• Back to Encyclopedia Arctica homepage

    Bird Write-ups

    Encyclopedia Arctica 4: Zoology (Birds)

    Bird Write-ups

    Classification of Arctic Birds



    001      |      Vol_IV-0038                                                                                                                  
    EA-Ornithology

    (George M. Sutton)

    CLASSIFICATION OF ARCTIC BIRDS

            ORDER GAVIIFORMES (Loons)

            Family Gaviidae

            Genus Gavia

            G. immer: Common Loon or Great Northern Diver (3)

    G. adamsii: Yellow-billed Loon (14)

    G. arctica: Arctic Loon (1)

    G. stellata: Red-throated Loon (12)

            ORDER COLYMBIFORMES (Grebes)

            Family Colymbidae

            Genus Colymbus

            C. ruficollis: Little Grebe or Dabchick (26)

    C. auritus: Horned or Slavonian Grebe (25)

    C. nigricollis: Black-necked Grebe (15)

    C. cristatus: Great Crested Grebe (21)

    C. grisegena: Red-necked Grebe (28)

            ORDER PROCELLARIIFORMES (Albatrosses, Fulmars, Shearwaters, Petrels, and their Allies)

            Family Diomedeidae

            Genus Diomedea

            D. albatrus: Short-tailed Albatross (66)

    D. nigripes: Black-footed Albatross (33)

    D. melanophris: Black-browed Albatross (32)



    002      |      Vol_IV-0039                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER PROCELLARIIFORMES (continued)

            Family Procellariidae

            Subfamily Fulmarinae

            F. glocialis. Fulmar Petred

            Subfamily Puffininae

            Genus Puffinus

            P. creatopus: Pink-footed Shearwater (59)

    P. gravis: Greater Shearwater (45)

    P. tenuirostris: Slender-billed Shearwater (68)

    P. griseus: Sooty Shearwater (69)

    P. puffinus: Common Shearwater (38)

            Genus Pterodroma

            P. inexpectata: Scaled Petrel (64)

            Genus Bulweria

            B. bulwerii: Bulwer’s Petrel (37)

            Family Hydrobatidae

            Genus Oceanites

            O. oceanicus: Wilson’s Petrel (72)

            Genus Hydrobates

            H. pelagicus: Stormy Petrel (70)

            Genus Oceanodroma

            O. Leucorhoa: Leach’s Petrel (49)

    O. furcata: Fork-tailed Petrel (41)

            ORDER PELECANIFORMES (Gannets, Cormorants, and their Allies)

            Family Sulidae

            Genus Morus

            M. bassanus: Gannet or Solan Goose (76)

            Family Phalacrocoracidae

            Genus Phalacrocorax

            P. auritus: Double-crested Cormorant (75)

    P. carbo: Common Cormorant (73)

    P. aristotelis: Green Cormorant (77) or shag (85)

    P. pelagicus: Pelagic Cormorant (80)

    P. penicillatus: Pallas’s Cormorant (79)

    P. urile: Red-faced Cormorant (84)



    003      |      Vol_IV-0040                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER CICONIIFORMES (Herons and their Allies)

            Family Ardeidae

            Genus Ardea

            A. cinerea: Gray Heron (96)

            ORDER ANSERIFORMES

            Suborder Anseres

            Family Anatidae

            Subfamily Anserinae

            Tribe Cygnini

            Genus Cygnus

            C. cygnus: Whooper Swan (103)

    C. buccinator: Trumpeter Swan (101)

    C. bewickii: Bewick’s Swan (98)

    C. columbianus: Whistling Swan (102)

            Tribe Anserini

            Genus Chen

            C. hyperborea: Snow Goose (130)

    C. caerulescens: Blue Goose (110)

    C. rossii: Ross’s Goose (129)

            Genus Anser

            A. anser: Gray-lag Goose (117)

    A. fabalis: Bean Goose (including Pink-footed Goose) (100)

    A. albifrons: White-fronted Goose (135)

    A. erythropus: Lesser White-fronted Goose (124)

            Genus Philacte

            P. canagica: Emperor Goose (116)

            Genus Branta

            B. bernicla: Brant (111)

    B. leucopsis: Barnacle Goose (106)

    B. canadensis: Canada Goose (114)

    B. ruficollis: Red-breasted Goose (128)



    004      |      Vol_IV-0041                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER ANSERIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Anseres (continued)

            Family Anatidae (continued)

            Subfamily Anatinae

            Tribe Tadornini

            Genus Tadorna

            T. tadorna: Sheld-duck or Sheldrake (189)

            Tribe Anatini

            Genus Anas

            A. acuta: Pintail (182)

    A. crecca: Green-winged Teal (167)

    A. formosa: Baikal Teal (146)

    A. platyrhynchos: Mallard (173)

    A. penelope: European Widgeon (160)

    A. americana: Baldpate or American Widgeon (147)

            Genus Spatula

            S. clypeata: Shoveller (191)

            Tribe Aythyini

            Genus Aythya

            A. fuligula: Tufted Duck (179)

    A. marila: Scaup or Greater Scaup Duck (187)

            Tribe Mergini

            Genus Somateria

            S. mollissima: Eider or Common Eider (158)

    S. spectabilis: King Eider (170)

    S. fischeri: Spectacled Eider (195)

            Genus Polysticta

            P. stelleri: Steller’s Eider

            Genus Camptorhynchus

            C. labradorius: Labrador Duck (171)

            Genus Melanitta

            M. nigra: Black or Common Scoter (149)

    M. perspicillata: Surf Scoter (197)

    M. fusca: White-winged Scoter (202)



    005      |      Vol_IV-0042                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER ANSERIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Anseres (continued)

            Family Anatidae (continued)

            Subfamily Anatinae (continued)

            Tribe Mergini (continued)

            Genus Histrionicus

            H. histrionicus: Harlequin Duck (168)

            Genus Clangula

            C. hyemalis: Long-tailed Duck or Old-squaw (172)

            Genus Bucephala

            B. islandica: Barrow’s Goldeneye (148)

    B. clangula: Goldeneye or Common Goldeneye (164)

    B. albeola: Bufflehead (151)

            Genus Mergus

            M. albellus: Smew (192)

    M. serrator: Red-breasted Merganser (185)

    M. merganser: Goosander (165)

            ORDER FALCONIFORMES (Eagles, Hawks, Ospreys, Falcons, and their Allies)

            Suborder Falcones

            Family Accipitridae

            Subfamily Perninae

            Genus Pernis

            P. apivorus: Honey Buzzard (234)

            Subfamily Milvinae

            Genus Milvus

            M. milvus: Kite (237)

            Subfamily Accipitrinae

            Genus Accipiter

            A. gentilis: Goshawk (224)

    A. nisus: Sparrow Hawk (257)

    A. striatus: Sharp-shinned Hawk (255)



    006      |      Vol_IV-0043                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER FALCONIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Falcones (continued)

            Family Accipitridae (continued O )

            Subfamily Buteoninae

            Genus Buteo

            B. buteo: Buzzard (212)

    B. lagopus: Rough-legged Hawk or Rough-legged Buzzard (253)

            Genus Aquila

            A. chrysaëtos: Golden Eagle (223)

            Genus Haliaeetus

            H. leucocephalus: Bald Eagle (208)

    H. albicilla: White-taled Eagle (263)

    H. pelagicus: Steller’s Sea Eagle (258)

            Subfamily Circinae

            Genus Circus

            C. cyaneus: Marsh Hawk or Hen Harrier (239)

            Family Pandionidae

            Genus Pandion

            P. haliaëtus: Osprey or Fish Hawk (244)

            Family Falconidae

            Subfamily Falconinae

            Genus Falco

            F. rusticolus: Gyrfalcon (229)

    F. peregrinus: Peregrine Falcon (249)

    F. subbuteo: Hobby (233)

    F. columbarius: Merlin (240)

    F. vespertinus: Red-footed Falcon (252)

    F. tinnunculus: Kestrel (236)

            ORDER GALLIFORMES (Ptarmigans, Grouse, Partridges, Quails, and their Allies)

            Suborder Galli

            Family Tetraonidae

            Genus Tetrao

            T. urogallus: Capercaillie or Capercailzie (270)



    007      |      Vol_IV-0044                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER GALLIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Galli (continued)

            Family Tetraonidae (continued)

            Genus Lyrurus

            L. tetrix: Black Grouse (266)

            Genus Lagopus

            L. lagopus: Willow Ptarmigan (302)

    L. mutus: Rock Ptarmigan (290)

    L. leucurus: White-tailed Ptarmigan (301)

            Genus Canachites

            C. canadensis: Spruce Grouse or Spruce Partridge (296)

            Genus Falcipennis

            F. falcipennis: Sharp-winged Grouse (293)

            Genus Tetrastes

            T. bonasia: Hazel Hen or Hazel Grouse (279)

            Genus Bonasa

            B. umbellus: Ruffed Grouse (291)

            Genus Pedioecetes

            P. phasianellus: Sharp-tailed Grouse (292)

            Family Phasianidae

            Subfamily Phasianinae

            Genus Perdix

            P. perdix: Common, Gray, or Hungarian Partridge (271)

            Genus Conturnix

            C. coturnix: Quail (289)

            ORDER GRUIFORMES (Cranes, Rails, and their Allies)

            Suborder Grues

            Family Gruidae

            Genus Grus

            G. grus: Common Crane (306)

    G. monacha: Hooded Crane (312)

    G. canadensis: Sandhill Crane (315)

    G. leucogeranus: White Crane (316)



    008      |      Vol_IV-0045                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER GRUIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Grues (continued)

            Family Gruidae (continued)

            Genus Anthropoïdes

            A. Virgo: Demoiselle Crane (308)

            Family Rallidae

            Genus Rallus

            R. aquaticus: Water Rail (333)

            Genus Crex

            C. crex: Corn Crake (322)

            ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES (Oystercatchers, Plovers, Sandpipers, Phalaropes, Gulls,

    Terns, Auks, and their Allies)

            Suborder Charadrii

            Family Haematopodidae

            Genus Haematopus

            H. ostralegus: Oystercatcher (352)

            Family Charadriidae

            Subfamily Vanellinae

            Genus Vanellus

            V. vanellus: Lapwing (348)

            Subfamily Charadriinae

            Genus Squatarola

            S. squatarola: Gray Plover or Black-bellied Plover (344)

            Genus Pluvialis

            P. apricaria: Golden Plover (342 and 343)

    P. dominica: American Golden Plover (334 and 343)

            Genus Charadrius

            C. hiaticula: Ringed Plover (356)

    C. semipalmatus: Semipalmated Plover (358)

    C. dubius: Little Ringed Plover (349 and 356)

    C. vociferus: Killdeer (347)

    C. mongolus: Mongolian Plover (350)



    009      |      Vol_IV-0046                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Charadrii (continued)

            Family Charadriidae (continued)

            Subfamily Charadriinae (continued)

            Genus Eudromias

            E. morinellus: Dotterel (340)

            Family Scolopacidae

            Subfamily Tringinae

            Genus Bartramia

            B. longicauda: Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover (373)

            Genus Numenius

            N. minutes: Pygmy Curlew (441)

    N. borealis: Eskimo Curlew (397)

    N. phaeopus: Whimbrel (including Hudsonian Curlew) (482)

    N. tahitiensis: Bristle-thighed Curlew (377)

    N. arquata: Common Curlew (382)

    N. madagascariensis: Amur Curlew (365)

            Genus Limosa

            L. limosa: Black-tailed Godwit (374)

    L. haemastica: Hudsonian Godwit (407)

    L. lapponica: Bar-tailed Godwit (371)

            Genus Tringa

            T. erythropus: Dusky Redshank (392)

    T. totanus: Redshank (446)

    T. flavipes: Lesser Yellowlegs (413)

    T. nebularia: Greenshank (405)

    T. ocrophus: Green Sandpiper (including Solitary Sandpiper) (404)

    T. glareola: Wood Sandpiper (486)

    T. guttifer: Armstrong’s Sandpiper or Spotted Greenshank (368)

            Genus Xenus

            X. cinereus: Terek Sandpiper (474)

            Genus Actitis

            A. hypoleucos: Common Sandpiper (383)

    A. macularia: Spotted Sandpiper (469)

            Subfamily Arenariinae

            Genus Aphriza

            A. virgata: Surfbird (471.1)

            Genus Arenaria

            A. interpres: Turnstone (478)



    010      |      Vol_IV-0047                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Charadrii (continued)

            Family Charadriidae (continued)

            Subfamily Scolopacinae

            Genus Limnodromus

            L. griseus: Short-billed Dowitcher (461.1 and 390)

    L. scolopaceus: Long-billed Dowitcher (421 and 390)

            Genus Capella

            C. stenura: Pin-tailed Snipe (436)

    C. media: Great Snipe (403)

    C. gallinago: Common Snipe (including Wilson’s Snipe) (384)

            Genus Scolopax

            S. rusticola: Woodcock (485)

            Genus Lymnocryptes

            L. minimus: Jack Snipe (409)

            Subfamily Eroliinae

            Genus Calidris

            C. canutus: Knot (410)

    C. tenuirostris: Great Knot (402)

            Genus Crocethia

            C. alba: Sanderling (455)

            Genus Ereunetes

            Ereunetes pu

            E. pusillus: Semipalmated Sandpiper (460)

    E. mauri: Western Sandpiper (480)

            Genus Eurynorhynchus

            E. pygmaeus: Spoon-billed Sandpiper (466)

            Genus Erolia

            E. ruficollis: Rufous-necked Sandpiper (454)

    E. minuta: Little Stint (418)

    E. temminckii: Temminck’s (472)

    E. subminuta: Long-toed Stint (422)

    E. minutilla: Least Sandpiper or American Stint (411)

    E. fuscicollis: White-rumped or Bonaparte’s Sandpiper (483)

    E. bairdii: Baird’s Sandpiper (370)

    E. melanotos: Pectoral Sandpiper (430)

    E. acuminata: Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (461)

    E. maritima: Purple Sandpiper (440)

    E. ptilocnemis: Rock Sandpiper (451)

    E. alpina: Dunlin (including Red-backed Sandpiper) (391)

    E. testacea: Curlew Sandpiper (387)



    011      |      Vol_IV-0048                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Charadrii (continued)

            Family Scolopacidae (continued)

            Subfamily Eroliinae (continued)

            Genus Limicola

            L. falcinellus: Broad-billed Sandpiper (378)

            Genus Micropalama

            M. himantopus: Stilt Sandpiper (470)

            Genus Tryngites

            T. subruficollis: Buff-breasted Sandpiper (379)

            Genus Philomachus

            P. pugnax: Ruff (453)

            Family Phalaropodidae

            Genus Phalaropus

            P. fulicarius: Red Phalarope or Gray Phalarope (445)

            Genus Lobipes

            L. lobatus: Northern Phalarope or Red-necked Phalarope (427)

            Suborder Lari

    Family

            Suborder Lari

            Family Stercorariidae

            Genus Catharacta

            C. skua: Great Skua (492)

            Genus Stercorarius

            S. pomarinus: Pomarine Jaeger (497)

    S. parasiticus: Parasitic Jaeger or Arctic Skua (497)

    S. longicaudus: Long-tailed Jaeger or Buffon’s Skua (494)

            Family Laridae

            Subfamily Larinae

            Genus Pagophila

            P. eburnea: Ivory Gull (519)

            Genus Larus

            L. canus: Common Gull (including Short-billed Gull) (509)

    L. argentatus: Herring Gull (516)

    L. fuscus: Lesser Black-backed Gull (523)



    012      |      Vol_IV-0049                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Lari (continued)

            Family Laridae (continued)

            Subfamily Larinae (continued)

            Genus Larus (continued)

            L. marinus: Black-backed Gull (506)

    L. glaucescens: Glaucous-winged Gull (513)

    L. hyperboreus: Glaucous Gull (512)

    L. glaucoides: Iceland Gull (517)

    L. kumlieni: Kumlien’s Gull (521)

    L. ridibundus: Black-headed Gull (506)

    L. philadelphia: Bonaparte’s Gull (507)

    L. minutes: Little Gull (524)

            Genus Rhodostethia

            R. rosea: Ross’s Gull (534)

            Genus Rissa

            R. tridactyla: Kittiwake (520)

            Genus Xema

            X. sabini: Sabine’s Gull (536)

            Subfamily Sterninae

            Genus Sterna

            S. hirundo: Common Tern or Sea Swallow (547)

    S. paradisaea: Arctic Tern (546)

            Suborder Alcae

            Family Alcidae

            Genus Plautus

            P. alle: Dovekie or Little Auk (567)

            Genus Pinguinis

            P. impennis: Great Auk (570)

            Genus Alca

            A. torda: Razor-billed Auk (587)

            Genus Uria

            U. lomvia: Thick-billed or Brunnich’s Murre (592)

    U. aalge: Common Murre or Guillemot (564)



    013      |      Vol_IV-0050                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Alcae (continued)

            Family Alcidae (continued)

            Genus Cepphus

            C. grylle: Black Guillemot (560)

    C. columba: Pigeon Guillemot (583)

            Genus Brachyramphus

            B. brevirostris: Kittlitz’s Murrelet (573)

            Genus Cyclorrhynchus

            C. psittacula: Parakeet Auklet (582)

            Genus Aethia

            A. cristatella: Crested Auklet (565)

    A. pusilla: Least Auklet (575)

            Genus Fratercula

            F. arctica: Puffin (586)

    F. corniculata: Horned Puffin (572)

            Genus Lunda

            L. cirrhata: Tufted Puffin (594)

            ORDER CUCULIFORMES (Cuckoos and their Allies)

            Suborder Cuculi

            Family Cuculidae

            Genus Cuculus

            C. canorus: Cuckoo (596)

    C. saturatus: Oriental Cuckoo (602)

            ORDER STRIGIFORMES (Owls)

            Family Strigidae

            Subfamily Buboninae

            Genus Bubo

            B. virginianus: Great Horned Owl (613)

    B. bubo: Eagle Owl (610)

            Genus Nyctea

            N. scandiaca: Snowy Owl (628)



    014      |      Vol_IV-0051                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER STRIGIFORMES (continued)

            Family Strigidae (continued)

            Subfamily Buboninae (continued)

            Genus Surnia

            S. ulula: Hawk Owl (614)

            Subfamily Striginae

            Genus Strix

            S. nebulosa: Great Gray Owl or Lapp Owl (612)

            Genus Asio

            A. otus: Long-eared Owl (619)

    A. flammeus: Short-eared Owl (627)

            Genus Aegolius

            A. funereus: Boreal Owl or Tengmalm’s Owl (608)

            ORDER APODIFORMES (Swifts and their Allies)

            Suborder Apodi

            Family Apodidae

            Genus Apus

            A. apus: Swift (634.1 e)

            ORDER CORACIIFORMES (Kingfishers and their Allies)

            Suborder Alcedines

            Family Alcedinidae

            Subfamily Cerylinae

            Genus Megaceryle

            M. alcyon: Belted Kingfisher (636)



    015      |      Vol_IV-0052                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER PICIFORMES (Woodpeckers and their Allies)

            Suborder Pici

            Family Picidae

            Subfamily Picinae

            Genus Colaptes

            C. auratus: Yellow-shafted Flicker (659)

            Genus Dendrocopos

            D. major: Great Spotted Woodpecker (650)

    D. villosus: Hairy Woodpecker (651)

            Genus Picoides

            P. tridactylus: Three-toed Woodpecker (657)

    P. arcticus: Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker (643)

            ORDER PASSERIFORMES (Perching Birds)

            Suborder Tyranni

            Family Tyrannidae

            Genus Sayornis

            S. saya: Say’s Phoebe (674)

            Suborder Passeres

            Family Alaudidae

            Genus Alauda

            A. arvensis: Skylark (688)

            Genus Eremophila

            E. alpestris: Shore Lark or Horned Lark (918)

            Family Hirundinidae

            Genus Iridoprocne

            I. bicolor: Tree Swallow (704)

            Genus Riparia

            R. riparia: Bank Swallow or Sand Martin (689)

            Genus Hirundo

            H. rustica: Common Swallow or Barn Swallow (690)

            Genus Delichon

            D. urbica: House Martin (698)



    016      |      Vol_IV-0053                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER PASSERIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Passeres (continued)

            Family Corvidae

            Genus Perisoreus

            P. infaustus: Siberian Jay (730)

    P. canadensis: Canada Jay or Gray Jay (711)

            Genus Corvus

            C. corax: Raven (728)

    C. corone: Carrion Crow (712)

    C. cornix: Hooded Crow (719)

    C. monedula: Jackdaw (720)

            Genus Nucifraga

            N. caryocatactes: Nutcracker (725)

            Family Paridae

            Genus Parus

            P. major: Great Tit (739)

    P. atricapillus: Black-capped Chickadee or Willow Tit (734)

    P. cinctus: Gray-capped Chickadee or Lapp Tit (738)

    P. hudsonicus: Brown-capped Chickadee (735)

    P. ater: Coal Tit (737)

            Genus Aegithalos

            A. caudatus: Long-tailed Tit (742)

            Family Sittidae

            Genus Sitta

            S. europaea: Nuthatch (748)

            Family Certhiidae

            Genus Certhia

            C. familiaris: Tree Creeper or Brown Creeper (751)

            Family Cinclidae

            Genus Cinclus

            C. cinclus: Dipper (754.2)

    C. mexicanus: American Dipper (752)

            Family Troglodytidae

            Genus Troglodytes

            T. troglodytes: Wren or Winter Wren (757)



    017      |      Vol_IV-0054                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classification

            ORDER PASSERIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Passeres (continued)

            Family Turdidae

            Genus Turdus

            T. merula: Blackbird (759)

    T. migratorius: American Robin (758)

    T. torquatus: Ring Ousel (779)

    T. pilaris: Fieldfare (765)

    T. naumanni: Dusky Thrush (762)

    T. musicus: Red-winged Thrush (778.1)

    T. ericetorum: Song Thrush (783)

    T. viscivorus: Mistle Thrush (770)

    T. sibiricus: Siberian Thrush (782)

            Genus Ixoreus

            I. naevius: Varied Thrush (788)

            Genus Hylocichla

            H. minima: Gray-cheeked Thrush (766)

            Genus Oenanthe

            O. oenanthe: Wheatear (789)

            Genus Saxicola

            S. torquata: Stonechat (784)

    S. rubetra: Whinchat (790)

            Genus Phoenicurus

            P. phoenicurus: Redstart (777)

            Genus Cyanosylvia

            C. svecica: Blue-throat (760)

            Genus Erithacus

            E. rubeccula: Robin or Robin Redbreast (780)

            Family Sylviidae

            Genus Sylviidae

            S. atricapilla: Black-cap [ ?] (793)

    S. borin: Garden Warbler (796)

            Genus Phylloscopus

            P. collybita: Chiffchaff (794)

    P. trochilus: Willow Warbler (805)

    P. borealis: Eversmann’s Warbler (795)

    P. inornatus: Yellow-browed Warbler (806)

            Genus Acrocephalus

            A. schoenobaenus: Sedge Warbler (801)



    018      |      Vol_IV-0055                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classifications

            ORDER PASSERIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Passeres (continued)

            Family Regulidae

            Genus Regulus

            R. regulus: Golden-crowned Kinglet (809)

    R. calendula: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (812)

            Family Muscicapidae

            Genus Muscicapa

            M. striata: Spotted Flycatcher (815)

    M. hypoleuca: Pied Flycatcher (814)

            Family Prunellidae

            Genus Prunella

            P. modularis: Hedge Sparrow (818)

    P. montanella: Arctic Accentor (817)

            Family Motacillidae

            Genus Motacilla

            M. alba: Wagtail or White Wagtail (841)

    M. citreola: Citrine Wagtail (827)

    M. flava: Yellow Wagtail (842)

            Genus Anthus

            A. spinoletta: Water Pipit (840)

    A. trivialis: Tree Pipit (838)

    A. pratensis: Meadow Pipit (829)

    A. cervinus: Red-throated Pipit (834)

    A. gustavi: Pechora Pipit (832)

            Family Bombycillidae

            Genus Bombycilla

            B. garrulous: Waxwing (848)

            Family Laniidae

            Genus Lanius

            L. excubitor: Great Gray Shrike (851)

    L. cristatus: Red-tailed Shrike (855)

            Family Sturnidae

            Genus Sturnus

            S. vulgaris: Starling (858)



    019      |      Vol_IV-0056                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classifications

            ORDER PASSERIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Passeres (continued)

            Family Paulidae

            Genus Vermivora

            V. selata: Orange-crowned Warbler (874)

            Genus Dendroica

            D. petechia: Yellow Warbler (886)

    D. coronata: Myrtle Warbler (870)

    D. striata: Black-poll Warbler (863)

            Genus Seiurus

            S. noveboracensis: Water Thrush (872)

            Genus Wilsonia

            W. pusilla: Wilson’s Warbler (884)

            Family Ploceidae

            Genus Passer

            P. domesticus: House Sparrow or English Sparrow (890)

    P. montanus: Tree Sparrow (894)

            Family Icteridae

            Genus Euphagus

            E. carolinus: Rusty Blackbird (888.2)

            Family Fringillidae

            Genus Fringilla

            F. coelebs: Chaffinch (901)

    F. montifringilla: Brambling (897)

            Genus Pyrrhula

            P. pyrrhula: Bullfinch (898)

            Genus Pinicola

            P. enucleator: Pine Grosbeak (932)

            Genus Chloris

            C. chloris: Greenfinch (912)

            Genus Spinus

            S. spinus: Siskin or Common Siskin (942)

    S. pinus: Pine Siskin (933)



    020      |      Vol_IV-0057                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Classifications

            ORDER PASSERIFORMES (continued)

            Suborder Passeres (continued)

            Family Fringillidae (continued)

            Genus Acanthis

            A. cannabina: Linnet (920)

    A. flavirostris: Twite (950)

    A. flammea: Common Redpoll or Mealy Redpoll (930)

    A. hornemanni: Hornemann’s Redpoll (916)

            Genus Loxia

            L. curvirostra: Crossbill, Common Crossbill, or Red Crossbill (937)

    L. pytyopsittacus: Parrot Crossbill (929)

    L. leucoptera: White-winged or Two-Barred Crossbill (953)

            Genus Passerculus

            P. sandwichensis: Savannah Sparrow (941)

            Genus Junco

            J. hyemalis: Slate-colored Junco (943)

            Genus Spizella

            S. arborea: Tree Sparrow (949.1)

            Genus Zonotrichia

            Z. leucophrys: White-crowned Sparrow (952)

    Z. coronata: Golden-crowned Sparrow (910)

            Genus Passerella

            P. iliaca: Fox Sparrow (906)

            Genus Calcarius

            C. lapponicus: Lapland Longspur or Lapland [ ?] Bunting (918)

    C. pictus: Smith’s or Painted Longspur (944)

            Genus Plectrophenax

            P. nivalis: Snow Bunting (947)

            Genus Emberiza

            E. pallasii: Pallas’s Bunting (928)

    E. schoeniclus: Reed Bunting (939)

    E. pusilla: Little Bunting (921)

    E. rustica: Rustic Bunting (940)

    E. citrinella: Yellow Bunting (955)

    E. aureola: Yellow-breasted Bunting (954)

    E. hortulanus: Ortolan Bunting (926)

    Gaviiformes (Loons)



    001      |      Vol_IV-0058                                                                                                                  
    EA-Ornithology

    (George Miksch Sutton)

    LOONS

           

    Order GAVIIFORMES

           

    Family GAVIIDAE

            1. Arctic Loon. See writeup.

            2. Black-throated Diver. A name widely used among English-speaking peoples

    for the European race or subspecies of the arctic loon ( Gavia

    ar c tica ) ( q.v. q.v. ).

            3. Common Loon. See writeup.

            4. Diver. Any of several diving birds, especially the loons. See Common Loon

    (Great Northern Diver), Arctic Loon (Black-throated Diver), Red–

    throated Loon (Red-throated Diver), and Yellow-billed Loon (White–

    billed Northern Diver). See also GAVIIFORMES and Gavia .

            5. Gavia . See writeup.

            6. GAVIIFORMES . See writeup.

            7. Great Northern Diver. A widely used name for the Common Loon ( Gavia immer )

    ( q.v. q.v. ).

            8. Green-throated Loon. Gavia arctica viridigularis , a race or subspecies of

    arctic loon found in northeastern Siberia, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, and

    extreme western Alaska. Sometimes known as the green-throated diver.

    See Arctic Loon.



    002      |      Vol_IV-0059                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Loons

            9. Lesser Common Loon. Gavia immer elasson , a small race or subspecies of

    the common loon or great northern diver found, supposedly, in

    interior North America. See Common Loon.

            10. Loon. Any of four species of large northern diving birds belonging to

    the genus Gavia , family Gaviidae, and order Gaviiformes (among some

    authors, the genus Colymbus , family Colymbidae, and other order Pygopodes),

    which have long, straight, sharp bills; long necks; firm plumage;

    and feet placed far back in the body. A loon differs from a grebe

    principally in having webbed rather than lobed feet and fully developed

    rather than degenerate tail feathers. Some s times called diver. See

    GAVIIFORMES , Gavia , Common Loon, Arctic Loon, Red-throated Loon,

    and Yellow-billed Loon.

            11. Pacific Loon. Gavia arctica pacifica , a race of the arctic loon found in

    North America. See Arctic Loon.

            12. Red-throated Loon. See writeup.

            13. White-billed Northern Diver. A name used in Europe for the Yellow-billed

    Loon ( Gavia adamsii ) ( q.v. q.v. )

            14. Yellow-billed Loon. See writeup.



    003      |      Vol_IV-0060                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arctic Loon

            1. Arctic Loon . A large diving bird, Gavia arctica , sometimes called

    the black-throated loon, which is holarctic in breeding distribution, and

    which is represented in northern Europe (including Iceland) by the nominate

    subspecies, a form widely known as the black-throated diver; in Asia, from

    the “Kirghiz Steppe and west Siberia to the Yenesei,” by G. arctica suschkini

    (5); in northeastern Siberia, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and western Alaska (Cape

    Prince of Wales) by the green-throated loon, G. ar c tica viridigularis ; and

    throughout most of Arctic America (from Point Barrow, Alaska, eastward to

    Melville Peninsula, southern Baffin Island, Southampton Island, and the Carey

    Islands in northern Baffin Bay, and southward to the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak

    Island, central British Columbia, Lake Athabas c k a, Nueltin Lake, and Churchill

    and York Factory on the west coast of Hudson Bay) by G. arctica pacifica , the

    so-called p P acific loon. Differences between these four races are slight,

    although A. M. Bailey (1), who believes that viridigularis and pacifica both

    breed in the Cape Prince of Wales region of Alaska, considers viridigularis

    a full species.

            The arctic loon winters well to the southward of its breeding range —

    in the Mediterranean, Caspian, and Black seas; off the coast of India and

    Japan; and from southern Alaska southward to southern Baja California. The

    paucity of records from the Atlantic coast of the United States and the Gulf

    of Mexico indicates that the species does not winter there at all commonly.

    It has been recorded from Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Iowa, New York (Long Island,)

    and New Hampshire.

            The arctic loon is smaller than the common loon. The most distinctive

    field mark of its breeding plumage is the light ashy gray of the crown, nape,

    and hind neck — a character which shows at great distance in the clear

    004      |      Vol_IV-0061                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arctic Loon

    atmosphere of the Far North. The sides of the neck and forebreast are ele–

    gantly lined with black and white. The rows of evenly spaced white spots on

    the back and scapulars are even bolder in effect than those of the common loon.

    In winter plumage the bird is dark gray above, white below, without noticeable

    ruptive markings of any sort.

            The arctic loon probably mates for life. In spring, having made its way

    back to its tundra nesting ground, it frequents the mouths of rives and open

    leads in the salt-water ice until the lakes begin to thaw. Pairs of the big–

    headed, stub-tailed birds fly eagerly inland, circling the ice-covered ponds

    and calling excitedly. Their cries resemble the syllables kud-loo-lee (from

    which an Eskimo name for the bird, kudloolik , is derived), the yelp of a dog,

    and a human moan. In Siberia, however, the bird is known as the gagarra (3).

            The nest is primitive — a shallow basin in the turf or a mound of damp

    vegetation at the water’s edge, frequently on a tiny islet at some distance

    out from shore. The two eggs sometimes lie directly on the moist earth. Both

    the male and female incubate. When they change places at the nest, “they sit

    close together for a few moments and twist their necks from side to side in a

    fixed ritual” (7). An incubating bird occasionally plucks moss or grass which

    it places on the nest rim or absent-mindedly holds in its beak. On seeing an

    enemy approaching, it may stretch its neck out flat on the ground. The incuba–

    tion period is said to be 28 days.

            When the nesting pond is shallow and without fish, the parent loons must

    fly to salt water regularly the summer through in order to obtain food. Some

    fish which they capture and swallow they may regurgitate for the young birds

    on their return, but invariably they carry one fish back held crosswise in the

    beak. If early sets of eggs are taken by foxes, jaegers, or Eskimos, the

    005      |      Vol_IV-0062                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arctic Loon

    female lays again, and very late broods are sometimes frozen in the ice. The

    newly hatched young, which are dark gray on the head, neck , and upper part of

    the body, and white on the belly, are so buoyant that they cannot dive very

    well; but as they increase in size they become more and more expert at under–

    water maneuvers. They stay in the nesting pond until they can fly. The parent

    loons are very solicitous of them. On Southampton Island, where the arctic

    loon was common during the summer of 1930, I found many pairs with their young

    on lakes near the head of South Bay. I occasionally lured newly hatched young

    to the shore through the well-known Eskimo trick of splashing my fingers in the

    water. The old loons were fairly frantic while I remained in the vicinity.

    They circled on their narrow, whistling wings, croaking and growling savagely.

    Sometimes they alighted very close to me with a resounding whack! which sent

    a thin, glistening fan of water far out in front of them. In alighting, all

    loons strike the water breast first, not feet first as ducks and geese do.

            The postnuptial molt of adult arctic loons does not start until the young

    can obtain their own food. If, therefore, the nesting lake has no fish in it,

    the parent birds continue to bring food from afar until the flight feathers

    of the young have fully developed. Never do the young birds attempt to travel

    overland from the nesting pond to salt water. After the young have flown to

    salt water, or to a lake in which there are fish, the parent birds can molt.

    If the young do not fly until very late in the season, young and old birds

    probably migrate southward together and the adults proceed with the postnup–

    tial molt on their wintering ground.



    006      |      Vol_IV-0063                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arctic Loon

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    References:

    1. Bailey, A. M. Birds of Arctic Alaska . Denver, Co l ., Colorado Museum of

    Natural History, 1948. Popular Ser. No. 8.

    2. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American diving birds,” U.S.Nat.Mus.

    Bull . no.107, pp.67-72, 1919.

    3. Haviland, M.D. A Summer on the Yenesei . Lond., Arnold,1915.

    4. Hersey, F.S. “The status of the Black-throated Loo a n ( Gavia arctica )

    as a North American bird,” Auk , vol.34, pp.283-90, 1917.

    5. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass., Har–

    vard Univ. Press, 1931. Vol.1, p.34.

    6. Pike, O.G. “Photographing the Black-throated Diver and Gray Lag-goose,”

    British Birds , vol.5, pp.178-85, 1911.

    7. Stonor, C.R. Courtship and Display Among Birds . Lond., Country Life

    Ltd., 1940, p.62, and plate 37.

    8. Sutton, G.M. “The birds of Southampton Island, Hudson Bay,” Carnegie Mus.

    Mem . vol.12, pt.2, sect.2, pp.13-18, 1932.



    007      |      Vol_IV-0064                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Loon

            3. Common Loon . A large diving bird, Gavia immer , frequently called the

    great northern diver. It is probably the best known of the Gaviidae (loons)

    among white men, though it is not very well known among most Eskimos and other

    Far Northern peoples. A Baffin Island Eskimo name for it is tudlik or tullik .

    It is sometimes referred to as the black-billed loon, to distinguish it from

    the yellow-billed or white-billed loon ( G. adamsii ). It breeds on lakes

    throughout most of continental North America from New England, northern New

    York, northern Pennsylvania, northern Ohio, northern Indiana, Wisconsin, North

    Dakota, and northeastern California northward; on certain of the Aleutians

    westward as far as Kiska; in the southern part of the Arctic Archipelago

    (notably Banks and Baffin Islands); and in Newfoundland, Greenland (north

    to about lat. 70° N. on the west coast and to 76° on the east coast), Iceland,

    and Bear Island. Unlike the red-throated loon ( G. stellata ) and arctic loon

    ( G. arctica ), it often nests in forested country, the area of its greatest

    abundance being, perhaps, the well-wooded southeastern part of Canada and

    the state of Maine. It is decidedly rare in northern Alaska. It probably

    nests sparingly in Spitsbergen. Summer records from Jan Mayen, the Faeroes,

    the outer Hebrides, northern Scotland, and the Shetlands suggest the possibility

    of its nesting there. It winters in open water from Alaska southward to the

    Gulf of California; from the Great Lakes and Maine southward to the Gulf of

    Mexico; and from the British Channel and the North and Baltic seas to the

    western Mediterranean, Madeira, the Azores, and (casually) the Black Sea. Two

    subspecies are currently recognized — G. immer immer (common loon) and G .

    immer elasson (lesser common loon). The later race, which is allegedly smaller,

    is said to breed “in the Dakotas and perhaps adjacent states and Canadian

    provinces” (3). Baffin Island specimens measured by Shortt and Peters (5)

    008      |      Vol_IV-0065                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Loon

    and Greenland specimens measured by Rand were definitely small for the nominate

    race. Some taxonomists believe that elasson should not be recognized.

            In full breeding plumage the common loon is a handsome bird. It is about

    27 to 32 inches long, not including the feet, which protrude well beyond the

    tail. The head and neck are velvety black, glossed with green, blue, and violet.

    Two patches of bold white lines almost form a collar about the neck. The upper

    part of the body, including the back, rump, tail, wings, sides, and flanks, is

    black marked with thick-set, symmetrical rows of more or less rectangular white

    spots. The breast and belly are immaculate gleaming white. In winter the bird

    is very different in color, its upper parts being plain gray, its under parts,

    including the chin, throat, and most of the face and foreneck, white. The sexes

    are alike. At all seasons the eyes of adults are red.

            The common loon is best known for its wild cry, which is clear, far-carrying,

    and laughter-like in quality; and for its ability to dive “before the bullet

    gets there” when shot at. It lives almost exclusively on fish, and in winter

    is frequently caught in nets, sometimes at considerable depth. If it alights

    on a small body of water it may be unable to get away in calm weather, for it

    cannot rise in flight unless it can “run” a long distance on the surface or fly

    straight into the wind.

            North of the tree limit, the common loon summers only on the largest of

    the tundra lakes, laying its two eggs on a small island, or at the tip of a

    long promontory, in a nest which is a mere scooping out, or leveling off, of

    the turf. Yeates (6) has reported eggs in a northern Iceland nest as early as

    June 2. Throughout arctic and subarctic parts of its range the breeding popula–

    tion is thin and scattered. A careful study of the species should be made in the

    Arctic, particularly in areas inhabited also by the yellow-billed loon (q.v.).



    009      |      Vol_IV-0066                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Loon

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    1. Dunlop, E.B. “Notes on the Great Northern Diver,” British Birds vol.9,

    pp.142-27, 1915.

    2. Munro, J.A. “Observations of the loon in the Cariboo Parklands, British

    Columbia,” Auk , vo.62, pp.38-49, 1945.

    3. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass., Harvard

    Univ. Press, 1931. Vol.1.

    4. Rand, A.L. “Notes on some Greenland birds,” Auk , vol.64, p.282, Apr., 1947.

    5. Shortt, T.M., and Peters, H.S. “Some recent bird records from Canada’s

    Eastern Arctic,” Canad.J.Res . vol.20, sect.D, no.11,

    p.339, Nov., 1942.

    6. Yeates, G.K. “Field notes on the nesting habits of the Great Northern

    Diver,” British Birds , vol.43, pp.5-8, and plates 1-9, 1950.



    010      |      Vol_IV-0067                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gavia

            5. Gavia . The avian genus to which all the loons of the world belong.

    The four species are remarkably similar structurally as well as in behavior

    and nesting habits, all being boldly patterned in the breeding plumage but

    inconspicuously colored in winter. The best-known species among white men

    is the common loon or great northern diver ( Gavia immer ), which breeds through–

    out continental northern North America (south to the northern United States),

    in southern parts of the Arctic Archipelago, and in Greenland, Iceland, Jan

    Mayen, and Spitsbergen; it winters from the southern limits of its breeding

    range southward to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California,

    the North Sea, and the coasts of the British Isles. Closely related, but

    not nearly so well known, is the much larger yellow-billed loon or white–

    billed northern diver ( G. adamsii ), which breeds from the White Sea eastward

    across Siberia and northern Alaska, on certain islands of the Arctic Archi–

    pelage, and (probably) on continental North America from Great Slave Lake

    and Nueltin Lake northward. Smallest of the four species is the red-throated

    loon ( G. stellata ), which breeds from northernmost lands about the North Pole

    southward to the Aleutian Islands, the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia,

    Hudson, Bay, southern Labrador, the north shore of Lake Superior, Newfoundland,

    Sweden, and northern Russia and Siberia. The arctic loon ( G. arctica ), which

    is intermediate in size between the red-throated and common loons, is, like

    the red-throated loon, panboreal in breeding distribution, but it does not

    nest either as far north or as far south as that species.

            If, as some taxonomists believe, the yellow-billed loon is a geographical

    race of Gavia immer , then there are but three species of the genus Gavia ,

    all of them with virtually circumpolar distribution, all with year-round

    range lying northward of the equator.



    011      |      Vol_IV-0068                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gaviiformes

            6. Gaviiformes . The avian order of loons, a small and remarkably homo–

    geneous group of water birds containing but one family (Gaviidae), one genus

    ( Gavia ), and four species ( immer , adamsii , arctica , and stellata ), all of

    which nest in northern regions. Throughout the order the sexes are alike in

    shape and coloration, and the ey e s of adults are red.

            There is a difference of opinion as to whether the loons and grebes belong

    in separate orders. Certain European ornithologists place them together in

    the order Pygopodes; use for the loons the family name Colymbidae and the

    generic name Colymbus; and do not employ the name Gavia at all. This has led

    to some nomenclatural confusion. Grebes and loons are strikingly different

    in several basic respects: ( 1 ) In loons the tail is composed of 16 to 20

    short but firm and well-developed rectrices; in grebes there are no obvious

    tail features at all. ( 2 ) In loons the feet are webbed; in grebes the feet

    are lobed. ( 3 ) In loons the sternum is much longer proportionally than in the

    grebes. ( 4 ) The plumage of adult loons is much firmer and less “furry” than

    that of grebes. ( 5 ) Newly hatched grebes of most species are striped, often

    conspicuously so; newly hatched loons are dark gray above, lighter below, and

    wholly unstriped. ( 6 ) Loons usually nest on land, laying dark-colored,

    spotted eggs, which they do not cover when they leave the nest. Grebes build

    floating nests and lay light-colored, unspotted eggs which they cover with wet

    vegetation when they leave the nest.

            All loons are accomplished swimmers and divers, but on land they are

    almost helpless. They fly from the water with difficulty, usually “running”

    along for a considera s ble distance, facing into the wind, and rising slowly.

    Once squared away for steady flight, they hold their feet together straight

    behind them. The “tail” of a flying loon is really its big, webbed feet stuck

    out behind.



    012      |      Vol_IV-0069                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gaviiformes

            Loons eat fish principally, the long, sharp bill, powerful muscles of

    the head and neck, dense, firm plumage, and large feet, which are placed

    far back in the body, all being modified for capturing fish. Especially

    notable is the flattened tarsus, which can be drawn forward through the

    water with great facility; and the bones, tendons, and muscles of the leg,

    which are so designed as to permit each foot to function through a wide arc

    directly behind the body, thus allowing the bird to change its course very

    rapidly.

            The loons inhabit the Northern Hemisphere exclusively, nesting on

    large lakes far in the interior, or on tundra ponds, or slow-flowing rivers

    close to the coast, and migrating southward to such North Temperate Zone

    waters as are open the winter through and in which fish are abundant. This

    fact, coupled with the fact that loon remains dating back as far as Tertiary

    time have been found in North America and Europe, but not in more southerly

    regions, give rise to a belief that the Gaviiformes were strictly northern

    in origin.

            All loons make primitive nests, which are sometimes little more than a

    flattening off or scooping out of a tiny islet, or of a hummock at the tip

    of a long, narrow promontory. The eggs number two; they vary considerably

    in color, but usually are dark olive brown, irregularly spotted with darker

    brown or black. The incubation period is 25 to 28 days in the red-throated

    loon, longer (up to 30 days) in the common loon. Both sexes have been ob–

    served to share the duties of incubation (common loon, arctic loon, and red–

    throated loon). Young loons, which leave the nest soon after hatching, are

    down-covered and very buoyant, hence do not dive very well.

            Adult loons undergo a complete postnuptial molt into a winter plumage

    013      |      Vol_IV-0070                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gaviiformes

    which is much less strikingly marked than the breeding plumage. The pre–

    nuptial molt, which involves, presumably, all the feathers except the remiges

    and rectrices, brings the bird again into courting and breeding attire. Some

    observers believe that the postnuptial molt frequently is finished not on or

    near the breeding grounds but in winter after the southward migration has

    taken place.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American diving birds,” U.S.Nat.Mus.

    Bull . no.107, pp.47-82, plates 45 and 46, 1919.

    2. Sutton, G.M. “The wing molts of adult loons: a review of the evidence,”

    Wilson Bull . vol.55, pp.145-50, 1943.



    014      |      Vol_IV-0071                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-throated Loon

            12. Red-throated Loon . A diving bird, Gavia stellata , so named because

    in summer the adult has a triangular brownish-red patch on the throat and fore–

    neck. It is sometimes called the red-throated diver. It is the smallest of

    the loons and is unlike the other three species in that it is gray and white

    rather than black and white on its upper parts in summer. It is a compara–

    tively slender-billed species. In breeding feather it is ashy gray on the head

    and sides of the neck, with black and white striping on the crown and hind neck,

    and red-brown throat patch; dark gray, flecked with white all over the upper

    part of its body (the part showing above water line when the bird is swimming);

    and pure white on the breast and belly. In winter it is gray flecked with

    white above, and pure white below.

            Like the arctic loon, the red-throated loon is holarctic in breeding dis–

    tribution, but it nests both farther north and farther south than that species.

    It ranges in summer from Iceland, Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Archipelago (Bell

    and Mabel Islands) Jan Mayen (one record), Bear Island, Novaya Zemlya, northern

    Russia, northern Siberia (including the New Siberian Archipelago and Wrangel

    Island), northern Alaska, Banks Island, Prince Patrick Island, Melville Island,

    Ellesmere Island (lat. 82°30' N.), and northern Greenland (lat. 82°27' N.)

    south to Ireland (Donegal), Scotland, southern Sweden, Lake Baikal, Kamchatka,

    the Commander Islands, Kuril Islands, Aleutian Islands, and Queen Charlotte

    Islands, southern Mackenzie, northern Manitoba (Churchill, Hudson Bay), southern

    Ontario (the north shore of Lake Superior), Gasp e é Peninsula, and Newfoundland.

    It winters from the British Isles and the Baltic and North seas to the southern

    shores of the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian seas, southern Baluchistan,

    Turkistan, China, Taiwan, and Japan; and in the New World from the Aleutian

    015      |      Vol_IV-0072                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-throated Loon

    Islands and the Pacific coast of Canada south to northern Baja California and

    from Maine and the Great Lakes to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

            The red-throated loon probably mates for life. The pairs return to their

    nesting grounds before the tundra ponds are free of ice, so they are obliged

    to frequent the river mouths or the leads in the salt-water ice until the lakes

    thaw. At this season they are very clamorous. One of their best-known cries

    is a loud, rolling kok-a-rah-oh , kok-a-rah-oh , kok-a-rah-oh! which they repeat

    over and over with the rhythm and wild enthusiasm of a college yell. Other

    characteristic cries are a plaintive mew, which sometimes has a decidedly human

    quality; and a sharp kok or kark , which may be primarily a note of alarm. The

    Eskimos, who know the bird well, call it the kokshowk or kokarow (Alaska) in

    imitation of its cries.

            In spring and summer the pairs perform interesting sexual rites together —

    beak-dipping while facing each other; splash-diving; and racing side by side

    through the water, half-standing as they rush forward, sometimes with their wings

    raised prettily over their backs. Splash-dives, which are amazingly quick, are

    usually preceded by a sharp yelp. Racing birds sometimes give their weird

    kok-a-rah-oh cry in duet. The most spectacular of the sexual displays has been

    called a “snake-dance.” This is a joint performance in which the birds “zigzag

    indiscriminately along the course in a state of wild excitement” (3).

            One pair of red-throated loons per small tundra pond is the rule, though

    two pairs have been known to nest at opposite ends of larger ponds, and along

    the Yenisei Haviland (1) noted red-throated and arctic loons nesting on the

    same ponds. The nest is a heap of moss in the turf, usually at the water’s

    edge and preferably on a peninsula or tiny islet offshore. Both sexes are

    believed to incubate. The incubation period is 25 to 28 days. An incubating

    016      |      Vol_IV-0073                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-throated Loon

    bird sometimes reaches out and gathers bits of moss which it adds to the nest.

            Many early eggs of the red-throated loon are destroyed by jaegers. This

    predation sometimes so delays brood-rearing that the young loons are still

    unable to fly when the home pond begins to freeze shut in late August or

    early September. I have seen half-grown red-throated loons swimming about

    in a small pool which the birds managed to keep open in the ice. The faith–

    ful parents continued to bring them food captured in salt water several miles

    away. Some of this food the parents may have regurgitated, but some of it

    (small fish) they carried crosswise in their beaks. In making a getaway

    from the little icebound pond, the young loons probably waited for a stiff

    wind into which they could rise without having to “run” a long distance

    through water.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    References:

    1. Haviland, M.D. A Summer on the Yenesei . Lond., Arnold, 1915, p.198.

    2. Huxley, J.S. “Courtship activities in the Red-throated Diver ( Colymbus

    stellatus Pontopp .); together with a discussion of the

    evolution of courtship in birds,” Linnaean Soc. J. (Zool. )

    vol.35, pp.253-92, 1923.

    3. Keith, D.B. “The Red-throated Diver in North East Land (Spitsbergen),”

    British Birds , vol.31, pp.66-81, 1937.

    4. Turner, E.L. “The Red-throated Diver in its breeding-haunts,” Ibid .

    vol.7, pp.150-55, 1913.

    5. Van Oordt, G.J., and Huxley, J.S. “Some observations on the habits of

    the Red-throated Diver in Spitsbergen,” Ibid . vol.16,

    pp.34-46, 1922.



    017      |      Vol_IV-0074                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow-billed Loon.

            14. Yellow-billed Loon . A large diving bird, Gavia adamsii , which closely

    resembles the common loon or great northern diver ( G. immer ), but is decidedly

    larger; has an ivory-colored or white, rather than black, bill; and is pur–

    plish black rather than greenish black on the throat. Its bill shape is dis–

    tinctive, the culmen line being straight (rather than slightly arched or de–

    curved, as it is in the common loon) — a diagnostic feature which will serve

    to identify it in subadult or winter plumage. It is sometimes called the

    white-billed loon or white-billed northern diver. It is the largest of the

    loons. An adult male taken July 8, 1914, at Camden Bay, Alaska, weighed

    13 1/2 lb. (Canadian National Museum). An adult female shot in Hopper Bay,

    Alaska, on May 27, 1924, weighed 10 lb. 3 oz. (4). An adult male Gavia immer

    shot in Michigan in the latter part of May weighed 8 lb. 2 oz. (Museum of

    Zoology, University of Michigan).

            The yellow-billed loon summers in the Old World from northern Finland, the

    Murman coast, and Novaya Zemlya eastward across northern Siberia; and in the

    New World from Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales, Point Hope, Point Barrow, and Salmon

    River) eastward to Somerset Island (7), Foxe Basin (8), Melville Peninsula,

    Baker Lake, and Nueltin Lake. In Alaska it is said to breed on “the large

    tundra lagoons usually back from the coast in rather inaccessible places, re–

    mote from human habitations” (1). Birulia (3) was informed by natives of the

    Iana River country that its breeding ground was not the tundra proper but the

    lakes at the edge of the forest region south of the tundra. It nests commonly

    along the Hanbury and Thelon rivers and presumably on lakes and streams through–

    out the Great Slave Lake and Aylmer Lake district of the Northwest Territories.

    The southern limits of its breeding range are ill-defined. It breeds northward

    to well beyond the tree limit in the Arctic Archipelago, E. Porsild and

    018      |      Vol_IV-0075                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow-billed Loon

    A. L. Washburn having encountered it recently on both Victoria and Banks Islands.

    Handley did not find it on Prince Patrick Island. It is possibly unique among

    loons in that it frequently nests on slow-moving rivers (5).

            In the summers of 1948 and 1949, A. W. F. Banfield found the yellow-billed

    loon the commonest breeding loon of the tundra area east of Great Bear and Great

    Slave lakes. He encountered it on all the larger lakes. Early in the summer

    of 1948 he found a nest at the tip of a s s m all rocky peninsula on Lake Clinton–

    Colden. On July 25, 1948, Banfield saw two adults and a small young one swim–

    ming out from the bank of the Back River. Often he mistook the cry of an adult

    loon for the wailing of a distant wolf. In early September, he saw many small

    groups of yellow-billed loons migrating westward while numerous birds of other

    species were moving southward. In the summer of 1946, he noted Gavia adamsii ,

    but not G. immer , in the Mackenzie Delta.

            The yellow-billed loon winters commonly off the Norway coast. It was “not

    common” off the southeastern Alaskan coast in the winter of 1920 (1). It has

    been recorded in winter occasionally along the Baltic coasts of sweden and Fin–

    land as well as off Japan and China. There are migration records for various

    parts of Europe (including the Caspian Sea), Alaska, the Commander Islands, and

    Vancouver Island. The species has been reported at least once from Greenland

    and once from Long Island, New York (19).

            Since the yellow-billed loon and common loon look so much alike, all early

    records for the latter in northwestern North America (especially for western

    islands of the Arctic Archipelago) should be carefully checked. The close re–

    semblance between the two forms has led some ornithologists to believe that they

    may be conspecific; but until further field work brings to light an area in

    019      |      Vol_IV-0076                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow-billed Loon

    which they intergrade, or reveals that their breeding ranges strictly complement

    each other, they may best be considered distinct. Both species may nest on Banks

    Island, but Porsild and Washburn did not record immer there in the summer of 1949.

            The yellow-billed loon’s plumages and molts are believed to be the same as

    those of the common loon. When the birds move north to their nesting grounds,

    they have completed the molt from the gray winter plumage into their handsome

    breeding attire. They gather along open leads, or between the shore and the

    retreating ice, waiting for the lakes to thaw out. They move inland in pairs

    and the nesting ground rings with their wild cries. A Yakut name for the bird

    means “diver that neighs like a horse” (6).

            Bailey (1) tells us that on a chain of lakes along the Chipp River, about

    a hundred miles inland from Point Barrow, Alaska, Robert Brower built “dummy

    platforms” in the water on which yellow-billed loons promptly nested. From

    these nests he collected several sets of the little-known eggs.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    References:

    1. Bailey, A.M. Birds of Arctic Alaska . Denver, Co l ., Colorado Museum of

    Natural History, 1948, pp.133-38. Popular Ser . no.8.

    2. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American diving birds,” U.S.Nat.Mus.

    Bull . no.107, pp.60-65, 1919.

    3. Birulia, A. “Ocherki iz zhizni ptits poliarnago poberezhia Sibiri.”

    (Sketches from the life of the birds of the arctic shores

    of Siberia.). Akad.Nauk. Classe Phys.-Mat. Mem. Zapiski ,

    ser.8, vol.18, no.2, 1907.

    4. Brandt, Herbert. Alaska Bird Trails . Cleveland, O., The Author, 1943, p.319.



    020      |      Vol_IV-0077                                                                                                                  

    5. Critchell-Bullock, J.C. “An expedition to sub-arctic Canada,” Canad .

    Field Nat . vol.45, p.12, Jan., 1931.

    6. Pleske, Theodore. “Birds of the Eurasian tundra,” Boston Soc.Nat.Hist.

    Mem . vol.6, no.3, p.353, Apr., 1928.

    7. Shortt, T.M., and Peters, H.S. “Some recent bird records from Canada’s

    Eastern Arctic,” Canad.J.Res . vol.20, sect.D, no.11,

    p.339, Nov., 1942.

    8. Taverner, P.A. “Fieldfare, an addition to the American list, and some

    arctic notes,” Auk , vol.57, p.119, Jan., 1940.

    9. Zimmer, J.T. “Yellow-billed loon on Long Island, New York,” Ibid .

    vol.64, pp.145-46, Jan., 1947.

           

    George Miksch Sutton



    021      |      Vol_IV-0078                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Grebes

           

    GREBES

           

    Order COLYMBIFORMES

           

    Family COLYMBIDAE

            15. Black-necked Grebe. See writeup.

            16. COLYMBIFORMES. See writeup.

            17. Colymbus. See writeup.

            18. Dabchick. A vernacular name widely used among English-speaking peoples

    for small grebes — in Europe especially for the little grebe

    ( Colymbus ruficollis ); in Australia for the little grebe and hoary–

    headed grebe ( Colymbus poliocephalus ); in North America especially

    for the pied-billed grebe ( Podilymbus podiceps ). The only one of

    these three which ranges northward into subarctic regions is Colym –

    bus ruficollis .

            19. Eared Grebe. The name commonly used in America for the New World race of

    black-necked grebe (Colymbus caspicus) ( q.v. ).

            20. Gray-cheeked Grebe. A name sometimes used in England for the red-necked

    grebe (Colymbus grisegena) ( q.v. ).

            21. Great Crested Grebe. See writeup.

            22. Grebe. See writeup.

            23. Hell-diver. A colloquial (not slang) name used widely in America for any

    small grebe, especially the pied-billed grebe ( Podilymbus podiceps ),

    a species which has been reported once from Baffin Island (Snyder,

    Canad. Field - Nat . 44:123).

            24. Holboell’s Grebe. The common name almost universally used among English–

    speaking peoples for the subspecies of red-necked grebe ( Colymbus

    022      |      Vol_IV-0079                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Grebes

    grisegena ) inhabiting northeastern Siberia (except Kamchatka) and the

    New World. See Red-necked Grebe.

            25. Horned Grebe. See writeup.

            26. Little Grebe. See writeup.

            27. Poliocephalus . A genus of four species of grebes (three inhabiting the Old

    World, one inhabiting the New), all of them small, short-billed, and

    without ornamental head plumage; currently regarded as inseparable

    from the genus Colymbus ( q.v. ).

            28. Red-necked Grebe. See writeup.

            29. Slavonian (or Sclavonian) Grebe. The name used among British ornithologists

    for the horned grebe ( Colymbus auritus ) ( q.v. ).



    023      |      Vol_IV-0080                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Grebes

            15. Black necked Grebe . A diving bird, Colymbus caspicus , resembling

    somewhat the horned or slavonia grebe ( Colymbus auritus ), hence intermediate

    in size between the little grebe or dabchick ( Colymbus ruficollis ) and the red–

    necked grebe ( Colymbus grisegena ). Like the horned grebe and red-necked grebe

    it is found in both the Old World and the New; but its distribution is strik–

    ingly dissimilar. Far from being exclusively a bird of the Northern Hemisphere,

    it breeds not only in Eurasia and western North America but also throughout

    almost all of Africa east and south of the Sahara. Nowhere in either the Old

    World or [ ?] the New does it nest so far north as does the horned grebe — Central

    British Columbia and southern Manitoba marking about its northern limit in

    North America, and Denmark, southern Sweden, the eastern lake provinces of

    the U.S.S.R., the Aral and Caspain seas, the Altai Mountains, and the Amur val–

    ley its northern limit in Eurasia. Three races are recognized: caspicus of

    Eurasia; californicus of North America; and gurneyi of Africa. The two northern

    races winter, respectively, in southern Europe, Indian (casually), China, and

    Japan; and in western North America from Washington to Guatemala.

            In breeding plumage the black-necked grebe is readily distinguishable from

    the horned grebe by its black neck (the breeding horned grebe’s foreneck is rich

    chestnut) and by the fan of narrow golden yellow feathers spreading backward

    across the black cheek from the eye; but in winter plumage the two species are

    very similar, both being dark gray above and white below (the lower part of the

    head conspicuously white), the most dependable point of difference being that of

    bill shape. In the horned grebe the bill is stoutish and straight; in the black–

    necked grebe it is slender and slightly upturned. The two Old World races of

    the black-necked grebe are further distinguishable from the horned grebe because

    their primaries are partly white (Stresemann, Ibis , 90: 473-74) but Colymbus

    caspicus californicus of North America has dark primaries.



    024      |      Vol_IV-0081                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Grebes

            The black-necked grebe’s nesting habits are like those of the other

    grebes. The floating nest is made of decaying vegetation and is more or

    less hidden in water plants. The eggs number 4 as a rule; though as many as

    8 have been recorded. Both sexes incubate. One of the cries of the breeding

    season has been described as a rippling trill, “bidder vidder, bidder vidder”

    (Griscom, fide Ticehurst, in Handbook of British Birds ).

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    References:

    1. Pike, O.G. “The Black-necked Grebe,” British Birds , vol.13, pp.146-54, 1919.

    2. Stresemann, Erwin. “The earliest description of the black-necked grebe,”

    Ibis , vol.90, no.3, pp.473-74, 1948.



    025      |      Vol_IV-0082                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Colymbiformes

            16. Colymbiformes . The avian order of grebes, a group of diving birds

    bearing general resemblance to the loons (Gaviiformes) but differing in having

    lobed rather than webbed feet; in having incomplete or “hairy” tail feathers;

    and in being considerably smaller. The great crested grebe and red-necked

    grebe are about as long as, but less heavy than, the smallest loon (red–

    throated loon). The smallest grebes are less than a foot long. In the water

    grebes are extremely graceful and quick, but on land they are virtually help–

    less. A captive grebe, placed on the ground, may stand upright momentarily,

    slap nosily forward on outward-pointing feet, tire suddenly, and sink down

    with an audible grunt.

            Taxonomists differ in opinion as to whether the grebes and loons belong

    together in the same order, but agree that all loons belong together in one

    family, and that all grebes belong together in a separate family. The family

    named used for the loons by many British ornithologists is, unfortunately,

    the very same as that used for the grebes by most ornithologists elsewhere —

    the Colymbidae. This leads to some confusion, but it does not alter the fact

    that the grebes and loons are very different — not alone in appearance and be–

    havior, but also in present-day distribution and possibly even in o r igin.

            The 18 species of grebes (family Colymbidae) are currently placed in four

    genera. Colymbus , with 13 species, is considerably the largest genus of the

    family, Podilymbus having but two species, Aechmophorus two, and Centropelma one.

    Colymbus is the only genus of the four which is found in both the Old and New

    Worlds which ranges northward into subarctic regions. It is further notable

    in that it ranges southward far below the equator in both the Old World and

    the New. Of the five species of the genus which breed in boreal regions, two

    are large (among the largest grebes known), two are small, and one is very small.

    026      |      Vol_IV-0083                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Colymbiformes

    Of these same five species, two (a large and a small) inhabit the Northern

    Hemisphere exclusively; the other three are of widespread distribution,

    ranging southward to far below the equator in the Old World . As for the

    three genera found only in the New World ( Aechmophorus , Centropelma , and

    Podilymbus ), none ranges northward into the subarctic, one ( Centropelma )

    being a monotypic genus whose sole habitat is Lake Titicaca. The Colymbi–

    formes are not, in other words, exclusively boreal, as are the Gaviiformes.

    They are also much more diverse morphologically than that group, one genus

    ( Centropelma ) being flightless; one ( Aechmophorus ) having an exceedingly

    long neck and long, sharply pointed bill; one ( Podilymbus ) having a short,

    heavy bill. Several grebes (especially of the genus Colymbus ) have puffy or

    oddly ornamented head plumage in the breeding season. Most grebes when adult

    have unusual eye-color in that the pupil is surrounded with a narrow, light

    ring. The color pattern of grebe plumage varies considerably, though it

    tends to be dark on the head, neck, and upper part of the body, and satiny

    white on the breast and belly. Throughout the order the sexes are colored

    alike. Newly hatched grebes of most species are striped either on the head

    and neck, or all over; but the chick of the western grebe or swan grebe

    ( Aechmophorus occidentalis ) is pale gray above and white below and wholly

    without stripes of any sort.

            The courtship behavior of grebes is extremely interesting, some forms

    giving strange duet performances in which the male and female “run” rapidly

    side by side through the water with necks oddly arched, sink to their bellies

    with a splash, and disappear below the surface; others posturing before each

    other while shaking “gifts” (pieces of wet vegetation brought up from the

    027      |      Vol_IV-0084                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Colymbiformes

    bottom) in their bills; others giving loud shrieks or whinnies which make

    the marshes ring. The great crested grebe ( Colymbus cristatus ) is an incred–

    ibly shaped bird as it lifts and displays its ornamental head plumage.

            All grebes, even those which breed northward into subarctic regions,

    build a floating nest which is more or less anchored to aquatic vegetation.

    Several species are semicolonial in their nesting. The eggs, which are un–

    spotted, are light-colored when laid but soon become dark with nest stains.

    Both sexes incubate. When the incubating bird leaves the nest, it usually

    covers the eggs carefully with wet vegetation. The young are able to swim

    and dive immediately after hatching, and since they are less buoyant than newly

    hatched loons they stay under the water more successfully. Two broods are

    frequently reared in temperate and tropical regions. When two broods are

    reared, the male takes charge of the first while the female proceeds with the

    second. During the postnuptial molt grebes become wholly flightless for a

    period (as do loons), but this does not greatly inc on venience them because they

    are so expert at diving.

            For additional information see Grebe.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            [ ?]

            References:

            1. Knowlton, F.H., and Ridgway, Robert. Birds of the World . N. Y., Holt,

    1909, pp.103-106.



    028      |      Vol_IV-0085                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Colymbus

            17. Colymbus . An avian genus composed of 13 species of grebes, each

    of which has a slender, straight, or slightly upturned bill about as long as,

    or slightly shorter than, the head; tarsus shorter than the middle toe and

    its nail; primaries and secondaries of about equal length; and head plumage

    which is more or less elongate or “puffy” (and frequently ornamental) in the

    adult, especially in the breeding season. Among them are the most northward–

    ranging grebes of the world — the red-necked grebe ( C. grisegena ) and horned

    or Slavonian grebe ( C. auritus ); the large great crested grebe ( C. cristatus )

    of the Old World; several well-known and widely ranging small species such

    as the black-necked or eared grebe ( C. caspicus ); the very small little grebe

    ( C. ruficollis ) of the Old World; and the least grebe ( C. dominicus ) of the

    New. Several (perhaps all) species of the genus are usually semicolonial in

    their nesting. Among the factors which may Prevent their nesting farther

    north than the y do are ( 1 ) insufficiency of animal food in shallow tundra ponds;

    ( 2 ) scarcity of aquatic vegetation from which nests might be made and in which

    nests might be hidden. Shortness of breeding season at high northern latitudes

    can hardly account for their failure to breed there, for the incubation and

    fledging period is shorter than that of the loons, which do breed there.

            The genus Colymbus is almost cosmopolitan in distribution, but no single

    species of the genus has nearly so extensive a range as that of the group. The

    species which range farthest north are probably the most migratory. Those

    with very restricted ranges probably do not migrate at all. The great crested

    grebe breeds throughout the Old World from southern Sweden and eastern Siberia

    southward through much of Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Tasmania and New Ze a land,

    but is not found in the New World at all. The little grebe is represented by

    several races in various parts of the Old World but is not found in the New.

    029      |      Vol_IV-0086                                                                                                                  
    EA-ORn. Sutton: Colymbus

    The black-necked grebe is represented by one race ( caspicus ) in Eurasia, an–

    other ( gurneyi ) in Africa, a third ( californicus ) in North America. The horned

    grebe and red-necked grebe breed in northern parts of both the Old and New

    Worlds. The least grebe is found only in tropical parts of Middle and South

    America and in the Greater Antilles. The hoary-headed grebe ( C. poliocephalus )

    is restricted to Australia and Tasmania. Four species have very restricted

    ranges — C. rolland of the Falkland Islands; C. taczanowskii of Lake Junin,

    Peru; C. pelzelnii of Madagascar; and C. rufopectus of New Zealand. Only three

    species of the 13 — the red-necked, horned (Slavonian), and black-necked

    (eared), are common to the New World and the Old, and all of these breed north–

    ward into (or very nearly into) the Subarctic in both America and Eurasia.

    Two Old World species, the great crested and the little, range northward into

    the Subarctic, as well as southward far below the equator. The horned grebe

    and red-necked grebe are, like the arctic loon and red-throated loon, more or

    less panboreal in breeding distribution and confined the year round to the

    Northern Hemisphere; but the genus as a whole is so widely distributed today,

    with about equal numbers of endemic species in the several land masses, that

    it is impossible to decide where the group originated.

            Five species ( ruficollis , pelzelnii , dominicus , rufopectus and poliocephalus )

    are by some taxonomists placed in the separate genus Poliocephalus , but this does

    not seem to be warranted, for the characters of Poliocephalus (small size; ab–

    sence of bizarre head plumage in the breeding season; proportional stoutness of

    bill) are superficial and not very clearly defined.



    030      |      Vol_IV-0087                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Crested Grebe

            21. Great Crested Grebe . A well-known diving bird, Colymbus cristatus ,

    of the Old World, said to be the largest species of its genus, family

    (Colymbidae), and order (Colymbiformes), though careful weighing of specimens

    may reveal that the red-necked grebe ( C. grisegena ) — a more robust and

    shorter-necked species — is just as heavy.

            Four geographical races of the great crested grebe are currently recog–

    nized — one ( cristatus ) breeding more or less throughout Eurasia north to

    about latitude 60° N., as well as in northern Africa; another ( infuscatus )

    being confined to Africa south of the Sahara; one ( christiani ) being found

    only in Australia and Tasmania; and one ( australis ) being restricted to New

    Zealand.

            The northernmost race, cristatus , which apparently is the only one of

    the four to migrate at all, breeds from southern Sweden, Finland, central

    Russian and central (?) Siberia southward to Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Turkes–

    tan, Kashmir, northern India, and Japan ( Check-List ). Throughout the southern

    part of this area it probably is nonmigratory; but in the northern part it

    must move definitely southward in order to find open water in which there is

    an adequate food supply.

            In its full breeding plumage the great crested grebe is one of the most

    oddly shaped birds imaginable — not because it is apparently tail-less, nor

    merely because its neck is so slender, but because the depth of its crown,

    neck, and cheek plumage makes its head appear about twice too large. With

    crests and ruff lifted in full display it looks, especially when facing the

    observer, like a sort of artifact, half-mammal, half-bird; or like an or–

    dinary grebe which has had a huge hood, with “horns” or “ears” attached,

    pulled loosely down over its head. Its bill is dark at the tip, pinkish

    031      |      Vol_IV-0088                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Crested Grebe

    flesh-color at the base. The crown and head-ruff are deep chestnut, the

    horns black, the sides of the face white. The hind-neck and upper part of

    the body are dark brownish gray while the foreneck and under parts are silky

    white. The white of the secondaries show plainly in flight, but not when the

    bird is at rest. In winter the ornamental head plumage is replaced by much

    shorter and less spectacular plumage and the dark and light parts of the color

    pattern contrast less sharply.

            The great crested grebe sometimes breeds in small companies, though it

    is much less colonial than the little grebe or dabchick ( Colymbus ruficollis ).

    It is said to have a harsh, grating cry and an alrm note resembling the sylla–

    bles “ kek-kek ” in the breeding season. It lays three or four eggs (rarely up

    to 8 or 9) which are very pale blue at first, but soon become nest-stained,

    the shells having a chalky and highly absorptive outermost layer.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Huxley, J.S. “Courtship of the Great Crested Grebe,” Zool. Soc. Lond.

    Proc . 1914, pp.491-562. 2. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass.,

    Harvard Univ. Press, 1931. Vol.1, p.39. 3. Rankin, Niall. Haunts of British Divers . N.Y., Collins, 1947. Pt.1,

    pp.1-46, with many photographs.

    032      |      Vol_IV-0089                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Grebe

            22. Grebe . Any of several (about 18 species) apparently tail-less diving

    birds belonging to the family Colymbidae and order Colymbiformes. Grebes rise

    from the water with difficulty, but fly directly and rapidly once under way.

    In alighting they strike the water first with their breasts and not with their

    feet as ducks and geese do.

            Grebes’ nests are floating masses of decaying vegetation more or less

    hidden among water plants. Both sexes incubate. When an incubating bird

    leaves the nest it covers the eggs with loose material from the nest rim.

    Newly hatched grebes are down-covered and in most species striped. They take

    to the water almost immediately and swim and dive well. Since animal food ob–

    tainable by diving, and vegetation for nest material and shelter are requisite

    to nesting, grebes tend to breed semicolonially in ponds or marshes which suit

    their needs. That some subarctic ponds meet their requirements is evident,

    because four widely ranging species breed well to the northward — the large

    red-necked grebe and the small horned (or Slavonian) grebe to latitudes beyond

    the Arctic Circle in both the Old World and the New; the great crested grebe

    and little grebe (or dabchick) almost to the Arctic Circle in the Old World.

            Grebes often swallow their own feathers. The stomachs of some specimens

    examined have been literally packed with short body feathers. The reasons for

    this strange habit are not known.

            Grebes are almost cosmopolitan in distribution. The family (order) is so

    well represented in the Old World and the New, and in both the Northern and

    Southern Hemisphere, that most ornithologists despair of deciding upon a place

    of origin. For additional information concerning grebes see Colymbiformes,

    Colymbus, Black-necked Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Horned Grebe, Little Grebe

    and Red-necked Grebe.



    033      |      Vol_IV-0090                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Grebe

            25. Horned Grebe . A small diving bird, Colymbus auritus , sometimes known

    as the Slavonian (Sclavonian) grebe, which nests northward to and somewhat

    beyond the Arctic Circle, and which is called “horned” because of the two tufts

    of long, silky feathers worn on the head during the breeding season. The

    horned grebe and the much larger red-necked grebe ( C. grisegena ) are the only

    grebes found both in the New World and the Old as well as wholly (the year

    round) in the Northern Hemisphere. Their range is similar to that of the

    loons (Gaviiformes), though they do not breed northward to such high latitudes.

            The horned grebe of the Old World does not differ from that of the New in

    size or color, and no geographical races are currently recognized. The species

    breeds in the Old World from northern Sweden, northern Norway, northern Fin–

    land, Iceland, northern Russia (about lat. 65°30′ N.), and Siber i a (precise

    limits not known) southward to Scotland, the Baltic States, and probably

    southern Asia (at least as far south as the Altai Mountains and Semipalatinsk).

    In the New World it breeds from central Alaska, northern Yukon, northern Mac–

    kenzie, Nueltin Lake (rarely), the mouth of the Churchill River on Hudson Bay,

    and the Gulf of St. Lawrence southward to the northern United States. It is

    migratory presumably throughout its range, though there may be comparatively

    sedentary breeding populations where there is open water the year round. It

    winters southward to the Mediterranean Sea, Turkistan, China, California,

    Florida, and the Gulf of Mexico. Like the red-necked grebe, it is less common

    in the interior than along the coast in winter. It has been reported from Green–

    land, Jan Maye r n , the Komandorski Islands, and the arctic coast of Alaska.

            In breeding dress the horned grebe is among the most colorful of the grebes.

