(iiiMinr»mii,(riririM:iwii»'Mw»'«« !SS m^m if j-ARE-HUNTED- Life Bistories of OneHundpedand Seventy Birds of Prey GArne Birds and WecteFfoiuls : DOUBLED AY, PAGE •AND COMPANY-: ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY THE GIFT OF Andrew J. and Katherine D. Taft ■m Cornell University Library 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/cu31924090302104 BIRDS THAT HUNT AND ARE HUNTED PASSENGER PIGEON. % Life-size. BIRDS THAT HUNT AND ARE HUNTED LIFE HISTORIES OF ONE HUN- DRED AND SEVENTY BIRDS OF PREY, GAME BIRDS AND WATER-F6WLS BY NELTJE BLANCHAN AUTHOR OF "BIRD NEIGHBORS" WITH INTRODUCTION BY G. O. SHIELDS (CoQuiNA) WITH MANY PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR AND IN BLACK AND WHITE Garden City New Yoke DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1912 P74/ Copyright, 1904, by Doubleday, Page & Company Copyright, 1898, by Doubleday & McClure Company Colored plates copyrighted, 1897, 1898, by The Nature Study Publishing Company Chicago, 111. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by G. O. Shields Preface .... List of Colored Plates . Part I. Water Birds . Diving Birds . The Grebes The Loons Aulcs, 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 18 27 32 35 46 59 (>3 67 68 73 77 81 87 93 114 134 143 Table of Contents PAGE Part II. Wading Birds . . . . . . .147 Herons and their Allies . 149 Ibises 15^ Wood Ibises and Storks . 155 Herons and Bitterns 157 Marsh Birds .... 169 Cranes 174 Rails .... 177 Gallinules 184 Coots .... 186 Shore Birds .... 189 Phalaropes 196 Avocets and Stilts . 198 Snipe, Sandpipers, etc. . 201 Plovers . ■ . • 2^7 Surf Birds and Turnstones ■ 249 Oyster-Catchers ■ 251 Part III. Gallinaceous Game Birds Bob Whites, Grouse, etc. Turkeys .... Columbine Birds . • 255 . 261 . 288 291 Pigeons and Doves . ' 294 Part IV. Birds of Prey .... . 299 Vultures .... • 304 Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc. • 309 Barn Owls • 333 Horned and Hoot Owls . • 337 Index • 353 INTRODUCTION Bird life is disappearing from the United States and Canada at so alarming a rate I 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 from 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 extinct, and others are rapidly approaching the danger line. Conspicuous 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 in thousands of instances the victim is the mother bird, and a brood of young 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 ? 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 have 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 I 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. PREFACE The point of view from whicii tiiis 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 birds 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 pubhc 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 FACraO PACE Passenger Pigeon — Frontispiece PlED-BlLLED GrEBE lO Loon 14 Brunnich's Murre 22 Herring Gull 40 Common Tern 50 Black Tern 58 Wilson's Stormy Petrel 68 Red-breasted Merganser 88 Mallard Duck 94 Black Duck 98 Bald-pate Duck 100 Green-winged Teal 104 Pin-tail Duck no Wood Duck 112 Canvasback Duck 116 Golden-eye Duck 122 Canada Goose 138 Least Bittern 158 Great Blue Heron 162 Black-crowned Night Heron 168 SoRA Rail ... 180 Purple Gallinule 184 Coot or Mud Hen 188 xi List of Colored Plates FACING PAGE AVOCET 198 Woodcock 202 Wilson's or Jack Snipe 206 Pectoral Sandpiper or Grass Snipe . . . .212 Least Sandpiper 216 Yellowlegs 224 Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover . . . 230 Golden Plover 240 Semipalmated or Ring Plover 244 Bob White 260 Dusky or Blue Grouse 268 Ruffed Grouse 272 Prairie Hen 278 Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse 282 Wild Turkey 288 Turkey Vulture 304 Marsh Hawk 312 Red-shouldered Hawk 320 Sparrow Hawk 330 Osprey 334 Saw Whet Owl 342 Screech Owl 344 Great Horned Owl 346 Snowy Owl 350 LIST OF HALF-TONE PLATES FACING PAGE Flying Skimmers 30 Cormorants 78 A "Rick" of Blackheads n8 A Flock of White Ibis 152 Woodcock Hiding 192 Shooting Red-breasted Snipe on the Southern Coast . 200 Baby Mountain Plover "Lying Low" .... 2}6 Nest of Mountain Plover 246 Good Quail Country 264 Dusky Grouse on Nest 266 Canada Grouse Above the Fox's Reach . . . 270 Young Ruffed Grouse During Rain-Storm — Idaho . . 276 The Dove's Badly Regulated Nursery .... 296 Turkey Buzzard Sailing Above Florida Palms . . 306 Osprey's Home 332 Barred Owl . . 340 PART I 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 I must tread alone. Will lead my steps aright. William Cullen Bryant. DIVING BIRDS Grebes Loons Auks Murres Puffins DIVING BIRDS GREBES, LOONS, AUKS, MURRES, PUFFINS (Order Pygopodes) The birds of this order, whose Latin name refers to their sit- ting posture when on land, represent the highest development in the art of swimming and diving, being the nearest lineal de- scendants of the reptiles, the ancestors of all birds, evolutionists tell us. The American Ornithologists' Union has classified these divers into three distinct families. Grebes (Family Podicipidce) Grebes, although similar to the loons in general structure and economy, have peculiarly lobed and flattened-out toes connected by webs that are their chief characteristic. In the breeding sea- son several species wear ornamental head-dresses, colored crests or ruffs that disappear in the winter months. Plumage, which is thick, compact, and waterproof, has a smooth, satiny texture, es- pecially on the under parts. Wings, though short, are powerful, and enable the grebes to migrate long distances ; but they are not used in swimming under water, as is often asserted. The mar- velous rapidity with which grebes dive and swim must be credited to the feet alone. No birds are more thoroughly at home in the water and more helpless on land than they. By keeping only the nostrils above the surface they are able to remain under water a surprising length of time, which trick, with many other clever natatorial feats, have earned for them such titles as " Hell Diver," " Water Witch," and "Spirit Duck." On shore the birds rest up- right, or nearly so, owing to the position of their legs, which are s Diving Birds set far back near the rudimentary tail that serves as a prop to help support the top-heavy, awkward body. Holboell's Grebe Horned Grebe Pied-billed Grebe or Dabchick Loons (Family UrinatoridceJ Loons, while as famous divers and swimmers as the grebes, are not quite so helpless on land, 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 Alcidce) 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 Diving Birds pursuit of fish 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 general 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 Calif ornian Murre Razor-billed Auk Dovekie or Sea Dove THE GREBES, OR LOBE-FOOTED DIVERS (Family Podicipidce) Holboell's Grebe (Colymbus holbcellii) Called also: RED-NECKED GREBE Length — About 19 inches. Largest of the common grebes. Male and Female— 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 shovk' chestnut tinge. In winter: 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 clan. 