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diff --git a/75287-0.txt b/75287-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8e0da6 --- /dev/null +++ b/75287-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5344 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75287 *** + + + + + + BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA + + +[Illustration: 1. Gannet (flying over), Murres, Puffins, and Razorbilled +Auks.] + + + + + BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA + WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON THE OUTFIT AND METHODS OF THE BIRD + PHOTOGRAPHER + + + BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN + + ASSISTANT CURATOR OF VERTEBRATE ZOÖLOGY IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF + NATURAL HISTORY, AND AUTHOR OF HANDBOOK OF BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH + AMERICA, BIRD-LIFE, ETC. + +[Illustration: [Logo]] + + _WITH OVER ONE HUNDRED PHOTOGRAPHS FROM NATURE, BY THE AUTHOR_ + + NEW YORK + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + 1900 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1900, + BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + + + THIS BOOK + + IS DEDICATED TO + + MY WIFE, + + WHO, BOTH AT HOME AND AFIELD, IS EVER + + “MY BEST ASSISTANT.” + + + + + You have learnt from the Birds and continue to learn, + Your best benefactors and early instructors. + FRERE’S _Aristophanes_. + + + + + PREFACE + + +The practice of photographing birds in Nature is of too recent origin in +this country to permit of its being treated authoritatively. The methods +which may be employed are so numerous, the field to be covered so +limitless, that many years must elapse before the bird photographer’s +outfit will meet his wants, while the constantly varying details which +surround his subjects almost prohibit duplication of experience. + +But it is these very difficulties which render all the more imperative +the necessity of conference among workers in this fascinating and +important branch of natural history. The causes of both success and +failure should, through the medium of books and journals, be made +accessible to all, thereby shortening this experimental stage of the +study of birds with a camera, and hastening the day when the nature of +the outfit and methods shall have been settled with more or less +definiteness. + +It is as a contribution toward this end, and as a means of answering the +queries of numerous correspondents, that the following pages, embodying +the results of my own experiences, are offered. It is sincerely hoped +that they may increase the interest in the study of birds in Nature, and +at the same time furnish a more profitable and delightful outlet for the +hunting instinct than is afforded by the shotgun or rifle. + +A large proportion of the Bird Rock pictures and several of those from +Pelican Island have appeared in the Century and St. Nicholas +respectively, and are here reproduced by the courtesy of the editors of +those magazines; others have been previously published in Bird-Lore. + + FRANK M. CHAPMAN. + + AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, + NEW YORK CITY, _March, 1900_. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION 1 + What is bird photography?—The scientific value of bird photography—The + charm of bird photography. + + _THE OUTFIT AND METHODS OF THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER_ + THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER’S OUTFIT 6 + The camera—The lens—The shutter—The tripod—Plates—Blinds—Sundries. + THE METHODS OF THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER 26 + Haunts—Seasons—Nests and eggs—Young birds—Adult birds. + + _BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA_ + BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINS AT HOME 40 + THE CHICKADEE—A STUDY IN BLACK AND WHITE 47 + THE LEAST BITTERN AND SOME OTHER REED INHABITANTS 62 + TWO HERONS 76 + WHERE SWALLOWS ROOST 89 + TWO DAYS WITH THE TERNS 106 + PERCÉ AND BONAVENTURE 128 + THE MAGDALENS 146 + BIRD ROCK 152 + LIFE ON PELICAN ISLAND, WITH SOME SPECULATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF + BIRD MIGRATION 191 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + 1. Gannet, Murres, Puffins, and Razorbilled Auks _Frontispiece_ + _Tailpiece._ Young Baltimore Oriole 5 + _Initial._ Long-focus camera and telephoto lens 6 + 2. Lens test No. 1 14 + 3. Enlargement of the bird in test No. 1 15 + 4. Lens test No. 2 16 + 5. Enlargement of bird in test No. 2 17 + 6. Lens test No. 3 18 + 7. Enlargement of bird in test No. 3 19 + _Initial._ Young Great-crested Flycatcher 26 + 8. Spring 27 + 9. Summer 27 + 10. Autumn 28 + 11. Winter—four pictures (Nos. 8–11) from the same + point of view 28 + 12. Nest locality of five species 29 + 13. Nesting site, nest, and young of Marsh Hawk 30 + 14. Young Marsh Hawks and nest 31 + 15. Young Great-crested Flycatcher 32 + 16. Young Baltimore Orioles and nest 33 + 17. Wood Thrush on nest 34 + 18. Chestnut-sided Warbler on nest 35 + 19. Catbird scolding 37 + _Initial._ “Fairview” 40 + 20. House Sparrows and Junco 41 + 21. Junco 42 + 22. Female House Sparrow and nest 43 + 23. Screech Owl 44 + _Initial._ Chickadee 47 + 24. Chickadee on ground 49 + 25. Chickadee taking piece of bread 50 + 26. A bird in the hand 51 + 27. Chickadee at nest hole 54 + 28. Chickadee at nest hole 55 + 29. A Chickadee family 58 + 30. A Chickadee family 59 + _Initial._ Red-winged Blackbird 62 + 31. Least Bittern’s nesting site 64 + 32. Least Bittern’s nest and eggs 66 + 33. Least Bittern mimicking surroundings 67 + 34. Least Bittern mimicking surroundings 68 + 35. Young Red-winged Blackbirds 71 + 36. Least Bittern eating her eggs 73 + 37. Least Bittern on nest 74 + _Initial._ Where the Night Herons feed 76 + 38. Five Night Herons’ nests in swamp maple 79 + 39. A view in the Heron rookery 80 + 40. Night Heron feeding 81 + 41. Young Night Herons in nest 82 + 42. Young Night Herons leaving nest 83 + 43. Young Night Herons on branches 84 + 44. Great Blue Heron, nests and young 88 + _Initial._ Tree Swallows on wires 89 + 45. Hackensack marshes in August 91 + 46. Marsh mallows 93 + 47. Wild rice 94 + 48. Tree Swallows on wires 97 + 49. Tree Swallows in tree 100 + 50. Tree Swallows on wire and at pile 102 + 51. Swallows in the road 104 + _Initial._ A corner of Penikese 106 + 52. Nesting site, nest, and three eggs of Common Tern 110 + 53. Tern hovering above nest 111 + 54. Nest and eggs of Tern on upland 112 + 55. Tern’s nest and eggs in drift _débris_ 113 + 56. Young Tern hiding on rocky beach 114 + 57. Young Tern hiding in the grass 115 + 58. Tern alighting on nest 116 + 59. Tern on hillside nest 117 + 60. Tern’s nest and hatching eggs in seaweed 118 + 61. Tern about to feed young 119 + 62. Tern brooding young 120 + 63. Tern on beach nest 121 + 64. Tern on beach nest 121 + 65. Tern on upland nest 122 + 66. Young Terns about four days old 123 + 67. Young Tern about a week old 124 + 68. Young Tern, second plumage appearing 124 + 69. Young Tern, further advance of second plumage 125 + 70. Young Tern, stage before flight 126 + _Initial._ A Percé codfisher 128 + 71. Percé Rock from the north 131 + 72. Percé Rock from the southeast 134 + 73. Splitting cod on Percé beach 136 + 74. Young Savanna Sparrow 137 + 75. Gannet cliffs of Bonaventure 140 + 76. Cornel or bunchberry 142 + 77. A ledge of nesting Gannets 144 + _Initial._ Grosse Isle 146 + 78. Nest and eggs of Fox Sparrow 148 + 79. Young Guillemots 150 + _Initial._ The Bird Rock light 152 + 80. Bird Rock from the southwest 153 + 81. North side of Bird Rock 156 + 82. A corner of the Rock 160 + 83. The landing at the base of the Rock 164 + 84. The landing on top of the Rock 165 + 85. Kittiwakes and young on nests 168 + 86. The lighthouse, keeper’s dwelling, and other + buildings 169 + 87. Razorbilled Auks and “Ringed” Murre 170 + 88. Puffins 172 + 89. Murre’s egg 174 + 90. Young Murres and egg 175 + 91. Kittiwakes and young on nests 176 + 92. Entrance to Puffin’s burrow 177 + 93. Puffin’s nest and egg 178 + 94. Young Puffin on nest 179 + 95. Leach’s Petrel on nest 180 + 96. Young Leach’s Petrel with nesting material 181 + 97. Young Gannet 182 + 98. Gannets 183 + 99. Gannets on nests 186 + 100. Gannet on nest 188 + _Initial._ Young Pelicans in nest tree 191 + 101. Pelicans on ground nests 197 + 102. Interviewing a group of young Pelicans 198 + 103. Among the Pelicans 199 + 104. Head and pouch of Pelican 200 + 105. Pelican’s pouch from above 201 + 106. Newly hatched Pelicans and nests 206 + 107. Young Pelican in tree nest 208 + 108. Young Pelican, downy stage 209 + 109. Young Pelican, wing quills appearing 211 + 110. Young Pelicans, stage preceding flight 212 + + + + + BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA + + WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON THE OUTFIT AND METHODS OF THE BIRD + PHOTOGRAPHER + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +_What is Bird Photography?_—Bird photography, as I would encourage its +practice, does not mean simply photographing birds; it means the use of +the camera as an aid in depicting the life histories of birds. A picture +of the bird itself is, of course, of the first importance, but any fact +in its biography which the camera can be employed to portray is within +the province of bird photography. + +_The Scientific Value of Bird Photography._—There are certain matters, +such as a bird’s song, its time of migration, etc., which must be set +forth with the pen; there are others, such as its haunts, nesting site, +nest, eggs, the appearance and development of its young, where the +camera is so far ahead of the pen in its power of graphic representation +that it is a waste of time to use the former when circumstances permit +the utilization of the latter. + +A photograph of a marsh or wood showing the favorite haunts of a species +is worth more than pages of description. A picture of a bird’s nesting +site conveys a better idea of the situation than words can possibly +give, while in place of such vague phrases as “nest of coarse grasses, +weed stalks, rootlets, etc., lined with finer materials,” we have a +faithful delineation of the nest itself. The shape and pattern of +markings of the eggs may also be well shown with the camera, while the +appearance of the young at birth, their development, and often the +manner in which they are fed, may all be portrayed by the camera with a +realism which convinces one of the truthfulness of the result. + +By the exercise of much patience and ingenuity we may also photograph +the adult bird, showing it at rest or in motion, brooding its eggs or +caring for its young. Under favorable conditions such pictures may +possess an exactness of detail which makes them perfect representations +of the original, giving not alone position and expression, but the +arrangement of the feathers, and they then have scientific value +unequaled by the best productions of the artist’s brush or pencil. + +From the nature of the case, perfection in this branch of bird +photography is not always attained; nevertheless, even pictures which +are failures from a photographic standpoint may be of interest to the +naturalist. They may be lacking in detail and still give pose, thus +furnishing models from which drawings containing all structural +essentials may be made. + +The camera may also supply us with graphic records of the few large +colonies of birds yet existing in this country, thereby preserving for +all time definite impressions of conditions which are rapidly becoming +things of the past. + +What an invaluable addition to the history of the Great Auk would be a +series of photographs from Funk Island, taken during the period of its +existence there! + +Of what surpassing interest would be photographs of the former flights +of Wild Pigeons, which the younger generations of to-day can with +difficulty believe occurred! + +_The Charm of Bird Photography._—As a onetime sportsman, who yielded to +none in his enjoyment of the chase, I can affirm that there is a +fascination about the hunting of wild animals with a camera as far ahead +of the pleasure to be derived from their pursuit with shotgun or rifle +as the sport found in shooting Quail is beyond that of breaking clay +“Pigeons”. Continuing the comparison, from a sportsman’s standpoint, +hunting with a camera is the highest development of man’s inherent love +of the chase. + +The killing of a bird with a gun seems little short of murder after one +has attempted to capture its image with a lens. The demands on the skill +and patience of the bird photographer are endless, and his pleasure is +intensified in proportion to the nature of the difficulties to be +overcome, and in the event of success it is perpetuated by the +infinitely more satisfactory results obtained. He does not rejoice over +a bag of mutilated flesh and feathers, but in the possession of a +trophy—an eloquent token of his prowess as a hunter, a talisman which +holds the power of revivifying the circumstances attending its +acquisition. + +What mental vision of falling birds can be as potent as the actual +picture of living birds in their homes? And how immeasurably one’s +memories are brightened by the fact that this is not a picture of what +has been but of what is! + +The camera thus opens the door to a field of sport previously closed to +those who love birds too much to find pleasure in killing them; to whom +Bob-White’s ringing whistle does not give rise to murderous speculations +as to the number in his family, but to an echo of the season’s joy which +his note voices. They therefore have a new incentive to take them out of +doors; for however much we love Nature for Nature’s sake, there are few +of us whose pleasure in an outing is not intensified by securing some +definite, lasting result. + +We are not all poets and seers, finding sufficient reward for a hard +day’s tramp in a sunset glow or the song of a bird. Enjoy these things +as we may, who would not like to perpetuate the one or the other in some +tangible form? + +And here we have one of the reasons for the collecting of birds and eggs +long after the collector’s needs are satisfied. He goes on duplicating +and reduplicating merely to appease the almost universal desire to +possess any admired although useless object. Once let him appreciate, +however, the pleasure of hunting with a camera, the greater skill +required, and the infinitely greater value of the results to be +obtained, and he will have no further use for gun, climbing irons, and +egg drill. + +Furthermore, the camera hunter possesses the advantage over the +so-called true sportsman, in that all is game that falls to his gun; +there is not a bird too small or too tame to be unworthy of his +attention; nor are there seasonal restrictions to be observed, nor +temptations to break game laws, but every day in the year he is free to +go afield, and at all times he may find something to claim his +attention. + +Finally, there is to be added to the special charm of bird photography +the general charm attending the use of the camera. Thousands of people +are finding pleasure in the comparatively prosaic employment of +photographing houses, bridges, and other patiently immovable objects +wholly at the camerist’s mercy. Imagine, then, the far greater enjoyment +of successes not only of real value in themselves, but undeniable +tributes to one’s skill both as photographer and hunter. + +Nor should this introduction be closed without due acknowledgment to the +educational value of photography, to its power to widen the scope of our +vision, and to increase our appreciation of the beautiful. There is a +magic in the lens, the ground glass, and the dark-cloth which transform +the commonest object into a thing of rarest interest. + +[Illustration: [Bird]] + + + + + THE OUTFIT AND METHODS OF THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER + + + THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER’S OUTFIT + +The beginner must not suppose that good bird photographs can be made +only with expensive apparatus. Under favorable conditions there is no +great difference in the results secured with the ordinary camera and +lens of any reputable maker and those of the highest class. My own work +has for the greater part been done with an outfit costing about thirty +dollars; and although the best lens is, of course, to be desired it is +not a necessity, and cost therefore is no more an obstacle to the +hunting of birds with a camera than it is to their pursuit with a gun. + +_The Camera._—Individual taste will doubtless govern the size of the +camera chosen, but most naturalists and sportsmen consider the camera +carrying a plate four by five inches as the one best adapted to their +wants, and with this decision I heartily agree. The advantages of size, +weight, and economy, both as regards the camera, its holders, and +plates, are all in favor of the 4 × 5, while as far as the bird +photographer is concerned, it is not often that he has need of anything +larger. The image of a bird will rarely be without adequate setting in a +space four by five inches, which will also be found to be large enough +for the portrayal of nests and eggs. + +The 4 × 5 also reduces proportionately in making lantern slides, and if +the picture is made the long way of the plate—that is, higher than +broad—it can be easily adapted for illustrative purposes in duodecimo or +octavo books. When a larger picture is desired it can readily be made by +enlargement, an increase in size of three diameters, or six times the +area, being possible from a sharp negative without undue loss of +definition. + +For use from a tripod any one of the several excellent long-focus +cameras now on the market will be found to answer every requirement. If +it is proposed to employ a telephoto lens, care should be taken to +select the camera combining greatest bellows length with rigidity. A +reversible back increases the size somewhat but adds to the length of +bellows, and will be found serviceable in the many awkward situations in +which the bird photographer is often placed by the nature of his +subjects. + +The Kearton brothers have an “adjustable miniature” on the top of their +camera, which they state “is used as a sort of view finder when making +studies of flying birds. When fixed in position and its focus has been +set exactly like its working companion beneath it, both are racked out +in the same ratio by the screw dominating the larger apparatus.”[A] The +purposes of this attachment, however, will, it seems probable, be better +served by the reflecting camera described below, while as a finder alone +its place may be taken by the “iconoscope” and other of the prism +finders, the brilliant image cast by which is such a striking and +satisfactory improvement on the hazy outlines given by the average +so-called “finder.” + +Footnote A: + + From Wild Life at Home, how to Study and Photograph It, by R. Kearton, + illustrated by C. Kearton; a work of the utmost interest to the animal + photographer, who should also read With Nature and a Camera, by the + same authors (Cassell & Co.). + +For use as a hand-box only two kinds of camera are available, for it +must be borne in mind that the set-focus or short-focus, wide angle +“snap-shot” cameras, so popular among the button-pressing fraternity, +are not adapted to the wants of the bird photographer, who must +therefore avail himself of either a twin-lens or a reflecting camera. + +Twin-lens cameras are manufactured by several well-known firms, but the +trade size is of too short focus to be desirable. In this type of camera +two lenses of equal foci are employed. They are set one above the other +in bellows, which move as one. The lower lens makes the picture, the +upper projects a duplicate of the image cast by the lower lens to a +mirror set at an angle of forty-five degrees to the plane of the plate, +whence it is reflected upward to a ground glass, which is protected by a +hood, on top of the camera. + +To focus perfectly the lenses should be “matched” or “paired”—in short, +interchangeable—thereby greatly increasing the cost of the camera, which +is also rendered objectionable by its large size. + +The reflecting camera possesses all the advantages of the twin-lens, but +requires only one lens, and when in use is not materially larger than +the ordinary 4 × 5 long-focus box. + +The reflecting camera now in my possession was designed and made by John +Rowley, of the American Museum of Natural History, and was fully +described and illustrated by him in Bird-Lore for April, 1900. It +resembles the upper half of the twin-lens camera in that a mirror, set +at an angle of forty-five degrees to the plate, is interposed between +the latter and the lens, and reflects its image to a ground glass on top +of the camera. This mirror, however, is movable, and the desired object +appearing in focus on the ground glass, a lever is pressed downward +which raises the mirror to the top of the box, where it automatically +releases a focal-plane shutter (see beyond, under The Shutter) directly +in front of the plate, when the image-bearing rays, before intercepted +and reflected by the mirror, are registered on the plate, from which the +slide had previously been drawn. + +When the focal-plane or curtain shutter has been set and the slide drawn +from the plate holder, this camera is like a cocked gun, which may be +fired the moment it is sighted; or, in other words, the exposure may be +made the instant focus is secured. With this camera one may take +advantage of any offering opportunity to secure a picture of a bird or +beast when afield, and this fact, by increasing the possibilities of an +outing, adds greatly to its pleasure. + +Mr. Rowley has so designed this camera that it may be used from a tripod +as well as in the hands; but when the tripod camera is to be left, +perhaps for hours, hidden near some bird’s nest, I prefer to employ the +long-focus for this purpose, and retain the reflecting camera for +possible use on the birds that so often approach closely when one is in +hiding. The advantages possessed by this camera are so apparent that it +doubtless will soon be placed on the market. + +_The Lens._—Professional photographers differ so widely in their +opinions of the relative qualities of the various makes of lenses now on +the market, that I approach this subject with diffidence, and, without +presuming to offer advice, present the results of my experience both as +to lenses and the requirements of the bird photographer. In regard to +the latter phase of the much-discussed question of “What lens shall I +use?” I may speak with more confidence. For nests with eggs or young +birds—subjects which may be approached closely—a six- to +eight-inch-focus lens forms a large enough image, and at the same time +gives depth of focus and sharpness of definition without the use of the +smaller diaphragms. In photographing birds, however, it is generally +difficult to get within “shooting” distance, and at least a fourteen- to +sixteen-inch lens is needed in order to secure an image of sufficient +size. Depth of focus is here, in my opinion, not desirable, and the +focal point—the bird—is brought out more clearly by the fusion of all +the objects back of it into a uniform background. + +When a bird, either young or old, is the subject, great speed may be +required, and sometimes under light conditions which severely test the +qualities of the lens. To fully meet these demands of distance and time +two lenses would be needed; but, aside from the increased cost and the +inconvenience of using two lenses, the great size and weight of a +long-focus lens are drawbacks. These objections are largely overcome by +the use of the symmetrical lenses placed in most of the long-focus +boxes, or, if expense be not considered, by a “convertible” lens. + +For several years I have used a “Victor” lens, sold with the “Premo” +long-focus camera. The combined focus of the front and back lenses is +seven and a half inches, of either of the lenses alone, fifteen inches. +The single lens therefore, the distance being the same, gives an image +double the size of that cast by the two lenses together. + +This lens has been thoroughly tested, and many of the pictures given in +this book were made with it. When the conditions are favorable and the +subject not extremely difficult it yields satisfactory results. + +The “convertible” lenses of various makers are also separable, and where +the rear and front lenses are of different foci three focal lengths are +obtainable. These lenses are of the highest grade, and consequently +expensive. In a bright light, or where great speed is not required, they +do not seem to be as superior to the trade lens as the much higher price +would lead one to expect. But in dull days, or in the shadow, or where +extremely rapid exposures are necessary, their superior qualities become +evident. My experience with these convertible lenses has been limited to +the Zeiss Anastigmat, Series VII _a_, of which I am now using a No. 10 +with a combined focus of eight inches, the front and rear lenses both +having a focal length of fourteen inches. This combination is preferred +to one in which the component lenses are of different foci, because of +the greater speed of the two when combined, and furthermore, because, +being of the same focus, they could, if occasion arose, be used in a +twin-lens box. The speed of the combination is registered at F. 6.3; +that of the single lenses at 12.5. With the former the most rapid +exposures can be made successfully, while the latter are sufficiently +fast to permit of ordinary instantaneous work. This lens is stated to +cover a 5 × 8½ plate, and when in use on a 4 × 5 camera gives a high +degree of illumination and perfect definition. + +The telephoto lens may be employed in certain kinds of bird photography +with not unsatisfactory results. Its disadvantages are lack of speed, an +exposure of at least one half a second to a second being required at F. +8 in bright sunlight, the necessity of extreme care in focusing, and of +absolute rigidity of the camera at the time of making the exposure. In +short, the telephotographer needs more time, both before and after +pressing his bulb, than the bird photographer is often accorded. +However, with such subjects as nests high in trees or on cliffs, Herons +and other shore-inhabiting birds, Ducks on the water or Hawks perched in +leafless trees, the telephoto will be found serviceable. + +Negatives are frequently secured in which the figure of the bird, while +small, is sharp, when, by enlargement, a desirable picture can be made +of what in the original was too small to be easily distinguishable. An +increase in size of two diameters is possible from any fairly sharp +negative, but if the object be in perfect focus an increase of four +diameters may be made. + +These enlargements may be made with an enlarging camera or with the aid +of a Nehring enlarging lens, which is placed between the front and back +lenses of the view lens, when, with the ordinary long-focus camera, a +magnification of about four diameters may be obtained, the image being +thrown on to a piece of bromide paper in the plate holder. + +Through enlargement many apparently worthless negatives become of value, +and in some instances pictures can be made from different parts of the +same negative. From the sportsman-photographer’s standpoint there is, +however, one objection to the use of a magnifying lens. It gives +deceptive results, and those who are not familiar with its powers are +apt to accord the photographer undue praise for his apparent skill in +successfully approaching some bird or beast which may have been far out +of range. A not wholly unrelated kind of enlargement is sometimes +applied to the contents of creels and game bags! + +But the animal photographer is so heavily handicapped that in this case +the end assuredly justifies the means. As a matter of information, +however, it seems eminently desirable to accompany all enlarged pictures +by a statement of the extent of their magnification, and throughout this +book this plan is followed. Consequently, when there is no mention of +enlargement, it may be accepted as a fact that the print from which the +reproduction was made was obtained from the negative by contact. + +In illustration of these suggestions in regard to the proper lenses for +bird photography, a series of pictures is presented which shows the +results to be obtained under the same conditions with different lenses. + +[Illustration: 2. Lens Test No. 1. Mounted Flicker on fence post, +distance fifty feet. Eight-inch focus, Zeiss Convertible, No. 10, Series +VII _a_ lens; diaphragm F. 8, ¹⁄₂₅ second; Cramer “Crown” plate. +Photographed at noon, in sunlight, November 30, 1899.] + +[Illustration: 3. The bird in Test No. 1 enlarged about three +diameters.] + +Placing a mounted Flicker (_Colaptes auratus_) on a fence post, and +setting up my tripod at a measured distance of fifty feet, a series of +test exposures was made, of which three are presented as follows: +First,^2 eight-inch lens (Zeiss Convertible Series VII _a_, No. 10), +stop F. 8, time ¹⁄₂₅ second; second,^4 fourteen-inch front lens of the +combination, stop F. 16 (equivalent to F. 4 of the eight-inch); third,^6 +telephoto attachment with eight-inch lens, twenty-one-inch bellows, stop +F. 8 of the eight-inch, time one second. Commenting on the results of +these tests it may first be mentioned that in the “Unicum” shutter +employed exposures of a so-called “¹⁄₁₀₀” and “¹⁄₂₅” seconds gave +exactly the same results both with the combined eight-inch lens and the +front fourteen-inch lens; the actual time, however, was doubtless not +far from ¹⁄₂₅ of a second. The negatives, therefore, show, in the first +place, that the long-focus lens is capable of doing fairly rapid work. +Continuing our comparison, we observe that the eight-inch gives a fairly +wide field, excellent depth of focus, but a very small image of the +bird, for which alone the picture has been made. With the fourteen-inch +we decrease the extent of the field nearly one half and almost double +the size of the object pictured. This, however, has been done at the +loss of depth of focus, not even the first of the line of posts running +directly into the background being sharply defined, while with the +eight-inch all are in focus. + +[Illustration: 4. Lens Test No. 2. Same subject, distance, plate, and +date as Test No. 1. Front lens (fourteen-inch focus) of Zeiss +Convertible, No. 10; diaphragm F. 16; ¹⁄₂₅ second.] + +[Illustration: 5. The bird in Test No. 2 enlarged about three +diameters.] + +The telephoto gives an enlargement of about six diameters of the image +thrown by eight-inch lens, and three diameters increase of that of the +fourteen-inch lens. It practically restricts the picture to the +immediate surroundings of the bird, and is without focal depth. + +[Illustration: 6. Lens Test No. 3. Same subject, distance, plate, and +date as Tests Nos. 2 and 3. Eight-inch Zeiss Convertible, Series VII +_a_, No. 10, with telephoto attachment; diaphragm F. 8; twenty-one-inch +bellows; one second (½ second was later found to be full time).] + +Having now made three good negatives in the field, we may, by +enlargement, improve on the image of the bird obtained. The +possibilities in this direction are clearly shown by the three +enlargements accompanying the contact prints from their respective +negatives. In each instance the enlargement is about three diameters, +and the telephoto negative of course furnishes the most satisfactory +picture. When the difficulties of telephotography are considered, +however, and the ¹⁄₂₅-second exposure of the fourteen-inch lens, which +permits of hand work, is compared with the one second of the telephoto, +we believe that for general work in photographing birds a lens having a +focal length of at least fourteen inches will be found the most +satisfactory. It should be added that, in order to make them wholly +comparable, the three contact prints as well as the enlargements were +made on enameled bromide paper. + +[Illustration: 7. The bird in Test No. 3 enlarged about three +diameters.] + +_The Shutter._—For fairly rapid, slow, and time exposures, a lens +shutter, such as is sold with trade cameras, will be found suitable. +Simplicity and noiselessness are the chief requirements in this kind of +a shutter. The “Iris Diaphragm” shutter is noiseless when used for slow +exposures of two or three seconds, a matter of much importance in making +time pictures of sitting birds, who are apt to turn their head if they +hear the click of the shutter. This shutter, however, does not respond +quickly in slow exposures and is very heavy, a disadvantage in +telephotography. + +The “Unicum” shutter is lighter, responds quickly, has a lever to which +a