    Its fluffy head, which appears abnormally large even when the long, velvety

    plumage is pressed down firmly, is brownish black, marked with a conspicuous

    034      |      Vol_IV-0091                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Grebe

    tuft or “horn” of buffy yellow which rises above and behind each eye. The

    foreneck, upper breast, and sides are rich chestnut. The hindneck, back, and

    wings are blackish brown, each feather being margined with a somewhat warmer

    shade of brown. The white wing speculum is conce la al ed save when the bird

    preens, stretches, stands up in the water and flaps its wings, or flies. The

    breast and belly are gleaming, satiny white. The eye is incredibly beautiful,

    reminding one of a superbly cut gem in a velvet setting. The tiny pupil is

    surrounded by a narrow, brilliant, yellowish-white ring which is, in turn,

    surrounded by the orange-scarlet iris. In winter the bird is different in

    color and shape, though its eye is the same. The head plumage is much shorter

    and there are no horns. All the silken yellows and browns of the breeding

    attire are replaced by gray and white — the upper parts in general being dark

    gray, the under parts white, the most conspicuous field mark being the white

    of the cheeks and throat which almost forms a collar just below the head. In

    winter the horned grebe and black-necked grebe are similar in appearance, but

    the bill of the horned grebe is stoutish and straight, while that of the black–

    necked grebe is slightly upturned and slender.

            The breeding habits of the horned grebe do not differ markedly from those

    of the other grebes. Several pairs often nest together, though apparently the

    species is not colonial at the northern edge of its range. It is believed to

    rear but one brood a season even in southern latitudes. On its nesting ground

    it is sometimes quite bold in the presence of a human being, in this respect

    being very different from the red-necked grebe. The eggs usually number 4 or 5

    and are white or bluish white when first laid but soon become nest-stained.

    Large sets (up to 10 eggs have been recorded) may possibly be laid by two

    females.



    035      |      Vol_IV-0092                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Grebe

            Most g[?]rebes swallow feathers occasionally, presumably during the

    course of preening, but the horned grebe’s stomach is sometimes so filled

    with feathers as to suggest that the bird may deliberately pluck and eat

    them for reasons not understood at present.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. BuBois, A.D. “Notes on the breeding habits of the Slavonian Grebe,”

    British Birds , vo.14, pp.2-10, 1930.

    036      |      Vol_IV-0093                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Little Grebe

            26. Little Grebe . A comparatively nonmigratory Old World diving bird,

    Colymbus ruficollis , which breeds northward in Europe to about latitude 62° N.

    It is sometimes called (as are certain other small grebes) the dabchick. Its

    scientific name has led some ornithologists to call it the red-necked grebe,

    but this name is almost always applied to the very much larger species, Colym –

    bus grisegena . The little grebe is among the smallest of the Colymbiformes.

    It is represented by several subspecies — ruficollis in Europe (east to the

    Ural Mountains) and in northwest Africa; poggei in China; japonicus in Korea

    and Japan; kunikyonis in the middle Ryukyu Islands; iraquensis in Mesopotamia;

    philippensis in Formosa, Borneo, and the Philippines; vulcanorum and tricolor

    in the East Indies; novaehollandiae in Australia, Tasmania, etc.; and capensis

    in eastern and southern Africa and Madagascar. Its range is somewhat discon [ ?]–

    tinuous probably because of absence of suitable breeding places), but there

    may well be an undiscovered breeding population east of the Ural Mountains.

    At this writing the species is believed to range northward into the Subarctic

    only in Europe.

            The little grebe is not quite 10 inches long. The most conspicuous feature

    of its breeding dress is the dark reddish brown of the cheeks, throat, and

    foreneck, and the bright yellowish green of the gape and base of the bill. It

    has no bizarre head mark [ ?] i ngs such as crests of tufts, and, aside from the red–

    dish brown just mentioned, it is rather plain dark brown above and grayish

    white below, with some white on the secondaries which shows in flight. In

    winter it is less brightly colored throughout, the reddish brown of the throat

    and checks being replaced by brownish buff.

            On its breeding ground there is no more spirited and springtly sprightly creature

    than this little water bird. It [ ?] exhibits toward its fellows what must --

    037      |      Vol_IV-0094                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Little Grebe

    possibly for want of a better understanding — be called pugnacity, bobbing

    up to the surface lightly as a cork, squealing or whinnying in an angry (pos–

    sibly an immensely pleased) voice, and darting with open bill at any other male

    dabchick which happens to be close by, forcing the other bird either to fight

    back vigorously or take refuge by diving. It dives in two wholly different

    ways — with a graceful, curving leap forward; and with an amazingly fast

    flick which creates the impression that the bird has deliberately kicked up

    a veil of water in order to obscure its descent. It can, if it wishes, sink

    slowly without diving at all — as all grebes do.

            Its nest, which is a sodden mass of decaying vegetation, and which

    though floating is often half submerged, is anything but conspicuous when the

    bird is not on it, for before it leaves it covers the eggs with nest material.

    The eggs, which are bluish white when first laid, but soon become nest-stained,

    number 4 to 6 (occasionally up to 8 or 10). The incubation period is 20 to

    25 days.

            At the northernmost edge of its range the little grebe probably breeds

    in scattered pairs and rears but one brood a season. Farther south, however,

    two broods are reared, and a large colony is a lively place in midsummer,

    for the females proceed with second nestings while males care for the

    first broods. When the young are learning to fly they race back and forth

    across an open stretch, beating their wings frantically until at last they

    rise from the surface, flutter along a short way, and drop with a splash.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bird, G.C. “Notes of the Little Grebe,” British Birds , vol.27, pp.34-37.

    1933.

    038      |      Vol_IV-0095                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-necked Grebe

            28. Red-necked Grebe . A diving bird, Colymbus Colymbus grisegena grisegena , sometimes known

    as the gray-cheeked grebe, which is probably the most northward ranging species

    of its genus, family (Colymbidae), and order (Colymbiformes). It is found in

    both the Old World and the New, and never leaves the Northern Hemisphere,

    though it probably winters as far south as the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea

    occasionally. Records for S p itsbergen, Greenland, Iceland, and the mouth of

    the Kolyma River indicate that its breeding range may extend considerably

    farther north than has been realized. Two subspecies are currently recognized —

    grisegena , which breeds from northern Russia (about the White Sea), Sweden,

    Finland, and western Siberia southward to France (casually), Holland (rarely),

    Denmark, Germany, the Kirghiz Steppe, and the Caspian Sea; and holböllii, a

    linger-billed and longer-winged but otherwise very similar form, which breeds

    in eastern Siberia (Kamchatka birds are believed by some taxonomists to belong

    to a third subspecies), the Komandorski Islands, the Kurils, Hokkaido, and

    from northwestern Alaska eastward to the Mackenzie delta, northern Saskatchewan,

    south central Manitoba, Hudson Strait, Labrador (probably), and southward to

    the northern United States. The species probably breeds well to the northward

    across the whole of Siberia, though it has apparently not been reported from

    the Gulf of Ob or the Taimyr Peninsula. Buturlin recorded holböllii at the

    mouth of the Kolyma River, though the bird may not have been breeding there;

    and a specimen of holböllii in breeding plumage recorded by Artobolevskii

    probably came from the “mouth of the Kolyma or … the north coast of the

    Chuckche Peninsula” (see Pleske). The species is definitely migratory,

    though it is occasionally recorded in winter along the southern edge of its

    breeding range. In the Old World it winters south to the Mediterranean Sea,

    039      |      Vol_IV-0096                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-necked Grebe

    northern Africa, Persia, Turkistan, northern Iran, China, and Japan. In the

    New World it winters principally along the coasts from southeastern Alaska to

    California and from the Maritime Provinces to Georgia, but also, less commonly,

    in the interior. It has been reported once from Southampton Island.

            In summer the red-necked grebe is rather a striking bird. Its heavy,

    straight, dark bill has a noticeably yellow base. Its head and neck are

    boldly marked, the forehead, crown (including a tuft of long feathers, or

    “horn,” at each side), and hindneck being black; the lower part (the cheeks,

    chin, and throat) clear ashy gray, bordered above the white; the entire fore –

    neck and upper breast rich rufous . What shows of its body above water line

    when it is swimming is dark gray, the white patch along the front of the wing

    and that on the secondaries being concealed when the wing is folded. The belly

    is light silvery gray, irregularly mottled with darker gray. The irides are

    not red (though so colored in some illustrations) but are rich brown, with a

    narrow, light-yellow peripheral ring. In winter the rufous of the foreneck

    is replaced by white; the head-tufts or “horns” are lost; and the black plumage

    of the crown, hindneck and upper part of the body is replaced by dark gray.

    At this season the red-necked and great crested grebes are much alike, though

    the red-necked is shorter-necked, stouter in build, and has no white superciliary

    streak. Molting red-necked grebes sometimes present a curiously mixed appear–

    ance when the red of the foreneck is veiled with white.

            Along the northern edge of its breeding range the red-necked grebe is

    believed to the noncolonial; but farther south several pairs frequently breed

    together, the rather large and bulky nests being built up of such water plants

    as are available. The birds are very shy. At the first sign of danger an in–

    cubating bird hastily pulls part of the nest over the eggs, covering them as

    040      |      Vol_IV-0097                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-necked Grebe

    fully as possible in the time allowed; slips into the water headfirst; and

    disappears, leaving scarcely a ripple. If the coast is clear, it may rise to

    the surface and return with slow, sure strokes of its big feet and a forward

    and backward movement of its serpentine head; but waiting submerged, with only

    the head or part of the head above the surface, until all danger has passed,

    is a common practice.

            When first laid, the 3 to 6 (rarely 7 or 8) eggs are bluskh is bluish white, but

    they soon become nest-stained and turn buff or brown. The incubation period

    of eggs hatched in an incubator was 22 to 23 days (Bent). Both parents in–

    cubate. But one brood is reared, though if the first set of eggs is destroyed

    another is promptly laid. Unless the birds can find vegetation in which to

    hide the nest such enemy species as the jaegers and ravens have little trouble

    in finding the eggs, though nests are safe from most four-footed marauders.

            The cries of the red-necked grebe have been described as “loonlike” —

    which is adequate if the definition of loonlike is properly inclusive. A common

    cry of the red-necked grebe on its nesting ground is a loud, wailing ah-ooo ,

    repeated many times.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Artobolevskii, V.M. “Kornitofaune zemli Chukchei.” (Birds of the land of

    the Chuckches.) Kiev. Universitet. Obshchestvo Estestvoispytatelei.

    Zapiski…Mem. vol.27, no.1, p.37. 1926. 2. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American diving birds,” U.S.Nat.Mus.

    Bull . no.107, pp.9-20, and plate 44 (egg in color), 1919. 3. Buturlin, S.A. “Bemerkungen über die geographische Verbreitung der Vögel

    im nordöstlichen Sibirien,” J.für Ornithol . vol.56, no.2, p.289,

    Apr., 1908. 4. Pleske, Theodore. “Birds of the Eurasian tundra,” Boston Soc.Nat.Hist.

    Mem . vol.6, no.3, p.355, Apr., 1928. 5. White, F.B. “Manners of Holboell’s Grebe in captivity,” Auk , vol.48,

    pp.559-63, 1931.

    Procellariiformes (Albatrosses, Fulmars, Shearwaters, Petrels)



    041      |      Vol_IV-0098                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Albatrosses

    ALBATROSSES, FULMARS, SHEARWATERS, PETRELS, AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order PROCELLARIIFORMES

           

    Family DIOMEDEIDEA, HYDROBATIDAE, PROCELLARIIDAE

            30. Albatross. See writeup.

            31. Atlantic Fulmar. A common name currently applied to Fulmarus glacialis

    glacialis , the subspecies of fulmar or fulmar petrel inhabiting the

    Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Sea north of the Atlantic. See Fulmar.

            32. Black-browed Albatross. See writeup.

            33. Black-footed Albatross. See writeup.

            34. Black Hagdon or Hagdown. A name used among sailors and fishermen for

    [ ?] the sooty shearwater ( Puffinus griseus ) ( q.v. ).

            35. British Storm Petrel. A name sometimes used for the storm or stormy

    petrel ( Hydrobates pelagicus ) ( q.v. ).

            36. Bulweria . See writeup.

            37. Bulwer’s Petrel. See Writeup.

            38. Common Shearwater. A general species name for Puffinus puffinus , the

    best-known geographical race of which is called the Manx shearwater

    ( P. puffinus puffinus ) ( q.v. ).

            39. Diomedae. See writeup.

            40. DIOMEDEIDEA. See writeup.

            41. Fork-tailed Petrel. See writeup.

            42. Fulmar or Fulmar Petrel. See writeup.

            43. Fulmarus. See writeup.

            44. Goony. A name loosely applied by seamen and fishermen to certain large

    oceanic birds, among them such procellariiform birds as the

    042      |      Vol_IV-0099                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Albatrosses, Fulmars, Shearwaters

    albatrosses and larger shearwaters, and such pelecaniform birds as

    the boobies and gannets.

            45. Greater Shearwater. See writeup.

            46. Hag, Hagdon, Hagdown, Haglet. A name used among fisherfolk and sailors

    for various middle-sized procellariiform birds, especially the

    shearwaters.

            47. Hydrobates . See writeup.

            48. HYDROBATIDAE. See writeup.

            49. Leach’s Petrel. See writeup.

            50. Manx Shearwater. See writeup.

            51. Mallemuck. Variety of mollymauk ( q.v. ).

            52. Mollymauk, Mollymawk, Mollymoke. See writeup.

            53. Mother Carey’s Chicken. See writeup.

            54. Muttonbird. A name applied more or less locally to certain procellari–

    form birds which are used as food, especially to the sooty shearwater

    ( Puffinus griseus ) in New Zealand, and to the slender-billed or short–

    tailed shearwater ( Puffinus tenuirostris ) in Bass Strait.

            55. Oceanites . See writeup.

            56. Oceanodroma . See writeup.

            57. Pacific Fulmar. A common name currently applied to Fulmarus glacialis

    rodgersii , the race of fulmar or fulmar petrel inhabiting the North

    Pacific and Arctic oceans.

            58. Pet r el. See writeup.

            59. Pink-footed Shearwater. See writeup.

            60. PROCELLARIIDAE. See writeup.

            61. PROCELLARIIFORMES . See writeup.

            62. Pterodroma. See writeup.

            63. Puffinus . See writeup.

            64. Scaled Petrel. See writeup.



    043      |      Vol_IV-0100                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Albatrosses

            65. Shearwater. See writeup.

            66. Short-tailed Albatross. See writeup.

            67. Short-tailed Shearwater. A name sometimes applied to the slender-billed

    shearwater ( Puffinus tenuirostris ) ( q.v. ).

            68. Slender-billed Shearwater. See writeup.

            69. Sooty Shearwater. See writeup.

            70. Storm or Stormy Petrel. See writeup.

            71. Whalebird. A name applied primarily to gregarious sea birds belonging to

    the procellariiform genus Pachyptila (formerly known as Prion ) of

    southern oceans, and characterized by their peculiar, broad laminate

    [ ?] bill. But the name whalebird is applied more or less locally in arctic

    and subarctic regions to certain other water birds, especially the

    slender-billed or short-tailed shearwater ( Puffinus tenuirostris ) and

    sooty shearwater ( P. griseus ) in North Pacific waters; the ivory gull

    ( Pagophila eburnea ) in Greenland waters; the ruddy turnstone ( Arenaria

    interpres morinella ) in Hudson Bay; and the red phalarope ( Phalaropus

    fulicarius     ) and northern phalarope ( Lobipes lobatus ) along the Labrador

    coast.

            72. Wilson’s Petrel. See writeup.



    044      |      Vol_IV-0101                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Albatross

            30. Albatross . Any of several large oceanic birds belonging to the order

    Procellariiformes and family Diomedeidae, and well known for their remarkable

    powers of flight. The most famous of all albatrosses are the wandering ( Dio –

    medea exulans ) and royal ( D. epomophora ), both of which inhabit southern seas.

    They are the largest sea birds known, as well as the largest of all flying

    birds, providing largeness be considered a matter of wingspread rather than

    of weight. The condors are heavier, but the albatrosses have the greater

    wingspread.

            The wandering and royal albatrosses are considerably the largest of the

    albatrosses; but albatrosses in general are larger than their numerous allies,

    the shearwaters, petrels, and Mother Carey’s chickens, the only other member

    of the order approaching them in size being the giant petrel or giant fulmar

    ( Macronectes giganteus ). All albatrosses have strong, hooked bills; very long,

    narrow wings; strong, webbed feet; and an odd smell. The tubes which enclose

    the nostrils are widely separated by the ridge (culmen) of the bill. There are

    13 species, most of which nest in the southern Hemisphere. Since they are

    large they do not nest in burrows, as many of the shearwaters and petrels do,

    but lay their single large egg in the open. Many pairs nest toge t her as a

    rule. Male and female birds share the duties of incubation and of feeding

    the young. The period of incubation is very long — as much as 60 days in

    some species; and the fledging of the young requires several more weeks.

            No albatross nests in arctic or subarctic regions, but the short-tailed

    albatross )( Diomedea albatrus ), which is now a very rare bird, formerly ranged

    northward into the Bering Sea when not breeding; the black-footed albatross

    ( D. nigripes ), which breed on certain North Pacific islands (northward to

    about lat. 30° N.), is sometimes abundant off the Aleutians and the coast

    045      |      Vol_IV-0102                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Albatross

    of Alaska; and several other albatrosses — notably the black-browed ( D. mela –

    nophris ), wandering ( D. exulans ), gray-headed ( D. chrysostoma ), and yellow–

    nosed ( D. chlororhynchos ), wander irregularly into northern seas.

            See Procellariiformes, Diomedeidae, Diomedea , Short-tailed Albatross,

    and Black-footed Albatross.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Alexander, W.B. Birds of the Ocean . N.Y., Lond., Putnam, 1938. 2. Knowlton, F.H., and Ridgway, Robert. Birds of the World . N.Y., Holt,

    1909, pp.107-10. 3. Murphy, R.C. “Birds of the high seas,” Nat.Geogr.Mag . vol.74, pp.226-51,

    1938. 4. - - - -. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of Natural

    History, 1936. Vol.1.

    046      |      Vol_IV-0103                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-browed Albatross.

            32. Black-browed Albatross . A large procellariiform bird, Diomedea

    melanophris , which breeds (egg dates from September to December) on South

    Georgia, the Falklands, Kerguelen, the Aucklands, Campbell, Ildefonso (off

    Chile), and other far-southern islands; has been called the commonest al–

    batross in the Southern Hemisphere; and wanders occasionally into northern

    seas. It has been recorded off Sukkertoppen, Greenland ( by Hørring and Salo–

    monsen), off Norway (Oslofjord), off England (Lynton), and at latitude

    80°11′ N. and longitude 4° E. in the ocean northwest of Spitsbergen (Hartert).

    For forty consecutive years a single black-browed albatross (presumably the

    same bird year after year) revisited the gannet colony on the Faeroes (see

    Andersen). In the opinion of Wynne-Edwards, this is the “longest survival

    record we have for the Procellariiformes.”

            The black-browed albatross is 32 to 34 inches long. Adults are white

    on the head, neck, rump, upper tail coverts and under parts (including all

    under wing coverts other than those at the edge), with a slaty streak through

    the eye; slaty-black back and tail; and dark-brown upper wing surface. The

    bill is yellow, with a black line around the base, and a rosy tip. The ffet

    are yellowish or pinkish white, washed with pale blue at the joints and on

    the webs (W. B. Alexander). In young birds the crown and back of the neck

    are suffused with slaty, the under-wing coverts are dark, and the bill is

    grayish black.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Alexander, W.B. Birds of the Ocean . N.Y., Lond., Putnam, 1928.

    047      |      Vol_IV-0104                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-browed Albatross

    2. Andersen, K. “ Diomedea melanophrys boende paa Faeroerne,” Vid. Medd .,

    pp.241-64, 1894. 3. Cobb, A.F. Birds of the Faulkland Islands . Lond., Witherby, 1933, pp.13-15. 4. Hartert, Ernst. Die Vögel der Paläarktischen Fauna . Berlin, Friedländer,

    1910-21. Vol.2, p.1442. 5. Hørring, Rich., and Finn Salomonsen. “Further records of rare or new Green–

    land birds,” Medd.Grønland , vol.131, pp.59-60, 1941. 6. Murphy, R.C. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936. Vol.2, pp.505-14. 7. Wynne-Edwards, V.C. “Intermittent breeding of the fulmar ( Fulmarus

    glacialis (L.)), with some general observations on non-breeding

    in sea-birds,” Zool.Soc.Lon. Proc . vol.109, ser. A, p.130, 1939.

    048      |      Vol_IV-0105                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-footed Albatross

            33. Black-footed Albatross . A large albatross, Di o medea nigripes , believed

    to inhabit the North Pacific exclusively. Among searing folk it is known as the

    goony. It breeds on several widely separated islands, the most northward of

    which are, apparently, Tori Shima in the Seven Islands of Izu (Izu Shichito)

    and certain islands of the Volcano and Bonin group. When not breeding, it

    ranges northward regularly as far as the Kurils and Aleutians, the southern

    part of the Bering Sea, and Bristol Bay, Alaska. The southern limits of its

    journeying have not been very well worked out. It may occasionally wander

    south of the equator.

            It is about the size of a barnyard goose (28 inches long). Adults are

    sooty brown, darkest on the wings, scapulars, and tail, with more or less ex–

    tensive white areas on the forehad and face, directly below the eyes, and on

    the lower belly and under tail coverts. Young birds are similar, but have more

    white on the crown and sides of the head, and the rump and upper tail coverts

    are white, or white mottled with brown (Alexander). Both adult and young are

    dark-billed and dark-footed. For differences between young black-footed and

    young short-tailed albatrosses, see Short-tailed Albatross.

            Various authors have discussed the black-footed albatross’ following of

    vessels for food, but little has been reported in detail concerning its

    “natural” food. Animal life is known to be exceedingly abundant in waters

    just off the Aleutians, and the squids and pelagic crabs which have been

    founds in black-footed albatross stomachs probably are among the food items

    commonly eaten there.

            On its breeding ground the black-footed albatross performs a strange court–

    ship dance which the sailors call a “cake walk.” The pairs fence with their

    bills, making thereby a whetting sound, bow, point their beaks straight upward,

    049      |      Vol_IV-0106                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-footed Albatross

    clap their mandibles loudly, groan, and sometimes life their wings as they

    prance about facing one another. The nest is a mere hollow in the sand,

    without even a rim. There is but one egg, which is white, “boldly and

    handsomely splasht with dark brownish red, in some forming a cap or wreath

    about one end, usually the larger” (Richards). Both sexes incubate. The

    incubation period is about six weeks. Fledging requires about six months.

            While flying, all the albatrosses are usually silent. While quarreling

    over food among themselves, however, black-footed albatrosses give a “whir–

    ring groan.” On their nesting grounds they are vociferous at times. A char–

    acteristic cry ends with “a sound like the stroke of a bell under water or

    deep within the bird’s stomach” (Dill).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Alexand d e r, W.B. Birds of the Ocean . N.Y., Lond., Putnam, 1928, p.22. 2. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.1-5, 1922. 3. Dill, H.R., and Bryan, W.A. Report of an Expedition to Laysan Island

    in 1911 . Wash., G.P.O., 1912, p.17, U.S.Bur. of Biological

    Survey. Bull . no.42. 4. Richards, T.W. “Nesting of Diomedea nigripes and D. immutabilis on

    Midway Islands,” Condor , vol.11, pp.122-23, 1909. 5. Yocom, Charles. “Notes on behavior and abundance of the Black-footed

    Albatrosses in the Pacific waters off the continental North

    American shores,” Auk , vol.64, pp.507-23, 1947.

    050      |      Vol_IV-0107                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bulweria

            36. Bulweria . A genus of the petrel family (Procellariidae), very

    closely related to Pterodroma , but considerably smaller than most species of

    that genus and with proportionately smaller (weaker) feet and longer tail. The

    nasal tubes are on top of the bill and the external openings of the nostrils

    are two distinct round holes. There are two species, Bulweria bulwerii ,

    which breeds on islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and wanders

    occasionally into subarctic waters; and B. macgillivrayi , which is known only

    from the type (from Ngau, Fiji Islands).

            Bulweria appears to be a sort of connecting link between the Mother Carey’s

    chickens or storm petrels (family Hydrobatidae) and the larger Petrels (family

    Procellariidae). Its brownish-black color is very much like that of most Mother

    Carey’s chickens, but it is larger than any species of that group and it differs

    from them in having a long, cuneiform tail, small (weak) feet, and definitely

    separated nostril openings.

            See Bulwer’s Petrel.

            37. Bulwer’s Petrel . A rather small species, Bulweria bulwerii , which

    bears a strong superficial resemblance to the storm petrels or Mother Carey’s

    chickens (family Hydrobatidae), but is somewhat larger than the largest of them

    and different in that the nostril openings are well separated; the tail is rather

    long and definitely cuneiform rather than square, slightly rounded, or forked;

    and the feet are small and weak, the tarsus being only about as long as the toes.

    It is 10 to 11 inches long and sooty black all over, somewhat paler and grayer

    on the chin and greater wing coverts, but without a definite ruptive marking of

    any sort. The bill is black, the feet flesh-colored, with black outer toe and

    webs (Alexander).



    051      |      Vol_IV-0108                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Diomedea

            Bulwer’s petrel is found in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. It breeds

    on numerous islands and island-groups including the Bonins, Volcano Islands,

    Marquesas and western Hawaiians, as well as the Azores, Cape Verdes, Canary

    Islands, Salvages, and Madeira. According to Alexander ( Birds of the Ocean ,

    1928, p. 43) it is rarely seen at sea. In its migrations it wanders occa–

    sionally into subarctic waters. A specimen from Greenland is in the Leiden

    Museum.

            39. Diomedea . A genus of the Diomedeidae, or albatross family, consist–

    ing of 11 species, several of which have from time to time been placed in other

    genera currently considered synonyms of Diomedea . Two species are extremely

    large (with winspread of 10 to 11 feet), the others being considerably smaller

    but large in comparison with all other procellariiform birds except the giant

    fulmar ( Macronectes giganteus ). The genus is characterized by squareness of

    tail, the only other genus of the family, Phoebetria (sooty albatrosses), having

    a wedge-shaped and proportionately much longer tail.

            Of the eleven specie of Diomedea, eight nest exclusively in the Southern

    Hemisphere, three in the Northern (North Pacific). No species inhabits the

    North Atlantic today, but a fossil form, D. anglica , has been reported from the

    lower Pliocene of Europe. No species migrates regularly into arctic waters,

    but two of the three species which nest in the North Pacific — the short-tailed

    ( D. albatrus ) and the black-footed ( D. nigripes ) — wander more or less regularly

    into the Bering Sea, possibly even beyond the Diomedes, when not breeding, and

    several other species, including the black-browed ( D. melanophris ), wandering

    ( D. exulans ), yellow-nosed ( D. chlororhynchos ), and gray-headed ( D. chrysostoma ),

    have been recorded from time to time in northern seas.

            References:

    1. Hartert, Ernst. “Types of birds in the Tring Museum. B. Types in general

    collection. VII. (Turbinares.),” Novitates Zool . vol.33, no.3, pp.344-46, 1926. 2. ----. Die Vögel der Paläarktischen Fauna. Berling, Friedländer, 1910-21.

    vol.2, pp.1438-43. 3. Murphy, R.D. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of Natural

    History, 1936. vol.1, p.491.

    052      |      Vol_IV-0109                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Diomedea and Diomedeidae

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

            1. Hartert, Ernst. “Types of birds in the Tring Museum. B. Types in general

    collection. VII. (Turbinares.),” Novitates Zool . vol.33, no.3,

    pp.344-46, 1926.

            2. ----. Die Vögel der Paläarktischen Fauna. Berling, Friedländer, 1910-21.

    vol.2, pp.1438-43.

            Murphy, R.D. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936. vol.1, p.491.

            40. Diomedeidae . The procellariiform family of birds to which all the

    albatrosses of the world belong. They are a comparatively uniform group of 13

    species, all of which are large (28 to 40 inches long from tip of bill to tip

    of tail), heavy billed (bill as long as head, or longer), very long winged, and

    strong legged (the feet are webbed and there are but three toes). They are

    unlike other procellariiform birds in that the nostril tubes are distinctly

    separated by the ridge (culmen) of the bill. The wings are very narrow. One

    of the largest albatrosses has a wingspread of 10 to 11 feet, yet the wing of

    that species is only about 9 inches deep. The great wingspread, which results

    from elongation of the inner wing bones (ulna and radius) demands an increase

    in the number of secondary feathers, there being about 40 of these in an alba–

    torss’ wing. All albatrosses stand upright and walk well, but they sometimes

    have difficulty in[?] rising in flight from land unless they can leap from [ ?] a ledge

    or run for some distance into the wind.

            Two general are currently recognized — Diomedea , with 11 species and

    Phoebetria , with 2 species. Diomedea has a proportionately short, squarish

    tail, and is found in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere; w h ile

    053      |      Vol_IV-0110                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Diomedeidae and Fork-tailed Petrel

    Phoebetria has a proportionately longer, wedge-shaped tail, and is found

    only in the Southern Hemisphere. The albatrosses are far from cosmopolitan

    today, though they wander widely. There is no species either with a tropical

    or with a North Atlantic habitat. A species of Diomedea has, however, been

    reported from the Unterpliozän (lower Pliocene) of Europe (Lambrecht, 1933,

    Handbuch der Palaeornithologie , Berlin, 1933, pp.273-274), so the range of

    the family may have been more extensive in earlier times.

            No albatross occurs regularly in arctic waters, though the short-tailed

    albatross ( Diomedea albatrus ), which is now extremely rare, once bred on cer–

    tain North Pacific islands (north to about lat. 30° N.), and when not nesting

    wandered as far northward as the Komandorski Islands, the Diomedes, and the

    coast of Alaska (Norton Sound); the black-footed albatross ( D. nigripes ),

    which breeds on certain Pacific islands, wanders northward when not breeding

    to Kamchatka, the Kurils and Aleutians, and the coast of Alaska; and the black–

    browed albatross ( D. melanophris ) and yellow-nosed albatross ( D. chlororhynchos )

    wander well northward occasionally, the former having been recorded off Green–

    land, England, Norway, and Spitsbergen and for 40 consecutive years on the

    Fareores; the latter off Maine and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. See PROCELLARII–

    FORMES, Albatross, Diomedea , Short-tailed Albatross, Black-footed Albatross, and

    Black-browed Albatross.

            41. Fork-tailed Petrel . A small procellariiform bird, Oceanodroma furcata ,

    of the North Pacific Ocean. It is one of the so-called Mother Carey’s chickens

    (family Hydrobatidae). On Copper Island, in the Komandorski group, it is known

    as the sturmofka . It is about 8 inches long, and is a beautiful pearl gray all

    over save for the whitish edgings of the wing coverts, a small black area below

    the eye, the white of the throat and under tail covers, [ ?] and the grayish black

    054      |      Vol_IV-0111                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fork-tailed Petrel

    of the under wing coverts and axillary feathers. The tail, which is deeply

    forked, is gray, darker toward the tip, and edged with white.

            The fork-tailed petrel ranges northward to, and slightly beyond, the

    Arctic Circle. It breeds on the Kuril, Komandorski, and Aleutian Islands

    (east as far as Sanak), and along the North American mainland from extreme

    southeastern Alaska to Washington, Oregon, and northern California. After

    breeding it wanders northward through the Bering Sea, occasionally past

    the Diomedes and into Kotzebue Sound, thus reaching latitudes much higher

    than those regularly attained by the Wilson’s petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus )

    in the North Atlantic (the northern limit for that species is about lat.

    50° N.), and a little higher than those attained by the Leach’s petrel ( Ocean –

    odroma leucorhoa ) and storm petrel ( Hydrobates pelagicus ), both of which

    breed on Vestmannaeyjar, off southern Iceland. The Leach’s petrel also

    breeds in the North Pacific, almost side by side with the fork-tailed

    petrel, but so far as is known it does not visit Kotzebue Sound.

            The fork-tailed petrel nests in burrows on turfy, sloping ground on the

    treeless Aleutians; among rocks on Copper Island in the Komandorskis; and

    in the soil under huge firs and hemlocks on islands off southeastern Alaska.

    Off the Oregon coast it nests on Arch Rocks. It breeds in June and July.

    The single egg is white, sometimes wreathed with fine brown dots at the

    larger end. Both sexes incubate. At is nesting colonies it is never evi–

    dent by day unless dug from its burrow, but at night the air is filled with

    the “soft twittering notes” of the birds as they leave their nests or return

    from the sea.

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American [ ?] petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.132-37, 1922. 2. Grinnell, Joseph. “Petrels of Alaska,” Nidologist, vol.4, p.76, 1897. 3. Stejneger, L.H. Results of Ornithological Explorations in the Commander

    Islands and in Kamtschatka . Wash., G.P.O., 1885, pp.98-99.

    U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.29.

    055      |      Vol_IV-0112                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Fork-tailed Petrel and Fulmar

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American [ ?] petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.132-37, 1922.

            2. Grinnell, Joseph. “Petrels of Alaska,” Nidologist, vol.4, p.76, 1897.

            3. Stejneger, L.H. Results of Ornithological Explorations in the Commander

    Islands and in Kamtschatka . Wash., G.P.O., 1885, pp.98-99.

    U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.29.

            42. Fulmar or Fulmar Petrel . A well-known procellariiform bird, Fulmarus

    glacialis , found only in the Northern Hemisphere. Collett and Nansen reported

    it from latitude 85°05′ N., “the most northerly point attained by any species

    of birds” (Pleske). Darwin, in his Origin of Species considered the fulmar the

    most abundant bird in the world. It is the only species of the entire order

    Procellariiformes which nests regularly and commonly northward to and far beyond

    the Arctic Circle. It is holarctic in distribution, but its breeding range is

    far from continous, since it nests only on cliffs and the tops of high, rocky

    islands or promontories close to the sea. It does not require borrows, deep fis–

    sures, or crevices for its nesting, hence has established itself on bold-faced

    headlands which are wholly without turf or vegetation It is well known to the

    Eskimos, who call it the kakoodlook or kakordluk . According to Hantzsch, this

    word means “poor (or dubious) white, on account of the soiled coloring.” On

    the Komandorski Islands the bird is called the glupisch (Stejneger). In Scan–

    dinavian countries it is known as the mallemuk , transfugl , stormfugl , and havhest ;

    in Germany as the eissturmvogel . Off the coast of Massachusetts the fishermen

    call it the Marbleheader, oilbird, noddy, and stinker. The last is a distant

    equaivalent of the word fulmar itself, which is said to be a contraction of

    foulmart (stinking marten, or pole cat).



    056      |      Vol_IV-0113                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fulmar

            The geographical races of the fulmar are currently recognized. The

    nominate race, which is known as the Atlantic fulmar, breeds in the North At–

    lantic and Arctic oceans from Devon Island, Baffin Island, [ ?] and Greenland east–

    ward to Iceland, the Faeroes and British Isles, the coast of Norway, Spits–

    bergen, Bear Island, Jan Mayen, the Franz Josef Archipelago, Novaya Zemlya,

    and Lonely Island ( u U edinenia) in the Kara Sea. Throughout this whole area

    it is a familiar bird even in waters far removed from the breeding cliffs

    proper. It has been seen irregularly at all seasons along the Murman coast

    and Kanin Peninsula, and about Kolguev and Jan Mayen. In the New World it

    has been seen in the Arctic Archipelago as far west as Banks Island (Nelson

    Head and Cape Kellett), but no breeding colony has been discovered in that

    area. Handley did not encounter it about Prince Patrick Island. The southern

    limits of its breeding range are somewhat doubtful. There is a large colony

    at Cape Searle on the east coast of Baffin Island, and the bird may nest on

    the Buttons, at the eastern entrance to Hudson Strait. It has been seen in

    summer well southward along the Labrador coast and off southern England. During

    the last century it has increased its breeding range widely. It established

    itself on the Faeroes between 1816 and 1839. Before 1878 it was not known to

    nest anywhere about the British Isles except on St. Kilda. In Norway it was

    first recorded as a breeding species in 1924 (see Fisher and Waterston). It

    winters from the northern limit of open water off northern Labrador, east–

    central Greenland, Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, and northern Norway to the Grand

    Banks of Newfoundland, Georges Bank off Massachusetts, and the north coast

    of France.

            The Pacific fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis rodgersii ) nests on the coasts

    057      |      Vol_IV-0114                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fulmar

    of Kamchatka and eastern Siberia; on the Kuril and Komandorski Islands; on

    Wrangel Island and Herald Island in the Arctic Sea; on St. Matthew, St. Law–

    rence, Hall, and the Pribilofs in the Bering Sea; on the Semidi and Seal

    Islands, respectively, to the south and north of the Alaska Peninsula; and

    on Chagulak in the Aleutian Chain. No race of fulmar nests on Preobnazhnie

    (now Begichev) Island or on the “gull rocks” of the New Siberian Archipelago

    (Pleske). The Pacific fulmar winters from the Aleutians south to Sakhalin,

    Japan, and Baja California.

            The fulmar is a good-sized, chunky, somewhat gull-like bird about 20

    inches long. It has two color phases, a light and a dark (or a “white” and

    a gray). Gray birds are not nearly so common as “white” ones as a rule. The

    incidence of gray birds is said to be much higher on the American side of the

    North Atlantic than on the European, but even where they are commonest they

    “probably make up not more than one in twenty of the whole population” ( [ ?] Murphy ).

    Light-phased birds are white on the head, neck and under parts (including the

    under-wing coverts), and pearl gray on the mantle, rump, upper-tail coverts

    and tail, with a small dusky spot in front of the eye, and a pale spot on the

    upper surface of the wing toward the tip. Dark-phased birds are ashy gray all

    over. Some gray birds are noticeably darker than others and between the dark–

    est gray birds and the palest “white” ones there is every conceivable stage of

    intermediacy. In dark birds the bill is dusky, sometimes tinged with bluish-,

    greenish-, or yellowish-gray. In light birds it is dull yellow, washed with

    blue at the base of the upper mandible and with black on the nostril tubes.

    The feet are pale flesh color or grayish flesh, the eyes dark brown, almost

    black.



    058      |      Vol_IV-0115                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fulmar

            In flight the fulmar is quite dinstinctive. When gliding, it holds its

    wings rather stiffly, almost exactly at right angles to the vertical axis of

    the body, and the wings, back, rump, and tail in almost exactly the same

    plane, with the top of the head definitely above that plane (see photographs

    in British Birds 8: 230 and 232). It moves forward steadily in a series of

    smooth glides which are punctuated with three to five slow wing beats. In

    high wind it may rise suddenly and shoot off to one side with amazing speed.

    At times it barely skims the waves, with one wing almost touching the water,

    the other well above it, as if the air pressure between the moving water and

    the moving bird actually held it in position without the slightest effort on

    the part of the bird. Its flight, even when the wings are flapping, seems to

    be quite noiseless. This is probably the result of the softness of the feather

    edges.

            The fulmar is, like most procellariiform birds aside from the albatrosses,

    plantigrade. In alighting at its nest it waddles and shuffles about until it

    reaches and covers the egg. Alighting on the ice, it promptly sinks to its

    belly, or shifts about until it finds a comfortable spot, and squats. In leav–

    ing the nest, it usually has but to rise and push itself from the ledge with

    wings spread; from the ice it rises momentarily to its toes and springs di–

    rectly, if a trible awkwardly, into flight. In some respects its behavior

    is very different from that of its relative at the opposite end of the world —

    the giant fulmar ( Macronectes giganteus ), which is not only much larger, but

    also very strong-legged and strictly digitigrade.

            Fulmars are famous for their voracity. William Macgillivray, in his

    History of British Birds (1852), gives a vivid account of the behavior of

    the gluttonous birds about a whaling vessel. I have myself watched great

    059      |      Vol_IV-0116                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fulmar

    numbers of them as they hungrily followed our ship along the Labrador coast

    and in Hudson Strait. In 1926, when returning from Cape Wolstenhome in a

    schooner which had lost its propeller, hence was proceeding wholly under

    sail, I made good use of my time in collecting and skinning fulmars. We

    picked the birds from the water with long-handled scoop-nets. The hold, in

    which I did my skinning, my stateroom (such as it was), my clothes, my com–

    panions, in fact the whole schooner, stank of fulmar for weeks the quiet

    beauty of the birds as they wheeled about the vessel never failed to impress

    me. Almost never did I hear a vocal sound from them, or a rustle from their

    wings.

            The fulmar is a silent bird much of the time, but the noise of a feeding

    flock can be “almost deafening” (Morris). Collins has described the note as

    a “chuckling sound somewhat resembling a low grunt.”

            The fulmar may make a slight nest out of moss or grass, but usually it

    lays its single egg on the bare rock or earth. The egg is white, often nest–

    stained, and rather rough-shelled. Nesting sometimes starts so early that the

    eggs are laid directly on the ice. Pleske states that in the Far North egg–

    laying probably takes place “about the end of May or in the first days of

    June.” Both the male and female incubate. The period of incubation has been

    estimated at 6 to 8 weeks or even 60 days (Witherby). The newly hatched young

    is covered with thick, long white down which clings to the incoming feathers

    in a sort of mat until the bird has reached almost full size. The young bird

    is fed on regurgitated food, at least part of which is an amber-colored,

    malodorous, oily fluid. Wynne-Edwards has expressed belief that the fulmar

    does not breed annually. On Jan Mayen, where the species breed in great num–

    bers and is comparatively nonmigratory, it feeds on shrimps ( Hymenodora ),

    060      |      Vol_IV-0117                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fulmar

    small cuttle fish, sand eels ( Ammodytes ), and a clupeoid fish. On this island

    the fulmar is the sole food of the arctic fox (see G. C. and E. G. Bird).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.31-46, 1922. 2. Bird, G.C., and Bird, E.G. “The birds of Jan Mayen Island,” Ibis , ser.13,

    vol.5, p.846, 1935. 3. Collett, Robert, and Nansen, Fridtjof. “An account of the birds,” Nansen,

    Fridtjof, ed. The Norwegian North Polar Expedition 1893-1896 .

    Scientific Results . Lond., N.Y., Longmans, Green, 1900, vol.1,

    no.4, p.50. 4. Darling, F.F. Wild Country . Cambridge, Eng, University Press, 1938,

    pp.11-19. 5. Fisher, James, and Waterston, George. “The breeding distribution, history

    and population of the fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis ) in the British

    Isles,” J.Animal Ecol . vol.10 no.2, pp.204-72, Nov., 1941. 6. Hantzsch, Bernard. “Contribution to the knowledge of the avifauna of north–

    eastern Labrador,” Canad.Field Nat . vol.42, p.172, Oct., 1928. 7. Koenig, A.F. Avifauna Spitzbergensis . Bonn, Druck von W. Büxenstein, 1911,

    pp.204-206. 8. Kumlien, Ludwig. “Contributions to the natural history of arctic America,

    made in connection with the Howgate Polar Expedition, 1877-78,”

    U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.15, pp.101-102, 1879. 9. Macgillivray, William. History of British Birds . London, 1837-52. 5 vol. 10. Murphy, R.C. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936. 2 vol. 11. Pike, O.B. “Notes on the habits of the Fulmar Petrel,” British Birds , vol.8,

    pp.230, 232, June, 1914-May, 1915. 12. Pleske, Theodore. “Birds of the Eurasian tundra,” Boston Soc.Nat.Hist. Mem .

    vol.6, no.3, pp.107-485, Apr., 1928. 13. Stejneger, L.H. Results of Ornithological Explorations in the Commander

    Islands and in Kamtschatka. Wash., G.P.O., 1885, p.95. U.S.Nat.Mus.

    Bull . no.29. 14. Witherby, H.F. Handbook of British Birds . London, Witherby, 1942, vol.2, p.445. 15. Wynne-Edwards, V.C. “Intermittent breeding of the fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis

    (L.)), with some general observations on non-breeding in sea-birds,”

    Zool.Soc.Lond. Proc . vol.109, ser.A, pp.127-32, 1939.

    061      |      Vol_IV-0118                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fulmar

            43. Fulmarus . A monotypic genus of the family Procellariidae (petrels)

    found only in the Northern Hemisphere, yet morphologically similar to the mono–

    typic genera Macronectes (giant fulmar or giant petrel), Daption (Cape Pigeon

    or p [ ?] tado petrel), Priocella (silver-gray fulmar), and Halobaena (blue petrel) of the

    Southern Hemisphere. It is the only genus of the entire order Procellariiformes

    which is known to breed northward to and well beyond the Arctic Circle. A fossil

    Fulmarus has been reported from the Miocene of Maryland (Wetmore) and Fulmarus

    glacialis has been reported from the Pleistocene of California.

            Fulmarus is a rather large gull-like bird with slightly rounded tail of

    14 rectrices; a compressed, thin, short tarsus (shorter than the toes); and

    nostrils in a high tube on top of the bill, but divided at the opening by a thin

    membrane. The bill is short and wide at the base, much compressed at the tip,

    the upper mandible being strongly hooked, the lower rounded to fit along the cut–

    ting edge, but sharply angled below at the tip, possibly to add to the structure’s

    rigidity and pulling power.

            In coloration the genus is curiously variable — some adults being white

    throughout the head and under parts, gray otherwise; others being gray all over;

    others showing every possible stage of intermediacy between the two. Wholly

    white birds, which are rare, may be albinos.

            The genus is holarctic in distribution. It breeds on some of the most

    northern land, including north Greenland, Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, the Franz Josef

    Archipelago, and Novaya Zemlya, but its breeding range is highly discontin u ous,

    for it does not nest along flat coa s ts. In winter it has been recorded in the

    Atlantic as far south as latitu t de 43° N., and in the Pacific as far south as

    about latitude 30° N. (see Peters).

            See Fulmar Petrel.

            References:

    1. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass., Harvard

    Univ. Press, 1931. Vol.1, p.47. 2. Wetmore, Alexander. “Observations on fossil birds described from the Miocene

    of Maryland,” Auk , vol.43, pp.464-65, Oct., 1926.

    062      |      Vol_IV-0119                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fulmarus and Greater Shearwater

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

            1. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass., Harvard

    Univ. Press, 1931. Vol.1, p.47.

            2. Wetmore, Alexander. “Ob s ervations on fossil birds described from the Mio–

    cene of Maryland,” Auk , vol.43, pp.464-65, Oct., 1926.

            45. Greater Shearwater . A rather large procellariiform bird, Puffinus

    gravis     , which breeds in the South Atlantic but migrates regularly to the North

    Atlantic during the northern summer. A l m ong Labrador “liveyers” it is commonly

    called the hag, hagdon, or hagdown. Although it does not wander north of the

    Arctic Circle, it is sometimes exceedingly common just south of the Circle,

    especially off the coast of south Greenland, along the Labrador coast, and on

    the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. Its abundance off the coast of South Caro–

    lina was dramatically attested during the hurricane of August 26-27, 1893, when

    “countless numbers” were found dead along the beach of Long Island, near Sulli–

    van’s Island (Wayne). The species was originally described from a specimen ob–

    tained not far from Cape Farewell, Greenland (O’Reilly). The sailors of

    O’Reilly’s vessel called the bird the Cape hen.

            In migrating from its South Atlantic breeding ground, the greater shear–

    water crosses the tropics with great rapidity, presumably because of the

    scarcity of food there. It moves northward through the western half of the

    North Atlantic, spreading out when it reaches the 45th parallel, reaching Davis

    Strait in early June, and appearing off the east coast of south Greenland at

    about the same time. It moves farther eastward as summer advances, at the same

    time becoming more and more common at high latitudes. In the first two weeks

    of August it passes east of a line between Ireland and the Azores (Wynne-Edwards).



    063      |      Vol_IV-0120                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Greater Shearwater

            The greater shearwater is 18 to 21 inches long with a bill about 2 to 2-1/2

    inches long (measuring base to tip diagonally along the clumen). It is brown

    above, darker on the wings and tail, and still darker on the top of the head.

    The white of the foreneck almost forms a collar, and the longer upper coverts

    are tipped with white, forming a patch or bar. The lower half of the head and

    the under parts are white, save for the lower belly and middle under-tail

    coverts, which are sooty brown. The under-wing coverts are white flecked with

    brown. The bill is dark horn color. The feet are dull bronish gray (lighter

    on the inner surface of the tarsus) with flesh-colored webs.

            In the water the greater shearwater is a rather sluggish bird, given to

    sleeping after it has eaten heavily. In rising from the surface it faces the

    wind, and if there is no wind it flaps rather ponderously while paddling alter–

    nately with its feet. In full flight it is the very embodiment of grace —

    especially in a storm when, soaring swiftly up the side of a mountainous

    wave, it barely misses the white, wind-torn crest, and slips effortlessly down

    into the yawning trough. It is possessed of a ravenous appetite and sometimes

    eats so much that it cannot rise from the water without vomiting. Occasionally,

    when a vessel bears down, it seeks escape through diving. It dives rather

    well, and even swims under water.

            It nests on certain islands of the Tristan da Cunha group, laying a single

    white egg in burrows which it digs on hillsides. The height of the egg-laying

    season is November. Both sexes incubate the egg and care for the young. On

    May 21, 1922 Sir Hubert Wilkins found this shearwater on Nightingale and In–

    accessible. Between 10 A.M. and 5 A.M. very few birds were in evidence, but

    at night they flocked in by the hundred. A few, which croaked as they lay in

    their burrows, were captured. The sex organs of these specimens were not

    064      |      Vol_IV-0121                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Greater Shearwater

    enlarged, and Wilkins found no eggs in the burrows. As Murphy points out,

    May 21 is close to the average date of arrival for the species off the At–

    lantic coast of the United States.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.65-71, 1922. 2. Brockhuysen, G.J. “Observations on the Great Shearwater in the breeding-season,

    British Birds , vol.41, pp.338-41, 1948. 3. Murphy, R.C. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936. Vol.2, pp.660-64. 4. O’Reilly, Bernard. Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-West

    Passage to the Pacific Ocean . Lond., Baldwin, Craddock and

    Joy, 1818, pp.140-41, and plate 12. 5. Wayne, A.T. “Effect of the great cyclone of August 26-27 upon certain

    [ ?] species of birds,” Auk , vol.11, p.85, Jan., 1894. 6. Wilk e i ns, G.H. “Report on the birds collected during the voyage of the

    ‘Quest’ (Shackleton-Rowett Expedition) to the southern

    Atlantic,” Ibis , ser.11, vol.5, no.3, p.499, July, 1923. 7. Wynne-Edwards, V.C. “On the habits and distribution of birds of the north

    Atlantic,” Boston Soc.Nat.Hist. Proc . vol.40, p.255, 1935.

           

    # # # # #

            47. Hydrobates . The monotypic procellariiform genus to which the true

    storm or stormy petrel ( H. pelagicus ) belongs. It is most closely related to

    Oceanodroma , but the tail is square or slightly rounded (rather than forked)

    and slightly less than half (rather than more than half) as long as the wing.

    The tarsus is only a little longer than the middle toe with its claw. Accord–

    ing to some authors, the tarsus is “divided into scutes” in front; but this

    probably is not a very strong character, for the scales, while proportionately

    065      |      Vol_IV-0122                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hydrobates and Hydrobatidae

    (if not actually) larger than in Oceanodroma , are less distinct, and the gen–

    eral effect they create is, as in Oceanodroma , of reticulation rather than

    scutellation.

            The down-covered chick of Hydrobates has a bald spot on its crown. This

    may be a valid generic character. The genus ranges throughout the eastern

    North Atlantic, breeding locally from islands of the western Mediterranean

    northward to small islands off the British Isles, the coast of Norway (Lofo–

    ten), and southern Iceland (Vestmann Islands), and ranging, when not breeding,

    westward to waters off the coasts of Nova Scotia, Labrador, and (occasion–

    ally) Greenland; eastward to the Red Sea; and southward to the coasts of

    tropical western Africa.

            See Storm or Stormy Petrel, Mother Carey’s Chicken and Hydrobatidae.

            48. Hydrobatidae . The procellariiform family to which the storm petrels,

    or Mother Carey’s chickens, belong. They are a fairly uniform group of small,

    web-footed, long-winged oceanic birds with sooty black, balck-and white, or

    gray-and-white plumage. They differ from other members of the order Procellari–

    iformes (a) structurally, in that the external opening of the nostrils is in

    a single tube on top of the bill; and (b) in behavior, in that they have a

    swallow-like, fluttering flight. Almost invariably they feed awing, and

    they use their feet so much that they appear to be running on the water.

            The family Hydrobatidae (subfamily Hydrobatinae of some authors) is a

    group of about 25 species belonging to the general Oceanites, Pelagodroma ,

    Nesofregetta, Garrodia, Hydrobates, Oceanodroma , and Halocyptena . So diverse

    is the year-round distribution of these birds that the family as a whole

    cannot be called “southern,” or “northern,” or “tropical.” Some species

    seem to be restricted to ocean areas throughout which the physical

    066      |      Vol_IV-0123                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hydrobatidae

    characteristics of the surface water are the same; but other range over

    waters which must vary greatly. Thus the Wilson’s petrel ( Oceanites oceani –

    cus ) nests in the Antarctic — even on the Antarctic continent itself — and

    travels annually northward across the tropics to subarctic seas. Several

    species are confined to waters off the west coast of the New World. One

    species, the stormy petrel ( Hydrobates pelagicus ), is principal o l y an eastern

    North Atlantic bird, but when not nesting it wanders to the Red Sea and the

    coasts of tropical West Africa.

            The storm petrels have similar nesting habits. All of them lay their

    single egg in a burrow. Males and r f emales are believed to share the duties

    of incubation, but it has been pointed out (a) that males have been taken

    on the nest more frequently than females and (b) that the brood patch is

    larger or more definite in males than in females, so the male may assume

    most of these domestic duties. The period of incubation is very long —

    38 to 40 days in Hydrobates pelagicus (stormy petrel) and 39 to 48 days in

    Oceanites oceanicus (Wilson’s petrel) — and fledging of the young requires

    several weeks more. The newly hatched young is covered with extremely dense,

    soft down, some of which adheres to the tips of the incoming firm plumage

    until the very eve of departure from the burrow.

            No member of the Hydrobatidae is exclusively northern in distribution

    as is the fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis ), but four species are arctic in a

    limited sense — the stormy petrel, which nests in the eastern North Atlantic

    as far north as south Iceland; the Leach’s petrel ( Oceanodroma leucorhoa ),

    which nests northward to the Kurils, Komandorskis, Aleutians, and coasts of

    Alaska in the Pacific, and to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, southern Greenland,

    067      |      Vol_IV-0124                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hydrobatidae and Leach’s Petrel

    south Iceland, and the Faeroes in the Atlantic; the wide-ranging Wilson’s

    petrel, which breeds in antarctic regions and migrates northward to subarctic

    waters; and the fork-tailed petrel ( Oceanodroma furcata ), which nests on the

    Komandorski and Aleutians Island and along the west coast of North America

    from southern Alaska to northern California and after breeding wanders north–

    ward, some individuals moving through Bering Strait into Kotzbue Sound.

            See Hydrobates , Oceanites , Oceanodroma , Stormy Petrel, Leach’s Petrel,

    Wilson’s Petrel, Fork-tailed Petrel, and Mother Carey’s Chicken.

            49. Leach’s Petrel . A small procellariiform bird, Oceanodroma leucorhoa ,

    belonging to the family Hydrobatidae (storm petrels or Mother Carey’s chickens).

    It [ ?] is about eight inches long, and is sooty brown all over save for the boldly

    white upper tail coverts, grayish brown wing coverts, and a few white feathers

    on the flanks. The tail is deeply forked . The wings are noticeably longer

    than those of the stormy petrel ( Hydrobates pelagicus ) and Wilson’s petrel

    ( Oceanites oceanicus ), and the white of the upper tail coverts does not form

    a triangular or square white patch, because the dark middle feathers almost

    divide it. The flight of these three Mother Carey’s chickens is quite differ–

    ent. That of the stormy petrel has been described as “batlike”; that of

    Wilson’s petrel as “swallow-like”; that of Leach’s petrel as “night jar-like.”

            Leach’s petrel has a very wide range. It breeds in the North Pacific

    and North Atlantic and migrates southward to the coasts of Japan, Mexico,

    Brazil, and Sierra Leone (occasionally to the Galapagos and the Cape of Good

    Hope). It breeds northward to the Kur i ls, Komandorskis, Aleutians, Newfound–

    land, southern Labrador, southern Greenland, southern Iceland, the Faeroes,

    and the British Isles. It nests from May to August (and probably later), lay–

    ing its single egg in a burrow in the turf. Murphy has called attention to

    068      |      Vol_IV-0125                                                                                                                  
    EA - Orn. Sutton: Leach’s Petrel

    the remarkable state of affairs which exists among the petrels of the Newfound–

    land and New England costs in June and July. There the nonbreeding Wilson’s

    petrel, whose nesting ground is thousands of miles to the south, flutters

    about in the bays and coves for all to see, while the Leach’s petrel, which

    is nesting by the thousands in the immediate vicinity, is never seen at all

    because it comes and goes wholly under cover of night!

            The nest burrow is excavated entirely by the male. It is about 3 feet

    long and may extend as much as 16 inches below ground. When the females come

    to the breeding ground at night the males call from the burrows, and the

    females answer from the air; the birds are attracted to each other, and copula–

    tion finally takes place. The egg is white, sometimes wreathed at the larger

    end with fine brown dots. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is 42

    to perhaps 50 days, and fledging requires 6 to 7 weeks more (Gross). Several

    interesting accounts have been written of the noctural activities of the birds

    on their nesting grounds. Audubon described the call note of the incubating

    bird as a gentle peur-wit . Frank M. Chapman heard at Bird Rock “a distinctly

    enunciated call of eight notes with a certain crowing quality.” The cry o f

    the flying bird has been imitated as Got any terbacker ? or as Johnny get your

    hair cut . If a nest burrow is opened by day the incubating bird makes no at–

    tempt to fly off, but scrambles about trying to find a dark place in which to

    hide. It is gentle if handled, but may eject foul-smelling stomach oil from

    its mouth.

            Interesting experiments concerning the homing instincts have been per–

    formed on Leach’s petrels capture in their nest burrows on outer islands of

    the Bay of Fundy. “A large percentage of the birds returned from distances

    up to 360 miles from the nearest land and 470 miles from their nests” (Griffin).



    069      |      Vol_IV-0126                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Leach’s Petrel

            Five races of Leach’s petrel are currently recognized. The nominate

    race breeds in Japan (Hokkaido), the Kurils, Copper Island in the Komandor–

    skis, certain of the Aleutians, and in the North Atlantic north to southern

    Iceland and southern Greenland and south to Maine (Massachusetts possibly)

    and the British Isles. The other races, which differ from each other in

    minor details, nest on islands off the Pacific coast of North America —

    beali from southeastern Alaska south to the Farralon Islands off San Francisco

    Bay, California; willetti on the Los Coronados; chapmani on the San Benitos;

    and socorroensis on Guadalupe.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Ainslie, J.A., and Atkinson, Robert. “On the breeding habits of Leach’s

    Fork-tailed Petrel,” British Birds , vol.30, pp.234-48,

    276-77, 1937. 2. Brown, F.A. “Machias Seal Islands,” Bird-Lore , vol.13, p.239, 1911. 3. Chapman, F.M. Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America . N.Y., Apple–

    ton, 1912, p.177. 4. Griffin, D.R. “Homing experiments with Leach’s petrels,” Auk , vol.57,

    p.73, Jan., 1940. 5. Gross, W.A.O. “The life history cycle of Leach’s Petrel ( Oceanodroma

    leucorghoa leucorhoa ) on the outer islands of the Bay of

    Fundy,” Ibid . vol.52, pp.382-99, 1935. 6. Murphy, R.C. “Birds of the high seas,” Nat.Geogr.Mag . vol.74, p.228, 1938.

    070      |      Vol_IV-0127                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Manx Shearwater.

            50. Manx Shearwater . A middle-sized procellariiform bird, Puffinus

    puffinus , so called because it formerly bred on the Isle of Man. It is known

    also as the common shearwater. It is primarily a bird of the eastern North

    Atlantic and medi g t erranean Sea. The nominate race breeds on the Azores,

    Madeira, the Salvages, the Bermudas, the coast of Brittany, the British Isles,

    the Faeroes, and Vestmann Islands (just south of Iceland). An eastern Medit–

    erranean race ( P. puffinus yelkouan ) breeds on islands in the Aegean. A

    western Mediterranean race ( P. Puffinus mauretanicus ) breeds probably on the

    Balearic Isles and the coasts of Sardinia and Corsica (Peters).

            The Manx shearwater is smaller than the greater shearwater ( P. gravis P. gravis ),

    but rather like it in color and pattern. It is 14 to 15 inches long (with

    bill 1-1/2 to about 2 inches long), and is, generally speaking, blackish

    brown above and white below. The sides of the head and neck are mottled with

    brownish gray, the dividing line between the dark upper part of the head and

    the white of the checks and throat being less definite than in gravis . The

    outer under tail coverts are dark. The under wings are white, though the

    axillary feathers have dark tips. The bill is black, bluish gray at the base.

    The feet are pinkish flesh color on the inner surface (tarsus and toes),

    brownish black on the outer, and gray-blue on the webs (Alexander).

            This shearwater has been very carefully studied by R. M. Lockley on

    the little island of Skokholm, well off the coast of Pembrokeshire. Here

    more than 5,000 pairs nest, using burrows beneath the heather, bracken, and

    grass. The species is resident on the island about eight months of the year

    (mid-February to mid-October) and migrating at sea for the other four months.

    On returning in the spring, the birds, which evidently mate for life, make

    071      |      Vol_IV-0128                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Manx Shearwater

    their way directly to their own burrows. Since some burrows cave in during

    the winter and many young birds are in need of nesting places for the first

    time, there is sharp competition. Two pairs sometimes occupy a burrow to–

    gether for a time; but the pair which first produces an egg usually keeps

    the burrow for the season. The single egg is white and smooth shelled.

    The nest proper varies according to the material which is available close

    by the burrow’s entrance. Both sexes incubate and care for the young.

            Lockley found that the birds gathered at sea, some miles out from the

    island, in the afternoon well before their evening return. Here they

    preened, rested, and bathed. About two hours after sunset (earlier in

    rainy weather) they flew in, each going promptly to its own burrow. If,

    on alighting, it was not greeted by the cries of its mate, it waited until

    the other arrived, whereupon the two birds caressed each other, wrestled,

    called to each other, and entered the burrow. Incubating birds sometimes

    remained in the burrows for days at a stretch.

            The incubation period if 52 to 54 days. The chick is down-covered.

    When it is 16 days old a second down sprouts. This down reaches full growth

    on the 35th day. By the 42nd day the quills begin to project from their

    sheaths. When the young bird is about 60 days old it is full-feath e red but

    still more or less down-covered. At this time the parents, which have under–

    gone their own postnuptial molt during the long fledging period, desert the

    nest entirely. The young bird stays in the burrow for several days, living

    on stored fat, then makes its way out to sea by itself. If the wind is

    favorable and luck is with it, its first flight may carry it to water, where

    it is instantly at home. But many a young shearwater which has to scramble

    seaward by stages falls victim to a hawk, gull or crow.



    072      |      Vol_IV-0129                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Manx Shearwater and Mollymauk

            One of Lockley’s interesting findings was that the shearwaters were much

    more at ease, so to speak, during stormy weather than in calm weather. The

    wind permitted them to approach the burrows slowly and to make good landings.

            References:

    1. Alexander, W.B. Birds of the Ocean . N.Y., Lond., Putnam, 1928, pp.43-44. 2. Lockley, R.M. “Further notes on the breeding-habits of the Manx Shearwater,”

    British Birds , vol.24, pp.202-07, 1931. 3. - - - -. “On the breeding-habits of the Manx Shearwater, with special

    reference to its incubation- and fledging-periods,” Ibid ,

    vol.23, pp. 202-18, 1930. 4. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass., Harvard

    Univ. Press, 1931. Vol. 1, p. 57.

            52. Mollymauk . A name widely used among seamen for various procellarii–

    form birds, especially albatrosses in brown or piebald subadult plumage stages;

    shearwaters and larger petrels of various sorts; and the fulmar ( Fulmarus

    glacialis ) of northern seas. The word is often spelled (and pronounced)

    mollymoke. W.B. Alexander, in his Birds of the Ocean (1928, p. 5) states

    that mollymauk “is a corruption of the Dutch ‘Mallemuck,’ derived from ‘mal’

    (foolish) and ‘mok’ (gull).” Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary lists mallemuck

    (not mollymauk ), stating that the Dutch nouns mallemoke and malmoke (meaning

    “companion to a harpooner”) were derived from the Eskimo verb mallikpok ,

    meaning “to follow.” The Eskimo name for the fulmar, kakoodlook , or an

    equivalent, obviously bears no resemblance to the word mollymauk .



    073      |      Vol_IV-0130                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: [ ?] Mother Carey’s Chicken

            53. Mother Carey’s Chicken . A widely used common name for any of sev–

    eral small, web-footed oceanic birds belonging to the order Procellariiformes

    and family Hydrobatidae (or subfamily Hydrobatinae) and known in scientific

    circles as the storm petrels. They are fairly uniform as a group, being about

    6 to 10 inches long and sooty black, black-and-white, or gray-and-white in

    color. There are about 25 species, belonging to 8 genera. Their flight is

    graceful and swallowlike, and they customarily feed awing, using their feet

    a great deal as they flutter and pitter-patter along the surface. They are

    creatures of the high seas, and at times seem to be especially abundant in

    stormy weather, when their ability to keep out of the wind in the troughs

    between the waves, and their apparent enjoyment of the tempest, are truly

    amazing. One of the funniest sights in mid-ocean is the “embarrassment” of

    two Mother Carey’s chickens which, in passing over the crest of a wave from

    a trough at either side, happen to meet and collide.

            The term “Mother Carey’s Chicken” may, according to Robert C. Murphy,

    “have a medieval religious origin. The name of this vague demigoddess — no

    doubt the wife of Davy Jones — has been traced by some to prayers addressed

    by storm-tossed Mediterranean sailors to the Virgin, the mater cara , or ‘dear

    Mother’” (“Birds of the high seas,” Natl. Geog. Mag . 1938, 74: 234).

            See Hydrobatidae, Petrel, Storm Petrel, Leach’s Petrel, Wilson’s Petrel,

    Fork-tailed Petrel, Oceanites , Oceanodroma and Hydrobates .

            55. Oceanites . A procellariiform genus composed of two species of small

    storm petrels, or Mother Carey’s chickens. Oceanites is similar to Hydrobates

    and Oceanodroma in general appearance, but the legs are longer, the tarsus

    being much longer than the middle toe and its claw; and the webbing between

    the toes is yellow. The two species are: O. gracilis , Elliot’s petrel, one

    074      |      Vol_IV-0131                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oceanites and Oceanodroma

    race of which breeds on the Galapagos Islands, the other presumably on

    islands off the coast of Chile, Peru, or Ecuador; and O. oceanicus , Wilson’s

    petrel, which breeds on South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shet–

    lands, Kerguelen, Tierra del Fuego, the Falklands, and various islands and

    coasts of Antarctica. The year-round wanderings of this bird take it to

    subarctic waters in the North Atlantic, but in other oceans it does not, so

    far as is known, wander north of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, New Guinea,

    and littoral waters off northern Peru (Roberts).

            See Wilson’s Petrel.

            56. Oceanodroma . A genus of small petrels or Mother Carey’s chickens

    (family Hydrobatidae) characterized as follows: the tarsus is short (not

    longer than the middle toe and its claw); and the tail is forked and much

    more than half as long as the wing. Oceanodroma is similar to Hydrobates

    but larger, and fork-tailed rather than square-tailed. It also resembles

    Oceanites , which is comparatively square-tailed and has a much longer tarsus.

    There is considerable range of pattern within the genus, some forms being

    wholly black; others black and white; one a beautiful pearl gray; and one

    brownish gray above, white below, with a dark band across the breast and a

    white collar.

            Some twenty forms (11 species, the rest subspecies) are currently recog–

    nized, several of which breed wholly in the Northern Hemisphere, some both to

    the north and to the south of the equator; and at least one wholly in the

    Southern Hemisphere. The g G alapagos storm petrel ( O. tethys ) breeds on the

    Galapagos Islands and islands off the coast of Peru. The Madeira petrel

    ( O. castro ) breeds on several North Atlantic islands, as well as on St.

    Helena, the Hawaiians, and the Galapagos. The Guadalupe petrel, ( O. macro –

    dactyla ), which formerly bred on Guadalupe Island, is now probably extinct.

    Hornby’s petrel ( O. hornbyi ) breeds in the Chilean Andes.



    075      |      Vol_IV-0132                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oceanodroma and Petrel

            Only two of the 11 species breed in subarctic regions — the Leach’s

    petrel ( O. leucorhoa ) and the fork-tailed petrel ( O. furcata ). Several races

    of Leach’s petrel have been described, the northernmost of which, O. leucorhoa

    leucorhoa , breeds both in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific, as far

    north as the Kurils, Komandorskis, Aleutians (Attu, Amchitka, and Kiska),

    southern Alaska, Newfoundland, southern Labrador, southern Greenland, southern

    Iceland, the Faeroes, and the British Isles, and winters southward to the

    coasts of Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Sierra Leone, and occasionally to the Galapagos

    and the Cape of Good Hope (Alexander, Birds of the Ocean , 1928, p.84).

            The fork-tailed petrel is a bird of the North Pacific. It nests as far

    north as the Kurils, Komandorskis, Aleutians, and southern Alaska, and ranges

    northward through the Bering Sea, past the Diomedes and into Kotzebue Sound.

    It is probably the only species of the genus which wanders regularly northward

    to the Arctic Circle and beyond.

            See Leach’s Petrel and Fork-tailed Petrel.

            58. Petrel . A small or middle-sized oceanic bird of the order Procellari–

    iformes, especially one of the several small black, black-and-white, or gray–

    and-white species belonging to the family Hydrobatidae and familiarly known

    as Mother Carey’s chickens. These birds customarily feed while flying, flut–

    tering along just above the water and using their feet a great deal as well

    as their wings.

            The word petrel may possibly be a diminutive of Peter — in allusion to

    St. Peter’s walking on the sea (Matthew XIV, 29). If one species deserves

    more than others to be called the petrel, it is probably Hydrobates pelagicus ,

    the stormy (or storm) petrel, a bird of the eastern North Atlantic and western

    Mediterranean which nests as far north as southern Iceland; but the term is

    076      |      Vol_IV-0133                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oceanodroma and Petrel; Pink-footed Shearwater

    very loosely applied, several widely differin [ ?] g genera and species being known

    as petrels. Thus the fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis ) is frequently referred to

    as the fulmar petrel; the giant fulmar ( Macronectes giganteus ) is often re–

    ferred to as the giant petrel; birds of the small but uniform procellariiform

    family Pelecanoididae, of southern oceans, are almost always referred to as

    the diving petrels; the large family Procellariidae is known collectively as

    “the petrels”; and such species as Pterodroma hasitata and Pagodroma nivea

    are rarely called anything but, respectively, the black-ca p ped petrel and snow

    petrel. In general, the term is applied to all procellariiform birds with

    the exception of the albatrosses (family Diomedeidae).

            59. Pink-footed Shearwater . A rather large procellariiform bird, Puffinus

    creatopus     , sometimes known as the red-footed, Coues’s, or Copper’s Shearwater.

    It is found in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean in both the Northern and

    Southern Hemispheres. It breeds on Mas a Tierra and Santa Clara Islands of

    the Juan Fernandez group, and on Mocha Island (lat. 38° 25′ S.) off Chile

    (Murphy, 1936, Oceanic Birds of South America , 2: 64), and migrates northward

    along the American coast at least as far as southern Alaska.

            It is about 20 inches long and is quite variable in coloration. Generally

    speaking, it is brown above and white below, but some individuals are so heavily

    barred and freckled on the under parts as to appear gray-breasted at a distance.

    These dark-breasted birds are usually dark throughout the under wing coverts

    also. In all birds the bill is light yellowish-flesh color save along the

    culmen, where it is dark bro w n. The feet are not really pink or red, but are

    light flesh color, the outer toe and outer side of the tarsus being brown, the

    claws white with brown tips.

            The pink-footed shearwater appears to be closely related to the so-called

    077      |      Vol_IV-0134                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariidae

    cineraceous shearwater ( Puffinus kuhlii ), an Atlantic species represented by

    several races, among them the Mediterranean shearwater ( P. kuhlii kuhlii ),

    which breeds on islands in the Mediterranean, and the well-known Cory’s

    shearwater ( P. kuhlii borealis ), which breeds on the Azores, canaries, Sal–

    vages, and Madeira, and migrates northward in the Atlantic to about latitude

    44° N.

            See Puffinus.

            60. Procellariidae . A family of tube-nosed, long-winged oceanic birds,

    collectively known as petrels and belonging to the order Procellariiformes.

    Opinion differs as to whether the 8 genera (11 species) of storm petrels

    (Mother Carey’s chickens) should form a subfamily under the Procellariidae

    or stand as a full family (Hydrobatidae) by themselves. Since, on the basis

    of behavior, small size, and the position of the nostrils in a single tube

    on top of the bill, the storm petrels form a homogeneous unit which is quite

    different from all other procellariiform birds, full family rank for them seems

    warranted. This leaves the family Procellariidae with 13 genera which have

    been divided into 2 subfamilies (Fulmarinae and Puffininae) by some authors.

            The Procellariidae, as just defined, are smaller than the albatrosses

    (Di o medeidae), the single exception being the giant fulmar, which is about the

    size of the smaller albatrosses; and they differ also in having the nostril

    tubes more or less together on the top, rather than on the side, of the bill.

    They are larger than the Hydrobatidae, though Bulwer’s petrel ( Bulweria bul –

    werii ) is small and rather like a Mother Carey’s chicken in general appearance.

    They are very dissimilar, of course, to the chunky, short-winged diving petrels

    (Pelecanoididae) of southern seas — birds whose flight is similar to that of

    078      |      Vol_IV-0135                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton:Procellariidae

    the auks and murres (Alcidae), and whose nostrils open upward and are pro–

    tected by a high, firm wall at either side.

            The Procellariidae are of special interest to us, since the only truly

    arctic procellariiform bird of the world, the fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis )

    belongs to it. The fulmar is found only in the Northern Hemisphere, nests

    northward to the Arctic Circle and well beyond, and in its wanderings flies

    to within a few degrees of the North Pole. It has been called the “world’s

    most northern bird.” Puzzlingly enough, the genera and species which appear

    to be most closely related to the fulmar are, however, far removed geograph–

    ically — the giant fulmar ( Macronectes ), Cape pigeon or pintado petrel ( Dap –

    tion ), blue petrel ( Halobaena ) and silver-gray fulmar ( Priocella ) all being

    birds of remote southern seas.

            Of the 13 genera currently placed in the Procellariidae, at least eight

    arte monotypic ( Macronectes, Fulmarus, Daption, Ha n l obaena, Priocella, Thalas –

    soica, Adamastor , [ ?] and Pagodroma ). Of the polytypic genera, those which

    have the greatest number of forms are Pterodroma (28 species) and Puffinus

    (19 species). Pachyptila has four species, Procellaria three, and Bulweria two.

    Of the just-named polytypic genera only one ( Puffinus ) ranges at all regu–

    larly northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond. The more or less arctic

    species of Puffinus are: P. puffinus , the common or Manx shearwater, which

    nests in the eastern North Atlantic as far north as Iceland; P. tenuirostris ,

    the slender-billed shearwater, which breeds in the Australian region and

    migrates regularly through the North Pacific and Bering Sea into the Arctic

    Sea; P. gravis , the greater shearwater, which nests on the Tristan da Cunha

    group and migrates northward through the Atlantic to the coasts of Labrador

    and southern Greenland; and P. griseus , the sooty shearwater, which nests in

    079      |      Vol_IV-0136                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariidae and Procellariiformes

    widely separated parts of the Southern Hemisphere and migrates northward in

    both the Atlantic and the Pacific almost to the Arctic Circle. The Cory’s

    Mediterranean shearwater ( P. kuhlii borealis ), which nests on the Azores

    and other Atlantic island groups, does not ordinarily migrate northward

    farther than about latitude 44° N. The scaled petrel ( Pterodroma inexpec –

    tata ), which nests in New Zealand, migrates through the Pacific northward

    as far as the Aleutians. The Bulwer’s petrel ( Bulweria bulwerii ) is casual

    off the coasts of Labrador and Greenland. Several other species of the

    family have been recorded in northern seas, probably as a result of being

    g b lown off course by high winds.

