GAME BIRDS AND BIRDS OF PREY QUEBEC ^ ST. L- ■, ;7EMCF COLLEGE PASSENGER PIGEON. }.. Life-size. GAiVlt; BIRDS AND B"^''S OF PRHY • l.UF HISTORIES OF ONE HUN- liKhi) -M. SEVENTY BIRDS OF I'KHV. GAME BIRDS ANi, WATER- l()V\LS BY NEi;Hl: BLANCHAN AUTHv'-- .i ' UR'» ShlGHBOK.^" V>. :? •■ r.l iW' ■'="!( -N HY G. O SHlhLDS (Co(^i;iNA) AND I-OH . V LIGHT COLORED PLATES ^ TORONTO GEOR(U-: N. M(3RAN(i 1S98 i/r ^ / y m^^* i'A.-^SENGEU PIGKON. ' J Lilt'-t>ize. OAMC DIKUD AINU BIRDS OF PREY - LIFE HISTORIES OF ONE HUN- DRED AND SEVENTY BIRDS OF PREY, GAME BIRDS and WATER- FOWLS BY NELTJE BLANCHAN AUTHOR OF "BIRD NEIGHBORS" WITH INTRODUCTION BY G. O. SHIELDS (Coquina) AND FORTY-EIGHT COLORED PLATES ^ TORONTO GEORGE N. MORANG 1898 .1. Copyright, 1898, by DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. Colored plates copyrighted, 1897, 1898, bt THE NATURE STUDY PUBLISHING CO. Chicago, III. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by G C . Shie' ds Preface .... List of Colored Plates . Part I. Water Birds . Uivinej Birds . The Grebes The Loons Auks, Murres. Puffins, etc. Long-winged Swimmers Jaegers and Skuas . Gulls .... Terns, or Sea Swallows . Skimmers Tube-nosed Swimmers . Shearwaters . Petrels .... Fully Webbed Swimmers Cormorants Plate-billed Swimmers . Mergansers, or Fishing Ducks River and Pond Ducks Sea and Bay Ducks Geese .... Swans .... PAGE vii ix xi I 3 8 14 i8 27 3'-> 46 59 63 67 68 73 77 81 87 93 114 •34 143 Table of Contents Part II. Wading Birds . Herons and their Allies . Ibises Wood Ibises and Storks Herons and Bitterns Marsh Birds . Cranes Rails Gallinules Coots Shore Birds . Phalaropes Avocets and Stilts . Snipe. Sandpipers, etc. Plovers . Surf Birds and Turnstones Oyster-Catchers Part 111. Gallinaceous Game Birds Bob Whites, Grouse, etc Turkeys . Columbine Birds . Pigeons and Doves Part IV. Birds of Prey . Vultures . Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc Barn Owls Horned and Hoot Owls Index ...... PAGE 149 1^7 169 >74 177 184 186 189 196 198 201 ^M 249 2^1 2S5 261 288 291 294 299 304 309 331 353 VI INTRODUCTION Bird life is disappearing from the United States and Canada at so alarming a rate 1 sometimes feel it is wrong, at this day and age of the world, to encourage the hunting and shooting of birds of any kind. Mr. W. T. Hornaday, the Director of the New York Zoological Society, has recently collected and compiled statistics fiom more that thirty states, showing that the decrease of birds within the past fifteen years has averaged over forty per cent. At this rate another twenty years would witness the total extermination of many birds in this country. Several species have already become extirKt, and others are rapidly approaching the danger line. V.nspicuous among these are the wild turkey and the pinnated grouse, two of the noblest birds on the con- tinent. Several species of water-fowl are also growing scarce. Not only are game birds pursued and killed, in season and out of season, under the name of sport and for market, but the song birds, plumage birds, water-fowl, and many innocent birds of prey are hunted, from the Everglades to the Arctic Circle, for the barbaric purpose of decorating women's hats. The extent of this traffic is simply appalling. Some of the plumes of tropical and semi-tropical birds sell at as high a price as fifteen dollars an ounce. No wonder the cupidity of ignorant and heartless market hunters is tempted by such prices to pursue and kill the last one of these birds. It seems incredible that any woman in this enlightened and refined age. when sentiment against cruelty to animals is strong in human nature, could be induced to wear an ornament that has cost the life of so beautiful a creature as an egret, a scarlet tanager, or a Baltimore oriole. What beauty can there be in so clumsy a head decoration as an owl or a gull ? Yet we see women whose nature would revolt at the thought or the sight of cruelty to a horse or a dog, wearing the wings, plumes, and heads, if not the entire carcasses of these birds. Not only is the life of the bird sacrificed, whose plumage is to be thus worn, but i ' thousands of instances the victim is the mother bird, and a brood of yoilng is left to starve to death in consequence of her cruel taking off. Is it not time to check this ruthless destruction of bird life by the enactment and enforcement of proper laws ? vii Introduction A great crusade against bird slaughter is sweeping over the country. Thousands of progressive educators have inaugurated courses of nature study in the schools, which include object lessons in bird life. Bird protective associations are being formed everywhere. The League of American Sportsmen is doing a noble work in this direction. It is waging a relentless war on men who kill game birds out of the legal season, or song birds at any time. This organization stands for the highest type of men who hunt, and it is laboring to educate the other kind up to its standard. The surest way to promote this sentiment of bird protection is to induce our people to study the birds. Nearly every man, woman, and child who becomes intimately acquainted with them learns to love and to respect them for their incalculable benefits to mankind. The reading of such a book as this is a step in the right direction. The next step should lead the reader into the fields, the woods, and by the waters. 1 ha/e read the manuscript of this book carefully. It shows the most patient and industrious research, and it is safe to say no work of its class has been issued in modern times that contains so much valuable information, presented with such felicity and charm. The author avoids technicalities, and writes for the lay- man as well as for the naturalist. While the volume caters in a great measure to sportsmen, yet it is the hope of the author and the editor that they may learn to hunt more and more each year without guns; for all true sportsmen are lovers of nature. The time has come when the camera may and should, to a great extent, take the place of the gun. Several enthusiasts have demonstrated that beautiful pictures of wild birds may be made without taking their lives. How much more delight must a true sportsman feel in the possession of a photograph of a beautiful bird which still lives than in the mounted skin of one he has killed ! A few trophies of this latter class are all right, and may be reasonably and properly sought by anyone; but the time has passed when the man can be commended who persists in killing every bird he can find, either for sport, for meat, or for the sake of preserving the skins. The colored plates in this book are true to nature, and must prove of great educational value. By their aid alone any bird illustrated may be readily identified. G. O. Shields. VIll PREFACE The point of view from which this book and "Bird Neigh- bors" were written is that of a bird-lover who believes that per- sonal, friendly acquaintance with the live birds, as distinguished from the technical study of the anatomy of dead ones, must be general before the people will care enough about them to rein- force the law with unstrained mercy. To really know the birds in their home life, how marvelously clever they are, and how positively dependent agriculture is upon their ministrations, can- not but increase our respect for them to such a point that wilful injury becomes impossible. In Audubon's day flocks of wild pigeons, so dense that they darkened the sky, were a common sight; whereas now, for the lack of proper legislation in former years, and quite as much be- cause good laws now existing are not enforced, this exquisite bird is almost extinct, like the great auk which was also seen by Audubon in colonies numbering tens of thousands. Many other birds are following in their wake. England and Germany have excellent laws protecting the Dirds there in summer, only for the Italians to eat during the win- ter migration. And it is equally useless to have good game and other bird laws in a country like ours, unless they are reinforced in every state by public sentiment against the wanton destruction of bird life for any purpose whatsoever. This altruism has a solid foundation in economic facts. It is estimated that the farmers of Pennsylvania lost over four millions of dollars one year through the ravages of field mice, because a wholesale slaughtering of owls had been ignorantly encouraged by rewards the year before. Nature adjusts her balances so wisely that we cannot afford to tamper with them. It is a special pleasure to acknowledge indebtedness to Mr. G. O. Shields. To his efforts, as president of the League of American Sportsmen and as editor of Recreation, is due no small measure of the revulsion against ruthless slaughter that has long masqueraded under the disguise of sport. True sportsmen, worthy of the name, are to be reckoned among the birds' friends, and are doing effective work to help restore those happy hunting grounds which, only a few generations ago, were the envy of the world. Neltje Blanchan. LIST OF COLORED PLATES Passenger Pigeon — Frontispiece Pied-billed Grebe Loon Brunnich's Murre Herring Glll . Common Tern . Black Tern Wilson's Stormy Petrel Red-breasted Merganser Mallard Duck Black Duck Bald-pate Duck Green-winged Teal Pin-tail Duck . Wood Duck Canvasback Duck Golden-eye Duck Canada Goose Least Bittern Great Blue Heron Black-crowned Night Heron SoRA Rail I'URPLE GaLLINULE Coot or Mud Hen xi FACING PAGE lO 14 22 40 ■jo S8 68 88 94 98 100 104 1 10 1 1:; 1 10 \22 158 1^8 162 168 180 184 iSS List of Colored Plates AVOCET FA( :iNG .'AGE 198 Woodcock 202 Wilson's or Jack Snipe . 206 Pectoral Sandpiper or Grass Snipe 212 Least Sandpiper .... 216 Yellowlegs 224 Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plove R 230 Golden Plover .... 240 Semipalmated or Ring Plover 244 Bob White 260 Dlsky or Blue Grolse . 268 Rlffed Grouse .... 272 Prairie Hen 278 Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse . 282 Wild Turkey 288 Mourning Dove .... 296 Turkey Vulture 304 Marsh Hawk 312 Red-shouldered Hawk . 320 Sparrow Hawk .... 3}o OSPREY 33A Saw Whet Owl .... 342 Screech Owl 344 Great Horned Owl 346 Snowy Owl • 350 xii PART 1 WATER BIRDS TO A WATERFOWL Whither, "midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way ? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong. As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side? There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast. The desert and illimitable air. Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fann'd. At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere. Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near. And soon that toil shall end; Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest. Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart, Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart. He who, from zone to zone. Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that 1 must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. William Cullen Bryant. DIVING BIRDS Grebes Loons Auks Murres Puffins DIVING BIRDS GKLBhS. LOONS. AUKS, MUKKhS, PUFFINS (Order Pygopode^) The birds of this onk-r. whose I.ritin n.ime refers to their sit- ting pr,sture when on l.uul. represent the highest development in the ;irt of swimming,' ;ind divinj<, bein^ the ne.irest hne.il de- scendiints r4 the reptiles, the ;in<;estors of .,|| |„rds, evolutionists tell us. The Anieric;in Ornithologists' Union h.is clussi/ied these divers into three distinct f;irnilies. Grebes (Family Podicipidw) Grebes, ;dthough simihir to the loons in genenil structure ;ind economy, h;ive peculi:.rly iobed ;ind fl.ittened-out toes cr,nnected by webs that iire their chief ch;.r;icteristic. In the breeding se,i- son several species wear r^rnamental head-ilresses, colored crests or ruffs that disappear in the winter months. Plumage, which is thick, compact, and waterproof, has a smooth, satiny te.xfure, es- pecially on the under parts. Wings, though shtirt, arc powerhil and enable the grebes to migrate l.,ng distances; but they are not used m swinmiing under water, as is often asserted. The mar- velous rapidity with which grebes dive ;md swim must be credited to the feet alone. No birds are more thoroughly at home in the water and more helpl.-ss on land than thev. By keeping (inly the nostrils above the surface they are ..ble to remain under water a surpri.smg length of time, which trick, with many other clever natatorial feats, have earned lor them such titles as •' Hell [Jiv.-r " " Water Witch," and '.Spirit buck." On shore the birds rest up- right, or nearly so, owing to the position of their legs, which are 5 OiTing Birds set far back near the rudimentary tail that serves as a prop to help support the top-heavy, awkward body. Holbcell's Grebe Horned Grebe Pied-billed Grebe or Dabchick Loons (Family Urinatoridce ) Loons, while as famous divers and swimmers as the grebes, are not quite so helpless on 'and, for they use both bill and wings to assist them over the ground during the nesting season, almost the only time they visit it. They dive literally like a flash, the shot from a rifle reaching the spot sometimes a second after the loon has disappeared into the depths of the lake, where it seems to sink like a mass of lead. It can swim several fathoms under water; also, just below the surface with only its nostrils exposed, and pro- gressing by the help of the feet alone. The sexes are alike. They are large, heavy birds, broad and flat of body, with dark backs spotted with white, and light under parts. Owing to the position of their legs at the back of their bodies, the loons stand in an upright position when on land. The voice is extremely loud, harsh, and penetrating. Common Loon Black-throated Loon Red-throated Loon Auks, Murres, Puffins (Family AlcidceJ Unlike either the grebes or the loons, these diving birds are strictly maritime, passing the greater part of their lives upon the open sea and visiting the coast chiefly to nest. Enormous colonies of them appropriate long stretches of rocky cliffs at the far north at the breeding season, and return to the same spot generation after generation. In spite of their short wings, which are mere flippers, several species fly surprisingly well, although the great auk owed its extinction chiefly to a lack of wing-power. Under water the birds of this family do use their wings to assist in the 6 OiTing: Birds pursuit offish and other sea-food, which grebes and loons do not. many ornithologists to the contrary notwithstanding. On land the bird moves with a shuffling motion, laboriously and with the underparts often dragging over the ground. Agreeing in genera! aspects, the birds of this family differ greatly in the form of the bill in almost every species. This feature often takes on odd shapes during the nesting season, soft parts growing out of the original bill, then hardening into a horny substance, showing numerous ridges and furrows, and sometimes becoming brilliantly colored, only to fade away or drop off bit by bit as winter ap- proaches. Puffin or Sea Parrot Black Guillemot Briinnich's Murre Common Murre Californian Murre Razor-billed Auk Dovekie or Sea Dove THE GREBES, OR LOBE-FOOTED DIVERS (Family Podicipidce) Holboell's Grebe (Colymbus holballii) Called also: RED-NECKED GREBE Length — About 19 inches. Largest of the common grebes. Male and Fefiiale — In summer: Upper parts dusky ; top of head, small crest, and nape of neck glossy black; throat and cheeks ashy; neck rich chestnut red, changing gradually over the smooth, satiny breast to silvery white or gray dappled under parts; sides also show chestnut tinge. //; uiiiter: Crests scarcely perceptible; upper parts blackish brown: ashy tint of cheeks and throat replaced by pure white; under parts ashy, the mottling less conspicuous than in summer. Red of neck replaced by variable shades of reddish brown, from quite dark to nearly white. Elongated toes furnished with broad lobes of skin. Young — Upper parts blackish ; neck and sides grayish ; throat and under parts silvery white. Head marked with stripes. Range — Interior of North America from Great Slave Lake to South Carolina and Nebraska. Breeds from Minnesota northward, and migrates southward in winter. Season — Irregular migrant and winter visitor. The American, red-necked grebe, a larger variety of the European species, keeps so closely within the lines of family traditions that a description of it might very well serve as a com- posite portrait of its clar. Six members of this cosmopolitan family, numbering in all about thirty species, are found in North America; the others are distributed over the lakes and rivers of all parts of the world that are neither excessively hot nor cold. On the border of some reedy pond or sluggish stream, in a floating mass of water-soaked, decaying vegetation that serves as a nest, the red-necked grebe emerges from its dull white cs,g and 8 Grebes instantly takes to water. Cradled on the water, nourished by the wild grain, vegetable matter, small fish, tadpoles, and insects the water supplies, sleeping while afloat, diving to pursue fish and escape danger, spending, in fact, its entire time in or about the water, the grebe appears to be more truly a water-fowl than any of our birds. On land, where it almost never ventures, it is ungainly and uncomfortable; in the water it is marvelously graceful and expert at swimming and diving; quick as a flash to drop out of sight, like a mass of lead, when danger threatens, and clever enough to remain under water while striking out for a safe harbor, with only its nostrils exposed above the surface. Ordi- narily it makes a leap forward and a plunge head downward with its body in the air for its deep dives. The oily character of its plumage makes it impervious to moisture. Swimming is an art all grebes acquire the day they are hatched, but their more remark- able diving feats are mastered gradually. Far up norm, where the nesting is done, one may see a mother bird floating about among the sedges with from two to five fledglings on her back, where they rest from their first natatorial efforts. By a twist of her neck she is able to thrust food down their gaping beaks with- out losing her balance or theirs. The male bird keeps within call, for grebes are devoted lovers and parents. it is only in winter that we may meet with these birds in the United States, where their habits undergo slight changes. Here they are quite as apt to be seen near the sea picking up small fish and moUusks in the estuaries, as in the inland ponds and streams. During the migrations they are seen to fly rapidly, in spite of their short wings and heavy bodies, and with their heads and feet stretched so far apart that a grebe resembles nothing more than a flying projectile. Horned Grebe (Colynibiis auritiis) Called also: DUSKY GREBE: HELL DIVER; SPIRIT DUCK; WATER WITCH; DIPPER Length — 14 inches. Male and Female— In summer: Prominent yellowish brown crests resembling horns; cheeks chestnut; rest of head with puffy black feathers ; back and wings blackish brown with a few Grebes whitish feathers in wings ; front of neck, upper breast, and sides chestnut; lower breast and underneath, white. /// winter: Lacl^ing feathered head-dress; upper parts grayish black; under parts silvery white, sometimes washed with gray on the throat and breast. Elongated toes are furnished with broad lobes of skin. Vou/ig— Like adults in winter plumage, but with heads distinctly- striped. Jia»ge~-From Northern United States northward to fur countries in breeding season; migrating in winter to Gulf States. Season— P\enufu\ during migrations in spring and autumn. Win- ter resident. The ludicrous-looking head-dress worn by this grebe in the nesting season at the far north has quite disappeared by the time we see it in the United States ; and so the bird that only a few- months before was conspicuously different from any other^ is often confounded with the pied-billed grebe, which accounts for the similarity of their popular names. As the bird flies it is some- times also mistaken for a duck; but a grebe may always be dis- tinguished by its habit of thrusting its head and feet to the farthest opposite extremes when in the air. No birds are more expert in water than these. When alarmed they sink suddenly like lead, and from the depth to which they appear to go is derived at least one of their many suggestive names. Or, they may leap forward and plunge downward; but in any case they protect themselves by diving rather than by flight, and the maddening cleverness of their disappearance, which can be indefinitely prolonged owing to their habit of swimming with only the nostrils exposed above the surface, makes it simply impossible to locate them again on the lake. On land, however, the grebes are all but helpless. Standing erect, and keeping their balance by the help of a rudimentary tail, they look almost as uncomfortable as tish out of water, which the evolutionists would have us believe the group of diving birds very nearly are. When the young ones are taken fronfa nest and placed on land they move with the help of their wings as if crawling on "all fours," very much as a reptile might; and the eggs from which they have just emerged are ellipsoidal— i. e., elongated and with both ends pointed alike, another reptilian characteristic, it is thought. But oology is far from an exact science. As young alligators, for example, crawl on their to 1 PIED BILLED GREBE. Grebes mother's back to rest, so the young grebes may often be seen. With an underthrust from the mother's wing, which answers every purpose of a spring-board, the fledglings are precipitated into the water, and so acquire very early in life the art of div. ,g, which in this family reaches its most perfect development. For a while, however, the young try to escape danger by hiding in the rushes of the lake, stream, or salt-water inlet, rather than by diving. Grebes are not maritime birds. Their preference is for slow- moving waters, especially at the nesting season, since their nests are floating ones, and their food consists of small fish, mollusks, newts, and grain, such as the motionless inland waters abundantly afford, in winter, when we see the birds near our coasts, they usually feed on small fish alone. Unhappily the plumage of this and other grebes is in demand by milliners and furriers, to supply imaginary wants of unthinking women. Pied-billed Grebe ( Podilymbus podiceps) Called also: DABCHICK; DIEDAPPER; LITTLE GREBE; HELL- DIVER; WATER-WITCH; CAROLINA GREBE; DIPPER; DIPCHICK Length— \^ inches. Smallest of the grebes. Male and Female— In summer: Upper parts dusky, grayish brown ; wings varied with ashy and white; throat black; upper breast, sides of throat, and sides of body yellowish brown, irregularly and indistinctlv mottled or barred with blackish and washed with yellowish brown; lower breast and under- neath glossy white. A few bristling feathers on head, but no horns. Bill spotted with dusky and blue (pied-billed) and crossed with a black band. Toes elongated and with broad lobes of skin. In -dciuter: Similar to summer plumage, e.x- cept that throat is white and the black band on bill is lacking. Young— Uke adults in winter. Heads beautifully striped with black, white, and yellowish brown. Iiange—?>x\\:\s\\ provinces and United States and southward to Brazil, Argentine Republic, including the West Indies and Bermuda, breeding almost throughout its range. 1 1 Grebes Season — Common migrant in spring and fall. Winters from New Jersey and southern Illinois southward. The most abundant species of the family in the eastern United States, particularly near the Atlantic, the pied-billed grebes are far from being maritime birds notwithstanding. Salt water that finds its way into the fresh-water lagoons of the Gulf States, or the estuaries of our northern rivers, is as briny as they care to taste; and although so commonly met with near the sea, they are still more common in the rivers, lakes, and ponds inland, where tall reeds and sedges line the shores and form their ideal hunting and nesting grounds. The grebes and loons are not edible, nor are they classed as game birds by true sportsmen; nevertheless this bird is often hunted, although the sportsman finds it a wary victim, for there is no bird in the world more difficult to shoot than a " water- witch." One instant it will be swimming around the lake apparently unconcerned about the intruder; the next instant, and before aim can be taken, it will have dropped to unknown depths, but presumably to the infernal re- gions, the sportsman thinks, as he rests meditatively upon his gun, waiting for the grebe to reappear in the neighborhood, which it never dreams of doing. It will swim swiftly under water to a safe distance from danger; then, by keeping only its nostrils ex- posed to the air, will float along just under the surface and leave its would-be assassin completely mystified as to its whereabouts — a trick the very fledglings practice. It is amazing how long a grebe can remain submerged. In pursuing fish, which form its staple diet; in diving to escape danger, to feed, to loosen water- weeds for the construction of its nest, among its other concerns below the surface, it has been missed under water for five minutes, and not at all short of breath on its return above at the end of that time. Fresh-water mollusks, newts, winged insects, vegetable matter, including seeds of wild grain and some grasses, vary the birds fish diet. Ungainly and ill at ease on land, in fact, almost helpless there, a greoe rarely ventures out of the water either to sleep or to nest. The young rest on their mother's back after their first swim- ming lessons that are begun the hour they are hatched; but they quickly become wonderfully expert and independent of every- thing except water: that is their proper element. Nevertheless they can fly with speed and grace, though with much working 12 Grebes of their short wings and stretching of their short bodies, from which their heads project as far as may be at one end and their great lobed feet at the other. The nest of all grebes is an odd affair, one of the curiosities of bird architecture. A few blades of "'saw grass" may or may not serve as anchor to the floating mass of water-weeds pulled from the bottom of the lake and held together by mud and moss. The structure resembles nothing so much as a mud pancake ris- ing two or three inches above the water, though, like an iceberg, only about one-eighth of it shows above the surface. A grebe's nest is often two or three feet in depth. In a shallow depression, from fourtoten, though usually five, soiled, brownish-white eggs ;>re laid, and concealed by a mass of wet muck whenever the mother leaves her incubating duties. At night she sits on the nest, and for some hours each day; but at other times the water- soaked, muck-covered cradle, with the help of the sun, steams the contents into life. 13 THE LOONS (Family iirinatoruicej Loon (Urinator imber) Called also: GREAT NORTHERN DIVER; COMMON LOON; LOOM Length — 31 to 36 inches. Male and Female — In summer: Upper parts glossy black, showing iridescent violet and green tints. Back and wings spotted and barred with white; white spaces on the neck marking off black bands, and sides of breast streaked with white. Breast and underneath white. Bill stout, straight, sharply pointed, and yellowish green. Legs, which are placed at rear of body, are short, buried and feathered to heel joint. Tail short, but well formed. Feet black and webbed. /// winter and immature specimens: Upper parts blackish and feathers margined with grayish, not spotted with white. Under- neath white ; throat sometimes has grayish wash. Range — Northern part of northern hemisphere. In North America breeds from the Northern United States to Arctic Circle, and winters from the southern limit of its breeding range to the Gulf of Mexico. Season — A wandering winter resident. Most common in the mi- grations from September to May. This largest and handsomest of the diving hiius, as it is the most disagreeably voiced, comes down to our latitude in winter, when its favorite inland lakes at the north begin to freeze over and the fish to fail, and wanders about far from the haunts of men along the seacoast or by the fresh waterways. Cau- tious, shy, fond of solitude, it shifts about from place to place discouraging our acquaintance. By the time it reaches the United States — for the majority nest farther north — it has exchanged its rich, velvety black and white wedding garment for a more dingy suit, in which the immature specimens are also dressed. With ij. Loons Strong, direct flight small companies of loons may be seen high overhead migrating southward to escape the ice that locks up their food; or a solitary bird, some tine morning in September, may cause us to look up to where a long-drawn, melancholy, uncanny scream seems to rend the very clouds. Nuttall speaks of the "sad and wolfish call which like a dismal echo seems slowly to invade the ear, and rising as it proceeds, dies away in the air. This boding sound to mariners, supposed to be indica- tive of a storm, may be heard sometimes two or three miles when the bird itself is invisible, or reduced almost to a speck in the distance." But the loon has also a soft and rather pleasing cry, to which doubtless Longfellow referred in his •■ Birds of Pas- sage," when he wrote of . . . " The !oon that laughs and flies Down to those reflected skies." Not so aquatic as the grebes, perhaps the loons