often with much delight watched the movements of these birds, when I
have been surprised to see the pertinacity with which, after the first
frosts, they would pursue their migration down the stream, for on
attempting to make them fly the other way, they would rise, sometimes
to the height of twenty yards, and flying over head or along the river,
proceed downwards, although at any other time they would exhibit no
such propensity. They run along the shores, and through shallow water,
with great nimbleness; and while courting, the male struts before the
female, with depressed wings, spreading out his tail and trailing it
along the ground, in the manner of the Migratory and Rufous Thrushes.
The young become very fat in autumn, and afford delicious eating, for
as they feed much on worms, aquatic insects, and small mollusca, their
flesh seldom has a fishy taste. The male and female are alike, and
almost equal in size. The young differ from the old until the approach
of winter, when, with the exception of their being rather smaller, no
difference can be perceived.
This species occurs also in Europe, and a few individuals have been
shot in England.
TOTANUS MACULARIUS, _Temm._ Man. d’Ornith. part ii. p.
656.—_Ch. Bonaparte_, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p.
325.
SPOTTED SANDPIPER, TRINGA MACULARIA, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith.
pl. 59. fig. 1.
SPOTTED TATLER or PEET WEET, _Nuttall_, Manual, vol. ii. p.
162.
Adult Male. Plate CCCX. Fig. 1.
Bill a little longer than the head, very slender, subcylindrical,
straight, flexible, compressed, the point rather obtuse. Upper mandible
with the dorsal line straight, the ridge convex, broader at the base,
slightly depressed towards the end, the sides sloping, towards the
end convex, the edges sharp, the tip slightly deflected. Nasal groove
extending over three-fourths of the length of the bill; nostrils basal,
linear, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle very long and extremely
narrow, the dorsal line straight, the sides grooved at the base, convex
towards the end.
Head small, oblong. Eyes rather large. Neck of moderate length. Body
rather slender. Feet rather long and slender; tibia bare nearly half
its length, scutellate before and behind; tarsus also scutellate
before and behind; hind toe very small and elevated; fore toes rather
long, very slender, connected by basal webs, of which the outer is
much larger; second toe considerably shorter than fourth; all flat
beneath, and marginate. Claws small, slightly arched, much compressed,
rather sharp, that of the middle toe much larger, with the inner edge
considerably dilated.
Plumage very soft, blended, on the fore part of the head very short.
Wings long, narrow, pointed; primaries rather narrow and tapering,
first longest, the rest rapidly graduated; secondaries short, broad,
incurved, obliquely rounded, the inner elongated and tapering. Tail of
moderate length, much rounded, of twelve rounded feathers.
Bill greenish-olive above, yellow beneath, the point of both mandibles
black. Eye hazel. Feet pale yellowish flesh-colour, claws black. All
the upper parts shining deep brownish-olive, the head longitudinally
streaked, the back transversely barred, with black. A line from the
bill to the eye and beyond it white, another beneath it dusky. All
the lower parts white, marked with numerous brownish-black spots,
smaller on the throat, largest and roundish on the breast and sides.
Axillary feathers pure white, lower wing-coverts white mottled with
dusky. Quills brownish-black, glossed with green, the elongated inner
secondaries like the back; the primaries slightly tipped with white,
the secondaries, excepting the inner, more distinctly so, the white
forming on them a conspicuous band. Four middle tail-feathers like the
back, with a band of black at the end, the tip white; the next pair
on each side similar, with the white tip larger; the next barred with
dusky on the outer web; the lateral feather with the outer web white
similarly barred.
Length to end of tail 8 inches, to end of wings 7-1/2, to end of claws
8-1/2; extent of wings 13-3/4; wing from flexure 4-7/8; tail 2; bill
along the ridge 1; tarsus (10-1/2)/12; hind toe and claw (4-1/4)/12;
middle toe and claw 1-1/12.
Female. Plate CCCX. Fig. 2.
There is hardly any difference between the sexes.
