wild. 
Their voice resembles that of Zringa alpina, but is more 
feeble. They feed on worms, aquatic insects, and similar 
food: build near marshes and lakes, among weeds: they 
lay four eggs, smaller and much less in diameter than those 
of Tringa alpina, of a yellowish grey spotted with olive or 
chestnut brown. 


404 PIPING PLOVER. 


PIPING PLOVER. (Charadrius melodus.) 
PLATE XXIV.—Fice. 3. 


See Wilson’s American Ornithology, Ring Plover, Charadrius hiatacula, vol. ii. 
p. 360, pl. 37, fig. 3, for a reduced representation of the adult in spring dress, 
and the history.—Charadrius melodus, Ord, in the reprint of Wils. Orn. 
vii. p. 71, and Gen. Ind. of the Water Birds, Suppl. Orn. Wils. (ix.) p. eexii.— 
Nob. Obs. Wils. Orn. sp. 220; Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 217; Id. 
Specch. Comp. sp. Philad.—Charadrius Okenii, Wagler, Syst. Av. i. Charad. 
sp. 24.—Ringed Plover, var. B, Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 327,-sp. 12, var. B. 
—Philadelphia Museum. 


Tu well-merited elevation of this bird to the rank of a 
species fully vindicates our predecessor from the unjust cen- 
sure of ‘T'emminck, who thonght his figure of it intended for 
the Charadrius hiaticula. 'The same censure is repeated and 
ageravated by Mr Sabine, who probably thought it intended 
for the C. semipalmatus. But if the figure is free from the 
supposed fault of incorrectness, its extremely diminished size, 
which renders it almost useless, requires that the bird should 
now appear in this work in its full dimensions. 

Not only is the true C. hiaticula of Europe not found on 
the American continent, but the birds hitherto mistaken for 
it constitute two very distinct and exclusively American 
species, notwithstanding the awkward quotations in the new 
edition of Cuvier’s “Regne Animal,” which, in this instance, 
as in several others, is as far behind its age as the former was 
in advance of it. 

Although the never-too-much-lamented Wilson gave in his 
fifth volume the present bird as a variety of which he intended 
ficuring the type in a future part of his work, when he came 
to it in his seventh volume, he clearly and positively pointed 
out the difference in markings, habits, migrations, and voice, 
between the two which he then considered as distinct species : 
he thus in reality established the species, and indeed so well, 
that we cannot do better than refer to his conclusive reasonings. 
The only essential point he omitted was to impose a name on 


PIPING PLOVER. 405 


lis species, which he undoubtedly would have done had he 
lived to publish himself the index to the water birds, as, in 
some instances, he supplied similar deficiencies for the land 
birds. Mr Ord has, however, filled this void by calling the 
bird C. melodus, which appropriate name we feel bound to 
adopt ; and the more so, as Mr Ord informs us that it would 
have been Wilson’s own choice. Almost simultaneously with 
our endeavours in this country for permanently fixing the 
species, Dr Wagler in Europe, on his part, was also giving it 
a name, so that it is now furnished with two. 

In the circumstance of its imner toe being cleft to the base, 
this bird approaches more closely to C. hiaticula of Europe 
than to C. semipalmatus ; but in colours it differs greatly 
from these so similar species, and the membrane that connects 
the outer toe is considerably smaller than in any. The 
synonyms of Wilson do not, of course, apply to this new 
species ; and, what is worse, though this is common to all 
writers upon the ring-plover, they do not belong to one and 
the same species. 

Although, without doubt, related to the Tringce, which are 
Scolopacide, the plovers belong to another family, that of the 
Pressirostres of Cuvier—which may be called Charadride— 
and through Otis and Gidicnemus these waders are connected 
somewhat with the gallinaceous birds. This natural family 
of ours—very different from the artificial one formed by so 
many authors for the three-toed waders indiscriminately, and 
adopted under the name Charadriade by the new English 
school, though professing to adhere to a natural arrangement 
—is well distinguished by its short (or moderately so) rather 
robust bill, the hind toe wanting, or when present, very short. 
It is composed of but eight genera, of which only three are 
found in North America, two aberrant, and the present, the 
only typical American, which is well distinguished by its bill, 
very short, rounded, obtuse, and somewhat turgid at tip. In 
order to exemplify how different from that of authors is this 


family, as we understand it, we may remark that the birds 
VOL. Il, 26 


405 PIPING PLOVER. ipa 


forming it are scattered by Illiger through his Campestres, 
Inttorales, and Limicole ; by Cuvier and Latreille divided 
between their Longirostres and Pressirostres ; by Vieillot 
placed in Pedionomi, Avgialites, and Helionomi; in Tachi- 
dromt and Limose by Ranzani and Savi; in Charadriade and 
Scolopacide by Vigors, &c. 

Our genus Charadrius has different limits from those of 
perhaps any recent or former author, being more extensive 
than in many, but more contracted than that of Wagler, 
which comprehends all our typical Charadride. Linné, who 
made it a sort of receptacle for nearly all three-toed waders, 
has placed in 7ringa some of our plovers that are furnished 
with a rudiment of hind toe, and the same has been done by 
Gmelin, Latham, Illiger, and even, though to a less extent, 
by Cuvier. As long since restricted by the separation of 
Himantopus and Calidris, which are not of the same family, 
and of Gfdienemus, which truly is, it is much more natural ; 
especially if with Wilson we unite with it, as Nature dictates, 
those species that happen to possess the rudiment of a fourth 
toe. Among the earlier writers, Brisson was the first who 
assigned more natural limits to the genus, which he called 
Pluviatis, and his two well-enough composed genera, 
Pluvialis and Vanellus, include all our plovers. Cuvier, 
Temminck, Vieillot, and Ranzani place the four-toed plovers 
with the lapwings, Vanellus. Savi more recently has evinced 
his good judgment by separating them at least from Vanellus, 
if he does not unite them with Charadrius, which his pro- 
fessedly artificial system did not allow. 

I distinguish two subgenera in my extensive genus Oha- 
radrius, regarding Squatarola of Cuvier and Savi as no more 
than a section of my first subgenus, of so little importance do I 
consider the anomaly of the hind toe, the sole characteristic 
of that artificial group. ‘These subgenera are—l. Pluvialis, 
for the large mottled species without a collar, and with varie- 
gated plumage. Such are,amongst the three-toed, the European 
and Asiatic C. pluvialis and morinellus, and the American 


PIPING PLOVER. 467 


Virginicus (or marmoratus) ; and among the four-toed the 
Kuropeo-Asiatic bird C. gregarius, and the cosmopolite (. 
Flelveticus. 2. Aigialitis, Boie, or the ring-plovers, which have 
a broad white collar around the neck. This is the more 
numerous in species, and the present belongs to it: it may 
form two sections, one for the semipalmated ring-plovers, 
whose toes are all connected at base by a membrane, and the 
other for this and the remaining ring-plovers, in which the 
inner toe is separated down to the base. As for the armed 
or spur-winged plovers, as well as the wattled species, all I 
have examined were perfectly similar to the armed and wattled 
lapwing, and they constitute in my arrangement a very 
natural subgenus under the name of MHoplopterus, which 
group, like Plwvialis, may be sectioned into those with three 
and those with four toes. This group of Hoplopterus, both 
by its tarsus and wings, takes place under my genus Vanellus, 
and differs subgenerically from the typical species merely by 
its longer legs, and hind toe less developed, or often wanting. 
Pluvianus, Vieillot, distinguished by a stouter bill, I never 
have examined, but have no doubt that it will find its place 
in my genus Vanellus, where it may be united to my three- 
toed Hoploptert, or possibly become a subgenus by itself: 

Both the three-toed and four-toed species that form my 
subgenus Charadrius, and are so easily known by their greater 
size and want of a collar, live in large damp meadows, or open 
and muddy champaign countries. ‘They hardly ever alight 
on the beach, or even accidentally on river shores. During 
the nuptial season the males assume a brighter vesture. ‘They 
do not breed in the temperate climates of Europe or North 
America, but only show themselves there in autumn and 
winter. heir flesh is exquisite food. 

The ring-plovers, on the contrary, are shore birds in their 
habits, and may be known by their diminutive size and broad 
white collar. They frequent invariably the banks of rivers 
and sandy sea-beaches, and it is by accident if they are seen 
at a distance from their favourite element. ‘Their plumage 


4608 PIPING PLOVER. 


does not undergo extreme changes, and merely from darker 
to lighter. Several species breed in our climates, and their 
flesh is hardly esculeut. Although not marked by any strik- 
ing physical character, we regard the extensive group Avgialitis 
as a very natural one: it has numerous species in every part 
of our globe. The three European are modelled precisely 
after the same type as the present species, while the three 
other North American have each a strong distinctive character 
peculiar to itself; in the semipalmated it is the webbed toes, 
in the Wilson’s the powerful and acute bill, and in the kildeer 
its large stature and oddly coloured wedge-shaped tail. 

In all our plovers the bill is shorter than the head, rather 
slender, straight, cylindrical, depressed at base, obtuse and 
somewhat turgid at tip: the upper mandible is longitudinally 
furrowed two-thirds of its length, the lower is shorter: a 
remarkable character consists in the small opening of the 
bill, which is hardly cleft beyond the origin of the feathers. 
This peculiarity affords an excellent means of distinguishing 
them from the Gdicnemz, in which the gape extends to 
beneath the eye. The nostrils are basal, lateral, placed in the 
furrow, and covered by a membrane, leaving only a narrow 
longitudinal opening: the tongue is entire, obtusely lanceolate, 
channelled somewhat above, convex beneath. ‘The head is 
large in proportion to the body, and the eyes large even for 
the head; the forehead is prominent, and the face wholly 
feathered. The feet are either three or four toed, with the 
hind toe exceedingly small and raised from the ground: the 
naked part of the tibia is moderate ; the tarsi are longer than 
the middle toe, and reticulated ; the toes scutellate, margined 
by a narrow squamulosé membrane ; the middle toe is longest, 
and connected to the outer, at least to the first joint, by a 
membrane: even in the species that have the inner toe cleft 
there are traces of the membrane, which is so much developed 
in the semipalmated ring-plover: the nails are compressed, 
curved, and acute. ‘The wings are elongated, acute, and 
tuberculate : the first primary is longest, and after the second 


PIPING PLOVER. 469 


they decrease rapidly, thus presenting a most useful mark for 
discriminating between this and the kindred genus Vanellus, 
which has obtuse wings, the third primary being the longest, 
and the others decreasing gradually. ‘The tail is more or less 
rounded, always composed of twelve feathers, rounded or 
lanceolate. The plumage of the under parts is soft, the feathers 
being numerous, wide, rather* dense in the centre, with the 
barbs rather loose, and well furnished with down at base: the 
plumage of the upper parts is rather dense, and the feathers 
more or less rounded at the tips: the scapularies are long, at 
the tips attenuated and very flexible. In most of the species 
the males and females are alike, the young somewhat different 
from them. They moult generally twice in the year, when the 
colours of their plumage undergo some changes. 

The plovers are all more or less gregarious in dispositions : 
their haunts are either meadows, as the mottled plovers, or 
the sea-shores, like the ring-plovers: they have a very remark- 
able habit of stirring the soil with their feet, to put in motion 
worms and aquatic insects, their exclusive food. They are 
more nocturnal than diurnal. They lay in the sand, about 
four large eggs. The young very soon after they are hatched 
follow the mother, and pick up the food which she with great 
care points out to them. 

The piping plover is seven inches long, and fourteen in 
extent: the bill is bright yellow, slightly tinged with orange 
for half its length, thence black: the eyelids are bright yellow, 
and the irides dark brown. The plumage above generally, 
with the mere interruption of the ring on the neck, is of an 
extremely pale brownish or dusky, inclining strongly to 
whitish ash: the front, part of the head between the bill and 
eyes, and the whole inferior surface from the chin to the tip 
of the lower tail-coverts, and including the under wing-coverts 
and long axillary feathers, is pure white: the head and breast 
are ornamented, the former with a black crescent, that runs 
transversely between the eyes, and bounds the white forehead 
on one side, and the ash-coloured parts of the head on the 


470 PIPING PLOVER. 


other; the latter by a curved band round its sides, forming 
the ring or half-collar round the neck, but narrow and almost 
interrupted before. The wings are four and three-quarter 
inches long, and reach when closed to the tip of the tail; the 
wing-coverts are darker than the back feathers, and are all 
edged with white: the larger coverts are broadly terminated 
with white, constituting the band across the wings: the quill- 
feathers are dusky ; the secondaries are broadly white inside, 
with margins of the same: the primaries are blackish at the 
point, shafted and obliquely centred with white; the four 
euter ones are blackish on their outer margins where the 
others are white. The tail is two and a half inches in length, 
nearly square at tip, being much less rounded than in the 
semipalmated species, white beneath for half its length, and 
blackish at tip; the outer tail-feather is wholly white, the 
next is also white, and with a single spot of black, which on 
the third extends much more, and still more on the fourth 
and fifth, till the last is merely terminated with white, the 
middle ones being wholly dusky from the white of the base. 
The feet are greenish yellow tinged with orange, and the nails 
black. 

Those authors who describe the autumnal plumage as much 
darker are still labouring under the erroneous opinion, which 
they had rejected, of this being the same with the C. semipal- 
matus. On the contrary, it is, if anything, still paler at that 
season, and considerably resembles that of the young birds, 
which are distinguished by the absence of the neck ring and 
sincipital crescent, and the bill being entirely blackish. 

As will appear by referring to Wilson’s two articles on the 
ring-plovers, this species is commonly met with during the 
whole summer along the sandy coasts of the United States, on 
the approach of winter retiring south: it lays in the month of 
July on the sandy beach, three or four eggs, very large for the 
bird, of an obscure clay colour, all sprinkled with numerous 
reddish spots. It runs rapidly, holding the wings half ex- 
panded ; and utters a very soft and mellow cry. 


“5 ro leqpauac SPLLPERLD YD) 


ULPNO]] PE2ZDULIDANMAS “F 


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HVYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE, 471 


HYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. (Phalaropus 
hyperboreus, ) 


-PLATE XXV.—Fie. 2. 


Tringa hyperborea, Linn. Syst. i. p. 249, sp. 9.-—Gmel. Syst.i. p. 675, sp. 9.— 
Retz, Faun. Suec. p. 183, sp. 152.—Mull. Prod. Zool. Dan. sp. 196.—Tringa 
lobata, Linn. Syst. i. p. 249, sp. 8; Id. Faun. Suec. p. 64, sp. 179.—Retz, 
Faun. Suec. 152, young.—Mull. Prod. Zool. Dan. p. 195.—Fabr. Faun. 
Gren. p. 109, sp. 75, adult and young, and history.—Brunn. Orn. Bor. p. 51, 
sp. 171, young—(N.B. Not of Gmel., who under this name had in view the 
Ph. fulicarius, though he unaccountably retained the Linnean phrase).— 
Tringa fusca, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 675, sp. 33, young.—Phalaropus hyperboreus, 
Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 775, sp. 1.—Muller, sp. 196.—Trans. Linn. Soc. 
Memoir, Birds of Greenland, xii. p. 535.—Temm. Man. Orn. 1st ed. p. 457 ; 
Id. Man. Orn. 20 ed. ii. p. 709.—Sabine, App. Franklin’s Exp. p. 690.— 
Nob. Add. Orn. U. S. in Ann. Lyc. N. Y. ii. p. 159; Id. Cat. Syn. Birds 
U.S. sp. 279; Id. Specch. Comp.—Phalaropus fuscus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 15, 
sp. 3; Id. 8vo, ii. p. 363. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 776, sp. 4.—Linn. Trans. 
xii. p. 535, young.—Phalaropus cinereus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 15, sp. 2; Id. 
8vo, ii. p. 362, adult.—Wilss. Orn. Suec. ii. p. 120, sp. 193.—Meyer and 
Wolfe, Tasch. loc. cit.—Brehm, Lehrb. Hur. Vog. ii. p. 665.—Roux. Orn. 
Provence, pl. 337, adult male.—Phalaropus Williamsii, Haworth, Linn. 
Trans. viii. p. 264.—Lobipes hyperboreus, Selby and Jardine, Orn. Ill. i. 
Synops. sp. i.—Larus fidipes alter nostras, Ray, Syn. Av. p. 182, a, 7.— 
Will. p. 270.—Tringa fusca rostro tenui, Klein, Av. p. 151, sp. 3.—Falaropo 
iperboreo, Ranz. Elem. Zool. iii. pt. viii. p. 283, sp. 1.—Le Coq @Odin, 
Anon. Icon. Rer, Nat. ii. p. 8, pl. 20, adult.—Phalarope Cendré, Buff. Ois. 
viii. p. 224; Id. ed. 1784, ix. p. 124; German Translation by Otto, xxx. p. 
111, cum figura.—Roux. tab. cit.—Phalarope de Siberie, Buff. Pl. enl. 766, 
male.— Phalarope Hyperboré, Temm. loc. cit.—Vieill. Orn. Franc. pl. 278, 
fig. a, summer dress ; fig. 6, winter.—Lobipede @ hausse-col, Cuv. Regn. 
Anim. i. p. 532.—Cock Coot-footed Tringa, Edw. Glean. pl. 143, adult 
female.—Coot-footed Tringa, Edw. Glean. pl. 46, young.—Jonston’s Small 
Cloven-footed Gull, Will. Engl. p. 355, § vii.—Red Phalarope, Lath. Syn. v. 
p. 70, sp. 1.—Ubersetz (translation), v. p. 289, sp. 1, tab. 94, male ; Jd. Gren. 
Hist. x. p. 1, sp. 1, and var. A’and B (pl. 163)—(V.B. Var. cis P. fuli- 
cartvus, taken from Wilson’s work).—Penn. Brit. Zool. ii. p. 219, pl. 76 ; Id, 
ed. 1812, ii. p. 125, pl. 21.—Arct. Zool. ii. p. 494.—Bewick, ii. p. 139.— 
Lewin, v. pl. 193.—Walck. ii. pl. 127.—Mont. Orn. Dict. Suppl. and App.— 
Brown Phalarope, Lath. Syn. v. p. 274, sp. 4.—Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. sp. 214, 
young.—Red-necked Phalarope, Bewick, Brit. Birds, ii. p. 149.—Seesch- 
nepfe, Crantz, Hist. Grenl. p. 113.—Der Wasserstretter, Schmidt, Voy. p. 
128, tab. 111.—Aschgrauer Wasserstretter, Bechst. Nat. Deutsch. iv. p. 
372.—Meyer and Wolfe, Tasch. ii. p. 417.—Rothalrige Wasserstretter, 
Wolfe and Meyer, Voy. Deutschl. i. Heft. 15, fig. 1, adult male ; fig. 2, young 
female; fig. 3, young male.—Seligmann’s Voy. v. tab. 38.—Gemeine Wasser- 


472 HYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 


stretter, Bechst. Nat. Deutschl. ii. p. 317.—Meyer, Vog. Deutschl. i. Heft. 
15, fig. 2 and 3, young at different ages.—Naum. Vog. Nachts. ii. p. 80, fig. 
24, young.—Fisklita, Act. Nidr. iii. p. 575.—Bam. ii. p. 407.—Norduest 
Fugl, Bom. Nat. Hist. v. p. 599.—Nuorte-ladde, v. Bieggush, Liewr. Fin- 
mark, p. 290.—My Collection, adult and young. - 


By giving a representation of this phalarope, besides that we 
add a species to the American ornithology, we make good our 
promise of settling an important question. A glance at our 
figure of the hyperborean phalarope, here brought into com- 
parison with the young Wilson’s phalarope, will at once evince 
the incorrectness of Mr Ord’s refined distinctions, and ultimate 
decision that they were the same bird. This comparison shows 
more conclusively than any argument to be found in our re- 
spective writers on this subject what are the real facts. We 
have previously observed, when illustrating the former species, 
that they even differ subgenerically, and that this one alone 
ought to form the genus Lobipes of Cuvier. 

The Lobipes of Cuvier, since called by the recent English 
writers Lobefoot, and on which Vieillot imposed the name of 
Phalaropus, is formed in our opinion of this single species, 
notwithstanding that Cuvier and some English authors include 
the P. Walsondi in it on account of its bill being similar. But 
the feet are too different to allow of such a reunion, being in 
this one precisely similar to those of the flat-billed species. 

The bill of the lobefoot is moderate in length, slender, 
smooth, cylindrical throughout, and a little stoutish at base, 
subulate to the tip, with the point narrow and sharp: the 
upper mandible curves slightly upon the lower at tip, where 
they do not quite meet, as occurs in some Yotani: the 
nostrils are not quite basal, as in the Holopodius, and are 
linear instead of the subovate form of the Crymophilus or true 
phalarope: the tongue is also filiform and acute, and by no 
means broad, fleshy, and obtuse, as in the same group, The 
tarsi are, however, longer than in this, though shorter and less 
compressed than in the Holopodius: the toes are likewise 
intermediate as to length between the two other groups: the 
middle one is connected with the inner to the first joint, and 


HVYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 473 


with the outer to the second; the edging membrane is broad, 
deeply scalloped, and finely pectinated: the hind toe is very 
short, only the nail touching the ground ; the wings are more 
elongated than in Crymophilus : the tail, on the contrary, is 
shorter, and the general form slender, in which respect, and 
some others also, they bear a resemblance to Totanus. 

The hyberborean lobefoot, as represented in its summer, 
though not its perfect plumage, is seven and a half inches 
long, and fourteen and a quarter in extent. The Dill is less 
than an inch long, black, exceeding slender, and with both 
mandibles remarkably acute, the upper being rather longer 
and.somewhat inflected at tip. The irides are brown. The 
head, neck above, back, and wing-coverts, are very dark grey, 
which comes forward and round on the lower part of the neck, 
thus encircling the white throat: through the eye from the 
bill passes a broad dusky stripe to the hind head ; a rufous 
line arises behind the eye, which dilates into a large patch on 
each side of the neck, the two nearly joining at the back part : 
the sides of the neck and throat are white, the eyelids white ; 
the back and scapulars are of a darker colour than the 
adjoining parts, with large spots of ferruginous on the upper 
part of the back, occupying the outer side of the feathers: the 
rump and upper tail-coverts are banded dusky and white. 
The sides of the breast are dark cinereous, all the remaining 
lower parts are white, the base of the plumage being blackish 
ash, which rather predominates on the flanks, giving to these 
parts a very dark mixed appearance. The wings are four 
and a quarter inches long, and when closed reach precisely to 
the tip of the tail; the under wing-coverts are varied with 
white and blackish ash; the lesser and middle upper-coverts 
are dark blackish grey, the latter with a few white streaks at 
the tip of the outer one: the greater are almost blackish, and 
broadly pure white at the tips, which makes a conspicuous 
band of pure white across the wings: the primaries are 
blackish, slightly edged with paler, and with whitish shafts ; 
the secondaries are white at their base, and on the margin of 


474 HVPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 


their blackish tips, some of them being also white on their 
inner web, so that the white much predominates: the tertials 
are very long, and wholly blackish. The tail is little more 
than two inches long ; the feathers are blackish grey, edged 
with pale ferruginous at tip. The feet are of a greenish lead ; 
the naked space on the tibia nearly half an inch ; the tarsus 
little more than three-quarters of an inch, and precisely of 
the same length with the middle toe; the hind toe no more 
than three-sixteenths of an inch. 

In old and perfect specimens, especially old females, this sex 
being larger and much handsomer, the back, scapulars, and 
wing-coverts are of a very intense shining black, the anterior 
part of the back and scapulars being skirted with fulvous, and 
the wing-coverts edged near the tip with pure white; the 
side and also the inferior portion of the neck are of a bright 
rufous ; the two middle tail-feathers are of the same deep 
black as the back, and the lateral ashy ones are edged with 
white. It will be remarked that the chief difference between 
the specimen figured and the quite perfect state resides in 
the ferruginous colouring of the sides of the neck, which does 
not meet on the breast, as it does quite broadly in adult 
birds: considerable variation takes place in this respect, 
which is entirely owing to the more or less advanced maturity 
of the birds. 

The young before the summer moult are well distinguished 
by having the forehead, cheeks, throat, sides of the neck, and 
neck beneath pure white, as well as all the under parts, the 
neck and flanks being the only parts tinged with cinereous ; 
a slight yellowish tinge appears on the sides of the neck: the 
top of the head only, a band along the nucha, and a patch 
around the eyes are blackish grey slightly skirted with rufons ; 
the back and scapulars blackish, each feather broadly skirted 
with bright ferruginous ; the wing-coverts blackish, lesser 
margined with white, greater white at the tip; the inner 
part of the tarsus is yellow; the exterior and the toes of a 
yellowish green. 


HVPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 475 


During summer this bird resorts to lakes and fresh waters, 
though preferring at all times brackish water ; in winter they 
betake themselves to the sea, and are even met with at great 
distances from land, floating among icebergs in the desolate seas 
of the North: they swim still better than the other phalaropes, 
and are met with farther at sea. This species is mostly seen 
in pairs, though sometimes in small flocks, and busily engaged 
in dipping their bill into the water after the minute and almost 
invisible animals of the ocean. ‘They are also much on the 
wing, somewhat like the gulls and terns, and their cry resembles 
that of the greater tern. 