are quite as remarkable divers and swimmers. The cartridge of the modern breech-loader gives no warning of a coming shot, as the old-fashioned flint-lock did ; nevertheless, the loon, which is therefore literally quicker than a flash at divin^, disappears nine times out of ten before the shot reaches the spot where the bird had been floating with apparent unconcern only a second before. As its flesh is dark, tough, and unpalatable, the sportsman loses nothing of value except his temper. Sometimes young loons are eaten in camps where better meat is scarce, and are even offered in large city markets where it isn't. In spring when the ice has broken up. a pair of loons retire to the shores of some lonely inland lake or river, and here on the ground they build a rude nest in a slight depression near enough to the water to glide off into it without touching their feet to the sand. In June two grayish olive-brown eggs, spotted with um- ber brown, are hatched. The young are frequently seen on land as they go waddling about from pond to pond. After the nesting season the parents separate and undergo a moult which some- times leaves so few feathers on their bodies that they are unable to rise in the air. When on land they are at any time almost helpless and exceedingly awkward, using their wings and bill to assist their clumsy feet. IS Loons The Black-throated Loon CUrinator iircticit^). a more north- ern species than the preceding, reaches only the Canadian border of the United States in winter. It may be distinguished from the common loon by its smaller size, twenty-seven inches, and by its gray feathers on the top of the he d and the nape of the neck, though in winter plumage even this slight difference of feathers is lacking. Red-throated Loon ( Urinator lunniie) Calledalso. SPRAT LOON: RED-THROATED DIVER; :OBBLE Length— 2^ inches. Male and Female — In summer: Crown and upper parts dull brown- ish black, with a greenish wash and profusely marked with white oval spots and streaks. Underneath white. Bluish gray on forehead, chin, upper throat, and sides of head. A triangular mark of chestnut red on fore neck. Bill black. Tail narrowly tipped with white. In ziinter and immature specimens: Similar to the common loon in winter, except that the back is spotted with white. Range — Throughout northern parts of northern hemisphere; mi- grating southward in winter nearly across the United States. Season — Winter visitor or resident. It is not an easy matter at a little distance to distinguish this loon from the great northern diver, for the young of the year, which are most abundant migrants in the United States, lack the chestnut-red triangle on the throat, which is the bird's chief mark of identification. Its smaller size is apparent only at close range. In habits these loons are almost identical: and although their name, used metaphorically, has come to imply a simpleton or crazy fellow, no one who has studied them, and certainly no one who has ever tried to shoot one, can call them stupid. It is only on land, where they are almost never seen, that thev even look so. Audubon found the red-throated loons nesting on the coast of Labrador, near small fresh-water lakes, in June. The young are able to fly by August, and in September can join the older mi- grants in their southern flight. In Eiigland these loons follow the i6 Loons movements of the sprats, on which they feed; hence one of their common names by which our Canadian cousins often call them. Fishermen sometimes bring one of these divers that has been gorging on the imprisoned fish, to shore in their nets. For a fuller account of the bird's habits, see the common loon. 17 AUKS. MURRES, PUFFINS (Family Alcidce) Puffin (Fratercula arciica) Called also: SEA PARROT; COULTERNEB; MASKING PUFFIN Length— \ J inches. Male and Female— \i^^tx parts blackish; browner on the head and front of neck. Sides of the !iead and throat white • some- times grayish. Nape of neck has narrow grayish collar Breast and underneath white. Feet less broadly webbed than a loons. Bill heavy and resembling a parrots In nesting season bill assumes odd shapes, showing ridges and furrows, an outgrowth of soft parts that have hardened and taken on bright tints. A horny spine over eye. Colored rosette at corner of mouth. Range— Co^^\% and islands of the North Atlantic, nesting on the North American coast from the Bay of Fundy northward South in winter to Long Island, and casually beyond. Season — Winter visitor. Few Americans have seen this curious-looking bird outside the glass cases of museums; nevertheless numbers of them strag- gle down the Atlantic coast as far as Long Island every wintel". from the countless mynads that nest in the rocky cliffs around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy. Unlike either grebes or loons, puffins are gregarious, espe 'ully at the nesting season. In April great numbers begin to assemble in localities to which they return year after year, and select crevices in the rocks or bur- row deep holes like a rabbit, to receive the solitary egg that is the object of so much solicitude two months later. ' Both male and female work at excavating the tunnel and at feeding their one offspring, which has an appetite for fish and other sea-food large enough for a more numerous family. By the end of August the i8 Auks, Murres, Puffins entire colony breaks up and follows the exodus of fish, completely deserting their nesting grounds, where any young ones that may be hatched late are left to be preyed upon by hawks and ravens. "Notwithstanding this apparent neglect of their young at this time, when every otherinstinct is merged in the desire and neces- sity of migration, '" wrote Nuttall, "no bird is more attentive to them in general, since they will suffer themselves to be taken by the hand and use every endeavor to save and screen their young, biting not only their antagonist, but, when laid hold of by the wings, inflicting bites on themselves, as if actuated by the agonies of despair; and when released, instead of flying away, they hurry again into the burrow."' A hand thrust in after one may drag the angry parent, that has fastened its beak upon a finger, to the mouth of the tunnel: but a certain fisherman off the coast of Nova Scotia, who lost a piece of solid flesh in this experiment, now gives advice freely against it. The beak that is able to inflict so serious an injury is this bird's chief characteristic. It looks as if it had been bought at a toyshop for some reveller in masquerade; but the puffin wears it only when engaged in the most serious business of life, for it is the wedding garment donned by both contracting parties. It is about as long as the head, as high as it is long, having flat sides that show numerous ridges or furrows from the fact that each represents new growth of soft matter that finally hardens into horn as the nesting season approaches, only to disappear bit by bit until nine pieces have been moulted or shed, very much as a deer casts its antlers. The white pelican drops its "centre- board " in a similar manner. In the puffins there is also a moult of the excrescenses upon the eyelids, and a shrivelling of the col- ored rosette at the corner of the mouth, peculiarities first scientif- ically noted by L. Bereau about twenty years ago. The change of plumage after moult is scarcely perceptible. On land the bird walks upright, awkwardly shuffling along on the full length of its legs and feet. It is an accomplished swimmer and diver, like the grebes and loons, although, unlike them, it uses its wings under water. When a strong gale is blowing off the coast, the puffins seek shelter in the crevices of the rocks or their tunnels in the sand: but some that were over- taken by it on the open sea, unable to weather it, are sometimes found washed ashore dead after a violent storm. Mr. Brewster, J9 Auks, Murres, Puffins who made a special study of these birds in the Gulf of St. Law- rence, writes: "The first report of our guns brought dozens tumbling from their nests. Their manner of descending from the higher portions of the cliff was peculiar. Launching into the air with heads depressed and wings held stiffly at a sharp angle above their backs, they would shoot down like meteors, check- ing their speed by an upward turn just before reaching the water. In a few minutes scores had collected about us. They were per- fectly silent and very tame, passing and repassing over and by us, often coming within ten or fifteen yards. On such occasions their flight has a curious resemblance to that of a woodcock, but when coming in from the fishing grounds they skim close to the waves and the wings are moved more in the manner of those of a duck." Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) Called also: SEA PIGEON Length — i -^ inches. Male and Female — /// summer: Prevailing color sooty black, with greenish tints above and lighter below. Large white patch on upper wings, and white ends of wing feathers, leave a black bar across the wings, sometimes apparently, though not really, absent; wing linings white. Bill and claws black; mouth and feet vermilion or pinkish. /// winter : Wings and tail black, with white patch on wings; back, hind neck, and head black or gray variegated with white. Under parts white. Young — Upper parts like adults in winter, except that the under parts are mottled with black. Nestlings are covered with blackish-brown down. Feet and legs blackish. Range — Breeds from Maine to Newfoundland and beyond; mi- grates south in winter, regularly to Cape Cod, more rarely to Long Island, and casually as far as Philadelphia. Small companies of sea pigeons, made up of two or three pairs that keep well together, may be seen almost grazing along the surface of the sea off our northern States and the Canadian coast, following a straight line at the base of the cliffs while keeping a sharp lookout for the small fish, shrimps, baby crabs, and marine insects they pick up on the way. Suddenly one of 20 Auks, Murres, Puffins the birds dives after a fish, pursues, overtakes, and swallows it, then rejoins its mate with little loss of time; for these sea pigeons use their wings under water as well as above it, and so are able to reappear above the surface at surprising distances from the point where they went down. They are truly marine birds; never met with inland, and rarely on the shore itself, except at the nesting season. Large companies nest in the crevices and fis- sures of cliffs and rocky promontories, heaping up little piles of pebbles that act as drains for rainwater or melting snow under the eggs. Incubation takes place in June or July, according to the latitude. Two or three sea-green or whitish eggs, irregu- larly spotted and blotched with blackish brown, and with pur- plish shell-markings, make up a clutch. In the diary kept on the Jeainiefte, De Long recorded meeting with black guillemots in latitude 7?^, swimming about in the open spaces between the ice-floes earlv in May; and Greely ate their eggs off the shores of Northern Greenland in July. Both explor- ers mentioned the presence of fox tracks in the neighborhood of the guillemots, proving that this arch enemy pursues them even into the desolation of the Arctic Circle. One of the first lessons taught the young birds is to hurl themselves from the jutting rocks to escape the fox that is forever threatening their lives in the eyries, and to dive into the sea that protects and feeds them. Brlinnich's Murre (Uria lomvia) Callrdalso: BRUNNICHS GUILLEMOT : ARRIE: EGG BIRD; PENGUIN; FOOLISH GUILLEMOT Length — 1 6. SO inches. Male and Female — Sooty black above, brownest on front of neck. Breast and underneath, white. White tips to secondaries form an obscure band. Greenish base to the upper half of bill, which is rounded outward over the lower half. Bill short, stout, wide, and deep. Range — Coasts and islands of the North Atlantic and eastern Arc- tic Oceans. South to the lakes of Northern New York and the coast of New Jersey. Nests from the Gulf of St. Law- rence northward. Season — Winter visitor in United States. 2t Auks, Murres, Pu£Bns " The bird cliffs on Arveprins Island (Northern Greenland) deserve a passing notice, not for Arctic travellers, but for the gen- eral reader," writes General Greely in •Three Years of Arctic Service. " " For over a thousand feet out of the sea these cliffs rise per- pendicularlv. broken onlv by narrow ledges, in general inaccessi- ble to man or other enemy, which afford certain kinds of sea fowl secure and convenient breeding places. On the face of these sea-ledges of Arveprins Island, Briinnich's guillemots, or loons, {sh) gather in the breeding season, not by thousands, but by tens of thousands. Each lays but a single gray egg. speckled with brown ; yet so numerous are the birds, that every available spot is covered with eggs. The surprising part is that each bird knows its own egg. although there is no nest and it rests on the bare rock. Occasional quarrels over an egg generally result in a score of others being rolled into the sea. "The clumsy, short-winged birds fall an easy prey to the sportsman, provided the cliffs are not too high, but many fall on lower inaccessible ledges, and so uselessly perish. A single shot brings out thousands on the wing, and the unpleasant cackling, which is continuous when undisturbed, becomes a deafening clamor when they are hunted. "The eggs are very palatable. The tlesh is excellent — to my taste the best flavored of any Arctic sea fowl ; but, to avoid the slightly train-oil taste, it is necessary to keep the bird to ripen, and to carefully skin it before cooking." Later on. the starving survivors in the camp near Cape Sabine owed the prolonging of their wretched existence from day to day largely to these very birds. When these murres come down from the far north to visit us in winter they keep so well out from land that none of our ornithologists seem to have made a verv close study of them. Like other birds of the order to which they belong, they dive sud- denly out of sight when approached, and by the help of wings and feet swim under water for incredible distances. The Common .Murre or Guillemot {Una troilc), so called, is certainly less common in the United States than the preceding species. Massachusetts appears to be its southern limit. In winter, when we see it here, it can be distinguished from 22 <.»-•». 4. .■ I M'ln 11)1. Chi. Acad. Sciences. BRUNNICHS MURRE. ■', Liftvsize. Auks, Murres, Puffins Briinnichs murre only by its bill, which is half an inch longer. Some specimens show a white ring or "eye-glass" around the eye and a white stripe behind it; but doubt exists as to whether such specimens are not a separate species. Much studv has still to be given to this group of birds before the differences of opin- ion held by the le 'ding ornithologists concerning them will be settled satisfactory to all. The habits of the three murres men- tioned here are identical so far as they are known. Penguin and foolish guillemot are titles sometimes given to the common murre; but to add to popular confusion, they are just as frequently applied to Briinnich's murre. The Californian murre. the Western representative of these species, differs from them neither in plumage nor habits, it is said. It breeds abundantly from Behring's Sea to California, and the na- tives of Alaska depend upon its eggs for food. They were among the first dainties sold to the Klondike miners. Razor-billed Auk (Alca tarda) Called also .- TINKER Z^-w^//;— 1 6. =io inches. Male and Female — /// summer : Upper parts sooty black ; browner on fore neck. A conspicuous white line from eve to bill; breast, narrow line on wing, wing-linings, and underneath, white. Bill, which is about as long as head, and black, has horny shield on tip and is crossed by sunken white band. Tail upturned. /// icintcr : Similar to summer plumage, e.x- cept that it is duller and the sides and front of neck are white. Bill lacks horny shield. White line on bill, sometimes lacking on winter birds and always on immature specimens. Jiange—--CoAS\'!. and islands of the North Atlantic: south in win- ter on the North American coast, casually to North Carolina, Breeding from Eastern Maine northward?' A. O. U. Season — Winter visitor. Audubon, who followed these birds to their nesting haunts in Labrador and the Bay of Fundy, found the bodies of thousands strewn on the shores, where, after their eggs had been taken by boat loads for food, and the fine, warm feathers of their breasts 23 Auks, Murres, Puffins had been torn off for clothing, they were left to decay. In Nova Scotia he met three men who made a business of egg-hunting. They began operations by trampling on all the eggs they found laid, relying on the well-known habit of the auk and its relatives that lay but a single egg, to replace it should it be destroyed. Thus they made sure of fresh eggs only. In the course of six weeks they had collected thirty thousand dozen, worth about two thousand dollars. As this wholesale destruction of our gregarious marine birds has been going on for a century at least, is it not surprising that they are not all extinct, like the great auk ? Without wings to help them escape from the voyagers and llshermen who pursued them on ^ea and ashore, the great auks, that in Nuttall's dav were still breeding in enormous colonies in Greenland, dwindled to a single specimen "found dead in the vicinity of St. Augustine. Labrador, in November, 1870," which, although in poor condition, was sold for two hundred dollars to a European buyer. The Smithsonian Institution, the Philadelphia Academy, Cambridge Museum, and Vassar College own one specimen each, the only ones in this country, so far as known. The moral from the story of the great auk that the razor- billed species and its short-winged relatives should take to heart, obviously, is to keep their wings from degenerating into useless appendages, by constant exercise. They certainly are strong flyers in their present evolutionary stage, and, by constantly flap- ping their stiffened wings just above the level of the sea, are usually able to escape pursuit, if not in the air then by diving through the crest of a wave and still using their wings as a fish would its fins, to assist their flight under water. Though they move awkwardly on land, so awkwardly as to suggest the possible derivation of the adverb from their name, they still move rapidly enough to es- cape with their life in a fair race. When cornered, the hand that attempts to seize them receives a bite that sometimes takes the flesh from the bone— such a bite as the sea parrot gives. In the nesting grounds, where enormous numbers of these razor-billed auks have congregated from times unknown, the females may be seen crouching along the eggs, not across them, in long, seriate ranks, where tier after tier of cliffs rise from the water's edge to several hundred feet above the sea. Where there is no attempt at a nest, and each buffy and brown speckled egg looks just like the thousands of others lying loosely about a4 Auks, Murres, Puffins in the rockv crevices, it is amazing how each bird can tell its own. The male birds are kept busy during incubation bringing small tlsh in their bills to their sitting mates or relieving them on the eggs while the females go a-fishing. For a short time only the young birds are fed by regurgitation : then small tlsh are laid before them for them to help themselves, and presently they go tumbling otT the jutting rocks into the sea to dive and hunt in- dependently. Particularly at the nesting season these razor-bills utter a peculiar grunt or groan ; but the stragglers from the great tlocks that reach our coast in winter are almost silent. Dovekie (Alle allc) Called also: SEA DOVE; LITTLE AUK: PIGEON UIVER; GREENLAND DOVE; ICE BIRD Length — 8.=;o inches. Male and Female — In summer : Upper parts, including head and neck all around, glossy black: shoulders and other wing feathers tipped with white and forming two distinct patches. Lower breast and underneath white. A few white touches about eyes. Wings long for this family. Bodv squat, owing to small, weak feet. Wing linings dusky. In "winter: Resembling summer plumage, e.xcept that the black upper parts become sooty and the white of lower breast extends upward tc the bill, almost encircling the neck. Sometimes the white parts are washed with grayish and the birds have gray collar on nape. Young — Like adults in winter, but their upper parts are duller. Range — From the farthest north in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, south to Long Island, and occasionally so far as Virginia. Season — Winter visitor. In the chapter entitled '• The End^iy Death and bv Rescue." in his ••Three Years of Arctic Service," General Greely. after tell- ing how the wretched men at Cape Sabine were reduced to eating their sealskin boots and ^vere apparently in the last extremity, goes on to describe how Long, one of the hunters of the expedi- tion, one awful day succeeded in shooting four of these little dovekies. two king-ducks, and a large guillemot. But the current swept away all the birds except one dovekie! " I ordered the 25 Auks, Murres, Puffins dovekie to be issued to the hunters who can barely walk," writes the starving commander; "but . . . one man begged with tears for his twelfth, which was given him with everybody's contempt." When the twelfth part of a little bird that a man can easily cover with his hand causes a scene like this, can the imagination picture the harrowing misery of the actual situation ? And yet where man and nearly every other living creature perishes, the little auk pursues its happy way, floating about in the open water, left even in that Arctic desolation by the drifting ice floes, and diving into its icy depths after the shrimps that Greely's party collected at such frightful cost. Far within the Arctic Circle great colonies nest after the fashion of their tribe, in the jutting cliffs that overhang the sea. One pale, bluish-white egg. laid on the bare rock, is all that nature requires of these birds to carry on the species, whose chief pro- tection lies in their being able to live beyond the reach of men, to escape pursuit by diving and rapid swimming under water, and to fly in the teeth of a gale that would mean death to a puffin. With so many means of self-preservation at their disposal, there is no need of a large family to keep up the balance that nature adjusts. These neat little birds, whose form alone suggests a dove, are by no means the lackadaisical creatures their name seems to imply. They are self-reliant, for they are chiefly solitary birds that straggle down our coast in winter. They are wonderfully quick of motion in their chosen element, and although they have a peculiar fashion of splashing along the surface of the water, as if unable to flv. they certainly are in no immediate danger of be- coming extinct from the loss of wings through disuse, like the great auk. A little sea dove that once flew across the bow of an ocean steamer in the North Atlantic in an instant became a mere speck in the bleak wintry sky, and the next second van- ished utterly. 26 LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS Jaegers Gulls Terns 27 LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS JAEGERS. GULLS, TERNS (Order Longipennes) Birds of this order may be recognized among the webbed- footed birds by their long, pointed wings that reach beyond the base of the tail, and in many instances beyond the end of it. They do not hold themselves erect when ashore, as the grebes, loons, and auks do. but are able to keep a horizontal position be- cause their legs are placed nearly, if not perfectly, under the centre of equilibrium. Bills of variable forms, sharply pointed and fre- quently hooked like a hawk's. Four toes, three of them in front, flat and webbed; a very small rudimentary great toe (hallux) elevated above the foot at the back. Jaegers and Skuas (Family Stercorariida:) End of upper half of bill is more or less swollen and rounded over the tip of lower mandible. Upper parts of plumage, and sometimes all. sooty, brownish black, frequently with irregular bars. Middle feathers of square tail are longest. The name jaeger, meaning hunter, might be freely translated into pirate; for these creatures of spirited, vigorous flight delight in pursuing smaller gulls and terns to rob them of their fish, like the marine birds of prey that they are. jaegers and skuas are birds of the seacoast or large bodies of inland water, and wander extensively except at the nesting season in the far North. i^arasitic Jaeger. Pomarine Jaeger. Long-tailed Jaeger. 29 Long-winged Swimmers Gulls and Terns (Family LariJiV) The Gulls (Subfamily Larina) Rills of modonito length, tlu- iippor mandiblo not swollen ;it the tip like the j-iegeis. but curved over the end of the lower nundible. Wings long. bro;id, strong ;ind pointed. th(nigh their tlight is less gnieeful th.in a tern's. Tail feathers usuallv of about equal length. Sexes .ilike. but tiie pluin.ige. in whieh white, brown, black, and pearl-blue predominate, varies greatly with age and se.ison. In tlight the bill points forward, not downward like a tern's, tuills pick their Unni from the surf.ice o{ the sea or shore, whereas terns plunge for theirs. Gulls aie the better swimmers, and pass the greater p.irt of their lives at sea, coming to shore chiefly to nest in l.irge colonies. Kittiw.ike Cuill. (ilaucous Gull, or Burgomaster. Iceland Gull. Great Black-backed Gull. Herring (uill. Ring-billed Gull. Laughing Gull. Bonaparte's Gull. Terns (Subfamily Sterituv) Small birds of the coast rather tiian the open sea. Bill straight, not hooked, and sharply pointed. Outer tail feathers longer than the middle ones: tails usually very deeplv forked. Legs placed farther back than a gull's, and tbrm of body more slender and trim. Great length and sharpness of wing give a dash to their fligiit that the gull's lacks. Bill held point down- ward, like .1 mo.squito's. when tern is searching for food. Plu- mage scarcely differs in the sexes, but it varies greatly with the season and age. Usually the top of head is black ; in the rest oS the plumage pearl grays, browns, and white predominate. Tails 30 Long-winged Swimmers generally lonjj; and forked, so that in aspect, as in flight, the birds suggest their name of sea swallow. Marsh Tern. Royal Tern. Wilsons Tern, or Common Tern. Roseate Tern. Arctic Tern. Least Tern. Black Tern. Skimmers (Family Rynchopidti) Only one species of skimmer inhabits the Western Hemi- sphere. These birds have extraordinary bills, thin, and resembling the blade of a knile. with lower half much longer than the upper mandible, and used to skim food from the surface of the water and to open shells. Wings e.xceedingly long; (light more meas- ured and sweeping than a fern's. Black Skimmer, or Scissor Bill. 3» JAEGERS AND SKUAS (Family Stercorariidcc) Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarhis parasiticus) Called also; MAN-OF-WAR: ARCTIC JAEGER; RICHARD- SON'S JAEGER; TEASER Z(?