The young in winter have the bill black at the end, dusky olive above,
yellow beneath; the feet yellowish flesh-colour. The lower parts are
brownish-white, without spots; the upper of the same brownish-olive as
in the adult, but the head and hind neck destitute of streaks, and the
rest with narrower and more numerous dusky bars.
The tongue is 10 twelfths long, slender, tapering to a point, grooved
above, sagittate and papillate at the base. The roof of the mouth
with a single row of papillæ, posteriorly divided into two series.
Œsophagus 3 inches and 8 twelfths long, its diameter 2 twelfths,
and nearly uniform. Proventriculus 1/2 inch long, 3-1/2 twelfths in
diameter. Stomach elliptical, 8-1/2 twelfths long, 6-1/2 twelfths
in breadth; its lateral muscles strong, the tendinous spaces oblong;
the cuticular lining with large longitudinal rugæ, and of a deep red
colour. The contents of the stomach in this individual were remains of
marine insects, and quartz sand. Intestine 10 inches long, its diameter
varying from 1-1/2 twelfth to 1 twelfth; it enlarges near the rectum
to 2 twelfths. Rectum 1 inch and 1 twelfth; cœca 1 inch and 1 twelfth,
their diameter 3/4 of a twelfth.
The trachea is 2 inches and 8 twelfths long, its diameter from 2
twelfths to 1 twelfth; its rings 105, feeble and unossified. The
lateral muscles extremely feeble; sterno-tracheals moderate; a single
pair of inferior laryngeal muscles.
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN.
_PELECANUS AMERICANUS._
PLATE CCCXI. ADULT MALE.
I feel great pleasure, good Reader, in assuring you, that our White
Pelican, which has hitherto been considered the same as that found
in Europe, is quite different. In consequence of this discovery, I
have honoured it with the name of my beloved country, over the mighty
streams of which, may this splendid bird wander free and unmolested to
the most distant times, as it has already done from the misty ages of
unknown antiquity.
In Dr RICHARDSON’s Introduction to the second volume of the Fauna
Boreali-Americana, we are informed, that the _Pelecanus Onocrotalus_
(which is the bird now named _P. Americanus_) flies in dense flocks
all the summer in the fur countries. At page 472, the same intrepid
traveller says, that “Pelicans are numerous in the interior of the fur
countries up to the sixty-first parallel; but they seldom come within
two hundred miles of Hudson’s Bay. They deposit their eggs usually on
rocky islands, on the brink of cascades, where they can scarcely be
approached; but they are otherwise by no means shy birds.” My learned
friend also speaks of the “long thin bony process seen on the upper
mandible of the bill of this species;” and although neither he nor Mr
SWAINSON pointed out the actual differences otherwise existing between
this and the European species, he states that no such appearance has
been described as occurring on the bills of the White Pelicans of the
old Continent.
When, somewhat more than thirty years ago, I first removed to Kentucky,
Pelicans of this species were frequently seen by me on the sand-bars of
the Ohio, and on the rock-bound waters of the rapids of that majestic
river, situated, as you well know, between Louisville and Shippingport.
Nay when, a few years afterwards, I established myself at Henderson,
the White Pelicans were so abundant that I often killed several at a
shot, on a well known sand-bar, which protects Canoe Creek Island.
During those delightful days of my early manhood, how often have I
watched them with delight! Methinks indeed, Reader, those days have
returned to me, as if to enable me the better once more to read the
scattered notes contained in my often-searched journals.
