Distribution of Birds in the Arctic Region—In Europe, Asia, Africa,
America, and the Antarctic Regions.
MORE than 6000 species of birds are known, which are arranged in six
natural orders or groups, namely, Birds of prey—or vultures, eagles,
hawks; Climbers, including parrots and woodpeckers; Songsters, the most
numerous of all the six; Gallinaceous birds, including our domestic
fowls, partridges, grouse, and pheasants; Waders—herons, snipes,
curlews; and Swimmers, or web-footed birds. Next to tropical America,
Europe is richest in species: the greatest number of birds of prey
inhabit Europe and America, which last surpasses every country in the
number of songsters and climbers.
There is great similarity in the birds of the northern parts of the old
and new continents, and many are identical. Towards the south, the forms
differ more and more, till in the tropical and south temperate zones of
Asia, Africa, and America, they become entirely different, whole
families and genera often being stationary within very narrow limits.
Some birds, however, are almost universal, especially birds of prey,
waders, and sea-fowl.
The bald buzzard is to be met with in every country from Europe to
Australia; the Chinese gosshawk inhabits the American continent, and
every station between China and the west coast of Europe; the peregrine
falcon lives in Europe, America, and Australia; the common and purple
herons are indigenous in the old continent and the new; and the flamingo
of different species fishes in almost every tropical river, and in the
Andes to the height of 13,000 feet. Many of the sea-fowl also are widely
spread: the wagel-gull is at home in the northern and southern oceans.
Captain Beechy’s ship was accompanied by pintadoes, or Cape pigeons,
during a voyage of 500 miles in the Pacific; and even the common
house-sparrow is as much at home in the villages in Bengal as it is in
Britain. Many more instances might be given, but they do not interfere
with the general law of special distribution.
Birds migrate to very great distances in search of food, passing the
winter in one country and the summer in another, many breeding in both.
In cold climates, insects die or hybernate during winter; between the
tropics they either perish or sleep in the dry season: so that, in both
cases, insect-eating birds are compelled to migrate. When the ground is
covered with snow, the want of corn and seeds forces those kinds whose
food is vegetable to seek it elsewhere; and in tropical countries the
annual inundations of the rivers regulate the migrations of birds that
feed on fish.
Some migrate singly, some in groups, others in flocks of thousands; and,
in most instances, the old and the young birds go separately. Those that
fly in company generally have a leader, and such as fly in smaller
numbers observe a certain order. Wild swans fly in the form of a wedge,
wild geese in a line. Some birds are silent in their flight, others
utter constant cries, especially those that migrate during night, to
keep the flock together, as herons, goat-suckers, and rails.
Birds of passage in confinement show the most insurmountable disquietude
when the time of migration draws near. The Canadian duck rushes
impetuously to the north at the usual period of summer flight.
Redbreasts, goldfinches, and orioles, brought from Canada to the United
States, when young, dart northwards, as if guided by the compass, as
soon as they are set at liberty. Birds return to the same place year
after year. Storks and swallows take possession of their former nests,
and the times of their departure are exact even to a day. Various
European birds spend the winter in Asia and Africa; while many natives
of these countries come to central Europe in summer.
The birds of passage in America are more numerous, both in species and
individually, than in any other country. Ducks, geese, and pigeons
migrate in myriads from the severity of the northern winters; and when
there is a failure of grain in the south, different families of birds go
the north. The Virginian partridge crosses the Delaware and goes to
Pennsylvania when grain is scarce in New Jersey; but it is so heavy on
the wing, that many fall into the river, and end the journey by
swimming.
The same thing happens to the wild turkey, which is caught in hundreds
as it arrives wet on the banks of the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi.
These birds are not fitted for long flight by their structure, because
their bones have fewer of those air-cells which give buoyancy to the
feathered tribes. The number of air-cells is greatest in birds that have
to sustain a continued and rapid flight; probably the extremes are to be
met with in the swift and the ostrich—the one ever on the wing, the
other never. The strength of the ostrich is in the muscles of its legs;
while the muscles on the breast of the swift weigh more than all the
rest of the body; hence, it flies at the rate of 100 miles an hour
easily. The wild duck and wild pigeon fly between 400 and 500 miles in a
day. The stork, and some other migratory birds, do not halt till the end
of their journey. Many sea-fowl are never seen to rest; and all the
eagles, vultures, and hawks are birds of strong flight, and capable of
sustaining themselves at heights beyond the reach of less buoyant
creatures.
DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC AND EUROPEAN BIRDS.
The birds of Europe and North America are better known than those of any
part of the globe. New species are constantly discovered in Asia,
Africa, and South America; and extensive regions in the East are yet
unexplored: however, about 6000 have already been described.
There are 503 species of birds in Europe, many of which are distributed
over Asia and Africa, without any apparent variation; and 100 of our
European species are also in North America. Of these, 90 are land-birds,
28 waders, and 62 water-fowl; among which are most of the marine birds
of northern Europe, which, like all sea-fowl, have a wider range.
More than three-fourths of the species, and a much larger proportion of
individuals, of the birds of Greenland, Iceland, and Feroe, are more or
less aquatic, and many of the remainder are only occasional visitors. Of
the few small birds, the greater number are British; but many that
reside constantly in Britain are migratory in Iceland and Feroe, and all
the small birds leave Greenland in winter. The Aquila albicilla, or
fishing eagle, is the largest bird of these northern islands; it feeds
on salmon and trout, and builds its nest on the boldest crags. The
jer-falcon, or Falco Islandicus, though native, is rare even in Iceland.