Although the hyperborean phalarope is a very rare visitant 
in the United States, there being a few instances only of its 
being shot in Boston Bay and on Long Island, it breeds 
regularly at Hudson’s Bay; arriving there annually in the 
begmning of June. In the middle of this month they lay 
three or four eggs on a dry spot among the grass: the nest is 
placed on a small hillock near a pond, and contains four very 
small pyriform eggs, resembling those of a snipe in shape, 
but much less, and of a deep olive colour, blotched with 
dusky, so thickly as nearly to obscure the ground colour. 
The young fly in August, and they all depart in September 
for less rigorous climes. In Greenland the species also arrives 
regularly in April and departs in September. ‘This bird 
inhabits the Orkney and Shetland islands, as well as those 
of the Norwegian sea, in considerable numbers during 
summer, breeding there. It is very common in the marshes 
of Sanda and Westra, but especially Landa and North 
Ronaldsha, the two most northerly of the Orkney isles, in 
the breeding season, but leaves them in autumn for milder 
regions. Its favourite abode is the shores of lakes situated 
within the arctic circle: it is plentiful in the northern parts 
of Sweden, Russia, and Norway, as well as the northern coasts 
of Siberia, and between Asia and America, extending its 
irregular wanderings even to the Caspian Sea. In Iceland 
it is observed to come about the middle of May, and re- 


476 HIVPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 


main in flocks at sea ten miles from the shore, retiring early 
in June to mountain ponds: remarkably faithful to each other, 
both sexes are quarrelsome with strangers, and the males are 
very pugnacious, fighting together, running to and fro on the 
surface of the water, while the females are sitting. The species 
passes recularly along the north coasts of Scotland and the 
continental coasts of thu Baltic Sea. It appears also, though 
rarely, during spring and autumn in the southern Scandinavian 
provinces. In England it is very rare, and quite as accidental 
as in the United States, though it has been casually observed 
in Germany, France, and even on the great lakes of Switzer- 
Jand: an individual was killed on the Lake of Geneva in 
August 1806, the only one ever seen on that lake, where the 
flat-billed phalarope is by no means so excessively rare: the 
specimen alluded to was killed while swimming and picking 
up small diptera from the surface of.the water. These 
wanderers are always young birds; but never within my 
knowledge has an individual been known to stray into any 
part of Italy. The favourite food of this species is water 
insects, especially diptera, that abound at the mouths of 
rivers. ‘The old ones hover round their young when exposed 
to any imminent danger, repeating prip, prip, and at the 
commencement of August carry them ont to sea, at the end 
of that month being no longer to be found inland. The 
Greenlanders kill them with their arrows, and eat the flesh, 
which being oily, suits their taste: they also keep the very 
soft skin, making use of it to rub their eyes with, and thinking 
it efficacious in curing a species of ophthalmia to which they 
are subject. 

Although the specific name of lobata was given first by 
Linné to the present species before he bestowed upon it the 
additional one of hyperborea, we have thought it proper to 
retain the latter, which is also Linnean, because that of lobata 
has been successively applied to each of the three species, and 
by Latham exclusively appropriated to another, whilst the 
present has never been so misapplied, and is long since unani- 


LONG-LEGGED SANDPIPER. 477 


mously consecrated to this species. By adopting the prior 
name of lobata, we should have been compelled to quote our 
own authority, and say Ph. lobatus, Nos., since Ph. lobatus, 
Lara, is the Ph. fulicarius, and Ph. lobatus, Orv, the Ph. 
Wilson. 


LONG-LEGGED SANDPIPER. (Tringa himantopus.) 
PLATE XXV.—FiG. 3. 


Tringa himantopus, Wob. in Ann. Lyc. New York, ii. p. 157 ; Id. Cat. and Syn. 
Birds U.S. sp. 245; Id. Specch. Comp. sp. Philad.—My Collection. 


THe figure of this remarkable bird cannot fail to create a 
sensation among naturalists, and a careful examination may 
induce them to attach more importance to our subgenus Hemi- 
palama than Baron Cuvier has done, and to admit that it is 
quite as distinct as his Machetes. ‘hat this has not already 
been done is no doubt because the real type, which is this 
species, was so little known. The Zringa semipalmata of 
Wilson, which we have united with it merely on account of 
its semipalmated toe, has no real affinity with it, but is similar 
to the other sandpipers, and we should never have thought of 
instituting a separate group for it alone, more than for the 
Charadrius semipalmatus. 

The long-legged sandpiper is, in fact, one of those beings 
that, although intimately connected with several groups with 
which they have many things in common, yet possess pecu- 
liarities sufficient to insulate them completely from all that 
surround them. It is very remarkable for its anomalous 
characters. Though decidedly a Tringa, it connects, still 
more evidently than the other species with long subarched 
bills that have been placed in Numenius by German authors, 
this latter genus with its own, since to the other common 
traits of resemblance it unites the semipalmated toes ; so that, 
in fact, instead of placing it at the head of the Tringe, it should 
rather be arranged last of the Numendi, were this not forbidden 


478 LONG-LEGGED SANDPIPER. 


by the long and delicate legs and toes, as well as some other 
peculiarities easier to perceive than to express by words. As 
a species, 1n form, dimensions, and especially in plumage, 
this bird greatly resembles Tringa subarquata of 'Temminck 
(Numenius Africanus, Lath.), from which it is, however, 
clearly distinguished by its still longer and semipalmated feet, 
in which latter only it resembles 7’. semipalmata. It cannot 
for a moment be mistaken for any other Zringa, differing 
widely from all, and by a complication of anomalies resembling 
more in general garb and plumage a Yotanus than a Tringa. 

We are unable to say much of the habits of this curious 
sandpiper, further than that we met with it in the month of 
July 1826 near a small fresh-water pond at Long Branch. 
Being there in company with my friend Mr Cooper, we 
observed a flock flying about, at which I fired, and killed the 
one here represented. On first picking it up, I mistook it for 
a time for 7. subarquata, a species very rare in the United 
States, though one of the most common in Italy, but was 
undeceived upon observing the web between the toes. This 
is the only specimen I have ever seen, though the gentleman 
just mentioned informs me that he has recently procured 
another, that was shot in the month of May on the south shore 
of Long Island. 

This new species is nearly nine and a half incheslong. The 
bill, much longer than the head, is decidedly subarched, and 
measures one inch and five-eighths, and is black. The general 
plumage is of the same grey colour usualin other sandpipers : 
the crown is dusky, mixed with whitish and blackish, and 
with a little bright rusty on the margins; a broad whitish 
line is above tle eye; between the bill and eye dusky, a patch 
of rust colour on the auriculars: the neck above and on the 
sides is mixed with whitish; the back and scapulars black, 
the feathers tipped with dusky grey, and marked with pale 
rusty ; the rump is plain dusky grey, and the upper tail- 
coverts white, regularly banded with black. The throat is 
whitish, obsoletely dotted with blackish ; the whole under 


YOUNG SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. 479 


surface is then, including the tail-coverts, white, each feather 
being banded with blackish, and one of the bands terminal. 
The wings are five and a half inches long; all the coverts 
plain dusky with lighter margins; the under-coverts are 
marbled with blackish and whitish : the primaries are blackish, 
the first with a white shaft; the secondaries are pale dusky, 
edged with whitish. he tail is grey, even, and two inches 
lone; the two middle feathers are acute, projecting beyond the 
others the length of their points; the outer on each side 
is also somewhat longer than the others: all are pale dusky 
with white shafts, the white spreading somewhat along the 
middle, but particularly at the base, where all the feathers but 
the middle ones are white, as well as the two outer also on the 
greater part of their inner vane. The feet are black, and the 
legs very long: the naked space on the tibia one inch and a 
quarter ; the tarsus one and three-quarters long: the middle 
toe is very nearly one inch without the nail, and about as much 
over an inch including it: all the front toes are half-webbed, 
that is, with a membrane connecting them at base. 


YOUNG SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. (Charadrius 


semipalmatus. ) 
PLATE XXV.—Fic. 4. 


See Wilson's American Ornithology, Ring Plover, Charadrius (Tringa by a 
typographical error) hiaticula, vol. ii. p. 360 (Ord’s ed. p. 69), pl. 59, fig. 3; 
for the adult in spring dress, and the history.—Charadrius semipalmatus, 
Nob. Obs. Nom. Wils. sp. 219; Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 216 ; Id. 
Specch. Comp. sp. Philad.— Caup, Isis, xii. 1825, p. 1375, t. 14 (the head and 
foot).—Wagler, Syst. Av. i. Charadrius, sp. 23.—Philadelphia Museum. 


Tue credit of first pointing out the curious though obscure 
character which distinguishes the present bird from its very 
near relative the Ch. hiaticula of Kurope is due to Mr Ord; 
and after verifying it in all our American specimens, we feel 
satisfied that the true hzaticula does not inhabit this continent, 
and those authors who have recorded it as American must 
have mistaken the present species for it: we might therefore 


480 YOUNG SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. 


have swelled our limited list of synonyms with quotations 
of all their American specimens described under this name. 
The species was first established in our “Observations on the 
Nomenclature of Wilson,” and in our “ Synopsis,” and nearly 
at the same time by Mr Caup also, on a single specimen in 
the Museum of Darmstadt, whose origin was doubtful, but 
the real one suspected. By a fortunate coincidence, Mr Caup 
and myself were led to select the same appropriate name for 
our bird, which is the less extraordinary, as being suggested 
by so material an anomaly in the characters; natural history 
conducting us in this instance to the result of one of the most 
exact sciences. 

The distinctions between the three European species of 
ring-plovers having been until lately but little understood, it 
is not to be wondered at if those inhabiting these States were 
not at once well established. North America counts also three, 
independently of the kildeer, and several others, not yet properly 
determined, inhabit other parts of the world. 

Being now regarded as a new and very distinct species, we 
have not hesitated to reproduce of its natural size a bird that 
Wilson has already represented reduced one half; but his 
figure of the adult being remarkably good, we have thought it 
best to give the young, with the subjoined description, referring 
the reader for other particulars to the accurate account of our 
predecessor. 

The young semipalmated plover is seven inches long, and four- 
teen in extent: the billis almost entirely black, being destitute 
of orange, and with no more than a little dirty yellowish flesh 
colour at the base of the under mandible. The frontlet con- 
tinued into the lora, and dilating broadly on the auriculars, is 
ofa darkish grey colour, somewhat tinged with brown: a frontal 
band obscurely continued over the eyes is white ; there is no 
sincipital black band: the top of the head is greyish brown 
down to the neck, which colour unites, and forms a single mass 
with the auriculars already described: the throat to the very 
origin of the bill, and all the under parts, are pure white, with 


YOUNG SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. 481 


the exception of a colour on the breast, which, as a continua- 
tion of the colour of the back, is of a brownish grey: the 
white encroaches somewhat upon the middle of this collar on 
the lower side, and extends in a broad ring all round the 
neck: after this collar, the whole upper parts of the body are 
brownish grey, precisely of the same hue as the top of the 
head, and like it have eaeh feather slightly edged with pale. 
The wings are four and three-quarter inches long, exactly 
reaching the tip of the tail, the smaller and middle coverts 
and tertials are of the colour of the body ; the larger are 
darker, white at the tips, and they form a conspicuous band 
across ; the spurious wing and under wing-coverts are white, 
somewhat mixed with dingy: the quill-feathers are dark grey, 
blackish at their point and on their outer web: the shaft of 
all is white towards the middle, and the secondaries have, 
moreover, a white spot along it. The tail is two and a half 
inches long, slightly rounded ; the outer and shortest feather 
is white, with a small elongated spot towards the middle of 
its inner web; the second each side has a much broader and 
darker one extending on both webs, dingy at base, and pure 
white on the shaft and at tip only: all the remaining ones are 
dusky at base, with a broad black space towards the point, 
and are terminated with white, less pure and less extended 
aceording as they are nearer to the true middle ones, which 
are merely edged with whitish. The feet are yellowish; the 
tarsus is almost an inch long, and the middle toe three- 
quarters ; the outer is connected to the second joint with the | 
middle one by a membrane; and the inner is also connected 
with the middle, but no farther than the first joint. 

In the adult, well described by Wilson, the bill is orange 
beyond the middle, black at the point: the margins of the eye- 
lids are orange: the irides are brown: the front, throat, neck 
broadly round, and all beneath pure white ; the head is of a grey 
colour, somewhat tinged with reddish : a broad sincipital band 
and a broad ring round the base of the neck jet-black: lora, 
continued through the eye into a broad patch dilating on the 


VOL. III. 2H 


482 PEALE?S EGRET HERON. 


auriculars, blackish: the back and wing coverts are rufo- 
cinereous: the quills are blackish, the fifth, sixth, seventh, and 
eighth being white along the shaft: the secondaries are rufo- 
cinereous, white at their tips: the tail is blackish, and quite 
black towards the point; the outer tail-feather is white, the 
second, third, and fourth being also white at their tips. 

In size, this species comes nearest Charadrius curonicus 
(minor) of Europe, but in colour and all else most resembles 
C. hiaticula. 

On the coasts of New Jersey, this species arrives late in 
April, keeping then in flocks, and until late in May, when 
they depart in search of more northern climes No instance 
is known of their breeding in the United States, but their 
flocks reappear periodically in September, protracting their 
stay till the last of October. They run with rapidity, uttering 
a rather hissing short note, resembling the syllable thyk, thyk. 
It is a remarkable fact that these closely related species of 
ring-plovers, hardly cognisable at a distance by the eye, are at 
once detected by a practised ear, their note being so very 
different ; for who could mistake the hissing voice of the 
‘present for the soft and musical tones of the piping species, so 
happily compared by Wilson to a German flute? It is equally 
well known that the species of Europe differ also in this re- 
spect from each other, the true Aiatecula having very nearly 
the same hissing voice as the semipalmated, whilst the cwro- 
nicus has a very melancholy cry resembling kirw ! kirw ! 


PEALE’ EGRET HERON. (Ardea Pealii.) 
PLATE XXVI.—Fic. 1. 


Ardea Pealii, Vob. in Ann. Lyc. New York, ii. p. 155.—Id. Cat. Birds U. S. in 
Jontr. Macl. Lyc.—Id. Syn. Birds U. S.—My Collection. 

Amone the numerous and still badly known tribes of herons— 

a genus which, even as reduced according to the sounder views 

of modern authors, yet consists of about fifty species, spread 

pretty nearly in equal numbers over all parts of the world—a 


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PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 483 


small group had been distinguished in common language, 
before it was recognised by naturalists, under the name of 
egret, and it may be admitted into the system as a secondary 
division of the subgenus Ardea, as this is distinguished from 
Botaurus, Nycticorax, &c. 'Their elegance of shape, long 
and slender bill, but especially their snowy whiteness, and 
the flowing train of plumes by which they are adorned in the 
perfect state, make them easily cognisable even at a distance, 
and seem fully to entitle them to such a distinction. But this 
very similarity, as one may well imagine, renders the several 
species—for there are several of them—liable to be easily 
confounded together. Besides their remarkable similarity of 
form, colours are wanting to discriminate them; and we are 
reduced to those exhibited by the bills, lora, and feet, to the 
proportions of the bird and its respective members, and to the 
nature of the plumage of the crest and trains that ornament the 
adults. ‘The privation of these ornaments in the young, and 
in the adults also when moulting, increases the difficulty, 
and has caused them to be taken until lately for distinct 
species. Fortunately this source of confusion has been re- 
moved, and the females have been ascertained to be similar 
to their males. The species of Europe and Northern Asia 
were therefore, upon good grounds, reduced to two, the great 
and the small, Ardea alba and A. garzetta ; but both formerly, 
and one even till now, were confounded with their two American 
analogues described by Wilson. In my “Observations on the 
Nomenclature” of that author, as well as my subsequent 
writings, without excepting my ‘Synopsis,’ I admitted the 
two North American species, and added as a third the bird 
now represented in our plate; but I also erred in consider- 
ing the large American species as the same with the large 
European: they are, in fact, no less distinct from each 
other, however closely related, than Ardea candidissima and 
A. garzetia. The name of alba belongs to the European, and 
that of egretta to the American ; although Llliger, Lichtenstein, 
and ‘Temminck (?), not perceiving that it was the legitimate 


484. PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 


egretta of Gmelin and Latham, and having applied that name 
to the European alba, have given the American the new one 
of A, leuce. 

Mr Ord, in the second edition of Wilson’s “ Ornithology,” 
was therefore right in doubting the identity of the two species, 
and I was mistaken when I declared his doubts unfounded : 
but he ought not to have quoted as synonymous A. egretta 
of Temminck, &c. Indeed, I am unacquainted with a single 
instance in which, upon due examination, the rule will not 
hold good that no bird is common to both continents that 
does not inhabit during summer the high northern latitudes, 
and the Ardea alba and A. egretta are not winter birds, but, 
on the contrary, summer visitants of Europe and the United 
States, and do not even then range far to the north: the 
European, moreover, is chiefly found in the east, and hardly 
ever seen in the west of that continent. This alone ought to 
have led us to detect the discrepancy. In order to clear up 
this point before taking up the species which more imme- 
diately forms our subject, I think it proper to fix all the 
species of egrets of which I have a perfect knowledge. These 
are :— 

1. Ardea alba, L. (Ardea egretta, Temm., Ardea candida, 
Briss.), which can easily be distinguished by its large stature 
combined with a small crest (which is wholly wanting in the 
American), a much longer bill and longer tarsi, and the 
fusco-corneous colour of the legs. It is well figured by 
Naumann, “ Vog. Nachtr.,” tab. 46, f. 91, and the young by 
Roux, “‘ Ornithologie Provencale,” pl. 314 (under the name of 
egretta). It inhabits Enrope, especially the oriental parts, and 
is very common in the Caspian Sea, in Asiatic Turkey, &c. 

2. The second species is Ardea egretta, Gmel., Lath. (Ardea 
leuce, Temm.), the one figured by Wilson, whose tall stature 
allows it to be confounded with the preceding, from which, 
however, it may be readily distinguished by its perfectly 
smooth head, its light orange and shorter bill, and black legs. 
It is found both in North and South America, being men- 


PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 485 


tioned by D’Azara, and we have ourselves received it from 
Surinam. 

3. The third is Ardea flavirostris, Temm., not yet figured, 
a smaller bird, with black legs also, at once known from its 
two above-mentioned close analogues—from the European by 
its yellow bill, from the American by its small crest. It is 
found in Southern Africa and the Australian islands. 

4, The fourth egret in point of stature is the one we are 
treating of, well distinguished by its bill, which is flesh colour 
at base, besides the different texture of the ornamental feathers. 

As a fifth species, we shall cite the Ardea candidissima of 
Wilson, which is the analogue of the Ardea garzetta of Europe, 
figured by Roux, Orn. Prov. pl. 315. Both these are alike 
in stature and dimensions, and differ only, as is well known, 
by the crest, which in the latter consists of but two or three 
elongated, narrow, subulate feathers ; while in the American 
the crest is formed of numerous elongated pendulous feathers, 
with loose flowing barbs. 

Specimens that we have received from Java, under the name 
of Ardea nigripes, Temm., we consider as the young of A. 
garzetta, and are confirmed in this opinion by the fact of 
young birds that we possess of the American candidissima, 
that stand precisely in the same relation to this species as the 
supposed nigripes does to the garzetta.* 

The family of the Herodi, Cultrirostres, or Ardeida, 
especially when the group Gruine is withdrawn, and restrict- 
ing it to our former Ardeime, isa highly natural one. it 
still comprises, it is true, many aberrant genera, birds of 
peculiar forms, and remarkable for their strange and oddly 
shaped bills, though still not so far different as to rank them 
more properly with any other class, and in their general 
structure, as well as their habits and dispositions, too much 
identified with these to justify their separation into an inde- 


* T have lately been informed of the discovery of two new European 
species of egrets, one from Sardinia, the other from Moldavia, of which 
the names and characters are not yet given. 


486 PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 


pendent family. But the Grune, of which the crane is the 
type, bear a strong analogy, and even in many respects so 
much affinity, to the gallinaceous birds, having shorter feet, 
vegetable food, and even their habits being terrestrial, that 
we think proper to unite them as a subdivision or subfamily 
with the Alectrides. The artificial character (which, as we 
are not now treating of them, is all that need be mentioned) 
by which they may be at once distinguished from the Arderde 
consists in having the hind toe short, and inserted so high up. 
as to be raised from the ground except merely at the tip; 
while in the Ardeide it is long, and bears with its whole length 
on the ground, or nearly so. But as, according to the axiom 
of the great Linné, the character does not constitute the genus, 
even if the most general and characteristic mark should fail 
us, it is still no reason why the group is not natural which it 
has hitherto been believed to represent. A minute peculiarity 
may furnish a most useful though artificial generic or specific 
character, while an apparently important and evidently natural 
one may be of no use for this purpose. In our system, the 
family Ardezde is composed of nine genera, of which none is 
subdivided except Ardea itself, which with Ciconia are all 
that are strictly typical. Besides the more direct relations, 
this family is connected with the Rallidw by the curious 
though anomalous courlan, also allied to the Gruine by its 
feet, as well as to the Scolopacide. But to these the genus 
Eurypyga forms a very strongly marked and still better 
passage. At the same time the Platalea, which in its feet 
shows the transition to Phanicopteride, and by its curiously 
flattened bill stands alone, is so similar in internal conformation, 
and especially the sternal apparatus, to the genus Jbzs, that 
they ought in this respect to go together ; though Tantalus, 
one of the bide, is constructed rather upon the osseous 
plan of the Ardeide! Scopus, Anastomus, Canchroma, and 
even Dromas to a minor extent, each and all exhibits striking 
anomalies in their bills, so that Ardea and Ciconia are the 
only two typical genera with sharp-pointed bills of the whole 


PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 487 


group. In order to comprehend all these forms of bills, it 
becomes necessary to restrict greatly the physical characters 
of the family, and we can merely observe, that in the Ardeide 
the bill, whatever be its form, is longer than the head, very 
robust, and almost always sharp, with cutting edges. The 
neck is long, the feet long, and always four-toed, the hind 
toe strong and well developed: the tarsus is longer than the 
middle toe, and toes and nails both are also long ; the wings 
are of moderate length, and obtuse: the tail is never long, 
nor otherwise remarkable, and consists of twelve, or only of 
ten feathers. 

There is no marked external difference between the sexes, 
but the young vary greatly from the adults, and do not gain 
their complete plumage till their third year. 

In habits and internal conformation these birds are all 
much more alike than in external. They have all a grave, 
deliberate, and well-poised gait: their flight is slow, though 
light and elevated, and they stretch back their legs like sticks 
in flying, even more so than other waders. They are faithfully 
monogamous in their loves: their nests are built with more 
art than those of aquatic birds generally, being placed in trees, 
thickets, aquatic grasses ; and some of the species, half domesti- 
cated, even nestle on housetops: the female incubates, while 
the male merely watches, and supplies her with food. Both 
unite in nursing and rearing their young, which remain in 
the nest until they are full fledged. The flesh of these waders 
is quite unpalatable. 

The genus Ardea, when disembarrassed of the several species 
forced into it by ancient authors, is a very natural one, differ- 
ing from the storks by. having the inner toe cleft, whilst they 
have all the toes semipalmated at base: the storks also have 
the tarsi reticulated, and the middle toe-nail entire, whilst the 
herons have the former scutellated and the latter toothed like 
a saw, to assist in seizing and securing their slippery prey. A 
peculiarity of the herons, in which they not only differ from 
the storks, but from all other birds, is found in their anatomy : 


eo 


488 PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 


they have but one cecum, like quadrupeds, while other birds 
have two. The genus Ardea is admitted by all authors, 
though some modern writers have cut it up into several, 
which we employ as subgenera, or groups of still minor 
importance. Generally divided into three, and by Boie into 
five, they might with the same propriety be carried to seven 
or eight. We recognise no more than three, comprising eight 
secondary groups. ‘The first, which we call more properly 
heron (Ardea), is well distinguished by its long and slender — 
neck, all well clothed with shortish oppressed feathers, and by 
having a very large part of the tibia naked. 

The second, called bittern (Botawrws), has the neck shortish, 
with loose, longish feathers, and the posterior more or less 
distichous and lanuginous: the naked part of the tibia is 
much limited. 