Ranged along the margins of the sand-bar, in broken array, stand a
hundred heavy-bodied Pelicans. Gorgeous tints, all autumnal, enrich the
foliage of every tree around, the reflection of which, like fragments
of the rainbow, seems to fill the very depths of the placid and almost
sleeping waters of the Ohio. The subdued and ruddy beams of the orb
of day assure me that the Indian summer has commenced, that happy
season of unrivalled loveliness and serenity, symbolic of autumnal
life, which to every enthusiastic lover of nature must be the purest
and calmest period of his career. Pluming themselves, the gorged
Pelicans patiently wait the return of hunger. Should one chance to
gape, all, as if by sympathy, in succession open their long and broad
mandibles, yawning lazily and ludicrously. Now, the whole length of
their largest quills is passed through the bill, until at length their
apparel is as beautifully trimmed as if the party were to figure at a
route. But mark, the red beams of the setting sun tinge the tall tops
of the forest trees; the birds experience the cravings of hunger, and
to satisfy them they must now labour. Clumsily do they rise on their
columnar legs, and heavily waddle to the water. But now, how changed
do they seem! Lightly do they float, as they marshal themselves, and
extend their line, and now their broad paddle-like feet propel them
onwards. In yonder nook, the small fry are dancing in the quiet water,
perhaps in their own manner bidding farewell to the orb of day, perhaps
seeking something for their supper. Thousands there are, all gay, and
the very manner of their mirth, causing the waters to sparkle, invites
their foes to advance toward the shoal. And now the Pelicans, aware
of the faculties of their scaly prey, at once spread out their broad
wings, press closely forward with powerful strokes of their feet,
drive the little fishes toward the shallow shore, and then, with their
enormous pouches spread like so many bag-nets, scoop them out and
devour them in thousands.
How strange it is, Reader, that birds of this species should be found
breeding in the Fur Countries, at about the same period when they
are to be found on the waters of the inland bays of the Mexican Gulf!
On the 2d of April 1837, I met with these birds in abundance at the
south-west entrance or mouth of the Mississippi, and afterwards saw
them in the course of the same season, in almost every inlet, bay, or
river, as I advanced toward Texas, where I found some of them in the
Bay of Galveston, on the 1st of May. Nay, while on the Island of Grande
Terre, I was assured by Mr ANDRY, a sugar-planter, who has resided
there for some years, that he had observed White Pelicans along the
shores every month of the year. Can it be, that in this species of
bird, as in many others, barren individuals should remain in sections
of countries altogether forsaken by those which are reproductive? The
latter, we know, travel to the Rocky Mountains and the Fur Countries
of the north, and there breed. Or do some of these birds, as well
as of certain species of our ducks, remain and reproduce in those
southern localities, induced to do so by some organic or instinctive
peculiarity? Ah, Reader, how little do we yet know of the wonderful
combinations of Nature’s arrangements, to render every individual of
her creation comfortable and happy under all the circumstances in which
they may be placed!
My friend JOHN BACHMAN, in a note to me, says that “this bird is now
more rare on our coast than it was thirty years ago; for I have heard
it stated that it formerly bred on the sand banks of our Bird Islands.
I saw a flock on the Bird Banks off Bull’s Island, on the 1st day of
July 1814, when I procured two full-plumaged old birds, and was under
the impression that they had laid eggs on one of those banks, but the
latter had the day previous to my visit been overflowed by a spring
tide, accompanied with heavy wind.”
A single pair of our White Pelicans were procured not far from
Philadelphia, on the Delaware or Schuylkill, ten or twelve years
ago. These were the only birds of this kind that, I believe, were
ever observed in our Middle Districts, where even the Brown Pelican,
_Pelecanus fuscus_, is never seen. Nor have I heard that an individual
of either species has ever been met with on any part of the shores
of our Eastern States. From these facts, it may be concluded that
the White Pelicans reach the Fur Countries of Hudson’s Bay by inland
journeys, and mostly by passing along our great western rivers in the
spring months, as they are also wont to do, though with less rapid
movements, in autumn.
Reader, I have thought a thousand times perhaps that the present state
of migration of many of our birds, is in a manner artificial, and
that a portion of the myriads of Ducks, Geese, and other kinds, which
leave our Southern Districts every spring for higher latitudes, were
formerly in the habit of remaining and breeding in every section of the
country that was found to be favourable for that purpose. It seems to
me that it is now on account of the difficulties they meet with, from
the constantly increasing numbers of our hostile species, that these
creatures are urged to proceed towards wild and uninhabited parts of
the world, where they find that security from molestation necessary
to enable them to rear their innocent progeny, but which is now denied
them in countries once their own.