«^M— 17.20 inches. Male and Female— Light stage: Top of head and cheeks brown, nearly black: back, wings, and tail slaty brown, which be- comes reddish brown on sides )f breast and flanks. Sides of head, back of neck, and sometimes entire neck and throat yellowish. Under parts white. Wings moderately long, strong and pointed. Middle feathers of tail longest. Black tip of upper half of slate-colored bill is swollen and rounded over end of lower mandible like a hawk's. Feet black. Dark stage : Plumage dark slaty brown, darker on top of head, verv slightly lighter on under parts. Immature speci- mens, which seem to be most abundant off our coasts, show sooty slate plumage; bordered, tipped, or barred with buffy .'rufous, or brownish black, giving the bird a mot- tled appearance. Plumage extremely variable with age and season. Range— '^es,is in Barren Grounds, Greenland, and other high "northern districts: migrates southward along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and through the Great Lakes, wintering from New York, California, and the Middle States to Brazil. Season— Ociohtx to June. Winter visitor. This dusky pirate, strong of wing and marvelously skilful and alert in its flight, uses its superior powers chiefly to harass and prey upon smaller birds. Lashing the air with its long tail, and with wide wing stretchings and powerful strokes, the jaeger comes bearing down on a kittiwake gull that holds a 32 Jaegers dripping fish ready for a contemplated dinner. To dart away from its tormentor, that darts, too, even more suddenly; to outrace the jaeger, although freighted with the fish, are tried resorts that the little gull must finally despair of when the inevitable moment arrives that the coveted tish has to be dropped for the pirate to snatch up and bear away in triumph. Other gulls than the kittiwake suffer from this ocean prowler; their young and eggs are eaten, their food is taken out of their very mouths. As they live so largely on the results of other birds' efforts, the jaegers deserve to be branded as parasites, which all the group are. Indeed, these birds that the English call skuas, differ very little, if any, in habits. While all spend the summer far north, the parasitic jaeger has really less claim to the title of Arctic jaeger than either the pomarine or the long-tailed species, which go within the Arctic Circle to nest. On an open moor or tundra, in a slight depression of the ground, a rude nest is scantily lined with grass, moss, or leaves. Sometimes this nest is near the margin of the sea or lake, soinetimes on an ocean island and laid among the rocks. It contains from two to four— usually two— light olive-brown eggs that are frequently tinged with greenish and scrawled over with chocolate markings most plentiful at the larger end, where they may run together and form a blotch. By the end of September the jaegers begin their southerly migration, reaching Long Island in October, regularly, and quite as regularly leaving early in June. During the winter they play the role of sea scavengers when they are not robbing the gulls, that will actually disgorge a meal already safely stowed away rather than submit to the harassing, petty tortures of these pirates. Jaegers constantly pick up carrion and other rubbish cast up by the sea or thrown overboard from a passing ship, for nothing in the line of food, however putrid it may be, seems to miss the mark of their rapacious appetites, as their Latin name, stercora- riiis, a scavenger, indicates. On land they alwavs seek choicer food, garnered by their own effort— berries, insects, eggs, little birds, and mammals. The best trait the jaegers have is their uncommon cour- age. Nothing that attacks their home or young is too large or fierce for them to dash at fearlessly; and 'by persistent teasing and harassing, for the want of formidable weapons of defense, 33 Jaegers they will eventually get the better of their antagonist, though it be a sea eagle. The Pomarine Jaeger — a contraction of pomatorhine. mean- ing tlap-nosed — (Stercorariiis poiimninisj may be distinguished from the parasitic jaeger by its larger size, twentv-two inches : by the rounded ends of its central tail feathers, which project about three inches beyond the others: and finally by its darker, almost black, upper parts, although the plumage during the dark and the light phases of these birds is so nearly the same that when seen on the wing it is impossible to tell one species from another. Professor Newton, of Cambridge Universitv, has noted that the long, central tail feathers of the pomarine jaeger have their shafts twisted toward the tip, so that in flight the lower surfaces of their webs are pressed together vertically, giving the bird the appear- ance of having a disk attached to its tail. This species is also called the pomarine hawk-gull. It is not known whether the Long-tailed Jaeger, or Buffon's Skua, as they call it in England ( Stercorariiis longicaiiilusj. undergoes the rem.arkable changes of plumage that its relatives in- dulge in or not. for its range is more northerly than that of any of the jaegers, and when it migrates south of the Arctic Circle, to our coasts, it is wearing feathers most confusingly like those of the parasitic jaeger in its light phase. Indeed, the young of these two species cannot be distinguished except bv measuring their bills, when it is found that the long-tailed jaeger has the shorter bill. The distinguishing mark of the adults of this species is the length of the central tail feathers, narrow and pointed, that pro- ject about seven inches beyond the others; but immature speci- mens lack even this mark. The description of the habits of the parasitic jaeger applies equally well to all of the three freebooters mentioned. 34 GULLS AND TERNS (Family Laridce) Gulls (Subfamily Larina) Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) Length — 1 6 inches. Male and Female— In summer: Deep pearl gray mantle over back and wings. Head, neck. tail, and under parts pure white. Ends of outer wing feathers— primaries— black, tipped with white. Tips of tail quills black. Hind toe verv small, a mere knob, and without a claw. Bill light yellow. Feet webbed and black. In -winter: Similar to summer plumace. but that the mantle is a darker gray and extends to back of neck. Dark spot about the eye. Range— AxcX\c regions, south ifi eastern North America in winter to the Great Lakes and the coast of Virginia. Breeds from Magdalen Islands northward. Season— kuXumn and winter visitor in the Middle States. Com- mon north of them all winter. It is the larger herring gull that we see in such numbers in our harbors and following in the path of vessels along our coast: but the watchful eye may often pick out a few kittiwakes in the loose flocks, and north of Rhode Island meet with a company of them apart from others of their kin. Skimming gracefully along the surface of the water, soaring, tloating in mid-air. swooping for a morsel in the trough of the waves, then with a few strong wing strokes rejoining their fellows as they play at cross-tag in the sky, the gulls fascinate the eyes and beguile many a weary hour at sea. Along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, on the craggy cliffs of Greenland, and beyond, large colonies of kittiwakes nest on the 35 Gulls ledges of rock barely scattered over with grass, moss, and sea- weed to form a rude nest, or else directly on the sand in the midst of a little heap of "drift" cast high up on the beach. Three or four eggs, varying from buffy to grayish brown, and marked with chocolate, are often taken from a nest by the natives, who, with the jaegers and the sea eagles that also devour the young, are the kittiwakes' worst enemies. Fearlessly breasting a gale on the open ocean, sleeping with head under wing while riding the waves, the gull is far more at home at sea than ashore, and soon leaves the nest to begin its roving life at sea. Their service to man, aside from the gulls' aesthetic value, is in devouring refuse that would otherwise wash ashore and pollute the air. This is the gull that the jaegers, those duskv pirates of the high seas, most persecute by taking away its tlsh and other food to save themselves the trouble of hunting in the legitimate way. Glaucous Gull (Larus glaucus) Called also: BURGOMASTER; ICE GULL Length— 2^ to j?2 inches. Male and Female — /// summer : Mantle over wings and back, light pearl gray : all other parts pure white. Large, strong, wide bill which is chrome yellow, with orange red spot at the angle. Legs and feet pale pink or yellowish pink. In winter: Light streaks of pale brownish gray on head and back of neck ; otherwise plumage same as summer. Im- mature birds are wholly white, with t1esh-colored bills hav- ing black tips. Females are smaller than males. Range — Northern and Arctic Oceans around the world: in North America from Long Island and the Great Lakes in winter, to Labrador and northward in the nesting season. Season — Irregular winter visitor. This very large gull, whose protective coloring indicates that the snow and ice of the circum-polar regions are its habitual surroundings, occasionally struggles down our coasts and to the Great Lakes in loose flocks in winter, but leaves none too good a character behind it on its departure in the early spring. General Greely met enormous numbers of burgomasters in the dreary desolation of ice at the far north ; and Frederick Schwatka tells 36 Gulls of great nesting colonies in the cliffs overhanging the upper waters of the Yukon, where the sound of the rushing torrent was drowned by their harsh uproar as they wheeled about in dense clouds high above his head. The nest, which is a very slight affair of seaweed, moss, or grass, contains two or three stone- colored eggs, although sometimes pale olive-brown ones are found, spotted and marked with chocolate and ashy gray. Many nests are also made directly on the ground. What is reprehensible in this birds habits is its tyranny over smaller, weaker gulls and other birds that it hunts' down like a pirate to rob of their food while they carry it across the waves or to their nest, where the villain still pursues them and devours their young, auite in keeping with such unholiness is the burgomaster's harsh cry, variously written kiik-Iak and ciit-leek\ that it raises incessantly when hungry, and that therefore must be particularly unpleasant to the kittiwakes, guillemots, and other conspicuous victims of its rapacious appetite. When its hunger is appeased, however, by fish, small birds, crow-berries carrion, and morsels floating on the sea, this gull is said to be inactive and silent; and certainly the starving hunters in the Greely expedition found it sadly shy. The Iceland Gull (Lams Uiicopterus) looks like a small edition of the burgomaster, its length being about twenty-five inches; but its plumage is identical with that of the larger bird. Great Black-backed Gull (Larus maritius) Called also: SADDLE-BACK; COBB; COFFIN CARRIER Length— 2^ to 30 inches. Male and Female-/,, slimmer: Mantle over back and wings dark slaty brown, almost black; wing feathers tipnfd with white; rest of plumage white, BHl vellow, red^ .1 the angle Feet and legs pinkish. /;; zcniler: Similar to summer dress except that the white head and neck are and'whitr'ih ^'"'-f^- '"^"^^'ture birds are mottled brown and white, the perfect plumage described above not being attained until the fourth year. ^ /^.,;,^._Coasts of North Atlantic. Nests from Nova Scotia north- 37 Gulls ward. Migrates in winter sometimes to South Carolina and Virginia, but regularly to Long Island and the Great Lakes. Season — September to April. The black-back shares the distinction with the burgomaster of being not only one of the largest, most powerful representa- tives of its family, but one of the most tyrannical and greedy. So optimistic a bird-lover as Audubon said that it is as much the tyrant of the sea fowl as the eagle is of the land birds. Like the eagle again, it is exceedingly shy of men and inaccessible. " By far the wariest bird that 1 have ever met," writes Brewster. This same careful observer reports that he noted four distinct cries : "a braying Ha-ha-ha, a deep kco'd;. kcoic, a short barking note, and a long-drawn groan, very loud and decidedly impressive," when he studied it in the island of Anticosti. Soaring high in the air in great spirals, with majestic grace and power, the saddle-back still keeps a watchful eve on what is passing in the world below, and, quick as a hawk, will come swooping down to pounce upon some smaller gull or other bird that has just secured a fish by patient toil, to suck the eggs in a nest left for the moment unguarded, or eat the young eider-ducks and willow grouse for which it seems to have a special fondness; though nothing either young and tender, old and tough, fresh or carrion, goes amiss of its rapacious maw. It is a sea scavenger of more than ordinary capacity, and when faithfullv playing in this role it lays us under obligation to speak well of it. Certainly the gulls and other sea fowl that eat refuse contribute much to the healthfuiness of our coasts. Before the onslaughts of this black-backed freebooter almost all the tribe of sea fowl quail ; and yet, like every other tyrant, it is itself most cowardly, for it will desert even its own young rather than be approached by man, who visits the sins of the father upon the children by pickling them for food when they are not taken in the egg for boiling. Usually the nest is built with hundreds or even thousands of others on some inaccessible cliff overhanging the sea; or it may be on an island, or on the dunes near the beach, in which latter case it is the merest depression in the turf, lined with grass and seaweed. Two or three — usually three — day-colored or buff eggs, rather evenly and boldly spotted with chocolate brown, make a 38 Gulls clutch. After the nesting season these gulls migrate farther south- ward than the glaucous gulls, not because they are incapable of withstanding the most intense cold, but because the fish supply is of course greater in the open waters of our coast. With ma- jestic grace thev skim along the waves, revealing the dark slate- colored mantle covering their backs liki a pall, for which they must bear the gruesome name of "Coffin Carrier." American Herring Gull (Lams argentatus smithsonianus) Called also: WINTER GULL Length — 24 to 25 inches. Male and Female — In summer: Mantle over back and wings deep pearl gray, also known as "'gull blue ; " head, tail, and under parts white. Outer feathers of wings chiefiy black, with rounded white spots near the tips. Bill bright yellow. Feet and legs tlesh-colored. In winter : Similar to summer plumage, but with grayish streaks or blotches about the head and neck. Bill less bright. Young — Upper parts dull ashy brown ; head and neck marked with buff, and back and wings margined and marked with the same color ; outer feathers of wings brownish black, lacking round white spots ; black or brownish tail feathers gradually fade to white. ^a/!ge — Nests from Minnesota and New England northward, especially about the St. Lawrence. Nova Scotia, Newfound- land, and Labrador. Winters from Bay of Fundy to West Indies and Lower California. Season — Winter resident. Common from November until March. As the English sparrow is to the land birds, so is the herring gull to the sea fowl — overwhelmingly predominant during the winter in the Great Lakes and larger waterways of the interior, just as it is about the docks of our harbors, along our coasts, and very far out at sea: for trustworthy captains declare the same birds follow their ships from port to port across the ocean. Occasionally at low tide one may meet with a few herring gulls on the sand fiats of the beach, feeding on the smaller shell fish half buried there. It is Audubon, the unimpeachable, who relates how these birds, that he so carefully studied in Labrador 39 GulU fine siirnfiuT, hn-.tk open fli<- •.h«'l'. to rxfr.ict the rrifilliisks, hy Ciirryirijj; IIkmi up in tiir .111, then droppiri^^ tlicdi on tht- rocks. " Wf s;iw oix- th;it fi;id met with ;i vt-ry h;ird mussel," hi- writes, ' ' t.ikc It up thrcr- tunes in sut ( ession hefore it mk ceeded in l)re;ikinK it ; .md I w,i'. iiiik Fi ple;ised to see the hird lirt it (;di e;ith IK ( eeditif.^ time troin ;i ^rejter liei^dit tli;in hefore." A^Jiii, one iii.iy •.C.I- :t (loi k t. All in.inner of ho.ils p.iss (lose hesidi- siK h .1 tiled (OMip.iny in New York lurltor without dis- tiirbin^ It ; for these (^nlls, unlike the ^.djiutriu . .md M.ick-li k k"(| species, '.iiow little fe.u of III. Ill 01 III . invntioiis. liul It r. hi^'h III iir, '..nlin;^ on motionless wiiij^s in the w.ike of .III oi e,in -.te.imei, ili.it oiie nieni;dly pKtiires the herrinj< j^nll. App.ireiiljy the |i)o,e f|o( k, flo.itiii^^ idly ;i|iout, h.ivi- no thouj/ht lieyond tin- pule port. Suddenly one hlld diops like .1 shot to lie- w.ii' r . Mirf.K e, ■.p.itteis ;ilioiit with iiiui h win;.';-f!.ip- piiij^ .ind sliii;^^'|e of feel, then, living; .1^:1111 with .1 .m.ill fish or morsel of refuse m it . j.M.r.|), le.iils off from .1 ^needy horde ui eiiviou ( oiiip;iiiioir. in hot piii nil th.il likely ■''■ nol will over- li.iiil him iiid roll hiin of Ins dinnei. I.Mniii;^ ;il>imd.intly .md often, r.ither lh;in Wyiuy, ;ihoiit for idh- ple.isnre, 1 . the ^.'uHs re;d Imsiiiess of lifts With ;ill th<-ir extpiiMte p((eiry '»! motion, it must l>e owned th;if these birds li;ive ;dso iiiimerous pios;ii( (pj.illties, exercised in then (,ip;i(itv of s( .iveii^i-r.. l<.ip;i(ious feeders, tyr;inni<;d to sm.iller birds tli;it they (;in rob of their prey, ,md possessed (A ins.iti;i|i|e .ippetitcs foi .iiiy food, whei[irr fresh or putrid, th.it tomes ill their nsu h, tin- ^oiJI, ,illern;ite|y f.iscin.ite by their j^r.'icc ;ind .mim.ition in the m.iriiu- picture, .md repel by the co.irseness ()\ Iheir instincts. However, it is churlish ;o find f.uilt with the .scjive risers th.it liel|) so l,ii;rely in keepint' our be;i( he, free from putrilyin;.^ lubbidi. houlilless the birds themselves, ;is their n.mie implies, would prefer herrings were they ;dw;iys .iv.iil.ible. Unlike the other j^ulls, this one, where it h.is been persist- ently robbed, soinetiines nests in trees, ;ind, ;id;iptinj( its .irchi- teclure to the exi),(eiitles of the situ;itloii, constructs ;i comp.ittly built and bulky home, often fifty feet from the ground, and prcferal)ly in a fir (ir other ever^'rec-n. Ordin.irily a coarse, loose mat of mrjss, grasses, and seaweed is laid directly on the j^round or on a rocky cliff luar the sea. Two or three grayish olive 40 > 4 -» » ' \ 1 Gulls brown, sometimes whitish, eggs, spotted, blotched, and scrawled with brown, are laid in June. In the nesting grounds the her- ring gulls are shy of men and fierce in defending their mates and young, to whom thev are especially devoted. Akak. kakak they scream or bark at the intruder, making a din that is fairly deaf- ening. Before the summer is ended the baby gulls will have learned to breast a gale, sleep with head tucked under wing when rocked on the cradle of the deep, and follow a ship for the ref- use thrown overboard, like any veteran. They are the grayish brown birds which one can readily pick out in a flock of adults when they migrate to our coasts in winter. Ring-billed Gull (Larus delaivarensis) Length — iS.SOto \q.~j^ inches. Male and Female — Mantle over back and wings light pearl color. rest of plumage white except in winter, when the head and nape are spotted, not streaked, with grayish brown. Wings have •• first primary black, with a white spot near the tip. the base of the inner half of the inner web pe.irl gray: on the third to sixth primaries the black decreases rapidly and each one is tipped with white. " (Chapman.) Bill light greenish vellow. chrome at the tip. and encircled with a broad band of black. Legs and feet dusky bluish green. Immature birds arc mottled white and dusky, the dark tint varied with pale buff prevailing on the upper parts, the white below. Tail is dusky, tipped with white and pale gray at the base. Range — Distributed over North America, nests from Great Lakes and New England northward, especially in the St. Lawrence region, the Bay of Fundy, and Newfoundland: more common in the interior than on the seacoast; winters south of New England lo Cuba and Central America. Season — Common winter visitor. "On the whole the commonest species, both coastwise and in the interior," says Dr. Elliott Coues. Certainly around the salt lakes of the plains and in limited areas elsewhere in the west it is most abundant, and at many points along the Atlantic coast : but off the shores of the Middle and the Southern, if not also of the New England States, it is the herring gull that 41 Gulls seems to predominate, except here and there, as at Washing- ton, for example, where the ring-billed species is locally very common indeed. From Illinois to the Mexican Gulf is also a favorite winter resort. It is not an easy matter to tell one of these two commonest species from the other, unless they are seen together, when the larger size of the herring gull and the black band around the bill of the ring-billed gull are at once apparent. These birds fraternize as readily as they bully and rob their smaller relations or each other when hunger makes them desperate. One rarely sees a gull alone: usually a loose flock soars and floats high in the air, apparently idle, but in reality keeping their marvelously sharp eyes on the constant lookout for a morsel of food in the waters below. In the nesting grounds countless numbers oc- cupy the same cliffs, and large companies keep well together during the migrations. Inasmuch as most of the characteristics of the ring-billed gull belong also to the herring gull, the reader is referred to the longer account of the latter bird to save repetition. When liv- ing inland the ring-billed gull, beside eating everything that its larger kin devour with such rapacity, catches insects both on the ground and on the wing. A trick at which it is past-master is to follow a school of tlsh up the river, then, when a fish leaps from the water after a passing insect, swoop down like a flash and bear away fish, bug, and all. Laughing Gull (Lams atricilla) Called also: BLACK-HEADED GULL; RISIBLE GULL Length — 16 to 17 inches. Male and Female — /// summer: Head covered with a dark slate brown, almost black, hood, extending farther on throat than on nape, which is pure white like the breast, tail, and under parts. Mantle over back and wings dark, pearl gray. Wings have long feathers, black, the inner primaries with small white tips. Bill dark reddish, brighter at the end. Eyelids red on edge. Legs and feet dusky red. Breast some- times suffused with delicate blush pink. In winter : Similar to summer plumage, except that the head has lost its hood, 42 Gulls being white mixed with blackish. Under parts white with- out a tinge of rose. Bill and feet duller. Young — Light ashy brown feathers, margined with whitish on the upper parts ; forehead and under parts white, sometimes clouded with dark gray ; tail dark pearl gray with broad band of blackish brown across end ; primaries black. Range — "Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, north to Maine and Nova Scotia ; south in winter through West Indies, Mexico (both coasts). Central America, and northern South America (Atlantic side), to the Lower Amazon." A. O. U. Season — Summer resident, and visitor throughout the year. No bird tn:;t must lift up its voice to drown the bowlings of the gale and .he pounding, dashing surf in an ocean storm might be expected to have a soft, musical call; and the gulls, that pass the greater part of their lives at sea, must therefore depend upon squalls, screams, barks, and shrill, high notes that carry long distances, to report news back and forth to members of the loose flocks that hunt together above the crest of the waves. The laughing gull, however, utters a coarse scream in a clear, high tone, like the syllables oh-hah-kah-ah-ah-hah-hah-h-a-ii-a-a-ah. long drawn out toward the end and particularly at the last meas- ure, that differs from every other bird note, "sounding like the odd and excited laughter of an Indian squaw," says Langille, " and giving marked propriety to the name of the bird." All gulls chat- ter among themselves, the noise lising sometimes to a deafening clamor when they are disturbed in their nesting grounds; but the laughing gull, in addition to its long-drawn, clear note on a high key, " sounding not unlike the more excited call-note of the domestic goose," suddenly bursts out, to the ears of superstitious sailors, into the laugh that seems malign and uncanny. A more southern species than anv commonly seen off our shores, the laughing gull nests from Texas and Florida to Maine, though it is not a bird of the interior, as the ring-billed species is. nor so pelagic as the herring gull. It delights in reedy, bush-grown salt marshes that yield a rich menu of small mol- lusks, spawn of the king crab and other crustaceans, insects, worms, and refuse cast up by the tide. In such a place it also nests in large colonies, forming with its body a slight depression in the sand that is scantily lined with grasses and weeds from the beach, and concealed by a tussock of grasses. Three to five 43 Gulls eggs, varying from olive to greenish gray or dull white, pro- fusely marked with chocolate brown, are not so rare a find for the collector as the eggs of most other gulls that nest in the ex- treme north, where only the hardy explorers in search of the North Pole count themselves moiv fortunate sometimes to find a square meal of gulls' eggs. Formerly these laughing gulls were exceedingly abundant all along our coasts. Nantucket was a favorite nesting resort, so were the marshes of Long Island and New Jersey; but unhap- pily a fashion for wearing gulls' wings in women's hats arose, and though only the wings were used, as one woman naively protested when charged with complicity in their slaughter, the birds have been all but exterminated at the north. In southern waters they are, happily, common still, and will be again at the north when the beneficent bird laws shall have had time to operate. Bonaparte's Gull flarus Philadelphia) Called also: ROSY GULL Length— \^ inches. Male and Female~Ui summer: Head and throat deep sooty slate, the hood not extending over nape or sides of neck.' which are white like the under parts and tail. Mantle over back and wings pearl gray. Wings white and pearl gray. Pri- maries of wings marked with black and white. Bill black. Legs and feet coral red. In nesting plumage only, the xA'hite under parts are sulTused with rosv pink. /// icin'tcr: Similar except that the birds lack the dark hood, only the back and sides ol the head washed with grayish; white on lop. Young— Grwy'xsh washings on top of head, nape, and ears; mantle over back and wings varying from brownish gray to pearl gray; upper half of wings grayish brown: secondaries pearly gray: primaries, or longest leathers, at the i.'nd much marked with black: white tail has black band a short distance from end, leavmg a white edge showing. Under- neath, white. Jiange—Vvom the Gulf of Mexico to Manitoba and beyond in the interior; Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Nests north of United States. Season— Common spring and autumn migrant. A few winter north. 44 Gulls This exquisite little gull, whose darting, skimming flight sug- gests that of the sea swallow, flies swallow-fashion over the ploughed fields of the interior to gather larvae and insects, as well as over the ocean to pick up bits of animal food, either fresh or putrid, that float within range of its keen, nervous glance. Jerking its head now this way and now that, suddenly it turns in its graceful flight to swoop backward upon some particle passed a second before. Nothing it craves for food seems to escape either the eyes or the bill of this tireless little scavenger. In sudden freaks of flight, in agility and lightness of motion, it is conspicuous in a family noted for grace on the wing. A front view of Bonaparte's gull, as it approaches with its long pointed wings outspread, would give one the impression that it is a black-headed white bird, until, darting suddenly, its pearly mantle is revealed. It is peculiarly dainty whichever way you look at it. In the author's note book are constant memoranda of seeing these little gulls hunting in couples through the surf on the Florida coast one March. Mr. Bradford Torrey records the same observation, but adds, "that may have been nothing more than a coincidence. " Is it not probable that these gulls, like all their kin, in their devotion to their mates, were already paired and migrating toward their nesting grounds far to the north 't While the birds hunted along the Florida shore they kept up a plaintive, shrill, but rather feeble cry. that was almost a whistle, to each other; and if one was delayed a moment by dipping into the trough of the wave for some floating morsel, it wc'ld nervously hurry after its mate as if unwilling to lose a second of its com- pany. In the autumn migrations, however, these '• surf gulls." as Mr. Torrey calls them, are seen in large flocks along our coasts, and inland, too, where there is no surf for a thousand miles. " The nest, which is built north of the United States, is placed sometimes in trees, sometimes in stumps, or in bushes, the rude cradle of sticks, lined with grasses, containing three or four grayish olive eggs, spotted with brown, chiefly at the larger end. Such a clutch is a rare find for the collector, few scientists, even, having seen the Bonaparte gulls at home. Charles Bonaparte' Prmce of Canino. might have left us a complete life history of his namesake, had not European politics cut short his happv'and profitable visit in America. 45 TERNS, OR SEA SWALLOWS (Subfamily SternitiixJ Marsh Tern ( Gelochelidon niloticaj Called also: GULL-BILLED TERN, OR SEA SWALLOW Length— -\ i to 1 S inches. Male and' Female— Xo^ and back of head flossy, greenish black: neck all around, and under parts, white: mantle over back imd wings, pearl gray; bill and feet black, the former rather short and stout for this tamilv : wings exceedingly long and sharp, each primary surpassing the next tully an in^h in len^h. Tail white, grayish in the centre, and only slightly forked In winter plumage similar to the above, except that the top of head is white, only a blackish space in front ot eyes; grayish about the ears. iea«^^_" Nearly cosmopolitan: in North America chiefly along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, breeding north to southern New Jersey, and wandering casually to Long Island and Massachusetts; in winter both coasts of Mexico and Central America, and south to Brazil. A. O. U. Season—Swxnxwtx visitor. Summer resident south of Delaware. A very common species, indeed, off the coasts of our south- ern States, this tern, which one can distinguish from its relatives by its heavy black bill and harsh voice, appears at least as tar north as Long Island every summer, and occasionally a straggler reaches Maine. While allied very closely to the gulls, that come out of the far north in the winter to visit us, the terns reverse the order and come out of the south in summer. All manner of beautiful curves and evolutions, sudden darts and dives distinguish the flight of terns, which in grace and airi- ness of motion no bird can surpass ; but this gull-biUed tern is particularly alert and swallow-like, owing to its tondness tor 46 Terns insects which musi be pursued and caught in mid-air. Fish it by no means despises, only it depends almost never for food upon diving through the water to capture them, as others of its kin do, and almost entirely upon aerial plunges after insects. For this reason it haunts marsh lands and darts and skims above the tall reeds and sedges, also the home of winged bettles. moths, spiders, and aquatic insects, dividing its time between the wav- ing plants and the water waves that comb the beach. It is never found f;'r out at sea, as the gulls are, though rarely far from it. Like the black tern, it is not a beach-nester. but resorts in companies to its hunting grounds in the marshes, and breaks down some of the reeds and grasses to form what by courtesy only could be termed a nest. Three to five buffy white eggs, marked with umber brown and blackish, especially around the larger end. are usual; but all terns' eggs are exceedingly varia- ble. Once Anglica was the specific name of the gull-billed tern; but because our English cousins liked the eggs for food, and used the wings for millinery purposes, the bird is now de- plorably rare in England. " It utters a variety of notes," says Mr. Chamberlain, "the most common being represented by the syllables fiav-wek, kav- zvek. One note is described as a laugh, and is said to sound like hay, hay, hay." Royal Tern (Sterna maxima) Called also: CAYENNE TERN; GANNET-STRIKER Length~\% to 20 inches. Male and Female — Top and back of head glossv, greenish black, the feathers lengthened into a crest; mantle over back and wings light pearl color; back of neck, tail, and under parts white; inner part of long wing feathers (except at tip) white; outer part of primaries and tip, slate color. Feet black. Bill, which is long and pointed, is coral or orange red. Tail long and forked. After the nesting season and in winter, the top of head is simply streaked with black and white, and the bill grows paler. Range — Warmer parts of North America on east and west coasts, rarely so far north as New England and the Great Lakes. Season — Summer visitor. Resident in Virginia, and southward. 