Part 26

Colors. A narrow line of black running downward on each side of the neck, from the base of the lower mandible; head above ashy-olive; other upper parts olive-green, tinged with yellowish; quills and tail olive-brown, edged outwardly with greenish-yellow; a line of yellowish-white running from the nostril over the eye; between the eye and the bill dark olive; under parts white, nearly pure on the throat, and on the other parts tinged with ashy and greenish-yellow, especially on the sides; bill light corneous; irides red.

Hab. Florida, West Indies, and South America. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada.

Obs. We consider it quite probable that this species is the _Turdus hispaniolensis_ of Gmelin, as above, which is the Hispaniola Thrush of Latham. The figure in Buffon, Pl. Enl. 273, fig. 1, may represent the same.

This bird may readily be distinguished from all other species by the dark lines on the neck, which seem to be present at all ages.

AMMODROMUS ROSTRATUS.—(Cassin.) The Long-billed Swamp Sparrow. PLATE XXXVIII. Adult Male.

Of this bird we can give but a very imperfect history. It is one of a group of Sparrows, of which other species inhabit North America, characterized in some measure like the present, by the length and large size of their bills, and their partiality for the vicinity of salt water. Two species, the Sea-side Finch, and the Sharp-tailed Finch (_Ammodromus maritimus_ and _caudacutus_), are of frequent occurrence on the shores of the Atlantic, almost throughout the extent of the coast of the temperate regions of North America,—and in New Jersey may be met with in the summer season in considerable numbers, wherever there are salt marshes, or that description of vegetation peculiar to the shores of the ocean, or within reach of its tides. In those localities, frequently of difficult access, these birds rear their young in comparative safety, subsisting on seeds and insects, and seldom attracting attention. They may occasionally be seen, too, on the bare sands of the beach, searching for small marine animals thrown up by the waves.

The present bird is a representative of this group on the shores of the Pacific, and from the notice by its discoverer, which we shall give directly, it appears to be very similar in its habits. It was first observed by Dr. Heermann, near San Diego, California, during his first visit to that country, and has since that time been again noticed only by him. Specimens in excellent plumage and preservation, from his collections, are in the National Museum, Washington city, and in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

This bird was first described in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, VI. p. 184 (Oct., 1852). For our present article, Dr. Heermann has kindly permitted us to make the following extract from his Journals, kept during his former and recent visits to California:—

“In 1851, I procured this bird on the shores of the Bay of San Diego, where, in company with other species, it appeared to be engaged in searching for grass-seeds. During the late Pacific Railroad survey by the party under command of Lieut. Williamson, I again saw it in considerable numbers at Santa Barbara and San Pedro. At the latter places, as at San Diego, it frequents the low, sandy beach, and the heavy sedge-grass which abounds on the shores, feeding on marine insects and seeds thrown up by the tides on the former, and in the latter, finding quick and easy concealment when alarmed or pursued. It appears to be a quiet, unsuspicious bird, and I heard it utter only a short, sharp chirp during the limited time that I had to observe it.”

At present, nothing further is known of this species. The figure in our plate is that of an adult male, and is of the size of life.

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Ammodromus. Swainson, Zool. Jour. III. p. 348. (1827.) Ammodromus rostratus. (Cassin.) Emberiza rostrata. Cassin, Proc. Acad., Philada., VI. p. 184. (1852.)

Form. Short, and rather heavy; bill lengthened, strong; wings with the first, second, and third quills longest, and nearly equal; tail rather short, emarginate; legs and feet moderately strong.

Dimensions. Total length of skin, about 5¼ inches; wing, 2¾; tail, 2 inches.

Colors. Entire plumage above dull-brownish and cinereous, every feather longitudinally marked with the former, and tipped and edged with the latter, the brown stripes being most strongly marked on the head and back; narrow superciliary lines ashy-white; throat and entire under-parts white, with longitudinal stripes, and arrow-heads of brown on the breast and flanks; stripes of this character forming lines on the sides of the neck from the lower mandible, above which are stripes of white; abdomen and under tail-coverts dull white; wings and tail brown, edged with paler shades of the same color, nearly white on the outer-webs of the external feathers of the tail, deeper and tinged with rufous on the wing-coverts and exposed edges of the secondaries; bill and feet light-colored, the former brownish above (in dried skin).

Hab. California. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Museum, Washington.

Obs. We are acquainted with no species which this bird resembles in any considerable degree, though its general characters are similar to the birds that we have mentioned in the present article. Its bill is remarkably large and strong, and its entire organization robust.

PLECTROPHANES McCOWNII.—Lawrence. McCown’s Bunting. PLATE XXXIX. Adult Male and Female in Summer Plumage.