The snowy owl lives near the glaciers in the interior of Greenland, and
is sometimes seen in Orkney. Particular kinds of grouse are peculiar to
high latitudes, as the ptarmigan or white grouse. The Columba æneas
lives on all the rocky coasts of Europe, and it is also an American
bird. The crow family are inhabitants of every part of the globe. The
common crow is very generally distributed; the carrion-crow and jackdaw
are all over Europe and North America. The Royston crow is the only one
of the genus within the Arctic circle, and but a summer visitor. The
magpie is everywhere in Europe. The Jay, one of the most beautiful birds
of its tribe, is found in Europe, North America, and China. The raven is
everywhere, from Greenland to the Cape of Good Hope, and from Hudson’s
Bay to Mexico; it is capable of enduring the extremes of heat and cold,
and is larger, stronger, and more ravenous in the Arctic islands than
anywhere else. It is said to destroy lambs, and to drive the eider-ducks
from their nests to take their eggs or young: they unite in flocks to
chase intruding birds from their abode.
Waders are more numerous than land-birds in the Arctic regions. The
snipe and the golden plover are mere visitors; and the oyster-catcher
remains all the year in Iceland: it makes its nest near streams, and
wages war with the crow tribe. The heron, curlew, plover, and most of
the other waders, emigrate; sand-pipers and the water-ousel remain all
the year round.
Web-footed birds, being clothed with down and oily feathers, are best
able to resist the cold of a polar climate. The Cygnus musicus, or
whistling swan, is the largest migratory bird of Europe or America. It
is 5 feet long from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, and 8
feet from tip to tip of the wings: its plumage is pure white, tinged
orange or yellow on the head. Some of them winter in Iceland; and in the
long Arctic night their song is heard, as they pass in flocks: it is
like the notes of a violin. Various species of the duck tribe live in
the far north, in prodigious multitudes. The mallard, supposed to be the
origin of our tame duck, is everywhere in the Arctic lands. There are
two species of eider-duck: the king duck, or Somateria spectabilis, one
of these, is widely dispersed over the islands and coasts of the North
Atlantic, and all the Arctic land and islands in Europe and America. In
Europe its most southern building-place is the Fern Islands on the
coasts of Northumberland; in America it never goes south of New York. It
lives in the open sea in winter, and resorts to the coast when the grass
begins to grow. The duck makes her nest of sea-weed, lined with down
from her breast. The islanders take the eggs and down twice in the
season; but they do not kill the old birds, because the down of a dead
duck is of no value, having lost its elasticity. The third time the
drake repairs the nest with down from his breast: the birds are allowed
to hatch their brood; and, as soon as the young can feed themselves,
they are taken out to sea by the duck. They attain maturity in 4 years,
and then measure 2 feet from tip to tip of the wing. The same couple has
been known to frequent a nest 20 years, and the Icelanders think the
eider-duck lives to 100.
The cormorant, which lives on fish, is universal in the northern seas,
and is scarcely ever eaten by the natives. It sits singly, or sometimes
in flocks, on the rocks, watching the fish with its keen eye: it plunges
after them, and pursues them for three or four minutes under water. Auks
are very numerous, especially the razor-billed auk, or penguin; but the
great auk, which is incapable of flight with its little wings, is now
nearly extinct in the Arctic islands. The tern, or sea-swallow, is seen
everywhere in these seas, skimming along the surface of the water,
catching mollusca and small fish. Gulls of many species, and in
countless numbers, are inhabitants of the Arctic regions, whilst in the
Antarctic they are represented by the equally numerous genus of
Procellaria, of which the Mother-Cary’s-chicken or stormy petrel is the
type. No birds are more widely dispersed than these two genera. They are
at home, and brave the storm, in every latitude and in every sea; but
those in the north are said to be larger and more numerous than
elsewhere. There are nine or ten species in the Arctic regions, and the
most numerous of these probably are the kittywakes, the young of which
cover the rocks in Iceland, packed so close together that 50 are killed
at a shot.
The skua is one of the boldest and most rapacious of birds, forming a
link between gulls and birds of prey. It lives by robbing other birds,
and is so audacious that it forces the gulls to disgorge the fish they
have swallowed, and has been seen to kill a puffin at a single blow. Its
head-quarters are in Feroe, Shetland, and the Hebrides, where it hatches
its brood, and attacks animals if they come near them.
A few species of petrel inhabit the Arctic seas, but the South Pacific
and the Antarctic seas are the favourite resort of this genus. They take
their name from the faculty they have of walking on the water,[181]
which they do by the aid of their flat webbed feet and widely-extended
wings. The stormy petrels, consisting of several distinct species,
confounded by sailors under the name of tempest-bird or
Mother-Cary’s-chicken, are the most widely diffused, about the size of a
swallow, and nearly of the same colour as the latter; their flight is
rapid; they shelter themselves from the storm in the hollow of a wave,
and go to land only at the breeding season.
It is observed that all birds living on islands fly against the wind
when they go to sea, so as to have a fair wind when they return home
tired. The direction of the prevailing winds, consequently, has great
influence on the choice of their abode: for example, the 25 bird-rocks,
or Vogel-berg, in Feroe, face the west or north-west; and no bird
frequents the cliffs facing the east, though the situation is to all
appearance equally good; a preference accounted for by the prevalence of
westerly wind in these latitudes.
Most marine birds are gregarious. They build their nests on the same
rock, and live in society. Of this a curious instance occurs on the
rocks in question. The Fugle-berg lies in a frightful chasm among the
cliffs of Westmanshavn in Feroe. The chasm is encompassed by rocks 1000
feet high, and myriads of sea-fowl cluster round the top of the crags;
but different kinds have separate habitations; and no race or individual
leaves his own quarters, or ventures to intrude upon his neighbours.
