It had recovered from a slight wound in the wing, when he presented it
to a lady, a friend of his and mine, who, fed it on boiled rice, and
bread soaked in milk, of both of which it was very fond. It continued
in a state of captivity upwards of a year, but was at last killed by
accident. It had become perfectly gentle, would eat from the hand of
its kind mistress, frequently bathed in a basin placed near it for the
purpose, and never attempted to escape, although left quite at liberty
to do so.
TRINGA INTERPRES, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. vol i. p. 248.—_Lath._
Ind. Orn. vol. ii. p. 738.
TRINGA MORINELLA, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 249.
TURNSTONE, TRINGA INTERPRES, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith. vol. vii.
p. 32. pl. 57. fig 1.
STREPSILAS COLLARIS, _Temm._ Man. d’Ornith, part ii. p. 553.
STREPSILAS INTERPRES, _Ch. Bonap._ Synopsis of Birds of the
United States, 299.
TURNSTONE or SEA-DOTTEREL, _Nuttall_, Manual, vol. ii. p. 30.
Adult Male in Summer. Plate CCCIV. Fig. 1.
Bill a little shorter than the head, rather stout, compressed,
tapering, straightish, being recurvate in a slight degree. Upper
mandible with the dorsal line very slightly concave, the nasal groove
extending to the middle, the sides beyond it sloping, the tip depressed
and blunted. Nostrils sub-basal linear-oblong, pervious. Lower mandible
with the angle short, the dorsal line ascending and slightly convex,
the sides convex, the edges sharp, the tip depressed and blunted.
Head small, ovate; eyes of moderate size. Neck of ordinary length.
Body rather full. Feet of moderate length, stout; tibia bare at the
lower part, and covered with reticulated scales; tarsus roundish, with
numerous broad anterior scutella; toes four, the first very small,
and placed higher than the rest; the anterior toes free to the base,
distinctly margined on both edges, the inner toe a little shorter than
the outer, the third or middle toe considerably longer; claws rather
small, arcuate, compressed, blunted.
Plumage full, soft, rather dense, and glossy; feathers on the hind
neck blended, and rather narrow, on the other parts ovate. Wings long,
pointed, of moderate breadth: primaries with strong shafts, rather
broad, narrowed towards the end, the first longest, the rest rapidly
decreasing; outer secondaries incurved, obliquely rounded; inner
elongated, one of them extending to half an inch of the tip of the
longest primary, when the wing is closed. Tail rather short, slightly
rounded, of twelve moderately broad, rounded feathers.
Bill black. Iris hazel. Feet deep orange red, claws black. Plumage
variegated with white, black, brown, and red. Upper parts of the
head and nape streaked with black and reddish-white; a broad band of
white crosses the forehead, passes over the eyes, and down the sides
of the neck, the hind-part of which is reddish-white faintly mottled
with dusky; a frontal band of black curves downwards before the eye,
enclosing a white patch on the lore, and meeting another black band
glossed with blue, which proceeds down the neck, from the base of
the lower mandible, enlarging behind the ear, covering the whole
anterior part of the neck, and passing along the shoulder over the
scapulars; the throat, hind part of the back, the outer scapulars,
upper tail-coverts, and the under parts of the body and wings, white.
Anterior smaller wing-coverts dusky, the rest bright chestnut or
brownish-orange, as are the outer webs of the inner tertiaries; alula,
primary coverts, outer secondary coverts and quills blackish-brown,
their inner webs becoming white towards the base; a broad band of white
extends across the wing, including the bases of the primary quills,
excepting the outer four, and the ends of the secondary coverts; the
shafts of the primaries white. Tail white, with a broad blackish-brown
bar towards the end, broader in the middle, the tips white. A dusky
band crosses the rump.
Length to end of tail 9 inches, to end of wings 8-3/8, to end of claws
10; extent of wings 18-3/8; along the ridge 9-(1/2)/12, along the edge
of lower mandible 11/12; wing from flexure 6-1/12; tail 2-4/12; tarsus
11/12; hind toe (2-1/2)/12, its claw 2/12; middle toe 10/12, its claw
(3-1/2)/12. Average weight of three specimens 3-2/3 oz.
Male in winter. Plate CCCIV. Fig. 2.