It is not only in the spring, or at the advent of the month sung by the poets as the real birth of the year, that everywhere in the temperate regions of North America, hosts of feathered travellers arrive, either to remain for a season, or to continue their journey to more northern countries. In the autumn and winter, also, troops of them constantly appear, succeeding each other in some measure according to the earlier or later setting in of winter, or the greater or less severity of that season. Nearly all of the autumnal species, like our summer visitors, proceed to the South to spend the winter—others, coming later, remain during the whole of the winter, and are constantly recruited by new comers of the same species, but at the first opening of spring, return to their homes. Some, as the Purple Finch and the little Snow-bird, come every winter—others, as the Pine Grosbeak, the Northern Linnet, and the two species of Crossbills, only occasionally. Though abundant, perhaps, for one season, years may elapse before either of the birds last mentioned will be seen again by the most diligent collector. At the time of writing the present article (December, 1853), both the White-winged Crossbill and the common Crossbill (_Loxia leucoptera_ and _americana_), are abundant in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, the former of which has not before been seen here since the winter of 1835-6. The latter appears more frequently.

In addition to these, we are visited by flocks of several species that are to be found here rearing their young in the summer; but while our bird reared in Pennsylvania has taken an excursion to the South, so his Northern namesake, reared, perhaps, at Hudson’s Bay, has done the same, and made Pennsylvania the limit of his journey. The Robin (_Merula migratoria_) is an instance of this description of migration. This bird, in large flocks, is to be met with almost every winter, especially in New Jersey, and wanders much further southwardly and westward. We fancy that we can distinguish a stranger of this species from one “native and to the manor born.” The Northern Robin is slightly a larger bird than our summer resident; his colors are a shade darker, and his bill decidedly a clearer yellow. Though not presenting characters sufficient at all to raise a suspicion of distinction in species, the northern bird is clearly of a different race. And so it is, too, with the Red-winged Blackbird, the Meadow Lark, the Golden-winged and the Red-headed Woodpeckers, and other species, all of which come here in the winter from more northern latitudes, and in most of which close observation will detect small characteristics of difference in race.

The spring migration is confined to birds that pass the winter in the South, in many cases not beyond the limits of the United States; but there are birds that extend their journey to the islands of the West Indies, to Mexico, and to Central America, and in some instances to South America. Many of the Warblers, several of our common Thrushes and Finches, and various others of our well-known North American species, visit Cuba and Jamaica in the course of the winter, and in both those islands some of them make their appearance while yet the season is not so far advanced in the United States as to incommode them either by the cold or an abridged supply of their favorite food.

The migration of these birds is a curious problem, and regulated by laws entirely independent of the considerations of climate and supply of food. One cannot readily find a reason why a bird that has passed the winter in a tropical or southern latitude, should leave for the North at the coming of spring, when a more plentiful supply of food than has sufficed for its winter support is about to be presented. And then, too, why should birds proceed so far to the North?—to the very confines of the Arctic circle, as many small species do, when the great forests of the middle and northern States offer ample accommodation, and supplies of food certainly equal to those in which they will at last terminate their journey. There are questions here difficult to answer. It would appear that the existence of an animal is predicated on its performance of certain functions antecedently involved in its organization. That its entire history, we may say, is but an answer to the calls of organization. That the organization and the performance of its indicated functions are strictly exponents of each other, the latter modified by circumstances, and the relations of species to each other, dependent in some measure on circumstances, but not produced by them, no more than forms or other physical characters. No feature in the history of an animal is absolutely produced by circumstances. There is, too, the consideration of inherited instincts, and if the faculty of memory, and impressions on it, are transmissible, nearly the whole phenomena of instinct may be explained.

In the western and southwestern countries of North America, within the limits of the United States, various species of northern birds appear in winter that have never been noticed on the Atlantic seaboard. The handsome little bird that we present to the reader in the plate now before him, is one of that description. It appears to be a native of the extensive and little-known regions of northwestern America, migrating in the winter to California, New Mexico, and Texas, where it has been seen by several of our naturalists.

There are several species in Western America of the group to which this bird belongs, all characterized by agreeable and somewhat similar colors. In the States on the Atlantic, the Snow Bunting (_Plectrophanes nivalis_) is their only relative that is of usual occurrence,—though another, the Lapland Longspur (_Plectrophanes Lapponica_), occasionally appears, and of the capture of which, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, several instances have come to our knowledge.

Capt. McCown, who discovered this present species in Texas, gives no further account of it than that he shot it in company with a flock of Shore Larks. His notice is in the Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, VI. p. 14. Dr. Henry has obtained it in the vicinity of Fort Thorne, New Mexico. These, with Dr. Heermann, are the only naturalists that have as yet noticed this bird in its native wilds.

