Genus Bernicla. Stephens, Cont. of Shaw’s Zool. XII. p. 45. (1824).
Bernicla leucopareia. (Brandt.)
Anser leucopareius. Brandt, Bulletin Acad., St. Petersburg, I., p. 37.
Desc. et Icones Animalium Rossicorum novorum. Aves, p. 13, pl.
2, (1836.)
Anser Hutchinsii. Richardson, Fauna Boreali Americana, Birds, p. 470?
(1831.)
“Anser canadensis. Brisson.” Pallas, Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, II.,
p. 230.
Form. Bill small, short, wide vertically at base; wing long, second
quill longest; tail short; legs short; toes moderate, fully webbed. A
protuberance on the edge of the wing near the shoulder. One of the
smallest of the species of this genus.
Dimensions. Total length, male (of skin) about 23 inches, wing 15, tail
5½ inches.
Colors. Head and neck glossy black; a large somewhat reniform patch on
each cheek, white, and a ring around the neck of the same (white) at the
termination of the black part. Entire upper parts fuscous, lighter on
the back, and with the feathers edged with paler and very dark, nearly
black on the rump; upper tail coverts white; quills and tail
brownish-black; secondaries edged outwardly with pale brown; breast and
abdomen glossy yellowish ashy, with transverse stripes of brown on the
sides; ventral region and under tail coverts, white; bill and feet dark;
under wing coverts and axillaries light ashy brown; the white ring
around the neck more or less interrupted behind; the white patches on
the cheeks separated by a narrow longitudinal band on the throat.
Hab. California. Russian America. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philad.
Obs. As stated in the preceding pages, this bird much resembles, if it
is not identical with, the species known as _Bernicla Hutchinsii_, from
which the most essential distinctive character is the white ring around
the neck. If identical, we have, at any rate, the gratification of being
the first to represent that species, in mature plumage. At present we
regard it as a distinct, though nearly allied bird.
The date of the publication of Prof. Brandt’s first description we have
not succeeded in ascertaining, not having access to the Bulletin of the
Academy of St. Petersburg. The reference to the volume and page we copy
from his own citation, in his work above quoted, in which, however, the
date is not stated.
THALASSIDROMA FURCATA.—(Gmelin.)
The Gray Storm Petrel.
PLATE XLVI. Adults.
The little birds of the group to which that now before the reader
belongs, are known to seamen, wherever the English language is spoken,
as Storm Petrels, or “Mother Carey’s Chickens,” and have too, a
reputation, not without a tinge of superstition, of being the harbingers
of the storm and of maritime disaster.
Of the many birds adapted by their organization to a life of adventure
on the ocean or its tributaries, and of which in fact during a large
portion of their lives they are almost as much inhabitants as fishes,
the Albatrosses and the Storm Petrels, or Mother Carey’s Chickens,
venture the most boldly. The birds of both these genera, though one
contains the largest and the other the smallest of marine birds, are
alike in this particular character, and are also alike known as
inhabitants of shores very remote from each other, and as wanderers over
immense extents of the ocean.
Boldly directing their course far out on the sea, like their gigantic
relatives the Albatrosses, our present little birds are frequently to be
met with in nearly all latitudes usually traversed by navigators, and
are generally tempted to remain for a time in the wakes of vessels, and
about them, by the fragments of food to be gleaned from refuse thrown
overboard. Flitting as it were before the gale, with it, the appearance
of these birds may readily be coincident, or premonitory of its coming,
thus acquiring, and perhaps in some degree justly, the attributed
character of precursors.
Several species of these birds are found on the coasts of the United
States. The most abundant and best known is Wilson’s Storm Petrel
(_Thalassidroma Wilsonii_), a bird which is perhaps to be regarded as
more nearly cosmopolite than any other, so extensive are its wanderings
over the surface of the ocean. It is of common occurrence throughout the
whole extent of the eastern shores of the continent of America, and it
has been repeatedly noticed and captured at various points on the coasts
of Europe and Africa, thus demonstrating a range over nearly the entire
Atlantic Ocean. In the Pacific also it is well known, though it is not
so abundant. Mr. Gould gives it as a bird of Australia; and the
naturalists of the United States’ Exploring Expedition in the Vincennes
and Peacock, record its appearance at various other points in the
Pacific Ocean.
[Illustration: Plate 46
The Gray Petrel
Thalassidroma furcata (_Gmelin_)]
The histories of this, and of other American species of Storm Petrels,
are perhaps as well known as those of the sea-birds generally, and much
that is interesting may be found in the articles on them in the works of
our predecessors in American Ornithology; but we cannot allow the
present occasion to pass without availing ourselves of the kindness of
our friend, Charles Pickering, M. D., of Boston, one of the naturalists
attached to the Exploring Expedition, and justly ranked with the most
eminent of American Zoologists.