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 egg 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 north, 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 (Colymbus auritus) 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 9 Grebes whitish feathers in wings ; front of neck, upper breast, and sides chestnut; lower breast and underneath, white. In ■winter: Lacking 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. Young — Like adults in winter plumage, but with heads distinctly s'triped. Hange—Vrom Northern United States northward to fur countries in breeding season ; migrating in winter to Gulf States. Season — Plentiful 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 fish out of water, which the evolutionists would have us believe the group of diving birds very nearly are. When the young ones are taken from a 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 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 diving, 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 — 14 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 indistinctly 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 winter: Similar to summer plumage, ex- cept that throat is white and the black band on bill is lacking. Young — Like adults in winter. Heads beautifully striped with black, white, and yellowish brown. Range — British provinces and United States and southward to Brazil, Argentine Republic, including the West Indies and Bermuda, breeding almost throughout its range. II Grebes Seasofi— Common migrant in spring and fall. Winters from New Jersey and soutliern Illinois southward. The most abundant species of the family in the eastern United States, particularly near the Atlantic, the pied-biiled 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 diificult 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 bird's fish diet. Ungainly and ill at ease on land, in fact, almost helpless there, a grebe 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 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 are 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 urinatoridce) Loon (Urinator imber) Calledaho: GREAT NORTHERN DIVER; COMMON LOON; LOOM Length — ^\ 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. In "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 birds, 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 '4 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 fine 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 loon 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 diving, 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 (Urinator arcticus), 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 head and the nape of the neck, though in winter plumage even this slight difference of feathers is lacking. Red-throated Loon (Urinator lumme) Called also: SPRAT LOON; RED-THROATED DIVER; COBBLE Length — 25 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 winter 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 pr 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 they even look so. Audubon found the red-throated loons nesting on the coast of Labrador, near small fresh-water lakes, in June. The young ar6 able to fly by August, and in September can join the older mi- grants in their southern flight. In England these loons follow the 16 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 arctica) Called aho: SEA PARROT; COULTERNEB; MASKING PUFFIN Length — 13 inches. Male and Female — Upper parts blackish ; browner on the head and front of neck. Sides of the head and throat white ; some- times grayish. Nape of neck has narrow grayish collar. Breast and underneath white. Feet less broadly webbed than a loon's. Bill heavy and resembhng a parrot's. 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 — Coasts 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 winter, from the countless myriads that nest in the rocky cliffs around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy. Unlike either grebes or loons, puffms are gregarious, especially 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 18 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 other instinct 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 jt 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, 19 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 — In 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. In 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 fisii, 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 Jeannette, De Long recorded meeting with black guillemots in latitude 73°, swimming about in the open spaces between the ice-floes early 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. Brunnich's Murre (Uria lomviaj Calledako: BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT; ARRIE; EGG BIRD; PENGUIN; FOOLISH GUILLEMOT Length — 16.50 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. Auks, Murres, Puffins " 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- pendicularly, broken only 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, (sic) 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 flesh 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 put from land that none of our ornithologists seem to have made a very 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 (Uria troile), 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 Bkl Wiril'-. MURRE M LiIl si/, Auks, Murres, Puffins Briinnich's 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 study has still to be given to this group of birds before the differences of opin- ion held by the leading ornithologists concerning them will be settled satisfactorily 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 Length— 1 6. 