47 Terns It is the larger Caspian tern, measuring from twenty to twenty-three inches, and not the royal tern, that deserves to be called iiiaxliiia. however imposing the size of the latter bird may be. thanks to its elongated tail; but unless these two birds may be compared side by side in life — a dim possibility — it is quite hopeless for the novice to try to tell which tern is before him. Off the Gulf shore, especially in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, where great numbers live, this handsome bird exer- cises its royal prerogative by robbing the fish out of the pouch of the pelican, that is no match, in its slow flight, for this dashing monarch of the air. But if sometimes tyrannical, or perhaps only mischievous, it is also an indus- trious hunter: and with its sharp eyes fastened on the water, and its bill pointed downward, mosquito fashion, it skims along above the waves, making sudden evolutions upward, then even more sudden, reckless dashes directly downward, and under the water, to clutch its finny prey. With much flap- ping of its long, pointed wings as it reappears in an instant above the surface, it mounts with labored effort into the air again, and is off on its eager, buoyant flight. There is great joyousness about the terns a- wing: dashing, rollicking, aerial sprites they are. that the Florida tourists may sometimes see tossing a fish into the air just for the fun of catching it again, or dropping it for another member of the happy company to catch and toss again in genuine play. It would even seem that they must have a sense of humor, a very late appearing gift in the evolution of every race, scientists teach; and so this lower form of birds certainlv cannot possess it. however much they may appear to. While the terns take life easily at all times, nursery duties rest with special lightness. The royal species makes no attempt to form a nest, but drops from one to four rather small, grayish white eggs marked with chocolate, directly on the sand of the beach, or at the edge or a marshy lagoon. As the sun's rays furnish most of the heat necessary for incubation, the mother bird confines her sitting chiefly to her natural bedtime. 48 Terns Common Tern (Sterna birundo) Called also: WILSONS TERN; SEA SWALLOW; SUMMER GULL; MACKEREL GULL Length — 14 to 1 5 inches. Male and Female — /// summer: Whole top of head velvety black, tinged with greenish and extending to the lower level of the eyes and onto the nape of neck. Mantle over back and wings pearl gray. Throat white, but breast and under- neath a lighter shade of gray, the characteristic that chiefly distinguishes it from Forster's tern, which is pure white oh its under part5. Inner border of inner web of outer primaries white, except at the tip. Tail white, the outer webs of the outer feathers pearl gray. Tail forked and moderately elon- gated, but the folded wings reach one or two inches beyond it. Legs and feet orange red. Bill, which is as long as head, is bright coral about two-thirds of its length, a black space separating it from the extreme tip, which is yellow. In -winter: Similar to summer plumage, except that the front part of head and under parts are pure white; also that the bill becomes mostly black. Young birds similar to adults in winter, but with brownish wash or mottles on the back, with slaty shoulders and shorter tail. Iiange—"\n North America, chiefly east of the plains, breeding from the Arctic coast, somewhat irregularly, to Florida, Texas, and Arizona, and winte.ing northward to Virginia'; also coast of Lower California." A. O. U. Season — Summer resident. May to October. Ironically must this particularly beautiful, graceful sea swal- low now be called the common tern, for common it scarcely has been, except in the dry-goods stores, since its sharply pointed wings, and often its entire body also, were thought by the milli- ners to give style to women's hats. Great boxes full of distorted terns, their bills at impossible angles, their wings and tails bunched together, sicken the bird-lover who strolls through the large city shops on "opening day." Countless thousands of these birds must have been slaughtered to supply the demand of thoughtless women in the last twenty years; and although the egret has had its turn of persecution, and that in an especially cruel way, the fashion for wearing terns, either entire or in sections, continues 4 49 Terns with a hopeless pertinacity that no other mode of hat trimming seems wholly to di'ert. Chicken feathers, arranged to imitate them, are necessarily accepted as substitutes more and more, how- ever. Through the efforts of Mr. Mackay, of Nantucket, the terns are at hist protected on a number of low. sandy islands adjacent to his home, where nesting colonies had resorted from the earliest recollection until they were all but exterminated by the com- panies of men and boys who sailed over from the mainland to collect plumage and the delicately flavored eggs. Muskegat and Penekese Islands, off the extreme southeastern end of Massachu- setts— the latter made famous by Agassiz — and Gull Island, off the Long Island coast, the only nesting grounds left these sea swal- lows in the north, are now guarded by paid keepers, who see to it that no unfriendly visitor sets foot on the shores until the downy chicks are able to tly in September. It was mainly through the efforts of Mr. William Dutcherthat the terns were taken under the protection of the A. O. U., the Linnaean Society, and the A. S. P. C. A., at Gull Island, in May the terns begin to arrive from the south, having apparently mated on the journey. Little or no part of the honeymoon is spent in making a nest, as any little accumulation of drift, or the bare sand .tself, will answer the purpose of these shiftless merry-makers that no responsibilities can depress nor persecution harden. Lightness and grace of flight, as well as of heart, are their certain characteristics. Before family cares divert them, in June, how particularly lively, dashing, impetuous, exultant, free, and full of spirit they are! A sail across to the terns' nesting grounds is recommended to those summer visitors who sit about on the piazzas complaining of ciiniii at Nantucket. Martha's Vineyard, and Shelter Island. As a boat approaches a nesting colony on one of the few low, sandy islands where one may be still found, a canopy or cloud of birds spreads overhead — a surging mass of excited creatures, darting, diving in a maze without plan or direction, like a flurry of huge snowflakes through the summer sky. The air fairly vibrates with the sharp, rasping notes of alarm uttered in a mighty chorus of complaint, very different from the almost musical call, half melancholy, half piping, that the birds con- tinually utter when undisturbed. If the visit be made to the island in June, the upper beach, above the reach of tide, will be so I*' ^ \ -y; i ^ ^ » i Terns scattered over here and there with clutches of eggs that so closely imitate the speckled sand, one is apt to step on them unawares. Only the slightest depression, lined with a wisp of grass or bit of seaweed, is made in pretense of a nest; and as the gay moth- ers leave the work of incubating chietly to the sun. confining themselves only at night or during storms, the visitor may be for- given if the sound of a crushed shell under foot is his first intima- tion of a nest among the dried seaweed or beach grass among the rocks. It was Audubon who said there were never more than three eggs in a nest; but Mr. Parkhurst, at least, has found four. Should the visitor reach the island in July, he will fmd great numbers of downy young chicks running about, but quite depend- ent on their parents for grasshoppers, beetles, small fish, and smaller insects that are the approved diet for young terns. The young are tame as chickens; but the old birds at this time are especially bold and resentful of intrusion. Darting down to a clamoring chick, a parent thrusts a morsel down its throat with- out alighting, and is off again for more, and still more. Later the food is simply dropped for the fledglings to help themselves. Still later, little broods are led to the ocean's edge, sand shoals, nr the marshes, to hunt on their own account; and by September, old and young congregate in great groups to follow the move- ment of the blue fish, that pursue the very small fish, "shiners," that they also feed on. But whether flirting, nesting, hunting, or flying at leisure, there is a refreshing joyousness about the tern that makes it a delight to watch. In the very excess of good spirits one will plunge beneath the water after a little lish, then mounting into the air again, it will deliberately drop it from its bill for another tern to dash after, and the new possessor will toss it to still another member of the jolly flock, and so keep up the game until the fish is finally swallowed. It has been suggested that terns go through this performance to kill the fish, as a cat plavs with a mouse; but it is only occasionally they play the game of catch and toss, and when all the company seem to be in the mood for the fun. Another beautiful sight is the pose of a tern just before alighting, when, with long, pointed wings held for a moment high above its back, they flutter like the wings of a butterfly. But then it would be difficult to name a posture of this graceful SI Tern« bird that is not beautiful, unless we except the act of scratching its head with one foot while on the wing; and this is. perhaps, more amusing than lovely. This sea swallow also has the accomplishment of opening and shutting its tail like a fan, so that one moment it will look like a single pointed feather, and the next it may be narrowly forked or widely stretched into an open triangle. While tlymg, the birds are exceedingly watchful, jerk- ing their heads now this way, now that, with nervous quickness, all the time keeping their "bill pointing straight do\.'nward, which makes them look curiously like colossal mosquitoes." to quote Dr. Coues's famous comparison. By the middle of Octo- ber the terns i.iigrate southward from the New England and Long Island waters to enjoy the perpetual summer, of which they seem to be a natural exponent. Roseate Tern (Sterna doiigalli) Called also: PARADISE TERN Length — 14. so to is. so inches. Male and Female— In summer: Mantle over back and wings deli- cate pearl color, lighter and fading to white on the tail, which is exceedingly long and deeply forked. Feathers on crown, which reaches to the eyes and the back of neck, are black and long. Under parts white, tinted with rose color. Long, slen- der black bill, reddish at the base and yellow at the tip. Feet and legs yellowish red. /// winter: Under parts pure white, having lost the rose tint; fore' 'ad and cheeks white. Crown becomes brownish black, mixed with white; some brownish feathers on wings; pearl gray tail, without extreme elongation or forking. Range — Temperate and warm parts of Atlantic coast, nesting as far north as New England; most abundant, however, south of New Jersey. Winters south of United States. Season — Comparatively rare summer resident at the north, but regular. Closely associated with the common tern in their nesting colonies on Gull and Muskegat Islands, described in the preced- ing biography, this most exquisite member of all the family may be distinguished from its companions by the very long and Terns sharplv pointed tail feathers, and the lovely rose-colored flush it wears on its breast as a sort of wedding garment. This tint is all too transitory, however; family cares fade it to white; dt ath utterly destroys it, though it sometimes changes to a sal- mon shade as the lifeless body cools, before disappearing forever. Comparatively short of wing, the roseate tern cannot be said to lose any of the buoyancy and grace of tlight. the dash and ecstasy that give to the moveir.'^nts of all the tribe their peculiar fasci- nation. It has been said that these birds' eggs are paler than those of the common terns, which are very variable, ranging from olive gray or olive brownish gray to (more rarely) whitish or buff, heavily marked with chocolate ; but though they may aver- age paler, many are identical with those just described; and as the birds nest in precisely the same manner, on the same beach, not even an expert could correctly name the egg every time with- out seeing the adult bird that laid it identify its own. A single harsh note, caik, rises above the din made by the common terns, and at once identifies the voice of the roseate species. It would be unfair to attribute the melancholy, unpleas- ing quality of the terns' voices to their dispositions, which we have every reason to suppose are particularly joyous and amia- ble. This bird also appears less excitable; but in all other par- ticulars than those already noted the common and the roseate terns share the characteristics described in the preceding account, to which the reader is referred. It is a gratification to know that at the close of the first season, when the tern colony had been pro- tected at Gull Island, Mr. Dutcher could report an increase of from one thousand to fifteen hundred birds, virtually an increase of one half the total number in one year. With the four species of tern that nest in the neighborhood of New York and New England, the Arctic Tern {Sterna para- Jiscva) has nearly all characteristics in common, and the few pe- culiarities that differentiate it from the common tern are quickly learned. While these birds are similar in color, the Arctic tern "differs in having less gray on th^ shaft part of the inner web of the outer primaries, in having the tail somewhat longer, the tarsi and bill shorter: while the latter, in the adult, is generally without a black tip. ' (Chapman.) Its voice is shriller, with a rising inflec- S3 Tern» tion at the end, and resembling the squeal of a pig; but it also has a short, harsh note that can scarcely be distinguished from the roseate terns cry. In habits the Arctic tern is said to have the doubtful peculiaritv of being more bold in defense of its young than any of its kin: first in war, most fierce in attack, and the last to leave an intruder. At Muskegat Island, where great colonies of terns regularly nest and are protected under the wing of the law (see page 50) it is usually the Arctic tern that dashes frantically downward into the very face of the visitor who dares to inspect its eggs. These are of a darker ground and more heavily marked than those of the com- mon tern. Mr. Chamberlain says these terns "may be seen sit- ting on a rock or stump, watching for their prey in kingfisher fashion. They float buoyantly on the surface, but rarelv dive be- neath '^e water." Their nesting range is from Massachusetts to ;bt Arctic regions; and they winter southward only to Vir- ginia and California, Least Tern (Sterna antillarum) Called also: SlLVbKY TliRN; LlTTLl: STRIKER Length — 9 inches. Male and Female— In Slimmer: Cdossy greenish black capon head, with narrow white crescent on forehead, and extending over the eyes. Cheeks black. Mantle over back, wings, and tail, pearl gray. A few outer wing feathers, black. Under parts satinv white. Bill, about as long as head, is yellow, tipped with black. Feet and legs, orange. Tail moderately forked. /;/ vuiiti'r : Top of he.'d white, with black shaft lines on feathers. Mantle darker than in summer; a band of grayish black along upper wing, and most of the primaries black. Feet paler; bill black. Ratline — Northern parts of South Americ.i, up the Pacific coast to California, and the Atlantic to Labrador; .also on the larger bodies of water inland. Nests locally throughout its range. Winters south of United States. Season — Irregular migrant and summer visitor. Any of the thirteen species of terns that we may call ours is easily the superior of this little bird in size; but in grace and 54 Ternt buoyancy of flight, in dash and impetuosity, it certainly owns no master among its own accomplished kin, and suggests the movcmL-n.s of the swallow alone among the land birds. Skim- ming just above the marshes near the sea or inland waters, as any swallow might, to feed upon the dragon-flics and other winged insects that dart in and out of the sedges, this little tern Hashes its silvery breast in the sunlight, swallow fashion, and appe;irs to have the "sandals of lightning on its feet " and "soft wings swift as thought " sung of by Shelley. Off the shores of the low, sandy islands on the extreme .southeastern coast of Ma.s.sachu.setts. where these terns nest regu- larly, though in sadly decreased numbers, they may be .seen^in company with the common tern, the roseate and the Arctic species, that al.so m.ike their summer home there, as the joyous buds hunt in loose Hocks together above the waves. There can Iv no difficulty in picking out the dainty, elegant little (igure that lloats and skims in mid-air, with bill pointing downward as If it were a lance to spearsome tiny fish swimming in the ocean below. Hovering for an in.stant on widely outstretched wings, like a miniature hawk, the next instant it has suddenly plunged after Its prey, to reappear with it in its bill, since its feet are too webbed and weak to c.irry anything; and, if the season be mid- suir ,cr, It will doubtless head straight for its nest on the sand to .rop Its spoils in the midst of a brood of three or tour very tame young fledglings. In Minnesota, Dakota, and other inland states, both old and young birds feed almost entirely on insects. All terns keep so closely within the lines of nmnly traditions tiial a description of one member answers for each, with a Irw ■iHnorch.nges; and the reader is referred to the life history of the conunon tern for fuller particulars of the least species to avoid constant repetition. Although this little bird iicsts directly on the sand, leaving the greater part of its incubating duties to the sun. as other terns do. its eggs may be easily distinguished which ,s not true of the others, because of their smaller si/e and bufTy white, brittle shells that are often wreathed with chocolate markmgs around the larger end. the rest of the egg being plain Some erne has described the birds voice as "a sharp squeak, much like the cry of a very young pig " 55 Terns Black Tern ( Hydrochelidon nigra siirinamensis) Ca//^^ a/x^' .• SHORT-TAILED TERN Length — 9.50 to 10 inches. Male and Female — In summer: Head, neck all around, and under parts jet black, except the under tail coverts, which are white. Back, wings, and tail slate color. In ivinter: Very different : forehead, sides of head, nape, and under parts white; under wing coverts only, ashy gray; back of the head mixed black and white; mantle over back, wings, and tail, deep pearl gray. Many feathers with white edges. In the process of molt, head and under parts show black and white patches. Immature specimens resemble the winter birds, except that their upper parts are more or less mixed with brownish, and their sides washed with grayish. Range— Horih America at large, in the interior and along the coasts, but most abundant inland; nests from Kansas and Illinois northward, but not on the Atlantic coast. Season — Irregular migrant on the Atlantic coast from Prince Edward's Island southward. Common summer resident inland. May to August or September. Although eastern people rarely see this dusky member of a tribe they are wont to think of as having particalarly deli- cate pearl and white plumage, it is the most abundant species in the west, and indeed the only one of the entire order of long- winged swimmers that commonly nests far away from the sea in the United States. Early in May it arrives in l-rge tlocks that have gathered on the way from Brazil and Chii. ■ j nest in the Middle States, west of the Alleghanix^s, and northward. A large colony takes up its residence in the fresh-water marshes and reedy sloughs so abundant in southern Illinois and elsewhere in the middle west; and although the birds have apparently mated during the migration, if not before, there are many flirtations and petty jealousies exhibited before family cares banish all non- sense in June. Not that the bird makes any effort to construct a nest, in which case it could hardly be a tern at all, so easy-going are all the family in this respect; nor that it is depressed by long, patient sittings on the eggs, for the incubating is. for the most part, left to the sun, when it shines; but all terns are devoted 56 Terns parents, however emancipated they are from much of the par- ental drudgery. Sometimes the eggs are laid directly on the wet, boggy ground : others in a saucer-shaped structure or decayed reeds and other vegetation, often wet and floating aboi t in the slough : and again they have been found in better constructed, more compact cradles, resting on the flat foundation of the home of the water rat. The eggs are two or three, grayish olive brown, sometimes very pale and clean, marked with spots and splashes of many sizes, but chiefly large and bold masses that have a tendency to encircle the larger end. To visit a marsh when several hundred of these aquatic nests keep the cloud of dusky little parents in a state of panic, is to become deaf and dazed by the terrific din of harsh, screaming cries uttered by the little black birds that encircle one's head, menacing, darting, yet doing nothing worse than needlessly tor- menting themselves. Retreat to a good point of vantage to watch the colony, and it quickly regains its lost confidence to the point of ignoring your presence; and the jolly company skim, soar, hover on outstretched wings, then dart in and out in a path- less maze that fascinates the sight. The flight is exquisite, swift, graceful, buoyant, and apparently without the slightest effort. Occasionally a bird will descend from the aerial game, and, check- ing its flight above its nest, poise for an instant on quivering wings, held high above its back, as if it spurned the earth. Doubtless the diet of insects, which must be pursued and captured on the wing in many cases, cultivates much of the dash and impetuosity so characteristic of this tern. Fish appear to form no part of its bill of fare. It may " frequently be seen dashing about in a zig-zag manner," writes Thompson in his " Birds of Manitoba," and "so swiftly the eye can offer no explanation of its motive until ... a large dragon-fly is seen hang- ing from its bill." Beetles, grasshoppers, and aquatic insects of many kinds encourage other extraordinary feats of flight. Mr. Thompson idls of meeting these birds far out on the dry, open plains, scouring the country for food at a distance of miles from Its nesting ground. John Burroughs once had brought to him, to identify, a sooty tern, a near relative of the black species, that a farmer had picked up exhausted and emaciated in his meadow, fully one hundred and fifty miles from the sea, and at least two thousand miles from the Florida Keys, the bird's chosen habitat. 57 Terns It had Starved to death, he says, "ruined by too much wing. Another Icarus. Its great power of flight had made it bold and venturesome, and had carried it so far out of its range that it starved before it could return." By the end of July the young black terns have sufficiently developed to join the flocks of adults that even thus early show the restlessness called forth by the instinct for migration. In August migration commences in earnest; and when we see the birds east of the Alleghanies, they are usually on their journey south, the only time they show a preference for the Atlantic coast. 58 . V '^ \ *( ' T^^:fl^|p J 5 a <: -J- K o >■ SKIMMERS (Family Rynchopidce) Black Skimmer (Rynchops nigra) Called also: SCISSOR. BILL: CUT-WATER Length — 16 to 20 inches. Male and Fejnale — Crown of head, back of neck, and all upper parts, glossy black; forehead, sides of head and neck, and under parts white, the latter suffused with cream or pale rose in the nuptial season. Lining of wings black. Broad patch on wing, the tips of the secondaries, white: also the outer tail feathers, while the inner ones are brownish. Lower half of bill, measuring from 3. >o to 4. =^0 inches, is about one inch larger than upper haltV Basal half of bill car- mine; the rest black. Bill rounded at the ends, and com- pressed like the blade of a knife Feet carmine, with black claws. Jiange — " Warmer parts of America, north on the Atlantic coast to New Jersey, and casually to the Bay of Fundy." A. O. U. Season — May to September. Summer resident so far north as New Jersey; a transient summer visitor beyond. Closely related as the skimmers are to both gulls and terns, it is small wonder the three species constituting this distinct family should be honored by a separate classification on account of the extraordinary bill that is their chief characteristic. ' ' Among the singular bills of birds that frequently excite our wonder," says Dr. Coues, "that of the skimmers is one of the most anomalous. The under mandible is much longer than the upper, compressed like a knife-blade; its end is obtuse; its sides come abruptly together and are completely soldered; the upper edge is as sharp as the under, and fits a groove in the upper mandible; the jaw- 59 Skimmers bone, viewed ;ip;irt. looks like a short-handled pitchfork. The upper mandible is also compressed, but less so, nor is it so obtuse at the end; its substance is nearly hollow . . . and it is freely movable by means of an elastic hinge at the forehead." But curious as the bill is when one examines a museum specimen, it becomes vastly more interestinsj: to watch in active use on the Atlantic. The black skimmer, the only one that visits our continent, happily keeps close enough to shore when hunting for the small tish. shrimps, and mollusks that high tide brings near, for us to observe its operations. With leisurely, graceful (light. though with frequent Happing of its very long wings, the bird floats and balances just over the water, and as it progresses over a promising shoal teeming with living food, suddenly the lower half of the bladelike bill drops down just below the surface of the water, and with increased velocity of flight the bird literally "plows the main," as Mr. Chapman has said, and receives a rich harvest through the gaping entrance. Thus cutting under or grazing the surface, with the fore part of its body inclined down- ward, the skimmer follows the plow into the likeliest feeding grounds, which are the estuaries of rivers, sandy shoals, inlets of creeks, the salt marshes, and around the floating "drift" of the beaches. Though strictly maritime, it never ventures out on mid-ocean like the gulls and petrels. From Atlantic City, Cape May. and southward to Florida, the skimmer is an uncommon though likely enough sight to cause a genuine sensation when discovered at work. It is also credited with using its bill as a sort of oyster knife to open mollusks. Flocks of skimmers come out of the tropics in May. and, like the terns, choose a sandy shore for their nesting colony, and, like the terns again, construct no proper nest for the three or four buffy white, chocolate-marked eggs that are dropped on the sand, high up on the beach, among the drift and shells. Incubating duties rest lightlv with the skimmers, also, while the sun shines with generating warmth, so that the natural bedtime of the mother is all the confinement she endures unless the weather be stormy. In September the young birds are able to migrate long distances, although for several weeks after they are hatched they must be fed and tended by their parents; the only use they have for their wings during June and July, apparently, being to stretch them while basking in the sun on the beach. The voice of the 60 Skimmers skimmer, like that of the tern, is never so harsh and strident as during the nesting season. It seems odd that birds so long and strong of wing as these should hug the coast so closely and not venture out on the open seas, until we consider the nature of their food and the proba- bility of starvation in deep waters. 