thread may be attached for making exposures from a distance, can be +easily diaphragmed from the rear, but is not wholly noiseless. There are +also other shutters, each possessing good points of its own, and the +selection of any one of them for use in medium rapid, slow, or time work +can be left to the photographer, who should, however, remember that the +time scales on these shutters represent degrees of difference and not +exact measurements of time, and that there is great variation in the +exposures of different shutters of the same make when similarly +adjusted. Thus the “one fifth of a second” of one shutter may be +equivalent to the “one second” of another. The scale on most of these +shutters calls for a speed not exceeding a ¹⁄₁₀₀ part of a second, but +this is far too slow an exposure to successfully photograph a flying +bird at short range where a speed of at least ¹⁄₅₀₀ of a second is +required. + +For very rapid work the choice is limited to one kind of shutter—that +is, the focal-plane, which in effect is a curtain with an adjustable +slit which is placed directly in front of the plate. Great speed with +this shutter is in part secured by increasing the tension of the spring, +which acts as its motive power, but more particularly by decreasing the +width of the slit. Assuming, therefore, that it takes one second for the +slit to pass from top to bottom of a plate four inches high, and that +the slit is one inch in width, it follows that each portion of the plate +is exposed to the light for a quarter of a second. Decreasing the width +of the slit one half, proportionally reduces the time of the exposure, +and by this means, in connection with an increase in the speed with +which the curtain is moved, an exposure of ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of a second is +possible. + +In addition to possessing the advantage of great speed, this shutter +also passes a higher percentage of light than a lens shutter even when +the actual time of the so-called exposure is the same. This is due to +the fact that the lens opening is in no way affected, it being the same +throughout the exposure. With a lens shutter, on the contrary, the full +value of the opening is given for only a fractional part of the +exposure, the parts of the shutter more or less filling the opening +during the rest of the time. With a focal-plane shutter, therefore, one +may do rapid work under conditions where a lens shutter could not be +successfully employed; time exposures, however, can not be made with the +focal-plane shutter, and for all-around work the camera should be fitted +with both a lens and a focal-plane shutter. + +The reflecting camera, as before stated, is fitted with a focal-plane +shutter, and, as described, it is released by pressing the lever, which +raises the mirror. Lens shutters, however, are released by a pneumatic +bulb, or in some cases by a thread or string. When the exposure is to be +made from a distance as much as one hundred feet of tubing may be +employed. With any length of over twenty-five feet an extra large bulb +is required. The ordinary tubing sold by photographers will not be found +so well adapted to long-distance work as a less elastic kind, which does +not so readily yield to pressure and transmits a larger portion of the +force applied when squeezing the bulb. + +_The Tripod._—A stout two-length tripod is to be preferred to one of the +slender multifolding type, in which stability is sacrificed to weight +and size. The legs, except the inner sides of the upper section into +which the lower section slides, and brass work should be painted bark +color in order to make them as inconspicuous as possible. For use in the +water a metal tripod will prove more serviceable than one of wood. + +A very useful substitute for a tripod is the “Graphic” ball-and-socket +clamp designed more especially for bicycle camerists. With it a camera +can easily be attached to the limb of a tree, rung of a ladder, or, by +screwing a block on to the head of the tripod, it may be employed in +connection with the tripod—in fact its applicability will be evident to +every one using it. + +_Plates._—Among the many excellent brands of plates now offered to +photographers there is really very little difference. However, it is +advisable to select the one you think the most rapid and use it to the +exclusion of all others. Under certain circumstances—in photographing +Robins, for instance—isochromatic plates will be found desirable, and +where a strong head light can not be avoided nonhalation plates may be +employed. + +So much industry, skill, and patience are generally required of the bird +photographer before he makes an exposure that he should guard against +all chances of failure from the photographic side. It is therefore +advisable to thoroughly test plates which it is probable may be exposed +on a very difficult subject. Under no circumstances should the plate +holders be needlessly exposed to the light, and when the camera is to be +left for an indefinite period with the slide drawn from the holder and +plate ready to expose, it should be carefully wrapped in the dark-cloth. + +_Blinds._—As the sportsman constructs blinds in which he may conceal +himself from his prey, so the bird photographer may employ various means +of hiding from his subjects. The Keartons recommend an artificial tree +trunk for use in wooded places and an artificial rubbish heap for open +fields. The former may be made of light duck, painted to resemble bark, +and placed over a frame. + +The frame of the Keartons’ is of bamboo, but I find white pine answers +very well, the main things to be considered being lightness and +portability. The frame should therefore be collapsible in order that it +may be easily packed. + +The Keartons’ field blind or “rubbish heap” consists of an umbrella, to +each of the ribs of which strips of bamboo four feet in length are tied. +This is then covered with light brown holland and wisps of straw tied +over it in such a way as to “virtually thatch the whole structure.” +Doubtless cornstalks properly arranged would make an excellent field +blind. + +It is difficult to carry one of these blinds in addition to a camera, +etc., without assistance, and I fear that the inconvenience attending +their use will restrict them to the few enthusiasts who count neither +time, labor, nor cost in attaining a desired end. + +For my own part, I prefer, when possible, to conceal my camera and make +the exposure from a distance rather than to weight myself with a +portable blind and to endure the discomforts of being confined within +it. + +_Sundries._—The bird photographer will find that he requires numerous +articles not usually to be found in the regulation photographic outfit, +as, for example, climbers for ascending trees and stout cords for +hauling the camera up after him; a dark-cloth, green in color, to aid in +disguising the camera, and a mirror. The latter should be of plate +glass, and measure at least twelve by ten inches. A good plan is to buy +a piece of glass of desired size and frame it simply in white pine. It +may then be attached to a limb, a stick driven in the ground, or other +convenient object, by means of the ball-and-socket clamp mentioned under +Tripods, which may be screwed into the back or the outer border of the +frame. Such a mirror will reflect sunlight many yards to shaded nests, +where, in photographing old or young birds, a quick exposure is +necessary. A vest-pocket mirror, for use in reflecting the reading of +the diaphragms or time on the shutter, will permit one to make the +desired changes from the rear, and thus prove helpful when conditions do +not permit one to work in front of the camera. + +A device which might be arranged on the principle of a trap, the trigger +to be sprung and exposure made when the bait is taken, would doubtless +capture some interesting pictures. An apparatus connected with an +automatically fired flash-light, has been employed by Mr. G. A. Shiras, +of Pittsburg, in photographing deer at night, with phenomenal success. +The connection with the camera shutter was so made that the deer, in +walking, touched a cord which exploded the flash-light, and, at the same +moment, made the exposure. The light weight of most birds, however, +requires a much more delicate apparatus, while an even greater +difficulty is found in the movement caused by the release of the +trigger, which startles the bird just as the exposure is made. + +Thus far in my experiments I have been unable to overcome these +objections, but I trust some other bird photographer will be more +successful. + +Those who are ambitious in the direction of cliff photography I would +refer to the Keartons’ admirable treatise on the subject in their Wild +Life at Home, for a description of the paraphernalia needed and the +manner in which it should be used. My own experience in this line is +limited, and I confess to the utter absence of a desire to increase it! + + + + + THE METHODS OF THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER + + +Claiming no special knowledge of the technique of pure photography, I +would refer the beginner to any of the several excellent books designed +to explain the rudiments of optical and chemical photography, and to +instruct in regard to the matters of exposing, developing, printing, +etc. Only such suggestions are given here, therefore, as relate directly +to the manner in which birds, their nests, eggs, and haunts may be +photographed. + +_Haunts._—Photographs of the characteristic haunts of birds should show +not alone general topography, but should also be made with special +reference to the bird’s feeding habits, which, more than anything else, +govern the nature of the locality selected. Thus, a photograph of the +home of the Woodcock would have added value if, in the immediate +foreground, the “borings” made by this bird in probing the earth for +food were evident; or a marsh scene, in which wild rice was conspicuous, +would tell something of both the haunts and the food habits of the +Reedbird and Red-winged Blackbird in August and September. In a similar +way, pictures of wild cherry and dogwood trees, of bayberries and red +cedar, which show both fruit and surroundings, are of interest in +connection with the biographies of many birds. + +[Illustration: 8. Spring.] + +[Illustration: 9. Summer.] + +_Seasons._—The camera permits us to make so exact a record of the rise +and fall of the year, as it is registered by vegetation, that we can +actually compare existing conditions with those which prevailed at any +previous time. Compare, for example, the series of four pictures^{8–11} +here presented, all made from the same point of view, in order to +appreciate how graphically seasonal changes may be shown by the camera. +In this instance, photography is of more service to the botanist than to +the ornithologist; but every student of migration knows how closely +related are the appearance of certain birds and flowers, and will +readily appreciate, therefore, the value of a series of photographs of +several different subjects, taken at short intervals, and showing the +changes in vegetation due to the approach of summer or winter. In +connection with such related phenomena as temperature, rainfall, and +weather, these pictures form as accurate a record of the seasons as it +is possible to make, and if data of this kind could be brought together +from many selected localities, we should have an admirable basis for the +intelligent study of certain phases of bird migration. + +[Illustration: 10. Autumn.] + +_Nests and Eggs_.—The photographing of nests is one of the simpler forms +of bird photography, but in many instances success is achieved only +through the exercise of much patience and ingenuity. + +[Illustration: 11. Winter.] + +It should constantly be borne in mind, in photographing nests, that what +is desired is not so much a picture of the nest alone as one which shows +it in relation to its environment—in short, a picture of the nesting +site is of more value than one of the nest only. It is advisable, +however, to make at least three pictures, two^{12, 13} of which shall +show the nature of the locality chosen, the other^{14} the character of +the nest and its immediate surroundings. When the nest is not above five +feet from the ground, little difficulty will be experienced in securing +the desired picture. When on the ground it will sometimes be found +helpful to put what naturally would be the rear leg of the tripod +forward, _between_ the other two, when it will serve as a brace from in +front, and permit the camera to be tilted well downward without danger +of its falling. + +Nests at an elevation of seven or eight feet, in saplings, may be +photographed by lengthening the tripod with short legs, each supplied +with two staples or collars into which the ends of the tripod may be +slipped; or a ladder or light scaffolding will sometimes be found +necessary. + +[Illustration: 12. To show nest locality of: 1, Tree Swallow; 2, +American Bittern; 3, Song Sparrow; 4, Maryland Yellow-throat; 5, Marsh +Hawk, of which nesting site, nest, and young are shown in the two +following pictures, Nos. 13 and 14. Meridian, N. Y., June 8, 1898.] + +For photographing nests in trees the “Graphic” ball-and-socket clamp is +of great assistance. With it the camera may be attached to a limb, or, +if the limb is too large, a block may be nailed to it, thus furnishing a +grip to which the clamp may be fastened. + +[Illustration: 13. Nesting site, nest, and young of Marsh Hawk.] + +Nests should be photographed from the side, but eggs should be +photographed from above in order to show their position in the nest as +they were arranged by the incubating bird. The nest should therefore +never be tipped, nor should the eggs be touched, lest the value of the +subject be destroyed. The markings of most birds’ eggs are already well +known, but if photographs of them are desired they can be made from the +thousands of eggshells with which ill-directed effort has stocked the +cabinets of misguided oölogists. + +[Illustration: 14. Young Marsh Hawks and nest.] + +It is not advisable to make photographs of nests in the sunlight, a +diffused light giving greater detail. A screen of some thin white +material should therefore be used as a shade when photographing nests +exposed to the direct rays of the sun. This, however, will not be found +necessary if the picture be made within two or three hours after +sunrise, when the light is soft and the foliage comparatively +motionless, permitting the use of a small diaphragm and a long exposure. + +[Illustration: 15. Young Great-crested Flycatcher.] + +_Young Birds._—The ease with which photographs of young birds may often +be secured, the fact that with the camera their appearance and +development may be more satisfactorily recorded than in any other way, +makes their study by the photographer of exceeding importance. +Photographs of young birds should of course be accompanied by notes on +food, calls, special actions, etc., which the camera can not well +portray. + +The young bird is a worthy subject from the moment it leaves the shell +until, as far as flight is concerned, it deserves to be ranked with its +elders. When possible, series of pictures should be made showing the +rate of growth of the same brood from the period of hatching to the date +when the nest is deserted. Circumstances do not, however, often permit +of the forming of these ideal series, and we must therefore photograph +the young bird as we find him, either before or after^{15} he has made +his initial flight, or as he is preparing for it.^{16} + +The suggestions made under the head of Birds’ Nests and Eggs will apply +in a general way to photographing young in the nest; but even when at +rest in other respects, the rapid respiration of nestlings requires a +quick exposure to insure sharpness of outline, and, when in the shadow, +sufficient illumination can be secured only with the aid of a reflector. + +[Illustration: 16. Young Baltimore Orioles and nest.] + +_Adult Birds._—It is in photographing birds in the full possession of +the powers of maturity that the bird photographer’s skill and patience +are put to the most severe tests. It might be said that, from a strictly +ornithological point of view, the results obtained do not in many +instances justify the time expended. Success, however, in this field, as +in many others, is not to be measured by the attainment of a certain +end, but often by the experience gained in what, to one having only the +ultimate object in view, may seem to have been fruitless effort. + +In matching one’s ability as a hunter against the timidity and cunning +of a bird, relations are established between the photographer and his +subject which of necessity result in their becoming intimately +associated. + +[Illustration: 17. Wood Thrush on nest.] + +Doubtless we shall never know just what birds think of the peculiar +antics in which the camera enthusiast sometimes indulges, but certain it +is that an attempt to photograph some of the most familiar and +presumably best-known birds will open the photographer’s eyes to facts +in their life histories of which he was previously in utter ignorance. + +As a known and fixed point to which the bird may be expected to return, +the nest offers the best opportunity to the bird photographer, and +photographs of adult birds on or at their nests are more common than +those taken under other conditions.^{17, 18} + +[Illustration: 18. Chestnut-sided Warbler on nest.] + +Birds vary greatly in their attitude toward a camera which has been +erected near their homes; some species paying little attention to it, +and, after a short time, coming and going as though it had always been +there, while others are suspicious of any object which changes the +appearance of their surroundings. + +With the latter special precautions are necessary, and unusual care +should be taken in working about their nests lest they be made to desert +it. The long-focus lens is here of great service, for it enables one to +secure a sufficiently large image from a distance of ten or twelve feet. +Even then it will often be necessary to conceal or disguise the camera +by covering it with the green dark-cloth, vines, and leaves. A rubber +tube or thread of requisite length is then attached and the exposure is +made from a distance. + +A dummy camera, composed of a box or log wrapped in a green cloth and +placed on a tripod made from saplings, may sometimes be erected to +advantage several days before one expects to attempt to photograph the +bird, who in the meantime becomes accustomed to it and quickly returns +to the nest after the real camera has been substituted. + +The artificial tree trunk would doubtless be of assistance in some kinds +of bird-at-the-nest photography, especially when one desired to secure +pictures of the old bird feeding its young, and was obliged therefore to +make the exposure at just the proper moment. In most instances, however, +there is sufficient undergrowth in the immediate vicinity to afford +concealment, from which with the aid of a glass one may take note of +events. + +With the reflecting camera one may stalk birds on foot or with a boat, +or “squeak” them into range by kissing the back of the hand vigorously, +a sound which, during the nesting season especially, arouses much +curiosity or anxiety in the bird’s mind. + +The decoys, blinds, batteries, sneak boxes, etc., of the sportsman are +also at the disposal of the hunter with a camera, though I must admit +that my one outing to photograph bay birds over decoys resulted in an +empty bag. It was in the spring, however, when the bay birds surviving +had experienced two shooting seasons and were exceedingly wild. In the +fall, with birds born the preceding summer, one might be more +successful. + +Birds may be sometimes brought within range of the camera by baiting +them with food, and, after they have learned to expect it, placing the +camera in suitable position. This may be most easily done when there is +snow on the ground, at which time hunger makes most birds less +suspicious of danger. + +[Illustration: 19. Catbird scolding.] + +From a considerable experience which, through poor equipment, has not +yielded adequate return, I am convinced that one may secure excellent +pictures of many birds by decoying them with either a mounted or living +Owl; doubtless the latter would be preferable, though I have never tried +it. With a poorly mounted Screech Owl, however, I have had some +excellent opportunities to photograph. My plan is to select some spot +where birds are numerous, preferably near the home of a Catbird,^{19} +place the Owl in a conspicuous position, and erect near it a “scolding +perch,” from which the protesting bird may conveniently vituperate the +poor unoffending little bunch of feathers with its staring yellow eyes. +The camera is then focused on the scolding perch and the photographer +retires into the undergrowth, and, bulb in hand, waits for some bird to +take the desired stand. + +A Catbird’s domain is chosen for the reason that this species is the +alarmist of whatever neighborhood it may inhabit, and once its attention +has been attracted to the Owl by “squeaking” or uttering the alarm notes +of other birds, the photographer may subside and let the Catbird do the +rest. + +The bird’s rage is remarkable, its fear painful. Should the Owl be near +to the Catbird’s nest it will utter notes in a tone of voice I have +never heard it use on other occasions. It loses all fear of the camera, +and from the scolding perch screams at the Owl with a vehemence which +threatens to crack its throat. One is glad to remove the offending +cause. + +Other birds in the vicinity are of course attracted, and hasten to learn +the meaning of the uproar. Often a bit of undergrowth, of which the +Catbird was apparently the only feathered tenant, will be found to +possess a large bird population. It is interesting to observe the +difference in the actions of various birds as they learn the reason of +the disturbance. On the whole, each species displays its characteristic +disposition in a somewhat accentuated manner. The Blue-winged Warblers +flit to and fro for a few moments and then are gone; the Chestnut-sided +Warbler is quite anxious; the Maryland Yellow-throat somewhat annoyed; +the Ovenbird decidedly concerned; the Towhee bustles about, but seems to +pay no especial attention to the Owl; the Wood Thrush utters its sharp +_pit-pit_, but is content to let well enough alone if its own nest be +not threatened; and the Yellow-throated, Red-eyed, and White-eyed +Vireos, particularly the latter, add their complaining notes to the +chorus of protests. Not one, however, approaches the Catbird in the +force of its remarks, nor does the bird cease to outcry so long as the +Owl is visible. + + +It is felt that in the foregoing suggestions the methods which may be +employed by the bird photographer are very inadequately described, but, +as was remarked in the preface of this volume, the constantly varying +circumstances attending his work practically prohibit duplication of +experience. + +In truth, herein lies the great charm of animal photography. We have not +to follow certain formulæ, but each subject presents its own individual +requirements, making the demands on the naturalist’s skill and patience +limitless and success proportionately valuable. + + + + + BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA + + + BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINS AT HOME + +The influence exerted by the camera in creating new values for the bird +student is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the immediate vicinity +of one’s home. Even the view from our windows possesses fresh +significance as we speculate on the probability of securing a desirable +picture from this or that point of vantage, while birds to which long +familiarity has partially dimmed our vision now become possible subjects +for our camera, and we find ourselves observing their movements with an +alertness before unknown. + +In my own case, I have learned almost to tolerate the House Sparrows, +with which I have been at war as long as memory serves me, for the +pleasure found in attempting to outwit these shrewd, independent, +impudent rats among birds; and, on closer acquaintance, they prove such +interesting subjects for study that, if their vocal ability equaled +their intelligence, they might be as generally liked as they are hated. +So much for the magic of a sweet voice. As it is, they possess a greater +variety of notes than they are generally credited with, and their +conversational powers undoubtedly exceed those of many accomplished +singers. In addition to the insistent, reiterated _chissick, chissick_, +which constitutes the song of the male, one soon learns to recognize +calls of warning, alarm, flight, battle, and the soft whistle which the +bird utters when it approaches its nest—the only musical note in its +vocabulary. + +[Illustration: 20. House Sparrows and Junco.] + +Quick to notice the slightest deviation from normal conditions, House +Sparrows are difficult birds to photograph. They seem to be constantly +on the watch for some sign of danger, and an unusual arrangement of +blind or shade at once arouses their suspicions. After a heavy fall of +snow, however, hunger dulls the edge of their fears, and by scattering +food near a suitable window the birds may be decoyed within +photographing distance.^{20} It will be found necessary, even then, to +conceal the camera, which they evidently distinguish from familiar +pieces of furniture and regard with alarm. + +This, too, is the best time to secure pictures of Juncos,^{21} +Chickadees, Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, and less common +winter birds. The four last named are rarely or never seen about my home +in winter. Doubtless the abundant and surrounding woodlands afford them +a more congenial haunt, from which they are not to be enticed by suet, +bones, or grain; or, more likely still, the custom of putting out food +for birds is so unusual in the region about New York city that they have +not yet learned to expect it. It is a most pleasing surprise to the +resident of this section to observe the numbers and familiarity of +winter birds in the environs of Boston, where a feast seems spread for +them in nearly every dooryard. + +[Illustration: 21. Junco. × 3.] + +[Illustration: 22. Female House Sparrow and nest. × 3.] + +To return to the Sparrow. The bird’s nest also provides a focal point +for the camera, but, as elsewhere, the greatest precautions must be +taken, and I have succeeded in securing a picture only when some +advantageously situated window afforded a natural blind. One of the +pictures thus obtained shows a nest in the ornamental part of a gutter, +with the female looking from an adjoining opening.^{22} This gutter +seems especially designed to furnish lodgings for Sparrows, and no +argument that I have thus far advanced has convinced them that it was +not erected for their use. During the early part of their occupancy, a +rap on their roof promptly brought them out to perch in the branches of +the neighboring trees, where their chattering protest was soon +interrupted by a gunshot; but the survivors quickly learned the meaning +of the roof tap, and now, without a moment’s pause, they dive downward +from their doorway and fly out of range at topmost speed. + +[Illustration: 23. Screech Owl. × 3.] + +More welcome tenants than the House Sparrows are a pair of Screech Owls, +who for years have reared their broods in a dovecotelike gable, where +they are beyond the reach of nest robbers of all kinds. During the +winter they apparently are absent, nor indeed are they seen until June, +when, each evening at sundown, one of the pair, probably the male, takes +his post at the entrance to its home and gives utterance to the crooning +refrain which sometimes follows the so-called tremulous “screech.” But +the latter I never hear at this season. In spite of the poor light +prevailing at this hour, the bird’s stillness has tempted repeated +trials to secure its picture, and the most successful, made with a +fourteen-inch lens and an exposure of fifteen seconds, is here +shown.^{23} Telephotos have thus far been underexposed. + +As a means of making the exposure as soon as possible after the Owl +appeared, I have on a number of occasions placed my camera in position, +focused and otherwise made ready some minutes before he was expected, +and I recall with amusement the incredulity of a friend whose surprise +at seeing me point my camera skyward without ostensible purpose was in +no way lessened when I told him that I had an appointment with an Owl, +who was to take his stand shortly in the hole toward which the camera +was directed; and fortunately the bird was on time! + +From the perch, some forty feet aloft, the grave little creature surveys +the scene below with an expression of combined wisdom and thoughtfulness +which makes a laugh seem wanton foolishness. At the border of dusk and +dark he flies out to feed, often descending to the ground and remaining +there for some moments while catching insects. Occasionally he takes his +prey from the tree trunks, perhaps a cicada struggling from its shell, +and on several occasions I have thought he captured food on the wing. +Sometimes the supper hunt leads him to the edge of the croquet lawn, +where from the earth or the back of a garden bench he becomes an +interested spectator of the last game. When the young appear, later in +the month, the evergreens seem alive with Owls, who flit about and utter +querulous little calls difficult of description. Toward the end of July, +doubtless after the molt is completed, presumably the adults—for never +more than two are heard—begin to sing; and this habit of post-nuptial +singing seems not to be confined to the Screech Owl, for about this time +the deep-toned, resounding notes of the Barred Owl come up from the +woods. Throughout August and September the wailing whistle, which is +ever welcome for its spirit of wildness, is heard nightly, and as the +plaintive notes tremble on the hushed air we invariably say, “Hark, +there’s the Owl!” + +My experience as bird photographer about home, I must admit, has +consisted chiefly in a series of encouraging failures which have borne +no tangible results. Let us hope, however, that the few pictures here +presented will prove as suggestive to the reader as they are to their +maker, who, although he offers such inadequate proof in support of his +belief, is far too well convinced of the possibilities of home +photography to go afield without saying at least a word in its behalf. + + + + + THE CHICKADEE + _A Study in Black and White_ + + +Very early in my experience as a hunter I became acquainted with a small +black-and-white bird, who not only announced himself with unmistakable +distinctness, but did so at such close range that one could form a very +clear idea of his appearance; and thus because of his notes and +trustfulness I learned to know the Chickadee by name years before I was +aware that the woods were tenanted by dozens of other more common but +less fearless birds. + +With regret for the universality of the instinct, I found that to see +was to desire. I had felt exactly the same longing in regard to other +birds, and had thrown many a stone in a fruitless effort to get +possession of the half-mysterious wild creatures which always eluded me; +but the Chickadee came within range of my bean-shooter and soon paid the +penalty of misplaced confidence. The little ball of flesh and fluffy +feathers was perfectly useless, so after a day or two, the length of +time depending on the temperature, it was thrown away. + +My curiosity concerning the Chickadee being satisfied, and the bird’s +tameness making it too easy a mark even for a bean-shooter, I entered on +a new phase of Chickadee relations. Strangely enough, the killing of the +bird seemed, from my point of view, to constitute an introduction to a +creature which before I had known only imperfectly, and my acquaintance +with the Chickadee may be said to have begun when I picked up the first +bird that fell before my aim. However the Chickadee may have regarded my +somewhat questionable manner of gaining his friendship, he has since +given unmistakable evidences of his approval of my treatment of his +kind. He always replies to my greeting, often coming many yards in +answer to my call, and on a number of occasions he has honored me above +most men by alighting on my hand. + +When, in more recent years, the gun which succeeded the bean-shooter was +in turn replaced by a camera, I found that the Chickadee’s tameness made +him a mark for my later as he had been for my earlier efforts in bird +hunting. Now, however, I believe I may speak for him as well as for +myself, and say that the results obtained are more satisfactory to us +both. It was in Central Park, New York city, in February, 1899, that I +went on one of my first Chickadee hunts with a camera. Incidentally the +locality gave emphasis to the advantages of the camera over any other +weapon. Imagine the surprise of the park police had I ventured on their +precincts with a gun on my shoulder! But with a camera I could snap away +at pleasure without any one’s being the wiser—many of my “snaps,” I +confess being attended by exactly this result. At this time, through the +efforts of an enthusiastic and patient bird lover, who had improved on +the bird-catching legend by using nuts instead of “salt” and by +substituting bill for “tail,” three Chickadees in the Ramble had become +so remarkably tame that they would often flutter before one’s face and +plainly give expression to their desire for food, which they took from +one’s hand without the slightest evidence of fear. Sometimes they even +remained to pick the nut from a shell while perched on one’s finger, +anon casting questioning glances at their host; but more often they +preferred a perch where they could give their entire attention to the +nut which was held between their feet, and pecked at after the manner of +Blue Jays. + +[Illustration: 24. Chickadee on ground.] + +In spite of the ease with which one could approach these Chickadees, +they made difficult marks for the camera. I was armed with a “Henry +Clay” 5 × 7 and a twin-lens camera of the same size, but so active were +the little creatures that not one of many exposures proved to be +perfectly focused. Finally I tried decoying the birds to a bone or bit +of bread in the bushes, but somehow they did not succeed in discovering +these baits until they were placed on the ground.