CHAPTER XXVI

SWIMMING BIRDS

In the birds belonging to this group the feet are webbed, so that they may be used as paddles. And some of them are very curious indeed.

FLAMINGO

First of all, there is the well-known red and white flamingo, which is quite an extraordinary bird, for it has extremely long, stilt-like legs, and an extremely long, snake-like neck, which it can twist and coil about as easily as if it were just a piece of rope. There is no part of its body which a flamingo cannot reach with its beak, so that it can preen its feathers quite easily. And when it wants to feed it wades into the water, bends down its long neck, turns its head upside down, so that its forehead rests upon the bottom, and scoops up great mouthfuls of mud. Then, by means of the grooves at the sides of the bill, it gets rid of the mud, while all the grubs, etc., which were lying buried in it, are left behind to be swallowed.

The nest of the flamingo is a cone-shaped heap of mud, sometimes as much as two feet high, with a little hollow at the top to contain eggs. Thousands of these birds nest together, and when they are sitting they look just like a great rosy-white cloud resting upon the ground. And if they are startled and fly away, their nests look as though hundreds of children had been making big sand-pies on the beach and neatly arranging them in rows. But such a sight as this can now be seen only in some almost inaccessible tropical islands, for these birds have been greatly persecuted by feather-hunters and others, and are rare everywhere near civilization. They used to be common in Florida and all about the Gulf of Mexico, where now only a few exist.

Flamingoes are found in the warmer parts of all the great continents except Australia. Nine different kinds are known, some of which stand well over six feet in height.

GEESE, SWANS, AND DUCKS

Of wild geese there are at least forty species, which are found in almost all parts of the world.

The graylag goose which breeds in the British Isles, seems to be the ancestor of the domestic geese that we see in every farmyard. It lives in flocks, which frequent marshes, lakes, and boggy moors during the greater part of the year, but often visit the sea-coast in winter. Sometimes, too, they may be seen near the mouth of a great river. They are very shy birds, and when sportsmen wish to shoot them they have to resort to all kinds of tricks in order to approach them without being seen.

When wild geese fly, they generally do so in the form of a half-opened pair of compasses, with the angle in front. But now and then they may be seen in the air in an irregular wavy line. As they fly they make a curious "gaggling" cry, which can be heard from a very long distance.

The nest of this goose is made of grass and flags, and is generally placed at the base of a tussock of coarse grass. It usually contains six plain white eggs.

Swans, too, are found wild in many parts of the world, and used to be almost as numerous as ducks or geese both on the inland lakes and along the coasts of the United States, but now have become rare and shy. All the species breed in the arctic regions, and appear among us only on their migrations in spring and fall.

Swans are most graceful birds in the water, and as their limbs are set very far back they can swim with great ease. But for the same reason they are very clumsy upon dry ground, and waddle along in the most awkward way, seeming to find it very difficult to keep their balance. All those in our parks are tame; but during the nesting-season the male swan generally becomes very savage, and will attack any one who ventures too near to his nest. And as a single stroke from his wing is sufficient to break a man's arm, he is apt to be dangerous when unfriendly.

The nest of the swan is a very large structure of reeds, rushes, and grass, and is generally placed quite close to the water's edge. It contains six or seven large greenish-white eggs.

A great many kinds of duck are known, but we can only mention the common wild duck, which still visits rivers and lakes every winter in considerable numbers, a few of which remain to breed.

The male duck is called the mallard, and from October till May he is a very handsome bird, with a dark-green head and neck, a white collar round the lower part of his throat, brownish-gray wings, chestnut-brown breast, and white hinder parts. But when he moults he puts off this beautiful plumage, and for the next five months is mottled all over with brown and gray, just like his mate.

Wild ducks are found chiefly in marshes and fens, and on the borders of rivers and lakes. But when they come over in the autumn they often spend the daytime out at sea resting on the water. They make their nests of grass, lined with down from the mother bird's own breast; and the little ones are able to swim as soon as they leave the egg-shell. When they are about half grown they sometimes use their wings in diving, and you may see them flapping their way along beneath the surface, and really flying under water.