The White American Pelican never descends from on wing upon its prey,
as is the habit of the Brown Pelican; and, although on many occasions
it fishes in the manner above described, it varies its mode according
to circumstances, such as a feeling of security, or the accidental
meeting with shoals of fishes in such shallows as the birds can well
compass. They never dive for their food, but only thrust their head
into the waters as far as their neck can reach, and withdraw it as soon
as they have caught something, or have missed it, for their head is
seldom out of sight more than half a minute at a time. When they are
upon rivers, they usually feed along the margin of the water, though,
I believe, mostly in swimming depth, when they proceed with greater
celerity than when on the sand. While thus swimming, you see their
necks extended, with their upper mandible only above the water, the
lower being laterally extended, and ready to receive whatever fish or
other food may chance to come into the net-like apparatus attached to
it.
As this species is often seen along the sea shores searching for
food, as well as on fresh water, I will give you a description of its
manners there. While on the Island of Barataria in April 1837, I one
afternoon observed a number of White Pelicans in company with a flock
of the Brown species, all at work, searching for food, the Brown in the
manner already described, the White in the following. They all swam
against the wind and current, with their wings partially extended,
and the neck stretched out, the upper mandible alone appearing above
the surface, while the lower must have been used as a scoop-net, as I
saw it raised from time to time, and brought to meet the upper, when
the whole bill immediately fell to a perpendicular position, the water
was allowed to run out, and the bill being again raised upwards, the
fish was swallowed. After thus swimming for about an hundred yards
in an extended line, and parallel to each other, they would rise on
wing, wheel about, and realight at the place where their fishing had
commenced, when they would repeat the same actions. They kept farther
from the shore than the Brown Pelicans, and in deeper water, though at
times one of the latter would dive after fish close to some of them,
without their showing the least degree of enmity towards each other.
I continued watching them more than an hour, concealed among a large
quantity of drifted logs, until their fishing was finished, when they
all, White and Brown together, flew off to the lee of another island,
no doubt to spend the night there, for these birds are altogether
diurnal. When gorged, they retire to the shores, to small islands in
bays or rivers, or sit on logs floating in shallow water, at a good
distance from the beach; in all which situations they are prone to lie
down, or stand closely together.
Being anxious, when on my last expedition, to procure several specimens
of these birds for the purpose of presenting you with an account of
their anatomical structure, I requested all on board our vessel to
shoot them on all occasions; but no birds having been procured, I was
obliged to set out with a “select party” for the purpose. Having heard
some of the sailors say that large flocks of White Pelicans had been
seen on the inner islets of Barataria Bay, within the island called
Grande Terre, we had a boat manned, and my friend EDWARD HARRIS, my
son, and myself, went off in search of them. After a while we saw large
flocks of these birds on some grounded logs, but found that it was
no easy matter to get near them, on account of the shallowness of the
bay, the water being scarcely two feet in depth for upwards of half a
mile about us. Quietly, and with all possible care, we neared a flock;
and strange it was for me to be once more within shooting distance of
White Pelicans. It would no doubt be a very interesting sight to you,
were you to mark the gravity and sedateness of some hundreds of these
Pelicans, closely huddled together on a heap of stranded logs, or a
small bank of racoon oysters. They were lying on their breasts, but as
we neared them they all arose deliberately to their full height. Some,
gently sliding from the logs, swam off towards the nearest flock, as
unapprehensive of danger as if they had been a mile distant. But now
their bright eyes were distinctly visible to us, our guns, charged with
buckshot, were in readiness, and my son was lying in the bow of the
boat waiting for the signal. “Fire!”—The report is instantly heard,
the affrighted birds spread their wings and hurry away, leaving behind
three of their companions floating on the water. Another shot from a
different gun brought down a fourth from on wing; and as a few were
scampering off wounded, we gave chase, and soon placed all our prizes
in the after sheets. About a quarter of a mile farther on, we killed
two, and pursued several that were severely wounded in the wing, but
they escaped, for they swam off so rapidly that we could not propel our
boat with sufficient force amidst the tortuous shallows. The Pelicans
appeared tame, if not almost stupid; and at one place, where there
were about sixty on an immense log, could we have gone twenty yards
nearer, we might have killed eight or ten at a single discharge. But
we had already a full cargo, and therefore returned to the vessel, on
the decks of which the wounded birds were allowed to roam at large.
