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Cornell University Library

The habitat groups of North American bir

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

THE HABITAT GROUPS
OF

NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS

By FRANK M. CHAPMAN

CURATOR OF ORNITHOLOGY

GUIDE LEAFLET No. 28 SECOND EDITION

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www. archive.org/details/cu31924000424626

the Century Co.

FLAMINGOES AND YOUNG

e of many studies made by Dr. Chapman for the Flamingo Group

THE HABITAT GROUPS

OF

NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS

IN THE

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

By FRANK M. CHAPMAN

CURATOR OF ORNITHOLOGY

GUIDE LEAFLET SERIES No. 28

PUBLISHED BY THE MUSEUM
NEW YORK, MAY, 1916

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

CAMP AT PTARMIGAN PASS, CANADIAN ROCKIES

THE HABITAT GROUPS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
IN THE

AMERICAN, ,MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

By Frank M. CHapMan

Curator of Ornithology

HESE groups of birds are designed to illustrate not only the
T habits but also the haunts or “habitats” of the species shown.
Each group usually includes the nest, eggs and young, besides
the adult bird or birds, with a reproduction of from 60 to 160 square
feet of the nest’s immediate surroundings. To this accurate and realistic
representation of the home of the species is added a painting from nature
of its habitat, the real foreground being connected with the painted
background in such a manner that one often does not at first see where
the former ends and the latter begins. The whole, therefore, gives an
adequate conception of the nature of the country the birds inhabit and
the conditions under which they live.

It should be clearly understood that these backgrounds are not more
or less fanciful sketches of the haunts of the birds associated with them,
but they are careful studies from nature of definite localities, and there-
fore possess a geographical as well as an ornithological value. When
selecting subjects for treatment, an effort was made to include the birds
of widely diversified types of country, in order that the series, as a whole,
should portray not only the habitats of certain American birds, but
America as well. From the Bahamas to Hudson Bay, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, localities are represented which show at least the more
characteristic phases of our landscape, and it is hoped that a tour through
this hall of Habitat Groups will not only yield information in regard to
North American birds, but also give one some conception of the appear-
ance of the land in which they live.

Some subjects were in nearby places and were easily visited; others
were in remote regions and were reached with more or less difficulty.!
It is estimated that about 75,000 miles have been traveled to secure the
material on which the groups are based.

1. The narrative of many of these expeditions is contained in ‘Camps and Cruises of
an Ornithologist,”’ by Frank M. Chapman.

3

Each group in the series, beginning with Bird Rock in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence, in 1898, is the result of a special Museum expedition in
charge of the Curator of Ornithology, usually accompanied by a prepara-
tor, and one of the artists whose names appear in connection with the
backgrounds they have painted.

After arriving, before securing specimens, the birds were first studied
and photographed at short range from an especially constructed
umbrella-blind. This was sometimes placed in the very heart of the bird
community, as, for instance, with the Flamingoes and Pelicans; or even
in the tree-tops as with the Egrets. At the same time the artist made
studies on which to base the final background, as well as detailed color
sketches of leaf and blossom, while the preparator collected the needed
accessories, making casts or preserving vegetation in various solutions
as occasion required. When the field-work was concluded, the crates
of branches, carefully packed boxes of foliage, nests, birds and photc-
eraphic plates, sacks of earth and other material, according to the nature
of the subject, were shipped to the Museum, subsequently to be prepared
in the laboratories.

The vegetation, by Mr. J. D. Figgins, Mr. A. E. Butler and other
members of the Department of Preparation, has been reproduced in wax,
either from plaster molds of the original, or by careful duplication of the
original itself. The color has been applied with an air-brush or atomizer,
by which the most delicate tints and textures are faithfully rendered.

Each group has demanded its own special treatment, and, in the
construction of the series, the many novel problems encountered have
resulted in the development of original methods. This is particularly
true of the manner of installation and illumination of the groups at the
sides of the hall. Here, it will be observed, the background is curved,
with the front opening so reduced in size that at the proper distance, or
“‘correct viewpoint,” neither the ends nor the top of the group can be
seen. By thus leaving the actual limits of the group to the imagination,
the illusion of space and distance is greatly heightened.

The groups are illuminated from above by diffused light: electric
light being employed when daylight fails, but, in either case, the ravs
strike the group from the same diffusing surface.

The Museum owes this series of Bird Groups primarily to the
generosity of a number of its members, without whose contributions

the collection and preparation of the material would not have been
undertaken.

For this valuable coéperation the Museum is indebted chiefly to
Mr. John L. Cadwalader and to Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, Mrs. Philip

4

Schuyler, Mrs. John B. Trevor, Mrs. Robert Winthrop, Mr. F. Augus-
tus Schermerhorn, Mr. H. B. Hollins, Mr. Henry Clay Pierce, Mr.
Henry W. Poor, Mr. Courtenay Brandreth, and Mr. James C. Carter.

=

SUCRE ICO tS

Wyo 1901201101

170 400 150

120 110

100

MAP.

Klamath Lake, Oregon-California
dary

San Joaquin Valley, California

Brandt's Cormorant, Monterey, California

California Condor, Piru Cafion, California

Ptarmigan Lakes, Alberta

Canada Goose and Grebes (two groups),
Crane Lake, Saskatchewan

Golden Eagle, Bates’s Hole, Wyoming

Sage Grouse, Medicine Bow, Wyoming

Cactus Desert, Tucson, Arizona

Whistling Swan, Southampton Island,
Hudson Bay

Whooping Crane, Heron Lake, Minnesota

Prairie Hen, Halsey, Nebraska

Bird Rock, Magdalen Islands, Gulf of
St. Lawrence

Loon, Lake Umbagog, New Hampshire-
Maine boundary

boun-

INDICATING LOCALITIES REPRESENTED BY THE GROUPS
15.

Duck Hawk, Palisades at Englewood
N.J

Hackensack Meadows, N. J.

Wild Turkey, mountains of West Virginia

key Vulture, Plummer’s Island, near
Washington, D.C.

Cobb's Island, Virginia

American Egret, near Charleston, South
Carolina

Brown Pelican, Indian River, Florida

Sandhill Crane, Kissimmee Prairies,
Florida

Anhinga and Ward’s Heron (two groups),
near St. Lucie, Florida

Cuthbert Rookery, Florida

Flamingo, Bahamas

Booby and Man-o'-war-bird, Cay Verde,
Bahamas

Mount Orizaba, Vera Cruz, Mexico

WNesN]] ULOLIOUTY ot} UL sdnody pale JVPUV]T oy} JO 4satyy oT,

M90Y GYId

THE BIRD ROCK GROUP

A Srupy or an IsLhanp COLONY

To the preserving influence of island-life we owe the continued exis-
tence of many birds that have long ceased to live, or, at least, to nest,
on the mainland. In every instance, however, whether the island be a
thousand square miles or one square foot (as a Grebe’s floating nest) in
extent, it owes the preservation of its bird-life to the same cause—the
entire or comparative absence of bird enemies, terrestrial mammals in
particular.

Bird Rock, withitsneighbor, Little Bird Rock, belongs tothe Magdalen
Group in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is 351 yards long, from 50 to 140
yards wide, and rises abruptly from the sea to a height of from 80 to
140 feet. Its vertical rocky walls are weathered into innumerable
ridges, shelves and crevices—fit sites for the nests of the sea-birds that
for centuries have made the Rock their home. The birds, furthermore,
have found an abundance of food (chiefly fish), in the surrounding waters.

The Bird Rock was not definitely planned as a “habitat group,” but
rather as a picture of part of a famous and impressive bird colony and a
permanent record of a characteristic phase of island-life and, owing to
circumstances, it was not even installed as originally planned.