CORMORANTS

In Great Britain, due to its northern latitude, cormorants are commonly seen where the coast is high and rocky; but in America they are less often visible because they dwell mainly in the far north. They are very odd birds. Sitting on rocks which overhang the water, every now and then one will drop into the sea, splash about for a moment or two, and then return to his perch. Then you may be quite sure that he has caught and swallowed a fish. Sometimes you may see them swimming along with their heads under water, watching for victims in the depths below.

Cormorants are famous for their big appetites--perhaps it would be more correct to say for their horrible greediness, for they will go on eating till they simply cannot swallow another morsel, and yet will try hard to catch every fish that comes near them. The little ones feed in a most extraordinary way, for they actually poke their heads down their mother's throat, and take as much food as they want from her crop!

When these birds really feel that they have had enough to eat, they sit upon a rock for an hour or two while they digest their dinners. They also take this opportunity to dry their wings, and spread them out to the fullest extent on either side, so that they look very much like rows of black clothes hung out to dry!

In China cormorants are often trained to catch fish for their masters, a strap being fastened round the lower part of the neck to prevent them from swallowing their victims. They were formerly used in England in just the same way.

PELICANS

More curious still are their cousins the pelicans, which have a pouch of naked parchment-like skin under their long bills, capable of holding quite two gallons of water. This pouch, as a rule, is folded closely up under the beak, but when the bird is fishing, it packs victim after victim into it until it is quite full, when it really looks almost half as big as the body.

In this way pelicans carry back food for their hungry little ones. But on their way they are sometimes robbed, for there is a kind of large hawk which is very fond of eating fishes, but is not at all fond of the trouble of catching them. So he waits till he sees a pelican returning home from a fishing expedition, and then dashes at it, and begins to beat it about the head with his wings. The poor frightened pelican, thinking that it is about to be killed, opens its beak to scream. This, of course, is just what the hawk wants, and snatching a fish out of the pelican's pouch, he flies off with it in triumph.

Pelicans are very plentiful in many parts of the world, and are often seen in vast flocks. We have two kinds in the United States and Canada--the white and the brown. Both are more numerous on the marshes and around the shallow lakes of the northwestern plains than anywhere else, because they have been driven from their former coast-resorts. All the birds in a flock will sometimes go out fishing together. Arranging themselves in a great semicircle, about a yard apart, they all paddle slowly forward, and in this way will drive a great shoal of fish into shallow water, where they may be snapped up without difficulty.

SEA-GULLS

These you know very well by sight, for they are common on all parts of our coasts, and on many of our lakes, while numbers of them may be seen even on the ornamental waters in the parks of New York and other seaboard cities. In stormy weather, too, they often fly inland, and sometimes great numbers of them may be seen in newly plowed fields, hunting for worms and insects. Most of them go north for the breeding-season, some visiting certain islands and rocky cliffs in immense numbers, and making their nests of seaweed; while others, like the black-headed gull, and the ringbill nest in marshes, merely trampling down the broken tops of sedges and reeds, and so forming a slight hollow in which to lay the eggs.

At least fifty different kinds of gulls are known. But many of them are very difficult to distinguish, for their summer plumage may be quite unlike that with which they are clothed during the winter, while the young birds are not marked like their parents till they are two or even three years old. Those which are most common on the Atlantic coast are two or three kinds of herring-gulls, which formerly bred in great numbers on all our sandy shores and islets, but now have been driven to quieter regions in the far north. On the western plains, around certain shallow lakes, live great colonies of ring-billed and other small gulls, breeding in the extensive marshes.

Flying to and fro over the sea, or over a large inland lake, you may sometimes see a number of birds which look like gulls, but are much smaller, and have long, forked tails like swallows. These are terns, or sea-swallows, as they are often called, and are most elegant and graceful in their movements, gliding and sweeping through the air, and twisting and turning with the most wonderful swiftness and ease. They are summer visitors only, coming to us in May and flying south again in September, and they breed on flat shores, generally laying their two or three eggs in a small hollow in the shingle. They feed on small fishes and shrimps, and also on the sandhoppers and the various insects which are so plentiful upon the beach.