6i TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS Shearwaters Petrels 63 TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS Shearwaters and Petrels (Order Tubinares) The alhntrosses, fulmars, shearwaters, and petrels, that com- prise this order of water-birds, live ftr out on the ocean, touch- ing land on'-' to nest, and are unsurj^assed in powers of flight, owing to the constant exercise of their long, strong, pointed wings. None of our American sportsmen can wail, with Cole- ridge's Ancient Mariner, that he "shot the albatross," for the sev- eral species that comprise its family ( DiomedeidiV ) confine them- selves to the southern hemisphere. Tb.e wandering albatross, the largest of all sea birds, with a wing expanse of trom twelve to fourteen feet, and '-Mother Carey's chickens," the little petrels that travellers on the north Atlantic frequently see, represent the two extremes of size among the pelagic birds. The plumage of birds of this order is compact and oily, to resist water, and differs neither in the sexes, nor at different seasons, so far as is known. Sooty black, grays, and white predominate. The peculiarity of nostrils, tubular in form, and nearly always hori ontal, divide the birds into a distinct order. Shearwaters and Petrels (Family Procellariidce) "Mother Carey's Chickens" maybe distinguished by their small size, slight, elegant form, and graceful, airy, flickering flight, as contrasted with the strong, swift flying of the larger shear- waters that often sail with no visible motion of the pinions. Birds of the open sea, feeding on animal substances, particularly the fatty ones, they may sometimes be noticed in flocks, picking up the refuse thrown overboard from the ship's kitchen, on the ocean highway, like the more common herring gull. Thev seem 4 6s Tube-nosed Swimmers to be ever on the wing, though their webbed feet indicate that they must be good swimmers when they choose. Hardly any birds are less known than all these ocean roamers and their kin that come to land only to nest. The nest and eggs of the com- mon shearwater, that wanders over the whole Atlantic from Greenland to Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, that sailors often see in flocks of thousands, have yet to be discovered. Petrels burrow holes in the ground like bank swallows. Greater Shearwater. Wilson's Stormy Petrel. Leach's Petrel. 66 SHEARWATERS AND PETRELS (Family ProcellariidaJ Greater Shearwater {Puffin us major J Called also: HAGDON; WANDERING SHEARWATER; COM- MON ATLANTIC SHEARWATER Length — 1 9 to 20 inches. Male and Female— \}^^^(,Qx parts dark grayish brown. The feath- ers, except when old, edged with lighter brown; the wings and tail darkest ; lightest shade on neck ; the white feathers of the fore neck abruptly marked off from the dark feathers of the crown and nape. Under parts white, shaded with brownish gray on sides; under tail coverts ashy gray; upper coverts mostly white. Wings long and pointed. Bill, which is dark horn color, is about as long as head, and has a strong hook at the end. Legs and feet yellowish pink or flesh color. Range— QvQX the entire Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope to Arctic Circle. .SVaji'. \\h\i\\ is the <;,imf in bnih SeXi'S; :\\\y\ « i-lt:Mn spn III fiMlhriinns ol :l Icnipoi.ll V i ll:ll;l. tn lli.H nro w.Mti (Iniinji ''h- m-sling stM«;iMi i>iily, nif among the most notiiOiiMo ili.M;H-tpnsti; l;iniilv l>iMiMo-*tos(fii ( oiniorant. 76 CORMORANIS (I ,iiii)lv I'h.ihh 1,1, ,11 ,h hi, I ) Douhip Crpsted Cor morn nt I rihihi, I ,,, ,11 ,1 > i{ili,lilni\) r„i/,',/ ,,/u, SflAf . / rm^th- if» ff> 11 in( In >;. M,tl,- ,iihi h,-»i,il, 1 1, Mil. Mr, V. iMWf'f l«;i( V. ;iii'l un^l' r p;irft; (/|f.<;sv. Jiiilr';( rill l'l;i(k. ujlli yif cnisli Mllfdiofm. |,,,, k ;irir| wiri(/s IJuhl i;i,ivi(.vr llir cvf"; If) the n,i|.< ,,\ ii. ( k F'.irfl«; of the iMiciJMi slmw ^.,i(ic white f(,;»h(is .iiiioiig \\m- |.|;if k ones, wiiili I'll ill, lojst ^('cc iriifti';, it is ';;ii(l by f,h;irnfifrl;iin,' vvy;ii wholly white wedditifr pliiiiie<;. Wediose(l of twelve stiff fe,ithers. Mill Imiari th;in he.id. ;iiid hfioked ;it end. N,iked so, ice .iioiind the cv , |.;me of hill jind under thro,it or,iriK' "-^'K^ ind leel hl;i(k: ;ill loui toes toniie( ted hy wehs. Winter I'itds l;nk the pinnies on si, let; of held. ;ind sho-v more hrownish lints in p|iini,ii/e. /o///(,v - Niiilh AniciK.i. nestififcr from the f;re,it l,;ikps, Minnp- sol.i. l),ikoi:i. ,uid Nov, I S( ott,i northw;ird: wintering/ in our soiifhein SI, lies soiifh of Illinois ,ind Virgmi;i. S,;v.,»t Chiellv ;t spiinj/ iind ;iufufnn migrant, except where llofcd ;i|iove. Which ^A the (firmoranfs it was that the r, reeks railed phala- nocorax, oi haUl raven, and is rcspf)nsihle for the ijnpronr>unce- ablc name borne by the family to this day. is not now certain; but of the thirty species named by scientists, we are at least sure it w.is not the double-crested cormorant which is peculiar to America. Some of the Latin peoples, thinking the bird sug- gests by its plumage and its voracious appetite a marine crr>w (corvu.s marinus), have given it various titles from which the 77 Cormorants Tiiiilish toiiiiuo li;is cornipli-d first loi voimtiI. tlion lormoi.iiif, whoso siginliciiKo wo do not .ilvv.ivs nMnomluM. l.»iiig. siTtiod Links of Joublo-ciostod connor.mts lomc llv- in>j northw;iul fii>in tin- ("lult si.iii-*^ in April, .itui p.iss alon^' tlu- Ati.uUic shoios so liit;h ovotluMit tli.it tlio .im.ilciir obscivcr Ciiosscs tlu'V ;iio 1.11 t;c Jiu ks Iroin tluMi li.ilMt o( llii;lil, not Ih-iiii,' .iMo to ilistingmsh t'loir piiim.i.ci.'. In the interior o| the llnilcil Stiitos. .IS well ;is on the lO.ist. tlu-v m.iko tiC(]iiiMit biciks in the long iuicr.iti(Mi to Muii noitiu'in lu-stinu groinuls. when, il wo ;ire tortun.ite noiKih, we ni.iv vx.itoh tlieir inteiestinii hunting I .ibits. l"lvinir li>w. or jnst ;ii>ovo the siul.ice ot the w;iter. tlie iiiinioi.ini. siulJonly Oiitciiiiig sigiil ol .1 tisli. Jives stt.iight attor it: li.irts uiuier w.itet like .1 ll.ish; jmiisuos .iiui ijptmes the viitiin, thiMigh to Jo it. it must soniotinu-s st.iv tor .1 long time subnuMgoJ; tlien re.ippo.ns with the tish helj tighliv in its hooked bo;ik. from whieh there is no esi.ipe. Before tlu' pii/e is sw.illoweJ It is first tossod in the .111. then .is it JeseeiiJs IumJ downw.!;d it l.inds in tlie s.uk (M dil.il.ihlo skin of the eormo- r.int s thro.it. there to leni.iin in e\ idetue from without until, p.irtly digested, it passes ou to tlie lower put of the bird's stomach. .At'ter its vor.ieioiis appetite h.is been .ippe.ised. the cormorant .ippoais moodv .iiui glum. On the shores of inl.md w. iters, p.ii ticul.irlv. the cormoi.int often seeks a distended branch of some tree overhanging the Like or river, to sit there. .1 sombre, meditative figure, onlv intent on the fish below. In " Paradise Lost." after likening Satan to .1 wolf proving upon lambs in the sheepfold, Milton continues with another simile : " Tlionce up lie lieu, a:ul on the troc of life, The middle tree, .iiul highest there that grew, Sat like a coniior.mt : vet iii^t true life Thereby regained, but sat devising vleath To thoiii who lived." In Miltons day it was royal sport to go a-fishing with half- domesticated, trained cormorants. A strap was fastened around the bird's throat tight enough to keep it from swallowing its legitimate prey, but loose enough for it to take a full breath. Then it was released to furnish amusement for the royal company assembled on the shore as it darted like an arrow through the clear waters, hunted the tish out of their holes, pursued, cap- 7S Cormorants liitrcl tlu-m. .itui l>i()ii^ht thctii s(|iiirmiriy to its m.isfcr's feet. A lew In^lish iKtMciiifri still ilivctt llii-iiisclvfs with tins nicdi- ;rv;il p;isfiinc'. iiccotdin^ tn I'rolrssor Alfn-cl Ncwtoti f)! (,;im- iTiii^c I liiivorsilv; .iful it is still in vo^'Uf ;iiiir)i)>/ the f;hincse lislicmun, who (iiid the skill of the cf»iiiior;ints iikhc prohi ilijc th.m tluii own. Ihippilv these hinls ;ire well ciishionrd with .lir sp;iccs just iiiulet the skin n. bicik the shf)tk when they thve lioin .1 heif/ht .iiul stiike the w;itet. The }f|iif t(»ii y of ,i (.orinorMnt h;is p.issed into .1 ptoveih. It will continue to hunt every lish in si^rht. d;iy .iltei d.iy, loi its e(|ii;illy ^reeily in;isfeis, th;it only whet the bird's r.ivenons ;ippetite (rf)ni time to time, hy removing its colhir ;uid ;illowinf^ it to swallow .m nmnvietl prize. In some parts of the United Statt's, hut chiefly in the Bay of huiuly and heyoiul. the doiihle-crcsted cormorants retire to nest in lar^^e companies on the ledges of cliffs alon^ the sea, or in low bushes or bushy trees inland. I he nest consists of a mass of sticks and se.i-weed. ;ind iniih it and its vicinity look as if they had been sp.itteietl over with whitewash, owin^ to the bird's unclean habits. When the lour or six e^^s are first laid, they are covered over with a roiiL,di, chalky tlepf)sit that is easily rubjied otT. showing,' a bluish-jfieen shell beneath. The youn^, that are hatched blind, have not even down to cover their inky-black skin. It takes hilly two years to perfect the beautiful iridescent black plumaf^e worn by adults. I-'or a time the nestlings are ted with food brought u[i from tlu ir [larent^.' stomachs; and so active is the cormor.int's di^'estion th;it a fish cauj^hf by one is said to have reached a sta^e fit for baby fof>d between the timetlie bird catches it in the water and transports it in its stomach to its adjacent nest. On shore these birds rest in an almost upright position, because their Ie^^s are set far back on their bodies, which also necessitates using the stiff tail as a prop. Doubtless this tail, that is used also as a rudder or paddle, adds to the cormo- rant's extraordinary facility in swimming under water. 79 LAMl'LLIKOSTRAL. ( )\< I'LA f h-BILIJi) SWIMM1:KS MerK;in<;pi<;, f»r F'ishiny Ducks kivrr .111(1 \'(i\]'\ I )iicks Sea ami Hiy I>ucks Geese Swans 8s LAMELLIROSTRAL OR PLATE-BILLED SWIMMERS (Order Anseres) MERGANSERS : RIVER AND POND DUCKS ; SEA AND BAY DUCKS : GEESE ; SWANS (Family Anaiidiv) Five subfamilies, numbering about two hundred species, constitute this large family of water fowl that in itself forms a well-defined order. They are the mergansers, river ducks, sea ducks, geese, and swans. All these birds have the margins of the beak (rosfrunij furnished with lamels, or plates, tooth-like projections, fluted ridges or gutters along its sides; but the sub- families are so well defined that their peculiarities would best be noted separately. Mergansers, or Fishing Ducl'• nv.. ducks, J-'cks in sliir w „s h r"? ''""■""■ *'»> '^'■- nver "•-i.™. .s ill ^rj. ;;';',':"" ::.;;";,': - "^'--'v 't is often snid h..t h I si o T ^ '"":^'''^" '^' ^'^^' ''^"• niollusks. crust.cems n h •'^■*' .^^'^'^'^- ^^-.t M more on v-::-duck;r,;3rr;;r:r;r-,:;r^*°^-™- Ked-heiided Duck. C;inv;isb;ick. pre;iter Sc.-.up iJuck, or Bro.-.dbill Lesser Sc:iup, or (.reek Bro;idb!ll Kinir-necked Duck. Golden-eye, or Whistler. Barrow's (}olden-eye. Buffle-head, or Butter-b.ill. Old Squaw, or South Southerly. Harlequin Duck. American Eider Duck. Kinir Eider. American Scoter, or Black Coot. White- winged Scoter. Surf Scoter. Ruddy Duck. Geese (Subfamily Ansennce) nake?:*os!^:rwTi:r''rf '•''"' ^-'^^^ '^^ --"- -.. u^is .,r; if cr^ren r ;/ ,;f .u^r; '3 Plate-billed Swimmers ;md of the swans. Body is not so flat as the ducks and more elev .ted on the Ioniser legs. Geese, that spend far more time on land, walk betti-r th.in ducks, and depend altoj,'ether on a vejje- tahle diet. When we see them lipping;, with head injmersed in the water and tail in air. they are probing the bottom for roots and seeds of plants, not for water insects or mollusks. In com- mon with swans they resent intrusion by hissinj,' with out- stretched necks and by striking' with the wind's. When wounded on the water, a goose dives; then, with oiilv its bill exposed above the surface, strikes out ff)r land, where it evidently feels more at home. The sexes are generally alike in plumage, which undergoes only one moult a year; and both parents attend to the young as no self-respecting drake would do. A wedge-shaped flock of migrating geese, with an old gander in the lead at the point of the V, old sportsmen say. is a familiar sight in the spring and autumn skies, that echo with the honk. Itoiif;. or noisy cack- lings, coming from the distended necks of the travellers. White-fronted Goose. Snow Goose. Lesser Snow Goose. Canada, or Wild Goose. Brant. Black Brant. Swans (Subfamily CygnintzJ Bare skin between the eye and bill is the scientific mark of distinction between swans and geese; many other points of dif- ference are too well known to mention. Swans feed on small mollusks in addition to vegetable matter which they secure by "tipping" or by simply immersing their long, graceful necks. They migrate in V-shaped tlocks like the geese, and often utter loud, trumpeting notes unlike the noisy gabble of both geese and ducks. Plumage of sexes alike. Whistling Swan. Trumpeter Swan. 86 MKRGANSHRS. OR FISHING DUCKS (Subfamily MerginaJ American Merganser (Merganser americanus) Called also: GOOSANDhR; SHHLLDRAKH; SAW-BILL: FISH- ING DUCK; DIVING r.OOSE: BUFF-BREASTHD SHELL- DRAKH; WtASFR; DUN DIVLR. Len)^'t/t—2} to 27 inchfs. Male — He;id, which is slightly crested, ;ind upper neck, p;Iossy greenish black; hind neck, breast, and markings on wings, white; underneath delicately tinted with salmon buff. Back black, fading to ashy gray on the lower pa-t and tail. Wings largely white; tips of the coverts white, forming a mirror and banded with black. Bill toothed and red, or nearly so, and with black hook, and nostrils t:car the middle. Female ami Young — Smaller than male; head and upper neck red- dish brown ; rest of upper parts and tail ashy gray; breast and underneath white. Range — North America generally, nesting from Minnesota north- ward, and wintering from New England, Illinois, and Kansas southward to southern States. Season — Winter resident from November to April. A surprising number of popular names have attached them- selves to this large, handsome swimmer that studiously avoids populated regions and the sight of man; that no sportsman would, or. indeed could, eat; that eludes pursuit by some very remarkable diving and swimming feats, and therefore enjoys popularity in names alone. Its preferences are for remote water- ways at the north, where its family life is spent, only a few nests being reported this side of the Canadian border; but when a hard crust of ice locks up their fish, frogs, mollusks, and other aquatic animal food, sm. !! companies of six or eight mergansers migrate 87 Mergansers to our lakes, rivers, and the ocean shore to hunt there until spring. Salt and fresh water are equally enjoyed. Feeding appears to be the chief object in life of this glutton- ous bird that often swallows a fish too large to descend entire into the stomach, and must remain in the distended throat until digested piecemeal. Its saw-like bill for holding slippery prey, and rough tongue covered with incurved projections like a cat's, doubtless help speed the process cf digestion, which is so rapid as to keep the bird in a constant state of hunger, and drive it to desperate rashness to secure its dinner. It will plunge beneath a rushing torrent after a fish, or dive to great depths to secure it, swimming under water with long and splendidly powerful, dex- terous strokes that soon overtake the fish in its own element. These feats, with the sudden dropping out of sight practiced so artfully by the loons, make a merganser an exceedingly difficult mark for the sportsman to hit; and its muscular, tough, rank flesh offers no reward for his efforts. Usually these birds depend upon the water to escape danger; but when disturbed in a shallow fishing ground, a flock seems to run along the water for a few yards, patting it with their strongly webbed feet, then rising to windward, they head off in straight, strong, and rapid flight, toward distant shelter. The adult male in his nuptial dress is a conspicuously beauti- ful fellow, with his dark, glossy green head, rich salmon-col- ored breast, and black and white wings, set off by a black back. But this attire is not worn until maturity, in the second year: and in the intervening time, as well as after the nesting season is over, he looks much like his mate and their young. Birds whose upper parts show the grayish brown that predominates when we see them in winter are called "dun divers" in many sections. It is the male bird in spring plumage that the taxidermist mounts to decorate the walls of dining-rooms and shooting lodges. Mergansers build a nest of leaves, grasses, and moss, lined with down from their breasts, in a hole of a tree or cliff, where from six to ten creamy-buff eggs are laid in June, and tended exclusively by the mother, even after they have evolved into fluffy ducklings. At this time the drake is undergoing a thorough moult. 88 Mergansers Red-breasted Merganser (Merganser Serrator) Called also :-SmLLDKhV.^\ SAWBILL; WHISTLER; PIED SHELLDRAKE; GARBILL Length — 22 to 24 inches. Male—HtAd and throat greenish black ; more greenish above, and with long, pointed crest over top of head and nape; white collar around neck; sides of lower neck and the upper breast cinnamon red, with black streaks; lower breast, underneath, and the greater part of wings white: other feathers black. Back black ; lower back and sides finely barred with black and white ; a white patch of feathers, with black border, in front of wings, and two black bars across them. Bill long, saw- toothed, red, curved at end. and with nostrils near the base; eyes red ; legs and toes reddish orange. Female and Young—S\m\\c\x to the American merganser. Head, neck, and crest dull, rusty brown; dark ashy on back and tail; throat and under parts white, shaded with gray along sides; white of wing restricted to a patch (mirror or speculum) ; no peculiar feathers in front of wing. Range— \}x\\itd States generally; nests from Illinois and Maine northward to Arctic regions; winters south of its nesting limits to Cuba. Season— \N\nX&r resident and visitor; October to April. Swift currents of water, deep pools where the tlsh hide, and foaming cataracts where they leap, invite the red-breasted merganser, as they do its larger American relative; for both birds have insatiable appetites, happily united with marvelous swim- ming and diving powers that must be constantly exercised in pursuit of their finny prey. Fish they must and will have, in addition to frogs, little lizards, mollusks, and small shellfish; and for such a diet this fishing duck forsakes its northern nesting grounds in winter, when ice locks its larder, to hunt in the open waters, salt or fresh, of the United States. Cold has no terror for these hardy creatures; they swim as nimbly in the icy water of the St. Lawrence as in the rivers of Cuba, and disappear under an ice cake with no less readiness than they do under lily- pads. Food is their chief desire; and rather than let a six-inch fish go, any merganser would choke in its efforts to bolt it. 89 Mergansers Their appetite is so voracious that often some of their food must be disgorged from their distended crops before the birds are able to rise from the water. An almost exclusive fish diet, with the constant exercise they must keep up to secure it, makes their flesh so rank and tough that no sportsman thinks of shooting the mergansers for food; and by sudden, skilful dives the birds are as difficult to kill as the true "water witches." Only the youngest, most inexperienced housekeeper thinks of buying any saw-billed duck in market; the serrated edges indicating that the bill is used as a fish chopper, and fish food never makes flesh that is acceptable to a fastidious palate. In the United States, at least, the red-breasted mergansers are far more abundant than the preceding species, which they very closely resemble after the nuptial dress has been laid aside for the brown and gray winter plumage. Males may be distin- guished by the color of their breasts at any time; but the females and young of both species are most bewilderingly similar at a little distance. The position of the nostril, near the centre of the American mergansers bill, and near the base of the red-breasted species, is the positive clew to identity. The latter bird's croak is another aid. All mergansers look as if they needed to have their hair brushed. While the construction of the nest of these sometimes con- fused relatives is the same, the red-breasted merganser makes its cradle directly on the ground, among rocks or bushes, but never far from water. It is the female that bears all the burden of hatching the creamy buff eggs — six to twelve— and of feeding and training the young brood; her gorgeous, selfish mate dis- creetly withdrawing from her neighborhood when nurserv duties commence. But the long-suffering mother bird is a perfect pat- tern of all the domestic virtues. "'I paddled after a brood one hot summer's day," says Chamberlain, "and though several times they were almost within reach of my landing net, they eluded every effort to capture them. Th.jughout the chase the mother kept close to the young birds, and several times swam across the bow of the canoe in her efforts to draw my attention from the brood and to offer herself as a sacrifice for their escape." 90 Mergansers Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatiis) Called a/so: HAIRY HEAD; WATER PHEASANT; HOODED SHELLDRAKE Length—x-] to 19 inches. y7/a/^— Handsome semicircular black crest with fan shaped patch of white on each side of i^reenish black head; upper parts black, changing to brown on lower back; lower fore neck wing linings, and underneath white, finely waved with brownish red, and dusky on sides. Two crescent shaped bands of black on sides of breast. A white speculum or mirror on wing, crossed by two black bars. Bill bluish black, with nostrils in basal half; eyes yellow. FemaU—'^mA\\tx\ dark ashy brown above, minutely barred with black; more restricted and reddish brown crest, lacking the white fan; under parts white; sides grayish brown. F,?a«?-— Similar to female, but without crest; no black and white bars before wing; wings scarcely showing the white mirror. Range— Wox\\\ America; nests throughout its range; winters in southern United States, also in Cuba and Mexico. Season— C\\\t^y a winter resident and visitor south of the Great Lakes and New England. Unlike the two larger mergansers that delight in rushing torrents and in making daring plunges beneath them, this strikingly beautiful "water pheasant," as it is sometimes called, chooses still waters, quiet lakes and mill-ponds for a more leisurely hunt after small fish, mollusks, and water insects, adding to this menu roots of aquatic plants, seeds, and grain. It is claimed that this variation in the fish diet, and the consequent lack of harden- ing of the muscles, make the merganser's fiesh edible; and in spite of its saw-toothed bill, the certain index of rank, fishy fiesh. epi- cures insist that this is an excellent table duck; but in just what state of rawness it is most delicious, who but an epicure may say .' "It seems an undue strain on the imagination, not to sav palate, to claim that any of the fish-eating ducks are edible," says Mr. Shields. ' ' Men who kill everything they can find in the woods, in the fields, or on the water, say all mergansers, coots and grebes are good if properly cooked. When asked what this proper method of cooking is, they say the birds should first be par- 9' Mergansers boiled through two or three wnters; th;it they should then be well baked, stewed, fricassed, or broiled, and flavored with rashers of bacon and onions, potatoes, etc. This means, then, that the bird should be so treated as to rob it of all its original quality, <'ind to reduce it to a condition simply of meat. A hawk, an owl, a cayote, a catfish, a German carp, or even a dogfish may be made edible by such treatment. If a bird or a fish is not fit to eat without all this manipulation and seasoning, it is not an edible animal in the first place. Then why kill it ? " Like the wood duck, golden-eye, bufflehead, and its imme- diate kin, the hooded merganser goes into a hollow tree or stump to build a nest of grasses, leaves, and moss, lined with down from the mother's breast, and lays from eight to ten huffy white eggs. Now is the time that the handsome male disports himself at leisure, and at a distance, while the patient little inother keeps the eggs warm, feeds the yellowish nestlings, carries them to the lake one by one in her bill, as a cat carries its kittens; teaches them to swim, dive, and gather their own food, and to fly by midsummer: defends them with her life, if need be; and wel- com.es home the lazy, cavalier father when the drudgeries are ended and the young are fully able to join the migrating flocks that begin to gather in the Hudson Bay region in September. It is she who ought to wear the white halo around her head instead of the drake. Sportsmen often find small companies of hooded mergan- zers in the same lake with mallard, black, wood, and other ducks that, like them, delight in woody, well-watered interior districts. Mr. Frank Chapman found them in small ponds in the hum- mocks of Florida; and the author first made their acquaintance on a poultry stand in the French market in New Orleans. 92 RIVER AND POND DUCKS (Subfamily Anatince) Mallard Duck {Anas boschas) Called .ilso: WILD OR DOMESTIC DUCK; GREEN HEAD Length — 23 inches. Male — Head and neck glossy green with white ring like a collar defining the dividing line from the rich chestnut breast; un- derneath grayish white, finely marked with waving black lines; back dark grayish brown, shading to black on lower back and tail. Four black upper feathers of tail curve back- ward; rest of tail white, black below. Speculum or wing- bar rich purple with green reflections and bordered by black and white. Bill greenish yellow with gutters on the side. Female — Plumage generally dark brown varied with buff; breast and underneath buff, mottled with grayish brown; wings marked like male's. Range — Nests rarely from Indiana and Iowa and chiefly from Labrador northward; winters from Chesapeake Bay and Kansas southward to Central America. Rare in New Eng- land. Season — Winter resident in southern states; a transient visitor or migrant, during the winter months, at the north. Small, grassy ponds, slow-moving streams, sloughs, and the labyrinths of lakes and rivers that are thickly grown with wild rice and rushes, such as abound in the interior of the United States and Canada, make the ideal resort of the mallards, or, indeed, of most ducks dear to the sportsman's heart. Here large companies gather in August and September when the ripened grain invites them to the feast they most enjoy, flying at dusk or by night in wedge-shaped battalions from their resting- grounds at the far north, to remain until the ice locks up their food and they must shift their home farther south. In Illinois, 93 River and Pond Ducks Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana, they are among the first ducks to arrive and the last to leave with the hardy scaups or bluehills. And in sheltered localities a few sometimes winter, just as a few break through traditions and nest in secluded spots in the same states; but from Kansas and the Chesapeake country southward, they may be positively relied upon until the time arrives for the spring migration, however more abundant they may be in the interior than along our coast. Let no one imagine that because some ducks are classified in the books as " river and pond," and others as "sea and bay ducks," they are not often found in the same places. It is the lobed hind toe of the latter group that really differentiates them, and not always their habitats. Well concealed in the tall sedges that literallv drop food into their gaping mouths, the mallards feed silently upon the ripe grain and seeds, dabbling on the surface of the water or. suddenly tipping tail upward and stretching head downward in the shallow waters, probe the muddy bottom for the small mollusks, fish, worms, rootlets, and vegetable matter they delight in. When a good mouthful has been taken in the bill is closed tight, thus forcing out through the gutters along the sides, that act as strainers, the mud and water that were taken in with the food. Ripe corn that has dropped in the fields is a favorite cereal. Fish and ani- mal substances form a small fraction of the mallards' diet; they are very near to being vegetarians, the fact that makes their flesh so delicious. •■ In the spring and tall the Kankakee region of Illinois and Indiana is one of the finest grounds for mallards, teal, wood- duck and geese, to be found in the United States," says Maurice Thompson. '• I need not say to the sportsman tl^ ■ the mallard is the king's own duck for the table. The canvasl-.