^{24, 25} Then they +responded so quickly that often the bread had disappeared while my head +was concealed by the dark-cloth, and frequently, while focusing, the +birds would alight on the tripod of the camera. I was forced, therefore, +to focus on a stone, and, when ready to make the exposure, lay a bit of +bread on or near the focal point, the two pictures given being thus +obtained. + +[Illustration: 25. Chickadee taking piece of bread.] + +Various experiences with these unusually tame birds finally led to what +at first thought would have been considered the wholly unreasonable +ambition of photographing one of them in my hand. The camera was +therefore erected at a suitable point and focused on the trunk of a +tree, the shutter set, and slide drawn. + +[Illustration: 26. A bird in the hand.] + +Now to get the bird. None was in the immediate vicinity, but a whistle +soon brought a response from some neighboring tree tops, and going +beneath them I shortly had called the bird down to a nut in my palm, and +with him on my finger started to walk the eighty or more feet to the +camera. This, however, was asking too much, and the bird abandoned his +moving perch for a bordering row of evergreens, from which one or two +more trials brought him within a short distance of the desired spot, and +resting my arm against the tree trunk and with the other hand on the +trigger of the shutter I called again the two plaintive notes. The +bird’s faith was still strong. Almost immediately he took the desired +position, when a _click_ announced the realization of a bird +photographer’s wildest dream. + + +Fortunate is the bird photographer who discovers an advantageously +situated Chickadee’s nest. Dr. Robert’s charming description in +Bird-Lore of his experience with a family of Chickadees stimulated my +desire to make a camera study of this species. The first nest found, +however, was claimed by a band of roving boys, who in pure wantonness +pushed down the stub from which a few days later the young would have +issued. + +A second time I was more fortunate. It was on the morning of May 29, +1899, at Englewood, N. J., that in going through a young second growth I +chanced to see a Chickadee, who in arranging her much-worn plumage gave +unmistakable evidence of having recently left her nest. At once I looked +about for a partly decayed white birch, a tree especially suited to the +Chickadee’s powers and needs. The bark remains tough and leathery long +after the interior is crumbling, and having penetrated the outer shell +the Chickadee finds no difficulty in excavating a chamber within. + +A few moments’ search revealed a stub so typical as to match exactly the +image I held in my mind’s eye, with an opening about four feet from the +ground. The interior was too gloomy to enable one to determine its +contents, but, returning in half an hour, I tapped the stub lightly, +when, as though I had released the spring of a Jack-in-a-box, a +Chickadee popped out of the opening and into a neighboring tree. I +wished her good morning, assured her that my intentions were of the +best, and promised to return and secure her portrait at the first +opportunity. + +Four days later I set up my camera before the door to the Chickadee’s +dwelling, and, without attempting to conceal it, attached thread to the +shutter and retreated in the undergrowth to a distance of about +twenty-five feet. + +After having had most discouraging experiences with several birds, who +had evidently regarded the camera as a monster of destruction, and had +refused to return to their nests as long as the evil eye of the lens was +on them, it was consoling to find a bird who had some degree of +confidence in human nature as represented by photographic apparatus. + +It is true that the female—and throughout this description I assume that +the bird with much-worn plumage was of this sex—promptly left the stub +at my approach; but when I retired to the undergrowth there was no +tiresome wait of hours while the bird, flitting from bush to bush, +chirped suspiciously, but almost immediately she returned to her +home.^{27} The camera was examined, but clearly not considered +dangerous, its tripod sometimes serving as a step to the nest entrance. +The click of the shutter, however, when an exposure was made as the bird +was about to enter its dwelling, caused some alarm, and she flew back to +a neighboring tree, and for some time hopped restlessly from limb to +limb. + +The male, who had previously kept in the background, now approached, +and, as if to soothe his troubled mate, thoughtfully gave her a +caterpillar. She welcomed him with a gentle, tremulous fluttering of the +wings—a motion similar to that made by young birds when begging for +food. He, however, made what appeared to be precisely the same movements +when she perched beside him. + +[Illustration: 27. Chickadee at nest hole.] + +It was not long before the female became so accustomed to the snap of +the shutter that in order to prevent her from entering the nest I was +forced to rush out from my hiding place; but at last, apparently +becoming desperate, she succeeded in returning to her eggs in spite of +my best efforts to prevent her. + +There now ensued a very interesting change in the bird’s action. It will +be remembered that at first she had left the nest on hearing me +approach, while a light tap brought her through the opening with +startling promptness. But now, evidently realizing that a return to her +duties of incubation could be made only at great risk, she determined +under no conditions to leave her eggs. In vain I rapped at her door and +shook her dwelling to its foundations; no bird appeared, and not +believing it possible that under the circumstances she would remain +within the stub, I felt that she must have left without my knowledge, +and therefore retired to await her reappearance. + +[Illustration: 28. Chickadee at nest hole.] + +At the end of several minutes the male, with food in his bill, advanced +cautiously, and clinging to the rim of the nest opening, hung there a +moment and departed minus the food. This was surprising. Could there be +young in the nest? or was the bird, in imitation of the Hornbill, +feeding his imprisoned mate? I rapped again, and this time, perhaps +taken unawares, the female answered my question by appearing. + +On June 3d a family arrived in the Chickadee villa, and both birds were +found actively engaged in administering to its wants. + +As a return for the inconvenience to which they had been subjected, a +perch was erected by way of a step at their door. The female was +appreciative and at once availed herself of this means of entering her +home.^{28} The male, however, as before, was more wary. He had braved +the camera to bring food to his mate, but his offspring had apparently +not so strong a claim upon him. He would fly off in search of food and +shortly return with a caterpillar, then perch quietly for several +minutes a few yards from the nest, when, repelled by the camera and +attracted by the food in his bill, he yielded to temptation, devoured +the caterpillar, vigorously wiped his bill, at once started to forage +for more food, and returned with it only to repeat his previous +performance. + +Occasionally he uttered a low whistle, addressed presumably to the +female, and at times a _chickadee-dee-dee_, which I interpreted as a +protest to me, and both notes were also uttered by the female. + +The latter took so kindly to the doorstep that it was determined to give +her a door, and to this end a leaf was pinned over the entrance to her +home in such a manner that it swung to and fro, like the latch to a +keyhole. This clearly did not meet with her approval, and at first she +seemed puzzled to account for the apparent disappearance of the nest +opening. But in less than a minute she solved the mystery, pushed the +leaf to one side, and disappeared within. + +Returning to the nest on June 12th, nothing was to be seen of either +parent, and I feared that they or their offspring had fallen victims to +the countless dangers which beset nesting birds and their young. Looking +about for some clew to their fate, I found on the ground, near the nest +stub, the worn tail-feathers of the female bird. The molting season had +not yet arrived, nor would she have shed all these feathers at the same +moment. There could therefore be only one interpretation of their +presence. Some foe—probably a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk, since the +predaceous mammals for the most part hunt at night, when the Chickadee +would be snugly sleeping in her nest—had made a dash and grasped her by +the tail, which she had sacrificed in escaping. A moment later the +theory was supported by the appearance of a subdued-looking Chickadee, +_sans_ tail, and I congratulated her on her fortunate exchange of life +for a member which of late had not been very decorative, and of which, +in any event, Nature would have soon deprived her. + +The young proved to be nearly ready to fly, and, carefully removing the +front of their log cabin, a sight was disclosed such as mortal probably +never beheld before and Chickadee but rarely. + +Six black-and-white heads were raised and six yellow-lined mouths opened +in expressive appeal for food. But this was not all; there was another +layer of Chickadees below—how many it was impossible to say without +disentangling a wad of birds so compact that the outlines of no one bird +could be distinguished. A piazza, as it were, was built at the +Chickadees’ threshold in the shape of a perch of proper size, and +beneath, as a life net, was spread a piece of mosquito bar. Then I +proceeded to individualize the ball of feathers; one, two, three, to +seven were counted without undue surprise, but when an eighth and ninth +were added, I marveled at the energy which had supplied so many mouths +with food, and at the same time wondered how many caterpillars had been +devoured by this one family of birds. + +Not less remarkable than the number of young—and no book that I have +consulted records so large a brood—was their condition. Not only did +they all appear lusty, but they seemed to be about equally developed, +the slight difference in strength and size which existed being easily +attributable to a difference in age, some interval doubtless having +elapsed between the hatching of the first and last egg. + +[Illustration: 29. A Chickadee family.] + +This fact would have been of interest had the birds inhabited an open +nest, or a nest large enough for them all to have had an equal +opportunity to receive food; but where only two thirds of their number +could be seen from above at once, and where a very little neglect would +have resulted fatally, it seems remarkable that one or more, failing to +receive his share of food, had not been weakened in consequence and +crushed to death by more fortunate members of the brood. Nor was their +physical condition the only surprising thing about the members of this +Chickadee family: each individual was as clean as though he had been +reared in a nest alone, and an examination of the nest showed that it +would have been passed as perfect by the most scrupulous sanitary +inspector. It was composed of firmly padded rabbit’s fur, and, except +for the sheaths worn off the growing feathers of the young birds, was +absolutely clean. Later, I observed that the excreta of the young were +inclosed in membranous sacs, which enabled the parents to readily remove +them from the nest. + +[Illustration: 30. A Chickadee family.] + +The last bird having been placed in the net, I attempted to pose them in +a row on the perch before their door. The task reminded me of almost +forgotten efforts at building card houses, which, when nearly completed, +would be brought to ruin by an ill-placed card. How many times each +Chickadee tumbled or fluttered from his perch I can not say. The soft, +elastic net, spread beneath them, preserved them from injury, and bird +after bird was returned to his place so little worse for his fall that +he was quite ready to try it again. Finally, eight birds were induced to +take the positions assigned them; then, in assisting the ninth to his +allotted place, the balance of a bird on either side would be disturbed, +and down into the net they would go. + +These difficulties, however, could be overcome, but not so the failure +of the light at the critical time, making it necessary to expose with a +wide open lens at the loss of a depth of focus. + +The picture presented, therefore, does not do the subject justice. Nor +can it tell of the pleasure with which each fledgeling for the first +time stretched its wings and legs to their full extent, and preened its +plumage with before unknown freedom. + +At the same time they uttered a satisfied little _dee-dee-dee_, in +quaint imitation of their elders. When I whistled their well-known +_phe-be_ note, they were at once on the alert, and evidently expected to +be fed. + +The birds were within two or three days of leaving the nest, and, the +sitting over, the problem came of returning the flock to a cavity barely +two inches in diameter, the bottom of which was almost filled by one +bird. + +I at once confess a failure to restore anything like the condition in +which they were found, and when the front of their dwelling was +replaced, Chickadees were overflowing at the door. If their +healthfulness had not belied the thought, I should have supposed it +impossible for them to exist in such close quarters. + +A few days later their home was deserted, and, as no other Chickadees +were known to nest in the vicinity, I imagine them to compose a troop of +birds which is sometimes found in the neighborhood. + + + + + THE LEAST BITTERN AND SOME OTHER REED INHABITANTS + + +My experience with the Least Bittern leaves the eerie little creature a +half-solved mystery, and I think of it less as a bird than as a survivor +of a former geological period, when birds still showed traits of their +not distant reptilian ancestors. + +The Bittern’s home is in fresh-water, cat-tail marshes, and he wanders +at will through the thickly set forest of reeds without of necessity +putting foot to the water below or flapping wing in the air above. His +peculiar mode of progression constitutes one of his chief +characteristics. The reeds in which he lives generally grow in several +feet of water, far too deep, therefore, to permit of his wading; while +his secretive disposition makes him averse to appearing in the open, +except after nightfall. It is impossible to fly through the cat-tails, +and so the bird walks and even runs through them, stepping from stem to +stem with surprising agility. I had heard of this habit, but the +description conveyed as little idea of the bird’s appearance as it is +feared this one will, and when for the first time a Least Bittern was +seen striding off through the reeds about three feet above the water, +the performance was so entirely unlike anything I had ever seen a bird +do before, I marveled that his acrobatic powers had not made him famous. + +The feathered gymnast’s slender body—or perhaps one should say neck, for +the bird is chiefly neck and head—seemed to be mounted on long stilts, +with the aid of which he waded rapidly through the water, his head +shooting in and out at each stride. + +The Least Bittern’s notes appear to be less known than his habits. +Nuttall, that exceptionally keen-eared bird student, was familiar with +them, but most writers have restricted themselves to the statement that, +when flushed, the bird utters a low _qua_, while some have even said he +was voiceless. + +I should not be in the least surprised to learn that this uncanny +inhabitant of the reeds had a call fully as remarkable as the vocal +performance of his large relative, the American Bittern, but thus far in +my slight acquaintance with him he has been heard to utter only four +notes: A soft, low _coo_, slowly repeated five or six times, and which +is probably the love song of the male; an explosive alarm note, _quoh_; +a hissing _hah_, with which the bird threatens a disturber of its nest; +and a low _tut-tut-tut_, apparently a protest against the same kind of +intrusion. + +[Illustration: 31. Least Bittern’s nesting site, showing reeds bent over +nest. One of four eggs can be seen.] + +It was the markedly dovelike _coo_ which first introduced me to this +species. With William Brewster I was at the Fresh Pond marshes, +listening for the repetition of some strange calls which had excited the +curiosity of Cambridge ornithologists, and which proved to belong to a +Florida Gallinule,[B] when we heard the soft notes of a Least Bittern, +who soon rose from the marsh near by. A few days later the Bittern was +found in full song—if the _coo_ be its song—in the marshes of Presque +Isle in Erie Bay; but it must be confessed that a desire to secure +specimens of this, to me, strange bird left no opportunity to study its +habits, and the species was not again observed until June, 1898, in the +northern part of Cayuga County, New York. Here, under the guidance of an +observing local ornithologist, Mr. E. G. Tabor, an encounter was had +with a Least Bittern which made a unique page in my experience as a bird +student. + +Footnote B: + + See Brewster, Auk, vol. viii, 1891, p. 1. + +It was on the border of Otter Lake, where the Least Bitterns nest in +small numbers in low bushes, or a mass of drift, or more often in the +fringe of cat-tails. The trail of a boat through the reeds and empty +nests, which before had held from three to five eggs, marked the +ill-directed work of the boy oölogists whose misspent zeal has resulted +in such a vast accumulation of eggshells and such an absence of +information about the birds that laid them. A visit to a more distant +part of the lake, where even thus early in the year the cat-tails were +five feet above water of over half that depth, saved the day, as far as +Least Bitterns were concerned. Paddling close to the reeds, a practiced +eye could distinguish the site of a Bittern’s nest, when the nest itself +was invisible, by the bowed tips of the reeds which the bird invariably +bends over it.^{31} The object of this habit is perhaps to aid in +concealing the eggs from an enemy passing overhead—a Crow, for +example—an attack by boat evidently not being taken into consideration. + +Certainly our appearance was in the nature of a surprise to a pair of +birds who had just completed their platformlike nest and were apparently +discussing future steps in their domestic affairs. + +[Illustration: 32. Least Bittern’s nest; reeds parted to show eggs.] + +As we approached, the female, who even before the eggs are laid seems to +have the home love more strongly developed than the male, bravely stuck +to her post, while the male marched off through the reeds in the manner +which has been described as so remarkable. When he paused, with either +foot grasping reeds several inches apart or clung to a single stalk with +both feet, he resembled a gigantic, tailless Marsh Wren. + +[Illustration: 33. Least Bittern on nest mimicking its surroundings.] + +The actions of the female were interesting in the extreme. Her first +move was an attempt at concealment through protective mimicry—a rare +device among birds. Stretching her neck to the utmost, she pointed her +bill to the zenith, the brownish marks on the feathers of the throat +became lines which, separated by the white spaces between them, might +easily have passed for dried reeds, and the bird’s statuelike pose, when +almost within reach, evinced her belief in her own invisibility.^{33, +34} + +The pose recalled Hudson’s experience with a wounded Least Bittern +(_Ardetta involucris_, a near relative of our bird) in the marshes of La +Plata, where a bird at his feet, in the same position as the one before +me, was discovered only after careful search, and which, to the +naturalist’s amazement, slowly revolved as he walked around it, with the +presumable object of keeping its protectively colored breast turned +toward him. + +[Illustration: 34. Least Bittern on nest mimicking its surroundings.] + +My bird, however, was among fresh reeds, and while one can not doubt the +effectiveness of its attitude and color, when seen among dead reeds or +grasses, neither were of value among its green surroundings. + +With the light on the wrong side and the reeds swaying violently in the +wind, we essayed to picture the bird, and the best of several attempts +made under these adverse conditions are here given. + +Covering my hand with my cap I held it toward her, when, convinced that +her little trick had failed, she adopted new tactics, and struck at me +with force and rapidity, which made me thankful that my hand was +protected. Her bright yellow eyes glared with the intensity of a +snake’s, and her reptilelike appearance was increased by the length and +slenderness of her head and neck. Her courage was admirable; she not +only displayed no fear, but was actually aggressive, and with a hissing +_hah_ struck viciously at my hand each time it was placed near the nest. +As I quickly retreated on each occasion, and at length made no further +move toward her, she decided to withdraw, perhaps to join her cautious +mate, who from the reeds had been uttering a warning _tut-tut-tut_ at +intervals. Very slowly and watchfully she left the nest, and when she +had advanced a few feet through the reeds I again ventured to touch her +platform home, putting my hand, however, under it; but the motion +instantly attracted her attention, and, darting back to her post, she +was on guard in a moment. Then I left her, retiring from the field +fairly vanquished in my first hand-to-bill encounter with a wild bird. I +hope she laid a full complement of five eggs and from them reared five +birds worthy representatives of their mother. + + +A desire to renew my acquaintance with—or perhaps I should say advances +toward—this unbirdlike feathered biped, and to meet it under conditions +more favorable for the camera hunter, brought me the following year +(June 17, 1899), to the Montezuma marshes at the head of Cayuga Lake. +Here are endless forests of cat-tails in which dwell not only Bitterns, +Long-billed Marsh Wrens, and Red-winged Blackbirds, but also numbers of +Pied-billed Grebes and Florida Gallinules. + +There is a mystery about a marsh akin to that which impresses one in a +primeval forest. The possibilities of both seem limitless. One hears so +much and sees so little. Birds calling from a distance of only a few +yards may remain long unidentified. A rustling in the reeds arouses +vague expectations. + +The notes of marsh-inhabiting birds are in keeping with the character of +their haunts. They are distinctly wild and strange, and often thrilling. +The Rails, for example, all have singular, loud, startling calls. The +American Bittern is a famous marsh songster, but although several of his +common names are based on his calls, it is only recently that he has +actually been seen uttering them. The Gallinule resembles the hen in the +character, volume, and variety of its notes, and to it and not the +Clapper Rail should be given the name “Marsh Hen.” Indeed, its European +relative, from which it can scarcely be distinguished, is known as the +Moor Hen or Water Hen. + +But of all this marsh music none to my ear is more singular than the +call of the Pied-billed Grebe. It is mentioned in few books, and has won +the bird no such fame as the Loon’s maniacal laughter has brought him, +though as a vocalist the Grebe fairly rivals his large cousin. Like most +bird calls it is indescribable, but perhaps sufficient idea of its +character may be given to lead to its identification when heard. It is +very loud and sonorous, with a cuckoolike quality, and may be written +_cow-cow-cow-cow-cow-cow-cow-cow-cow-uh, cow-uh, cow-uh, cow-uh_. These +notes vary in number, and are sometimes followed by prolonged wailing +_cows_ or _ohs_ almost human in their expressiveness of pain, fear, and +anguish. + +This is the love song of the male, and when he has won a mate she joins +him in singing, uttering, as he calls, a rapid _cuk-cuk-cuk_, followed +by a slower _ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh_. + +The Gallinules were cackling in the reeds, where a nest with three +hatching eggs was found, but not a bird was seen. Red-winged Blackbirds +were chattering with excitement as they guided the first wing strokes of +their young, who perched on the reeds begged eloquently for food rather +than for lessons in flying.^{35} + +[Illustration: 35. Young Red-winged Blackbirds.] + +In a small island of cat-tails a pair of Grebes was calling, and after +the most careful stalking my companion saw the female respond to the +voice of her mate. + +It was in this island—if a patch of cat-tails growing in three feet of +water can be called an island—that we found the first two of numerous +Least Bitterns’ nests, and here our camera studies were made. These +nests were typical in form and site; one contained five and the other +four^{32} eggs, from which the birds had apparently departed as we +pushed our boat toward them. + +Less than twenty minutes later we again passed these nests and found, to +our surprise, that in one all four, and in the other two eggs had been +punctured, as if by an awl. Here was a mystery which my companion, who +was examining the second nest while I was studying the first, quickly +solved by seeing a Long-billed Marsh Wren actually make an attack on the +remaining three eggs, and a little later a bird of the same +species—perhaps the same individual, since the Bitterns’ nests were not +more than twenty yards apart—visited the first nest to complete its work +on the five already ruined eggs. + +Our attempt to photograph the energetic little marauder failed, nor did +we succeed in learning the real cause of its remarkable destructiveness. +However, the fact that in one nest alone it drove its needlelike bill +into all five eggs without pausing to feast on their contents, would +imply that it was not prompted by hunger, and, much against our will, we +were forced to attribute the bird’s actions to pure viciousness; though, +it is true, there may have been another side to the story, in which the +Bittern was the culprit. + +The owners of the four eggs did not return while we were present, and +the following day we found their nest empty—a mute protest against fate. + +[Illustration: 36. Least Bittern eating her eggs.] + +The female of the second nest discovered, in which only two of the five +eggs had been injured, proved to be a bird of character. + +[Illustration: 37. Least Bittern on nest.] + +While we waited in our boats at a distance of fifteen feet, and with +cameras erected on tripods at a third of the distance, she came walking +through the reeds uttering occasionally an explosive _quoh!_ After +circling about us several times she climbed to her nest, and at once +proceeded to investigate the condition of its contents. Soon she gave +evidence of the possession of both a philosophic and economic +disposition, not to mention other housewifely qualities, notably +cleanliness. Philosophy she exhibited by making the best of things as +she found them; economy by carefully eating^{36} the two broken eggs, +which a more thoughtless bird would have deserted or quickly discarded; +and cleanliness by carefully dropping over the edge of the nest the +shells remaining from her peculiar feast, and following them by bits of +nest lining which had been soiled by portions of the egg. This task +accomplished to her satisfaction, she gave further evidence of the +possession of a well-ordered mind by descending to the water, washing +her bill, drinking, and then returning to her remaining three eggs, on +which she settled herself^{37} as complacently as though she had met +with no loss, and there we left her in well-deserved privacy. + + + + + TWO HERONS + + +In this age of death and destruction to all living creatures, which, +because of their size or edible qualities, the so-called sportsman is +proud to exhibit as evidence of his skill afield, it is remarkable that +there should exist within twenty odd miles of New York’s City Hall a +colony of Herons which would do credit to the most remote swamp of +Florida. + +Three factors have combined to render this rookery possible: first, its +isolation; second, the habits of its occupants; and third, the +protection which is afforded it by the owner of the land on which it is +situated. Of these, the first is by far the most important, and I may be +pardoned, therefore, if I do not betray the birds’ secret; for, much as +I desire to encourage American industries, I must on this occasion +withhold information of undoubted value to the feather trade. + +The birds’ habits contribute toward their preservation, because they are +largely nocturnal, “Night” being the specific name applied by the +text-books to this particular kind of Heron; but to those who know him +in nature, he is generally spoken of as “Quawk,” this being an excellent +rendering of his common call. + +The Night Heron or Quawk belongs among the birds for whom the setting +sun marks the beginning of a new day—a fact which protects him from man +and permits his existence in numbers where others of his family are +rarely seen. Doubtless many of the residents of Heronville know their +feathered neighbors only as a voice from the night, which comes to them +when the birds, in passing over, utter their loud and startling call. + +Finally, to the protecting influences of a love for seclusion and +darkness must be added the unusual position assumed by the proprietor of +the land, who will not permit any one to kill the birds, and, stranger +still, does not kill them himself! + +Thus it happens that any day in May or June, the months during which the +Herons are at home, one may leave the crowded streets of New York and +within an hour or so enter an equally crowded but quite different kind +of town. + +If after leaving the train you secure the same guide it was my good +fortune to have, your way will lead over shaded roads, pleasant fields, +and quiet woodland paths, and, if the sun is well up in the trees, you +may enter the outskirts of the rookery and be wholly unaware, unless you +approach from the leeward, that between two and three thousand Herons +are within a few hundred yards of you. + +One may gain a far better idea of Heron life, however, by visiting the +rookery while the foliage is still glistening with dew. Then, from a +distance, a chorus of croaks may be heard from the young birds as they +receive what, in effect, is their supper. Old birds are still returning +from fishing trips, and the froglike monotone of the young is broken by +the sudden _quawks_ of their parents. + +The rookery is in a low part of the woods which evidently is flooded +early in the year, a fact which may have influenced the Herons in their +selection of the locality as a nesting site. At the time of our visit +the swamp maples, in which the nests are placed, were densely undergrown +with ferns, and as we approached the whitened vegetation, which clearly +marked the limits of the rookery, a number of Herons with squawks of +alarm left the vicinity of their nests, and soon the rookery was in an +uproar. The common _quawk_ note was often heard, but many of the calls +were distinctly galline in character and conveyed the impression that we +had invaded a henroost. + +The trees in which the nests were placed are very tall and slender, mere +poles some of them, with a single nest where the branches fork; while +those more heavily limbed had four, five,^{38} and even six of the +platforms of sticks, which with Herons serve as nests, but in only a +single instance was one nest placed directly below another. A +conservative count yielded a total of five hundred and twenty-five +nests, all within a circle about one hundred yards in diameter, nearly +every suitable tree holding one or more, the lowest being about thirty +feet from the ground, the highest at least eighty feet above it. + +While the limy deposits and partially digested fish dropped by the birds +seemed not to affect the growth of the lower vegetation, it had a marked +influence on certain of the swamp maples, the development of the trees +which held a number of nests being so retarded that, although it was +June 13th, they were as yet only in blossom.