The material for the group was collected in July, 1898, and for many
years the group marked the highest point reached in the presentation of
bird-life. The group includes examples of the various species that
breed—one can hardly say nest—on the rock, the most noteworthy and
noticeable being the great white Gannets. Then come the Murres,
Razorbills and Puffins, the graceful Kittiwake, and, last and least,
Leach’s Petrel, seldom seen because it nests in little burrows like rat-
holes and comes and goes at night.

The Bird Rocks are of interest alike to naturalist and historian, for
their story begins with the discovery of these little islets by Jacques
Cartier in June, 1534. He records his visit as follows: ‘These islands
were as full of birds as any meadow is of grass, which there do make
their nests, and in the greatest of them there was a great and infinite
number of that that we called Margaulx that are white and bigger than
any geese, which were severed in one part. In the other were only
Godetz and Great Apponatz, like to those of that island that we above
have mentioned. We went down to the lowest part of the least islands,
where we killed above a thousand of those Godetz and Apponatz. We
put into our boats as many as we pleased, for in less than an hour we
might have filled thirty such boats of them. We named them the islands
of the Margaulx.”’

8

Three centuries later, Audubon, whose energy in exploration no
ornithologist has ever surpassed, visited this colony and was duly im-
pressed with its wonders, though the freshening wind prevented him
from landing on the rock itself.

Then evil days fell upon this bird metropolis; fishermen commenced
to visit it to obtain birds and eggs for food and to obtain birds for bait;
then a lighthouse waserected and, withinten years, the Gannet population
of 100,000, which, seen from a distance, had caused Audubon to think
that this rock was covered with snow, was swept from the top of the
rock. To-day, though still one of the ornithological wonders of our
Atlantic coast, the colony is but a shadow of its former self, and unless
more effective protection is given than now prevails, in time only a
fraction of even the present numbers will be left.

BIRD ROCK FROM THE SOUTHWEST

Distance about one-half a mile

(From “Bird Studies with a Camera,’’ by permission of D. Appleton & Co.)

“POMIYST] TYE AL puv woany AULT Aq spugq ‘[[RJsaoyy oonrgr Aq punos«syorg
RQRZUIQ JUNOPY OF “RIF PRoIdos, oY} LOAO ‘RoUNTE ONT oy) FO Ao[[LA ot} ssosow AULyooy st JMAIOSqO OIL,
dNOYS VaVZINO J3HL

THE ORIZABA GROUP
A Stupy OF THE INFLUENCE OF ALTITUDE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE

ROM the dense tropical forests, at the base of Mount Orizaba in
i Vera Cruz, one may look upward toward the equally grand
forests of pines and spruces which, 10,000 feet higher, cover the

sides of the mountain.

In the luxuriant vegetation about one are Parrots, Toucans, Trogons,
Motmots, and many other tropical birds; and from their home one may
see the zone where Crossbills, Evening Grosbeaks, Juncos, Brown
Creepers, and other boreal birds are nesting. Owing to differences in
altitude, which are the equivalent of differences in latitude, the three
great Life Zones which go to make up the faunal regions of North
America are thus represented in this one group, which may be said to
epitomize all the other groups contained in this hall.

The studies for this view of Mount Orizaba were made at Cordova
(altitude 3,500 feet), at the upper border of the Tropical Zone. The
primeval tropical forest having long since been cut off in this region, it
was necessary to descend to a level of about 1,000 feet, near Motzor-
ongo, to secure studies for the forest depicted. The accompanying
view of the Rio Blanca was also made near this point, from which Mount
Orizaba may be seen in the same relation in which it is here painted.

The birds contained in this group are representative species of the
tropical portions of the State of Vera Cruz. They have been selected
to show the tropical character of the bird-life of this region, rather than
the bird-life of any particular part of it; and represent but a small part
of the avifauna of several hundred species.

ll

A GLIMPSE OF COBB'S ISLAND
Background by Walter Cox. Birds by H. C. Denslow.

SUMMER BIRD-LIFE OF COBB’S ISLAND, VIRGINIA

SHELL-STREWN sand-bar seven miles long and about the same
distance from the mainland, Cobb’s Island, off eastern Virginia,
is an ideal resort for sea-birds. Here they are beyond the reach

of most bird enemies, while the surrounding waters furnish an unfail-
ing supply of food. The home of the birds has little or no value as
‘veal estate’’; they themselves are unfit for food, and it might have been
supposed that their continued existence was assured. But about twenty-
five years ago they suddenly acquired a commercial value. Their plum-
age became fashionable for millinery purposes. As a result, thousands
of birds were slaughtered on their nesting-grounds, and within a few
seasons some of the most abundant species were practically exterminated.

At no place were more birds killed than on Cobb’s Island and the
islands immediately adjoining it. In a single day, 1,200 Least Terns
were shot on Cobb’s Island; in three days three baymen killed 2,800
Terns in the same locality; at the end of two seasons the Least Terns,
for which there was especial demand, no longer existed in this region,
and the Common Terns were greatly reduced in numbers. Fortunately
the State of Virginia passed a law prohibiting the killing of these birds,
and for several years the National Association of Audubon Societies
provided a warden to enforce this law during the nesting season.

In response to this protection the birds began increasing in numbers,
and in time may become as abundant as they formerly were. The
Least Terns have not reappeared, there being no stock to begin with,
but the Common Terns are yearly becoming more numerous, several
hundred pairs having nested on the island even in the summer of 1902.

Besides the Common Terns, Skimmers, Gull-billed Terns, Oyster-
catchers and Wilson’s Plovers now nest on the beach of Cobb’s Island;
while in the marshes which flank the beach on the bay, or west side,
numerous Laughing Gulls, a few Forster’s Terns and many Clapper
Rails, or Marsh Hens, make their nests.

13

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sdavshWd SHL NO YMVH MONG AHL

THE DUCK HAWK ON THE PALISADES

Peregrine Falcon, from which it differs but slightly in color and
not at all in general habits.

By falconers the Peregrine was esteemed only second to the Arctic
Gyrfalcons. The latter could be owned and flown only by members of
the royal family, while no one of lower rank than an earl was per-
mitted to use a Peregrine.

Possibly the restrictions imposed on the owning of Gyrfalcons arose
rather from the difficulty with which the birds were obtained than from
their superiority as hunters. In this respect the Peregrine, or Duck
Hawk, is probably not excelled by any other bird of prey. Its speed
enables it to overhaul with ease the swiftest-flying ducks, while it has
sufficient strength to strike and kill them in the air and bear them away
without visible effort.

The Duck Hawk is fearless in pursuit of its prey and will dash down
and capture a wounded bird within reach of the sportsman’s arm; and
will repeat the attempt even if fired at and missed.

Peregrines in slightly varying forms are found throughout the greater
part of the world. The Duck Hawk, the American form, breeds locally
throughout most of the United States, and migrates as far south as
Chile. When migrating, it is sometimes not uncommon along our coasts,
since it travels with the flocks of wild fowl on which it preys, but when
nesting it is generally rare.

In the vicinity of New York City the Duck Hawk is known to nest
only on the Palisades of the Hudson, where they are unfortunately mo-
lested by egg-collectors, and among the hills and mountains to the
northward. It is believed that, in the spring of 1908, three pairs were
nesting on the Palisades.

In this region Duck Hawks begin to lay in March. They build no
nest, but lay their eggs, as may be observed, on the bare rock.

The material for the present group was collected by R. B. Potter
on Hook Mountain, near Nyack, N. Y., but it is here shown against
a background representing the Palisades, northward from the “Gorge”’
at Englewood.

|" Duck Hawk is the American representative of the Old World

15

Birds by Te.