            61. Procellariiformes . A large avian order, known also as the Tubinares,

    composed of upward of a hundred species belonging to the families Diomedeidae

    (albatrosses), Procellariidae (fulmar, shearwaters, and allies), Hydrobatidae

    (Storm Petrels or Mother Carey’s Chickens), and Pelecanoididae (diving petrels),

    all of which are oceanic birds with webbed feet, hooked beaks, and remarkable

    powers of flight. Only one member of the order breeds northward into the

    truly arctic regions — the fulmar petrel ( Fulmarus glacialis ) — but several

    others nest as far north as Iceland and the Kur i ls, Komandorskis, and Aleutians;

    or nest well south of the subarctic, and migrate northward in their winter

    (i.e., the northern summer) to the Arctic Circle or beyond it.

            The tubular structure of the external nostrils sets all procellariiform

    birds sharply apart from other present day birds. An almost equally important,

    though less striking, external anatomical feature is the plates of the bill and

    the grooves which separate them. An interesting ordinal character, which can–

    not be seen but which is no less valid on that account, is the strong musky

    smell which is noticeable not alone in the living bird and in very old museum

    080      |      Vol_IV-0137                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariiformes

    specimens, but also on the breeding ground, even in nest burrows which have

    been unoccupied for a year or more. So powerful is this scent that the hands

    of a man who has been skinning a shearwater or fulmar may reek of it even

    after several thorough washings in soap and water. This smell is that of the

    stomach oil which the birds eject from the mouth (and possibly also the

    nostrils) when caught in the nest burrow or picked up wounded. The ejection

    of the fluid appears to be a form of self-defense (see Matthews).

            Within the order the size range is great. The wandering albatross

    ( Diomedea exulans ) and royal albatross ( D. epomophora ) are the largest sea

    birds known, as well as the largest “of all flying birds if dimensions rather

    than weight form the standard of comparison; condors are heavier but have a

    lesser wingspread” (Murphy). The small petrels known as Mother Carey’s chickens

    are, on the other hand, little larger than swallows and are the smallest of

    web-footed birds. Members of the order which breed in or wander into the

    arctic regions are n[ei ?]either neither the smallest nor the largest, the fulmar and slender–

    billed shearwater being somewhat smaller than the herring gull ( Larus argentatus ),

    the most northward-ranging albatrosses being much smaller than the wandering

    and royal albatrosses, and the most northward-ranging Mother Carey’s chickens

    being about 6 to 8 inches long.

            Taxonomists agree that the albatrosses (Diomedeidae) and diving petrels

    (Pelecanoididae) are, within themselves, homogeneous groups. In the Diomedeidae

    there are two genera, Diomedea and Phoebetria . In the Pelecanoididae, which

    is the most aberrant but also the most uniform family, there is but one genus,

    Pelecanoides . As for the remaining 21 procellariiform genera, opinions, differ,

    some systematists believing that they should all be placed in one family, the

    Procellariidae (with two subfamilies, the Puffininae and Hydrobatinae); others

    081      |      Vol_IV-0138                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariiformes

    believing that the eight general collectively called the Mother Carey’s

    chickens should stand in a family by themselves, the Hydrobatidae, whereas

    the other 13 genera should compose the family Procellariidae (with two sub–

    families, the Fulmarinae and Puffininae). However close morphologically

    the Mother Carey’s chieckens may be to the other petrels, there is this to

    be said about them: their fluttering, swallow-like flight is very dissimilar

    to the “mechanical planing sweep” of the shearwaters, and the sustained sail–

    ing of the albatrosses. On the basis of their food-gathering behavior alone,

    if not on their proportions and color pattern, they form a fairly distinct

    and uniform group (see Lowe; Peters).

            Although the Procellariiformes are cosmomarine in distribution, about two–

    thirds of the species breed exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere; a few

    breed both to the north and the south of the equator; and several breed ex–

    clusively in the Northern Hemisphere, the fulmar being decidedly the most

    northern of all in year-round distribution (the monotypic genus Fulmarus is

    the only genus of the order which is exclusively northern). The closets rela–

    tives of the fulmar, curiously enough, are not birds of the Northern Hemisphere,

    but of the Southern. Among these are the giant fulmar or giant petrel ( Macro –

    nectes ), Cape pigeon ( Daption ), silver-gray fulmar ( Priocella ), whalebird

    ( Pechyptila ), and blue petrel ( Halobaena ). The ranges of these more or less

    closely related genera do not even touch that of Fulmarus .

            The most northward ranging of the albatrosses (Diomedeidae) are the short–

    tailed albatross ( Diomedea albatrus ), which bred formerly on certain islands in

    the North Pacific Ocean and ranged, when not breeding, throughout the Bering Sea

    from the Komandorskis north to the Diomedes and Norton Sound on the Alaska

    coast; and the black-footed albatross ( D. nigripes ), which breeds on certain

    082      |      Vol_IV-0139                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariiformes

    mid-Pacific islands and wanders, when not breeding, as far north as the

    Kurils and Aleutians and the coast of southern Alaska (Bristol Bay). The

    short-tailed albatross is a very rare bird — possibly extinct. The black–

    footed albatross is sometimes abundant in North Pacific waters. The black–

    browed albatross ( D. melanophris ) of southern oceans has been recorded

    several times as a straggler in the North, and several other species of

    the genus Diomedea have been recorded from time to time in boreal seas.

            The most northward breeding of the shearwaters is the Manx shearwater

    ( Puffinus puffinus puffinus ), which breeds on islands and coasts of the

    eastern north Atlantic from Madeira and the Azores northward to Iceland,

    and which wanders occasionally to waters off Greenland and the coast of

    North America. Decidedly the most northward ranging of the shearwaters is,

    however, the slender-billed shearwater ( Puffinus tenuirostris ), which

    breeds off Australia but migrates widely throughout the Pacific Ocean north–

    ward through the Bering Sea into the Arctic Sea. Off Wainwright and Point

    Barrow, Alaska, it occurs regularly in great numbers in summer. The sooty

    shearwater ( Puffinus griseus ), which breeds in widely separated parts of

    the Southern Hemisphere, migrates north in summer throughout both the

    Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, reaching the Kurils and the Aleutians, the

    Labrador coast, and waters off southern Greenland. The greater shearwater

    ( Puffinus gravis ), which breeds in the Tristan da Cunha group, migrates

    northward through the Atlantic Ocean to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland,

    the coasts of southern Greenland, and the British Isles.

            Among the Mother Car ye ey ’s chickens, the most northward ranging are the

    storm petrel ( Hydrobates pelagicus ), which breeds as far north as southern

    Iceland; the Leach’s petrel ( Oceanodroma leucorhoa ), which breeds northward

    083      |      Vol_IV-0140                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariiformes

    in the Atlantic as far as southern Iceland, the Faeroes, and southern Green–

    land, and in the Pacific as far as the Kuril[?] and certain of the Komandorski

    and Aleutian Islands; the beautiful fork-tailed petrel ( Oceanodroma furcata ),

    which breeds in the Kuril, Komandorski, and Aleutian Islands and migrates

    northward as far at least occasionally, as Kotzebue Sound; and the very widely

    ranging Wilson’s petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ) which breeds only in the Far

    South (even on the Antarctic continent) but migrates northward in the Atlantic

    to about latitude 60° N.

            Since so many procellariiform species breed exclusively in the Southern

    Hemisphere, and especially since birds of this order are so conspicuous among

    the few forms which nest in the very Far South, it is natural to suspect that

    the group originated in that part of the world. The genus Fulmarus , which is

    now exclusively northern in distribution, may possibly have spread northward

    within recent times. Its closest relatives are all southern, as has been

    stated above; and its spread within the last century to the Faeroes and from

    St. Kilda to other localities about the British Isles (see Fisher and Water–

    ston), indicates either a considerable increase in the numbers of the bird or

    a shifting of breeding populations such as might have taken place when the

    species “became” northern centuries ago.

            Because their habitat (i.e., the high seas) is so much the same the world

    over, and because there are so few other birds which live in these vast

    stretches of water, the Procellariiformes have almost “a world to themselves”

    wholly away from land. As J. T. Nichols has pointed out, “the great range in

    size relieves pressures of competition. The small Wilson’s Petrel …, the

    medium-sized Cape Pigeon, and the large Albatross collect at one time to par–

    take of the scarps from a ship, and the smaller birds are satisfied with crumbs

    084      |      Vol_IV-0141                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariiformes

    left by the larger ones.” Even on their breeding grounds the variation in

    size reduces competition. The large species, which do not need protection,

    nest in the open. The smaller species seek holes and crevices in the rocks —

    nest sites which are, perforce, limited in number.

            About their island nesting grounds some procellariiform birds are strictly

    nocturnal, the return to the nest burrows being made wholly under cover of

    night. Most members of the tribe, save the albatrosses and fulmars, custom–

    arily hide their single egg in a burrow or fissure in the rocks, some forms

    digging burrows several feet long. Many species, such as the Laysan alba–

    tross ( Di o medea immutabilis ) and the fulmar, are colonial. The numerous pairs

    seem to lead rather independent lives; but, as Murphy points, out, “the noc–

    turnal whistling and sobbing and yowling of petrels and shearwaters at their

    nest is … a kind of community expression.” The duties of incubation are

    shared by the male and female. The incubation period and nestling period are

    extremely long.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bannerman, D. C. “The distribution and nidification of the Tubinares in

    the Tubinares in the North Atlantic islands,” Ibis , ser.10,

    vol.2, pp.438-94, 1914. 2. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.1-181, 1922. 3. Fisher, James, and Waterston, George. “The breeding distribution, history

    xand population of the fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis ) in the

    British Isles,” J.Animal Ecol. vol.10, no.2, pp.204-72, Nov.,

    1941. 4. Lower, P.R. “On the classification of the Tubinares on Petrels,” Zool.

    Soc. Lond. Proc . 1925, pp.1433-43.

    085      |      Vol_IV-0142                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Procellariiformes and Pterodroma

    5. Matthews, L.H. “The origin of stomach oil in the petrels, with compara–

    tive observations on the avian proventriculus,” Ibis , vol.91

    pp.373-92, 1949. 6. Murphy, R.C. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936, pp.471-89. 7. Nichols, J.T. “Size in the avian order Tubinares,” Ibis , ser.10, vol.2,

    no.5, pp.315-16, Jan., 1914. 8. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass., Harvard

    Univ. Press, 1931. Vol.1, pp.68-75.

           

    #####

            62. Pterodroma . A genus of fairly large procellariiform birds collectively

    known as petrels, and differing from the rather closely related genus Puffinus

    (shearwaters) principally in having a proportionately deeper and shorter bill.

    The horny distal portion of the upper mandible is proportionately longer and

    the depressed middle part shorter (less than half the length measured along

    the culmen) than in Puffinus . The nostrils are on top of the culmen and are

    separated by a distinct membrane. The tarsus is not flattened, nor sharp-edged

    in front, as in Puffinus . The claws are sharp-pointed. The wings are propor–

    tionately longer than in Puffinus , the first developed primary being longest.

    The tail is rather short and more or less wedge-shaped. There are 12 rectrices.

            Peters lists 28 species in his Check-List of Birds of the World (1931,

    1: 61-67), of which several are unique, extinct, or hypothetical. The genus

    is represented by extant forms in most oceans, but only one species regularly

    migrates into subarctic regions — the scaled petrel ( P. inexpectata ), which

    breeds on New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, and Bounty Island. In its winter

    season (i.e., the northern summer), this species moves north in the Pacific

    as far as the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. No species of the genus regularly

    moves northward in the Atlantic to comparably high latitudes.

            See Scaled Petrel.



    086      |      Vol_IV-0143                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Puffinus

            63. Puffinus . A genus of oceanic birds commonly known as shearwaters.

    They are among the middle-sized procellariiform birds, the largest species

    being definitely smaller than the smallest of the albatrosses (family Dio–

    medeidae), and the smallest being perceptibly larger (heavier, longer, and

    with wider wingspread) than the largest of the Mother Carey’s chickens (family

    Hydrobatidae). They are recognizable by their long slender bills, which are

    sharply hooked at the very tip. The nostril tubes are on top of the culmen and

    are well separated, the nostril openings being visible from above but not from

    the side. The tarsus is flattened laterally and has rather a sharp ridge in

    front. The tail is graduated (wedge-shaped), and has 12 rectrices. The wings

    are pointed, the first or second developed primary (counting from the outside)

    being the longest. The genus most closely related to it is probably Pterodroma

    which has no common name aside from petrels), which is separable at a glance by

    its comparatively deeper and shorter bill, and its unflattened tarsus (no sharp

    ridge along the front).

            Puffinus is a large genus, 19 or 20 species currently being recognized.

    It is also an ancient one, fossil remains dating back to Oligocene and Miocene

    times having been reported from Europe and America, respectively (Lambrecht,

    1933, Handbuch der Palaeornithologie , p. 274). Several species, notably P .

    assimilis (Gould’s shearwater) and P. lherminieri (dusky shearwater) have been

    divided into many geographical races, most of them endemic to certain islands.

    The genus is found in all seas except the North Polar and Mediterranean; and

    there are species peculiar to the Northern Hemisphere as well as to the Southern.

            Morphologically, Puffinus is quite uniform, all the species having about

    the same proportions and being brown and white, gray and white, or solid gray

    or brown. Throughout the group males and females are colored alike and in no

    087      |      Vol_IV-0144                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Puffinus and Scaled Petrel

    species are birds in first winter plumage readily distinguishable from full

    adults. No species of Puffinus is distinctly two-phased as is the fulmar

    ( Fulmarus glacialis ).

            In behavior, too, Puffinus is a homogeneous group, only one species, P .

    reinholdi (fluttering shearwater) having conspicuously different flight from

    the others. All the species nest in burrows as a rule, a requirement which

    probably has prevented their spreading northward and southward to rocky

    islands and coasts. Throughout the genus one egg is laid; both sexes incubate;

    and the birds are in evidence about the nesting ground only at night. The

    young is covered with extremely thick, soft down, which clings for a long

    time to the incoming plumage, especially throughout the under parts, forming

    there a sort of mattress or cushion on which the bird rests.

            No species of the genus nests in the true Arctic; but the common or Manx

    shearwater ( Puffinus puffinus ), which is best [ ?] k nown as a bird of the British

    Isles, the Azores, and certain islands of the Mediterranean, breeds as far

    north as southern Iceland; the slender-billed or short-tailed shearwater

    ( )P. tenuirostris ), which breeds in Australian seas, migrates regularly to the

    Arctic Sea by way of Bering Strait; the greater shearwater ( P. gravis ), which

    breeds in the Tristan da Cunha group, migrates northward through the Atlantic

    as far as the coasts of Labrador and southern Greenland; the pink-footed shear–

    water ( P. creatopus ), which breeds on Mocha and the Juan Fernandez Islands,

    migrates to Alaskan waters; and the sooty shearwater ( P. griseus ), which nests

    in widely separated parts of the Southern Hemisphere, migrates to the Bering

    Sea as well as to the coasts of Labrador and southern Greenland.

            See Greater Shearwater, Manx Shearwater, Slender-billed Shearwater, Pink–

    footed Shearwater and Sooty Shearwater.



    087a      |      Vol_IV-0145                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Scaled Petrel and Shearwater

            64. Scaled Petrel . A middle-sized procellariiform bird, Pterodroma in –

    expectata , sometimes called Peale’s petrel, and known in New Zealand as the

    rainbird. It breeds on and about New Zealand, the Chatham Islands and Bounty

    Island, and migrates in summer (i.e., the southern winter) through the Pacific

    Ocean northward as far as the Aleutian Islands and the southern coast of Alaska.

    It is about 14 inches long and is dark gray on the crown, hindneck, and upper

    part of the body (including the wings and tail). The forehead, throat, breast

    and under tail coverts are white. The face, sides of the chest, and flanks are

    mottled, having a slightly scaled appearance. The eye is surrounded with a dark

    gray patch. The abdomen is brownish gray. The species has never been recorded

    in the subarctic Atlantic; but has been reported once from the state of New York.

            65. Shearwater . Any of several long-winged, tube-nosed, web-footed oceanic

    birds belonging to the family Procellariidae (especially to the genus Puffinus )

    and characterized by their long slender bill which is strongly hooked at the

    tip. As a group they are larger than the Mother Carey’s chickens or storm

    petrels (family Hydrobatidae), although the well known and widely ranging [ ?]

    Puffinus lherminieri , the nominate race of which is called Audubon’s shearwater,

    is only 10 to 12 inches long. The are all decidedly smaller than the albatrosses

    (family Diomedeidae), although in some species the proportions of bill and head

    are somewhat like those of the albatrosses. Throughout the group, which bears

    the general common name of “petrels,” the nostril tubes are on top of the bill

    and more or less adjacent, but the external nostril openings are definitely

    separated by more than a mere membrane or septum. The flight of shearwaters

    has been described as a “mechanical planning sweep.” Except in one species, it

    is not fluttering or swallow-like as is that of the Mother Carey’s chickens;

    088      |      Vol_IV-0146                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Shearwater

    nor does it resemble the protracted and majestic sailing of the albatrosses.

    It is a series of swift glides, with the wings held stiffly at right angles

    to the body’s vertical axis, though not by any means parallel to the horizon

    itself, for the glides describe arcs above the waves which only fleetingly

    parallel the earth’s curvature.

            The best known of the shearwaters belong to the genus Puffinus , and all

    species of the genus Puffinus are called shearwaters, but the two words are

    not quite synonymous, for certain petrels of other genera are sometimes called

    shearwaters. Among the many common named given shearwaters are the following:

    hag, haglet, hagdon, hagdown, and muttonbird.

            Only a few shearwaters regularly visit arctic or subarctic waters, but

    these are sometimes very abundant and well known among seamen and natives. The

    common or Manx shearwater ( Puffinus puffinus ) breeds northward as far as southern

    Iceland and westward as far as the Bermudas, although it is best known as a

    bird of the British Isles, the Azores, and certain islands of the Mediterranean.

    The slender-billed or short-tailed shearwater ( Puffinus tenuirostris ) breeds on

    islands near Australia, but migrates regularly to the North Pacific, passing

    through Bering Strait into the Arctic Sea in great numbers. How far it travels

    northward is not known, but it has been seen in summer at Wainwright and Point

    Barrow, Alaska, by the tho [ ?] u sand. The greater shearwater ( Puffinus gravis ),

    which nests in the Tristan da Cunha group, migrates to the North Atlantic, some–

    times being very abundant off the coasts of Labrador and south Greenland. The

    sooty shearwater ( Puffinus griseus ), which breeds in widely separated parts of

    the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand; Chatham, Auckland, and Snares Islands; the

    Falklands and certain islands off southern Chile, migrates northward to Kamchatka,

    Alaska, Labrador, Greenland, and the Azores.



    089      |      Vol_IV-0147                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Shearwater and Short-tailed Albatross

            See Procellariidae, Puffinus , Manx Shearwater, Greater Shearwater, Sooty

    Shearwater, Pink-footed Shearwater, and Slender-billed Shearwater.

            Reference:

    Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat. Mus. Bull . no. 121, pp. 54-106, 1922.

            66. Short-tailed Albatross . A large procellariiform bird, Diomedea

    albatrus , the adult of which has been called “the only white albatross of

    the North Pacific” (Alexander). It breeds (or bred formerly) on the Bonins,

    Wake, and various small islands off Formosa and Japan. When not breeding, it

    ranges (or once ranged) along the coasts of China and Japan, in the Sea of

    Okhotsk; in the Bering Sea from the Komandorski Islands northward to the Dio–

    medes and Norton Sound, Alaska; and along the west coast of North America

    southward as far as Baja California. The southern limits of its range are

    open to question because of possible misidentification of birds seen at a

    distance. Since 1900 it has become steadily rarer, probably chiefly as a

    result of the depredations of plumage hunters. Many ornithologists fear that

    it is extinct.

            The fully adult short-tailed albatross is “mostly white, washed with

    buff on the head and neck; primaries and tip of tail dark brown; bill pinkish

    flesh-color, feet bluish white” (Alexander). This plumage is not attained

    until the third or fourth year. A painting by Allan Brooks, reproduced in the

    National Geographic Magazine, shows the bird with white head, neck, and body,

    but wholly dark primaries and secondaries . A specimen which I handled recently

    was dark brown above (including the whole hindneck, back, and upper surface of)

    090      |      Vol_IV-0148                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Short-tailed Albatross

    of the wings), and white on the under parts, forehead and rump, the young bird

    in first winter plumage is dark brown all over, palest on the chin, and W. B.

    Alexander says that it has “pinkish bill and flesh-coloured feet.” Cassin

    quotes Peale, however, to the effect that “until the second year … the bird

    has black feet and a dirty flesh-colored bill.” The short-tailed albatross is

    36 to 37 inches long, the black-footed albatross only 28 inches long, so there

    is a considerable difference in size and wingspread. Some young short-tailed

    albatrosses must, however, look very much like some young black-footed alba–

    trosses, especially at a distance, though the latter, regardless of age, usually

    has some white at the base of the bill . A young short-tailed albatross in a

    company of black-footed albatrosses would probably stand out as appreciably

    larger.

            Titian Peale found the short-tailed albatross breeding on Wake Island in

    mid-December. He reported that both sexes took turns in incubating the single

    egg, and that “neither the male nor the female abandoned the nest at our ap–

    proach, but walked around us in a very dignified manner, and made but few

    demonstrations of defense with their bills when taken up in our arms” (fide

    Cassin).

            The egg has been described as dull white, blothed and spotted with red

    and dull purplish brown at the larger end. The newly hatched young apparently has

    not been described — if indeed it has ever been seen by an ornithologist.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Alexander, W.B. Birds of the Ocean . N.Y., Lond., Putnam, 1928. 2. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.6-9, 1922. 3. Stejneger, L.H. Results of Ornithological Explorations in the Commander

    Islands and in Kamtschatka . Wash., G.P.O., 1885, pp.89-91.

    U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.29.

    091      |      Vol_IV-0149                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Slender-billed Shearwater.

            68. Slender-billed Shearwater . A fairly large procellariiform bird,

    Puffinus tenuirostris , which closely resembles the sooty shearwater ( Puffinus

    griseus ), but is considerably smaller, and is wholly without grayish white in

    the under wing coverts. It is the only species of the wide-ranging genus Puf –

    finus which regularly migrates northward to the Arctic Circle and well beyond.

    It breeds on islands in Australian seas (in Bass Strait; off the coasts of Vic–

    toria, South Australia, and Tasmania; and on Bounty Island), eggs having been

    found from November to March. It migrates into the North Pacific, apparently

    moving northward along the Asiatic side and southward on the American side.

    It has been seen near the Komandorski Islands as early as May 29 (Bent) and

    along the Alaska coast (Bering Strait, Wainwright, and Point Barrow) in late

    summer and fall. At Point Barrow, Charles Brower saw it “by thousands from

    September to October, 1929” (Bailey). It is sometimes called the short-tailed

    shearwater. In Bass Strait, where it is known as the muttonbird, it is an

    important source of human food. In the North Pacific it is amost universally

    known as the whalebird.

            It is about 13 inches long, and sooty brown, much paler on the under parts.

    Its bill is very dark brown, tinged with olive, its feet grayish flesh color

    “with webs sometimes yellowish flesh-color” (Alexander). It is somewhat two–

    phased individuals being light gray on the under surface of the wings, and on

    the chin and forethroat. Birds of this phase are difficult to distinguish from

    sooty shearwaters, despite their being smaller and proportionately shorter–

    billed than that species.

            The slender-billed shearwater nests in burrows. The paired birds take

    about six weeks in digging or renovating a burrow, then the whole population

    leaves the nesting ground for about a month. When they return, the sky is

    092      |      Vol_IV-0150                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Slender-billed Shearwater

    darkened by the incoming birds for four or five days. So abundant are they

    that many of them are forced to lay their eggs on the ground under bushes.

    In well-populated parts of the colony as many as nine burrow entrances have

    been reported for each square meter of ground [ ?] surface. Egg-laying begins

    in November and the young hatch about January 15 (incubation period about 50

    days). Both sexes incubate and care for the young. They return from the

    sea under cover of darkness. After a period of great activity and noise while

    the young are being fed, the colony settles down for some sleeping. At about

    2:30 A.M. the birds waken, and the adults scramble up the slopes to the higher

    ridges where they spread their wings, are lifted by the wind, and make for the

    sea.

            References:

    1. Alexander, W.B. Birds of the Ocean . N.Y., Lond., Putnam, 1928, P. 38. 2. Bailey, A.M., Brower. C.D., and Bishop, L.B. “Birds of the region of

    Point Barrow, Alaska,” Chicago Academy of Sciences. Program

    of Activities , vol. 4, no. 2, p.18. Apr., 1933. 3. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . vol. 121, p. 96, 1922. 4. Montgomery, H.H. “On the habits of the Mutton-bird of Bass Strait,

    Australia ( Puffinus tenuirostris ),” Ibis , pp. 209-16, 1898.

            69. Sooty Shearwater. A rather large, sooty-black procellariiform bird,

    Puffinus griseus , which is unique among shearwaters in that it is found in both

    the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from water off Cape Horn and New Zealand to

    the subarctic regions. Among the Labrador it is known as the black hagdown

    (or hagdon). In parts of its breeding range it is known as the muttonbird.

    093      |      Vol_IV-0151                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sooty Shearwater

    It is an important source of food among the Maoris of New Zeland.

            It breeds is widely separated parts of the Southern Hemisphere — on

    numerous islands in the subantarctic region of New Zealand; on certain islands

    off Cape Horn and bordering Tierra del Fuego; on the Falklands; and on Mocha

    Island, off Chile, not far south of Concepcion. For some years ornithologists

    have believed that it nested also on the eastern slope of the Cerro de Colupito,

    inland from Cobija, northern Chile (see Murphy); but A. W. Johnson, one of the

    authors of Los Aves de Chile , currently being published, informs me that the

    young “shearwaters” found by the “party of prospectors” in that “plantless

    pampa” were actually young gulls, not procellariiform birds at all.

            The sooty shearwater’s migrations take it northward almost to the Arctic

    Circle along the coasts of Kamchatka, Alaska, Labrador, Greenland, and Europe.

    In moving northward through the [ ?]Atlantic it passes swiftly across the tropics,

    reaching waters off North Carolina in late May (Bent); the high seas well off

    northern Newfoundland early in June; and Cape Farewell, Greenland, in mid-June

    (Wynne-Edwards). It appears in the North Atlantic a little later in the spring

    than the greater shearwater ( P. gravis ), perhaps because of its greater journey,

    from Cape Horn as opposed to Tristan da Cunha. It lingers in northern waters

    until November (occasionally later). Its movements in the North Pacific are

    not very well known, partly because of confusion in identification resulting

    from its similarity to the slender-billed shearwater ( P. tenuirostris ).

            The sooty shearwater is 18 to 20 inches long and is blackish brown through–

    out the upper parts and grayish brown on the under parts save for the chin,

    which is paler, and the under wing coverts, which are grayish white. The bill

    094      |      Vol_IV-0152                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sooty Shearwater and Strom Petrel

    is black or nearly so. The feet are slaty gray, sometimes with flesh-colored

    webs. It resembles the slender-billed or short-tailed shearwater quite closely,

    but that species has wholly dark under wing coverts. It is proportionately a

    narrower-winged bird than the greater shearwater, hence appears to be somewhat

    heavier bodies. In the North Atlantic it is considerably less common that that

    species, with which it sometimes associates in summer, though Wynne-Edwards

    believes it to be “better represented in the offshore zone, i.e., on the fish–

    ing banks, and less well in the pelagic, than is the Greater Shearwater.”

            In New Zealand the sooty shearwater digs its nest-burrows in hard ground —

    a custom which seems in keeping with its aggressive nature. Various authors

    agree that sooty shearwaters caught in their burrows are anything but mild–

    natured in their behavior; and many a comment has been made on the biting,

    squawking, and general pugnacity of wounded birds. One egg (white) is laid.

    Both sexes assist in the incubation.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life Histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.85-90, 1922. 2. Johnson, A.W., and others. Los Aves de Chile . In press. 3. Murphy, R.C. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936. Vol.2, pp.666-73. 4. Richdale, L.E. “The sooty shearwater in New Zealand,” Condor , vol.46,

    pp.93-107, 1944. 5. Wynne-Edwards, V.C. “On the habits and distribution of birds of the north

    Atlantic,” Boston Soc.Nat.Hist. Proc . vol.40, pp.261, 263, 1935.

    095      |      Vol_IV-0153                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn Sutton: Storm Petrel or Stormy Petrel

            70. Storm Petrel or Stormy Petrel . Any of several small, sooty black,

    black-and-white, or gray-and-white procellariiform birds known among seamen

    as Mother Carey’s chickens. They all belong to the family Hydrobatidae ( q.v. ).

            Hydrobates pelagicus , one of the best known of the Mother Carey’s chickens,

    a species sometimes called the British storm petrel. It is very similar to the

    Wilson’s petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ) and Leach’s petrel ( Oceanodroma leucorhoa ),

    with which it associates in North Atlantic waters. It is about 6 inches long

    and is, generally speaking, sooty black with boldly white upper tail coverts

    (the longest of which have black tips); some white feathers among the flanks

    and under tail coverts; a narrow line of grayish white (formed by the tips of

    the greater coverts) on the upper surface of the wing; and a small whitish

    patch on the under coverts of the manus. From the species with which it is

    most likely to be confused, it can be distinguished thus: it is square-tailed

    rather than forked-tailed as is the Leach’s petrel. Its legs are shorter than

    those of the Wilson’s petrel, and its feet are wholly black (rather than yellow

    on the webs). Of the three species it has the weakest, most fluttering flight.

            The stormy petrel inhabits the eastern North Atlantic, breeding locally

    from islands of the western Mediterranean northward on small islands off the

    British Isles, the coast of Norway (Lofoten), and southern Iceland; and ranging,

    when not breeding, westward to waters off the coasts of Nova Scotia, Labrador,

    and (occasionally) Greenland; eastward to the Red Sea; and southward to the

    coasts of tropical western Africa.

            The species usually breeds in colonies. It places its single egg (which

    is white, with a wreath of brown spots about the larger end) at the end of a

    burrow in peaty soil or in a cranny among rocks. The nest proper, if there is

    any, is a slight affair of dry grasses. Both the male and female incubate.

    096      |      Vol_IV-0154                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Storm Petrel and Wilson’s Petrel

    The period of incubation is 38 to 40 days, and fledging requires 61 days more.

    The newly hatched chick has a bald spot on its crown. Egg-laying begins in

    late May. Young have been found in the nest as late as October or even Novem–

    ber.

            At sea the stormy petrel is a comparatively silent bird; but on its nest–

    ing grounds is apparently is quite vociferous. It flies to and from its nest

    only under cover of night. A cry given at its nest has been described as a

    “harsh, purring ‘urr’, long sustained, and abruptly ended with ‘chikka’.”

            For facts about storm petrels in general see Hydrobatidae, Petrel, and

    Mother Carey’s Chicken.

            References:

    1. Gordon, S.P. “Some breeding-habits of the Storm-Petrel,” British Birds,

    vol. 24, pp. 245-48, 1931. 2. Lockley, R.M. “On the breeding habits of the Storm-Petrel, with special

    reference to its incubation and fledging periods,” ibid .,

    vol. 25, pp. 206-11, 1932.

            72. Wilson’s Petrel . A well-known maritime bird, Oceanites oceanicus,

    which breeds in South Georgia, the south Shetlands, the South Orkneys, the

    Falklands, Kerguelen, Tierra del Fuego, South Victoria Land, Adelie Land,

    Queen Mary Land, MacRobertson Land, Kaiser Wilhelm II Land, Enderby Land,

    and Graham Land and migrates regularly to subarctic waters of the North At–

    lantic (to the latitudes of Newfoundland and the British Isles), to the Red

    Sea and the Persian Gulf in the Indian Ocean; and to New Guinea and northern

    Peru in the Pacific (Roberts). It is said to be the “most widespread and

    097      |      Vol_IV-0155                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wilson’s Petrel

    common of the Storm-Petrels” (Alexander). Roberts calls its migration “one

    of the longest and perhaps the most remarkable of any bird known.” Explain–

    ing this statement he says: “For the greater part of 8 months most of them

    probably never come within sight of a landmark, yet they return at almost the

    same date each year to the same burrow and mate.”

            Wilson’s petrel is about 7 inches long, and is sooty black above (darkest

    on the wings and tail) save for the wing coverts, which are gray, margined

    with whitish, and the longer upper tail coverts, which are white (the shorter

    ones are marked with sooty black). The under parts are somewhat lighter than

    the back, and the flanks and under tail coverts are partly white. The tail

    is square-tipped. In protracted flight, when the legs are extended backwards,

    the feet project beyond the middle tail feathers. The square-tipped tail, pale

    gr[?]ay band in the wing, very long lges, and yellow webs of the feet all are

    distinctive. R. C. Murphy, who saw Wilson’s petrels almost daily while en

    route from New York to South Geo r gia, found that he could distinguish the species

    from the other Morther Carey’s chickens by the “peculiar style of flight, which

    consists of an alternate gliding and fluttering, producing a forward movement

    of very different appearance from the ‘leaping’ strokes of Leach’s Petrel.”

            Wunne-Edwards states that Wilson’s petrel rarely journeys northward of

    latitude 50° N. in the Atlantic. Roberts place [ ?] s the northern limit in American

    waters at latitude 52°30' N. In its northward journey it reaches Cape Hatteras

    in the latter half of April and about that time appears all along the Atlantic

    coast of the United States. Two other procellariiform birds which nest far to

    the south of the equator appear at about that same time — the grater shear–

    water ( Puffinus gravis ) and sooty shearwater ( P. griseus ).

            Wilson’s petrel “prefers to nest in colonies” (Bent). W. Eagle Clarke

    098      |      Vol_IV-0156                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wilson’s Petrel

    and Robert Hall have described immense breeding populations respectively

    on the South Orkneys and on Kerguelen. The birds nest in a burrow, and but

    one egg is laid. The incubation period of eggs at nine nests observed by

    Brian Roberts ranged from 39 to 48 days. The sexes share the duties of in–

    cubation equally. Fledging requires a minimum of 52 days. In Graham Land

    the young birds are fed exclusively on the Krill, Euphasia superba (Roberts).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Alexander, W. B. Birds of the Ocean. N.Y., Lond., Putnam, 1928, p.86. 2. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American pet r els and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.121, p.166, 1922. 3. Clarke, W.E. “Ornithological results of the Scottish National Antarctic

    Expedition. — II. On the birds of the South Orkney Islands,”

    Ibis , ser.8, vol.6. no.21, p.145, Jan., 1906. 4. Hall, Robert. “Field-notes on the birds of Kerguelen Island,” Ibid .

    ser.7, vol.6, no.21, p.1, Jan., 1900. 5. Murphy, R.C. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936. Vol.2, p.751. 6. Wynne-Edwards, V.C. “On the habits and distribution of birds of the

    north Atlantic,” Boston Soc.Nat.Hist. Proc . vol.40, pp.233-46,

    1935.

    Pelecaniformes (Gannets, Cormorants)



    099      |      Vol_IV-0157                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cormorants, Gannets, and their Allies

    CORMORANTS, GANNETS, AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order PELECANIFORMES

           

    Family PHALACROCORACIDAE, SULIDAE

            73. Common Cormorant. See writeup.

            74. Cormorant. See writeup.

            75. Double-crested Cormorant. See writeup.

            76. Gannet. See writeup.

            77. Green Cormorant. See writeup.

            78. Morus (or Moris ). See writeup.

            79 Pallas’s Cormorant. See writeup.

            80. Pelagic Cormorant. See writeup.

            81. PELECANIFORMES . See writeup.

            82. PHALACROCORACIDAE. See writeup.

            83. Phalacrocorax . See writeup.

            84. Red-faced Cormorant. See writeup.

            85. Shag. See writeup.

            86. Solan Goose. A widely used common name for the gannet ( Morus bassanus ),

    ( q.v. ).

            87. Spectacled Cormorant. A name sometimes used for the extinct Pallas’s

    cormorant ( Phalacrocorax perspicillatus ) ( q.v. ).

            88. SULIDAE. See writeup.

            89. Violet-green Cormorant. A name frequently used for the northernmost race

    of the pelagic cormorant ( Phalacrocorax pelagicus ) ( q.v. ).

            90. White-crested Cormorant. A name frequently used for Phalacrocorax auritus

    cincinatus , a race of the double-crested cormorant which breeds from

    southern Alaska southward along the coast to Washington.



    100      |      Vol_IV-0158                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Cormorant

            73. Common Cormorant . A large, well-known pelicaniform bird, Phalacro–

    corax carbo     , found in widely separated areas from the Arctic Circle southward

    to Tasmania New Zealand. It is among the largest species of the family

    Phalacrocoracidae. At the northernmost edge of its range it breeds wholly

    along the seacoast, but farther south it is also a bird of the interior, its

    distribution depending on availability of food and of cliffs and rocky islets

    on which it may nest. Birds which breed on the coast apparently migrate but

    little, since the waters near their breeding places stay open the year round;

    but birds which nest on lakes in the North Temperate interior move either south–

    ward or seaward to open water in winter.

            The common cormorant has established itself so widely and has remained

    nonmigratory at these breeding centers so long that at least eight well-defined

    geographical races have evolved, the best known being P. carbo carbo , which is

    the only one ranging northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond. This form is

    abundant locally in Europe — in Iceland, the Faeroes, the British Isles (where

    it is known as the cormorant, in contradistinction to the smaller shag, Phala–

    crocorax aristotelis    ), the coast of Norway, and the Murman Coast, and it may

    breed as far east as the Kara Sea, from which region it was reported by the

    Duc d’Orleans. In North America it is anything but “common,” though there are

    well-established colonies along the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on

    Anticosti Island, on the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edwards Island, along the

    Nova Scotia coast, and in southern Greenland. Kumlien (1879) reported the

    species “a regular breeder” in Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island, but neither

    Hantzsch nor Soper encountered it there in recent years.

            A subspecies of common cormorant found in the North Pacific, hanedac ,

    breeds on the coast of Japan and probably also on Sakhalin, and Kurils, Korea,

    101      |      Vol_IV-0159                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Cormorant

    and Quelpart Island. At no point does the range of this form reach the Arctic

    Circle, a possible explanation being that competition with several other species

    of cormorants in that region has prevented its spread. The other races of the

    common cormorant ( sinensis of central and southern Europe and southern Asia;

    maroccanus of the coast of Morocco; lugubris of northeastern Africa; lucidus

    of the Cape Verdes and southern Africa; novaehollandiae of Australia, Tasmania,

    and southern New Guinea; and steadi of New Zealand and the Chathams) are widely

    scattered. The species is represented in most parts of the world save South

    America, the Pacific coast of North America, and the islands of the central

    Pacific. An interesting fact about the coloration of the species is this: all

    the races are largely black save lucidus , which is white-breated. This may re–

    flect — however inexplicably — a general trend toward white-breatedness among

    cormorants of the Southern Hemisphere.

            The common cormorant is 30 to 40 inches long. Adults in winter are

    glossy greenish or bluish black, with an area of brownish white on the chin and

    face. The back feathers, scapulars, and wing coverts are bronzy gray, edged

    with black; the primaries, secondaries, and tail feathers grayish black. In

    full nuptial plumage a conspicuous crest adorns and back of the head; the lower

    part of the face and the upper throat are white; the glossy black neck plumage

    is liberally sprinkled with fine, hairlike, grayish-white filoplumes; and a

    large white patch of soft feathers appears on each flank. The bill is pale

    horn color, darker along the culmen, and rich brownish yellow at the base of

    the lower mandible as well as on the gape, lores, and gular sac. In fully adult

    Gulf of St. Lawrence birds, which I handled alive, the iris was a beautiful

    aquamarine blue. Birds from the British Isles are said to have “blue-green to

    dark emerald green” irides. Young birds in first flight plumage are dark brown

    102      |      Vol_IV-0160                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Cormorant

    on the top of the head, back of the neck, and upper part of the body; light

    brown on the sides of the head and on the neck, upper chest, and flanks; and

    white on the middle of the breast and belly. A postjuvenal molt results in a

    first winter plumage which is more colorful than the juvenal plumage, but very

    brown as compared with the plumage of the full adult. Even three-year-old

    birds show signs of immaturity, the filoplumes of the neck being scrawnier

    and the white flank patches less showy.

            The common cormorant is a noticeable bird as it perches erect, often with

    wings spread, on a rock or sandbar. Its flight is strong, direct, and rather

    heavy. Flying, it usually stays low over water, but high over land. It rises

    from the water with difficulty, especially in calm weather, being obliged to

    propel itself with its feet as well as its wings, and sometimes striking the

    tops of small waves as it makes a getaway. It swims with bill pointed well up–

    ward. It dives with great ease, slipping under without a splash. Usually it

    does not stay below the surface very long, and it may rise just enough to reveal

    its head and neck, keeping the body below the surface.

            It nests on cliff faces and small offshore islands, and occasionally in

    trees. At the northern edge of its range it chooses precipitous headlands,

    placing its nest on a broad ledge or rocktop sometimes at some distance above

    the water. The nest is usually of seaweed. The eggs number 3 to 6, and have

    a pale blue ground color, which is almost concealed with a chalky-white covering.

    Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is said to be 28 days. The newly

    hatched young are naked, blind, and brown-skinned. Presently a thick, short

    brown down develops. A cry of the well-grown nestling has been described as

    go-back , go-back . For a discussion of the nest-site requirements of this species

    and the shag, see Green Cormorant.



    103      |      Vol_IV-0161                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cormorant

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Kumlien, Ludwig. Contributions to the Natural History of Arctic America ,

    Made in Connection with the Howgate Polar Expedition, 1877-78 .

    Wash., G.P.O., 1879, U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull . no.15. 2. Peters, H.S. “European Cormorants nesting in Nova Scotia,” Canad. Field

    Nat . Vol.54, pp.59-60, 1940. 3. Stuart, L.D. “Vital statistics of the Mochrum Cormorant colony,” British

    Birds , vol.41, pp.194-99, 1948. 4. Turner, H.L. “Cormorants in Norfolk,” British Birds , vol.8, pp.130-42,

    1914.

           

    # # # # #

            74. Cormorant . Any of several species of fish-eating pelecaniform birds

    having rather long and sharply hooked bill; no external nostril openings; rudi–

    mentary tongue; rather short wings; tail composed of 12 or 14 very stiff feathers;

    compact, almost uninterrupted plunge; green or blue eyes (usually) when adult;

    a well-developed but not always conspicuous gular sac; and a well-developed oc–

    cipital bone, sometimes called a style, which protrudes at the base of the skull.

            Present-day cormorants are currently placed in one family (Phalacrocoracidae)

    and three genera — Phalacrocorax , Haliëtor , and Nannoptorum — the last (flight–

    less or Harris’s cormorant) being monotypic and confined to the Galapagos Archi–

    pelage. The parts of the world in which cormorants breed northward to the Arctic

    Circle and beyond are ( 1 ) northern Europe, where the common cormorant ( P. carbo )

    and shag ( P. aristotelis ) occur on Iceland and along the coast of Norway and the

    Murman Coast; ( 2 ) extreme northeastern Siberia, where the red-faced cormorant

    ( P. urile ) and the pelagic cormorant ( P. pelagicus ) range westward an undetermined

    distance from East Cape (Dezhneva); and ( 3 ) Greenland (the common cormorant

    breeds in southern Greenland, possibly northward to and even beyond the Arctic

    104      |      Vol_IV-0162                                                                                                                  
    EA-ORn. Sutton: Cormorant

    Circle). The extinct Pallas’s cormorant ( P. perspicillatus ) inhabited Bering

    Island and may well have bred even farther north. The double-crested cor–

    morant ( P. auritus ), a North American species, is both a coastal bird and a

    bird of the interior. It ranges northward along the Pacific coast as far as

    southwestern Alaska; in the interior to central Alberta, central Manitoba, and

    James Bay; and along the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and New–

    foundland. The Japanese cormorant ( P. capillatus ) ranges northward to Korea,

    Japan, and Quelpart Island.

            Wherever cormorants nest in arctic or subarctic regions they do so along

    the coast, not in the interior. Their breeding places are cliffs or rocking

    offshore islets. The arctic and subarctic forms are relatively nonmigratory.

    The ocean waters near their breeding grounds stay open the year round, so a

    constant food supply (fish) is available.

            For further information concerning cormorants, see Phalacrocoracidae,

    Phalacrocorax , Common Cormorant, Green Cormorant or Shag, Red-faced Cormorant,

    Pallas’s Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, and Double-crested Cormorant.

            75. Double-crested Cormorant . A well-known North American pelecaniform

    bird, Phalacrocorax auritus, which breeds not only along the seacoast but on

    fresh water in the interior. There are four geographical races, the most

    northward-ranging of which is cincinatus , the so-called White-crested Cormorant,

    which breeds on the Pacific coast from Washington to St. Lazaria and Forrester

    Islands, Alaska; Kodiak Island; and Carlisle Island of the eastern Aleutians;

    and which appear to be wholly coastal. The race inhabiting interior Canada

    and northeastern North America is auritus , which breeds northward to central

    Alberta, central Saskatchewan, central Manitoba, the southeast coast of James

    Bay, the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Newfoundland. Formerly

    105      |      Vol_IV-0163                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cormorant

    it ranged northward down the Labrador at least as far as Hamilton Inlet,

    and possibly even farther, though it is absent from that coast today (Austin).

    Since it nests on bare cliffs and rocky islets as well as in trees, there

    would seem to be no reason for its not ranging much farther north along the

    Atlantic coast than it does. The coast of southern Alaska is, of course,

    warmer than that of Labrador, so in a sense the present-day Atlantic population

    of the species is more boreal than that of the Pacific, despite the discrep–

    ancy in latitude. The two other races of double-crested cormorant are the

    Florida cormorant ( floridanus ) of the southeastern United States, Cuba, the

    Isle of Pines, and the Behamas; and the Farallon cormorant ( albociliatus ) of

    the western United States, Baja California, and the Revilla Gigedo Islands.

            The double-created Cormorant is 30 to 35 inches long and is glossy green–

    ish black on the head neck, and under parts, and bronzy gray on the upper

    part of the body. Each of the back feathers scapulars, and wing coverts is

    edged with black. In nuptial plumage there is a conspicuous tuft of curly

    black and white feathers on each side of the head. The bill is gray, and the

    naked skin of the face and gular pouch is orange or orange-yellow. The mouth–

    lining is more or less blue. The eyes are green, the feet black. Young birds

    are grayish brown above, darker on the rump, grayish white on the breast,

    blackish brown on the abdomen, and the gular pouch is dull yellow.

            Many pairs of double-crested cormorants usually nest together, the nests

    sometimes being only a few feet apart. Some colonies establish themselves on

    low islands in salt water, placing the nests on rocks well above the high-water

    mark. Nests frequently are placed in trees. The eggs, like those of most

    Cormorants, are pale bluish green in ground color, with a chalky covering.

    Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is about 25 days (Lewis). The

    106      |      Vol_IV-0164                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cormorant and Gannet

    young are completely naked, blind, and purplish black at the time of hatching.

    When about 10 days old a short black down covers them. They remain in their

    nests until they are well grown. When their wing and tail feathers reach

    considerable length they leave the nests and gather in companies along the

    shore. When the thickset body plumage has grown in, they take to the water

    and learn to capture their own food. They do not fly until they are about 8

    weeks old.

            References:

    1. Austin, O.L. The Birds of Newfoundland Labrador . Cambridge, Mass., Nuttall

    Ornithological Club, Sept. 1932, p.33. The Club Mem . Vol.17. 2. Gross, O. “The present status of the Double-crested Cormorant on the coast

    of Main,” Auk. Vol.61, pp.513-37, 1944. 3. Lewis, H.F. The Natural History of the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacro –

    corax auritus auritus (Lesson)) . Ottawa, Quebec Society for the

    Protection of Birds, 1929.

            76. Gannet . A large pelecaniform bird, Morus bassanus, found on both

    sides of the North Atlantic and frequently referred to as the solan goose. It

    is the largest, and probably the best known, species of the family Sulidae

    (gannets and boobies). Several detailed studies of its anatomy and behavior

    have been made. In North America it now breeds at the following places:

    Bon [ ?]venture Island; Gull Cliff Bay, Anticosti; the Bird Rocks in the Megdalens;

    and Cape Saint Mary, Bacalieu Island, and Funk Island, Newfoundland. Formerly

    it nested also on Gannet Rock, Grand Manan, New Brunswick, and on the Perroquet

    Islands, near Mingan, Quebec. In the Old World it nests at numerous localities

    from the British Isles northward to the Outer Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands,

    Faeroes, and Iceland. The northernmost colony in the world is on the islet of

    Grimsey off the north coast of Iceland.



    107      |      Vol_IV-0165                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gannet

            In 1939, during one breeding season, 27 experienced observers made a

    census of all known gannet breeding colonies except for a small number con–

    taining about 2.5% of the world population. The 22 breeding colonies, of

    which 13 were in Britain and the Faeroes, 3 in Iceland, and 6 in the Gulf of

    St. Lawrence, contained 165,000 ± 9,500 breeding individuals. Fisher and

    Vevers (1944), in reporting on this census, estimated that in 1834 the world

    population of gannets was about 334,000 breeding individuals. So widely were

    the birds and their eggs used for food that the population dwindled to about

    106,000 breeding individuals by 1894, but since that time most colonies have

    been protected and there has been a steady up-climb, especially in southwest

    Britain.

            For nesting the gannet requires cliffs which are close to good fishing

    grounds. In b B ritain its good consists of herring, mackerel, coalfish or

    saithe (family Gadidae), Pollack of lythe, codling, whiting, haddock, power

    cod, sand eel (family Ammodytidae), salmon smolt, sea trout, gurnard, garfish

    (family Belonidae), spart, pilchard, and anchovy (Gurney).

            In winter the species ranges southward to Morocco, the Azores, the Can–

    aries, and the Gulf of Mexico. It has been reported in winter from the Medit–

    terranean and Baltic seas, the coast of Norway, Finland, southern Greenland

    (Julianehaab, Kaersok, Nanortalik), East Greenland (Syd Kap, Scoresby Sound),

    Jan Mayen, and Bear Island. Most birds which wander north of their breeding

    grounds in winter probably are young.

            The gannet is a heavy-bodies bird 3 feet long, with a wingspread of about

    6 feet. When adult it is white with black primaries and a pale buffy-yellow

    wash on the back of the head and beck. The bill is light bluish gray; the

    feet black, darkest on the webs; the eyes yellowish white. Young birds are

    108      |      Vol_IV-0166                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gannet

    brownish gray, speckled finely all over, especially on the head and neck,

    with white. The fully adult plumage is not attained until the third year,

    subadult birds being piebald.

            The gannet’s diving from the air is truly spectacular. Checking its

    flight over a shoal of fish, it plunges obliquely (sometimes vertically) 40

    feet or more headfirst, with wings half closed, then shuts its wings as, with

    a resounding whack, it strikes the surface, splashing the water upward 10 feet

    or more. It is usually called a “surface feeder,” yet it has been taken in

    nets at depths as great as 80 feet. Sometimes large companies of gannets

    fish together, forming a line which moves gradually upwin g d , each bird reach–

    ing a position above the fish, diving, reappearing, shaking the water from

    its plumage as it rises in flight, then coursing round to the rear of the line,

    and moving forward into position for another dive.

            The nest is a mass of seaweed, grass, campion ( Silene ) and the like,

    place on a ledge or the top of a rocky islet. Usually there is but one egg,

    sets of two probably being the product of two females. The egg has a chalky

    surface layer, which usually obscures the blue ground color, and which quickly

    becomes nest-stained. The yolk is said to be unusually small. The period of

    incubation is 42 to 45 days. Both sexes assist in the incubation. Nesting

    usually starts in April (exceptionally in late March) and continues all sum–

    mer, partly because predation delays the process. One brood is reared per

    year. Complete fledging of the young requires four months or more. The 12–

    to 13-weeks-old bird, which weighs more than its parents, is deserted by them

    (as is the case among most if not all procellariiform birds) and left to live

    upon its own stored fat for ten days or more. Eventually is makes its way to

    the sea, where for some time it devotes its energy to swimming and diving

    rather than flying.



    109      |      Vol_IV-0167                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gannet and Green Cormorant

            The gannet is a silent bird save on its nesting ground, where it produces

    a babel of guttural and discordant noises, among them a strident urrah , urrah ;

    a long-drawn-out, wailing yee-orrrr , and the hunger cry of the young bird, a

    high-pitched uk (Kirkman).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Fisher, James and Vevers, H.G. “The breeding distribution, history and

    population of the North Atlantic Gannet ( Sula bassana ),”

    J. Animal Ecol . Vol.13, pp.49-62, 1944. 2. Gurney, J.H. The Gannet, a Bird with a History . London, witherby, 1913. 3. Vevers, H.G. and Evans, F.C. “A census of breeding Gannets ( Sula bassana )

    on Myggenaes Holm, Faeroes,” J. Animal Ecol . Vol.7, pp.298-302,

    1938.

           

    # # #

            77. Green Cormorant ( Shag ). A well-known pelecaniform bird, Phalacrocorax

    aristotelis ( P. graculus of many reference works), found along the coasts of

    Europe and northern Africa. Three races currently are recognized — ( 1 ) arist o–

    telis, which breeds in Iceland and the Faeroes, from the coast of Norway northward

    and eastward through the western part of the Murman Coast, and on the British

    Isles, the Channel Islands, and the west coast of France, Spain, and Portugal;

    ( 2 ) desmarestii , which breeds on islands and rocky coasts of the Mediterranean

    from the Balearic Islands of Greece (including the Adriatic Sea), and ( 3 ) riggen –

    bachi , which breeds on the “west coast of Morocco from Mogador to Cape Blanco

    north” (Peters). It is strictly a coastal (i.e., a salt water) bird. It ap–

    parently migrates but little, since the ocean waters near its breeding grounds

    stay more or less open the year round. In the British Isles, where it is

    110      |      Vol_IV-0168                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Green Cormorant

    called the shag, it is said to be a “scarce visitor inland.” Its distribution

    probably depends largely on two factors — the availability of cliffs or rocky

    islets on which to place its nests, and the abundance of such salt water fish

    as plaice, sillock, wrasse, herring, sprat, and sand eels ( Ammod v y tes ). Of

    188 green cormorant specimens collected off Cornwall, 37% had eaten nothing

    but sand eels (Steven.).

            David Lack has pointed out that although the green cormorant and common

    cormorant “appear to overlap widely in ecology” along thesouthwest, west, and

    north coasts of Britain, they actually “differ widely in both nesting and feed–

    ing requirements.” Both species nest on rocky places overlooking the sea,

    but the green cormorant selects caves, holes, hollows among boulders and narrow

    cliff ledges, while the common cormorant nests on broad ledges or the flat tops

    of stacks and islets. The green cormorant feeds mainly out at sea, seeking

    sheltered waters only during stormy weather, while the common cormorant feeds

    regularly in the shallow waters of estuaries and harbors as well as inland

    on large rivers and reservoirs.

            The green cormorant is about 2 1/2 feet long. The adult is glossy green–

    ish black all over, the back feathers and scapulars each being narrowly bor–

    dered by velvety black. In full nuptial plumage there is an elongate, foreward–

    curled crest in the middle of the crown, and a scattering of fine, cured white

    filoplumes all over the neck. The bill is black, with pale orange-yellow base.

    The naked skin about the eyes is of about the same shade of orange-yellow,

    and the gular sac is black, thickly spotted with yellow. The eyes are sea

    green. Young birds in their first flight plumage are dark brown above and

    brownish white below. A more or less complete molt gives them their first

    winter plumage, which is like the juvenal plumage, but more colorful, the

    111      |      Vol_IV-0169                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Green Cormorant

    feathers of the back being edged with velvety black. This plumage is molted

    when the bird is 12 to 18 months old. The second winter plumage is much like

    that of the adult in winter, but the chin is brownish white and the rest of

    the under parts are brown mixed with dark glossy green. When the bird is

    about 2 1/3 years old at assumes the fully adult plumage.

            The green cormorant’s nest is a pile of seaweed mixed with other vege–

    tation and debris. The eggs, which number 2 to 6, are pale blue in ground

    color, with a chalky-white outer layer. Early eggs frequently are destroyed

    by heavy seas, so fresh eggs have been found as late as May, June, and even

    later (British Isles). Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is 24 to

    27 days The young, when hatched, are brown-skinned, completely naked, and

    blind. The down, which comes in presently, in very thick and brown, whitish

    at the base. This is shed as the juvenal feathers develop.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Lack. David. “The econolgy of closely related species with special ref–

    erence to Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax carbo ) and Shag ( P. aris –

    totelis ),” J. Animal Ecol ., vol.14, pp.12-16, 1945. 2. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World , Cambridge, Mass. Harvard

    Univ. Press, 1931, vol.1, p.89. 3. Steven, G.A. “The food consumed by shags and cormorants around the

    shores of Cornwall (England),” Marine Biol. Ass. U.K. J . vol.19,

    n.s., pp.277-92, 1933.

    112      |      Vol_IV-0170                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Morus and Pallas’s Cormorant

            78. Morus ( Moris ). A genus of the family Sulidae (gannets and boobies)

    composed of three very similar species — the common gannet or solan goose

    ( M. bassanus ) of the North Atlantic; the Cape Gannet or malagash ( M. capensis )

    of South African coasts; and the Australian gannet ( M. serrator ) of Australia,

    Tasmania, and New Zealand. The genus is closely related to, the doubtfully

    distinct from, Sula , the only other genus of the Sulidae. Morus has 12 tail

    feathers (rather than 14 to 18); a thin median line of bare skin on the thr [ ?] oat;

    and a line of narrow transverse scutes on the tope of each toe and three rows

    of such scutes leading up the front of the tarsus (rather than reticulate scales

    on the tops of the toes and front of the tarsus). Birds of this genus are in–

    habitants of cool waters, whereas all species of the genus Sula live in more or

    less tropical oceans. The only species of the genus Morus which ranges into

    arctic or subarctic waters is the common gannet, which breeds as far north as

    the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Grims e y, off the north coast of Iceland, and which

    wanders northward casually in winter as far as the coast of Norway, southern

    Greenland, Bear Island, and Jan Mayen.

            See Gannet.

            79. Pallas’s Cormorant . An extinct pelecaniform bird, Phalacrocorax

    perspicillatus , whose only known habitat was Bering Island of the Komandorski

    group. It inhabited this island (specifically an off-shore islet known as

    Arii Kamen or Are-Kamen) until about 1850. It was the largest living cormorant

    of its time. It weight, according to Pallas, was 12 to 14 pounds. The

    largest present-day species — the common cormorant ( P. carbo and the flightless

    cormorant ( Nannopterum harrisi ) — are considerably less heavy. It probably

    was nonmigratory, as is the red-faced cormorant ( P. urile ), which has a similar,

    though far less restricted, range.



    113      |      Vol_IV-0171                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pallas’s Cormorant

            In winter it was glossy black all over, without markings or decorative

    feathers of any kind. In full nuptial plumage it was adorned with two prom–

    inent crests — one coronal, the other occipital; a large white patch on

    either flank; and some thinly dispersed, long, narrow, hairlike, straw–

    colored (or white) filoplumes on the face and upper part of the neck. The

    bill probably was dark brown. Pallas described the naked skin at the base

    of the bill as “varied with vermilion, blue, and white as in the Turkey,”

    though Gould described it as “apparently rich orange.” The eyes were sur–

    rounded by a featherless area which was white according to Pallas, but orange

    according to Gould. In any event, this naked space was responsible for the

    name “Spectacled Cormorant” by which the species was sometimes known.

            When Steller was wrecked on Bering Island in 1741, he found Pallas’s

    cormorant numerous there. According to Stejneger, the inhabitants of the

    Komandorskis affirmed that the reason for the species’ extinction was that

    “it was killed in great numbers for food.” This was probably true, although

    what Stejneger himself reported concerning an “epidemic disease” which struck

    the pelagic cormorants of Cooper and Bering Islands in the winter of 1876-77

    leads us to suspect that some such malady may have been partly responsible

    for the disappearance of Pallas’s cormorant.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Baird, S.F., Brewer, T.M. and Ridgway, R. “The water birds of North Amer–

    ica. Vol.2,” Harvard Univ. Mus. Comp. Zool. Mem . Vol.13, pp.

    164-66, 1884. 2. Stejneger, Leonhard. “Results of ornithological explorations in the Com–

    mander Islands and in Kamtschatka,” U.S.Nat. Mus. Bull . no.29,

    pp.180, 190, 1885.

    114      |      Vol_IV-0172                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pelagic Cormorant

            80. Pelagic Cormorant . A slender, not very large pelecaniform bird,

    Phalacrocorax pelagicus , of the North Pacific. It is not pelagic in the

    sense that many procellariiform birds are, for its inhabits coasts and littoral

    islands rather than the high seas, but it never breeds in the interior on

    freshwater as do the common cormorant ( P. carbo ) and double-crested cormorant

    ( P. auritus ). Two races of the pelagic cormorant are recognized. The northern

    race, P. pelagicus pelagicus , which is usually called the violet-green cor–

    morant, and which is known in Siberia as the Ijurgui and the Oorely (the same

    word as Urile), breeds from Wrangel Island and the arctic coast of northeastern

    Siberia (Cape Irkaipij, now Cape Schmidt; Koliuchin Island; East Cape, now

    Cape Dezhnev), scattered islands in the Bering Sea (the Diomedes, St. Lawrence,

    St. Matthew, Nunivak, and St. Paul), Sledge Island in Norton Sound, the Koman–

    dorskis, and many of the Aleutians, southward on the Asiatic side to the Kurils

    and Japan (Honshu), and on the American side to Cook Inlet, the Alexander

    Archipelago, and the coastal islands of British Columbia. This form may winter

    more or less regularly throughout its breeding range (whe re ver there is open

    water) but it also moves southward as far as China and Puget Sound. The

    southern race, P. pelagicus resplendens (Baird’s cormorant), which is probably

    nonmigratory, breeds along the Pacific coast of North America from the southern–

    most coastal islands of British Columbia south to Los Coronados Islands, Baja

    California.

            The pelagic cormorant is 22 to 28 inches long. Statements which emphasize

    a size-difference between it and the red-faced cormorant ( P. urile ) are apt to

    be misleading. The red-faced cormorant is a heavier, coarser-billed bird, to

    be sure, but the two species are not greatly dissimilar in over-all length,

    despite repeated reference to the pelagic cormoant as a “small, slender” bird.



    115      |      Vol_IV-0173                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton:Pelagic cormorant

            In winter the pelagic cormorant is glossy greenish black all over, without

    conspicuous crests or markings of any sort. In nuptial plumage, however, it

    wears two noticeable crests, one of the crown, the other on the nape; a white

    patch of soft feathers on each flank; and a scattering of delicate white filo–

    plumes on the neck and sometimes the back. As the breeding season advances,

    the papillae on the facial skin brighten, becoming a deep red. A fine Fuertes

    painting, made direct from a freshly captured bird, shows the head and neck of

    the species at the height of the breeding season. The legend on the plate re–

    producing this drawing is, however, erroneous. The lower figure (No. 2)shows

    Phalacrocorax pelagicus . The upper figure (No. 1) is of Phalacrocorax auritus

    cincinatus , the white-crested cormorant (Dall et al .).

            Stejneger has expressed a belief that the pelagic cormorant rears two

    broods of young a summer on the Komandorski Islands. He observed small young in

    many nests in May and again in “the first days of August,” to be sure; but in

    basing his belief in the species’ two-broodedness on such observations, he may

    have failed to allow for the heavy predation which must force many pairs to nest

    late if they are to rear a brood at all. The rearing of a brood requires a long

    time — at least 26 days for incubation and 6 weeks more for fledging, not to men–

    tion nest-building and egg-laying. This late nesting should be studied further.

    Young birds which are breeding for the first time may regularly nest late. Or,

    pairs which have failed to bring out a brood early in the season may delay their

    second attempt until a food supply to exactly the right sort is assured.

            Many authors have described the breeding of this species on “the highest,

    steepest and most inaccessible rocky cliffs” where the nests are “safe from

    the depredations of foxes and men...” Great numbers of the birds usually

    116      |      Vol_IV-0174                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pelagic Cormorant and Pelecaniformes

    nest together, and the stench from a colony is said to be terrific. Nests

    are used year after year, merely being added to before the 3 to 5 (sometimes

    more) eggs are laid. The ground color of the eggs is pale greenish blue,

    but a chalky surface-layer almost obscures this color. Both sexes incubate.

            When gulls discover a school of fish in the Bering Sea the cormorants

    for miles around are wont to gather promptly and, since the cormorants are

    able to dive for the fish, the gulls have a difficult time obtaining anything

    for themselves. Various species of gulls, notably the ring-billed ( Larus

    delawarensis ), have repreatedly been observed to steal fish [ ?] f rom brown pelicans

    ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) which rise to the surface after a successful dive, but

    when a cormorant comes up with a fish, it holds its prey so firmly or swallows

    it so quickly that no gull can steal it.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull . no.121, pp.271-78, 1922. 2. Dall, V W .H., and others. Alaska; History, Geography, Resources.

    N. Y., Doubleday, 1901, plate opp. p.212 Harriman Alaska

    Expedition , vol.2. 3. Stejneger, Leonhard. “Results of ornithological explorations in the

    Commander Islands and in Kamtschatka,” U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull .

    no.29, pp. 187-88, 1885.

    117      |      Vol_IV-0175                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pelecaniformes

            81. Pelecaniform e s. Pelecaniform e s. An avian order of large aquatic birds sometimes

    known as the Steganopodes or totipalmate swimmers, which includes such well

    known forms as the pelicans, cormorants, water turkeys or anhingas, tropic

    birds, and man-of-war birds. Diverse as these are in some respects, they

    are alike in possessing four toes which are joined with three webs. The

    hallux (first or hind toe) is webbed to the second or inner toe (not to the

    fourth, or outer) so the bird stands and swims with the webs pointed somewhat

    inward. Throughout the order the tarsus is short and the tongue rather rudi–

    mentary.

            However opinion may differ as to the number of suborders needed for a

    clear understanding of this group, taxonomists agree that living pelecaniform

    birds belong to six families — the Phaëthontidae (tropic birds), Pelecanidae

    (Pelicans), Sulidae (boobies and gannets), Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants),

    Anhingidae (snakebirds, anhingas, or water turkeys), and Fregatidae (frigate

    birds or man-or-war birds). In the Phaëthontidae there are 3 species all be–

    longing to 1 genus ( Phaëthon ); in the Pelecanidae, 8 species belonging to 1

    genus ( Pelecanus ); in the Sulidae, 9 species belonging to 2 genera l ( Sula and

    Morus ); in the Phalacrocoracidae, 30 species belonging to 3 genera ( Phalacro –

    corax , Haliëtor and Nannopterum ); in the Anhingidae, 4 species belonging to 1

    genus ( Anhinga ); and the Fregatidae, 5 species belonging to 1 genus ( Fregata ).

    There are, in addition to these living forms, about 50 fossil forms belonging

    to all the above-named families except the Fregatidae, as well as to three fam–

    ilies composed wholly of fossil forms, the Cyphornithidae, Pelagornithidae,

    and Odontopterygidae. Most of these fossil forms have been found in temperate

    parts of Europe or North America, but a few have been found in Australia, and

    118      |      Vol_IV-0176                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pelecaniformes

    a still smaller number in Asia. Fossils ascribed to the Pelecanidae, Anhingidae,

    and Phaëthontidae date back to lower Eocene times.

            Many extant pelecaniform birds are oceanic and many are more or less trop–

    ical. Since they are all piscivorous, their distribution coincides to a large

    extent with that of certain fishes, a limiting factor in the breeding season

    being the availability of nesting places. The most northward-ranging forms of

    the order place their nests on cliffs or rocky islets, and do not depend on

    vegetation either for protection against the wind and sun or as a means of

    elevating the nest above ground.

            No genus of the order is holarctic in distribution to the extent that the

    procellariiform fulmar ( Fulmarus ) is. The most exclusively northern [ ?] pelecani–

    form bird probably is the red-faced cormorant ( Phalacrocorax urile ), which

    breeds on the arctic coast of extreme northeastern Siberia and on various islands

    in the Bering Sea, and does not range farther south in winter than the Komandor–

    skis, Pribilofs, Aleutians, Kurils and Japan. This species is found only in

    the North Pacific. Certain other cormorants breed to some extent in arctic

    and subarctic regions but also along coasts much farther south. Thus the common

    cormorant ( P. carbo ), which breeds as far north as Japan (and probably Sakhalin

    and the Kurils) in the Pacific, and southern Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and the

    Murman Coast in the Atlantic, breeds also in China, India, Africa, Australia,

    and even New Zealand. The pelagic cormorant ( P. pelagius ), which is found only

    in the North Atlantic, breed northward into the subarctic and arctic, but also

    far to the southward of the Arctic Circle, respectively as far south as Lower

    California and west coast of Morocco. The other three living cormorants

    ( Phalacrocorax capillatus , Heliëtor africanus , and H. pygneus ), discussed by

    119      |      Vol_IV-0177                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pelecaniformes

    Hartert do not range northward into subarctic regions.

            The only species of the family Sulidae which ranges into the arctic or

    subarctic is the gannet ( Morus bassanus ). This is a North Atlantic bird which

    breeds locally on certain islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Near Newfound–

    land and in Europe northward to Grimsey, off the north coast of Iceland, and

    moves southward as far as the Gulf of Mexico and northern Africa in winter.

            Pelecaniform birds are usually colonial in their nesting. The young of

    most forms are blind and naked at hatching and remain long in the nest. The

    eggs are a [ ?] r ule are unspotted and covered with a chalky layer. The eggs of

    tropic birds, however, are spotted and have no chalky covering; and newly

    hatched gannets and tropic birds are down-covered. Some ornithologists believe

    that the tropic birds are not pelecaniform, but charadriiform. Their spotted

    eggs, downy young, body proportions, bill shape, and satiny plumage to suggest

    close relationship with the terns (family Laridae), and it can be argued that

    their totipalmate condition is a comparatively superficial character.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Hartert, Ernest. Vögel der Paläsrktischen Fauna Vögel der Paläsrktischen Fauna. Berlin, Frieländer,

    1910-21. 2 vol. 2. Lanham, U.N. “Notes on the phylogeny of the Pelecaniformes,” Auk , vol.64,

    pp.65-70, 1947.

    120      |      Vol_IV-0178                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalacrocoracidae.

            82. Phalacrocoracidae. A family of aquatic, fish-eating birds ranging in size from the common

    cormorant ( Phalacrocorax carbo ) and flightless cormorant ( Nannopterum har–

    risi    ), which are about 30 to 40 inches long, down to the pygmy cormorant

    ( Haliëtor pygmeus ), which is just under two feet long. It is the largest

    family of the order Pelicaniformes, and contains 3 genera ( Phalacrocorax,

    Haliëtor , and Nannopterum ) and 30 species — more species than in all the other

    5 pelecaniform families combined. It is an ancient family, too, fossil

    remains of several forms having been found in the New World and the Old dating

    as far back as Eocene times.

            A very special interest attaches to the family because an exclusively

    boreal species, the Pallas’s cormorant ( Phalacrocorax Perspicillatus ), whose

    sole known habitat was Bering Island, has become extinct within the past cen–

    tury. This bird, which was the largest cormorant of its time, probably was

    nonmigratory. The waters about Bering Island never froze and fish were always

    available. Only five specimens of this bird are now in existence.

            Another interesting fact about the family Phalacrocoracidae is that it has

    been in existence long enough for one form to establish itself, and even to

    become flightless, on certain islands of the Galapagos Archipelago. This bird,

    which is known as the flightless (or Harris’s) cormorant, was discovered in

    1898.

            The closest relatives [ ?] of the cormorants are the snakebirds or anhingas

    (family Anhingidae), which by some [ ?] systematists have been placed in the Phala–

    crocoracidae and given subfamily ranking. The two groups to have certain im–

    potant characters in common. Both have dense, almost uninterrupted, feather

    covering; very short legs, placed far back in the body; more or less conspicuous

    gular pouch and loose neck skin which accomodates itself to the swallowing of

    121      |      Vol_IV-0179                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalacrocoracidae

    astonishingly large fish; and rather long, very stiff tail feathers. Points

    of difference are these: 1 . The cormorants have a powerful, strongly hooked

    bill with smooth cutting edge, the snakebirds a long, straight, very slender

    bill with finely serrated cutting edge. 2 . The cormorants have a well–

    developed occipital style. In the snakebirds this bone is very poorly devel–

    oped. 3 . The tail of the snakebirds is proportionately longer than that of

    the cormorants, and the middle rectrices are transversely corrugated or ribbed.

    4 . The snakebirds’ wings are proportionately longer than the cormorants’,

    permitting the bird to soar gracefully. Cormorants to not soar. 5 . The neck

    of the snakebird can be doubled back upon itself in such a way as to assist

    the bird in capturing fish, and also in streamlining its body for soaring

    flight. The mechanism probably involves a modification of bones, muscles,

    and tendons.

            Cormorants are long and powerful of body and stand upright, sometimes

    using their tails as props. Their tail bones and muscles are well developed.

    They swim and dive expertly, using their wings a great deal when maneuvering

    under water. In most species the throat and fact are naked and the eyes green

    or blue. The plumage is usually compact, dark colored, and glossy. Several

    species are boldly marked with white in adult plumage, but dull brownish gray

    (lighter below) in their first winter plumage. Others are dull olive gray all

    over at all seasons. The head is often crested in the breeding season, and the

    head and neck are sometimes decorated with soft, white, filamentous feathers

    which drop off when breeeding is over. The pelagic cormorant ( P. pelagicus )

    of the North Pacific is a gorgeous creature at the height of its breeding sea–

    son. Its black plumage is highly iridescent, and the two crests, the white

    patch on each flank, the snowy filoplumes on the neck, and the rich red of the

    122      |      Vol_IV-0180                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalacrocoracidae

    naked face are very showy.

            The cormorants are almost cosmopolitan in distribution (save for the

    central Pacific Ocean), ranging from the arctic coast of Siberia, southern

    Greenland, Iceland, northern Norway and the Murman coast southward almost (if

    not quite) to the Antarctic Circle, and being most abundant in the southern

    Hemisphere. They are gregarious birds, sometimes nesting together in huge

    colonies either by themselves or with other species. The distribution of these

    colonies probably depends to a large extent on the food supply. Many species

    nest only along the ocean shore, but others, such as the double-crested cor–

    morant ( P. auritus ) of North America nest on inland lakes where food is abundant.

    The nest is usually crudely built of twigs, debris or seaweed, placed on the

    ground on an islet far out from shore, on the face of a cliff, or in a tree.

    The eggs, which number 3 to 5 or more, have a pale bluish-green ground color,

    but this is obscured by a rough and dirty surface layer of calcareous matter.

    The young, which are utterly naked and helpless at the time of hatching, stay

    in the nest for several weeks. They obtain food by reaching their heads into

    the well-filled gular sacs of their parents.

            The family p P halacrocoracidae is not heavily represented in boreal regions.

    The red-faced cormorant ( P. urile ) is exclusively arctic and subarctic, being

    found only in the Bering Sea and along the coast of extreme northeastern Siberia

    (Cape Schmidt). The extinct Pallas’s cormorant, above referred to, may once

    have had a somewhat similar distribution. The common cormorant ( P. carbo )

    ranges farther northward in the Atlantic than in the Pacific, being found well

    beyond the Arctic Circle (Norway and Murman coast) in Europe, and almost as

    far north as the Arctic Circle in Greenland, but only as far as Japan, Sakhalin,

    and the Kurls in Asia. The shag ( P. aristotelis ) is found only in the eastern

    123      |      Vol_IV-0181                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalacrocoracidae

    North Atlantic. Its distribution along arctic and subarctic coasts is much

    the same as that of P. carbo in north Europe, but it does not breed anywhere

    in North America or Greenland. The pelagic cormorant ( P. pelagicus ) is found

    only in the North Pacific. It ranges northward from southern China and Baja

    California to the Bering Sea, being found on the arctic coast of eastern

    Siberia, but not, apparently, on the arctic coast of Alaska, the shore there

    presumably being too flat, or too free of offshore rocky islets

            83. Phalacrocorax . A genus composed of 25 species of cormorants (family

    Phalacrocoracidae), most of them rather large. In 11 species geographical

    variation is so great that recognizable subspecies or races have evolved.