In winter, the throat, lower parts, middle of the back, upper
tail-coverts, and band across the wing, are white, as in summer;
the tail, and quills, are also similarly coloured, but the inner
secondaries are destitute of red, of which there are no traces on the
upper parts, they being of a dark greyish-brown colour, the feathers
tipped or margined with paler; the outer edges of the outer scapulars,
and some of the smaller wing-coverts, white; on the sides and fore part
of the neck the feathers blackish, with white shafts.
Individuals vary much according to age and sex, as well in size as in
colour, scarcely two in summer plumage being found exactly similar.
In a male bird, the tongue is (6-1/2)/12 of an inch in length,
sagittate and papillate at the base, concave above, narrow, and
tapering to the point. The œsophagus is 4-1/4 inches long, inclines
to the right, is rather narrow, and uniform, its diameter (4-1/2)/12.
Proventriculus oblong, 8/12 in length, 5/12 in breadth, its glandules
cylindrical. Stomach oblong, 11/12 in length, its cuticular lining
very tough and hard, with broad longitudinal rugæ, its lateral muscles
moderately large. Intestine 17-1/2 inches long, slender, varying in
diameter from (2-1/2)/12 to (1-1/2)/12; rectum 1-1/2; cæca 1-8/12,
11/12 in diameter at the commencement, 2/12 toward the end; cloaca
globular.
The trachea is 3-1/4 inches long, 2-(1/2)/12 in breadth, contracts to
1/12; its lateral muscles very thin; sterno-tracheal slender, a pair
of tracheali-bronchial muscles. The rings are very thin and unossified,
104 in number. Bronchi of moderate length, with about 15 half rings.
In a female, the œsophagus is 4-1/4 inches long, the intestine 18. In
both individuals, the stomach contained fragments of shells, and claws
of very small crabs: which were also found in the intestine, although
there more comminuted.
PURPLE GALLINULE.
_GALLINULA MARTINICA_, LATH.
PLATE CCCV. MALE.
Reader, although you may think it strange, I candidly assure you that
I have experienced a thousand times more pleasure while looking at the
Purple Gallinule flirting its tail while gaily moving over the broad
leaves of the water-lily, than I have ever done while silently sitting
in the corner of a crowded apartment, gazing on the flutterings of
gaudy fans and the wavings of flowing plumes. Would that I were once
more extended on some green grassy couch, in my native Louisiana,
or that I lay concealed under some beautiful tree, overhanging the
dark bayou, on whose waters the bird of beauty is wont to display its
graceful movements, and the rich hues of its glossy plumage! Methinks
I now see the charming creature gliding sylph-like over the leaves
that cover the lake, with the aid of her lengthened toes, so admirably
adapted for the purpose, and seeking the mate, who, devotedly attached
as he is, has absented himself, perhaps in search of some secluded
spot in which to place their nest. Now he comes, gracefully dividing
the waters of the tranquil pool, his frontal crest glowing with the
brightest azure. Look at his wings, how elegantly they are spread and
obliquely raised; see how his expanded tail strikes the water; and
mark the movements of his head, which is alternately thrown backward
and forward, as if he were congratulating his mate on their happy
meeting. Now both birds walk along clinging to the stems and blades,
their voices clearly disclosing their mutual feelings of delight, and
they retire to some concealed place on the nearest shore, where we lose
sight of them for a time.
Now, side by side, they look for the most secure spot among the
tall rushes that border the lake, and there they will soon form a
nest, removed alike from danger to be dreaded from the inhabitants
of the land as of the water. On the thick mass of withered leaves
are deposited the precious eggs, from which in time emerge the dusky
younglings, that presently betake themselves to the water, over which
they wander, guided by their affectionate parent, until it becomes
expedient for the party to disperse.
The Purple Gallinule is a constant resident in the United States,
although peculiar to their southern districts, where I have met with
it at all seasons. It is in the Floridas, the lower parts of Alabama,
and among the broad marshes bordering the Gulf of Mexico, in Lower
Louisiana, that I have observed its habits. Beyond the Carolinas
eastward, it is only met with as an accidental straggler. It never,
I believe, ascends the Mississippi beyond Memphis, where indeed it is
but rarely seen; but between Natchez and the mouths of the great river,
it is abundant on all the retired bayous and small lakes. The southern
portions of Georgia are also furnished with it; but in South Carolina
it is rare. Proceeding southwestward along the Gulf of Mexico, I have
found it as far as Texas, where it breeds, as well as in Louisiana,
where I observed it coming from the south in May 1837.