In all the herons the bill is more or less longer than the 
head, cleft to beneath the eyes, straight, compressed, conic-elon- 
cate, acuminate, and very acute, higher than wide, and more 
or less robust. Both mandibles are near their base covered 
with a kind of very thin cere or membrane: the upper is 
scarcely longer than the lower mandible, and equal in height: 
it is longitudinally impressed on the sides with a straight 
furrow obliterated before: the upper ridge is therefore rather 
distinct and flat at base, terminated by the frontal feathers 
transversely placed ; towards the point the ridge is perfectly 
smooth, compressed, and slightly and gradually inclined at 
tip: the edges, nearly vertical, in some species are perfectly 
entire, in others obliquely and finely denticulated, in all emar- 
cinated at the extreme tip: the palate has in the middle 
a longitudinal sword-like process, perfectly straight, which 
towards the throat is more or less conspicuously doubled : the 
lower mandible has strong and flattened sides, more or less 
impressed towards the base ; it is sharply acute, with the edges 
drawn in, excessively sharp, quite straight, either entire or 
slightly serrated obliquely : the inferior ridge is slightly com- 
pressed, rather acute, and more or less ascending ; the mental 


PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 489 


angle is extended beyond the middle of the mandible, is exceed- 
ingly narrow, very acute, and feathered : the lora are naked, as 
well as a portion of the orbits. The nostrils, not quite basal, 
are placed in the furrow, and are linear, longitudinal, pervious, 
and above half closed by a naked membrane. The tongue is 
half the length of the bill, acute, very entire, narrow, mem- 
branous, and rather flattened. The body is much compressed. 
The feet are equilibrate, long, and four-toed: the tarsus is 
always longer than the middle toe, sometimes barely so, some- 
times a great deal: in some species the tibia is almost entirely 
naked, whilst in others it is on the contrary nearly all feathered : 
the toes are elongated, slender, narrowly bordered by a mem- 
brane, all unequal; the middle is connected to the outer one 
by a membrane that extends to the end of the first joint; the 
inner toe, a little shorter than the outer, is merely furnished 
with a very minute basal membrane: the hind toe is long, 
half equal to the middle one, and all bearing on the ground, 
being inserted opposite to the inner toe: the nails are com- 
pressed, falcate, the hind one largest: the middle one is dilated 
on the inside into a pectinated sharp edge. The coverings 
of the tarsi are transversely clypeate, the upper and lower 
clypei being scutelliform, the opisotarsus and knee are covered 
with small hexagonal scales ; the toes are scutellated. These 
various forms of the scales are represented with inimitable 
accuracy by Mr Lawson in the plate of Peale’s egret. The 
wings are broad, obtuse, tuberculated, the three outer primaries 
being longest, and the third hardly shorter than the two first- 
The tail is short and obtuse, and composed of ten or twelve 
feathers. The feathers \of the lower neck before in the adult 
bird are pendulous, elongated, mostly acuminate, narrow, or 
ragged; on the occiput and back they are in many species 
elongated sericeous, either linear, or laciniate-lacerated, seldom 
dense, oblong or rounded at the end; the neck is bare at base 
on the sides, but concealed by a tuft of longish plumes origin- 
ating at the shoulders: the neck-feathers in some species are 
short and closely pressed to the body ; in others they are softer, 


490 PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 


longer, especially on the sides, and woolly at base: the tail- 
feathers are always rounded at the end; those of the lower 
parts of the body are longish, with the webs disjoined, and the 
barbs plumulose at base: the down is silky. 

The females are like the males; the young are different 
from the adults, only obtaining their full plumage after the 
third year. They moult annually. The adults are orna- 
mented by long slender feathers, which they lose in moulting, 
and do not acquire again for some time, when they resemble 
the young. 

These birds are remarkably dull: they inhabit marshes, or 
watch perched on trees near the water for their prey, which 
the conformation of their feet enables them to do with ease. 
They feed exclusively on animals, especially fishes and reptiles, 
but likewise large insects, and even small mammalia. They 
often stand motionless on the margins of ponds or marshes, 
concealed by the tall grass and weeds, with the neck so bent 
as to rest the head on the back, waiting patiently for their 
prey to pass within their reach, when they dart forward their 
sharp bill with inevitable aim ; but when tired of this, which 
is often unsuccessful, they overcome their natural indolence 
so far as to move slowly through the mud or water, stiring 
up as they walk by means of their long toes the frogs or fishes 
that may be lurking in such places. Timid and cowardly to 
a great degree, the smallest hawk will turn their flight, and 
often master them, though capable of inflicting a dangerous 
blow with their powerful beak. They build in companies in 
high trees, laying about four eggs. The parents are, to a 
proverb, tender of their offspring, and carefully provide for 
them during the long time that they require their assistance. 
Their voice is loud, hoarse, and monotonous, and heard chiefly 
at night, when most of them are in motion. Their flight is 
full of grace, and is performed with the neck bent backwards, 
and the head resting against the back. 

The numerous species of this genus are dispersed over all 
climates and countries, excepting the very coldest. In no 


PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 491 


group does the size vary to the same extent as is exemplified in 
the American species by the gigantic Ardea Herodias and 
diminutive Ardea ewilis. 

The herons properly so called forming our subgenus Ardea, 
of which the group /gretta is a subdivision, have the bill 
much longer than the head, at base as broad, or even broader, 
than high, and quite straight. Their neck is very long, slender, 
and ornamented beneath with slender, elongated, pendant 
plumes: their flanks are thin, their legs very long, and have 
an extensive naked space above the heel. 

They are more diurnal than nocturnal in their habits, are 
the tallest of the genus, and for the most part feed on fishes. 
There is scarcely a fish, however large, that a heron will not 
strike at and wound, even if unable to carry it off. They both 
seize them in shallow water by darting their bill, or in deep 
water by plunging it under as they pass on the wing: they ~ 
are therefore extremely injurious to fishponds, which they 
devastate to an incredible extent, and consume so great a 
quantity that a single heron will destroy in a year several 
thousand large fishes, without taking into account the small 
fry which are their chief dependence. Even when gorged 
with prey, these greedy birds will sit meditating further 
mischief, with their long necks sunk between their shoulders, 
and their heads turned to one side, intently eyeing the pool ; 
and their extraordinary power of digestion soon enables them 
to recommence their task. But, like other lean and hungry 
eluttons, the heron is never satisfied ; his food avails him not, 
and he is generally an emaciated mass of skin and bones. 
They do not hide themselves in grassy places, nor attempt to 
escape danger by retreating to them, but, on the contrary, are 
careful to seek their prey where the weeds are not too high to 
prevent them from observing the approach of an enemy, to 
escape whom flight is their only resource. Highly social in 
their disposition, they travel, fish, and keep together in parties, 
and build on trees or hanging cliffs, hundreds in company, in 
retired haunts, where they may expect to enjoy perfect quiet 


492 PEALE'S EGRET HERON. 


and security. Several of these retreats are celebrated both 
in America and Europe. The naturalist whose courage and 
perseverance enable him to penetrate the swamps, and a 
thousand difficulties that surround one of these recesses, and 
_ render them nearly inaccessible, is amply repaid by the aston- 
ishing spectacle he witnesses. He finds every branch, every 
fork, the top of every bush, covered with the nests of these 
birds; and the ear is stunned with the cries and flapping 
of the wings of the alarmed multitude. The parents, and 
such of the young as can fly, at once depart, their numbers 
obscuring the sky: but their attachment for their offspring 
overcoming their fears, the parents soon return to their defence, 
and boldly attack any enemy, so that even the blows of sticks 
or the report of the fatal gun has no terror for them. ‘Their 
nests are made with sticks, and lined with wool ; but if they 
find a nest already made, they do not take the pains to build 
anew one. Their young are as voracious and hard to satisfy 
as themselves. 

The egret herons are entirely of a snowy whiteness, without 
any coloured markings on the plumage whatever. We even ex- 
clude from them the Ardea russata, that visits occasionally the 
south of Europe, and possesses when adult in the greatest degree 
the long flowing ornamental plumes. This, with the Rallocdes 
speciosa of Java, &c., we consider as forming a group equivalent 
in rank to egret, and we apply to it Boie’s name of Buphus. 

Our second subgenus, Botaurus, including the bittern, night 
herons, and other groups of authors, is characterised by the 
bill being hardly longer than the head, much compressed, higher 
than broad, with the upper mandible somewhat curved. Their 
legs are comparatively short, and the naked space on the 
tibia restricted: the neck is rather short, thickly and closely 
covered with long, broad, and loose erectile feathers, and merely 
downy above: their body is comparatively plump, even fleshy, 
and sometimes good eating. They are chiefly nocturnal, and 
haunt in marshy and sedgy places. Their food is principally 
reptiles, insects, worms, fish-spawn, and they even eat vege- 


PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 493 


tables, and are not by any means so destructive as the herons 
proper, nor so skilful at fishing. The birds of this subgenus 
never sit in open places, but, on the contrary, keep concealed 
amongst the highest reeds or grasses; and if an enemy ap- 
proaches their retreat, they either squat on the ground, or 
escape between the reeds, and never resort to their slow heavily 
raised flight but in the last extremity. Instead of hich trees, 
the bitterns place their nest in a sedgy margin or among the 
rushes; and instead of sticks and wool, they are contented 
with simpler materials, such as sedge, leaves of water-plants, 
or rushes ; and they lay seven or eight eggs, twice the number 
of the true herons. The young do not require for so long a 
period the parental care, but, on the contrary, follow the mother 
after a few days. When excited, the bitterns have a curious 
mode of erecting their loose neck-feathers, causing it to appear 
very much enlarged. Although well defined as a group, these 
birds are connected with the true herons by means of in- 
termediate species that might with propriety be placed in 
either. Asan example of the intermediate species more allied 
to the herons, we might quote the beautiful A. ralloides of 
Southern Europe, which we look upon as the type of the group 
Buphus. Of those nearer to Botaurus, A. virescens is an 
example, with the form of the herons but the plumage of 
the bitterns: we establish it as the type of a natural though 
secondary group, to which we cannot do better than apply 
the name of Herodias, proposed by Boie. In the subgenus 
Botaurus, also, Nature has pointed out several small sections, 
of which nomenclators have eagerly availed themselves. As 
among the herons we have noticed the egrets, herons proper, 
Herodias, and Buphus, we may also indicate the Nycticoraces 
among the bitterns, which are distinguished by wearing in the 
adult state long tapering occipital feathers; and the A. stellaris 
of Europe, together with its close analogue, A. minor of Wilson, 
may be regarded as the types of asimilar small group. Another 
croup hardly distinct had been called Crabier by the French, 
but without any fixed character: we have divided these Crabiers 


494 PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 


into two groups, and made them regular by arranging them 
near the limits of our two subgenera : the larger striated species 
of bitterns have also been called Onorés (Tigrisoma, Sw.) 

A third subgenus, which we first instituted, and called 
Ardeola, contains only three species, the smallest of the tribe, 
and closely allied in form, and even markings: one is the 
European Ardea minuta, the other the American Ardea exilis, 
and the third a still less, the New Holland Ardea pusilla. 
In these, the female differs somewhat from the male, and the 
young are different from both. The bill of these small herons 
is much the same as that of the true heron, being longer than 
the head, higher than broad at base, and with the upper 
mandible nearly straight: the neck likewise is elongated, and 
rather slender; but, as in the bitterns, it is merely downy above, 
and thickly covered on the remaining parts with long, loose, 
broad erectile feathers: the body is slender, and exceedingly 
compressed, like that of the rail, of which they remind one: 
the legs are comparatively short; but what strikes most, as 
a circumstance extraordinary in the waders, their tibiae are 
completely feathered, as in the woodcock and the land birds : 
the membrane that unites the toes is, moreover, simply rudi- 
mental. 

These birds, which are chiefly nocturnal, have much of the 
habits of the rails. ‘They live and propagate in marshy 
erounds, hiding closely amongst the reeds, and running far 
and very fast in them rather than take wing. They feed on 
small fishes, reptiles, spawn, but more especially on water 
insects. 

Returning to our egret, whose claims to be considered new 
have been set forth in the first page of this article, we have to 
state that it is dedicated to Mr Titian Peale, by whom it was 
first shot for us in Florida, as a just compliment to a natur- 
alist to whom American zoology owes so much, and from 
whom so much may still be expected, retaining as he does all 
that zeal for science for which his family has been long con- 
spicuous. 


FEALE’S EGRET HERON. 495 


We regret not being able to relate any peculiarity in the 
habits of this bird, which besides Florida inhabits other ana- 
logous climates of America. It 1s never seen in the middle 
States, but appears not to be rare in Florida, for since the in- 
dividual first brought by Mr Peale, we have observed it in 
almost all the collections of birds sent from that country. 

Peale’s egret heron is twenty-six inches long; the bill five 
inches, flesh colour for nearly three inches from the base, 
then black to the point ; the lora and naked parts of the face 
are of the same flesh colour, but more delicate: the plumage 
is uniformly, and without exception, snowy white, as in all 
the egrets: the head, nearly from the origin of the bill down 
to the neck, is thickly and densely set with a large crest, 
formed of numerous compact, subulate feathers, more than 
three inches long; a bunch of these feathers, precisely of the 
same texture, and even longer, hangs down from the front part 
of the neck. ‘The structure of these feathers most resembles 
that of the corresponding plumes of the A. garzetta, and is 
totally different from those of the candidissima. The long 
flowing plumes of the back are filiform or criniform rather 
than silky, being by no means delicate, and reach much beyond 
the tail, with their rays quite straight, and rather stiff, and 
by no means curled, nodding, or divaricate, as in the can- 
didissima. The wings are thirteen inches long: the tail is 
four. The legs, including the toes and nails, are all black; 
the toes yellow beneath: the nakedness of the tibia extends 
more than three inches: the tarsus is full six inches long— 
that is, twice as long as the middle toe and nail: the hind toe 
without the nail measures more than an inch. 

The young is distinguished by smaller proportions, a cir- 
cumstance for which this group is more than usually remark- 
able, and by the absence of the ornamental feathers: we have, 
however, always observed, even in very young specimens, the 
tendency of the head-feathers to be long and pointed to a con- 
siderable extent, indicating the future crest. 


496 SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 


SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. (Aramus scolopaceus.) 
PLATE XXVI.—Fic. 2. 


Ardea scolopacea, Gimel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 647, sp. 87.—Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 701, 
sp. 89, a very bad description.—Aramus scolopaceus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. viii. 
p-. 300; Id. Gal. Ois. ii. p. 134, pl. 252.—Nob. Ann. Lyc. New York, ii. p. 
155 ; Id. Specch. Comp. sp. Philad. ; Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds U. S. sp. 237. 
—Aramus Carau, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. viii. p. 301.—Rallus Guarauna, Jil. 
(mentio duntaxat).—Rallus Gigas, Licht. Berlin. Vog. Verz. p. 79, sp. 815.— 
Rallus ardeoides, Spix. Av. Brasil, ii. pl. 91.—Rallus giganteus, Nob. Add. 
Orn. U. S. in Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. v. p. 31.—Nothorodius Guar- 
auna, Wagler, Syst. Avium, i. sp. 1.—Goldfuss, Nat. Atlas, Aves, pl. 239.— 
Courliri Courlan, Vieill. loc. cit.—Guarauna, Marcgr. Brasil, p. 204.— 
Courlan ou Courliri, Buff. Otis. vii. p. 442; Id. ed. 1783, viii. p. 266; Id. 
Pl. enl. 848.—Carau, D’ Azara, Voy. iv. p. 223, sp. 366, an excellent descrip- 
tion.—Scolopaceous Heron, Lath. Syn. v. p. 102, sp. 79; Id. Gen. Hist. viii. 
p. 135, sp. 116.—My Collection. 


Here is a bird which, if any, might be considered as partak- 
ing of a double nature, some authors having regarded it as a 
heron allied to the rails, and others as a rail somewhat analo- 
gous to the herons. But notwithstanding these more striking 
affinities, and many besides that shall be carefully pointed out— 
for it is not contented with these—it fully deserves to constitute 
a genus by itself. After due consideration, therefore, we have 
withdrawn it from the rails, where, unconsciously coinciding 
in this with Spix, Illiger, and Lichtenstein, we at first arranged 
it ; and finding the genus Avamus already proposed for it by 
Vieillot, willing as we are to admit it to this rank, we do not 
hesitate a moment to adopt his name, and although we must 
acknowledge ourselves equally unable, with Dr Wagler, to 
explain the meaning or etymology of the word, we do not 
think this any reason why we should, with the German orni- 
thologist, apply to this bird a new compound signifying 
spurious heron. 

It was supposed that South America might furnish us with 
a second species of courlan, but it being now a well-ascer- 
tained fact that the Carau of D’Azara is the same as the 
Guarauna of Marcgrave, the bird must stand alone in his 


SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 497 


genus unless new discoveries shall supply him with a com- 
panion. This being settled, we shall proceed to give a minute 
description, that will therefore comprehend both its generic 
and specific characters. 

Although there can be no doubt that our bird is the Guar- 
auna of Marcerave, it would be committing a great error to 
take it for the Scolopax (or Numenius) guarauna of syste- 
matical writers, that being a very different bird, a species of 
genuine Jbis, which they ought to place under their Zantalus, 
and which has nothing in common with our bird except a 
somewhat similar speckled appearance, the only source of all 
this confusion. 

Instituting a genus for this bird does not, however, decide 
the question where it ought to be placed, for it may still be 
inquired, in what part of the system shall we arrange the 
genus? ‘The reader cannot fail to be surprised that we, who 
made a species of rail of the same bird, should place it as a 
genus in a very distant family. But this is the result of more 
mature reflection, and however apparently remote may appear 
to be at first sight the two families Rallide and Ardeide, we 
have already seen that the subgenus Avrdeola claims some 
analogy with the former, and the Aramus forms a still better 
and closer link. It was principally on account of the greatly 
compressed form of its body that we called it a rail, and upon 
well examining the singular form of its bill, which is not 
observed in any other bird, every ornithologist will be satisfied 
of the propriety of the course we have finally adopted. We 
have no hesitation in placing it in the Ardetdw, where it 
is eminently distinguished from all its fellow-genera by its 
toes, cleft to the base, and entirely separated, Together with 
Eurypyga, it aberrates somewhat towards the Scolopacide, 
whilst by the manner of insertion of its hind toe it tends a 
little towards the Psophide, subfamily Grucne (Cuvier even 
going so far as to make it a genuine Grus), and claims again 
a well-founded resemblance to the most typical form of the 


genus Fallus. 
VOL, Ill, 21 


498 SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 


The scolopaceous courlan inhabits principally Cayenne, 
Brazil, and Paraguay, where it is rather common: it is 
numerous in the island of Cuba, and other warm parts of 
America. In the United States, Florida appears to be its 
most natural residence, and a few instances have occurred of 
its visiting the middle States. The courlan leads a solitary 
life, or at most keeps in pairs ; night and day they ery out in 
a loud, sonorous, and resounding voice, caraw f being in the 
full sense of the word a crying-bird : its chief food is mollusca 
and other aquatic animals, and even frogs, but not snakes 
nor fishes: when frightened, they move their tail. Like all 
solitary and reserved characters, this bird is remarkably shy : 
it carefully hides itself, but as soon as aware of being dis- 
covered, it starts rapidly to a great elevation, its flight being 
long continued : they walk also with great agility, but never 
willingly wade into the water: they alight on the very summit 
of trees: they build in the grass near stagnant water, conceal- 
ing their nest with much art: they lay but two eggs: the 
young follow their parents soon after they are hatched, and 
are covered with blackish down, the throat only being 
whitish. 

The specimen figured was a female, killed on the 5th of 
February by Mr ‘Titian Peale, at Key Tavernier, on the 
Florida Reef. Mr Peale took it for the much-disputed erying- 
bird of Bartram. Mr Peale saw no other individual, but that 
we have described was brought by Mr F. Cozzens from Florida: 
one or two killed on the coast of New Jersey, near Long 
Branch, may be seen in the American Museum at New York. 
Mr Peale did not hear the bird utter any sound ; it was very 
unwilling to fly, and caused him some trouble to make it rise 
from the thick mangroves and other bushes where it kept. 
It appears to inhabit the low shores and swamps of the rivers 
and lakes of Florida, and perhaps Georgia, being merely 
a straggler north of this. Even there, we must conclude it 
to be rather a scarce species, as Mr Peale could never get in- 
formation about it; and even upon showing it to the most 


SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 499 


experienced sportsmen, they declared themselves unacquainted 
with it, except a few who called it Indian-hen, as they pro- 
bably would any other rare bird of its size. It runs through 
the grass exactly in the manner of the rails, compressing its 
narrow body to pass through a small hole, and very difficult 
to catch when wounded. 

The scolopaceous courlan is two feet and three-fourths of 
an inch long, and three feet eight inches in extent. The bill, 
which has but a small gape, and by no means extending like 
that of the herons to beneath the eyes, measures four and 
three-quarter inches in length: of course it is longer than the 
head, and may be called much lengthened ; it is slender, quite 
straight, much compressed, being more than thrice higher 
than broad, and of a corneous consistence: the upper man- 
dible is of equal height almost throughout, slender ; from the 
base to the middle it is compressed, and channelled each 
side with a deep furrow covered by a kind of cere-like mem- 
brane; from where the furrow ends it swells slightly on each 
side, being there quite smooth, and even appearing polished : 
there is no vestige of a notch, as in the herons, and the margins 
are perfectly entire: these margins, from the middle to the 
angle of the mouth, are revolute inside, and obtuse ; towards 
the tip they are nearly vertical, and acute, forming throughout 
inside a straight medial channel; the upper ridge is somewhat 
depressed at base, then slightly inclined to the tip, being 
obtuse, and nowhere sharp: the lower mandible at base and 
beyond the middle is of nearly equal height, straightish in the 
middle; on the sides at base it is covered by a very thin 
membrane, and slightly furrowed lengthwise ; from the middle 
to the point, it is as smooth and polished as the upper one, 
excessively compressed, with the ridge prominent, rather acute 
at tip, the margins are perpendicular, approximated, very 
entire; the bifurcation of the sides is very long, extending 
beyond the middle of the mandible; it is narrow, and the 
mental angle formed by it naked, acute, entering the corneous 
substance of the bill. ‘The nostrils are placed rather distant 


500 SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 


from the base, and in the lateral furrow they are entirely per- 
forated, longitudinal, and somewhat elliptical: the tongue is 
elastic, narrow, and acute. ‘The bill is yellow at base, and 
of a corneous blue-black at tip: the eyelids are yellow, 
the iris brown; the legs pale lead-colour, and the nails 
black. 

The feet are elongated, and much of the tibia naked, the 
bare space measuring three inches: the tarsus, four and a half 
inches long, much exceeds the middle toe: the four toes are 
slender, all cleft from the base, long, unequal, and compressed ; 
the inner is a little shorter than the outer, the middle longest, 
measuring three inches without the nail; the hind toe is 
rather more than one inch, and slender: it is inserted in an 
unusual manner, opposite to the base of the inner toe, but 
much higher, and with only the last joint, which is very 
short, resting on the ground. The unfeathered part of the 
tibia is covered behind with transverse scutella, the anterior 
with large angulose scales; the tarsus behind has a double 
longitudinal series of knobs, before it is covered with oblique 
scutella ; the cnemidia, that is, the lower part of the naked 
tibia, are squamulose ; the toes scutellate, and warty beneath : 
the nails are moderate, arcuated, acute; the hind nail is rather 
the smallest: the middle is the largest, and dilates internally 
into a sharp edge, perfectly entire, and by no means pectinated, 
any opinions or statements to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The body is compressed, but fleshy : the neck cylindrical 
and slender : the face and lora entirely feathered. When it is 
stated that some specimens have these parts bare, it is because 
the other Guarauna, which is an Ibis, has been confounded 
with it. The tail is moderate, scarcely six inches long, plane, 
broad, rounded, and composed of twelve broad feathers. 

The wings are twelve and a half inches long, ample, and 
rounded-obtuse: the first quill is moderately long, and equal 
with the eighth, and by more than two inches shorter than 
the second, which is equal to the sixth : it is peculiarly shaped, 
narrower at base than at tip, where it is very blunt: the third 


SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. SOI 


is the longest of all, being, however, but little longer than the 
fourth. 

The feathers of the neck are short, and rather narrow; those 
of the body and wing-coverts are rounded on their margins, 
and soft and dense; the inferior are somewhat loose on their 
borders. There is no naked place on the sides of the breast, 
as in the herons. ‘The general colour of the courlan is a deep 
chocolate-brown, or fuscous sooty hue, reigning all over the 
bird: the feathers are, however, paler on their margins, and 
there is on each from the base along the middle, includ- 
ing the shaft, with the exception of the tip, a large, broad, 
lanceolate, pure white spot. (In the Jbis guarauna, the 
white occupies the margin instead of the middle of the 
feathers.) This white spot is larger in proportion to the size 
of the feather, so that it is more conspicuous on the wing- 
coverts, both upper and under, especially as on the back, not 
reaching to the tip, it is mostly concealed by the overlapping 
of the feathers: on the larger coverts, however, it consists 
of a mere streak, as well as on a few of the lower tail-coverts 
and femorals. Generally speaking, however, these parts, as 
well as the rump, upper and lower tail-coverts, outer large 
wing-coverts, vent, all the quills, and tail-feathers, are un- 
spotted, and of a bright chocolate-brown, with even a greenish 
gloss, darker, and with purplish reflections on the quills and 
tail: on the contrary, on the head and neck all round, the 
brown colour is paler and duller, and as the feathers are on 
these parts much smaller, the more extended white longitu- 
dinal spots are more closely set, producing a thickly striated 
appearance. On the crown and cheeks the white is, more- 
over, neither so pure nor well defined, which, together with the 
much less intense ground colour, gives these parts a rufous 
grey look: the throat is entirely whitish. 

The sexes present no difference, and the young soon put on 
the adult plumage. 


502 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 


ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. (Numenius borealis.) 
PLATE XXVIL—Fic. 3. 


