averaging 2 twelfths; the rings moderately firm, 74 in number. The
bronchi are long, slender, of about 20 very slender cartilaginous half
rings. The contractor muscles are moderate, as are the sterno-tracheal.
There is a single pair of flat inferior laryngeal muscles, going to the
first and second bronchial rings.
[Illustration: _Fig. 1._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 2._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 3._]
RUFF-NECKED HUMMING BIRD.
_TROCHILUS RUFUS_, GMEL.
PLATE CCCLXXIX. MALE AND FEMALE.
This charming Humming Bird was discovered by the great navigator,
Captain Cook, who found it abundant at Nootka Sound. It does not appear
to have been seen by Dr RICHARDSON or Mr DRUMMOND in the northern
parts of America, traversed by those most zealous and highly talented
naturalists. As no account has hitherto been given of its habits, the
following notices from my friends Mr NUTTALL and Dr TOWNSEND, will, I
doubt not, prove highly interesting.
“We began,” says the first of-these enterprising travellers, “to meet
with this species near the Blue Mountains of the Columbia River, in the
autumn, as we proceeded to the west. These were all young birds, and
were not very easily distinguished from those of the common species of
the same age. We now for the first time (April 16.) saw the males in
numbers, darting, burring, and squeaking in the usual manner of their
tribe; but when engaged in collecting its accustomed sweets in all the
energy of life, it seemed like a breathing gem, or magic carbuncle
of glowing fire, stretching out its gorgeous ruff, as if to emulate
the sun itself in splendour. Towards the close of May, the females
were sitting, at which time the males were uncommonly quarrelsome and
vigilant, darting out at me as I approached the tree probably near the
nest, looking like an angry coal of brilliant fire, passing within very
little of my face, returning several times to the attack, sinking and
darting with the utmost velocity, at the same time uttering a curious
reverberating sharp bleat, somewhat similar to the quivering twang
of a dead twig, yet also so much like the real bleat of some small
quadruped, that for some time I searched the ground instead of the air,
for the actor in the scene. At other times, the males were seen darting
up high in the air, and whirling about each other in great anger, and
with much velocity. After these manœuvres the aggressor returned to
the same dead twig, where for days he regularly took his station with
all the courage and angry vigilance of a King-bird. The angry hissing
or bleating note of this species seems something like _wht’t’t’t’t sh
vee_, tremulously uttered as it whirls and sweeps through the air,
like a musket-ball, accompanied also by something like the whirr of
the Night Hawk. On the 29th of May, I found a nest of this species in
a forked branch of the Nootka Bramble, _Rubus Nutkanus_. The female
was sitting on two eggs, of the same shape and colour as those of
the common species. The nest also was perfectly similar, but somewhat
deeper. As I approached, the female came hovering round the nest, and
soon after, when all was still, she resumed her place contentedly.”
Dr TOWNSEND’s note is as follows:—“Nootka Sound Humming Bird,
_Trochilus rufus_, _Ah-puets-Rinne_ of the Chinooks. On a clear day
the male may be seen to rise to a great height in the air, and descend
instantly near the earth, then mount again to the same altitude as at
first, performing in the evolution the half of a large circle. During
the descent it emits a strange and astonishingly loud note, which can
be compared to nothing but the rubbing together of the limbs of trees
during a high wind. I heard this singular note repeatedly last spring
and summer, but did not then discover to what it belonged. I did not
suppose it to be a bird at all, and least of all a Humming Bird. The
observer thinks it almost impossible that so small a creature can be
capable of producing so much sound. I have never observed this habit
upon a dull or cloudy day.”
Mr NUTTALL having presented me with the nest of this species attached
to the twig to which the bird had fastened it, my amiable friend Miss
MARTIN has figured it for me, as well as the plant, about which these
lovely creatures are represented. The nest, which measures two inches
and a quarter in height, and an inch and three quarters in breadth, at
the upper part, is composed externally of mosses, lichens, and a few
feathers, with slender fibrous roots interwoven, and lined with fine
cottony seed-down.
TROCHILUS RUFUS, _Gmel._ Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 497.
TROCHILUS COLLARIS, _Lath._ Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 318.
TROCHILUS (SELASPHORUS) RUFUS, _Swainson_.
CINNAMON or NOOTKA HUMMING BIRD, _Richards. and Swains._
Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 324.
Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXIX. Figs. 1, 2.
Bill long, straight, subulate, somewhat depressed at the base, acute;
upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge narrow at the
base, broad and convex toward the end, the sides convex, the edges
overlapping, the tip acuminate; lower mandible with the angle very long
and extremely narrow, the dorsal line straight, the edges erect, the
tip acuminate. Nostrils basal, linear.
Head of ordinary size, oblong; neck short; body slender. Feet very
small; tarsus very short, feathered more than half-way down, toes
small; the lateral equal, the middle toe not much longer, the hind toe
a little shorter than the lateral, anterior toes united at the base;
claws rather long, arched, compressed, laterally grooved, very acute.
Plumage soft and blended; feathers on the throat, fore part and
sides of the neck oblong-obovate, with the filaments towards the end
thickened and flattened, with metallic gloss, those on the sides of
the neck elongated and erectile. Wings rather short, extremely narrow,
falcate, pointed; the primaries rapidly graduated, the second being
longest, but only slightly longer than the first; these two quills
taper to a point; the rest are broader, and gradually become less
pointed; the secondaries are extremely short, and only five in number.
Tail rather long, broad, graduated, the lateral feathers four and
a half twelfths of an inch shorter than the central; the latter are
extremely broad, measuring four and a half twelfths across, and the
rest gradually diminish to the lateral, which are very narrow; all
obtusely pointed.
Bill brownish-black; toes brown, claws dusky. The general colour
of the upper parts is bright cinnamon or reddish-orange; the head
bronzed green, the wings dusky, the coverts glossed with green,
the primaries with purplish; each of the tail-feathers has a narrow
longitudinal lanceolate median streak toward the end. The loral space,
a narrow band over the eye, another beneath it, and the auriculars
are reddish-orange; the scale-like feathers of the throat and sides
of the neck are splendent fire-red, purplish-red, yellowish-red,
greenish-yellow or yellowish-green, according to the light in which
they are viewed; behind them, on the lower part of the neck, is a broad
band of reddish-white; the rest of the lower parts are like the upper,
the abdomen inclining to white.
Length to end of tail 3-7/12 inches; bill along the ridge (7-1/2)/12,
along the edge of lower mandible (9-1/4)/12; wing from flexure
1-(7-1/4)/12; tail 1-(3-1/2)/12; tarsus (1-1/2)/12; hind toe
(1-1/2)/12, its claw (1-1/4)/12; middle toe (2-1/4)/12, its claw
(1-1/2)/12.
Adult Female. Plate CCCLXXIX. Fig. 3.
The Female has the bill and feet coloured as in the male. The upper
parts are gold-green, the head inclining to brown; the wings as in
the male; the tail-feathers reddish-orange at the base, brownish-black
toward the end, the tip white. The lower parts are white, tinged with
rufous, of which colour, especially, are the sides; the throat marked
with roundish spots of metallic greenish-red.
Length to end of tail 3-(7-1/2)/12 inches; bill along the ridge
(8-3/4)/12; wing from flexure 1-10/12; tail 1-(1-1/2)/12.
The above descriptions are from two individuals shot by Dr TOWNSEND
on the “Columbia River, 30th May 1835.” A “young male, Columbia River,
29th May 1835,” resembles the female as above described, differing only
in having the metallic spots on the throat larger. A “young female,
Columbia River, June 10th 1835,” differs from the adult only in wanting
the metallic spots on the throat, which is spotted with greenish-brown.
CLEOME HEPTAPHYLLA.
The beautiful plant represented in the plate belongs to _Tetradynamia
Siliquosa_ of the Linnæan arrangement, and to the genus _Cleome_,
characterized by having three nectariferous glandules at each corner
of the calyx, the lower excepted; all the petals ascending; the
germen stipitate; the siliqua unilocular, two-valved. The species,
_C. heptaphylla_, is distinguished by its septenate leaves, of which
the leaflets are lanceolate, acuminate, and of a deep green colour. It
grows in South Carolina and Georgia.
TENGMALM’S OWL.
_STRIX TENGMALMI_, GMEL.
PLATE CCCLXXX. MALE AND FEMALE.