Having studied the habits of this bird under every advantage in
Louisiana, and especially in the neighbourhood of New Orleans, and
the mouths of the Mississippi, I will now, good Reader, place before
you the results of my observation. In the summer months, the Purple
Gallinules remove with their broods to the prairies or large savannahs
bordering the bayous or lakes on which they have bred, and remain in
those places, which are generally covered with thick and tall grass,
until the beginning of September, when the vegetation having been
dried up by the intense heat and drought, neither food nor sufficient
concealment can be obtained. The young birds usually abandon these
plains first, and while the colour of their plumage is still green,
instead of purplish-blue, which tint, however, is assumed before the
return of spring. During all this while, its notes are as frequently
heard as during the breeding season. They resemble the delicate
whistling sounds of the Blue-winged Teal during its residence with us.
At this season also its flesh is best, although it never equals that
of the Freshwater Marsh-hen, _Rallus elegans_, or of the Sora Rail,
_Rallus carolinus_.
On the approach of winter, all the Purple Gallinules leave the
savannahs, and betake themselves to the immediate vicinity of ponds,
bayous, or rivers, where through experience they become shy, vigilant,
and cunning. They seldom remove from one place to another, or travel at
all, unless by night, although in sequestered parts they feed both on
land and on the water by day.
The Purple Gallinule breeds at a remarkably early period of the year.
I have found young birds in their jetty down clothing in February,
and they have been observed in the same month by the keepers of the
lighthouse at the south-west Pass of the Mississippi, at Key West,
and in other places. The parent birds are sometimes so very intent
on saving their young, as to suffer themselves to be caught. At this
period their calls are almost incessantly heard during the whole night,
and are elicited during the day by any musical or remarkable noise.
The nest is generally placed among a kind of rushes that are green at
all seasons, round, very pithy, rarely more than five feet high, and
grow more along the margins of ponds than in the water itself. The
birds gather many of them, and fasten them at the height of two or
three feet, and there the nest is placed. It is composed of the most
delicate rushes, whether green or withered, and is quite as substantial
as that of the Common Gallinule, flattish, having an internal diameter
of eight or ten inches, while the entire breadth is about fifteen. The
eggs, which are from five to seven, rarely more, are very similar to
those of the Common Gallinule, being of a light greyish-yellow, spotted
with blackish-brown. The young are at first quite black, and covered
with down. They are fully fledged by the first of June, when, as I
have said, they and their parents remove to the wet savannahs in the
neighbourhood.
The jerking motions of the tail of this bird, whenever it is disturbed,
or attracted by any remarkable object, are very quick, and so often
repeated as to have a curious appearance. It runs with great speed, and
dives with equal address, often moving off under water with nothing
but the bill above. The lightness and ease with which it walks on
the floating plants are surprising, for in proceeding they scarcely
produce any perceptible disturbance of the water. When swimming in full
security, they move buoyantly and gracefully, throwing the head forward
at every propelling motion of the feet. The flight of this species is
less swift than that of the Common Gallinule, or of the Rails, unless
when it is travelling far, when it flies high, and advances in a
direct course by continued flappings; but when it is in its breeding or
feeding grounds, its flight is slow and short, seldom exceeding thirty
or forty yards, and with the legs hanging down; and it alights among
the herbage with its wings spread upwards in the manner of the Rails.
It often alights on the low branches of trees and bushes growing over
the water, and walks lightly and gracefully over them.
It is seldom that more than one Purple Gallinule is shot at a time,
unless in the beginning of the love season, when the male and female
are apt to swim or walk close together. The male at this period is said
to be able to inflate the frontal plate while strutting, but I have
never been fortunate enough to observe this.
The Purple Gallinule not unfrequently alights on ships at sea. While
at the Island of Galveston, on the 26th of April, I was offered several
live individuals by the officers of the Boston frigate, which they had
caught on board. My friend JOHN BACHMAN once received three specimens
that had been caught three hundred miles from land, one of them having
come through the cabin window. He also obtained from the Hon. Mr
POINSET a fine specimen caught on board, on the Santee River, in South
Carolina, in May. It is easily kept alive if fed with bread soaked
in milk; and on this food I have known several that remained in good
health for years. In Louisiana, where it is called _Rale Bleu_, its
flesh is not held in much estimation, but is used by the negroes for
making gombo.