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AUGUST BIR

AUGUST BIRD-LIFE OF THE HACKENSACK MEADOWS

HE thousands of acres of marshland bordering the Hackensack
River and Newark Bay, so familiar to travelers over the rail-
ways which pass through them, are commonly esteemed worth-

less ground, but to the naturalist they abound in interest.

In their lower portion, colonies of Florida Gallinules and Pied-billed
Grebes have been found nesting; but it is in August that birds are most
abundant in the marshes, and they then possess the strongest attrac-
tion for the ornithologist. At this season the wild rice begins to ripen,
bringing to the marsh a large, though ever decreasing, number of Bobo-
links and Sora Rails, that delights to feed upon it.

The Bobolink is now in its streaked, sparrow-like plumage, and
under the name ‘‘Reedbird” is ranked in New Jersey as a game bird (!)
and is killed in thousands by men who would not raise a finger against
the black-and-buff songster of our June meadows.

The Sora, in spite of its small size and sluggish flight may, with
greater reason, be ranked as a game bird, but at the present rate of
decrease it will pay the penalty of this distinction by practical extermina-
tion in this region. Red-winged Blackbirds also come to feed on the
rice.

During the latter half of July, August and September, Swallows (by
far the most abundant birds of the meadows) use the marshes as dor-
mitories, coming to them in incalculable numbers in the evening to
sleep, and leaving them early the following morning to radiate to
every point of the compass. During the day, and as the birds gather
for their evening flight, they may be seen perching in long lines on road-
side telegraph lines.

In August the marshes are as remarkable for their flowers as for
their birds. The great rose mallow is doubtless the most beautiful,
as it is also one of the most abundant species, acres sometimes being
pink with the bell-shaped flowers. There are also brilliant cardinal
flowers, saggitaria, pickerel weed, jewel flowers, all of which are shown
in the group, and many other species.

The studies for this group were made about one mile south of Little
Ferry, N. J. The view shown is toward the west.

With the so-called “march of civilization,” all this wealth of bird
and plant life is bound to disappear, to be replaced by railways, factories
and docks.

17

THE WILD TURKEY IN THE MOUNTAINS OF WEST
VIRGINIA

, NHE Wild Turkey, in spite of its name, is distinctly an American
bird, which formerly ranged throughout the wooded portion of
the eastern United States, from southern Maine and south-

western Ontario, south to Florida and southwest to New Mexico and

Arizona, whence it extends southward onto the Mexican tableland.

It has now become rare or extirpated in the more settled portions of
its range and is rarely found as far north as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Throughout its wide range, the Wild Turkey presents some variations
in color, the extremes of which are shown by the Eastern Wild Turkey
and the Mexican Wild Turkey. These birds differ chiefly in the color
of the tips of the tail-feathers and upper tail-coverts, which in the eastern
bird are chestnut, and in the Mexican bird, whitish.

Singularly enough, our barnyard Turkey is descended from the
Mexican bird, which the Spaniards found among the Aztecs in a state of
domestication. It was introduced from Mexico into Europe, where it
had become well established in 1530, and from Europe was brought by
the Colonists to eastern North America.

Although the domesticated bird will readily cross with the wild one,
no extensive effort has been made to domesticate the latter, and the in-
habitants of our barnyard still show the whitish-tipped tail and tail-
coverts of their Mexican ancestors.

19

FLORIDA GREAT BLUE HERON

Background by Bruce Horsfall. Birds by H. C. Denslow.

FLORIDA GREAT BLUE HERON

r \HE Great Blue Heron, often miscalled ‘‘Crane,’’ is distributed
throughout North America. On the humid northwest coast it
is darker than in eastern North America; in the arid Great

Basin region it is paler; and the Florida form shown here, known as

Ward’s Heron, is somewhat larger than the others.

Herons are more aquatic than Cranes and feed largely on fish. In
the Eastern States they invariably nest in trees, but in the West they
often nest among the reeds like Coots. Young Herons are born in a
more or less naked condition and are reared in the nest; Cranes are
hatched with a downy covering and can run about shortly after hatch-
ing. Herons fly with a fold in the neck, but Cranes keep the neck
outstretched.

On the ground the Heron is a rather homely object, with his lanky
form and long legs and neck, but in flight, his neck folded, the great
wings, slowly flapping, bear him on in no little stateliness. Rarely he
sets his wings and soars grandly in lofty circles.

In hunting, he either stalks patiently, lifting his feet and setting them
down with the greatest deliberation and care, or stands even more
patiently waiting. In either case he ends with a lightning-like thrust
with his beak. Frogs, fish, reptiles, and even mice are thus accounted
for.

The Great Blue Heron’s eggs are pale blue, unmarked, two and a
half inches long. Three or four form a set.

The only notes are loud squawks.

21

THE SANDHILL CRANE IN FLORIDA

Birds by Herbert Lang.

Background by Bruce Horsfall.

THE SANDHILL CRANE ON THE KISSIMMEE PRAIRIES

there are a great store—they sometimes eate our corne and doe

pay for their presumption well enough—a goodly bird in a dishe
and no discommodity,”’ he referred to the species in this group. At that
time it was doubtless common throughout North America; now it nests
in Florida only of the Atlantic Coast States, and, in the interior, only in
the upper Mississippi Valley and in the Canadian border states west-
ward to Oregon and northward into Canada.

In Florida, the Sandhill Crane is still to be found on the great Kissim-
mee Prairies and their adjoining low, pine-grown lands, where the studies
for the present group were made. Here, in March, it commonly builds
its little island nest in the water-filled depressions thickly grown with a
species of pickerel weed locally known as “‘bull-tongue.”’

Nest-building is preceded by the singular antics of courtship, when
both males and females hop, skip and jump about one another, bowing
low and leaping high, all the time croaking and calling. Their matri-
monial affairs settled, one hears only the loud but sonorous trumpeting
of the male which, when heard near by, is harsh and rasping, but, when
softened by distance, becomes one of the most attractive sounds of a
Florida dawn.

Although superficially resembling Herons, Cranes are more nearly
related to the Rails. Young Cranes, like young Rails, are born thickly
covered with down, and they run shortly after leaving the egg. The
young Heron, on the contrary, is hatched scantily covered with hair-like
feathers and spends over a month in the nest. Cranes further differ
from Herons by flying with the neck fully extended (see the birds in the
painting), while Herons fly with a fold in the neck which brings the head
nearly back to the shoulders.

Cranes are less aquatic than Herons. One may see them walking
about the pine woods or over the prairies, dignified, stately figures,
hunting for seeds, roots, grasshoppers, snails or lizards, while near the
water, frogs are captured.

I: 1632, when Morton wrote of New England birds, ‘‘of Cranes

23

THE SNAKE-BIRD OR WATER-TURKEY

Tlorsfall.

Bruce

Background by

THE ANHINGA, OR WATER-TURKEY, IN FLORIDA

snake sufficiently to have received the names ““Water-Turkey”’
and ‘‘Snake-bird”’ is an excellent comment on the peculiarity of
the bird’s appearance and habits.

The first-mentioned name finds its origin in the highly developed,
broadly tipped, turkey-like tail. The second relates to the long,
slender, snake-like neck, and when the bird swims with its body sub-
merged and only the long, shining neck, head and sharply pointed bill
above the water, the resemblance to a serpent is greatly increased.
(See bird in group.) It may be added that the bird’s book name of
‘‘Anhinga”’ is of Portuguese origin and means snaky.

The Anhinga is equally at home in the water and high in the air,
combining in an unusual manner the habits of an aquatic and an aérial
bird. Its form, close plumage and broadly webbed feet—all four toes
being united by membranes as in the Cormorants—admirably fit it for
life in the water, and it not only dives with great ease, but pursues and
captures its prey under water, the tip of the bill being provided with
fine, tooth-like serrations to enable it to grasp its slippery victims.