50 inches. Alale and Female — In summer : Upper parts sooty black ; browner on fore neck. A conspicuous white line from eye 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. In winter: Similar to summer plumage, ex- 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. Range— " Coasts 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 fishermen who pursued them on sea and ashore, the great auks, that in Nuttall's day 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 24 Auks, Murres, Puffins in the rocky crevices, it is amazing liow eacii bird can tell its own. The male birds are kept busy during incubation bringing small fish 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 fish are laid before them for them to help themselves, and presently they go tumbling off 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 flocks that reach our coast in winter are almost silent. Dovekie (Alle alle) Called also. SEA DOVE; LITTLE AUK; PIGEON DIVER; GREENLAND DOVE; ICE BIRD Length — 8. 50 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. Body squat, owing to small, weak feet. Wing linings dusky. In winter: Resembling summer plumage, except that the black upper parts become sooty and the white of lower breast extends upward to 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 — by Death and by Rescue," in his "Three Years of Arctic Service," Geperal Greely, after tell- ing how the wretched men at Cape Sabine were reduced to eating their sealskin boots and were 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 puffm. 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 fly, 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 ay LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS JAEGERS, GULLS, TERNS (Order Longipennes) Birds of this order may be recognized among tiie 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 Stercorariidm) 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. Parasitic Jaeger. Pomarine Jaeger. Long-tailed Jaeger. 29 Long-winged Swimmers Gulls and Terns (Family Laridce) The Gulls (Subfamily Larince) Bills of moderate length, the upper mandible not swollen at the tip like the jaegers, but curved over the end of the lower mandible. Wings long, broad, strong and pointed, though their flight is less grateful than a tern's. Tail feathers usually of about equal length. Sexes ahke, but the plumage, in which white, brown, black, and pearl-blue predominate, varies greatly with age and season. In flight the bill points forward; not downward like a tern's. Gulls pick their food from the surface of the sea or shore, whereas terns plunge for theirs. Gulls are the better swimmers, and pass the greater part of their lives at sea, coming to shore chiefly to nest in large colonies. Kittiwake Gull. Glaucous Gull, or Burgomaster. Iceland Gull. Great Black-backed Gull. Herring Gull. Ring-billed Gull. Laughing Gull. Bonaparte's Gull. Terns (Subfamily Sterince) Small birds of the coast rather than the open sea. Bill straight, not hooked, and sharply pointed. Outer tail feathers longer than the middle ones; tails usually very deeply forked. Legs placed farther back than a gull's, and form of body more slender and trim. Great length and sharpness of wing give a dash to their flight that the gull's lacks. Bill held point down- ward, like a mosquito'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 of the plumage pearl grays, browns, and white predominate. Tails 3c W a a I— i O 1— I / ^ \ Long-winged Swimmers generally long and forked, so that in aspect, as in flight, the birds suggest their name of sea swallow. Marsh Tern. Royal Tern. Wilson's Tern, or Common Tern. Roseate Tern. Arctic Tern. Least Tern. Black Tern. Skimmers (Family Rynchopidce) Only one species of skimmer inhabits the Western Hemi- sphere. These birds have extraordinary bills, thin, and resembling the blade of a knife, 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 exceedingly long; flight more meas- ured and sweeping than a tern's. Black Skimmer, or Scissor Bill. 3» JAEGERS AND SKUAS (Family Stercorariidce) Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) Called also: MAN-OF-WAR; ARCTIC JAEGER; RICHARD- SON'S JAEGER; TEASER Z^«^//i— 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, very 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 — Nests 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 — October 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 fish 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, sometimes 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 i-apacious appetites, as their Latin name, stercora- rius, a scavenger, indicates. On land they always 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 gel the better of their antagonist, though it be a sea eagle. The Pomarine Jaeger — a contraction of pomatorhine, mean- ing flap-nosed — (Stercorarius pomarinus) may be distinguished from the parasitic jaeger by its larger size, twenty-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 University, has noted that the lon^, 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 (Stercorarius longicaudus), undergoes the remarkable 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 by 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 thei 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 LarincR) Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) Length — 16 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 very small, a mere knob, and without a claw. Bill light yellow. Feet webbed and black. In winter: Similar to summer plumage, but that the mantle is a darker gray and extends to back of neck. Dark spot about the eye. Range — Arctic regions, south in eastern North America in winter to the Great Lakes and the coast of Virginia. Breeds from Magdalen Islands northward. Season — Autumn 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, floating 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 dusky pirates of the high seas, most persecute by taking away its fish and other food to save themselves the trouble of hunting in the legitimate way. Glaucous Gull (Larus glaucus) Called also: BURGOMASTER ; ICE GULL Length — 28 to 32 inches. Male and Fetnale — In 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 flesh-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 bird's 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. Quite in keeping with such unholiness is the burgomaster's harsh cry, variously written kuk-lak' and cut-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 (Larus leucopterus) 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 marinus) Called also: SADDLE-BACK; COBB; COFFIN CARRIER Length — 29 to 30 inches. Male and Female — In summer: Mantle over back and wings dark slaty brown, almost black ; wing feathers tipped with white; rest of plumage white. Bill yellow, red