    Thus the common cormorant ( P. carbo ), which is almost cosmopolitan in distri–

    bution except for South America, is represented by no fewer than 8 subspecies,

    two of which ( carbo and hanadae ) range into arctic or subarctic waters; the

    double-crested cormorant ( P. auritus ) is represented by four races, one of

    which ( P. auritus cincinatus ) ranges northward along the Pacific coast of

    North America as far as Kodiak Island and the coast of the Alaska Peninsula;

    the shag ( P. aristotelis ) is represented by three races, one of which ( aristo –

    telis ) nests northward beyond the Arctic Circle in Europe; and the pelagic

    cormorant ( P. pelagicus ) is represented by 2 races, one of which ( pelagicus )

    breeds northward in the Pacific Ocean to the Bering Sea and the arctic coast

    of eastern Siberia. Two species, the red-faced cormorant ( P. urile ) and the

    Pallas’s cormorant ( P. perspicillatus ) have had a limited range in the North

    Pacific and have not varied geographically. The red-faced cormorant now breeds

    on islands in the Bering Sea and northward to beyond the Arctic Circle on the

    arctic coast of extreme northeastern Siberia, wintering no farther south than

    the Kurils, Aleutians, Komandorskis, and Japan. Pallas’s cormorant has been

    124      |      Vol_IV-0182                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalacrocorax

    extinct since 1852. Its sole known habitat was Bering Island.

            Murphy (1936. Oceanic Birds of South America , 2: 870), commenting on

    the distribution of cormorants, says: “In the northern hemisphere there

    are many cormorants of a common type which have taken to the interiors of

    the great continents and have thus become inland no less than coastal birds.

    Some of these have also penetrated southward into Africa and Australia.

    South America, however, has but one species of this stamp, namely Phalacrocorax

    olivaceus , which is … equally at home in either salt water or fresh.” It

    is true that some cormorants of the Northern Hemisphere are “inland as well

    as coastal birds” (e.g., the double-crested cormorant of North America); but

    the cormorants which breed in arctic and subarctic regions are all primarily

    coastal, i.e., salt-water species, insofar as the arctic parts of their ranges

    are concerned. An interesting fact about these boreal species is that they

    are all relatively nonmigratory. Their nesting places are close to oceanic

    waters which are open the year round, hence a supply of food is always avail–

    able.

            The genus Phalacrocorax is an ancient one, fossil species dating back to

    the lower Miocene having been found in North America (Montana) and to the

    lower Pliocene in Europe. Concerning certain Oligocene cormorants there is a

    difference of opinion, some authors placing them in the genus Phalacrocorax ,

    others in a separate genus, Oligocorax . One present-day species, P. auritus ,

    has been reported from the Pleistocene of Florida and California. The genus

    is now almost cosmopolitan, being found as far south as Tierra del Fuego, the

    Falklands, South Georgia, New Zealand, and the scattered islands of that area,

    and even the South Shetlands and South Ork [ ?] neys . The most southward ranging of

    125      |      Vol_IV-0183                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalacrocorax and red-faced cormorant

    all is the Antarctic blue-eyed shag ( P. atriceps subspecies), which inhabits

    “the southerly islands of the Scotia Arc, including the South Sandwich, South

    Orkney, and South Shetland groups; and the islands of the Antarctic Archipelago

    southward to latitude 65° S., or beyond” (Murphy, op. cit., p.889).

            84. Red-faced Cormorant . A large pelecaniform (steganopod) bird, [ ?]

    Phalacrocorax urile , found only in the North Pacific and adjacent waters of

    the Arctic Sea. It breeds on the arctic coast of eastern Siberia (at Cape

    Schmidt and perhaps at other points); on Bering (Arii Kamen) and Copper Islands

    in the Komandorskis; and on the Bogoslofs, the Pribilofs (St. Paul, St. George,

    Otter, and Walrus islands), and certain of the eastern Aleutians (Adak, Akun,

    and Amak). Reports of its breeding on the coast of Kamchatka and on the Kurils

    have not been confirmed. It is apparently [ ?] somewhat migratory, for it has been

    seen in winter from the Komandorskis, Aleutians, and Pribilofs southward to

    Kamchatka, the Kurils, and Japan, but it probably winters wherever there is

    open water and a good fish supply. Early works, such as Kraschenninnikov’s

    The History of Kamtschatka , referred to this bird as the ouril or urile (whence

    the scientific name) but this native name was (and is) applied to cormorants

    in general. In ornithological writing there has been such confusion concerning

    the descriptions of, hence the correct names for, the three cormorants of the

    Bering Sea, some descriptions seeming to apply almost equally well to the red–

    faced species, the pelagic cormorant ( P. pelagicus ), and the now extinct

    Pallas’s cormorant ( P. perspicillatus ).

            The red-faced cormorant is about 30 inches long. Adults in winter are

    glossy greenish black all over and without conspicuous crests. In nuptial

    plumage, however, two glossy bronze crests appear on the head — one on the

    126      |      Vol_IV-0184                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-faced Cormorant

    nape, the other on the crown; and a bold, snow-white patch appears on each

    flank. The forehead is not feathered. The bill is bluish horn color (darker

    along the culmen and at the tip); the naked skin of the forehead and face is

    bright orange; and the gular sac is blue bordered at the near with purplish

    red. The ey e s are said to be brown, but so many cormorants are normally green–

    or blue-eyed that this report needs confirmation. Young birds in their first

    flight plumage are dark brown and not easy to distinguish from young pelagic

    cormorants, especially since the forehead is equally well feathered in the

    two species at this stage. Red-faced cormorants do not assume fully adult

    plumage until they are three or more years old.

            The breeding season of the Red-faced Cormorant begins two or three weeks

    earlier than that of most Bering Sea birds, the exceptions being the glaucous

    and glaucous-winged gulls. Well incubated eggs have been found as early as

    June 1, and young about a week old in mid-June. Since the gulls rob a great

    many cormorant nests, some sets of eggs are laid late (probably as late as

    July). The eggs number 3 to 5 and are pale bluish white in ground color, with

    a rough chalklike covering. Stejneger tells us that the ground color of the

    eggs is perceptibly bluer than that of pelagic cormorant eggs; that the newly

    hatched young of urile can be distinguished from that of pelagicus by the

    greater width of the bill at the base and the definitely white gular pouch;

    and that somewhat older young are recognizable from the down (which is dusky,

    tipped with brownish gray) and the large spot on each thigh which is dotted

    with white ( [ ?]1885. Bull. U. S. Natl. 29: 185).

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and

    their allies,” U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull . no.21, pp.279-82, 1922. 2. Krasheninnikov, S.P. Opisanie Zemli Kemchatki . St. Petersburg, Akad.

    Nauk, 18 1755.

    127      |      Vol_IV-0185                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Shag and Sulidae

    3. Palmer, Williams. “The avifauna of the Pribilof Islands,” Jordan, D.S.

    The Fur Seals and Fur-Seal Islands of the North Pacific Ocean .

    Wash. G.P.O. 1899, pt. 3, pp.373, 378. 4. Stejneger, L.H. “Results of the ornithological explorations — the Com–

    mander Islands and in Kamtschatka,” U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull . no.29,

    p. 185, 1885.

            85. Shag. 1 . The only common name in general use in Great Britain for

    the green cormorant ( Phalacrocorax aristotelis ), q.v.

            2 . A common name widely used among sailors and fishermen for

    cormorants of any sort. The word is used in Australia, New Zealand, the Falkland

    Islands, along the Labrador, in Newfoundland — in short, wherever English is

    spoken. Except in Great Britain, the words cormorant and shag may be considered

    interchangeable. In Great Britain the cormorant is the large common cormorant,

    Phalacrocorax carbo; the shag is the considerably smaller green cormorant,

    P. aristotelis ( P. graculus of many authors).

            88. Sulidae . A family of large pelecaniform (Steganopod) sea birds, com–

    monly known as the gannets and boobies. They range from about 28 to 36 inches

    in length. They subsist wholly on fish, which they usually capture with a spec–

    tacular plunge from the air. Their plumage is compace and rather hard, and under

    the skin there is a thick layer of air cells which absorbs part of the shock in

    diving. Their bill is stout, straight, pointed, and gradually tapering toward

    the en[d?]. It is slightly curved at the tip, but never hooked as in the Phalacro–

    coracidae (cormorants). Its cutting edges are finely serrated, as in the Angingidae

    128      |      Vol_IV-0186                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sulidae

    (snakebirds or darters). The upper mandible is angled in front of the lores

    and there is a deep groove along the side of the culmen. In adults the

    nostrils are completely closed, as in the cormorants. The lores, chin, and

    part of the throat are more or less bare, but there is no well-defined gular

    sac. The wings are long and pointed, the outermost primary being the longest.

    The tail is long and wedge-shaped, and composed of 12 to 18 rectrices. The

    scales of the tarsus and tops of the toes are reticulate in most species,

    but in the gannet ( Morus bassanus ) there is a line of narrow transverse scales

    on each toe which continues separately up the front of the tarsus. The tarsus

    is shorter than the foot. The claw of the middle toe is pectinate along the

    inner edge. Most species of the family nest on ledges on cliffs, or on the

    ground on islands. Only one species — the red-footed booby ( Sula sula ) —

    nests regularly in trees. Some species lay one egg, others two; one brood a

    year is reared.

            The Sulidae do not have syringeal muscles. Murphy has described in detail

    the voice and vocal apparatus of the camanay or blue-footed booby ( Sula

    nebouxii ). The cires of adult females and young birds of both sexes are

    “strident, raucous trumpetings,” those of adult males mild and plaintive

    whistles. “The change in the voice of the males comes with maturity, when the

    delicate vibrating membrane of the vocal organ grows out to form a hard, egg–

    shaped chamber, thus converting a trumpet into a whistle! The same mechanism,

    or a similar one, appears to be present in most members of the family Sulidae.”

            The Sulidae are an ancient family. Many fossil forms have been reported

    from the Old World as well as the New, several of these dating back to Miocene

    and Oligocene times, and two (the fossil genera ( Actiornis and Elopteryx ) to even

    129      |      Vol_IV-0187                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sulidae

    an earlier era. About 9 species are extant today, most of these being found

    in tropical and temperate oceans. Two genera are currently recognized —

    Morus , with 3 species ( M. bassanus of the North Atlantic; M. capensis of the

    South African coast; and M. serrator of Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand);

    and Sula , with 6 species, found principally in tropical oceans.

            The only species of the family which ranges northward into subarctic

    regions is the gannet or solan goose ( Morus bassanus ), which breeds in and

    near the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the American side of the Atlantic; and from

    England northward to the Faeroes, Orkneys, and the north coast of Iceland on

    the European side.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Knowlton, F.H., and Ridgway, Robert. Birds of the World . N.Y., Holt,

    1909, pp.133-36. 2. Murphy, R.C. Oceanic Birds of South America . N.Y., American Museum of

    Natural History, 1936, vol.2, p.834.

    Ciconiiformes (Herons)



    130      |      Vol_IV-0188                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Herons

    HERONS

           

    Order CICONIIFORMES

           

    Family ARDEIDAE

            91. Ardea . See writeup.

            92. ARDEIDAE. See writeup.

            93. CICONIIFORMES . See writeup.

            94. Common Heron. A name used in Great Britain for the gray heron

    ( Ardea cinerea ) ( q.v. ).

            95. European Blue Heron. A name sometimes used in English-speaking countries

    for the gray heron ( Ardea cin [ ?] erea ) ( q.v. ).

            96. Gray Heron. See writeup.



    131      |      Vol_IV-0189                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ardea

            91. Ardea . A genus of herons (family Ardeidae) containing 11 species,

    all large and one of them ( A. goliath of Africa and irregularly India) the

    largest heron of the world. The genus is found in all continents and ranges

    from the Arctic Circle ( A. cinerea ) southward to the State of Chubut in

    southern Argentina ( A. cocoi ) and to Australia and Tasmania ( A. pacifica ).

    The range in color is considerable, most species being predominantly gray

    on the back and upper surface of the wings, one species — A. occidentalis ,

    the great white heron of North America — being white all over. Throughout

    the genus adult birds have slender, limp, long occipital plumes or a crest on

    the crown, and the scapulars are elongated into plumes; but no species of

    the eleven is, properly speaking, an egret — i.e., adorned in the breeding

    season with filmy back feathers such as those once widely used in making the

    aigrettes of commerce. All members of the genus have strong, straight, sharply

    pointed bills, and well-defined transverse (rather than reticulate) scales on

    the front of the tarsus.

            It is not apparent why the genus ranges somewhat farther north in the Old

    World than the New. The great blue heron ( A. herodias ) of North America is very

    similar to the gray heron ( A. cinerea ) of Eurasia. The great blue heron ranges

    northward to southern Alaska on the Pacific side of the continent, and to the

    Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic side, but at no point does it reach the

    Arctic Circle. The gray heron, on the other hand, ranges northward to the Arctic

    Circle and beyond in Norway, and possibly also in Russia and Siberia.

            See Gray Heron and Ardeidae.



    132      |      Vol_IV-0190                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ardeidae

            92. Ardeidae . A family of storklike (ciconiiform) birds including the

    herons, egrets, bitterns, and their allies. They are a fairly uniform group

    with long legs designed for wading (and also, to a limited extent, for swim–

    ming). They have four toes, three in front and one behind, with a short web

    between the middle and outer front toes. The hind toe is on the same plane

    with the front three, and the claw of the middle toe is usually pectinate

    (comblike) on the inner side. The body is thin and compressed. The neck is

    long and “kinked” at about the middle, the sixth vertebra being extraordinarily

    long. This “kink” shows especially when the neck is doubled back for flight

    or when the standing bird hunches itself up. The bill is long, straight, and

    pointed. The wings are long but rounded, the second, third, and fourth pri–

    maries being of about the same length. The lores and spaces about the eyes

    are bare. In general the plumage is lax and somewhat fluffy, several species

    wearing plumes on the lower back, chest, crown, and nape, especially in the

    breeding season. Close to the skin, among the body plumage, there are two (in

    some forms three) pairs of “powder down patches.” These curious, compact masses

    of highly specialized feathers, which slough off a greasy powder (possibly a

    waterproofing agent for the plumage), constitute a well-defined and much–

    discussed character of the family.

            The Ardeidae inhabit swamps, marshes, and river banks primarily, only a

    few of them seeming to prefer the seacoast. They are almost cosmopolitan in

    distribution, but are most numerous in tropical and subtropical regions. They

    are usually colonial in their nesting, and most species nest wholly in trees.

    They feed principally on fish, but also on other aquatic animals and such small

    [ ?] mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects as inhabit marshy places. Of the

    more than 100 species, only one — the gray heron ( Ardea cinerea ) of the Old

    133      |      Vol_IV-0191                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ardeidae and Ciconiiformes

    World — ranges northward as far as the Arctic Circle, although three other

    species, the great blue heron ( Ardea herodias ) of North America, the American

    bittern ( Botaurus lentiginosus ) and the Old World bittern ( B. stellaris )

    range well northward; and a few forms range as far southward as southern South

    America, southern Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The most northward–

    and southward-ranging forms are large, but not the largest of the family.

            The Ardeidae are an old group, the earliest known fossil form being from

    the Eocene of England. Several present-day species have been reported from

    the Pleistocene, and one extinct species which inhabited North America in

    Pleistocene times is known from fossil remains obtained in Oregon.

            93. Ciconiiformes . An order of deep-water wading birds found principally

    in tropical and warm-temperate regions, and alike in being long-legged, long–

    winged and long-necked, and in possessing four toes. Most of them are rather

    soberly colored, but some — e.g., the scarlet ibis ( Guara rubra ) — are among

    the most brightly plumaged birds known. The range in size is great, the least

    bittern ( Ixobrychus exilis ) having a body about the size of a starling’s ( Sturnus

    vulgaris ), whereas the majestic jabiru ( Jabiru mycteria ) of Central and South

    America and the adjutants or marabou storks ( Leptoptilos ) of Asia and Africa

    stand five feet or more high.

            The Ciconiiformes are currently believed to include the large and widely

    ranging family Ardeidae (herons and bitterns); the monotypic family Cochleariidae

    (boat-billed heron of Mexico, Central America, and South America); the monotypic

    family Balaenicipitidae (whale-headed stork or shoe-bill of Africa); the monotypic

    family Sopidae (hammer-head or umbrette of Africa); the family Ciconiidae (the

    true storks); the family Threskiornithidae (ibises and spoonbills); and the family

    Phoenicopteridae (flamingos). Most of these birds have long bills and naked lores.

    134      |      Vol_IV-0192                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ciconiiformes

    The two most highly specialized families of the seven, the Balaenicipitidae

    and Phoenicopteridae, are frequently given subordinal ranking. The first

    of these, the whale-headed stork, is a remarkable bird about four feet high,

    with a huge, broad, flattened bill which is concave in profile, strongly

    ridged along the culmen, and provided with a hook at the tip. The flamingos

    are so different in certain respects from all other birds that they might

    well be placed in an order by themselves between the Ciconiiformes and the

    Anseriformes. They have long, slender necks, each of the 18 cervical ver–

    tebrae being extraordinarily long. Their curious bent-downward bill, the

    upper mandible of which fits into the lower like a box fitting into its upside–

    down lid, is unique in the bird world. And despite the length of the legs and

    shortness of the toes, the three front toes and joined with webs.

            The order Ciconiiformes is an ancient one, the easily recognizable

    flamingos, in particular, datinh g back to very early times. The earliest

    fossil ciconiiform bird known was from the Cretaceous of Denmark. A flamingo

    reported from the Pleistocene of Oregon was very similar to the only genus

    ( Phoenicopterus ) which inhabits both the New World and the Old today. These

    and several other fossil forms indicate that the Phoenicopteridae formerly

    ranged much more widely than they do today, though it is highly doubtful that

    they ever inhabited arctic or subarctic regions. Fossil flamingos were

    shorter-legged and straighter-billed than those of today (Lambrecht, Kalman.

    Handbuch der Palaeornithologie Handbuch der Palaeornithologie , Berlin, Gebruder Borntraeger, 1933).

            The only family of the order which ranges at all regularly northward to

    the Arctic Circle and beyond is the Ardeidae, one species of which, Ardea

    cinerea (common or gray heron), breeds northward to latitude 70° N. in Norway

    135      |      Vol_IV-0193                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ciconiiformes

    and to unde r termined points in northern Russia and Siberia; occurs casually

    on Iceland, Spitsbergen, and the Faeroes; and has been taken once on Greenland.

    The closely related great blue heron ( Ardea herodias ) of the New World does

    not range quite so far northward, though the original descript [ ?] tion of the

    species was based on a specimen from Hudson Bay, and there is one Greenland

    record. Two bitterns (chunky members of the Ardeidae) — the common bittern

    ( Botaurus stellaris ) of the Old World, and the American bittern or thunder–

    pumper ( Botaurus lentiginosus ) of the New, range well northward but probably

    do not nest at all regularly as far north as the Arctic Circle. The American

    bittern has been reported from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faeroes. Two Old

    World species of the family Ciconiidae — the famous white stork ( Ciconia

    ciconia ) and the black stork ( Ciconia nigra ) — breed northward to about lat–

    itude 60° N. in Europe and eastward through Russia and Asia to China. One

    member of the Threskiornithidae — the glossy ibis ( Plegadis falcinellus ) —

    has been reported from such northern points as Iceland, the Faeroes, the

    British Isles, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, but these records probably repre–

    sent late summer wandering. In the North Temperate Zone many ciconiiform

    birds tend to wander northward after nesting.

            All northward-ranging ciconiiform birds are distinctly migratory. They sub–

    sist largely on fish, amphibians, and other aquatic animals, occasionally cap–

    turing such prey as mice, other small mammals, and birds, on which they might

    concievably feed north of the northern limit for amphibians and snakes. Another

    limiting fact is nest sites. While many ciconiiform birds (such as the bitterns)

    nest regularly on the ground in a marshy place, other nest principally, if not

    wholly in trees. The most northward-ranging form of the order, the common heron

    referred to above, sometimes nests among reeds or shrubbery in a marsh, or even

    136      |      Vol_IV-0194                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ciconiiformes and Gray Heron

    on a cliff, hence may breed successfully somewhat north of the tree limit in

    Scandinavia, northern Russia, and Siberia.

            96. Gray Heron . A well-known Old World bird, Ardea cin c erea , which is

    known in Great Britain as the common heron, is closely related to the great

    blue heron ( Ardea herodias ) of North America and may possibly be conspecific

    with that form. It is the only member of the heron family (Ardeidae) which

    breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond. Three races are recognized,

    cinerea , which breeds throughout the greater part of Europe and western Asia,

    at scattered points in Africa, and on the Canary Islands, and which ranges

    north to latitude 70° N. in Norway and perhaps even farther north (presumably

    along forested river banks) in north Russia and in northern parts of west

    Siberia; jouyi , which breeds in eastern Siberia, eastern China, Japan, Formosa,

    and Hainan; and firasa , which breeds on Madagascar, Aldabra, and the Comoro

    Islands. The two northern races are probably much more migratory than the ex–

    clusively African firasa . The European race winters in the Mediterranean

    countries and in Africa. It wanders widely (young birds especially) in late

    summer, and has been recorded causally from various parts of Scandinavia, the

    Faeroes, Spitsbergen, and Iceland, and once from Greenland.

            The gray heron is a large bird, measuring 3 feet or more from the tip of bill

    to tip of tail, and standing 3 to 4 feet high. It is blue-gray on the upper

    part of the body and in flight appears to be solid gray. In adult plumage the

    forehead and crown are pure white, bordered at each side with a [ ?]broad black

    line. These lines meet on the nape, forming a long, limp crest of slender

    black feathers. The rest of the head is light gray, lightest on the [ ?] chin and

    throat. The neck is light buffy gray with a pinkish tinge. A line of black

    spots in the middle of the throat and foreneck lead down to the plumed chest.

    137      |      Vol_IV-0195                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gray Heron

    The under parts are white, with a black patch on each side of the breast and

    broad black streaks in the middle of the belly. The bill is brown above, yellow

    below and at the base. The naked area about the eyes is green. The irides are

    light yellow. The feet are dull brown. Young birds are much less boldly pat–

    terned than adults and have no plumes of any sort, though the feathers of the

    crown are long and narrow. The forehead and crown are gray, not white. The

    lower part of the head is white, however, and clear enough to be visible at

    some distance in the field.

            Since the gray heron eats a great variety of animal life (principally

    fish, but also small mammals and birds, amphibians, mollusks, and insects)

    its northward limits-of-range probably do not coincide with those of any one

    food-species, or even with a small group of food-species, though its colonial

    nesting habits demand a large supply of animal food of some sort for several

    weeks in summer. At the northern limit-of-range it probably does not attempt

    to bring out two broods a season, though at more southerly latitudes it may

    regularly be two-brooded. It usually nests in trees, but occasionally it nests

    among reeds on the ground, in low bushes, or on cliffs. Its ability thus to

    adapt itself may well be responsible for its spread northward. Where there are

    cliffs with southern exposure (i.e., protected from the north wind) and a de–

    pendable food supply, the gray heron may nest northward even well beyond the

    tree limit. The nest is a broad, shallow affair built of twigs. The eggs,

    which are light blue, number 4 or 5. The female is believed to do most of the

    incubating, though the male occasionally assists. The incubation period is 25

    to 28 days. The nestlings developed rather slow ing ly , subsisting on food which the

    parents swallow afield and regurgitate at the nest.

    Anseriformes (Swans, Geese, Ducks)



    138      |      Vol_IV-0196                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Swans

    SWANS

           

    Order ANSERIFORMES ; Suborder ANSERES

           

    Family ANATIDAE; Subfamily ANSERINAE

    Tribe CYGNINI

            97. ANSERIFORMES . See writeup.

            98. Bewick’s Swan. See writeup.

            99. Cygnini. See writeup.

            100. Cygnus . See writeup.

            101. Trumpeter Swan. See writeup.

            102. Whistling Swan. See writeup.

            103. Whooper Swan. See writeup.



    139      |      Vol_IV-0197                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Swans, Anseriformes

            97. Anseriformes . A large and important order containing (a) the suborder

    Anhimae (screamers) of South America and (b) the world-ranging suborder Ans [ ?] res

    (swans, geese, ducks, and allies), many of which breed in the Far North exclu–

    sively or northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond. The Anhimae are anomalous

    birds (2 genera, 3 species) about the size of a domestic turkey hen, with small

    head, chicken-like bill, thick but not very long legs, and thick, excessively

    long, unwebbed toes. Their feathering is almost continuous. They are unique

    among present-day birds in that their ribs are without uncinate processes.

    They inhabit marshlands and open flat country. They are so different in general

    appearance from the swans, geese, and ducks that the two groups do not seem to

    be even distantly related, yet all swans, geese, ducks, and screamers possess

    two pairs of tracheo-sternal muscles — “a marked point of distinction from

    other Carinate birds” (Evans).

            The numerous members of the suborder Anseres are currently believed to

    belong to but one family, the Anatidae: so the Anseres and Anatidae are actually

    the same birds. Despite the great diversity of size and color among them, they

    are easily recognizable as anseriform. Anyone can identify a swan, goose, or

    duck almost immediately from its general appearance and behavior — its webbed

    feet, shortish legs, waddling gait, and so on. Throughout the suborder (family)

    the feet have four toes, three in front and one behind, the hind one somewhat

    elevated, the front three joined by full webs — except in the pied, magpie,

    or semipalmated goose ( Anseranas semipalmata ) of Australia. The tarsi are never

    very long, so the birds when standing or walking have a squat, low-hung appear–

    ance. Generally speaking, the neck is very long in the swans, shorter in the

    geese, and still shorter in the ducks. The plumage is compact and waterproof,

    the contour feathers having only rudimentary aftershafts or no aftershaft at all,

    140      |      Vol_IV-0198                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anseriformes

    but the under coat of down being very dense and soft. In many (perhaps all)

    species a special set of down feathers develops about the time nesting starts.

            Throughout the Anseres (Anatidae) the bill is covered with a thin skin

    and the upper mandible has a horny plate or “nail” at the tip. All swans,

    geese, and ducks have a more or less flat bill, along the sides of which

    there are rows of fine lamellae or strainers. These are responsible for the

    names Lammelirostres and lamellirostral swimmers, by which the suborder is

    sometimes known. The mergansers or sawbills have narrow, serrate bills designed

    for capturing fish.

            In swans (Cygnini) and true geese (Anserini) the tarsi are covered with

    reticulate scales; but in most ducks there is a row of transverse scutes along

    the front edge of the tarsus. The wings are rather long in most Anseres, the

    primaries numbering 11, the outermost of which is stiff but so small that it

    looks like a primary covert. One present-day genus, Tachyeres (steamer ducks

    of southern South America and the Falklands) can fly when young, but by the

    time the birds reach maturity they paddle themselves about with their wings,

    and do not fly at all.

            All swans, geese, and ducks swim well, and some are expert divers. The

    geese, which are famous as grazers, walk well. Some ducks, among them the

    Muscovy ( Cairina moschata ) of the New World tropics, are decidedly arboreal.

    The so-called tree ducks (Dendrocygnini) are far less arboreal than the name

    suggests: some of them never alight or nest in trees.

            Throughout the Anseres the nest is lined with down; the eggs are hard–

    shelled and without markings; and the young are down-covered at hatching. In

    most species the sets of eggs are large. Some forms (especially certain true

    geese) appear to be colonial, but this may result from necessity for nesting

    141      |      Vol_IV-0199                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anseriformes

    close together where only a limited number of suitable nest sites are available.

    There are striking differences in nesting behavior. Swans and true geese stay

    paired throughout the breeding season (and perhaps for life), the males standing

    guard while the females incubate. So close-knit are family groups of swans

    and true geese that normally they migrate southward and even pass the winter

    together. Among mergansers and certain other ducks, however, the males leave

    the females once the sets of eggs have been completed and incubation has begun.

    The females proceed with hatching the eggs and rearing the broods, while the

    males band together in far-removed areas, there to undergo the molt. Adult

    Anseres pass a completely flightless period after breeding, for all their wing

    feathers then drop out simultaneously. In late summer great numbers of geese

    are killed in certain parts of the Arctic, for the native peoples know exactly

    where the molting birds are to be found.

            The Anseres number about 200 species, which Peters places in one family,

    ten subfamilies, and about 60 genera. Delacour and Mayr, in a well-illustrated

    and thought-provoking paper, have recently proposed the recognition of two

    major groups, to which they give subfamilial rank: ( 1 ) the Anserinae —

    including the “tribes” Anserini (true geese and swans) and Dendrocygnini

    (whistling ducks or tree ducks); and ( 2 ) the Anatinae — including the “tribes”

    Tadornini (sheldrakes), Anatini (river ducks), Aythyini (pochards), Cairinini

    (perching ducks), Mergini (sea ducks and merganers), Oxyurini (stiff-tailed

    ducks), and Merganettini (torrent ducks). Most earlier systems of classifica–

    tion were “based exclusively on a small selection of morphological characters,

    [ ?] primarily on the shape of the bill and feet.” The Delacour-Mayr

    system, however, is based on non-adaptive morphological characters, such as

    the shape of the scales on the front of the tarsus; the plumage patterns of

    142      |      Vol_IV-0200                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anseriformes

    of adult and young birds; the presence or absence of a double annual molt;

    posture; general body proportions; the shape and structure of the syrinx and

    trachea; and such biological phenomena as pair formation, courtship display,

    and nesting and feeding habits. Their investigations have revealed that

    several so-called geese are really very closely related to the ducks. The

    “false” geese, which they have removed from the Anserinae and placed in the

    Anatinae, are: Anseranas (pied or semipalmated goose), Plectropterus (African

    spur-winged goose), Cereopsis (Cape Barren goose), Cyanochen (Abyssinian blue–

    winged goose), Chenonetta (maned goose) and Chloëphaga (kelp goose and allies).

    The beautiful Coscoroba ( C. coscoroba ) of South Ameria, on the other hand,

    they have removed from the Anatinae and placed in the Anserinae, close to the

    swans.

            Surely these authors are justified in dividing the Anseres (Anatidae)

    into two subfamilies, and the division into “tribes” too is useful. There are

    cogent arguments, however, for placing the swans (and Coscoroba ) in a tribe

    separate from the true geese. The reader is referred to the beginning of the

    ornithological section of the Encyclopedia Arctica for a concise classification

    of arctic anseriform birds.

            The Anseres (Anatidae) are cosmopolitan in distribution, and many forms

    are distinctly northern. Most genera and many species which breed in the Arctic

    or Subarctic have a circumboreal distribution, being equally common in the New

    World and the Old. Some species which nest in the Arctic as well as in more

    southerly latitudes have developed specialized nesting habits in the north.

    Thus the red-breasted merganser ( Mergus serrator ), which nests under shrubbery

    on gently sloping islets or lake shores in the northern United States and

    southern Canada, nests on high cliffs in Baffin Island.



    143      |      Vol_IV-0201                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anseriformes

            Many fossil anseriform birds have been described. Gallornis , from the

    Lower Cretaceous of Austria, is said to stand morphologically between the

    ducks and the swans. Romainvillia of France and Eonessa of North America

    represent the upper Eocene: the former displays characters intermediate

    between those of modern anseriform birds; the latter, on the basis of sev–

    eral wing bones, has been placed in a separate tribe near the Oxyurini. Ducks

    and swans of modern tribes first appeared in the Oligocene of Europe. Cygnus

    has been reported from the Miocene of both Europe and America. Anser appeared

    in the Miocene of Europe, but the only known contemporaneous true goose of

    North America was the extinct Presbychen . Ducks, geese, and swans ranged

    widely in both Europe and America in the Pliocene. Branta and Mergus appeared

    in the Pliocene. “The indications are that the order Anseriformes had its

    origin and early development on the European continent and began its real

    spread elsewhere about the middle of the Tertiary period” (Howard).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References;

    1. Delacour, Jean, and Mayr, Ernst. “The family Anatidae,” Wilson Bull . vol.

    57, pp.2-55, 1945. 2. Evans, A.H. “Birds,” Cambridge Natural History , vol.9, p.108, London and

    New York, Macmillan, 1899. 3. Howard, Hildegarde. “Fossil evidence of avian evolution,” Ibis , vol.92,

    no.1, pp.9-11, 1950. 4. Peters, J.L. Check-List of Birds of the World . Cambridge, Mass. Harvard

    Univ. Press, 1931. Vol.1. 5. Scott, Peter. “Key to the Wildfowl of the World,” The second annual report

    of the Severn Wildfowl Trust. London, Country Life Ltd.,

    1948-49.

    144      |      Vol_IV-0202                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bewick’s Swan

            98. Bewick’s Swan . A large anseriform bird, Cygnus bewickii , which

    closely resembles the well-known whooper swan ( Cygnus cygnus ), but is smaller.

    Like that species it is wholly white, with black and yellow bill when adult;

    but the yellow of the bill does not extend forward to [ ?] the nostrils,

    whereas in the whooper swan the yellow reaches forward to below the nostrils

    or even farther. According to some authors, the bill of the adult Bewick’s

    swan appears to be orange or even red in the field. Young Bewick’s swans

    are pale brownish gray all over, with “slaty-pink” bills. They are much paler

    than young whooper swans of the same plumage stage. The cry of the Bewick’s

    swan has been described as a gooselike honk, “not in the least like that of

    the whooper” (Trevor-Battye). Some authors believe that the Bewick’s swan

    and whistling swan are conspecific.

            Two races of Bewick’s swan are currently recognized — C. bewickii be –

    wickii , which breeds along the arctic coast of Eurasia from Kolguev Island

    eastward to the Lena Delta (including the island of Novaya Zemlya), and winters

    southward to the British Isles, north Europe, the Caspian Sea, and central

    Asia; and the somewhat larger C. bewickii jankowskii , which breeds in Siberia

    from the delta of the Lena to the delta of the Kolyma and winters southward

    to China and Japan. At the mouth of the Yenisei the nominate race breeds

    inland as far as Breokoffsky Island, at which point Haviland recorded it in

    the summer of 1914. Bewick’s swan has been taken once in Spitsbergen. It

    has been reported from Bear Island (Johnsen) and Vaigach (Jackson).

            The species nests on low-lying ground close to water, usually on small

    islands near the mouths of large rivers. The nest is a huge heap of moss

    and other vegetation, “mixed with some mud,” and with a down-lined depression

    145      |      Vol_IV-0203                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bewick’s Swan

    in which the 3 to 5 creamy white eggs are laid. A nest found on Kolguev

    Island was 2 1/2 feet high and 4 1/2 feet wide at the base (Trevor-Battye).

    On Novaya Zemlya in 1903, Schaanning recorded the first arrivals from the

    south on May 28; first eggs in nests on June 5; newly hatched young on July

    16; and molting birds which were still unable to fly as late as August 23,

    August 27, and September 1. At the mouth of the Kolyma, Buturlin noted

    newly returned birds in mid-May, 1905. At the mouth of the Lena, Matiessen

    took a set of 5 eggs on June 25, 1903. Only one brood is reared. The female

    incubates while the male stands guard.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Buturlin, A.A. “The breeding-grounds of the Rosy Gull,” Ibis , vol.6,

    ser.8, p.132, 1906. 2. Haviland, M.D. A Summer on the Yenesei . Lond., Arnold, 1915, p.59. 3. Pleske, Theodore. “Birds of the Eurasian tundra,” Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.

    Mem . vol.6, no.3, p.311, 1928. 4. Schaanning, H.T.L. “Østfinmarkens fuglefauna. Ornithologiske meddelelser

    vedrørende trakterne om Varangerfjorden, specielt Sydvarangers

    fauna i aarene.1900-1906,” Bergens Mus. Aarb . 1907, no.8, p.78. 5. Tervor-Battye, Aubyn. Ice-Bound on Kolguev . 2d ed. lond., Constable, 1895,

    pp.425-27.

    146      |      Vol_IV-0204                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cygnini

            99. Cygnini . An anseriform tribe to which the Swans and the somewhat

    anomalous Coscoroba belong. The Cygnini are large, distinctly aquatic birds,

    notable for their graceful form and carriage while swimming. They are less

    graceful on land, though they walk well. They are majestic in flight. They

    often feed by tipping — i.e., feeding from the bottom while their body, the

    tail end of it at least, stays at the surface. They are all very long necked.

    In swans the cervical vertebrae number from 23 50 25, in the Coscoroba 21.

    Throughout the Cygnini the sexes are colored alike, and in all but three species

    the plumage of adults is pure [ ?] white. Two genera of “true” swans are currently

    recognized — Cygnus , which is well represented in arctic and subarctic regions;

    and Chenopsis (black swan) of Australia and Tasmania. The position of the Cos–

    coroba ( Coscoroba coscoroba ) is doubtful. Delacour and Mayr consider it closer

    to Cygnus than to any other genus. Peters, however, lists it with the ducks.

            Of the six species of Cygnus , five are confined largely to the Northern

    Hemisphere and when adult have pure white plumage; while the only species of

    the Southern Hemisphere, C. melanocoriphus (black-necked swan) of southern South

    America and the Falkland Islands, is black throughout most of the head and upper

    two-thirds of the neck, pure white elsewhere. The Coscoroba, also South American,

    is white, save for the black wing tips.

            The Cygnini are not colonial in their nesting. While further information

    is needed concerning the nidification of some species, it is believed that through

    the whole tribe the female does most, if not all, of the incubating, while the

    male stands guard. The eggs number 3 to 5 as a rule, though sets of 78 to 12

    have been recorded. All species are single-brooded. Most species have white or

    cream-colored eggs, but the eggs of the mute swan ( Cygnus olor ) of the Old World

    147      |      Vol_IV-0205                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cygnini and Cygnus

    are pale bluish green. Swans’ nests are huge mounds of vegetation several

    feet in diameter and two feet or so high. The incubation period is said to

    be from 31 (captive birds) to 43 days. Family groups feed and move about to–

    gether, the adults undergoing their postnuptial molt about the time the young

    are obtaining their first flight plumage, so that the entire family takes to

    the air [ ?] together in late summer or early fall.

            All northern swans are distinctly migratory. Families move southward in

    a group and stay together most of the winter. Adults probably pair for life,

    returning directly to the nesting spot they have used for years as soon as

    the tundra is free of snow and food is available.

            See Cygnus , Whooper Swan, Trumpeter Swan, Bewick’s Swan, and Whistling

    Swan.

            100. Cygnus . An anseriform genus composed of sic species of Swans, five

    of which are northern in distribution (wholly or largely confined to the

    Northern Hemisphere), and on southern — the black-necked swan ( C. melancori –

    phus ) of southern South America and the Falkland Islands. Of the northern

    species, two are found only in the New World — the whistling swan ( C. colum –

    bianus ) and the trumpeter ( C. buccinator ); two are found only in the Old World —

    the Bewick’s swan ( C. bewickii ) and the mute swan ( C. olor ); and one must be

    considered common to both the New World and the Old, for it bred formerly in

    southern Greenland. This species, the whooper swan ( C. cygnus ), breeds in

    Iceland today, as well as across almost the whole of the Eurasian continent.

    Only two species of the six have been split up into geographical races —

    C. cygnus , one race of which breeds today only on Iceland, the other in Europe

    and Asia; and C. bewickii , which is represented by one race in northern Europe

    148      |      Vol_IV-0206                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cygnus and Trumpeter Swan

    and western Siberia, and by another in eastern Siberia. The mute swan does

    not range northward quite to the subarctic.

            All the northern swans are pure white when adult, but grayish brown when

    young. Throughout the genus the sexes are alike in color, males being somewhat

    larger than females. The tarsus is rather short. In adults the lores are

    naked. The tail is short and rounded (somewhat wedge-shaped in the mute swan).

    The hind toe is not lobed.

            The taxonomic position of two swans is doubtful. Delacour and Mayr (1945,

    Wilson Bulletin 57:37) believe that the black swan of Australia belongs not in

    the monotypic genus Chenopsis , but in Cygnus . The Coscoroba ( Coscoroba cos –

    coroba ) of South er America is a somewhat ducklike swan, which probably belongs

    in a genus by itself, though some taxonomists might consider it an aberrant

    Cygnus.

            See CYGNINAE, Bewick’s Swan, Trumpeter Swan, Whistling Swan and Whooper

    Swan.

            101. Trumpeter Swan . A large North American anseriform bird, Cygnus buc –

    cinator, so named because of its “loud, resonant trumpetings.” It is consider–

    ably larger than the whistling swan (C. columbianus), which also inhabits North

    America. Adult males weigh 21 to 38 pounds (Kortright). A bend in its wind–

    pipe, which the whistling swan does not have, probably is responsible for the

    great carrying power of its voice. When adult its plumage is entirely white

    and its bill and feet are black. Young birds are graying white, with light

    reddish-brown cheeks and crown, flesh-colored bill, and dull yellowish-brown

    feet. The color of the feet is a good diagnostic character, apparently, for

    the feet of young whistling swans are flesh-colored. Some taxonomists believe

    that the trumpeter swan and whooper swan ( C. cygnus ) are conspecific.



    149      |      Vol_IV-0207                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Trumpeter Swan

            The trumpeter swan is a rare bird. It now breeds locally in British

    Columbia, Alberta, Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming; but formerly it bred north–

    ward as far as Fort Yukon, Alaska, the coast of northern Mackenzie, and James

    Bay; and southward as far as Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Indiana. It never

    was an arctic bird to the extent that the whistling swan is, having nested

    north of the Arctic Circle only in the Franklin Bay district and (possibly)

    Alaska. It apparently does not migrate much below the southern limits of its

    breeding range today, but formerly it moved southward in winter as far as

    the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana and northeastern Mexico) and southern California.

            The trumpeter swan nests on islands and old muskrat and beaver houses in

    lakes far in the interior; but Roderick MacFarlane reported “several nests …

    on islands in Franklin Bay” and one which was situated “near the beach on a

    sloping knoll.” The eggs usually number 4 to 6 still larger sets probably

    being the product of two females. Incubation presumably is entirely by the

    female. The newly hatched downy young is dull white all over.

            We can but assume that the killing of the birds on their nesting grounds,

    especially during the molting season in late summer, has exterminated this

    species at the northern edge of its range. The remaining breeding population

    is receiving good protection and seems to be holding its own quite well.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American wild fowl,” U.S.Nat. Mus.

    Bull . no.130, pp.293-301, 1925. 2. Kortright, F.H. The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America . Wash., D.C.,

    American Wildlife Inst., 1942, pp.77-80. 3. MacFarlane, Roderick. “Notes on and list of birds and eggs collected in

    arctic America,” U.S.Nat.Mus. Proc . vol.14, p.425, 1891.

    150      |      Vol_IV-0208                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Whistling Swan

            102. Whistling Swan . A large anseriform bird, Cygnus columbianus , which

    is closely related to the Bewick’s swan ( C. bewickii ) of the Old World, and

    may be conspecific with that form. It is wholly white when adult, with black

    bill and dark gray feet, a diagnostic mark being the small yellow spot on the

    bill directly in front of the eye. Adult males weigh from 12 pounds to 18 lbs.

    10 oz. (Kortright). Young birds are pale ashy gray with dull reddish or flesh–

    colored bill and flesh-colored to gray feet. Eskimo names for the bird are

    Kugzhuk (Southampton Island) and Ko-ute Ko-ute (Alaska).

            The whistling swan breeds from eastern Siberia (Anadyr drainage) and St.

    Lawrence Island eastward along the arctic coat of the North American continent

    from Alaska to Hudson Bay, Southampton Island, and Baffin Island, ranging north–

    ward well beyond the Arctic Circle in Alaska and on certain islands of the Arctic

    Archipelago (notably Victoria), and southward to the Alaska Peninsula and the

    prairies north of tree-limit in the Northwest Territories. It winters along

    the coast from southern Alaska to California and from Chesapeake Bay to C a u rri–

    tuck Sound. In the east, it migrates through the interior, being virtually

    unheard of along the Labrador coast.

            On Southampton Island, in the spring of 1930, the whistling swan returned

    from the south on May 25, pairs of the birds being seen from then on until the

    middle of summer. A characteristic call note was a musical ga-loop , ga-loop .

    I found a nest with three fresh eggs on a small island in a large lake at the

    head of South Bay on June 3; and another, somewhat larger nest, in the middle

    of the tundra and not near a body of water of any sort, on June 21. This nest

    was 27 inches high, about 6 1/2 feet in di a meter at the base, and 3 feet across

    at the rim. A considerable area about the nest was completely devoid of moss,

    151      |      Vol_IV-0209                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Whistling Swan

    grass and lichens. These had been pulled up and added to the nest, perhaps

    by the incubating female.

            The eggs usually number 3 to 5, though as few as 2 and as many as 7

    have been reported. The incubation period is believed to be 35-40 days.

    The birds probably pair for life. The downy young are pure white, with

    “bills and feet of pink flesh-color” (Bailey). The ability of the half–

    grown young to run when pursued is remarkable, but young birds and molting

    adults are frequently capture for food by the Eskimos.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bailey, A.M. The Birds of Arctic Alaska . Denver, Col., Colorado Museum

    of Natural History, 1948, pp.147-51. 2. Kortright, F.H. The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America . Wash.,

    D.C., American Wildlife Inst., 1942. 3. Sutton, G.M. “Birds of Southampton Island, Hudson Bay,” Carnegie Mus.

    Mem . vol.12, pt. 2, sect. 2, pp.25-30, 1932.

    152      |      Vol_IV-0210                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: whooper Swan

            103. Whooper Swan . A well-known swan, Cygnus cygnus , found chiefly in

    the Old World, and so named because of its loud cries, which are said to re–

    semble the word hoop repeated several times. It is frequently called the

    whooping swan, the whooper, or the wild swan. It may be conspecific with

    the trumpeter swan ( C. buccinator ) of North America.

            When adult, its plumage is entirely white (sometimes stained with rusty

    on the head, neck, and under parts); its feet black; its bill black at the

    tip, yellow at the base (including the naked lores and eyelids). Young birds

    are white on the back, rump, breast, and belly, but light grayish brown other–

    wise. Their bills are dusky at the tip, flesh-colored at the base. The

    Bewick’s swan ( Cygnus bewickii ), a similar but smaller species, also has a

    black and yellow bill when adult, but the yellow does not extend forward

    nearly to the nostrils, whereas in the whooper the yellow area extends to

    below the nostrils or even farther.

            The whooper swan breeds in Iceland, and in forested parts of northern

    continental Eurasia — northward to latitude 70° N. in Scandinavia, and east–

    ward as far as Kamchatka and the Komandorskis. It breeds sparingly in Novaya

    Zemlya and has been reported from Jan Mayen. Portenko lists a Cygnus specimen

    from Wrangel Island. It winters southward to central and southern Europe,

    to central Asia (Persia and China), rarely to north Africa, and occasionally

    to Japan. It formerly nested in small numbers in southern Greenland, but it

    was so frequently captured for food, especially in late summer when it was

    flightless, that it was extirpated there. According to Løppenthin, it is a

    casual visitor to the Angmagssalik district on the east coast today. All

    whooper swans now visiting Greenland are believed to travel across from Ice–

    land. Iceland and Greenland birds belong to the same race, islandicus . The

    153      |      Vol_IV-0211                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Whooper Swan

    birds of continental Eurasia and the Komandorski Islands are of the nominate

    race.

            The whooper is said to arrive from the south on its nesting ground as

    early as late March, but this probably is not true at the northernmost edge

    of its range. In Iceland it starts nesting in late May or early June. The

    nest is a huge heap of vegetation on a small island in a lake or a dry hum–

    mock in a marsh, and is well lined with down. The eggs, which are yellowish

    white, number 3 to 5 (sometimes as many as 7). Incubation, which is accom–

    plished wholly by the female, requires about 40 days. The newly hatched

    young are grayish white above, slightly darker on the crown and nape, and

    white below.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    Gordon, Audrey. “Nesting of Whooper Swan in Scotland,” British Birds , vol.15,

    pp.170-71, 1922.

    154      |      Vol_IV-0212                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Geese

           

    GEESE

           

    Order ANSERIFORMES ; Suborder ANSERES

           

    Family ANATIDAE; Subfamily ANSERINAE

    Tribe ANSERINI

            104. Anser . See writeup.

            105. Anserini. See writeup.

            106. Barnacle Goose. See writeup.

            107. Barren Grounds Goose. A name sometimes used for one of the small races

    of Canada goose ( q.v. ).

            108. Bean Goose. See writeup.

            109. Black Brant. Branta nigricans , the darkest of the small black-headed

    geese of the genus Branta. It is sometimes regarded as a race of

    Branta bernicla . See Brant or Brent.

            110. Blue Goose. See writeup.

            111. Brant. See writeup.

            112. Branta . See writeup.

            113. Cackling Goose. The common name for Branta canadensis minima , a small

    goose which nests on the Alaska coast. See Canada Goose.

            114. Canada Goose. See writeup.

            115. Chen . See writeup.

            116. Emperor Goose. See writeup.

            117. Gray-lag Goose. See writup.

            118. Greater Snow Goose. A large, exclusively New World race of snow goose ( q.v. ).

            119. Hutchins’s Goose. Branta canadensis hutchinsii , a small goose sometimes

    known as the Barren Grounds goose or Richardson’s goose. See Canada

    Goose.



    155      |      Vol_IV-0213                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Geese

            120. Honker. A widely used common name for the largest races of the Canada

    goose, Branta canadensis ( q.v. ).

            121. Laughing Goose. A common name sometimes used for the white-fronted

    goose, Anser albifrons ( q.v. ).

            12 1 2 . Lesser Canada Goose. A name used principally in bird books for one of

    the smaller races of Branta canadensis . See Canada Goose.

    12 2 3 . Lesser Snow Goose. The smaller of the two races of snow goose, Chen

    hyperborea ( q.v. ).

            124. Lesser White-fronted Goose. See writeup.

            125. Light-bellied Brant. A common name used for one of the three races of

    brant, Branta bernicla ( q.v. ).

            126. Philacte . See writeup.

            127. Pink-footed Goose. Anser fabalis brachyrhynchus , a well-known, prin–

    cipally Old World, goose now regarded as a race of the bean goose

    ( q.v. ).

            128. Red-breasted Goose. See writeup.

            129. Richardson’s Goose. A name sometimes applied to one of the small northern

    races of the Canada goose ( q.v. ).

            130. Ross’s Goose. See writeup.

            131. Snow Goose. See writeup.

            132. Sushkin’s Goose. A little known Old World goose, currently believed to

    be a race of the bean goose, Anser fabalis ( q.v. ).

            133. Tule Goose. A common name used for Anser albifrons gambeli , the race of

    white-fronted goose currently believed to bread only along a short

    stretch of the Arctic coast of North America. See White-fronted Goose.

            134. Wavy. A common name used principally in North America for the snow goose

    ( Chen hyperborea ) and blue goose ( Chen caerulescens ), both of which see.

            135. White-fronted Goose. See writeup.



    156      |      Vol_IV-0214                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anser

            104. Anser . A genus compos e d of four species of “true” geese. In

    Anser the bill is high at the base, about as long as the head, and rather

    narrow, with more or less arched upper mandible. Along the cutting edges

    of the bill strong toothlike serrations are clearly visible from the outside.

    The nostrils, which are longitudinal, are about halfway between the base of

    the bill and the tip. The neck vertebrae number 18. There is a difference

    of opinion as to whether the snow geese and closely allied blue goose belong

    in Anser , or in a separate genus, Chen . Anatomically, Chen may not be sep–

    arable from Anser , though in color pattern it certainly forms a clear-cut

    unit. Some taxonomists go so far as to recommend that all the “true” geese

    of the world be placed in two genera — Anser and Branta ; but this would seem

    to disregard such basic matters as the possession of 19 cervical vertebrae by

    the swan goose ( Cygnopsis cygnoides ).

            If Chen is maintained for the snow and blue geese, Philacte for the em–

    peror goose, Eulabeia for the bar-headed goose, and Cygnopsis for the swan

    goose, then Anser becomes a uniformly colored group of several rather large

    forms, all of which are northern in year-round distribution, and one, the

    white-fronted goose ( A. albifrons ) almost circumboreal. The so-called lesser

    white-fronted goose ( A. erythropus ) and the white-fronted goose may be con–

    specific, since they are much alike and there is no overlapping of their ex–

    tensive ranges in Eurasia. Many authors believe that the pink-footed goose

    and Sushkin’s goose are forms of the well-known bean goose ( A. fabalis ). Such

    a view seems plausible since there are no morphological or behavior characters

    which set the forms clearly apart from one another. All the geese of the genus

    Anser are strongly migratory.

            See Gray-lag Goose, White-fronted Goose, Lesser White-fronted Goose, and

    Bean Goose.



    157      |      Vol_IV-0215                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anserini

            105. Anserini . An anseriform tribe to which the true geese belong.

    Throughout the group the neck is conspicuously shorter than in the swans, even

    the longest-necked of the group — the so-called swan-goose ( Cygnopsis cygnoides )

    of Asia — having a neck considerably [ ?] shorter than the body. The Anserini re–

    semble the Dendrocygnini (whistling ducks) in proportions, posture, and manner

    of walking, but are, in general, larger. The whistling ducks (or tree ducks

    as they are ill-advisedly called) “are expert divers and gather much of their

    food under water” (Delacour and Mayr); the true geese do not dive unless hard

    pressed by an enemy. From ducks in general the Anserini differ in being longer–

    necked and higher-bodied, and in having proportionately longer leg bones; but

    it must be remembered that many genera of the subfamily Anatinae (ducks) have

    long been called “geese,” and these birds are gooselike in one way or another.

    In most true geese (Anserini), the bill is high at the base, narrow and taper–

    ing toward the end. A nail occupies the whole tip of the upper mandible. Strong

    serrations along the cutting edges are visible in some genera, but not in others.

    The lores are feathered, as in the ducks, not bare, as in the true swans. (The

    Coscoroba has feathered lores.) The tarsi are reticulate (covered with hexagonal

    scales), as in the swans. The hind toe has no flap or lobe. The windpipe is

    without special bends or convolutions such as are possessed by some swans. Geese

    are grazers, hence good walkers. When they feed in water they do so by tipping

    in shallow places. All geese have an annual molt, which is complete, as in the

    swans, the molting birds being wholly flightless for a time.

            There is a sharp difference of opinion as to how genera of true geese

    should be maintained. Delacour and Mayr recognize only two — Anser and Branta ;

    but the various snow geese and the blue goose form a convenient unit, certainly;

    158      |      Vol_IV-0216                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anserini

    the swan-goose, above-mentioned has 19 cervical vertebrae and is unique in

    shape; the bar-headed goose ( Eulabeia ) differs strikingly from other “true”

    geese in color-pattern; and the color, range, and behavior of the emperor

    goose ( Philacte ) suggest that it probably belongs in a genus by itself.

            The true geese are found only in the Northern Hemisphere. They are about

    equally common in the New and Old Worlds, two species ( Anser albifrons and

    Branta bernicla ) being circumboreal in distribution. Several species breed

    northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond. The most southern form is the

    non-migratory Hawaiian goose ( Nesochen sandvicensis ). Delacour and Mayr be–

    lieve that this bird belongs not in a monotypic genus, but in Branta . The

    emperor goose has a very restricted range in the North Pacific and is not

    strongly migratory. The species which breed in arctic regions are all migra–

    tory at least to some extent, but none of them moves into the Southern Hemis–

    phere in winter. Like the loons (order Gaviiformes) they are more or less

    boreal in year-round distribution.

            Some geese nest colonially, but this may be because suitable nesting

    places are few and pairs are forced to nest in close proximity. Some forms

    nest in flat open country; others on ridges or cliffs; other occasionally in

    old hawks’ nests in trees. The eggs, which are rough-shelled as compared with

    those of ducks, usually number 4 to 6 or 7. Incubation is principally by the

    female, perhaps wholly so, while the male usually stands guard. There is one

    complete annual molt, during which adults become flightless for a time. In

    late summer and early fall young and old birds take to the air together, migrat–

    ing southward in family groups after the postnuptial molt is completed.

            See Branta, Chen, Philacte, Anser , Gray-lag Goose, White-fronted Goose, Canada

    Goose, Emperor Goose, Pink-footed Goose, Bean Goose, Red-breasted Goose, Lesser

    White-fronted Goose, Snow Goose, Blue Goose, and Ross’s Goose.



    159      |      Vol_IV-0217                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Barnacle Goose

            106. Barnacle Goose . A rather small goose, Branta leucopsis , which

    feeds largely on vegetable matter (grass, leaves, buds, catkins, seeds) and

    not on barnacles. Known also as the barnacle or bernicle. A Samoyed name for

    it is laboo . It is somewhat larger than the brant ( Branta bernicla ) and is

    creamy white on the forehead and face, save for the black area between the

    bill and eye; black on the crown, nape, whole neck, and upper breast; ashy

    gray, beautifully scaled with black and silvery gray throughout the scapulars

    and wing covert; gray, barred with white, on the flanks; blackish gray on the

    remiges and rectrices; and white on the lower breast, belly, and upper and

    under tail coverts.

            The barnacle goose breeds in considerable numbers in northeastern Greenland

    and the northern part of the Spitsbergen Archipelago. Trevor-Battye reported its

    breeding, in small numbers, along the Gusina River on Kolgnev. Pleske doubts that

    it breeds on Novaya Zemly, though it has been reported from there. It may

    breed in Iceland. It is known to migrate through Iceland, the Faeroes, Scan–

    dinavia, and the Kola Peninsula. It has been reported from Jan Mayen, Baffin

    Island, the Labrador, and James Bay. It winters in northwestern Europe, feed–

    ing inland with the various “gray geese” (i.e., the gray-lag, pink-foot, etc.)

    rather than on the tidal flats with the brants, but occasionally, on calm days,

    flying out to sea for a rest.

            Its nesting is distinctive. In northeast Greenland, Manniche found a large

    colony nesting on ledges and terraces in rough country close by the sea. In

    Spitsbergen, Koenig found it breeding in scattered pairs on pinnacles, cliffs,

    and promontories. Nests are made of moss and lichens and lined with down. The

    3 to 5 eggs are dull white. The downy young is described as dark gray above,

    whitish gray below (Alpheraky, 1905. The Geese of Europe and Asia , p.172).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Jourdain, F.C.R. “The breeding habits of the Barnacle Goose.” Auk , vol.39,

    pp.166-71, 1922.

    160      |      Vol_IV-0218                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bean Goose

            108. Bean Goose . A well-known goose, Anser fabalis , which is like the

    gray-lag goose ( Anser anser ) in general appearance, but darker all over,

    especially throughout the wing coverts, and a little smaller. In Britain

    it often grazes in beanfields, hence the common name. a Yakut name for it

    is kongor . It may be distinguished instantly from the white-front goose

    ( Anser albifrons ) and lesser white-front ( A. erythropus ) by the absence of

    any white on the forehead or face.

            Several races of the bean goose are now recognized. These differ prin–

    cipally in bill-color and foot-color. Possibly the best known race is fabalis ,

    which is sometimes called the yellow-billed bean goose. In this form the

    median part of the bill is yellow or orange and the legs and feet are orange.

    An almost equally well-known race is brachyrhynchus , widely called the pink–

    footed goose, in which the feet and median part of the bill are pink, and the

    bill is shorter and slenderer. Neglectus , a little-known bird known as Sush–

    kin’s goose, is very much like the pink-foot but bigger-billed. The other

    races, rossicus (tundra or western bean goose) sibiricus (Middendorff’s bean

    goose), and serrirostris (thick-billed or eastern bean goose) resemble each

    other in that the legs, feet, and the median mark on the bill are orange.

    Toward the east, as Johansen has pointed out, the species becomes progressively

    larger, especially larger-billed. Serrirostris is noticeably the biggest–

    billed race of all.

            Anser fabalis breeds on the east coast of Greenland, in Iceland, across

    the whole of northern Eurasia, and on numerous Old World arctic islands north–

    ward as far as Spitsbergen. It is said to be very common in parts of Kamchatka,

    but of irregular occurrence (and possibly only a migrant) in the Komandorskis.

    161      |      Vol_IV-0219                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bean Goose

    It winters only in the Old World, ranging southward to the shores of the

    Mediterranean, Caspian, and Black seas and to China and Japan.

            The westernmost race, the pink-foot ( brachyrhynchus ), breeds in East

    Greenland (from Hochstetters Forland south regularly to about latitude 70° N.

    and infrequently to the region just north of Kangerdlugssuaq), Iceland, Spits–

    bergen, and possibly the Franz Josef Archipelago and Bear Island, and winters

    in northwestern Europe (British Isles, Belgium, Holland, and Germany). It

    migrates regularly through Bear Island, Jan Mayen, the Faeroes, and Scandinavia,

    and has been reported from Vaigach. In Spitsbergen, where it is abundant, it

    breeds on the open tundra rather than the offshore islands. Several pairs

    sometimes nest close to each other in semicolonial fashion in sheltered valleys,

    but isolated nesting is the rule. Some pairs nest on ridges, terraces, or

    cliffs, selecting sites similar to those customarily chosen by the barnacle

    goose ( Branta leucopsis ). Not infrequently the nest is placed in the openest

    sort of place, without even grass or shrubbery as shelter. The bird’s worst

    natural enemy is the arctic fox. In the northern part of the archipelago

    flightless molting pink-feet have been observed as early as July 7. For ad–

    ditional information concerning this race see Koenig’s Avifauna Spitzbergensis ,

    1911, pp.208-14.

            The ranges of the five other races have not been very well worked out.

    Birds breeding in wooded country between Lapland and the Yenisei are believed

    to be fabalis. This bird visits Britain only in winter, and it is now local

    and rather rare there (Scott). Birds which breed on the tundra north of the

    range of fabalis are believed to be rossicus . In Siberia, from the Yenisei

    eastward to the Chukchi Peninsula, the species seems to have an ecologically

    162      |      Vol_IV-0220                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bean Goose

    similar distribution — one race ( sibiricus ) breeding in the wooded country,

    another ( serrirostris ) on the tundra. Neglectus formerly migrated through

    the Ufa region of Russia and wintered in Hungary, but where this bird now

    nests or where, indeed, it lives at all is a question. Some race of bean goose

    breeds in Kolguev, Vaigach, and Novaya Zemlya. When Trevor-Battye visited

    Kolguev about 60 years ago, he found the species “three times as common” as

    the white-front. But which race is it that nests on these islands — or do

    both o rossicus and neglectus nest there? S i u ch a situation would present much

    the same problem as that presented by Branta canadensis (Canada goose), an

    American species represented by several races some of which actually appear

    to nest side by side in certain areas.

            In continental Eurasia the bean goose usually nests on a small island

    in a river, lake, or marsh, choosing a spot which is sheltered by shrubbery

    or other vegetation. On Kolguev, Trevor-Battye found it nesting not on the

    “peat lands” but among grass in both high and low country. All races of the

    species lay white eggs. The clutch numbers 2 to 7 (usually 4 to 6) eggs.

    These are incubated only by the female. One brood is reared in a season. On

    Kolguev, Trevor-Battye found the species molting earlier in summer than the

    white front. See the following bibliography for references concerning the

    taxonomy of Anser fabalis .

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Congreve, W.M. “Breeding of the Pink-footed Goose in Iceland,” Auk , vol.

    46, pp.533-34, 1939. 2. Hartert, Ernst, and Steinbacher, F. “Die Vögel der paläarktischen Fauna,”

    Erg Bd ., Heft 5: pp.433-34, 1936. 3. Johansen, H. “Om Racer af Saedgaes,” Dansk Ornithologisk Forenings

    Tiddskrift , vol.39, pp.106-27, 1945.

    163      |      Vol_IV-0221                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Blue Goose

            110. Blue Goose . A New World goose, Chen caerulescens , which is very

    similar to the lesser snow goose ( Chen h. hyperborea ) in size, proportions,

    voice, breeding habits, and behavior in general, and which associates with

    that bird throughout the year (i.e., when breeding, on migrations, and in

    winter). A common name for it is the blue wavy (Wavey). The Aivilik Eskimos

    call it the khavik , their name for the snow goose being khangook .

            The status of the blue goose has been a moot matter for decades. Mixed

    pairs of wild birds (one a blue, the other a lesser snow) have been reported

    repeatedly. Piebald blue geese, whose under parts are blotched with white,

    are present in all breeding, transient, and wintering populations. Downy

    young blue geese are olive in general tone, while downy young lesser snow

    geese are much more yellow, but further information on blue goose broods, and

    on broods of mixed parentage, is needed. Salomonsen, who believes that all

    the snow geese and the blue goose belong to one species, and that this species

    belongs in the genus Anser , calls attention to the interesting fact that the

    breeding range of the blue goose is in the very middle of that occupied by

    the various snow geese. He believes that the blue goose is “the primitive

    phase originated from other species of Anser ,” and that the snow goose is a color

    variant of the blue. Scott, who believes that the range of the blue goose is

    spreading, states that the bird “may ultimately be shown to be no more than a

    colour phase of the Lesser Snow Goose; and it is even possible that Greater

    Blue Geese [i.e., blue variants of the Greater Snow Goose, Chen hyperborea

    atlantica ] occur.” For an excellent summary of the pros and cons of the blue

    goose’s standing as a species, see Manning, 1942, Auk 59: 173.

            The “normal” adult blue goose is white on the head, neck, lower belly, and

    164      |      Vol_IV-0222                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Blue Goose

    under tail coverts (often with a rusty stain on the head and neck), dark

    bluish gray otherwise, with a brownish wash on the back and breast, and

    “bluer” on the wing coverts and rump. The tertials and inner secondaries

    are black, edged with light gray, and are rather drooping and plumelike. The

    bill is light red, with grayish-white nail and black stripe along the cutting

    edge. The feet are reddish flesh color. “Hybrid” blue geese (i.e., supposed

    crosses between the blue and the lesser snow) are blotched with white on the

    breast and belly and sometimes on the upper back and sides of the chest, or

    white throughout the under parts and on the lower back and rump. Freckled

    individuals, in which dark and white feathers are evenly mixed all over the

    body have never, however, been reported; nor have banded progeny of mixed

    parentage been observed continuously in an effort to determine what true

    hybrids look like when adult.

            The blue goose is known to nest in three areas today — southern Baffin

    Island (in the Taverner Bay the Lake Amadjuak district); on Southampton Island:

    at the mouth of the Boas River in the Bay of God’s Mercy district, sparingly

    near the head of South Bay, and at Bear Cove on the south coast (see Manning,

    1944. Auk 61: 174); and in the Perry River district just south of Queen Maud

    Gulf (see Taverner, 1940; Canad. Field-Nat . 54: 127-130; and Gavin, 1947.

    Wils. Bull . 59: 199). So far as is known, its nesting habits do not differ

    in any way from those of the lesser snow goose. It winters chiefly on the

    coast of Louisiana. There are several areas in which the lesser snow goose

    winters but the blue goose does not. The blue goose has been reported several

    times from Greenland.



    165      |      Vol_IV-0223                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Blue Goose

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Salomonsen, F. “The status of the Greenland Snow Goose, Anser caerulescens

    atlantica (Kenn.).” Medd. om Grønland , vol.92, pp.1-11, 1933. 2. Soper, J.D. “Discovery of the breeding grounds of the Blue Goose,” Canad .

    Field-Nat . vol.44, pp.1-11, 1930. 3. ----. “The Blue Goose [ Chen caerulescens (Linnaeus)]. An account of

    its breeding ground, migration, eggs, nests, and general habits.”

    Bull . Dept. Interior, Dominion of Canada, 1930. 4. Sutton, G.M. “The Blue Goose and Lesser Snow Goose on Southampton Island,

    Hudson Bay,” Auk . Vol.48, pp.335-64, 1931.

           

    # # #

            111. Brant or Brent . A small, principally maritime goose, distinguished

    from other forms of the genus Branta by its completely black head. It is about

    the size of the smallest races of the Canada goose ( Branta canadensis ), adult

    males weighing a little over three pounds. It is rather short-necked and dark

    in general appearance, with black head, neck, and breast. The neck has an in–

    conspicuous collar (usually incomplete) of white lines. The upper part of the

    body is slaty gray, the belly very dark gray in one form, lighter in others.

    Usually some white or light gray shows on the flanks. The upper and under tail

    coverts are always boldly white. The bill and feet are black, the upper surface

    of the toes being tinged with olive. The eyes are dark brown.

            Three forms are recognized: bernicla , sometimes called the dark-bellied

    brant, which breeds from Kolguev and Novaya Zemlya eastward to the Taimyr

    Peninsula and northward to the Franz Josef Archipelago, and winters on the

    coasts of northwestern Europe; hrota , sometimes called the American or light–

    bellied brant, which breeds in eastern parts of the Arctic Archipelago (from

    Melville and Prince Patrick islands eastward), on the coast of the North

    166      |      Vol_IV-0224                                                                                                                  
    EA-Brn. Sutton: Brant or Brent

    American mainland from Queen Maud Gulf eastward to the Melville Peninsula,

    on Southampton Island, on both coasts of northern Greenland (from lat. 80° N.

    northward and infrequently at Scoresby Sound), and on Spitsbergen, and win–

    ters on the coasts of the eastern United States (New Jersey to North Carolina)

    and northwestern Europe; and nigricans , a very dark form know as the black

    brant, which breeds from the Taimyr Peninsula and New Siberian Archipelago

    eastward to Queen Maud Gulf and northward on Banks, Melville, and Prince

    Patrick islands (where it meets and possibly intergrades with hrota ), and

    winters south along the Asiatic coast to Japan and north China and on the

    American coast from Vancouver Island to Baja California. Portenko informs us

    that the black brant breeds on Wrangel Island, but that it is less abundant

    there than the snow goose ( Chen hyperborea ). On migration light-bellied brant

    migrate regularly through or about Bear Island and probably Jan Mayen. Bailey

    states that light-bellied birds are observed “occasionally” in arctic Alaska,

    but the black brant is, of course, the form which regularly occurs there.

            In the Queen Maud Gulf area both the black-bellied nigricans and the light–

    bellied hrota have been reported as breeding within recent years. A 1949 colony

    of nigricans on an island in salt water just east of the mouth of the Perry

    River occupied “the habitat reported by Gavin as that of the Atlantic race”

    (Scott). On Prince Patrick Island, where Charles O. Handley, Jr. found light–

    bellied and black-bellied birds nesting in about equal numbers in the summer of

    1949, he observed very little actual mingling of the two forms even though

    light pairs and dark pairs nested on the same slopes only a few dozen yards

    apart. He saw very few mixed flocks, and among the several dozen nesting pairs

    which he scrutinized, not one was mixed. So far as he could tell, the two forms

    occupied exactly the same habitat.



    167      |      Vol_IV-0225                                                                                                                  
    EA-Brant or Brent

            Facts presented in the foregoing discussion indicate that the black

    brant is specifically rather than subspecially distinct from the other forms.

    It should, therefore, be known as Branta nigricans . The other species,

    B. bernicla , is represented by two races, B. bernicla bernicla and B. bernicla

    hrota .

            So far as is known, the nesting habits of the two species are the same.

    The nest usually is composed of grass and moss where such materials are

    available, but it is often a mere depression among rocks or in turf or sand,

    well lined with down. Each species sometimes nests semi o olonially with other

    water birds such as eiders ( Somateria mollissima ), snow geese, blue geese

    ( Chen caerulescens ), Sabine’s gulls ( Xema sabini ) or arctic terns ( Sterna

    paradisaea ). The eggs number 3 to 8 (usually 4 to 5) and are creamy white.

    The incubation period is between three and four weeks. Only the female incu–

    bates. The downy young is rather distinctively colored. It is ashy gray on

    the crown, hind neck, and upper part of the body, and white on the sides of

    the head, foreneck, lower breast, and belly, with a distinct ashy band across

    the upper breast, and a light bar along the hind edge of the wing. The newly

    hatched young of B. nigricans is darker than that of B. bernicla .

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American wild fowl,” Bull. U. S. Natl.

    Mus. Vol.130, pp.237-58, 1925. 2. Handley, C.O., Jr. “The Brant of Prince Patrick Island, Northwest Ter–

    ritories,” Wilson Bulletin , vol.62, 1950. 3. Lewis, H.F. “Migrations of the American Brent ( Branta bernicla hrota ),”

    Auk , vol.54, pp.73-95, 1937.

    168      |      Vol_IV-0226                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Branta and Canada Goose

            112. Branta . A genus of geese resembling Anser and Chen , but with pro–

    portionately longer and thin n er neck, smaller and smoother bill, and more

    elaborate color pattern. In Anser and Chen the serrations along the cutting

    edge of the bill are plainly visible from the outside; in Branta they are

    barely discernible without opening the mandibles.

            There are four species in Branta , all of them northern in year-round

    distribution, and all strongly migratory. Only one species — the brant

    ( B. bernicla ) — is found along the entire arctic coast of both the Old World

    and the New. The Canada goose ( B. canadensis ) is almost wholly North American.

    The barnacle goose ( B. leucopsis ) is principally an Old World bird. The red–

    breasted goose ( B. ruficollis ) has a very restricted breeding range in western

    Siberia.

            The inter e sting Hawaiian goose ( Nesochen sandvicensis ) is a closely related

    form. This bird is nonmigratory; its color pattern is unique; the plumage of

    its neck is deeply furrowed; and its legs and feet are very large; but it may

    possibly be congeneric with the four species above-listed (see Delacour and

    Mayr, 1945, Wilson Bulletin 57:9).

            See Brant, Barnacle Goose, Canada Goose, and Red-breasted Goose.

            114. Canada Goose . A well-known anseriform bird, Branta canadensis ,

    found principally on the North American mainland, but also on Southampton,

    Baffin, and Victoria islands; the Aleutians, Kurils, and Komandorskis; and

    (apparently in very small numbers) Greenland. There are several subspecies,

    the largest of which are called honkers, because of their deep, far-carrying

    cries. The small tundra-inhabiting bird is well known to certain of the

    169      |      Vol_IV-0227                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Canada Goose

    Eskimos, who call it the nekilik or nukiluk . The size range within the species

    is very great. Honkers weigh up to 11 lbs. 9 oz. (see Elder, 1946, Journ. Wild –

    life Man. 10:108) and have a wingspread of 5 to 6 feet, whereas the cackling

    goose ( B. canadensis minima ) and Richardson’s goose ( B. canadensis hutchinsii )

    are only a little larger than a mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ). This size dif–

    ference, together with certain differences in color, nidification and behavior,

    have led some taxonomists to place these geese in two, three, or even four

    species rather than one (see Aldrich, J.W., 1946. “Speciation in the White–

    cheeked Geese” Wils. Bull . 58: 94-103; and Hellmayr and Conover, 1948. Birds

    of the Americas , Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Zool. Ser. 13, part 1, no.2, pp.297-306).

            Canada geese are black on the head and neck with a noticeable white patch

    on the cheeks and throat. The upper part of the body, including the sides, is

    brownish gray, the feathers being margined with whitish. The flight feathers

    (rectrices and remiges) and rump are brownish black, the upper tail coverts

    boldly white. The color of the under parts varies geographically, some races

    (e.g., canadensis ) being very light on the breast and belly; others (e.g., oc –

    cidentalis ) very dark; one ( minima ) dark and reddish. In some individuals the

    white of the head is a continuous patch including the cheeks and throat. In

    others the white cheeks are wholly, separated by the black throat. Variation

    in the amount of white and black may be considerable within a given subspecies

    because younger birds tend to have more black on the throat than adults. A

    careful study should be undertaken of the species as a whole, involving (a)

    weighing and measuring of birds as they mature; (b) photographing the head from

    season to season so as to determine to what extent the white cheek patches

    change; and (c) preservation and comparison of feathers from various tracts.