After prolonged submersion the Anhinga’s plumage, in spite of its
texture, becomes more or less saturated with water, hence the bird,
while drying its feathers, stands with wide-open wings. (See bird at
right.)

The Anhinga’s webbed feet make it at home in the water, but it is
the bird’s tail which renders it, for a diving bird, equally at ease in the
air. With spread wings and tail it soars in circles, hawk-like, for long
periods, evidently for the pleasure it finds in this exhilarating form of

, \HE fact that the Anhinga resembles both a turkey and a

exercise.

Anhingas are born naked and are reared in the nest, which is a
remarkably well made structure. When a few days old, a buff down
begins to appear, which soon covers them. Like the young of Pelicans
and Cormorants, they secure their food from the parent’s throat.

The background represents a ‘‘bonnet,” or yellow pond lily lake
with its surrounding cypresses and palmettoes, 17 miles west of St.
Lucie, Florida.

i)
Ou

‘YUU “AA ysouI Aq sparg ‘][eJstoP] oonage Aq punoasyorg
VdINOT4 ‘GNVIS| NVOI1ad 4O ASdWITD Vv

THE BROWN PELICAN ON PELICAN ISLAND, FLORIDA

first came to Pelican Island, Florida, the island was covered

with mangroves, in which the birds placed their nests. Severe
frosts and over-use by the Pelicans have killed all but a few trees.
When these are occupied by from two to five nests each, the remaining
birds build their nests on the ground, most of them resorting to a sand-
bar at the east end of the island, where they are as thickly grouped
as the painting indicates.

The young Pelican (ground nest, front, left, in the group) is born
naked. When about ten days old a downy plumage begins to appear,
which soon changes the bird from black to snowy white (ground nest,
front, rear, and center, front). The brown flight-plumage now begins to
grow, showing first in the shoulders and humeri (ground nests, front,
center and right), and at the age of about two months this plumage is
fully developed.

The young are fed on predigested fish regurgitated by the old bird
into the tip of the pouch (ground nest, left, rear). Later the young
birds (sometimes all three at once) eagerly thrust their heads into the
parent’s mouth and get their first fish from the base of its pouch. Possi-
bly in this habit may be found the origin of the myth in which the parent
Pelican opens her breast to supply nourishment for her offspring. When
the young Pelican secures fish longer than it can swallow, it sits with the
tail projecting from its mouth, patiently waiting for the head to digest
(ground nest, center, front).

The inhabitants of Pelican Island have often been wantonly molested
by man, and at times the vandalism of tourists, who killed the birds and
robbed them of their eggs, has threatened the existence of this remarkable
colony. To prevent so unfortunate a catastrophe, President Roosevelt
set aside Pelican Island as a government reservation, and a warden is
employed to guard it during the nesting season. Only visitors who
have secured a permit from this warden are allowed to land on this
island.

Bis: Pelicans normally nest in bushes, and when the birds

27

THE AMERICAN EGRET IN A SOUTH CAROLINA CYPRESS FOREST

Lang.

Birds by Herbert

Background by Bruce Llorsfall.

THE AMERICAN EGRET IN A SOUTH CAROLINA
CYPRESS FOREST

NYONE who knows how abundant the Snowy ‘Herons” or
A tect once were in our Southern States may be surprised to
learn that no little difficulty was experienced in finding a locality
where the necessary studies could be made for an Egret group. So
effectively, indeed, have the plume-hunters done their work, that it
was feared that this beautiful and fast-vanishing species could not
be included among the Habitat Groups, when, quite by chance, a colony
of Egrets was heard of on a shooting preserve in South Carolina. It
appears that when the land was acquired it contained a few Egrets,
survivors of a once flourishing colony. The new owners rigidly pro-
tected them, and they soon began to increase, forming at the end of
seven years a rookery which would have done credit to the days of
Audubon.

The nests were in cypresses at an average height of forty feet, and
the birds were studied and photographed from a moss-draped blind
attached to the limb of a tree forty-five feet above the water.

Sketches for the background were also made from the trees in order
to secure the desired effect of height.

The plumes or “‘aigrettes,”’ for which this Heron and its near relatives
inhabiting the warmer portions of the world have been slaughtered, are
worn by both sexes. They are acquired prior to the nesting season and
constitute the birds’ wedding costume, to be displayed, as the pose of the
bird in the group indicates. As the season advances and they become
frayed and dirty, they are shed.

All statements that such plumes are obtained from birds kept on
“Eeret Farms’’ are absolutely false.

Aigrettes are to be secured, therefore, only during the period of
reproduction, and this fact, added to the Heron’s communal habits,
accounts for the surprising rapidity with which the birds have been
brought to the verge of extinction. Concealed in the rookery, it is a
simple thing to shoot the parents as they return with food for their
young; and in the early days of ‘‘pluming”’ it was not unusual for a man
to kill several hundred birds at a sitting.

29

THE TURKEY BUZZARD
Background by Hobart Nichols. Birds by Herbert Lang

TURKEY BUZZARD
' ) TIDELY distributed over temperate and tropical America, the

turkey vulture—or, as it is more commonly called, turkey buz-

zard—is a familiar bird in many parts of the South, where it may
be seen gravely stalking about in search of food or gracefully soaring
in wide circles overhead.

As Bendire has written: ‘They look their best aloft as their flight is
exceedingly easy and graceful, while the apparent absence of all effort as
they sail in stately manner overhead, in ever changing circles, and with-
out any apparent movement of their well shaped wings, makes them
really attractive objects to watch; but let them once descend to the
ground or alight in a tree, and attractiveness ceases; now they are any-
thing but prepossessing, and it requires no effort to place them where
they properly belong—among the scavengers of the soil.

Once looked upon as a useful scavenger, and protected by law and
custom, it is now regarded with suspicion, or even looked upon as an
undesirable citizen,on account of its spreading hog cholera as a result of
feeding on carrion.

The locality shown is Plummer’s Island, in the Potomac, just above
Washington, looking up the river toward a stretch of rapids known
as Stubblefield Falls. This island is the headquarters of the Washing-
ton Field Naturalists’ Club, a small and select organization that includes
many of our best known naturalists, and is their favorite week-end
resort.

ol

“MOTSUDG, "OH Aq spe ‘]PEJSLOP] oontey AC, PULOLB OVE

3417-0419 SLI GNV LYSS30 SNLOVO V

A CACTUS DESERT AND ITS BIRD-LIFE

arid portions of Mexico, push a well developed arm northward

into Arizona, forming too marked a feature of North American
scenery to be omitted from any series of representations designed to
include at least the more pronounced types of our landscape.

Since this region has no colonies of birds, and no one bird of sufficient
size to be treated alone, it was decided to prepare a group which should
show its common birds as well as its commoner forms of vegetation.

Tucson, in southern Arizona, was selected as a suitable locality for
our studies, throughout which we had the invaluable advice of Dr.
D. T. MacDougal, Director of the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the
Carnegie Institution, which is situated at this point.

At the time (May 9-20, 1906) of our visit the desert vegetation was at
its best, and looking out over the variously colored blossoms it was
difficult to believe that we were not in a land of great fertility.

The birds of this region, like its plants, are of Mexican origin. Along
the ‘‘washes,”’ which after rains in the mountains are streams for a
brief period, mesquites and acacias grow abundantly, and here such
brightly colored birds as Cardinals and Vermilion Flycatchers are found.
Where this irregular but natural type of irrigation is lacking, the vegeta-
tion is chiefly of cactus which, affording but little shelter for birds of
bright colors, is inhabited chiefly by species of neutral-tinted plumage.