GUILLEMOTS

Very common are guillemots on some coasts where there are sea-fronting cliffs, and freedom from disturbance. Thus they abound along the shores of Labrador and Greenland, and many varieties are to be found along the northern coasts of Alaska, and about the borders of the Arctic sea, often thronging in great numbers together with puffins, kittiwakes, petrels, and gannets, each kind occupying separate parts of the cliffs and living on friendly terms with their neighbors.

Guillemots feed entirely upon fishes, which they chase under water, using both their wings and feet, just as dabchicks do. They do not make any nest, but lay a single egg on a bare ledge of rock which is often only a very few inches wide. One would think that this egg would be in great danger of being knocked over the edge. But it is very large at one end and very much pointed at the other, so that if it is struck it only rolls round and round. In color it is green or blue, blotched and streaked with black.

THE ALBATROSS

One of the largest of all the sea-birds is the albatross, which is found chiefly in the tropical seas. When the wings are fully spread, they sometimes measure nearly twelve feet from tip to tip. Yet the entire weight of the bird is not more than sixteen or seventeen pounds. It often remains at sea for weeks or months together, sometimes remaining in the air all through the night as well as all through the day, and following ships for hundreds of miles in order to feed upon the refuse which is thrown overboard. Its appetite is enormous, for it has been known to gulp down a great piece of whale's blubber, weighing between three and four pounds, and then to return almost immediately for more!

Great numbers of albatrosses nest together on uninhabited islands, each pair scooping together a quantity of clay, grass, and sedge, which they arrange in a conical heap about ten or twelve inches high, with a little hollow at the top. Only a single egg is laid, which is quite white, and is rather larger than that of a goose.

THE PUFFIN AND THE PENGUIN

Two most curious birds must be mentioned in conclusion. The first of these is the puffin, which is found plentifully in one or another species on all northern coasts where there are bold cliffs. An odder and more quaint-looking bird it would be difficult to imagine, for it has a beak quite large enough for a bird six times its size, while that beak, which is banded with bright crimson, gray, and brilliant yellow, looks just as if it had been stuck on with glue! More than that, it does not appear to fit very well; so that altogether, with its short, squat body and stout little legs, the puffin is by no means a graceful bird. It is often known as the sea-parrot.

On dry land, the puffin is very awkward, and can only waddle along slowly and clumsily. But it is a good swimmer and diver, and can chase and overtake small fishes with the greatest of ease. It is also able to fly very well, and takes long journeys over the sea when it comes to us in the spring, and again when it goes southward in the autumn. It makes no nest, but finds a cranny, digs out a hole in the face of a cliff to the depth of about three feet, and lays a single grayish-white egg at the end of the hole.

Odder still is the penguin, whose wings are but little more than flippers, with scales on their upper edges instead of feathers! It cannot fly, of course; but it uses its wings for two purposes. For if it is frightened upon land it throws itself down on its breast and scuttles along on all fours, just as though its wings were legs, and if it wants to chase a fish in the sea it swims with them, just as though they were paddles.

There are a good many different kinds of penguins, all of which are found in the southern hemisphere. On some of the islands in the Pacific and Antarctic oceans they are found in immense numbers, and have a curious way of standing side by side upon the shore in long rows, with their flippers hanging down on either side of their bodies. From a distance, indeed, they might almost be mistaken for lines of soldiers standing at attention. When the breeding-season begins they become very busy, picking up stones, carrying them about with a great deal of fuss, and then carefully arranging them in position, every now and then turning their beaks up to the sky, waving their flippers, and making a curious gobbling noise. If a sitting hen leaves her nest for a little, all the other hens become greatly excited, and peck at her as she passes by in order to drive her back again, croaking loudly in chorus, and evidently feeling extremely indignant with her for neglecting her duties.

When these odd birds are sitting on a ledge of ice, and want to get down into the sea, they often throw themselves upon their breasts, and "toboggan" down the slope into the water!

REPTILES