    170      |      Vol_IV-0228                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Canada Goose

    There has been much discussion of size and weight differences. Further study

    may reveal that young of the larger races have been misidentified subspec–

    ifically. Albert Hochbaum informs me that in a Canada goose flock of known

    local origin at the Delta Waterfowl Research Station, in Manitoba, “some of

    the yearlings… are only half as big as some of the oldest adults.” Par–

    ticular attention should be paid to the color of the downy young. Newly

    natched birds which I collected on Southampton Island in the summer of 1930

    were beautiful yellow creatures; yet young of exactly the same age, taken in

    arctic Alaska, were gray, without a trace of yellow! Calling this sort of

    variation a matter of color phase may well be mere subterfuge.

            Branta canadensis varies greatly geographically. Of the several races

    which have been described, eight seem to be worthy of recognition: ( 1 ) canaden –

    sis , which breeds along the Atlantic coast in Quebec and in forested parts of

    Labrador and Newfoundland, and winters on the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia

    to the Carolinas (rarely Florida); ( 2 ) interior , which breeds from James Bay

    and the east coast of Hudson Bay (forested parts) southward to Michigan and

    Minnesota, and winters southward to Florida and Louisiana (Scott); ( 3 ) moffitti ,

    which breeds from southern British Columbia and northeastern North Dakota south–

    ward to Nebraska, Utah, and northeastern California, and winters presumably in

    the southern parts of its breeding range; ( 4 ) occidentalis , which breeds along

    the coast of southeastern Alaska and northern British Columbia, and winters

    southward to northwestern California; ( 5 ) leucopareia , which breeds on the

    Aleutians and from western Alaska eastward to the Mackenzie Delta (possibly

    farther) and winters widely throughout the southern United States and in Mexico;

    ( 6 ) hutchinsii , which breeds more or less throughout the continental prairies

    171      |      Vol_IV-0229                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Canada Goose

    east of the Mackenzie Delta and on Victoria, Southampton, and southern Baffin

    islands, and winters along the Atlantic coast of the United States and in

    Mexico; ( 7 ) minima , which breeds on the Bering coast of Alaska and the

    Aleutians and winters southward along the Pacific coast as far as Califor–

    nia; and ( 8 ) asiatica , which breeds in the Komandorskis and Kurils and winters

    from the southern part of its breeding range southward to Japan. The Canada

    goose breeds sparingly on both coasts of Greenland. Ingstad (1937. East of

    the Great Glacier , pp.116-119 and photo opp. p. 107) records its breeding on

    the east coast, and Salomonsen (1950. Grønlands Fugle , part 1, pp.86-87)

    mentions its breeding at Sarqaq, near Jacobshavn, on the west coast. Young

    geese collected at Sarqaq in 1944 and 1946 proved to be hybrids between Branta

    canadensis and Anser albifrons. Branta canadensis has been taken on the west

    coast near Umanaq, near Godthavn, at Sarqaq, and near Egedesminde. The

    specimens, according to Salomonsen, represent two races — hutchinsii and

    parvipes [= leucopareia , probably].

            The species’ nesting habits vary considerably. In southern parts of the

    breeding range nests are placed on islands in lakes or marshes, on muskrat or

    beaver houses, or even (exceptionally) in old hawks’ nests high in trees.

    North of the tree limit leucopareia nests in isolated pairs, often well back

    from the coast, whereas hutchinsii and minima tend to colonize on coastal lakes

    and at river mouths. Along certain Alaska rivers nests are placed on cliffs

    or bluffs. All the larger races tend to build a moundlike nest or to place

    the nest on an eminence, whereas the smaller races scoop out a basin in the

    turf and line it with grass and down. Throughout the species the eggs are

    creamy white, number 4 to 10 (usually 5 to 6) and are incubated only by the

    172      |      Vol_IV-0230                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Canada Goose

    female. The incubation period is 28 to 30 days (possibly a shorter period

    in smaller races). The birds are believed to pair for life. Only one brood

    per season is reared. Family groups stay together in the southward migration

    and throughout the winter, breaking up when the return north starts.

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American wild fowl,” Bull .

    U.S. Natl. Mus. Vol.130, pp.204-236, 1925. 2. Kortright, F.H. The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America , pp.81-10,

    1942. 3. Taverner, P.A. “A study of Branta canadensis (Linnaeus). The Canada

    Goose.” Annual Report, 1929, Nat. Mus. Canada, pp.30-40, 1931.

            115. Chen. A genus to which the blue goose and various snow geese belong.

    It is separable from Anser primarily on the basis of color pattern, the two

    to four species all being white or piebald, in this respect being [ ?]

    strikingly different from the so-called gray geese and Branta .

            There is a sharp difference of opinion as to how many species there are

    in Chen. Ornithologists are agreed that the little Ross’s goose ( Chen rossii )

    is a very distinct form. A monotypic genus has been erected for it (see Ober–

    holser, 1919. Auk 36: 562). But the larger snow geese and the blue goose

    are regarded by some authors as three distinct species (see Peters, 1931.

    Check-List of Birds of the World. 1: 146), and by others as one species.

    Since the greater snow goose and lesser snow goose resemble each other b v ery

    closely, and since, so far as is known, their breeding ranges do not overlap

    or even tough, they are almost certainly conspecific. As for the [ ?] blue goose,

    173      |      Vol_IV-0231                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Chen and Emperor Goose

    much can be said in favor of its being a color phase, or possibly the ancestral

    form, of the lesser snow goose, with which, in most parts of its range, it

    associates the year round.

            Chen is almost wholly a New World genus. The snow goose breeds along the

    arctic coast of northeastern Siberia (where, incidentally, the blue goose does

    not occur), but no Chen regularly inhabits Iceland, Spitsbergen, or the arctic

    coast of Europe and western Siberia.

            See Snow Goose, Blue Goose, and Ross’s Goose.

            116. Emperor Goose . A handsome anseriform bird, Philacte canagica ,

    which breeds on the northwest coast of Siberia (from Koliuchin Bay eastward

    to Cape Dezhnev, formerly East Cape) and perhaps also along the Anadyr River

    (see Alpheraky, 1905. The Geese of Europe and Asia , p.21); on St. Lawrence

    Island; and along the coast of northwest Alaska from the mouth of the Kuskokwim

    to Point Barrow. It has been reported once from Wrangel Island (Portenko).

    It is said to be a familiar transient in Kamchatka and the Komandorskis. It

    winters chiefly in the Aleutians, but also casually southward to the coasts

    of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. On the dark, wind-torn beaches

    of Attu and Kiska it is a common bird from November to April. Here it goes

    about in small flocks, family groups perhaps, feeding among the seaweed,

    preening, or resting with bill pointing into the wind.

            The Emperor Goose is white throughout the whole of the upper head and

    hind neck and black on the chin, throat, and foreneck. The body is ashy gray,

    barred with black and silvery white. The tail is white — a fact which becomes

    apparent when the birds spring into flight. The bill is flesh-colored, the

    eyes dark brown, the feet orange-yellow.

            The birds return to their tundra nesting grounds in late May. They slip

    174      |      Vol_IV-0232                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Emperor Goose

    in from the sea, flying low, and alight without the clangor which accompanies

    the arrival of the white-fronts ( Anser albifrons ) and cackling geese ( Branta

    canadensis minima ). Since they pair for life, they do not indulge in much

    courtship activity, but proceed with nesting at once. The females lay their

    eggs in bare depressions on islands at the mouths of rivers, or on hummocks

    in marshes well back from the coast. On the nests the birds are very incon–

    spicuous, for they stretch their heads out in front of them. As the set of

    eggs increase, down is plucked from the breast and thus a lining for the nest

    accumulates. Sets usually number 4 [ ?] or 5, sometimes as many as 8. A curious

    fact about Emperor geese is that the males do not stand guard near the nests

    as do most male geese. Bailey believes the males may share the duties of

    incubation with the females, since he has taken males with brood patches.

    Nonincubating birds flock by themselves. The eggs are white. The downy

    young is ashy gray above, white on the forehead, face, foreneck, and under

    parts.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bailey, A.M. Birds of Arctic Alaska , Colorado Mus. of Nat. Hist., 1948.

    pp.158-161. 2. Brandt, Herbert. Alaska Bird Trails , Cleveland, Ohio, 1943, pp.271-281.

    175      |      Vol_IV-0233                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gray-lag Goose

            117. Gray-lag Goose . A well-known anseriform bird, Anser anser , of

    the Old World, sometimes known as the wild goose, and listed in some books

    as the gray-lag goose. It is large (6 to 12 pounds or more), and is brownish

    gray on the head, neck, and upper part of the body, pale ashy gray below,

    with a bold band of white across the lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts;

    a narrow ring of white around the base of the bill; a small white spot just

    below the eye; rather noticeable whitish edgings to all the scapular, side,

    and flank feathers; and a freckling of dusky feathers throughout the under

    parts. The bill is pinkish or yellowish flesh-color with grayish white nail;

    the eye dark brown; the feet flesh-color with dark claws. Of the “gray geese”

    of the Old World the gray-lag is the largest. It is recognizable at some

    distance from the pale bluish-gray color of the whole forewing.

            Two subspecies are currently recognized. The western form, anser , breeds

    in Iceland, northern Scotland, and Scandinavia, and winters in Britain, Holland,

    France, and Sapin. The eastern form, rubrirostris , breeds from Poland, Hungary,

    the Balkans, and North Africa eastward through Mesopotamia and Central Asia to

    Kamchatka, but its northern limits are ill-defined. It winters southward to

    the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas, Seistan, northwest India, and China

    (Scott).

            The Gray-lag is described as an “inland feeder.” Only rarely does it

    resort to the outer coasts. Its call note is a sonorous, nasal gagga-gagga ,

    whence the phrase “a gaggle of geese.” It nests on the tundra, on islands

    in lakes, or in marshes, often in a very wet place and sometimes in the water.

    The nest is a heap of grasses, reeds, moss, and twigs of shrubby plants, well

    lined with down. The eggs, which are creamy white, number 4 to 6 as a rule,

    176      |      Vol_IV-0234                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gray-lag Goose and Lesser White-fronted Goose

    though sets of 3 to 7 have been reported. Much larger sets (10 to 12 eggs)

    probably are the product of two females. The eggs are incubated solely by

    the female. The incubation period is 28 days. Only one brood is reared in

    a season. The downy young are olive brown above, greenish yellow on the face

    and under parts, with a yellowish bar across the wing.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    Best, Mary G.S., and Haviland, M.D. “The sense of smell in the Gray-lag

    goose,” British Birds , vol.7, pp.34-37, 1913.

           

    # # #

            124. Lesser White-fronted Goose . A little-known anseriform bird, Anser

    erythropus , which is much like the white-fronted goose ( A. albifrons ) but

    smaller; the white of the forehead extends farther back on the crown (to a

    point above the eye, or even farther back); and the eyelid is clear lemon

    yellow or orange-yellow.

            The lesser white-front is found only in the Old World. It breeds across

    Eurasia just south of the range of the white-front, from the Kanin Peninsula

    and Lapland eastward across Siberia to the Kolyma River country and possibly

    to the Chukchi Peninsula and Kamchatka. It may breed on Novaya Zemlya, but

    it does not breed on Spitsbergen, Kolguev, or Bear Island. According to

    Pleske (1928. Mem . Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. Vol.6, No. 3, p.319) it breeds

    not on the tundra along the coasts but “on the lakes of the alpine region of

    the mountains.” So far as is known, the breeding ranges of the white-front

    and lesser white-front do not overlap anywhere, the large bird being an in–

    habitant of the low-lying coastal tundra. The lesser white-front winters in

    177      |      Vol_IV-0235                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lesser White-fronted Goose and Philacte

    southern Europe, the Black and Caspian seas, Turkistan, northwest India,

    China and Japan (Scott).

            The behavior of the two forms of white-fronted geese is believed to be

    much the same. The color of the eggs and downy young is the same. The two

    forms may, indeed, be conspecific, though it must be borne in mind that

    nowhere in the New World does the white-fronted goose nest on lakes in a

    montane region.

            See White-fronted Goose.

            126. Philacte . A monotypic anserifrom genus to which the emperor goose

    ( P. canagica ) belongs. Philacte is similar to Anser , but the nail on the

    upper mandible is proportionately much larger (occupying about the [ ?]

    terminal third of the bill); the tarsus is shorter than the middle toe with

    its claw; and the color pattern is strikingly more elaborate. A possible

    behavior character is the failure of the males to stand guard near the nests

    while the females are incubating.

            Philacte is found only in the North Pacific and along adjacent coasts

    of the Arctic Sea. It breeds in northeastern Siberia, on St. Lawrence Island,

    and on the coast of northwest Alaska, usually migrating no farther southward

    in winter than the Aleutians.

            See Emperor Goose.



    178      |      Vol_IV-0236                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-breasted Goose

            128. Red-breasted Goose . A small handsome goose, Branta ruficollis ,

    which is black, boldly marked with white and reddish brown in a pattern which

    is unique among birds. In Siberia it is known as the kazarka . The neck,

    breast, and a squarish patch on each side of the head are brown. There is a

    large white spot on each side of the head between the bill and the eye. The

    brown head patch is completely surrounded by white; the chest is encircled

    by a ring of white; and the flanks and under tail covert are white. Young

    birds are less brilliantly colored, but the pattern is unmistakable.

            The red-breasted goose breeds on the tundra (wholly north of the tree limit)

    in Siberia from Ob eastward to the Khatanga; migrates through southern Russia,

    the Kirghiz Steppes, and parts of Turkestan; and winters about the Caspian Sea,

    on the steppes of Transcaspia, in parts of Persia, and casually in more westward–

    lying regions. Formerly it must have wintered more or less regularly in Egypt,

    for there are excellent drawings of it on some of the royal tombs. It has been

    reported once from northeast Greenland (Bird and Bird, 1941, Ibis, p.136), and

    several times from Britain.

            The species nests on steep river banks and cliffs, often below the eyrie

    of a peregrine ( Falco peregrinus ) or rough-legged hawk ( Buteo lagopus ), perhaps

    for protection from foxes. The eggs, which are creamy white, are said to num–

    ber 7 to 9. The nest is a depression in the turf, well lined with grass and

    down. So far as is known, only the female incubates and but one brood is

    reared per season. The downy young is very dark brown tinged with green above

    (except for the yellowish forehead, nape, spot below the wing, and spot on the

    wing tip) and dull greenish yellow below.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Popham, H.L. “Notes on birds observed on the Yenesei River, Siberia, in 1895,”

    Ibis , vol.3, ser.8, pp.99-100, 1897.

    179      |      Vol_IV-0237                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ross’s Goose

            130. Ross’s Goose . A small anseriform bird, Chen rossii , found only in

    North America and known also as the scabby-nosed wavy, horned wavy, and galoot

    (the last in imitation of its cry, which has also been set down as luk-luk ).

    It is a miniature edition of the snow goose ( C. hyperborea ), save for the bill,

    which in the adult is warty, scabby, or rugose at the base, and without a black

    lateral streak, or “grinning patch,” along the cutting edge.

            So far as is known, Ross’s goose nests only in the Perry River district

    south of Queen Maud Gulf and winters only in California. As a transient it

    has been well known on Great Slave and Athabas c k a lakes for a century or more;

    but the actual breeding ground was only recently (1940) discovered by Angus

    Gavin of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The colony which Gavin found was about 50

    miles north of the Arctic Circle, on a lake through which a tributary to the

    Perry River flowed. The nests were scattered on low-lying rocky “reefs” and

    were 3 to 30 feet apart. About 40 pairs were nesting together on the first

    three “reefs” visited. The nests were about a foot in diameter and were low

    mounds of grass with a down-lined depression about 5 inches across and 2 1/2

    inches deep. the eggs, which were creamy white, numbered 4 as a rule, though

    nests with as few as 2 and as many as 6 eggs were noted.

            The downy young is similar to the young snow goose but much smaller.

    T. M. Shortt’s drawing in Kortright’s The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North

    America shows it to have greenish-gray feet and a dark line in front of the eye.

    The feet of the downy young snow goose are dusky reddish.

            It is hard to believe that all the Ross’s geese which winter in California

    come from the Perry River district. More northward-lying nesting grounds

    probably remain to be discovered in islands of the Arctic Archipelago.

            Reference:

    Taverner, P.A. “The nesting of Ross’s Goose Chen rossi ,” Canad. Field. –Nat .

    vol.54, pp.127-30, 1940.

    180      |      Vol_IV-0238                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ross’s Goose and Snow Goose

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Taverner, P.A. “The nesting of Ross’s Goose Chen rossi ,” Canad. Field. –Nat .

    vol.54, pp.127-30, 1940.

            131. Snow Goose . A well-known, principally New World, goose, Chen

    hyperborea , which when adult is pure white with black primaries and ashy-gray

    primary coverts and alulae. The head, neck, and under parts frequently are

    stained with rusty brown. The bill is reddish flesh-color with light gray

    nail and a black stripe along the cutting edge. The feet are pinkish flesh

    color. Young birds are light gray, with rather dark brownish-gray wing coverts

    and secondaries and grayish bills and feet. A North American Indian name for

    the snow goose is wewais , from which the vernacular name wavy (or wavey) is

    said to have been derived. A widely used Eskimo name for the bird is khangook .

            Some ornithologists (e.g., J. L. Peters) regard the lesser and greater

    snow geese as dinstinct species, but the two forms are so much alike in color,

    proportions, and size, and their breeding ranges are so complementary, that

    there is good reason for regarding them as conspecific. The lesser snow goose

    ( C. hyperborean hyperborea ) is much the more numerous bird. It nest s along the

    arctic coast of Siberia from the Lena River mouth eastward to the Chukchi

    Peninsula; on Wrangel Island; and in North America from Point Barrow, Alaska,

    eastward along the north edge of the continent and in the southern part of

    the Arctic Archipelago to Southampton Island and southern Baffin Island. The

    greater snow goose ( C. hyperborean atlantica ) breeds in northern Greenland

    and in the eastern part of the Arctic Archipelago from northern Ellesmere

    Island south to northern Baffin Island. The western limits of its summer

    181      |      Vol_IV-0239                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snow Goose

    range are not known. Handley did not encounter it on Prince Patrick Island.

    In winter the two forms are wholly separate, the greater snow goose inhabiting

    at that season a stretch of the Atlantic coast from Chesapeake Bay to North

    Carolina; the lesser snow goose being found chiefly in three disconnected area —

    ( a ) Japan, ( b ) California, and ( c ) the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Missis–

    sippi, and in Mexico. The snow goose has been reported numerous times from Britain

    and other parts of Europe, and casually from Spitsbergen and Bear Island.

            The lesser snow goose seems to be distinctly colonial in its nesting and

    in parts of its range (specifically at Cape Kendall on Southampton Island, in

    the Lake Amadjuak region of southern Baffin Island, and in the Queen Maud Gulf

    area along the continental coast) the blue goose associates closely with it.

    Blue geese and snow geese which breed in these localities apparently migrate

    southward together and winter together. A strong argument in favor of consider–

    ing the blue goose a color variant of the snow goose is that there is no known

    spot at which blue geese breed, feed during migration, or pass the winter

    months wholly by themselves (i.e., separate from snow geese).

            The lesser snow goose nests on low grassy islands in the mouths of shallow

    rivers, or on hummocks in marshy places. The nest is a down-lined depression

    in the turf rather than a conspicuous mound. The eggs number 8 to 9, usually

    5 or 6. When the first egg is laid th e re is only a little down in the nest;

    but by the time the set is complete there is enough down to cover the eggs

    completely. During the 22-day incubation period the female is on the nest most

    of the time. At the large Bay of God’s Mercy colony on Southampton Island

    most of the eggs hatched between July 14 and 17 in 1934, and by July 19 all the

    old birds had started moving inland with their young (Manning). The postnuptial

    molt starts when the birds begin moving inland, though many of them do not

    182      |      Vol_IV-0240                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snow Goose

    become flightless immediately. On Wrangel Island, where the snow goose is

    common, the colonies of geese nest near the nesting places of the snowy owls,

    which do not molest the geese but drive off the foxes (Portenko).

            The greater snow goose probably nests colonially, in low, flat country

    as a rule, but Hait- Thomas tells us that in the vicinity of Thule, North

    Greenland, one pair nested separately on a “conical rocky island some twenty

    miles out to sea” and another “on the edge of a cliff overhanging the sea,

    in the same sort of place that a pink-foot goose would have chosen in Iceland.”

    The latter nest held three eggs, which began hatching on July 15. The Eskimos

    informed Haig-Thomas that the geese usually nested “near the small lakes found

    inland,” but that when the season was late — as it was that particular year —

    they resorted to islets in the sea and to high land. Salomonsen states that

    the greater snow goose breeds in only two places in Greenland — in the vicinity

    of Thule and about Inglefield Gulf.

            Downy young snow geese are strongly yellowish all over, tinged with grayish

    olive on the back and crown. Young blue geese of the same age are believed to

    be olive gray all over, with very little yellow save on the chin (see Kortright,

    F. H. 1942. The Ducks, Geese, and Swans of North America , plate 32, pp. p. 452).

    While this difference in coloration would seem to be good proof that the blue

    goose is a valid species, it must be remembered that the downy young of certain

    other birds (e.g., the arctic tern, Sterna paradisaea ) are two-phased. Further

    study of the greater snow goose, and especially of mixed colonies of lesser snow

    geese and blue geese, should be undertaken at the earliest opportunity.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Haig-Thomas, David. Tracks in the Snow , London and New York, 1939, p.264.

    183      |      Vol_IV-0241                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-fronted Goose

    2. Manning, T.H. “Blue and Lesser Snow Geese on Southampton and Baffin

    Islands.” Auk , vol.59, pp.158-75, 1942. 3. Salomonsen, Finn. “The status of the Greenland Snow Goose, Anser

    caerulescens atlantica (Kenn.),” Medd. Grønland , vol.92,

    pp.1-11, 1933. 4. Sutton, G.M. “The Blue Goose and Lesser Snow Goose on Southampton

    Island, Hudson Bay.” Auk , vol.48, pp.335-64, 1931.

            135. White-fronted Goose . A well-known goose, Anser albifrons , whose

    breeding range is circumboreal except for two great gaps: ( a ) between the

    west coast of Greenland the Kanin Peninsula, and ( b ) between the west coast

    of Greenland and Repulse Bay. Løppenthin believes that the species may breed

    in southeastern Greenland. It does not breed in Iceland, Bear Island, or

    Spitsbergen. Congreve and Freme ( Ibis , 1930, p. 218) believe that it may

    formerly have bred in Iceland. Portenko did not report it from Wrangel Island.

            The white-front is sometimes known as the speckle-belly or laughing goose.

    It is considerably smaller than the gray-lag ( Anser anser ) and is grayish brown

    above, white below, with black blotches on the lower breast and belly. A good

    field mark is the bold white patch on the forehead and face. The bill is pale

    flesh color or light orange-yellow, with a white nail; the eyes dark brown;

    the feet and legs orange. The eyelids are gray, sometimes with a yellowish

    tinge, but never bright lemon yellow or orange as they are in the lesser white–

    fronted goose ( A. erythropus ). Young birds are similar to adults, but lack

    the white forehead, and are paler below and more uniformly colored above.

            Four geographical races may be recognized: ( 1 ) albifrons — breeds in

    Kolguev, the two islands of Novaya Zemlya, and along the arctic coast of

    Eurasia from the Kanin Peninsula to the Chukchi Peninsula (including the New

    Siberian Islands). Pleske states that bill size gradually increases “as one

    184      |      Vol_IV-0242                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-fronted Goose

    goes eastward and that there is complete intergradation between the extremes.”

            This race winters along the shores of the Mediterranean, Black and Cas–

    pian seas, and in China, Japan, and northern India. ( 2 ) flavirostris —

    breeds on the west of Greenland, from about latitude 66° to 72° N., and

    winters in the Old World (chiefly Britain), in this respect resembling the

    pink-footed bean goose ( Anser fabalis brachyrhynchus ), which breeds on the

    east coast of Greenland and winters solely in the Old World. ( 3 ) gambeli —

    a large form usually called the Tule goose. Breeds certainly just east of

    the Perry River (Queen Maud Gulf) and presumably westward from that area to

    the Mackenzie Delta and eastward to Repulse Bay. Winters on the Gulf coast

    of Louisiana and Texas and also in California. ( 4 ) frontalis — breeds from

    the mouth of the Yukon to the Mackenzie Delta. Winters from the western

    United States southward to central Mexico (Todd, 1950, Condor 52: 63-68).

    Probably intergrades with gambeli between the mouths of the Mackenzie and

    Anderson Rivers, or thereabouts.

            The white-fronted goose breeds on the tundra among the moss, grass, and

    low shrubbery; or on bare gravel or lava flats. In Arctic Alaska its favorite

    habitat is the marshy areas along rivers 1 to 20 miles [ ?] back from the coast.

    Sometimes the nest is a heap of vegetation, sometimes a mere depression in the

    sand, but it is always warmly lined with down. The 4 to 6 eggs are creamy

    white. The female incubates while the male stands ground. The downy young

    is olive brown above, grayish yellow below, with a gray-white bar along the

    hind edge of the wing and a dark line through the eye.

            The voice of the white-fronted goose is said to be higher pitched than

    that of the gray-lag or bean goose, and its “laughing, cackl ing ed uah-uah uah-uah ”

    185      |      Vol_IV-0243                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-fronted Goose

    is certainly more rapidly given than the honks of the larger races of Canada

    goose ( Branta canadensis ). It is a strong flier, and its ability to spring

    from the ground and “climb” almost straight upward is remarkable.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Haviland, Maud. A Summer on the Yenesi , p. 154 (midsummer molt), 1914.

    186      |      Vol_IV-0244                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ducks

           

    DUCKS

           

    Order ANSERIFORMES ; Suborder ANSERES

           

    Family ANATIDAE; Subfamily ANATINAE

    Tribe TADORNINI, ANATINI,

    AYTHYINI, MERGINI

            136. American Scaup. A widely used name for Aythya marila nearctica , the

    New World race of the scaup duck ( q.v. ).

            137. American Scoter. A widely used name for Melanitta nigra americana ,

    one of the races of the black scoter ( q.v. ).

            138. American Goldeneye. A frequently used name for Bucephala clangula

    americana , the New World race of the Goldeneye ( q.v. ).

            139. American Merganser. A widely used name for Mergus merganser americanus ,

    the New World race of the goosander ( q.v. ).

            140. American Widgeon. A widely used name for the baldpate, Anas americana ,

    ( q.v. ).

            141. Anas . See writeup.

            142. Anatinae. See writeup.

            143. Aythya. See writeup.

            144. Aythyini. See writeup.

            145. Baikal Teal. See writeup.

            146. Baldpate. See writeup.

            147. Barrow’s Goldeneye. See writeup.

            148. Black Scoter. See writeup.

            149. Bluebill. A widely used vernacular name for the scaup, Aythya marila ,

    ( q.v. ).



    187      |      Vol_IV-0245                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ducks

            150. Bufflehead. See writeup.

            151. Bucephala . See writeup.

            152. Camptorhynchus . See Labrador Duck.

            153. Clangula . See writeup.

            154. Common Eider. A name often used for the eider, Somateria mollissima ,

    ( q.v. ).

            155. Common Goldeneye. A name sometimes applied to the goldeneye, Bucephala

    clangula ( q.v. ).

            156. Common Scoter. A name sometimes applied to the black scoter, Melanitta

    nigra ( q.v. ).

            157. Duck. The common name for most birds of the subfamily Anatinae ( q.v. ).

            158. Eider. See writeup.

            159. European Teal. A name widely used in the United States and Canada for

    Anas crecca crecca , the Old World race of green-winged teal ( q.v. ).

            160. European Widgeon. See writeup.

            161. Fish Duck. A widely used vernacular name for the mergansers or sawbills

    of the tribe Mergini ( q.v. ).

            162. Formosa Teal. A name applied to the Baikal teal ( Anas formosa ), not

    because the bird inhabits Formosa but because the Japanese have given

    it the name formosa , meaning beautiful . See Baikal Teal.

            163. GLAUCIONEITA . A generic name sometimes used for the goldeneyes and buffle–

    head. See Bucephala .

            164. Goldeneye. See writeup.

            165. Goosander. See writeup.

            166. Greater Scaup. A name often used in America for the scaup, Aythya marila ,

    188      |      Vol_IV-0246                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ducks

    to distinguish it from the lesser scaup, Aythya affinis . See

    Scaup Duck.

            167. Green-winged Teal. See writeup.

            168. Harlequin Duck. See writeup.

            169. Histrionicus . See writeup.

            170. King Eider. See writeup.

            171. Labrador Duck. See writeup.

            172. Long-tailed Duck. See writeup.

            173. Mallard. See writeup.

            174. Mareca . A genus in which some ornithologists place the baldpate or

    American widgeon, Anas americana , and the European widgeon,

    A. penelope . See Baldpate and European Widgeon.

            175. Melanitta . See writeup.

            176. Merganser. A fish [ ?] duck or sawbill of the tribe Mergini, ( q.v. ).

            177. Mergus. See writeup.

            178. Mergini. See writeup.

            179. Oidemia . A monotypic genus in which some ornithologists place the black

    scoter, Melanitta nigra . See Melanitta and Black Scoter.

            180. Old-squaw. A widely used name for the long-tailed duck, Clangula hyemalis ,

    (q.v.).

            181. Pied Duck. A name for the extinct Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labra –

    dorius ( q.v. ).

            182. Pintail. See writeup.

            183. Pochard. A widely used common name for certain freshwater diving ducks

    of the genus Aythya and tribe Aythyini ( q.v. ).

            184. Polysticta . See writeup.



    189      |      Vol_IV-0247                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ducks

            185. Red-breasted Merganser. See writeup.

            186. Sawbill. A widely used vernacular name for certain fisheating ducks of

    the tribe Mergini, especially the goosander, Mergus merganser, and

    red-breasted merganser, M. serrator ( q.v. ).

            187. Scaup Duck. See writeup.

            188. Scoter. Any of three species of large, dark sea ducks of the genus

    Melanitta ( q.v. ).

            189. Sheld-duck. See writeup.

            190. Sheldrake. 1. A name sometimes applied to the sheld-duck, Tadorna tadorna

    ( q.v. ). 2. A vernacular name applied to certain mergansers of fish

    ducks, especially (in America) the goosander, or American merganser,

    Mergus merganser americanus ; and the red-breasted merganser, M. serrator ,

    which is sometimes known as the salt-water Sheldrake.

            191. Shoveler. See writeup.

            192. Smew. See writeup.

            193. Somateria . See writeup.

            194. Spatula . See writeup.

            195. Spectacled Eider. See writeup.

            196. Steller’s Eider. See writeup.

            197. Surf Scoter. See writeup.

            198. Tadorna and Tadornini. See writeup.

            199. Tufted Duck. See writeup.

            200. Velvet Scoter. A name widely used in Great Britain for Melanitta fusca

    fusca , the Old World race of the white-winged scoter ( q.v. ).

            201. Whistler. A vernacular name often used for the goldeneyes, especially the

    common goldeneyes Bucephala clangula . See Goldeneye.

            202. White-winged Scoter. See writeup.

            203. Widgeon (or Wigeon). A common name given three species of surface-feeding

    or river ducks, all of which are rather short billed. See Baldpate

    and European Widgeon.



    190      |      Vol_IV-0248                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anas.

            141. Anas . An anseriform genus which includes most of the surface–

    feeding ducks of the world. There are about 40 species. In several species

    the males and females are colored alike; in others the male is brightly

    colored in courting dress (but dull in eclipse plumage), while the female is

    always dull. Throughout the group the bill is wide, nearly straight, and

    rather long (in several species as long as the head), and both mandibles

    have lamellae along the cutting edges. The hind toe is not lobate. The leg

    bones are short, so the birds are rather low or squat even when standing at

    fullest height. Because of differences in color pattern and structure (es–

    pecially of the bill), several species have at one time or another been placed

    in other genera by themselves (the pintail in Daila , the widgeons in Mareca ,

    the green-winged teals in Nettion, etc.), but ornithologists now feel that

    most of these differences are superficial. Some even go so far as to place

    the shovellers in Anas , but these strikingly larger billed ducks may well be

    given a genus ( Spatula ) of their own.

            The genus Anas is cosmopolitan. Several species range well northward in

    forested regions, but no Anas breeds exclusively on the tundra as does

    Clangula (old-squaw). The most northward-ranging Anas is the pintail ( A. acuta ),

    which breeds northward to Spitsbergen (sparingly), Iceland, northern Scan–

    dinavia, northern Siberia (lat. 72°30′ N. on the Yenisei), arctic Alaska, and

    Chesterfield Inlet, Hudson Bay. In both the Old World and the New the green–

    winged teal breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond, but there is a

    difference of opinion as to whether those of the New World belong to the same

    species as those of the Old. The widgeons breed well northward, A. americana

    (American widgeon or baldpate) in the New World, A. penelope (European widgeon)

    191      |      Vol_IV-0249                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anas and Anatinae

    in the Old and probably also in small numbers, in the New. The Baikal teal

    ( A. formosa ) breeds in northern and eastern Siberia, northward to latitude

    72° N. The mallard ( A. platyrhynchos ) breeds northward to the Arctic Circle

    and slightly beyond in scattered parts of both North America and Eurasia. A

    well-defined race of the mallard is endemic to Greenland. The gadwall

    ( A. strepera ) breeds in Iceland, but is not, generally speaking, an arctic

    bird. There is a tendency for all the above-named forms to be common to the

    New and Old World. Most of them are definitely migratory.

            See Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Baikal Teal, Baldpate, European Widgeon,

    and Mallard.

            142. Anatinae . A subfamily of anseriform water birds, most of which

    are commonly known as ducks. Delacour and Mayr (1945. “The family Anatidae.”

    Wilson Bull . 57: 3-55) have recently expressed their belief that several birds

    which have almost universally been considered geese are really far more closely

    related to the ducks. They arrange the subfamily Anatinae in seven tribes, one

    of which — the sheldrakes (Tadornini) – includes the kelp geese (genus

    Chloëphaga ) of South America, the Orinoco goose ( Neochen ), the Egyptian goose

    (genus Alopochen ), the Abyssinian glue-winged goose ( Cyanochen ), and the Cape

    Barren goose (genus Cereopsis ) of Australia, as well as the sheldrakes proper

    (genus Tadorna ). For a discussion of the characters common to the several

    genera of this sheldrake tribe, see Tadornini. The other six tribes are the

    river ducks (Anatini), pochards (Aythyini), perching ducks (Cairinini), sea

    ducks (Mergini), stiff-tailed ducks (Oxyurini) and torrent ducks (Merganettini).

            Of the seven tribes of the Anatinae, the Mergini (sea ducks) are decidedly

    the most boreal as a group, all of the seven genera listed by Delacour and Mayr

    being largely boreal, and many of them circumboreal, in distribution; the

    192      |      Vol_IV-0250                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anatinae

    Anatini and Aythyini are represented by a few species which breed northward

    to the Arctic Circle and beyond, principally in forested country; and the

    Tadornini are represented [ ?] in the Arctic by but one form — the common

    sheldrake ( Tadorna tador n a ), an Old World species which breeds northward to

    the Arctic Circle, or a little beyond, in Scandinavia.

            It is hardly necessary to describe the ducks, for they are, as a group,

    so well known. Most of them are shorter necked, broader billed, and lower

    in build than the true geese (Anserini). The size range within the subfamily

    is not great, no species being extremely small, and none nearly so large as

    the true swans. Certain of the queer steamer ducks (genus Tachyeres ) of

    southern South America and the Falklands can fly when young, but lose the power

    of flight when adult. When pursued they move rapidly through the water with

    a paddling of wings which calls to mind a sidewheel steamboat. In the genus

    Mergus (mergansers and allies) the bill is narrow and saw-toothed, a modifica–

    tion for capturing fish.

            Throughout most of the subfamily Anatinae, males and females probably do

    not pair for life. Pairs form well in advance of the egg-laying season and

    remain together until the eggs are laid, whereupon the female assumes entire

    charge of the nest, eggs, and young and the males live by themselves, sometimes

    in flocks at some distance from the nesting grounds. Throughout the subfamily,

    nests are down-lined and broods tend to be large. Incubation does not start

    until all eggs are laid, so the brood hatches all at once. In many species

    the males molt into an eclipse plumage (which resembles the plumage of the

    female) about the time the pairs break up. There is one complete annual molt,

    the postnuptial, in most, possibly all, species. During this molt the birds

    lose their primaries and secondaries and become flightless.



    193      |      Vol_IV-0251                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anatinae and Aythya

            The ducks, as a group, are cosmopolitan in distribution. Opinion varies

    greatly as to the number of genera which should be recognized, but it is be–

    lieved that slight differences in bill shape, head shape, and tail shape are

    not fundamental, so numerous species which formerly were placed in monotypic

    genera are now grouped within comparatively few genera.

            The most northern of all ducks are the eider ( Somateria mollissima ),

    king eider ( Somateria spectablis ), and old [ ?] - quaw ( Clangula hyemalis ) ( q.v. ).

            14. Aythya . A genus of freshwater driving ducks of the tribe Aythyini,

    sometimes collectively referred to as the pochards. The genus is composed

    of 13 species. In Aythya the bill is broad and rounded at the tip, the eyes

    of the adults are light-colored (yellow, red, or white), and the color pattern

    is much the same — most species being dark throughout the head, neck, breast,

    and upper part of the body and light on the lower breast and belly, and having

    a white or gray speculum or wing bar in both males and females. Males are

    brighter or bolder in pattern than females, usually have the head and neck of

    one color, a broad band of another color around the chest and whole fore part

    of the body, dark back, and light lower breast and belly. Only one species —

    the tufted duck ( A. fuligula ) — wears a very ornamental crest, though all have

    long crown and nape feathers which can be erected into a smooth crest. None

    of them has elongate or curled tertials or tail feathers.

            No species of the genus is exclusively arctic in distribution to the extent

    that the long-tailed duck or old-squaw ( Clangula hyemalis ) is, though the scaup

    duck ( A. marila ) breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and somewhat beyond in

    both the New World and the Old; the tufted duck, above mentioned, breeds north–

    ward at least to the Arctic Circle in the Old World; and several species are

    194      |      Vol_IV-0252                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aythya and Aythyini

    confined to the Northern Hemisphere. One species, A. innotata (Madagascan

    white-eyed duck) is found only a Madagascar; another, A. australis (Aus–

    tralian white-eyed duck) in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand; another,

    A. erythophthalma (southern pochard) in South [ ?] American and southern Africa;

    and another A. novae-seelandiae (New Zealand duck) in New Zealand, Auckland,

    and the Chathams.

            See Scaup Duck and Tufted Duck.

            144. Authyini . An anseriform tribe composed of two general of freshwater

    diving ducks. The genus Netta, with three species ( rufina , peposaca , and ery –

    throphthalma ) is found in Eurasia, Africa, and South er America, but not in

    Australia or in North America. Netta rufina is the only Eurasian species. It

    does not breed northward beyond the lower Danube, southern Russia, and the

    Kirghiz Steppe. The other genus, Aythya, is composed of at least 12 species,

    two of which, marila (scaup duck) and fuligula (tufted duck), breed northward

    to the Arctic Circle, the former in both the Old World and the New, the latter

    only in the Old.

            The Aythyini are characterized by their short, heavy body, rather big head,

    and large feet. The legs are placed far back and wide apart. The hind toe is

    distinctly lobed. Adult males differ from adult females in color, butnot con–

    spicuously so in some species. The wing has a white or gray (never a metallic)

    speculum. The syrinx of the male has a pointed, asymmetrical bulla which is

    chambered inside and has membran a ceous windows on the outside. The downy young

    of the Aythyini and Anatini (river ducks) resemble each other in color and pat–

    tern, but in the Aythyini they tend to the yellow and the dark line through the

    eye is never so pronounced as it is in the Anatini. Pochards walk clumsily.

    Indeed, they do not often have occasion to walk except when going to and from

    195      |      Vol_IV-0253                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aythyini and Baikal Teal

    the nest. They dive well, but do not stay under the water nearly so long as

    the sea ducks (Mergini) do. In their courtship and pairing the males pursue

    the females roughly — a sort of “mock brutality.” Male pochards call very

    infrequently. The usual note of the female is a loud karr (Delacour and

    Mayr).

            See Aythya , Scaup Duck, and Tufted Duck.

            145. Baikal Teal . A handsome small surface-feeding duck, Anas formosa ,

    which is known also as the Formosa, clucking, or spectacled teal. It has been

    encountered repeatedly on Lake Baikal but is not known to breed there. It has

    been reported from Formosa, but the name “Formosa Teal” is derived not from the

    island but from the Japanese word formosa , meaning beautiful (Scott). Its Russo–

    Siberian name is klokoncha , in imitation of its clu c king cry. Its Yakut name is

    marodu. The male in courting dress is unique in patter. The top and back of

    the head, the chin and throat, and a bridle-like stripe down across the face

    are black, the whole dark area back of the eye being glossed with brilliant

    green. A broken superciliary line and narrow line down each side of the nape

    are white. The rest of the face is buff. The breast is pinkish brown, spotted

    with black. A white bar crosses the side of the chest in front of the wing.

    The sides and scapulars are gray, the back, rump, and tail dark brown. The

    speculum is shining green, bordered in front by tan, behind by white. The

    long, drooping tertials are black, rufous, and buff. The female is plainly

    colored, resembling the female green-wing ( A. crecca ) but with a round white

    spot in front of each eye at the very base of the bill. This is a good field

    mark. Even the downy young is said to have it (von Middendroff).

            The species’ principal nesting ground is in northeastern Siberia from the

    Lena eastward to the Anadyr. It breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and

    196      |      Vol_IV-0254                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Baikal Teal and Baldpate

    somewhat beyond throughout this region, but reaches the arctic coast only

    at the mouth of the Kolyma, where it is the commonest of the surface-feeding

    ducks in summer. It may breed as far west as the Yenisei. The southern

    limits of its breeding range are believed to be at about latitude 48° N.

    It may breed in Kamchatka. On the Kurils and Kumandorskis it occurs only

    during migration. It winters from eastern China, Korea, and Japan to India

    and Assam. It has been reported once from Wrangel, casually from the mouth

    of the Yenisei and Great Lyakhov Island (Pleske), once from Cape Severnyi

    on the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula, once from King Island, once from St.

    Lawrence Island, and four times from the Alaska mainland (Bailey).

            The male’s usual call note is an “unducklike” wut - wot , sometimes followed

    by a slowly uttered wot - wot - wot repreated 10 [ ?] or 15 times if the bird is excited.

    Authors have written this note down as clock - clock , ruck - ruck , and even mok - mok .

    The female’s cry is a clearly enunciated quack .

            The Baikal teal is said to nest in dry places, sometimes at some distance

    from water. Nests found in the Kolyma Delta in June held 8 to 10 eggs. The

    eggs are pale grayish green. The female assumes all the duties of incubation.

    The males band together and leave the nesting grounds about the time the

    clutches are complete, sometimes moving northward down the rivers to the coast.

            146. Baldpate . A surface-feeding duck, Anas americana , which is fre–

    quently called the American widgeon. It is very much like its close relative,

    the European widgeon ( A. penelope ), but the male is white on the top of the

    head; shining green throughout a broad band from the eye to the back of the

    [ ?] neck white, finely spotted with black on the rest of the head and neck ;and

    pinkish brown rather than gray on the back, scapulars, sides, and flanks. The

    female is sometimes almost indistinguishable from the female European widgeon,

    197      |      Vol_IV-0255                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Baldpate

    though she is gray, rather than ruddy brown in general tone above. The two

    species can instantly be told apart in the hand by the color of the axillaries

    the median wing coverts. In the Europen widgeon these are white, freckled

    and mottled with dusky brown; in the American widgeon they are pure white.

            Both the American and European widgeons are rather short-billed. With

    the Chilean widgeon ( A. sibilatrix ) of South America they form a uniform group

    which is placed by some ornithologists in a separate genus — Mareca . In

    behavior these three widgeons are alike. Their courtship display “consists

    mostly of a lifting of the long scapulars and the primaries accompanied by

    loud whistling and vertical movement of the head” (Delacour and Mayr). They

    are rapid fliers, having long, narrow wings. They more about in loose-knit

    flocks, rather than in formal lines or V’s. They can change course quickly

    and mount or tower with ease. Their wings do not whistle, but a fluttering

    sound is caused by the almost incessant checking of speed by one [ ?] or more birds.

    On the breeding grounds there is no more animated sight than a flock of male

    baldpates rising in pursuit of a female. The birds behave as if they were

    trying to display in flight , throwing their heads up, twisting, turning,

    sometimes seeming almost to lose control of themselves. The cry of the male,

    which is given frequently on such occasions, is a shrill whee - oo . The cry of

    the male European widgeon has been described as a “loud whistle.” The female

    baldpate’s call is not a quack, but a rough purr or churr .

            The baldpate breeds in North America from Kotzebue Sound and the Bering

    Sea coast of Alaska southeastward through the interior to northern Mackenzie,

    the west coast of Hudson Bay (Churchill), Wisconsin, and Michigan (Seeney

    Refuge), and southward to northeastern California, northwestern Nevada, Utah,

    198      |      Vol_IV-0256                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Baldpate and Barrow’s Goldeneye

    Colorado, Nebraska, and Indiana. It winters southward as far as the West

    Indies, Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama (rarely). It has been reported

    from Greenland, Iceland, and Komandorskis, and the Aleutians.

            In northern parts of its range, the baldpate usually nests among willows,

    drawf birches, or alders. The eggs number 8 to 12 and are cream-colored. The

    species nests rather late. A nest which A. C. Loyd found at Churchill, Mani–

    toba, held 10 fresh eggs on June 15, 1931. Only the female incubates. The

    incubation period is 22 to 24 days (Phillips). The downy young, which is

    brownish rather than yellowish in general tone, in virtually indistinguishable

    from that of A. penelope . The male baldpate is said occasionally to remain

    with the female and her brood throughout the summer. (McClanshan, Robert C.

    1942. Male Baldpate attending young. Auk 59: 589.) This is exceptional

    among ducks of the genus Anas . The male Chilean widgeon, however, helps the

    female regularly in caring for the young.

            147. Barrow’s Goldeneye . A sea duck, Bucephala islandica , which bears

    a strong superficial resemblance to the common goldeneye or whistler ( B. clangula ),

    but which is structurally different, the skull being flat, rather than curved, on

    the very top; the trachea of the male having a gradual and not very noticeable,

    rather than a bulbous, enlargement; and the scapular feathers of the male being

    oddly cut back, or notched, at the tip. Books (1920. Auk 37: 356-365) has well

    summarized the differences between the two species, pointing out that the male

    Barrow’s goldeneye in courting dress is much blacker in appearance in the field

    than the male common goldeneye.

            The adult male Barrow’s goldeneye in high plumage is glossy violet-black

    on the head, with a bold crescent of white between the bill and eye; white on

    the neck and center of the breast and belly; and black otherwise (including

    199      |      Vol_IV-0257                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Barrow’s Goldeneye

    the upper borders of the sides and flanks) save for the bold white centers

    of the scapulars and white patches in the wing (one of on the middle coverts,

    the other composed of some of the secondaries and the tips of the greater

    coverts). The female is brown on the head, white on the foreneck and belly,

    and gray otherwise except for an irregularly shape white wing patch. She

    can hardly be distinguished from the female of B. clangula except in the

    breeding season, when her whole bill becomes deep yellow, that of the female

    clangula being black, tipped with yellow. The eyes of adult Barrow’s goldeneyes

    are bright yellow, the feet orange-yellow with dark webs.

            The courtship of Barrow’s goldeneye is much like that of the common golden–

    eye, but there seems to be no mention in the literature of a special double

    call note such as clangula gives, so the bulbous tracheal enlargement in that

    species may be correlated with the call note.

            Barrows’ goldeneye, while not very well known, is a common bird in some

    areas. It breeds in at least four widely separate districts — the Rocky

    Mountains of Alaska, Canada, and the United States; the west coast of southern

    Greenland (northward to about lat. 70° N.); the Labrador coast and Ungava Bay

    district; and Iceland. It is relatively nonmigratory. Birds which breed in

    Alaska move southward, and some birds which breed in the Rocky Mountains of

    Canada and the United States move out to the coast; but Greenland and Iceland

    birds apparently are sedentary. Along the Pacific coast of North America the

    southern limits of i [ ?] ts winter range are San Francisco, California; on the

    Atlantic coast it is found as far south as Long Island, New York. In western

    North America the species probably nests wholly in cavities in trees. But in

    Iceland, and probably also in Greenland, it nests among rocks, so its northern

    limit-of-range is not the tree limit, as is the case with the common goldeneye.

    200      |      Vol_IV-0258                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Barrow’s Goldeneye and Black Scoter

    In British Columbia its nest trees are well back from the water’s edge as

    a rule.

            The eggs, which are pale bluish green (perhaps, when freshly laid, a

    trifle bluer than those of clangula ) number 6 to 15, usually 10. Only the

    female incubates and the incubation period is “about four weeks” (Hantzsch).

    The males leave the females completely when incubation starts, probably moving

    down the rivers to the coast. The downy young are indistinguishable from

    those of clangula .

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Munro, J.A. “The Barrow Golden-eye in The Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.”

    Condor , vol.20, pp.15-, 1918.

           

    # # #

            148. Black Scoter . A sea duck, Melanitta nigra , found in both the Old

    World and the New. It is known in Great Britain as the common scoter, in the

    United States and Canada as the American scoter. Among descriptive vernacular

    names are butternose and coppernose. In some areas it is erroneously called

    the black duck. In the adult male the outermost primary is strongly emarginate

    (narrowed) for half its length; the bill is more or less boldly knobbed at

    the base and marked with rich yellow; and the plumage is wholly black, glossed

    with purple on the head and neck, and with green on the back. Females and

    immature males are dark brown above, somewhat lighter brown on the middle of

    the breast and belly, and pale whitish brown on the lower part of the head

    and sides of the neck. There is no whi l te or gray patch or any sort in the

    wings. The eyes are dark brown, the legs and feet black in the male, dark

    brown in the female. The color and shape of the bill vary geographically;

    201      |      Vol_IV-0259                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black Scoter

    in American, North Pacific, and eastern Asiatic birds ( N. M. nigra americana )

    the nail is strongly hooked both in males and females; in males the hump

    slopes down gradually in front and the whole basal half (including the

    nostrils) is yellow; and in adult females there always is some yellow in

    the region of the nostrils. In Iceland, Spitsbergen, Bear Island, and

    western Eurasian birds. ( M. nigra nigra ), the nail is very slightly, if at

    all, hooked; in the male the basal hump is abrupt and the yellow patch ex–

    tends from the base of the hump forward almost to the nail; and the female’s

    bill is black, without any yellow.

            The breeding d distribution of the black scoter has just been summarized.

    In the Old World the northern limits of its range are reached in Spitsbergen

    and the Taimyr Peninsula, the southern in the Kurils. Large flocks have

    been seen off Kolguev in July. In North America the species nests along

    almost the entire Alaska coast the eastward to the mouth of the Mackenzie;

    the elsewhere across the continent its breeding range is ill defined. It

    probably breeds sparingly in East Greenland (F. Spencer Chapman). It summers

    in such large numbers in James and Hudson bays that we can but assume that

    it nests commonly somewhere in that region, and it probably nests sparingly

    along the Labrador, though some ornithologists believe that it does not.

    It winters well to the southward of its summer range, not only along the outer

    coasts, but also in the interior. The southern limits of its winter range

    are the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas, Japan, Korea, southern Califor–

    nia, the Great Lakes, and North Carolina.

            The nest is on the ground in a dry place. In the Hopper Bay district of

    Alaska, Brandt found nests on the seashore on “ridges among the sand dunes”

    202      |      Vol_IV-0260                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black Scoter and Bufflehead

    where the long grass concealed the large eggs. In Iceland and the British

    Isles nests are usually on high ground within a few yards of water. The

    down is dark brown with light centers. The eggs are cream to buff, and

    number 5 to 7 as a rule. Only the female incubates. The incubation period

    is 27 to 28 days. The downy young is dark brownish gray above, and ashy

    gray on the cheeks, throat, breast, and belly.

            150. Bufflehead . A very small sea duck, Bucephala albeola , so named

    because the feathers of the head are long and fluffy, especially in the male.

    Known widely as the butterball. The male in high plumage is among the most

    beautiful of waterfowl. Except for a snow-white patch extending over the nape

    from eye to eye, his head is black, glossed with the colors of the rainbow.

    He is black on the back, and most of the wings; ashy gray on the rump, tail,

    and all tail coverts; and white on the neck, scapulars, wing patch, breast,

    sides, and belly. The female is grayish brown on the head, neck, and upper

    part of the body, with a roundish white spot on each sides of the head well

    back of the eye, a white patch on the secondaries, and white breast and belly.

    The bill is bluish gray in both sexes, and feet pink in the male, dull gray

    in the female.

            The bufflehead breeds from northern Montana, southern British Columbia,

    and Alberta northwestward to central Alaska and the lower Meckenzie; northeast–

    ward to [ ?] James Bay and southwestern Hudson bay; and eastward (in small num–

    bers) to New Brunswick and Maine. Nowhere does it range beyond tree limit for,

    despite numerous references to its nesting in ground burrows, it usually nests

    in cavities in largish trees. In winter it spreads southeastward to the Atlantic

    and Gulf coasts of the United States, to interior Mexico and the coasts of Baja

    California; and to the Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutians, Komandorskis, Pribilofs,

    203      |      Vol_IV-0261                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bufflehead and Bucephala

    and Kamchatka. It has been reported from Greenland, the Orkneys, and the

    Kurils.

            The courting of the bufflehead is not at all like that of the goldeneye.

    A notable feature of the male’s display is the short flights which are abruptly

    terminated with a spreading of the wings and tail, a drop into the water, and

    A big splash. The female selects for the nest and old woodpecker hole or nat–

    ural cavity, preferably one with entrance so small that she has to squeeze

    through. The eggs, which are ivory-colored without tinge of green (Brooks),

    number 6 to 14. Only the female incubates the eggs and cares for the young,

    though the male remains in the vicinity (Phillips). The newly hatched young

    are like young goldeneyes in proportions and pattern, but smaller.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    Bent, A.C. “Life Histories of North American wild fowl.” Bull . U. S. Natl. Mus.

    vol.130, pp.24-32, 1925.

           

    # # #

            151. Bucephala . A genus composed of three species of sea ducks (tribe

    Mergini). All three species ( 1 ) are exclusively northern in distribution; ( 2 )

    nest in holes in the ground, in crevices among rocks, or in cavities in trees;

    and ( 3 ) have short necks and fluffy head plumage. Adult males are much bolder

    in color pattern than adult females and young males, and the downy young have

    a clear-cut pattern of dark gray and white. The bill is shorter than the head,

    higher than wide at the base, gradually narrower toward the tip than at the

    base, and the front edge of the nostril is much nearer the tip than the base.

    The tail is rather long, as in Mergus , definitely rounded, and composed of 16

    feathers.



    204      |      Vol_IV-0262                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bucephala and Clangula

            Bucephala is closely related to Clangula (old-squaw) and Historionicus

    (harlenquin duck). Delacour and Mayr believe that the hooded merganser

    ( Mergus cucullatus ) connects the larger mergansers ( M. Merganser and M. ser –

    rator ), through the smew ( M. albellus ) with Bucephala . A male cross between

    the hooded merganser and common goldeneye has been reported.

            Bucephala is circumboreal. One species, the bufflehead ( albeola ) is

    found only in the New World. Barrow’s goldeneye ( islandica ) is found in

    North America, Greenland, and Iceland. The common goldeneye ( Clangula ) is

    found across northern North America and Eurasia, but not in Greenland.

    Barrow’s goldeneye is almost nonmigratory. The other two species migrate,

    but there is some overlapping of winter and breeding ranges.

            See Goldeneye, Barrow’s Goldeneye, and Bufflehead.

            153. Clangula . The monotypic genus to which the long-tailed duck or

    old-squaw ( C. hyemalis ) belongs. The bill is very short (shorter than the

    head and also than the tarsus) and high at the base, with straight culmen but

    elevated nail, which occupies the whole of the tip. The nostrils are near

    the base, which runs backward sharply from the culmen. The tail is strongly

    graduated and has 14 (rarely 16) feathers, them middle ones very long and nar–

    row in the male. Clangula is holarctic in distribution, is found only in the

    Northern Hemisphere, and is principally marine. It is a very vocal bird,

    especially on the breeding ground, but also in winter, when a good deal of

    pairing probably takes place. The plumages and molts of Clangula are puzzling.

    Many authors have expressed belief that the bird has two eclipse plumages, or

    that the dark summer plumage worn by some individuals in May and June is the

    205      |      Vol_IV-0263                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Calngula and Eider

    courting or breeding plumage, in contradistinction to the “white” winter

    plumage. This winter plumage is, actually, very ornamental, with its bold

    pattern, narrowed s ac ca pulars, etc., and it may well be thought of as the

    nuptial plumage. The dark summer plumage is, on the other hand, the eclipse.

    This eclipse plumage is assumed early in summer by some individuals, late

    by others (see Sutton, Auk , 1932,49 [ ?] : 42-51).

            158. Eider . A large northern sea duck, Somateria mollissima , well

    known and important as the source of the eider down of commerce. Often

    called common eider, to distinguish it from the king eider ( S. spectabilis )

    and spectacled eider ( S. fischeri ). Among the Eskimos it is known chiefly

    as the mittek or mittivik (females and eiders in general) and amaulik (males

    in full plumage). It is a heavy-bodies, somewhat clumsy bird, males weighing

    up to 6 lb. 3 oz. (Kortright). Except when nesting it usually stays well

    out from the mainland shore, feeding on mollusks and other animal food which

    it obtains by diving. It flies abreast in long, thickset lines often very

    close above the water.

            The male in high plumage is black on the top of the head, rump, tail,

    anterior lesser wing coverts, distal greater coverts, secondaries, and under

    parts (save for a white spot at either side of the rump), and white otherwise,

    fading into pale glossy green at the back of the head, and rich buffy brown

    on the breast (and sometimes the shoulders). The bill is light greenish

    yellow to deep brownish orange, the legs and feet olive gray to brownish

    olive, with dusky webs. The female is warm brown all over, streaked, spotted,

    mottled and barred with black and buff, the scapulars, greater wing coverts

    and secondaries edged with whitish. Her bill and feet are dive gray to brownish

    206      |      Vol_IV-0264                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eider

    olive, with dusky webs. There is considerable subspecific variation,

    especially in the width of the processes which extend backward from the

    culmen into the head feathers. In dresseri these are very wise, in borealis

    and mollissima narrower; in v-nigra very narrow. The male v-nigra also has

    a pronounced diagnostic mark: two bold lines of black on the throat which

    converge at the chin, forming a V. In eclipse plumage (July and August)

    males become very patchy in appearance. While so colored they pass through

    the flightless stage of the postnuptial molt.

            The eider breeds along the whole Arctic Coast except for a stretch in

    Siberia between the Gulf of Ob and the Kolyma River delta; throughout the

    islands north of North America; on both coasts of Greenland (north on the

    west coast of Kane Basin, on the east coast to Dove Bugt); in Spitsbergen,

    the Franz Josef Archipelago, Bear Island, Iceland, Jan Mayen, the Faeroes,

    Kolguev, Novaya Zemlya, and Wrangel Island, but not in the New Siberian

    Archipelago. The southernmost limits of its breeding range are the Aleutians,

    Komandorskis, Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, Nova Scotia, Maine, the British

    Isles, and Denmark. Iceland and Faeroes birds are nonmigratory. Elsewhere

    the species moves southward somewhat — as far as Vancouver Island on the

    Pacific coast of North America, to the Massachusetts coast and the coast of

    France in the North Atlantic, and occasionally to large lakes of the conti–

    nental interior. Many geographical races have been described, of which six

    are recognized; mollissima of Iceland, Jay Mayen, Norway, Finland, north Russia,

    Kolguev, Novaya Zemlya, and possibly the Franz Josef Archipelago (there being

    a question as to whether birds of this area are mollissima , borealis , or an

    an endemic race, thulensis ); faroeensis of the Faeroes; borealis of Spitsbergen,

    Bear Island, Greenland (see above), and northeastern North American from

    207      |      Vol_IV-0265                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Eider

    Southampton Island, Melville Peninsula, and northern Labrador north to northern

    Ellesmere Island (lat. [ ?] 81°40′ N.) [ ?] dresseri of islands off southern Labrador,

    the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, and Maine; sedentaria

    of coasts and islands of James Bay and southern part of Hudson Bay; and

    v-nigra of North Pacific coasts and islands as far west as the delta of the

    Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, and east to Victoria Island, Banks

    Island, and Coronation Gulf. All of these races but faeroeensis and sedentaria

    are migratory, but the species does not move very far south in winter.

            The eider’s courtship display is not elaborate. It consists principally

    in holding the head stiffly and high, pulling the head down and lifting it

    suddenly with bill pointed upward, or standing in the water with chest ele–

    vated. The groaning or cooing call of the male is accompanied by a jerking

    upward and shaking from side to side of the head. This is done either on

    water or on land. The female’s part in the courtship consists chiefly in

    swimming low with head outstretched, in pecking at the male, and occasionally

    lowering and lifting the head.

            In many parts of its range the eider nests almost wholly on islets off

    the coast, but in certain areas (notably Iceland, where it has been rigidly

    protected for centuries) large colonies nest well inland from salt water on

    lake shores or along rivers. The “wild” nest is a simple depression in the

    gravel or sand, or among rocks, often in the open. It is lined with light

    grayish-brown down which the female plucks from her breast and belly. When

    the first egg is laid there is very little down; but by the time the set is

    complete 4 [ ?] to 6 egg [ ?] usually) there is enough down to cover the eggs com–

    pletely while the bird is away from the nest. In Iceland the first two

    sets of eggs, together with the down, are collected regularly, but the third

    208      |      Vol_IV-0266                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: E [ ?] id er

    set (rarely more than 3 eggs) is never taken, and the third batch of down is

    not collected until the eggs have hatched. Where the birds are “managed”

    commercially, little sod houses are put up for them to nests in; branches are

    strewn about as shelters for nests, decoys of males are placed offshore, bells

    and bright objects are hung up to attract the females, no dogs are allowed to

    roam (or even to bark!), and every possibl y e thing is done to encourage and

    assist. The females become incredibly tame when so treated, and nest in such

    thickset companies that a person cannot walk anywhere without flushing female

    eiders continuously from their nests.

            The eggs are pale olive or greenish gray to buff. Only the female in–

    cubates them, though the male sometimes stands guard during the earlier part

    of the 27 to 28-day incubation period. The downy young are plain dull brown

    above, light gray on the throat and belly, without spots or streaks of any

    sort. Many young birds fall victim to predatory birds and mammals. Where

    many eiders nest together the broods do not keep separate, the young birds

    attach themselves to any female which happens to be close by. By midsummer

    large rafts composed of females and young gather in lakes and sheltered arms

    of the ocean.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life history of North American wild fowl.” Bull . U. S. Nat.

    Mus., vol.130, pp.79-107, 1925. 2. Best M.G.S. and Haviland, M.D. “Notes on the breeding habits of the

    Common Eider as observed in the Outer Hebrides.” British

    Birds , vol.7, pp.101-4, 1913. 3. Feddersen, Arthur. “L’Eider en Island.” Rev . des Sci. Nat. Appliquees.

    Bull. Bimens . Soc. Nat. d’Acclimat., Paris vol.37, pp.189-200

    and 296-307, 1890. 4. Gross, A.O. “Eider Ducks of Kent’s Island.” Auk , vol.55, pp.387-400, 1938.

    209      |      Vol_IV-0267                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: European Widgeon

            160. European Widgeon . A well-known surface-feeding or river duck,

    Anas Penelope , which ranges widely in Eurasia and adjacent parts of the Old

    World and is of such frequent occurrence in winter in Canada and United

    States that many ornithologists believe that it nests in northern continental

    North American or the southernmost part of the Arctic Archipelago. It breeds

    regularly in small numbers in Greenland, but the individuals which nests there

    probably migrate to Europe along with other Greenland-nesting species of recent

    Old-World origin. Anas penelope Anas penelope is very closely related to A. americana , the

    American widgeon or baldpate. For differences between the two species, see

    Baldpate.

            The European widgeon nests regularly in Iceland, the Faeroes, the British

    Isles, and across continental Eurasia to the Komandorskis from about latitude

    50° to 70° N. It breeds on Kolguev and Vaigach. It has been reported from

    Spitsbergen, Bear Island, and Novaya Zemlya, but probably does not breed there.

    A flock of nine birds in eclipse plumage was encountered at sea off Jan Mayen

    in August (Bird and Bird). The species has never been reported from the Taimyr

    Peninsula or the New Siberian Islands. Its winter range overlaps its breeding

    range in the British Isles and Scandinavia. The southern limits of its winter

    range are in the Phillippines, Celebes, Nigeria, Kenya, Florida, Texas, and

    northern Baja California.

            The drake European widgeon in courting plum a ge is light yellowish buff

    on the forehead and crown (the best field mark); rich reddish brown on the

    rest of the head and neck; pinkish brown on the breast; gray, finely vermicu–

    lated with white on the back, scapulars, and sides; white on the lesser wing

    coverts, inner secondaries, breast, belly, and throughout an area in front of

    the black under tail coverts; boldly black and white on the tertials; and

    210      |      Vol_IV-0268                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: European Widgeon

    shining green on the speculum. The female is ruddy brown (speckled and mot–

    tled with blackish brown) throughout the head, neck and upper part of the

    body (including the sides and flanks), and white on the breast and belly.

    Her speculum is black, but the tertials, greater coverts and secondaries

    are edged with white, so the spread wings displays two white bars. The call

    of the male is a loud, whistled whee - oo , of the female a “purring growl”

    (Witherby). The whistle of the male is said to be much louder than that of

    the male baldpate.

            The species nests in open country usually near water. In the North

    the nest is placed under trees or shrubbery or in grass. The eggs, which

    number 7 or 8, are smooth-shelled and cream-colored. Only the female incu–

    bates, but the male often lingers in the vicinity of the nest and sometimes

    assists in caring for the brood. The incubation period is about 23 days. The

    downy young are brownish, rather than yellowish, in general tone, with

    cinnamon-buff on the face and cream-buff on the under parts, wing bar and

    spot at each side of the rump.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    1. Hasbrouck, E.M. “Apparent status of the European Widgeon in North America.”

    211      |      Vol_IV-0269                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Goldeneye.

            164. Goldeneye . A diving or sea duck of the genus Eucephala having

    bright yellow eyes when adult and frequently known as the whistler because

    of the musical sound produced by the beating wings in flight. The better

    known and more abundant of the two species, B. clangula , is called simply

    the goldeneye, whistler, or (in parts of Canada) cuphead. The other species,

    B. islandica , is known as the Barrow’s goldeneye (which see).

            The male common g goldeneye ( B. Clangula ) in high plumage is black,

    glossed with rich green, on the head, with a large roundish white spot

    between the eye and the bill; black on t the back, rump, tertials, anterior

    lesser wing coverts, primaries, and edges of the scapular and flank feathers;

    gray on the tail; and gleaming white otherwise. The female is brown on the

    head, gray on the upper part of the body (including the sides, flanks, and

    upper breast), and white on the foreneck, lower breast, and belly. She has

    a white patch on her wing. In both sexes the legs and feet are yellow with

    dark webs. The bill of the male is always black; that of the female is

    black in winter, black, tipped with yellow, in summer.

            The courtship performance of the goldeneye is spectacular. The male,

    with head enormously puffed up, elevates his chest, points his bill straight

    up, emits a harsh, far-carrying double note, snaps his head backward until

    it touches his rump, then quickly brings his whole body into position with a

    leap forward, kicking the water as the displays the bright yellow of his legs

    and feet. Many males performing this display together are an almost ludicrous

    sight.

            The goldeneye’s breeding distribution is boreal, but the northern limits

    of its range are those of the forest, since it nests almost wholly in hollows

    212      |      Vol_IV-0270                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Goldeneye

    in trees. In Eurasia it nests in Iceland and on the continent from about

    latitude 47° N. northward to tree limit. It breeds along the arctic coast

    from Scandinavia eastward almost to the Gulf of Ob. Across the greater

    part of Siberia it nests northward to about latitude 70°N. In North Amer–

    ica it breeds across the entire continent, northward again to about tree

    limit, hence to the Arctic Circle or slightly beyond in the Kotzebue Sound

    area of Alaska; along the headwaters of the Yukon (probably); and along the

    lower Mackenzie. The winter range lies almost wholly to the south of the

    breeding range, there being some overlapping in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

    district, in the Baltic Sea, and in eastern Asia. The species winters in

    such open lakes and rivers as it can find in the interior, and also along

    outer coasts. The southern limits of its winter range are Mediterranean,

    northern India, southern China, Japan, California, New Mexico, and the Gulf

    of Mexico. Two subspecies are recognized — clangula of the Old World (in–

    cluding Iceland), and americana of the New. The latter has been reported

    from Greenland, but it does not breed there.

            In parts of Lapland and Sweden nest boxes are provided for the goldeneyes,

    and the people gather the eggs for food. Normally the species nests in a

    hollow tree, sometimes at considerable distance from the ground. Where large

    trees are scarce there is sharp competition for nests sites — not along among

    the female goldeneyes, but also among other birds and mammals. The eggs,

    which are pale greenish blue, number from 6 to 15. Only the female in–

    cubates. The males leave the nesting grounds about the size incubation starts

    (i.e., when the sets of eggs are complete). Precisely where they go is a

    question. Some ornithologists believe that they move northward, as the Baikal

    213      |      Vol_IV-0271                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Goldeneye and Goosander

    teal ( Anas formosa ) is known to do. The young climb up to the nest entrance

    and tumble to the ground or water as best they can. They are boldly pat–

    terned — dark grayish-brown above, white below, with four white spots on

    each side: one on the wing, one just above the wing, and two between the

    wing and tail.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Brewster, William. “Notes on the breeding habits of the American Golden–

    eyed Duck or Whistler.” Auk , vol.17, pp.207-16, 1900. 2. Munro, J.A. “Studies of waterfowl in British Columbia (No. 9). Barrow’s

    Golden-eye, American Golden-eye,” Trans . Royal Canad. Instl.

    vol.22, pp.259-318, 1939.

           

    # # #

            165. Goosander . A fish-eating duck or merganser, Mergus merganser,

    found in northern parts of the both the Old World and the New. It is the largest

    species of the genus Mergus and is further notable in that the male does not

    have a conspicuous crest. Fishermen often call it the big sawbill. In America

    it is commonly called the American merganser or (erroneously) sheldrake. The

    male in winter (courting) plumage is glossy greenish black on the head and upper

    neck; rich salmon buff on the lower neck, upper back, and under parts; black

    on the back and inner scapulars; and ashy gray on the rump and tail. The wing

    is brownish black except for a white patch composed of most of the coverts,

    the inner secondaries, and the tertials. The eye is very dark brown , though

    sometimes wrongly shown as red in color plates. The bill and feet are coral red.

    The female has a shaggy double crest and is cinnamon brown on the head and upper

    neck (except for the clear white of the chin and throat), gray on the upper part

    of the body (including the sides and flanks), and pale salmon buff on the belly.

    214      |      Vol_IV-0272                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Goosander

    Her white wing patch is confined to a few greater coverts and secondaries.

    Her bill and feet are red, her eyes brown.

            The goosander breeds much farther north in Eurasia than it does in

    North America. It nests in Iceland, throughout Scandinavia, and across all

    of Siberia northward to just beyond the Arctic Circle, its southern breeding

    limits being Sakhalin, northwestern Mongolia, Semipalatinsk, Dobrogea, Ger–

    many, and Scotland. It has been reported from Bear Island, Kolguev, Vaigach,

    and the south island of Novaya Zemlya. In North America it ranges across

    the continent from Alaska to Newfoundland, its northernmost limits being the

    Alaska Peninsula, the Alatna River in the Brooks Range (probably), southern

    Yukon, Great Slave Lake, and the Churchill River. The southern limits of

    its breeding range are n the mountains of south central California, north

    central Arizona and Chihuahua, and in southern Minnesota, central Michigan,

    southern Maine, and Nova Scotia. It winters well to the south of the northern

    edge of its summer range — in the Old World southward to Mediterranean coasts,

    the Persian Gulf, and Indo-China; in the New World to southern California,

    through the interior to the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Atlantic to Chesa–

    peake Bay. It frequents fresh water in winter much more regularly than does

    the red-breasted merganser ( M. serrator ). Three subspecies of Mergus merganser

    are re g c ognized; merganser merganser of northern Eurasia; orientalis (smaller in over-all

    size and shorter-billed) of southern Asia; and americanus of North America. The

    last is like merganser , but the mail on the bill is less decidedly hooked; and

    in the male and basal black part of the greater wing coverts is exposed, forming

    a bar across the white wing patch.

            The goosander always nests near fresh water in wooded country often in a

    215      |      Vol_IV-0273                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Goosander

    hollow tree, elsewhere in holes among rocks or in banks. The nest proper

    is lined with pale gray down. The eggs, which number 7 to 13 or more, are

    cream colored. The incubation period is about 34 days. The downy young

    is dark brown above, white below, with a white spot at the base of each

    wing, a white spot on each side of the rump, a white bar along the rear

    edge of the wing, a white line from the base of the bill to under the eye,

    and a cinnamon brown area on the side of the head and neck. Molting females

    with large broods of half-grown young are a familiar sight along Canadian

    rivers in late summer. The birds make a gateway en masse, churning the

    water to white as they paddle frantically along, standing almost upright

    and flapping their stubby wings.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Caldwell, Cyril. “The feeding habits of American Mergansers.” Canadian

    Field-Naturalist     , vol.53, p..55, 1939. 2. Gilroy, Norman. “Notes on the nesting of the Goosander.” British Birds ,

    vol.2, pp.400-5, 1909.

           

    # # #

            167. Green-winged Teal . A small surface-feeding duck, Anas crecca ,

    which is one of the swiftest-flying species of its family. The male in court–

    ing plumage has a slight crest on the nape but is without strikingly orna–

    mental plumage otherwise. He is rich reddish brown on the head and beck, with

    a board shining green patch surrounding, and extending backward from, each eye

    to the hind neck. This patch is narrowly outlined with buff. The breast is

    pinkish brown, spotted with dusky. The back and sides are gray, finely ver–

    maculated with white. On the scapulars there is a black patch. The speculum

    216      |      Vol_IV-0274                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Green-winged Teal

    is rich shining green bordered with tan on the greater coverts and with vel–

    vety black on the secondaries. The under tail coverts are buffy yellow,

    bordered in front with black. The belly is white. In the continental North

    American race, carolinense , a conspicuous white bar crosses the chest just

    in front of the wings. In the Old World race, crecca , and the similar but

    slightly larger Aleutian race, nimea , a broad white line borders the upper

    side of the black scapular path. The female is very plain, her only bright

    marking being the green of the wing speculum. Adult males in eclipse plumage

    and young males resemble the female. Male American green [ ?] -wings average 12.8

    oz. (Kortright).

            The green-wing breeds throughout the wooded part of continental northern

    Eurasia and North America, and in Iceland, the Faeroes, Sakhalin, Japan, the

    Kurils, the Pribilofs, and the Aleutians. It breeds northward to the Arctic

    Circle and somewhat beyond in the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska; in the

    lower Mackenzie valley; and across most of Eurasia. The Old World race, crecca ,

    has been taken many times in Greenland, and some observers have suspected that

    it bred there. Carolinense also has been reported several times from Green–

    land, chiefly on the west coast, once as far north as Etah. Iceland and

    Aleutian birds apparently are nonmigratory, but the species as a whole moves

    well southward in winter, the southern limits of the winter range being North

    Africa, Kenya, India, Ceylon, the Philippines, Mexico, northern Central America,

    and the West Indies. The [ ?] nominate race has been reported from Spitsbergen,

    Jan Mayen, Bear Island, and Novaya Zemlya.