Here Mockingbirds and Thrashers (chiefly Torostoma curvtrostre
palmert), Cactus Wrens, Roadrunners, Gambel’s and Scaled Quail,
Texas Nighthawks, Inca, White-winged and Mourning Doves, Black-
throated Sparrows, Gilded Flickers and Crested Flycatchers (Myiar-
chus) nested in the giant cacti.

The making of the vegetation for this group called for unlimited
skill and patience on the part of the preparator. Every joint of cactus
shown is a facsimile reproduction of the original. Before making the
plaster molds, every one of the hundreds of spines was carefully re-
moved. After the casts had been taken from the mold (the Opuntia
in wax, the others in plaster) they were colored from field studies of
growing plants, and the original spines were then set in their proper
positions.

’ NHE great cactus-covered deserts, so characteristic of the more

33

CALIFORNIA CONDOR IN PIRU CANON

sackground by Charles J. Hittell.

THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR

EWIS and Clarke found the California Condor as far north as
the Columbia River in Oregon, and, at this time, it was dis-
tributed southward through California to northern Lower

California. This was assuredly a surprisingly restricted range for a bird
possessing such unusual powers of flight; but it now occupies an even
smaller area, being found only in the Coast Ranges of southern Cali-
fornia, from Monterey County southward.

The Condor’s rapid decrease is believed to have been occasioned by
its feeding on the poisoned carcasses of cattle exposed by ranchmen as
bait for bears, panthers and wolves. Since these predaceous animals
have now become exterminated or greatly decreased, this unfortunate
habit has been abandoned and the Condor is now holding its own.

The California Condor weighs from 20 to 25 pounds, and while not
as heavy a bird as the Condor of the Andes, slightly exceeds it in stretch
of wing, the average California Condor measuring about nine feet from
tip to tip. When flying, the Condor bears a strong resemblance to the
Turkey Buzzard, but when the two are seen together the Condor’s much
greater size is pronounced, while its white under wing-coverts are con-
spicuous as the bird soars overhead.

The Condor lays its single egg in crevices in the rocks or in caves
without pretense of nest, in February and March, and the researches of
Finley and Bohlman show that the young bird is between four and five
months old before it makes its initial flight.

Studies for the present group were made in Piru Cafion, some twenty
miles north of the village of Piru, and fifty miles southeast of Santa
Barbara, where for many years a pair of birds had nested in a cave
which pierced the vertical cafion wall 150 feet above the water. From
this cave were taken when young the Condors now (1915) living in the
National Zoélogical Park in Washington, D. C.

The visitor is supposed to be in the Condor’s cave, from which he
looks up the cafion. The cave was not occupied at the time the studies
were made, a passing hunter having wantonly shot one of the birds.

Condors were also found by the Museum expedition up the Agua
Blanca, a tributary of the Piru, on one occasion seven of the magnifi-
cent birds being in sight at once.

39

‘suvT qloqrioyy Aq spar ‘TPE “f SopteyD Aq punoasyorey
VINNOSINVS ‘AANALNOW LV LNVYOWYOO S,LONVYS

BRANDT'’S CORMORANT AT MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA

who have taken what is known as the “Seventeen-Mile Drive,”

may recall the rocky islet standing in the Pacific about a quarter
of a mile off the coast near Cypress Point. This islet and the Cor-
morants which each year nest upon it are shown in this group.

Brandt’s Cormorant also nests on other islets off our Pacific Coast,
and it is a regular visitor to the rocks off the Cliff House at San Fran-
cisco, where, however, it does not nest.

Both when flying and when resting upon the water the Cormorant
suggests a large duck. The resemblance, however, is superficial, the
Cormorant being related to the Pelicans, Gannets, Anhinga and all other
birds which have the hind toe connected with the front toes by a web.

The Cormorant is an expert diver and catches its food of fish by
pursuing it under water, the hooked bill of the bird doing good service,
while the broadly webbed feet propel it at great speed. It is the skill
of the Cormorants in fishing that has led both the Chinese and Japanese
fishermen to train the birds to act as assistants to them in pursuit of
their calling.

The young Cormorant, in common with other members of its orcler,
and unlike the downy young of ducks and geese, is hatched naked and
passes more than a month in the nest. The young secure their food
by thrusting their heads down the parent’s throat. At first sight one
might easily imagine that the old bird was trying to swallow its offspring.

When the young bird is a few days old, a thick black down begins
to appear on it. Shortly after this coat becomes complete, it is suc-
ceeded by the flight plumage. This is dull brownish black, the glossy
plumage of maturity being acquired later. As special adornments cf
the breeding season both the male and female Cormorant don certain
spiny, white nuptial feathers on the back or about the head and neck,
while the bare skin of the cheeks and pouch becomes brightly colored.
In Brandt’s Cormorant, as will be observed, the pouch is rich blue and
the birds appear to distend it for the purpose of display.

Cormorants, like their near relatives, are virtually voiceless, a harsh,
rasping call being their only note.

‘ VISITORS to Monterey, California, on the Southern Pacific R. R.,

37

“mo|suag ‘OD ‘H Aq spug TPM ‘f£ SepteyD Aq punowsyorg
VINYOSIWVS "ASTIWA NINOVOR NYS SHL JO NOILYOd GALYOINY! NV JO 34I7-GuNIa YSWWAS

SUMMER BIRD-LIFE OF AN IRRIGATED PORTION OF
THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

T Los Panos, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the waters
of the San Joaquin River are used to flood vast areas to create
grazing land for cattle. The region is naturally dry and arid,

but irrigation soon transforms the desert into a series of creeks, ponds
and marshes. The desert plants are replaced by Sagittaria, Ranunculus
tulés and cat-tails and the desert birds give way to a remarkable assem-
blage of water birds, whose local distribution is governed by the presence
or absence of water.

Driving along a levee, which extends as far as the eye can reach,
the old and the new life is found to be separated only by the width of the
dike. On the left is a parched and sterile plain with Horned Larks,
Burrowing Owls, Jack-rabbits, Coyotes, Rattlesnakes and other char-
acteristic desert forms; while on the right is water and fertility, with
Ducks, Herons, Ibises, Coots, Stilts, Avocets and other aquatic species
in countless numbers.

To the east the view stretches across the desert toward the distant
Sierras, where on clear days may be seen the snow fields which, eighty
miles away, supply the water at one’s feet. To the west (the view
represented in the group), one looks over green marshes and shining
ponds fairly twinkling with flitting wings, to yellow fields leading up
through molded brown foothills to the crests of the Coast Range.

The group contains only the commoner birds of the region—Black-
necked Stilts, Avocets, Killdeer, Black and Forster’s Terns, Black-
crowned Night Herons, White-faced Glossy Ibises, Coots, Mallards,
Pintails, Cinnamon Teal, Ruddy and Fulvous Tree Ducks.

While it is true one would not find all these species in a space eight
by twenty feet, one could frequently see all or most of them in a single
glance, and the impression the group seeks to convey is therefore within
the truth.

The sudden changes occasioned by the irregularity of the water
supply are often disastrous to the birds nesting here. The homes of
birds which begin to nest before the water has reached its height are
sometimes flooded, while the withdrawal of the water deprives the birds
of its protection and makes their nests and eggs accessible to marauding
animals

39

‘SuvqT yoquwy Aq sparg — *(odvospury) [joy ‘f saptVyH pur (sp.uq) soyronyy "y “"T Aq punowsyovg

SVWVHVE SHL NI ANOIOD OONINV IS V

A FLAMINGO COLONY IN THE BAHAMAS
B ison the studies for this group were made, very little was

known about the nesting-habits of Flamingoes. For this reason,

and because of the belief that a reproduction of a Flamingo
city (beyond question the most remarkable sight in the world of birds)
would possess exceptional interest, an expedition was dispatched to the
Bahamas in 1902, to find Flamingoes on their nesting grounds. It was
unsuccessful; but in 1904 the search was resumed, and on this occasion
the birds were discovered, and from an artificial blind, concealed in
the very heart of their rookery, containing 2,000 birds, a series of
unique photographs and observations was made.