Upon some low rocks, scarcely rising above the surface of the water,
sits the glossy cormorant; the predatory skuas, on a higher shelf, are
anxiously regarded by myriads of kittywakes on nests in crowded rows
along the shelving rock above, with nothing visible but the heads of the
mothers almost touching one another; the auks and guillemots are seated
a stage higher on the narrow shelves, in order as on a parade, with
their white breasts facing the sea, and in absolute contact. The puffins
form the summit of this feathered pyramid, perched on the highest
station, and scarcely discernible from its height, if they did not
betray themselves by flying backwards and forwards. Some of these tribes
have a watch posted to look out for their safety; and such confidence
has the flock in his vigilance, that if he is taken the rest are easily
caught. When the whole take flight, the ear is stunned by their
discordant screams.
The greater part of the marine birds of the Arctic seas are inhabitants
also of the northern coasts of the continent of Europe and of the
British islands.
No part of Europe is richer in birds than Britain, both in species and
numbers of individuals; and the larger game is so abundant, that no one
thinks of eating nightingales and redbreasts. Of the 503 species of
European birds, 277 are native in our islands. The common grouse, the
yellow and pied wagtails, and the English starling, are found nowhere
else. It is probable that most of the British birds came from Germany
before the separation of our island from the continent, and many of
short flight never reached Ireland. The ptarmigan and capercailzie came
from Norway.
There are five European vultures: the lemmergeyer of the Alps and
Pyrenees builds its nest in the most inaccessible parts of the
mountains, and is seldom seen; it lives also in the mountains of
Abyssinia and on the Mongolian steppes. Ten eagles are European; one is
peculiar to Sardinia; and several of them are common in America: the
golden eagle is one; that beautiful bird, which once gave a
characteristic wildness to our Scotch mountains, and the distinguishing
feather to the bonnet of our chieftains, is now nearly extirpated. The
osprey or fishing eagle is equally an inhabitant of Europe and America,
and so are some of our numerous hawks; among others the jer or gentil
falcon has been so much destroyed, that it is now rare even in Iceland,
its native place: there are still a few in Scotland, and several are
caught in their migratory flight over the Low Countries, and reclaimed
by the expert falconers for the now nearly obsolete sport of falconry.
The owl tribe is numerous, and many of them are very handsome. The Bubo
maximus, the great owl, the largest of nocturnal birds, inhabits the
forests of middle and southern Europe; it is rare in France and England,
though not uncommon in Ireland and Orkney: in Italy a small owl is tamed
and used as a decoy.
Owls, eagles, and hawks, have representatives in every country, but of
different species. The two species of European Goatsuckers migrate to
Africa in winter; their peculiar cry may be heard on a moonlight night
when a large flock takes wing for the journey. Several of our swallows
go to Africa: both our kingfishers are African, and only visit us in
summer; one, the Alcedo ispida, is a native of Lower Egypt and the
shores of the Red Sea. Some of the 7 species of European creeping birds,
or certhias, creep on the trunks and branches of trees in search of
insects; others pursue their prey clinging to the face of rocks and
walls, supported by the stiff elastic feathers of the tail: the hoopoe,
an inhabitant of southern Europe, is also a creeper, but it pursues
small reptiles and insects on the ground.
The Fringillæ or thick-billed birds are by much the most characteristic
of Europe; to them belong our finest songsters. The sylvias have soft
beaks, and feed on insects and worms; the nightingale, the redbreast,
the wren, the smallest of European birds, the warblers, white-throat,
and others, are of this family Thick-billed birds live on seed, as the
common sparrow, the gold, and other finches, linnets, buntings, and
crossbeaks.
Four species of fly-catchers are peculiar to Europe, and five species of
shrikes. Ravens, crows, jays, and magpies are everywhere; the Alpine
crow and nutcracker are found in central Europe only. Compared with
America the starling family is poor, and the woodpecker race still more
so, yet we have six species, some of which are very beautiful. There is
only one cuckoo entirely European, the other two kinds only come
accidentally, and all are birds of passage. There are four species of
the pigeon tribe; the ringdove frequents the larch forests, and is
migratory; the stockdove also leaves us in October; the biset or rock
pigeon, supposed to be the origin from which the infinite variety of our
domestic pigeons has sprung, flies in flocks, and makes its flimsy nest
on trees and rocks; it is also found in the Da-ouria part of the Altaï
chain. Of gallinaceous birds there are many; the only native pheasant is
in the south-western parts of the continent; and the capercailzie,
extinct in the British forests, inhabits many parts of Europe; in
Scandinavia especially it is plentiful as far as the pine-tree grows,
which is nearly to North Cape, and also in the Russian forests. The
hazel grouse frequents the pine and aspen forests in central and
northern Europe, where the black cock also is plentiful. Five species of
grouse and six of partridges afford abundance of game; four of the
latter are confined to the southern parts of the continent, and so are
the sand and pentailed grouse, which form a separate family; the former
inhabits the sterile plains of Andalusia and Granada, and the latter the
stony uncultivated parts of France, southern Italy, and Sicily. The
Ortigis Gibraltarica is a peculiar bird allied to the grouse family,
found in the south of Europe only.
European waders are very numerous, and among them there are specimens of
all the genera; woodcocks, snipes, plovers, curlews, and grebes, are
very abundant, and herons of various species; three of them are egrets
or crested herons, and the common heron now assembles on the tops of
trees unmolested, since the progress of agriculture has rendered the
country unfit for hawking. Several cranes and storks, and two species of
ibis, are European: a species of flamingo is met with in the
south-eastern parts of the continent, and in the maremme on the east
coast of Italy. Many of the waders, however, migrate in winter. The
stork, so great a favourite in Holland that it is specially protected,
is a wanderer; it retires to Asia Minor, and on the return of summer
resumes its old nest on a chimney-top, breeding in both countries. About
139 species of European birds either live in the more elevated parts of
the Alps, or cross them in their annual migrations. They generally take
their flight by the great St. Bernard, the pass of St. Theodule, the
Simplon, and St. Gothard. Europe is particularly rich in web-footed
birds; there are three species of wild swans, four of wild geese, and
more than 30 of the duck tribe, including the inhabitants of the Arctic
seas.
