Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
A single underscore introduces a subscript (CO_2), and a caret a
superscript (B^1).
Page numbers enclosed by curly braces (for example: {25}) have been
incorporated to facilitate the use of the Alphabetical Index and other page
references in the text.
* * * * *
THE
CAMBRIDGE NATURAL HISTORY
EDITED BY
S. F. HARMER, Sc.D., F.R.S., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge;
Superintendent of the University Museum of Zoology
AND
A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A., Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge; University
Lecturer on the Morphology of Invertebrates
VOLUME IX
[Illustration]
[Illustration: NORTH POLAR CHART. Scale of Nature 1 to 47,830,000.]
[Illustration: SOUTH POLAR CHART. Scale of Nature 1 to 95,660,000. (_Half
the scale of North Polar Chart_)]
BIRDS
By A. H. EVANS, M.A., Clare College, Cambridge
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1899
_All rights reserved_
In sicco ludunt fulicae.–VIRGIL.
Loons disport themselves on dry matters.
{v}PREFACE
In this volume of the "Cambridge Natural History" the author has attempted
to meet a need which he believes to be somewhat widely felt. Recognising
the fact that there is at the present time an abundance of popular, or only
slightly scientific, works on Birds, some of which touch but superficially
upon the individual species composing the various groups, as regards their
plumage or habits, while others pay little or no attention to correctness
of Classification, he has essayed the difficult and apparently unattempted
task of including in some six hundred pages a short description of the
majority of the forms in many of the Families, and of the most typical or
important of the innumerable species included in the large Passerine Order.
Prefixed to each group is a brief summary of the Structure and Habits; a
few further particulars of the same nature being subsequently added where
necessary, with a statement of the main Fossil forms as yet recorded.
Thus it is hoped that the work may be of real use, not only to the tyro in
Ornithology, but also to the traveller or resident in foreign parts
interested in the subject, who, without time or opportunity for referring
to the works of specialists, may yet need the aid of a concise account of
the species likely to cross his path.
An introductory chapter has been written, to meet the claims of the present
day, on the external and to a limited extent on the internal structure of
Birds, with short paragraphs on {vi}Classification, Geographical
Distribution, and Migration, and a "Terminology" of the subject.
In accordance with the scheme of the Series generally, the order followed
runs from the lowest forms and the Ratite Birds upwards; the Carinate Birds
being divided, after Dr. Gadow's plan, into two Brigades or main sections,
and these again into Legions, Orders, and so forth. It should, however, be
understood that the _Species_ of each Genus are often merely placed in the
most convenient order; and that, where a geographical range is given, it
does not follow that it is unbroken from end to end.
In descriptions of colour, the names used for tints in the British Museum
Catalogue of Birds have been commonly adopted, or for British species those
in Mr. Howard Saunders' _Manual of British Birds_.
Various subjects of a highly technical, or at least of a special character,
have purposely been avoided in the main, as unfitted to the scope of the
work; such are, Variation and Hybrids, with their accompaniments of
Dimorphism, Dichromatism, and the like; Myology; Mechanism of Flight and
the supposed Lines of Flight on Migration; the Classifications of Linnæus
and the older writers; and the Strickland Code of Ornithological
Nomenclature. For these Professor Newton's _Dictionary of Birds_, and
especially the Introduction to it, may be consulted; besides a multitude of
other works.
The woodcuts have been chiefly supplied by Mr. G. E. Lodge; but a few
illustrations have been utilized from other sources.
The author does not hold himself responsible for the fact of the Family
names being in Roman in place of Italic type, nor for the dissociation of
the vowels in the diphthongs; in these minor points he personally differs
from the writers of the former volumes, though he agrees with the wish of
his Editors for uniformity.
{vii}In conclusion, he must take the opportunity of acknowledging the
invaluable assistance afforded by Mr. Howard Saunders, who carefully went
over the whole of the proofs, while Dr. R. B. Sharpe was kind enough to do
the same; nor must he fail to record his indebtedness to Professor Newton,
Mr. Sclater, Dr. Gadow, Mr. Ogilvie Grant, and many others, not to mention
the innumerable authors without whose previous labours to write a book of
this description would be a well-nigh impossible task. Dr. Stejneger's
Volume on Birds in the _Standard Natural History_ should be mentioned in
particular.
A. H. EVANS.
CAMBRIDGE, _November 17, 1898_.
{viii}ADDENDUM
Since the text has been printed off, several new species have been
described, and of these it is necessary to mention at least the following;–
_Archaeopteryx siemensi_, from Solenhofen, where the original form was
obtained.–(Dames.)
_Euryapteryx exilis_ (Dinornithidae); a new genus, _Anomalornis_, is also
proposed for _Anomalopteryx_ (preoccupied).–(Hutton.)
_Ammoperdix cholmleyi_ (Phasianidae), from Suakin.–(Ogilvie-Grant.)
_Cepphus snowi_ (Alcidae), from the Kurile Is.–(Stejneger.) The range of
_C. columba_ will now be "Bering Sea to California;" and of _C. carbo_
"North-East Asia and Japanese Seas."
_Podoces pleskii_ (Corvidae), from East Persia.–(Zarudny.)
Some new fossil forms from Patagonia.–(Mercerat.)
Mr. F. E. Blaauw has published a Monograph of the Cranes, and Mr. C. W. de
Vis has described the eggs and young of _Salvadorina_ (Anatidae).
In all these cases the _Zoological Record_ for 1897 may be consulted.
{ix}CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
ADDENDUM viii
SCHEME OF THE CLASSIFICATION ADOPTED IN THIS BOOK xi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION 1