^k does not surpass it. I have shot corn-fed mallards whose tlesh was as sweet as that of a voung quail, and at the same time as choice as that of the woodcock." Instead of becoming indolent and moody after a plentiful dinner, these ducks are uncommonly lively. They jabber among themselves, spatter the water freely, half tly, half run along the surface of the lake, and are positively playful so long as the leader of the sport, that is on the constant lookout, gives no sign of warning. One might think they were mad, but often their frantic antics indicate that insects are troubling them, and all their splut- 94 River and Pond Ducks tering and diving is done to get rid of the pests. Mallards dive and swim under water also to escape danger, but rarely to collect food. During the day they make many bold e.xcursions to the centre of the lake and explore the inlets and indentations of the shore. On the first quack of alarm, however, up bounds the entire llock and, rising obliquely to a good height, their stif- fened wings whistling through the wind, off they fly at a speed no locomotive can match. Perhaps the reason for most misses of the amateur hunter is his inability to conceive the rate at which ducks move, and so to hold far enough ahead of the bird he has selected. Mallards waste no time sailing, but after climbing the sky on throbbing win: ^ they continue to flap them constantly. Before alighting it is their habit to wheel round and round a feeding-ground to assure themselves no danger lurks in ambush. They are conspicuous sufferers from the duck- hawk, whose marvelous flight so far excels even theirs that es- cape is hopeless in a long race unless the duck should be fiving over water, into which a sudden plunge and a long swim under the surface to a sheltered corner in the sedges, frees it from the persecutor that lives by tearing the flesh from the breasts of hun- dreds of such victims every year. Wary as these ducks are, they are also eminently inquisitive, or the painted, wooden decoys of dingy little females, gay ban- dana handkerchiefs fluttering from poles, that are used in the south to excite their curiosity, and other time-honored tricks of sportsmen would never have been crowned with success. The mallards are also exceedingly shy, and feel at greatest ease and liberty when the dusk of evening and dawn covers their feeding-grounds and conceals their flight that is often suspected solely by the whistling of their wings through the darkness over- head. Their loud quack, quack, exactly like that of the domestic duck, resounds cheerfully in the spring and autumn migrations. To see the endearments and little gallantries the handsome drake bestows on his mate in spring, no one would sus- pect him of total indifference to her later. Waterton and other writers claim that the wild mallard is not only strictly monoga- mous, but remains paired for life. Perhaps polygamy cannot be fairly charged against him, however suspicious his indifference to his mate and ducklings appears. Many ornithologists claim that he is positively unable to help his mate and young, owing 95 River and Pond Ducka to the extra molt his plumape undergoes at the end of June, when he actually loses the power of flight for a time and does not regain his beautiful full plumage until the autumn. But cer- tainly the character of the domesticated mallard must have sadly deteriorated, if this is so, for in the barn-yard, at least, he is a veritable Mormon. In a nest lined with down from her breast, and made of hay, leaves, or any material that can be scraped together on the ground, near the water or in a bushy field back from it, the mother con- fines herself for twenty-eight days. It is then her gay cavalier goes off to his club, or its equivalent, with other like-minded pleasure-seekers, while she beari the full burden of the house- hold. Very seldom does she leave the pale bluish or greenish gray eggs — six to a dozen — to get food and a brief swim in the lake ; and she is careful to pull the down coverlet well over the eggs to retain their heat during her outings. As her incubating duties near their end. -she usually does not stir from the nest at all. There are some few records of nests made in trees. If the nest is near the water, on the ground, the voung ones instantly make for it when they leave the shell; but being unable to walk well at tirst. the overworked mother must carry them to it in her bill, it is said, if the nest is far back on a bank. Many pathetic stories are in circulation, showing the mother's total self-forgetful- ness and voluntary offering of her own life to protect the downy brood. Water-rats and large pike, that eat her babies when they make their earliest dives, are the worst enemies she has to fear until they are able to fly, some six weeks or more after hatching, and the duck-hawk finds them easy prev. The mallard is by far the most important species we have, as it is the most plentiful, the most widely distributed, and the best known, being the ancestor of the common domestic duck ; and although manv of its habits have undergone a change in the poultry-yards, others may still be profitably studied there by those unable to reach the inaccessible sloughs, bayous, and lagoons where the wild ducks hide. 96 River and PonJ Ducka Black Duck (/4«J5 ohscura) Called also: DUSKY DUCK; DUSKY MALLARD Length— 22 to 23 inches; same size as the mallard J/l.'ck, lighter underneath than on Spperparis the feathers ed -d with rusty brown. Top of held rich d rk ashy brown, slightly streaked with buti; side^of he^id md throat pale buff, thickly streaked with black Female pier yellow. Bill greenish. Feet red. re.nuie paier '^''T;;',h ^f f ' 1" N.^'-^h America, west to the .Mississippi Valley of^te^U^'it^rstje^-tb^T-^'"^'^' " ^'^ "°^'^^^" P-'^ 5^<7^^«-Resident in the United States, where it nests- also winter resident, from September to May; most abundann Spring and autumn migrations. *i-""M In New England and along the Atlantic States, where the mallard IS scarce, the black duck (which is not black but a dusky brown), replaces it in the salt-creeks and marshes as well as on the inland rivers, lakes, and ponds; and even the sea itself is sometimes sought as an asylum from the gunners Not ill t-iver and pond ducks confine themselves to the habitats laid down for them in the books. Black ducks, when persistently hunted, frequently spend their days on the ocean, returning to their favorite lakes and marshes under cover of darkness-for they are exceedingly shy and wary-to feed upon the seeds of sedges, corn in the farmers fields, the roots and foliage of aquatic plants, and other vegetable diet, which is responsible for the dehcious quality of their flesh, so eagerly sought after Brush-houses thatched with sedges, that are set up in the duck s feeding-grounds by hunters, may not be distinguished from the growing plants in the twilight o'r early dawn ; wooden decoys easily deceive the inquisitive bird,: live domestic ducks led by the leg to the shore, though ar.parently free to swim at large, lure the wild ones near the gunn.-rs in ambush, and numer- ous other devices, long in vogue an-ong men who spare them- selves the fatigue of walki. g through the sedges to flush their 97 River and Pond Ducks victims, help pile the poultry stalls of our city markets just as soon as the law allows in autumn. In the early spring, when the law is still "open" and should be closed, housekeepers find eggs already well formed in this and other game birds brought to their kitchens. Of all the wild fowl that enter the United States, this duck, it is said, possesses the greatest economic value, which should be a sufficient reason, if no higher motive prompted, to give it the fullest protection. While the nesting season is from the last of April to the early part of June, the birds have mated many weeks before. They are the spring laws that need serious going over bv our legislators. So closelv resembling the mallard in habits that an account of them need not be repeated here, the black duck is not so com- mon in the interior nor in the south, for it was the Florida duck that early ornithologists confounded with this species, which, they claimed, had the phenomenal nesting range extending from Labrador to the Gulf. Illinois and New Jersey are as far south as its nests have been found. The black duck, that seems to have a more hardy constitution than many of its kin, stays around our larger ponds long after the ice has formed, and where springs keep open pools, it is not infrequently met with all through a mild winter. Gadwall {Anas sirepera) Called also: GRAY DUCK Length — 20 to 22 inches. Male — Upper parts have general appearance of brownish gray, waved and marked with crescent-shaped white and blackish bars. Top of head streaked with black or reddish brown; sides of head and neck pale buff brown, mottled with darker: lower neck and breast black or very dark gray, each feather marked with white and resembling scales ; grayish and white underneath, minutely lined with grav waves; lower back dusky, changing to black on tail coverts: space under t.iil black. Wings chestnut brown, gray, and black, with white patch framed in velvety black and chestnut. Wing-linings white. Bill lead color. Feet orange. Female — Smaller than male and darker. Head and throat like male's; back dark grayish brown, the feathers edged with 98 > •^J River and Pond Ducks buff; breast and sides bufF, thickly spotted with black, but the female throughout lacks the beautiful waves, scales and crescen -shaped marks that adorn her mate. Under- nea h, includmg under tail-coverts and wing-linings, white Little or no chestnut on wmgs : speculum or wincr-natch white and gray. Bill dusky, blotched with orange, "imma- ture birds resemble the mother. vP^«^-^— Cosmopolitan; nests in North America, from the middle sates northward to the fur countries, but chieflv within United States limits. Most abundant in Mississippi Valley region and west; also northward to the Saskatchewan Seaso^i-Wmter resident south of Virginia and southern Illinois' tYnn'7''tK°''fw'l'''""'^'"^'"'P'''"g^"'l autumn migra- tions, north of Washington. ^ This beautiful species, first discovered by Wilson on the shores of Seneca Lake, New York, keeps close by fresh water showing no liking whatever for the sea as the black duck does' In the Atlantic states the gadwall is rare, except as a migratory visitor inland, while in the sloughs of the Mississippi Valley Florida, and the Gulf states, it is abundant in favored spots that other ducks frequent when the wild rice and field-corn ripen and that local sportsmen also revel in. The gadwall's flesh is par- ticularly fine; Its mixed diet of grain and small aquatic animal food imparting a gamy flavor to it that epicures appreciate As this duck is very shy and full of fear, it dozes most of its time away when the sun is high, securely hidden in the tall sedges that line the marshy lake or quiet stream ; and emerging at twilight to feed, to disport itself with its companions, to lift up Its voice m happy bubblings and quacks, to fly from lake to lake in wedge-shaped companies, it pursues, under cover of par- tial or even total darkness, the round of pleasures and duties cus- tomary among all the duck tribe. In nesting and other habits as well, the gadwall so closely resembles the mallard that a de- scription of them would be merely a repetition. Even its voice IS very like the mallard's, although the .]uack is more frequently repeated; but Gesner must have discovered some unusually shrill, high-pitched notes in it when he added strepera to the bird's name. 99 River and Pond Ducks Baldpate (/inas americana) Called also: AMERICAN WIDGEON Length — 1 8 to 20 inches. Male- — Crown of head white or buff; sides of head, from the eye to the nape, have broad band of glossy green, more or less sprinkled with black: cheeks and throat buff, marked with tine lines and bars of black: upper breast and sides light reddish, violet brown (vinaceous), each feather with grayish edge forming bars across breast. More grayish sides are finely waved with black : lower parts and wing-linings white; black under tail. Back grayish brown, more or less tinged with the same color as breast, and finely marked with black. Wings have glossy green patch bordered by velvety black. Bill grayish blue with black tip. Feet and legs dusky. Female — Smaller. Head and throat white or cream^ finely barred with black and without green bands; darker above: upper breast and sides pale violet, reddish brown washed with grayish, interrupted with whitish or gray bars. Wings like male's, though the speculum may be indistinct and gray re- place the white; back grayish brown, the feathers barred with buff. Range — North America; nests regularly from Minnesota north- ward, and casually as far as Texas, but not on the Atlantic coast. Winters in the United States, from southern states to the Gulf; also in Guatemala, Cuba, and northern South America. Season — Spring and autumn visitor, and winter resident. October to April. The baldpates, keeping just in advance of the teeth of winter with the large army of other ducks that come flying out of the north in wedge-shaped battalions when the first ice begins to form, break their long journey to the Gulf states and the tropics by a prolonged feast in the wild rice, sedges, and celery in north- ern waters, both inland and along the coast. A warm reception of hot shot usually awaits them all along the line, for when celery- fed or fattened on rice their flesh can scarcely be distinguished from that of the canvasback duck, and sportsmen and pot-hunters exhaust all known devices to lure them within gun-range. The gentleman hidden behind "blinds" on the "duck-shores" of 100 River and Pond Ducks Maryland and the sloughs of the interior, and with a tlock of wooden decoys floating near by; or the neflirious market- gunner in his "sink boat," and with a dazzling reflector behind the naphtha lamp on the front of his scow, bag by fair means and foul immense numbers of baldpates every season; yet so prolific is the bird, and so widely distributed over this continent, that there still remain widgeons to shoot. That is the fact one must marvel at v *n one gazes on the results of a single night's slaughtering m the Chesapeake country. The pot hunter who uses a reflector to fascinate the flocks of ducks that, bedded for the night, swim blindly up to the sides of the boat, moving silently among them, often kills from twenty to thirty at a shot. True sportsmen must soon awaken to the necessity for stopping this wholesale murdering of our finest game birds. Whezi\ ivhew , whew — "a shrilly feeble whistle, precisely such as the young puddle duck of the barnyard makes in his earliest vocal efforts " — announces the coming of a flock of baldpates high overhead. Audubon heard them say "sweet, sweet." as if piped by a flute or hautboy. In spite of their marvelously swift flight, estimated from one hundred to one hundred and twenty miles an hour, their stiffened wings constantly beating the air that whistles by them, they are, nevertheless, often overtaken on the wing by the duck hawk, their worst enemy next to man. Diving and swimming under water are their only resorts when this villain attacks them. But when living an undisturbed life, the widgeons greatly prefer that other ducks, notably the canvasbacks, should do their diving for them. Around the Chesapeake, where great flocks of wild ducks congregate to feed on the wild celery, the wid- geons show a not disinterested sociability, for they kindly permit their friends to make the plunges down into the celery beds, loosen the tender roots, and bring a succulent dinner to the surface; then rob them immediately on their reappearance. Such piracy keeps the ducks in a state of restless excitement, which is further induced by the whistling of the widgeons' wings in their confused manner of flight in and around the feeding- grounds. Here they wheel about in the air; splash and splutter the water; stand up in it and work their wings; half run, half fly along the surface, and in many disturbing ways make themselves a nuisance to the hunter in ambush. They seem especially lOI River and Pond Ducks alert and lively. Neither are they so shy as many of their com- panions; for when come upon suddenly in the coves of the lake, they usually row boldly out toward the centre, out of gun range, and take to wing, if need be, rather than spend their whole day dozing in the tall grasses on the shores as many others do. Not that they may never be caught napping on the sand flats or in the sedges when the sun is high, for all ducks show decided noctur- nal preferences; only widgeons are perhaps the boldest of their associates. Open rivers, lakes, estuaries of large streams, and bays of the smaller bodies of salt water attract them rather than the sluggish, choked-up sloughs that shyer birds delight to hide in. Instead of nesting close beside the water in the sedges, after the approved duck method, the widgeons commonly go to high, dry ground to lay from seven to twelve buflf-white eggs in a mere depression among the leaves that the mother lines with down from her breast. Nests are frequently found half a mile or more from water. It is supposed, but not as yet proved, that the mother carries in her bill each tiny duckling to the water, where it is at home long before it feels so on land or in the air. At various stages of the bird's development the plumage undergoes many changes; but aside from those of age and sex, the baldpates show unusual variability. However, Dr. Coues consoles the novice with the assurance that "the bird cannot be mistaken undei any conditions; the extensive white of the under parts and wings is recognizable at gunshot range." The European Widgeon {Anas penelope) has found its way across the Atlantic and our continent, for it nests in the Aleutian Islands as well as in the northern parts of our eastern coast. It is occasionally met with in the eastern United States; and, al- though it has a bald pate also, its blackish throat and the reddish brown on the rest of the head and neck easily distinguish it from its American prototype. I02 River and Pond Ducks Green-winged Teal (Anas carolinensis) Length — 14 inches. One of the smallest ducks. Male — Head and neck rich chestnut, with a broad band of glossy green running from eyes to nape of neck; chin black; breast light pinkish-brown, spotted with black: upper back and sides finely marked with waving black and white lines; lower back dark grayish brown, underneath white. A white crescent in front of the bend of the wing; wings dull grav, tipped with buff and with patch or speculum half purplish black and half rich green. Head slightly subcrested. Bill black. Feet bluish gray. Female — Less green on wings; no crest; throat white; head and neck streaked with light reddish brown on dark-brown ground; mottled brownish and buff above; lower parts whitish changing to buff on breast and lower neck, which are clouded with dusky spots. Range — North America at large; nests in Montana, Minnesota, and other northern states, but chiefly north of the United States; winters from Virginia and Kansas, south to Cuba, Honduras, and Mexico. Season — Spring and autumn migratory visitor north of Washing- ton and Kansas; more abundant in the interior than on the coasts. Next to the wood duck, this diminutive, exquisitely marked and colored kinsman is perhaps the handsomest member of its tribe; and, next to the merganser, it is said to be the most fleet of wing as it is of foot, unlike many of its waddling relations; but epicures declare its delicious flesh is the one characteristic worth expending superlatives unon. When the teal has fed on wild oats in the west, or on soaked rice in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, Audubon declared it is much superior to the glori- fied canvasback. Nothing about its rankness of flavor when it has gorged on putrid salmon lying in the creeks in the north- west, or the maggots they contain, ever creeps into the books; and yet this dainty little exquisite of the southern rice fields has a voracious appetite worthy of the mallard, around the salmon canneries of British Columbia, where the stench from a flock of teals passing overhead betrays a taste for high living, no other gourmand can approve. When clean fed, however, there is no better table-duck than a teal. 103 River and Pond Ducks Among the earliest arrivals from the horde of water-fowl that follow the food supply from the far north into the United States every autumn, the green-wings are exceedingly abundant in the fresh water lakes and ponds of the interior, and less so on the salt water lagoons and creeks of the coast until frost locks up the celery, sedges, wild rice, berries, seeds of grasses, tadpoles. and the various kinds of insects on which they commonly feed. Then the teals go into winter quarters, and as they pass in small, densely packed companies overhead, the peculiar reed-like whis- tling of their swift wings may be plainly heard. Old sportsmen tell of clouds of ducks, numbering countless thousands, but they best know why such flights are gone forever from the United States. The selfish, dandified drakes, that have spent their summer putting on an extra suit of handsome feathers and living an idle life of pleasure while their mates attended to all the nursery duties, leave them to find their way south as best they may. while they pursue a separate course. In the spring the teals are. perhaps, the easiest ducks to decoy. To watch the gallantries and antics of the drake in the spring, when he proudly swims round and round his coy little sweetheart, uttering his soft whistle of endearment, no one would accuse him of total indifference to her later. Happily, she is self reliant, dutiful to her young, courageous, re- sourceful. As a brood may consist of from six to sixteen duck- lings, the mother dees not lack company during the autumn migration, though she must often pay heavy toll to the gunners in every state she passes through. Were she not among the most prolific of birds, doubtless the species would be extinct to-day. Happily this duck is a mark for experts only; for, with a spring from the water, it is at once launched in the air on a flight so rapid that few sportsmen reckon it correctly in taking aim. When wounded, the teal plunges below the water, or when pursued by a hawk ; but it rarely, if ever, dives for food, the "tipping-up" process of securing roots of water plants in shallow waters answering the purpose. Occasionally one sees a flock of teals sunning themselves on sandy flats and bogs, preening their feathers, or dozing in the heat of noon; then the hunter picks them off by the dozen at a time; but ordinarily these birds keep well screened in the grasses at the edges of the waters until twilight. While, like most other ducks, they are 104 < E- Q « W 2 0 f Z' River and Pond Ducks particularly active toward night and at dawn, they are not so shy as many. Farmers often see them picking up corn thrown about the barnyard; and Mr. Arnold iclis in the "Nid- ologist " ot" fmding nests of the green-winged teals built in tufts of grass on the sun baked banks along the railroad tracks in Manitoba, where the workmen constantly passed the brooding females intent only on keeping warm their large nestful of cream- white eggs. Nests have been found elsewhere, quite a distance from wafer, which would seem scarcely intelligent were not the teals very good walkers from the first, and less dependent than others on the food water supplies. In the west one some- times surprises a brood and its devoted little mother poking about in the undergrowth for acorns, or for grapes, corn, wheat, and oats that lie about the cultivated lands at harvest time. Green- wings are early ntsters, and have full fledged young in July, when the blue-wings and cinnamon teal are still sitting. Blue-winged Teal {Afias discors) Called also: WHITE-FACED TEAL; SUMMER TEAL Length — is to 1 6 inches. Male — Head and neck deep gray or lead color with purplish reflections; black on top; a broad white crescent bordered by black in front of head; breast and underneath pale reddish buff, spotted with dusky gray on the former and barred on the flanks. Back reddish brown, marked with black and buff crescents, more greenish near the tail. Shoulders dull sky blue: wing patch green bordered with white. Bill gray- ish black. Feet yellowish with dusky webs. Female — Dusky brown marked with butT, with an indistinct white patch on chin; sides of the head and neck whitish, finely marked with black spots except on throat : breast and under- neath paler than male in winter; wings similar but with less white. In summer plumage males and females closely re- semble each other. Range — North America from Alaska and the British fur countries to Lower California, the West Indies, and South America; nests from Kansas northward; winters from Virginia and the lower Mississippi Valley southward. Most abundant east of the Rocky Mountains. los River and Pond Ducks Season— }Aore common in the autumn migrations, August, Sep- tember, and October, along the Atlantic coast states than in the spring, and always more plentiful in the Mississippi region than near salt water. Similar in most of its habits to the green-winged teal, the blue-winged species appears a trifle less hardy, and is there- fore, perhaps, the very first duck to come into the United States in the early autumn and to hurry southward when the first frost pinches. Tropical winters suit it perfectly, but many birds re- main in our southern states until spring. Here they forget family traditions of shyness, when the .sun shines brightly, and sit crowded together basking in its rays on the mud Hats and shal- low lagoons, delighting in the tropical warmth. It is when they are enjoying such a sun bath that the pot hunter, who has stolen silently upon them, discharges an ounce of shot in their midst, and bags more ducks at a time than one who knows how scarce this fine game bird is. where once it was exceedingly abundant, cares to contemplate. The old " figure four " traps, to which ducks are decoyed with rice, still find favor with the market hunter, who is looking for large returns for his efforts, rather than for sport. Decoys are all but useless in autumn when the drakes show no attention to even their mates. Formerly these teals were very common indeed in New Eng- land, the middle Atlantic and the middle states, whereas for many seasons past the same old story is heard there from the sports- men: "There is a very poor flight this year." It is likely to grow poorer and poorer in future unless the ducks are given better protection. We must now go to the inaccessible sloughs, grown with wild rice, in Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and west- ward, or to the lagoons of the lower Mississippi Valley to find the two commoner species of teals in abundance. In such luxuriant feeding-grounds, where they associate closely, long, wedge- shaped strings of ducks rise from the sedges at any slight alarm, and shoot through the air overhead on whistling wings. We are accustomed to seeing small, densely massed flocks in the east when the birds are migrating southward. The blue-winged teals, after their small size is noted, can always be distinguished by the white crescent between the bill and eyes, conspicuous at a good distance. " When they alight, they drop down suddenly among the reeds in the manner of the snipe or woodcock," says 1 06 River and Pond Ducks Nuttall, instead of hovering suspiciously over the spot for awhile, like the mallards. They are silent birds, and, though not always actually so, their low, feeble quack, rapidly repeated, is so dim- inutive that they get little credit for a vocal performance. Shoveler {Spatula ciypeata) Called also: SPOONBILL: BROADBILL Length — 18 to 20 inches. Male—He-dd and neck dusky, glossy bluish green; back brown, paler on the edges of the feathers, and black on lower back and tail; patches on sides of base of tail, lower neck, upper breast, and some wing feathers white; lower breast and underneath reddish chestnut; shoulders grayish blue; wing patch green. Bill longer than head, twice as wide at end as at base, and rounded over like a spoon; teeth at the sides in long, slender plates. Tail short, consisting of fourteen sharply pointed feathers. Feet small and red. A'wa/t?