at the angle. Feet and legs pinkish. In winter: Similar to summer dress except that the white head and neck are streaked with grayish. Immature birds are mottled brown and white, the perfect plumage described above not being attained until the fourth year. Range— Coasts, of North Atlantic. Nests from Nova Scotia north- 37 Gulls ward. Migrates in winter sometimes to Soutli 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 I have ever met," writes Brewster. This same careful observer reports that he noted four distinct cries : "a braying Ha-ha-ha, a deep keow, keow, 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 eye 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 faithfully 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 healthfulness 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 — clay-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 they skim along the waves, revealing the dark slate- colored mantle covering their backs like a pall, for which ther must bear the gruesome name of "Coffin Carrier." American Herring Gull (Larus 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 chiefly black, with rounded white spots near the tips. Bill bright yellow. Feet and legs flesh-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. Range — 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 flats 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 Gulls one summer, break open the shells to extract the mollusks, by carrying them up in the air, then dropping them on the rocks. "We saw one that had met with a very hard mussel,' he writes, "take it up three times in succession before it succeeded in breaking it ; and I was much pleased to see the bird let it fall each succeeding time from a greater height than before." Again, one may see a flock of herring gulls "bedded" on the water floating about to rest. All manner of boats pass close beside such a tired company in New York harbor without dis- turbing it; for these gulls, unlike the glaucous and black-backed species, show little fear of man or, his inventions. But it is high in air, sailing on motionless wings in the wake of an ocean steamer, that one mentally pictures the herring gull. Apparently the loose flock, floating idly about, have no thought beyond the pure sport. Suddenly one bird drops like a shot to the water's surface, spatters about with much wing-flap- ping and struggle of feet, then, rising again with a small fish or morsel of refuse in its grasp, leads off from a greedy horde of envious companions in hot pursuit that likely as not will over- haul him and rob him of his dinner. Dining abundantly and often, rather than flying about for idle pleasure, is the gull's real business of life. With all their exquisite poetry of motion, it must be owned that these birds have also numerous prosaic qualities, exercised in their capacity of scavengers. Rapacious feeders, tyrannical to smaller birds that they can rob of their prey, and possessed of insatiable appetites for any food, whether fresh or putrid, that comes in their reach, the gulls alternately fascinate by their grace and animation in the marine picture, and repel by the coarseness of their instincts. However, it is churlish to find fault with the scavengers that help so largely in keeping our beaches free from putrifying rubbish. Doubtless the birds themselves, as their name implies, would prefer herrings were they always available. Unlike the other gulls, this one, where it has been persist- ently robbed, sometimes nests in trees, and, adapting its archi- tecture to the exigencies of the situation, constructs a compactly built and bulky home, often fifty feet from the ground, and preferably in a fir or other evergreen. Ordinarily a coarse, loose mat of moss, grasses, and seaweed is laid directly on the ground or on a rocky cliff near the sea. Two or three grayish olive 40 > ■H *7 V '^S ►J D O O 5 . 2 w 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 they are especially devoted. Ahah, 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 delawarensis) Length — 18.50 to 19.75 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 pearl gray ; on the third to sixth primaries the black decreases rapidly and each one is tipped with white." (Chapman.) Bill light greenish yellow, chrome at the tip, and encircled with a broad band of black. Legs and feet dusky bluish green. Immature birds are 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 to 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 reahty 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 fish 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 (Larus atricilla) Called also: BLACK-HEADED GULL; RISIBLE GULL Length — 16 to 1 7 inches. Male and Female — In 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 witli blaclcish. 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— ^Mxnvntx resident, and visitor throughout the year. No bird that must lift up its voice to drown the bowlings of the gale and the 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-hah-ah-ah-hah-hah-h-a-a-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 rising 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 any 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 more 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 (Larus Philadelphia) Called also: ROSY GULL Length — 14 inches. Male and Female — In 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 white under parts are suffused with rosy pink. In winter: Similar, except that the birds lack the dark hood, only the back and sides of the head washed with grayish ; white on top. Young — Grayish 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 feathers, at the end much marked with black; white tail has black band a short distance from end, leaving a white edge showing. Under- neath, white. Range — From 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 larvse 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 ? 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 would 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, Prince of Canino, might have left us a complete life history of his namesake, had not European politics cut short his happy and profitable visit in America. 45 TERNS, OR SEA SWALLOWS (Subfamily SterninceJ Marsh Tern ( Gelochelidon nilotica) Called also: GULL-BILLED TERN, OR SEA SWALLOW Length — 13 to 15 inches. Male and Female — Top and back of head glossy, greenish black ; neck all around, and under parts, white ; mantle over back and wings, pearl gray; bill and feet black, the former rather short and stout for this family ; wings exceedingly long and sharp, each primary surpassing the next fully an inch in length. 