BIRDS OF ASIA AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO.
European birds are widely spread over Asia; most of the Arctic sea-fowl
frequent its northern coasts: between 50 and 60 European birds are also
Siberian, and there are above 70 European species in Japan and Corea,
which probably are also inhabitants of Siberia and the Altaï Mountains,
and several are identical with the birds of North America; so that the
same affinity prevails in the feathery tribes of the Arctic regions as
in the vegetable productions.
Asia Minor is a country of transition, and many European birds are mixed
with those of warmer regions, as the Halcyon smyrnensis, a large bird
with gorgeous plumage, identical with the great Bengal kingfisher,
general throughout India. European birds also inhabit the Caucasus, the
shores of the Caspian Sea, and Persia. Moreover, these warmer climates
are the winter-quarters of various European species.
In Asia Minor, and especially in Armenia, the number and variety of
birds is very great; large eagles, vultures, falcons, buzzards, quails,
partridges, starlings, herons, storks, cranes, legions of Arctic grebes,
swans, wild geese, ducks, and pelicans, are natives of these countries;
besides singing-birds, the nightingale, the constant theme of the poet’s
song, abounds in Persia: hawks are trained for hunting deer in that
country, and the Asiatic partridges, or francolins, more vividly
coloured than ours, differ also in having beaks fitted for digging up
bulbous roots, which is their food in the deserts.
Farther east the types become more Indian; the great peninsulas on each
side of the Ganges are the habitations of the most peculiar and the most
gorgeous of birds. Many species, and some entire genera, of kingfishers
are here, of the gaudiest colouring; the plumage of the fly-catchers has
the richest metallic lustre; and the shrikes, of a sober hue with us,
are there decked in the brightest colours; the drongo has a coat of
ultramarine, and the calyptomene has one of emerald green.
The large-beaked climbing-birds are singularly handsome. The great green
parrot, so easily taught to speak, has inhabited the Indian forests and
the banks of the Ganges time out of mind, with a host of congeners of
every colour; not one species of these, or indeed of the whole parrot
tribe, is common to Asia, Africa, America, or Australia, nor even to any
two of these great continents. They are vividly coloured in India, but
the cuckoo tribe rivals them; several genera of these birds exist
nowhere else, as the large-beaked Malcahos, the Coucals with their stiff
feathers, and the Couroucous or Trogons, dressed in vermilion and gold;
the last, however, also inhabit other tropical climates.
Eastern Asia is distinguished by the variety of its gallinaceous birds
and the gorgeousness of their plumage. To this country we owe our
domestic fowls; and two species of peacock are wild in the woods of
India and Ceylon. The Polyplectron, the only bird of its kind, and the
Tragopons, are Indian; and some of the most brilliant birds of the East
are among the pheasant tribe, of which five species are peculiar to
China and Tibet. There are various species of the pheasant in the
Himalaya, and one whose feathers have a metallic lustre. The gold, the
silver, and Reeves’ pheasant, the tail-feathers of which are four feet
long, belong to China. The Lophophorus refulgens, and some others of
that genus, are altogether Indian.
The pigeons also are very splendid in their plumage; they mostly belong
to China and Japan; those in the Birman empire are green.
It would be vain to enumerate the fine birds that range in the forests,
or fish in the rivers, of the Asiatic continent, yet the birds of the
Indian Archipelago far surpass them in splendour of plumage; these
islands indeed are the abode of the most gorgeously arrayed birds in
existence. Even in Java and Sumatra, though most similar to India in
their winged inhabitants, there are many peculiar, especially 12 or 13
species of the climbing tribe, and several of the honey-sucking kind;
but the dissimilarity increases with the distance, as in New Guinea and
its islands, where the honey-sucking genera are developed in novel forms
and sumptuous plumage.
In the various islands of the archipelago there are altogether at least
15 genera, with their numerous species, found there only. There are the
Cassicans, which resemble jays, with plumage of metallic lustre; the
only two species of Pirolls, one bright violet, the other of brilliant
green; various species of Buceros with large horned beaks, Orioles of
vivid colours, the swallow that builds the edible nest, the most
numerous and splendid Sylvias, and all the species but one of the
Philedons or honey-sucking birds with tongues that end in a brush. Birds
of Paradise of many kinds inhabit New Guinea and the neighbouring
Moluccas and Aroo Islands. They are birds of passage, and change their
quarters with the monsoon. The king bird of paradise has two long
slender filaments from the tail, ending in a curled flat web of emerald
green, and the male of the green species has long flowing plumes from
the sides of his body, which give him a magnificent appearance. The
pigeons are peculiarly beautiful and numerous, but limited in their
abode. The Gouroa, or great crowned pigeon, the largest of its tribe, is
an inhabitant of Borneo. Each island has its own species of Louries,
which exist nowhere else; many peculiar paroquets and cockatoos,
couroucous or trogons, coucals, and the barbu, with huge beaks, are all
peculiar to these islands. Even the partridges have thrown aside their
grave colours and assumed the vivid hues of the tropics, as the green
and tufted Cryptonyx. But the other gallinaceous birds far surpass them,
as the fire and the Argus pheasant, and two or three species still more
splendid, with a host of other birds already known, and multitudes which
Europeans never have seen, in the deep jungles and impenetrable forests
of these unexplored islands. The Cassowary, a bird akin to the ostrich,
without the power of flying, but fleet in its course, has a wide range
in the Indian Archipelago and the south-eastern peninsula of Asia, and,
though destitute of beauty, is interesting from its peculiar location
and the character of the whole race.