Numenius borealis, Lath. Ind. ii. p. 712, sp. 9 (not of Ord, which is WV. Hud- 
sonicus).—Nob. Obs. Wils. Orn. notes.—Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 
244.—Id. Monogr. Num. in Osserv. Cuv. Regn. An.—Id. Sp. Comp. Rom. 
sp. Phil. 187.—Scolopax borealis, Forst. Phil. Trans. \xii. p. 481 (not of 
Gmel., &c., which is WV. Hudsonicus).—Numenius brevirostris, Licht. Cat. 
ii. Vog. p. 75, sp. 744.—Temm. Pl. Col. 381.—Numenius cinerius, Seaside 
Lesser Curlew, Bartr. Trav. p. 292.—Courlis Demi-bec, Temm. loc. cit.— 
Chorlito Champétre? D’Azara, iv. p. 275, sp. 307.—Esquimaux Curlew, 
Lath. Gen. Syn. v. p. 125.—Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 180, sp. 10.—Forster, 
loc. cit. (not of Pennant, whichis WV. Hudsonicus).—American Museum at 
New York. 

In Wilson’s standard work are described but two species of 

curlew, and no more than this are given by ''emminck in his 

very complete-and excellent European Ornithology. We have 
brought forward three North American and three European 
species, which, contrary to the generally received opinion, are 
all distinct from each other, and different in both continents, 
not one being found in Europe that is also an inhabitant of 

America. ‘l'hese facts, independent of any reference to the 

almost interminable confusion pervading the works of preced- 

ing authors, will sufficiently justify us in repeating here, and 
stating with more details, what we have published in our 

Monography, in which, if no new species be introduced (and 

the list is already too long), we hope to have placed the old 

ones in a new and more advantageous light. 

Perhaps no genus of birds has been less accurately studied, 
and notwithstanding that it is exceedingly natural, it has but 
very recently been restricted within its appropriate limits. 
The appellation it bears was first given by Brisson, yet he was 
far from assigning its true boundaries. In addition to the 
curlews, he comprised in Numenius a few other birds (the 
Tantali of Linné), now forming the natural family of Zan- 
talide, and divided into the genera Tantalus and Ibis. The 
true Nument had been much more philosophically classed 
by Linné in his extensive genus Scolopax, which, though not 
well formed, was still, with very few exceptions, entirely com- 


ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 503 


posed of birds belonging to the natural family Scolopacide. 
Under all circumstances, the union of Nwmenius with Scolopax 
was far more natural than that with Zantalide ; and although 
we make use of the name given by Brisson, the credit of 
establishing it in its present acceptation is due to Latham, or 
perhaps to Llliger, who freed it from extraneous species, and 
we, with Temminck, Vieillot, and others, adopt it as we find 
it. The species now regarded as Numeni form a very natural 
sroup, being closely allied in manners, colours, and somewhat 
even in size. Hence they have been continually mistaken for 
each other, erroneously united, or wantonly multiplied, as will 
be made amply apparent by the synonyms and scientific history 
of each species. 

All the species of curlews have the bill very long, slender, 
feeble, much arched, slightly compressed, almost cylindrical, 
hard and obtuse at tip, and entire: the upper mandible is 
longest, furrowed for three-fourths of its length, rounded towards 
the tip; the lower a little shorter. The nostrils are basal, 
lateral, longitudinal, linear, being placed in the furrow. The 
tongue is very short, small, and acute. The face is attenuated, 
and wholly feathered. ‘The feet are rather elongated, slender, 
bare above the heel ; the tarsi cylindrical, half longer than the 
middle toe, with their integument reticulated : the three fore 
toes are short, fimbriated, scutellated beneath, all connected at 
base by a short membrane, extending to the first articulation ; 
the hind toe is inserted high upon the tarsus, slender, short, 
but longer than the phalanx of the fore toes, bearing on the 
ground only at tip; the claws are arcuate, rather short, 
bluntish ; the cutting edge of the middle one being entire. 

The wings are long, acute, falciform, with from twenty-eight 
to thirty stiff quills: the first primary is longest ; the scapulars 
are elongated. he tail, rather short, is somewhat rounded, 
and of twelve feathers. 

They moult once annually : the females perfectly resemble 
the males in colour, and the young only differ, but can be known 
at once, by their bill being much shorter and less bent. 


504 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 


Possessing numerous general features common to the waders 
of their family, and a few of those which distinguish the [bis 
and Tantalt, the curlews have nevertheless some peculiar traits 
of their own, more easy to perceive than to define. Their phy- 
siognomy may be thus described: They have a rather small 
head, with a remarkably long, slender, and arched beak, longish 
neck, and body deeper than broad, and apparently gibbous. 
The wings are long, the tail moderate, the feet rather slender, 
though not so much so as in the allied genera, and bare for a 
considerable space above the heel (commonly, but improperly, 
called the knee). The toes remarkably short and stout. The 
plumage of the curlews is composed of a rather thick covering 
of somewhat loose though silky feathers, abundantly furnished 
with down. The colours, consisting of a mixture of greyish 
brown, white, and blackish, are very dull, and hardly vary in 
the different species. ‘The sexes are not distinguishable by 
difference of colour or stature: the female is perhaps a trifle 
smaller than the male. The young scarcely differ in plumage 
from the adults, but are well marked by their much shorter 
and straighter bill. They moult but once during the year, 
and late in the season. We have detected a clue to the species 
in the medial line of the crown, the colour of the rump, and of 
the under wing-coverts and long axillary feathers. 

The curlews are mute, timid, shy, and wary. They frequent, 
and seek their food in, salt marshes, and along muddy coasts 
and inlets, where at low water they may be observed in com- 
pany with other waders on the mud flats, or at high water 
roaming along the marshes. They but seldom alight on wet 
sands, and only when muddy shores are not to be found ; 
always preferring such on account of their flexible bill. They 
seldom desert the salt water, and are very rarely met with 
inland at a distance from the sea or large rivers: during 
summer, however, they often frequent dry fields in search of 
berries. They run swiftly, being much upon the ground: 
their flight is high, very rapid, and long sustained. ‘The voice 
of the curlews is loud and whistling: when about to com- 


ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 505 


mence their great periodical journeys, they congregate in large 
flocks, rise to a great height, and extend themselves into a 
vast line: whilst thus travelling onward, they keep up an 
almost incessant whistling, carefully waiting for each other. 
These companies only separate during the breeding season. 
In captivity, though they may linger for weeks or months, 
they seem to perish at last from the continued operation of 
melancholy and want of proper food. 

Their food is chiefly animal, and in a great degree marine. 
They prey indifferently upon worms, insects, mollusca, crus- 
tacea, and occasionally small fish, and are very dexterous in 
probing the mud with their long, soft, and slender bill, and 
pulling out of their holes small shellfish and crabs. In sum- 
mer, however, they are very fond of berries, especially those 
of Rubus trivialis, or dewberries, and Hmpetrum nigrum, on 
which they soon fatten. 

The spring is their season for breeding, and the northern 
regions the place they prefer for this purpose. They are mono- 
gamous, lay four or five pyriform eggs, which are deposited 
with little art on a few bits of reeds or grass, placed in the 
midst of tufts, or in small bushes, for shelter ; sometimes they 
are merely dropped in sandholes, or on wild open shores. 
Both sexes sit on the eggs; but the young receive little atten- 
tion from their parents, and almost as soon as hatched pro- 
vide for themselves without requiring their assistance. 

This genus, though by no means numerous in species, is 
not confined to any particular region of either continent, but 
is distributed everywhere along the shores, from the frozen 
regions of the north to those of the south pole, and they appear 
also in the torrid zone in winter. Their migrations may be 
traced from north to south according to the seasons. ‘They pass 
the winter in our temperate regions, generally returning in 
May from the south, and in September from the north. In 
the economy of nature, these birds seem to be of some im- 
portance in preventing the superabundant multiplication of 
numerous marine animals, thus assisting to maintain the 


506 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 


equilibrium and preserve the harmony of the animal king- 
dom, as the flycatching birds serve to check the too great 
increase of land insects. It is perhaps on this account that 
they are so generally diffused. In relation to man they appear 
to be of no less importance, since, without being delicious, 
their flesh is very palatable, and even, when they have fed and 
fattened on berries, tender and excellent meat: when their 
nourishment has been derived from the sea, it is much inferior. 
They are pursued both in Europe and America in various 
ways, and brought in numbers to the city markets. In some 
districts their eggs are much sought after, but those of other 
aquatic birds are mixed with them, and offered for sale under 
the same name. 

Wherever the curlews may be classed by ornithologists, 
their rank in the system of nature is at the head of the family 
Limicole, which they connect with the Falcati. Their linear 
place, therefore, is between the genera /bis of the latter and 
Tringa of their own family: species of the latter genus are 
so closely related to them, as almost to fluctuate between the 
two genera. There is a striking affinity on the one hand be- 
tween some species of Jbis and Numenius, and on the other 
between the smaller Vumeniw and Tring with slightly curved 
bills, such as ZYringa subarquata, and also those with semi- 
palmated feet, but especially when they combine both these 
characters, as our new Tringa himantopus. In their own very 
natural family, the curlews are more immediately related to 
Tringa and Limosa, both in aspect and manners. The genus 
Scolopax we do not consider as approaching them within 
several degrees. 

Cuvier had attempted to divide this genus into two inde- 
pendent subgenera, but unsuccessfully, and they must be relin- 
quished even as sections, inasmuch as the characters on which 
they are based have no existence in nature, as he has since 
virtually acknowledged by omitting all mention of the group 
Pheopus in his new edition of the “ Régne Animal.” This is, 
in fact, one of those very natural small genera which do not 


ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 507 


admit even of well-based sections. If the species were numer- 
ous, we might perhaps divide them into those with white rumps, 
and those which have no white on that part, or into those show- 
ing the crown of the head marked with a central line, and those 
without this line. There being, however, but few species, we 
consider it more philosophical to view them as an undivided 
genus, beginning with the larger and ending with the smaller 
species: but at all events, the marks we have indicated (of 
the head and croup), together with those of the under wing- 
coverts and long axillary feathers, furnish us with what we 
have called the clue of the genus. For example, the Vumenius 
arquata of Europe is distinguished by its head, not parted by 
the central line, its large size, long arched bill, white rump, 
white under wing-coverts and axillary feathers: its American 
analogue, whose still Jonger bill has gained for it the name 
of longtrostris, has the croup of the same dark colour as the 
body, with the under wing-coverts, &c., rust coloured. The 
phceopus of Europe and Hudsonicus of North America, similar 
in colour and stature, and each ornamented with the medial 
coronal line, are in like manner distinguishable, the former by 
the white, the other by the dark-coloured croup; and by the 
under-coverts, in the European white banded with black, 
whilst in the American they are banded with black and rusty. 
The two smallest, the present American species and the J. 
tenuirostris of Europe, though less completely analogous, are 
nevertheless both destitute of the coronal line: the present has 
the rump dark, and the under wing-coverts banded with black 
and rusty; while the slender-billed has them pure white, 
as well as the rump and ground of the tail-feathers. The 
diminutive size of the Esquimaux curlew will certainly prevent 
its being confounded with the gigantic N. longirostris, espe- 
cially as its bill is remarkably short, and but little arcuated. 
The reader will here have already remarked, we are con- 
fident, the curious fact, that all the Huropean species of 
Numenius have white rumps and white under wing-coverts ; 
whilst the American all have the former uniform in colour 


508 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 


with the remainder of the plumage, and the latter rust col- 
oured. 

The true Esquimaux curlew (we say the ¢rwe, for it is neither 
the Esquimaux curlew of Wilson nor of the “Arctic Zoology”) is 
one of the four species that are destitute of the medial coronal 
line. It is easily known from the large species by its diminu- 
tive size; from the small ones, by wanting the white rump; from 
all, by its very short bill. 

It is but half the size of the species that has usurped its 
name of short-billed, being hardly fourteen inches in length, 
and twenty-four in breadth. The bill is no more than two 
and a half inches long, but little arched, remarkably slender, 
blackish, the lower mandible rufous at base: the head is pale, 
with longitudinal lines of brown: the forehead is deep brown, 
with pale spots : although there is no medial line, it is some- 
what indicated by yellowish marks on that part: the eye- 
brows and chin are whitish ; the neck, breast, belly, and vent 
are rufous white, the two first dashed with brown streaks and 
arrowheads, and a few slender streaks on the vent: the 
feathered parts of the thighs are rufous-white, spotted with 
brown; the sides under the wings, rufous, transversely fas- 
ciated with brown: the back is of a deep brown, the feathers 
margined with yellowish grey in a serrated manner, and the 
croup is uniform with the rest. The wings are long, reach- 
ing much beyond the tail ; they are brown: the shafts of the 
prime quills are white; the secondaries and lesser coverts 
margined with grey: the lower coverts, as well as the long 
axillary feathers, are ferruginous banded with brown: the 
rump is brown, the feathers edged and spotted with whitish. 
The tail is short, brown ash, crossed with darker bands, and 
slightly edged with whitish. ‘The legs are bluish black ; the 
tarsus is one and three-quarter incheslong. 'The female is per- 
fectly similar to the male, except a very little inferiority in size. 

This exclusively American bird is widely spread throughout 
both sections of the new continent, being traced from the fens 
of Hudson’s Bay, in the extreme north, to the warm climates 


ESQUIMAUX CURLEW, 509 


of Brazil, Monte Video, and Paraguay, a circumstance which, 
however recently observed or extraordinary, is often repeated 
with the waders that are peculiar to America. D’Azara in- 
forms us that in Paraguay this species makes its passage in 
the month of September, and keeps in the open champaigns, 
either wet or dry, and never on the borders of rivers or marshes ; 
hence he calls it field curlew, Chorlito champetre. 

At Hudson’s Bay this curlew makes its appearance early 
in May, coming from the south, and going farther north, re- 
turning again to Albany Fort in August: it remains there 
till September, when it departs for the south. It is common 
in Maine and Nova Scotia during the months of October and 
November, and still more so at Newfoundland. We have re- 
ceived it from Maine, and from Prairie du Chien in Michigan, 
and have occasionally met with it also in the markets of New 
York and Philadelphia. In the middle States, however, it is 
by no means common, having escaped the industrious Wilson. 
This fact proves that our curlew is fond of extremely remote 
regions, without remaining for any length of time in the inter- 
vening countries between its winter and summer residences. 
They collect in small flocks of from ten to twenty ; and when 
starting on the wing, utter a cry resembling b7bz: this whistling 
note may be heard at a distance. The Esquimaux curlew 
lays four eggs, and keeps in flocks, composed of young and old 
together : they feed much on the berries of Himpetrum nigrum, 
which imparts to their flesh a delicate flavour. 

It has been the lot of all the species of curlews to be wantonly 
confounded with each other: only two were reckoned as 
Kuropean, and in them were merged as identical the three 
American. The longirostris was first definitively disunited 
from the arquata by Wilson. Vieillot unaccountably con- 
founded as one two very different species, giving it more than 
one name, however. The Hudsonicus, though correctly de- 
scribed by Latham, was referred by all writers, including 
Temminck, to the Huropean whimbrel, N. pheeopus. The 
present one he forebore, through extreme caution, to unite also 


510 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 


with it, observing that it might be a real species, or at least a 
constant variety. But when the bird actually fell into his 
hands, he called his specimens, which were from South 
America, Numenius brevirostris, not recognising in them 
the NV. borealis of Latham. 

Although we call this bird Esquimaux curlew, it would 
perhaps be better to condemn this name altogether, and give 
this one the really appropriate name of short-billed curlew, 
although this as well as the former appellation has been mis- 
applied. As for the legitimate scientific name, this also 
might be disputed. Borealis was first given by Gmelin to the 
Hudsonian curlew, but as he called them Scolopax, we have 
preferred retaining the appellation of Latham, who is admir- 
ably correct with respect to the curlews, being only wrong 
perhaps in the choice of the name, and certainly in the citation 
of Gmelin. As for Temminck, in declaring that the new 
species of Lichtenstein differs essentially from Latham’s WN. 
borealis (a fact which was doubted by the accurate German 
himself), he must have had in view our NV. Hudsonicus, Lath., 
the Scolopax borealis of Gmelin. 

We can form no opinion on the JN. rufiventris of Vigors, a 
supposed new curlew from the north-west coast : the diagnosis 
is certainly inconclusive, not embracing the essential characters, 
and establishes no difference between it and WV. Hudsonicus, 
of which it also has the size. 

The NV. Madagascariensis of Brisson forms a seventh species 
of Numenius peculiar to southern Africa and Oceanica, allied 
to the arquata and longirostris : it is figured on the PI. Enl. 
198, of Buffon. We do not know either WN. virgatus or N. 
lineatus of Cuvier, but one of them, at all events, will have to 
be referred to the Madagascariensis. 


Ll Florida Gallinue. 2. Yellow-breasied Frail. 


Galiimua galeata. ‘Ralls noveboracensis. 
ry jee 


FLORIDA GALLINULE. Sit 


FLORIDA GALLINULE. (Gallinula galeata.) 
PLATE XXVII.—Fic. 1. 


Crex galeata, Lichtenstein, Verzeich. Mus. Berlin, p. 81, sp. 826.—Gallinula 
chloropus, Wob. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 275.—Fulica major pulla, fronte 
cera coccinea oblongo-quadrata glabra obducta, membrana digitorum, angus- 
tissima, Browne, Nat. Hist. of Jam. p. 479 (Red-faced Coote).—The Coot, 
Sloane, Jamaica, ii. p. 320, sp. 15.—My Collection. 


In all cases wherein we find two animals, however similar or 
apparently identical in other respects, but restricted within 
very far distant localities, between which no line of com- 
munication can be traced, and beyond which, as in the present, 
case, they are not known to perform great periodical migra- 
tions, we may boldly assert that the individuals of the different 
countries belong to distinct species, having sprung from a 
different centre of creation, and not being descendants of the 
same original type. The few known exceptions to this ex- 
cellent general rule are daily falling in with it, as they come 
under the closer observation of the more and more practised 
eye of the naturalist ; and since the separation into different 
species of the gallinules that inhabit the different parts of the 
globe, there is reason to think that no exception whatever will 
be admitted to exist, and that all that remain are owing to 
the want of sufficiently minute comparison and examination. 
No birds, in fact, reappear in widely separated longitudes 
under forms and colours so similar as the gallinules, of which 
we are treating, and if all the species were found in the same 
country, they would hardly be looked upon even as individual 
varieties. Yet, upon the principle we have set forth, and 
which we do not fear to maintain, they have a right, and 
ought properly to be considered as real species. How different 
is the stand we now take, fortified by observations in the great 
field of nature, from that arbitrarily adopted by Buffon, who, 
on the contrary, saw everywhere the same species reproduced, 
but changed by climate, or I know not what, and, whenever he 


512 FLORIDA GALLINULE. 


could, referred every new bird he met with to the paltry crea- 
tions of Europe ! 

But to come to facts, and without longer indulging in 
theory, we shall merely state that the Florida gallinule dif- 
fers specifically from the common gallinule of Europe no 
less than the Java gallinule (Gallinula ardosiaca, Vieill.), 
although the differences are almost imperceptible, so as to 
justify those who have not hitherto distinguished between 
them, among whom we are to be included ourselves. The 
true Gallinula chloropus is spread over all Europe and the 
temperate parts of Asia, and is also met with throughout the 
continent of Africa from east to west and from north to south. 
We have examined specimens from Egypt, others from Sene- 
gambia and fromthe Cape of Good Hope. The size varies much, 
even in specimens from the same country, but the G. chloropus 
and ardostaca have always the toes shorter than our American 
analogue. In fact, even in the largest specimen examined by 
Lichtenstein, which was from Caffraria, and measured four- 
teen and a half inches, the middle toe without the nail was 
only twenty-six lines long; whilst in the Florida specimens 
of the ordinary size of fourteen inches, the same toe measures 
at least thirty-four lines. The tarsus, likewise, and the other 
toes, are proportionally longer, and this forms the best dis- 
criminating mark. Another might also be drawn from the 
frontal clypeus, but as this extends with age in the different 
species, it may be deceptive. In full-grown birds, however, 
it is proper to observe, that both the American and Javan 
species differ from the common kind in having it much wider 
and differently shaped: in the American it extends still 
farther back, and is cut somewhat square behind, whilst the 
Javan has it exactly rounded ; in the European it is much 
less extended, narrow, and comparatively acute. ‘In point 
of form, markings, proportions of the primaries, and every 
other particular we could think of, we have been unable to 
find any distinction, however trifling, between the three 
species. 


FLORIDA GALLINULE. 513 


The genus gallinule, restrained within its just limits,* is a 
small group composed of but five or six species, spread over 
all the warm and temperate climates of the globe, and exceed- 
ingly similar in form and colours: only one, that figured by 
Wilson, assumes the brilliant vesture of its near relations 
the Porphyriones, for which reason some authors have consi- 
dered it as one of them. Together with the rails, the coots, 
and some others, it forms the natural family JJacrodactyli 
(Rallide), and is more aquatic in its habits than many web- 
footed birds. Unlike the coots, however, the gallinules dislike 
salt or brackish water, and confine themselves to fresh, and to 
rivers and streams especially ; and they are solitary, or at most 
the hen is seen with her family, like the gallinaceous birds of 
that sex. Being chiefly nocturnal, the gallinules hide care- 
fully by day among reeds and other aquatic plants; and 
even in a state of captivity they are so remarkable for this 
habit, that some which I kept in a yard would take advantage 
of every hiding-place to escape the eye of man. It was only 
at the approach of night that they would willingly display 
on the water their graceful evolutions, swimming in circles, 
and often striking the water with their tails. From time to 
time they would rest awhile, placing their necks on the reeds 
or large leaves of aquatic plants. 

Not gifted by nature with the long wings of other waders, 
the water-hens, being anything but wanderers, obey both their 
conformation and natural disposition by not undertaking long 
periodical migrations, but are permanently resident in their 
native countries, merely removing from one station to another 
within certain provinces, and without roaming over the adja- 
cent districts. They run with rapidity, fly badly, always in 
motion, and frequently carry their tail high, as represented 
in the plate, showing the white plumage of the vent, especi- 
ally when running onthe ground. They dive when frightened, 
but never after food. They feed on small fishes, insects, and 

* The greater part of authors, and among them Latham and Tem- 


minck, improperly unite the short-billed rails with them. 
VOL. III. Da 


514 FLORIDA GALLINULE. 


some vegetables, picking them up as they swim. They seldom 
leave the pond or river where they get their food and exer- 
cise, and are peculiarly attached to such as are bordered with 
sedge and bushes; and standing waters, green with vegeta- 
tion, furnish them with abundant provision of animalcula and 
pond-weeds. ‘They lay twice or thrice in a season, building 
their nest upon low trees, stumps, and logs, with sticks and 
fibrous substances, rushes and weeds, or other coarse materials 
in great abundance, invariably placing it by the waterside. 
The eggs are very long, of a greenish white, spotted with 
rufous, and very pointed at the small end. There are nine 
or ten in the first brood, the subsequent ones less and less 
numerous, and the mother never leaves the nest without care- 
fully covering them with weeds. The chicks are no sooner 
hatched than they swim with instinctive dexterity, pursuing 
their parent, and imitating all her motions. 'Thus are two or 
three broods reared in a season, which, while under her care, 
she regularly after their evening’s sport leads back to the 
nest, where she uses every exertion to make them warm, dry, 
and comfortable; but when grown up, and taught to provide 
for themselves, she turns them off. 

The Florida gallinule, or water-hen, is fourteen inches long ; 
the bill one and a quarter to the corner of the mouth, and 
one and an eighth to the posterior portion of the elypeus ; it 
is red, as well as the clypeus, with the point greenish. This 
clypeus, or bare red membrane spreading over the forehead, 
is more than half an inch wide between the eyes, occupying a 
ereat portion of the head, and being posteriorly cut somewhat 
square or slightly cordate, the reverse of what is observed in 
the European, which is rather pointed at this place. The 
whole plumage from the very base is of a dark plumbeous hue, 
or sooty black, the head and neck being a shade darker, and the 
lower portion lighter, and more tinged with bluish, so that 
they might be styled cinereous. The mantle, that is, the whole 
back with the wing-coverts, is highly tinged with olivaceous ; 
the quills are blackish, and the tail deep black, much more 


FLORIDA GALLINULE. 515 


than in the other allied species. The under tail-coverts are 
also deep black, with the lateral pure white: the white also 
lines the wings externally from all round the shoulder, almost, 
but not quite, to the tip of the outer quill, which is white on 
half the outer part of its narrow web: a few white longi- 
tudinal spots may likewise be seen on the under wing-coverts, 
and very large and conspicuous ones along the flanks, and a 
few whitish streaks mixed with the plumbeous on the belly. 
The wings are nearly seven inches long, and the tail more 
than three. The feet are greenish, with a red ring like a 
garter surrounding the tibia: the bare space on this is nearly 
three-quarters, and the tarsus two inches and three-eighths: 
the middle toe without the nail is more than two and a half, 
and the nail itself three-quarters: the lateral toes measure 
more than two, and the hind, one and an eighth. The sexes 
are precisely alike. 