— Smaller, darker, and duller than male. Head and neck streaked with buff, brown, and black; throat yellowish white; back dark olive bro vn. the feathers lighter on the edges; underparts yellowish brown indistinctly barred with dusky; wings much like niale's, only less vivid. Immature bird.s' have plumage intt mediate between their parents' ; their shoulders are slaty gray and the wing patch shows little . •■ no green. Jiangc- — '-Northern hemisphere; in America more common in the interior; breeds regularlv trom Minnesota northward and locally as far south as Texas; not known to breed in the Atlantic States; winters from southern Illinois and Virginia southward to northern South America." (Chapman.) Season— Winter visitor in the south; spring and autumn migrant north of Washington; more abundant in autumn migrations in the east. However variable the plumage of this duck may be in the sexes and at different seasons, its strangely shaped bill at once identifies it, no other representatives of the spoonbill genus of ducks having found their way to North American waters. Ap- parently the shoveler is guided by touch rather than sight, as it pokes about on the muddy shores of ponds or tips up to probe in the shallow waters for the small shellfish, insects, roots of aquatic 107 — - River and Pond Ducks plants, and small fish it feeds on. It is not a strict vegetarian, however delicate and delicious its flesh may be at the proper season. There are many sportsmen who would not pass a shoveler to shoot a canvasback. North of the United States, where these ducks chiefly have their summer home, we hear of the jauntv. parti-colored drake, gayly decked out for the nesting season, when he is truly beau- tiful to behold, and charmingly attentive to his more sombre mate. By the time the autumn migration has brought them over our borders, however, he has cast off many of his fine feath- ers, together with his gallant manners, and closely resembles the duck in all but character. He is ever a selfish idler, while she attends to all the drudgery of making the nest in the marshy bor- der of the lake; of incubating from si.x to fourteen pale greenish buff eggs during four w^eks of the closest confinement; of caring for the large brood and teaching the ducklings all the family arts. Shovelers are expert swimmers and divers, though they "tip up" rather than dive for food; they are good walkers also, when we see them in the corn fields, and almost as swift on the wing as a teal. Took, took; took, took, that answers as a love song and the expression of whatever passing emotion the ordinarily silent birds may voice, was likened by Nuttall to "a rattle, turned by small jerks in the hand." Like most other ducks of this subfamily, the shoveler is not common in the northern Atlantic states. Salt water never attracts it: but, on the contrary, it rejoices in lakes, sluggish rivers and streams, isolated grass-grown ponds, and even pud- dles made by the rain. In the sloughs ana lagoons of the lower Mississippi Valley it is still fairly common all winter, however much it is persecuted by the gunners. •'These birds migrate across the countrv to the western plains where they nest," says Chamberlain, "from North Dakota and Manitoba northward, ranging as far as Alaska." In such remote places, where the hand of the law rarely reaches the nefarious pot hunter, he happily finds the ducks in the very prime of toughness. 1 08 River and Pond Ducks Pintail {Dafila acuta) Called also: SPRIGTAIL ; WINTER DUCK Length — Male, 2S to 30 inches, according to development of tail. Female, 22 inches. Male — Head and throat rich olive brown, glossed with green and purple; blackish on back of neck; two white lines, begin- ning at the crown, border the blackish space, and become lost in the white of the breast and under parts. Underneath faintly, the sides more strongly, and the back heavily marked with waving black lines: back darkest; shoulders black; wing coverts brownish gray, the greater ones tipped with reddish brown: speculum or wing patch purplish green; central tail feathers very long and greenish black. Bill and feet slate colored. Female — Tail shorter, but with central feathers sharply pointed. Upper parts mottled gray and yellowish and dark brown; breast pale yellow brown freckled with dusky; whitish be- neath, the sides marked with black and white; only traces of t'le speculum in green .pots on brown area of wing; tail with oblique bars. In nesting-plumage the drake resembles the female except that his wing markings remain unchanged. Range — North America at large, nesting north of Illinois to the Arctic Ocean: winters from central part of the United States southward to Panama and West Indies. Season — Chietly a spring and autumn migrant, or more rarely a winter visitor, in the northern part of the United States; a winter resident in the south. No one could possibly mistake the long-tailed drake in fall plumage for any other species; but the tyro who would not confound his dusky mate with several other obscure looking ducks, must take note of her lead colored bill and legs, broad, sharply pointed tail feathers, and dusky under wing coverts. The pintails carry themselves with a stately elegance that faintly suggests the coming swan. Their necks, which are unusually long and slender for a duck; their well poised heads and trim, long bodies, unlike the squat figure of some of their kindred; their sharp wings and pointed tails, give them both dignity and grace in the air, on the land, or in the water, for they appear equally at home in the three elements. But of such charms as they possess they are exceedingly 109 River and Pond Ducks chary. In the wet prairie lands and grass-r/.iY^«— Conimon winter resident in iKjrtlierii United States; November to April. lake a crowd ol ;,'ossipin^' old women these ducks ^'.-ibble and scdomen, which is usually concealed under wafer. When migrating lrt)m the icy regions that they haunt alter all other ducks have left for the south, the old squaws proceed by degrees no faster than J.ick Frost compels; .so that in sea.son as in plumage they are apt to be exceedingly variable, an open winter keeping them north until late, and .1 cold autumn driving them from the ice-bound waters to seek their lish. mollusks, and water wrack in the open ch.iriiuls of our larger lakes and rivers and the inlets of the sea. Maritime ducks the.se certainly are by 126 Sea and Bay Ducks preference; famous divers and swimmers: strong, swift flyers; noisy, restless, lively fellows, that live in a state of happy commo- tion; )4rLj,Mri()us at all seasons, and stronj,'ly in evidence where- evt-r tlit'V fitui their way. Thi-rc can Ih* no excuse lor killing these tisli eaters lor their flesh, wlikli IS rank and apparently in the very prime (jf tou^li- ness throui^liout their stay here; but they are clothed with par- ticularly thick, line, lively feathers that are in j^reat demand for pillows. These form an almost invulnerable armor one would think, yet f\ this subfamily, the harlequin differs little, except in living near rushing, dashing streams of the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains and northward during the nesting season. Six or more yellowish or greenish buff eggs are laid in hollow stumps near the water; and the fact that the young ducklings 127 Sea and Bay Ducks are not swept ;iw;iy by the swift current of the stream they take to and live on. without returning to the nest once it is left, testifies to the remarlOTa/c— Upper parts buffy brown, streaked and varied with darker brown and black; back darkest; breast yellow buff, barred with black, and shading into grayish brown, indistinctly mar- gined with butT underneath. AVw^^-- Nests around Nova Scotia and Labrador, migrating south- ward in winter to New Kngland and the Great Lakes, more rarely south to Delaware. Season — Winter visitor. When resting under our down coverlets on a winter night, or tucked about with pillows on the divan of a modern drawing- room, how many of us give a thought to the duck that has been robbed of her soft warm feathers for our comfort, ir take the trouble to make her acquaintance when she brings the bro i that were despoiled of their bedding to furnish ours to visit our coast in winter.^ It may be said in extenuation of our apparent indif- ference that eiders keep well out at sea. and come at a sea.son when boating ceases to be a pleasure. Then, too. there is little to interest one during the winter in .1 bird whose chief concern appears to be deep diving. It is on the constant errand of getting mussels and other (ish food which the saddle-back gull often snatches from it at the end of an unequal race if the duck does not end it suddenly by plunging under water. It is to Labrador and the north Atlantic islands th.it one must go to know this bird 128 Sea and Bay Ducks ;it home, :inci most of us arc willinjr to Jo such travelling in the easy chairs of our library. Before these ducks have left our shores in March, courting has alreatiy begun; sharp contests occur, and the vanquished or superannuated males wander about in milder climates than the mated lovers fly to. Though nc- drake may be credited with great depth of feeling for his mate, the eider goes to the extreme of helping her make a nest of moss and seaweed among the rocks or low bushes under stunted fir trees, and will even pluck the down from his own breast to cover the eggs when hers has been persistently robbed. Ha-ho, ha-ho, he half moans, half coos, in a lackadaisical tone to the busy housewife who replies with a matter-of-fact quaik, like any prosaic barnyard duck. Until the last one of her bluish or olive gray eggs is laid, the mother plucks no down from her breast ; but she will continue to lay, and to cover the new eggs with her feathers, several times over if her nest is robbed, until her poor breast is naked and the drake's down is called into requisition. According to Saunders the average yield of down from a nest in Iceland, where the birds are encouraged and protected by law, is about one-sixth of a pound. The gathering of these live feathers, as they are called, for no one thinks of killing this valuable bird or its allies to take their down which loses its elasticity after death, is an important industry in the northern countries of Hurope ; but the industry is neglected and unintelligently managed on this side of the Atlantic. When all (he eggs and down are taken from a nest repeatedly, the despairing birds abandon it for more re- mote parts, and never return ; whereas hope eternally springs in a breast even where feathers do not. if an egg or two are left the mother. Audubon found large colonies of the American eider nesting in Labrador in April, and gathered some fresh eggs for food in May, when ice was still thick in the nvers. He found both ravens and the larger gulls prowling about the coast readv to suck the eggs and carry off the ducklings before they haJ mastered the art of diving out of harms reach. While the females sit upon their nests the drakes withdraw for a thorough moult, which leaves them so bare of feathers in July that they are sometimes unable to fly. Henceforth they live apart, he in flocks of males, she with small companies of mothers with their broods, which latter are usually the flocks thai visit 9 129 Sea and Bay Ducks us in winter, for the hardy old drakes do not often migrate so far south. By August ice has begun to form over their northern fishing grounds, and the flocks move a degree nearer us, flying swiftly and powerfully in a direct course, not far above the water, and almost never over land. American Scoter (Oidemia americana) Called also: BLACK. OR SEA COOT; BOOBY- BLACK SCOTER; BUTTER-BILLED COOT; BROAD-BILLED COOT. Length— \C) to 20 inches. ^/a/^— Entire plumage black, more glossv above. Upper half of bill, which IS tumid, or bulging, is vellow or orange at the base. Female— Soo\y \>xo\KX\ above, waved with obscure dusky lines; throat and sides of head whitish: dirty white underneath; bill dark, but not bulging nor parti-colored. Young resem- ble the mother. ^d'/zg'^— Seacoasts and large bodies of inland waters of northern North America; nesting from Labrador inland, and mifrrat- ing in winter to New England aiui the Middle Atlantic States and to California. Season— \N\n\itx resident and visitor. The three species of coots, or scoters, that come out of the north to visit us in winter have neither tine feathers nor edible flesh to recommend thcin to popular notice; nor do they seem to possess any unique traits of character or singular habits to excite our lively interest. Their chief concern in life appears to be diving for mussels, clams, small fry, and mollusks in the estuaries of rivers and shallow sounds along our coasts. Some go to large bodies of inland waters for the same purpose. As this active exercise toughens their muscles to a leather-like quality, and as the fish food gives their reddish, dark flesh a rank flavor, the poultry dealer who sells one of these birds to an uninitiated housekeeper for black duck loses a customer. JVlost friendly with its own kin, the American coot may usually be found in flocks of white-winged and surf scoters, '30 Sea and Bay Ducks eiders, and other sea ducks, where they congregate above beds of shell fish ; and, at least while in the United States, the habits of all these birds appear to be irientical. But they are as shy of men as if their breasts were covered with more desirable meat, and dive when approached rather than take to wing and expose their precious ugliness to an unoffending field-glass. Human friendship is discouraged by them, however much their long list of common names, which are as often applied to one species as another, falsely testifies to their popularity. Ridgway describes their nests as on the ground, near water, and containing from six to ten pale dull bulT or pale brownish buff eggs. The White-winged Scoter or Coot {Oidemia ifeg/auJi), which is sometimes called Velvet .Juck, differs from the preced- ing in plumage only, in having a white patch under the eye, a white mirror, or speculum, on wings, and orange-colored legs, much the same shade as its protuberant bill, which is feathered beyond the corners of the mouth. Possibly it goes farther away from water than the other scoters to place its nest under a bush on the ground, but the habits of all three species appear to be generally the same, and like those of nearly all sea ducks. The Surf Scoter, or Sea Coot {Oidemia perspicillata), ha.s a square white mark on the crown of its head and a triangular one on the nape, to distinguish it from its sombre and rather uninter- esting relatives. Ruddy Duck. (Erismatura rubida) Called fi/j.7— SPINE-TAILED DUCK ; SALT WATER TEAL ; DUN BIRD Length — 15 to 1 7 inches. Male — In summer : Crown of head and nape glossy black ; chin and sides of head dull white ; neck all around and upper parts and sides of body rich reddish brown ; lower parts white, with dusky bars ; wing coverts, quills, and stiff- Eointed tail feathers darkest brown ; head small ; neck thick, ill, which is as long as head, broader at tip ; wings very 131 Sea and Bay Ducks short, and without speculum. In winter the drake re- sembles female. J^ema/e— Upper parts dusky grayish brown, the feathers rippled with buff ; crown and nape more reddish, and streaked with black ; sides of head and chin white ; throat gray ; under parts white. Young resemble mother. /fafige — North America at large ; nesting chiefly north of the United States, but also locally within its range ; winters in the United States. Season — Spring and autumn migrant ; also locally a winter resi- dent. The heavy moult this drake undergoes after he deserts his brooding mate transforms him into an obscure, commonplace- looking bird from the faultlessly attired gallant of his courting days ; so that when the ruddy ducks appear on our inland lakes or the estuaries of rivers, shallow bays, and ponds near the sea, there is a close family resemblance between both the parents and the young, none of whom seem worthy bearers of their popular name. But however inconspicuous the feathers, this duck may always be named by its stiff tail quills, that no other bird but a cormorant can match. This curious tail, which is used as a rud- der under water, or a vertical padd'e, is carried cocked up at right angl« '0 the body when the duck floats about on the surface. Owing to the ruddy duck's short wings, it is less willing to trust its safety to them when alarmed than most ducks are, and it will quietly dive in grebe fashion, and drop to safe depths before swimming out of range, rather than depend upon the awkward rising from the surface, that must be struggled through before it is safely launched in steady though labored flight along the water. Heading against the wind, it at first seems to run along the sur- face with the help of rapid wing beats, before it is able to clear the water ; but once fairly started, it flies good distances and at a fair speed. In figure it more closely resembles a plump, squat teal than an ordinary sea duck. The head is so small that the skin of the neck can be easily drawn over it. Tall sedges near the water's edge make the ideal nesting or hunting resort of these ducks, that feed chiefly on eel grass and other vegetable matter growing either above or below the water in shallow bays and inlets, salt or fresh. It is their habit to drop into these grasses when surprised, and to hide among them, which is one reason why they are supposed to be rare ; whereas 132 Sea and Bay Ducks they are fairly abundant, though often unsuspected. Numbers of them find their way into large city markets every winter; and especially in the Chesap/;ake region, or where wild celery abounds, their flesh is tender and well flavored. Happily the species is very prolific. Some authorities mention finding as many as twenty yellowish white, rough eggs in the rude nests built by the marshy lake or river side ; but ten are a good-sized clutch. »33 GEESE {Subfamily Anserinoc) American White-fronted Goose {Anscr alblfrons garnlr/i} Called also: LAUGHING GOOSE: SPECKLE-BELLY: GRAY BRANT: PRAIRIE BRANT. Length— 2-j to 10 incnes. Male and Female — Upper part and fore neck brownish grav. the edgings of the feathers lighter: a white band along forehead and base of bill bordered behind by blackish; lower ba-.-k. nearest the tail, almost white: wings and tail duskv; sides like the back: breast paler than throat, and marked, like the white under parts, with blaci' blotches; bill pink or pale red; feet yellow: eyes brown. Immature birds, which are darker and browner than adults, lack white on forehead and tail coverts, also the black patches on the under parts, Hange — North America: rare on Atlantic coast; common on the Pacific slope and in the interior; nesting in the far north, and wintering in the United States southward to Mexico and Cuba, Season — Spring and autumn migrant or winter resident on the plains and westward to the Pacific. A long, clanging cackle. 'u:ah. wah, wah. wah, rapidly repeated, rings out of the late autumn sky. and lookmg up. we see a long, orderly line of laughing geese that have been feeding since daybreak in the stubble of harvested grain fields, heading a direct course for the open water of some lake. With heads thrust far forward, these tlying projectiles go through space with enviable ease of motion. Because thev are large and tly high, they appear to move slowly : whereas the truth is that all geese, when once fairly launched, fly rapidly, which becomes evident enough when they whiz by us at close range. It is only when rising against the wind and making a start that their flight is 134 Geese actually slow and difficult. When migrating, they often trail across the clouds like dots, so high do thev go-sometimes a thousand feet or more, it is said-as if thev spurned the earth But as a matter of fact they spend a great part of their lives on land; tar more than any of the ducks. On reaching a point above the water when returning from the leedmg grounds, the long defile closes up into a mass The geese now break ranks, and each for itself goes wheeling about cackling constantly, as they sail on stiff, set wings; or diving' tumblmg. turning somersaults downward, and catching them- selves before they strike the water, form an orderly array ag-.in and fly silently, close along the surface quite a distance before finally settling down upon it softly to rest. Such a performance must be gone throujjh twice a day once after their breakfast, begun at daybreak, and again in the late afternoon, on their return from their inland excursion, which may be to stubble fields, or to low. wet. timbered countrv, or to bushy prairie lands. Not only the farmer's cereals, but any sort of wild grain and grasses, berries, and leaf buds of bushes.' these heirty vegetarians nip off with relish. When we see them on shallow waters, with tail pointing skyward and head and neck immersed they are probing the bottom for roots of water plants, particularly for a sort of eel-grass that they fatten on. or for gravel, and are not eating mollusks or any sort of animal food, as is sometimes said. But fatal consequences await on ducks and geese alike that do not know enough to toughen their flesh and make it rank by a fish diet. White-fronted geese, delicious game birds of the first order, were once abundant during the migrations in the Chesa- peake country, where they freely associated with the snow goose and the Canada species, just as they do in the far west to-day ; but the sportsman must now travel to the Great Lakes or the plains, or. better still, to California, their favorite winter resort, if he would see a good sized flight above the stubble fields, iri which, hidden in a hole, and with flat decoys standing all about him. he waits, cramped and breathless, for the cackling flock to come within range. The stupidity of this bird is more proverbial than real. If any one doubts this, let him try to stalk one when it is feeding in the fields, or listen to the tales of woe the California farmers tell of its provoking vigilance and cleverness. 135 Geese Snow Goose (Chen hyperhorea nivalis) Called also . WHITE BRANT ; WAVEY ; BLUE-WINGED GOOSE Length— 2-^ to v-^ inches. Male and Female— Entire plumage white, except the ends of wings, which are blackish, and the wing coverts, which are grayish ; bill carmine ; legs dull red. Immature birds have feathers of upper parts grayish with white edges. Tiange—}^ orth America at large, nesting m the tar north (exact sites unknown), and migrating to the United States to pass the winter. More abundant in the interior and on the Pacific slope than on the Atlantic, north of Virginia. Season — Spring and autumn migrant, .April and October : or winter resident in milder parts of the United States to Cuba. The dullest imagination cannot but be quickened at the sight of a great flock of these magnificent birds streaming across the blue of an October sky like a trail of fleecy white clouds. Such a sight is rare indeed to people on the Atlantic coast north of the Chesapeake; but in the Mississippi valley during the migrations, on the great plains, and in parts of California all winter, fields are whitened by them as by a sudden fall of snow. Lakes in Min- nesota may still be seen reflecting their glistening whiteness as if snow peaks were mirrored there ; and in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, in Oregon and beyond, they are still suf- ficiently abundant to be hunted on horseback by the indignant farmers, who see no beauty in their plumage to compensate them for their devasted fields of winter wheat that the hungry flocks nip off close to the ground. But like most other choice game birds, the snow goose is fast disappearing. Who that knows how rapid this decrease is ever expects to see such flocks of these superb fowl as gladdened the eyes of Lewis and Clarke when they reached the mouth of the Oregon ? Closely associated with the white-fronted and the Canada geese, the white brant may be named, even when too high up in the sky at the twilight of dawn or evening for us to see its dark- tipped wings and white plumage, by the higher pitched, noisier cackling that distinguishes its voice from that of the laughing goose 136 Geese and the mellow houk of the Canada brant. It migrates by night and day ; observes punctual meal hours like the the rest of its kin ; keeps a sentinel always on guard while it feeds in the grain fields or roots among the rushes on the tide-water flats and grassy patches bordering streams ; circles, gyrates, tumbles, and floats above the water on returning from its feeding grounds. In short, it behaves quite as other geese do when intoxicated with food. While it is supposed the white brant nests somewhere in the region of the Barren Grounds between the Mackenzie basin and Greenland, the nest and eggs are still unknown in that little- visited country beyond the north wind {hyper bore us), as the bird's name indicates. The Lesser Snow Goose {Clioi hvperborea). a smaller species, identical in plumage with the preceding, and very like it in habits,' nests in Alaska, and wanders down the Pacitic coast in winter! eastward to the Mississippi and southward to the Gulf. Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) Called also .—\N\U) GOOSE; GRAY GOOSE ; HONKER Length— Y^rom i yard to 41 inches. Male and Female— Htixd and neck black, a broad white band run- ning from eye to eye under the head : mantle over back and wmgs grayish brown, the edges of feathers lightest ; breast gray, fading to soiled white underneath. Female naler • tiil bill, and feet black. ^ ' ' Range— -Horth America at large : nests in northern parts of the United States and in the British possessions : winters south- ward to Mexico. Season— Ch\e{\\ a spring and autumn migrant, north of Washing- ton ; although a fev/ remain so late (December) and return so early (March) they may almost be said to be winter resi- dents north as well as in the south. The most abundant and widely distributed of all our wild ijeese. Heralded by a mellow honk, hoiih, from the leader of a flying wedge, on come the long-necked wild geese from their northern nesting grounds, and stream across the sky so far above us that 137 Geese their Jarge bodies appear like two lines of dark dots describing the letter V. In spite of their height, which never seems as great as it actually is because of the goose's large size, one can distinctly hear the honk of the temporary captain — some heavy veteran — answered in clearer, deeper tones, as the birds pass above, by the rear guardsmen in the long array that moves with impressive uni- son across the clouds. Often the f;inning of their wings is distinctly audible too. The migration of all birds can but excite wonder and stir the imagination; but that of the wild goose embarked on a pilgrimage of several thousand miles, made often at night, but chiefly by broad daylight, attracts perhaps the most attention. Sometimes the two diverging lines come together into one, and a serpent seems to crawl with snake-like undulations across the sky; or, again, the flock in Indian file shoots straight as an arrow. It is as a bird of passage that one thinks of the goose, however well one knows that it remains resident in many places at least a part of the winter. A slow drift down a slope of a mile or more, on almost motionless wings, brings them to the surface with majestic grace, and flying low until the precise spot is reached where they wish to rest, they settle on the water with a heavy splash. Usual'y they stop flying near sunset to feed on the eel-grass, sedges, root^ of aquatic plants, insects, and occasionally on small fish, or on the wheat, corn, and other grain that has dropped among the stubble in the farmer's fields, and the berries, grass, and leaf buds they find in swamps and bushy pastures. Quantities of gravel are swallowed with their food. After a good supper they return to the water, preferably to a good-sized lake, to sleep, and there they float about with head tucked under wing until daybreak, when another flight must be made inland to secure a breakfast. These two regular daily flights are characteristic of all the geese. Such punctuality at meals is confidently reckoned upon by the sportsman, who is thereby saved unnecessary waiting as he crouches, cramped and cold, in a pit among the stubble and con- cealed by a blind. These holes are about thirty inches in diam- eter and about forty inches in depth. There are no birds with keener, more suspicious eyes; no sentinel of a flock more on the alert, unless it be the sandhill crane, that often feeds with them and is their ally ; no game birds more wary when the sports- man tries to stalk them than these; and so no one can possibly 138 ■w '<< Geese appreciate the expression "a wild goose chase" who has not hunted them. The goose is by no means the dolt tradition says it is. The ordinary methods of hunting water-fowl do not answer with it, and in different parts of the country a different ruse is practiced to secure its tlesh. Strangely enough, ducks and geese alike, that are thrown into a state of panic at sight of a man or dog, show no fear whatever of cows; and taking advan- tage of this fact, gunners often hide behind cattle, or lead a horse or an ox to get within range. On the great plains and in Cali- fornia, oxen trained for the purpose screen the hunters on horse- back, and walk straight into the flocks of Canada, snow, and laughing geese that have been lured by live or artificial decoys placed in some good feeding ground. Geese are not only gre- garious, but extremely sociable to their kin and to other birds as quick to take alarm as they. A constant gabbling goose-talk is overheard wherever they congregate, like members of a country sewing society. And yet these wary creatures have been successfully domes- ticated and crossed with the common barnyard goose. Many stories are in circulation of wild geese that have been wounded, and placed among the farmer's fowls, where they have been made well and apparently content until a (lock of migrants, passing above, called them to a wild life again; but the very birds that could be easily identified by the scars of old wounds, revisited the barnyard whenever their travels to and from the south permitted. All geese become strongly attached to cer- tain localities. Ordinarily, a goose that has been wounded in the wing runs, if on land, but so awkwardly it m ly be quickly over- taken. If wounded when above or on the water, it will dive. and remain under the surface with only its nostrils exposed until all danger is over. Unless seriously hurt, it generally eludes cap- ture. The thick coat of feathers, that have an even greater com- mercial value than its tlesh, is the gooses suit of armor, impene- trable except at close range. When surprised, a flock rises suddenly in great confusion ; the large birds get in one another's way and offer the easiest shots the tyro ever gets; the hoiik, honk, k'n'oiik from many outstretched throats clamoring at once mingles with the roar of wings, as with slow, heavy, labored flight the geese rise against the wind — the point from which they must be approached if one 139 Geese is to get «i good view of them. But order somehow comes speedily out of chaos once the birds are well launched in air. Double ranks are formed, with the leader at the point where the two lines converge, and the wedge moves on, far away if they have been terrorized by firing, but only a few hundred yards if they find there is no real ground for fear. Flocks of wild geese go and come in the United States from September, when the young birds are able to join in the long flights, until early spring, when the great majority go north to nest. In some secluded marsh, by the shores of streams, or on the open prairie, far from the habitations of hungry men, the goose lays four or five pale buff eggs in a mass of sticks lined with grass and feathers, and sits very closely, while the gander keeps guard near by. An empty osprey's nest in a tree top, or a cavity in some old stump, frequently contains these eggs; but the goslings never return to the cradle once they have been led to water, for they are good walkers and swimmers from the start. After a thorough moult, which often makes the old birds as incapable of flying as the goslings, the detached families gather into flocks in September, when a few cold snaps in the Hudson Bay region suggest the necessity for migrating to warmer climes. On their arrival here they are very thin, worn out by the long journey; but the Christmas goose, as every housekeeper knows, is perhaps the fattest bird brought to her kitchen. Brant (Branta hernicla) Called also: BRENT: BRANT GOOSE; AND BARNACLE GOOSE Length — 26 inches. Male and Female — Head, neck, throat, and upper breast and shoulders blackish, with a small patch of white streaks on either side of neck, sometimes also on chin and lower eyelid; back browrish gray, the feathers margined with ashy; lower breast ashy gray, ending abruptly at the line of black of the upper breast: sides dark, but fading into white underneath; much white around tail; bill and feet black. Female smaller than gander. Immature birds have no white patch on neck, and plumage above and below is barred or waved with reddish brown. 