AFRICAN BIRDS.
A great number of European birds are also inhabitants of Africa, and
many migrate there in winter, yet the birds of this continent are very
peculiar and characteristic; those in the north and north-east, and at
the Cape of Good Hope, are best known, but the greater part of tropical
Africa is still unexplored. It may be observed, generally, that the
tropical birds differ from those of north Africa, but are, with a few
exceptions, the same with those in the southern part of the continent,
and the whole of Africa, south of the desert, differs in species from
those of north and western Africa and from Europe. Moreover, there is a
strong analogy, though no affinity, between the birds of Africa and
America in the same parallels of latitude; there is not a single
perching bird common to the two, though some of the rapacious are in
both.
There are 59 species of birds of prey, of which a few are also European.
The Secretary-bird is the most singular of this order: it preys upon
serpents at the Cape of Good Hope, in Abyssinia, and other parts of the
continent. Africa possesses at least 300 species of the passerine order,
of which 10 genera, with all their species, are peculiarly its own. The
swallows are more beautiful than ours, especially the Cecropis striata,
with two tail-feathers twice as long as its body. Many kingfishers, the
most beautifully coloured of their brilliant race, frequent the lakes
and rivers: four species of Hoopoes, one of which visits Europe in
summer, are natives; and the honey-birds, the representatives of the
humming-birds of South America, are peculiarly African. They abound at
the Cape of Good Hope, where the nectaries of proteas and other plants
produce the sacccharine juice which is their food. The Malurus
Africanus, and many other singing-birds, for the most part unknown
elsewhere, inhabit the forests. The canary-bird is confined to the
Canary Islands; its song differs even in two adjacent districts: there
are, however, other instances of this. The Capirote, also indigenous in
the Canary Islands, is a finer songster, but it cannot be tamed. Various
shrikes are peculiar to Africa, but the species known as the grand
Baratra is confined to the Azores. There are several birds of the raven
tribe, or nearly akin to them: as the Lampratornis superba; another with
purple wings, the Buphaga, the only bird of its genus; and several
species of the Calaos. The weaving-bird, or Loxia textor, is one of the
most remarkable of the graminivorous tribe; it weaves its nest with
grass and twigs very dexterously; one brought to Europe wove a quantity
of thread among the wires of its cage, with great assiduity, into a
strong texture. The Widow-bird, the Calious, the blue bee-eater, and all
the fly-catching touracous, with many species of woodpeckers, are found
nowhere else. The parrots and paroquets, which swarm in the tropical
forests, from the size of a hen to that of a sparrow, are of original
forms. The Trogons, or Couroucous, the most beautiful of the
large-beaked climbing-birds, are the same as in Asia; but the Barbu and
the four species of Barbicans are altogether African, and so are some of
the cuckoos. Among the latter are two species of the Cuculus indicator,
so named from indicating where the bees have their nests; one is
peculiar to Abyssinia, the other to the interior at the Cape of Good
Hope; and mocking-birds are spread over a wide extent of this continent.
There are at least 13 species of African pigeons; and to Africa we are
indebted for the guinea-fowl, of which there are three or four kinds: it
wanders in flocks of hundreds among the brushwood on the banks of rivers
and lakes in Numidia and all the tropical regions, and they are even
more abundant in Madagascar. Many grouse and partridges are peculiar,
especially the Gangas, of which there are five species; some go in
coveys, and others traverse the deserts in flocks of many hundreds. The
sand-grouse, one of this family, is much more abundant on the arid
deserts of north Africa than in Europe; and the partridges of this
country are francolins, which feed on bulbous roots.
The Ostrich takes the wide range of Africa and Arabia; the bird of the
desert, and bustards, also wanderers in the plains, are numerous: the
most peculiar are the rhaad and the Otis kori, in south Africa, five
feet high, and remarkable for the brilliancy of its eye.
Waders of infinite variety inhabit the rivers, lakes, and marshes—
woodcocks, snipes, plovers, storks, cranes, herons, and spoonbills. The
most peculiar are the Dromes and Marabous, whose feathers form a
considerable article of commerce; the cream-coloured plover, the Scorpus
or ombrette, the water-treader of Abyssinia, and the Tantalus tribe,
among which is the ibis (Tantalus ibis), held sacred by the ancient
Egyptians, so frequently found in mummies in the catacombs, and
represented on their monuments.
Swimming-birds are no less numerous: the Bernicla cyanaptera is a goose
peculiar to Shoa; the rhynchops and pelicans, several of the duck kind,
or birds allied to them, are found nowhere else.
BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA.
Of 471 species of North American birds, about 100 are also found in
Europe, the greater number of which are water-fowl, and those common to
the northern coasts of both continents. The sea-fowl on the North
Pacific and Behring’s Straits are very much the same with those in the
Greenland seas and the North Atlantic, but the great Auk or penguin,
with featherless wings, still exists on the North Pacific, and the large
white albatross, seldom seen in the North Atlantic, frequents Behring’s
Straits and the western coasts of North America in immense flocks. It is
almost universal in the Pacific and in the stormy regions towards the
southern pole. Like the Mother-Cary’s-chicken, it is a bird of the
tempest, sailing calmly on its huge wings in the most tremendous gales,
and following a ship a whole day without resting on the waves: it is the
largest of winged sea-fowls; some measure 14 feet from tip to tip of the
wings.