            Green-wings rise from the water easily, circle swiftly, check speed, and

    if not shot at, plop into the water like winged corks. The male whistles a

    shrill pheep , pheep , which is audible at some distance. The cry of the female

    217      |      Vol_IV-0275                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Green-winged Teal and Harlequin Duck

    is a short quack. The nest is often far from the water in a dry field for

    open woodland. The eggs, which are pale olive buff, usually number 8 to

    12, though as many as 16 have been reported. Only the female incubates.

    The incubation period is about 21 days. The downy young is dark brown

    and buff, the two dark lines on the face (one through the eye, the other

    below the eye) being distinctive.

            168. Harlenquin Duck . A beautiful small diving duck, Histrionicus

    histrionicus , so named because of fancied resemblance to a gaudily dressed

    comedian; known also by many vernacular names, among them lords and ladies.

    In Iceland it is called the brindufa — the dove of the breakers. Eskimo

    names for it are ingiuliksiut (Labrador) and tornauiarsuk (Greenland). The

    male in high plumage is rich blue-gray marked with bold White spots and bars,

    some of which are edged with black. One of the most noticeable is a crescent

    between the bill and eye which continues as a superciliary line, fading into

    reddish brown at the back of the head. The sides and flanks are reddish

    brown. The wing has a purple speculum. The female is very different. She

    is dark brown on the head neck, breast, and upper part of the body, with

    three white spots on each side of the head, and white belly. Her wing is

    plain and dark, without a speculum. The bill in both sexes is bluish gray,

    the feet dark olive gray with black webs. The male in eclipse is very much

    like the female, save that the tertials are marked with white.

            The harlequin is a bi r d of swift streams in summer, of rocky seacoasts in

    winter. It almost never flies above land. In small flocks it gathers on off–

    shore rocks along which the surf pounds. It swims in compact groups, often

    diving together and reappearing almost en masse. In flight it rocks from side

    218      |      Vol_IV-0276                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Harlequin Duck

    to side in a manner which calls to mind the long-tailed duck ( Clangula hyemalis ).

            The distribution of the harlequin is unique. Its principal breeding re–

    quirement is a rocky islet in a swift stream, so the northern limits of its

    summer range are not in the least determined by tree limit. It breeds in the

    Rocky Mountain region of Alaska, Canada, and the United States (south as far

    as California and Colorado); on both coasts of Greenland (north of lat. 78° N.

    on the west side and to Scoresby Sound on the east); on Baffin Island, Southamp–

    ton Island (probably), and the Labrador (south to Hopedale); in Iceland; and

    in Asia from Lake Baikal and the Lena River eastward to Sakhalin and Kamchatka,

    the Aleutians, Komandroskis, and St. Lawrence Island. Its migrations in some

    of these areas consist merely in moving to the coast; but Lake Baikal birds

    have a long trip eastward to the ocean shore, and birds which winter from New–

    foundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence south to Long Island Sound probably

    have moved south from Labrador and Baffin Island. The species has been re–

    ported from Spitsbergen, the Faeroes, Scandinavia, and (doubtfully) the Murman

    Coast. Two races are recognized — historionicus of the North Atlantic, and

    pacificus of Asia, the North Pacific, and western North America.

            Harlequins nest semicolonially at times, several pairs to an islet. The

    nest, which is little more than a bed of light drab down, is placed among rocks

    near water. The eggs, which are cream-colored at light cinnamon buff, usually

    number 6 or 7. Only the female incubates, though the male does not leave the

    vicinity. Eggs hatched in captivity required 31 to 32 days of incubation

    (Witherby). The downy young resembles that of the long-tailed duck. It is

    dark brown above and white below, with a small white spot just above and in

    front of the eye.



    219      |      Vol_IV-0277                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Histrionicus and King Eider

            169. Histrionicus . A monotypic genus of small sea ducks (tribe Mergini)

    to which the harlequin duck ( H. histrionicus ) belongs. Histrionicus is sim–

    ilar to Bucephala and Clangula , the bill being about half as long as the

    head, shorter than the tarsus, and very narrow (becoming gradually narrower

    from base to tip). The nail occupied the whole tip. Extending far back on

    the culmen. The nostrils are closer to the base than to the tip. The tail

    has 14 feathers, and is rather long, sharply pointed, and much graduated.

    The sexes are different in color, the pattern of the male being very bold.

    The genus has a discontinuous holarctic distribution. See Harlequin Duck.

            170. King Eider . A large northern sea duck, Somateria spectabilis ,

    which has an even wider year-round range than that of the common eider

    ( S. mollissima ), though it is probably a less numerous species. It is well

    known among the Eskimos, whose name for it varies considerably. Almost all

    tribes used the name mittek or meetivik for eiders in general, and many

    tribes use kingalik (meaning having a nose ) for the male king eider in spring.

    The Eskimos are very fond of this “nose” (i.e., the swollen base of the bill),

    which they bite off and eat raw.

            The male king eider in full dress is among the handsomest of arctic

    birds, and it is one of the most remarkably shaped. The base of the bill is

    so swollen that the fleshy processes and whole forehead are enormously ele–

    vated, giving the head the appearance of being about twice normal size. The

    longest scapulars are cut off squarely and their oddly turned up corners

    give the back a rumpled or even angular appearance. The bill is light gray

    at the tip (nail), bright red otherwise, fading at the base into the rich

    orange-yellow of the high processes, which are bordered by a narrow band of

    short black plumage. The top of the head is soft pearl gray, bordered below

    220      |      Vol_IV-0278                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: King Eider

    by white. There is a small black spot below the eye. The whole face below

    the eye is delicate green. The throat is white except for two straight lines

    of black with converge on the chin. The neck is pure white all around, fading

    into rich creamy buff on the breast and buffy white on the fore part of the

    back. The rest of the body is black except for a large white spot on each

    side of the rump and a white patch in the coverts of each wing. The eyes are

    dark brown. The feet and legs are dull orange, with dusky webs. The female

    is rich reddish brown, speckled, mottled, and barred with black and buff.

    Her greater wing coverts and secondaries are narrowly edged with white. Her

    bill is dark olive gray, her feet grayish yellow with dusky webs.

            The king eider’s breeding range is holarctic, though not [ ?] continuously

    so. Pleske stats that it nests far more commonly on islands north of Eurasia

    than on the mainland coast. It breeds abundantly on some of these islands,

    but is apparently wholly absent from others in summer. It breeds in the Spits–

    bergen, Franz Josef and New Siberian archipelagoes, and on Kolguev, Novaya

    Zemlya, and Dolgoi. It probably breeds on Vaigach and Jan Mayen, but not on

    Bear Island or Iceland. Portenko says that it occurs on Wrangel only as a

    spring transient. It breeds on both coasts of Greenland, except in the extreme

    [ ?] south . Presumably it breeds throughout the Arctic Archipelago. It breeds on

    St. Lawrence and St. Matthew islands in the Bering Sea and on the arctic coast

    of North America from Alaska to Hudson Bay and (somewhat doubtfully) the

    Labrador. The southernmost place in the word at which it has been found breed–

    ing is, apparently, that “arctic outpost” in James Bay, the Twin Islands. Two

    specimens (Canadian National Museum) were taken in July, 1920, on South Twin,

    and one of them was so young it was largely down-covered. Identification of

    221      |      Vol_IV-0279                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: King Eider

    these has recently been confirmed by W. Earl Godrey. W. E. Clyde Todd informs

    me ( 1 ) that he has not, in the course of his extensive field work on the east

    coast of Hudson Bay, encountered the species south of the islands in Hope–

    well Sound; ( 2 ) that he has taken a set of eggs on a small island in Reef

    Bay, off the mouth of the Kogaluk River; and ( 3 ) that, in the summer of 1915.

    O. J. Murie encountered the species off the mouth of the Kikkertaluk River.

    Austin does not mention an authentic breeding record for Labrador, though

    the species may nest there sporadically (Hantzsch).

            In many parts of its range the kind eider is relatively nonmigratory.

    It winters as far north as it can find open water, apparently, though it is

    more apt than the common eider to “straggle far south” (Phillips). It winters

    in considerable numbers off Iceland, southern Greenland, the coast of north–

    western Europe and New England, in the Bering Sea, and probably in Hudson Bay.

    It has been reported from the interior (Great Lakes, etc.) far more frequently

    than has S. mollissima .

            The king eider does not usually nest on offshore islets in salt water as

    the common eider does, but on the tundra near freshwater pools or at con–

    siderable distance from water of any sort. At Thule, Greenland, and on Corn–

    wallis, Devon, Baffin, and Prince Patrick islands, Handley observed broods of

    young only in [ ?] freshwater ponds. In Eureka Sound, a region devoid of fresh–

    water ponds, he observed young king eiders in salt water. The species does

    not colonize, though several females may select nest sites which happen to be

    fairly close to each other. Nests often are placed in the openest sort of

    situation without any grass or shrubbery as shelter. The down is darker than

    that of the common eider. The eggs, which number 5 or 6 as a rule, are like

    222      |      Vol_IV-0280                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: King Eider and Labrador Duck

    those of the common eider but slightly browner. Only the female incubates,

    though the male may stay in the vicinity during the earlier part of the

    sitting period. The downy young resembles the young common eider, but is

    lighter on the sides of the head. Its upper parts are dull olive brown,

    its face, throat, and belly ashy white.

            171. Labrador Duck . An extinct North Atlantic sea duck, Camptor –

    hynchus labradorius , known chiefly from 40-some specimens in various museums.

    It was middle-sized. It probably nested along the north shore of the Gulf

    of St. Lawrence or on the Labrador coast. It is known to have wintered

    along the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia southward to New Jersey. One of

    the last specimens to be preserved was a young male bird shot on Long Island,

    New York, in the fall of 1875. The remains of a specimen shot near Elmira,

    New York, in 1878 were preserved for a time, then lost.

            The genus Camptorhynchus differed from allied genera principally in the

    structure of the bill, which was flexible along the flaplike outer edges of

    the upper mandible, more or less as in Hymenolaimus (blue duck or soft-billed

    duck of New Zealand), Malacorhynchus (pink-eared duck of Australia), and

    Polysticta (Steller’s eider). Another distinctive feature was the patch of

    stiff feathers on the forepart of the cheek.

            The adult male Labrador duck (or pied duck, as it was also called) was

    a handsome bird, white on the head, neck, upper breast and upper back save

    for the middle of the crown and a narrow ring round the lower neck, which

    were black, and the forehead and cheeks, which were straw-colored; and brownish

    black otherwise except for a large white patch on each wing. The white

    secondaries and tertials were narrowly edged with black. The female was dark

    223      |      Vol_IV-0281                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Labrador Duck and Long-tailed Duck

    dull brown all over, with white speculum and gray tertials. The immature

    male was much like the female, but with a larger white wing patch and grayish

    areas on the head, face, and foreneck.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Dutcher, William. “The Labrador Duck — A revised list of the extant specimens

    in North America, with some historical notes.” Auk , vol.8,

    pp.201-16, 1891.

           

    # # #

            172. Long-tailed Duck . A northern diving duck. Clangula hyemalis ,

    known also — because of its excessive garrulousness — as the old-squaw or

    old-wife, and, in direct imitation of its characteristic call note, as the

    sou’ southerly, cockawee, a-oo (Sa m oyed) , ha-ha-away (Cree), a-had-lin (Alaska

    Eskimo), and ag-gek or uh-gik (Baffin and Southampton Island Eskimo). For a

    short time in summer both males and females frequent small coastal lakes in

    arctic and subarctic regions, but when the females finish their egg laying

    and incubation begins, the males leave for the sea and molt from the dark

    eclipse into the bright winter plumage. In winter all long-tailed ducks,

    males and females, young and old, resort to deeper waters of bays, fjords,

    and larger lakes. Here, regardless of the weather, they seem to be comfortable.

    They feed on a great variety of animal and vegetable life, some of which they

    obtain on the bottom. Birds which Sir Hubert Wilkins and I observed in Casco

    Cove, off the island of Attu, remained under almost exactly a minute each time

    they dived. They were feeding presumably on the bottom, and the water was 30

    to 36 feet deep. They opened their wings just as they went under (see Sutton

    and Wilson, 1946. Condor 48: 87).



    224      |      Vol_IV-0282                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-tailed Duck

            The male in winter (courting) plumage is white with gray face patch and

    adjacent black and brown neck patch on each side; black breast, rump, upper

    tail coverts and middle tail feathers; and pale gray sides and flanks. A

    black line leading up the back from the rump separates into “straps” which

    connect with the black breast. The long, pointed scapulars and tertials

    are white or pale gray. The bill is black at the base, pinkish orange at

    the tip, with black nail. The eye is variable, red in some individuals

    light hazel, orange, straw color, or white in others. The female, which is

    short-tailed, is white on the head, neck, and belly; grayish [ ?] brown on

    the crown, a spot in front of the eye, a patch on the side of the head, and

    on the breast and upper part of the body (including the sides and flanks).

            The summer (eclipse) plumage is much darker, the whole head, neck, and

    breast of the male being black (with gray face patch), the scapulars black

    with brown edges, the sides and flanks rich gray. The molts of the species

    are very irregular. All adults have a complete postnuptial molt during which

    they become flightless for a short period in late summer. The spring molt

    into the eclipse plumage is not complete, however, and some birds do not

    undergo this molt until they actually reach the nesting grounds. Statements

    of some authors that this dark eclipse plumage is held for a long time are

    misleading.

            The long-tailed duck breeds on almost all arctic coasts from the Aleutians

    and Komandorskis, Alaska Peninsula, Hudson Bay (Churchill on the west side,

    Cape Jones on the east), the Labrador coast, Iceland and southern Norway (lat.

    60° N.), northward to some of the northernmost lands, including the whole of

    the Arctic Archipelago, Greenland (north to lat. 83° N.), Bear Island, Kolguev,

    225      |      Vol_IV-0283                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-tailed Duck

    Novaya Zemlya, Vaigach, and Spitsbergen, but not the Franz Josef Archipelago,

    Jan Mayen, the New Siberian Islands or Herald Island. The winter range over–

    laps the breeding range in Iceland and Scandinavia, in the Bering Sea area,

    and in south Greenland, and extends southward to include the coasts of north–

    western Europe, the whole Pacific coast of Canada, the Great Lakes and At–

    lantic coast of North America from the Carolinas to Newfoundland; the Caspian

    Sea and Lake Baikal. Probably the bird winters more or less regularly on

    all the big lakes of the interior in both the Old World and the New (Phillips).

            The long-billed duck nests in the open, sometimes in a grassy spot, but

    often among rocks where the vegetation is very thin, on an islet or along the

    shore of a coastal lake. The eggs, which are olive buff, number 5 to 7 as a

    rule, sometimes more. The female, which does all the incubating, sits very

    closely, sometimes refusing to leave even when a man walks only a few feet

    away. If she leaves the eggs unhurriedly, she covers the eggs carefully with

    down which is dark brown (though less dark than that of the scaup). The in–

    cubation period is about 24 to 26 days. One brood is reared. If early sets

    of eggs are destroyed, females will lay second and even third sets. This

    means that some broods hatch very late, but the birds are hardy. They live

    somewhat communally, forming dense rafts composed of young birds and old females.

            The Eskimos gather many long-tailed duck eggs for food. Jaegers, gulls,

    and foxes destroy many eggs, and jaegers, in particular, devour many small young.

    The downy young long-tailed duck is dark brown above, white below, without a

    trace of yellow, in this respect being like the young of the two species of

    goldeneye and the young bufflehead.

            References:

    1. Speirs, J.M. “Flight-speed of the Old-squaw.” Auk , vol.62, pp.135-6, 1945. 2. Sutton, G.M. The Birds of Southampton Island, Hudson Bay . Mem. Carnegie

    Mus., vol.12, part 2, section 2, pp.58-65, 1932.

    226      |      Vol_IV-0284                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Mallard

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            1. Speirs, J.M. “Flight-speed of the Old-squaw.” Auk , vol.62, pp.135-6, 1945.

            2. Sutton, G.M. The Birds of Southampton Island, Hudson Bay . Mem. Carnegie

    Mus., vol.12, part 2, section 2, pp.58-65, 1932.

            173. Mallard . A surface-feeding or river duck, Anas platyrhynchos , the

    ancestor of most domestic ducks, and probably the best-known duck of the world.

    It is sometimes called the greenhead. The drake in courting attire is un–

    mistakable with his shining green head and neck, clear white collar, glossy

    maroon chest and upper back, violet-blue speculum, and strongly curled middle

    tail feathers. The female is very dull by comparison — brown, mottled with

    black and buffy white all over, save for the glossy violet speculum with its

    white borders. Young males are green-headed even in their first winter plumage,

    but fully adult males in eclipse plumage look much like females. The quack of

    the female is loud and clear. Among the cries of the male are a muffled

    thwuck , thwuck and (in spring) a soft queek , queek , which is sometimes pro–

    longed into [ ?] shrill whistle.

            The mallard ranges almost throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In most

    parts of its range it is strongly migratory, but birds which breed in the

    British Isles, Greenland, and Iceland are more or less sedentary. In several

    widely different areas it breeds northward to and beyond the Arctic Circle —

    along the north shore of Kotzebue Sound in Alaska, in the Alatna valley in

    the Brooks Range (probably), in Norway, in eastern Siberia, and probably also

    in western and central Siberia. It breeds just south of the Arctic Circle in

    Iceland. It inhabits the coasts of south Greenland, ranging northward to

    227      |      Vol_IV-0285                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Mallard

    to Upernivik on the west side and to Angmagssalik on the east. Greenland

    birds have been isolated so long that a well-defined race, A. platyrhynchos

    conboschas , has evolved there. This race is very gray on the upper parts.

    Males are coarsely vermiculated on the flanks, and the reddish-brown feathers

    of the chest have black spots on their tips. Iceland birds resemble North

    American and Eurasian mallards much more closely than they do those of Green–

    land. They are believed by some ornithologists to belong to a separate

    race, A. platyrhynchos subboschas .

            The southern limits of the mallard’s winter range are Madeira, the

    Canary Islands, Arabia, India, China, Borneo, the West Indies, and Panama.

    The species has been reported casually from Spitsbergen and Vaigach.

            The mallard adapts itself readily to many sorts of habitat. Customarily

    it nests under shrubbery near a marsh, pond, or river; but occasionally it

    nests in hollow trees, on muskrat or beaver houses, on rock piles, or even

    far above ground in an old hawk or crow nest. The 8 to 13 eggs are grayish

    green or greenish buff. The female incubates the eggs and cares for the

    young without any help from the male. The incubation period is about 26

    days. The downy young are boldly patterned in dark brown and yellowish buff.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Kortright, F.H. The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America. , pp.149-157,

    1942.

    228      |      Vol_IV-0286                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Melanitta

            175. Melanitta . A genus of large, dark, big-footed sea ducks (tribe

    Mergini) commonly known as scoters. There are three species, in all of which

    the adult male is black or largely so, the female largely brown. The bill is

    broad, a little shorter than the head, and compressed at the tip. In males

    there is a know at the base, which becomes swollen in adults. The serrations

    along the cutting edges are coarse. The nail occupies the whole tip. The

    nostrils are about in middle, slightly closer to the base than to the tip.

    The tail is short, wedge-shaped, stiff, and of 14 or 16 feathers. There is

    a surprising variation in the shape of the windpipe. In the common or black

    scoter ( nigra ) the syrinx is simple and there is no bulla or enlargement of

    the trachea. In both the white-winged scoter ( fusca ) and surf scoter ( perspicil –

    lata), on the other hand, the trachea has a large bulbous inflation. There is

    also a great variation in the length of the intestinal caeca: in nigra these

    are very short (as in Mergus ), while in perspicillata and fusca they are long

    and vermiform, as they are in the “true” eiders ( Somateria ) and most other

    ducks (Miller).

            Scoters usually lay 8 to 10 eggs. The clutch size is, therefore, greater

    than that of the “true” eiders. The eggs are large and brown in tone, not

    greenish. Nests are usually on the ground, and often sheltered by trees or

    shrubbery. The downy young of M. fusca resembles that of Bucephala (goldeneyes

    and bufflehead) in being boldly patterned in gray and white. The young of

    M. perspicillata and M. nigra look more like young “true” eiders, but are

    grayer (less brown) in tone.

            All the scoters are northern in distribution. Perspicillata breeds prin–

    cipally (perhaps wholly) in the New World, but the other species are virtually

    holarctic.

            Reference:

    Miller, W.D., “Structural variations in the Scoters.” Amer. Mus. Novit . No.243,

    1926.

    229      |      Vol_IV-0287                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Mergus

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Miller, W.D., “Structural variations in the Scoters.” Amer. Mus. Novit . No.

    243, 1926.

            177. Mergus . A genus of fish-eating ducks collectively known as the

    mergansers, fish-ducks, or sawbills. They differ from all other ducks in

    having a narrow slender bill in which ( 1 ) the upper mandible does not overlap

    the lower along the edges, and ( 2 ) instead of lateral lamellae or strainers

    there are sharp, toothlike projections. The nail is large and hooklike, oc–

    cupying the whole tip of the bill. The nostrils are large and nearer the

    base of the bill than the tip. The feet are large, the hind toe broadly

    lobate. In adults of most species both sexes has crests. The tail is grad–

    uated and has 16 or 18 feathers. Throughout the group the body is long and

    spindle shaped, a modification which is clearly revealed in the proportions

    of the sternum. The tarsus is flattened as in the grebes and loons; and the

    neck is longer, the skull more slender, and the skin of the head much looser

    and more elastic than in most ducks. All these modifications assist in the

    capturing and ingestion of fish.

            There are seven species in Mergus . The five Northern Hemisphere species

    are alike in that adult males are noticeably larger and more brightly colored

    than adult females. In the two Southern Hemisphere species adult males and

    adult females are much alike. The Southern Hemisphere species are the Brazilian

    merganser ( octosetaceus ) of Brazil, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina, and

    the Auckland Islands merganser ( australis ) of the Aucklands. Of the five

    Northern Hemisphere species, two — the goosander ( merganser ) and red-breasted

    merganser ( serrator ) — are found in both the Old World and the New; one --

    230      |      Vol_IV-0288                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Mergus and Mergini

    the hooded merganser ( cucullatus ) — is found only in America; and two —

    the scaly-sided merganser ( squamatus ) and smew ( albellus ) — are found only

    in the Old World. Sqamatus has been recorded in summer only from [ ?] the lower

    Amur River.

            Opinion differs as to how many genera are needed for a clear understand–

    ing of the relationships of the mergansers. Many authors believe that the

    smew and hooded merganser belong in a monotypic genera, respectively Mergellus

    and Lophodytes , but all seven sawbills are much alike structurally, as well

    as in behavior, and placing them in one genus seems fully warranted.

            Throughout the group males stay near the nest until the eggs are laid,

    then depart, leaving incubation and care of the young to the female. Incuba–

    tion begins about the time the last egg is laid so the whole clutch hatches

    at the same time.

            See Mergini, Goosander, Red-breasted merganser, and Smew.

            178. Mergini . An anseriform tribe known as the sea ducks. They dive

    expertly and live principally on animal food. There are at least seven genera,

    most of which are so well known and distinctive that they have widely used

    common names. The three species of Somateria and the one species of Polysticta

    are all known as eiders. Camptorhynchus is the Labrador or pied duck. The

    three species of Melanitta are all known as scoters. Histrionicus Histrionicus is the harle–

    quin duck. Clangula is the long-tailed duck or old-squaw Bucephala includes

    the two goldeneyes and the bufflehead. The seven species in Mergus are all

    called mergansers or sawbills except for the smew ( albellus ), and this bird is

    often placed in a separate genus ( Mergellus ) by itself. Despite the great

    range in size, proportions, color pattern, and habits within the group [ ?] , the

    231      |      Vol_IV-0289                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Mergini

    Mergini are in many ways very closely knit. The bill, which is strong, has

    a large hooked nail and varies from long, thin, and narrow (as in Mergus )

    to thick and short (as in Melanitta ) according to the principal food (fish,

    mussels, etc.). The wings are short. All Mergini fly rather heavily and

    walk with some difficulty, the eiders (especially Steller’s eider) being

    less clumsy on land than the others.

            Every one of the seven genera is represented in the Arctic and Subarctic.

    Indeed, were it not for certain mergansers of the Southern Hemisphere, the

    Mergini would be exclusively boreal. The “true” eiders, which by some authors

    are placed in two genera ( Somateria and Arctonetta ) are distinctly northern

    in year-round distribution. So, also is the long-tailed duck. The Labrador

    duck, which is now extinct, probably did not winter much farther south than

    Long Island, New York. As a [ ?] group the sea ducks, so called because with few

    exceptions they all spend at least part of their time at sea, winter just as

    far north as they can. About the North Pacific islands, which are rarely if

    ever shut in by ice, eiders and harlequin ducks winter regularly. The long–

    tailed duck is a characteristic winter bird of the Great Lakes and open waters

    of northern Eurasia.

            Throughout the Mergini adult males in breeding feather are much brighter

    than adult females. In most species, males and females remain together until

    the set of eggs is complete; than the females take complete charge of the

    eggs and young, while the males flock by themselves, sometimes in immense rafts

    at sea. Incubation beings with the laying of the last egg, so the brood hatches

    all at one time. Many species nest in hollow trees, in holes and crevices

    among rocks, or in whatever deep shelter they can find. The most northward–

    breeding species of the group, the common eider ( Somateria mollissima ), king

    232      |      Vol_IV-0290                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Mergini and Pintail

    eider ( Somateria spectabilis ) and long-tailed duck ( Clangula hyemalis ), how–

    ever, lay their eggs in ground nests in the open or among low-growing vegeta–

    tion.

            See Mergus, Clangula, Somateria, Arctonetta, Polysticta, Camptorhynchus,

    Bucephala, Melanitta , Eider, King Eider, Spectacled Eider, Steller’s Eider,

    Long-tailed Duck or Old-squaw, Harlequin Duck, Labrador Duck, Goldeneye,

    Barrow’s Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Black Scoter, Velvet Scoter, Surf Scoter,

    Goosander, Red-breasted Merganser, and Smew.

            18 [ ?] 2 . Pintail . A trim surface-feeding or river duck, Anas acuta , so

    called because in full courting plumage the middle tail feathers of the male

    are extremely long and narrow. Occasionally it is called the spring or gray

    duck. An Eskimo name for it, kashluak , is almost an equivalent of its ver–

    nacular name, longneck. The male in full plumage is unlike any other duck,

    the sharp white of the lower foreneck, breast, and belly, the creamy-white

    patch which separates the black of the under tail coverts from the gray of

    the sides, and the long flowing black and white tertials all being distinctive,

    not to mention the shiny bronze-green speculum which often is hidden by the

    tertials and flank feathers. The female, which is short-tailed, is mottled

    throughout, most of the body feathers being dark brown with buff margins and

    centers. The male in eclipse is short-tailed and like the female in color,

    but of course larger.

            The pintail rests lightly on the water and springs into flight without

    apparent effort. It often feeds by “tipping.” It walks and runs easily. It

    is especially graceful in flight, being able to turn quickly and to shoot up–

    ward with astonishing swiftness. Ordinarily it is silent in the fall, but

    233      |      Vol_IV-0291                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pintail

    the courting male gives a low, mellow whistle, the female quacks, and both

    sexes emit a rolling note.

            The pintail is considerably the most northward-ranging species of the

    genus Anas . It breeds in Iceland, Spitsbergen, northern Scandinavia, northern

    Russia, and eastward across Siberia (north as far as lat. 72° N. on the

    Yenisei) to Kamchatka and the Komandorskis. It has been reported from Vaigach,

    Bear Island, Jan Mayen, and northeastern Greenland (Myggbukta). In continental

    North America it is common from Arctic Alaska eastward to northern Mackenzie

    and Chesterfield Inlet. On Southampton Island it is [ ?] uncommon in summer, but

    it almost certainly breeds there. It has been reported from Baffin Island.

    It does not range so far northward on the east coast of Hudson Bay as on the

    west. The southern limits of its breeding range are the British Isles, southern

    France and Sapin, Transcaspia, the Amur Valley, California, Colorado, Michigan,

    and New York. Throughout its range it is migratory. The southern limits of

    its winter range are North Africa, the Persian Gulf, India, Ceylon, Siam, the

    Hawaiian Islands, Panama, and the West Indies. Two races ( acuta of the Old

    World and tzitz h ihoa of the New) have long been recognized. The American race

    is supposed to be larger, longer-billed, and longer-tailed, and to have a more

    greenish (less bronzy) wing speculum, but Conover has found that these charac–

    ters do not hold very well.

            Some ornithologists believe that the far-removed Eaton’s pintail ( eatoni )

    of Kerguelen and the Crozet Island pintail ( drygalskii ) are conspecific with

    acuta . In general, these nonmigratory forms are small, short-tailed, and

    female-like in color. If they are actually races of acuta then our concept

    as to the over-all distribution of the species will have to be readically

    revised.



    234      |      Vol_IV-0292                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pintail and Polysticta

            The pintail nests principally on islands in lakes, but also along

    rivers and outer coasts, and sometimes at considerable distance from water.

    The nest is hidden in long grass, among shrubbery, or under a low tree.

    The eggs usually number 6 [ ?] to 10, though sets of 12 have been reported.

    They are pale olive green or buff. Only the female incubates. The incbu–

    bation period is 22 to 23 days. The female sits very closely. The downy

    young are white below, dark brown, marked with white, above, there being

    no trace of yellow in the plumage. It is said that the male does not wholly

    desert the female during the incubation period, and that he assists in caring

    for the young.

            184. Polysticta . The monotypic genus to which the Steller’s eider

    (P. stelleri) belongs. Polysticta resembles the “true” eiders of the genus

    Somateria in one important respect: the male in high courting plumage is

    boldly patterned, while the female is not. In many other respects, however,

    Polysticta hardly seems to be an eider at all. It is much smaller, more agile

    afoot, and swifter awing than Somateria . Conover reports that when flocks are

    shot into, the birds “twist and turn like Scaups.” This same observer has

    seen Polysticta feeding on aquatic vegetation, “tipping up for it… like

    Mallards.” The male Steller’s eider is said to linger in the vicinity of

    the nest during the period of incubation. Brandt has described the behavior

    of a pair of birds which joined forces in defense of the nest — very un–

    eidarlike behavior. The set of eggs is considerably larger than that of any

    of the “true” eiders. The downy young is bolder in pattern than that of

    Somateria .



    235      |      Vol_IV-0293                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Polysticta and Red-breasted Merganser

            In Polysticta the bill, which resembles somewhat that of Histrionicus

    (harlequin duck), is as long as the tarsus, almost as long as the head, and,

    viewed from above, straight-sided and slightly narrower at the tip than at

    the base. The nail occupies virtually the whole of the tip. The distal

    half of the cutting edge of the upper mandible is soft in life (hard,

    shriveled, and folded inward in dried skins). The tail is somewhat pointed

    and of 14 feathers. In the male the plumage of the head is plushlike, and

    there is a short, stiff crest on the nape. In both the male and female the

    wing has a metallic speculum and the inner secondaries are curved abruptly

    near the tips. In no “true” eider does the wing of the female have a metallic

    speculum — or, for that matter, a noticeable speculum of any sort.

            For the distribution of Polysticta , see Steller’s Eider.

            185. Red-breasted Merganser . A fish-eating duck, Mergus serrator ,

    familiarly known among fishermen and hunters as the sawbill. It inhabits

    the ocean in winter much more regularly than does the goosander ( M. merganser ),

    hence is sometimes known as the salt-water sheldrake.

            Both the male and female have a double crest, one on the crown, the

    other on the occiput. The male in winter (courting) plumage is glossy greenish

    black on the head, upper neck, and rear part of the lower neck; white on the

    whole lower foreneck; black on the back and scapulars; reddish brown, mottled

    with black, on the upper breast; light gray, vermiculated with black on the

    rump, tail, sides, and flanks; and light salmon buff on the belly, with a

    patch of boldly black and white feathers on each side of the chest. The eyes,

    bill, and feet are red. The female is cinnamon brown on the head and neck

    fading almost to white on the lower cheeks, chin, and throat; gray on the upper

    part of the body (including the sides and flanks); and pale salmon buff on the

    236      |      Vol_IV-0294                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-breasted Merganser

    belly. Her wing has a white patch which is really two bars — one on

    the greater coverts, the other on the inner secondaries. Her eyes are light

    brown, her bill and feet red.

            The red-breasted merganser breeds in Iceland; the northern part of the

    British Isles; throughout Scandinavia; probably on Kolguev, Vaigach, and both

    islands of Novaya Zemlya; across Siberia (northward to the Yamal Peninsula

    and the mouths of the larger rivers); in the Komandorskis, Kurils, and

    Aleutians; and across of the North American continent from Alaska to northeast–

    ern Labrador and Newfoundland. It also breeds in southern Baffin Island,

    on King William Island, and on both coasts of southern Greenland (north to

    Augpilagtoq on the west and to Score s by Sound on the east). It has been

    reported at least twice from northeastern Greenland and once from Chesterfield

    Inlet. The northernmost areas in which it breeds in continental North America

    are Kotzebue Sound, Cape Prince of Wales and Icy Cape, Alaska, and along the

    lower Mackenzie and Anderson rivers and coasts nearby. The southern limits

    of its breeding range are Denmark, northern Germany, the Kirghiz Steppes,

    Lake Baikal, Sakhalin, and the northern United States. It winters southward

    to the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman,

    South China Sea, Lower California, and the Gulf of Mexico. In some areas

    the breeding and winter ranges overlap.

            Unlike the goosander, the red-breasted merganser frequently nests near

    salt water, and never nests in trees. In forested country it often nests

    among roots, on a thicketed slope or hummock, or under the trailing boughs

    of a spruce. North of the tree limit, especially in Baffin [ ?] Island, it

    nests on the perpendicular faces of high cliffs (Kumlien). The nest down is

    darker than that of the goosander and brown in tone. The eggs, which are

    237      |      Vol_IV-0295                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-Breasted Merganser and Scaup Duck

    grayish buff, number 7 to 12 or more. The incubation period is said to be

    29 days. The downy young is very much like that of the goosander except

    that the line from the base of the bill to under the eye is brownish cin–

    namon (like the side of the neck) rather than blackish brown. Many broods

    of young sometimes are care for by a single adult female.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Munro, J.A, and Clemens, W.A. “The food and feeding habits of the Red-breated

    Merganser in British Columbia.” Journ.Wildlife Management ,

    vol. 3, pp.46-53, 1939.

           

    # # #

            187. Scaup Duck . A freshwater diving duck or pochard, Aythya marila ,

    found in both the Old World and the New, and known by such descriptive ver–

    nacular names as bluebill e , broadbill, blackhead, and raft duck. In America

    it is usually called the greater scaup or big bluebill e to distinguish it from

    the lesser scaup (A. affinis). The word scaup probably is onomatopoeic,

    though the best-known cry of the bird is a “purring pbbbrr , oft repeated in

    flight” (Kortright).

            The male in high plumage is glossy greenish and purplish black on the

    head and neck; less glossy blue-black on the upper mantle, breast, rump, tail,

    and under tail coverts; black, coarsely vermiculated with white on the back

    and scapulars; brownish black on the wings with a white band occupying the

    greater basal part of the secondaries and inner primaries; and whilte on the

    lower breast, sides, and belly. The female is dark brown on the head, neck,

    upper breast, and upper part of the body (including the sides and flanks), with

    238      |      Vol_IV-0296                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Scaup Duck

    a white patch around the base of the bill and a white band on the secondaries

    and inner primaries; and white on the middle of the breast and belly. In

    both sexes the eyes are bright golden yellow, and the bill grayish blue.

            The scaup breeds in Iceland and the Orkneys and across northern Eurasia

    from about latitude 60° N. to 70° N. It has been reported from Bear Island

    and may breed in small numbers on Kolguev. A specimen has been collected

    at Cape Severnyi on the north coast of the Chukchi Peninsula. In North

    America it breeds from the Aleutians and the whole of Alaska eastward to

    the mouth of the Mackenzie, and thence southeastward to Churchill (on the

    wext coast of Hudson Bay), and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It has been taken

    several times in Greenland (north on the east coast as far as Germania Land)

    and once on Southampton Island. Great numbers of nonbreeding scaups which

    inhabit northern waters far and wide in summer are believed to be birds under

    two years old. The species winters well south of its breeding range, prin–

    cipally on outer coasts southward to California and the Gulf of Mexico, the

    West Indies, northern Africa, the Black Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf

    of Oman. Three geographical races are recognized — marila , which breeds in

    Eurasia (eastward presumably to the Chukchi Peninsula, though its precise

    eastern limits have not been ascertained); mariloides , which breeds in Kamchatka

    and the Komandorskis; and nearctica , which breeds in North America, including

    the Aleutians. These races resemble each other very closely.

            The scaup usually nests on an island in a lake. Sometimes several birds

    nest together, almost colonially. The nest is usually placed in the shelter

    of grass or shrubbery. The down is sooty brown, each turf having an obscure

    light center. The eggs, which number 6 to 11 as a rule, are glossy greenish

    gray. The female incubates. The incubation period is about 4 weeks. The

    239      |      Vol_IV-0297                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sheld-duck

    downy young is dark brown above and yellowish buff below, with buffy areas

    in the superciliary region and a small light spot near the base of each wing.

            189. Sheld-duck . A boldly marked black, rufous and white anseriform

    bird, Tadorna tadorna , which is found only in the Old World; which has slow

    labored flight and the postures and carriage of a goose; and which is a little

    larger than a mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ). It is sometimes called the shel–

    drake. Males and females are alike in color, being black on the head, scapu–

    lars, primaries, tail tip, and middle of the breast and belly; bright shining

    green on the secondaries; and pure white otherwise save for a bright rufous

    band about the ba ke ck , sides of the chest, and upper breast. The bill, which

    is boldly knobbed at the base in old males, is red; the feet are pink. The

    cry of the male is a deep korr , korr ; of the female a loud harsh quack, “but

    both sexes utter subdued chuckling ‘quack’ when brood in danger, and male

    whistles in spring, a low chear ‘whichee-you’” (Witherby, 1924. Handb. Brit .

    Birds , 2: 262).

            The sheld-duck is primarily a maritime species which haunts low-lying

    shores. It breeds in Scandinavia (north to about lat. 70° N.), the British

    Isles, and France; locally on the Mediterranean; and eastward on salt lakes

    through central Asia to east Siberia, Mongolia, and Tibet. It winters from

    the southern part of its breeding range to North Africa, Arabia, India,

    southern China, and Japan. It has been reported from Iceland and the Faeroes.

            It nests in a burrow, sometimes 8 to 10 feet underground. The eggs,

    which are white, number 8 to 15 or more. One brood is reared per season.

    Egg-laying usually starts in early or middle May. Incubation is chiefly

    (perhaps wholly) by the female, but the male helps to care for the brood.

    240      |      Vol_IV-0298                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sheld-duck and Shoveler

    The incubation period is said to be 24 to 30 days. The downy young is boldly

    marked with sooty brown and white above, plain white on the breast and belly.

            Where there is no soil for a burrow, the sheld-duck sometimes nests in

    deep crannies among rocks. It probably nests among rocks at the northern

    frontier of its range.

            See Tadornini.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Boase, Henry. “On the display, nesting and habits of the Sheld-duck.”

    British Birds , vol.28, pp.218-24, 1934.

           

    # # #

            191. Shoveler . A surface-feeding or river duck, Spatula clypeata ,

    which is smaller than the mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) and which can be dis–

    tinguished in any plumage from all ducks except certain closely related species

    of the Southern Hemisphere by its long, much widened bill. It is sometimes

    called the spoonbill duck. The male in courting plumage is deep shining green

    on the head; white on the neck, breast, upper back, scapulars, tail, and in

    front of the upper tail coverts; chestnut on the lower breast, belly, sides,

    and flanks; grayish blue on the lesser wing coverts; and green on the speculum.

    The eye is bright yellow, the feet orange-red. The female is much like the

    female mallard in color, save for the green of the speculum and pale grayish–

    blue lesser wing coverts. The courtship call of the male is a low guttural

    konk , konk . The female utters a feeble quack. A characteristic cry of males

    in flight is rather clearly enunciated chuckle , chuckle .



    241      |      Vol_IV-0299                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Shoveler and Smew

            The shoveler inhabits both the New World and the Old. It is said to

    have the most extensive range of any species in the duck family (Phillips).

    It breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond along the lower

    Mackenzie and in Scandinavia, and probably along the larger rivers in Siberia.

    It may breed in small numbers in the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska. Bailey

    lists four records for the arctic slope of Alaska. The northernmost Siberian

    record is of a specimen taken in early June at Nizhni Kolymsk (Thayer and

    Bankgs). In Kamchatka it is abundant in May, but it has not yet actually

    been found breeding there. In North America it breeds almost wholly in the

    west. The winter range of the species overlaps the breeding range slightly.

    Its southernmost limits in winter are Central America (Honduras), East Africa,

    India, Ceylon, and the Hawaiians.

            The shoveler nearly always nests near water, often at the edge of, or

    in, a marsh. The eggs, which usually number 8 to 12, are pale greenish buff.

    Ordinarily only the female incubates. The incubation period is 23 to 24 days.

    The newly hatched young is not strikingly wide-billed, but in a very short

    time the bill characters are revealed, and 2 to 3-day-old birds are plainly

    shovelers. In color the downy young is like a young mallard, but the brown

    of the upper parts is less olive, and the light parts are buffy without much

    yellow tinge.

            See Spatula .

            192. Smew . A small merganser or fish duck, Mergus albellus , of Eurasia.

    Its bill is proportionately shorter and stouter than in other mergansers,

    and the male in full plumage is wholly unlike any other species of the tribe

    Mergini in color, so some authors place the species in a monotypic genus,

    Mergellus . The male in winter (courting plumage), when resting, appears to

    242      |      Vol_IV-0300                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Smew

    be wholly white except for a black patch occupying the space between the eye

    and bill; a black line from behind the eye to the lower part of the crest;

    two curved black lines on each side of the chest; a black line down the mid–

    dle of the back to the black tail; and gray vermiculations on the sides and

    flanks. When the bird flies it has a much more pied appearance, for the

    wings are black save for the white on the middle coverts and tips of the

    secondaries, and the black of the back, rump, and tail is much more evident.

    The female is cinnamon brown on the top of the head and nape; clear white

    on the lower part of the head, foreneck, lower breast, and belly; and gray

    on the hind neck and upper part of the body. The white of her wings or–

    dinarily is visible only when she flies. It tends to form two bars — on

    the median coverts and the tips of the secondaries.

            The smew breeds from North Finland, the Murman Coast, the mouth of

    the Pechora, the Gulf of Ob, the Lena Delta, and the Anadyr River southward

    to the Caspian Sea, Semipalatinsk, and the Sea of Okhotsk. Its northern

    limit is the tree limit, since apparently it does not nest where there are

    no trees. It winters on the coast of northwest Europe and southward to

    Medit t erranean coasts, the Black Sea, Asia Minor, Persia, northern India,

    and Japan. It has been reported from Vaigach and the south island of Novaya

    Zemlya.

            The nest is usually in an old woodpecker hole which has partly rotted

    away, or in a natural cavity. It is lined with pale gray down. The eggs

    are buff and number 6 to 9 as a rule. Only the female incubates. The in–

    cubation period is said to be about 28 days. The downy young is described

    as blackish brown above, white below, with two white spots at the base of each

    243      |      Vol_IV-0301                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Somateria

    wing, a white spot on each side of the rump, and a small white spot below

    the eye (Dresser).

            193. Somateria . A genus of northern sea ducks (tribe Mergini) known

    as eiders. The three species are closely related to one another, but as a

    group they are quite separate from most other sea ducks in that the syrinx

    has “a structure like that in the river ducks, and the downy young lack the

    black cap typical of most sea ducks” (Delacour and Mayr). Adult males in

    full courting dress are much more brightly colored than females. The

    peculiar green of the head of the courting male is an almost unique feature,

    and the curved, oddly shaped inner secondaries are notable. The feet are

    large and the tarsi short. The lobe of the hind toe is very wide. The bill

    is nearly straight, almost as long as the head, and high at the base, with

    nostrils about in the middle and nail across the whole tip. The feathering

    of the forehead and sides of the face extends in points well forward on the

    bill. The tail is short and rounded. The eiders are almost wholly marine.

    They nest on the ground, usually on the seashore or on islands in salt water,

    but also among freshwater ponds not far inland or on the tundra at some

    distance from water of any sort. Though heavy-bodied and clumsy looking,

    they walk well. They are, of course, expert divers. In flight they cus–

    tomarily move forward in a long line abreast, keeping only a few feet above

    the water. In migrating, or in moving from one feeding spot to another,

    they prefer to fly above water, though occasionally they will take a short

    cut by flying over a sandbar or narrow promontory.

            Somateria is one of the commonest and most widely distributed bird genera

    of the far north. There is hardly an island or coast of the holarctic region

    that does not have one or more breeding species of eider. The birds do not

    244      |      Vol_IV-0302                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Somateria and Spatula

    nest regularly on cliffs, as some anseriform birds do, but they find grassy

    spots at the bases of cliffs and breed successfully on small rocky islets. They

    probably nest along the very northernmost shores. The two bettern known

    species — mollissima (common eider) and spectabilis (king eider) — are cir–

    cumboreal in distribution. The other — fischeri (spectacled eider) —

    breeds on the arctic coast of Siberia and Alaska. All three species are

    more or less migratory, but in some areas throughout which the ocean is open

    the year round they are resident. Common eiders which breed in the Faeroes

    and on islands in southern Hudson Bay are believed to be nonmigratory.

            The spectacled eider, because of its unusual head feathering, is sometimes

    placed in a genus by itself — Arctonetta .

            See Eider, King Eider, and Spectacled Eider.

            194. Spatula . A genus of river or surface-feeding ducks (subfamily

    Anatinae) which are commonly called shove [ ?] lers. There are four species, one

    of which breeds only in the Northern Hemisphere, three only in the Southern.

    Spatula is similar to Anas in structure except for the bill, which is longer

    than the head and very flat and enormously widened in front, being almost twice

    as broad at or near the tip as at the base. The lamellae are very fine, long,

    and close together. The tail has 14 feathers. The male is much more brightly

    colored than the female in fall, winter, and spring.

            See Shoveler.

            195. Spectacled Eider . A remarkable sea duck, Somateria fischeri , so

    called because of the definitely outlined circular patch of feathers surround–

    ing each eye. Known also as Fischer’s eider and blue-eyed duck. It is slightly

    smaller than the common eider ( Somateria mollissima ) and king eider ( S. spectab [ ?] is ),

    245      |      Vol_IV-0303                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spectacled Eider

    but like them in proportions and, generally speaking, in color pattern. The

    male in high plumage is pale green on the top of the head except for the

    base of the forehead, which is white; the crown, which is cream; and a black–

    rimmed disc of shiny white feathers (the “spectacles”) about each eye. The

    chin, throat, neck all the way around, upper back, scapulars, lesser and

    middle wing coverts, inner secondaries (which are strongly curved), and a

    large spot on each side of the rump are white. The primaries, greater wing

    coverts, and distal secondaries are dark gray. The rump, upper and under

    tail coverts, lower belly, and tail are black. The breast, sides, and flanks

    are dark smoky gray. The bill is dull orange, the feet and legs olive brown,

    the eyes milky blue. The female is buffy brown, spotted, streaked, mottled,

    and barred with black and buff. A disc of light brown, delicately streaked

    feathers surrounds each eye. The bill is grayish blue, the feet and legs

    yellowish brown.

            The spectacled eider bree e ds across northern Siberia from the Lena River

    to the Chukchi Peninsula. Its nesting ground proper there is “probably at

    some distance from the shores of the Arctic Ocean” (Pleske). Buturlin found

    it the commonest breeding eider between the mouth of the Indigirka and Chaun

    Bay. According to Portenko, it migrates along the north coast of Wrangel

    Island in spring. It has been encountered in the New Siberian Archipelago

    in summer and almost certainly breeds there. In Alaska it breeds along the

    coast from the mouth of the Kuskokwim to Point Barrow, the mouth of the Col–

    ville, the Barter Islands, and (possibly) Demarcation Point. While it does

    not move far south in winter, it is nevertheless definitely migratory. Bailey

    has described a great southward flight which he witnessed at Whalen (Uelen)

    Siberia, on July 11, 1921. The flocks were composed almost wholly of males,

    246      |      Vol_IV-0304                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spectacled Eider

    which presumably were on their way to an area in which they would pass

    the flightless state of the postnuptial molt. Since Bailey never saw or

    hea r d of any such migration at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, he believed

    that the Alaska birds c or ro ssed directly westward to Siberia before moving

    south. The species winters in the Bering Sea southward as far as the

    Pribilofs and Aleutians and in the North Pacific eastward along the south

    side of the Alaska Peninsula as far as Kodiak Island. In the Hooper Bay

    district, Conover witnessed the spring arrival of flocks which flew in

    from the north .

            In extreme northern Alaska the main breeding ground seems to be on

    the tundra not far back from the beach near Capes Halkett and Simpson.

    Here Charles Brower collected many sets of eggs for various museums. Her–

    bert Brandt found the spectacled eider the most common of the many breeding

    waterfowl in the high [ ?] valleys indenting the south edge of the Aksinuk Range

    in 1924. Conover found it abundant on the flats about Igiak Bay. The nest

    is a depression in a grassy tussock on a small island in a coastal lake,

    in a knoll near the edge of salt or fresh water, or on the tundra well back

    from the coast and not necessarily near water of any sort. A mass of dark

    [ ?] down, which is remarkably free of vegetable matter, lines the nest. The

    eggs, which usually number 5 or 6, are olive buff. Only the female incubates.

    By the time the young hatch the males have moved en masse to their molting

    grounds, which presumably are at sea. The downy young is very light-faced

    and the “spectacles” are evident. The baby bird is, generally speaking, dark

    olive brown above, light ashy buff below, with bluish-gray bill.

            References:

    1. Brandt, Herbert. Alaska Bird Trails , Bird Res. Fdn., Cleveland, O.,

    pp.262-65, 1943. 2. Kortright, F.H. The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America , pp.321-24, 1942.

    247      |      Vol_IV-0305                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Steller’s Eider

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            1. Brandt, Herbert. Alaska Bird Trails , Bird Res. Fdn., Cleveland, O.,

    pp.262-65, 1943.

            2. Kortright, F.H. The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America , pp.321-24,

    1942.

            196. Steller’s Eider . A handsome sea duck, Polysticta stelleri , which

    is an eider only in name. It is much smaller than the [ ?] eiders of the genus

    Somateria . A male Steller’s eider weighs about 2 pounds, whereas male common

    eiders ( S. mollissima ) weigh up to 6 pounds and more (Kortright). Steller’s

    eider is a trim bird, agile afoot and swift on the wing. It has been called

    “the clipper ship of the north.” Its call notes differ from those of the “true”

    eiders. Herbert Brandt, in describing his experiences at a nest, says that

    both the male and female bird “uttered notes of protest that sounded more like

    a mammal than a bird. They growled and barked like a little dog at play, mean–

    while bobbing their heads and very nervously swimming back and forth.” The

    set of eggs numbers up to 9 or 10 — almost trice the number found in most nests

    of the “true” eiders. The eggs are olive-buff. Bailey tells us that in the

    Point Barrow region of Alaska the species usually nests “some distance inland”

    along the Meade and Chipp rivers. In the Hooper Bay region, where it breeds

    commonly on the tidewater flats, it selects “a small eminence near a body of

    water,” and builds up “a substantial nest of grass which it warmly lines with

    the almost black down which the female plucks from her breast” (Brandt). The

    female is a close sitter. The male lingers in the vicinity of the nest during

    the incubation period, but does not actually sit on the eggs. The downy young

    is dark brown above, brownish gray below, with buff throat, a small buff spot

    248      |      Vol_IV-0306                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Steller’s Eider

    in front of the eye, and a buff line back of the eye. This pattern is much

    more complex than that of young “true” eiders.

            The male Steller’s eider in high courting plumage is glossy white on

    the head and upper neck with pale green forehead, and black spot about the

    eye. The pale green occipital crest is bordered at either side by a small

    black spot. The chin, throat, neck all the way around, back, rump, tail,

    primaries, and a small spot on either side of the chest are black. The under

    parts are tawny, fading through buff to white on the sides and flanks, and

    to dark brown on the belly and under tail coverts. The wing coverts are

    white. The long, slender, curved scapulars, which are rich purplish blue,

    edged with white, merge with the sharply down-curved, white-tipped, purplish–

    blue secondaries. The female is dark brown, mottled with black and buff.

    Her wing speculum also is purplish-blue, bordered in front and behind by a

    narrow white bar.

            The s S teller’s eider breeds along the arctic coast of Siberia from the

    Taimyr Peninsula eastward; in Kamchatka and the Anadyr Bay district; on St.

    Lawrence Island; and along the arctic coast of Alaska from Hooper Bay to

    Point Barrow and perhaps even farther east. It is found throughout the year

    along the Murman Coast, and Pleske believes that it breeds “at some distance

    from the shores of the Arctic Ocean” in that region. It has been reported

    from Vaigach. It breeds in small numbers in the New Siberian Archipelago.

    Observers who remained five years on Wrangel Island noted only three pairs

    there during that period (Portenko). It has been reported once from Northeast

    Greenland. It is not strongly migratory. The southern limits of its winter

    range are northern Japan, the Kurils, southern Kamchatka, the Aleutians, the

    249      |      Vol_IV-0307                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Steller’s Eider and Sarf Scoter

    south side of the Alaska Peninsula, and Kodiak Island; and, in the North At–

    lantic, southern Scandinavia, and the coasts of Denmark and Belgoland.

            In winter the Steller’s eider feeds almost wholly on marine organisms

    obtained on the tidal flats or by diving. In summer it feeds to some extent

    on vegetable matter also — berries, pondweed, and grass.

            For a discussion of the ways in which Steller’s Eider differs from the

    “true” eiders, see Polysticta .

            Reference:

    Brandt, Herbert. Alaska Bird Trails, pp.267-70, Bird Res. Fdn., Cleveland, O.,

    1943.

            197. Surf Scoter. A sea duck, Melanitta perspecillata , intermediate

    in size between the large white-winged scoter ( M. fusca ) and the black scoter

    ( M. nigra ), and unlike them in being confined largely to the New World. It

    has many odd vernacular names such as horsehead coot, skunk-top, goggle-nose,

    mussel-bill, snuff-taker, butterboat-bill, and bald coot. The adult male is

    black with a white square on the forehead and a white triangle on the nape.

    His eyes are white. His feet are red with dusky webs. His oddly shaped bill

    is bright red in the middle, fading to yellow at the tip (except for the nail,

    which is grayish yellow) and to white (with a large black spot on each side)

    at the base. The female is dark brown with whitish areas on the face and nape.

    She is very similar to the female white-winged scoter in general appearance,

    but has no white in her wing. Her bill is dark gray, her eyes dark brown, her

    legs and feet dull pink with dusky webs.

            The surf scoter is known to breed in North America from the mouth of the

    Mackenzie and the Anderson River woutheastward to Great Bear and Great Slave

    250      |      Vol_IV-0308                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Surf Scoter and Tadornini

    lakes, Lake Athabaska, and certain islands in James Bay. It almost certainly

    has a much wider breeding range than this, for it summers about the Koman–

    dorskis and western Aleutians, along the whole Alaska coast, across northern

    Canada to Hudson Bay and Strait, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and along the

    Labrador. It has been reported at least once from the arctic coast of

    eastern Siberia, and some authors believe that it breeds there. It has been

    reported causally from Greenland, the Faeroes, and Scandinavia. It winters

    along the south side of the Alaska Peninsula and near the Aleutians, on the

    Pacific coast from British Columbia to Lower California, on the Great Lakes,

    and on the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Florida.

            The surf scoter’s nesting habits are not very well known. Nests ap–

    parently are scattered widely throughout wild areas. Often the nests are far

    from water and well concealed under vegetation, and the female is so slow

    to return while being watched that very few nests have been found. The eggs,

    which number 5 to 9, are buff (pinkish buff when freshly laid). When the

    female has completed her clutch, the male leaves her. Great numbers of

    males gather in rafts at sea, where they molt. The downy young is dark

    brownish gray above, lightest on the sides of the head and under parts. It

    is very similar in color to the young black scoter, but the shape of the

    base of the bill differs somewhat as it does in the adults.

            198. Tadornini . An anseriform tribe composed of the sheld-ducks (or

    sheldrakes) and their allies. Among these allies are several birds which

    have long been called geese (e.g., the ke [ ?] p geese of the genus Chloëphaga ; the

    Abyssinian blue-winged goose, Cyanochen ; the Egyptian goose, Alopochen ; the

    Cape Barren goose, Cereopsis ; and the Orinoco goose, Neochen ). As a group,

    251      |      Vol_IV-0309                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tadornini

    the Tadornini are characterized thus: ( 1 ). They all lay smooth-shelled

    eggs, whereas the true geese (Anserini) lay rough-shelled eggs. ( 2 ). The

    downy young are boldly marked. ( 3 ). The voices of adult males differ

    markedly from those of adult females. ( 4 ). Adult males and adult females

    are brightly colored, whether like each other in pattern or not. ( 5 ). In

    most forms there is a b or ro ad metallic speculum on the wing formed by the

    secondaries and greater coverts., ( 6 ) “Sheldrakes are very quarrelsome;

    each pair keeps apart from other individuals of the species” (Delaccur and

    Mayr).

            Of the eight genera comprising the Tadornini, several are distinctly

    southern, Tachyeres (steamer ducks) being confined to southern South America;

    Lophonetta (crested duck) to South America; Neochen to northern South America;

    Chloëphaga to South America (principally the western and southern parts);

    Cereopsis to Australia; and Cyanochen and Alopochen to northeastern Africa.

    No member of the tribe inhabits North America. The only genus which ranges

    northward as far as the Arctic Circle is Tadorna , a group of seven species

    distributed widely through the Old World. Tadorna tadorna , the common sheld–

    duck, inhabits much of Eurasia, breeding northward to the Arctic Circle and

    slightly beyond in Scandinavia. A closely related species, Tadorna radjah

    (radjah sheldrake) inhabits certain of the East Indian islands and parts of

    Australia. These two species, which may be called the “true” sheld-ducks, are

    by some authors placed in the restricted genus Tadorna by themselves. In both

    species adult males and adult females are very nearly alike in coloration but

    different in voice. The bill is distinctive, having very concave culmen and

    narrow, sharply bent-down nail. Bills of very old males have a prominent knob

    252      |      Vol_IV-0310                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tufted Duck

    at the base. At the bend of the wing (wrist) there is a horny knob. The wing

    has a large, shining green speculum. The tail is slightly rounded and has 14

    feathers.

            See Sheld-duck.

            199. Tufted Duck . An Old World freshwater diving duck, Aythya fuligula ,

    so named from the long, thin, usually inconspicuous crest which hangs from

    the nape of the male. Called also crested duck and crested pochard. In

    courting plumage the male is black on the head, neck, breast, and upper part

    of the body, the head and neck in general being glossed with violet, the

    cheeks and back with green. A white wing bar on the secondaries and inner

    primaries does not show when the bird is at rest. The lower part of the body

    is white. The scapulars are very finely specked with grayish cream color,

    but this speckling does not show in the field. The female is reddish brown

    throughout the head, neck, breast, and upper parts (including the sides and

    flanks), with white wing bar, a white patch at the base of each side of the

    bill, and grayish white under parts. The eye is golden yellow in both sexes.

            The tufted duck breeds in Iceland, the Faeroes, and British Isles;

    across the whole of northern Eurasia between about latitude 50° N. and 69° N;

    and probably in the Komandorskis. It [ ?] almost certainly breeds on Bear Island,

    but apparently it is of only casual occurrence on Kolguev. Bunge encoun–

    tered a brood of very small young at the mouth of the Yana in August. The

    species has been recorded on Greenland, Attu, the Kurils and the Pribilofs.

    It winters in Britain; southern Europe, south to the coasts of the Meditteranean

    and Black seas; Africa, south to Uganda and Kenya; and southern Asia, south

    as far as India, Burma, southern China, the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines.

    253      |      Vol_IV-0311                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Tufted Duck and White-winged Scoter

    The breeding and winter ranges overlap in the British Isles and across most

    of Eurasia.

            The nest, which is lined with dark down, is usually near water in grass

    or among shrubbery. Several pairs sometimes nest together. The eggs, which

    are large, dull, and greenish gray, number 6 to 14 as a rule. Only the

    female incubates. The incubation period is about 25 days (Phillips). The

    downy young is dark olivaceous brown on the head, neck, and upper part of

    the body, sooty yellow on the chin and throat, and yellowish white or pale

    greenish yellow on the center of the breast and belly (Witherby).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Brock, S.E. “The Tufted Duck ( Fuligula cristata ) in the nesting season.”

    Scot. Nat . pp.265-71, 1912. 2. Grenquist, P. “Some diving notes on young Tufted Ducks, young Velvet

    Scoters and young Eider Ducks.” Ornis Fennica , vol.13, pp.6-23,

    1936.

           

    # # #

            202. White-winged Scoter. A large sea duck, Melanitta fusca , which is

    known in Great Britain as the velvet scoter. It is the largest of the scoters,

    and has been called the most silent of all ducks. The male in full plumage is

    black with a white wing speculum, a small crescent of white below the eye, red

    and orange legs and feet (with dusky webs), white or pale gray eye, and yellow

    and black (or yellow, red, and black) bill. In some races the flanks are

    brown. The female is dark brown with white secondaries and two roundish white

    spots on the lower half of each side of the head. Her bill is dark gray, her

    eyes dark brown, her feet dull flesh color, with dusky webs.



    254      |      Vol_IV-0312                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-w e i nged Scoter

            The white-winged scoter inhabits northern parts of both the Old World

    and the New, breeding almost wholly on the continents themselves. It breeds

    from Norway (between latitudes 60° N. and 71° N.) eastward across the whole

    of Eurasia, including Kolguev, Vaigach, and the south island of Novaya Zemlya.

    In North America it nests from Kotzebue Sound, the upper Yukon, and the Mac–

    kenzie River mouth southward and southeastward across Canada to northeastern

    Washington, southern Manitoba, James Bay, and central North Dakota. It

    winters in several wholly separate areas — along the Pacific coast of North

    America south to Baja California; in the Great Lakes; on the Atlantic coast

    from Nova Scotia to the Carolinas; along the coasts of western Europe; in

    the Caspian and Aral seas; and on the coast of Asia from Kamchatka to the

    Yellow Sea.

            Four races of Melanitta fusca currently are recognized. ( 1 ). The nom–

    inate race breeds in northern Europe, Kolguev, Vaigach, the south island of

    Novaya Zemlya, and extreme northwestern Siberia. It has been reported from

    Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroes, and Spitsbergen. The adult male has a black

    and yellow bill. ( 2 ). Stejnegeri breeds in Siberia from the Yenisei to the

    Anadyr and Kamchatka. The adult male has a high-knobbed, black, red, and

    yellow bill. ( 3 ). Deglandi breeds in northern North America from the mouth

    of the Mackenzie southward and southeastward. The adult male has a black,

    red, and yellow bill and brown sides and flanks. ( 4 ). Dixoni breeds in the

    Kotzebue Sound area and probably even farther north in Alaska. This race

    is like deglandi but larger.

            W. DeWitt Miller has called attention to the pronounced difference

    between the tracheas of adult male fusca and deglandi (1926. Am. Mus. Novi –

    tates No. 243). Further inquiry may lead us to regard the New World white-

    winged scoters as specifically distinct from [ ?] those of the Old.



    255      |      Vol_IV-0313                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-winged Scoter

            South of the tree limit the white-winged scoter often nests under

    shrubbery or at the foot of a tree, and even on the tundra the nest usually

    is well hidden from view among grass or low-growing willows, birches, etc.

    The eggs, which are pinkish buff when first laid, but become cream color,

    number 5 to 8 or more. They are the largest of Arctic duck eggs aside from

    those of the three large species of eiders. Only the female incubates. The

    downy young resembles that of the black scoter, but the white of the cheeks,

    chin, throat, and sides of the neck is even purer, and (sometimes) the bird

    has a small white spot on the lores.

    Falconiformes (Eagles, Hawks, Ospreys, Falcons)



    256      |      Vol_IV-0314                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eagles, Hawks, Harriers, Falcons, Ospreys, and their allies

    EAGLES, HAWKS, HARRIERS, FALCONS, OSPREYS,

    AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order FALCONIFORMES ; Suborder FALCONES

           

    Family ACCIPITRIDAE, FALCONIDAE, PANDIONIDAE

            204. Accipiter . See writeup.

            205. ACCIPITRIDAE. See writeup.

            206. American Eagle. A widely used name for the bald eagle ( Haliaeetus

    leucocephalus ) ( q.v. ).

            207. Aquila . See writeup.

            208. Bald Eagle. See writeup.

            209. Black Gyrfalcon. A name applied by some authors to certain dark-colored

    gyrfalcons of North America, especially those of the Labrador coast.

    These “black” birds are now believed to be a color phase of Falco

    rusticolus obsoletus . See Gyrfalcon.

            210. Blue Darter. A vernacular name widely used in the United States for

    the sharp-shinned hawk ( Accipiter striatus ) ( q.v. ).

            211. Buteo . See writeup.

            212. Buzzard. See writeup.

            213. Circus . See writeup.

            214. Common Buzzard. A widely used name for the buzzard ( Buteo buteo ) ( q.v. ).

            215. Duck Hawk. A name widely used in the United States and Canada for Falco

    peregrines peregrines anatum anatum anatum , the ea s tern North American race of the peregrine

    falcon ( q.v. ).

            216. Eagle. See writeup.

            217. Ern or Erne. A name used in parts of Europe for the white-tailed eagle

    ( Haliaeetus albicilla ) ( q.v. ).



    257      |      Vol_IV-0315                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eagles, Hawks, Harriers, Falcons, Ospreys, and their allies

            218. Falco . See writeup.

            219. Falcon. See writeup.

            220. FALCONIDAE, See writeup.

            221. FALCONIFORMES , See writeup.

            222. Fish Hawk. The osprey ( Pandion baliaëtus ) ( q.v. ).

            223. Golden Eagle. See writeup.

            224. Goshawk. See writeup.

            225. Gray Gyrfalcon. A name somewhat loosely applied to an intermediately

    colored (i.e., neither “white” nor “black”) gyrfalcon (Falco rusti–

    colus    ). See Gyrfalcon.

            226. Gray Sea Eagle. A name used principally in North America for the white-

    tailed eagle or erne ( Haliaeetus albicilla ) ( q.v. ).

            227. Greenland Falcon. A name used for the gyrfalcon ( Falco rusticolus ) of

    Greenland. See Gyrfalcon.

            228. Greenland Sea Eagle. A name used for the white-tailed eagle or erne

    ( Haliaeetus albicilla ) inhabiting Greenland. See White-tailed Eagle.

            229. Gyrfalcon. See writeup.

            230. Haliaeetus . See writeup.

            231. Hawk. See writeup.

            232. Hen Harrier. The only name in common use in England for Circus cyaneus .

    See Marsh Hawk.

            233. Hobby. See writeup.

            234. Honey Buzzard. See writeup.

            235. Iceland Gyrfalcon. The common name for Falco rusticolus islandus , the

    race of gyrfalcon inhabiting Iceland. See Gyrfalcon.



    258      |      Vol_IV-0316                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eagles, Hawks, Harriers, Falcons, Ospreys, and their allies

            236. Kestrel. See writeup.

            237. Kite. See writeup.

            238. Marsh Harrier. A well-known Old World falconiform bird, Circus aerugi –

    nosus , closely related to the marsh hawk or hen harrier ( Circus

    cyaneus ) ( q.v. ).

            239. Marsh Hawk. See writeup.

            240. Merlin. See writeup.

            241. Milvus . See writeup.

            242. Montagu’s Harrier. A well-known Old World falconiform bird, Circus

    pygargus , closely related to the marsh hawk or hen harrier ( Circus

    cyaneus ) ( q.v. ).

            243. North American Peregrine. A name used principally in England for the

    eastern North American race of peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrinus )

    ( q.v. ).

            244. Osprey. See writeup.

            245. Pallid Harrier. An Old World falconiform bird, Circus macrourus , closely

    related to the hen harrier or marsh hawk ( Circus cyaneus ) ( q.v. ).

            246. PANDIONIDAE and Pandion . See writeup.

            247. Partridge Hawk. A name used principally in the United States and Canada

    for the goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ) and the gyrfalcon ( Falco rustico –

    lus ) — for the goshawk because it frequently captures the ruffed

    grouse ( Bonasa umbellus ); for the gyrfalcon because it captures “white

    partridges” or ptarmigans ( Lagopus lagopus and Lagopus mutus ).

            248. Peale’s Falcon. The common name for Falco peregrinus pealei , the race of

    peregrine falcon which inhabits the coasts and islands of the Bering

    Sea. See Peregrine Falcon.



    259      |      Vol_IV-0317                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eagles, Hawks, Harriers, Falcons, Ospreys, and their allies

            249. Peregrine Falcon. See writeup.

            250. Pernis . See writeup.

            251. Pigeon Hawk. A name widely used in the United States and Canada for

    the race of merlin ( Falco columbarius )inhabiting eastern North

    America. See Merlin.

            252. Red-footed Falcon. See writeup.

            253. Red Kite. A name sometimes applied to the common kite ( Milvus milvus )

    ( q.v. ).

            254. Rough-legged Hawk or Rough-legged Buzzard. See writeup.

            255. Sea Eagle. A collective name for the eagles of the genus Haliaeetus ,

    all of which frequent coasts. See Haliaeetus .

            256. Sharp-shinned Hawk. See writeup.

            257. Siberian Rough-legged Hawk. The common name of Buteo lagopus pallidus ,

    the race of rough-legged hawk inhabiting eastern Siberia and the

    northeast coast of Alaska. See Rough-legged Hawk.

            258. Sparrow Hawk. See writeup.

            259. Steller’s Sea Eagle. See writeup.

            260. Steppe Buzzard. The common name for Buteo vulpinus , an Old World fal–

    coniform bird which is closely related to the common buzzard ( Buteo

    buteo ) and may be conspecific with it. See Buzzard.

            261. White Gyrfalcon. A named applied by some authors to certain very light–

    colored gyrfalcons, principally those of northern Greenland. These

    white birds are now believed to be a color phase of Falco rusticolus

    obsoletus . See Gyrfalcon.

            262. White-headed Eagle. A frequently used name for the bald eagle ( Haliaeetus

    leucocephalus ) ( q.v. ).

            263. White-tailed Eagle. See writeup.

            264. Wind-hover. A vernacular name widely used for the kestrel ( Falco tinnun –

    culus ) ( q.v. ).



    260      |      Vol_IV-0318                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Accipiter

            204. Accipiter . A genus of blunt-headed, short-winged, long-tailed

    hawks sometimes referred to as the Accipiters. They feed extensively on

    birds and are stealthy hunters, given to slipping through the trees not far

    above ground and pouncing suddenly. They rarely capture prey in mid-air,

    but sometimes pursue it afoot through the thick vines and shrubbery.

            The bill of Accipiter is short and sharply curved, with a smooth notch

    or “tooth” along the cutting edge of the upper mandible. The cere is well

    developed. The nostrils are round or oval; have no “island” or tubercle;

    and are thinly covered with bristles. There is no owl-like ruff of facial

    feathers, as in Circus (marsh hawk or hen harrier and allies). The legs are

    long; the tarsi bare save at the proximal end, which is more or less feathered;

    the toes long and slender; the claws strongly curved and very sharp. The

    primaries are only a little longer than the secondaries. The wing is strongly

    rounded, the outermost primary being considerably the shortest.

            Accipiter has virtually a world-wide distribution, the most northward–

    ranging species being the goshawk ( A. gentilis ), the sparrow hawk ( A. nisus )

    of the Old World, and the sharp-shinned hawk ( A. striatus ) of America. Of

    the more than 40 species, the goshawk is probably the best known, and it is

    the only one found both in the Old World and the New. The three above–

    mentioned species are currently thought to be confined to the Northern Hemi–

    sphere, but further investigation may reveal that A. erythronemius (Red–

    thighed accipiter) of Central and South America is conspecific with A. stria –

    tus , and that certain African or even Australian hawks are conspecific with

    A. nisus . The goshawk, which is represented by 11 races in Eurasia and by

    two or three races in North America, is the most distinctly boreal species

    261      |      Vol_IV-0319                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Accipitridae

    of the genus; the several races resemble each other closely and no Accipiter

    of the Southern Hemisphere is much like any of them.

            See Goshawk, Sparrow Hawk, and Sharp-shinned Hawk.

            205. Accipitridae . A large and diverse falconiform bird family through–

    out which the bill is strongly hooked and usually rather short; the nostrils

    proportionately small, usually oval, and imperforate; the wings broad and

    rounded (except in certain pointed-winged kites); the claws curved and

    sharply pointed; the leg tendons powerful; the hind toe (hallux) usually

    the same length as, or slightly longer than, the shortest front toe; and

    the front of the tarsus scutellate. Throughout the family females tend to

    be larger than males and coloration of both males and females is somber

    (browns, grays, buff, black and white). The size range is great, the smallest

    species being about 10 inches long, the largest 40-some inches long. Among

    the spectacularly large forms are the lammergeier ( Gypaëtus barbatus ), whose

    wingspread reaches nine or ten feet; the powerful harpy eagle ( Harpia harpyga )

    of Central and South America; and certain of the African vultures. The

    family includes all falconiform birds except the anomalous secretary bird of

    Africa (family Sagittariidae), the New World vultures (family Cathartidae),

    the “true” falcons (family Falconidae), and the osprey or fish hawk (family

    Pandionidae).

            Most ornithologists place the 60-some genera of the Accipitridae in the

    following subfamilies: the Elaninae (black-shouldered kite and allies); the

    Perninae (honey buzzard and allies); the Milvinae (common kite and allies);

    the Accipitrinae (short-winged, long-tailed hawks sometimes referred to as

    accipiters); the Buteoninae (buzzards, eagles, etc.); the Aegypiinae (Old

    262      |      Vol_IV-0320                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Accipitridae

    World vultures); the Circinae (harriers, etc.); and the Circaëtinae (harrier–

    eagles, etc.). The osprey ( Pandion haliaëtus ) has often been placed in a

    monotypic subfamily under the Accipitridae, but recent investigations have

    shown it to be so different from other falconiform birds that it probably

    should be placed in a family, or even in a suborder, by itself (Hudson, G.E.,

    1948, Am. Midland Naturalist , 39:126).

            Of the above-mentioned subfamilies, five range northward into the Sub–

    arctic or Arctic — the Accipitrinae, Buteoninae, and Circinae in both the

    New World and the Old; the Perninae and Milvinae only in the Old. Very few

    species of the family breed regularly in the Far North, a possible reason

    being that they require trees for nesting. No form of the group is nearly

    so exclusively boreal as the gyrfalcon ( Falco rusticolus ) of the family Fal–

    conidae. The most northern species probably is the white-tailed or gray sea

    eagle ( Haliaeetus albicilla ), which breeds in Greenland, Iceland, northern

    Scandinavia, northern Russia, Novaya Zemlya, northern Siberia, and Kamchatka;

    and the rough-legged buzzard or rough-legged hawk ( Buteo lagopus ), which

    breeds from about tree limit northward to points well beyond the Arctic Circle

    in North America and Eurasia. One of the best known and most cosmopolitan

    species of the family, the golden eagle ( Aquila chrysaëtos ), ranges from the

    southern fringes of the European Arctic southward to the Himalayas and the

    mountains of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia; and from Alaska to central Mexico.

    It is not found in South America or Australia. The goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis )

    and marsh hawk or hen harrier ( Circus cyaneus ) have somewhat similar ranges.

    The marsh hawk occasionally migrates southward as far as northeastern Africa

    and northern South America, but the southern limits of its breeding range are

    Italy, Turkestan, Tibet, northern Baja California, southern Texas, Ohio, and

    Virginia.



