Читать книгу The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - Various - Страница 270

The beak is of a medium length; the front toes are, as a rule, joined together by a membrane, to aid the birds in swimming. The natatores live upon all still and flowing bodies of water, and feed upon the water reptiles and insects, rarely upon the water plants; and they are esteemed for their flesh, eggs, and feathers.

Albatross (Diomedea).—The Common or Wandering Albatross (D. exulans) is the largest of web-footed birds, measuring four feet in length, and from ten up to as much as seventeen feet in spread of wings. It weighs fifteen to twenty pounds, or even more. The wings are, however, narrow in proportion to their length. It often approaches very near to vessels, and is one of the objects of interest which present themselves to voyagers far away from land, particularly when it is seen sweeping the surface of the ocean in pursuit of fish and garbage. It seems rather to float and glide in the air, than to fly like other birds, for, except when it is rising from the water, the motion of its long wings is scarcely perceptible. It is affirmed by some to sail by setting its wings like sails, and to make headway against the wind without flapping. The albatross has great powers of sustained flight. It often follows a ship for a considerable time, and it has been calculated that it may fly seven hundred and twenty nautical miles in a day.

The plumage is soft and abundant, mostly white, dusky on the upper parts, with some of the feathers of the back and wings black. The bill is of a delicate pink, inclining to yellow at the tip.

The albatross is extremely voracious; it feeds on fish, cuttle-fish, jelly-fish, etc., but has no objection to the flesh of a dead whale, or to any kind of carrion. When food is abundant it gorges itself like the vultures, and then sits motionless upon the water, so that it may sometimes be taken with the hand. Its hoarse cry has been compared to that of the pelican, but is sometimes more suggestive of the braying of an ass. The single egg is four or five inches long, of a white color, spotted at the larger end. The nestling is white, the young somewhat brownish and of slow growth.

There are seven species. One of these, the Sooty Albatross (D. fuliginosa), chiefly found within the Antarctic circle, is called by sailors the Quaker Bird, on account of the prevailing brown color of its plumage.

Flamingo (Phœnicopterus ruber), a shore bird of Mediterranean, East Indian, and West Indian regions is essentially a greatly modified Goose. Its legs and neck are very long and its bill abruptly bent downward. It feeds with top of head down, sifting the mud, but retaining the small worms, crustaceans, molluscs, fishes, etc., on which the birds subsist.

The flamingoes are birds of powerful flight, and fly like geese in strings or wedge-shaped flocks. They also swim in deep water, but the legs are too long to be well adapted for this purpose. They are habitual waders, and the webbed membrane of the feet helps to support them on soft, muddy bottoms. Hundreds feed and nest together, and, being large and richly colored, form a brilliant assembly, their exquisite pink plumage sometimes making a striking contrast against a background of dark-green mangroves.

The nests are mounds of mud, from eight to fifteen inches in height, gradually raised year after year, and built at distances of three to four feet apart. The nesting occurs about the end of May, the hatching about a month later. There is usually only one egg.

Grebes (Podilymbus).—The grebes are much sought after for their plumage, but their shyness and their great agility in diving and swimming under water render them extremely difficult to shoot. One species known throughout all America is the Dabchick (Podilymbus podiceps). Several of the American species have tufts of feathers called “horns” on the head—a feature of the large European Crested Grebe.

The Western Grebe is the largest American species, being from two to two and one-half feet in length. The Horned Grebe and the Eared Grebe are common in America.

Gulls (Laridæ) are water fowl, mostly marine. In color they are white to pearl gray, with dark upper parts; those with black heads lose this color in winter. The feet and bills are red or yellow, the sexes alike, but the young [219] are more dusky than the adults. The Mackerel Gull has the habit of robbing the Oyster Catcher (Hæmatopus) of the food secured. Ross’s Gull breeds in the unknown regions about the North Pole. This bird has red feet, black bill, and a narrow, black collar.

Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) is a native of southeast Europe, Asia and Africa. It is the largest of all swimming birds, and is found on the lakes and rivers of the continents mentioned. There are a number of species, chiefly tropical. The birds have a tail of twenty-four soft feathers, and a long bill, beneath the mandible of which is a distensible pouch for carrying fish. The Pelican of North America goes north into temperate regions in summer, at its breeding time.

Penguin.—The most remarkable peculiarity of these birds is the flattened wing, which is clad with flat, scale-like feathers; the whole limb, unfit for flight, is admirably suited for swimming. The feathers of the penguin—instead of being disposed in feather-tracts, separated by intervals (apteria) upon which no feathers grow, as is the case with all other birds, not excepting even the ostrich and cassowary—form a continuous covering to the body. The penguins are entirely confined to the Antarctic and to the south temperate regions—Patagonia, Cape of Good Hope, Australia and New Zealand. In some situations they are extremely abundant, and make their nests in a common area. The nest is little more than a hole in the sand in which the female deposits a single egg. The stupidity of these birds is perhaps due to the inaccessibility of the rocks and shores where so great a number live and breed; having been comparatively little interfered with by man, they show no terror at the sight of him. The plumage of the neck is valued by furriers for collars and tippets; and large numbers of “Johnnies,” as the sailors call them, are slaughtered annually.

Swans—See Domesticated Animals.