The little that is known of the habits of this gallinule does 
not allow us to doubt that it has all those of its close analogues. 
It is common in Florida and Jamaica on the streams and pools, 
and extends over a great portion of the southern continent of 
America : in the middle and northern United States it appears 
to be quite accidental, for although a few well-authenticated 
instances are known of its having been seen and shot, even 
as far as Albany in the State of New York, it has escaped the 
researches of Wilson as well as my own. It is by no means, 
therefore, a common bird, and is not known as inhabiting 
Arctic America, ranging much less to the north, even as a 
straggler, than its Huropean analogue. Its voice is sonorous, 
resembling ka, ka, ka. 

The genus Gallinula hasthe bill shorter than the head, rather 
stout, much higher than broad, tapering, compressed, straight, 
convex at the point: both mandibles are furrowed, the upper 
covers the margins of the lower, is inclined at the point, and 
spreads at base into a naked membrane occupying the forehead. 
This conformation, found also in the /’ulzce, to which Linné 
united-them, more judiciously than they have since been united 


516 FLORIDA GALLINULE. 


with the rails, in which the front is feathered, is in my opinion 
of considerable importance: the lower mandible is navicular : 
the tongue is moderate, compressed, entire. The legs have 
been described among the characters of the family, the ante- 
rior toes being in all extremely long, flattened beneath, and 
bordered by a narrow membrane, which circumstance alone 
distinguishes the gallinules from the coots, that have a broad 
membrane cut into festoons. The hind toe bears on the 
ground with several joints: the nails are compressed, subarched, 
and rather acute. The wings are convex rounded ; the first 
primary is shorter than the fifth, the second and third being 
longest. The tail is so short as hardly to appear from under 
the coverts. The females scarcely differ from the males, but 
the young are different from the adults. They moult annually. 

The family Macrodactyli, or Rallidc, when restricted to the 
five genera of which we compose it (one being Fulica, which 
nothing but blind caprice could separate from them), is sur- 
prisingly natural. ‘The bill is short or of moderate length in 
the long-billed rails, hard, thick at the base, straight, com- 
pressed, entire, curved at the point, and sharp on the edges. 
The head is small, the neck well proportioned, the body 
slender and much compressed. The feet are moderate, rather 
robust, and without exception four-toed: the naked space on 
the tibia is rather limited ; the tarsus not longer, generally 
shorter, than the middle toe, and scwtellated: the toes are 
three before and one behind, remarkably long (the most 
obvious trait of the family), slender, quite divided, and edged 
with a decurrent membrane: the hind toe is rather long, 
articulated almost on a level with the others, resting on 
the ground a good part of its length: the nails are slender, 
compressed, and acute. The wings rather short, wide, some- 
what rounded, concave, and tuberculated ; the first primary is 
not much shorter than the second, the third or fourth being 
the longest. ‘The tail is short, and of twelve feathers. 

The female is smaller, but otherwise differs little from the 
other sex: the young often differ from the adults: even those 


FLORIDA GALLINULE. 517 


that moult twice in a year do not change their colours in 
moulting. 

All these birds have very similar habits: they are all soli- 
tary ; all fond of concealment and the immediate neighbour- 
hood of water: they move nimbly about on marsh plants, 
walking on the softest mud, and even floating weeds, their 
characteristic long toes serving admirably the purpose of a 
broad base, Their food is small animals, seeds and vegetables. 
They are monogamous, and breed several times in the year: 
they build their nests on, or close to the water, some being 
even afloat, and therefore liable to be carried away in floods. 
The number of eggs varies from five to sixteen, and they are 
rounded : both sexes alternately sit upon them. The young 
run about under the parental care, and provide for themselves 
as soon as hatched; they aré remarkably brisk and lively, 
being born with a thick down of a beautiful velvet black 
colour, whatever else it may finally become. Those that migrate 
travel by night: owing to their short rounded wings, composed 
of flaccid feathers, their flight is slow and limited, and by no 
means rapid, so that they only have recourse to it in the last 
extremity, when it is performed with the legs hanging down 
in a way peculiar to themselves, and not stretched out as in 
the other waders, or drawn up to the belly as in the generality 
of birds. It is in running that they excel, and with their long 
compressed body they make their way so adroitly and swiftly 
amongst the grass or weeds, that their pursuers are left far 
behind. They also swim well, and even dive occasionally 
when there is necessity for it. ‘Their flight is, however, rapid 
when elevated and fairly started. Their voice is strong but 
hoarse. ‘Their flesh is well flavoured. 


518 YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 


YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. (Rallus noveboracensis.) 
PLATE XXVII.—Fic. 2. 


Gallinula noveboracensis, Lath. Ind. ii. p. 771, sp. 16.—Fulica noveboracensis, 
Gmel. Syst. i. p. 701, sp. 15.—Rallus Ruficollis, Viewl/. Gal. Oits. ii. p. 168, 
pl. 266 (a bad figure).—Rallus noveboracensis, WVob. Cat. Birds U. S.; Id. 
Syn. sp. 273; Id. Sp. comp. sp. Phil. 212.—Perdix Hudsonica? Lath. Ind. 
il. p. 655, sp. 41.—Le Rale varié a gorge rousse, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. xviii. p. 
556.—Yellow-breasted Gallinule, Lath. Syn. iii. p. 262, sp. 15; Id. Gen. 
Hist. ix. p. 419, sp. 30.—Penn. Arct. Zoel. ii. sp. 410.—Hudsonian Quail? 
Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. 224 ; Id. Gen. Hist. viii. p. 330, sp. 72.—American 
Museum at New York. 


THE genus rail, and that of the gallinules, are so closely re- 
lated, that many authors have either confounded them together, 
or by their various definitions and acceptations made them to 
interfere with each other. hus, for Latham, T’emminck, and 
others, the short-billed rails, among which ranks the present 
species, are gallinules, although they want that obvious char- 
acter upon which Linné founded his natural, though too much 
extended, group Fulica, and which we also, with Vieillot and 
others, adopt as its best representative character, namely, the 
naked frontal clypeus. ‘The genus rail is therefore very com- 
prehensive and numerous in species, which are spread over all 
the globe, and may with propriety be divided into two sub- 
eenera or groups, the first of which will contain the long-billed 
species, under the more restricted name of allus, containing 
the true Rallz of all authors, whilst the name Ovex, or rather 
Porzana or Ortygometra, may be consecrated to the short- 
billed rails, improperly ranked by authors with the gallinules. 
I say rather Porzana or Ortygometra, because the name Crex 
might be reserved for a secondary group, instituted for the 
corncrake alone (fallus crex, L.),a European bird, whose dry- 
land habits, so different from those of its congeners, have, 
with apparent propriety, induced Bechstein and others to ele- 
vate it to the rank of a full genus. Its land habits are so 
peculiar, resembling more those of gallinaceous birds than of 


ee 


VELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 519 


waders, that notwithstanding a perfect similarity of confor- 
mation, we do not hesitate to grant it the distinction of a 
section for itself, especially as we are at last, after a minute 
examination, able to assign it a character drawn from the 
respective proportions of the toes and tarsus. This is, however, 
the result of extraordinary pains. In the land-crake of Europe 
(and probably in a few analogous foreign species), the middle toe 
without the nail is shorter than the tarsus, whilst in the water- 
crakes it islonger. The hind toe is also shorter and rather more 
elevated from the ground. All the other rails and crakes are, 
though much less aquatic than the gallinules and coots, al- 
ways found in marshes, swamps, lakes and their reedy margins, 
or in their vicinity, and they even swim occasionally, though 
not habitually. The Ortygometre, or crakes, are again sub- 
divided by the modern English school into two groups, which 
they elevate to the dignity of genera, under the names of 
crake and craker, but to which they assign no character. At 
least Dr Leach, the author of the genus Zapornia, did not, as 
far as I know, characterise the group, nor is my good friend 
at present able to point out the difference. However this 
may be, the only species referred to it is the Huropean Ltallus 
pusillus, whilst its close relative the porzana, and even the 
R. Baillonii are left in Ortygometra with the Rallus crea, 
which, with great inconsistency, the same writers omit to dis- 
tinguish separately, as has been done by some Germans and 
Italians. It will not be useless here to bear in mind that even 
the two chief divisions of this natural genus pass so insensibly 
into each other as to make it impossible to separate the con- 
necting species, so that a great many Brazilian rails are arbi- 
trarily placed in either subgenus, notwithstanding that the 
extremes—which among the four North American species 
may be exemplified by this, the yellow-breasted namely, and 
the Virginia rail—are so widely different ; and this furnishes 
additional proof of the inexpediency of Latham’s arrangement, 
llowever it may have since been admired and imitated. Our 
genus rail, which we maintain to be natural, though closely 


520 YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 


related to Gallinula, and especially Porphyrio, is easily known 
at once from them all by the feathered front, common to all 
the species. 

The bill, varying in length, which affords the means of dis- 
tinguishing the two subgenera, is in all the rails more or 
less thick at base, generally straight, and always compressed : 
the upper mandible is furrowed each side, somewhat vaulted 
and curved at tip, its base extending upwards between the 
feathers of the front: the nostrils, placed in the furrow, are 
medial, oblong or longitudinal, open and pervious beneath, and 
covered at base by a membrane (by which conformation they 
differ essentially from the Porphyrios) : the tongue is mode- 
rate, narrow, compressed, entire, acute, fibrous at tip: the 
forehead is feathered: the body very compressed and thin 
flanked. The naked space on the tibia is small, the tarsi 
subequal to the middle toe, somewhat compressed, so as to 
make up for the want of membrane in the analogy to the web- 
footed that other less aquatic wading birds exhibit. We are 
particular in remarking this, for the toes are entirely divided, 
and the decurrent membrane extremely narrow. The hind toe 
equals in length one phalanx of the middle, and is inserted a 
little higher than the others: the nails are short, compressed, 
curved, and acute. ‘The first primary is shorter than the 
fifth ; the second, third, and fourth being the longest. The 
tail is very short, the feathers flaccid, not appearing from be- 
neath the coverts. 

The female is generally, though not always, similar to the 
male, an exception being met with in one of the small 
European species. The young differ much from the adult. 
They moult twice a year. 

The bill of the subgenus fallus (true rails) may be thus 
described: Longer than the head, slender, straight, subequal 
throughout, compressed at base, cylindrical and obtuse at the 
point; upper mandible furrowed beyond the base; nostrils 
more basal, linear. 

In the crakes, of which the present is an example, the bill 


VELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 521 


is shorter than the head, robust, much higher than broad at 
base, tapering, compressed and acute at the point: upper 
mandible furrowed at base only, a little curved at tip: the 
lower is navicular: the nostrils exactly medial, oblong. Ap- 
parently the group is easy to define; but as if nature took 
delight in baffling our attempts at exactness, the species are 
found to pass from one form to another by nice and insensible 
degrees. 

This rail, like all others, inhabits swamps, marshes, and 
the reedy margins of ditches and lakes. By a singular coin- 
cidence, it was in the market of New York that, in the begin- 
ning of February 1826, I first met with this pretty species, 
which appears to have escaped the industrious research of 
Wilson, although found equally in Pennsylvania in winter, 
where it is, however, very rare. We can hardly believe it is 
to be found in the south or south-west, notwithstanding we 
have been credibly informed of the circumstance. But we 
have no hesitation in declaring it an arctic bird, for we do 
not doubt that it is the Hudsonian quail of Latham, thus 
miscalled by superficial observers on account of its general 
resemblance in plumage and size to the true quail of Europe ; 
besides which, we have received it ourselves from the extreme 
northern limits of the American continent, and have informa- 
tion of its inhabiting near the most north-western lakes, such 
as the Athabasca. 

The crakes, as well as the true rails, lead a solitary life: 
they are timid and shy, screening themselves from observation 
amidst the tall reeds, so as hardly ever to be seen except when 
surprised, which does not very often happen, and forced for 
a moment to have recourse to their short wings. But they 
prefer to evade dangers by their rapid movements among the 
aquatic herbage, which the compressed form of their body 
enables them to execute with the greatest facility, however 
entangled the stalks or narrow the interstices. They also 
swim and dive tolerably well, when compelled to take the 
water, hiding all but the tip of the bill, but are by no means so 


322 VELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 


essentially aquatic as the gallinules, or their close relatives 
the Porphyriones. hey also breed in marshes, among weeds 
and thickets, placing the nest near the water's edge, or, fasten- 
ing it to the reeds, they build a floating habitation. In most 
of the species (how it is in the present we do not know) the 
eggs are about eight, generally seven or nine in number, 
their colour being always of green, more or less tinged with 
olive, and very oval in shape. Different in this from the 
gallinules, they prefer stagnant to clear waters, and always 
keep where the grass is high, and particularly avoid sand and 
exposed shores. Notwithstanding their apparently limited 
powers of flight, and a conformation similar to that of the 
sedentary, unenterprising gallinules, they periodically under- 
take great journeys. They walk with agility and ease, raising 
their head, elevating their feet, and jerking up their tail: 
they alight sometimes on low branches, never on trees, except 
to escape a very close chase. Of a nocturnal disposition, they 
hide closely by day, seeking their food in the morning and 
evening, or by moonlight, when they emerge from their 
retreats. ‘Their food is both animal and vegetable; they 
search eagerly after worms and snails, and are no less fond 
of certain leaves and the seeds of marsh plants. 

The following description is taken from a fine male, pro- 
cured, as we have mentioned, in the neighbourhood of New 
York in the winter. 

Length, hardly six inches ; extent, about ten: bill six-eighths 
of an inch long, exceedingly compressed, of a greenish-dusky 
at base beneath on the margins of both mandibles, and the 
ridge near the front dull yellowish orange ; inides dark drab ; 
feet dirty flesh colour ; tarsus one inch; middle toe an inch 
and one-eighth long. Base of the whole plumage slate. 
Head above chocolate-brown, the feathers being slightly 
skirted with cinnamon-ferruginous, and on the hind part 
minutely dotted at tip with white ; over each eyea broad stripe 
of cinnamon-ferruginous, a chocolate spot between the bill and 
eye inconspicuously continued beyond it; the chocolate-brown 


VELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 523 


colour descends from the nucha to the back on the upper part 
of the neck in a broad stripe, the feathers of which are 
widely skirted with cinnamon-ferruginous, and crossed by 
two narrow white bands, one of which is terminal; those 
nearer to the neck, and the feathers of the rump, having only 
the terminal band ; sides of the neck and whole under surface 
yellowish ferruginous, each feather being tipped with darker 
ferruginous, which gives a waved appearance to those parts, 
the waves being more intense on the lateral parts: throat and 
belly whitish, but passing insensibly into the general colour ; 
flanks and thighs darker, with the two white transverse lines, 
as on the back. Wings when closed reaching to the tip of the 
tail; upper wing-coverts dark slate broadly margined with olive- 
ferruginous, and each with two white narrow spots represent- 
ing the usual lines; margin and spots becoming by degrees 
inconspicuous towards the outer coverts ; inferior wing-coverts 
and axillary feathers white; quill-feathers plain greyish, con- 
siderably lighter beneath, and with the shafts above darker ; 
last of the primaries and first of the secondaries with two or 
three white dots very irregularly disposed, five or six nearest 
to the body white on a great part at tip, the last becoming, 
however, more generally greyish, and only mottled with 
white ; tertials, or rather scapulars, blackish, very widely bor- 
dered each side with different shades of yellowish ferrugi- 
nous, of which the palest is outside, and crossed by the two 
narrow white lines, having besides a rudiment of a third, 
equidistant; these scapulars form a whole with the wing- 
coverts and the feathers of the back, being of the same colour, 
only somewhat more brilliant. ‘Tail very short, feathers 
blackish, each side ferruginous, with the two white lines, but 
interrupted, and neither at the tip ; the tail is altogether con- 
cealed in its upper and lower coverts; the upper are of the 
same colour, but have only a terminal white band, whilst the 
inferior are black at base, and with a broad and vividly 
ferruginous tip. 

This is the most brilliant specimen I have seen, and I must 


524 . VELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 


declare that it had all the appearance of being adult. Others 
did not, however, differ in anything except in having the 
colours duller and less decided ; nor did I notice any difference 
between the sexes, except a little in size, the female being 
smaller. According to Vieillot, however, the plumage I have 
so minutely described could have been only that of the young 
bird: he states the adult male to be different in colour both 
from the adult female and the young; but as the differences 
appear to consist more in the language of his imperfect de- 
scriptions than in anything else, we shall bestow no further 
notice upon them. 


GENERAL INDEX 


OF 


ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


The names printed in italics are the species introduced into the notes, not men- 
tioned in the original ; those with the asterisk prefixed are synonyms. 


vol. page. 3 vol. page 
Accipiter fringilloides, Vig. . ii 216) Anas Canadensis ii 468 
Accipiter Mexicanus, Sw. ii 216 | *Anas Carolinensis, Lath. iii 24 
Accipiter Pennsylvanicus,Sw. ii 211, 216 | Anas clangula . . ii 476 
Aglaius icterocephalus, Jard. . iii 184) Anas clypeata, Linn. . ii 480 
Aglaius pecoris, Sw. i 285 | Anas crecca . iii 24 
Aglaius pheeniceus, Sw. . ii 22} Anas discors . ool cep 
*Alca alle, Linn. iii 122 | Anas ferina oil BY/ 
Alca impennis, Linn, iii 124 | Anas fuligula . - hi 475 
Alca torda, Linn. iii 124 | Anas fusca . ii 69 
Alauda alpestris, Linn. i 8)| Anas glacialis . - iii 16 
Alauda calandra, Linn. . - 1 86| Anas histrionica a. ath | 
*Alauda cornuta, Sw. i 85, 87 | *Anas hyemalis, Linn. iii 16, 19 
*Alauda Ludoviciana, Gm. ii 185 | Anas hyperborea ii 493, iii 12 
Alauda magna i 311 | *Anas Jamaicensis, Ord . Mii DD 
*Alauda Pennsylvania, 1 Briss. ii 185 | Anas Labradora iii 14 
Alauda rufa - ii 185| Anas marilla . 0 iii 6 
Alcedo, Linn. —genus i 348, 349 | *Anas migratoria, Bart. lii 24 
Alcedo alcyon, Linn. i 348 | Anas mollissima iii 49 
Alcedo dea, Linn. . i 349} Anas nigra iii 67 
Alcedo rufipes, Cuv. ‘ i 349] Anas obscura . iii 72 
*American vulture, Shaw iii 125} Anas perspicillata . ii 465 
Ammodramus, Sw.—genus ii 69 | *Anas Peay aelue, Ray ii 480 
Ammodramus Henslowii, Aud. ii 71) Anasrubidus . iii 55 
Ammodramus maritima. ii 69/} *Anas rustica, Lath. ii 467 
Ampelidee 2 A - i117) Anas sponsa, Linn. . iii 20 
Ampelis Americana, 1 106) Anas strepera . iii 47 
*Ampelis garrulus, Linn. i 106, ili 352 | Anas valisneriana, Wils. . iii 27 
Anatide : 0 iii 73| Anser, Bechst.—genus . ii 468 
Anas acuta ii 489 | Anser "albifr Ons, Bechst. 5 wan 7/5) 
Anas albeola ii 467 , *Anser bernicla, Sw. and Rich. iii 63 
Anas Americana iii 9/|*Anser brenta, Flem. iii 63 
Anas bernicla . iii 63)| Anser Canadensis, Vieill. li 468 
Anas boschas . iii 39| Anser hyperboreus, Bonap. ii 493, ii 12 
*Anas bucephala, Lath. ii 467 | Anser segetum, Meyer iii 75 


520 


vol. page 
Antcatcher, Rocky Mountain. iii 164 
Anthus, Bechst.—genus . ii 185 


Anthus Ludovicianus, Bonap. ii 185 
Anthus pipiens, Aud. . ii 185 
*Anthus spinoletta, Bonap. ii 185 


Apternus arcticus, Sw. 


GENERAL INDEX 


vol. page 
Bird, death. 2 2 5 th OVS 
*Bird, egg, Forst. ii 80 
Bird, humming i 176 


*Bird, humming, red- throated, 
Edw. . i 176 


i *Bird, humming, ruby-throated, 

* Aquila chrysztus, Willough. ii 308] Aud. 176 
*Aramus Carau, Vieill. . ili 496 | Bird, humming, ru ffed-necked. i177 
* Aramus scolopaceus iii 496 | Bird, indigo i 99 
*Arcuata minor, Marsig. ili 419 | Bird, king ; i 215 
Ardea alba,Gm. . ii 403 Bird, meadow, Aud. i 193 
Ardea Americana ii 435 | Bird, mocking 3 : . 1163 
Ardea candidissima ii 404, “414, 417 Bird, oven, Aveda 9 less 
Ardea ccerulea - ii 414| *Bird, rice, Catesb. . i 198 
* Ardea coerulescens, Turt. . ii 414 Bird, snake. A til 100, 106 
Ardea egretta . . iii 403 *Bird, summer, yellow 7s Bart. 1 258 
Ardea exilis, Bonap. li 395, 454) Bird, tropic . 5 5 ath 7 
Ardea Herodias, Linn. . . li 444] Bird, yellow . é 0 se SEE 
*Ardea leucogaster, Ord . - ili 428 Blackbird, common. crow iii 197 
* Ardea leuce, Mig. . li 403| *Blackbird, crow, Bart. . i 333 
Ardea Ludoviciana, Wils, - li 428] Blackbird, great crow iii 191 
Ardea minor . - - ii 452) *Blackbird, marsh, Aud. = lit 322 
*Ardea mokoko, W agl. 0 - ii 452} Bittern, American. ii 452 
Ardea nycticorax of : - ii 399| *Bittern, crested, Catesb. ii 442 
Ardea Pealii, Bonap. ii 404, iii 482 | Bittern, least . c li 454 
Ardea pusilla . : ; - li 395] *Boat- tail, common purple i 333 
Ardea scapularis . 2 5h Sis Bombycilla Americana, Sw. i 106 
*Ardea scolopacea, Gm. iii 496 | *Bombycilla Carolinensis, Briss. i 106 
Ardea violacea . : . ui 442! Bombycilla, garrula i 109, iii 352 
Ardea virescens . - ii 395| Bombycilla, phenicoptera, Temm. i 109 
Ardeola, Bonap. —genus. . ii 454| *Bonasa cupido, Steph. i 392 
Astur, Bechst. —genus . . ii 288] Bonasia umbellus, one 5 ait Arial 
Astur ‘atricapillus, Bonap . ii 287| Booby . iii 102 
Astur Cooperii, Bonap.? . iii 260 Paschia, Willough. —-genus ii 39 
Astur? hyemalis, Jard. . - ii 73] Boschas Carolinensis, Jard. lii 24 
Astur? latissimus, Jard. - ii 298| Boschas? discors, Sw. . li 491 
*Attagan Americana, Briss. . 1 392} Boschas major, Willough. iii 39 
Auk, crested é iii 123 | Boschas? obscura, Jard.. oe AL 
Auk, great iii 124 | Botaurus minor, Bonap. . . ili 452 
*Auk, little, Mont. Selby iii 122 | Brachypus, Sw.—genus . i 240 
Auk, perrequet iii 123 | *Brambling, greater iii 309 
Auk, tufted, Lath. - in 123) Brant lii 63 
Avoset, American _ 5 - - ii 423/*Brant, white, ‘Lawson li 493 
Avoset, long-legged ‘ - ti 344! Bubo, Cuv.— genus ii 259 

Bubo ar ctica, “Sw. and Rich. > 2261 
*Balbusardus haliztus, Flem. ii 104! Bubo Virginiana, Cuyaeee ii 259 
*Baltimore, bastard : - i 64] Bullfinch, crimson-necked ili 203 
Bernicla, Steph.—genus iii 63) Bullfinch, pine iii 360 
*Bernicle, brent, Selby . iii 63) Bunting, pay- -winged . opal 945 
Bernicla brenta, Steph. . iii 63} Bunting, plack-throated . Be ike 333 
*Bernicla Canadensis, Boie . ii 468| Bunting, cow . “ i 285 
Bernicla erythropus, Steph. iii 64) Bunting finches 5 i 265 
Bernicla Hutchinsit, Rich. iii 75| Bunting, Henslow’s, Aud. TSA: 
Bernicla leucopsis, Steph. iii 75 | *Bunting, indigo, Penn. . ae) 
Bernicla ruficollis, Steph. iii 64) Bunting, painted i 358 
*Bird, Baltimore, Catesb. i 16) Bunting, rice . i 198 
Bird, ‘blue i 55|*Bunting, rusty, Penn. i 341 
Bird, cat. : : . i 240} Bunting, snow i 325 
Bird, cedar. : . 1106) *Bunting, tawny, Penn. . i 325 
*Bird, chicken, Bart. i 240 | Bunting, towhe i 185, ii ere 
*Bird, chipping, Bart. i 271 | Bunting, white-crowned. all 
*Bird, cowpen, Catesb. i 285 | Buteo, Bechst.—genus ii 57 


OF ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


vol. page 
Buteo Americanus, Sw. ii 275, iii 291 
*Buteo borealis, Sw. ii 283, 286 
*Buteo lagopus, Bechst. . 2 sells 