    263      |      Vol_IV-0321                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aquila

            207. Aquila . A genus of “true” eagles — raptorial birds of majestic

    bearing, wide wingspread, and remarkable powers of flight. The best-known

    and most widely ranging species is the golden eagle ( A. chrysaëtos ). Through–

    out the genus the bill is strong and well hooked. The cutting edge of the

    upper mandible has a smoothly rounded (not sharp ( ) “tooth,” The nostrils are

    round or ear-shaped. Except in Wahlberg’s eagle ( A. wahlbergi ) of Africa —

    a form which some taxonomists place in the genus Hieraaëtus — the head is

    not crested, but the plumage of the nape and hind neck is long and lanceolate.

    The outermost primary is much shorter than the one next to it, the fourth

    and fifth (counting from the outside) usually being the longest. The outer–

    most five primaries are deeply notched or cut away on the inner webs at their

    tips. This gives the spread wing a somewhat “fingered” appearance. The tail,

    which has 12 feathers, is square or slightly rounded. The tarsus is fully

    feathered to the very base of the toes. The toes are covered with reticulate

    scales above at the base, but toward the tip of each there are three large,

    transverse scutes. The hind toe is large, its claw being especially long and

    heavy. The sexes are colored alike, the colors being rather somber except

    in Verreaux’s eagle ( A. verreauxii ) of Africa, which when adult is black with

    boldly white lower back and rump.

            Throughout the genus females are larger than males. In most species,

    young birds in their first winter plumage and subsequent subadult plumages

    are not strikingly dissimilar to adults, though the young of the Verreaux’s

    eagle does not have a bold black and white pattern, and young spotted eagles

    ( A. clanga ) are much more spotted than adults, the spotting being confined

    largely to the tertials, wing coverts, and scapulars. The size range within

    264      |      Vol_IV-0322                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aquila and Bald Eagle

    the genus is great, Wahlberg’s eagle, the spotted eagle, and the lesser spotted

    eagle ( A. pomarina ) being but little larger than the common buzzard ( Buteo

    buteo ), whereas the golden eagle is a very large bird, with wingspread of 6

    to 7 feet.

            Of the eight species only one, the golden eagle, is found in both the Old

    World and the New, and this same species is the only one which breeds north–

    ward to the Arctic Circle and beyond. The range of the golden eagle, so far

    as is known, extends into the true Arctic only in Scandinavia, northern Alaska

    (Brooks Range), and northern Mackenzie (Franklin Bay). The spotted eagle

    ranges northward almost to the Arctic Circle in Russia, and the lsser spotted

    eagle ranges northward to northern Germany and the Baltic provinces. The

    imperial [ ?] eagle ( A. heliaca ) has been reported from Sweden (Lönnberg).

    Aquila is considerably less cosmopolitan than Haliaeëtus (sea eagles). Unlike

    that genus, it is not found in Australia or the Malay Archipelago. Neither

    Aquila nor Haliaeëtus inhabits South America. The most southern species of

    Aquila are the tawny eagle ( A. rapax ) of Africa, India, Burma, and southwestern

    Arabia; Verreaux’s eagle, a montane African species; and Wahlberg’s eagle, an

    African species found as far south as Bechuanaland and the Transvaal.

            The genus Aquila probably has existed a long time. “Several species once

    referred to Aquila , but placed by Lambrecht in … Aquilavus , occurred in

    France in the Oligocene, possibly even in late Eocene” (Howard).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Siewert, H. “The Spotted Eagle. A contribution to its breeding biology.”

    Journ. of Ornith. vol.80, pp.1-40 and many excellent plates,

    1932.

    265      |      Vol_IV-0323                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bald Eagle

            208. Bald Eagle . A large North American eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus ,

    known also as the white-headed eagle, American eagle or bald-headed eagle.

    Despite the name “bald,” its head is well feathered. It is 30 to 43 inches

    long with a wingspread of 6 to 8 feet or slightly more (Forbush). Females

    are larger than males. The species ranges from Alaska (where it is locally

    abundant) southeastward to Florida. Throughout this vast expanse of con–

    tinent the size of the birds varies greatly, those reared in Alaska being

    the largest, those reared in Florida the smallest. As nearly all taxonomists

    agree, the large northern birds belong to one race, the small southern birds

    to another. But where is the dividing line between the two races? Alaska

    birds are strongly migratory and a recent report on the wandering of bald eagles

    banded as nestlings in Florida sows that these birds moved northward as far

    as the Great Lakes, New England, and even the Maritime Provinces of Canada.

    No wonder it has been difficult to say what race United States bald eagles

    represented! (See Broley, C. L. 1947. Wilson Bulletin 59: 7).

            The bald eagle’s wing beasts are slow, measured, even a trifle heavy in

    ordinary flight. The wings are held horizontally in soaring and their apparent

    inflexibility and great breadth are notable. The bird feeds on fish exten–

    sively, some of which it finds dead or captures in shallow water. Its custom

    of stealing fish from the much smaller osprey or fish hawk ( Pandion haliaëtus )

    is well known. The bald eagle’s cries are disappointingly thin and squeaky.

    Often they are a mere twittering or chippering so feeble as to make one doubt

    one’s senses until seeing the eagle’s wide open mouth and shaking body.

            The fully adult bald eagle is dark brown with white head and tail and

    yellow bill, cere, eyelids, eyes, and feet. The young bird in first winter

    266      |      Vol_IV-0324                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bald Eagle

    plumage is dark-headed and dark-tailed — in fact it is dark all over, with

    irregular white or gray mottlings on the tail, wing coverts, and under parts.

    As the bird grows older the tail becomes whiter, molt by molt. The fully

    white head and tail are not acquired until the third, fourth, or even fifth

    year. Some immature bald eagles bear strong resemblance to golden eagles

    or white-tailed eagles in the field. For a discussion of the identification

    of young eagles, see Golden Eagle.

            The bald eagle nearly always inhabits coastal districts. The birds

    probably mate for life and pairs cling tenaciously to certain nest sites.

    Francis H. Herrick studied closely certain pairs which nested for years

    along the south shore of Lake Erie in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio. While

    the breeding population about the Great Lakes is not large, it is fa [ ?] y

    constant. The species apparently reaches its maximum abundance at the north–

    western and southeastern extremities of its range — along Alaska and

    British Columbia coast and in Florida. In late summer, after the young have

    left the nests, bald eagles congregate in large numbers in Knight’s Inlet,

    British Columbia. Local concentrations of bald eagles are a spectacular

    feature of Alaskan wildlife. The great birds gather to feed on the salamon

    which die by the thousand after spawning.

            On Merritt Island, off the east coast of Florida, I have, during the

    course of a single day’s driving about in an automobile, counted literally

    dozens of bald eagle nests in big pine trees. Under the trees lay the scat–

    ered remains of prey — fishbones and the like.

            The bald eagle is not an arctic bird in the strictest sense, but it

    ranges northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in Alaska and it has been

    267      |      Vol_IV-0325                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bald Eagle

    reported from extreme northeastern Siberia (north coast of the Chukchi

    Peninsula). The two races ( washingtonii of the north and leucocephalus

    of the south) differ only in size, as stated above.

            Bald eagle nests are bulky affairs usually built in large trees at

    considerable distance above ground. The eggs are dull or bluish white,

    without real markings, but often nest-stained. They are incubated for

    about 35 days. Both the male and female incubate. The newly hatched

    young is smoke gray, darkest on the back, lighter on the head, and almost

    white on the throat. This natal down is replaced by a dark down when the

    eaglet is about 3 weeks old. Fledging requires 10 to 11 weeks (Herrick).

    Ordinarily the young are fed largely on fish, though various mammals and

    birds (including domestic varieties) are captured when available.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Brooks, Allan. “Notes on the abundance and habits of the Bald Eagle in

    British Columbia.” Auk , vol.39, pp.556-69, 1939. 2. Dixon, Joseph. “A life history of the Northern Bald Eagle.” Condor , vol.11,

    pp.187-93, 1909. 3. Herrick, F.H. The American Eagle . D. Appleton-Century Co., New York

    and London, 1934.

    268      |      Vol_IV-0326                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Buteo

            211. Buteo . A genus of wide-winged, short-tailed, rather slow-moving

    birds of prey belonging to the family Accipitridae. Most species are known

    as hawks or buzzard-hawks in the United States and Canada, but as buzzards

    in other English-speaking countries. They are eagle-like in shape, bearing,

    and behavior, but smaller and considerably weaker, with proportionately

    shorter and more sharply curved bill; large cere; and oval nostrils, the long

    axis of each being horizontal. The three or four (sometimes five) outermost

    primaries are emarginated. The tarsus is short and strong. In most species

    the tarsus is feathered for a short distance in front at the proximal end,

    and bare (scutellate) at the distal end; but in the rough-legs ( B. lagopus

    and B. regalis ) it is feathered in front all the way down to the toes.

            Buteo is almost world-wide in distribution. It has a long fossil record

    dating back to the Oligocene. It is found on all the continents today, and

    a few well-marked forms are endemic to certain island or island groups.

    Between 20 and 30 species are recognized. In most of these, young birds in

    their first winter plumage are quite different in color from adults. In some

    there is much individual variation both in young birds and adults. There is a

    sharp difference of opinion as to whether certain forms are full species, or

    merely geographical races or color phases of others. Most species nest in

    trees; but the most northern of all, the rough-legged hawk or rough-legged

    buzzard ( B. lagopus ), which breeds in northern parts of both the Old and New

    Worlds, customarily nests on cliffs.

            See Rough-legged Hawk or Rough-legged Buzzard.



    269      |      Vol_IV-0327                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Buzzard

            212. Buzzard . A somewhat sluggish Old World bird of prey, Buteo buteo ,

    usually called the common buzzard in Great Britain, where it is reported to

    be increasing in numbers. Not to be confused with the black vulture ( Coragyps

    atratus ) and turkey vulture ( Cathartes aura ) of the New World, both of which

    carrion-eating species are almost universally known as “buzzards” in the

    southern United States. Buteo buteo is closely related to the red-tailed

    hawk ( Buteo jamaicensis ) of North America and also to the so-called steppe

    buzzard of Europe and western Asia. By some ornithologists the steppe buzzard

    is considered a geographical race of B. buteo , by others a distinct species,

    B. vulpinus . In coloration and behavior it is much like the common buzzard,

    though its eggs are proportionately smaller (Witherby) and there may be well–

    defined differences in nesting habits. It is believed to nest in trees as

    a rule.

            The common buzzard is 20 to 22 inches long, the female being slightly

    larger than the male. Its usual cry is a plaintive squeal, which is less loud

    than that of the rough-leg ( Buteo lagopus ), and which varies with the bird’s

    mood. It frequently soars, with broad, rounded wings held straight, and

    shortish, slightly rounded tail widely fanned. Individuals vary greatly in

    color, some having much white in the plumage, especially on the head and body,

    others being almost black, but as a rule adults are not as white as the Rough–

    leg on the under-wings. The tail is always gray, narrowly barred with black.

    The flags often have a strongly rufous tone. The steppe buzzard is practically

    indistinguishable from the common buzzard above, but it is usually more rufous

    in general tone below. The eyes of the common buzzard are dark brown; the

    cere, mouth corners, and feet dull yellow.



    270      |      Vol_IV-0328                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Buzzard

            If the steppe buzzard and common buzzard are actually one species, then

    that species breeds throughout Europe and western Asia from about latitude

    66° N. southward. Asiatic birds apparently are more migratory than European,

    for vulpinus winters in Arabia, western India, and eastern Africa. The

    species is represented by more or less clearly defined races on the Azores

    ( rothschildi ), Madeira ( harterti ), the Canaries ( insularum ), the Cape Verdes

    ( bannermani ), and Corsica and Sardinia ( arrigonii ). The races intermedius

    (White Sea south to Rumania and Bulgaria) and menetriesi (Cancasas and

    northern Persia) and close to vulpinus .

            While the common buzzard has been recorded as far north as latitude 68° N.

    in Norway, it is nowhere a bird of the tundra proper. Its bulky nest is

    placed in a tree or, in case the region is hilly, on a low bluff or on the

    ground. The eggs usually are 2, but as many as 6 have been recorded. They

    are white, faintly tinged with blue, and spotted with brown, often in w r eath

    at the larger end. The female does most of the incubating. The incubation

    period is 28 to 30 days. The downy young is brownish or buffy gray, lighter

    beneath, with a white spot on the rear part of the crown. The young are fed

    chiefly on small mammals, though snakes, frogs, lizards, toads, insects,

    and birds are sometimes captured.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            Reference:

    Wendland, V. “Increase, general breeding-biology, and food of the Buzzard

    ( Buteo b. buteo ).” Beiträge zur Fontpfl ., vol.9, pp.157-67 [ ?] ,

    1933.

    271      |      Vol_IV-0329                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Circus

            213. Circus . A genus of the slender-bodied, lanky-legged falconiform birds

    commonly known as the harriers. They are somewhat owl-like in that their

    plumage is soft, their eyes are directed forward, and the facial plumage is

    narrow and forms a ruff. The bill is short and strongly curved. The nostrils,

    which are oval and without an “island” or tubercle, are covered with thin,

    upward-curving loral bristles. The legs are long and thin and the claws

    strongly curved and very sharp. The tarsi are unfeathered, scutellate in

    front, reticulate behind. The wings are long and pointed, the primaries being

    much longer than the secondaries. The outermost primary is the shortest,

    the third and fourth (counting from the outside) the longest. The five outer–

    most primaries are marginate. The tail is long and almost square-tipped.

    Female birds are slightly larger than males as a rule. Young males resemble

    young females in color, but in some species adult males are very different

    from adult females.

            The harriers hunt by beatin [ ?] g back and forth low over field and marshlands.

    Their flight is buoyant because their wings are wide and their bodies light.

    They soar high in air on occasion, and in certain (perhaps all) species the

    male performs remarkable aerial somersaults as part of a courtship display.

    Harriers nest on the ground. Their eggs are white, sometimes lightly spotted

    with brown.

            Circus is almost cosmopolitan in distribution. Of the 12 species only one

    is common to both the New and Old Worlds — C. cyaneus , the nominate race of

    which is known in England as the hen harrier, while the American race ( hudsonius )

    is called the marsh hawk. This is the only species of the genus which breeds

    northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond. It is strongly migratory. Its

    272      |      Vol_IV-0330                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Circus

    combined summer and winter ranges include unforested parts of virtually the

    entire North Hemisphere land mass south of the tundra proper.

            Species of Circus which breed in Eurasia and winter southward to India

    and Africa, but nowhere range northward quite into the Subarctic, are the so–

    called marsh harrier ( C. aeruginosus ), Montagu’s harrier ( C. pygargus ), and

    pallid harrier ( C. macrourus ). The pied harrier ( C. melanoleucus ) breeds

    in southeastern Siberia and Mongolia and winters southward to Indo-China,

    Borneo, and the Philippines. Two species, the long-winged harrier ( C. buf –

    foni ) and cinereous harrier ( C. cinereus ), are peculiar to South America.

    Two species, the African harrier ( C. ranivorus ) and the black harrier

    ( C. maurus ), are peculiar to Africa. The spotted harrier ( C. assimilis ) is

    found in Australia, Tasmania, and Celebes. The Kaup’s harrier ( C. spilonotus

    spilonotus ) is found in Asia, where it is migratory, and nonmigratory races

    inhabit ( a ) Reunion Island, ( b ) the Comoros and Madagascar, and ( c ) possibly

    New Guinea. The Fijian harrier ( C. approximans ) is found in the Fijis, and

    allied races inhabit ( a ) New Caledonia, and ( b ) New Guinea, Australia, Tas–

    mania, and New Zealand. The genus thus ranges from slightly north of the

    Arctic Circle southward to Tierra del Fuego, the Fiji Islands, Tasmania,

    and New Zealand.

            216. Eagle . Any of several large, sharply clawed falconiform birds

    famous for their majestic bearing and powers of flight. The most distinctly

    arctic eagle of the world probably is the white-tailed eagle ( Haliaeetus

    albicilla ) of northern Eurasia and Greenland. The bald or American eagle

    ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) ranges northward to the Arctic Circle and somewhat

    273      |      Vol_IV-0331                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eagle and Falco

    beyond in Alaska but not in eastern North America. The golden eagle ( Aquila

    chrysaëtos ), which is found in both the New World and the Old, ranges north–

    ward to the Arctic Circle and somewhat beyond in Alaska, northwestern Mac–

    kenzie, Scandinavia, northern Russia, and probably Siberia. The Steller’s

    sea eagle ( Haliaeetus pelagicus ) of the North Pacific apparently does not

    range northward of the Komandorskis and Kamchatka.

            See White-tailed Eagle, Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle.

            218. Falco . A genus of true falcons containing such well-known forms

    as the peregrine, gyrfalcon, hobby, merlin and kestrel, all of which have

    a sharp “tooth” near the tip of the upper mandible and a corresponding notch

    on the lower mandible; round nostrils with an “island” or tubercle in the

    middle; bare tarsus; and long pointed wings, the second and third primaries

    (counting from the outside) usually being the longest, and the outermost

    being clearly notched near the tip on the inner web. The genus is cosmopoli–

    tan. The 30-some species are divided among 9 subgenera. One species,

    F. rusticolus (gyrfalcon) is almost exclusively arctic. F. peregrinus (pere–

    grine falcon) is world-ranging, breeding from north of the Arctic Circle

    southward to Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland, and Australia. Several wood–

    land species breed northward to the tree limit, hence to the Arctic Circle

    and beyond, either in the New World or the Old, or in both.

            See Gyrfalcon, Peregrine Falcon, Hobby, Merlin, Red-footed Falcon, and

    Kestrel.



    274      |      Vol_IV-0332                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Falcon

            219. Falcon . 1. Any of various falconiform birds used in falconry,

    i. e., trained to hunt other birds and game; properly the female only, the

    male being known as the tercel. Many hawks used in hunting are not true

    falcons, i. e., species of the genus Falco . One of the most widely used

    hunting falcons — the term is here used in its general sense — is the

    goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ).

            2. Any of several pointed-winged birds of prey of the genus Falco , all

    of which have a rather sharp “tooth” on the cutting edge of the upper man–

    dibble, and a corresponding notch on the lower mandible; an “island” or

    tubercle in the middle of the round nostril; large, very dark eyes; strongly

    emarginate outermost primary; unfeathered tarsi; and 15 cervical vertebrae.

    The true falcons (in contradistinction to various eagles and rounded-winged

    hawks trained for hunting) all belong to the genus Falco , the best-known

    species being the peregrine ( F. peregrinus ) and the gyrfalcon ( F. rusticolus ).

    Several true falcons — such as the hobby ( F. subbuteo ), merlin or pigeon hawk

    ( F. columbarius ), kestrel or wind-hover ( F. tinnunculus ), and New World sparrow

    hawk ( F. sparverius ) — are rarely called falcons except collectively, for

    their vernacular species-names are in wide use.

            One of the world’s most exclusively arctic birds is the gyrfalcon. An–

    other true falcon, the peregrine, breeds northward on cliffs more or less

    throughout the Arctic, as well as southward in both Old and New Worlds almost

    to the Antarctic (but not in New Zealand). The hobby, merlin, kestrel, New

    World sparrow hawk, and red-footed falcon ( F. vespertinus ) all summer northward

    into the subarctic, nesting in trees, on cliffs, or on the ground.

            References:

    1. Stefansson, V. Greenland . Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York, pp.205-07, 1942. 2. Stefansson, V., Editor. The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher .

    The Argonaut Press, London, pp. xliii-xliv, 1938.

    275      |      Vol_IV-0333                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Falcon and Falconidae

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            1. Stefansson, V. Greenland . Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York, pp.205-07,

    1942.

            2. Stefansson, V., Editor. The three veyages of Martin Frobisher . The

    Argonaut Press, London, pp. xliii-xliv, 1938.

            220. Falconidae . A family of about 60 species of birds of prey, the

    best-known genus of which ( Falco ) is well represented in arctic and subarctic

    regions. The characters which unite the currently recognized subfamilies —

    the Herpetotherinae (laughing falcon and allies), Polyborinae (caracaras),

    Polihieracinae (falconets and allies) and the Falconinae (true falcons) —

    are principally internal. Of these subfamilies only the Falconinae are

    represented in the Far North, the others being principally tropical. See

    Falco .

            221. Falconiformes . An order of diurnal birds of prey consisting of

    the eagles, hwaks, vultures, secretary bird, kites, osprey, and true falcons.

    They are sometimes known as the Raptores. They are, as a rule, large, robust

    birds with powerful wings which enable them to capture living animals of

    various sorts. They have stout, sharply hooked bills with which they can

    tear their prey to pieces. Their legs usually are stout, but the femur is

    long and the knee sticks well out from the body — presumably another mod–

    ification for capturing prey. All falconiform birds save those which regu–

    larly feed upon carrion have long, strongly curved claws. A characteristic

    feature throughout the order is the cere, a sheathlike membrane which covers

    the base of the bill. Into, or along the edge of, this cere the nostrils

    open. The nostrils are imperforate, except in the New World vultures (family

    276      |      Vol_IV-0334                                                                                                                  
    EA-

    Orn. Sutton: Falconiformes

    cathartidae). The only other important groups of birds possessing hooked

    bill and cere are the parrots (order Psittaciformes), which are yoke-toed

    (i. e., with two toes pointing forward and two backward), and the owls (order

    Strigiformes), which are nocturnal for the most part; which have comparatively

    soft, lax plumage and soft, thick cranium; and which have a reversible fourth

    toe. Several falconiform birds have a more of less reversible fourth toe,

    but in only one — the osprey or fish hawk ( Pandion haliaëtus ) — is it pro–

    nouncedly so.

            The Falconiformes are cosmopolitan in distribution, some forms, notably

    the peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrinus ) and osprey being among the most widely

    ranging of land birds. Several species which nest in trees range northward

    to the Arctic Circle and beyond wherever the fo r est does so. Others, which nest

    on cliffs, breed northward to considerably beyond the tree limit. The gyr–

    falcon ( Falco rusticolus ), which is one of these, is almost wholly confined to

    arctic regions. The per e grine falcon, on the other hand, breeds from Greenland,

    the Arctic Archipelago, northern Norway, and Novaya Zemlya southward as far

    as southern South America, South Africa, the Falklands, the Fijis, Australia,

    and Tasmania.

            Falconiform birds have a well-developed crop and not very muscular gizzard.

    The y frequently posses paired ovaries. Gunn found double ovaries in 33 of 50

    specimens of seven species he examined. Falconiform birds rear only one brood

    a year and the brood contains, as a rule, one to three or four young. One egg

    of the clutch frequently does not hatch. The young are covered with down at

    hatching, and remain in the nest for several weeks. Throughout the order

    female birds are as large as, or larger than, the males.



    277      |      Vol_IV-0335                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Falconiformes

            The Falconiformes are currently divided into two suborders, the Cathartae

    (New World vultures) a very small group possessing perforate nostrils, short

    hind toe, blunt claws, naked or down-covered head, naked oil gland and plumage

    without aftershafts, and possessing no syrinx; and the Falcones, which possess

    imperforate nostrils, plumage without aftershafts (except the under parts of

    the osprey), feath e red oil gland (except in the pygmy falcons or falconets of

    the genus Microhierax ), and a syrinx, not to mention other internal characters.

    There is but one family in the suborder Cathartae — the Cathartidae. In the

    Falcones there are four families — the Sagittariidae (secretary bird), the

    Accipitridae (hawks, eagles, harriers, and Old World vultures), the Pandionidae

    (osprey), and the Falconidae (true falcons and allies). The very long-legged

    secretary bird ( Sagittarius serpentarius ) is unique. The Accipitridae and Fal–

    conidae differ from each other principally in internal structure (e.g., the Fal–

    conidae always have 15 cervical vertebrae, the Accipitridae 14 to 17). The

    Pandionidae differ in so many particulars from all other falconiform birds that

    some taxonomists place them in a suborder by themselves. Among the notable

    anatomical features of the Osprey are: (a) the extreme shortness of the plumage

    of the lower tibial region; (b) the remarkable length and curvature of the claws;

    and (c) the arrangement of the plantar tendons, which is similar to that of the

    New World vultures (family Cathartidae) despite the fact that the osprey catches

    and carries its prey with its feet, whereas the New World vultures do not.

            The fossil record of the Falconiformes is a long one. Lithornis vulturinus ,

    a lower Eocene bird whose affinities have not been fully determined, was probably

    falconiform. By Eocene time the Cathartidae, Sagittariidae and Accipitridae all

    were distinguishable, but no falconiform bird has thus far been reported from the

    Mesozoic (Howard).



    278      |      Vol_IV-0336                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Golden Eagle

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey. Falconiformes

    (2 Parts).” U. S. Nat. Mus. Bulls . 167 and 170, Washington,

    D. C. 1937 and 1938. 2. Compton, L. V. “The pterylosis of the Falconiformes with special attention

    to the taxonomic position of the Osprey.” Univ. Calif. Pub .

    Zool. , vol.42 (3), 173-211, 1938. 3. Gunn, T. E. “On the presence of two ovaries in certain British birds, more

    especially the Falconidae.” Proc . Zool. Soc., pp.63-79, London,

    1912. 4. Rand, A.L. “On paired ovaries.” Auk , vol.52, pp.329-30, 1935.

           

    # # #

            223. Golden Eagle . A large eagle, Aquila chryssëtos , found in both the

    Old World and the New, and well known for its majestic bearing and powerful

    flight. It was once widely used in falconry. It is about 30 to 36 inches long,

    with wingspread of 6 to 7 feet. The female is larger than the male. Adult birds

    are dark brown except for the basal half of the tail, which is banded and mottled

    with white or light gray; and the crown, nape, and hind neck, which are tinged

    with golden brown. Immature birds are similar but are more mottled in general

    appearance, are less golden on the head, and are sometimes so white-tailed as

    to look like white-tailed eagles ( Haliaeëtus albicilla ) or immature bald eagles

    ( H. leucocephalus ). Field identification of immature eagles is not easy in the

    north — or anywhere, for that matter. The white-tailed eagle always has a

    wedge-shaped tail, of course, whereas the tail of the golden eagle is square–

    tipped or slightly rounded. The great difficulty comes in distinguishing im–

    mature golden eagles (which have much white at the base of the tail) from young

    bald eagles (which also are dark-headed and more or less white-tailed). These

    two species are about the same size, are similarly square-tailed, and sometimes

    279      |      Vol_IV-0337                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Golden Eagle

    look very much alike; but young bald eagles have much white throughout all the

    under wing coverts from the “armpits” out to the base of the primaries, whereas

    the young golden eagle has dark under wing coverts and a white or light gray

    patch at the base of the primaries. In the hand, white-tailed eagles of any

    age can be recognized by the shortish, wedge-shaped tail and huge bill; golden

    eagles by the completely feathered tarsus; bald eagles by the square-tipped

    tail and unfeathered tarsus.

            In direct flight the golden eagle beats its wings regularly and a trifle

    heavily. Frequently it soars to great heights. In hunting it beats low over

    the ground, dropping swiftly on its prey or overtaking it with a rush which

    sometimes ends in a terrific scattering of vegetation and raising of dust.

    Its favorite perch is a hilltop, dead tree, or crag. In the breeding season

    paired birds perform breathtaking aerial maneuvers together, mounting higher

    and higher in wide spirals, pitching downward, swooping upward with a rush,

    turning somersaults, or locking talons loosely and tumbling earthward. They

    sometimes hunt together especially in plains country, where they c h ase down

    jack rabbits ( Lepus ). Their usual call note is a sort of bark — a high,

    clear kop , kop , kop , kop . When alarmed or angry they utter a penetrating

    squeal. On their nesting grounds they give a thin, shrill yelp.

            The golden eagle is fond of mountainous country and it usually nests on

    a cliff. Nowhere is it truly arctic in the sense that the gyrfalcon ( Falco

    rustiodus ) is, though it breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in

    Alaska (Brooks Range), Mackenzie (Franklin Bay and Horton River), and Scandinavia

    (north to lat. 70° N.). In eastern North America it does not, apparently, range

    farther north than Hudson Bay and northern Ungava. [ ?] oper did not list it from

    Baffin Island. In eastern Asia its northern limits are in Kamchatka. Pleske

    280      |      Vol_IV-0338                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Golden Eagle

    does not mention it in his work on the birds of the Eurasian tundra. Its

    southern limits in the New World are not very clearly defined. It ranges

    widely throughout the Rocky Mountain system and has been recorded as far

    south as the Mexican states of Nuevo Le o ó n, Guanajuato and Hidalgo. It is

    much less common in the Appalachian Range than in the Rockies. In Asia it is

    restricted to the mountainous areas. Its southern limits in the Old World

    are in northern Africa. Eight geographical races are currently recognized,

    chrysaëtos of continental Europe and western Siberia, fulva of Scotland

    and the outer Hebrides, and canadensis of North America being the most

    northward ranging. The several races differ in only minor particulars.

    Fulva is doubtfully distinct from the nominate race.

            The golden eagle is so powerful and so accustomed to nesting on cliffs

    that it is hard to understand why it does not breed farther north than it

    does. The nest is bulky. Where dead branches are available these are [ ?] used

    as foundation material, but many nests are made of brush, grass, and sedge.

    Both the male and female build the nest, adding to it from year to year. some–

    times a pair has two nests which they use in alternate years (Witherby). The

    eggs usually number 2. These are white, flecked with brown and gray. The

    females does most, if not all, of the incubating. The incubation period prob–

    ably is about 35 to 40 days. The down of the newly hatched chick is white

    with pale gray tipping. Fledging requires at least 11 weeks. The young are

    fed on such mammals and birds as are available, including, small fawns, lambs,

    and foxes, and sea birds if the eyrie is near the sea. The golden eagle some–

    times eats carrion. In Pennsylvania it has frequently been caught in winter in

    fox traps baited with meat.



    281      |      Vol_IV-0339                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Goshawk

            References:

    1. Cameron, E.S. “Nesting of the Golden Eagle in Montana.” Auk, vol.22,

    pp.158-67, 1905. 2. MacPherson, H.B. The Home-Life of the Golden Eagle . London, 1909. 3. Slevin, J.R. “A contribution to our knowledge of the nesting of the Golden

    Eagle.” Proc . Calif. Acad. Sci., ser.4, vol.18, pp.45-71, 1929.

           

    # # #

            224. Goshawk . A powerful bird of prey, Accipiter gentilis , found from the

    tree limit southward to about the Tropic of Cancer in both the New World and the

    Old. It was widely used in falconry in former times, being well known for its

    ability to capture game in thick woods as well as in the open. It is about 19

    to 24 inches long, with rather short, rounded wings; long tail; and large,

    strong feet. The female is considerably larger than the male. The sexes are

    alike in coloration, adults being dark ashy gray above and finely barred with

    dark brownish gray and white below. There is a whitish streak from the eye to

    the back of the head. The tail is crossed by several indistinct dark bars. The

    cere and feet are yellowish green, the eyes bright yellow, orange, or red.

    Immature birds are dark brown above, the feathers being margined with buffy brown

    or rufous; and buff, boldly streaked with dark brown, below. The feet, cere, and

    eyes of young birds are less brightly colored than those of adults.

            The goshawk is a distinctly boreal species. It is irregularly migratory.

    Its winter range extends as far south as northern Africa, Virginia, Texas,

    Arizona, and northern Mexico. Food shortage in Canadian forests occasionally

    forces it southward into the northern United States in great numbers. It

    breeds throughout forested parts of the North, ranging northward to the Arctic

    Circle and beyond in Alaska, the Mackenzie River district, northern Scandinavia,

    282      |      Vol_IV-0340                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Goshawk

    the western part of the Murman Coast, and Siberia. It has been reported from

    the mouths of the Yana and Kolyma. It nests in both coniferous and deciduous

    woodland, usually building its own nest, but sometimes using the nest of some

    other large bird. The nest is built by the female, though the male may assist

    a little. The lining usually has a few sprigs of green hemlock or spruce. The

    eggs, which are white or bluish white, and usually unmarked, number 3 or 4

    as a rule. The female does most, if not all, of the incubating. The incuba–

    tion period is 36 to 38 days (Witherby). Young birds stay in the nest about

    6 weeks. One brood per season is reared. During the earlier part of the

    fledging period the male brings all the food, which consists of both birds and

    mammals — grouse, pheasants, partridges, moor hens, rabbits, squirrels — even

    weasels and young foxes. The parent hawks are savage in defense of their nest.

    Their cry of anger is a deep, ho a rse gek, gek, gek, gek . They have been known

    to pounce fiercely upon a man who is climbing to the nest.

            About 12 subspecies of the goshawk are recognized, of which at least the

    following four breed in subarctic regions: gentilis of Scandinavia, Latvia

    and western Russia; buteoides of northeastern Russia and western Siberia

    (eastward to the Yenisei); albidus of eastern Siberia (from the Yana eastward

    to Kamchatka); and atricapillus of North America. Some form almost certainly

    breeds in forested northern Siberia between the Yenisei and Yana Rivers, but

    specimens apparently have not been obtained in this area. The goshawk has

    been reported once from Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island (Kumlien).

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Gromme, O.J. “The Goshawk ( Astur atricapillus atricapillus ) Nesting in

    Wisconsh. “ Auk , vol.52, pp.15-20, 1935. 2. Henderson, A.D. “Nesting habits of the American Goshawk.” Canad. Field - Nat .

    vol. 38, pp.8-9, 1924. 3. Sutton, G.M. “Notes on the nesting of the Goshawk in Potter County, Pennsyl–

    vania.” Wilson Bulletin , vol.37, pp.193-99, 1925.

    283      |      Vol_IV-0341                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gyrfalcon

            229. Gyrfalcon . A handsome, powerful bird of prey, Falco rusticolus ,

    found in arctic and subarctic parts of both the Old and New Worlds. It is

    among the largest of the world’s true falcons, females (which are larger

    than males) measuring up to 24 inches from tip of bill to tip of tail and

    weighing up to 5 lbs. 2 oz. (Sutton). It is well known to the Eskimos, who

    call it the kigavik . As Dementiev and Gortchakovskaya have pointed out, it

    is exclusively arctic in its trophic relations (i.e., its food habits) and

    herein there is an “essential biographical and ecological distinction”

    between it and the peregrine ( F. peregrinus ).

            In behavior it is somewhat like the peregrine but, being larger and

    heavier, it is slower in all its movements, especially in flight. Though

    highly valued for falconry in olden times, it was known to be far less savage

    and swift in its attack than the peregrine. Several authors have called

    attention to its feeding upon the young of various sea birds rather than upon

    the harder-to-catch adults. When ptarmigan ( Lagopus ) are common it preys ex–

    tensively upon them. Manniche and Hagerup found that it was unable to capture

    domestic pigeons. In the vicinity of Etah, Greenland, Donald MacMillan

    observed that it fed largely upon the dovekie ( Plotus alle ), which colonized

    there. It often feeds on small mammals. When lemmings are abundant, it lives

    almost exclusively on them — a custom which it shares with gulls, jaegers,

    and other predatory arctic birds. Dementiev and Gortchakovskaya point out

    that “mammals, chiefly the Lemming, form an important part of its diet.”

    These authors list the snow buting ( Plectrophenax nivalis ), black guillemot

    ( Cepphus grylle ), puffin ( Fratercula arctica ), kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ),

    and even the herring gull ( Larus argentatus ) among the birds which it captures.

    285      |      Vol_IV-0342                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gyrfalcon

    Tough-skinned auks ( Alca ) and murres ( Uria ) it tears open on the breast, turn–

    ing the skin inside out as it devours the carcass. These cleanly picked

    skins, for which the peregrine is also responsible, are a common phenomenon

    along the bases of cliffs near sea bird colonies in the Far North. Usually

    the wingbones and part of the skull are attached to them.

            In general the gyrfalcon is gray above, and white, streaked with gray,

    below; but some birds are very white both above and below, others are very

    dark all over, and even “average” birds vary so greatly that a detailed

    description is inadvisable here. Throughout the species the markings of

    most ventral feathers (if these are marked at all) are streaks, rather than

    bars, though flank feathers and under wing coverts are barred in some in–

    dividuals. Many streaks, especially those of the upper breast, are tear–

    shaped. In virtually all birds the markings of tail feathers, primaries,

    secondaries, and greater wing coverts are bars. Individual variation is far

    greater in some geographical areas than others. The whitest birds of all are

    believed to inhabit Greenland, and these have been considered by some orni–

    thologists to belong to a separate race, candicans ; but recent revisers be–

    lieve that all Greenland and eastern North American gyrfalcons belong to

    one exceedingly variable race, obsoletus . Further investigations may reveal

    a consistent whiteness (i. e., reduction of dark markings) among breeding

    adults, as well as a low incidence of dark young in broods, among the gyr–

    falcons of northern Greenland or northern parts of the Arctic Archipelago;

    but until the existence of such a truly white race can be demonstrated, bird

    students must face the fact that broods of young gyrfalcons in eastern parts

    of the New World frequently consist of individuals so different in appearance

    (some white, some very dark) that without concise knowledge of their sibling

    286      |      Vol_IV-0343                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gyrfalcon

    relationship they would certainly be placed by most taxonomists in wholly dif–

    ferent subspecies or even species (see Todd and Friedmann, 1947. Wils. Bull .

    59: 139-150).

            The gyrfalcon probably breeds throughout the Far North wherever there

    are cliffs and a dependable food supply (i.e., a sea bird colony, ptarmigans,

    or lemmings). Pleske calls attention to its breeding in some numbers on

    the Murman Coast and also on those tunturi (mountain tops) in Lapland “that

    are high enough to reach the alpine zone.” While König lists numerous

    records for Spitsbergen, the species is not definitely known to nest there.

    In Greenland it breeds north to Etah on the west coast and to northern Dove

    Bugt on the east. In Ellesmere Island it has been recorded from East Bay.

    Along the northwest coast of Devon Island it has been reported from Capes

    Hayes, Frazer, and Napoleon. It probably breeds in the Franz Josef Archipelago,

    where Neale saw a pure white individual in April, 1882 ( Proc . Zool. Soc.

    London, 1882, p. 653). The southern limits of its breeding range are Ice–

    land, northern Scandinavia, northern Russia and Siberia, Kamchatka, certain

    islands in the Bering Sea, the Atlin region of British Columbia, northern

    Mackenzie (Anderson River), Southampton Island (Canyon River and the Porsild

    Mountains probably), northern Quebec (Fort Chimo), and northern Labrador

    (Nain). In some parts of its range (e. g., Norway, it is comparatively non–

    migratory, but most breeding populations probably drift southward somewhat

    in winter. While there are numerous winter records for various parts of the

    Far North, there are few, if any, dead of winter records for high latitudes.

    During the long winter night most gyrfalcons probably are far enough south

    to obtain food by daylight and perhaps even to take a brief daily sun bath.



    287      |      Vol_IV-0344                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gyrfalcon

            Several races of gyrfalcon have been described, four of which are now

    considered valid. F. rusticolus rusticolus breeds in northern Norway, in

    Lapland, and in northern Russia. Iceland birds ( islandus ) are paler and

    somewhat larger. From western Siberia eastward to Kamchatka, the Bering

    Sea islands, and the Bering coast of Al a ska, breeds another race, uralensis ,

    in which the outermost primary is shorter than the fourth (counting from

    the outside). The Greenland and eastern North American race, obsoletus , is

    the most puzzling and least satisfactory of all in that it is so variable —

    some birds being almost pure white, others so dark as to look black at a

    distance, others, intermediate.

            The gyrfalcon nests on a cliff, usually near the sea. Frequently the

    eggs are laid directly on the rock or earth, with little more than a few

    twigs, grasses, or bird bones and feathers serving as a nest. Bulky nests

    of twigs and moss which gyrfalcons sometimes use are almost certainly old

    nests of ravens ( Corvus corax ). The eggs, which usually number 4 (sometimes 3,

    rarely 5), are white or tawny in ground color, handsomely spotted and blotched

    with dark reddish brown. The female is largely responsible for the incubation,

    though the male probably assists a little. The incubation period is 28 days.

    During the fledging period the male captures most, if not all, of the food,

    bringing it to the eyrie and delivering it to the female. As a rule the gyr–

    falcon is silent; but when its nest is treatened it breaks forth into cackling

    cries which resemble those of the peregrine but are louder and deeper.

            In mediaeval times the gyrfalcon, especially the white gyrfalcon of Green–

    land, was highly prized for falconry. Stefansson (1942, Greenland . Doubleday,

    Doran and Co., New York, pp.207-09) discusses transactions involving these

    valuable white birds.



    288      |      Vol_IV-0345                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gyrfalcon and Haliaeetus

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Dementiev, G.P. and Gortchakovskaya, N.N. “On the biology of the Norweigan

    Gyrfalcon.” Ibis , vol.87, pp.559-65, 1945. 2. Koelz, Walter. “On a collection of Gyrfalcons from Greenland.” Wilson

    Bulletin , vol.41, pp.207-19, 1929. 3. Lewis, Ernest. In search of the Gyr-Falcon: an account of a trip to

    north-west Iceland . London, Constable and Co., 1938. 4. Sherlock, G.H. “Beobachtungen am Horst des Isländischen Jagdfalken.”

    Jour. f. Ornith ., vol.88, pp.136-38 (with excellent photos).

           

    # # #

            230. Haliaeetus . A genus of eagles sometimes referred to as the sea

    eagles because they usually inhabit coastal districts. They are large, power–

    ful birds with great wingspread. The primaries are only a little longer than

    the secondaries, the third, fourth, and fifth (counting from the outside)

    being the longest. These, with the sixth and seventh, form the visible tip

    of the folded wing (i.e., protrude beyond the secondaries). The bill is

    large and thick, strongly curved at the tip, but relatively straight along

    the cutting edge and basal half of the culmen. The nostrils are oval or

    round. The tail is wedge-shaped, slightly rounded, or square, and rather

    short, being about half as long as the wing. The feet are very large and

    strong, the tarsus being about as long as the middle toe and its claw and

    entirely free of feathers throughout the distal half or more, but feathered

    at the proximal end. The claws are long and strongly curved. The feathers

    of the entire head and neck are lanceolate. The eggs are plain white. The

    down of the newly hatched young is long, especially on the top of the head.

    The sexes are colored alike. Fully adult birds are more boldly patterned

    289      |      Vol_IV-0346                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Haliaeetus

    than young birds. In some species, three or four years (or more) are re–

    quired for the development of the fully adult plumage.

            The sea eagles feed extensively on fish, some of which they find dead

    along the shore. They also capture small mammals and aquatic birds. They

    are, as compared with the golden eagle and its allies (genus Aquila ) slug–

    gish birds, given to sitting motionless for hours while watching for prey

    or digesting a large meal. In some species the voice is loud, in others

    shrill and feeble. All species have remarkable powers of flight. As a

    group they are given to majestic soaring.

            Haliaeetus is found on all continents except South America. Of the

    eight species, three range northward into the Subarctic or Arctic — albicilla

    (white-tailed or gray sea eagle), leucocephalus (bald, white-headed or Amer–

    ican eagle), and pelagicus (Steller’s sea eagle) — but none of these is ex–

    clusively arctic and none is really holarctic. Albicilla occurs in the New

    World only in Greenland (rarely in the Aleutians and Baffin Island); leuco –

    cephalus probably does not inhabit any part of the Old World regularly, though

    it has been reported once from extreme northeastern Siberia; and pelagicus

    has a very restricted range in the North Pacific (Kamchatka, Sakhalin, the

    Komandorskis, and certain other Being Sea islands). The three just-mentioned

    species are exclusively northern to the extent that none ranges southward to

    the equator. The most southward-ranging species of the genus are leucogaster

    (white-bellied sea eagle) of the Malay Archipelago, western Polynesia,

    Australia, and Tasmania; vocifer (vociferous sea eagle) of Africa; and voci –

    feroïdes (Madagascar sea eagle), of Madagascar. These three species are ex–

    clusively southern.



    290      |      Vol_IV-0347                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Haliaeetus and Hawk

            Haliaeetus is quite uniform morphologically, but there is some difference

    of opinion as to whether the rather weak-billed leucogaster , vocifer , vocifer –

    oïdes , and leucoryphus (Pallas’s sea eagle), all of which have wedge-shaped

    tails, should be placed in the separate genus Cuncuma ; and as to whether the

    Steller’s sea eagle, which has a strongly graduated (i.e., wedge-shaped) tail

    of 14 (intead of 120) feathers should be placed in the monotypic genus Thal –

    lassoaëtus .

            231. Hawk . A name loosely applied to small or middle-sized falconiform

    birds, i.e., species smaller than eagles. Hawks are well known for their

    predatory habits, swift flight, hooked beack, curved claws, etc. the most dis–

    tinctly arctic “hawk” of the world is the gyrfalcon ( Falco rusticolus ), a true

    falcon (family Falconidae) which is sometimes referred to as the partridge hawk

    because it captures ptarmigan. Another arctic “hawk” is the peregrine falcon

    ( Falco peregrinus ), a widely ranging species represented in North America by the

    race F. peregrinus anatum , a form almost universally called the duck hawk. A

    third arctic “hawk” is the merlin ( Falco columbarius ), the nominate race of which

    is widely known as the pigeon hawk. The rough-legged hawk or rough-legged buz–

    zard ( Buteo lagopus ), goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ), marsh hawk or hen harrier

    ( Circus cyaneus ), and fish hawk or osprey ( Pandion haliaëtus ) all range north–

    ward to the Arctic Circle or slightly beyond in both the New World and the Old.

    In falconry the term “hawk” is usually applied to the short-winged, long-tailed

    accipiters, never to the true falcons of the genus Falco .

            See Goshawk, Sparrow Hawk, Gyrfalcon, Peregrine Falcon, Rough-legged Hawk

    or Rough-legged Buzzard, Marsh Hawk, Red-legged Falcon, Hobby, and Kestrel.



    291      |      Vol_IV-0348                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hobby

            233. Hobby . An Old World falcon, Falco subbuteo , which is much like

    the peregrine in proportions and behavior, but considerably smaller. It

    is 12 to 14 inches long. The female is usually larger than the male. Adults

    are slaty gray above, with a broad black, “moustache” or stripe extending from

    the eye down ward across the face; buffy white below, conspicuously streaked

    with black throughout the breast, belly, and sides; and rusty red on the

    thighs (flags) and under tail coverts. The young in first winter plumage

    are dark brown above, and light brownish buff (streaked with black) below,

    without any reddish brown on the thighs and under tail coverts. The female’s

    wings are said to “lock markedly broader … and blunter at the tip” in the

    field than the male’s

            The hobby is swift-winged and captures even such rapid-flying birds as

    swifts ( Apus apus ) on the wing. It “stoops” for its prey, usually beating

    over open country rather than through woodland. It is somewhat crepuscular,

    as are most other falcons, capturing some of its prey in the twilight. Its

    cry has been described as a clear, repeated kew - kew - kew - kew - kew .

            The hobby rears its young in the unoccupied nests of various tree-nesting

    birds and mammals. In Europe it breeds northward to about latitude 62° N.

    in Norway, to 67° N. in Sweden, and to 65° N. in Finland. On the Pechora

    River it breeds northward to about 67° N. Across Asia it breeds northward

    presumably to about the tree limit. All these northern Eurasian birds are

    currently believed to belong to the nominate race, there being two other races

    ( centralasiae and streichi ) in more southern parts of Asia, and another race

    ( jugurtha ) in northwestern Africa. Falco subbuteo subbuteo is definitely

    migratory, especially in northern parts of its range. In winter it is found

    southward as far as Africa, India, southeastern China.



    292      |      Vol_IV-0349                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hobby and Honey Buzzard

            The eggs usually number 3. They are white, heavily spotted all over

    with reddish brown. The female does most of the incubating though the male

    occasionally assists. The incubation period is 28 days. During the early

    part of the fled g ing period the female stays at the nest and the male brings

    in all the food, but during the latter part of the period the female joins

    in the chase. The young stay in the nest 4 or 5 weeks. The parent birds

    feed the young for some time after they have left the nest. The food con–

    sists largely of small birds and insects, though some small mammals (include–

    ing bats) are consumed.

            References:

    1. Scholze, W. “A contribution on the breeding biology of the Hobby ( Falco

    s. subbuteo L.).” Journ. f. Ornith ., vol.81, pp.377-87, 1933. 2. Tinbergen, N. “Observation s on the Hobby ( Falco s. subbuteo L.).” Journ .

    f. Ornith ., vol.80, pp.40-50, 1932.

            234. Honey Buzzard . A rather sluggish Old World bird of prey, Pernis

    apivorus , which feeds largely on wasp larvae, but also on wild bees and their

    honey, hornets and other insects, nestling birds, small mammals, frogs, and

    lizards. It breeds throughout much of continental Eurasia, as well as Celebes,

    the Philippines, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. The northernmost area in which it

    is known to breed apparently is northern Sweden. Dementiev states that it

    ranges north to latitude 58° N. in the Urals and to the Amur River in eastern

    Asia. It nests only in trees, and the insects and other animals on which it

    customarily feeds are mostly southern in their affinities. The well-known

    293      |      Vol_IV-0350                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Honey Buzzard and Kestrel

    European race, P. apivorus apivorus , winters in Africa south to Natal.

            The honey buzzard frequently feeds on the ground. It walks well and

    even runs. For other characteristics, see Pernis.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Gentz, K. “On the brood-rearing of the Honey Buzzard.” Journ. f. Ornith .,

    vol.83, pp.105-14 (with excellent photos), 1935. 2. Wendland, Victor. “The Honey Buzzard ( Pernis apivorus L.).” Journ. f .

    Ornith ., vol.83, pp.88-104 (with escellent photos), 1935.

           

    # # #

            236. Kestrel . A small falcon, Falco tinnunculus , which breeds throughout

    the greater part of Eurasia (including Japan) and Africa (including the Canary,

    Madeira, and Cape Verde Islands). In England it is widely known as the wind–

    hover because of its custom of hanging mid-air on beating wings while watching

    the ground for prey. It is 13 to 14 inches long, the sexes being about the

    same in size but quite different in color. The adult male is bluish gray on

    the upper part of the head; chestnut, spotted with black, on the back, scapu–

    lars, and wing coverts; gray on the rump and tail with a broad black subterminal

    tail band; and buff, streaked with dusky, below. The cere, eyelids, and feet

    are yellow; the eyes very dark brown, almost black. The female is less boldly

    patterned, being rufous, barred with black, above, and buff, streaked with

    dusky, below. Immature birds resemble the female. The usual call note is a

    shrill kee-lee , kee-lee , kee-lee .

            The kestrel hunts in open country and nests on cliffs and in woodlands.

    It does not range far to the north of the tree limit. It is definitely migra–

    tory along the northern edge of its range, but some of the southern races

    294      |      Vol_IV-0351                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kestrel

    probably are sedentary. The two northernmost races are Falco tinnunculus tin –

    nunculus , which breeds northward to latitude 70° N. in Norway, Sweden, and

    Finland, and at least to 63° N. in Russia, the Ural Mountains and the Yenisei

    Valley, and winters southward to the Gold Coast, Tanganyika, and Arabia; and

    F. tinnunculus dörriesi , which breeds in northern Siberia (east of the Yenisei)

    and winters in southern Asia and probably the Philippines. Besides these

    two northern races, 10 others are currently recognized, the southernmost

    being F. tinnunculus rupicolus of South Africa. The kestrel has been re–

    ported from Bear Island.

            The kestrel does not build a nest, but lays its eggs on a ledge or in

    the old, flattened nest of a crow or squirrel. The eggs, which usually

    number 4 or 5 (though as many as 9 have been reported), are white, blotched

    with reddish brown. The female performs most of the duties of incubation,

    though the male assists. The incubation period is about 28 days. During

    the earlier part of the fledging period the male obtains all of the food,

    giving it to the female, which in turn feeds it to the young. The fledging

    period is 27 to 30 days. The food is largely small mammals (mice, voles,

    and rats principally), but some small birds, insects, and amphibians are cap–

    tured.



    295      |      Vol_IV-0352                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kite and Marsh Hawk

            237. Kite . A sluggish bird of prey, Milvus milvus , of Europe and north–

    western Africa (including the Canary and Cape Verde islands). It breeds as

    far north as latitude 61° N. in Scandinavia. Birds which breed in northern

    Europe migrate to the Mediterranean countries in winter. The kite is a large,

    rather plain brown bird with long wings, and forked, chestnut brown tail. The

    closely related black kite ( Milvus migrans ) of southern Eurasia, Africa, and

    Australia, probably ranges farthest north in Russia, where it breeds at lat–

    itude 63° N. The only other species of the genus Milvus , M. lineatus , inhabits

    Asia, ranging northward to about latitude 58° N. in western Siberia. No kite

    of the New World ranges northward into the Subarctic, and most northern form,

    the swallow-tailed kite ( Elanoides forficatus ), having bred formerly as far

    north as northern Minnesota.

            239. Marsh Hawk . A long-winged, long-tailed, proportionately light-bodied

    bird of prey, Circus Circus cyaneus cyaneus , which is known in Great Britain as the hen harrier.

    It is about 17 to 20 inches long. The female is larger than the male. The

    adult male is a beautiful gull gray on the head and upper parts, black on the

    wing tips, and white below. The adult female is very different, being dark

    brown (streaked with buffy white on the head, neck, and under parts). Young

    birds of both sexes resemble the adult female, but the brown of their plumage

    is richer. In all plumages the broad, pure-white rump patch is a good diagnostic

    field mark; but the species is readily identifiable in North America simply

    from its habit of coursing back and forth in open country a few feet above the

    ground while hunting prey. Occasionally it soars — whence the name Circus ;

    and the courting male’s serial somersaulting is truly spectacular. Marsh hawks

    296      |      Vol_IV-0353                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: March Hawk

    confine their hunting to flat, open country, and usually nest in a wet, sedgy

    place, choosing a dry hummock as the nest site. They can walk and hop with

    agility, choosing a dry hummock as the nest site. They can walk and hop with

    agility, for their legs, though long and slender, are very strong. They

    usually capture their prey with a quick turn in flight and pounce.

            The marsh hawk subsists on mice, frogs, snakes, insects, and small birds.

    It breeds throughout a wide continental area in both the New World and the

    Old. Witherby tells us that it breeds northward to latitude 69°30′ N. in

    Norway, to 68°30′ N. in Sweden, and to 68° N. in Russia. Pleske does not

    list it in his Birds of the Eurasian Tundra , but Dementiev states that it

    attains “lat. 69 1/4° N. in certain localities in Siberia.” Apparently it

    does not breed in Kamchatka. In Alaska it breeds in some numbers in the gen–

    eral vicinity of Kotzebue Sound, specifically along the Kobuk River, but it

    has not been found in summer in the Point Barrow region. It breeds along the

    lower Anderson River, at the mouth of the Mackenzie, and at various points in

    northern Ontario and northern Manitoba. It breeds fairly commonly at the

    mouth of the Churchill River on the west coast of Hudson Bay. Though not a

    forest-inhabiting bird its northern limits seem to coincide with the limits

    of trees. It is strongly migratory. Old World birds winter as far south as

    the Mediterranean countries, northeastern Africa, northern India, Burma, and

    China. In America it has been recorded in winter as far south as the West

    Indies, Mexico, Central America, and even Colombia. Three races are recog–

    nized: Circus Cyaneu cyaneus of Europe and Asia as far east (probably) as

    the Lena River; C. c. taissiae of northeastern Siberia; and C. cyaneus hud –

    sonius of North America. In hudsonius the white under parts of the adult male

    are flecked with light brown.



    297      |      Vol_IV-0354                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: March Hawk

            The marsh hawk nests in a march as a rule, but I have found nests in

    dry “shinnery oak” scrub in western Oklahoma and among scattered tamaracks

    near tree limit in Canada. The female builds the nest, which is a grass–

    or reed-lined basin. The eggs, which are bluish white (rarely spotted

    lightly with brown) number 4 to 6 as a rule, though as many as 8 have been

    recorded. Incubation, which required 29 to 30 days, is performed entirely

    by the female. The process of feeding the female during this period is

    interesting. The male, on returning with prey, calls his mate from the

    nest and passes the food to her in mid-air, either allowing her to take it

    with her feet directly from him, or dropping it for her to catch before it

    touches the ground. The newly batched chicks are pale buff, somewhat

    darker above than below. The young remain in or near the nest for 5 or 6

    weeks and are fed by the parent birds for some time even after they have

    learned to fly.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Errington, P.L. “Territory disputes of three pairs of nesting March

    Hawks.” Wilson Bulletin , vol.42, pp.237-39, 1930. 2. Saunders, A.A. “A study of the nesting of the Marsh Hawk.” Condor ,

    vol.15, pp.99-104, 1913.

    298      |      Vol_IV-0355                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Merlin

            240. Merlin . A small falcon, Falcon columbarius , which nests on the

    ground as well as in trees, and which ranges northward to tree limit in

    both the New World and the Old. The best known of the races found in America,

    F. columbarius columbarius , is commonly called the pigeon hawk, because in

    flight it resembles a gray pigeon.

            The merlin is about 10 to 13 inches long, the female being considerably

    larger than the male. Its flight is buoyant and impetuous. While hunting

    it usually flies close to the ground, and even when idling along just above

    the treetops it rarely soars. The adult male is bluish gray above (very dark

    in some races, very light in others), and buff, streaked with black, below.

    It has no moustaches or faci e l stripes reaching downward below the eyes. The

    back and scapulars and narrowly streaked, the wings and tail barred, with

    black. In certain races the tail-barring is reduced to a single broad sub–

    terminal band. The adult female is noticeably browner than the male through–

    out the upper parts, and the streaking of the under parts is heavier. Young

    birds in first winter plumage are brown above, and buff, heavily streaked with

    back, below. The feet, cere, and eyelids are clear yellow, the eyes dark

    brown, almost black.

            The merlin is circumboreal in distribution. It does not, so far as is

    known, occur regularly in Greenland, though a race, Falco columbarius sub –

    aesalon , is endemic to Iceland. The best known [ ?] of the Old World races,

    F. columbarius aesalon , breeds in the Faeroes, Scotland, northern England,

    and from Scandinavia (north to lat. 71° N. in Norway) eastward to the river

    Mezen and south to the Baltic States. A closely related race, F. columbarius

    regulus , breeds in northeastern Russia, the south island of Novaya Zemlya,

    299      |      Vol_IV-0356                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Merlin

    Kolguev, Vaigach, and western Siberia (Brekhovski Island, at the mouth of

    the Yenisei). Another race, F. columbarius insignis , breeds in eastern Si–

    beria. Műnsterhjelm has encountered the species once in Spitsbergen, and

    Johnsen lists it as a “very rare visitor” to Bear Island. The nominate

    race, F. columbarius columbarius , breeds in forested parts of northeaster

    North America, northward to tree limit in Labrador, and to Churchill along

    the west coast of Hudson Bay. F. columbarius bendirei breeds in northwestern

    Canada and northern Alaska. This race is doubtfully separable from colum –

    barius . A very dark race, F. columbarius suckleyi , breeds on Kodiak and

    probably other island off the coast of Alaska and British Columbia. A

    beautiful pale race, F. columbarius richardsonii , breeds in the Great Plains

    region of southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and northern Montana.

    As a whole the species is definitely migratory, save possibly in Iceland,

    where it may be sedentary. It is found in winter throughout southern

    Europe, northern Africa, northwestern India, northwestern South America,

    the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America.

            In the north of England the merlin breeds on the moors and rough mountain

    pastures, often in a spot which a man can reach without arduous climbing.

    In many parts of its range it nests in trees, using the old nests of crows

    or squirrels. Occasionally it nests among shrubbery on a cliff. The eggs,

    which usually number 4 or 5, are handsomely blotched and spotted with reddish

    brown. Rarely they are almost immaculate, while frequently they are solid

    rusty brown. The duties of incubation are discharged principally by the

    female, though the male sometimes assists. The incubation period is 28 to

    32 days. The young, which remain in the nest about four weeks, are fed

    300      |      Vol_IV-0357                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Merlin and Milvus

    directly by the female during at least the first part of the fledging period,

    though the male brings all or most of the food to the nest. The food con–

    sists largely of small birds, but voles, shrews, and insects sometimes are

    captured.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Craighead, Frank and John. “Nesting Pigeon Hawks.” Wilson Bulletin , vol.

    52, pp.241-48, 1940. 2. Rowan, William. “Observations on the breeding habits of the Merlin.”

    British Birds , vol.15, pp.122-29, 194-202, 222-31, and 246-53,

    1921-22.

           

    # # #

            241. Milvus . A falconiform genus composed of three species of Old

    World kites, the best known of which probably is the common kite or red kite

    ( Milvus milvus ) of Europe, northern Africa, and the Cape Verdes. The genus

    is characterized by its long, more or less deeply forked tail; long, rather

    pointed wings (the third, fourth, and fifth primaries, counting from the out–

    side, being the longest); and the very short tarsus, the proximal end of

    which is feather-covered. Milvus milvus and M. migrans (black kite) both range

    northward into the Subarctic, the former as far as northern Sweden, the latter

    to latitude 63° N. in Russia. M. lineatus (black-eared kite) of Asia apparently

    does not range farther north than latitude 58° N. The most southward-ranging

    species is migrans , which breeds southward to South Africa, Madagascar, and the

    Comoro Islands ( M. migrans parasiticus ); to Burma, Ceylon and rarely the Malay

    Peninsula ( M. migrans govinda ); and New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Timor,

    and Australia ( M. migrans affinis ).

            See Kite.



    301      |      Vol_IV-0358                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Osprey or Fish Hawk

            244. Osprey or Fish Hawk . A remarkable falconiform bird, Pandion

    haliaëtus , which feeds almost exclusively on fish. It has dense, rather

    short body plumage and long, narrow wings. It is 20 to 24 inches long and

    has a wingspread of about 6 feet. It is blackish brown above the white below.

    At a distance it appears to be white-headed, but a h broad, dark-brown steak

    leads from each eye backward through the auriculars. The chest is crossed

    by a more or less definite band of brown spots. The narrow barring of the

    primaries, secondaries, and tail feathers show principally on the under

    side when the bird is flying. The feathers of the crown and nape are long

    and pointed, forming a crest when raised. The feet, which are large and

    powerful, are light bluish gray. The eyes are orange-yellow. In young birds

    the scapulars, wing coverts, and tertials are conspicuously edged with white.

    In flight the osprey is almost instantly recognizable from the blackish brown

    of its upper parts, the gleaming white of its under parts, and its long, nar–

    row wings. When perching it folds its wings loosely and has a dispropor–

    tionately long-necked, long-legged appearance.

            The osprey often fishes by itself, flying along a stream or lake-shore,

    circling deliberately as it watches the water beneath it. When it sees a

    good-sized fish not far below the surface it plunges with a mighty splash,

    sometimes disappearing for a full second or so, but coming up with wings flap–

    ping. Having risen clear of the water, it shakes itself vigorously in mid-air,

    sometimes losing considerable altitude. Then it flies off, holding the fish

    head- or tail-foremost (not crosswise) so that both the bird and its cargo

    and stream - lined. All is now well unless that big pirate, the bald eagle

    ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) shows up, If the eagle appears, the traditional

    302      |      Vol_IV-0359                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Osprey or Fish Hawk

    chase takes place. Finally the osprey, tired of being badgered, and squeal–

    ing shrilly, drops the fish, which the eagle grasps long before it reaches

    the ground or water. Sometimes, especially along the seacoast in early fall,

    large numbers of ospreys fish together, and the p g raceful wheeling, hovering,

    and plunging of the big birds is memorable indeed, especially if the sea and

    sky are dark and the surf heavy.

            The osprey builds a bu i l ky nest on a cliff or rocky islet, in the broken-

    off top of a dead tree, or on the ground. Both the male and female work at

    the building, the male bringing in the material while the female arranges

    it (Witherby). Nests are sometimes used for years. The eggs, which number

    2 to 4, are very beautiful. They are white, boldly blotched with reddish

    chocolate. Occasionally they are so heavily marked as to be solidly brown

    all over. They are incubated for 35 days, chiefly by the female. The newly

    hatched young, which are covered with short, very dense down, are creamy white

    below, mottled brown and buff above. The dorsal markings tend to form a

    streak which runs the full length of the back. The young stay in the nest

    for 7 to 8 weeks. During the earlier part of this fledging period the male

    does all the fishing, though the female stays at the nest and does the actual

    feeding of the young. When the young birds are strong enough to east by them–

    selves both parent birds capture fish, which they drop into the nest.

            The osprey is almost cosmopolitan in distribution. It breeds northward

    to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in Alaska (upper Yukon River), Scan–

    dinavia (north to lat. 70° N.), northern Russia (north of the Pechora), and

    probably Siberia. In some parts of its range it nests regularly on the

    ground, but its northern breeding limits are apparently determined to some

    303      |      Vol_IV-0360                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Osprey and Pandionidae

    extent by the forest, for nowhere is it an arctic cliff-nester comparable

    to the rough-legged hawk ( Buteo lagopus ) or a tundra ground-nester comparable

    to the snowy owl ( Nyctea scandiaca ). Five races currently are recognized —

    haliaëtus of Eurasia (winter range: Africa, India, the Philippines, and

    Sundas); carolinensis of the New World (winter range: southern United States,

    Mexico, Central America, West Indies, and South America); ridgwayi , a nomi–

    gratory race of the Bahamas and coasts of Yucatan and British Honduras;

    cristatus of Australia and the East Indies; and microhaliaëtus of New Caledonia.

    The osprey does not inhabit New Zealand.

            For details concerning the osprey’s anatomy and classification see Pan–

    dionidae.

            Reference:

    Abbott, C.G. The Home-Life of the Osprey . Witherby and Co., London, 1911.

            246. Pandionidae . The monotypic falconiform family to which the osprey

    or fish hawk ( Pandion haliaëtus ) belongs. In certain anatomical respects

    (pterylosis and arrangement of plantar tendons) the osprey is similar to the

    New World vultures (suborder Cathartae), but otherwise it is, of course, a

    very different bird. Its nostrils are imperforate; some of its feathers have

    aftershafts; its oil gland is feathered; and in behavior and distribution it

    is so dissimilar to the Cathartae that placing it with that small and well–

    defined group is wholly unwarranted. Authors have long agreed that the osprey

    is not very closely related to the eagles and buzzards (subfamily Buteoninae),

    harriers (Circinae), or accipiters (Accipitrinae), though some have placed it

    304      |      Vol_IV-0361                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pandionidae

    with the Perninae (honey buzzard and allies). Recent studies of its internal

    anatomy have convinced Hudson (1947. Am. Midland Naturalist 39: 126) that

    it belongs with the Falcones, not only in a family, but in a suborder , by

    itself.

            The plumage of the Pandionidae is hard, dense, and short, and it smells

    and feels oily. The feathers of the interscapular region, rump, and anal

    area have aftershafts. The feathers of the lower tibial region are short,

    there berg no “flag” comparable to that of most falconiform birds. The bill

    is strongly hooked. The nostrils, which are small and slitlike, are not

    covered by bristles. There is no facial ruff of feathers, as in the Circinae.

    The eyes are placed in the sides of the head, but, viewed from the front,

    the osprey has a somewhat owl-like expression. The feet are extremely strong;

    the tarsi reticulate; the under surface of the toes rough, covered with small,

    pointed (spiculate) scales. The claws are extremely long, much curved, and

    strong. The reversible outer toe is apparently a modification for capturing

    and carrying fish, for these are carried not crosswise but parallel to the

    osprey’s body, the grasping feet being placed one in front of the other. The

    osprey’s wings are extremely long and narrow. Never are they quite fully

    spread when set for soaring or sailing, for the wing-outline [ ?] of flying

    bird has a crook at the wrist which is distinctive.

            The Pandionidae are almost cosmopolitan. For details of distribution,

    see Osprey or Fish Hawk.



    305      |      Vol_IV-0362                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Peregrine Falcon

            249. Peregrine Falcon . A true falcon, Falco peregrinus , famous for its

    swift “stoop” in which it snatches birds from the air or strikes them dead

    and circles quickly or retrieve them. It is capable of killing prey much

    heavier than itself and is much swifter and bolder than the gyrfalcon ( Falco

    rusticolus ). It has been known to kill itself in striking heavy prey. In

    mediaeval times it was widely used in falconry, the female being called the

    falcon, the male the tercel (because it was a third smaller than the female).

    An American subspecies, F. peregrinus anatum , is usually called the duck hawk.

    The Eskimo name for the peregrine is kigaviatsuk or kigaviarsuk (diminutive

    of kigvik , the name for the gyrfalcon).

            The adult peregrine is bluish gray above, darkest on the top of the

    head, with a brownish-black facial mask extending downward from the eye; and

    buffy white below, spotted and barred on the lower breast, belly, sides,

    flanks, and flags, with black. The contrast between the dark upper art and

    light lower part of the head is sharp. The cere, eyelids, and feet are

    clear, rich yellow. The eyes are very dark and piercingly bright. The

    female is darker above, and usually more heavily barred below, than the male.

    The young bird in its first winter plumage is dark brown above, and buffy

    white, streaked with black, below. Its feet are pale yellow. Its care and

    eyelids are pale green gradually turning yellow with age.

            The peregrine is one of the most cosmopolitan of all land birds. It

    breeds from northern continental American and Eurasia southward to Tierra del

    Fuego, the Falklands, South Africa, Madagascar, Australia, Tasmania, and the

    Fijis. So far as is known, it does not breed on islands in the eastern Pacific

    nor in New Zealand. It nests on cliffs, hence is not dependent upon forest

    either for shelter or for nest sites. It preys on birds of all sorts, especially

    306      |      Vol_IV-0363                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Peregrine Falcon

    water birds. These, like itself, are found along far northern coasts.

            Many geographical races have been described, 16 of which are listed

    in Peters’s Check-List of Birds of the World (1931. 1: 288-290). The

    races which occur in arctic and subarctic regions are: peregrines , which

    breeds in Europe from northern Scandinavia and northern Russia east to

    the Urals and south to the Pyrenees, Alps, Italy, Rumania, and northern

    parts of the Balkan Peninsula; calidus , which breeds in northern Asia from

    western Siberia east to the Anadyr Valley and Kamchatka; anatum , which

    breeds from northern Alaska eastward across Arctic America to Baffin Island

    and southern Greenland (as far north as Holesteinsborg and Angmagssalik), and

    southward to Baja California, and coast of Sonora, central Arizona, south–

    western Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia; rudolfi , which breeds on the Koman–

    dorskis; and pealesi pealei , which breeds on the other i [ ?] ands of the Bering Sea.

    While the species is thus holarctic in distribution, its breeding range is

    not continuous, nor does it breed northward to very high latitudes. Pleske

    tells us that it does not breed in Spitsbergen, Bear Island, or the Franz

    Josef Archipelago. Though it has not actually been reported from the Kanin

    Peninsula, it almost certainly breeds there. It is known to nest on Kolguev;

    at the mouth of the Pechora; on both islands of Novaya Zemlya; and at the

    mouth of the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena rivers. It apparently has not been re–

    ported from the Taimyr Peninsula, though it has been found on Bennett and

    Fadeerski islands in the New Siberian Archipelago. It has been reported from

    Vaigach and Jan Mayen but not, thus far, from Wrangel, Herald, and Westward–

    lying islands of the Arctic Archipelago.

            The peregrine has been known to nest in hollow trees or old crow nests

    in continental Europe, and in America it sometimes nests on tall buildings.

    307      |      Vol_IV-0364                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Peregrine Falcon

    For years a pair has nested on the Sun-Life Building in Montreal, Quebec,

    where G. Harper Hall has made spectacular photographs of it. The 3 to 4 (rarely

    as few as 2 or as many as 6) eggs are usually laid in a “scrape” in the sand,

    or on the bare rock, without grass or other nest material. They are usually

    so h e avily marked as to appear solid orange-tawny, rusty brown, or deep brick–

    red. Both sexes are said to incubate, though the female spends more time on

    the nest and is fed by the male which calls as he flies in with prey, waits

    for her to leave the nest and joint him in air, then gives her the food di–

    rectly or drops it for her to catch. Fledging of the young requires 5 to 6

    weeks. During the first 2 weeks of this period the male captures all of the

    food, passing it in flight to the female, who in turn feeds it to the young;

    but during the latter part of the period the female also joins in the chase.

    After the young leave the nests the parents continue to feed them, sometimes

    dropping prey to them mid-air. Only one brood is reared per season. Peregrines

    are believed to pair for life. They are very bold in defense of their nesting

    ledges. When one bird of a pair is killed another usually takes its place

    promptly. This replacement is so rapid that we are forced to believe that

    there is a considerable floating population of unpaired birds.

           

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

            References:

    1. Demandt, C. “Brutbiologische Beobachtungen an einem Felsenhorst des Wander–

    falken.” Beiträge zur Fortpfl. der Vögel , vol.15, pp.89-101, 1939. 2. Dixon, Joseph. “A family of young Duck Hawks,” Condor , vol.10, pp.198-200, 1908. 3. Hickey, J.J. “Eastern population of the Duck Hawk.” Auk , vol.59, pp.176-204, 4. Ingram, G.C.S. “Notes on the nesting habits of the Peregrine Falcon (2).”

    British Birds , vol.22, pp.198-202, 1929.

    308      |      Vol_IV-0365                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pernis and Red-footed Falcon

            250. Pernis . The monotypic falconiform genus to which the honey buzzard

    ( Pernis apivorus ) belongs. It is characterized principally by the small

    scale-like feathers which cover the lores and forehead, there being no bristles

    whatever throughout these parts. The cere is about as long as the rest of the

    bill. The nostrils are slitlike and obliquely placed. The wings are long,

    the third and fourth primaries (counting from the outside) being the longest.

    The tarsus is short and strong, the proximal half being covered with feathers,

    the distal half featherless and scutellate. The bird frequently soars. It

    walks gracefully, somewhat in the manner of a hooded crow ( Corvus cornix ) and

    runs easily. The genus ranges throughout much of Eurasia (from the fringes

    of the Subarctic southward), the Malay Archipelago, and (in winter only) Africa.

            See Honey Buzzard.

            252. Red-footed Falcon . A small Old World falcon, Falco vespertinus ,

    which resembles the kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus ) in size and behavior, but is

    decidedly more gregarious, often being met with in flocks even in the breed–

    ing season. It is 11 to 12 inches long. Adult males are easily recognizable,

    for they are dark slaty gray (slightly paler below) save for the chestnut of

    the under tail coverts and deep orange-red of the legs and feet, cere, and

    eyelids. Adult females are rufous buff on the crown and nape, buffy white on

    the lower part of the head and fo [ ?] neck, and blackish round the eye; slaty gray,

    barred with black, on the back, scapulars, tertials, wing coverts and tail;

    and rufous buff on the breast, belly, sides, flanks, and under tail coverts.

    Young birds resemble the adult female somewhat, but the feathers of the upper

    parts are edged with rufous; the under parts are light buff, streaked with

    dark brown and the feet, cere, and eyelids are yellow. In all plumages the

    309      |      Vol_IV-0366                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Red-footed Falcon

    eyes are dark brown, almost black. The call note is a shrill ki , ki , ki , ki , ki ,

    something like that of the kestrel but slower and more mournful (Neithammer).

            The red-footed falcon lays its eggs in the old nests of other large birds

    or in holes in trees. It often nests more or less colonially. When it uses

    the nests of rooks ( corvus frugilegus ) it is obliged to wait until the young

    rooks have flown. The eggs number 3 to 6. They are like those of the kestrel

    in shape and color, but much smaller. Both the male and female incubate

    (Janda). Fledging requires about 5 2w weeks (Zverev). The species’ food con–

    sists principally of insects (Orthoptera, Odonata, Hemiptera and Lepidoptera)

    but small mammals, frogs, and lizards are occasionally captured.

            The species is not found in western Europe. It breeds northward to lati–

    tude 65° N. in Russia n and the Urals, and in Asia to the Lower Yanisei and

    lower Lena rivers. It is strongly migratory, and winters wholly in Africa.

    Two forms currently are recognized — Falco vespertinus vespertinus and F. ves –

    pertinus amurensis . By some ornithologists amurensis is considered a full

    species; in any event it breeds in Asia east of Lake Baikal and does not range

    northward into the Subarctic whereas vespertinus ranges well northward (prob–

    ably to tree limit) in eastern Europe and across almost the whole of Siberia.

