Part 15

In the spring they hatch their eggs in a lonely, quiet cliff on the mountains, locating the nest in a strong tree. No other interloper is tolerated in the same district. Should any such appear, the male Stone Eagle advances with loud, angry shrieks. The intruder pauses, startled for the moment. He does not feel safe in the strange district and hesitates for a moment as to whether to undertake the combat with the rightful owner of the district. Soon, however, his boldness overweighs his better judgment and the powerful Birds circle about each other seeking to attack a weak spot. They circle nearer and presently with a bold plunge one swoops down upon his opponent. Each clutches the other with powerful fangs, making the blood flow and amid the rushing noise of the flapping wings, furious blows are struck, causing the feathers to fly in every direction. The combatants gradually sink lower and soon touch the earth upon which they roll about. Presently the intruder endeavors to free himself and, bleeding from many wounds, hastens away. The victor pursues him for a short distance and finally returns to his mate, who, having been an interested witness of the combat from the distance, welcomes him with joyful clamor.

The Stone Eagle lays from two to four eggs, about the size of a Peacock’s, of a greenish white color with brown spots. During the time their young remain in the nest the parents’ search for prey is continuous. In one of the nests, Hunter Regg found part of a Fox, a Prairie Dog and remains of not less than five Rabbits of the Alps.

THE SEA EAGLE.

The common name of the Sea Eagle—Pygargus—is derived from the Greek word which means “white tail.” These Birds feed on Fish and aquatic Birds. They are found along the shores of Europe, Northern Siberia, Asia Minor and Egypt. A powerful, bold and dangerous Bird of Prey, with a covering of slate colored and golden brown feathers with light and dark streaks and bands. Like the Stone Eagle, he pursues every wild animal he can overpower and besides this, he makes good use of his unfeathered talons to the terror of the watery inhabitants, in catching Fish with ease. The Porcupine’s prickly coat is no protection against him, nor the Fox’s sharp teeth. Neither the precaution of the Wild Goose, nor the readiness of the Diving Bird in disappearing under the waves, nor the guard of the faithful Dog and Shepherd over the Lamb. Neither the Fish’s cool element. All are the prey of the bold robber. He attacks Children, and, under favorable conditions, even grown persons. His principal nourishment is Fish and for this reason his aerie is generally near the seacoast or large inland streams. He does not at all despise carrion and during the winter regularly haunts fishing places and the regions of mankind, such as flaying places, slaughter-houses, etc., wherever there is a possibility of his obtaining booty. In Northern Russia and Siberia, in the winter, when every river and pond is frozen over, the Sea Eagle is obliged to exist entirely on land animals, and overcome by hunger boldly snatches a Fox from the horde (see illustration), soars away with and kills him; heedless of his struggles and attempt to free himself, by attacking with his sharp teeth, the fangs and bill grasping him.

THE BUZZARDS.

The Buzzards have long wings and a large head. They do not chase their prey when it is on the wing, but hide themselves, where they wait until a victim passes within reach. When thus occupied they will sometimes remain for several hours perfectly quiet, looking so sleepy and inactive that their stupidity has become proverbial. This stupid look is partly due to the weakness of their eyes, which are affected by strong light.

They generally build their nests in the loftiest trees, and occasionally in thickets of brushwood among the rocks. When frost comes they visit farm yards and steal poultry, and when pressed by hunger they become very bold.

THE VULTURE FAMILY.

The Vultures are the most disgusting of the feathered creation. Like the Hyena among animals, they rarely attack living prey, but live almost entirely upon putrid flesh, and after filling themselves with this food they will remain in a state of stupid torpor until it is digested. Yet much as we despise them, we must recognize their friendly mission to mankind, for while the other Birds of Prey are often of use to the farmers, etc., in killing off the field and barn Mice, and destructive insects, the Vultures remove all decaying flesh and putrid matter from the earth that might otherwise breed disease.

