Color Key to North American Birds Part 10

[Ill.u.s.tration: 20.]

=20. Least Auklet= (_Simorhynchus pusillus_). L. 6.5. _Ads., summer._ No crest; sides of head with white feathers; above blackish; chin sooty; throat white; under parts white, marked irregularly with sooty.

_Winter._ Little or no sooty on breast. _Yng._ Similar to winter ad., but no white plumes.

Range.--"North Pacific, from Sitka and j.a.pan north to Bering Strait."

(A.O.U.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 21.]

=21. Ancient Murrelet= (_Synthliboramphus antiquus_). L. 10.5. _Ads., summer._ No crest; head and _throat_ black; broad white stripes behind eye; back gray; breast and belly white. _Winter._ Similar but throat white; no white head stripes. _Notes._ "A low plaintive whistle."

(Nelson.)

Range.--North Pacific, from southern Vancouver Island and j.a.pan northward; south in winter to Monterey, California; accidental in Wisconsin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 27.]

=27. Black Guillemot= (_Cepphus grylle_). L. 13. _Ads., summer._ Black; greater wing-coverts white, black at base; under surface of wings _white_. _Winter._ Above gray or black tipped with white; below white.

Range.--Coasts of northern Europe and North Atlantic; in America breeds from Knox Co., Maine north to southern Greenland; winters south to Quebec and Ma.s.sachusetts; rarely to Toronto, Connecticut, and Long Island.

=28. Mandt Guillemot= (_Cepphus mandtii_). Similar to No. 27, but bases of greater wing-coverts _white_.

Range.--Arctic regions; breeds from Labrador and Hudson Bay north to northern Greenland and northern Alaska; in winter migrates but little southward; no satisfactory United States record.

=29. Pigeon Guillemot= (_Cepphus columba_). Similar to No. 27, but inner surface of wings _sooty gray_. _Notes._ A squealing, vibrant whistle.

Range.--North Pacific; breeds from Santa Catalina Island north to Bering Strait, west through Aleutian Islands to Kamchatka and northern j.a.pan; winters in same region.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 30.]

=30. Murre= (_Uria troile_). L. 16; B. 1.7. _Ads., summer._ Above and neck sooty brown; under parts and tips of secondaries white; sides with blackish streaks. _Winter._ Similar, but throat white washed with sooty. _Notes._ A hoa.r.s.e _murre_ and squawking _a-r-r-r-r-r-rh_.

Range.--North Atlantic; breeds in North America from Bird Rock, Magdalen Islands, north to southern Greenland; winters south to Maine and, rarely, Ontario.

=30a. California Murre= (_U. t. californica_). Similar to No. 30 but larger, W. 8.2; B. 1.9.

Range.--North Pacific; breeds from Pribilof Islands south to Farallones; winters south to southern California.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 31.]

=31. Brunnich Murre= (_Uria lomvia_). Similar to No. 30, but bill shorter, 1.2. In summer, head and throat browner, lower mandible swollen at sides and grayish at base.

Range.--North Atlantic and eastern Arctic; breeds in North America from Bird Rock, Magdalen Islands, north to Greenland; winters south to New Jersey and along St. Lawrence to Lakes Champlain and Ontario, rarely to Lake Michigan.

=31a. Pallas Murre= (_U. l. arra_). Similar to No. 31, but larger; W.

8.6; B. 1.5. _Notes._ "A peculiar growling or hoa.r.s.e chattering note."

(Nelson.)

Range.--North Pacific; south to Kadiak and Kamchatka.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 32.]

=32. Razor-billed Auk= (_Alca torda_). L. 16.5. _Ads., summer._ Above sooty black, foreneck browner; tips of secondaries, line from bill to eye, and under parts, white. _Winter._ Similar, but foreneck white.

_Yng._ Similar to winter ad. but without eye line. _Notes._ A hoa.r.s.e grunt or groan.

Range.--North Atlantic; breeds from Bird Rock, Magdalen Islands, north to Greenland; winters south to Long Island and, rarely, to Ontario and North Carolina.