^{38} The comparative +absence of foliage permitted one to have a far better view of what was +going on above than if the trees had been thickly leaved, and on +entering the rookery our attention was at once attracted by the nearly +grown Herons, who, old enough to leave the nest, had climbed out on the +adjoining limbs. There, silhouetted against the sky, they crouched in +family groups of two, three, and four.^{39} + +[Illustration: 38. Five Herons’ nests in swamp maple, at an average +height of seventy feet. The upper right-hand nest with young shown in +Nos. 41 and 42.] + +[Illustration: 39. A view in the Heron rookery, looking upward from the +ground to nests and young, about eighty feet above.] + +Other broods, inhabitants of more thickly leaved trees, made known their +presence above by disgorging a half-digested eel, which dropped with a +thud at our feet and occasionally nearer, suggesting the advisability of +carrying an umbrella. The vegetation beneath the well-populated trees +was as white as though it had been liberally daubed with whitewash, and +the ground was strewn with blue-green eggshells neatly broken in two +across the middle; fish, principally eels, in various stages of +digestion and decay; and the bodies of young birds who had met with an +untimely death by falling from above. It was not altogether a savory +place! + +[Illustration: 40. Black-crowned Night Herons feeding. Telephoto, × 2 at +a distance of about one hundred and fifty feet.] + +Seating ourselves at the base of an unoccupied tree, we had not long to +wait before the normal life of the rookery was resumed. The young, who +while we were observed had been silent, now began to utter a singular, +froglike _kik-kik-kik_ in chorus, and the old birds one by one returned. +When food was brought an increased outcry was heard from the expectant +youngsters about to be fed. At intervals a resounding _thump_ announced +the fall of some too eager bird, but, in the cases which we +investigated, the Heron, if fairly well grown, seemed to be little the +worse for his tumble of from fifty to seventy feet, and with lowered +head ran through the undergrowth with surprising quickness. With those +which were younger, however, the mortality had evidently been great, +and, seeing the dozens of dead birds on the ground beneath the nest +trees from which they had fallen, one questioned whether this habit of +nesting high in trees had not, for protective reasons, been recently +acquired by a species the young of which would seem much more at home +nearer the ground. + +[Illustration: 41. Young Night Herons in nest. Same as No. 42.] + +It was with a delightful sense of companionship with the birds that I +observed them going and coming, feeding their young, or resting after +the night’s labors, wholly undisturbed by my presence. Almost I seemed +to be a guest of the rookery, and I longed for power to interpret the +notes and actions of the birds so abundant about me. + +[Illustration: 42. Young Night Herons leaving nest. Nesting tree shown +in No. 38.] + +So I should like to have passed the day with them, becoming for the time +being a Heron myself; but the desire to picture the birds was stronger +than the wish to be a Heron, and the situation was considered from the +standpoint of the bird photographer. + +The rookery proved to be a difficult subject. No single view would +convey an adequate idea of its appearance, and I therefore selected +representative tree tops and photographed their nests and young birds. A +visit to a neighboring pond resulted in securing, with the aid of a +telephoto, a picture^{40} of two adult birds feeding well out of +gunshot, and with the assistance of climbers I reached the upper +branches of a tree some seventy feet in height containing five nests +whose contents ranged from eggs to nearly grown young. With the +ball-and-socket clamp the camera was fastened to favoring limbs, and +after three hours’ work several satisfactory pictures of young in the +nest and on the adjoining branches were secured.^{41–43} Although well +able to defend themselves, the young assumed no such threatening +attitudes as the American Bittern strikes when alarmed, from which +perhaps we may argue that they are happily ignorant of the dangers which +beset their ground-nesting relative. + +[Illustration: 43. Young Night Herons on branches near nest, seventy +feet from the ground.] + +As the sun crept upward and the last fishers returned, the calls of both +old and young birds were heard less and less often, and by ten o’clock +night had fallen on the rookery and the birds were all resting quietly. +Four o’clock in the afternoon was evidently early morning, and at this +hour the birds first began to leave the rookery for their fishing +grounds. Some went toward the north, others to the south, east or west; +each bird no doubt having clearly in mind some favorite shore, perhaps a +dozen miles away, where he before had had good luck a-fishing; and of +all the varied phases of rookery life the thought of this regular +nightly expedition of hundreds of winged fishers, is to me the most +attractive. + + +Our largest Heron as well as our largest bird is the Great Blue. “Crane” +he is popularly called; but, aside from other differences, the bird’s +habit of folding its neck back on its shoulders, when on the wing, will +distinguish it from true Cranes, who fly with neck extended to the +utmost. + +The Great Blue Heron is not edible, but its size makes it a desirable +prize to most gunners and it is considered an especially fit mark for a +rifle. The temptation is strong to condemn as an outlaw the man who +kills one of these noble birds for what he terms sport, or perhaps for +the purpose of what he would call having it “set up.” He, however, is +acting according to his light, which is quite as bright as that which +shines for most of his neighbors. The Heron is exceedingly wild, and its +capture is eloquent evidence of the hunter’s prowess, while his desire +to have its stuffed skin adorn his home is, from his point of view, +positively commendable. That the bird is infinitely more valuable alive +than dead, that its presence adds an element to the landscape more +pleasing to some than could be imparted by any work of man, and that in +depriving others of the privilege of observing its singularly stately +grace of pose and motion he is selfish beyond expression, does not even +vaguely occur to this so-called “sportsman,” who belongs in the class to +whom a majestic cliff is a quarry, a noble tree, lumber. Until he has +been educated to properly value the beauties of Nature, or at least +realize the rights of others in them, he must be restrained by law, to +the force of which even he is not blind. + +Only the Great Blue Heron’s extreme wariness and habit of frequenting +shores and marshes where it can command an extended view of its +surroundings has preserved it from extinction; but when nesting it is +compelled to visit woodlands where its human enemies have better +opportunities to approach it, and its only chance for safety during the +breeding season is to select a retreat remote from the home of man. For +this reason Great Blue Heron rookeries are exceedingly uncommon in more +settled parts of the bird’s range, and north of Florida I have seen +their nests in only one locality. + +It was the week after my visit to the Night Herons that, in northern +Cayuga County, New York, I was led by a local ornithologist through one +of the heaviest pieces of timber I have ever seen north of a primeval +tropical forest, in search of a Great Blue Heron rookery which he knew +to exist, and only my confidence in his woodsmanship gave me courage to +follow him over fallen trees and through the season’s dense undergrowth, +from which our passage raised such a host of mosquitoes that every step +was a battle. If the vicious little insects had lived only to protect +the Herons, they could not have disputed our progress more valiantly, +and on reaching the birds’ stronghold, where the comparative absence of +undergrowth deprived our winged foes of shelter, I congratulated myself +on what, for the moment, seemed to be no insignificant feat. + +The eleven nests which my guide had seen on a previous occasion were +found occupying their former positions, at least one hundred feet from +the ground in dead trees, one of which held five of the eleven. During +the many years which the birds have nested in the place their number has +not varied, and one wonders what becomes of the from thirty to forty +young who doubtless each year leave the parental trees. No other Herons +of this species are known to nest in the vicinity, and it is not +probable that the progeny of each year would seek a nesting site in some +far distant rookery; consequently, as an alternative explanation, we can +only suppose that the yearly product of the rookery balances its losses +by death. + +The young birds were now nearly half grown, but, unlike the Night +Herons, they did not venture outside their nests, from which they +uttered harsh croaks in evident supplication to their parents for food. +The sight of the trees in which the nests were placed effectually +controlled whatever ambitions I had entertained toward camera studies at +short range, and I contented myself by making telephotos from the +ground, in one of which an adult bird and two nests, each with a young +bird appearing above its edge, may be seen.^{44} + +Time was lacking in which to observe these birds, and the value of my +visit to their retreat is not to be expressed in words. The wildness of +their home seemed in perfect accord with their nature, and their +apparent safety from intrusion brought a sense of satisfaction which +colors my memory of the whole experience. + +[Illustration: 44. Looking upward from ground to nests and young and +adult bird of Great Blue Heron at a height of over one hundred feet. +Telephoto.] + + + + + WHERE SWALLOWS ROOST + + +Contributing little to the material wealth of the nation, the Hackensack +marshes of northern New Jersey are usually regarded as “waste land.” By +the farmer they are termed “salt medders,” and their waving grasses are +of value to him only as “bedding” for cattle. In winter the muskrat +hunter reaps a harvest of pelts there. The down of the “cat-tails” is +gathered for cushion stuffing, and the bladed leaves for chair bottoms. +To the gunner they are the resort of Ducks, Snipe, Rail, and Reedbirds, +which each year visit them in decreasing numbers; while to the thousands +who daily pass them on the encircling railroads they are barren and +uninteresting. But if beauty is a sufficient cause for being, then these +marshes may claim a right to existence. + +In preglacial times this region was probably forested, but now the +forest is buried beneath the drift of the glacier which deposited +fragments of Palisade and Orange Mountain trap rock on Staten Island. +During the depression of the land which occurred as the ice gradually +receded, the waters of the sea doubtless passed up here and the meadow +was a larger “Newark Bay.” Then commenced their slow filling up by the +silt brought down by the Hackensack River. The river has preserved a +right of way, but the bay has given place to a sea of reeds and grasses. + +[Illustration: 45. Hackensack marshes in August.] + +On a bright August morning I mount a spur of trap rock which reaches out +from the western base of the Palisades, and from this elevation have an +uninterrupted view over the meadows. The cool, invigorating air +foretells the approach of autumn; it is brilliantly clear. The Orange +hills stand out with the distinctness of Western mountains. The sun is +at my back, and the light shows the meadows to the best advantage. At +this distance I get the effect of only the masses of color; tracts of +yellowish green meadow grass tinged with copper, and in places thickly +sprinkled with the white flowers of the water hemlock and water parsnip; +streaks of light green wild rice, and sharply defined areas of dark +green cat-tail flags. The grass grows on the drier land, the wild rice +in the small sloughs and creeks which are bordered by the flags. In the +spring the wind blows the pollen from the cat-tail blossoms, and a +shifting greenish vapor floats over the marsh; in the autumn a heavy +westerly wind raises the seed-bearing down high in the air, carries it +over the Palisades, across the Hudson, and it descends like a fall of +fleecy snow on wondering New York. + +The marsh is a vast arena inclosed by the Palisades and Passaic hills; +it is a great plain, with blue stretches of the winding river appearing +here and there, and the haystacks are the huts of aborigines. I half +close my eyes, and it is a copper-yellow sea. The grasses roll in +undulating waves, capped by a white crest of parsnip and hemlock +blossoms; the dark irregular patches of flags are the shadows of clouds, +the light streaks of wild rice are shoals, a hovering Marsh Hawk is a +Gull. A stately white-winged schooner^{45} comes up the river; her hull +is hidden by the meadow grasses; she is sailing through the sea of my +fancy. + +This is an impressionist’s view of the meadows. Now let us leave our +rocky lookout and examine them more in detail. The meadow we are leaving +is a meadow of all summer; the one we are approaching is a meadow clad +in all the glory of its August flowers. One might think Nature was +holding a flower show here, so gorgeous is the display. The railway +track at the edge of the marsh is apparently an endless aisle bordered +by a rich exhibit of flowers. Clusters of thoroughwort and purple +loose-strife grow so abundantly they give color to the foreground, +through which wild sunflowers make streaks of gold. There are solid beds +of purple asters on the drier land, and delicate snow-white saggitarias +in the sloughs. Jewel flowers sparkle through the flags, and convolvulus +hangs from the reeds, its own foliage scarce showing, or, growing with +the fragrant climbing hempweed, it forms banks of dense vegetation. The +scarlet lobelia darts upward like a tongue of flame, startling in its +intense brilliancy. There are burnet, vervain, gerardia, and running +groundnut. But it is the marsh^{46} mallow which, more than any other +flower, gives beauty to the meadow. It grows here with wasteful +luxuriance, and the dark masses of flags serve as a frame for this +floral picture. Out in the marsh it grows in equal profusion; the meadow +is hung with small pink lanterns, as if for a _fête_. A single flower of +the marsh mallow commands the attention of the most unobservant, and +when growing in abundance it excites enthusiastic admiration. + +[Illustration: 46. Marsh mallows.] + +Nor is the animal life of the marsh less interesting than its flora. +Meadow mice nest beneath the haycocks. Were it not for the minks and +Hawks which prey on them, they might become a scourge throughout the +surrounding country. Muskrats are living in peaceful security in their +snug summer homes, hollowed from the banks of the streams. They are the +true villagers here, and pass the winter in icy huts, like Eskimos. Out +in the grasses Short-eared Owls are hiding. Their day begins when the +sun disappears behind the Orange hills; then one may hear the “quawk” of +the Night Heron. Red-winged Blackbirds nest here, and in the autumn they +gather in great flocks and feed on the wild rice. + +[Illustration: 47. Wild rice.] + +Long-billed Marsh Wrens—small, nervous, excitable bits of feathered +life—are abundant in the flags, and to them they attach their large +woven nests. Except for a harsh, scolding note they are silent now, but +earlier in the year the marsh is musical with their rippling songs. The +fervor of the love season overcomes their fondness for the dark recesses +of the flags, and, singing, they rise into the air as if driven upward +by the mine of melody which explodes within them. + +Swamp Sparrows are common, and their clear trill is one of the few +August songs. Bobolinks, traveling in disguise and under the assumed +name of “Reedbird,” pause here to feed on the ripening wild rice.^{47} +Some of them have not yet completed their change of costume and appear +in a spotted suit of black and yellow. Occasionally one hears a +suppressed burst of the “mad music” of June, but their common note is a +metallic _chink_. At night this note is heard from high in the air, as +the birds continue their journey to the cultivated rice fields of South +Carolina and Georgia, there to remain until September or October, when +they leave for their winter home south of the Amazon. + +The Sora Rails, beloved of sportsmen and epicures, are also attracted to +the marshes by the wild rice. On their arrival in early August they are +indeed “as thin as a rail,” but an abundance of food soon rounds their +bodies into comparative plumpness. The 1st of September is a black day +in their calendar. Then they are outlawed, a price is set on their +bodies, and at high tide each day during this sad month one sees +numerous puffs of smoke arise from the tall grasses and dull reports +come booming over the marsh with fateful frequency. + +But the characteristic birds of the marshes at this season are Swallows. +They outnumber many times all the rest of the marsh birds together—in +fact, are present in such myriads that their gatherings are one of the +most interesting and impressive phenomena of the bird life of this +region. + +Five species are represented. Named in the order of their abundance they +are the Tree, Bank, Barn, Eave, and Rough-winged Swallows. The last are +comparatively rare, while the Tree Swallows are so in excess of all the +species named that the following remarks relate largely to them alone. + +Although Tree or White-breasted Swallows nest locally throughout North +America, from the tableland of Mexico to Labrador and Alaska, there are +but few instances of their breeding in the lower Hudson River valley, +where they appear only as migrants or transient visitants. They arrive +from the south early in April, and their northward migration is not +concluded until about June 1st. During June they are rarely seen, but +between the 1st and the 5th of July they begin their journey to their +winter homes—a movement which inaugurates the fall migration. + +This stage of their journey takes them only to certain marshes, which +become stations on their line of travel where countless numbers of their +kind, impelled by the flocking impulse, gather to roost in the reeds. +Their numbers increase steadily through July and August, the maximum of +abundance being reached about September 1st; then they gradually become +less numerous, and by October 10th comparatively few remain, though if +the weather be favorable, they may be observed daily until late in the +month. + +Throughout this period—from July to October—the marsh is used only as a +dormitory, the reeds evidently offering suitable perches to these +weak-footed birds, who in the morning radiate throughout the surrounding +country and in the evening return to the marsh to sleep. In the evening +they fly low, and the altitude and time of their flight make them +conspicuous. In the morning they fly high, as though bound to some +distant feeding ground, and at so early an hour that they usually escape +observation. The evening flight, therefore, is generally considered as +truly migratory, when, in fact, the same birds doubtless pass over a +given locality night after night, perhaps for weeks, in returning to +their roosts in the marshes. + +[Illustration: 48. “Bird notes”—Tree Swallows.] + +These evening flights begin about two hours and a half before sunset, +when the birds, after resting during the late forenoon and early +afternoon, usually on some telegraph wire,^{48} begin to wheel and +circle over the fields in pursuit of their evening meal, when one might +imagine they were resident birds, but observation will show that the +general trend of their movement is toward the roost. + +This continues for an hour to an hour and a half, a cloudy evening +hastening their actions, when their flight becomes more direct. Few +birds pause to feed, but hurry on to the roosting places, and as the +light fades the last birds rush through the gloom with arrowy speed and +directness. The birds pass in straggling flocks, and periods of +abundance are succeeded by intervals of scarcity, as though the +individuals which had been associated during the day were journeying +home together. + +Thus the Swallow’s evening flight may be observed throughout the region +surrounding the marshes; even in New York city they may be seen feeding +above the houses, and after sunset flocks of swift-flying birds are +often confused by the telegraph wires, which, however, their dexterity +of wing permits them to pass without serious harm. + +In the marshes the first birds are seen about two hours before sunset. +Many follow the course of the river, and if one be at its border splash +after splash is heard as the birds dip lightly into the water, followed +by soft fluffs as arising from the stream they shake their plumage. Soon +the air is filled with Swallows, all streaming toward the roost with +increasing swiftness. + +Many birds, however, as though waiting for some tardy comrades, rest by +the way, perching on telegraph wires should they cross the marsh, or +when these are wanting, on the tips of the reeds. They invariably face +the wind, and when it is from the west the last rays of the sun striking +their white breasts make them appear like snowy flowers crowning the +reeds. Suddenly, with a rush, they whirl onward to the roost. + +Thus far the exact location of this roost has defied my search. I have, +however, roughly defined the bounds of that section of the marsh in +which it is placed by observation stands at which the Swallows flew +north and south respectively, and somewhere between the two I still hope +to discover the Swallows’ sleeping haunts. + +The following description of their departure from the marshes in the +morning is abstracted from my journal, under date of August 15, 1886: “A +cool, clear morning, with a light northwesterly wind. I reached the +marshes shortly before five o’clock, when they appeared to be deserted, +not a Swallow being in sight. At two minutes of five the first birds +were observed, then flock after flock they came until at five the air +was filled with hurrying forms, flying at varying altitudes toward the +north. + +“Suddenly, from the meadows near me there arose a vast cloud of +Swallows, doubtless birds which had come from farther south in the marsh +before my arrival. Steadily they mounted upward, until having attained a +height where with a strong glass they appeared faint dots against the +sky, they slowly winged their way northward. + +“All the time the meadows were alive with birds feeding in every +direction; gradually they passed to the north, when another huge flock +arose from the marsh, and after gaining an immense height disappeared, +this time toward the east. + +[Illustration: 49. Tree Swallows in tree.] + +“As the sun rose over the Palisades few birds were on the wing, but +great flocks were perched in the reeds on the banks of the creek, and as +in my canoe I drifted slowly up to them, they seemed unmindful of my +presence, when, as though at a signal, they arose as one bird, and after +hovering lightly overhead returned to the reeds. + +“The tide was low, and along the shore several Sora Rail were feeding, +and, as carried by the tide I floated noiselessly by, they paused in +their search for food, and with tails upraised regarded me with evident +astonishment. A mink approached the shores of a small inflowing stream, +hesitated, then plunged in, crossed, and disappeared in the tall grasses +on the opposite side. The air was vocal with the calls of Red-winged +Blackbirds, the _chink_ of Bobolinks, and the rattle of Swamp Sparrows. + +“On a reed-grown point below was another great army of Swallows. With +surprising regularity a detachment left it every fifteen minutes; thus, +birds left at 6, 6.15, 6.30, and 6.45, when the reeds were deserted. The +departing birds did not arise alone, but the entire flock arose at once, +then divided into two flocks, one of which flew northward while the +other returned to the reeds. Many of the departing birds alighted on the +reeds farther up the creek; their numbers constantly received additions +from the ranks of passing birds, and thus new flocks were formed. + +“At eight o’clock the last Swallows had left the reeds in my vicinity, +but birds were constantly passing toward the north, and this straggling +flight continued until nine o’clock, when again the marshes appeared +deserted.” + + +Subsequent observations have been made largely from a road crossing the +marsh, the telegraph and electric-light wires which border it being the +resting place of vast numbers of Swallows, both at night and in the +morning. Particularly do they throng the wires near the creek, which +flows north and south through the marsh, and which, it is interesting to +observe, forms a natural highway for the Swallows as they go to and from +their roosts. + +On the sides of this road are several small maple trees, to which the +Swallows often resort in such numbers that their foliage trembles as +though in a strong breeze, it not being the birds’ object to perch in +the trees, but to flutter among the dew-laden leaves, and apparently +bathe in the moisture they contain, while between the baths they rest on +the smaller terminal twigs, when they are very difficult to +observe.^{49} This habit does not appear to have been previously +recorded, and I am by no means certain that the explanation offered is +the true one. + +[Illustration: 50. Tree Swallows on wire and nest hunting about pile.] + +Frequently one or more flocks, varying in size from eight or ten to +several hundred birds, may be seen in the road, where I at first +supposed they were “dusting,” but soon noticed that most of the birds +after alighting in the road were motionless. They did not move about as +though searching for food, but occasionally the actions of a pair +enabled one apparently to determine the sex of each individual, and more +often a bird would pick up a bit of dried grass and fly up into the air +with it. Sometimes it was carried fifty yards or more and then dropped; +at others, the birds would carry it to the telegraph wires above, and +drop it after perching a moment. Without exception, all the birds seen +to alight in the road were in the dull, immature plumage of birds of the +year, and in their actions, as Mr. William Brewster has remarked (The +Auk, 1898, p. 194), they evidently gave a premature exhibition of the +procreative and nest-building instincts.^{51} + +Additional evidence of the possession of inherited knowledge was +apparently given by many Tree Swallows, who were frequently seen +hovering about a pile standing in the creek.