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 of eyes ; grayish about the ears. Range — "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 — Summer 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 far 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-billed tern is particularly alert and swallow-like, owing to its fondness for 46 Terns insects which must be pursued and caught in mid-air. Fish it by no means despises, only it depends almost never fox 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 far 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 IVIr. Chamberlain, "the most common being represented by the syllables hay-wek, kay- wek. One note is described as a laugh, and is said to sourvi like hay, hay, hay." Royal Tern (Sterna maxima) Called also: CAYENNE TERN; GANNET-STRIKER Length— \S to 20 inches. Male and Female — Top and back of head glossy, 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-tiiree inches, and not the royal tern, that deserves to be called maxima, 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 certainly 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 v/ith 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 hirundo) Called also: WILSON'S TERN; SEA SWALLOW; SUMMER GULL; MACKEREL GULL Length — 14 to 15 inches. Male and Female — In 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 on its under parts. 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. Range — "In North America, chiefly east of the plains, breeding from the Arctic coast, somewhat irregularly, to Florida, Texas, and Arizona, and wintering 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 divert. Chiclcen 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 last 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 fly in September. It was mainly through the efforts of Mr. William Dutcher that the terns were taken under the protection of the A. O. C, 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 itself, 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 ennui 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 5° w S 1 \ V , 4 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 chiefly 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 find 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, or 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 fish, 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 plays 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 Terns bird that is not beautiful, unless we except tlie 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 flying, 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 downward, which makes them look curiously like colossal mosquitoes," to quote Dr. Coues's famous comparison. By the middle of Octo- ber the terns migrate 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 dougalli) Called also: PARADISE TERN Length — 14.50 to 15.50 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. In winter: Under parts pure white, having lost the rose tint; forehead 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 52 Terns sharply 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; death 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 flight, the dash and ecstasy that give to the movements 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, cack, 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- discea) 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 the 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- 53 Terns 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 tern's cry. In habits the Arctic tern is said to have the doubtful peculiarity 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 rarely dive be- neath the water." Their nesting range is from Massachusetts to the Arctic regions ; and they winter southward only to Vir- ginia and California. Least Tern (Sterna antillarutn) Called also: SILVERY TERN; LITTLE STRIKER Length — 9 inches. Male and Female — In summer: Glossy greenish black cap on 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 satiny white. Bill, about as long as head, is yellow, tipped with black. Feet and legs, orange. Tail moderately forked. In winter: Top of head 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. Range — Northern parts of South America, 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 Terns buoyancy of flight, in dasli and impetuosity, it certainly owns no master among its own accomplished kin, and suggests the movements 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-flies and other winged insects that dart in and out of the sedges, this little tern flashes its silvery breast in the sunlight, swallow fashion, and appears 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 Massachusetts, 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 also make their summer home there, as the joyous birds hunt in loose flocks together above the waves. There can be no diificulty in picking out the dainty, elegant little figure that floats and skims in mid-air, with bill pointing downward as if it were a lance to spear some tiny fish swimming in the ocean below. Hovering for an instant 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 carry anything ; and, if the season be mid- summer, it will doubtless head straight for its nest on the sand, to drop its spoils in the midst of a brood of three or four very tame young fledglings. In Minnesota, Dakota, and other inland states, both old and young birds feed almost entirely on insects. AH terns keep so closely within the lines of family traditions that a description of one member answers for each, with a few minor changes ; and the reader is referred to the life history of the common tern for fuller particulars of the least species, to avoid constant repetition. Although this little bird nests 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 is not true of the others, because of their smaller size and buffy white, brittle shells that are often wreathed with chocolate markings around the larger end, the rest of the egg being plain. Some one has described the bird's voice as " a sharp squeak, much like the cry of a very young pig." 55 Terns Black Tern (Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis) Called also: SHORT -TML'EY) TERN Length — 9.30 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 winter: 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 — North 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 particularly 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 large flocks that have gathered on the way from Brazil and Chile to nest in the Middle States, west of the Alleghanies, and northward. A large colony takes up its residence in the fresh-water marshes aiid 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 S6 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 of decayed reeds and other vegetation, often wet and floating about 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 tells 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 O ^ m 5 SKIMMERS (Family RynchopidceJ Black Skimmer (Rynchops nigra) Called also: SCISSOR BILL; CUT-WATER length — 1 6 to 20 inches. Male and Female — 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. 