During the survey for a route for a railroad to the Pacific, by Lieut. Williamson’s party, to which Dr. Heermann was attached, he met with this bird in large numbers, and his collection contains numerous specimens in various stages of plumage. From these we have selected adults of both sexes, from which the plate now before the reader has been prepared. In Dr. Heermann’s manuscripts, kindly placed at our disposal for the purposes of our present work, we find this bird thus noticed:—

“I found this species congregated in large flocks with the chestnut-collared Lark Bunting (_Plectrophanes ornatus_), and engaged in gleaning the seeds from the scanty grass on the vast arid plains of New Mexico. Insects and berries also form part of their food, in search of which they show considerable activity, running on the ground with ease and celerity.

“We found this bird, as well as various other species, particularly abundant whenever we struck on the isolated water-holes that occur in this region, these being the only spots for miles around where water can be obtained. When fired at, or otherwise alarmed, they rise as if to fly away, but seem to be irresistibly impelled by thirst to return to the only localities where relief is to be obtained, and where, if the hunter is so inclined, large numbers of this handsome little bird, and others, may be slaughtered with little exertion.

“From Dr. T. C. Henry, of the U. S. Army, I learned that in the spring, large flocks of this species appear at Fort Thorne, apparently on their return to the North, having migrated southwardly the fall previous, and that they leave on the return of mild weather. In several flocks of these birds I noticed also the Shore Lark (_Alanda alpestris_), but it formed a small proportion of the numbers.”

The figures in our plate are about two-thirds of the size of life.

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Plectrophanes. Meyer, Taschenbuch der deutschen Vögelkunde III. p. 56. (1822.)

Bill short, conical, strong; nostrils basal, partially concealed; wing rather long; first, second, and third quills longest; tail moderate, or short, usually even at the end, or emarginate; legs and feet moderately strong; hind toe with the claw long, somewhat like that of the Larks (_Alauda_).

Plectrophanes McCownii. Lawrence, Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, VI. p. 122. (1851.)

Form. Bill very strong, wide, and somewhat tumid at base; wing long; secondaries emarginate; tertiaries longer than secondaries; second primary longest; tail rather short, slightly emarginate; legs moderate; hind claw long; coverts of the tail long.

Dimensions. _Male._—Total length of skin, 5½ inches; wing, 3½; tail, 2¼ inches.

Colors. _Male._—Head above, from the base of the bill, stripe on each side of the neck from lower mandible, and wide transverse band on the breast, black; lesser coverts of the wing chestnut; neck behind and body above dark brown and brownish-ashy, every feather with a central stripe of the former and edged with the latter; under-parts (except the breast) white, all the feathers, with a basal portion, ashy-black, particularly observable immediately below the black of the breast; quills brown, edged outwardly with yellowish cinereous, on their inner-webs with white; two central feathers of the tail brown, others white, tipped with brown; bill and feet light-colored. _Female._—Entire plumage above dark brown and brownish-ashy; beneath white, tinged with dull yellowish on the throat and breast; no black on the head or breast.

Hab. California, New Mexico, Texas. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus., Washington.

Obs. This little species is strictly of the same group as _Plectrophanes ornatus_ and _pictus_, and, like them, appears to be exclusively western. It does not resemble those species in such degree as to be liable to be mistaken for either of them.

The original description of this bird by Mr. Lawrence, as above cited, appears to have been made from its winter plumage. Its dedication to Capt. McCown, we regard as a highly appropriate acknowledgement of his valuable services in the investigation of the ornithology of the southwestern regions of the United States.

RECURVIROSTRA OCCIDENTALIS.—Vigors. The Western Avocet. The White Avocet. PLATE XL. Adult Male.

This is a second American species of this singular group of birds, and is as yet only known as an inhabitant of the regions of the far west. This apparent restriction in the locality of the present bird is the more remarkable, as the previously-known species, distinguished as the American Avocet (_Recurvirostra americana_), is widely diffused, having been ascertained to be abundant in the vicinity of Hudson’s Bay in the summer season, and thence, through a wide central region of North America, to Texas. Occasionally it is noticed on the coast of the Atlantic, sparingly north of New Jersey, but becoming more numerous southwardly.

This species was discovered at San Francisco, California, by the naturalists attached to H. B. M. ship Blossom, then on a voyage of discovery in the Pacific ocean; and although that occurred about the year 1825, it has been again noticed only by Col. McCall and Dr. Heermann, both of whom, however, represent it as being by no means a rare bird.