^{50} At first it was +supposed that these birds were feeding on insects which had alighted on +the pile; but the number of birds—often a dozen or more—seen fluttering +about it, and the persistency with which they remained there, forced the +conclusion that in a wholly unreasoning way they were looking for a +nesting site. + +Swallows are not known to migrate by night, and, so far as I am aware, +no single Swallow has ever been found among the thousands of +night-flying birds which have perished by striking lighthouses. The +Swallows, therefore, when migrating probably leave the marsh during the +day, but in what manner who can say? + +[Illustration: 51. Immature Tree Swallows gathering nesting material.] + +Several times when crossing the marshes on the cars I have observed +gatherings of Swallows which made the immense flocks observed daily in +August and September seem little more than a family of birds. They +appeared in the distance like a vast swarm of gnats; it was as though +all the Swallows in the marsh had collected in one great storm of birds. +The significance of this movement I have never had the fortune to +determine, but it seems highly probable that it is connected with the +inauguration of an actual migration toward the birds’ winter quarters. + + + + + TWO DAYS WITH THE TERNS + + +Terns are useless for food, and can not therefore be classed as “game +birds.” So far as we know they are of no special economic value. +Consequently, when one protests against their practical annihilation for +millinery purposes, he is not infrequently answered: “Well, what good +are they?” The question exposes so absolute a failure to appreciate the +bird’s exquisite beauty and unexcelled grace—such a discouraging +materialism—that one realizes the hopelessness of replying. + +I confess I find it impossible to describe satisfactorily just what the +presence of Terns along our coast means to me. It is not alone their +perfection of color, form, and movement which appeals to one, but also +the sense of companionship they bring; and doubtless this feeling is +emphasized by the impressive loneliness of the sea, which makes anything +alive doubly welcome. And so the coming of a single one of these +beautiful creatures changes the character of the bay or shore. With +unfailing pleasure one watches its marvelously easy flight, its +startling darts for its food of small fish, and when it disappears the +scene loses a grateful element of life. + +A milliner’s hunter or fisherman, however, might have made a very +different reply to the unimaginative individual who asked the value of +Terns. The former would have told him that they were worth about ten +cents each for hat trimmings; the latter would have said that their eggs +made excellent omelets; and each has done his best—the one to lay all +Terns on the altar of Fashion, the other to see that none of their eggs +escaped the frying pan. + +In the meantime a number of bird lovers have taken up the battle for the +Terns in their few remaining strongholds, and the brief history of Tern +destruction and protection is full of suggestive incidents. + +It was about twenty years ago that Terns first found favor in woman’s +eyes, and during the few succeeding years hundreds of thousands of these +birds were killed on the Atlantic coast for milliners. Cobb’s Island, on +the coast of Virginia, is credited with having supplied forty thousand +in a single season, and, as one of the killers recently confessed to me +that he knew of fourteen hundred being killed in a day, the story is +doubtless true. Their delicate white and pearl-gray feathers were, of +course, badly blood-stained; but good and bad, the skins were washed and +then thrown into a barrel of plaster, which was rolled up and down the +beach until the moisture was absorbed from their plumage. A Long Island +taxidermist used a patent churn for this purpose. + +The destruction at other favorable points was proportionately great, and +in two or three years one looked in vain for the Terns which had +previously so enlivened our shores. + +The protection afforded by an insular existence was now given a +practical and striking illustration. The Terns which nested on the +mainland or nearlying sand bars were soon extirpated, but on certain +less accessible, uninhabited islets, they still survived. + +Thus all that were left of countless numbers of these birds which once +inhabited the shores of Long Island were to be found on the Great Gull +Island, while Muskeget and Penikese, off the Massachusetts coast, +contained the only large colonies of Terns from Long Island to Maine. +The existence of the Gull Island colony being threatened by collectors, +the influence of several bird lovers secured the appointment of the +keeper of the lighthouse on the neighboring islet, Little Gull, as a +special game warden to enforce the previously useless laws supposed to +protect the Terns. + +The result was both encouraging and instructive. In two years it is +estimated that the colony increased from two thousand to four thousand, +and it was hoped that it might prove a nucleus from which the adjoining +shores would eventually be restocked with Terns. But the Government at +Washington selected Great Gull Island as a desirable point for +fortifications, and before even this suggestion of war the poor Terns +disappeared. For one season the laborers employed by the Government +feasted on Terns’ eggs; then the gradual occupancy of the eighteen acres +composing the islet forced the birds to seek homes elsewhere. + +Hence it follows that if one would see Terns in numbers on the middle +Atlantic coast to-day, he must journey to two small islets off +Massachusetts, which thus far have afforded them a refuge. Interesting +it is to recall that on Martha’s Vineyard, lying between the two, are +found the only living representatives of the Heath Hen, or Eastern +Prairie Hen, which was once locally abundant in certain parts of the +Eastern and Middle States. + +In 1889 I visited the Terns of Great Gull Island, and a desire to be +again surrounded by these birds, and perhaps secure photographs of them +and their way of living, brought me on July 16, 1899, to Wood’s Holl, +Massachusetts, _en route_ to whichever Tern headquarters it might prove +most convenient to reach. + +Quite unexpectedly there proved to be a small colony of Common and +Roseate Terns on three islets, known as the Weepeckets, standing in +Buzzard’s Bay, near the entrance to Wood’s Holl. In all, there were +probably between three and four hundred birds, of which by far the +greater number appeared to be domiciled on the largest of the three +islands. This contains from ten to twelve acres of sand, grown with +beach grass, scrub sumach, bayberries, and a few stunted pines about two +feet in height. + +On this apparently uninviting bit of land I passed two delightful days +alone with the Terns. The accompanying photographs tell far more of the +birds than pen can well express, but they convey no suggestion of the +pleasure I experienced in again finding myself among them. + +[Illustration: 52. Nesting site, nest, and three eggs of Common Tern. A +nearer view of nest with sitting bird is shown in Nos. 63 and 64.] + +The birds were nesting on the upland, on the sloping grass bank, on the +northwest side of the island, and on the rocky beach^{52} at its base. +In the two first-named locations most of the nests were lined with +grasses, but occasionally they consisted of only a slight, bared +depression in the earth; while the eggs along the beach were, as a rule, +deposited on wisps or piles of driftweed. There were perhaps six or +eight Roseate Terns, the others were apparently all Common Terns, but as +I am unfamiliar with the very similar Arctic Tern, it is possible that +this species may have been present. + +[Illustration: 53. Tern hovering above nest.] + +A Tern colony is in some respects a unit. The alarm of one bird is +shared by all, and before the boat’s keel grated on the sandy beach of +the largest Weepecket, the snowy-breasted birds, which in a group were +resting there, had taken flight, and with their singular call told all +the other Terns on the island of my invasion. At once the birds gathered +and, hanging in a flock overhead, protested most vigorously against my +intrusion with their purring, vibrant _te-a-r-r-r_. This cry never +ceases so long as one remains near their home; it rings in the ears for +days afterward, and one need only to recall it to form a clear mental +picture of a sky full of hovering Terns. Occasionally this monotone was +punctuated by a loud, reedy _cack_ as a Roseate Tern dashed by, or as +some half-distracted bird, whose nest was doubtless near, screaming, +dived close to my head with a sudden, startling swish. It seemed almost +as though the bird would pierce me with its sharply pointed bill; and if +it could have managed to go through the rim of my hat without damage to +either of us, I should have been very glad to have sacrificed that +article of apparel to such an exhibition of bravery. + +[Illustration: 54. Nest and eggs of Tern on upland.] + +As I advanced I began to discover nests. Some were on the upland, snugly +placed in the grass or near a large stone,^{54} and with pretty +surroundings of yarrow, sumach, or bending grasses; others were on the +little shelves of the steep westerly bank of the islet; and others still +on bits of seaweed among the pebbles and rocks which here formed the +beach.^{55} No attempt was made to take advantage of the concealment +offered by the groups of bowlders scattered along the beach, and beneath +which the birds might have hidden effectively, it being presumably their +object to select a site from which they could readily detect any cause +for alarm. As a rule, their nests contained one or two eggs, only a +single nest being seen with three. + +Although by this time birds of the year should have been on the wing, +few young of any age were seen—a condition which was doubtless explained +by the fact that the birds, thus far, had been too much occupied +furnishing the members of boating parties with souvenirs of their day’s +outing, to give attention to their own household affairs. + +[Illustration: 55. Tern’s nest and eggs in drift _débris_.] + +However, the few young that were seen gave a most interesting exhibition +of their instinctive appreciation of the value of both their protective +colors and the power of their legs. As long as they believed themselves +unobserved they trusted in the former; but the moment they became +convinced that a further attempt at concealment was useless, they +transferred their faith to their pedal extremities, on which they +pattered off as far and as fast as their strength permitted. This +observation was verified later on Penikese,^{57} where young were +numerous, and the habit was well shown by the young bird figured.^{56} +He was discovered squatting among the rocks, where he remained, +practically at my feet, while I set up my tripod and deliberately made +his picture—during which operation so inconspicuous was he that I +invariably had to hunt for him each time I removed my eyes from the +exact spot in which he was crouching. Wishing now to show him to better +advantage, he was picked up and placed on a wisp of driftweed. At once +his manner changed. My touch had broken the spell; what could be felt +could be seen, and, whereas before he had been as motionless as the +pebbles about him,^{57} his one object now was to get out of sight as +speedily as possible. Consequently, time after time, the moment I took +my hand from him he was off, and it was only by squeezing the bulb the +moment he was released that I succeeded finally in securing his picture +on the seaweed. + +[Illustration: 56. Young Tern hiding on rocky beach.] + +Young Terns, apparently, spend at least two days in the nest, during +which time they are brooded by the parents; then they wander about +within a limited space seeking the shade of a stone or bit of driftwood, +always of course under the parental care. At Penikese, young of the year +were seen on the wing, and the series of pictures shown represents the +stages of growth from the egg to the age at which the bird takes flight. + +[Illustration: 57. Young Tern hiding in the grass.] + +Both the nature of the bird’s haunts and the manner in which the members +of a colony spread an alarm make it practically impossible to surprise a +Tern upon its nest. But by lying prone upon the ground one attracts far +less attention than when standing. The hovering flock of birds gradually +disperses, and those which are incubating soon return to the vicinity of +their nests, hanging over them and dropping nearer and nearer,^{53} +until at the end of fifteen or twenty minutes they swoop down beside +them, raise their wings high over their backs, then fold them gently and +settle upon their eggs.^{58} + +On a second visit to the island a bit of old sail was brought, which I +drew over me when lying on the ground—a plan resulting in my practical +disappearance, as far as the Terns were concerned. + +[Illustration: 58. Tern alighting on nest. Same nest as Nos. 60–62.] + +Obviously the only manner in which photographs of the Terns on their +nests could be secured was to conceal one’s camera near the nest and +retire, with a tube or thread, to a distance of a hundred feet or more. +A nest was therefore selected about halfway up the bank on the westerly +side of the island, the camera staked to the ground with long iron pins, +and completely covered with the dried seaweed abundant on the beach +below. I then attached a black linen thread to the shutter and retired +about one hundred feet to the top of the bank. Almost as soon as I lay +down the tumult overhead ceased, the birds scattered, and the rasping +_te-a-r-r-r_ note of alarm was replaced by a variety of calls, showing +these birds to be possessed of an unexpectedly extended vocabulary. One +call was a chirp not unlike the White-throated Sparrow’s, a second might +be written _tue, tue, tue_, and was uttered when one bird was in pursuit +of another. + +[Illustration: 59. Tern on hillside nest.] + +The seaweed not only concealed the camera perfectly, but was so abundant +near the bird’s nest that the appearance of a fresh mound apparently did +not even excite the bird’s curiosity, and within twenty minutes it had +returned to its eggs. It happened, however, that the nature of the site +chosen induced the bird to face the water, and as the camera was above, +and consequently behind it, the view presented did not show it to +advantage, but after several unsuccessful trials the attempt to secure a +more flattering view was abandoned.^{59} + +A bird was now chosen who was incubating two eggs placed in a depression +in a little mound of seaweed on the beach. On this occasion the camera +was placed on a driftwood box, weighted with stones, and completely +covered with seaweed. These eggs were hatching, and the bird soon +returned to them; but before it had come back, another bird in darting +by had flown into the thread, springing the shutter, and making the +picture^{60} of the nest and eggs here given quite as effectively as +many a similarly inexperienced photographer could have done. + +[Illustration: 60. Tern’s nest and hatching eggs in seaweed.] + +The day but one following—July 20th—these eggshells had disappeared, and +the nest was occupied by two young birds with just enough strength to +crawl toward the parent bird when it appeared with food.^{61} And when +their appetites were appeased the parent bird took her place on the nest +and brooded them with the care of an anxious hen.^{62} + +A few yards from this new family were two young who could not have been +over four days old, but who had left the nest for the shade of a piece +of driftwood. Here they were fed by two birds—doubtless both +parents—whom they seemed to recognize among the other Terns hovering +above them. They were apparently fed on small fish, which the parent +bird placed in their open mouths while standing just within reaching +distance. None of the several pictures of these birds were wholly +successful, but in all of them the old birds seem to be much more +graceful in form than the parent of the newly hatched young in the +seaweed. + +[Illustration: 61. Tern about to feed young. Same nest as No. 60.] + +A less experienced Tern had placed its nest of a few bits of seaweed +among the pebbles, almost within reach of the waves. This bird was +singularly restless, turning its head from side to side so constantly +that its picture was secured only by pulling the long thread the moment +after the bird moved.^{63, 64} Like all the birds photographed on the +nest, it showed no alarm at the click of the shutter as the exposure was +made. This surprised me not a little. The camera was usually about three +feet from the bird, the exposure was necessarily rapid (¹⁄₂₅ second and +stop 8), the snap of the old-style “Henry Clay,” used on the first day, +or even of the less loud Iris diaphragm, could be plainly heard at a +distance of several yards, and its failure to startle these nervous, +easily frightened birds makes one suspect that their hearing is +deficient. + +[Illustration: 62. Tern brooding young. Same nest as No. 60.] + +The nests of the Terns that chose the upland for a home were often +picturesquely surrounded by stunted sumach or blooming yarrow, but the +birds here were far less easy to photograph because of the difficulty of +thoroughly concealing one’s camera. The owner of an especially pleasing +nesting site kept me beneath my bit of sail for somewhat over two hours, +while she—if it was she—hung in the air just over her eggs, on which I +momentarily expected to see her settle.^{65} + +[Illustration: 63. Tern on nest. Site shown in No. 52.] + +[Illustration: 64. Tern on nest. Site shown in No. 52.] + +In the meantime the tide had arisen and floated my boat, which was +carried by the wind across to Naushon, and I might have passed the night +with the Terns, had not the Fish Commissioner’s launch taken me off in +the afternoon. + +It would not have been an unwelcome experience. There was an abundance +of dry seaweed for a couch—a nest, I had almost said—and some cavernlike +openings beneath the piles of great bowlders had a very snug and cozy +look, which probably would have disappeared shortly after sunset. + +[Illustration: 65. Tern on upland nest.] + +Two days later I went to Penikese, and my dominant thought on recalling +the experience is an intense desire to repeat it. Penikese, or at least +its northern part, is an island of Terns. On the rocky beach, from which +the sides of the bank lead to the rolling upland above, whichever way I +looked was a Tern’s nest with its two, or, rarely, three eggs. Less +frequently young Terns were seen, varying in age from those just +emerging from the shell to others almost ready to fly, while overhead +was a countless multitude of hovering, darting Terns, whose voices +united in one continuous, grating _te-a-r-r-r_ made the air tremble. +There was an occasional vibrant cack from a Roseate, but not more than a +dozen birds of this species were heard. Asked to estimate the number of +birds present I should have said ten thousand, though I should not have +been surprised to learn that there were twenty thousand. However, Mr. +George H. Mackay, of Nantucket, who may be regarded as a Tern +specialist, placed the number of Terns on Penikese, in 1896, at “six or +seven thousand,” and with the assistance of Mr. R. H. Howe, Jr., counted +1,416 nests containing 2,055 eggs (Auk, xiv, 1897, p. 283). + +[Illustration: 66. Young Terns; first stage, about four days old.] + +A small flock of sheep shared this part of the island with the Terns, +and their presence accounted for the short grass which made the upland +resemble a closely cut lawn, and permitted one readily to see the Tern’s +eggs when several yards distant. For the same reason the birds could be +seen even more plainly, and my most pleasing memory of Penikese is the +greensward dotted with the white forms of breeding birds, who had +returned to their nests after I had partially concealed myself behind a +bowlder. + +[Illustration: 67. Young Tern, about a week old.] + +[Illustration: 68. Young Tern; third stage, second plumage appearing.] + +In or near the nests many dead young birds were seen. The cause of their +death was not evident, unless it may be attributed to the unguarded +footsteps of the grazing sheep. If this be true, the parent birds seemed +in no way to resent the sheep’s carelessness, but accepted their +presence without protest; one bird even exhibited a sign of good +fellowship by perching on a sheep’s back, and the length of time it +remained there showed that it was by no means an unwelcome visitor. + +[Illustration: 69. Young Tern, fourth stage.] + +My time on Penikese was too short to more than show what an admirable +opportunity is here offered the ornithologist who desires to make a +close study of the home life and social relations of Terns. The present +owners of the island, the Messrs. Homer, of New Bedford, take a greatly +to be commended interest in the welfare of their feathered tenants, and, +through posters and the agency of their representative on the island, +aim to afford the birds a much-needed protection. + +What an enviable possession! What a privilege to be able to give a +refuge to so large a proportion of the remaining survivors of these +persecuted birds! + +[Illustration: 70. Young Tern, stage before flight.] + +With no desire to underrate the services to the Commonwealth of these +gentlemen, I still could wish the Terns more stable protectors. Not the +State, whose record as a Tern protector does not invite our confidence, +but a society of bird lovers—the Nuttall Club of Cambridge, or the +Audubon Society of Massachusetts. Would it not be a fitting act for one +of these organizations to ask from woman, the Tern’s chief enemy, +contributions to a fund for the purchase of an asylum for her victims. +Can no one so plead the Terns’ cause that many a feather-bedecked woman +will be glad to send her conscience money to aid in securing their +protection? + +But in addition to being a home of the birds, Penikese has other claims +upon Nature lovers. Here Agassiz, through the medium of his summer +school, brought his pupils into direct contact with Nature, and the +scene of his labors is fraught with associations to every one familiar +with the inspiring history of his life. Let us keep this island sacred +to his memory and the Terns. + + + + + THE BIRD ROCKS OF THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE + + + PERCÉ AND BONAVENTURE + +The naturalist realizes with the utmost sadness that the encroachments +of civilization are rapidly changing the conditions of animal life on +this small sphere of ours, and that soon he may find Nature primeval +only in its more remote or inaccessible parts. + +Forest life vanishes with the demand for timber, which sends the axeman +in advance of the agriculturist. The tillable plains, prairies, and +bottom lands are transformed by the plow. The sandy beaches suffer with +an eruption of summer hotels and cottages, and within the confines of +civilization only such useless portions of the earth’s surface as the +arid deserts and barren mountain tops, marshy wastes and rocky or +far-distant islets, have been unaltered by man. + +It is especially to the preserving influences of island life that we owe +the continued survival of many animals which have greatly decreased or +become exterminated on the mainland, as has been remarked of the Terns +and Heath Hen—two illustrations among hundreds that might be given. +Certain animals, therefore, are not only more abundant on islands, but, +if their home be not shared by man, they exhibit a tameness surprising +to one who has known only the timid, man-fearing creatures of the +mainland. + +On several uninhabited West Indian islets the sailors of Columbus killed +Pigeons and other birds with sticks, or caught them in their hands. +Darwin writes of the “extreme tameness” of the birds of the Galapagos, +and tells of pushing a Hawk off its perch with the muzzle of his gun. +Moseley, on Inaccessible and Kerguelen Islands, had similar experiences. + +The Albatrosses of the Laysan Islands show far less fear of man than do +barnyard fowls—in short, if it were necessary, hundreds of instances +might be cited to show that distrust of man is an acquired and not a +natural trait of animals. + +Having these facts in mind, therefore, I bethought me of some island or +islands which were neither at the antipodes nor either pole, and where +birds were not only abundant, but in such happy ignorance of man that no +difficulty would be experienced in securing their photographs. These +would not only have a present interest and value, but would also form +permanent records of conditions already threatened by the destructive +tendencies of the age. + +After carefully considering all the more easily reached islets of the +Atlantic and Pacific coasts, my choice fell on certain of the bird rocks +of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The name bird rock is used in both a +general and a special sense. In the former it may be applied to many of +the rocky islets of the gulf, in the latter it relates exclusively to +_the_ Bird Rocks at the northeastern end of the Magdalen group. + +Percé Rock, Bonaventure Island, the Magdalens, and the Bird Rocks +themselves seemed to offer the best opportunities to the bird +photographer, and, accompanied by my best assistant, I departed for the +first named on July 2, 1898. + +Percé Rock^{71} (so named because its base has been pierced by the +action of the waves) lies about three hundred feet off the land at the +town of Percé, on the west side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. + +A semiweekly steamer from Dalhousie, near the head of Bay of Chaleur, +furnishes the regular means of communication with Percé, and the town at +once possesses a distinction over any place on the line of a railway. +For, aside from every other reason, there is a pervasiveness about the +smoke of a railway locomotive which contaminates the atmosphere and robs +local influences of half their potency. Doubtless there are persons who +would be glad to change the aroma of Percé’s fishyards for the stifling +air of a railway tunnel, but give me the pungent odor of Percé’s drying +cod unadulterated. + +Even the steamer does not touch Percé, and we were landed by a boat in a +sea just rough enough to make the experience interesting. At the pier no +hotel agent greeted us, for Percé possesses neither hotel nor boarding +house, and summer resorters are almost unknown. This was a delightful +discovery. We had come in search of an isolated colony of birds, and we +found also an isolated colony of man—quaint fisher folk whose _patois_ +French had a gratefully foreign sound. + +[Illustration: 71. Percé Rock from the north.] + +Lodgings were secured at the home of a retired fisherman, and +immediately we sallied forth to pay tribute to the Rock from the nearest +point on the mainland. Its size and precipitousness were both surprising +and impressive. Seen from the land it seemed like the hull of some great +ship which had gone ashore here in the age of the Titans. Nearly three +hundred feet high at the bow, with a beam of about one hundred, and a +length over all of twelve hundred feet, it was not likely to be boarded +by the most nimble seaman. + +Doubtless an expert climber, properly equipped with ropes and +assistants, might reach the summit; but as the last man to make the +attempt, some fifty years ago, lost his life, the town authorities have +imposed a fine of five pounds on any one who shall be found guilty of +scaling or trying to scale the Rock, and the law, incidentally, protects +the birds as well as man. + +The top of the Rock is occupied by a colony of probably between two and +three thousand Herring Gulls and Double-crested Cormorants. The +guidebooks array these birds in picturesque cohorts which make the +Cormorants’ part of the Rock black, the Gulls’ white; and they further +state that should a black bird chance to trespass on the Gulls’ +territory, he is immediately surrounded by a consuming white cloud, and +_vice versa_. But be it said to the disgrace of man and the credit of +birds, that the Cormorants and Gulls nest side by side apparently on +terms of the greatest amity. + +At this point it should be stated that my photographic outfit consisted +of an ancient but useful 4 × 5 “Waterbury Detective,” containing a wide +angle, short-focus lens, and designed for general handwork; a 4 × 5 +long-focus “Premo” with a 6½-inch trade lens and Unicum shutter, for use +from a tripod or in photographing nests, landscapes, etc., and a 5 × 7 +twin lens with a 10-inch lens and Prosch shutter, a camera made +especially for animal photography, but which was undesirably bulky. + +None of these was of service in photographing the inhabitants of Percé +Rock from the land, nor could a telephoto be used to advantage, the Rock +being so much higher than the adjoining mainland. From a boat near the +base of the southeast side of the Rock a better opportunity is afforded +for photographing its summit, and the best of several attempts made at +this point is here presented.^{72} Examined under a glass it conveys +some idea of the number of birds occupying the top of the Rock; and +while one regrets that the camera does so little justice to the subject, +one can not but rejoice that here, at least, is one place to which +probably for all time birds may return each year and rear their young in +perfect security. + +In crevices in the face of the Rock numbers of Guillemots nest, and +directly above the pierced opening dwell a colony of about thirty +Kittiwakes, who have apparently taken up their residence in the Rock +within comparatively recent years, since none were here in 1881 when Mr. +William Brewster visited Percé. + +[Illustration: 72. Percé Rock from southeast end. The Cormorants and +Gulls may be dimly seen on the summit of the Rock.] + +Wherever one be about Percé, in the town or out, the Rock is the +prominent feature of the coast line. It dominates its surroundings as a +snowcapped mountain rules its dependent ranges. To the bird lover it +possesses a double fascination, and one is constantly attracted by the +ceaseless cries of the throng of hovering birds, who in some +indescribable way seem to invest their home with a sense of the charm, +the freedom, the wildness of a sea-bird’s life. It is a true _bird_ +rock; man has no part in it. + +At sunset this bond between the Rock and its inhabitants seemed +especially strong and real. Through a notch in the western hills the +last rays of the sun fell squarely upon the Rock, illuminating it and +the ever-present soaring Gulls after the land and the sea were in +shadow. Slowly the light left the Rock, until it, too, was of the same +gray-blue as its surroundings; then, like the beams from a searchlight, +it struck the circling mass of Gulls, making them seem a flurry of +snowflakes descending into the gloom below. + +The pilgrim to Percé Rock will find that the object of his journey not +only exceeds in grandeur his brightest imagination of it, but he will be +further rewarded by discovering Percé itself and the country round about +to be of exceptional interest and beauty. It was the season of +codfishing, and every morning a fleet of a hundred or more stanch little +boats, each with two men, put out into the bay for a day’s fishing. +Their return, late in the afternoon, was an eventful part of the day. +Then the beach was the center of attraction as boat after boat came in, +the men depositing their catch on the sands, then setting up their +tables and “splitting” the cod with surprising dexterity.^{73} + +[Illustration: 73. Splitting cod on Percé beach. Percé Rock in the +distance.] + +This industry resulted in a singular habit among the Herring Gulls, +which, when first seen, I was at a loss to explain. In a cultivated +hillside bordering the town a flock of about fifty Gulls was observed +eagerly devouring some food, which was apparently abundant. +“Grasshoppers,” I thought, but on investigation the grasshoppers proved +to be entrails, heads, vertebræ, etc., of codfish, which had been strewn +over the fields as fertilizer. The Gulls took wing at my approach, and +perched in long rows on the fences; a curious sight, of which I tried, +but failed, to secure a picture. + +It was through these fields, and along the crests of the red sandstone +cliffs northwest of the town, that my walks oftenest led me. A few +Herring Gulls nested on the ledges, and Mr. Kearton might have succeeded +in securing the photographs of them. But I freely confess to an absence +of both taste and talent as a cliffman, and was quite content, under the +circumstances, to view the birds from above. They, however, had no +scruples about approaching me, and uttering a threatening _ka-ka-ka_, +which suggested the voice of a gigantic katydid, circled about my head +or, with an alarming _swish_, swooped down so near me that I invariably +was surprised into “ducking.” Here also were croaking Ravens, who seemed +by no means shy, and on nearly every fence post was a Savanna Sparrow, +by all odds the most abundant land bird observed. + +[Illustration: 74. Young Savanna Sparrow.] + +Turning from the cliffs, one soon reached the spruce and balsam forests, +with their twittering Juncos, sweet-voiced White-throated Sparrows, Pine +Finches, and numerous Warblers, and following the gently ascending lanes +and pathways leading through the fragrant woods, arrived at the +shrine-crowned summit of Mount St. Anne, twelve hundred feet above the +gulf. + +It is a superb view of boundless sea and forest which greets one from +this vantage point—a striking combination of the charms of land and +water. To the south, the Bay Chaleur with its broken coast line; to the +west, a grand panorama of mountain and valley, all densely wooded—the +home of bear, and deer, and caribou; to the north, a foreground of red +cliffs and blue water, and, in the distance, Gaspé; to the east, the +apparently limitless gulf and, seemingly beneath one, Bonaventure +Island, Percé, and the Rock. + +It was a view to remember; one, I trust, I may be privileged to behold +again. I longed for time to explore the surrounding woods, but +Bonaventure with its Gannets wielded a stronger fascination, and two +days after our arrival we chartered a cod boat, with its crew, for the +voyage to the Gannet rookeries on the eastern side of Bonaventure, +distant about four miles. + +The evident great strength of our craft in proportion to its size made +it seem like a stunted vessel, and her captain and the crew, of one man, +seemed built on the same lines. During the winter they were lumbermen in +the region north of Ottawa, in the summer codfishers. It is doubtful if +they could have selected occupations requiring greater endurance. They +seemed as tough as rawhide, and as rough as pirates. + +My good assistant they invariably spoke of as “the woman,” but both +proved true men at heart, and as solicitous for our welfare as though +their own lives of exposure had not trained them to laugh at hardship. + +I may seem to give undue attention to the boatmen of a day; but there +are days and days in our lives, and with neither my companion nor myself +will time dim the memory of the day off Bonaventure. + +There had been a heavy blow from the east the night before, the tide was +ebbing, and ere we had passed the Rock, and while still under the lee of +Bonaventure, our boat began to toss in a very disquieting manner. As we +rounded the southwest end of Bonaventure we were more exposed to the +action of the waves, but my physical balance was sustained by the +anticipation of seeing “two, tree million of bird,” which the men +declared would soon be visible on the cliffs. + +The farther we advanced the less shelter had we from the land, and +finally, passing the northwest end of the island, we were at the mercy +of the full force of a long rolling sea, which made it impossible to +stand, or even sit, without clinging to one’s surroundings. At this +point, I believe, the promise of the most wonderful sight in the bird +world would not have induced me to continue on our course another +minute; but fortunately no promise was required, the sight itself +existed, and under its inspiration I battled with weak nature for the +next half hour with a courage born of enthusiasm and a desire to picture +the wonders of the scene before me. + +[Illustration: 75. The Gannet cliffs of Bonaventure.] + +On the ledges of the red sandstone cliffs, which rose sheer three +hundred feet above the waves at their base, was row after row of +snow-white Gannets on their nests.^{75} Their number was incredible, and +as we coasted slowly onward, the red walls above us were streaked with +white as far as one could see in either direction, and the hoarse cries +of the birds rose in chorus above the sound of the beating waves. It was +a wild picture, which the majesty of the cliffs and the grandeur of the +sea rendered exceedingly impressive. + +How I longed for the internal composure of my boatmen! One moment I +bowed to the waves, the next propped myself against the mast and, held +by the captain, attempted to use the twin-lens camera. Water, cliff, and +sky danced across the ground glass in bewildering succession, as, like a +wing-shot, I squeezed my pneumatic bulb and snapped at the jumping sky +line. + +One or two exposures were followed by collapse, and in time by partial +recuperation, which permitted fresh efforts. In the picture presented +the cliff is well shown, but the birds are not so numerous as in others +less successful photographically. And during this time how fared my +assistant? Charity forbids a reply. I will only say that, in response to +a hail from a passing fisherman, our captain shouted, “_Son malade!