I procured a fine male of this species at Bangor, in Maine, on
the Penobscot River, in the beginning of September 1832; but am
unacquainted with its habits, never having seen another individual
alive. Dr TOWNSEND informs me that he found it first on the Malade
River Mountains, where it was so tame and unsuspicious, that Mr NUTTALL
was enabled to approach within a few feet of it, as it sat upon the
bushes. Dr RICHARDSON gives the following notice respecting it in the
Fauna Boreali-Americana:—“When it accidentally wanders abroad in the
day, it is so much dazzled by the light of the sun as to become stupid,
and it may then be easily caught by the hand. Its cry in the night is
a single melancholy note, repeated at intervals of a minute or two. Mr
HUTCHINS informs us that it builds a nest of grass half-way up a pine
tree, and lays two white eggs in the month of May. It feeds on mice
and beetles. I cannot state the extent of its range, but believe that
it inhabits all the woody country from Great Slave Lake to the United
States. On the banks of the Saskatchewan it is so common that its voice
is heard almost every night by the traveller, wherever he selects his
bivouac.”
STRIX TENGMALMI, _Gmel._ Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 291.—_Lath._
Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 65.
STRIX TENGMALMI, TENGMALM’S OWL, _Swains. and Richards._
Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 94.
Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXX. Fig. 1.
Bill short, very deep, strong; upper mandible with its dorsal line
curved from the base, its ridge convex, as are the sides, the edges
sharp and incurved anteriorly, the tip very acute, and at its extremity
nearly perpendicular; the cere short, and bare on its upper part;
the lower mandible has the angle broad and short, the dorsal line
slightly convex, the edges inflected, towards the end incurved, with
a notch on each side close to the abruptly-rounded tip. Nostrils
broadly elliptical, oblique, in the fore part of the cere, which bulges
considerably behind them.
The head is extremely large, roundish, when viewed from above somewhat
triangular; the eyes large. The conch of the ear very large, of an
elliptical form, extending from the base of the lower jaw to near
the top of the head, being an inch and a quarter in length, with an
anterior semicircular operculum stretching along its whole length, and
an elevated margin behind. The neck is very short and thin; the body
very slender; but both appear very full on account of the vast mass
of plumage. The feet are rather short, and strong; the tarsi and toes
covered with very soft downy feathers, the extremities of the latter
with two scutella. The claws are slender, tapering to a fine point,
compressed, and curved.
The facial disk is complete, as is the ruff. The plumage is full, very
soft, and blended; the feathers broadly oblong and rounded. The wings
are rather long, very broad, much rounded; the third primary longest,
the fourth almost equal, the second four-twelfths of an inch shorter,
the first equal to the seventh; the barbs of the outer web of the
first, of half the second, and the terminal part of the third, free and
recurved. Tail of moderate length, arched, slightly rounded, of twelve
broad, rounded feathers.
Bill greyish-brown, yellowish-white at the end; claws yellowish-brown,
their tips dusky. The general colour of the upper parts is
greyish-brown tinged with olive. The feathers of the head have an
elliptical central white spot; those of the neck are similarly marked
with larger white spots, of which some are disposed so as to form a
semicircular band; the scapulars have two or four large round spots
near the end, and some of the dorsal feathers and wing-coverts have
single spots on the outer web. All the quills have marginal white
spots on both webs, arranged in transverse series, there being six
on the outer web of the third quill. On the tail are five series of
transversely elongated narrow white spots. The disk is yellowish-white,
anteriorly black; the ruff yellowish-white, mottled with dusky. The
throat is brown, the chin white. The general colour of the lower parts
is yellowish-white, longitudinally streaked with brown, some of the
feathers of the sides have two white spots near the end; the tarsal and
digital feathers greyish-yellow, with faint transverse bars of brown.
Length to end of tail 11 inches; wing from flexure 6-10/12; bill along
the ridge 1; tarsus 11/12; hind toe 5/12, its claw 5/12; middle toe
9/12, its claw 8/12.
Adult Female. Plate CCCLXXX. Fig. 2.
The Female resembles the male, but is considerably larger.
SNOW GOOSE.
_ANSER HYPERBOREUS_, BONAP.
PLATE CCCLXXXI. ADULT MALE AND YOUNG FEMALE.
The geographical range of the Snow Goose is very extensive. It has been
observed in numerous flocks, travelling northward, by the members of
the recent overland expeditions. On the other hand, I have found it
in the Texas, and it is very abundant on the Columbia River, together
with Hutchins’s Goose. In the latter part of autumn, and during winter,
I have met with it in every part of the United States that I have
visited.