Buteo? lineatus, Jard. ti 294 
Buteo Sancti Johannis, 

Bonap. . . i 290, 292 
*Buzzard, American, Lath. ii 283, 286 
*Buzzard, ash-coloured? Lath, ii 287 


*Buzzard, rough-legged, Selby ii 54 
Buzzard, turkey . 4 iii 125 


Calidris, Illig.—genus . ti 364 
Calidris arenaria, Illig. ii 364, 425 
Caprimulgus, Linn.—genus ii 163 


Caprimulgus Americanus, Wils. ii 161 
Caprimulgus Carolinensis ii 301 
*Caprimulgus rufus, Vieill. ii 301 
*CaprimulgusVirgini anus, Bonap.ii 161 
Caprimulgus vociferus ii 169 
Carduelis, Briss.—genus i 12 
*Carduelis Americana, Edw. ill, ii 211 
Carduelis psaltaria, Bonap. iii 208 
Carduelis pinus, Sw. i 275 
*Cathartes Sues, Sw. and 


iIRwehs) 5. 3 . ii 135 
Cathartes aura, " Ilig. 5 é abet 19355 
*Cathartes gryphus, Temm. iii 400 


iii 127 
iii 378 
ili 395 
iii 123 
i 123 
i 210 
i 122 
i 314 


Cathartes papa, Illig. A 
*Centrocercus phasianellus, Sw. 
Centrocercus urophasianus 
Cerorincha occidentalis, Bevan 
Certhia, Linn.— genus 

Certhia Car oliniana 

Certhia familiaris 

Certhia maculata 

Certhia palustris 

Certhia ? spilonata, Vig. . 
Ceyx—genus 


Chamepelia passerina, Sw. ii 218 
Chetura, Steph.—genus ii 143 
Cheetura pelasgia, ‘Steph. ii 143 
Charadrius apricarius ii 337 


Charadrius calidris . li 
Charadrius hiaticula ii 122, i ili 3 464, 479 


527 


vol. page 

Cinclus Americanus, Sw. and 
ich. 6 p . ii 345 
Cinclus Pallasii 5 ili 345 

Circus die Sw. and 

Rich. 5 iii 288 
Circus Americana ‘ i iii 290 
Circus, Bechst.—genus . iii 289 
Circus cyaneus, Bechst. . ii 272, 288 
Circus histrionicus iii 289 
*Circus Hudsonius, Vieill. iii 287 
Circus Montagui s) ai 290 
Clangula, Leach—genus . ii 476 
Clangula albeola, Boie ii 467 


Clangula Barrovii, Sw. and 

Rich. : ii 477, iii 74 
Clangula histrionica, Leach i 71 
Clangula vulgaris, Flem. ii 476 
Coccothraustes vespertina, Coop. iii 328 
Coccyzus, Vieill.—genus . ied ace 
Coccyzus Americanus, Bonap. ii 1 
Coccyzus erythropthalma, 

Bonap. Shiite 5 


Cock of the plains : iii 395 
Colaptes, Sw.—genus i 43, 113 
Colaptes auratus, Sw. . eas 
Colaptes Brasiliensis : © penis 
Colaptes Carolinus, Sw. . i 113 
Colaptes Mexicanus, Sw. 143, 44 
Columba, Linn.—genus . iii 230 
Columba Carolinensis ii 187 


Columba fasciata, Say 9 
Columba leucocephala, Linn. . iii 362 


Columba migratoria ii 195 
*Columba minuta, Turt. li 218 
Columba passerina 5 ii 218 
*Columba saxatilis, Briss. iii 362 
Columba Zenaida, Bonap. iii 365 
Colymbus, Linn.—genus . iii 107 
Colymbus arcticus . i 108 
*Colymbus colubrinus, Bart. . iii 100 
Colymbus glacialis, Linn. ili 107 
*Colymbus immer, Linn. ili 107 
Colymbus septentrionalis iil 109 
Condor iii 400 


*Charadrius marmoratus, Wagl. ii 367 | Conurus Car olinensis, Khul 6 Toye 
Charadrius melodus, Ord ii 122, iii 464 | Cormorant, Wils. : iii 101 
Charadrius Okenit, *Coot : iii 511 

Wazgl. ii 122, 361, iii 464 | Coot, cinereous : oe iS 2 
Charadrius pluvialis . li 367 | Coot, European ‘ 5 - iii 82 
Charadrius rubidus, Wils. ii 364, 425 | *Coote, red-faced ough fll 
Charadrius semipalmatus, Corvus Canadensis . - 1 322 

Bonap. . ii 360, iii 479 | Corvus Columbianus, W ils . i319 
Charadrius Virginianus, Bonap. ii 367 | Corvus corone? Linn. . 6 rel SO) 
Charadrius vociferus, Linn. ii 370 | Corvus corax, Linn. - in 144 
Charadrius Wilsonii, Ord - iii 98) Corvus cristatus, Linn. . Meme ake! 
Chat, yellow-breasted . - i 90} *Corvus Floridanus, Bonap. . iii 315 
*Chatterer, Carolina, Edw. . i 106) Corvus Hudsonicus, Sab. 6 mm FO 
Chordeiles Virgimorus, Sw. . ii 161) *Corvus Mexicanus eal O i 
Chauliodus, Sw.—genus . iii 48} Corvus ossifragus, Wils. . 5 Jarl i) 
Chauliodus strepera, Sw. . iii 47|Corvus pica . 3 5 tis 7A 
Chuck-will’s-widow F » ii 301] “Corvus Stellerii, Gm. iii 301 
Cinclus aquaticus, Temm. iii 347 | Corythus enucleator, Cuv. i 79, iii 360 


528 
vol. page 
*Cotile riparia, Boie ii 141 
Courlan, scolopaceous . lii 496 
ii 414 


Crane, blue. é 9 9 


Crane, sandhill ; : li 436 


Crane, whooping 6 i 435 
Crateropus, Sw.—genus . i 233 
Creeper, brown . i 122 
Creeper, black and white i 314 
*Creeper, common . se el 22 
Crex, Bechst.—genus . » = i 232 
Crex Carolinus, Bonap. . M232 
-*Crex galeata, Licht. . . iii 511 
Crithagra, Sw.—genus . LSU 
Crossbill, American f 5 ith GY 
Crossbill, white-winged . ii 42, iii 335 
Crow 5 ‘ 6 aut SY) 
*Crow, carrion, Sloane iii 125, 135 
*Crow, cinereous, Penn. Se 22 
Crow, ‘Clark’s 0 : 6 2 aly) 
Crow, fish ; 5 nit hit) 


*Crow, Steller’s, Penn. 0 . in 301 
*Cuculus Americanus, Tin alee el: 
Cuculus Carolinensis 3.6 tt 

Cuculus erythropthalmus Sey eth  -f5) 
Cucupicus, Less. —genus . i 

Cuckoo, black-billed : 5. ul 

Cuckoo, yellow-billed . pte dl 
Culicivora, Sw.—genus . - 1304 
Culicivora coerulea, Sw. . . 1 304 
*Curlew, Brazilian . . . ii 420 
Curlew, Esquimaux - 11 317, ii 502 


Curlew, long-billed 4 - ii 439 
*Curlew, red, Catesb. . ii 458 
*Curlew, seaside lesser, Bart. . iii 502 
*Curlew, white, Catesb. - 11 459 
Curvirostra, Wils.—genus 5 itl Bts 
Curvirostra Americana, Wils. ii 37 
Curvirostraleucoptera . a2 
Cygnus Bewickii, Yarr. . sy ahhh) 7/5) 
Cygnus buccinator, Rich. 5 | bil 7/5) 
Cygnus musicus, Bechst. tht) 7a) 


*Cypselus pelasgius, Bonap. . ii 143 
Cypselus senex, Temm. . <i 44 


Dacelo, Leach—genus . oto 
Dacelo gigantea A : i 349, 
Dacelo Leachii, Vig. and Horsf. i 349 
Dajila, Leach—-genus A li 489 
Dafila acuta, Leach ; . ii 489 
*Dafila caudacuta, Steph. . ii 489 
Darter 5 set KD) 
Darter black- bellied 4 - ii 100 
*Darter, white-bellied . . ii 100 


Dendrocopus, Koch—genus i 152 
Dendrocopus Audubonti, Sw.. 1 152 
Dendrocopus medianus, Sw. . i 158 
Dendrocopus meridionalis, Sw. i 158 
Dendrocopus pubescens, Sw. . i 158 
Dendrocopus querulus, Koch. i 251 


*Dendrocopus tridactylus, Koch iii 318 


Dendrocopus varius, Sw. ‘ 1 152) 


Dendrocopus villosus, Sw. 1 155 | 


GENERAL INDEX 


: vol. page 
Dendronessa, Rich.— genus iii 20 
Dendronessa aponeee Sw. and 


Rich. . , ; iii 20 


Dipper, Pallas . . - ii 345 
Diver, black-throated - ii 108 
*Diver, dun, Lath. . ‘ - ili 488 
*Diver, great northern iii 107 
*Diver, imber, Lath. iii 107 
*Diver, lough, Penn. K - ii 53 


Diver, red- thr ‘oated 
*Diver, small black and white, 
Edw. . 4 - ii 122 


Dolychonyx, Sw.—genus i 201 
Dolychonyx orizivorus, Sw. i 198 
Donocobius, Sw.—genus . i 233 
Dove, ground . : ii 218 
Dove, turtle ii 187 
Dove, Zenaida iii 365 
Duck, black . ii 465 
Duck, buffel-headed ii 467 
Duck, canvas-back . 5 bl Bey 
*Duck, Cuthbert’ ae Mont. . ii 49 
Duck, dusky . 5 two 7% 


Duck, eider . A 2 lili 49, 52 
Duck, gadwall : 6 5) aul ey 
Duck, golden-eye . ii 
*Duck, great black and white, 

dw. . E ; - li 49 
Duck, harlequin 5 : 5 i Y/i 


Duck, long-tailed 

Duck, mallard 0 . » lil) 39 
Duck, pied. . - - li 14 
Duck, pintail . 6 - . wu 489 
Duck, red- headed “i 5 jibe BY/ 
*Duck, round-crested, Edw. 4 sn il 
Duck, ruddy A ili 55, 57 
Duck, scaup . 4 2 2) iG 
Duck, scoter . ° ; s) ni G7 
Duck, summer : - 5 tt XY) 
Duck, surf F i 5 - ili 465 
Duck, tufted . » ii 475 
*Duck, white-faced, “Lath. li 491 


*Duck, wild, Bew. and Sele lii 39 
Duck, ‘wood . - iii 

Duck, velvet . > : = OD) 
*Dunlin, American. > 5 ih 
Dryotomus, Sw.—genus . 5 AD) 
*Dryotomus, pileatus, Sw. . ii 19 


Eagle, bald. ~ : ii 90, 311 


*EKagle, black . - - ii 308 
*Kagle, golden, Selby ii 308 
Eagle, ring-tailed : ii 308 
Eagle, sea A . ii 90, 311 

Eagle, white- headed 0 #? ENO 
*Eagle, white-tailed, Edw. ii 308 
Ectopistes, Sw.—genus : > it 196 
Ectopistes Carolinensis, Sw. . ii 187 
Ectopistes migratoria, Sw. ii 195 


Eider king . iii 74 
Egretta candidissima, Bonap. . 
Eeretta coerulea, J ard, 


// 


OF ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


529 


vol. page vol. page 
Egretta leuce, Jard. ii 403 | Falco Mississippiensis i 368 
Hlanus, Savig.—genus ii 278 | *Falco montanus, Gin. - iii 287 
Elanus dispar, Jard. iii 276 | *Falco niger, Briss. ii 57, iii 150 
Elanus furcatus, Savig. . ii 278 | Falco ossifragus 5 ait BULL 
Elanus melanopteris, Leach ili 276 | *Falco palumbarius, Bonap. ii 287 
*Emberiza amcena, Say . iii 214 | Falco peregrinus . iii 150 
Emberiza Americana, Linn. i 53] Falco Pennsylvanicus ii 216, 298 
*Emberiza calearata, Temm. ii 309 | *Falco piscator, Briss. ii 104 
Emberiza Canadensis i 267 | *Falco plumbeus, Bonap. 1 368 
Emberiza ciris i 358 | *Falco pygargus, Linn. lii 287 
*Emberiza cyanea, Gm. . iii 341 | *Falco ranivorus, Daud. . ~ 1 287 
Emberiza erythropthalma i 185, ii 297 | *Falco regalis, Temm. . . ii 287 
Emberiza graminea ii 45) *Falco rubiginosus, Lath. lii 287 
Emberiza Henslowii, Aud. ii 71! Falco rupicola li 54 
*Emberiza hyemalis, Turt. 1 272 | Falco Sancti Johannis il 290 
Emberiza Lapponica iii 309 | Falco Sonninensis, Lath. iii 276 
Emberiza leucophrys_. ii 44] Falco sparverius, Linn. i 262, ii 52 
Emberiza? melodia, Jard. 1 269 | Falco Stanleii ? Aud. iii 260 
Emberiza miliaria . i 53| Falco temerarius, Aud. ii 152 
Emberiza nivalis, Linn. 1 325 | Falco tinnunculoides ui 54 
Emberiza oryzivora. i 198 | *Falco torquatus, Briss. . iii 287 
Emberiza pallida, Sw. and Rich. i 266| Falco uliginosus, Gm... ii 275, iii 287 
Emberiza pecoris i 285) *Falco velox, Bonap. ii 211, 216 
Emberiza pusilla i 265 | Falconidee : iii 150 
Emberiza scheniculus i 53) Falcon, black- winged, Lath. ili 276 
Emberiza socialis, Sw. 1 271 *Falcon, chocolate- coloured, 
*Erythaca Wilsoniz, Sw. 1 55) Penn. : ii 290 
Erythrospiza, Bonap.—genus . i 121 | *Falcon, common, Lath. . iii 150 
Erythrospiza frontalis, Bonap. iii 205 | *Falcon, little, Lath. i 262 
Hrythrospiza purpurea, *Falcon, little rusty-crowned, 
Bonap. : : 1119, 11183] Sw. and Rich. ye 26251052, 
Falcon, rough-legged il 54 
*Falcinellus iii 420 Falcon, winter : li 73 
*Falco albicans, Gm. iii 287 | *Ficedula Martinicana, Briss... iii 270 
*Falco albicollis, Lath. iii 287 | *Ficedula Pennsylvanica, Briss. i 363 
Falco atricapillus, Wils. . ii 287 | *Finch creeper, Catesb. . ii 6 
Falco axilaris, Lath. iii 276 | *Finch, crimson-headed, Penn. i 119 
*Falco barbarus, Linn. iii 150 | *Finch, fasciated, Penn. . ~ e269 
*Falco Bohemicus, Gm. . iii 287 | *Finch, grass, Penn. ii 45 
Falco borealis . ii 283, 286 | Finch, indigo iii 341 
*Falco Buffonii, Gm. iii 287 Finch, lark. iii 201 
Falco columbarius . i 254 *Finch, Lapland, Penn. iii 309 
Falco Cooperii, Bonap. iii 260 | Finch, lazuli. . in 214 
Falco cyaneus . A iii 287 *Finch, painted, Catesb. . ak tite} 
Falco dispar ‘ iii 276| Finch, pine. 5 4 6 ah 2/5) 
Falco esalon, Linn. . 3 iii 151 | Finch, purple . : -. 1119, 1 183 
*Falco europogistus, Daud. lii 287 *Finch, red-breasted, Penn. . i 277 
Falco furcatus . : ii 278 | Finch, ‘savannah oh. 1 
Falco fulvus ii 308 Finch, seaside ii 69 
*Falco griseus, Gm. iii 287 Finch, sharp- tailed . Uh (al 
Falco haliaetus . ii 104 Flamingo, red ii 461 
Falco Harlanii, Aud... rth BY Flycatcher, ‘Arkansa ; ii 175 
*Faleo hornotinus, Briss. iii 150 | *Flycatcher, blackcap, Lath. i 228 
*Falco Hudsonius, Liun. lii 287 | Flycatcher, blue- -grey, Gm. . i 304 
Falco hyemalis li 73, 294 | Flycatcher, Canada : i 388 
Falco lagopus . ii 54|*Flycatcher, chattering, Penn. i 90 
*Falco latissimus, Ord ii 298 | Flycatcher, fork-tailed iii 159 
Falco leucocephalus, inns IONS *Flycatcher, golden-crowned . i 280 
Falco Leverianus ii 283 | *Flycatcher, g golden -winged, Edw. 
Falco lineatus 12049 eBartaee . ii 170 
“Falco maculatus, Briss. iii 150 | Flycatcher, great crested - 1 225 
*Falco melanopterus, Bonap. . iii 276 | Flycatcher, green peep . 1391 
L* 
al 


VOL. III. 


530 GENERAL INDEX 


vol. page 
*Flycatcher, hanging, Lath. i 306 
Flycatcher, hooded . ‘ i 389 
Flycatcher, pewit . Salt 28 
*Flycatcher, Pheebe, Steph. e228 
Flycatcher, red-ey ed : 1 205 
*Flycatcher, red- titconted) Edw. i 248 
Flycatcher, Say’s . : ili 177 
Flycatcher, solitary i i 284 
Flycatcher, small green- crested i 227 
Flycatcher, small- headed 3 sok Adal 


Flycatcher, swallow-tailed . iii 173 
Flycatcher, tyrant . ‘ Ss ah all) 
Flycatcher, warbling : at 82 
Flycatcher, white-eyed . ott SiO 
Flycatcher, wood-pewee . a a Zoll 
Flycatcher, yellow-throated . i 117 
Fringilla albicollis . 3 . 1 340 
Fringilla amoena . . iii 214 
*Fringilla Americana, Bonap eR DO 
Fringilla arborea. 5 OY 
*Pringilla ceerulea, Bonap. 5 Wl aloys 
*Fringilla calear, ata, Dall. - im 309 
*Fringilla Canadensis, Bonap. 1 267 
*Fringilla caudacuta A a wih 7k 


*Fringilla cardinalis, Bonap. . i 188 
Fringilla cyanea - 199, 358, ii 341 
*Fringilla erythropthalma, Linn. i 185 
*Fringilla frontalis, Say . ili 203 
*Fringilla fusca, Bart. . a) alo40 
*Fringilla graminea, Bonap. . ii 45 


Fringilla grammaca, Bonap. iii 201 
Fringilla Hudsonia 5 ap leet 
Fringilla hyemalis, Linn. Ba A? 
*Fringilla iliaca, Bonap. 5) aul 


Fr ingilla Lapponica, Linn. 1325, iii 309 


*Fringilla Ludoviciana, 


Bonap. ; - 1277, i 332 
Fringilla linaria ss. 5 wt a 
*Fring rilla leucophrys, Bonap. . i 44 
Fringilla maritima . ; 5 tl GY) 
Fringilla melodia . : St AY) 
*Fringilla montana, Briss. iii 309 
Fringilla palustris . - - 1338 
Fringilla passerina . 5 a at alos) 
*Fringilla Pennsylvanica, Lath. i 340 
*Fringilla pecoris, Sab. . 28d) 
Fringilla psaltaria, Say iii 208 
Fring illa pinus 5 s ae le ea) 
*Fringilla punicea . lil 332 
Fringilla pusilla. ; 5 Th 24a) 
Fringilla purpurea . ii 183 
Fringilla purpurea, Gm. . a Ih) 


Fringilla rufa . 5 ee eloa: 
*Fringilla rosea, Pall. i 119, 12] 
Fringilla savanna, Bonap. i 042, ii 72 
Fringilla socialis . : a) a 2a 


*Fringilla spinus, Gm. iii 211 
Fringilla tristis, Linn. 1 11, iii 211 


Fringilla vespertina ili 328 
Fulica Americana, Gm. . 5 ah 2% 
*Fulica atra, Wils. . 5) TC 
*Fulica major pulla, Browne . iii 511 


vol. page 
“Fulica Martinica, Linn. 9 ium, GY/ 
*“Fulica noveboracensis, Gm. . iii 518 
*Fuligula albeola, Bonap. ii 467 


*Puligula clangula, Bonap. . ii 476 
Fuligula ferina, Steph. : A im Sy 


*Fuligula elacialis 7 é 6) 
Fuligula Labradora, Bonap. . ii 14 
Fuligula marilla, Steph. . - li 6 
Fuligula perspicillata, Bonap. ii 465 
Fuligula rubida, Bonap. iii 55, 57 
Fuligula rufitorques, Bonap. . ii 475 
Fuligula valisneriana, Bonap. iii 27 
Gadwall . ii 47 

*Gallinula chloropus, Catesb.. iti 511 
Gallinula galeata ji 511 


Gallinula? Martinica, Lath. . iii 87 
*Gallinula noveboracensis, 


Lath. . ‘ 5 5 a tht ylis} 
Gallinule, Florida . . 5 mit Aa 
Gallinule, Martinico : 5 auth SC 
*Gallinule, yellow-breasted, 

Lath. 5 tbl {Ils} 
Garrot, Rocky Mountain 2) aw Ae 
Garrulus, Briss. —genus. . 1B 


*Garrulus Australis, Bartelme) 
Garrulus Canadensis ty aelie22 
*Garrulus ccerulescens, Ord iii 315 
Garrulus cristatus, Vieill. Seo vatye ci TL 


*Garrulus cyaneus, Vieill. ili 315 
Garrulus Floridanus, Bonap. . iii 315 
Garrulus, Stelleri, Vieill. ii 301 
*Goatsucker, long-wing, Penn. ii 161 
Godwit, great marbled li 326 
Godwit, tell-tale li 352 
Golden-eye ., ii 476 


Goldfinch ; nh itil 
*Goldfinch, American, Penn. ill, iii 211 
*Goldfinch, European - ote eee! 
Goldcrest, golden-crowned iii 179 


Goosander ii 483, 488 
Goose, bean . : iu 12, 75 
*Goose, blue- winged : 5 it ly 


*Goose, brent or boord, Bew. iii 63 
Goose, ‘Canada AGS 
Goose, snow . ; ii 493, ii 12 
*Goose, white-fronted . iii 12, 75 
Grakle, purple i 333 
Grakle, rusty . 2 s i 330 
Gracula, Linn.—genus . 5 ane 
*Gracula barita, Wils. iii 191, 197 
Gracula ferruginea . ae Bw) 
*Gracula purpurea, Bart. i 333, iii 197 
Gracula quiscala i 333, 10 1915197 
Grrebes f iui 109 
Grebe little, Wils. ; 3 iii 109 
*Greenlet, red- bliss Sw. and 

Rich 5 a Bis 
Grosbeak, blue - - 25 Seon 


Grosbeak, cardinal . i 188 
*Grosbeak, dusky, Penn. iii 332 
Grosbeak, evening . ili 328 


OF ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


vol, page 

ili 360 

i 79, iii 360 
i 277, ii 322 
ili 332 

iii 368 


*Grosbeak, flamingo, Lath. 
Grosbeak, pine 0 
Grosbeak, red-breasted . 
Grosbeak, rose-breasted . 
Grouse, dusky 


*Grouse, eeeaiede Edw. ii 378 
Grouse, pinnated 1 392 
Grouse, ruffed ii 251 
Grouse, spotted ili 386 
Grouse, sharp-tailed iii 378 
Grus Americana, Temm. ii 435 
Grus Canadensis, Temm. li 436 
Grus gigantea, Temm. . ii 435 
Grus leucogeranos, Pall. . ii 435 
Guillemot, black iii 123 
Guillemot, foolish ii 123 
Guillemot, little : - iii 122 
Guiraca, Sw.—genus._ 1 278, iii 328 
Guiraca cardinalis, Sw. i 188 
Guiraca coerulea, Sw. i 367 


Guiraca Ludoviciana, Sw. i 277, ii 322 
*Gull, Jonston’s small cloven- 


footed iii 471 
Gull, laughing iii 114 
Gulls . iii 114 
*Gypagus oriffus, Vieill. iii 400 
Hematopus —genus . ii 429 
Hematopus arcticus, J ard. ii 430 
Hematopus ostralegus ii 429 
Hematopus palliatus, Temm. ii 429 
Halcyon, Sw.—genus i 348, 349 
Haliactus albicilla . 5 a sul, OO 
Haliazetus leucocephalus, 

Savig. . F ii 90, 311 
Haliactus Washingtonit, ATS iOS 
Har, Leach—genus iii 16 
Harelda elacialis, Leach . iii 16, 19 
Harrier, hen . ii 287 
Hawk, American sparr ow 1 262, ii 52 
Hawk, ash-coloured a abl DEY 
Hawk black ii 290, 292 
Hawk, black-cap ii 287 
Hawk, blue. iii 287 
Hawk, broad- winged li 298 
Hawk, Cooper’s ii 260 


Hawke fish) em a 
*Hawk, great eagle, Bart. - ii 283 


Hawk, great- footed iii 150 
*Hawk, little . : 5 leo, 
Hawk, marsh . : . 11 275, iii 288 
Hawk, night . : : Peel Gilt 
Hawk, pigeon . : : oi ah FAs! 
Hawk, red-tailed . ; 5 ahh GS} 
Hawk, red-shouldered . . ii 294 
*Hawk, ringtail, Edw. lii 288 
Hawk, sharp-shinned . 6 rah ZEIL 
Hawk, slate-coloured . . ni 216 
*Hawk, spotted, Edw. iii 150 
*Hawk, Stanley, Aud. iii 260 
Hawk, swallow-tailed ii 27% 
Hawk, white-tailed lui 276 