The Vultures fly heavily, but mount aloft to great altitudes. They have wonderful powers of vision. Should a carcass be left on the plain they immediately see it, and drop down, turning over and over in their hurry to arrive at the feast.

The Bearded Griffon, Condor, King Vulture, Urubu, Turkey Buzzard, Fulvous Vulture and Pondicherry Vulture, are the principal species of the great Vulture family.

THE BEARDED GRIFFON.

The Bearded Griffon is the celebrated Lammergeyer, described by some Naturalist under the name of the Golden Vulture. The Lammergeyer forms, as the name indicates, an intermediate genus between the Eagles and the Vultures, having head and eyes like the Vultures and feet and strong beak like the Eagles. It owes its name—Bearded Griffon—to a tuft of stiff hair that is under the beak. The loftiest mountains of Europe, Asia and Africa are its home, and its aerie, which is of great size, is built among the most inaccessible rocks.

In our illustration, one of these Bearded Griffons or Golden Vultures has discovered a Common Vulture (sometimes called the Goose Hawk) feasting upon the carcass of a Pamir-sheep (one of the greatest of the Sheep species, inhabiting lofty plateaus above the tree limit).

The Vulture at the feast hears the rushing of mighty wings and the Bearded Griffon, followed by his wife, drops on a neighboring rock.

With spreading wings and wide opened bill, the Bearded Griffon flies on his opponent to make him relinquish his booty; but the Vulture is not easily scared off. He is courageous, passionate and artful. With ruffled plumage, neck drawn in, beak opened to ward off the blow, he awaits the attack. Suddenly he darts out the long neck quick as a wink and seeks to give his enemy a blow with his beak. But the other is on his guard, and the Vulture again takes the waiting attitude. But it will not last long; the Bearded Griffon rushes on him, and with claws meeting these kings of the air fight out a mighty battle. It is scarcely to be doubted that the stronger Bearded Griffon will at last win the victory and divide the spoil with his wife, while the exhausted and bleeding Vulture flies away to seek some other supply to satisfy his hunger. So throughout all nature the bitter fight for existence goes on, and ever the strong must be overcome by the yet stronger.

THE CONDOR.

As in the Alps and Pyrenees the Vulture and his kin reign and build their aerie, so in the mountain heights of the South American Andes, from the equator to the 45 degrees of latitude, the mighty Condor reigns. He is the most powerful of all Birds of Prey, of whose mode of living mankind has only been able during the last few years, to obtain much accurate information. The color of his plumage is black shading toward dark blue. The centre of the wings are white, head and throat are almost bare, and the warty skin on both sides of the neck is red. The red comb on the head and the white silky collar are sufficiently characteristic of the Condor to distinguish him from other Birds of these mountains.

The power of flight and swiftness of this Bird is altogether extraordinary and the keenness of his sight wonderful. He, like the other Vultures, subsists on carrion. In case of a deficiency in this direction, he attacks herds of Lambs, Sheep and Calves and among the various species of Llama infesting his regions he causes great devastation, wherefore inhabitants of these mountain regions have great aversion for him and endeavor in every possible manner to entrap and destroy him. It is astonishing how this Bird, swaying at such tremendous height that the naked eye can scarcely discern him, can detect carrion, which has been thrown aside as a bait for him, or the nearness of wounded animal, and how first one, then others, appear, of whose presence one has previously had no inkling. When the Condor pursues an animal, he continues the chase until either the prey, leaping over a precipice, dashes to pieces, or he pounces upon and crushes it, battering in its skull with his powerful bill. His principal booty as previously mentioned, is the swift-footed though defenceless Llama. In the illustration we see how a powerful Condor has pursued one of the most useful of domestic animals until he has fallen exhausted, and now proceeds to kill and consume him. In the distance hovers a comrade with whom he will be obliged, willingly or otherwise, to share the booty.

THE NATATORES, OR SWIMMING BIRDS.