The birds begin to lay their eggs early in May. Their nests are
constructed by scooping up mud with the bill and patting it down with
bill and feet. The nests are raised to a height of from eight to fourteen
inches to protect their contents from a subsequent rise in the water.

Both sexes incubate; one by day the other by night. The young
are hatched covered with down, like young ducks. They remain in the
nest three or four days and during this period are fed by the parents on
predigested juices of a mollusk of the genus Cerithiwm. (See standing
bird at the left and also the sitting bird at the right, which is brooding
and is about to feed.) They also eat the shell of the egg from which
they have so recently emerged.

The singular shape of the bill of the adult Flamingo is related to the
manner in which it secures the small spiral Cerithtwmn shells which, in the
Bahamas, appear to constitute its only food. To obtain them, the bill
is pressed into the soft mud until its point turns upward. The lower
mandible moves rapidly, forcing out the mud and water through the
channels along the sides of the bill and leaving the shells.

It will be noted that the bill of the young Flamingo is essentially
straight, but when about two weeks old the curve becomes evident and
the young bird begins to feed as does its parent.

When a month old, a second downy plumage is acquired (see bird at
right), and at the age of two months, this is replaced by a dress of brown-
ish feathers (see bird at the left). In October or November this is
probably followed by the pink plumage of maturity, since no brown
birds are seen in the spring.

41

‘Suey yloqiozy Aq spare ‘T[RVJstO]] Vong AQ punoasyorgq

AGYSA AVD NO SGHIG YVM-.O-NVW GNV S3IGOOS

THE BOOBY AND THE MAN-O’-WAR BIRD IN THE
BAHAMAS

AY VERDE is a coral islet, some forty acres in area, situated

C about two hundred and thirty miles southeast of Nassau in the

Bahamas. Like all reef keys, it is at the junction of a bank

with the ocean, and the background clearly shows how sharply the dark

blue water, indicating the great depths of the sea, is separated from the
lighter water over the shallow banks.

Cay Verde was reached on the ‘‘Physalia,” a small yacht which the
Marine Biological Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution placed at the
disposal of the Museum for this occasion. The voyage was begun at
Miami, Florida, on March 28, 1907, but unfavorable weather, including
a severe storm, in which the ‘‘Physalia’”’ narrowly escaped being wrecked,
delayed the arrival at Cay Verde until April 8. The Cay has no fresh
water and its only vertebrates are birds, one species of snake and two of
lizards.

The Boobies, of which there were about 1500 pairs, nested only
on the ground, making little or no nest. They were so tame that one
could walk about among the sitting or brooding birds without causing
them to leave their eggs or young. As a rule Boobies lay two eggs;
but the second is apparently not laid for about a week after the first,
and as a rule only one hatches.

The two or three hundred Man-o’-War Birds which lived on Cay
Verde placed their nests in the dense growth of ‘‘sea-grape”’ and cactus
which covered a portion of the Cay. They lay but one egg. The
young acquire a covering of whitish down when a few days old, and this
is quickly followed by a surprising development of the feathers of the
back, which it will be observed more than cover the back before the
corresponding feathers appear in the young Booby.

The male Man-o’-War Bird has the remarkable habit of inflating its
red gular or throat-pouch until it resembles a toy balloon. The birds
sit on their nests or even fly about displaying this surprising appendage.

With a wing expanse of between seven and eight feet and a body
no larger than that of a hen, the Man-o’-War Bird is one of the most
powerful and graceful of flyers. It feeds largely on flying-fish, which
it catches in the air.

2

43

AMERICAN EGRETS IN CUTHBERT ROOKERY

Study for the group from Nature.

CUTHBERT ROOKERY GROUP

LL. A. Fuertes making sketches for the background.

A FLORIDA ROOKERY

es OOKERIES” are, or rather were, one of the characteristic

features of the bird-life of Florida. The term is generally

applied there to all gatherings of roosting or nesting birds,
whether Pelicans, Cormorants or Ibises, but, because of their commer-
cial importance, one more frequently hears of Heron rookeries. Before
the demand for their plumage had brought the aigrette-bearing Herons
and Roseate Spoonhill to the verge of extermination, a Florida rookery
was one of the most remarkable sights in the bird-life of our country.

One may still find colonies of Ibises, Cormorants, Pelicans and plume-
less Herons, but of those great gatherings of birds which were once so
abundant, Cuthbert Rookery appears to be the only one remaining.
Here only will one find the birds just named and with them American
and Snowy Egrets and Roseate Spoonbills. It seemed therefore especi-
ally desirable to make studies there on which to base a representation
of this almost vanished phase of our bird-life.

As may be imagined, Cuthbert Rookery has continued to exist only
because of its remoteness. It is situated in the heart of the great man-
erove swamp which borders the Everglades at the extreme southern part
of the state. So shallow is the water off this part of the Florida coast
that the sharpie bearing the Museum expedition, although it drew only
two and a half feet, could not approach nearer the shore than seven miles,
and five hours were required to reach land by pushing and poling in
small boats. In four hours more, following narrow passages through
the dense mangroves, Cuthbert Lake was reached. The Rookery is on
a small islet, about a mile from the entrance to the lake. At this time
(March 29, 1908) it was estimated to contain about 35 Roseate Spoon-
bills, 15 Snowy Egrets, 350 American Egrets, 50 Little Blue Herons, 2000
Louisiana Herons, several hundred Ibises and a few Cormorants and
Water-Turkeys. Only the Spoonbills, Herons and Egrets were nesting.

The group is designed to show a portion of the rookery with the birds
nesting and roosting in the mangroves, while the background portrays
the whole islet at evening when the birds are returning.

45

A GOLDEN EAGLE'S NEST IN BATES'S HOLE, WYOMING

Photograph from Nature of the scene reproduced in the group.

THE GOLDEN EAGLE IN WYOMING

HE Golden Eagle ranges throughout the mountainous parts of
the Northern Hemisphere. In North America it is now very
rare east of the Rocky Mountains, but from the Rockies

west to the Pacific, and north to Alaska, it is not uncommon. In the
mountains, the bird nests on cliffs, but on California it often builds in
trees, white oaks being frequently chosen.

Although the Golden Eagle is powerful enough to prove a dangerous
antagonist, it never attacks man, in spite of sensational stories to the con-
trary. Even when its nest is approached, the bird makes no attempt to
protect its young, but either disappears entirely, or, calling, circles high
in the air.

Eagles, hike most raptorial birds, nest early in the year. They
usually lay but two eggs, which hatch after thirty-five days’ incubation.
The young remain in the nest about two months. The natural food of
the Golden Eagle in the west consists chiefly of small mammals of various
kinds, such as prairie dogs, rabbits, squirrels, spermophiles and rats,
together with ducks, geese and grouse. Occasionally it takes a young
deer or antelope. On the whole, however, under natural conditions,
the Golden Eagle is a beneficial bird because of the large number of
rodents it destroys. But where sheep have been introduced, the Golden
Eagle may become more or less injurious through its acquired habit of
preying on lambs.