With his usual kindness, Col. McCall has furnished the following notice of this bird for our present article:—

“At the village of San Elizario, 22 miles south of El Paso, on the 16th October, 1851, I found small flocks of the Western Avocet feeding along the banks of the Rio Grande, and frequenting the sloughs and pools in its vicinity, whilst moving to the South in the course of their regular autumnal migration. They were tame and unsuspicious, and evidently ignorant of the destructive character of the gun, for its report seemed to create little alarm, even when the discharge carried death into their ranks. To illustrate this, I need only mention the fact that the first flock which came immediately under my observation alighted within twenty yards of the piazza where I was sitting on the morning after my arrival. They waded at once into the shoal water of a ‘_cut-off_’ from the river which passed immediately in front of the house, and began to feed. I was near enough to see them immerse their bills into the water, and search the soft mud below for their prey; and as they, from time to time, were scattered, and again assembled in a group, I had ample time and an excellent opportunity to note their manner of feeding. I was soon satisfied that in this respect their habits did not differ from those of _R. americana_, which I had previously seen in great numbers, and closely observed on the borders of the Oso river, in southern Texas. After watching them for some time, I took my gun, and at a single discharge, secured five of the dozen that composed the flock. The remainder flew the distance of a stone’s throw, and alighting in shoal water, began to feed again without appearing to notice the loss of their companions. I followed them, and in a few minutes procured three more within one hundred yards of the house. During that day, and several successive days that I remained at the post, I saw flocks of from six to ten on their feeding grounds, both morning and afternoon. I shot them, as well as ducks and snipe, daily; and at no time that I recollect, had I any difficulty in approaching within easy gun-shot.

“A few days previously, I had seen a very large flock of these birds near _Val Verde_, some 170 miles further up the river. This flock contained fifty or sixty birds; they rose near me as I fired at a flock of Teal, and circled round in very compact order, presenting the beautiful contrast of their white and black markings, and at length settled on the opposite side of the pond, where they were beyond pursuit. The occasions here mentioned are the only ones on which I have met with _R. occidentalis_.

“On the wing, the flocks were usually closely compacted; the flight was buoyant, and with little exertion of muscular force.”

Dr. Heermann found this bird in California, and procured numerous specimens, now in the National Museum, Washington, and in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy. In his manuscripts We find the following:—

“This species was observed in various parts of California, resorting to the shallow pools, in which it waded breast-deep, usually finding on the soft muddy bottom a plentiful feast of insects and snails. Although partially web-footed, it does not swim, so far as I have noticed, unless wounded, when it takes immediately to the deep water, swimming with great celerity, soon getting beyond range, if not at once disabled by a second shot. I have noticed this bird in abundance on the borders of the reedy swamps which cover a large portion of the lower part of the Sacramento valley.”

The upward curve of the bill in the birds of this group, though very singular and characteristic, has not been ascertained to be indicative of any peculiarity of habits.

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Recurvirostra. Linn., Syst. Nat, I. p. 256. (1766.)

Bill depressed, smooth, recurved; wing rather long, pointed; first quill longest; tail short; legs long, moderately strong; toes rather short, partially webbed. A peculiar and somewhat isolated genus, of which a few species only are known, though inhabiting nearly all parts of the world.

Recurvirostra occidentalis. Vigors, Zool. Journal, IV. p. 356. (1829.)

Form. General form rather robust; bill depressed, soft at the tip; wing with the first quill longest; tertiaries longer than secondaries; tail quite short; legs long; tibia feathered nearly one-half of its length; tarsus covered with scales.

Dimensions. Total length of skin, from tip of bill to end of tail, about 16½ inches; Wing, 9; tail, 3; tarsus, 3½; bill, 3½ inches.

Colors. Back and upper surface of wings brownish black, lightest on the tertiaries, and darkest on the primaries; all other parts white, slightly tinged with ashy on the head above and neck behind; secondary quills white; greater coverts of the wing widely tipped with the same.

Hab. California. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Museum, Washington.

Obs. This strongly-marked species bears some resemblance to the European Avocet, and in fact is more closely allied to it than to the only American species previously known. It is, however, a well characterized and distinct bird.

The sexes of this species differ somewhat in size, the female being slightly the smaller; and in the male, the dark tints are stronger. The latter is represented in our plate.

SYNOPSIS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.

II. ORDER INSESSORES. THE PERCHING BIRDS.

A group containing much the greater number of all known birds, almost impossible to characterise in general terms. The birds of this order are, however, generally organized for perching or living in trees, and have the legs and feet moderately developed and formed for grasping. In this group is found the highest development of the bird-like form of animal life.

I. TRIBE FISSIROSTRES. THE GOATSUCKERS, SWALLOWS, KINGFISHERS, &c.

Bill wide at base; gape very large; feet small, weak; general form adapted to the capture of insects on the wing, and in some of the families to rapid and long-continued flight. This group contains the Goatsuckers (_Caprimulgidæ_), the Swallows (_Hirundinidæ_), the Trogons (_Trogonidæ_), the Bee-eaters (_Meropidæ_), and the Kingfishers (_Halcyonidæ_).

I. FAMILY CAPRIMULGIDÆ. THE GOATSUCKERS.