The Swimming Birds or Natatores take their name from the Latin natare, to swim. The toes are united by the extension of webs between them; and the whole order of Swimming Birds can dive without the body becoming wet, as their feathers are anointed with an oily liquid furnished by certain glands in their skin, which renders them impervious to moisture. This oily substance and the structure of their feathers—which are smooth, three-cornered, and closely interlaced—cause the water to glide off their polished surface; while the down beneath the feathers protects their bodies from the cold of the most severe winters.

The Swimming Birds are very numerous both in species and individuals, and inhabit all countries. According to some Naturalists these Birds which frequent the sea constitute one-fourteenth part of all the Birds on the globe, and the number of species is said to be nearly ten thousand. They feed on vegetables, insects and Fishes, and build their nests on the sand, in nooks and crannies of the rocks, or on the margin of lakes and rivers.

THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER.

The Black-throated Diver is small and slender. It floats deep in the water, and when alarmed, swims at surprising speed, with outstretched neck and rapid beat of the wings, and little more than its head above the surface.

It flies high and in a direct course with great rapidity.

Mr. Selby describes an ineffectual pursuit of a pair on Loch Shin, in Sutherlandshire, which was long persevered in. In this case submersion frequently took place, which continued for nearly two minutes at a time, and they generally reappeared at nearly a quarter of a mile distant from the spot at which they went down. In no instance did he ever see them attempt to escape by taking wing. When swimming, they are in the constant habit of dipping their bill in the water with a graceful motion of the head and neck.

“I may observe,” says this acute ornithologist, “that a visible track from the water to the nest was made by the female, whose progress on land is effected by shuffling along upon her belly, propelled from behind by her legs.”

The Black-throated Diver has the beak and throat black; summit of the head ashy grey; the breast and the sides of the neck white, with black spots; the back and rump black; the coverts of the wings with white spots, and all the lower parts pure white. The Bird, though rare in England and France, is very common in the north of Europe. It is found on the lakes of Siberia, of Iceland, in Greenland and Hudson’s Bay, and sometimes in the Orkney Islands. The women of Lapland make bonnets with its skin dressed without removing the feathers; but in Norway it is considered an act of impiety to destroy it, as the different cries which it utters are said to prognosticate fine weather or rain.

The eggs, of which there are two, sometimes three, in the same nest, are of a very elongated oval form, three inches in length, two inches in the greatest girth and of a brownish olive sprinkled with black or dark-brown spots, and are larger at one end than at the other.

In the spring the Sea-birds assemble in large flocks. In fact certain localities are chosen year after year, and these are occupied by innumerable flocks at certain seasons, all of which seem to live together in perfect harmony.

Some of the families of the Swimming Birds are valuable additions to the poultry yards. Ducks and Geese furnish delicate and nourishing food; the Swan is gracefully ornamental on our lakes and ponds. The down of all the aquatic Birds as an article of commerce is of great value in northern countries. Their eggs constitute good food, and in many countries the inhabitants consume them in great quantities.

But their usefulness does not end here. Guano, so eagerly sought for by the farmer, is the excrement of aquatic Fowls which has accumulated for ages, until in the South Pacific Ocean it is said to have formed whole islands; some of them being covered with this valuable agricultural assistant to the depth of ninety or a hundred yards. This does not seem so marvellous when it is considered that twenty-five or thirty thousand Sea-birds sleep on these islands night after night, and that each of them will yield half a pound of guano daily, which owes its unrivalled fertilizing power to the ammoniacal salts, phosphate of lime, and fragments of feathers of which it is composed.

Although the numerous Swimming Birds are alike in having webbed feet and oily plumage that cannot be saturated with water, they have also many points of difference which make it necessary to divide them into various families. For instance, some of the Swimmers are feeble and slow in their flight, and others cannot even rise from the water as their wings are so small. On the other hand, there are species which possess wonderful power of traversing the air, their well-developed wings enabling them to pass through space with marvellous rapidity. The Petrels seem to delight in storms and tempests, mingling their cries with the roar of the waves; and the dread which is experienced by the mariner at the approach of a gale is unknown to the Sea Gull and Albatros, for they appear to delight in the warring elements.