=33. Great Auk= (_Plautus impennis_). L. 29; W. 5.7. _Ads._ Above blackish; a large white spot before the eye; secondaries tipped with white; sides of neck and the throat seal brown; belly, white.

Resembling No. 32 in general appearance but body much larger; wing, however, _shorter_.

Range.--Formerly, the coasts and islands of North Atlantic, south on American side to Florida (in winter?); now extinct.

Order II. LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS.

LONGIPENNES.

Family 1. SKUAS and JAEGERS. Stercorariidae. 4 species.

Family 2. GULLS and TERNS. Laridae. 37 species, 1 subspecies.

Family 3. SKIMMERS. Rynchopidae. 1 species.

Skuas and Jaegers are pirates among the birds of the high seas. Bold and das.h.i.+ng, they pursue the swift flying Terns or much larger Gulls with equal success, forcing them to drop the fish they have captured and catching it ere it reaches the water.

Gulls (Subfamily _Larinae_) are usually considered so characteristic of the sea that 'Sea Gull' is the name popularly applied to all members of the subfamily to which they belong. Several species, however, are equally at home, both in the winter and when nesting, on the larger bodies of water in the interior, and one species is rarely or never found on our sea coasts.

Gulls nest on the ground, on drifts of marsh-gra.s.s, on cliffs, and one species, at least, among American Gulls (the Herring Gull) has as a result of persecution, acquired the habit of nesting in trees.

Gulls feed from the surface of the water, picking up their food with their strongly curved bills in pa.s.sing or while hovering, not by plunging into the water, as do the Terns. They are, in fact, the scavengers of the water, and perform a service of great value to mankind by devouring the bodies of various forms of aquatic animals which, in dying, come to the surface and, if cast ash.o.r.e, might, in decaying, prove a source of disease.

For this reason it was especially unfortunate that the plumage of these birds became fas.h.i.+onable for millinery purposes, with the result that thousands of them were destroyed for their wings and b.r.e.a.s.t.s. In this country, however, through the efforts of the American Ornithologists' Union and the Audubon Societies, laws have been pa.s.sed prohibiting the killing of these beautiful and useful birds, and wardens have been placed on their nesting grounds to protect them.

Gulls often rest in great flocks on the water, sitting high up and riding the waves buoyantly, but the Terns (Subfamily _Sterninae_), after they have acquired the power of flight, are rarely seen on the water. They are lighter, more active birds than the Gulls, with longer wings and tails, and sharper, more pointed bills. They feed largely on small fish (the species called silversides being a favorite) of no value to man, which they secure by darting from the air with great speed and directness. When looking for food, Terns usually fly with the bill downward, a habit which will aid in distinguis.h.i.+ng them from the Gulls, whose bill is carried in a line with the body.

Terns usually nest in large colonies on the beach of some isolated islet either on our sea coasts or in the interior. The nest is generally composed of a few wisps of sea-weed or gra.s.s, or the two or three eggs are not infrequently laid in a slight hollow in the sand or among the sh.e.l.ls and pebbles.

Like the Gulls, Terns have been slaughtered in enormous numbers for millinery purposes; but in this country, at least, effective efforts are now being made to preserve them.

Skimmers nest in numbers on our Atlantic Coast from Virginia southward, laying their four eggs in a slight depression in the sand.

In feeding, their mouth is held open and the longer, thin, lower mandible is dropped beneath the surface of the water, when, flying rapidly, they readily pick up food.

In young Skimmers, however, the two mandibles are of equal length and the lower mandible does not become appreciably longer than the upper one until the birds begin to fly. During the flightless period of the bird's life, the bill may be used to pick up food along the sh.o.r.e, but when the power of flight is acquired and with it ability to feed in the characteristic Skimmer manner, then the peculiar bill of these birds becomes fully developed.

The young of all the Gulls and Terns are born covered with down and can leave the nest a few hours after birth. The Noddy, however, is said to be several weeks in its stick nest, which, unlike other members of its group, it often builds in bushes.