There is no vulture common to the two continents, but there are five
eagles, half of the other birds of prey, a fourth part of the crow
tribe, several waders and web-footed birds which inhabit both; yet the
general character of North American birds is different from that of
European: 81 American generic forms and two families are not found in
Europe. The humming-birds are altogether American; only four species are
in North America; one of these is migratory, and another is common to
South America. The parrot family, distributed with generic differences
in almost all tropical countries, has but one representative here, which
lives in the forests of the Carolinas. Europe has nothing analogous to
these two families. It is singular that a country with so many rivers
and lakes should possess only one kingfisher. The woods are filled with
many species of creeping birds, and there are 68 peculiar species of
sylvias and fly-catchers; among others the Todus viridis, which forms a
genus by itself. Ravens, crows, pies, and jays abound, and there are 13
species of starlings. The finch tribe are very numerous, and there are
16 species of woodpeckers, as might be expected in a country covered
with forests. Of pigeons there are eight species, but individually they
are innumerable, especially the Columba migratoria, which passes over
Canada and the northern States in myriads for successive days twice in
the year. The poultry-yard is indebted to North America for the domestic
turkey, which there ranges wild in its native woods, and attains great
size. There are no partridges, properly speaking, and of 13 American
species of grouse, three are probably European, a family which exists in
every country under different forms. The vast expanse of water and
marshy ground makes North America the home of water-fowl and waders
without end. Most of the waders and graminivorous birds are migratory;
in winter they find no food north of the great lakes, where the ground
is frozen upwards of six months in the year. Many pass the winter in
California, as storks and cranes; wild geese cover acres of ground near
the sea, and when they take wing their clang is heard far off. Even
gulls and other northern sea-fowl come to the coasts of California, and
indeed to the shores of all the north and temperate Pacific.
It may be said generally that, with regard to the web-footed tribe,
North America possesses specimens of all the genera of the old world,
and many peculiarly its own. The table-land of Mexico has some peculiar
forms, and some species of swimming-birds found only in more northern
latitudes; but, except the Ampelidæ, there are representatives of every
group of North and South America.
BIRDS OF SOUTH AMERICA.
The tenants of the air in South America differ more from those in North
America than these do from the birds of Europe: there are not more than
50 or 60 species in common. South America has a greater variety of
original forms than any other country; more than 25 genera, with all
their species, inhabit that country only; of the passerine family alone
there are at least 1000 species, all peculiar to it. The vultures are of
different genera from those in Europe; the Condor of the Andes is the
largest of these; it frequents the highest pinnacles of the Andes in
summer, and builds its nest at the height of 15,000 feet and more above
the sea; and Baron Humboldt saw it wheeling in circles at the elevation
of 22,000 feet. It inhabits the Andes from the Straits of Magellan to 7°
N. lat., but it never crosses the isthmus of Panama, the condor of
California being a smaller bird. It roams over the plains of Patagonia
even to the mouth of the Rio Negro, and in winter it descends in groups
to feed on the plains and sea-shore; and, like all the vulture race, it
possesses the faculty of descrying a dead or dying animal from a very
great distance. Although the condor lives principally on dead animals
and carrion, it will sometimes attack live animals; its habits are those
of our ordinary vulture; much exaggeration has found its way into books
as to its size and ferocity; the most remarkable point in its history is
the great vertical extent in which it is known to live, from the level
of the sea, to an elevation of 22,000 feet. The Vultur papa, or king of
the vultures, an inhabitant of the tropical regions, is remarkable for
the bright blue and vermilion colour of the head and neck; the black
vulture lives in large assemblages on the tops of high trees in the
sylvas of Brazil; another numerous species prey on animals in the
llanos. Many other rapacious birds are peculiar to this continent; the
burrowing owl, so common in the Pampas and Chile, is one of these. The
Guachero forms a genus by itself; it is of the size of a common fowl,
with the form and beak of a vulture, and is the only instance known of a
nocturnal bird feeding on fruit. It is confined to a limited district in
the province of Cumana, and shuns the day; incredible numbers have taken
possession of a dark cavern in the valley of Caripe, where they are
killed in thousands every year by the Indians for their fat.
The Troupials represent our Orioles, the Baratras and Becardes our
shrikes, while the Tangaras partake of the form both of the shrike and
pie, which last, with all the rest of the crow family, have various
representatives in this country. Swallows, or birds allied to them, are
numerous, and many that live on the honeyed juice of flowers, like the
humming-bird, so peculiarly characteristic of South America: 150 species
of humming-birds, from the size of a wren to that of an humble-bee,
adorn the tropical regions of Brazil and Guiana. This family, so
entirely American, has a range from the Straits of Magellan to the 38th
parallel of N. lat.: it may be met with in the forests on the mountain
of Orizaba, at an elevation of 11,000 feet above the sea; and some
beautiful species of it at still greater heights in the Andes of Bolivia
and New Grenada. There is only one South American humming-bird which is
also permanent in the United States, and only two are found in Central
America: many of them are migratory; they come in multitudes to north
Chile in summer, and disappear in winter. The climbing-birds, with large
bills, are mostly confined to the tropical forests, which swarm with
peculiar races of parrots, paroquets, and macaws. It is a remarkable
circumstance in the distribution of birds that there should be 40
species of parrots in the torrid zone of America, and only three species
on the opposite coast of Africa, though the climate is similar and the
vegetation nearly as luxuriant. Parrots range from the Straits of
Magellan to the 42d parallel of N. lat.; where the Eider-duck, which is
a peculiarly Arctic bird, begins. There are whole families of birds in
tropical America not to be seen elsewhere: as the vividly-coloured
Toucan, with its huge beak; the Araucari, which lives on the fruit of
the Araucaria; some peculiar species of the gorgeous trogons or
couroucous; the Tomalias, birds related to the cuckoo tribe; and the
Jacmars, which represent the woodpeckers.