50 to 4. 50 inches, is about one inch larger than upper half 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. Range — " 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 apart, 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 interesting 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 fish, shrimps, and mollusks that high tide brings near, for us to observe its operations. With leisurely, graceful flight, though with frequent flapping 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, cpnstruct no proper nest for the three or four buflfy white, chocolate-marked eggs that are dropped on the sand, high up on the beach, among the drift and shells. Incubating duties rest lightly 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 albatrosses, fulmars, shearwaters, and petrels, that com- prise this order of water-birds, live far out on the ocean, touch- ing land only to nest, and are unsurpassed 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 ( Diomedeidce) confine them- selves to the southern hemisphere. The wandering albatross, the largest of all sea birds, with a wing expanse of from' 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 horizontal, divide the birds into a distinct order. Shearwaters and Petrels (Family ProcellariidceJ "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. They 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 Procellariidce) Greater Shearwater (Pufflnus major) Called also: HAGDON; WANDERING SHEARWATER; COM- MON ATLANTIC SHEARWATER Length — 19 to 20 inches. Male and Female — Upper 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 — Over the entire Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope to Arctic Circle. Season — Irregular visitor to our coast; abundant far off it in winter. Off the banks of Newfoundland and southward, passengers on the ocean liners sometimes see immense flocks of these birds, smaller than gulls, though larger than pigeons, flying close over the waves, in a direct course, with strong wing beats, then float- ing often half a mile with no perceptible motion of the wings. The stronger the gale blows, the more does the shearwater seem to revel in it ; for as the waves are lifted high enough to curl over in a thin sheet, allowing the light to striks through, the tiny fish are plainly revealed, and quick as thought the bird dives through the combing crest to snap up its prey. Any small particles of animal food cast up by the troubled waters are snatched at with spirit, while with uninterrupted flight the shearwater sweeps 67 Shearwaters and Petrels over the waves in wide curves, now deep in the trough, now high above the great swells breaking into foam ; but always with "its long, narrow wings set stiffly at right angles with the body," to quote Brewster. Sir T. Browne, who was the first to speak of this bird or its immediate kin, wrote a quaint account of it which is still preserved in the British Museum. "It is a Sea-fowl," he says, "which fishermen observe to resort to their vessels in some numbers, swimming (sic) swiftly too and fro, backward, forward and about them, and doth, as it were, radere aquam, shear the water, from whence, perhaps, it had its name. " No doubt the venerable ornithologist meant to say skim- ming instead of swimming, for the shearwater almost never rests on the water, except, as is supposed, after dark, to sleep. So characteristic is this constant roving on the wing, that the Turks around the Bosphorus, where these birds have penetrated, think they must be ianimated by condemned human souls ; hence the name Ames damnies given the poor innocents by the French. Indeed, all we know about these binds is from hasty glances as they sweep by us at sea; for, although common immediately off our coast in winter, they are never seen to alight on it ; and as for either the bird's nest, eggs, and fledglings, they are still abso- lutely unknown to scientists. A species that is abundant off Australia burrows a hole in the ground near the shore and deposits one pure white egg at the end of the tunnel, just as many petrels do; and it is reasonable to suppose the greater shearwater makes a similar nest. Some white eggs received from Greenland are thousrht to belong to this species. Wilson's Stormy Petrel (Oceanites oceandus) Called also: MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKEN; DEVIL'S BIRD Length — 7 inches. Very long wings, with an extent of 16 inches, give appearance of greater size. Male and Female — Upper parts, wings, and tail sooty black; paler underneath, and grayish on wing coverts. The upper tail coverts and frequently the sides of rump and base of tail, white. Bill and feet black. Legs very long, and webs of toes mostly yellow. Tail square and even. Mange — Atlantic Ocean, North and South America, nesting in 68 WILSONS PETREL. Yy Life-size. Shearwaters and Petrels southern seas (Kerguelen Island) in February; afterward migrating northward. Season — Common summer visitor off the coast of the United States. This is the little petrel most commonly seen off the coast of the United States in summer, silently flitting' hither and thither with a company of its fellows like a lot of butterflies in their airy, hovering flight. Owing to the spread of their long wings they appear much larger than they really are, for in actual size the birds are only a trifle longer than the English sparrow, and look like the barn swallow; yet these tiny atoms of the air spend their "life on the ocean wave," and have "their home on the rolling deep," " O'er the deep ! o'er the deep ! Where the whale and the shark and the swordfish sleep— Outflyingthe blast and the driving rain," like the stormy petrel of the east Atlantic (Procellaria pela- gica), an even smaller species, which doubtless was the bird " Barry Cornwall" had in