While residing at Henderson on the Ohio, I never failed to watch the
arrival of this and other species in the ponds of the neighbourhood,
and generally found the young Snow Geese to make their appearance
in the beginning of October, and the adult or white birds about a
fortnight later. In like manner, when migrating northward, although
the young and the adult birds set out at the same time, they travel in
separate flocks, and, according to Captain Sir GEORGE BACK, continue
to do so even when proceeding to the higher northern latitudes of
our continent. It is not less curious that, during the whole of the
winter, these Geese remain equally divided, even if found in the same
localities; and although young and old are often seen to repose on the
same sand-bar, the flocks keep at as great a distance as possible.
The Snow Goose in the grey state of its plumage is very abundant in
winter, about the mouths of the Mississippi, as well as on all the
muddy and grassy shores of the bays and inlets of the Gulf of Mexico,
as far as the Texas, and probably still farther to the south-west.
During the rainy season, it betakes itself to the large prairies of
Attacapas and Oppellousas, and there young and adult procure their food
together, along with several species of Ducks, Herons, and Cranes,
feeding, like the latter, on the roots of plants, and nibbling the
grasses sideways, in the manner of the Common Tame Goose. In Louisiana
I have not unfrequently seen the adult birds feeding in wheat fields,
when they pluck up the plants entire.
When the young Snow Geese first arrive in Kentucky, about Henderson
for instance, they are unsuspicious, and therefore easily procured. In
a half-dry half-wet pond, running across a large tract of land, on the
other side of the river, in the State of Indiana, and which was once my
property, I was in the habit of shooting six or seven of a-day. This,
however, rendered the rest so wild, that the cunning of any “Red Skin”
might have been exercised without success upon them; and I was sorry to
find that they had the power of communicating their sense of danger to
the other flocks which arrived. On varying my operations however, and
persevering for some time, I found that even the wildest of them now
and then suffered; for having taken it into my head to catch them in
large traps, I tried this method, and several were procured before the
rest had learned to seize the tempting bait in a judicious manner.
The Snow Goose affords good eating when young and fat; but the old
Ganders are tough and stringy. Those that are procured along the
sea-shores, as they feed on shell-fish, fry and marine plants, have a
rank taste, which, however suited to the palate of the epicure, I never
could relish.
The flight of this species is strong and steady, and its migrations
over the United States are performed at a considerable elevation, by
regular flappings of the wings, and a disposition into lines similar
to that of other Geese. It walks well, and with rather elevated steps;
but on land its appearance is not so graceful as that of our common
Canada Goose. Whilst with us they are much more silent than any other
of our species, rarely emitting any cries unless when pursued on being
wounded. They swim buoyantly, and, when pressed, with speed. When
attacked by the White-headed Eagle, or any other rapacious bird, they
dive well for a short space. At the least appearance of danger, when
they are on land, they at once come close together, shake their heads
and necks, move off in a contrary direction, very soon take to wing,
and fly to a considerable distance, but often return after a time.
I am unable to inform you at what age the Snow Goose attains its pure
white plumage, as I have found that a judgment formed from individuals
kept in confinement is not to be depended upon. In one instance at
least, a friend of mine who had kept a bird of this species four
years, wrote to me that he was despairing of ever seeing it become pure
white. Two years after, he sent me much the same message; but, at the
commencement of next spring, the Goose was a Snow Goose, and the change
had taken place in less than a month.
Dr RICHARDSON informs us that, this species “breeds in the
barren grounds of Arctic America, in great numbers. The eggs of a
yellowish-white colour, and regularly ovate form, are a little larger
than those of the Eider Duck, their length being three inches, and
their greatest breadth two. The young fly in August, and by the middle
of September all have departed to the southward. The Snow Goose feeds
on rushes, insects, and in autumn on berries, particularly those of
the _Empetrum nigrum_. When well fed it is a very excellent bird, far
superior to the Canada Goose in juiciness and flavour. It is said that
the young do not attain the full plumage before their fourth year, and
until that period they appear to keep in separate flocks. They are
numerous at Albany Fort in the southern part of Hudson’s Bay, where
the old birds are rarely seen; and, on the other hand, the old birds in
their migrations visit York Factory in great abundance, but are seldom
accompanied by the young. The Snow Geese make their appearance in
spring a few days later than the Canada Geese, and pass in large flocks
both through the interior and on the coast.”