Because of these differences in their characteristics, Naturalists have divided the Swimming Birds in various ways, but the best and the simplest is the division into four great families. First, the Divers, or the Sea Birds with thin, short wings; second, the large family to which the Swan and Ducks and Geese belong; third, the Pelican family; fourth, the Swimming Birds with long wings.

THE FAMILY OF DIVERS.

The most important birds found in this family are the Great Northern Diver, the Arctic Diver, Penguins, Auks, Grebes, and Guillemots.

All these Birds are distinguished by wings so thin and short as to be almost useless for flying. They are all habitual divers and tireless swimmers, using their wings as Fish do their fins. To raise their wings after taking a down stroke requires much greater effort than a Bird of flight makes in raising its wings in the air; for this reason the muscle in the wings of the Diving Birds has an unusually large development to give them greater strength.

The Divers are inhabitants of northern seas. There they build their nests on some solitary island and lay two eggs, oblong in shape and white in color. Fish, particularly the Herring, are their principal food, and they are such active swimmers and divers that it takes a quick eye and hand to shoot them.

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.

This great Bird has been called a wanderer on the ocean. It is not only found along the margins of the sea, fishing in the bays and at the river banks, but is also met with out on the ocean many miles from the shore. Narrow channels and sandy bays are, however, its favorite resorts; there it floats, its body deeply submerged in the water. But though swimming so deep in the water, it can overtake and shoot ahead of all the more buoyant swimmers.

The Bird is sometimes known as the Loon. It is seldom found on the land, being ill fitted for walking or flying, and although it is expert in swimming long distances under water, and when it does come up seldom exposes more than its neck, it flies rather better than many other short-winged divers. It flies heavily, in a circle, round those who have disturbed it in its haunts, its loud and melancholy cry resembling the howling of a wolf, or the distant scream of a man in distress. When the “Loon” calls frequently, it is supposed to portend a storm. In the bad weather which precedes the advent of winter on the northern American lakes, previous to migration, the wild weird note of the Loon is so unnatural that the Indians ascribe to it supernatural powers.

THE PENGUINS.

The Penguins belong exclusively to cold countries. They live almost entirely in the water, and although they seldom come ashore, except to build their nests and lay their eggs, or when driven by squalls or storms from their favorite element, they do not often swim far from the land. On the shore they are compelled to sit erect, as their feet are placed at the extremity of the body—an arrangement which renders them awkward and heavy when they try to sit or walk. They carry the head very high and the neck stretched out, while their short winglets are held out like two short arms. When they sit perched in flocks on some lofty projecting rock they might be mistaken at a distance for a line of soldiers.

At certain periods of the year the Penguins assemble on the beach as if they had planned to meet for deliberation. These assemblies last for a day or two, and are conducted with an obvious degree of solemnity. When the meeting results in a decision, they proceed to work with great activity.

Upon a ledge of rock, sufficiently level and of the necessary size, they trace a square with one of its sides parallel and overlooking the edge of the water, which is left open for the egress of the colony. Then with their beaks they proceed to collect all the stones in the neighborhood, which they heap up outside the lines marked out, to serve them as a wall to shelter them from the prevailing winds. During the night these openings are guarded by sentinels.

They afterwards divide the enclosure into smaller squares, each large enough to receive a certain number of nests, with a passage between each square. No architect could arrange the plan in a more regular manner.

What is most singular is that the Albatross, a Bird adapted for flight, associates at this period with these half Fish, half Birds, the Penguins; so that the nest of an Albatross may be seen next the nest of a Penguin, and the whole colony, so differently constituted, appear to live on the best terms of intimacy. Each keeps to its own nest, and if by chance there is a complaint, it is that some Penguin has robbed the nest of his neighbor, the Albatross.