mind when he wrote his famous verses. Those who go down to the sea in ships are familiar with the petrels that gather in flocks in the wake of the vessel, coursing over the waves, now down in the trough, now up above the crest that threatens to break over their tiny heads ; half leaping along a wave, half flying as their distended feet strike the water, and they bound upward again ; darting swallow-fashion and skim- ming along the surface, or flitting like a butterfly above the refuse thrown overboard from the ship's galley. " But the most singular peculiarity of this bird," to quote Wilson, for whom it was named, "is its faculty of standing, and even running, on the surface of the water, which it performs with apparent facility. When any greasy matter is thrown overboard, these birds instantly collect around it, and face to windward, with their long wings expanded, and their webbed feet patting the water, which the lightness of their bodies and the action of the wind on their wings enable them to do with ease. In calm weather they perform the same manoeuvre by keeping their wings just so much in action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the surface." It is this appearance of walking on the waves, like the Apostle Peter, that has caused his name to be applied to them. Particles of animal matter, particularly anything fat or oily, 69 Shearwaters and Petrels are what the petrels are searching for when they follow a ship; and seeing any such they quickly settle down to enjoy it, then rising again, soon overtake a vessel under steam. Their wing power is marvellous, yet when a gale is blowing in full blast at sea, these little birds are often blown far inland ; the capped petrel, for example, that has its proper home in Guadeloupe, in the West Indies, having been found in the interior of New York state after a prolonged "sou'easter." The petrels swim little, if any, though their webbed feet are so admirably adapted for swim- ming, which might be a greater protection to them than flying when the storms blow. The lighthouses attract many to their death on the stern New England coast. As night approaches the birds show signs of weariness from the perpetual exercise ; for not only have they kept pace with a steamer through the day, but they have made innumerable ex- cursions far from the ship, and played from side to side with a flock of companions at hide-and-go-seek or cross-tag until the eye tires of watching them. But by the time it is dark the last one of the merry little hunters has settled down upon the waves, with head tucked under wing, to rest until dawn while " rocked in the cradle of the deep " ; yet it is apparently the very same flock of birds that are busily looking for breakfast the next morn- ing in the wake of the ship, which they must have overtaken with the wings of Merjcury. It would seem these innocent sea-rovers might escape persecution at the hands of man; but an English globe-trotter tells of seeing not only sailors, but passengers, too, who ordi-^ narily feel only camaraderie for other fellow travellers on a lonely vessel, shoot these tiny waifs hovering about the ship, to break the tediousness of a long voyage. With the guilty con- sciences such sailors must have, it is small wonder the petrel is a bird of ill omen to them. They claim it is a harbinger of storms, like its large relative the albatross ; and it might easily be, for it delights in rough weather that brings an abundance of food to the surface. All the gruesome superstitions which sailors have clus- tered around the birds of this entire family, in fact, were woven by Coleridge into his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." According to Briinnich, the Faro Islanders draw a wick through the body of the petrel, that is oily from the eating of much fat, and burn the poor thing as a lamp. 70 Shearwaters and Petrels Among the many senseless stories sailors tell of the petrel is that it never goes ashore to nest, but carries its solitary egg under its wing until hatched. But the members of the Transit of Venus expedition in the Southern Ocean, several years ago, discovered a large colony of these birds nesting on Kergulen Island. Here- tofore, ornithologists, misled by Audubon, had confounded the nest of Wilson's with that of Leach's petrel. Nests containing one white egg each were found in the crevices of rock during January and February. In the latter month the author has seen the birds in great numbers off the Azores, but, unhappily, not on them, for the steamer did not stop there; however, it is not un- likely they nest on these islands, which would seem a convenient rallying place for the birds from the African coast and those that course along the Western Atlantic from Labrador to Patagonia. The young birds are fed by that disgusting process known as regurgitation, that is, raising the food from the stomachs by the parents, which Nuttall says sounds like the cluttering of frogs. Baskett writes in his "Story of the Birds" : "The baby petrel revels in the delights of a cod-liver-oil diet from the start." Ordinarily quite silent birds, these petrels sometimes call out •weet, weet, or a low twittering chirp that might be written pe- up. But it is near its nest that a bird is most noisy ; and until very recently the home life of this common petrel was absolutely unknown. Leach's, the White-rumped, or the Forked-tailed Petrel, as it is variously known (Oceandroma leucorHoa) was the bird carefully studied by Audubon, but confused by him with Wilson's petrel, in which mistake many ornithologists followed him. In size and plumage the birds are almost identical, but the forked tail of Leach's petrel is its distinguishing mark. The outer tail feathers are fully a half inch longer than the middle pair, making the bird look more swallow-like even than Wilson's. Leach's petrels, while quite as common on the Pacific coast as on the Atlantic, have their chief nesting sites in the Bay of Fundy, while a few nest off the coast of Maine; for it is a more northern species than Wilson's, Virginia and California being its southern boundaries. Nevertheless it is by no means so com- mon off the coast of New England and the Middle States, except around the lighthouses, as Wilson's petrel, that must migrate 71 Shearwaters and Petrels thousands of miles from the Southern Ocean to pass its summer with us. Audubon noted that these petrels were seldom seen about their nesting sites during the day, but seemed to have some nocturnal proclivities ; for they approached the shore after dark, and flew around like so many