_” + +The supply of 5 × 7 plates exhausted, we came about, and sailing before +the wind quickly reached the leeward side of the island, where, under +the reviving influence of calmer water, we determined to revisit the +Gannets, this time, however, by land. + +Disembarking at the fishing village, which is situated on the west side +of Bonaventure, we were soon in the spruce and balsam forests, which +occupy all but the borders of the island, here about a mile and a half +in width. The change from the turmoil and vastness of the sea to the +quiet and seclusion of the forest made the previous hour’s experience +seem distant and unreal. The wind which had roared through our rigging +now breathed peacefully through the tree tops; the heaving, frothy sea +was replaced by stable earth, wondrously carpeted with snow-white cornel +and dainty twin-flowers;^{76} instead of the harsh cries of the Gannets, +we heard the Ave Maria of the White-throated Sparrow. Rarely have the +woods seemed so beautiful. Approaching the eastern cliffs, the trees +became dwarfed and singularly malformed by the winds. Finally they +disappeared altogether, and were succeeded by fields blue with iris. +Never have I seen this plant so abundant. There were acres of flowers +reaching to the very edge of the cliffs, where, with only a change in +the tint, the blue of the iris faded into the blue of the sea. + +[Illustration: 76. Cornel or bunchberry.] + +We were now nearing the Gannets; desiring to secure a picture of a fully +occupied ledge, I urged due caution, and advanced quietly to the edge of +the cliff. The point was well chosen—almost directly beneath us, and +about halfway down to the sea, there being a broad, rocky shelf so +thickly dotted with nesting Gannets that every bird in the group was +within reach of his immediately surrounding fellows.^{77} It was an +astonishing picture of bird life, but only a fragment of what we had +beheld from the sea. Under the circumstances, however, this fragment +brought more satisfaction than had been before received from the entire +Gannet colony. + +The 4 × 5 “Premo” was now erected, care being taken to make no move +which would alarm the birds, and several exposures were made at leisure. +Then changing the lens to an old “Henry Clay,” and attaching several +elastics to the shutter, I prepared to make a flight picture of the +birds as, at the report of my gun, they left their nests. All ready, I +took firm hold of the bulb and gave the word to the captain to fire. + +The result may fairly be called a failure. As far as we could determine, +the birds gave no evidence of hearing the shot or the others which +followed, and our best efforts did not succeed in making a single Gannet +leave its nest. Like Darwin’s Hawk and Moseley’s Penguins, these birds +seemed happily ignorant of man and his ways. One could doubtless descend +to their ledge without causing them to leave it. + +[Illustration: 77. A ledge of nesting Gannets. About four hundred birds +are shown in this picture.] + +It is conceivable that the wearing of Gannets’ heads, or feet, or wings +may some day become fashionable, but unless the demand be urgent and the +price sufficient to tempt men to risk their lives, the Gannets will long +continue to nest on the cliffs of Bonaventure. + + + + + THE MAGDALENS + + +From Percé to the Magdalens by sea is about a hundred and twenty miles, +but lacking a proper vessel we were forced to return to Dalhousie and +there take the International Railroad to Pictou, where a weekly steamer +leaves for Prince Edward Island and the “Madalenes,” as the natives call +them. + +The journey is possessed of both present and historic interest, and the +hospitality for which the residents of Pictou are noted assures one of a +pleasant stay in their picturesque little town. Here I met a veteran +ornithologist—James McKinlay—who, although over threescore and ten and +isolated from others of kindred tastes, still possesses the enthusiasm +of the genuine naturalist. His collection, the greater part of which he +has presented to the Pictou Academy, contains, among other birds, a +Brown Pelican, a Corncrake, and a Chuck-will’s-widow—all shot in the +vicinity. + +The Magdalen steamer is neither a yacht nor an ocean greyhound, but +answers very well for the short voyage of a hundred and fifty miles +across the gulf. Pictou was left at noon, and the following morning we +awakened to find the steamer at anchor off an island with red sandstone +cliffs, and green fields rising gently into hills clad with stunted +spruce forests. This was at the southern end of the long sand bar which +joins these so-called islands; and our destination, Grand Entry, near +the northern end of the chain, was reached late in the afternoon. + +At this point we embarked in a small sailboat, and in a driving +rainstorm flew before the wind across a bay two miles in width, and up +an arm a mile or so in length, to the settlement of Grosse Isle, on the +island of the same name. The tide was out; Black-backed Gulls were +feeding on the flats, and Gannets fishing in the deeper water; +Guillemots rose before the boat; a seal showed itself for a moment and +disappeared—moving figures in a picture which impressed itself very +vividly on my memory. A landing was made with difficulty, and a walk of +nearly a mile through the scrubby spruces brought us to the home of the +fisher folk, who had agreed to take us in. + +If Percé is isolated, Grosse Isle is in another sphere. Even the weekly +steamer which plies between Pictou and the Magdalens from May to +November comes no nearer than Grand Entry, and its arrival seemed a +rather vague incident, made real only by the appearance of mail. + +The lobster season had just closed, the “pots” were piled in heaps on +the beaches, and mackerel fishing was now the presumable industry of the +male population of Grosse Isle. But few fish were running, and each day +boat after boat of glum-looking men came in from the sea with often only +a few cod to show for their labor. This, however, was midsummer, and the +Grosse Isle “season” was in full swing. There was a school picnic one +day; on another, service was held in the little white church on the +hillside; but, as I considered the deathlike quiet which, as a rule, +reigned in the village, I wondered what life must be there in winter. +Then the entire Magdalen group is frozen in a sea of ice, which renders +communication with the mainland (except by cable, generally out of +repair) impossible. When the ice breaks in the spring, seals appear and +furnish a hazardous occupation to those who are venturesome enough to go +in pursuit of them—a form of sport which I imagine is eagerly welcomed +after the lethargy of winter. With us the Magdalens were only a +stepping-stone to Bird Rock, but while preparing for the continuation of +our journey to that point we took some note of our surroundings. + +[Illustration: 78. Nest and eggs of Fox Sparrow.] + +The Magdalens have an interesting avifauna, but it was now the latter +half of July and the song season of most species was over. Fox Sparrows, +however, were still singing, and their clear, ringing whistle came from +the spruces all about. The fogs, so characteristic of the region, seemed +in no way to dampen their spirits, and when the gray mists closed in +thick about us their notes rang out as cheerily as though the sun shone +from a blue sky. + +My short excursions, however, were largely made along the beaches in +search of some sea waif, and for the shore birds that would soon migrate +through these islands in large numbers, or to the cliffs where the +Guillemots were nesting. The latter were comparative strangers to me, +and I had not become accustomed to the plump, black, white-winged, +little birds that sat so lightly on the water. They nest in scattered +pairs, in crevices, in the face of the cliffs, where my guide, Mr. +Shelbourne, a resident collector, was particularly apt at discovering +them. + +Grosse Isle is not beyond the range of the nestrobbing small boy, and +only the few Guillemots that had contrived to escape him now had young. +They were feeding them on sand eels, and with bills full of their +shining prey made frequent visits to their nests. The young varied in +development from those as yet covered only with the scanty natal down to +others half grown and with the black and white second plumage appearing +beneath. They were active enough to test the temper of the most patient +bird photographer, and the accompanying picture was secured only after +many trials.^{79} + +[Illustration: 79. Young Guillemots.] + +In the meantime we were endeavoring to make some arrangements for our +voyage to the Rock, which on clear days could be seen from the tops of +the higher hills—a hazy dot in the sea. Imagination peopled the view +with Cartier, Audubon, and his successors, and I could scarcely believe +that the scene of the wonders they had described was actually on my +horizon. But, although only twenty miles away, Bird Rock now seemed more +distant than before we had taken the first step of our journey. This in +a measure is due to the uncertainty of gulf weather, the strong tides, +the sudden and severe squalls, the prevalence of fogs, and the +surprising rapidity with which the latter change a sunlit horizon to +closely crowding gray walls—all of which make navigation in these waters +more than usually dangerous. Furthermore, it is to be remembered that +Bird Rock is not a port in which one could seek safety from a storm, but +a spot to be approached only in the calmest weather. One might therefore +start for the Rock under the most favorable conditions, be caught in a +squall and, as a result, find one’s self at sea with the recently +desired haven changed to an element of danger. + +With the Rock glimmering in the sunlight and apparently almost within +reach, it was not easy to believe tales of disaster which had befallen +those who in small boats had attempted to reach it, and I was more +impressed with its inaccessibility by the fact that only one of the many +fishermen with whom I talked, had ever landed on this inhospitable +resort of sea birds. + +This man proved a friend in need—one Captain Hubbard Taker, of the +thirty-ton schooner Sea Gem. I commend him to every visitor to the +Magdalens as a man and a sailor. It was when the difficulties of +reaching the Rock by small boat appeared insurmountable that Captain +Taker returned from a fishing trip to the Labrador coast. He proved to +be one of those rare but exceedingly satisfactory individuals with whom +anything is possible, or at least who believes it is until the contrary +is shown. Could he take us to Bird Rock? “Why, of course; and whenever +you are ready.” So without delay we boarded the Sea Gem. + + + + + BIRD ROCK + + +If as a result of a conference between the birds and the Audubon Society +a home were to be selected which should prove a secure retreat for +certain of the feathered kind, I imagine that Bird Rock, in its primal +condition, would have admirably filled the requirements set forth by +both conferees. + +With precipitous, rocky walls weathered into innumerable ledges, +shelves, and crevices—all fit nesting sites—one might think of it as a +colossal lodging house for the countless sea-bird tenants who find here +not only a suitable place for the reproduction of their young, but in +the surrounding waters an abundant and unfailing supply of food. Add to +these conditions the Rock’s isolation and inaccessibility, its shoreless +outline, and the difficulty with which it may be ascended, and we have +indeed an ideal refuge for sea fowl, one in which, unless they were +subjected to special persecution, they might have continued to exist for +centuries, had not the transforming influences of civilization reached +even to this isle of the sea. + +Bird Rock is about fifty miles northwest of Cape Breton, the nearest +mainland, and twelve east of Bryon Island, its next neighbor in the +Magdalen group, to which it belongs. It is three hundred and fifty yards +long, from fifty to one hundred and forty yards wide, and rises abruptly +from the sea to a height of from eighty to one hundred and forty feet. +Its outline, the nature of its base, sides, and summit are well +indicated by the accompanying pictures. + +[Illustration: 80. Bird Rock from the southwest; distant about one half +a mile.] + +Three quarters of a mile northeast of Bird Rock, or Great Bird, as it is +more specifically called, lies Little Bird, a red sandstone rock which +at high tide, or from a distance, appears as two. The shallow water +between Great and Little Birds suggests the possibility of a past +connection and the probability that in some future geological age the +waves will have completed their work of destruction, when both islands +will have disappeared. + +The history of these bird-inhabited islands is interesting, and gives us +some information of the changes which man has wrought in their bird +life. It begins with the account given by Jacques Cartier of his voyage +to Canada in 1534. Of the Bird Rocks he wrote: “We came to three +islands, two of which are as steep and upright as any wall, so that it +was not possible to climb them, and between them is a little rock. These +islands were as full of birds as any meadow is of grass, which there do +make their nests, and in the greatest of them there was a great and +infinite number of those that we called Margaulx, that are white and +bigger than any geese, which were severed in one part. In the other were +only Godetz, but toward the shore there were of those Godetz and great +Apponatz, like to those of that island that we above have mentioned. We +went down to the lowest part of the least island, where we killed above +a thousand of those Godetz and Apponatz. We put into our boats as many +as we pleased, for in less than one hour we might have filled thirty +such boats of them. We named them the islands of the Margaulx.” + +Concerning this quotation Mr. F. A. Lucas remarks (The Auk, v, 1888, +page 129): “While this description, as well as the sentences which +immediately precede it, contains some statements that apparently are at +variance with existing facts, there is nevertheless good reason to +believe that Cartier here refers to the Bird Rocks in the Gulf of St. +Lawrence. The birds called Margaulx, which bite even as dogs, were +Gannets, whose descendants, in spite of centuries of persecution, are to +be found to-day nesting where their ancestors did before them. + +“That Cartier’s description does not accord with their present +appearance is not to be wondered at. The material of which they are +composed is of a soft, decomposing, red sandstone that succumbs so +easily to the incessant attacks of the sea that Dr. Bryant’s description +of them in 1860 does not hold good to-day. If, then, the Bird Rocks have +undergone visible changes in twenty-five years, it is easy to imagine +how great alterations the islets may have undergone during three and a +quarter centuries.” + +Examination of the narratives left by other early voyagers in this +region would yield further information concerning the Rocks and the +destruction of its inhabitants; but passing to records of greater +ornithological value, we find that Audubon, whose energy in exploration +no ornithologist has ever surpassed, was the first naturalist beholding +Bird Rock to leave us a description of its wonders. It was during his +cruise to Labrador in the schooner Ripley that he wrote in his journal, +under date of June 14, 1833, the following graphic account of the day’s +experiences: + +[Illustration: 81. North side of the Rock, west of the crane.] + +“About ten a speck rose on the horizon, which I was told was the Rock. +We sailed well, the breeze increased fast, and we neared this object +apace. At eleven I could distinguish its top plainly from the deck, and +thought it covered with snow to the depth of several feet; this +appearance existed on every portion of the flat, projecting shelves. +Godwin said, with the coolness of a man who had visited this Rock for +ten successive seasons, that what we saw was not snow, but Gannets. I +rubbed my eyes, took my spyglass, and in an instant the strangest +picture stood before me. They were birds we saw—a mass of birds of such +a size as I never before cast my eyes on. The whole of my party stood +astounded and amazed, and all came to the conclusion that such a sight +was of itself sufficient to invite any one to come across the gulf to +view it at this season. The nearer we approached the greater our +surprise at the enormous number of these birds, all calmly seated on +their eggs or newly hatched brood, their heads all turned to windward +and toward us. The air above for a hundred yards, and for some distance +around the whole Rock, was filled with Gannets on the wing, which, from +our position, made it appear as if a heavy fall of snow was directly +above us.” (Audubon and his Journals, i, p. 360.) + +From his pilot, Godwin, Audubon secured some information concerning the +Gannets that then nested on the top of the Rock. He writes: “The whole +surface is perfectly covered with nests, placed about two feet apart, in +such regular order that you may look through the lines as you would look +through those of a planted patch of sweet potatoes or cabbages. The +fishermen who kill these birds to get their flesh for codfish bait +ascend in parties of six or eight, armed with clubs; sometimes, indeed, +the party comprises the crews of several vessels. As they reach the top, +the birds, alarmed, rise with a noise like thunder, and fly off in such +a hurried, fearful confusion as to throw each other down, often falling +on each other until there is a bank of them many feet high. The men +strike them down and kill them until fatigued or satisfied. Five hundred +and forty have been thus murdered in one hour by six men. The birds are +skinned with little care, and the flesh cut off in chunks; it will keep +fresh about a fortnight. So great is the destruction of these birds +annually that their flesh supplies the bait for upward of forty fishing +boats which lie close to Bryon Island, each summer.” + +This slaughter was evidently attended by some danger, for not only did +the sitting birds bite viciously, but old fishermen in the Magdalens +state that if the invader of the Gannets’ domain on the summit of the +Rock should have happened to be caught in a rush of stampeded birds, he +could with difficulty have avoided being carried off the edge of the +cliff. + +In concluding his description of the Rock, Audubon says: “No man who has +not seen what we have this day can form the least idea of the impression +the sight made on our minds.” One need not be a naturalist, therefore, +to realize the depth of his disappointment when the pilot told him that +the wind was too high to permit them to land on the Rock. However, they +did not leave without at least making an attempt. A boat was launched, +manned by the pilot, two sailors, Audubon’s son John, and Tom Lincoln, +for whom Lincoln’s Finch, discovered subsequently in Labrador, was +named; but after an hour’s absence they returned without having made a +landing, and the increasing force of the wind compelled them to continue +their voyage to the northward. + +Apparently the first naturalist to set foot on Bird Rock was Dr. Henry +Bryant, of Boston, who landed there June 23, 1860. This was before the +days of the lighthouse, and Dr. Bryant reached the top of the Rock only +after a climb which he characterizes as both “difficult and dangerous.” +In addition to the Gannets, which he found resting on the ledges on the +face of the Rock, he found these birds nesting over the entire northerly +half of the summit, and after measuring the surface occupied by them, he +estimated that this one colony alone contained no less than one hundred +thousand birds, while the number living on the sides of the Rock and +Little Bird he placed at fifty thousand. + +The position of the Rock, at the gateway to Canadian ports, makes it +particularly dangerous to vessels plying in these waters, and in 1869 a +lighthouse was erected on its summit. While constructing the light +keeper’s dwelling and storehouses, the Government built two cranes—one +on the northerly, the other on the southerly side of the Rock—for use in +hoisting supplies. There are also now three other places where by means +of ladders and ropes one may ascend. The top of the Rock was thus made +more accessible, and the birds were consequently less protected from the +attacks of fishermen. It is said, also, that the light keepers did not +appreciate the companionship of the Gannets, and made special efforts to +drive the birds from the nesting site which they so long had held +undisturbed. + +[Illustration: 82. A corner of the Rock.] + +Hence, when Mr. C. J. Maynard visited the Rock in 1872, he found that +the colony of Gannets on its summit contained only five thousand birds, +which, nine years later, Mr. William Brewster reports had decreased to +fifty pairs. Mr. Brewster also noted a fresh cause for the destruction +of the eggs of the birds nesting on the sides of the Rock, in the shape +of a cannon which had been introduced shortly before his visit. He +writes: “At each discharge the frightened Murres fly from the Rock in +clouds, nearly every sitting bird taking its egg into the air between +its thighs and dropping it after flying a few yards. This was repeatedly +observed during our visit, and more than once a perfect shower of eggs +fell into the water about our boat.” While the birds have become +comparatively accustomed to the report of the guncotton bomb, which has +succeeded the cannon, large numbers still leave the Rock each time a +bomb is exploded, so that it continues to be a means of destroying not +only eggs but young birds, which are carried off the narrow ledges by +the precipitous flight of their parents. + +Since that date (1881) Cory, Lucas, Palmer, Bishop, and doubtless +others, have visited Bird Rock, but with the entire disappearance of the +Gannets from its summit no attempt has been made to estimate the further +decrease in the number of its feathered inhabitants. + +In spite of the great diminution which this outline of its history shows +to have occurred in Bird Rock’s population, the casual observer of +to-day will believe with difficulty that it could ever have been more +densely inhabited. It is still one of the ornithological wonders of our +Atlantic coast, and, comparatively speaking, as well worth visiting as +in the time of Audubon. + +Writing now in the light of experience, I anticipate a return to Bird +Rock with even more enthusiasm than I felt when after the discouraging +uncertainties of delay we boarded the Sea Gem on the afternoon of July +23d, and with a fair wind set sail for Bryon, where we were to anchor +for the night. + +What a stanch, powerful vessel the little schooner seemed when compared +with the fishing boats in which we had at first prepared to make the +voyage! Investigation below, however, did not seem to offer prospects of +undisturbed repose, and reaching Bryon late in the afternoon we decided +to go ashore and apply to the island’s owner for a night’s lodging. +Bryon Island, with its several thousand acres of stunted spruce and +balsam forests, its rolling pasture lands and grazing cows and sheep, +its precipitous red sandstone cliffs rising to a height of two hundred +feet from the sea and furnishing a home for a few Murres and Puffins, is +the property of one man, who purchased it from the Government for a +nominal sum. A lobster cannery furnishes employment for twoscore or more +itinerant fishermen and laborers, who after the lobstering season ends +in July remain for the mackerel fishing. When they have departed the +population of Bryon is reduced to about half a dozen families, over whom +the owner reigns supreme. + +We landed at the cannery and wended our way over a path through the +stunted forests, which at the end of a mile or more led us to the +monarch’s home—a small frame house adjoining large barns. + +The ruler of Bryon proved to be absent in the Magdalens, but his wife +made us both welcome and comfortable. We recall with pleasure the night +passed beneath her roof, and the magnificent view of the setting sun +from Bryon’s red cliffs. + +We awoke in the clouds, gulf clouds, which so often in swift-spreading +banks envelop both sea and land in this region. It was ten o’clock +before the sun could force its way through them, and when we returned to +the Sea Gem we found the captain impatient at our tardiness. We +explained that of course we did not suppose that he would care to start +in so dense a fog, but he laughed at us. “Fog!” What had fog to do with +sailing when the wind was favorable? Later he gave us an exhibition of +seamanship in a fog which deeply engraved the name of Captain Taker on +our memories. + +However, the wind still held from the right quarter not only for the run +to the Rock, but for a landing on its one bit of beach, and we quickly +hoisted sail for this last stage of a long journey. + +For two hours we watched the Rock grow slowly larger, then its outlines +more rapidly assumed individuality, the lighthouse and other buildings +on its summit took definite form, its rocky ledges were seen to be lined +with rows of white Gannets, and Bird Rock became for us a reality. The +storm of circling birds which Audubon described is not to be seen +to-day, but enough are left to quickly exhaust our stock of adjectives. + +A British flag was displayed from the tall staff near the lighthouse. If +it had been marked with stars and bars it would have looked less like a +signal set as a greeting from the island’s keeper to his unknown guests. + +A figure on the rock now vigorously motioned us toward its only landing +place, and heaving to the schooner we dropped a dory overboard and sent +Captain Taker ashore as our emissary to treat with the representative of +the Canadian Government, and explain to him that through the courtesy of +his chief, the Hon. J. U. Gregory, we were empowered to invade the +territory under his control. At the end of half an hour a large dory, +manned by two oarsmen, appeared from behind the Rock and headed for the +schooner. In the stern was Captain Taker, in the bow a stranger whose +face was eloquent with an unspoken welcome. This was Keeper Captain +Peter Bourque. If we had been at the head of the Lighthouse Board +itself, he could not have received us more cordially. What a hunger he +had for news! Nearly two months had elapsed since he had heard from the +world—months rich with the history of the defeat of Cervera and +surrender of Santiago. + +[Illustration: 83. The landing at the base of the Rock, showing crate.] + +[Illustration: 84. The landing on top of the Rock, showing crane. The +Kittiwakes at the bottom of the picture are shown in No. 85.] + +Our outfit was speedily placed in the dory, and with the Rock and its +birds now looming high above us, we pulled for the bit of rock-fringed +beach which constitutes the only available landing place. It was already +evident that the island offered endless opportunities to the bird +photographer, and as each stroke of the oars brought us nearer I felt a +sense of exultation, such perhaps as a miner experiences when he +discovers that his claim promises an assured fortune. The boat was +beached with a rush, and landing at the base of the cliff,^{83} which +rose like a wall somewhat over one hundred feet above us one could +realize the danger attending an attempt to land here in anything but the +calmest weather. We were now introduced to the car or basket in which we +were to make actually the final stage of our journey. It seemed a frail, +cratelike affair of light strips of wood, and measured about two and a +half feet square and three feet high. After our cameras, plates, gun, +ammunition, etc., had been snugly stowed, we obeyed the direction to +enter the crate and take seats on bits of board placed across opposite +corners. The end of the long, dangling rope was attached, in response to +Captain Bourque’s roaring “Hoist away!” a faint reply came from the tiny +figure which in a sickening way had been leaning over the edge of the +rock above, watching our proceedings, and a moment later the rope +tightened, strained, and we were clear of the ground and slowly rising. +A long experience in elevators had made me anticipate this part of the +Bird Rock journey without concern, but the instant after the ascent +began I discovered that we were not only going up but around as well, +and the twisting motion was so novel, so unlike anything to which I had +previously been accustomed, that I confess to a feeling of surprise, to +say the least. The sudden jars, as the rope in winding slipped off the +preceding coil and dropped suddenly, perhaps an inch, gave us a +sufficiently clear idea of the feelings which would attend the beginning +of a fall, and it was with a decided sense of having had a narrow escape +that, on being hoisted slightly above the level of the summit of the +Rock, we saw the arm of the crane^{84} pulled inward, bringing the crate +over the land, to which we were gently lowered. + +The twenty years which have elapsed since Cory visited the Rock have +reduced the time required for the ascent from twenty-seven to six +minutes. The world moves, therefore, even at Bird Rock. + +To a naturalist this slow passage through the air, about six feet from +ledge after ledge, crevice above crevice, filled with Kittiwakes,^{85} +Murres, and Razorbills, with great white banks of snowy Gannets on +either side, possesses an almost stupefying fascination. The birds were +so abundant and showed such entire lack of fear, I seemed to have +reached, if not the heart, at least one of the most important centers of +the bird world. + +Alighting from the crate, we were greeted by Mr. Bourque’s two +assistants and his daughter, a girl of sixteen, who, with a third +assistant, now absent on leave, completed the population of the island. +There should be added, however, one cow—an important member of the Rock +colony, who had reached her elevated position in life by means of the +same apparatus with which we had just gratefully parted company. +Numerous buildings,^{86} which we had barely noticed from the sea, were +found to form a miniature village on the grassy, nearly level summit of +the Rock, giving to the scene an atmosphere of comfort and homeliness +which strongly emphasized one’s sense of isolation. + +[Illustration: 85. Kittiwakes and young on nests. From the crate.] + +[Illustration: 86. The lighthouse, keeper’s dwelling, and other +buildings.] + +The favorable light prevailing at the time of our arrival was far too +valuable to be used for anything but photography. No sooner, therefore, +was our luggage removed from the crate than, without waiting to inspect +our quarters, I made ready the cameras and plate-holders. The latter, +numbering twenty-one, furnished forty-two glass plates. I wished for +twice that number before the day ended. Going to the western end of the +Rock, now brightly illumined by the afternoon sun, I found that the +jutting, shaly ledges permitted one to descend easily, and in a moment I +was in the midst of groups^1 of Puffins, Razorbills, Brünnich’s and +Common Murres, who apparently regarded me with as much surprise and +interest as I did them, and exhibited an astonishing confidence in +mankind. In fact, I was at times vigorously scolded by some Murre +parent, who waddled toward me, bobbing her head, and uttering a series +of protesting _murres_ in a tone so like that of a bass-voiced man, I +half expected a larger biped to appear. + +[Illustration: 87. Razorbilled Auks and “Ringed” Murre. × 3.] + +The Razorbills were fully as tame, sometimes leaving their crevices in +the cliff and, with a hoarse croak, almost flying in my face, while the +Puffins exhibited a spirit of combined indifference and independence, +which plainly said, “This Rock is ours.” + +I sat down on a convenient ledge, and as the birds gathered about me in +rows and groups on the border of the cliff, its ledges and projections, +I seemed almost to be on speaking terms with them. So unusual and +pleasing was this experience of having birds admit me at once to the +inner circles of their society that I felt as though I had indeed been +initiated into their ranks; and my enjoyment of the strange scene was +heightened tenfold by the knowledge that I could satisfactorily record +it. So I prepared the twin-lens—a camera exactly adapted to my present +needs—and at a distance of twenty feet or thereabouts loaded and fired +as many times as I pleased, with the birds none the wiser, and offering +me each moment some new picture differing in composition from the last. +Here was a triumph for the bird photographer. Who so nearly could have +done justice to the subject? The taxidermist? One shot would have broken +the spell? The artist? Whose pencil could compete with the lens in the +convincing realism of its impression? + +But as yet I had seen only a fragment of the Rock. Climbing, therefore, +from ledge to ledge, I reached a corner where an abrupt turn exposed a +great expanse of perpendicular wall so inaccessible to man that it had +become a favorite nesting site for the birds.