531 


vol. page 
*Hawk, winter, Aud. Ae 
*Heathcock, pinnated, Steph. i 392 
*Heathcock, ruffed, Edw. 1 251 
*Heathcock, spotted, Edw. ili 387 
Heliornis Suri tnamensis . iii 102 


*Hen-harrier, Edw. 3 . ii 288 


*Hen, heath, Peale : a ah ay 
*Hen, prairie, Peale . 1892, iii 378 
Heron, European . i 444 
*Heron, Gardenian . ii 399 
Heron, great : ii 444 
Heron, great white. ii 403 
Heron, green . li 395 
*Heron, largest crested . ii 444 
Heron, Louisiana li 428 
Heron, night . ii 399 
Heron, Peale’ $ egret iii 482 
*Heron, scolopaceous, Lath. iii 496 
Heron, snowy. ii 417 
Heron, yellow- “crowned . li 442 
*Himantopus Mexicanus, Ord ii 344 
Himantopus nigricollis, Vieill. ii 344 
Hirundo, Linn.—genus . ii 127 
Hirundo Americana 3 ii 125 
Hirundo bicolor, Vieill. . ii 138. 
*Hirundo Carolinensis, Briss. 11 143 
Hirundo fulva, Vieill. iii 216 
*Hirundo lunifrons, Say iii 216 
Hirundo pelasgica . ii 143 
Hirundo purpurea . ow d53 
Hirundo riparia 1 139, 141 
*Hirundo rufa F ii 125 
*Hirundo subis, Lath. ellos 
Hirundo urbica, Linn. ii 188, iii 217 
Hirundo viridis : é « 11 138 
Ibis—genus . : 0 - ii 455. 
Ibis alba . : : . ii 439 
Ibis falcinellus ii 456, iii 419) 
Ibis, glossy . : . ti 419 
*Tbis, green, Lath. iii 420 
Lbis, "Mexicana iii 419 
Ibis rubra, Vieill. li 458 
*Tbis sacra, Temm. iii 419 
Ibis, scarlet ii 458 
Ibis, white ii 459 
Ibis, wood : ii 455 

“Teteria dumicola, Vieill. ioO 
Icteria viridis, Bonap. . eeleoO 
Icterus, Briss. —genus i 73, ii 22 


*Teterus agripennis, Bonap. . 1 


Icterus Baltimore, Daud. i. 16, ii 295 
Icterus icterocephalus iii 184 
*“Teterus miuor, Briss. . Sy SAG 
*Tcterus pecoris, Bonap. » a 289 
*TIcterus phceniceus, Bonap. . ii 22 
Icterus spurius, Bonap. . 2, prac 
Ictinia, Vieill.—genus . 1 868, 369. 
*Tctinia ophiophaga, Vieill. i 368 
Ictinia plumbea, Vieill. . i 368 
5! Jager, Richardson’s ii 119 


532 


GENERAL INDEX 


vol. page | vol. page 

Jay, blue, Catesb. Edw. . i 1 Linaria cyanea, Bart. . og. Ge) 
Jay, Canada i 322 *Linaria minor, Willough. . wu 33 
Jay, European i 3) Linaria montium . : . i, 34 
Jay, Florida iii 315 | Linaria teprocotis, Sw. and 
Jay, Steller’s . 11) SOL) SaRiechy ae 5 oo) i Sh) 

*Linnet, blue, Edw. 9 o on GY 
Kestrel . ii 54) Linnet, grey- crowned. . ii 3d 
Kingfisher, belted ‘ i 348 | Linnet, mountain . : a pleoe 
Kite, ABStise DP i 368 | Lobipes, Cuv.cgenus.. a mn 6) 
Knot ii 332 | *Lobipes fimbriatus, Temm. . iii 452 

Lobipes hyperboreus, Temm. . iii 89 
*Lagopus Bonasa, Briss. . iii 386 | *Lobipes hyperboreus, Selby 
Lagopus leucurus, Sw. ii 389| andJard. . iii 471 
Lagopus mutus, Ray iii 388 | *Lobipes incanus, Jard. and 
Lagopus rupestris iti 389| Selby . iii 89, 452 
Lagopus salicett, Sw. iii 388 | Lobipes Wilsonii, Jard. . - ii 89 
*Lanarius cinereus, Briss. iii 287 | Longspur, Lapland . iii 309 
Laniade . i 344! Loon é iii 107 
Lanius borealis, Vieill. i 73, 344, 346 | Loxia coer ulea, Linn. i 367 
Lanius Carolinensis 1 344 | Loxia cardinalis Sat Theks} 
Lanius collaris i 345 | Loxia curvirostra, Bonap. ii 37, 38 
Lanius elegans, Sw. . 1 347) Loxia enucleator, Linn. 179, iii 360 
Lanius excubitor, Wils. 1 73, 346 | Loxia erythrina, Wils. . ii 203 
Luanius eacubitroides, Sw. i 346 | Lowia falcivostra, Lath. ii 43, iii 335 
Lanius Ludovicianus, Bonap.. 1 344] Loxia leucoptera ii 38, 42, ii 335 
Lanius? natka,Temm. . i 347 | *Loxia Ludoviciana, Turt. i 277, iii 332 
*Lanius tyrannus, Linn. . i 215 | *Loxia maculata, Gm. iii 332 
Lark, brown ii 185 | Lowia pittiopsittacus, Penn. . ii 38 
Lark, Finch iii 201 | Loxia rosea 1277 
*Tue wk, Louisiana, Lath. ii 185 
*Lark, meadow i 311 | Macropterus, Sw.—genus ii 127 
*Lark, red, Edw. li 185) Macrorhampus, Leach—genus. li 341 
Lark, shore i 85} Macrorhampus griseus, 
Larus argentatoides, Breh. 11 117} Leach ii 341, ini 445 
Larus argentatus, Linn. . li 118) Magpie . ii 76 
Larus atricilla, Linn. iii 114 | Magpie, Hudson’s Bay, Sab... ii 77 
Larus bachyrynchus, Rich. iii 118 | Malacorhynchus, Sw.—genus. ii 480 
Larus Bonapartii, Sw. and Rich. iii 116} Mallard . : : _ tot 348) 
Larus canus, Linn. iii 117 | Mareca, Steph. —vgenus 3 4 yin 8) 
Larus capistratus, Temm. iii 115 | Mareca Americana . A 5 iY) 
Larus eburneus, Gm... iii 117 | Martins ii 138 
Larus Fr anklinir, Sw. and Rich. iii 116 Martin, purple ii 153 
Larus fuscus, Linn. li 117 | Martin, sand . ; . ii 14) 
Larus glaucus, Brunn. iii 118 | Mar yland yellow- throat . i 88, 303 
Larus leucopterus, Fabr. iii 118 | Melanerpes er, ythrocephalus, 
Larus marinus, Linn. iii 118 Sw. 2 i 146, ili 326 
Lerus minutus, Pall. ili 115 Melanerpes ? torquatus, Jard. i 321 
*Larus ridibundus, Ord . iii 114 | *Meleacris Americanus, Bart. ili 232 
Larus rostus, Macgil. ili 116 Meleagris gallopavo, Linn. ili 232 
Larus Sabinii . iii 115 | *Meleagris sylvestris, Vieill. . iii 232 
Larus tridactylus, Linn. iii 117 | *Merganser, Mont. Selby ii 483 
Larus zonorhynchus, Rich. iii 118 | *Merganser cinereus, Briss. li 488 
Leiurus, Sw.—genus iii 395 | Merganser, hooded . : rai it 
Lestris—genus iii 119} *Merganser, minute, Mont. . iii 53 
Lestris Buffonii, Boie iii 119 | Merganser, red-breasted . + pills 
Lestris cataractes, lig. iii 119 | Mergulus melanoleucus, Ray . iii 122 
Lestris parasiticus . iii 119 | Mergus—genus . ii 483 
Lestris pomarinus iii 119| Mergusalbellus . F 5 ls (De 
Lestris Richardsonii, Sw. iii 119 | Mergus cucullatus, Linn. peut i 
Limosa fedoa, V ieill, - li 326| *Mergus castor, Linn. ii 488 
*Limosa scolopacea, Sw. ii 541, iii 445 | Mergus merganser. Linn. ii ; 483, 488 
*Linaria ciris, Bart. i 358 | Mergus serrator, Linn. chit 715° 


— Aes Rice 


OF ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


vol. page 
Merula, Ray—genus 4 terol! 
*Merula flammula, Bart. > it * OB) 
Merula Wilsonii, Sw. . ii 192 
Merulide, Sw.—family . 5 2 
Mexican ibis : - iii 419 
Milvulus forficatus, Sw. . iii 175 
Milvulus longipennis, Sw. iii 160 
*Milvus leucurus, Vieill. iii 276 
Milvulus savanna, Sw. iii 159 
Molothrus pecoris, Sw. . . 1 285 
*Monedula purpurea, Catesb.. iii 197 
Mormon arcticus, Wils. . iii 124 
Mormon cirrhatus, Temm. iii 123 
Mormon glacialis, Leach iii 124 
*Motacilla estiva, Turt. . ol ats) 
*Motacilla coerulea, Turt. . 1 3804 
*Motacilla Caroliniana, Bart.. i 210 
*Motacilla Canadensis, Linn.. i 260 
*Motacilla chrysoptera i 259, iii 170 
*Motacilla coronata, Linn. . i 280 
*Motacilla domestica, Bart. . i 132 
*Motacilla flavicauda, Gm. i 102 
*Motacilla flavifrons, Gm. ili 170 
*Motacilla maculosa, Gm. i 280 
*Motacilla palmarum, Gm. . iii 270 
*Motacilla palustris, Bart. . i 207 
Motacilla regulus, Linn. i 127, iii 179 
*Motacilla ruficapilla, Gm. ii 270 
*Motacilla troglodytes? Linn. i 142 
*Motacilla sialis, Linn. oD) 
*Motacilla virens, Gm. i 279 
*Muscicapa acadica, Bonap. . i 226 
Muscicapa barbata, . iii 177 


Muscicapa Bonapar tii, Aud. i 
Muscicapa Canadensis i 
Muscieapa cantatrix smal 
*Muscicapa Carolinensis . eel 
Muscicapa ccerulea . i 
Muscicapa crinita i 

i 


i 388 
i 388 
i 306 


240 


i 304 


225 


Muscicapa cucullata i 389 
Muscicapa forficata . . ii 173 
*Muscicapa fusca, Bonap. 5 AS} 
*Muscicapa gilva, Vieill. ii 182 
Muscicapa melodia . ii 182 
Muscicapa minuta . ii 271 


*Muscicapa noveboracensis, Gm. i 
Muscicapa nunciola . i 
Muscicapa olivacea . 3 Sraetel 
Muscicapa pusilla 1 
Muscicapa rapax 1 

i 


i 306 
i 228 


205 


i 391 
i 231 


*Muscicapa rubra, Linn. . 95 
Muscicapa ruticilla . al 102, ii 214 
Muscicapa savanna . iii 159 
Muscicapa Saya. ‘ 5. abi Ie0 
Muscicapa Selb, Aud. . 6 onl Bists) 
Muscicapa solitaria . 0 - 1 284 
*Muscicapa subviridis, Bart. . i 226 
Muscicapa sylvicola, Bart. i 117, 205 
Muscicapa tyrannus i 215, iii 159 
Muscicapa querula . 41226 
Muscicapa verticalis, Bonap. . iii 175 
*Muscicapa virens . . Seed Zoi 


4 


vol. page 
*Muscicapa viridis, Gm. . 6 ot BY 
Myiothera obsoleta, Bonap. iii 164 
Nauclerus, Vig.—genus . ii 278 
*Nauclerus furcatus, Vig. ii 278 
Noctua, Savig.—genus Ty Dil! 
*Noddy, Damp. y ili 80 
*Nothorodius Guarauna, 

Wagler. is lii 496 
Numenius arquata . ii 439 
Numenius borealis, Lath. ii 317, ili 502 
*Numenius brevirostris, Licht. iii 502 
*Numenius castaneus, Briss. ili 419 
*Numenius cinerius, Bart. iii 502 
*Numenius igneus, Gm. . . ii 420 
Numenius longirostris, Wils.. ii 439 
*Numenius Mexicanus varius iii 419 
Numenius pheopus . ii 317 
*Numenius subaquilus, Klein iii 420 
*Numenius viridis, Briss. iii 419, 420 
Nun, white. . ii 53 
Nuthatch, brown-headed. oh Pay) 
Nuthatch, red-bellied, black- 

capped . Pe call 
Nuthatch, small, Catesb. Sen 2d 2 
Nuthatch, white- breasted, black- 

capped . 6 i 36 
Ny yeticorax—genus . li 399 
Nycticorax Gardenii ii 399 
Nycticorax violacea, Bonap. ii 442 
*Nyroca ferina, Flem. iii 37 
*Nyroca marilla, Flem. ii «6 
Oidemia, Flem.—genus . ili 69 
Oidemia fusca, Flem. lii 69 
Oidemia nigra, Flem. . ii 67 
Oidemia perspicillata, Steph. . ii 465 
Oriole, Baltimore i 16, 11 295 
*Oriole, black, Penn. . . 1 380 
Oriole, orchard : a) py 64 
*Oriole, red-winged, Penn. ii 22 
*Oriole, rusty, Penn. . . i 330 
*Oriole, sharp-tailed ‘ li 71 
*Oriole, yellow-headed, Lath.. iii 184 
Oriolus—genus 5 eels 
Oriolus, Baltimore, Linn. sey ae 
*Oriolus icterocephalus, Linn. iii 184 
*Oriolus Ludovicianus, Gm. iii 197 
*Oriolus leucocephalus, Lath. iii 197 
Oriolus mutatus  . Sw Oe 
*Oriolus phoeniceus, Linn. li 22 
*Oriolus spurius i 64 
Orpheus, Sw.—genus 1 233 
Orpheus felivox, Sw. . 1 240 
Orpheus meruloides, Sw. 5.) ot IS 
Orpheus polyglottus, Sw. i 163 
Orpheus rufus, Sw. 1 233 
Ortyx, Steph.—genus li 224 
Ortyx Californica, Steph. li 225 
Ortyx Douglasti, Vig. . ii 225, 226 
Ortyx picta, Doug. : li 225 
Ortyx Virginianus, Bonap. li 224 


534 


GENERAL INDEX 


vol. page vol. page 
Osprey . - ii 104) *Perdix Hudsonica, Lath. iii 518 
Osprey, Carolina, Lath. . ii 104] Perdix Virginianus . ti 224 
Ostralego leucopus, Less. ii 430} Petrel, stormy : . . i 386 
Otus brachyotos, Cuv. . -. li 63] Petroica, Sw.—genus . arb 810) 
Otus Mexicanus, Bonap. . ui 281 | Phaeton, Linn.—genus . 5 i fe) 
Otus vulgaris, Flem. s - ii 281) Phaceton ethereus, Linn. . iii 79 
Oxyura, Bonap.—genus . . ii 55] Phalacracorax Africanus iii 101 
*Oxyura, rubida, Bonap. - ii 55! Phalacracorax Brazilianus iii 102 
Oyster-catcher, pied : . li 429) Phalacracoraz carbo iii 101 
*Owl, American sparrow, Sw. Phalacracorax cristatus . 5 aunt IKOyL 
and Rich. . : : - li 66) Phalacracorax dilophus, Sw. . iii 102 
Owl, barred . P 5 . ii 58) Phalacracorax graculus . Ee ON 
Owl, barn : : . i 267) Phalacracorax pygmeus . Selon 
Owl, brown. : : . du 48] *Phalarope, American, Sab. iii 452 
Owl, burrowing iii 222| Phalarope, brown . 5 ait SW) 
Owl, cinereous . : ; . ii 63] *Phalarope, brown, Ord. - in 452 
*Owl, common, Turt. . . ii 261) Phalarope, grey : - iii 94, 452 
*Owl, coquimbo, Lath. . . iti 222) Phalarope, hyperborean . iii 471 
Oul, eagle 2 2 . ii 259| *Phalarope, plain, Penn. iii 94 
Owl, great horned . : . ii 259|*Phalarope, red, Lath. . . i 471 
Owl, great white . : . ii 47| *Phalarope, red, Mont. iii 89, 94, 471 
Owl, hawk . : ; . ii 273] Phalarope, Wilson’s, iii 452 
Owl, little ; : : - li 66| Phalaropus—genus iii 89 
Owl, long-eared : . ii 281|*Phalaropus, cinereous, 
Owl, mottled . : ; 4) GUY |) ei G ii 89, 471 
Owl, red : . ii 180} *Phalaropus fimbriatus, 
Owl, screech, Aud. } =) 307) lemm: ili 452 
Owl short-eared . : . ii 63) *Phalaropus froenatus, Vieill. iii 452 
Owl, snow = : : . ii 47] Phalaropus fulcarius, 
Owl, tawny . : . 1308, ii 58} Bonap. . ii 94, 471 
Owl, white. : - . ii 267] *Phalaropus fuscus, Briss. iii 89, 471 
Owl, white-horned . : - ii 261| Phalaropus hyperboreus . 5) uit © o8) 
*Owl, whooping, Bart. . . ii 58| Phalaropus lobatus iii 89, 452 
Oul, woodcock . : . . ii 63] *Phalaropus platyrhinchus, 
Temm. : iii 94 
Pandion, Savig.—genus . . ii 106} *Phalaropus, Williamsii . iii 471 
Pandion halizetus, Savig. . ii 104|*Phalaropus Wilsonii, Sab. 
Pardalotus—genus ‘ 2 veld? ; : ; . iii 89, 452 
Parrot, Carnaoli . 4 : i 376| Phaleris cristatella, Temm. iii 123 
Par tridge : . ii 224| Phaleris psittacula, Temm. iii 123 
Parus, Lim.—genus_.. a) eae en Pheenicopter us ruber, Linn. ii 461 
*Parus Americanus, Linn. . ii 6|*Pheasant, speckled, ‘Lewis and 
Parus atricapillus . : el) aClark : : lii 387 
Parus bicolor . : : - 1 140| Pica, Ray—genus ii 76 
*Parus calendala, Briss. . . ii 179] Pica caudata, Ray . ii 76 
Parus- palustris, Linn. i 138 | *Pica cristata, Wagl. ed 
*Par us peregrinus, Bart. . 1 247 | *Pica elandaria coerulea, Bart. iii 315 
*Passer agrestis, Bart. eZ iiaeica) elandaria cristata, Klems) ae 
* Passer domesticus, Bart. : i 271 | *Pica J amaicensis, Briss. iii 197 
*Passer nivalis, Bart. i 272 | *Pica Stelleri, Wagl. iii 301 
*Passer palustris, Bart. . i 338 | Picus, Linn.—genus ih te} 
*Passerina ciris, Vieill. i 358 | Picus auratus, Linn. i 43 
*Passerina cyanea, Vieill. . wi 341 | Picus bicolor, Sw. i 146 
*Passerina Lapponica, Vieill. . iii 309 | Picus campestris, Spix i 44 
Pelinda, Steph. : ii 321|Picus Carolinus . i 115 
Pelinda pectoralis, Ray ii 321, iti 437 | *Picus erythrauchen, Wael. i 115 
Pelican, brown : . - iii 101) Picus erythrocephalus, 
Pelican, white . 4 : Seertie O10) | etna . 1 146, 11 325 
Pelicanus fuscus, Linn. . . ii 101 | *Picus hirsutus, Vieill. ili 318 
Pelicanus onocrotalus iii 101 | Picus minor i 158 
*Pendulinus icterocephalus, | *Picus obscurus, Gm. iii 325 
: iii 184! Picus pileatus, Linn. ni 19 


Viel, . 


© Otte hy Ce Re ee 


- = 


OF ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


vol. page 


Picus principalis, Linn. . il 
Picus pubescens, Linn. . erga! 
Picus querulus : : apitagal 
Picus torquatus . 6 Sila el 
Picus tridactylus, Linn. 3 tbl 
Picus varius sth 1S abit) 


Picus villosus, Linn. : Ketel 


Pigeon, band-tailed iii 230 
Pigeon, Carolina ii 187 
Pigeon, passenger il 195 | 
Pigeon, white-crowned lii 362 | 
Pipilo artica . : a ah TUS 
Pipilo erythropthalma, 

Vieill. 5 Sb S297 
Pipilo maculata, Sw. 4 5) at ey 
Pipra polyglotta, A 3 ao a OO) 
Platalea—genus 4 . ti 420 
Platalea ajaja, Linn. ii 420 
Plectrophanes, Meyer—genus . 1 325 


Plectrophanes? grammaca, Jard. il 


Plectrophanes Lapponica, Selby iii < 


158 
251 
321 
318 
228 


i 155 


Plectrophanes nivalis, Meyer . 1 325 
Plectrophanes picta, Sw. and 
Richie 5 : 5 ay) 
Plotus, Linn. —venus iii 100 
Plotus anhinga, “Linn. iii 100 
*Plotus melonogaster, Gm. iii 100 
Plotus Vaillantit iii 100 
*Plover, alwagrim, Penn. ii 337 
*Plover, American ring, Sw. and 
Rich aes ii 360 
Plover, black- bellied li 337 
Plover, golden li 367 
Plover, killdeer ii 370 
Plover, piping . ili 464 
Plover, ring 6 iil 360, ii 464, 479 
Plover, ringed . . 11 122, ii 464 
Plover, ruddy, Penn. il 364, 425 
Plover, sanderling . li 364 
Plover, semipalmated, young. i 479 
Plover, Wilson’s ili 98 
*Pluvialis, cinerea, Willough li 337 
*Pochard, Mont. Bew. ii 37 
*Pochard, scaup, Selby + 116 
Podiceps Carolinensis, Lath. . iii 109 
Podiceps cornutus, Lath. iii 109 
Podiceps cristatus, Lath. iii 109 
Podiceps rubricollis, Lath. ili 109 
Porphyrio, Briss.—genus ii 68 
Procellaria pelagica li 386 
*Procellaria Wilsonii, Steph. li 386 
Psittacide ‘ a a Be 
Psittacus Carolinensis  . 5 tt OG 
Ptilinopus, Sw.—genus iii 230 
Pufiin, Wils. iii 122 
*Purre li 320, 335 
*Pygargus, accipiter, Ray iii 287 
Pyranga, Vieill.—genus. 1 95, 192 
Pyranga cestiva, Vieill. . a Gh) 
*Pyranga erythropis Vieill. i192, 317 


Pyranga? Ludoviciana, Jard.. i 
Pyranga rubra, Sw. - sy 


317 
192 


535 


vo). page 
Pyrrhula enucleator i179, iii 360 
Pyrrhula frontalis, Say . 18, iti 203 
Qua bird . ii 399 
Quail ii 224 
*Quail, Hudsonian? Lath. iii 518 
*Quail, Virginian li 224 
Quiscalus, Vieill. —genus 1 333 
“Quiscalus ferrugineus, Bonap. i 330 
Quiscalus major, Vieill. . 5 (sent INL 
Quiscalus versicolor, Vieill. i 333, iii 197 
Rail : i 232 
| Rail, clapper ii 410 
Rail, Virginian 5 ii 406 
Rail, yellow-breasted ii 518 
*Rallus ardeoides, Spix . ili 496 
Rallus—genus ii 406 
Rallus Carolinus ii 232 
Rallus crepitans, Gm. ii 410 
*Rallus giganteus ili 496 
*Rallus Guarauna . ii 496 
*Rallus noveboracensis ii 518 
*Rallus ruficollis, Vieill. iii 518 
Rallus Virginianus, Linn. 11 406 
Raven). \. : A iii 144 
Razor-bill : ili 124 
Recurvirostra Americana, Linn. ii 423, 
Recurvirostra himantopus li 344 
Redstart . ii 214 
Redstart, ‘American i 102 
*Redbreast, blue, Edw. i 55 
Redpoll, lesser i 33 
Regulus, Ray—genus  . 1 127 
Regulus calendulus, Steph. i 83 
Regulus Cuvierti, Aud. . e299 
Regulus cristatus . 1127, iii 179 
“Regulus griseus, Bonap. i 304 
Regulus ignicapillus, Temm. i 129 
Regulus reguloides, Jard. i 127, iii 179 
*Regulus vulgaris, Steph. ii 179 
Rhippidur ce, Vig. and Horsf.. i 102 
Robin 1 29 
Robin, swamp « i 188 
Rusticola minor, Vieill. - ti 246 
*Rynchapsis clypeata, Leach . ii 480 
Rynchops, Linn.—genus . 5 tl Gholll 
Rynchops flavirostris, Vieill. . ii 381 
Rynchops nigra, Linn. ii 38L 
*Sandhill red-bird . 1 95 
“Sandpiper, Aberdeen li 339 
Sandpiper, ash-coloured . ii 332 
Sandpiper, Bartram’s ii 358 
*Sandpiper, freckled, Penn: li 332 
“Sandpiper, Hebridal, Penn. li 328 
Sandpiper, little : ii 124 
Sandpiper, long-legged iii 477 
Sandpiper, pectoral ii 43 
“Sandpiper, red, Mont. . li 33 
Sandpiper, red-backed li 320 
Sandpiper, red-breasted . li 339 