bats in the twilight, all the while uttering a wild, plaintive cry. But Chamberlain claims that one of the birds, usually the male, sits on its egg all day while its mate is out foraging at sea. "When handled," he says, "these birds emit from mouth and nostrils a small quantity of oil-like fluid of a reddish color and pungent, musk-like odor. The air at the nesting site is strongly impregnated with this odor, and it guides a searcher to the nest." Sailors have dubbed them with numer- ous vile names on account of this peculiar means of defense. A few bits of sticks and grasses laid at the end of a tunnel burrowed in the ground, at the top of an ocean cliff, very much as the bank swallow constructs its nest, make the only home these sea-rovers know. Such a tunnel contains one egg, about an inch to an inch and a half long, and marked, chiefly around the larger end, with small reddish-brown spots. In most respects Leach's petrel is identical with Wilson's, and the reader is there- fore referred to the fuller account of that bird. 72 TOTIPALMATE, OR FULLY WEBBED SWIMMERS Cormorants 73 TOTIPALMATE, OR FULLY WEBBED SWIMMERS (Order Steganapodes) Birds of this order belong chiefly to tropical or sub-tropical countries, and include the tropic birds, gannets, darters, cor- morants, pelicans, and man-o'-war birds, representatives of each of these seven families at least touching our southern coast line, although only the cormorant is common enough north of the southern states to come within the scope of this book. The characteristic that separates these birds into a distinct order is the complete webbing of all the toes; the hallux, or great toe, which in many water-birds is either rudimentary, elevated, or discon- nected from the other webbed toes, is in these species flat and fully webbed like the rest, a characteristic no other birds have. Cormorants (Family PhalacrocoracidceJ More than half of all the birds of the order of fully webbed swimmers are cormorants; found in all parts of the world; but of these we have only one, commonly found in the United States around bodies of fresh water inland as well as off the Atlantic coast. Cormorants nest in great colonies and are gregarious at all times. The Chinese have turned their abnormal appetite for fish to good account, by partly domesticating their common species, putting a tight collar around the bird's throat to prevent it from swallowing its prey, and then sending it forth to hunt for its master. Birds of this family are strong fliers, and although they keep rather close to the water when fishing, often pursuing their game below the surface, they fly high in serried ranks, a few birds deep, but in a long Hne, during the migrations. 75 Totipalmate, or Fully Webbed Swimmers The hooked bill that helps hold a slippery fish secure; the iridescent black and brown plumage, which is the same in both sexes ; and certain special featherings of a temporary character that are worn during the nesting season only, are among the most noticeable characteristics of this family. Double-crested Cormorant. 76 CORMORANTS (Family PhalacrocoracidcB) Double-Crested Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax dilophus) Called also : SHAG Length — 30 to 32 inches. Male and Female — Head, neck, lower back, and under parts glossy, iridescent black, with greenish reflections; back and wings light grayish brown, each feather edged with black. A tuft of long, thin black feathers either side of the head, extending from above the eyes to the nape of neck. Birds of the interior show some white feathers among the black ones, while Pacific coast specimens, it is said by Chamberlain, wear wholly white wedding plumes. Wedge-shaped black tail, six inches long, is composed of twelve stiff feathers. Bill longer than head, and hooked at end. Naked space around the eye; base of bill and under throat orange. Legs and feet black ; all four toes connected by webs. Winter birds lack the plumes on sides of head, and show more brownish tints in plumage. Range — North America, nesting from the Great Lakes, Minne- sota, Dakota, and Nova Scotia northward ; wintering in our southern States south of Illinois and Virginia. Season — Chiefly a spring and autumn migrant, except where noted above. Which of the cormorants it was that the Greeks called phala- crocorax, or bald raven, and is responsible for the unpronounce- able 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 was 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 crow (corvus marinus), have given it various titles from which the 77 Cormorants English tongue has corrupted first corvorant, then cormorant, whose significance we do not always remember. Long, serried ranks of double-crested cormorants come fly- ing northward from the Gulf states in April, and pass along the Atlantic shores so high overhead that the amateur observer guesses they are large ducks from their habit of flight, not being able to distinguish their plumage. In the interior of the United States, as well as on the coast, they make frequent breaks in the long migration to their northern nesting grounds, when, if we are fortunate enough, we may watch their interesting hunting habits. Flying low, or just above the surface of the water, the cormorant, suddenly catching sight of a fish, dives straight after it ; darts under water like a flash ; pursues and captures the victim, though to do it, it must sometimes stay for a long time submerged; then reappears with the fish held tightly in its hooked beak, from which there is no escape. Before the prize is swallowed it is first tossed in the air, then as it descends head downward it lands in the sack or dilatable skin of the cormo- rant's throat, there to remain in evidence from without until, partly digested, it passes on to the lower part of the bird's stomach. After its voracious appetite has been appeased, the cormorant appears moody and glum. On the shores of inland waters, particularly, the cormorant often seeks a distended branch of some tree overhanging the lake or river, to sit there, a sombre, meditative figure, only intent on the fish below. In "Paradise Lost," after likening Satan to a wolf preying upon lambs in the sheepfold, Milton continues with another simile : " Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life, The middle tree, and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant : yet not true life Thereby regained, but sat devising death To them who lived." In Milton's 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 fish out of their holes, pursued, cap- 78 ■-^ CORMORANTS. .•«u