The young birds of this species begin to acquire their whiteness about
the head and neck after the first year, but the upper parts remain
of a dark bluish colour until the bird suddenly becomes white all
over; at least, this is the case with such as are kept in captivity.
Although it is allied to the White-fronted or Laughing Goose, _Anser
albifrons_, I was surprised to find that WILSON had confounded the
two species together, and been of opinion that the Bean Goose also
was the same bird in an imperfect state of plumage. That excellent
ornithologist tells us that “this species, called on the sea-coast,
the Red Goose, arrives in the river Delaware, from the north, early
in November, sometimes in considerable flocks, and is extremely noisy,
their notes being shriller and more squeaking than those of the Canada,
or common Wild Goose. On their first arrival, they make but a short
stay, proceeding, as the depth of winter approaches, farther south; but
from the middle of February, until the breaking up of the ice in March,
they are frequently numerous along both shores of the Delaware, about
and below Reedy Island, particularly near Old Duck Creek, in the State
of Delaware. They feed on roots of the reeds there, which they tear up
like hogs.”
This species is rare both in Massachusetts and South Carolina, although
it passes over both these States in considerable numbers, and in the
latter some have been known to alight among the common domestic Geese,
and to have remained several days with them. My friend Dr BACHMAN,
of Charleston, South Carolina, kept a male Snow Goose several years
along with his tame Geese. He had received it from a friend while it
was in its grey plumage, and the following spring it became white.
It had been procured in the autumn, and proved to be a male. In a
few days it became very gentle, and for several years it mated with a
common Goose; but the eggs produced by the latter never hatched. The
Snow Goose was in the habit of daily frequenting a mill-pond in the
vicinity, and returning regularly at night along with the rest; but
in the beginning of each spring it occasioned much trouble. It then
continually raised its head and wings, and attempted to fly off; but
finding this impossible, it seemed anxious to perform its long journey
on foot, and it was several times overtaken and brought back, after it
had proceeded more than a mile, having crossed fences and plantations
in a direct course northward. This propensity cost it its life: it had
proceeded as far as the banks of the Cooper River, when it was shot by
a person who supposed it to be a wild bird.
In the latter part of the autumn of 1832, whilst I was walking with
my wife, in the neighbourhood of Boston in Massachusetts, I observed
on the road a young Snow Goose in a beautiful state of plumage, and
after making some inquiries, found its owner, who was a gardener.
He would not part with it for any price offered. Some weeks after, a
friend called one morning, and told me that this gardener had sent his
Snow Goose to town, and that it would be sold by auction that day. I
desired my friend to attend the sale, which he did; and before a few
hours had elapsed, the bird was in my possession, having been obtained
for 75 cents! We kept this Goose several months in a small yard at the
house where we boarded, along with the young of the Sand-hill Crane,
_Grus Americana_. It was fed on leaves and thin stalks of cabbage,
bread, and other vegetable substances. When the spring approached, it
exhibited great restlessness, seeming anxious to remove northward, as
was the case with Dr BACHMAN’s bird. Although the gardener had kept it
four years, it was not white, but had the lower part of the neck and
the greater portion of the back, of a dark bluish tint, as represented
in the plate. It died before we left Boston, to the great regret of my
family, as I had anticipated the pleasure of presenting it alive to my
honoured and noble friend the EARL of Derby.
There can be little doubt that this species breeds in its grey plumage,
when it is generally known by the name of Blue-winged Goose, as is
the case with the young of _Grus Americana_, formerly considered as a
distinct species, and named _Grus Canadensis_.
ANAS HYPERBOREA, _Gmel._ Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 504.—_Lath._
Ind. Orn. vol. ii. p. 837.
SNOW GOOSE, ANAS HYPERBOREA, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith. vol.
viii. p. 76, pl. 68, fig. 3, Male, and p. 89, pl. 69, fig. 5,
Young.
ANSER HYPERBOREUS, _Ch. Bonaparte_, Synopsis of Birds of
United States, p. 376.
ANSER HYPERBOREUS, SNOW GOOSE, _Richards. and Swains._ Fauna
Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 467.
SNOW GOOSE, _Nuttall_, Manual, vol. ii. p. 344.
Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXXI. Fig. 1.