Other Sea-birds come to partake of the hospitality of the little republic. With the permission of the masters of the society, they build their nests in the vacancies that occur in the squares.

The Penguin lays but one egg, which she only leaves for a few moments until hatched, the mate taking her place while she seeks her food. The Penguins are so numerous in the Antarctic seas, that 100,000 eggs have been collected by the crew of one vessel.

The King Penguin has been described by most Naturalists as a distinct species. Of this there is little doubt. They abound in the southern seas. Their short stunted wings, which make them quite incapable of flying, are reduced to a flat and very short stump, totally destitute of feathers, being covered with a soft down, having something of the appearance of hair, which might be taken for scales. Like all the Penguins, this Bird is an excellent swimmer and diver, and its coating of down is so dense that it even resist a bullet; it is consequently difficult to shoot.

Their nests are a very simple construction, for they content themselves with a hole in the sand deep enough to contain two eggs, but more often one.

In spite of the limited number of eggs, the quantity of these Birds found in the south of Patagonia is something marvellous. When sailors land in these high latitudes they take or kill as many as they choose. Sir John Narborough says, speaking of those at the Falkland Islands, that “when the sailors walked among the feathered population to provide themselves with eggs, they were regarded with sidelong glances.” In many places the shores were covered with these Birds, and 300 have been taken within an hour; for generally they make no effort to escape, but stand quietly by while their companions are being knocked down with sticks.

In another islet, in the Straits of Magellan, Captain Drake’s crew killed more than 3,000 in one day. These facts are not exaggerated. This island, when visited by these navigators, probably had never been pressed previously by a human foot, and the Birds had succeeded each other from generation to generation in incalculable numbers, hitherto free from molestation.

The Penguins have no fear of man. Mr. Darwin pleasantly relates an encounter that he had with one of these Birds on the Falkland Islands. “One day,” he says, “having placed myself between a Penguin and the water, I was much amused by the action of the Bird. It was a brave Bird, and, till reaching the sea, it regularly fought and drove me backwards. Nothing less than heavy blows would have stopped him. Every inch gained he kept firmly, standing close before me firm, erect and determined, all the time rolling his head from side to side in a very odd manner.”

There are many species of Penguins, the handsomest probably being the Crested Penguin, which is a native of Patagonia, and has a very conspicuous appearance. These Birds are called by sailors, regardless of species, Jackass Penguins, from their habit, when on shore, of throwing their head backwards, and of making a strange loud noise very like the braying of a Donkey.

This family all defend themselves vigorously with their beaks when an attempt is made to lay hands on them; and when pursued, they will pretend to retreat, and return immediately, throwing themselves upon their assailant. “At other times they will look at you askance,” says Pernetty, “the head inclined first on one side, then on the other, as if they were mocking you.” They hold themselves upright on their feet, the body erect in a perpendicular line with the head. Navigators passing these islands of the southern seas might suppose that they were densely inhabited, for the loud roaring voices of these Birds produce a noise equal to that of a great crowd. The flesh is most unpalatable, but it is frequently the only resource of ship’s crews who find themselves short of provisions in these inhospitable regions. However, their eggs have the redeeming quality of being excellent.

THE AUK.

The Auk is a noble Bird, which was once common in our waters, but at this date scarce even in the Arctic seas; it is but little known. In habits and mode of life it strongly resembles the Penguins.

THE GREBES.

The Grebes have the head small, the neck somewhat elongated, the legs attached to the abdomen, the tail rudimentary, the tarsi compressed, the anterior toes united at their base by a membrane. These Birds live on the sea, but they inhabit fresh water by preference, feeding on small Fishes, Worms, Molluscs, Insects, and the products of aquatic vegetation. While they dive and swim admirably, they also fly with vigorous wing; but they rarely resort to this unless alarmed or when migrating.