The gallinaceous family is totally different from that of the North
American forests; the Guan or penelope represents our pheasants, the
different species of Crax or Alectors the wild turkey, which they equal
in size and brilliancy of plumage; whilst the numerous species of
Tinamous and cognate genera fill the place of the grouse, quails, and
partridges of the old continent. South America furnishes two species of
gallinaceous birds of a very peculiar character—the Cariama of Brazil,
like to the secretary-bird of the Cape of Good Hope in its form and its
habits of destroying reptiles; and the Kamichi, which possesses one or
more sharp triangular spurs at the point of each wing, a dreadful
instrument of attack and defence, such as is possessed by no other bird.
The three-toed or American ostrich, or Struthio Rhea, ranges, like all
its congeners, over a wide extent of country. It is found from the
silvas of Brazil to the Rio Negro, which bounds the Pampas of Buenos
Ayres on the south, and in some of the elevated plains of the
Peru-Bolivian Cordilleras; while the Struthio Darwinii has the plains of
Patagonia to the Straits of Magellan for its residence.
The water-fowl and waders in this land of rivers are beyond number;
millions of flamingoes, spatules, cormorants, herons, fishing falcons,
and scissor-beaks, follow the fish that go up the rivers to spawn; nor
are gulls wanting where fish are to be found: a little snow-white heron
walks on the back and over the head of the crocodile while it sleeps.
The water-fowl are almost all peculiar; the few that are excepted are
North American. Eight or nine genera belonging to the warm climates of
the old world are here under new forms, and the number of specific forms
of the same genus is greater than in any other country. The beautiful
red Ibis or Tantalus ruber inhabits Cayenne; the Ardea helias and
scolopax are the most beautiful of the heron tribe, from their
variegated plumage.
Ducks migrate in immense flocks, alternately between the Orinoco and the
Amazons, on account of the greater supply of fish afforded by the floods
of these rivers, which take place at intervals of six months from each
other. Between the tropics the vicissitudes of drought and humidity have
much influence on the migration of birds, because the supply of their
food depends upon these changes.
If anything more were required to show the partial location of birds,
the Galapagos Archipelago might be mentioned: of 26 specimens shot by
Mr. Darwin, 25 were peculiar, though bearing a strong resemblance to
American types; some birds were even confined to particular islands; and
the gulls, one of the most widely dispersed families, are peculiar. But
on this comparatively recent volcanic group, only 500 miles distant from
the coast of America, everything is peculiar—birds, plants, reptiles,
and fish; and though under the equator, none have brilliant colours.
The coasts of Peru and northern Chile are not rich in birds, but in
southern Chile there are many humming-birds, parrots, flamingoes,
peculiar ducks and geese; and there commences that inconceivable
quantity of sea-fowl that swarm on the seas and coasts of the Antarctic
regions. The black scissor-bill, or Rhynchops nigra, has been seen to
form a dense mass seven miles long; shags fly in an unbroken line two
miles. Pelicans, terns, petrels, and many others, cover the low islands
and coasts of the mainland, and those of Tierra del Fuego.
In the Antarctic and Southern seas Petrels take the place of our gulls;
seven species of them inhabit these high southern latitudes in
prodigious numbers. Two remarkable species of this genus are found
throughout the Southern Ocean—the Giant Petrel (P. gigantea), equal to
the albatross in size, and resembling it in its mode of life—it
sometimes becomes perfectly white; and the Equinoctial Petrel (P.
equinoctialis), a beautiful bird as large as our domestic fowl, and of a
jet black colour. A flock of what was supposed to be the young of the
species known as the Pintado or Cape pigeon (Procellaria capensis) was
estimated to have been from six to ten miles long, and two or three
miles broad, absolutely darkening the air during the two or three hours
they were flying over the Discovery ships. The snowy petrel, a most
elegant bird, never leaves the ice, and consequently is never seen north
of the Antarctic circle in summer. Three species of the southern Penguin
(Aptenodytes) inhabit these seas; the A. Patachonica, the largest of
sea-fowls, is a rare and, for the most part, solitary bird, lives on the
pack ice, and weighs from 60 to 70 pounds. The other two species are
smaller and gregarious; they crowd the snow-clad islands in the high
southern latitudes in myriads; every ledge of rock swarms with them, and
on the shore of Possession Island, close to Victoria Land, it was
difficult to pass through the multitudes. They are fine, bold birds,
pecking and snapping with their sharp bills at those who venture among
them. They can scarcely walk, and, their wings being merely rudimentary,
they cannot fly; they skim along the snow, and swim rapidly, even under
water, resembling more a fish or a seal than a bird in their movements,
and the noise they make baffles all description. Two species of
albatross breed in the Antarctic islands; a kind of skua gull, which
robs their nests; and a goose which, like the eider-duck, makes its nest
with the down from its breast. A very curious bird, forming as it were a
passage between the gallinaceous birds and waders, the Chionis or
Vaginalis Alba, is only found near the southern extremity of this
continent: it is of a milky white, and of the size of our domestic
pigeon, and often takes refuge on the yards of ships off Cape Horn and
Staten Land; it lives chiefly on a small species of cuttle-fish. Few
land birds are met with within the Antarctic circle: there are but seven
or eight species in the Auckland Islands, mostly New Zealand birds;
among others, the tooa or tui, and an olive-coloured creeper, the
choristers of the woods. One only was found in Campbell Island.
Many generic forms are the same at the two extremities of the globe, yet
with distinct specific differences. Sea-fowls are more excursive than
other birds, but even they confine themselves within definite limits, so
that the coasts may be known from their winged inhabitants.