Four species of Eagles have been recorded from America north of
Mexico. Of these the Gray Sea Eagle, an Old World species, is found
in this hemisphere only in Alaska; and the Harpy Eagle, a tropical
species, has been recorded but once, from Texas. This leaves virtually
only two North American species, the Golden and the Bald Eagle.
When the Bald Eagle is mature, with a white head and tail, the two
species are very unlike in color, but before the Bald Eagle acquires its
distinctive marks, it bears a general resemblance to the Golden Eagle.
The latter, however, has the legs feathered to the toes, while in the
former the lower part of the “legs” (tarsi) is bare.

47

WHISTLING SWAN

Background by Hobart Nichols. Birds by Walter Escherich.

WHISTLING SWAN ON SOUTHAMPTON ISLAND,
HUDSON BAY

SWAN on the nest, as shown here, is a conspicuous object, visible

far across the arctic prairies, which are the home of this species.

The human population is scant, however, and the powerful birds
have been known to kill a marauding fox. The nest is built of moss,
etc., raked up in the immediate vicinity, and in it are laid two to five
white eggs, four and a quarter inches long. The pair of Swans share
the labor of nest-building, of the thirty-five days of incubation, and
of caring for the young. The babies are clothed in white down, but
this is soon displaced by a grayish plumage, in which the young swans,
called cygnets, travel south with their parents in the autumn.

Swans feed chiefly on the grasses and tender water-plants they pull
from the bottom, reaching downward with the long neck or, if necessary,
tilting the body forward till the tail points toward the sky, after the
fashion of the common domestic duck and related species. They can-
not dive for food as do so many ducks. Small mollusks are also eaten.

Swans are famous for their loud, clear voices, resembling trumpets,
horns or other wind instruments.

The Whistling Swan breeds in arctic Alaska and Canada east to
Hudson Bay. In winter it is not uncommon locally on the Atlantic
Coast south from Maryland and along the Mississippi Valley, Gulf
Coast and Pacific Coast. Here in the Northeast it is only a rare migrant,
and anyone is very fortunate who ever sees a high-flying flock and hears
their far-reaching, clarion calls.

The only other swan in North America is the Trumpeter, now very
rare, possibly extinct. It is an even larger bird and lacks the yellow
spot in front of the eye.

WHOOPING CRANE

Background by Hobart Nichols. Birds by Walter Escherich.

WHOOPING CRANE

HE Whooping Crane is one of the largest of North American bird
and the stateliest. It has been sent down the same road as have
so many conspicuously fine species, and now seems on the verge of

extinction, for it is rare even in its restricted breeding range and unknown
on the Atlantic Coast, where it formerly occurred as a transient. It
winters from the Gulf States to central Mexico.

In December, 1811, on the Mississippi, Nuttall witnessed a migra-
tion of this species, assembled in a “mighty host. Their flight took
place in the night, down the great aerial valley of the river. * * *
The clangor of these numerous legions passing along high in the air
seemed almost deafening * * * and as the vocal call continued
nearly throughout the whole night without intermission, some idea
may be formed of the immensity of the numbers now assembled on
their annual journey to the regions of the South.”

The important differences between cranes and herons are noted
in the description of the Sandhill Crane group on the opposite side of
this gallery. Like other cranes, the Whooping has an elaborate court-
ship dance, nests on the ground in open country, is nearly omnivorous,
and possesses a far-reaching, clarion voice.

The scene here shown is an autumn one on Heron Lake, Minnesota,
where thousands of Canvasbacks, gulls and other waterfowl still con-
gregate, and a very few Whooping Cranes may perhaps yet be seen
on migration. The brown and white bird is a young one. One of the
adults is trumpeting to the flock passing overhead.

‘sueyT Woqioy, AQ sparge TPHUT "f sepeyD Aq punorssyporg

ANO109 GHIG 3ANV1 HLVWVI V

KLAMATH LAKE BIRD-LIFE
é LAMATH LAKE is situated in northeastern California on the

Oregon boundary-line. Its shallow water permits a great growth

of tulés, or rushes, which almost completely fringe the shore,
in places expanding to a width of several miles. They also form islands
varying in size from a few square yards to many acres in extent. Itis
on these islands that the bird colonies are established. There is no
soil or beach, and al] the birds nest on the beds of matted tulés, usually
at the border of the island. The White Pelicans, therefore, find here no
pebbles with which to construct their usual mound-lke nests; the Cas-
pian Terns do without sand, and the Cormorants without rocks. Far
more important than these is the protection which ground-nesting com-
munal birds require, and this the islands supply.

Fifteen colonies of White Pelicans were counted in this locality
between June 30 and July 7, 1906, and doubtless there were others,
since only a part of the bird-inhabited region was examined. There
were also great numbers of California and Ring-billed Gulls, Caspian
Terns and Farallon Cormorants, while Great Blue Herons, in default
of trees, built platform nests of tulés among the growing tulés. White
Pelicans feed while swimming, and were here devouring diseased fish
which were floating in the water in large numbers, while Brown
Pelicans capture their prey by diving; but the young of both species
make their first attempts at fishing down the parental pouch, as a com-
parison of this group with the one of the Brown Pelican on the opposite
side of the hall will show. The White Pelican weighs sixteen pounds,
twice as much as the Brown Pelican. Its wing expanse is between eight
and nine feet and, when in the air, it is one of the most impressive of
birds.

Only one colony of the Caspian Tern—the largest, as itis one of the
rarest members of its family—was observed, and this has since been
extirpated, for none was seen in 1915. The same fate also seems to
have overtaken the Ring-billed Gulls in spite of the fact that this lake is
now a Government reservation.

The group represents the border of a tulé island, while the back-
ground shows other bird-inhabited islets, the surrounding treeless hills,
and Mount Shasta in the distance.

53

‘soPON “W "YT Aq yoyoys B Woy snisuny peg Aq punoisyovg

S3SIMDOU NVIGVNVO SHL NI J4t1-duIa SNIDTV-SILOUV

ARCTIC-ALPINE BIRD-LIFE OF THE ROCKY
MOUNTAINS

HERE the summits of the Rocky Mountains, Sierras and Cas-

\ \ cade Range reach above timber-line to the limits of perpetual
snow, the boreal nature of the climate produces conditions
favorable for the existence of many plants and animals which, in the
Arctic Regions, are found at sea-level. The altitude at which these
conditions appear increases as the latitude decreases. For example,
in Colorado, at latitude 40°, timber-line is at 11,000 feet altitude, while
in Alberta, Canada, at latitude 50°, timber-line is at about 7,500 feet.

Where the area of sufficient altitude is practically continuous the
presence of arctic forms of life may be due to extension of range south-
ward; but where it is discontinuous, a boreal area may be separated
from a similar region to the north by intervening lower ground, when
the occurrence of boreal forms may be attributed to the influence of the
Glacial Period. Forced southward during the Ice Age, they were left
stranded on these high Arctic-Alpine islands as the ice receded.

The characteristic Arctic-Alpine birds of our western mountains are
the White-tailed Ptarmigan, the Rosy Snow Finch (Leucosticte) and the
Pipit. In the Rockies they are found as far south as Colorado or New
Mexico. The Pipit migrates southward in winter, but the Ptarmigan
and Snow Finch are practically permanent residents, in winter descend-
ing only slightly below timber-line. At this season, as is well known, the
Ptarmigan acquires a pure white plumage. (For a seasonal group of
Ptarmigan and an explanation of their plumage changes, see the Main
Bird Hall.)

The studies for this group were made in the Canadian Rockies
about fifteen miles north of Laggan at the Ptarmigan Lakes. The
party outfitted at Lake Louise, and ascended the mountains to the
northward, from which one obtains a beautiful and impressive group of
mountains in the Canadian Rockies. At the left, beyond Mount Redoubt,
in the foreground, lie the peaks of Moraine Lake; in the center is Mount
Temple; and to the right, Hungabee, Lefroy and Victoria.