536 


vol. page 
Sandpiper, Schinz’s. : iii 460 
Sandpiper, semipalmated ii 426 
Sandpiper, solitary . 5 ii 349 


li 355 
iii 127 


Sandpiper, spotted . 
Sarcoramphus Californianus, 
Temm. : 


GENERAL INDEX 


vol. page 
Sitta Huropea . i 36 
*Sitta melanocephala, Vieill. | i 36, 38 
Sitta pusilla : y 1 252 
*Sitta varia, Bart. . i 41 
Sitta velata, Horsf. . 1 36 
Skimmer, black ii 381 
Smew . 5 Tim O38) 
*Smew, red- headed, Penn. . iii 53 
Snipe. li 221 
*Snipe, brown, Selby ii 341, iii 445 


Snipe, red- breasted . li 341, iii 444 


| Snipe, semipalmated ii 323 
*Snipe, stone . li 352 
Snipe, yellow-shanks li 350 
Snow-bird 3 A 1 272 
| Somateria, Leach—genus ii 49 


| Somateria. mollissima, Leach iii 49, 52 


*Sarcoramphus condor ii 400 
*Sarcoramphus gryphus . iii 400 | 
Sarcoramphus gryphus, Linn.. iii 127 
Saxicola, Bechst.—genus i 60 
*Saxicola sialis, Bonap. 1 55 
Scolopax, Linn.—genus . ii 246 
Scolopax borealis . ii 317 
*Scolopax borealis . ii 502 | 
*Scolopax Brehmii, Bonap. ii 221 
Scolopax gallinago? Wils. li 221 
Scolopax Douglasii, Sw. . ii 221 
Scolopax Drummondii, Sw. li 221 | 
Scolopax fedoa li 326 
Scolopax flavipes. : - ii 350 
*Scolopax grisea, Flem. ii 341, ii 444 
*Scolopax leucophea, 

Vieill. . 11 341, ii 445 
Scolopax minor li 246 | 
Scolopax noveboracensis ii 341, ii 444 
*Scolopax Paykulli iii 444 
*Scolopax pusilla? Gm. ii 460 
Scolopax Sabiniwi, Vig. li 246 
Scolopax semipalmata li 323 | 
Scolopax vociferus . li 352 
Scolopax Wilsonii, Temm. li 221 
Scolophagus ferrugineus, Sw.. i 330 
*Scoter, black, Selby iii 67 
*Scoter, velvet, Selby ili 69 
Seitirus, Sw.—genus i 238 
*Seiiirus aquaticus, Sw. . 1 356 
Seiiirus aurocapillus, Sw. 1 238 
Selasphorus, Sw.—genus ni) 
Selasphorus rufus, Sw. at if 
Setophaga, Sw.—genus i 102, 388 | 
Setophaga ? Bonapartii, Jard. i 388 
Setophaga Canadensis, Sw. i 388 
Setophaga mitrata, Sw. . i 389 
Setophaga ruticilla, Sw. . i 102, i ii 214 | 
Setophaga? W ilsonii, Jard. i 391 | 
Sheerwater : ii 381 
Shoveller 5 ui 480 
Shrike, American ereat . i 73 
Shr ike, American grey, Sw. i 346 
Shrike, loggerhead . i 344 
Shr ike, Nootka, Penn. Lath. i 347 
Sialia arctica, Sw. i 56) 
Sialia Mexicana, Sw. ‘ i 56 
Sialia Wilsonil, Sw. OOO 
Siskin Arkansa iii 208 
Siskin European. i 276 
*Siskin, New York, Penn. a A 
Sitta, Linn.—genus. i 36 
Sitta Canadensis. i 41 
Sitta Carolinensis i 36 
Sitta ? Castaneoventris, Vi ig. 1 253 
Sitta chrysoptera i 36 


*Somateria spectabilis, Leach . iii 74 
Sparrow, chipping . i 271 
Sparrow, field . i 265 
Sparrow, fox-coloured i 341 
| Sparrow, savannah . 1 342 
Sparrow, song. : i 269 
*Sparrow, scarlet, Edw. il OZ 
Sparrow, swamp i 338 
Sparrow, tree . i 267 
Sparrow, white- throated i 340 
Sparrow, yellow-winged . 1 365 
*Spathulea clypeata, Flem. ii 480 
Spoonbill, roseate . 2 - i 420 
Spiza, Bonap.—genus i 365, i 214 
Spiza amcena, Bonap. ili 214 
Spiza ciris, Bonap. . i 358 
Spiza cyanea, Bonap. iii 341 
Squatarola, Cuv.—genus ii 337 
Squatarola cinerea, Flem. li 337 
*Stare, crescent, Penn. 1 oll 
Starling, common ii 22 
Starling, red-winged i 22 
*Starling, yellow- ~headed, Edw. iii 287 
Sterna aranea, Wils. : ili 177 
Sterna arctica, Temm. ii 373, iii 79 
Sterna cyanea, Lath. ii 373, i ~79 
Sterna fuliginosa, Lath. 5 mi fil) 
Sterna hirundo li 372 
Sterna meridionalis, Breh. ui 77 
Sterna minuta, Linn. li 376 
Sterna nigra, Linn. : ii 379 
Sterna plumbea ; = eli on 
Sterna stolida, Linn. ii 373, iii 79 
Sterna Wilsonii, Bonap. ii 372 
*Strepsilas collaris, Bonap. . ii 328 
Strepsilas interpres, Illig. ii 328 
Strix acadica, Gm. . 5 3) GG 
*Strix acclamator, Bart. ii 58 
Strix asio, Linn. . Paes 307 i ii 180 
| *Strix brachyotos, Jinn. ii 63 
Strix cunicularia, Molin. lit 222 
Strix flammea . : 5 . ii 267 
*Strix funerea, Temm. . ui 273 
Strix Hudsonia ii 273 
Strix neevia i 307 


OF ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


537 


vol. page vol. page 
Strix nebulosa, Forst. . - ii 58| *Sylvia pardalina, Bonap. i 388 
Strix nyctea . 5 : . iu 47|Sylviaparus . ii 210 
Strix otus : : ; . ti 281 | *Sylvia pensilis, Lath. Bonap. i 213 
Strix passerina . 5 . ii 67) Sylvia Pennsylvanica i 248 
Striz scandiaca, Linn. . . ii 261 | Sylvia peregrina : 6 al BY 
Strix stridula . 5 : . ii 48) Sylvia petechia : : zl LET 
Strix Tengmalmi . 4 - ii 67 | Sylvia Philadelphia i 249 
Strix Virginiana ii 259 | Sylvia pinus : ieeolG 
Sturnella, Vieiil. —genus i 311 | Sylvia protonotarius 0 yy 362 
*Sturnella collaris, Vieill. i 311] Sylvia pusilla . . li 6, 194 
Sturnella Ludoviciana, Sw. i 311 | Sylvia Rathbonia, Aud. i 214 
Sturnus junceti, Lath. i 285 | Sylvia rara i 406 
*Sturnus Ludovicianus, Bonap. i 311] Sylvia regulus i 127 
Sturnus predatorius j . ii 22] *Sylvia reguloides, Sw. i 127 
*Sturnus stercorarius, Bart. . i 285) Sylvia Roscoe, Aud. we | WON 
Sturnus unicolor, Temm. . ii 22] *Sylvia rubricapilla, Wils. . i 407 
Sula Bassana, Briss. iii 102 | Sylvia ruficapilla . i 407, iii 270 
Sula fusca, Briss ‘ . iii 102] Sylvia sialis . A eleneOe 
Summer red-bird . : - 1 95] Sylvia solitaria i 256 
Surnia funerea, Dum. ii 273 | *Sylyia sphagnosa, Bonap. ii 194 
Surnia nyctea, Dum. - ii 47) Sylvia striata . : ; li 32, 307 


*Swallow, acculeated, Penn. . ii 143 *Sylvia tigrina, Bonap. . . li 209 
Swallow, ‘barn G . ii 125] Sylvia troglodytes . ole 
Swallow, bank ii 141 | *Sylvia varia, Bonap. i 314 
Swallow, chimney . - li 143) Sylvia vermivora . i 363 
Swallow, cliff . : C . iii 216] Sylvia virens i 279 
Swallow, fulvous : . iii 216| Sylvia Wilsonii, Bonap. i 391 
Swallow, green blue . ti 138] Sylvicole, Sw.—genus i 213 
*Swallow, republican, Aud. . iii 216 Sylvicola estiva, Sw. i 258 
Swallow, white-bellied . . it 138] Sylvicola agilis, Jard. . i 160 
Swan, Bewick’s : . iii 75]|Sylvicola Americana, Sw. ii 6 
Swan, trumpeter iii 75) Sylvicola? autumnalis, J: Jard. i 355 
Swan, wild iii 75|Sylvicola Blackburnie, Jard.. i 304 
Sylvia agilis ii 160 | Sylvicola Canadensis, Sw. . i 260 
*Sylvia aurocapilla, Bonap. i 238 | Sylvicola coerulea, Sw. i 283, ni 284 
Sylvia autumnalis . i 355 | Sylvicola castanea, Sw. se DAG 
Sylvia azurea . iii 284 | Sylvicola coronata, Sw. i 280, ii 215 
*Sylvia bifasciata, Say al 283, lii 284 | Sylvicola? discolor, Jard. . 1375 
Sylvia Blackburniz R - 1 354] Sylvicola flavicollis, Bonap. i 213 
Sylvia calendula . : - i 684)/Sylvicola? formosa, Jard. i 373 
Sylvia Canadensis : - 1 260] Sylvicola icterocephala, Sw. i 248 
Sylvia ccerulea . i 283, iii 283 | Sylvicola maculosa, Sw. i 353 
Sylvia castanea : - i 247} Sylvicola maritima, Sw. ii 305, iii 189 
Sylvia celata, Say . iii 200 | Sylvicola minuta, Jard. li 271 
Sylvia Childrenii, Aud. . i 214 | Sylvicola montana, Jard. ii 209 
Sylvia chrysoptera . .i 259, iii aie Sylvicola palmarum, Jard. iii 270 


Sylvia citrinella 
Sylvia coronata foal 280, li i O15 
*Sylvia discolor, Vieill. . 6 OD 
Sylvia domestica i 132 
Sylvia flavicollis . i 213 
*Sylvia flavifrons, Lath. . iii 170 


Sylvia formosa i 373 
*Sylvia maculosa, Lath. . i 353 
Sylvia magnolia. 6. 3) GBS) 
Sylvia maritima ‘ii 305, iii 189 
Sylvia Marylandica . : i 88 
Sylvia minuta . wall 375, ii 271 
Sylvia mitrata, Bart. 3 ot Shey) 
Sylvia montana . li 209 
*Sylvia noveboracensis, Bonap. i 356 
Sylvia palmarum . : - ii 270 
VOL, III. 


258 | Sylvicola parus, Jard. . . ili 210 


Sylvicola petechia, Sw. . reo e | Y/ 
Sylvicola pinus, Jard. i 316 
*Sylvicola pusilla, Sw. . liu 
Sylvicola striata, Sw... 11-32, 307 
Sylvicola varia, Jard. eS: 
Sylvicola virens, Sw. i 279 
Syma, Less.—genus va cd9 
Synalaxis—genus . ; 6 rt els} 
Tachypes aquilus, Vieill. iii 102 
*Tanger, Canada, Penn. . i 192 
Tanager, Lousiana . S| ut Sly 
*Tanager, Mexican. : Wie pe OD: 
Tanager, scarlet i 192 
Tanagra estiva a 


538 


Pe sb! 


GENERAL INDEX 


vol. page vol. page 
Tanagra Columbianus . 1317 | *Totanus glareolus, Ord ii 349 
*Tanagra cyanea, Linn. i 99, iii 341 | *Totanus griseus, Vieill. iii 445 
*Tanagra Mississippiensis, Lath. i 95) Totanus macularius, Temm. ii 355 
Tanagra rubra : . i192) Totanus melanoleucus, Vieill. ii 352 
*Tanagra variegata . 6 . i 95) *Totanus noveboracensis iii 445 
Tantalus—genus ii 455 | Totanus semipalmatus, Temm. ii 323 
Tantalus albus ii 459 | Trichas personatus, Sw. . 188, 303 
*Tantalus falcinellus, Linn. iii 419 | Trichas? Philadelphia, Jard.. i 249 
*Tantalus igneus, Gm. iii 419 | *Tridactylia hirsuta, Steph. . iii 318 
Tantalus loculatur Linn. . ii 455) Tringa alpina, Penn. 11320, 335, iii 460 
Tantalus Mexicanus . ii 456, iii 419 | *Tringa arenaria . ii 425 
Tantalus ruber 5 . ti 458) *Tringa autumnalis, Hassel iii 420 
*Tantalus viridis, Gm. ili 419 | Tringa Bartramia ii 358 
Tanyciptera, Vig.—genus i 349) *Tringa calidris, Linn. li 332 
*Teal, American, Lath. . lii 24 | *Tringa campestris? Catesb. iii 437 
Teal, blue-winged ii 491 | Tringa canutus, Linn. ii 332, 339 
Teal, green-winged iii 24 | Tringa cinclus ii 335 
Tern, great ii 372 | *Tringa cinclus dominicensis ? 
Tern, lesser ii 376| Briss. iii 437, 460 
Tern, marsh . iii 77 | Tringa cinerea ii 332 
*Tern, New York, Penn. i 330 Tringa Douglas, Sw. 5 ah SY) 
Tern, short-tailed ii 379 | *Tringa. coot-footed, Edw. iii 89, 471 
Tern, sooty ii 80 | *Tringa fulicaria, Linn. 5 on Be 
Tetrao C: anadensis, Linn. iii 386 | *Tringa fusca, Linn. ii 89, 471 
Tetrao cupido, Linn. F . i 392)|*Tringa glacialis, Gm. iii 94 
Tetrao Franklinti, Dougl. iii 387 | Tringa hiaticula ii 360 
*Tetrao lagopus, Bart. . . 1892) Tringa himantopus . : osu, 27/7 
Tetrao obscurus, Say iii 368 | *Tringa hyperborea, Linn. iii 89, 471 
Tetrao phasianellus . iii 378| *Tringa islandica, Linn. . ii 339 
Tetrao Richardsonii, Dougl. . iii 369 | Tringa interpres - ii 328 
Tetrao Sabinii, Dougl. ii 256 | *Tringa lobata, Linn. iii 89, 471 
Tetrao umbellus ii 251 | Tringa macularia 9 » di 350 
Tetrao umbelloides, Douel. li 256 | Tringa maritima, Brun. . li 322 
*Tetrao urogallus, Linn. iii 378 | Tringa minutilla, Vieill.. ii 124 
Tetrao urophasianus iii 395 *Tringa neevia, Lath. li 332 
Tetraonide, structure of wings ii 255 | Tringa pector alis, Bonap. li 321, iii 437 
Thalasidroma Bullockii, Bonap. ii 386 | Tringa pusilla . . ii 124 
Thalasidroma Wilsonii, Bonap. ii 386 Tringa rufa ii 339 
Thrush, ferruginous ; i 233 | Tringa rufescens, Vieill. . ii 322 
2Ehr ush, fox- coloured, Catesb. i 233| Tringa semipalmata, Wils. li 426 
Thrush, "eolden- crowned . Bat, 2s} Tringa solitaria ; li 349 
Thrush, hermit A . ti 190} Tringa Schinzi, Breh. ti 321, iii 460 
*Thrush, Hudsonian, Penn. i 330 | Trochilus, Linn.—genus . i 176 
*Thrush, little, Catesb. ii 190 | Trochilus colubris, Linn.  welle 
*Thrush, mimic, Lath. i 163 | 7roglodytes, Vieill.—genus i 133, 210 
Thrush, tawny ii 192 | Troglodytes Bewickii, Aud. i 134 
Thrush, water : i 356 | Troglodytes cedon, Vieill. i 132 
Thrush, wood, Wils. i 22) *Troglodytes Europzus, Leach i 142 
Titmice i 141 | Troglodytes, hyemalis, Vieill. i 142, 146 
Titmouse, black- -capped . i 138 | Troglodytes Ludovicianus, Bonap.i 210 
Titmouse. Canada, Penn. i 138 | Troglodytes obsoleta, Say . iii 164 
*Titmouse, creeping, Penn. ii 6) Troglodytes palustris, Bonap.. i 207 
Titmouse, ‘crested i 140 | Troopial, yellow-headed . iii 184 
*Titmouse, toupet, Penn. i 140 | Turdus aquaticus i 356 
Todyrampus, Less.—genus i 349 Turdus aurocapillus - 1 238 
*Totanus, Bechst.—genus ii 352 | *Turdus Canadensis, Briss. . i 29 
Totanus Bartramius, Temm. ii 358 | *Turdus felivox, Bonap. . i 240 
Totanus chloropizius, Vieill.. ii 349 Turdus lividus : i 240 
*Totanus crassirostris, Vieill.. ii 323 Turdus melodus, Wils. i 22 
*Totanus ferrugineicollis, Turdus migratorius, Linn: \aepetees 
Vieill. > iii 445 | *Turdus minor, Bonap. 3 ui 190 
Totanus Havipes, Vieill. ii 350 | Turdus mustelinus, Gm 22, ii 192 


OF ENGLISH AND LATIN NAMES. 


vol, page 
Turdus nevius, Lath. i175 
Turdeus olivaceus . 0 eo 


Turdus parvus, Edw. 
Turdus polyglottus . 
Turdus rufus : 
*Turdus trichas, Linn. . aha 
Turdus solitarius 

Turdus Wilsonii, Bonap. 
*Turkey, American, Lath. 
*Turkey buzzard, Catesb. . iii 125 


Turkey, wild lii 232 
Turnstone ii 328 
Tyrannine . i 344 
Tyrannus, Vieill. —genus i 216 
Tyrannus borealis, Sw. 1, 217 
Tyrannus crinitus, Sw. 1 225 
Turannys crudelis . i 217 
*Tyrannus forficatus, Say . im 173 
*Tyrannus intrepidus, Vieill.. i 215 
*Tyrannus savanna iii 159 
Tyrannus sulphuratus i 217 
Tyrannus verticalis, Say ui 175 
Tyrannula, Sw.— genus . i 226 


Tyrannule  . 5 at 227, 229 


Tyrannula acadica, Sw. 1 126 
Tyrannula fusca, Jard. i 228 
*Tyrannula pallida . iii 177 
Tyrannula pusilla, Sw. eee 22 
Tyrannula Richardsonii, Sw. i 227 
Tyrannula Saya, Sw iii 177 
Tyrannula Trailit, ‘Aud. i 227 
Tyrannula virens, Jard. i 231 
Ulula, Cuv.—genus 5 il Bie} 
Ulula “cunicularia, Fuillé . iii 222 
Ulula flammea, Cuv. : = e200 
Urialle . iii 122 
Cria Brunichii, Sab. iii 123 
COria grylle iii 123 
Uria marmorata, Lath. iii 123 
*Uria minor, Briss. . iii 122 
Oria Troile iii 123 
*Urogallus minor, Catesb. i 392 
Vanellus—genus ii 337 


*Vanellus melanogaster, Sar and 


Rich. F ; loon 
Vermivora, Sw. —genus 4 i 363 
Viermivora ? celata, Jard. ii 200 


Vermivora chrysoptera, Sw. i259, iii 170 
Vermivora Pennsvlvanica, Sw. i 363 


Vermivora peregrina, Sw. i 372 
Vermivora ? protonotarius, J ard. i 362 
Vermivora? rara, Jard. i 406 
Vermivora rubricapilla, Sw. i 407 
Vermivora solitaria, Sw. i 256 
Vireo, Vieill.—genus 1 TElZ/ 
Vireo Bartramu, Sw... i 117 
Vireo flavifrons, Vieill. . lel 7 
Vireo gilvus, Bonap. ii 182 
Vireo olivaceus, Bonap. . i 205 
Vireo noveboracensis, Bonap.. i 306) 


539 
vol. page 
Vireo solitarius, Vieill. . .'. i 284 
Vireo sphagnosa, Jard. . - + ii 194 
Vireo Vigorsii, Aud. 9 5 dL 
*Vultur atratus, Bart. . iii 135 
Vultur aura iii 125, 135 
Vultur barbares, Edw. iii 126 
*Vultur condon : iii 400 
*Vultur gryphus, Linn. . iii 400 
Vultur jota, Bonap. ; iii 135 
*Vultur Magellanicus iii 400 
Vultures . 0 F - 11 125 
Vulture, black : + 1135 
® ‘Vulture, carrion, Lath. . iii 125 
5) Vulture, turkey ui 125 
Warbler, autumnal 1 355 
*Warbler, azure, Aud. i 283 
Warbler, bay-breasted i 247 
Warbler, blackpoll . ii 32,, 307 
Warbler, Blackburnian . 1 354 
Warbler, plack-throated blue. i 260 
Warbler, black-throated green i 279 
Warbler, black and yellow 1 353 
*Warbler, bloodyside, 

Lath. . 1248, iii 270 
*Warbler, blue, Rathi, oat) Be 
Warbler, blue- -green 6 . 1 406 
Warbler, blue-mountain . . ii 209 
Warbler, blue-eyed yellow . i 258 
Warbler, blue-winged yellow. i 256 
Warbler, blue-yellow back . ii 6 
Warbler, carbonated, Aud. . ii 305 
Warbler, corulean i 283, 304, iii 284 
Warbler, Cape May . li 305, i 189 
Warbler, chestnut-sided . 7 W248 
Warbler, Connecticut. «11, 160 
Warbler, golden-winged . i 259, iii 170 
*Warbler, green, Penn. . yee 279 
Warbler, hemlock . : 5) ZO 
*Warbler, hooded, Penn. i 339 
Warbler, Kentucky 1 3738 
*Warbler, mitred, Turt. i 389 
Warbler, mourning 6 eh OX) 
Warbler, Nashville : ee OG 
*Warbler, New York, Penn. . i 356 
Warbler, orange-crowned . ii 200 
Warbler, palm : . iii 270 
*Warbler, pine, Penn. . . 1 256 
Warbler, pine- creeping . OLS) 
Warbler, pine-swamp . 5) aut Get 
Warbler, prairie . . 5 Le 
Warbler, protonotary . 1 362 
*Warbler, red-headed, Turt. mf 
Warbler, Tennessee 1 372 

“Warbler, yellow- -breasted, Penn. i 88 
*Warbler, yellow-fronted, Turt. i 259 
*Warbler, yellow-poll, Lath. . i 258 
Warbler, yellow-throat . > | un Ws 
*Warbler, yellow-tailed . 5 ou IMS 
Warbler, yellow red-poll ath 
*Warbler, yellow-rump i 280, 353, 11 215 
*Warbler, white-poll . 5 ah ale! 


540 

; vol. page 
Warbler, worm-eating 1 368 | 
*Water-hen, little American . ii 232 
Waxwing, Bohemian . iii 352 
*Whisky-john, ste Phil. 

Trans. i 73] 
W hip-poor- -will ii 169 
White nun, or smew iii 53 
Widgeon, American ribh = {Y) 
Widgeon, European 5 ibbhe &) 
*Widgeon, red-headed, Selby 5) itil! SY 
Woodcock 6 . li 246 
*W oodcock, great red, Bart. ii 246 
Woodpecker, downy i 158 
Woodpecker, gold-winged i 43) 
Woodpecker, hairy . ; 3 | ah by 
*W oodpecker, Jamaica, Edw. i113 
Woodpecker, ivory-billed aby ts} 
*Woodpecker, king of, Kalm. ii 8 
*W oodpecker, long- crested, 

Catesb. mt als) 
Woodpecker, Lewis. i 321 | 
*W oodpecker, little, Lath. i 158 | 
Woodpecker, pileated mt 1) 
Woodpecker, red-bellied .1 113 
Woodpecker, red-cockaded i 251 


Woodpecker, red-headed i 146, ii 325 
Woodpecker, northern three- toed iii 318 


THE 


GENERAL INDEX. 


*Woodpecker, white- bellied 5 
Catesb. 
Woodpecker, yellow-bellied 


| Wrens 

Wren, golden- crested 
| Wren, ereat Carolina 
Wren, house 

Wren, marsh . 

Wren, ruby- -crowned 
Wren, winter . 


° 


| *Xanthornus xanthocephalus 
Bonap. : 
Xema, Boie—genus | 


*Yellow-tail, Penn. 
*Yphantes Baltimore, Vieill. . 


| 
| Zonotiichia, Sw. 


Zonotrichia graminea, Sw. 
| Zonotrichia iliaca, Sw. . 
Zonotrichia leucophrys, Sw. 
Zonotrichia palustris, Jard. 


END. 


PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO, 
EDINBURGH AND LONDON 


*Woodpecker, smallest, Catesb. 


Zonotrichia Pennsylvanica, Sw. 
Zonotrichia savanna, Jard. i 342, ii 


vol. page 


i 158 


ii 8 


i 152, lili 228 


i 132, 133 


iii 184 


72 


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