My friend BACHMAN considers this species as rather scarce in South
Carolina and Georgia, but states that it breeds there, as he has
occasionally observed pairs on the head waters or preserves of rice
plantations during summer, but never met with any in winter. The
extreme limit of its range eastward is the neighbourhood of Boston,
where a few individuals have been procured.
I think I may safely tell you that the figure of the Purple Gallinule
exhibited in the plate, is the first ever published from a drawing
taken from Nature!
FULICA MARTINICA, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 259.
GALLINULA MARTINICA, _Lath._ Ind Ornith. p. 769.—_Ch.
Bonaparte_, Synops. p. 336.
GALLINULA PORPHYRIO, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith. vol. ix. p. 67.
pl. 73. fig. 2.
PURPLE GALLINULE, _Nuttall_, Manual, vol. ii. p. 221.
Adult Male in Spring. Plate CCCV.
Bill as long as the head, nearly straight, stout, deep, compressed,
tapering. Upper mandible with a soft ovate plate at the base
extending over a great part of the head, the dorsal line beyond
this plate straightish and slightly declinate as far as the middle,
then arcuato-declinate, the ridge gradually narrowed until over the
nostrils, afterwards considerably widened, the sides nearly erect,
the edges sharp, the notch obsolete. Nasal groove extending nearly to
the middle of the bill, broad; nostrils sub-medial, lateral, oblong,
direct, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle rather long and narrow,
the sides nearly erect and slightly concave, the dorsal line beyond
the angle ascending, straight, the edges sharp and direct, the tip
narrowed, rather sharp.
Head small, oblong, compressed. Eyes of moderate size. Body much
compressed. Feet large, long; tibia bare a considerable way above the
joint, and reticulated; tarsus long, stout, compressed, anteriorly
covered with very broad scutella, laterally and posteriorly with two
series of broad scutella, between which on the posterior edge is a
series of very minute scales; hind toe comparatively small, middle toe
longest, and much longer than the tarsus, fourth longer than second;
toes free, slender, compressed, with numerous broad scutella above,
obliquely flattened beneath, marginate; claws very long, slender,
slightly arched, much compressed, tapering to a very acute point.
Plumage blended, firm, glossy, the feathers ovato-oblong, broad at the
end. Wings rather long, broad, rather concave; ovula large: primaries
incurvate, broad, third longest, second a twelfth of an inch shorter,
fourth two-twelfths shorter than second, which exceeds the first by
eleven-twelfths; secondaries broad and grounded. Tail short, much
rounded, of twelve rather weak, rounded feathers, which but slightly
exceed the lower coverts.
Frontal plate ultramarine blue; bill bright carmine, tipped with
bright yellow. Iris bright carmine; margins of eyelids white. Tarsi,
toes, and claws bright yellow. Head, fore part of neck, and breast
rich purplish-blue; abdomen and feathers of legs dusky; sides green;
lower wing-coverts light green; sides of the neck light purplish-blue,
shaded into verdigris and brownish-green above; the fore part of the
back verdigris-green, shaded with olivaceous; the hind part and upper
tail-coverts olivaceous; the coverts and outer webs of the quills
greenish-blue, the inner webs clove-brown; tail-feathers olivaceous.
Length to end of tail 13-1/2 inches, to end of wings 13-1/2, to end
of claws 18; extent of wings 21-1/2; bill along the ridge, including
frontal plate 2; edge of lower mandible 1-1/4; tarsus 2-1/4; hind toe
1, its claw 10/12; middle toe 2-4/12, its claw 9/12.
Weight of one individual 7-1/2 oz., of another 8-1/2, both males; of a
fourth 7 oz.; of a fifth 5-1/2; and of a sixth only 4-1/2.
The female is somewhat smaller, but similar to the male, the frontal
plate is less extended, and the tints of the plumage a little less
vivid.
The young are at first covered with black down. When fledged they
are olivaceous on the upper parts, dull purple beneath; the bill
dull green. After the first moult, the bill is light carmine,
greenish-yellow at the end, the head dark purple; the plumage
coloured as above described, but less brilliant, the tarsi and toes
greenish-yellow.