We found these Pelicans hard to kill, and some which were perforated
with buckshot did not expire until eight or ten minutes after they were
fired at. A wonderful instance of this tenacity of life was to be seen
on board a schooner then at anchor in the harbour. A Pelican had been
grazed on the hind part of the head with an ounce ball from a musket,
and yet five days afterwards it was apparently convalescent, and had
become quite gentle. When wounded, they swim rather sluggishly, and do
not attempt to dive, or even to bite, like the Brown Pelicans, although
they are twice as large, and proportionally stronger. After being shot
at, they are perfectly silent, but when alighted they utter a hollow
guttural sound somewhat resembling that produced by blowing through the
bung-hole of a cask.
The White Pelicans appear almost inactive during the greater part
of the day, fishing only soon after sunrise, and again about an hour
before sunset; though at times the whole flock will mount high in the
air, and perform extended gyrations in the manner of the Hooping Crane,
Wood Ibis, and Vultures. These movements are probably performed for
the purpose of assisting their digestion, and of airing themselves,
in the higher and cooler regions of the atmosphere. Whilst on the
ground, they at times spread their wings to the breeze, or to the rays
of the sun; but this act is much more rarely performed by them than
by the Brown Pelicans. When walking, they seem exceedingly awkward,
and like many cowardly individuals of our own species, are apt to snap
at objects which they appear to know perfectly to be so far superior
to them as to disdain taking notice of them. Their usual manner of
flight is precisely similar to that of our Brown species. It is said
by authors that the White Pelican can alight on trees; but I have never
seen a single instance of its doing so. I am of opinion that the ridge
projecting from the upper mandible increases in size as the bird grows
older, and that it uses that apparatus as a means of defence or of
attack, when engaged with its rivals in the love-season.
The number of small fishes destroyed by a single bird of this species
may appear to you, as it did to me, quite extraordinary. While I was
at General HERNANDEZ’s plantation in East Florida, one of them chanced
to pass close over the house of my generous host, and was brought dead
to the ground. It was not a mature bird, but apparently about eighteen
months old. On opening it, we found in its stomach several hundreds of
fishes, of the size of what are usually called minnows. Among the many
which I have at different times examined, I never found one containing
fishes as large as those commonly swallowed by the Brown species,
which, in my opinion, is more likely to secure a large fish by plunging
upon it from on wing, than a bird which must swim after its prey.
This beautiful species,—for, Reader, it is truly beautiful, and you
would say so were you to pick it up in all the natural cleanness of
its plumage, from the surface of the water,—carries its crest broadly
expanded, as if divided into two parts from the centre of the head.
The brightness of its eyes seemed to me to rival that of the purest
diamond; and in the love season, or the spring of the year, the
orange-red colour of its legs and feet, as well as of the pouch and
bill, is wonderfully enriched, being as represented in my plate, while
during the autumnal months these parts are pale. Its flesh is rank,
fishy, and nauseous, and therefore quite unfit for food, unless in
cases of extreme necessity. The idea that these birds are easily caught
when gorged with fish, is quite incorrect, for when approached, on such
an occasion, they throw up their food, as Vultures are wont to do.
I regret exceedingly that I cannot say any thing respecting their
nests, eggs, or young, as I have not been in the countries in which
they are said to breed.
PELECANUS AMERICANUS.
Adult Male. Plate CCCXI.