^{82} Here were gathered +Gannets, Murres, Razorbills, and Kittiwakes, distributed singly or in +rows, according to the nature of the shelves or ledges on which they +were nesting, the Gannets taking the widest, the Murres and Kittiwakes +the narrowest ledges, while the Razorbills sought the more sheltered +crevices. + +What noise and seeming confusion were here! A never-ceasing chorus in +which the loud, grating _gor-r-r-rok, gor-r-rrok_ of the Gannets +predominated, while the singularly human call of the Murres and the +hoarse note of the Razorbills formed an accompaniment. Occasionally the +Kittiwakes found cause for excitement, and hundreds of birds swooped +downward from their nests and circled about, calling their rapidly +uttered, distinctly enunciated _kít-ti-wake, kít-ti-wake_. + +[Illustration: 88. Puffins. × 2.] + +In addition to the great number of birds resting or nesting on the Rock, +an endless procession of Gannets, Puffins, and Razorbills were flying +around, but never over it. Unconsciously one expected a pause in this +whirling throng, but although its numbers fluctuated, birds were always +passing. The exposure of my last plate recalled me to a sense of other +duties, and when I had returned to the little group of buildings with +their inhabitants, I seemed to have been in another sphere. + +My object in visiting Bird Rock was not only to secure pictures of its +bird life, but a certain number of birds for the American Museum of +Natural History, where it is proposed to represent a portion of the Rock +with its tenants. During my absence in the world of birds my good +assistant had turned one of the supply houses into a laboratory, and was +already at work preparing specimens with which the active Shelbourne and +attentive keepers had plentifully supplied her. + +A gun was necessary only in securing Gannets and Kittiwakes, the Murres +and Razorbills being caught in a dip-net by the keepers; one of whom, +having a rope about his waist which was held by his associate, advanced +to the edge of the cliff or “cape,” as it is termed locally, and looked +cautiously over in quest of the birds resting on the ledges immediately +below. Having learned their position the net was thrust quickly +downward, and the birds, in attempting to escape, often flew directly +into it and became entangled in its meshes. Puffins were captured on +their nests in crevices in the face of the Rock or in the holes they had +burrowed in the earth on the top. The latter were sometimes shared with +Leach’s Petrel, who also occupied small burrows of their own. + +The schooner had dropped anchor near the Rock, but the wind increasing +in strength, Captain Taker set sail for the lee of Bryon, and at +midnight, when we concluded our day’s work, there was a promise of a +stormy morrow, which daylight fulfilled. The wind drove the waves to the +rock-set base of our islet with terrific force, making landing or +departure out of the question. We had come just in time. The light +prohibited successful photography, and the day was devoted to collecting +and preserving specimens and exploring the Rock. + +[Illustration: 89. Murre’s egg.] + +We had arrived in the height of the nesting season, all of the seven +species breeding on the Rock having eggs and young in various stages of +development. It was evident, however, that the number of eggs and young +was small as compared with the number of adults, a condition which was +explained by Captain Bourque’s statement, that he thought about five +thousand eggs had been taken from the Rock by fishermen that year. These +were the eggs of Murres and Razorbills, the former being the most +abundant birds on the Rock. Both the Common and Brünnich’s Murre were +present, but I am unable to say which was the more numerous. There were +also a few of the singular, so-called “Ringed” Murres,^{87} a bird whose +standing is in doubt, some ornithologists regarding it as a distinct +species, others as an individual variety. + +Both species of Murre laid their single peculiarly marked eggs on the +bare shelves or ledges in the most exposed situations;^{89} and seeing +them now for the first time in Nature, I was quite willing to accept the +theory which has been advanced to account for their markedly toplike or +pearlike shape. A round or elliptical egg, laid in the situations often +chosen by the Murres, would, when moved by the wind or incubating bird, +readily roll from its precarious position, but the pointed egg of the +Murre when disturbed describes a circle about its own end. Thus, like a +diplomat, it seemingly yields to superior force while retaining its +original position. The eggs vary in color from greenish blue to buff, +and are strikingly scrawled and blotched with shades of chocolate. No +two are alike, a fact which it is supposed may aid the parent Murre in +distinguishing her own egg among the dozens with which it may be placed. + +[Illustration: 90. Young Murres and egg.] + +The few eggs seen were doubtless laid by birds which had been robbed +earlier in the season, but young were found in every stage, from the +newly hatched downy chick,^{90} who sat on his narrow ledge vigorously +screeching for food, to others half grown and with the natal down almost +entirely replaced by the first winter plumage. The parents were still in +attendance on the oldest birds, and no young were seen in the water. + +[Illustration: 91. Kittiwakes and young on nest. From the crate. × 2. An +enlarged detail of No. 85.] + +Razorbills, perhaps because the Rock contained comparatively few of the +sheltered nooks they require for nesting sites, were less abundant than +Murres. Their downy young were much lighter in color than the young of +the Murres, and their high squealing whistle could easily be +distinguished from the screech of the young Murres. Of two specimens +which had nearly completed the acquisition of their winter plumage, one +had the white line from the eye to the bill so characteristic of the +adult fully developed, while in the other it was wholly wanting—a +variability in marking which suggests that the white stripe of the +Ringed Murre is a similar individual peculiarity. + +Next to the Murres the Kittiwakes are probably the most numerous birds +on the Rock. Doubtless for the reason that they select the less +accessible ledges where their eggs can not be so readily taken, their +young were more advanced than those of any other of the birds breeding +here. Their nests, rather bulky structures of seaweed, which often +projected well over the edge of the ledge on which they were built, +contained only young with their parents, one or two birds constituting a +brood.^{91} + +[Illustration: 92. Entrance to Puffin’s burrow.] + +Kittiwakes were never observed perching on the upper ledges or rim of +the Rock in the situations commonly selected by Murres, Razorbills, and +Puffins. The last-named species, in fact, was never seen resting far +from the top of the Rock, and its nests were placed in burrows excavated +on the summit of the Rock, at the west end. Occasionally advantage was +taken of an opening beneath a ledge, but generally the bird excavated a +hole,^{92} about four inches in diameter and three or four feet in +length, at the end of which we found the nest of grasses and feathers, +with its single elliptical white egg^{93} and sitting bird, or a sooty, +down-covered nestling.^{94} + +[Illustration: 93. Puffin’s nest and egg at the end of excavated +burrow.] + +Woe to the unsuspecting person who thrusts his hand into the jaw, one +might say, of an incubating Puffin. Nature has not only provided the +bird with an uncommonly powerful and efficient pair of mandibles, but +also with a disposition which prompts it to use them to the best +advantage. Never have I seen anything in the shape of a bird so +diabolically vicious as a Puffin. An individual which we captured alive +and attempted to study in our workroom, proved altogether too fierce a +creature to have about, and its hoarse voice—half grunt, half +groan—added to its unattractiveness. + +[Illustration: 94. Young Puffin on nest at the end of burrow.] + +In Nature, however, their trim appearance was very pleasing; +_Paroquets_, the French-Canadians call them, and one has only to see the +bird in life to appreciate the applicability of the name. It is not +alone their looks but also their actions which suggest the Parrot. +Unlike the Murres and Razorbills, they do not rest on the whole foot, +but stand quite erect on the toes alone, and run about with the +characteristic pattering steps of Parrots. When the wind blew fresh from +the sea they often faced it, hovering a foot or two above the rocks on +outstretched, motionless wings, and retaining for several seconds this +perfect balance between gravity and air pressure. + +It is quite possible that I may have wholly misjudged the Puffin’s +character, and that when unmolested their nature is peaceable in +extreme. At any rate, they seem to be not only on excellent terms with +their own kind, but with the very distantly related Leach’s Petrels, +with which they sometimes shared their underground homes, one bird’s +nest being at the end of the burrow, the other about half way to the +entrance. The Petrels also occupied burrows of their own, which, judging +from the actions of the birds found in them, they had excavated by the +aid of their toes.^{95} + +[Illustration: 95. Leach’s Petrel on nest at end of excavated burrow.] + +The Petrel’s nests were composed of fine grasses and a few feathers, and +one nest contained two bits of white birch bark, the presence of which +raised the question as to whether these gleaners of the sea do not +gather suitable nesting material when they find it floating on the +surface of the water. Two of the eight or ten Petrels’ nests examined +contained a single white egg; one egg constituting a full set with this +species, as with all the other rock-nesting birds, except the Kittiwake. +The remaining nests were each occupied by a newly hatched young bird—a +gray ball of down, so unlike anything in feathers I had ever seen that, +if it had not been for their tiny, young chickenlike _peep_, I should +have been inclined to pass it by as a wad of gray cotton.^{96} Never +more than one of the parent birds, either the male or female, was found +on the nest, nor was a single Petrel seen about the Rock during the day. + +[Illustration: 96. Young Leach’s Petrel removed from burrow with nesting +material.] + +The Puffins and Petrels are now the only birds nesting on the summit of +the Rock, not a single descendant of the one hundred thousand Gannets +which, according to Bryant, occupied the top of the Rock in 1860 now +being found there. To-day this species nests only on the less accessible +border ledges on the face of the Rock, where they are grouped in +colonies. Most of them were incubating, but several were brooding their +young, which ranged in size from the naked, black-skinned, newly hatched +chick to those that had acquired the white, swan’s-downlike first +plumage.^{97} + +With the exception of two white, black-spotted birds, all the Gannets +seen, both on Bird Rock and Bonaventure, were in the adult white +plumage, and if, as has been stated, this plumage is not gained until +the bird is two years old, the question arises, What becomes of the +immature birds during the nesting season? + +[Illustration: 97. Young Gannet.] + +An estimate of the number of individuals representing the seven species +just mentioned as nesting on the Rock, is perhaps not warranted by my +brief experience, nor should I attempt to give one, did not my +photographs permit me to count with a fair degree of accuracy the number +of birds in view on that part of the Rock shown in these pictures. Time +was lacking to make, from a boat, a series of photographs of the Rock +which would include all its bird-inhabited portions, and the appended +estimates are based on the results of a count of the birds in +photographs of about one half the occupied area. Murres, Razorbills, and +Puffins can not be distinguished in these pictures and are therefore +grouped under one head, it being calculated that about from fifteen +hundred to two thousand individuals of these species make the Rock their +home. Of this number probably not more than one hundred are Puffins, +while the Common and Brünnich’s Murres (_Uria troile et U. lomvia_) +outnumber the Razorbills at least four to one. + +[Illustration: 98. Gannets. × 3. An enlarged detail of No. 99.] + +The Kittiwake population of the Rock probably numbers between six +hundred and eight hundred birds; of Gannets, there are perhaps left only +fifteen hundred of the more than one hundred thousand birds which Dr. +Bryant writes of as living on the top of the Rock alone; and of Petrels, +not more than fifty. + +When on the Rock I should have said that it was tenanted by at least ten +thousand birds, and I was not a little surprised to find that the +evidence furnished by my photographic records gave a total of about four +thousand birds. However, the sight of four thousand birds domiciled in +one small islet is sufficiently impressive to increase the pulse beat of +the most phlegmatic traveler; and even if this estimate be too large, +the Rock’s merits as a bird resort are too substantial to be affected by +any decrease in it which truth demands. + +To return to an account of the day’s doings, the light, as has been +said, was unfavorable for photography, and the time was devoted to +collecting and preparing specimens and making a hurried survey of the +bird rookeries on the Rock, with results briefly set forth above; but +late in the afternoon the sun gave indications of its whereabouts behind +the clouds, and I immediately substituted the camera for the scalpel, +and had Keeper Bourque lower me in the crate in order that I might +secure photographs of the birds observed on our ascent. + +Neither the stability of the crate nor its constant turning were +conditions which a photographer would choose, and, without the twin-lens +it would have been impossible to secure pictures of the Kittiwakes^{85} +and Murres, who in a surprised but unalarmed manner regarded me from +their nests on the Rock, in some instances at a distance of not more +than six feet. + +At ten o’clock at night I visited the west end of the Rock to see and +hear the Petrels that nest there. The casual visitor to Bird Rock would +be quite unaware of the presence of these birds; indeed, one might live +there for years without knowing that Petrels made it their home. As far +as the Rock is concerned, the birds are strictly nocturnal; but as +usually only one bird—either male or female—is found on the nest, it is +supposed that its mate is at sea feeding. If this supposition be true, I +am at a loss to account for the entire absence of the birds during the +daytime. Why should they not return to their nests before nightfall? And +if, as stated, the sea bird takes the place of the nest bird, does the +latter always feed at night and the former by day, or do they sometimes +change about, thus making the same individual both nocturnal and diurnal +in habit? + +However this may be, I had no sooner reached the part of the Rock +tenanted by the Petrels than I was given the most surprising evidence of +their activity during the night. From the ground at my feet and on every +side there issued the uncanny little song—if I may so call it—of birds +doubtless sitting at the mouths of their burrows. It was not like the +cry of a sea bird, but a distinctly enunciated call of eight notes, +possessing a character wholly its own, and not to be compared to the +notes of any bird I have ever heard, though at the time it impressed me +as having a certain crowing quality. Such a call might be uttered by +elves or brownies. Occasionally I saw a blur of wings as a bird passed +between me and the lighthouse. + +[Illustration: 99. Gannets on nests.] + +Later, the fog, which had been scudding over us in wisps and ribbons, +closed in, and through the medium of a guncotton bomb the Rock gave +notice of its presence to the mariners who might be in the surrounding +waters. Captain Taker heard the dull, booming voice as with +disappointing promptness he came to take us from the Rock, and early in +the morning we heard his fog horn from the gray bank below telling where +the Sea Gem, as yet unseen, was anchored. + +In the hope of better weather I deferred photographing the Gannets, the +only accessible colony of which was on the north side of the Rock; but +forced now to make the best of the existing conditions, I took the +twin-lens, fastened one end of a rope about my waist, and gave the other +end to Captain Bourque, in order that, unhampered by thought of fall, I +might creep along the slippery ledges where the birds nested.^{99} + +The fog had lifted, but the day was gloomy, and only the white plumage +of the birds and a wide-open lens yielded successful photographs. + +It was my first visit to the big white birds, who, in spite of +persecution, have as yet acquired but little fear of man, and as with +hoarse croaks and a dashing of wings they pitched onto the narrow ledges +near me, their size and boldness, in connection with my somewhat +insecure footing, aroused in me a feeling which I had not experienced +when surrounded by the smaller Murres, Auks, and Puffins. The main +nesting ledge was out of reach below, but small groups of birds were +nearer, and these I photographed at a distance of about ten feet.^{100} + +These Gannets are magnificent birds, and when on the wing exhibit a +combination of power and grace excelled by no other bird I have seen. +They are most impressive when diving, as with half-closed wings, like +great spearheads, they descend from a height of about forty feet with a +force and speed that takes them wholly out of sight, and splashes the +water ten feet or more into the air. Cory graphically compares the sight +of a distant flock of Gannets diving at a school of fish, to a +continuous stream of beans poured from a pail. + +[Illustration: 100. Gannet on nest. Two nests in foreground.] + +Captain Bourque tells me that Gannets are no longer used for bait by the +codfishers; but when one realizes that only two colonies of these grand +birds, comprising a few thousand individuals, are all that are left of +the species in this hemisphere, one could wish for these survivors +something more than negative protection. + +In the afternoon the weather gave promise of clearing, and entering the +crate we were swung out over the edge of the Rock on the first stage of +our homeward journey. The collections and outfit were placed aboard the +schooner, while in a dory we attempted to visit Little Bird; but before +we had rowed a quarter of a mile the fog crept back, Great Bird slowly +disappeared from view and became only a periodic boom in the gray wall, +and we returned to the schooner without delay. + +The sail to Bryon, where we passed the night, apparently demonstrated +Captain Taker’s possession of the sense of direction. In spite of a head +wind, violent squalls, and a strong tide, he made his way through the +fog with perfect assurance and dropped anchor at a particular lobster +buoy, visible less than fifty yards from the schooner, but which in +effect he appeared to have seen before we left the Rock. It was a +remarkable bit of seamanship. + +In Bird Rock the Canadian Government possesses an object of surpassing +interest, one which, south of Greenland, is unique in eastern North +America. It is the obvious duty of the proper authorities to preserve +it, and the ease with which this can be done makes further neglect +inexcusable. The appointment of the light keeper as a game warden is the +only step required to make Bird Rock a safe retreat for sea fowl, until, +in some future geologic age, it shall have yielded to the relentless +attack of the waters. + + + + + LIFE ON PELICAN ISLAND, WITH SOME SPECULATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF BIRD + MIGRATION + + +The study of isolated colonies of birds, particularly of those situated +on islands, throws much light on several as yet little-understood +problems of bird migration. + +With mainland birds of general distribution—the Robin, for example—the +individual is, except when nesting, lost in the species, and unless the +bird be peculiarly marked who can say whether the Robins which nest with +us one year are the same as those of the preceding season—where our +summer Robins winter, or our winter Robins summer? and who can tell +whether the first Robins to come in the spring are our summer resident +birds, or early migrants _en route_ to more northern nesting grounds? + +In the case of certain island-inhabiting birds, however, some of these +questions may be answered with a fair degree of certainty. Thus Ipswich +Sparrows are known to nest only on Sable Island, off the Nova Scotia +coast, and we are warranted in believing that the same birds, fate +permitting, return to their sandy home year after year. Gannets (_Sula +bassana_) nest in the western hemisphere only on three islets in the +Gulf of St. Lawrence, and it is probable that the surviving individuals +return each year to their former breeding grounds. The Terns of Muskeget +and Penikese, forming the only two large colonies of these birds +remaining on the Atlantic coast, return to their island retreats every +spring; and actuated by this same love of home, the Brown Pelicans of +the Indian River region of eastern Florida annually repair to a certain +small island for the purpose of rearing their young. Many similar cases +might be cited in confirmation of the belief—supported also by isolated +observations on the mainland—that birds nest in the same locality +throughout their lives, and, on occasion, may even occupy their previous +season’s nest. + +As regards the manner in which these island-inhabiting birds arrive at +the nesting grounds, as far as our recorded information goes, it seems +that without relation to latitude they appear each spring with +remarkable regularity, not straggling back a few at a time, but sending +on an advance guard, which usually remains only a short time and is +followed, a few days later, by apparently the entire colony. + +Thus, Mackay writes of the Terns of Penikese: “In 1893 the Terns arrived +on May 10th, in the night, an advance guard of several hundred being +noted early the following morning at daylight; these all left before +noon of the 11th, and on the morning of the 12th, before daylight, +immense numbers had again arrived.... In 1896 the Terns commenced to +arrive during the night of May 9th; they were in evidence at daylight on +the 10th, and continued to arrive all day, and on the morning of the +11th the usual colony had taken possession of the island.” (Auk, xiv, +1897, p. 284.) + +The migration of the island-nesting Terns in the tropics is apparently +no less regular. Scott states that the Noddy arrived in the Tortugas “on +April 20th in large numbers, but remained only two days; after +inspecting their breeding grounds, all departed to return about a week +later in greatly increased numbers, when breeding was almost at once +commenced.” (Auk, vii, 1890, p. 306.) + +These insular colonies, however, not only throw much light on certain +existing phases of bird migration, but they also furnish us with a clew +to the origin of migration itself. This is especially true of those +species whose lives are passed in the tropics or subtropics, and which +we are accustomed to class as nonmigratory or as “permanent residents,” +but which are as regularly migratory, in the real meaning of the word, +as if they summered within the arctic circle and wintered south of the +equator. + +Their movements are apparently in no way influenced by climate nor, at +this season, are they governed by the food supply, but prompted solely +by the annually recurring physiological change which fits both sexes for +reproduction, they repair to a certain islet, perhaps in the heart of +their range, with the one object of finding a suitable nesting site in +which their eggs may be laid and young reared in safety; and this object +accomplished, they desert the locality, where they may be unknown until +the following spring. + +Divested, therefore, of the complications which ensue when in studying +the migration of birds the questions of food and climate must be +considered, we have here the problem reduced to its simplest terms; and +in the desire for seclusion during the breeding season which induces +birds to conceal their nests, if possible perhaps near by, but if +necessary after a journey of varying length undertaken especially for +the purpose, we have a good and sufficient cause for the origin of bird +migration. + +An attempt to explain the present manifestation of the migratory +movement involves a study of the climatic changes to which our globe has +been subjected. No doubt many birds controlled by “heredity of habit” +make semiannual journeys which at one time were necessary, but under +existing circumstances are no longer required. Why, for example, should +the Bobolink winter south of the Amazon, while its ally, the Red-winged +Blackbird (_Agelaius phœniceus_), does not leave the eastern United +States? I have, however, no intention of writing an essay on bird +migration, and these thoughts are presented merely as preliminary to a +study of the life of Pelican Island, of a visit to which they are in +part the outcome. + +Pelican Island is situated midway between the northern and southern +extremities of Indian River, near the eastern shore of a key which here +makes the river about three miles wide. It is triangular in shape and +contains about three acres of ground, on which grow a few black +mangroves, a cabbage palm or two, and great patches of grass; but at +least one fourth of its surface is bare ground. + +On one of the islands of the near-by Narrows a few pairs of Brown +Pelicans are said to have nested, but, with this exception, Pelican +Island doubtless forms the nesting ground of all the Pelicans of Indian +River. + +The question why the birds should select this particular island in +preference to the scores of others which, to the human eye, appear to be +equally well suited to their needs, is a difficult one to answer. +Perhaps no true selection is shown by the existing birds, which, as with +many other island-inhabiting species, may be the survivors of a once +more widely distributed species, who have been preserved by the +protection afforded by their island home. Such a colony might owe its +beginning to a pair of birds who were the true selectors of the site of +the future colony. The preserving influences of the situation were +potent from the beginning. The first brood reached maturity without +mishap, and in response to the instinct which prompts a bird to return +to the region of its birth, they, with successive generations, came back +and eventually established the prevailing conditions. + +The attachment of these Pelicans for their home affords a remarkable +illustration of the power of habit. Ever since the Indian River region +has been subject to annual invasion by tourists, among whom the man with +the gun is conspicuous both by numbers and actions, the inhabitants of +Pelican Island have been wantonly and, on occasions, brutally +persecuted. Scarcely a day passes during February and March that one or +more boat loads of tourists, perhaps from the mainland or a passing +yacht, do not land on Pelican Island and thoughtlessly cause the death +of many young birds by driving them from the vicinity of their nests; +or, by frightening the brooding birds, they expose the newly hatched and +naked nestlings to the roasting rays of the sun. The harm caused by +these visitors, however, is not to be compared to that wrought by +so-called “sportsmen,” who, in defiance of every law of manhood, have +gone to Pelican Island and killed thousands of the birds simply because +they afforded a ready mark for their guns. They had not even the excuse +of a demand upon their skill, and must indeed have been very near the +level of the brute to have found pleasure in killing birds which the +merest novice with a gun would find it difficult to miss. + +Perhaps even worse than this exhibition of pure savagery are the raids +of the self-styled “oölogists,” who, in the name of science—save the +mark!—have journeyed to Pelican Island with the express purpose of +taking every egg they could lay their insatiable fingers upon, afterward +to boast, in some journal devoted to reporting similar crimes, of the +hundreds they had collected in so many hours. + +So persistently have the Pelicans been molested that at times they have +been foiled to desert their beloved island; but they have exhibited +their attachment for it by establishing themselves on the nearest +available islet, and on the first opportunity have returned to their +native land. + +It was in March, 1898, that my best assistant and I boarded the little +sloop which was to take us to Pelican Island. Fortunately the birds were +now in possession of their ancestral domain, and, as we approached, +files of Pelicans were seen returning from fishing expeditions, platoons +were resting on the sandy points, some were bathing, others sailing in +broad circles high overhead. Soon we could hear the sound of many +voices—a medley of strange cries in an unknown tongue. Arriving and +departing on wings, the inhabitants of Pelican Island have little need +of deep water harbors, and we were obliged to anchor our sloop about a +hundred yards from the island and go ashore in a small boat. + +[Illustration: 101. Pelicans on ground nests.] + +No traveler ever entered the gates of a foreign city with greater +expectancy than I felt as I stepped from my boat on the muddy edge of +this City of the Pelicans. The old birds, without a word of protest, +deserted their homes, leaving their eggs and young at my mercy. But the +young were as abusive and threatening as their parents were silent and +unresisting. Some were on the ground, others in the bushy mangroves, +some were coming from the egg, others were learning to fly; but one and +all—in a chorus of croaks, barks, and screams, which rings in my ears +whenever I think of the experience—united in demanding that I leave the +town. If I approached too near, their cries were doubled in violence and +accompanied by vicious lunges with their bills, which were snapped +together with a pistol-like report.