In a male bird, the tongue is 10 twelfths of an inch long, sagittate at
the base, with conical papillæ, of which the outer are larger, slightly
concave above, horny towards the end, which is thin, rather obtuse,
and lacerated. On the middle line of the roof of the mouth anteriorly
is a row of large blunt papillæ, behind which are two rows; aperture
of posterior nares linear. Œsophagus 7 inches long, of moderate width,
its greatest diameter, at the lower part of the neck, where it is a
little dilated, 8 twelfths. Proventriculus 1-2/12 long; its glandules
1-(1/4)/12 long. Stomach a large and powerful gizzard, broadly
elliptical, 1-1/2 inch long, 1-5/12 broad, its lateral muscles large,
the tendons covering nearly their whole surface, the left muscles 1/4
inch think, the right 5/12, the cuticular lining moderately rugous.
Intestine 21 inches long, from 5/12 to 3/12 in diameter. Rectum 2-3/4
inches; cæca 2, their diameter 3/12 towards the end.
Trachea, moderately extended, 5-1/2 inches long, its greatest breadth
3-(1/4)/12, its least 1-(1/2)/12. Its rings 130, very slender,
unossified, collapsed, and owing to their narrowness in the middle
line before and behind, seeming as if broken there; bronchi with
15 half-rings. The contractor muscles moderate, the sterno-tracheal
slender; a pair of muscles on the lower larynx, from the lower rings of
the trachea to the membrane over the first bronchial ring.
In the mouth was a small frog, in the pharynx two, in the œsophagus
two more, a large piece of root, numerous fragments of insects, and
a leach, the frogs 2-1/2 inches long. In the gizzard were seeds, and
fragments of white fleshy roots.
GREAT NORTHERN DIVER OR LOON.
_COLYMBUS GLACIALIS_, LINN.
PLATE CCCVI. ADULT MALE AND YOUNG MALE.
The Loon, as this interesting species of Diver is generally called in
the United States, is a strong, active, and vigilant bird. When it has
acquired its perfect plumage, which is not altered in colour at any
successive moult, it is really a beautiful creature; and the student
of Nature who has opportunities of observing its habits, cannot fail
to derive much pleasure from watching it as it pursues its avocations.
View it as it buoyantly swims over the heaving billows of the Atlantic,
or as it glides along deeply immersed, when apprehensive of danger,
on the placid lake, on the grassy islet of which its nest is placed;
calculate, if you can, the speed of its flight, as it shoots across
the sky; mark the many plunges it performs in quest of its finny
food, or in eluding its enemies; list to the loud and plaintive notes
which it issues, either to announce its safety to its mate, or to
invite some traveller of its race to alight, and find repose and food;
follow the anxious and careful mother-bird, as she leads about her
precious charge; and you will not count your labour lost, for you will
have watched the ways of one of the wondrous creations of unlimited
Power and unerring Wisdom. You will find pleasure too in admiring the
glossy tints of its head and neck, and the singular regularity of the
unnumbered spots by which its dusky back and wings are checkered.
I have met with the Great Diver, in winter, on all the water-courses of
the United States, whence, however, it departs when the cold becomes
extreme, and the surface is converted into an impenetrable sheet of
ice. I have seen it also along the whole of our Atlantic coast, from
Maine to the extremity of Florida, and from thence to the mouths of the
Mississippi, and the shores of Texas, about Galveston Island, where
some individuals in the plumage characteristic of the second moult,
were observed in the course of my late expedition, in the month of
April 1837. Indeed, as is the case with most other species of migrating
birds, the young remove farther south that the old individuals, which
are better able to withstand the cold and tempests of the wintry
season.
The migratory movements of this bird seem to be differently managed
in the spring and autumn. In the latter case, a great number of young
Loons are seen to alight on the head waters of our great streams,
on which, without much exertion, being aided by the current, they
float along, diving at intervals in pursuit of the numerous fishes,
as they proceed toward milder climes. The few old birds which, at a
later date, appear on the same water-courses, frequently take to wing,
and shorten their way by flying at a considerable elevation directly
across the great bends or peninsulas. These modes of travelling are
also adopted by those which advance along the Atlantic coasts, where,
indeed, the birds have the double advantage of meeting with food and
obtaining repose, on the rivers and on the sea. I think, however, that
this maritime course is followed only by such of the Loons as have
bred in the more immediate vicinity of the coast. But whether you are
in the interior, or on the coast, it is seldom that you see at a time
more than one Loon travelling at this season; whereas, in spring, they
proceed in pairs, the male taking the lead, as is easily ascertained by
observing that the bird in the rear is the smallest.