With his characteristic liberality, Dr. Pickering has placed at our
disposal much valuable information relative to birds observed during the
voyage of the Expedition, especially on the western coast of North
America, and in other localities of interest, with reference to American
species. From his manuscript we copy the following in relation to
Wilson’s Petrel, which occurs under date of October 24th, 1838, and from
the latitude and longitude given, the nearest land was the coast of
Africa:
“A stormy Petrel taken, which proved to be _Thalassidroma Wilsonii_, and
although this species and others of its genus have been constantly seen
during the voyage of the Expedition, this is the first specimen that has
been captured without having been injured, thus affording whatever
facilities can be obtained on shipboard for observing its manners.
“I was rather surprised to observe that this bird was not only entirely
incapable of perching, but even of standing upright like birds in
general, and as I have seen birds of this genus represented, unless by
the aid of its wings. In standing, or rather sitting, the whole of the
_tarsus_ (commonly mistaken for the leg) rests on the ground, and it
walks in the same awkward position, frequently being obliged to balance
itself with its wings. By a more powerful exertion of its wings,
however, it was enabled to run along on its toes in the same manner as
it does over the surface of the waves. The absence of a hind toe, the
nails being but slightly bent and flat, and perhaps I may add, its
evidently being unaccustomed to this description of locomotion, seemed
to be the causes of its helplessness on its feet.
“These birds have been numerous about us for some days past, and their
coursing over the water with flitting wings remind me of the actions of
butterflies about a pool. One of them was seen swimming, or at least
resting, on the surface. We have seen this species very frequently,
indeed almost daily, since leaving America, and scarcely any other
sea-birds, except in the immediate vicinity of the islands. It would
seem that it scarcely ever visits the land, except for the purposes of
incubation, and there can hardly be a better comment on its untiring
power of wing than the popular fable amongst seamen that it carries its
egg and hatches its young while sitting in the water. It does not sail
in the continued manner of the gulls and some other sea-birds, but moves
by rapidly flexing its wings something like a bat, and was continually
coursing around and in the wake of the vessel, generally in considerable
numbers, during much the greater part of the time that the Expedition
was in the Atlantic Ocean.”
The curious fact that this bird cannot stand upright we do not remember
ever before having seen noticed. Of the specimen alluded to, Dr.
Pickering gives notes of a minute and evidently very careful anatomical
examination, which the limits of our present article will not allow us
to insert. They are, however, confirmatory, in most respects, of the
account of the anatomy of this species, given by Mr. Audubon, in
Ornithological Biography, V., p. 645.
The bird before the reader in the present plate is an inhabitant of the
Northern Pacific Ocean, and is an interesting addition to the
ornithological fauna of the United States, made by the naturalists of
the Exploring Expedition, under command of Captain Charles Wilkes, to
which we have previously alluded. Though long known as a bird of the
coasts of Asiatic Russia and of Russian America, it had never before
been noticed on the more southern coast of Oregon, where it was found in
large numbers by the Expedition, and specimens then obtained are now in
the National Museum at Washington.
This bird was first noticed by the celebrated Pennant, in Arctic
Zoology, Vol. II., p. 255, who called it the “Fork-tailed Petrel.” An
accurate description is given by him, but no further account of it than
merely stating “taken among the ice between Asia and America.” On the
faith of this description, Gmelin, in _Systema Naturæ_, as cited below,
gave the scientific name. Subsequently, Pallas mentions it as an
inhabitant of the coasts of Unalaschka and of the Kurile Islands. It is
also mentioned in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Sulphur, (London,
1844,) and very handsomely figured from specimens obtained at Sitka in
Russian America.
To the journal of Dr. Pickering we have again to acknowledge our
obligations for a notice of this bird. First recording its occurrence on
the 26th of April, 1840, at sea, the distance from the coast of Oregon
being about 200 miles, he subsequently mentions it under date of 29th of
the same month, as follows:
“In sight of the coast of Oregon. Great numbers of the gray
_Thalassidroma_ are to-day flitting around and in the track of the
vessel, very actively engaged in searching for particles of food thrown
overboard. Generally, this bird reminds us of _T. Wilsonii_, but the
wings seem longer, and its movements appear to be more rapid, and in
fact more like that of the larger Petrels, (_Procellaria_.) It
occasionally sails in its flight, but for the greater part moves by very
rapidly flexing its wings in the same manner as the species mentioned.
“These birds proved not difficult to capture, and several specimens were
taken with a hook and line. They would dive a foot or two after the
bait, and made use of their wings in and under the water, from which
they apparently had not that difficulty in rising observable in the
Albatrosses. Though their powers of swimming seemed rather feeble, they
alighted in the water without hesitation. The dead body of one of their
companions being thrown overboard, they clustered around it with as much
avidity as around any other food.
“The specimens obtained agree generally in color of plumage, being
nearly a uniform pale gray, with the abdomen sometimes paler or nearly
white, and generally showing a lighter bar across the wing, when
expanded. Uttered a faint note when taken on board.”
At present we have no further information relating to this interesting
species.