AUSTRALIAN BIRDS.
The Australian birds are, in many respects, as singular as the
quadrupeds and plants of that country: a white falcon is among its birds
of prey, a black swan among its water-fowl, and of 45 genera, 35 are
purely Australian. The passeres are so original, that many new genera
have been found. The Cassican, a handsome bird of bright colours,
approaching somewhat to the crow family, the Choucalcyon, the golden and
black oriole, and one species of Philedon, are peculiarly Australian.
The Menura superba, or lyre-bird, from the resemblance its outspread
tail bears to the form of the ancient lyre, is the only bird of its
genus, and the only one which approaches the character of the
gallinaceous family, of which none have been discovered in the
Australian continent. Here are many specific kinds of cuckoos, as the
Coucal and the Scythrops, the only bird of that genera. Woodpeckers
there are none. The parrots, paroquets, and cockatoos, which live in
numerous societies, are all peculiar, especially the black cockatoo,
which is found here only; it is not so gregarious, but even more
suspicious than the white cockatoos, which have a sentinel to warn them
of danger. Chious, with huge bills like the toucan satin-birds, pigeons
and doves of peculiar forms, abound; and the Cereopsis goose is no less
peculiar among the web-footed tribe. The desert plains of this great
continent are allotted to the Emu, a large struthious bird, like its
congener the cassowary incapable of flight, and once very plentiful, but
now in progress of being extirpated or driven by the colonists to the
unexplored regions of the interior.
The Apteryx, a bird of the same family, still lingers in New Zealand,
but it is on the verge of extinction, and probably owes its existence to
its nocturnal and burrowing habits. It is one of those anomalous
creatures that partakes of the character of several others; its head is
in shape something like that of the ibis, with a long slender bill,
fitted for digging into the ground for worms and grubs; its legs and
feet resemble those of the common fowl, with a fourth toe or spur
behind, in which it differs from its congeners; and its wings, if wings
they can be called, are exceedingly small. In a specimen, whose body
measured 19 inches, the wings, stripped of the feathers, were only an
inch and a half long, ending in a hard horny claw three inches long. The
comparatively small wings are characteristic of the whole family: the
rhea and ostrich have the largest, which, though unavailing in flight,
materially aid their progress in running; the wings of the emu and
apteryx serve only as weapons of defence: the whole tribe also defend
themselves by kicking. No animals have a more remarkable geographical
distribution than this family, or show more distinctly the decided
limits within which animals have originally been placed. These huge
birds can neither fly nor swim, consequently they could not have passed
through the air or the ocean to distant continents and islands. There
are five distinct genera, to each of which very extensive and widely
separated countries have been allotted: the Ostrich is spread over
Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the deserts of Arabia; two species
of the Rhea range over the plains of the Pampas and Patagonia, in South
America; the continent of Australia is the abode of the Emu; the
Cassowary roves over some of the large islands of the Indian
Archipelago; and the Apteryx dwells in New Zealand. The Dodo, a very
large bird of the struthious kind, extirpated by the Dutch navigators,
once inhabited Mauritius and the adjacent island of Don Rodriguez.
The remains of a very numerous group of extinct struthious birds have
been recently discovered imbedded in the very recent geological deposits
of New Zealand. One of its genera, the Dinornis, has several species,
the largest of which, the D. giganteus, attains a height of 11 feet, or
double that of the largest ostrich; another, the Palapteryx, upwards of
9 feet. From the position in which these bones are found, as well as
from their state of preservation, they can scarcely be considered as
fossil, although belonging to species which have become extinct.
Professor Owen has described no less than six species of dinornis, and
four of palapteryx; and later discoveries in the colony will probably
add several to these numbers. No better example can be cited as
elucidating the certitude of the deductions of the comparative anatomist
than what led to the first discovery of this extraordinary group of
birds. A small portion of a bone, which from its dimensions appeared to
have belonged rather to a quadruped of the size of an ox than to a bird,
was submitted to Mr. Owen; he boldly pronounced it, from its structure,
to belong to a bird of the ostrich kind—a decision that was soon
abundantly confirmed by the subsequent discovery not only of the bones
of the bird, but of its eggs.
The bones of another extinct bird, the Nestor, have been found, mixed
with those of the Dinornis. It had been something between an owl and a
parrot, but more nearly allied to the latter. There are two species
living of the nestor, one in New Zealand, another in Philip Island, only
five miles in extent, and it is found in no other part of the world. The
Notornis, an extinct race, closely allied to the water-hen, of the size
of a bustard, had also been an ancient inhabitant of these islands,
where birds did and do exist, almost to the entire exclusion of
quadrupeds and reptiles: an extinct species of dog, and a rat still
existing, are the only land animals which shared in these extensive
territories with multitudes of the feathered race.[182]
The ostrich family live on vegetables; the form of those that had their
home in New Zealand would lead to the conclusion that they had fed on
the edible roots of the fern which covers that country; and as no
quadruped excepting a rat is indigenous in New Zealand, though 700 miles
long, and in many places 90 wide, these birds could have had no enemy
but man, the most formidable of all.
The beautiful and sprightly Tui, or parson-bird, native in New Zealand,
is jet black with a white tuft on its breast, and so imitative that it
can be taught to repeat whole sentences. There are parrots and
paroquets, vast numbers of pigeons, fine warblers, many small birds, and
a great variety of water-fowl, amongst others a cormorant, which, though
web-footed, perches on the trees that overhang the streams and sea,
watching for fish; and a snow-white frigate-bird, that pounces on them
from a great height in the air. Altogether, there are at least 84
species of birds that inhabit these islands.