^{102} As I walked from tree to tree, +examining the noisy young birds that were climbing about the branches, I +seemed to be passing from cage to cage in a zoölogical garden; and as I +entered that part of the island where the nests were on the +ground,^{101} every bird that could walk left its home, and soon I was +driving a great flock of young Pelicans, all screaming at the tops of +their voices. + +[Illustration: 102. Interviewing a group of young Pelicans.] + +[Illustration: 103. Among the Pelicans.] + +The old birds, in the meantime, were resting on the water. They might +have been unpleasant foes, but in their stately, dignified way they +accepted the situation, and waited in silence for us to retire. Then +they at once returned to their nests, and in a short time comparative +quiet was restored on the island. + +This is a sketch of life in the Pelicans’ metropolis as one sees it +during a brief visit, and all the accounts of the island I have seen +were based on just such an experience. Consequently, I shall relate here +what was learned of the Pelicans and their home during four days passed +with them. + +[Illustration: 104. Head and pouch of Brown Pelican. From a fresh +specimen.] + +During no hour of the twenty-four did silence reign on Pelican Island; +if I went on deck at midnight, the notes of some complaining or +pugnacious young Pelicans, who in their sleep had come into too close +quarters, were sure to be heard. But the Pelicans’ day began at early +dawn, when I could distinguish the diagonal files of from two to a dozen +birds solemnly and silently starting out for the fishing grounds. One +might think that, like a boat’s crew, their strokes were controlled by a +coxswain, as in perfect unison they all flapped their broad wings for +about ten beats, and then spread them and sailed for as many seconds. + +[Illustration: 105. Same as No. 104, seen from above, to show extent to +which sides of the lower bill are spread.] + +Generally they headed for the ocean, there to follow the line of the +beach, sometimes high in the air, at others low over the curling surf, +as their progress was aided or retarded by the wind. How far they went I +can not say, but at a point ten miles north of Pelican Island many have +been seen still winging their way to the northward, doubtless to some +point where fish were abundant. Not once during the four days passed off +Pelican Island did I see a Pelican fishing over the surrounding waters. +It was not because they were lacking in fish, for they contained a +plentiful supply of food; and I could explain the unexpected abstinence +of the birds only on the supposition that the fish in the immediate +vicinity of the nesting ground were left for the early efforts of the +young birds before they were strong enough of wing to accompany their +parents to distant fishing grounds. + +Brown Pelicans fish at a height of from twenty to thirty feet above the +water, not hovering, but flying slowly about, and without a moment’s +pause plunging on their prey with a force which would produce serious +results if the bird’s breast were not well padded with cellular tissue +between the skin and the flesh. + +I observed that when the young birds struck at me the movement was +accompanied by a widening or bowing out of the sides of the lower +mandible, and it is doubtless the same muscular effort which turns the +pouch of the diving Pelican into a scoop net, as it were, with an +elliptical ring.^{105} + +By sunrise most of the fishers appeared to have departed, and at this +time, whether because of the absence of so many of the adults or because +it was their breakfast hour, a swarm of Fish Crows came from the +mainland, apparently from both sides of the river, seeking what they +might devour in the way of eggs or young Pelicans, and departing after +several hours’ feasting. + +About eight o’clock the fishers began to appear, coming, as they went, +in dignified lines, which broke up as they reached the island, each bird +going to its young. Then the outcry began, and the ensuing two hours +were the noisiest of the day. + +Pelicans are so well able to supply the wants of their families that, +unlike smaller birds who bring to their ever-hungry broods only a +mouthful at a time, they are not forced to feed their young at short +intervals throughout the day, but the morning meal concluded, they do +not again have to provide for their nestlings until afternoon. +Immediately after breakfast, therefore, the parent birds went out into +the bay to bathe, and the flapping of their wings as they dashed the +water over themselves could be heard at a great distance. The bath +concluded, the birds gathered in rows on the sand bars jutting out from +the island, to vigorously preen their feathers, and doze in the sun; and +then, at irregular intervals, bird after bird, prompted apparently +purely by a love of exercise, or tempted by a possible resulting +exhilaration, mounted slowly into the air until they had attained a +great height, when, spreading their wings, they sailed majestically +about on broad circles for hours at a time. I was at first inclined to +connect this habit with the season of courtship, but observing several +birds of the year, who had but recently learned to fly, join their +elders, I came to the conclusion that the habit had no sexual +significance, and was indulged in solely because the birds enjoyed it. + +In the afternoon the fishing parties again started out, and after the +resulting catch had been delivered to the clamoring young, the Pelican’s +day’s work was concluded, and he betook himself to his favorite roost +for the night. At dark a few Cormorants returned to the branches of a +dead tree, a single Frigate, after carefully and repeatedly +reconnoitering the situation, decided to take lodgings on a neighboring +stub, and a Pelican Island day was ended. + +Whether, as in the case of the Terns and Gannets previously mentioned, +the Pelicans all return to their island on a certain day I can not say. +Probably, however, the short duration of their migratory journey, and +the fact that they come from both the north and the south, prevents them +from joining many other birds _en route_. However, apparently most of +the birds are warned at nearly the same time by a physiological change +that the season has come for them to return to their nesting grounds. +This is evidently in January, since in March a large number of the young +on the island were found almost ready to fly, while some, as has been +said, were already on the wing. There was, it is true, a great variation +in the development of the young found, and indeed the birds were still +laying, but I believe that the parents of these later broods had been +robbed of their eggs by tourists. + +A careful count yielded a total of 845 nests, which had evidently been +built during the season, but only 251 of them were occupied. Most of the +vacant nests were on the ground, and had been deserted by their tenants, +who were now running about the island. + +The 251 occupied nests contained eggs or young, as follows: + + 55 nests with 1 egg each; + 63 „ „ 2 eggs „ + 23 „ „ 3 „ „ + 63 „ „ 1 young each; + 46 „ „ 2 „ „ + 1 nest „ 3 „ „ + +Incubation was found to be well advanced in eggs which were alone in +their nest, showing either that one egg sometimes composes the set, or +that the other eggs of the set had been destroyed. The fact that one +nest was found with three young while twenty-three were found each +containing three eggs, would indicate a high mortality among the young +birds; and, indeed, no less than 94 dead young were counted. Most of +these, however, were birds which were old enough to leave the nest, and +death was doubtless due to the thoughtlessness of tourist visitors, who +chase the young about until they fall from exhaustion, or are driven too +far to find their way home. + +Estimating the number of young birds which had left the 594 deserted +nests at 891—which would be an average of one and a half birds to the +nest—and adding two parent birds to each nest, we have 2,581 birds on +wing and on foot. But this number is to be increased by the 152 young +that were still in their nests, making the probable total population of +Pelican Island 2,736. This calculation, however, does not take into +account the eggs, from which almost hourly came new inhabitants of the +island; and it is with these eggs, or rather with the nest in which they +are placed, that we may begin a brief outline of the young Pelican’s +development. + +The Pelican, although a low type of bird, is altricial, the young, +unlike the offspring of Gulls, Ducks, or Snipe, being hatched in a +helpless condition. The nest, therefore, is not only an incubator where +with heat from the parent bird the eggs are hatched, but it is a cradle +for the young. Consequently, Pelicans’ nests are unusually complicated +structures as compared with the dwellings of other birds equally low in +the evolutionary scale. + +There was a very interesting and constant relation between the character +of the nest and its site, ground nests being composed largely or +entirely of long grasses, while those nests which were placed in the +trees were made of sticks and were lined with grasses, the nest proper +being erected on a platform of larger sticks laid from crotch to crotch +in the bushes in such a manner as to form a broad, firm foundation, +though, structurally, it was not a part of the nest, which could be +lifted without removing the platform. + +[Illustration: 106. Newly hatched Pelicans. Ground nest.] + +The difference between the nests of straw^{106} and those of +sticks^{107} were so marked that it seems probable their makers +regularly selected sites on the ground or in the trees respectively. Or, +assuming that the same individuals might build a stick nest in the +bushes one year and a straw nest on the ground the next, we have an +unusual variation in the character of the nest of the same species. In +the case of the Fish Hawks of Plumb Island the birds evinced an +appreciation of the protection afforded them by the owner of the island +by often placing their nests on the ground. Photographs of these nests, +however, made by Dr. C. S. Allen, show that the birds employed as much +material when nesting on the ground as when nesting in trees, the eggs +on the ground being surrounded by a useless mass of large sticks. +Certain of the birds, therefore, in response to new conditions, had +chosen new nesting sites, but had not as yet made corresponding changes +in the character of their nests. + +When the nest is completed, as we have seen, from one to three eggs are +laid. The period of incubation is probably about four weeks, and a +careful listener may detect the presence of a hatching egg by the +choking bark which the young Pelican begins to utter as soon as he has +made an opening in the shell which holds him. When he has finally freed +himself and appears in the world, he is about as unattractive a bit of +bird life as can well be conceived.^{106} His dark, purple skin is +perfectly naked, he is blind, and when he is deprived of shade provided +by the brooding parent, he twists restlessly about in the nest, uttering +the same choking bark with which he first greeted the light. + +Even at this early age he displays one of the strong characteristics of +the immature Pelican—a pugnacious disposition. Almost before his eyes +are open he bites at his nest mates for apparently no other reason than +that they come within reach of his bill. Soon his eyes open and within a +few days a wonderful change begins to take place in his +appearance.^{107} Little bunches of white down sprout all over his body, +and, growing rapidly, transform the ugly, purple-black nestling into a +snowy creature clad in softest down. + +[Illustration: 107. Young Pelican in tree nest, showing first appearance +of white down.] + +At the same time he has been growing much stronger; he is able to sit +up,^{108} his fighting abilities have greatly increased, and his voice, +after passing through a rasping _k-r-r-r-ing_ stage, has become a high, +piercing cry very closely resembling the scream of a child in extreme +pain. Young Pelicans uttering this call chiefly made up the chorus one +could hear all day and at intervals during the night on Pelican Island. + +Pelicans of the same nest never seem to recover from the mutual enmity +with which they begin life. Quarreling is the normal condition of +affairs among the children of a Pelican family, and as they always +scream loudest when fighting, one cause for the continuous uproar is +evident. Another is the question of food, and just at this point I may +pause a moment to describe the manner in which the young Pelicans are +fed. + +[Illustration: 108. Young Pelican, downy stage.] + +So far as I know, Pelicans live wholly on fish, and the difference +between the fare of a young Pelican and that of its parent is in the +size of its finny food. I have seen fish twelve inches long in the +throat of an old Pelican, while the pouch of a very young bird contained +several fishes less than an inch in length. + +It is plain to be seen, therefore, that when an old Pelican goes fishing +for his family he must keep constantly in mind the size of his offspring +and bring home little fish for little birds, larger fish for larger +ones. + +Immediately after the parent returns from its fishing expedition, the +young cluster about it and the outcry begins. But the old one takes it +very patiently, sitting quite still until ready to open its creel, as it +were. Then he takes a stand if possible a little above the young, drops +his lower bill with its pouch, when at once the young thrust in their +heads to secure their morning’s catch. On one occasion I saw three +half-grown Pelicans with their heads and necks entirely out of sight in +the parent’s pouch, and all were prodding about so vigorously that one +would have thought it would be damaged past mending. + +Having been fed, one might suppose that for a time peace would reign in +the Pelican household; but, after emptying their parent’s pouch, the +young immediately begin to squabble over the contents of their own. Here +is real cause for war, and they grasp each other by the bill and twist +and turn like athletes in a test of strength, seldom, however, with +serious results. + +[Illustration: 109. Young Pelican, wing quills appearing.] + +Returning to our sketch of the young Pelican’s growth: shortly after the +acquisition of the white down, the wing feathers begin to grow. As yet +the sprouting feathers are useless, but with them come strength and +courage to leave the nest and to clamber about in search of the foes who +perhaps have been mocking him for days, from their nest on an adjoining +limb. In spite of his broadly webbed toes, he manages to climb about in +the bushes with more or less ease;^{109} but in this climbing he is +greatly aided by his bill. Indeed, if it were not for the safety hook +made by the bill, head, and neck, many a young Pelican would have a +premature tumble. As it is, this hook is often the only thing that saves +him if he chances to lose his footing; catching by the bill and neck he +hangs for a moment, and then, like a gymnast, hauls himself up by the +aid of his toes. + +[Illustration: 110. Young Pelicans, stage preceding flight.] + +If the young Pelican’s home is on the ground, at this age he waddles +about playing by himself or fighting all comers. He dabbles in the +shallow water, filling his pouch with mud and water, bits of sticks, +shells, and weeds; then dropping the point of his bill downward so that +the mud and water ooze out, he carefully examines the remainder, piece +by piece, as if to see whether it is palatable. Even when alone he +sometimes loses his temper. I saw one evidently much annoyed by the +appearance of a displaced feather in his wing, and in a vain effort to +catch it he whirled about like a kitten chasing its own tail. + +But the fast-growing wing plumes soon seem to be a source of +inspiration, rather than of annoyance. The young Pelicans feel a new and +strange power coming to them, and they stand in the nest and aimlessly +wave their now nearly grown wings, until some day an impulse prompts +them to spring into the air.^{110} The immediate result is a humiliating +tumble, for Pelicans, unlike smaller birds, must learn to fly. Once on +the ground he has a safer place to practice, and with a hop, skip, and a +flap, he makes brave efforts to mount skyward. Finally he succeeds, and +the awkward nestling becomes a creature of power and grace, sailing away +on broad pinions to join its elders. + +With this wonderful gift of flight comes a complete change in the +Pelican’s character and behavior. From a noisy, quarrelsome fledgeling, +whose days were passed in screaming and squabbling, he is transformed +into a dignified, patriarchal-like bird so absolutely voiceless that I +have never heard a wild Pelican utter a sound, nor do I know of any one +who has; while in disposition he has become so peaceful that under the +strongest provocation he shows no desire to protest. + +Just what has influenced him—who can say? It is one of Nature’s +mysteries. But let us hope that the same charm may be exerted on every +noisy, quarrelsome creature. + + + + + INDEX + + + Audubon, J. J., 155. + + Auk, Razorbilled, on Bird Rock, 167, 169; + tameness of, 170; + nesting of, 176; + young of, 176. + The, 154. + + + Bayberries, 26. + + Bird-Lore, 9. + + Bird photography, definition of, 1; + scientific value of, 1, 34; + charm of, 3, 39; + outfit for, 6; + methods of, 26. + + Bird Rock, 130, 150, 152. + + Birds, adult, photographing, 33. + Young, photographing, 32; + return of, to nesting ground, 192. + + Bittern, American, 29, 70. + Least, haunts of, 62; + mode of progression of, 62; + notes of, 63, 72; + nest of, 65; + protective mimicry of, 67; + courage of, 68; + eggs of, destroyed by Marsh Wren, 72; + intelligence of, 75; + eating eggs, 75. + + Blackbird, Red-winged, 26, 69, 70, 94, 194. + + Blinds, 23. + + Bobolink, 95, 100, 194. + + Bonaventure Island, 130, 138, 139, 141. + + Bourque, Captain Peter, 164. + + Brewster, William, 63, 103, 133, 160. + + Bryant, Dr. Henry, 159. + + Bryon Island, 152, 162. + + Bulb, 21, 22. + + + Canadian Government, 189. + + Cartier, Jacques, 154. + + Cape Breton, 152. + + Catbird, 37. + + Cat-tails, 90. + + Camera, uses of, 1–4; + kinds of, 6. + Hand, 8; + Kearton’s, 7; + long-focus, 7; + reflecting, 8; + twin-lens, 8; + snap-shot, 8; + dummy, 35; + triumph of, 171. + + Cameras used in Gulf of St. Lawrence, 133. + + Cannon, 160. + + Chickadee, tameness of, 47; + in Central Park, 48; + photographing, 49; + alighting on hand, 51; + nesting of, 52; + habits of, when nesting, 53–55; + young of, 57–61. + + Chuck-will’s-widow, 146. + + Civilization, effects of, on wild life, 128. + + Clamp, ball-and-socket, 22, 24, 29. + + Cliff photography, 25. + + Climbers, 24. + + Codfishing, 136. + + Cormorants, Double-crested, 132. + + Corncrake, 146. + + Cornel, 142. + + Crane, 85. + + Crow, 65. + + + Dalhousie, 146. + + Dark-cloth, 24. + + Deer, 25. + + Dogwood, 26. + + + Enlargements, photographic, 7, 12, 13. + + + Finch, Pine, 137. + + Finders, 8. + + Flash-light, 25. + + Flicker, 14. + + Food, photographing, 26. + + + Galapagos, 129. + + Gallinule, Florida, 63, 69–71. + + Gannets, on Bonaventure, 139, 143–145; + destruction of, by Cartier, 154; + described by Audubon, 157; + killed for bait, 158; + number of, 159; + decrease of, 160; + on Bird Bock, 171, 181–183; + photographing, 187; + fearlessness of, 187; + manner of feeding, 187. + + Grand Entry, 147. + + Grebe, Pied-billed, 69, 70. + + Gregory, J. U., 163. + + Grosse Isle, 147. + + Guillemots, 149. + + Gulf of St. Lawrence, Bird Rocks of, 128, 129. + + Gull, Black-backed, 147. + Herring, on Percé Rock, 134; + feeding in fields, 136; + nesting on cliffs, 137; + note of, 137. + + + Hackensack marshes, value of, 89; + beauty of, 89; + geological history of, 89; + flowers of, 90, 92; + animal life of, 93. + + Haunts, photographing, 26. + + Hawk, Marsh, 29–31, 92. + + Hen, Heath, 109. + Moor, 70. + Water, 70. + + Heron, Great Blue, killing of, 85; + wildness of, 86; + rookeries of, 86; + nests of, 87. + Night, rookery of, 76; + call of, 77; + protection of, 77; + nests of, 78; + food of, 78; + limy deposits of, killing vegetation, 78; + young of, 79; + death of young of, 81; + feeding by parents, 81; + fall from nest, 81. + + Home photography, 40. + + Howe, R. II, Jr., 123. + + + Iconoscope, 8. + + Inaccessible Island, 129. + + Iris, 142. + + Islands, preserving influences of, 108, 128. + + + Jay, Blue, 42. + + Junco, 42, 137. + + + Kearton brothers, 7, 23, 25. + + Kerguelen Island, 129. + + Kittiwake, on Percé Rock, 133; + calling, 172; + on Bird Rock, 177; + nests and young of, 177; + number of, on Bird Rock, 183. + + + Lantern slides, 7. + + Laysan Island, 129. + + Lens, the, 10. + Tests, 14–19. + + Little Bird Rock, 153. + + Loon, 70. + + Lucas, F. A., 154. + + + Mackay, George II, 123, 192. + + Magdalen Islands, 130, 146. + + Marsh Birds, notes of, 70. + Mallow, 92, 93. + Mystery of, 70. + + Maryland Yellow-throat, 29, 38. + + Massachusetts: + Boston, 42; + Cambridge, 63; + Martha’s Vineyard, 109; + Muskeget, 109; + Penikese, 108, 122–127; + Weepeckets, 109; + Wood’s Holl, 109. + + Maynard, C. J., 160. + + McKinlay, James, 146. + + Migration, 27; + speculations on origin of, 191–195. + + Mirror, 24. + + Mount St. Anne, 137. + + Murre, Brünnich’s, 169; + number of, on Bird Rock, 183. + Common, 169; + number of, on Bird Rock, 183. + Ringed, 174. + Eggs and young of, destroyed, 160, 161; + on Bryon, 162; + on Bird Rock, 167; + tameness of, 170; + eggs of, 174, 175; + young of, 175; + number of, on Bird Rock, 182. + + + Nests and Eggs, photographing, 28. + + New Jersey: + Englewood, 52; + Hackensack Marshes, 89. + + New York: + Central Park, 48; + Cayuga County, 65, 69, 86; + Great Gull Island, 108; + Long Island, 107. + + Nuthatch, 42. + + + Oölogists, 65. + + Owl, use of, in photographing birds, 37. + Barred, 46. + Screech, photographing, 44; + calls of, 44, 45; + food of, 45; + manner of feeding of, 45; + young of, 45. + Short-eared, 49. + + + Pelican, Brown, 146; + returning to Pelican Island, 192, 195; + persecution of, 195, 196; + daily habits of, 197–199, 202; + pugnacity and calls of young of, 198, 190; + flight of, 200; + manner of fishing of, 201; + pouch of, 201; + number of, on Pelican Island, 204, 205; + nesting of, 205–207; + development and habits of young of, 207–213; + feeding of, 210; + voicelessness of adult of, 213. + Island, 191–214. + + Pennsylvania: Presque Isle, 64. + + Percé, isolation of, 130; + charm of, 135. + Rock, 130; + size of, 132; + birds of, 132, 133, 135. + + Petrel, Leach’s, on Bird Rock, 179; + nesting of, 180; + young of, 181; + call of, 185; + habits of, at night, 185. + + Pictou, 146. + + Plates, photographic, 22. + + Puffins, on Bryon, 162; + on Bird Rock, 169, 170; + nesting, 177; + ferocity of, 178; + appearance of, 179; + number of, on Bird Rock, 182. + + + Raven, 137. + + Rail, Clapper, 70. + Sora, 95, 100. + + Razorbills, on Bird Rock, 167, 169; + tameness of, 170; + nesting of, 176; + young of, 176; + number of, on Bird Rock, 183. + + Red Cedar, 26. + + Reedbird, 26, 95. + + Robin, 22, 191. + + Rowley, John, 9. + + + Sable Island, 191. + + Screen for nest photography, 31. + + Seasons, photographing, 27. + + Shelbourne, W. E., 149, 173. + + Shiras, G. A., 25. + + Shutter, curtain, 9; + focal-plane, 9, 20; + iris, 19; + unicum, 15, 20. + + Snow, photographing after, 41. + + Sparrow, Fox, 149. + House, photographing, 40, 43; + notes of, 41; + intelligence of, 40, 43. + Ipswich, 191. + Savanna, 137. + Swamp, 95, 100. + White-throated, 137, 142. + + Swallow, Bank, 96. + Barn, 96. + Eave, 96. + Rough-winged, 96. + Tree, nesting site of, 29; + range of, 96; + in Hackensack marshes, 96; + roosting habits of, 96; + evening and morning flights of, 97–101; + bathing in trees, 101; + exhibiting procreative and nesting habits prematurely, 103; + migration of, 104. + + + Tabor, E. G., 65. + + Taker, Captain Hubbard, 151, 163, 186, 189. + + Telephoto, 12, 17. + + Tern, Arctic, 111. + Common, 109; + nesting of, 110, 112; + action of colony of, 111; + notes of, 111, 117; + bravery of, 111; + young of, 112–114, 118, 122, 125; + returning to nest, 115; + photographing, 116, 117; + hearing of, 120; + on sheep, 123. + Roseate, on Weepeckets, 109, 110; + note of, 111; + on Penikese, 123. + + Terns, uses of, 106; + grace and beauty of, 106; + destruction of, 107; + on islands, 108; + protection of, 108, 127. + + Thrush, Wood, 39. + + Towhee, 38. + + Tree trunk, artificial, 23, 36. + + Tripod, 22, 28. + + Tubing, 22. + + Twin-flower, 142. + + + Vireo, Red-eyed, 39. + White-eyed, 39. + Yellow-throated, 39. + + Virginia: Cobb’s Island, 107. + + + Warbler, Blue-winged, 38. + Chestnut-sided, 38. + + Wild cherry, 26. + + Wild rice, 92, 94. + + Winter, feeding birds in, 42. + + Woodcock, 26. + + Woodpecker, Downy, 42. + + Wren, Long-billed Marsh, 69, 72, 94. + + + THE END + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + By FRANK M. CHAPMAN. + + + =Bird Studies with a Camera. With Introductory Chapters on the Outfit + and Methods of the Bird Photographer.= By FRANK M. CHAPMAN, + Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoölogy in the American Museum of + Natural History; Author of “Handbook of Birds of Eastern North + America” and “Bird-Life.” Illustrated with over 100 Photographs + from Nature by the Author. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + +Bird students and photographers will find that this book possesses for +them a unique interest and value. It contains fascinating accounts of +the habits of some of our common birds and descriptions of the largest +bird colonies existing in eastern North America; while its author’s +phenomenal success in photographing birds in Nature not only lends to +the illustrations the charm of realism, but makes the book a record of +surprising achievements with the camera. The book is practical as well +as descriptive, and in the opening chapters the questions of camera, +lens, plates, blinds, decoys, and other pertinent matters are fully +discussed, making the work an admirable guide for the camera hunter. + + =Bird-Life. A Guide to the Study of our Common Birds.= With 75 + full-page Plates and numerous Text Drawings by Ernest + Seton-Thompson. LIBRARY EDITION, 12mo, cloth, $1.75; TEACHERS’ + EDITION, same as Library Edition, but containing an Appendix, with + new matter designed for the use of teachers, and including lists + of birds for each month of the year, 12mo, cloth, $2.00. Edition + with 75 Colored Lithographic Plates, 8vo, cloth, $5.00. + +TEACHERS’ MANUAL. To accompany Portfolios of COLORED PLATES of +“Bird-Life.” Contains the same text as the Teachers’ Edition of +“Bird-Life,” but is without the 75 uncolored plates. Sold only with the +Portfolios, as follows: _Portfolio No. I._ Permanent Residents and +Winter Visitants. 32 plates. _Portfolio No. II._ March and April +Migrants. 24 plates. _Portfolio No. III._ May Migrants, Types of Birds’ +Eggs, and 9 half-tone plates showing Types of Birds’ Nests. 34 Plates. +Price of Portfolios, each, $1.25; with the MANUAL, $2.00; the three +Portfolios, with the MANUAL, $4.00. + + =Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America.= With Keys to the + Species, Descriptions of their Plumages, Nests, etc., and their + Distribution and Migrations. With over 200 Illustrations. 12mo. + LIBRARY EDITION, $3.00; POCKET EDITION, flexible covers, $3.50. + + + + + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY’S PUBLICATIONS. + + + _FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST._ By F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS. Uniform + with “Familiar Flowers,” “Familiar Trees,” and “Familiar Features + of the Roadside.” With many Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + +The great popularity of Mr. F. Schuyler Mathews’s charmingly illustrated +books upon flowers, trees, and roadside life insures a cordial reception +for his forthcoming book, which describes the animals, reptiles, +insects, and birds commonly met with in the country. His book will be +found a most convenient and interesting guide to an acquaintance with +common wild creatures. + + _FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE._ By F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS, author of + “Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden,” “Familiar Trees and their + Leaves,” etc. With 130 Illustrations by the Author. 12mo. Cloth, + $1.75. + +“Which one of us, whether afoot, awheel, on horseback, or in comfortable +carriage, has not whiled away the time by glancing about? How many of +us, however, have taken in the details of what charms us? We see the +flowering fields and budding woods, listen to the notes of birds and +frogs, the hum of some big bumblebee, but how much do we know of what we +sense? These questions, these doubts have occurred to all of us, and it +is to answer them that Mr. Mathews sets forth. It is to his credit that +he succeeds so well. He puts before us in chronological order the +flowers, birds, and beasts we meet on our highway and byway travels, +tells us how to recognize them, what they are really like, and gives us +at once charming drawings in words and lines, for Mr. Mathews is his own +illustrator.”—_Boston Journal._ + + _FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES._ By F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS, author of + “Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden,” “The Beautiful Flower + Garden,” etc. Illustrated with over 200 Drawings from Nature by + the Author, and giving the botanical names and habitat of each + tree and recording the precise character and coloring of its + leafage. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + +“It is not often that we find a book which deserves such unreserved +commendation. 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Cloth, $2.00. + +Mr. Rowley has introduced new features into the art which have not been +described in print before, and his book represents the latest advances +in taxidermy as an art and as a science. He takes a hunting party to the +Canadian woods in his opening chapter, and gives a series of vivid +pictures of actual field work. This is followed by a series of careful +explanations of the proper treatment of animals, large and small, of +birds, and heads. The many lovers of outdoor sport who are interested as +amateurs in the various phases of taxidermy will find their requirements +fully met, while to professional taxidermists this important and +comprehensive work will be indispensable. It is elaborately illustrated. + + _INSECT LIFE._ By JOHN HENRY COMSTOCK, Professor of Entomology in + Cornell University. With Illustrations by Anna Botsford Comstock, + member of the Society of American Wood Engravers. 12mo. 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It is sure to serve an excellent purpose in the +direction of popular culture, and the love of natural science which it +will develop in youthful minds can hardly fail to bear rich +fruit.”—_Boston Beacon._ + + _OUTLINES OF THE EARTH’S HISTORY._ By Prof. N. S. SHALER, of Harvard + University. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + +“Any one who reads the preliminary chapters will not stop until he has +read the entire book. 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S. + + + + + ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE. + + + BY ANGELO HEILPRIN. + +_A Journey to the New Eldorado._ With Hints to the Traveler and +Observations on the Physical History and Geology of the Gold Regions, +the Condition of and Methods of Working the Klondike Placers, and the +Laws Governing and Regulating Mining in the Northwest Territory of +Canada. By ANGELO HEILPRIN, Professor of Geology at the Academy of +Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Fellow of the Royal Geographical +Society of London, Past-President of the Geographical Society of +Philadelphia, etc. Fully illustrated from Photographs and with a new Map +of the Gold Regions. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + + + “Will take and retain immediate rank as a contribution of essential + value not only to the literature of travel, but to that of American + commercial and political development.... Should be in the hands of + every person interested either in fact or in prospect in Alaska and + the Klondike.”—_Brooklyn Standard-Union._ + + “For the first time the new gold fields of the North have been dealt + with by a scientific man capable of weighing evidence.”—_Chicago + Evening Post._ + + “Presents for the first time a plain, straightforward story of what he + saw, how he saw it, the men and things he met, what the hardships were + and how he overcame them. The book is fully illustrated. It is replete + with valuable hints and instruction, and students of the gold problem + in Alaska ought to appreciate it. The entire subject has been + developed with extreme care and great thoroughness.”—_Boston Globe._ + + “It is among the practical books, everywhere bearing evidence of its + reliability. The story of the journey is told with enough of personal + incidents and accidents of travel to make every page interesting to + the general reader, and it will be found of practical value to those + intending to make the hard journey.”—_Chicago Inter-Ocean._ + + “Mr. Heilprin observed Dawson with the eyes of a student of great + scientific attainments, who had little in common with the crowd of + elemental and uncouth men gathered there, or with their life; and he + noted many things which they themselves probably accepted as matters + of course, besides writing an important scientific treatise.”—_Boston + Herald._ + + “It is noticeably fair-minded in its presentation of facts—the work of + a clear-minded and well-trained observer.”—_New York Outlook._ + + “The first adequate presentation of the Klondike gold problem made by + a geologist.”—_New York Mail and Express._ + + + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● Enclosed bold or blackletter font in =equals=. + ● The caret (^) serves as a superscript indicator, applicable to + individual characters (like 2^d) and even entire phrases (like + 1^{st}). + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75287 *** |