At this season (July 15, 1907) the alpine spring was at its height.
The lakes were opening; great white anemones were blooming at the
border of the snowfields; the heather was white with little bell-like
flowers, and the beds of fluted Dryas leaves were starred with blossoms.

55

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SNIWOAM NI ASNOYS 39S

THE SAGE GROUSE IN WYOMING

EXT to the Wild Turkey, the Sage Grouse is the largest of North
American game birds. Its range is restricted to the high,
sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) plains of the West, from

western Nebraska and western Dakota north to, and in places slightly
beyond, the Canadian boundary, west to eastern Oregon and north-
eastern California, east of the Sierras, and south through Utah and
Nevada.

Within these limits the Sage Grouse is resident, but it migrates
locally at the approach of winter from higher to lower altitudes, as the
snows deprive it of its food. This consists largely of the leaves of the
sagebrush, but in summer the leaves and seeds of other plants are
eaten. When feeding on sagebrush leaves, the flesh of the old birds is
flavored by the nature of their food, but the birds of the year are very
palatable.

The Sage Grouse begins to mate very early in the spring, or, in some
localities, as soon as late February, and at this season the males indulge
in the most remarkable performances, inflating the yellow sacs at either
side of the neck, spreading the tail, dropping the wings and strutting
like a turkey cock.

At times the bird varies this performance by plowing its breast
along the ground as it utters a “variety of chuckling, cackling or rumb-
ling sounds.” This habit is represented by one of the birds in the
group, and is the cause of the abraded condition of the breast feathers
of the cock Grouse.

The nest is a slight affair, usually placed beneath a sagebrush where
it is often found by a marauding coyote. The hens hatch the eggs and
raise the young unaided by the male, which, when its mate begins to sit,
joins with others of its sex to form flocks composed only of males.

When the young are grown the sexes mingle in great bands, which
formerly contained thousands of birds. The birds drink night and
morning at some regularly frequented spring, about which they some-
times gather so thickly that they must await their turn to reach the
water.

The studies for this group were made at Medicine Bow, Wyoming,
on the line of the Union Pacific Railway. The mountain to the right
is Elk Mountain; those in the distance belong to the Snowy Range of

Colorado.

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THE PRAIRIE HEN IN NEBRASKA

N frosty spring mornings, as the sun rises over the prairies, one

() may at times hear a singular, resonant, booming note, boom-

ah-b-o-o-m, boom-ah-b-o-o-m. It is the love-song of the Prairie

Hen. He may be near at hand or possibly two miles away, so far does

this sound, unobstructed by tree or hill, carry in the clear air. It is well

worth following, however, for we may find the maker of it, with perhaps
ten to fifty of his kind, engaged in a most remarkable performance.

During the mating season, from March until early in May, the
Prairie Hens of a certain district or area gather before daybreak to take
part in these courtship demonstrations. The feather-tufts on either
side of the neck are erected like horns, the tail raised and spread, the
wings drooped, when the bird first rushes forward a few steps, pauses,
inflates its orange-like air-sacks, and, with a violent, jerking, muscular
effort, produces the startling boom, which we may have heard when two
miles distant.

At other times, with a low cackle, he springs suddenly into the air,
as though quite unable to control himself, and finally he comes within
striking distance of a rival who has been giving a similar exhibition.
Then, with much clashing of wings, a fight ensues which often strews
the nearby grass with feathers.

These tournaments of display and combat are doubtless designed to
arouse the attention of the females, but they also occur when only
males are present. Within an hour or two after sunrise, the time
varying with the ardor of the birds, the competition is over for the day
and the rivals feed peacefully together, until they enter the lists the
following morning.

Market hunting has greatly decreased the numbers of Prairie Hens,
but on the United States Government Forest Reservation, in the sparsely
inhabited sandhills of western Nebraska, on the line of the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy R. R., where the studies for this group were
made, they still exist.

The eastern Prairie Chicken, or Heath Hen, was once locally com-
mon from New Jersey to Massachusetts, but it is now found only on
Martha’s Vineyard.

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ANSI IO TCI att Ba Ta MTB.

GREBES (UPPER FIGURE) AND WILD GOOSE (LOWER FIGURE) ON CRANE LAKE
SASKATCHEWAN

Backgrounds by Hobart Nichols. Birds by Herbert Lang.

THE WILD GOOSE AND GREBE GROUPS
, \WENTY years ago the lakes and sloughs of our more northern

plains and prairies were the breeding homes of vast. numbers

of wildfowl of many species, but the demands of agriculture
have forced the birds to find new haunts north of the Canadian boundary.
There, too, if proper protection is not accorded them, they will again be
dispossessed by the advance of civilization.

Crane Lake, Saskatchewan, near the line of the Canadian Pacific,
where the studies for both the Goose and Grebe groups were made, is
typical of many similar resorts of wildfowl in western Canada. In
the vicinity of and about the border of sloughs and lakes there nest
Willets, Marbled Godwits, Long-billed Curlew, Killdeer, Avocets,
Wilson’s Phalaropes, Shovelers, Gadwalls, Mallards, Pintails and
Blue-winged Teal; while among the reeds and tulés Western and
Eared Grebes, Franklin’s Gulls, Black Terns, Redhead and Canvas-
back Ducks, Ruddy Ducks and Coots build their homes. The Geese
resort to islands where also Ring-billed and California Gulls, Common
Terns and Pelicans are found. Favorable islands are also selected by
Ducks, and on the island shown at the right in the background of the
Grebe group, Messrs. Bent and Job estimated that on June 17, 1905,
“at least 150 pairs of Ducks were breeding or preparing to breed.”

The Wild Geese arrive from the south before the ice leaves the lakes,
and lay their eggs early in May. The young birds in the group were
taken in June 15, 1907, when they were about two weeks old. Grebes’
nests are mere platforms of water-soaked vegetation. These eminently
aquatic birds walk with difficulty and their homes must therefore be
near the water. They leave the nest at the slightest alarm, but usually
first cover their eggs with a part of the nesting material. One of the
birds is shown in this act.

The young swim soon after hatching and for a time are carried on
the back of the parent.

The background in both groups shows the rolling, treeless plains
with, in the Goose group, a line of dune-like sandhills, where, among the
low bushes, Sharp-tail Grouse are found.

61

LOON ON LAKE UMBAGOG

Background by Hobart Nichols. Birds by Janness Richardson.

LOON; GREAT NORTHERN DIVER

OONS, like Grebes, are among the most aquatic of birds. All
[° their feeding is done in the water, and their nests are always
so placed that the sitting bird can slide quickly into and under
the water. They live almost entirely upon fish. These they chase
under water, swimming for the most part with the feet alone. Baby
loons hatch covered with dense, dusky down, and can swim almost at
once. While many Loons spend the winter along shore, often fishing
close to the beach, more keep far out, even fifty miles or more from
land all the season. When one does come out on land, both bill and wings
are used to help the unaccustomed feet.

Though wintering on salt water, the Loon nests largely on the fresh-
water lakes of the North, in scattered pairs. There may be heard its
wild ery, ‘‘one clear, piercing note or a long, quavering, demoniacal
laugh, that to the timid suggests a herd of screaming panthers. It is
one of the stirring, inspiring sounds in nature.” In winter the birds are
silent and dressed quietly in brownish-gray above and white below.

This species breeds in the northern part of North America, Europe
and Asia, and winters from about the southern edge of its breeding
range to southern Lower California, the Gulf Coast, Florida, the Mediter-
ranean Sea and China.

63

CAMP ON CAY VERDE, BAHAMAS

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