140 Geete Range — Arctic sea, nesting within the Arctic Circle, to the Caro- linas in winter. Most common on Atlantic coast; rare in the interior. Season — Winter resident, or spring and autumn migrant in the United States. Flocks of brants continue to fly southward down the Atlantic coast from October until December, some alighting on muddy flats around the estuaries of rivers and creeks, on sand bars and in shallow inlets, to feed on eel-grass and other marine plants; but the majority passing rapidly by the shores of Canada and our northern states. High flyers, sea lovers, they keep well out from land during the migrations rather than follow the coast line, if any distance may be saved by a bee line from point to point. It is only in hazy weather that they fly low. A reconnoitre by the veterans must first be made after the confused mass of hoarse gabblers rises from the feeding grounds; but after this spiral soar- ing has ended and the birds are once fairly started on their jour- ney, neither pause nor uncertainty may be detected in their steady flight. They fly in more compact bodies than the long- drawn-out wedges of Canada geese: no leader appears to direct their course, yet the mass moves as one bird, slowly and sedately. Some one has compared the trumpet-like sounds made by a flock of brants with the noise of a pack of fox-hounds in full cry. Occasionally these geese are found in the interior, for all their strong maritime preferences; 1 ut usually it is the black brant that is mistaken for them there and on the Pacific slope. On Long Island an J southward these dusky waders walk about at low tide, tearing up eel-grass by the roots when they enter the marshes to feed in gabbling, honking companies. Watched from a distance — for a close approach, no matter how stealthy, frightens these wary birds to wing — they appear rather sluggish and move heavilv over the mud flats, nipping every plant that grows in the'r path. Youthful gunners constantly mistake them for some of the larger sea-ducks and wonder that they do not dive for food. Brants never dive unless wounded. While the tide is out they feed constantly, stopping only to gabble and gossip, and quarrel from excessive greediness, with the result of being too heavy and lazy with much gorging to fly out to sea when the tide comes in and lifts them off their feet. After sundown they go streaming in long lines out to deep, open 141 Geese water to pass the night afloat. Certain localities become favorite stopping places for these birds of passage, and they return to them year after year, unless harassed by the gunners beyond en- durance; but such resorts become rarer every season, in early winter the young of the year are as delicious a game bird as finds its way to the gunner's pouch; but old birds taken in the spring migration defy the inroads of any tooth not canine. Because it nests so very far to the north, the life history of this goose is still incomplete. According to Saunders, the nest is composed of grasses, moss, etc., lined with down and made on the ground. Four smooth and creamy white eggs fill it. The Black Brant (Branta nigricans), a name sometimes applied to the white-fronted goose to distinguish it from the white brant or snow goose, is the western representative of the preceding species and of only casual occurrence on the Atlantic coast. It may be readily distinguished from its ally by its darker under parts and the white markings on the front as well as the sides of its neck. Their habits are almost identical. Both these " barnacle geese ■' take their name, not from their fondness for the little crustacean, for they are almost vegetarians, but from the absurd fable that they grew out of barnacles attached to wood in the sea. Some etymologists claim that the word brant is derived from the Italian word branta. coming from branca, a branch ; but these geese have nothing to do with branches, unlike the Canada geese that sometimes nest in trees; and we may more confidently accept Dr. Coues's statement that brant means simply burnt, the dark color of the goose suggesting its having been charred. 142 SWANS (Subfamily Cygnitut) Whistling- Swan (Olor columbianus) Called also : k}A^R.\Ck^ SWAN length — 55 inches, or a little under s feet. Male and Female — Entire plumage white; usually a yellow spot between the eyes and nostrils, but sometimes wanting; bill, legs, and feet black. Immature birds ha\esome brown- ish and grayish washings on parts of their plumage. Range — North America, nesting about the Arctic Ocean, and migrating in winter to our southern states and the Gulf of Mexico. Rare on the Atlantic coast north of Maryland; more abundant on the Pacific. Season — Winter visitor and spring and autumn migrant, October to April. It is impossible for one who has seen only the common mute swans floating about in the artificial lakes of our city parks, while happy children toss them bits of cake and crackers, to imagine the grandeur of a flock of the great whistlers in their wild state. Not far from Chicago such a flock was recently seen in its autumn migration, and as the huge birds rose from the lake into the air, it seemed as if an aerial regatta were being sailed overhead; the swans, each w.th • wing-spread of six or seven feet, moving like yachts under full sail in a mirage where water blended with sky and tricked one's vision. The sight is among the most impressive in all nature. It is wonderful ! On the Pacific coast, in the interior, down the Mississippi to the gulf states, and up the Atlantic coast from Florida to the Chesapeake, the whistling swans wander between October and April, flying at the rate of one hundred miles an hour, it is 143 Swans estimated. Like many of their smaller relatives, they fly in wedge shaped flocks, with an experienced, clarion voiced veteran in the lead. Dr. Sharpless, who was the first to point out this species as distinct from the whooping or whistling swan of Europe, with which our early ornithologists confused it, says : "Their notes are extremely varied, some closely resembling the deepest bass of the common tin horn, while others run through every modulation of false note of the French horn or clarionet." The age of the bird is supposed to account for the difference in the voice. No one can mistake the notes for the product of any musical instrument, however. One unkind man in the south, who was wakened in the depth of night by the noisy trumpet- ings of a flock feeding in a lagoon near his home, was heard to remark that if the swan did not really sing just before its death, it really ought to die just after making that noise! The poets, from Homer to Tennyson, and not the scientists, are responsible for the story of the swan's chanting its own dirge. These swans are particularly noisy when dressing their feathers, when feeding, and when flying, especially just after mounting from the water into the air, when they make loud demands each for its proper place in the V-shaped column. The Indians say that the swans follow in the wake of a flock of geese. Perhaps the Hudson Bay Fur Company, which has bought thousands of pounds of swan's down from the Indians, best knows why there are so few flocks of swans left to follow the geese to-day. Around the shores of lakes and islands in the Hudson Bay region, these swans return to nest in May; and gathering a mass of sticks and aquatic plants, pile them to a height of two feet or more, this down-lined nest being sometimes six feet across. In the labor of making it the male helps, for he is a far better mate and father than either a drake or a gander. From two to six rough, grayish eggs, over four inches long and nearly three inches wide, are laid in June, and not until after five weeks of close confinement on the nest can the proud mother lead her brood to water. At first the fledgelings are covered with a grayish brown down, which gradually changes into the white plumage that it takes twelve months to perfect. Young cygnets are counted a great delicacy by the epicures of Europe. Had the prehistoric swans been content to nib^-'- herbage on the banks of streams, instead of immersing their ned.j ♦:o probe 144 Swans the bottoms for mollusks, worms, and roots, doubtless their necks would have reached no abnormal length. One rarely sees a swan tipping alter the manner ot the river ducks, and never diving. To escape pursuit the swan, which is really very shy. will quickly distance a strong rower by swimming, yet with an ease and majesty of movement that suggests neither fright nor haste. The Trumpeter Swan (Otor buccinator), an even larger species than the preceding, with no yellow on the fore part of its head, though elsewhere identical in plumage with the whistler, has a more western range, being rarely found east of the Mississippi. In habits the two great birds appear to be much the same, but the voice of the well-named trumpeter resounds with a power equalled only by the French horns blown by red-faced Germans at a Wagner opera. I4S PART II WADING BIRDS >47 HERONS AND THEIR ALLIES Ibises Storks Bitterns Herons Egrets 149 HERONS AND THEIR ALLIES (Order Herodiones) Spoonbills, herons, storks, bitterns, ibises, flamingoes, egrets, or white herons, and their kindred compose an order remark- able for the large average size of its members, all of whom have either long legs or necks, or both. Most of these birds belong to the tropics; and while many of them formerly reached our southern states in great numbers, the greed of the plume hunter, incited by the thoughtless vanity of women, has nearly exter- minated a number of the most beautiful species. The majority of these birds are either local or have now become too rare to be included in this book. IbJses (Family Ibididce) Slender, picturesque birds, long of neck, bill, legs, and wings, and very short tailed. A bare space around eye; claws almost like human nails. • Silent birds, always living in flocks, chiefly on shores of smaller bodies of water or on bars and lower beaches on which the outgoing tide leaves a harvest of small crustaceans, which with frogs, lizards, small fish, etc., form their food. Sexes alike ; young different. White Ibis, or Spanish Curlew. Storks and Wood Ibises (Family Ciconiidce) Unhappily these storks still retain the name "ibis," which no amount of scientific protest seems possible to shake oflf. General form as in preceding group; but bill, which is as broad as the face at base, has tip curved downward. Four long toes. Herons and their Allies the hind one about on the level with the front ones, enabling the birds to rake the muddy bottoms of shallow lagoons with their feet. Claws less nail-like than in true ibises. Strong, graceful fliers. Wood Ibis Herons and Bitterns (Family Ardeidce) Birds of this family, that contains about seventy-five species, mostly confined to the tropics, have certain peculiar feathers or '"powder-down tracts" which, when worn in pairs of two or three, are a fair but superficial mark of the clan. The herons wear three pairs; one on the back, over the hips; one underneath the hips, on the abdomen ; and another on the breast. Bitterns lack the pair underneath. Their purpose is not yet known, but some scientists contend that these tracts are phos- phorescent, and that fish are lured by them at night. The plu- mage is generally loose, adorned with lengthened feathers, some species having beautiful crests and plumes on the back. th;it are worn in the nesting season. The legs are long and un- feathered, for wading; the four toes, all on the same level, are long and slender, for perching. The bill, which is always longer than the elongated, narrow head, appears to run directly into the eyes. Usually herons nest and roost in flocks, in favorable locali- ties, numbering thousands; but when feeding on the shores of lagoons, rivers, and lakes, solitary birds are seen. Other species, on the contrary, live singly or in pairs all the time. American Bittern, or Marsh Hen. Least Bittern. Great Blue Heron, or Blue Crane. Little Blue Heron, or Blue Egret. Snowy Heron, or White Egret. Green Heron, or Poke. Black-crowned Night Heron, or Quawk. 152 IBISES (Family Ibididce) White Ibis (Guara alba) Called also: SPANISH CURLEW Length — 2t inches. Male and Female — Plumage white, except the tips of four outer wing feathers, which are black. Bare space on h:ad; most of bill and the long legs orange red. Long df curved bill tipped with dusky. Immature birds dull brown, except lower back and under parts, which are white. Range — Warmer parts of United States, nesting as far north as Indiana. Illinois, and South Carolina; straying northward annually to Long Island, and casually to Connecticut and South Dakota; winters in West Indies, Central, and northern South America. Season — Summer resident or visitor. Flocks of these stately, picturesque birds, flying in close squadrons, their plumage glistening in the glare of a tropical sun, their legs trailing after them, are not so familiar a sight even in the Gulf states as once they v/ere. Their destruction ''an be set down to nothing but wanton cruelty, for their flesh is totally untlt for food, and their usefulness is nil if it does not consist in enlivening waste places with their beauty. Morning and evening the close ranks tly to and from the feeding grounds on the shores of lagoons and lakes, or to their favorite roosts, where their ancestors likely as not slept before them. Standing on one leg, with head and bill drawn in to rest between the shoulders and on the breast, the body in a perpen- dicular position, an ibis can remain motionless for hours, a picture of tropical indolence. The bill, which so closely resem- bles the curlew's that this ibis is frequently called Spanish cur- IS3 Ibises lew, enables the bird to dra^,' (;ut the crayfish from its shell and pinch the last piece ol llesh from solt-shelled crustaceans. Small fish, fro^^s, li/ards, and other aquatic arumal food never seem to fatten this sUndcr bird, that is a ravenous feeder none the less. Colonies of ibises build nests in ancestral nurseries, which may be in reedy marshes, or in low trees and bushes not far from good feedin>4 grounds. Three to five pale j^reenish e^gs marked wi'h chocolate arc found in the coarse, bulky nest of reeds and w»'f J stalks. 154 STORKS AND WOOD IBISES (Family CiconiiJct) Wood Ibis (Tantalus loculator) Cal'fdaho: WOOD STORK; COl.OKAhO TURKEY; WATER TURKhY Length — 4^* inches. Male and Female — Head and neck bare, and bluish or yellowish : pliimaj^e white, except the primaries and secondaries of wind's and the tail, which are greenish black. Legs blue, blackish toward the tf^es; long, thick, decurved bill, dingy yellow. Immature birds have head covered with down; plumage dark gray, with blackish wings and tail, but oon whitening. A'an;^<'-" Southern United States, from the Ohio Valley. Colo- rado, Utah, southeastern California, etc., south to Argentine Republic; casuallv northward to Pennsylvania and New York. "--A. O. U.' Season — Resident, or summer visitor. Like the turkey buzzards, this wood stork has the fascinating grace of flight that one never tires of watching, as the birds, first mounting upward with strong wing beats, go sailing away over- head in great spirals, floating on motionless, wide wings, wheel- ing, gyrating, rising, falling, skimming in and out of the pathless maze that a flock follows as if its members were playing a sedate game of cross tag. With necks distended and legs trailing on a horizontal with their bodies, their length is extreme. As these birds are gluttonous feeders, it has been suggested that their flights, like the buzzard's, are taken for exercise to quicken their digestion. There is a tradition to the effect that the wood ibis is a solitary misanthrope, but Audubon mentions thousands in a flock ; and while the day of such sights has passed forever in this land of bird butchers, one rarely sees a lone fisherman in the south 'SS Storks and Wood Ibtset to-day, and where one meets tne bird at all, it is likely to be in the omp.iny of at least a score of its kind, with possibly a few buzzards sailing in their midst. "The great abundance of the wood ibis on the Colorado, especially the lower portions of the river," says Dr. Coues, " has not been generally recognized until of late years, . . but the swampy tracts and bayous of Louisi- ana, Mississippi, Alabam. and Florida are . . . their favorite homes." Speaking of a hunting, trip on the Myakka River in west Florida, in 1871), Mr. G. O. Shields writes: "As we walked quietly around a bend in the river, just out of sight of our camp, and came to an open glade or meadow of perhaps an acre, a sight met our eyes that might have inspired the soul of a poet or have awakened in the inind of the prosiest human being visions of Paradise.. There sat great flocks of richly colored birds, the backs of which were nearly white, the wings and breast a rich and varied pink, changing in some of the males to almost scarlet. These were the roseate spoonbills | now nearly extinct]. In an- other part of the glade was a large flock of the stately wood ibis, with bodv of pure white, and wings a glossy radiant purple and black. In still another pan. a flock of snowy white egrets, and here and there a blue or gray heron, or other tropical bird. Alarmed at our approach they all arose, but, as if aware their matchless beauty was a safeguard against the destroying hand of man, they soared around over our heads for several minutes before flying away. As they thus hovered over us we stood and contemplated the scene in silent awe and admiration. Our guns were at a parade rest. We had no desire to stain a single one of the exquisite plumes with blood." Indolent as creatures of the tropics are wont to be, the wood stork goes to no further effort to secure a dinner than dancing about in the shallow idges of the lagoon, to stir up the mud, which brings the fish to the top. A sharp stroke from its heavy bill leaves the fish floating about dead to serve as bait. With head drawn in between its shoulders, a pensive, sedate figure, the stork now calmly waits for other fish, frogs, lizards, or other reptiles to approach the bait, when, quick as thought, it strikes right and left, helping itself to the choicest food, and leaving the rest for the buzzards and alligators. A sun bath after such a gorge completes its happiness. IS6 HERONS AND BITTERNS (Family Ardeidce) American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) Called also: MARSH HEN; INDIAN HHN; STAKE DRIVER: POKE; FRECKLED HERON; BOG BULL; NIGHT HEN; BOOMING BITTERN; LOOK-UP Length— Vimes from 24 to 34 inches. M-zU and Female — Subcrested; upper parts freckled with shades of brown, blackish, buff, and whitish; top of head and back of neck slate color, with a yellow-brown wash; a black streak on sides of neck; chin and throat white, with a few brown streaks; under parts pale buff, striped with brown; head flat. Bill yellow, and rather stout, and sharply pointed; tail small and rounded; legs long and olive colored. Range — Temperate North America; nests usually fiorth of Vir- ginia, and winters from that state southward to the West Indies. Season — Summer resident, or visitor from May to October; per- manent in the south. The booming bittern, whose " barbaric yawp " echoes from lonely marshes, grassy meadows, and swamps through the sum- mer, enjoys greater popularity in name than in deed; for he is a hermit, a shy, solitary wanderer, that even Thoreau, no less secluded than he, knew by his voice chiefly. " Many have heard the stake driver," says Hamilton Gibson, "but who shall locate the stake?" The same bird whose voice sounds like a stake being driven into a bog, or, again, "like the working of an old-fashioned wooden pump," or like the hoarse crowing of a raven when it flies at night, has for its love song the most dismal, hollow bellow, that comes booming from the marshes at evening, a mile away, with a gruesome solemnity. One of these 157 Herons and Bitterns calls has been written pump-cr-lHttk. pump-cr-liink. pitmp-t'r- luiik: but a better rendering', perhaps, is Dr. Abbott's piiik-la- grook, which has been veritieJ again and again. After the sedges in the marshes have grown tall, it is next to impossible to fmd the bird; but on its arrival in spring, when it pumps most vociterouslv in the fens, the paddler up some lonely creek follows the sound until he sees this freckled fellow stand- ing perfectly still in the low grass, its head held erect and pointed upward. Not a muscle moves while the bird remains in ignor- ance of the watcher. An hour passes, and it might be a dead stump standing there in the twilight. It looks particularly like a stump if it has assumed another favorite position, of draw- ing in its head until it touches its back. Suddenly a succession of snappings and gulpings, to (ill its lungs with air, convulses the creature, and then three booming bellowings come forth with gestures that suggest horrible nausea. One who did not see the bird in the act of making these noises would imagine from their quality that they came from below the water, and there are many stories in circulation among people who do not go to the pains to verify them, that water is actually swallowed and ejected by bitterns to assist their voices ; but it is not. Come upon the hermit suddenly, and it seems paralyzed by fright. When danger actually threatens, up go the long head feathers, leaving the neck bare and making the bird look formid- able indeed. The plumage is ruffled, the wings are extended, and if the adversary comes too near, a violent slap from the strong wing and a thrust from the very sharp beak makes him wish his zeal for bird lore had been tempered with discretion. A little water spaniel was actually stabbed to death as a result of its master's inquisitiveness. During the day, the bittern, being extremely timid, keeps well hidden in the marshes; but it is not a nocturnal bird, by any means, however well it likes to migrate by night. To some it may appear sluggish and indolent as it stands motionless for hours, but it is simply intelligently waiting for frogs, lizards, snakes, large winged insects, meadow mice, etc., to come within striking distance, when, quick as thought, the prey is transfixed. A slow, meditative step also gives an impression of indolence, but the bittern is often only treading mollusks out of the mud with its toes. is8 w -SS3&- Herons and Bittern* In the air the bittern still moves .>Iowly. and with a tropical languor Haps its lar^e, broad winjjs. and trails its lej^s Khind, to act as a rudder as it flies cl«)se above the tops of the sedj^es. When a lonj^er journey than trom one part of the marsh to another must be made, the solitary traveller mounts hi^h by describing circles; and, secure underthe cover of darkness, makes bold and lon^j excursions. It is onlv in the nesting; season that We lind these lairds in couples. Then neither one is ever far away from the rude grassy nest that holds from three to five pale olive bufT e^jgs hidden amonjif the sedges, on the ground, in a marsh. There arc those who assert that young bitterns are good food. Least Bittern (Ardetta exilis) Called also: TURTOlSH-SHhl.l. BIKD: LITTLt BITTERN; l-LY-UIMHL-CRbbK Lenj^th — r ; inches, J/.z/f—Su be rested; top of head, back, and tail black, with green reflections; back of neck and sides of head brownish red, also wings, coverts, and edges of soi.ie quills ; throat whitish, shading into buff uw under parts; the deepest shade, almost a yellow-brown, on sides; much Iniff on wings. Bill, eyes, and feet yellow; legs long and greenish. Female — Similar to m.ile, but chestnut above, and the darker under parts are lightly streaked with dark brown. Range — Throughout temperate North America, nesting from Maine and the British Provinces southward ; winters from C'luif states to West Indies and Bra/i! ; less common west of the Rocky Mountains, but found on the Pacific coast to north- ern (California. Season — Summer resident. The smallest member of a family of waders noted for their large size, the least bittern brings down their average consider- ably; for it is only about a foot long, a quarter the length of the next species. Fresh-water marshes, inaccessible swamps, boggy lands, and sedgy ponds are where these secretive little birds hide, with rails and marsh wrens, gallinules, bobolinks, red- winged blackbirds, and swamp song sparrows for neighbors »59 Herons and Bitterns :iinon^r tin- rushes. Living whi-it' no iiibhiT liont m;iy lollow thcin thiDu^h llu- iiuuk. tlu-v iisiuillv rcm;iin unknown to uKitiy Innn.in nri^^hbots, unli-ss sonii" slu^'^ish strr.ini tunning llirou^^h thfir territory will llo.it a skill .uul a hinl stmiitit williin lieUI- ^lass ran^e. These bitterns arc by no means the solitary hermits liie larmM species ar»\ Colonies of a ilo/iii or more couples are louiul nesting witinn the same acre. Ilowevei litirinj.; in habits by prelereiue, the ie.ist bitterns show no especial shyness when approached. Mr. (^hamberl.Mn tells ol a small colony that speiul the siimiiur within a stone's throw ol .1 street-car track aiui a play^roiiiul in the busiest part oi Brookline, near Boston probably the home their ancestors were reared in ; lor all the birds ol this family show marked res|Hct .ind att.ichment lor an old homeste.id. In Westchester (bounty. New York, there is a certain sluj^j^ish river whose reedy shores contain twt'niy nests or more within si^ht ol a well-worn foot briilgt'. Here, looking down into the sedges, the birds are seen lunnin.u .ibont throiij,di the junj^le, with tlu-ir necks out- stretched and their heads lowereti, .is they hunt for food -small minnows, or vounti; fioi^s and tailpoles. li/.irds. and biij^s winged and crawling. Disturb the birds, and they lake wing at once, with a harsh, croaking note. ,'low with pliosph(jrescent li^ht in the d;irk ;ind ;ittract fish to till' w.iter's edge, where the bird st;inds motionless, ready to triinshx ;i victim with its l)e;ik. But iis yet this is only an inter- esting theory th.it hiis still to be oroved. Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) Called aho: BLUH CRANIi; (erroneously) SANUHILI. CRANF. /.im;l/i — 42 to so inches. St;inds about 4 feet high. Malf and Female — Oown ;ind throat white, with a long black crest beginning at base of bill, running through eye, and hanging over the neck, the two longest feathers of which are lacking in autumn. Very long neck, light brownish gr.iy, tile whitish leathers on lower neck much lengthened and hanging over the dusky and chestnut breast. Upper parts ashy blue ; darker on wings, which are orn.imented with long plumes, simil.ir to those on breast, in nesting plumage only. Bend of wing and thighs rusty red. Under parts dusky, tipped with white and rufous. Long legs anci feet, black. Bill, longer than he.id. stout, sharp, and yellow. Ran^e — North America at large, from Labrador, Hudson Bay, and Alaska; nesting locally through range, and wintering in our southern states, the West Indies, and Central and South America. 5