            Reference:

    Zverev, M. “On the habits of the Red-footed Falcon (F. vespertinus) and the

    Hobby.” Beiträge zur Fortpfl. , vol.5, pp.63-67, 1929.

    310      |      Vol_IV-0367                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rough-legged Hawk

            254. Rough-legged Hawk or Rough-legged Buzzard . A large bird of prey,

    Buteo lagopus , so called because its tarsi are thickly feathered in front

    down to the very toes. It is found in both the New World and the Old. The

    most widely used Eskimo names for it are the onomatopoeic kahyook (or a

    variant), and kennuajok . Among the Samoyedes of the Yamal Peninsula it is

    called the nyera . A y Y akut name is borular . It is about 20 to 24 inches

    long, the female being slightly larger than the male. Individuals in “normal

    or light phase of plumage” are dark brown on the back, scapulars, and upper

    surface of the wings; buffy white, streaked with dark brown, on the head and

    breast; black across the lower belly; and buff, mottled with dark brown, on

    the flags and tarsi. The tail is white, crossed with a dusky subterminal

    band. The under surface of the wings is white, marked with black. Occasional

    “black phase” individuals are blackish brown all over save for the tail,

    which is white basally. In both light and dark birds the eyes are brown, the

    cere and toes dull yellow.

            The rough-leg is neither as extensively nor as exclusively arctic as the

    Gryfalcon ( Falco rusticolus ). Though holarctic, generally speaking, it does

    not inhabit Greenland, Iceland, or the island north of Eurasia. It breeds

    on the North America and Eurasian continents from about tree limit northward,

    favoring rivers and coasts along which there are cliffs, reaching its northern–

    most limits in northern Scandinavia, the Taimyr Peninsula, arctic Alaska,

    Prince Patrick Island, southwestern Baffin Island, Southampton Island, and

    extreme northern Labrador. Three geographical races are recognized — Buteo

    lagopus lagopus, which breeds in northern Europe and winters south to the

    Pyrenees, Alps, and Balkan Peninsula; the slightly smaller and more sharply–

    patterned B. lagopus sancti - johannis , which breeds across northern North

    311      |      Vol_IV-0368                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rough-legged Hawk or Rough-legged Buzzard

    America from interior Alaska to the Labrador (northward to southwestern

    Baffin Island in the eat and to Prince Patrick Island in the west) and winters

    southward through Canada and much of the United States; and B. lagopus pal –

    lidus , which breeds in northern Asia from the Ob to Kamchatka (south as far

    as Lake Baikal), on [ ?] many islands of the North Pacific, and in northern

    Alaska eastward as far as Point Barrow (see Friedmann, 1934, Condor 36: 246;

    and Bailey, 1942, Auk 59: 305-306).

            The flight of the rough-leg has been described as “owl-like” and buoyant.

    Often the bird hovers in mid-air while watching for prey. In forested country

    it usually perches in a tree; but beyond tree limit it perches on the ground

    or on a rock. Along the southernmost fringe of its summer range it occasion–

    ally nests in trees; but its favorite nest site is a cliff. I recall looking

    down on a nest which was on the top of a broken-off basaltic column on a

    cliff along the east coast of Hudson Bay. For a time the birds circled below

    me, giving me an unusual opportunity to observe the pattern of their upper

    parts. They screamed loudly and dived at me fiercely as I climbed down toward

    the nest. In Siberia the red-breasted goose ( Branta ruficollis ) is reported

    to nest at the foot of a cliff whereon rough-legs or peregrines ( Falco pere –

    grinus ) nest. They This may well be because the hawks, which are fierce and

    clamorous in defense of their own eyrie, keep marauding foxes away.

            The rough-leg’s nest is a bulky affair of twigs and plant stems lined

    with moss and other soft materials. The eggs number 3 or 4 as a rule, but

    sometimes as many as 5 or 6. They are pale greenish white, spotted and

    botched with various shades of brown. Both sexes incubate. The incubation

    period according to Olstad, is 31 days. The downy young are white tinged

    312      |      Vol_IV-0369                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rough-legged Hawrk and Sharp-shinned Hawk

    with olive buff on the head and with vinaceous buff on the back (Bent). The

    young are fed principally on lemmings are other mice. The species feeds on

    small mammals of all sorts in winter. It rarely captures birds.

            References:

    1. Bent, A.C. “Life histories of North American birds of prey. Order Fal–

    coniforms (part 1).” Bull . U. S. Natl. Mus. 167, pp.268-84,

    and plate 74, 1937. 2. Brandt, H.W. Alaska Bird Trails . Bird Res. Fdn., Cleveland, O., 1943,

    pp.229-34 and plate opp. p. 236.

            256. Sharp-shinned Hawk. A small New World hawk, Accipiter striatus ,

    so called because its legs, especially the tarsi, are very long and thin.

    It is frequently called the blue darter and (erroneously) the pigeon hawk.

    It feeds almost exclusively on small birds, which it captures with a sudden

    pounce as it dashes through the woods. In ordinary flight in the open it

    beats its wings several times and then sails, but occasionally it soars in

    narrow circles. It is 10 to 14 inches long, the female being considerably

    larger than the male. Adults are dark gray on the upper parts, and white,

    heavily barred with rusty brown, below. The female’s upper parts are

    brownish gray in tone, those of the male bluish gray. Eyes of adults are

    orange, orange-red, or red (except in the Mexican race, which is brown-eyed).

    Young birds are brown above; white, heavily streaked with brown below; and

    yellow-eyed. Young and old birds have yellow legs, feet, and cere.

            The sharp-shin breeds throughout wooded parts of Canada, the United

    States, the Mexican plateau, Cuba, and mountainous parts of Hispaniola and

    Puerto Rico. It is very similar to, and may be conspecific with, the so–

    called red-thighed accipiter ( Accipiter erythronemius ) of Central and South

    313      |      Vol_IV-0370                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sharp-shinned Hawk

    America. The best known and most northward-ranging race, Accipiter striatus

    velox     , is distinctly migratory and has been recorded in winter as far

    south as Costa Rica. Velox breeds across the northern part of the continent

    from Kotzebue Sound, and northwestern Mackenzie (Great Slave Lake) south–

    eastward to central Quebec and Newfoundland. It probably breeds northward

    to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond along the upper Yukon and lower

    Mackenzie. In the Labrador Peninsula it apparently is a rare bird even in

    the southern part. It has not been reported from Churchill, Manitoba.

            Its nest is a shallowly cupped platform of twigs, scantily lined with

    bark, placed 20 to 50 feet above ground, usually in a coniferous tree. A new

    nest is built each season as a rule, though occasionally an old nest is re–

    lined. The eggs, which number 4 or 5 (occasionally as few as 3 or as many

    as 8) are dull bluish white, handsomely blotched with dark brown. The incu–

    bation period is about three weeks. According to Bent, both sexes incubate.

    The downy young is creamy white. The young stay in the nest for three weeks

    or more (24 days in a nest observed by Rust). They are fed largely on small

    birds, the feathers and legs of which litter the ground beneath various

    “plucking perches” near the nest-tree. The immediate vicinity of the nest

    is often a silent place — either because the smaller birds have withdrawn

    or because the sharp-shins have killed them.

            Reference:

    Rust, H.J. “Some notes on the nesting of the Sharp-shinned Hawk.” Condor ,

    vol.16, pp.14-24, 1914.

    314      |      Vol_IV-0371                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sparrow Hawk

            228. Sparrow Hawk . 1. A middle-sized bird-eating hawk, Accipiter nisus ,

    which inhabits the greater part of Eurasia and northern Africa. It is migra–

    tory, especially in northern parts of its range. Ten geographical races are

    recognized, of which four breed northward to the tree limit: Nisus of western

    Europe (East to Russia); peregrinoides of Russia and western Siberia; niso –

    similis of eastern Siberia; and pallens of Kamchatka. The species has been

    reported from Vaigach Island.

            The sparrow hawk is a long-tailed, long-legged, short-winged hawk with

    barred under parts. It is 11 to 15 inches long, the female being considerably

    larger than the male. The adult male is salty gray above and white, barred

    with rufous, below, The female is brownish slate above, and white, barred

    with gray (sometimes with reddish gray), below. The eyes, cere, legs, and

    feet are yellow. Immature birds are brown above, with rufous edgings to most

    of the feathers, and white, coarsely and irregularly barred with dark brown,

    below.

            The sparrow hawk flies low and fast along the forest edge while hunting;

    darts swiftly back and forth among the shrubbery; or chases its victims down

    in straightway flight in the open. Its cry is a harsh kek , kek , kek , kek , kek ,

    or kew , kew , kew , kew . It nests in widely scattered pairs, often in a conifer

    in mixed woods, but also in pure deciduous woodland, and sometimes nor far above

    ground in shrubbery. The female usually builds the nest alone, though the male

    may bring in material. The nest frequently is built on the remains of an old

    crow or squirrel nest. The eggs, which are bluish white, splotched with dark

    brown, number 4 to 6 as a rule, though clutches of 8 to 10 have been reported.

    The female does most of the incubating, though the male has been observed to

    315      |      Vol_IV-0372                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sparrow Hawk

    assist. The incubation period is 35 days, the fledging period about 30 days.

    One brood is reared per season. During the earlier part of the fledging

    period of male bring food to a plucking perch near the nest. Here the

    female takes it and divides it among the young. The food is birds, largely;

    but small mammals and insects also are captured. Collinge informs us that

    game birds comprise 16.5% of its food in Great Britain.

            2. A beautiful small falcon, Falco sparverius , which ranges from Tierra

    del Fuego and the Falkands northward throughout the New World (including

    numerous islands) to central Alaska, northwestern Mackenzie, northern Manitoba,

    and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It may breed northward to the Arctic Circle,

    or even a short way beyond it, along the lower Mackenzie and upper Yukon.

    Twenty-some races are recognized, of which only F. sparverius sparverius

    inhabits the northern United States and Canada. The name sparrow hawk is

    not apt, for the bird feeds largely on mice and grasshoppers. It resembles

    the Old World kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus ), but is smaller. It has that

    species’ custom of hovering mid-air while watching the ground for prey.

            Reference:

    Tinbergen, L. “De Sperwer als roofvijand von zangvogels.” Ardea , vol.34,

    pp.1-213, 1946.

            259. Stellers’ Sea Eagle . A large, boldly marked eagle, Haliaeetus

    pelagicus , found principally about lakes and rivers in the forested interior

    back from the coasts of the Seas of Okhotsk. According to Stejneger it is

    common in parts of Kamchatka. U Ú chida tells us that it inhabits Sakhalin. It

    has been recorded from the Komandorskis, the Berings, the Pribilofs (once),

    316      |      Vol_IV-0373                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle

    and Kodiak (once). It winters southward “to the coasts of Amur and Ussuri

    and northern Japan” (Peters). Pictures and descriptions have so accustomed

    us to thinking of the bird as oceanic that we find it hard to realize it

    has actually been encountered in the Bering Sea but very few times. It has

    never, apparently, been recorded north of the Arctic Circle.

            Steller’s sea eagle is 42 to 45 inches long and has a win g spread of 7

    to 8 feet. The tail, which is wedge-shaped and rather short, has 14

    feathers. Since all other sea eagles have only 12 tail feathers, some

    ornithologists believe that Stellers’s sea eagle should stand in a genus by

    itself — Thallassocaëtus . The adult is dark brown with white forehead, loral

    spot, lesser and median wing coverts, rump, tail, tail coverts (both upper

    and lower), and thighs. The huge bill and feet, eyelids, and eyes are yellow.

    Young birds are darker and less definitely patterned than adults, the white

    parts being more or less clouded with dusky.

            Steller’s sea eagle is believed to subsist largely on fish, but it

    probably captures birds and mammals occasionally.

            263. White-tailed Eagle . A large northern eagle, Haliacetus albicilla ,

    sometimes called the gray sea eagle or erne (ern). In Denmark and Norway it

    is called the havőrn , in Sweden the havsőrn . Its huge, deep bill is notable,

    as is also its rather short, wedge-shaped tail. Its wings are so wide and

    its tail so short that in flight it presents a somewhat vulture-like appearance,

    especially when scaring. At rest it is a rather dumpy, sluggish bird, lacking

    the alertness and trimness of the golden eagle ( Aquila chrysaëtos ). It is

    about 30 to 36 inches long, the female being somewhat larger than the male.

    317      |      Vol_IV-0374                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-tailed Eagle

    Adults are light grayish brown or brownish gray all over except for the tail,

    which is white and often has a translucent quality when spread in flight.

    Young birds are similar, but brown-tailed. The bill, cere, legs, feet, and

    eyes of adult birds are light yellow. In young birds the bill is horn color,

    the cere yellowish green, the eyes brown.

            The white-tailed eagle may sit motionless on the ground for hours at a

    stretch, looking more like an old stump than a bird. Sometimes it stands in

    shallow water waiting for fish. It usual method of fishing, however is

    flying low over the water and snatching the fish from the surface, or plunging

    in ospreywise. Occasionally it beats back and forth over the marshes or sand

    dunes, dropping on prey which it happens to see directly beneath it. At sea it

    often hunts in pairs, pursuing diving birds until they are exhausted. Its cry,

    which has been described as a “querulous chatter insignificant for so large a

    bird” (Jourdain), becomes a shrill “ gri - gri - gri - or gri - gri - grick ” when it is

    angry (Berg).

            The species is found principally in the western part of northern Eurasia.

    It breeds in Iceland and in Europe north to northern Norway, Sweden, Finland,

    and Russia. It has been noted along the Murman Coast from Varanger Fjord to

    the mouth of the White Sea, but no one has found a nest in that region. The

    Samoyedes say that it nests on the south island of Novaya Zemlya. Please tells

    us that it “inhabits the coasts of the Eurasian Arctic Ocean and must breed

    there, though in comparatively limited numbers.” It has been reported from

    Goussinetz Island; Vaigach Island; the Kanin, Yamal and Taimyr peninsulas;

    and the mouths of the Pechora, Lena, Yana Indigirka, and Kolyma. In these

    areas it has been seen principally in the fall, winter, and spring. A bald

    eagle ( Haliseethus leucocephalus ) reported by Baron Toll from Bennett Island

    318      |      Vol_IV-0375                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-tailed Eagle

    is believed to have been a white-tailed eagle (Pleskes). Toward the end of May

    in 1905 Buturlin noted the white-tailed eagle at the mouth of the Kolyma. The

    species breeds in M K a [ ?] m chatka and possibly at the western end of the Aleutian

    chain (see Sutton and Wilson, 1946, Condor 45: 87). It breeds on the west

    coast of southern Greenland (northward as far as Disko Bay) and has been

    rearded at least once on the east coast (Angmagssalik). Kumlien reported a

    breeding pair from Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island in 1878. The bird is

    somewhat migratory. In winter it is found throughout it breeding range and

    also as far south as the Mediterranean and Red seas, Egypt, the Canaries,

    India, Japan, the Bonins, and Taiwan.

            The white-tailed eagle nests on cliffs in Greenland, Iceland, and far

    northern Eurasia; but in southern parts of its range it often nests in trees.

    The same nest is used year after year unless the birds are disturbed, whereupon

    they build a new nest. Newly made nets are not very large, but when the same

    nest is used for a long time it eventually becomes huge. Certain pairs have

    been known to have as many as three nests. If disturbed at one nest, such

    pairs move to one of the other nests. The eggs usually number 2. They are

    chalky white, and though frequently nest-stained they do not have any real

    markings. Incubation begins with the laying of the first egg. By far the

    greater part of the incubating is done by the female. The male bring food

    (principally fish) to the nest during the 35 to 45 day incubation period.

            The newly hatched chicks are creamy buff, darker just under the behind

    the eyes and on the wings and rump, lightest on the chin and throat. While

    they are very small the male does most of the hunting. The prey which he

    brings in is torn apart by the female and fed to the young ones. While still

    319      |      Vol_IV-0376                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-tailed Eagle

    in the nest they learn to eat by themselves the food which is brought them,

    but they retain some downy plumage for about 50 days and do not become fully

    fledged until they are about 10 weeks old. The parent eagles are said to

    bring prey to the nest alive for the young birds to kill and tear apart.

    After the young leave the nest they remain in the vicinity for several weeks.

            In Iceland the white-tailed eagle has increased during recent years as

    a result of a change in the method of obtaining fox fur. Formerly the prime

    foxes were baited with poisoned meat, which the eagles often ate and died;

    but today the foxes, instead of being poisoned, are allowed to breed and

    the young foxes are caught, reared in captivity, and killed when prime the

    following winter. Nielsen (1930. Dansk Ornithologisk Forenings Tidsskrift

    24: 123-124), in reporting this, states that in one part of Iceland the

    breeding population of white-tailed eagles increased from 7 pairs in 1922 to

    14 pairs in 1930.

            Reference:

    Berg, Bengt. De Sista Ornarna . P. A. Norstedt and Sons, Stockholm, 1927.

    Galliformes (Ptarmigans, Grouse, Partridges, Quails)



    320      |      Vol_IV-0377                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ptarmigans, Grouse, Partridges, Quails, and their allies

    PTARMIGANS, GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS,

    AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order GALLIFORMES ; Suborder GALLI

           

    Family TETRAONIDAE, PHASIANIDAE

            265. Auerhahn. The German name for the capercaillie or capercailzie ( Tetrao

    urogallus ) ( q.v. ).

            266. Black Grouse. See writeup.

            267. Bonasa . See writeup.

            268. Canachites . See writeup.

            269. Canada Grouse. A name often applied to the spruce grouse or spruce

    partridge ( Canachites canadensis ) ( q.v. ).

            270. Capercaillie or Capercailzie. See writeup.

            271. Common Partridge. See writeup.

            272. Coturnix . See writeup.

            273. European Partridge. A name used in North America for the common

    partridge or gray partridge ( Perdix perdix ) of Europe. See Common

    Partridge.

            274. Falcipennis . See writeup.

            275. GALLIFORMES . See writeup.

            276. Gray Hen. A name widely used in Great Britain for the female of the

    black grouse ( Lyrurus tetrix ) ( q.v. ).

            277. Gray Partridge. A name applied to the common partridge ( Perdix perdix )

    ( q.v. ).

            278. Grouse. Any of several galliform birds, especially of the genera Bonasa

    (ruffed grouse of North America), Canachites (spruce grouse of North

    321      |      Vol_IV-0378                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ptarmigans, Grouse, Partridges, Quails, and their allies

    America). Lyrurus (black grouse of Eurasia), Lagopus (red grouse

    of the British Isles, and the willow grouse or willow ptarmigan

    of the holarctic region), Pedioecetes (sharp-tailed grouse of

    North America), and Tetrastes (hazel grouse or hazel hen of

    Eurasia). All of these genera belong to the family Tetraonidae ,

    which may properly be called the grouse family.

            279. Hazel Hen or Hazel Grouse. See writeup.

            280. Hungarian Partridge. A name widely used in America for the common

    partridge ( Perdix perdix ) ( q.v. ).

            281. Lagopus . See writeup.

            282. Lyrurus . See writeup.

            283. Migratory Quail. A name sometimes applied to the continental races of

    the Old World quail ( Coturnix coturnix ) ( q.v. ).

            284. Partridge. Any of various galliform game birds of the families Tetraonidae

    and Phasianidae, especially the common, gray, European, or Hungarian

    partridge ( Perdix perdix ), which see; also the willow ptarmigan

    ( Lagopus lagopus ), rock ptarmigan ( L. mutus ) and white-tailed Ptar–

    migan ( L. leucurus ), all of which are called white partridges or snow

    partridges in winter; the spruce grouse ( Canachites canadensis ), which

    is often called the spruce partridge; and the ruffed grouse ( Bonasa

    umbellus ), which is called the birch partridge locally in Canada, and

    simply the partridge or “pattridge” in New England.

            285. Pedioecetes . See writeup.

            [ ?] 286. Perdix . See writeup.

            287. PHASIANIDAE. See writeup.



    322      |      Vol_IV-0379                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ptarmigans, Grouse, Part [ ?] ridges, Quails, and their allies

            288. Ptarmigan. See writeup.

            289. Quail. See writeup.

            290. Rock Ptarmigan. See writeup.

            291. Ruffed Grouse. See writeup.

            292. Sharp-tailed Grouse.

            293. Sharp-winged Grouse. A middle-sized galliform bird, Falcipennis fal –

    cipennis , of eastern Asia, which differs from the spruce grouse

    ( Canachites canadensis ) of North America principally in having ex–

    cessively emerginate (narrowed, or cut away) primary wing feathers.

    See Falcipennis .

            294. Slender-billed Capercaillie. See writeup.

            295. Snow Partridge. 1. A galliform bird, Lerwa lerwa , found only in the

    higher parts of the Himalaya Mountains. It is black, narrowly

    barred with white, above, chestnut below, with red bill, legs, and

    feet. 2. A name sometimes applied to ptarmigans in their white

    winter plumage. See Ptarmigan.

            296. Spruce Grouse or Spruce Partridge. See writeup.

            297. Tetrao . See writeup.

            298. TETRAONIDAE. See writeup.

            299. Tetrastes . See writeup.

            300. White Partridge. A name sometimes applied to the various species of

    ptarmigans in their white winter plumage. See Ptarmigan.

            301. White-tailed Ptarmigan. See writeup.

            302. Willow Ptarmigan or Willow Grouse. See writeup.



    323      |      Vol_IV-0380                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black Grouse

            266. Black Grouse . An Old World galliform bird, Lyrurus tetrix , known

    in sporting circles as black game. The glossy blue-black male is usually

    referred to as the blackcock, and the female, which is very plain in compare–

    son, as the gray hen. In Sweden the species is known as the orrspel . The

    male is 20 to 22 inches long, the female 16 to 17 inches. The adult male,

    with his beautiful lyre-shaped tail, white wing bar, red wattle above the

    eyes, and long, snow-white under tail coverts, which become very noticeable

    when the tail is erected, is unmistakable. The female is warm brown,

    specked and barred with black, and has a white wing bar. The forking of

    her short, straight tail is so slight it is hardly noticeable.

            The black grouse inhabits brush-grown, sparsely wooded rough country

    and forest edges rather than deep forest or open plains. Like the ptarmigans

    ( Lagopus ) it is gregarious, often gathering in considerable flocks in autumn

    and winter. It rises in flight without much whirring of wings and is given

    to sailing long distances not far above ground. In winter it eats birch and

    conifer buds and alder catkins, in summer a wide variety of vegetable food

    as well as insects.

            Black grouse resort to communal courting grounds in spring. In Great

    Britain these areas are called leks . The species is polygamous. The males

    display before the females with extended heads, drooped wings, lifted, wide–

    spread tails, and puffed-out under tail coverts. Sparring among males is

    usually a series of threats and withdrawals which present the appearance of

    sham battle, but the birds sometimes come to fierce blows. Characteristic

    cries of the male are his loud crow; a dovelike roo , roo , roo , followed by

    a kind of “talking,” which calls to mind human speech (Selous); and a cackle.

    324      |      Vol_IV-0381                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black Grouse

    Crowing is done from tees, from other prominent places such as high rocks,

    or from the ground. The cry of the female is a loud chuck - chuck .

            The nest is a hollow scraped in the ground by the female in the woods or

    brush, sometimes more or less in the open. The eggs number 6 to 10 as a

    rule, and are yellowish white spotted with brown. Only the female incubates.

    The period of incubation is 24 to 29 days (Witherby). The newly hatched

    chick is yellowish white below, and brown, beautifully marked with black,

    above. Only one brood is reared in a season.

            Several races of Lyrurus tetrix have been described. One of the best

    known of these is L. tetrix brittanicus , which inhabits the Inner Hebrides,

    Scotland, and parts of England and Wales. The nominate ar ra ce ranges virtually

    across continental Eurasia, from Scandinavia (north to about lat. 70° N.),

    Finland, and northern Russia eastward to the upper Indigirka and Kolyma

    rivers. South of the range of the L. tetrix tetrix in Asia are to be found

    ussuriensis of Manchuria and northern Korea; mongolicus of the Tien Shan

    region (not of Mongolia); baikalensis , which ranges from southern Transbai–

    kalia to Amurland; tschusii of southern Siberia (Alatai and Sayan Mountains);

    and viridanus of southeastern Russia and southwestern Siberia (see Peters,

    1934. Check List of Birds of the World , 2: 27-28).

            References:

    1. Lack, David. “The display of the Blackcock.” British Birds , vol.32,

    pp.290-303, 1939. 2. Selous, E. “An observational diary on the nuptial habits of the Blackcock

    ( Tetrao tetrix ) in Scandinavia and England.” Zoologist , 1909,

    pp.400-13; 1910, pp.23- [ ?] 29; 51-56; 176-82, 248-65. 3. Yeates, G.K. “On the fighting of the Blackcock.” British Birds , vol.30,

    pp.34-37, 1936.

    325      |      Vol_IV-0382                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bonasa

            267. Bonasa . The monotypic genus to which the ruffed grouse ( B. umbellus )

    belongs. It is a middle-sized bird, confined to wooded parts of North America.

    The tarsus is feathered at the proximal end, but not at the distal end. The

    three front toes are pectinated along the edges, noticeably so in winter. The

    neck has no inflatable air sacs like those of Tympanuchus (pinnate grouse)

    and Pedioecetes (sharp-tailed grouse), but a “ruff” of broad, soft, square-

    tipped feathers at each side decorates the neck of the male (and, less stik–

    ingly, that of the female). Both the male and the female has a rather con–

    spicuous crest. The tail is a handsome fan composed of 18 or 20 broad, square-

    tipped feathers. The genus superficially resembled Tetrastes (hazel hen) of

    Eurasia, but Tetrastes has only 16 tail feathers.

            Bonasa is polygamous. The male “drums” from a chosen log in the woods,

    attracting the females to him. Drumming may take place day or night at any

    time of year, but it is performed chiefly by day in the spring.

            Bonasa ranges from central Alaska, central Yukon, northern Alberta, central

    Saskatchewan, central Manitoba, James Bay, the mouth of the St. Lawrence River,

    and the Maritime Provinces of Canada southward to extreme northwestern Califor–

    nia, eastern Oregon, Utah, Colorado, the Dakotas, Missouri, Arkansas, northern

    Georgia, northern Alabama, western North Carolina, and Virginia. It breeds

    northward to the Arctic Circle only in interior Alaska and in the Yukon. Sev–

    eral races are recognized.

            See Ruffed Grouse.



    326      |      Vol_IV-0383                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Canachites

            268. Canachites . A genus composed of two species of middle-sized,

    woodland-inhabiting, northern North American grouse. The better-known, much

    more wide-ranging of the two, C. canadensis , is called the spruce grouse,

    spruce partridge, Canada grouse, or fool hen; the other, C. franklinii , is

    the Franklin’s grouse. Both species resemble very closely the sharp-winged

    grouse ( Falcipennis falcipennis ) of Siberia. They also resemble the ptarmigans

    ( Lagopus ) in size, proportions, and number of tail feathers (16), but do not

    have strikingly dissimilar sum m er and winter plumages, their coloration being

    dark the year round. Taverner has reported an interesting and beautiful male

    cross between Lagopus and Canachites — further proof of the closeness of

    these genera.

            In male Canachites the neck is without inflatable air sacs or elongated

    tufts of feathers (pinnae), but at the height of the courting season the

    naked space above the eye enlarges, becoming a bright red comb. In both male

    and female birds the foot-feathering is restricted almost wholly to the tarsus.

    In winter the edges of the three front toes are distinctly fringed or pectinated.

    The bill is proportionately less heavy than in Lagopus . The crown feathers

    are longish, forming a crest which is conspicuous when lifted. The body plumage

    is firm and compact except on the lower belly, where it is soft. The tips of

    the tail feathers are rounded in canadensis , square in franklinii .

            Canachites inhabits the coniferous forests of the so-called Canadian and

    Hudsonian zones of northern North America. C. canadensis range across the

    whole continent northward to tree limit and southward to northern Washington,

    southern British Columbia, central Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, central

    Manitoba, northern Minnesota and Michigan, southern Vermont and New Hampshire,

    327      |      Vol_IV-0384                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton : Canachites and Capercaillie

    Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. It ranges northward to the Arctic

    Circle and slightly beyond in Alaska (Kotzebue Sound, Noatak River, Alatna

    River in the Brooks Range, and Fort Yukon), and along the Mackenzie River.

    It is not common at Churchill, on the west coast of Hudson Bay. On the

    Labrador coast Austin found it breeding at Nain, and it probably inhabits

    woodland near Okkak and at even more northern points in from the coast.

            C. franklinii is restricted to western North America, being found from

    “southern Alaska, central British Columbia and west-central Alberta, south

    to northern Oregon and western Montana” (Peters). There are hybrid specimens

    of Canachites ( C. canadensis x C. franklinii ) from the vicinity of Laggan,

    Alberta, in the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Memorial Collection at Cornel l University.

            See Spruce Grouse or Spruce Partridge.

            270. Capercaillie or Capercailzie . A famous galliform game bird, Tetrao

    urogallus , found in Europe and western Asia (east to about long. 115° E.). A

    closely allied species, the slender-billed capercaillie ( Tetrao parvirostris ),

    inhabits northeastern Asia (including Kamchatka). In Germany the capercaillie

    is known as the auerhahn , in Sweden as the tjader . It is about the size of a

    domestic turkey, the male measuring 33 to 35 inches from tip [ ?] of bill to tip

    of tail, and weighing 10 to 12 pounds, the female measuring 23 to 25 inches and

    weighing 4 to 5 pounds (Knowlton and Ridgway). The male is dark gray on the

    head, neck, and upper parts; shining green on the chest; brown, speckled with

    black, on the wings and scapulars; and black, spotted and streaked with white,

    on the belly, sides, flanks, and under tail coverts. His heavy bill is light

    328      |      Vol_IV-0385                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Capercaillie

    horn color. A patch of naked skin above and behind his eye is bright red.

    The female is very different in color. She is brown, generally speaking,

    much barred all over with black and buff. Her throat, foreneck, and chest

    have a reddish cast and the plumage of her belly and sides is broadly tipped

    with white.

            The capercaillie is polygamous. At the beginning of the egg-laying

    season the male calls from the top of a tree or rock and the females make

    their way to him. His calling and displays start before dawn and continue

    all morning. While displaying he walks stiffly about — perhaps back and

    forth on a rock or log — with tail lifted and spread and wings drooping.

    Occasionally he leaps into the air, fanning his wings nosily. With neck

    upstretched, wings hanging low, and tail spread and held vertically, he

    begins his courtship song with a loud kl i ck - kleck . This is followed first by

    a pop resembling that produced in pulling a cork from a bottle, then by a

    twittering or sucking-in-of-the-breath sound ( Handbook of British Birds ).

    Fightin g among rival males is sometimes very fierce.

            The capercaillie frequently interbreeds with the black grouse ( Lyrurus

    tetrix ). Male hybrids look like female black grouse but are much larger. The

    capercaillie has been known to cross also with the pheasant ( Phasianus colchicus )

    and with the willow ptarmigan ( Lagopus lagopus ).

            The capercaillie’s nest is a shallow basin scraped out on the ground by

    the female in juniper scrub or heather, often at the foot of a tree. Grass

    and leaves are added to the nest as egg-laying proceeds. The eggs are pale

    yellowish brown, spotted and blotched with darker brown. They number 6 to 8

    as a rule. Incubation is performed by the female. The incubation period is

    329      |      Vol_IV-0386                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Capercaillie

    26 to 29 days. The young, which hatch almost simultaneously, are light

    brownish yellow, beautifully marked on the upper parts with black and rich

    reddish brown. They begin to fly when 2 to 3 weeks old (Witherby).

            In winter the capercaillie lives almost entirely on buds and shoots of

    various coniferous trees, but in summer it consumes a wide variety of vege–

    table food, as well as some insects. The species is largely sedentary.

    Seasonal migrations from forests to opener country, or from high lands to

    lower, probably are correlated in some way with feeding habits.

            Several geographical races of Tetrao urogallus are recognized. The

    nominate race originally inhabited Scandinavia and the British Isles. It

    became extinct in the British Isles three or four centuries ago but has been

    reintroduced into Scotland. Other races represent the species more or less

    throughout Europe, southward to the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains of

    northern Spain ( aquitanicus ); the Alps, Balkan States, and Macedonia ( major );

    the southern Urals ( grisescens ); and the Kirghiz Steppe ( uralensis ). The

    races which range northward into the Subarctic are: urogallus (Scandinavia),

    lugens (Finland and Russian Karelia), pleskei (northern Russia east to the

    northern Ural Mountains), and kureikensis (lower Yenisei Valley). Some of

    these (e.g., uralensis ) are so different from the nominate race that they have

    been considered full species by some authors. Most present-day taxonomists

    are agreed, however, that there are but two full species of capercaillie, the

    common (as outlined above) and the slender-billed ( Tetrao parvirostris ) of

    eastern Siberia.

            For important details concerning the capercaillie’s anatomy, see Tetrao .



    330      |      Vol_IV-0387                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Partridge

            271. Common Partridge . A well-known small European game bird, Perdix

    perdix , known also as the gray partridge and (especially in North America,

    where it has been successfully introduced) as the European or Hungarian

    partridge. It is about a foot long, and is orange brown on the head, gray

    on the foreneck and upper breast, warm brown on the hind neck, back, wings,

    rump, upper tail coverts, sides and flanks, with whitish streaking on the

    scapulars and wing coverts, and broad red-brown bars on the sides and flanks.

    The belly is white. There is a more or less distinct horseshoe-shaped patch

    of dark brown on the upper breast. The tail is bright rufous , but this color

    shows only when the bird flies.

            The common partridge likes open country and often inhabits districts

    which are lightly farmed. Its call note, a loud, hoarse kir - ric , kir - ric ,

    becomes a sort of cackle as the flock flies up. In England the species nests

    in waste land principally. In Saskatchewan it often nests under dry tumble–

    weed heaped along a fence. The eggs number 9 to 20 or more and are olive

    brown, unspotted. Only the female incubates. The incubation period is 23

    to 25 days (Witherby). The downy young is yellowish white below, brown above,

    with black markings on the head, back, and wings.

            Of the several geographical races, only two range northward to the

    fringes of the Subarctic: P. perdix perdix of the British Isles, France,

    Austria, Hungary, Macedonia, etc., and Scandinavia north to about latitude

    65° N., and P. perdix robusta of northern Russia. The latter race is found

    at Arkhangelsk and probably even farther north in that region. The species’

    eastern limits are the Ural Mountains (probably), the Altai Mountains, and

    northern Persia. The nominate race has become so well established in flat parts

    of west central Canada that it is downright abundant there.

            See Perdix .



    331      |      Vol_IV-0388                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Coturnis and Falcipennis

            272. Coturnix . A genus of very small Old World game birds commonly

    known as the quails, or, in contradiction to the quails of the New World,

    all of which are normigratory, as the Old World quails or migratory quails.

    Coturnix is about 6 to 7 inches long. Its tarsi and toes are completely

    bare and the tarsi are without spurs. The wings are much less rounded

    than in Perdix , the first (outermost) primary being as long as the second,

    and the secondaries all being much shorter than the primaries. The tail,

    which has only 12 rectrices (in certain species 10), is less than half as

    long as the wing. The sexes are alike in general color but different in

    pattern. The eggs are heavily spotted. The genus inhabits Eurasia, Africa,

    Australia, and (formerly) New Zealand. There are four species (not include–

    ing the extinct C. novae-zelandiae of New Zealand), only one of which, C .

    coturnix , ranges northward to the fringes of the Subarctic.

            274. Falcipennis . The monotypic galliform genus to which the sharp–

    winged grouse ( F. falcipennis ) of Asia belongs. Falcipennis is very

    similar to, and may be congeneric with, the North American Canachites

    (spruce grouse and Franklin’s grouse). It has feathered tarsi; featherless,

    pectinate toes; 16 tail feathers; and a color pattern very similar to that

    of Canachites ; but its primary wing feathers are strikingly emarginate

    (falcate) or narrowed.

            Falcipennis inhabits coniferous forests of the mountains of eastern

    transbaikalia. It ranges northward to the Stanovoi Mountains and the Upper

    Olekma and Aldan rivers, and southward to the Little Chingan Mountains and

    lower Amur valley. It is found, too, on Sakhalin Island. Its range is,

    331a      |      Vol_IV-0389                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Falcipennis

    of course, wholly separate from that of Canachites , yet the fact that

    Canachites is so well represented in northwestern North America, and that

    Falcipennis is found only in northwestern Asia, strongly suggests that

    the ancestor of the present-day forms made its way from one continent

    to the other via the Bering land bridge.

            Falcipennis may range northward to the Arctic Circle directly north

    of the Sea of Okhotsk, but it is an arctic bird in such a limited sense

    that this brief writeup concerning it is probably sufficient. Very little

    is known about its habits. Excellent photographs of a strutting cock, a

    nest with eggs, and some young chicks appear in the journal Tori (1934,

    volume 8, plates 8 and 9). It feeds primarily upon the needles of larch

    and fir in winter, and also upon berries and insects in summer (Buturlin et al.)

            Reference:

    Yamashina, Marquis, and Yamada, S. “The habits of Falcipennis falcipennis

    and an experience with the species in captivity.” Tori , vol.9,

    pp.13-18, 1935.

    332      |      Vol_IV-0390                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Falcipennis and Galliformes

            in northwestern North America, and that Falcipennis is found only in north–

    eastern Asia, strongly suggests that the ancester of the present day forms

    made its way from one continent to the other via the Bering land bridge.

            Falcipennis probably ranges northward to the Arctic Circle directly

    north of the Sea of Okhotsk.

            275. Galliformes . A large and important order of four-toed, mainly

    terrestrial birds which includes the domestic chicken and its forebears; the

    peacocks, turkeys, guineafowl, pheasants, grouse, partridges, and quail; the

    arboreal Curassows and Guans; the interesting megapodes; and the strange South

    American hoatzin. The position of three groups of little-known Old World

    birds — the Mesoenatidae (mesites) of Madagascar, the Turnicidae (bustard

    quails), and the Pedionomidae (collard hemipodes) — is moot. Some authors

    regard them as galliform, others as gruiform (related to the cranes).

            Just as most persons can readily identify a duck, goose, or swan as an

    anseriform bird without being able to say precisely why, so most persons will

    have no difficulty in placing curiously colored pheasants and the like among

    the Galliformes, because the behavior and proportions of these birds is so

    obviously chickenlike. The whole order is, in fact, remarkably uniform —

    with the exception of that anomalous creature, the hoatzin ( Opisthocomus hoazin ).

    In recognition of this bird’s peculiarities, taxonomists place it in a suborder

    by itself — the Opisthocomi. Possibly the most striking of its several unusual

    anatomical features is its muscular crop, which is so large that the sternum

    and pectoral muscles are cut back to accommodate the organ. Young hoatzins,

    which have a climbing-claw on the wing, and which can swim and even dive readily,

    seem to be a sort of combination of modern bird and Archaeopteryx:



    333      |      Vol_IV-0391                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Galliformes

            All galliform birds have 16 cervical vertebrae; imperforate nostrils;

    well-developed crop and powerful gizzard (a sort of combination of the two

    in the hoatzin); a well-developed hind (fourth) toe; 10 primaries; 10 to 20

    tail feathers; and well-developed aftershafts on the contour feathers. The

    newly hatched young are down- or feather-covered and leave the nest almost

    immediately after hatching. The flight feathers grow rapidly, so the young

    can fly long before being full grown. In adult galliform birds down occurs

    only on certain of the apteria.

            All galliform birds aside from the hoatzin belong to a single suborder —

    the Galli. The Galli have the typical characters of the order, as above

    discussed, and are composed of six families — the Megapodiidae (megapodes

    of Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, etc.: large-footed, large-legged

    birds — the only birds in the world which depend wholly upon an “artificial

    incubator,” i.e., a mound of leaves, etc., warmed by the sun, for hatching

    the eggs; and the only birds which, when newly hatched, are full-feath e red and

    able to fly); the Cracidae (curassows, guans, and chachalacas: tropical Amer–

    ican tree-inhabiting fowl, some of which have remarkable voices); the Tetraon–

    idae (grouse); the Phasianidae (pheasants, peafowl, partridges, and quail);

    the Numididae (guineafowl); and the Meleagrididae (turkeys).

            Among many galliform birds the male is much more brightly colored and

    strikingly ornamented (crests, long tail-feathers, capes, hackles, wattles,

    etc.) than the female, but this is not notably the case among the species

    which range northward into the Arctic. Many galliform birds rear large broods.

    The eggs in many species are white or uniformly colored, but in some they are

    speckled, spotted, or mottled. Most species nest on the ground, but the

    334      |      Vol_IV-0392                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Galliformes

    curassows and guans nest in trees, sometimes at considerable distance above

    ground.

            The Galliformes are virtually cosmopolitan in distribution. Of the

    numerous genera and species only a few range northward into arctic and sub–

    arctic regions. No species is exclusively arctic in the most restricted

    sense (i.e., lives wholly north of the Arctic Circle the year round), but two

    species of ptarmigan — the willow ( Lagopus lagopus ) and the rock ( Lagopus

    mutus ) — are certainly among the most truly arctic of all birds, for they

    range northward to well beyond the Arctic Circle and are believed even to

    winter at high latitudes — though how they feed, etc., in the winter is not

    at present understood. Both these ptarmigan breed also to the southward to

    the Arctic Circle — inhabiting either higher mountains (above tree line) or

    open tundra. Several other species of the family Tetraonidae are boreal,

    breeding northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in forested country. The

    Tetraonidae are the only galliform family found solely in the Northern Hemisphere.

    Only two species of this family are found both in the Old World and the New,

    but for at least two other species found in either North America or Eurasia

    there is a corresponding form in the other continent — e.g., the ruffed grouse

    ( Bonasa ) of North America resembles the hazel hen ( Tetrastes ) of Eurasia; the

    spruce grouse ( Canachites ) of America resembles the sharp-winged grouse ( Fal –

    cipennis ) of Asia.

            Of the other galliform families, the Cracidae and Meleagrididae are ex–

    clusively of the New World; the Megapodiidae and Numididae of the Old; and the

    Phasianidae, which are especially abundant in Asia, are represented in America

    by quail of 10 genera. Several galliform birds have been domesticated and

    335      |      Vol_IV-0393                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Galliformes

    developed as poultry — the best example being the jungle fowl ( Gallus gallus ),

    which is well known to everyone as the White Leghorn, Barred Plymouth Rock,

    Rhode Island Red, Silver-spangled Hamburg, etc. Many galliform birds have

    been transplanted as game and become so well established as to be considered

    “native.” The best example in this category is the ring-necked pheasant

    ( Phasianus colchicus ), which was introduced into Great Britain centuries ago

    and has long been known as the English pheasant.

            No arctic grouse has been domesticated or developed as poultry so far as

    I know, though I have seen captive ptarmigan which were very tame.

            279. Hazel Hen . A well-known galliform game bird, Tetrastes bonasia ,

    found in Europe and northern Asia. It is called also the hazel grouse,

    gelinotte (France), and riabchik (Russia). It is much like the ruffed grouse

    ( Bonasa umbellus ) of North America in proportions and general appearance and,

    like that species, is dichromatic. It is, however, a somewhat smaller bird;

    it has no ruffs on its neck; and the male is black-throated . It is about 12

    to 14 inches long. The male is brown (gray in the gray phase) above, mottled,

    barred, and otherwise marked with black, buff, and white. The black throat is

    bordered with a broad band of white which extends upward between the bill and

    eye onto the forehead. There is a line of white back of each eye and another

    on each side of the back. The tail is brown (gray in the gray phase) with a

    broad black subterminal band (on all but the two middle feathers) and gray tip.

    The under parts are white, beautifully barred and spotted with rufous and dusky.

    The female is similar, but almost white on the chin and throat, hence resembles

    the ruffed grouse even more than the male does.



    336      |      Vol_IV-0394                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hazel Hen and Lagopus

            The hazel hen apparently prefers a mixed pine, birch, and hazel woodland.

    It is rather local in distribution. The pectinations of its toes become longer

    in winter, permitting it to walk in the snow without sinking in very deeply.

    Like the ruffed grouse, it crouches on the ground to escape detection, some–

    times refusing to move until almost stepped on, then rises with a startling

    whir of wings. Usually it seeks refuge in the densest part of a tree.

            The male does not drum, but he struts and utters a “sort of melancholy

    long-drawn whistle” which in Scandinavia is imitated by hunters who thus lure

    the birds to within shooting distance (Knowlton and Ridgway). The species is

    monogamous (Evans). The nest is a hollow in the ground in the woods. The eggs,

    which usually number 8 to 12, are buff, spotted with brown. Only the female

    incubates.

            Tetrastes bonasia ranges throughout wooded parts of most of Europe and

    northern Asia northward almost to tree limit. Several races have been described.

    Of these at least three range northward into the Subarctic — bonasia of Scan–

    dinavia, Lapland, and northern Russia (south to the Baltic Sea and middle Russia

    and east to the Urals); siberious of the northwestern Siberia; and kolymensis

    of the Verkhoyansk and Kolyma districts of Yakutsk Province, eastern Siberia.

            For details concerning the hazel hen’s anatomy see Tetrastes .

            281. Lagopus . A uniform genus composed of four medium-sized to small

    species of the grouse family (Tetraonidae) and restricted to arctic, subarctic,

    and montane parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Three of the four species are

    widely known as ptarmigan or (in winter) white or snow partridges; one species,

    L. scoticus (found only in the British Isles), is called the red grouse. All

    four species are plump, rather short-tailed birds smaller than the black grouse

    338      |      Vol_IV-0395                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lagopus

    ( Lyrurus ) of the Old World and of about the same size as the spruce grouse

    ( Canachites ) and ruffed grouse ( Bonasa ) of the New World. The neck of the

    male is wholly without air sacs or pinnae (elongate, decorative feathers).

    The tarsus and toes are well feathered, the latter more thickly in winter

    than in summer. The tail, which is composed of 16 feathers, is slightly

    rounded. The tail coverts are very long, almost completely hiding the closed

    rectrices, especially above. The bill is short and heavy, and the nostrils

    are covered with short feathers. The outermost primary is much shorter than

    the one next to it, the third and fourth (counting from the outside) being

    the longest. The sexes are nearly the same in size, but very different in

    color in breeding plumage (save in the red grouse). Adult males have red

    combs above the eyes which become large and conspicuous in the breeding

    season. The males court through strutting and flying above ground a few

    yards while cackling noisily. The eggs are buff, heavily spotted with brown

    or brown and black.

            Three of the four species molt into a white plumage in winter, but the

    red grouse remains rich red-brown all year. The most northward-ranging species

    is the rock ptarmigan ( Lagopus mutus ), which may well breed on the north er nmost

    lands known. It is common in Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef Archipelago, and

    northern Greenland. It is the most wide-ranging species of the genus, being

    found in the higher mountains of virtually the whole of Eurasia as well as on

    numerous scattered island and island-groups. In North America, however, it is

    not so southward-ranging as the white-tailed ptarmigan ( L. leucurus ), a small

    species found in higher parts of the Rocky Mountains from central Alaska to

    northern New Mexico. Of the four species, one ( scoticus ) is found only in

    339      |      Vol_IV-0396                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lagopus and Lyrurus

    the Old World, one ( leucurus ) only in the New. The willow ptarmigan

    ( L. lagopus ) is somewhat less boreal and not so wide-ranging as the rock

    ptarmigan, but it is common throughout the low-lying tundra in many parts

    of the Arctic and Subarctic and is, perhaps, the best-known species of all.

            See Willow Ptarmigan and Rock Ptarmigan.

            282. Lyrurus . A genus composed of two species of game birds of the

    grouse family (Tetraonidae) distinguished principally by the forked tail

    (deeply forked in the male, slightly forked in the female) and known as

    black grouse or black game. Lyrurus is intermediate in size between Tetrao

    (capercaillie) and Lagopus (ptarmigans). There are no inflatable air sacs

    or pinnae on the neck of the male. The tarsus is fully feathered. The toes

    are bare, save for scanty feathering at the base. Each of the three front

    toes is pectinate along each side. The nostrils are feather-covered. The

    first (outermost) primary is much shorter than the second, and the third,

    fourther, or fifth is longest. In the adult male the tail is lyre-shaped (as

    the generic name suggests), the outer feathers being not only the longest but

    also gracefully curved outward. In the female the tail is straight and slightly

    forked. The adult male is much larger than the female and very different in

    color. The eggs are spotted, as in Tetrao , Lagopus , and Canachites .

            Lyrurus ranges across almost the whole of Eurasia. It does not inhabit

    northeastern Siberia (eastward of the Kolyma) or Kamchatka. Though not a forest

    bird, strictly speaking, it is found from about tree limit southward in Europe

    to the eastern Pyrenses, the Alps, southeastern Russia, and the Caucasus; and

    in Asia to the Altai and Sayan Mountains, northern Mongolia, and northeastern

    340      |      Vol_IV-0397                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lyrurus and Pedioecetes

    Korea. The better known of the two species, L. tetrix, inhabits much of

    this vast area; the other species, L. mlokosiewiczi , is confined to the

    higher mountains of the Caucasus (5,000 to 9,000 feet).

            See Black Grouse.

            285. Pedioecetes . A monotypic genus of middle-sized North American

    grouse commonly known as sharp-tailed grouse. The genus resembles Tympanu –

    chus (pinnated grouse or prairie chicken of North America), but the neck

    has no tufts of elongated feathers (pinnae), and the general color pattern,

    especially of the under parts, and the shape of the tail are very different.

    As in Tympanuchus , the tail feathers number 18. The middle 2 rectrices are

    narrow, much longer and somewhat softer than the others, and rather square-

    tipped; while the remaining 16 are strongly graduated, stiff, and so short

    as to be almost wholly hidden by the coverts. The neck of the male has in–

    flatable featherless air sacs. The tarsus is completely covered with feathers

    which in winter are so long and shaggy that their tips cover also the basal

    half (or more) of the toes. The toes themselves are bare. Each of the

    front toes has 3 rows of scales — a broad median row, bordered at either

    side by a narrower row and pectination (heavier in winter than in summer)

    along each edge. The feathers of the crown are long, forming a conspicuous

    crest when raised. The plumage in general is soft.

            Pedioecetes inhabits the grasslands, brushlands, and open woodlands of

    central and northwestern North America, from north central Alaska, northern

    Mackenzie, northern Ontario, and southern Quebec south to Nevada, Colorado,

    341      |      Vol_IV-0398                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pedioecetes and Perdix

    northeastern New Mexico, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and

    (formerly) northern Illinois. Along the shores of James Bay it inhabits

    grassy country bordering the alder swamps and strips of woods along small

    streams. In winter it moves into the bigger timber, at times even into the

    stands of pure spruce. Near Fairbanks, Alaska, I have seen sharp-tails in

    the dead of winter perched on the highest spruce trees of the forest, per–

    haps 50 to 60 feet above ground. The genus breeds northward almost, if not

    quite, to the Arctic Circle along the Upper Yukon in Alaska, and in northern

    Mackenzie (Good Hope). It is migratory in the northern part of its range,

    but most southern Canadian and United States populations are largely sedentary.

            See Sharp-tailed Grouse.

            286. Perdix . A genus of small galliform birds to which the well-known

    common or gray partridge ( Perdix perdix ) of Europe and western Asia belongs.

    Perdix has entirely bare, unspurred tarsi. The nostril is covered not by

    feathers but by a prominent horny operculum. The tip of the upper mandible

    protrudes some distance beyond that of the lower mandible. The tail is

    slightly, but distinctly, rounded, and of 16 or 18 feathers. The wing is

    rounded, the third to the fifth primaries (counting from the outside) being

    the longest. The primaries extend well beyond the secondaries in the folded

    wing. The sexes are much alike. The eggs are unspotted. Of the three

    species, one ( perdix ) inhabits Europe and extreme western Asia, and two ( bar –

    bata and hodgsoniae ) inhabit Asia. The genus ranges northward to the fringes

    of the Subarctic only in Scandinavia and northern Russia.

            See Common Partridge.



    342      |      Vol_IV-0399                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phasianidae

            287. Phasianidae . A large and very diverse family of galliform birds

    to which the pheasants, partridges, and quails belong. The 250 to 300 species

    and subspecies belong to 50 to 60 genera and range in size and degree of mag–

    nificence from tiny, plain-colored quail to the great peacocks with their

    gorgeous ocellated trains of back and rump plumage. Two subfamilies are cur–

    rently recognized — the Odontophorinae, to which the American quails (10

    genera) belong; and the Phasianinae, to which the true pheasants, partridges,

    and Old World quails belong. Some taxonomists place the Old World quails in

    a seaparte separate subfamily, the Perdicinae. No New World quail or true pheasant

    ranges northward into the Arctic or Subarctic; but the common or gray partridge

    ( Perdix perdix ) and the quail ( Coturnix ) of Eurasia do. These two species

    belong to the Perdicinae, just mentioned.

            The Phasianidae are not easy to characterize in so many words. Throughout

    the family the nostrils are exposed (i.e., they are not feather-covered, as

    they are in the Tetraonidae or grouse); the tarsus is more than half as long

    as the tibia, and, while never wholly feathered, it is frequently spurred; the

    toes are never feathered nor pectinated; the neck never has inflatable air sacs;

    and the cutting edge of the upper mandible is usually smooth (there are sub–

    terminal notches or serrations in all the Odontophorinae). In many forms the

    males are much larger and brighter than the females; in other forms the sexes

    resemble each other closely. Throughout the family there is great diversity in

    the length and shape of the tail.

            The actual present-day distribution of the Phasianidae is to a striking

    degree the result of man’s doings. The ring-necked pheasant ( Phasianus colchicus )

    is thoroughly established in North America, in the British Isles, and elsewhere

    343      |      Vol_IV-0400                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phasianidae and Ptarmigan

    as a result of continued introductions, some of which date centuries back.

    The common partridge has been successfully introduced into Canada and the

    United States. One genus of the family, Gallus , is a familiar dooryard bird

    virtually the world over. This bird, the chicken, was developed chiefly

    from the common or Bankiva jungle fowl ( Gallus gallus ).

            See Perdix , Coturnix , Common Partridge, and Quail.

            288. Ptarmigan . Any of three grouse species belonging to the genus

    Lagopus and having fully feathered feet and striking seasonal changes in

    color. In winter, when they are white, they are sometimes called white

    partridges or snow partridges. Two species — Lagopus lagopus and Lagopus

    mutus , are found in arctic and subarctic parts of both the New World and the

    Old, while a third species is found only in mountainous parts of western

    North America. Lagopus lagopus is known in North America as the willow ptar–

    migan, but in Great Britain the name for it is willow grouse, the term ptar –

    migan there being applied only to Lagopus mutus. Lagopus lagopus does not

    inhabit the British Isles. The only species of the genus Lagopus found there,

    Lagopus scoticus , has fully feathered feet, does not turn white in winter,

    and is called the red grouse. The only exclusively North American species

    of Lagopus , the white-tailed ptarmigan, L. leucurus , is an arctic bird in

    only a restricted or specialized sense. It is found on treeless mountain tops

    from central Alaska and northwestern Mackenzie southward to New Mexico.

            See Willow Ptarmigan, Rock Ptarmigan, and White-tailed Ptarmigan.



    344      |      Vol_IV-0401                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Quail

            289. Quail . 1. Any of several small galliform game birds of the

    family Phasianidae, especially those species known among taxonomists as

    the New World quails (subfamily Odontophorinae), none of which ranges north–

    ward into the Arctic or Subarctic; and the so-called Old World quails, the

    continental Eurasian forms of which are strongly migratory (see 2).

            2. Coturnix coturnix of Eurasia and Africa, a species sometimes known

    as the migratory quail, though resident races are endemic to the Azores;

    Madeira and the Canaries; the Cape Verdes; the eastern Ethiopian highlands;

    and South Africa (including Madagascar, the Comoros, and Mauritius).

    C. coturnix is a small bird (6 to 7 inches long) with a very short tail. It

    is, generally speaking, brown above and white below, with bold white facial

    markings and fine streakings, barrings, mottlings and spottings of buff,

    rufous, white and black on the upper parts. The call note of the male is

    a liquid quic , quic-ic (Tucker). The nest is a hollow in the ground scraped

    out by the female. The eggs (7 to 12) are yellowish white, spotted or blotched

    with chocolate brown. The incubation period is 18 to 21 days (various ob–

    servers, fide Witherby).

            C. coturnix breeds across Eurasia northward to latitude 65° N. in Sweden

    and Finland, to 63 1/2° on the Pechora, to 61° on the Yenisei, and to Lake

    Baikal, the Amur Valley, and Sakhalin, and winters southward to Africa, India,

    Indo-China, and Formosa (Peters; Witherby).

            See Coturnix .



    345      |      Vol_IV-0402                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rock Ptarmigan

            290. Rock Ptarmigan . A boreal galliform bird, Lagopus mutus , which is

    closely related to the willow ptarmigan ( Lagopus lagopus ) but has a much more

    extensive distribution. In winter it is sometimes called the white partridge

    or snow partridge. In great Britain it is the only member of the genus

    Lagopus customarily referred to as the ptarmigan, Lagopus lagopus being known

    as the willow grouse, and Lagopus scoticus as the red grouse. It is a smaller

    bird than the willow ptarmigan, proportionately smaller-billed, and in summer

    plumage duller or grayer. In winter both species are white with black outer

    tail feathers (which show only in flight), and all male rock ptarmigan have a

    line of black connecting the bill and the eye. Some female rock ptarmigan

    also have this black loral streak, but the willow ptarmigan in winter plumage

    never has it. In the field in summer the two species can be distinguished

    with some assurance on the basis of habitat alone, for the rock ptarmigan

    nests on rocky ridges, plateaus, and mountain tops, wh e reas the willow ptar–

    migan prefers shrub-grown valleys or hummocky tundra marshlands. The latter

    species is, in some areas along the southern edge of its range, a montane

    bird; but even at considerable elevation it prefers sheltered dips or valleys,

    whereas the rock ptarmigan seeks rough open slopes which are comparatively

    free of vegetation.

            The courtship flights, red combs or wattles above the eyes of the males,

    and certain cackling call notes are much the same in the two species. The

    rock ptarmigan’s distinctive “belching” cry not only is mentioned in such

    standard works as The Handbook of British Birds , but is embodied in the widely

    used Eskimo name for the species — niks a â rtok (the one who belches or coughs up). The Aivilik Eskimos of Southampton Island do not call the bird the niks a â r –

    tok , however; they call it the ahigituinuk . This word and ahigivik (willow

    346      |      Vol_IV-0403                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rock Ptarmigan

    ptarmigan ) obviously are derived from the word ahigik or akkigek (ptarmigan

    in general).

            Throughout virtually the whole of the circumboreal region Lagopus mutus

    ranges to higher latitudes and elevations than does the willow ptarmigan.

    As Pleske points out, the species is a representative of the “alpine zone,”

    whereas the willow ptarmigan is a bird of the “subalpine zone” (i.e., a habi–

    tat characterized by a good growth of willow, birch, and alder). The only

    ptarmigan of the New Siberian Archipelago is, however, the willow. Why this

    should be I do not know. Birula, for whom the endemic race there is named,

    found the birds abundant in summer and expressed a belief that most of them

    migrated to the mainland in winter. The only ptarmigan found in Spitsbergen

    and the Franz Josef Archipelago is the rock. Both species inhabit the coasts

    of Greenland but the rock is the only one found in the northern part. The

    rock ptarmigan breeds throughout Ellesmere Island, but in the eastern part of

    the Arctic Archipelago the willow ptarmigan “has not been definitely reported

    from north of Lancaster Sound …” (Taverner). On Prince Patrick Island,

    Handley found the rock ptarmigan common, but encountered only [ ?] one pair of

    willow ptarmigans.

            A complete description of all the plumages of the rock ptarmigan would

    involve a discussion of several molts, some of which are very puzzling because

    they overlap each other. In winter all birds, young and old, are white with

    14 black outer tail feathers, and the feathering of the feet is considerably

    heavier than in summer. Young birds sometimes have gray speckling on some of

    the wing quills. In spring, males and females of all ages undergo a molt which

    is similar to that of the willow ptarmigan in that it starts on the head and neck.

    347      |      Vol_IV-0404                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rock Ptarmigan

    In males it is accompanied by courtship demonstrations, proceeds rather

    slowly (requiring about a month), and does not involve the lower breast and

    belly, which remain white. In females it proceeds much more rapidly and

    involves the whole body, with the exception of the wings, which remain

    partly white. Apparently the breeding attire of the male is never quite

    so exclusively dark on the head and neck, and white on the whole body, above

    and below, as in the willow ptarmigan. Males are, however, white on the

    throat and throughout most of the under parts at the height of the breeding

    season, and do not become dark-sided and flanked until late summer or fall.

    Whatever the “purpose” of this suppression of the molting of the white winter

    plumage of the under parts, the delay is correlated with latitude — birds

    of southerly regions completing the molt much earlier in the season than

    those of higher latitudes. Since the white feathers of the sides and flanks

    are not replaced by white feathers, but by dark feathers instead, the so–

    called fall plumage, which is the only plumage the bird ever wears in which

    the whole head and body, except for the throat, wings and middle of the belly,

    is dark, may actually be the fully completed summer plumage . F. Salomonsen,

    who has reported exhaustively on the plumages of this species, may not wholly

    agree with this statement.

            During the season of egg-laying and incubation the male rock ptarmigan

    can be surprisingly showy as the lifts the bright red combs above his eyes,

    struts with white wings drooping and black tail lifted, or springs into the

    air cackling loudly. The female, on the other hand, is very inconspicuous as

    she feeds, preens, takes sun- and dust-baths, and steals to and from the nest.

    The eggs, which usually number 5 to 9 (often 2 or 3 more) are buff, heavily

    348      |      Vol_IV-0405                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rock Ptarmigan

    spotted and blotched with brown and black. Only the female incubates. The

    incubation period is 24 to 26 days ( Handbook of British Birds ). The young,

    which are brooded by the female and guarded by the male during their early

    life, can fly on the 10th day. Family groups composed of adult females and

    their broods continue to go about together all summer and fall; but when

    the species is plentiful the adult males are wont to desert their mates

    and broods and foregather in flocks by themselves as they pass through the

    period of the postnuptial molt.

            In Palm e é n’s well-considered opinion, Lagopus mutus is the oldest of

    the four species of ptarmigan. He bases this belief principally on the

    immense present-day extent of the species’ geographic range. Such a concept

    demands, of course, a clear understanding as to what the characters of

    Lagopus mutus are. Most present-day ornithologists agree that all small–

    billed ptarmigan with black outer tail feathers belong to the same species —

    i.e., that the New World “Lagopus rupestris,” the continental Old World

    “ Lagopus mutus ,” the large “ Lagopus hyperboreus ” of [ ?] Spitsbergen and the

    Franz Josef Archipelago, and numerous forms originally described as full

    species from various scattered islands, island-groups, and more or less iso–

    lated Eurasian mountain ranges are, in reality, all rock ptarmigan. The

    result of this coalescense give us an impressive array of 25 or more subspecies

    of Lagopus mutus — forms which range from Spitsbergen ( hyperboreus ) and North

    Greenland ( rupestris and captus ) southward to the mountains of Japan ( japonicus ),

    southeastern Siberia ( transbaicalicus ), central Altai ( nadeždae ), Austria

    ( helveticus ), Scotland ( millaisi ), and southern France ( pyrenaicus ), to mention

    only a few. Several of the Aleutian Islands are inhabited by well-marked

    349      |      Vol_IV-0406                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rock Ptarmigan and Ruffed Grouse

    endemic races which breed in the rugged interior and descend to lower country

    in winter. These are evermanni of Attu, townsendi of Kiska, sanfordi of

    Tanaga, chamberlaini of Adak, and atkhensis of Atka. Nelsoni , which is

    found on Unimak, Unalaska, Amaknak, and other islands at the eastern end

    of the Chain, also ranges throughout much of Alaska (Friedmann). The race

    found throughout the greater part of eastern North America is rupestris ,

    which ranges southward through the higher parts of the Labrador Peninsula

    almost to the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; but a separate sub–

    species, welchi , inhabits the summits of the mountains of Newfoundland. In

    western North America the species ranges southward in the mountains to Van- [ ?]

    couver Island, central British Columbia, southern Mackenzie, and southern

    Keewatin.

            Reference:

    Salomonsen, F. Moults and Sequence of Plumages in the Rock Ptarmigan ( Lagopus

    mutus (montin)). P. Haase and Son, Copenhagen, 1939.

            291. Ruffed Grouse . A popular North American game bird, Bonasa umbellus ,

    of the family Tetraonidae. It is strictly a woodland species, but pure, dense

    stands of coniferous trees do not furnish it with an adequate supply of food,

    dust, or sunlight, apparently, so its range does not coincide by any means with

    that of forests in general. Thus, while it is found northward to James Bay in

    eastern Canada and in that part of Quebec lying between the south end of James

    Bay and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, there are vast stretches of this

    area in which it is very rare. Though it is not ordinarily considered an in–

    habitant of the central part of the Labrador Peninsula, reports continue to

    350      |      Vol_IV-0407                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ruffed Grouse

    filter out of its being seen along the height of land in regions which have

    been little visited by either white men or by Indians.

            The ruffed grouse is known by a variety of colloquial names, including

    partridge or “pattridge” (New England), birch partridge (Canada), and even

    pheasant (mountain districts of the southern U. S.). The broad, soft, some–

    what glossy neck “ruffs,” for which it is named, are larger and more colorful

    in the male than in the female. A distinctive feature is the board, beautiful

    fan of 18 or 20 tail feathers. Both the male and female have a definite,

    but not always conspicuous, crest. The tarsi are feathered at the proximal

    end, but not at the distal. The ruffed grouse is, generally speaking, a brown

    or gray bird, intricately marked with black, buff, and white. In some parts

    of its range it is strongly dichromatic, especially in tail color, some in–

    dividuals being very brown-tailed, others gray-tailed. Gray-tailed birds

    are sometimes called “silver-tails” or “silver-tips.”

            The ruffed grouse is polygamous. The male is famous for his drumming.

    On a chosen log he struts back and forth with tail and neck-ruffs spread and

    lifted, wings drooping, and eyes half shut. Seized by an impulse to drum,

    he lowers his tail, stands erect, and beats his wings — so slowly at first

    that the thumping or pounding is quite distinct, then so rapidly that the

    individual beats are lost in a sort of hum or roar, which sometimes sounds

    like distant thunder. This drumming attracts the females and warns other

    males to keep out of that part of the woods. A male grouse may drum at any

    hour of day or night, and at any time of the year, but spring is the prin–

    cipal drumming season.

            The female makes the nest, which is a leaf-lined hollow in the ground,

    351      |      Vol_IV-0408                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ruffed Grouse

    often at the base of a tree or beside a [ ?] log in the forest, and sometimes

    at considerable distance from the drumming spot of the male. The eggs,

    which number 7 to 12 as a rule, are light buffy brown and usually unspotted.

    The female does all of the incubating. The incubation period is about 21

    days, possibly more in inclement weather (Bent). The young learn to fly

    before they are half grown. Broods stay together during the late summer

    and possibly all fall and winter. Reports of male grouse caring for broods

    may have been based on misidentification of the parent bird, for the male

    probably knows nothing of the whereabouts of the nest and has nothing to

    do with caring for the eggs or young.

            Many races of Bonasa umbellus have been described, several of them recently.

    The northernmost is yukonensis of Alaska, Yukon, southern Mackenzie, northern

    Alberta, and northwestern Saskatchewan, a gray form which probably breeds

    northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond along the Upper Yukon. I

    have seen this bird in some numbers in the vicinity of Fairbanks, Alaska. In

    eastern Canada the ruffed grouse ranges northward to James Bay and probably

    through the little-known interior of north central Quebec (i.e., the country

    east of Hudson Bay). In the Labrador it is “a rare permanent resident in the

    heavy forest south of Hamilton Inlet” (Austin).

            References:

    1. Aldrich, JW., and Friedmann, H. “A revision of the Ruffed Grouse.” Condor ,

    vol.45, pp.85-103, 1943. 2. ----. A Mother Grouse. American Bird Biographies. Comstock Publishing

    Co., Ithaca, New York, 1934. 3. Allen, A.A. “Sex rhythm in the Ruffed Grouse ( Bonasa umbellus Linn.) and

    other birds.” Auk , vol.51, pp.180-99, 1934. 4. Edminster, F.C. The Ruffed Grouse. Its life story, ecology and management .

    The Macmillan Company, New York, 1947.

    352      |      Vol_IV-0409                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sharp-tailed Grouse

            292. Sharp-tailed Grouse . A middle-sized galliform bird, Pedioecetes

    phasianellus , so called because the most readily visible tail feathers

    (the middle pair) are rather long and narrow. The species is brown above,

    variously and intricately marked with black and buff on the crown, hind

    neck, and upper part of the body, and beautifully spotted with white on

    the scapulars, wing coverts, and secondaries. It is buff on the face and

    throat. Throughout the rest of the under parts it is white, neatly marked

    with V’s of dusky throughout the foreneck, chest, sides, and flanks. The

    middle tail feathers are brown, buff, and black like the rump, back, and

    upper tail coverts, but the other rectrices are light-colored, the outer–

    most being almost white. The eyes are brown. At the height of the court–

    ship season the orange combs above the eyes of the males are considerably

    enlarged, and the inflatable air sacs of the neck become lavender.

            Sharp-tails go about in flocks in winter, feeding on buds and catkins

    and scratching in the snow for frozen berries and evergreen leaves. At

    this season they are more or less arboreal, for they find much of their

    food in trees. In spring the males continue to be gregarious, not so much

    while feeding, preening, and taking dust baths as while dancing. In a

    chosen spot they gather morning after morning, going through their odd but

    purposeful antics while the females come quietly in from near and far. The

    birds are quite promiscuous in their sexual relations. The males, with

    heads lowered, air sacs of the neck inflated, wings spread horizontally or

    slightly lowered, and tails lifted straight in air, with the puff of under

    tail coverts sticking out comically behind, go through some of the queerest

    displaying and sparring imaginable. The oddest single fact about this

    353      |      Vol_IV-0410                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sharp-tailed Grouse

    phenomenon is that all the birds perform in unison, running about in circles,

    coming to positions facing one another two by two, rattling their tails while

    stamping their feet, making a variety of curious vocal sounds, then remaining

    completely motionless until some urge starts them all off again. Much of

    their sparring is mere pantomime, but sometimes they come to blows. Occas–

    sionally one bird will fly up and over another, or the whole group will have

    moments of frenzy, but as a rule the performance proceeds in orderly fashion,

    like a square dance in which each participant knows exactly what is expected

    of him.

            The nest is a hollow in the ground, scantily lined with such dry vegeta–

    tion as is available. The eggs, which number 10 to 15 or more, are olive buff

    finely speckled with brown (or plain). The incubation period is about 21

    days (Bent). Only the female incubates. The downy young are strongly yellow

    in tone, with black markings on the upper parts.

            The sharp-tailed grouse is found only in North America. It ranges from

    northcentral Alaska, northern Mackenzie, northeastern Manitoba, northern

    Ontario, and southern Quebec southward to Nevada, Colorado, northeastern New

    Mexico, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and (formerly) northern

    Illinois. Several races are recognized, of which only caurus (of Alaska,

    southern Yukon and northeastern Alberta) and hennicotti (of Mackenzie) range

    northward into the Subarctic.

            For important details concerning the sharp-tailed grouse’s external

    anatomy and seasonal wanderings see Pedioecetes .

            Reference:

    Bent, A.C. “Life Histories of North American Gallinaceous birds.” Bull

    U. S. Natl. Mus., vol.162, pp.285-300 ( Pedioecetes phasianellus ),

    1932.

    354      |      Vol_IV-0411                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Slender-billed Capercaillie

            294. Slender-billed Capercaillie . A large galliform bird, Tetrao par –

    virostris , of northeastern Asia (from about long. 100° E. eastward). It is

    closely related to the common capercaillie ( T. urogallus ) of northwestern Asia

    (from about long. 115° E. westward) and Europe. According to Stejneger the

    Russian name used for the bird in Kamchatka is the equivalent of rock caper–

    caillie. Whether the ranges of urogallus and parvirostris actually overlap

    in north central Siberia, as is indicated by the statements of longitude

    given above, remains to be ascertained.

            The male slender-billed capercaillie is similar to male T. urogallus ,

    but is shining bluish black all over the head and neck, and the scapulars

    and upper tail coverts are so boldly tipped with white as to form four inter–

    rupted lines of white on the dorsal surface of the body. The female is much

    smaller and browner in general tones, but her scapulars and upper tail coverts

    also are boldly tipped with white.

            T. parvirostris is, like T. urogallus , a forest bird. It ranges from the

    lower Tura River in north central Siberia eastward to the delta of the Kolyma

    and the lower Anadyr, and southward from about tree limit to the southern tip

    of Kamchatka, the Sea of Okhotsk, the island of Sakhalin, northern Mongolia,

    and Amurland. Five races are recognized. The smallest of these, kamschaticus ,

    inhabits Kamchatka. The most northward ranging are turensis , which was

    described by Buturlin from the lower Tura River (at about lat. 75° N. and

    long. 100° E.), and which ranges throughout north central Siberia, northward

    to tree limit; and janensis , which is found along the Yana, Indigirka, and

    Kolyma Rivers. This form ranges northward to the delta of the Kolyma, and east–

    ward to the valley of the Anadyr.

            The habits of the slender-billed capercaillie probably are very much like

    those of Tetrao urogallus .



    355      |      Vol_IV-0412                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spruce Grouse or Spruce Partridge

            296. Spruce Grouse or Spruce Partridge . A rather small but handsome

    galliform bird, Canachites canadensis , of coniferous forests of Alaska,

    Canada, and the northern United States. It is known also as the Canada grouse,

    and — because of its remarkable fearlessness of man — the fool hen. The

    male is gray, barred with black above, and black, strikingly spotted with

    white, below. The female is brown in general tone, though her plumage is

    intricately barred and spotted with black, buff, gray, and white. In both

    sexes the tail is black, tipped with cinnamon brown. A naked space above

    the eye of the male enlarges during the breeding season, becoming a conspi–

    cuous bright-red comb or wattle.

            Courting male spruce grouse strut with wings lowered and tails lifted

    and spread, and take short, fluttering flights during which they drum mid-air,

    a few feet or yards above the ground. They have favorite drumming logs up

    and down which they walk so frequently that the bark is worn smooth. The

    nest is hard to find. The female does all the incubating of the 4 to 7 (oc–

    casionally more) eggs, which are buff or cinnamon, handsomely spotted with

    brown.

            The spruce partridge ranges across North America from about tree limit

    southward to northern Washington, southeastern British Columbia, central

    Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, northern Minnesota and Michigan, Vermont, New

    Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. It breeds northward to

    the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in Alaska, Yukon, and Mackenzie. Three

    subspecies are currently recognized. Of these, one ( Canadensis ) ranges from

    northern Alaska (Noatak River, Alatna River, and Fort Yukon) southward through

    western Canada to northern Washington, southeastern British Columbia, and

    356      |      Vol_IV-0413                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spruce Grouse and Tetrao

    central Alberta across northeastern Canada to Labrador; another ( canace ) ranges

    from southern Manitoba and northern Minnesota eastward across southeastern

    Canada and along the northern border of the United States to the Atlantic

    Coast. A not very strongly marked race, atratus , inhabits southern Alaska

    (Bristol Bay to Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound). A doubtfully valid

    race, torridus , inhabits the Gaspe Peninsula, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and

    northeastern Maine.

            For other important details concerning this bird, see Canachites .

            Reference:

    Rand, A.L. “Clutch size in the Spruce Grouse and theoretical consideration

    of some factors affecting clutch size.” Canad. Field - Nat .,

    vol.61, pp.127-30, 1947.

            297. Tetrao . A genus composed o t f two large woodland-inhabiting species

    of grouse (family Tetraonidae) found only in northern and mountainous parts

    of Eurasia. The better-known species, T. urogallus , is known as the capercaillie

    (capercailzie) or auerhahn.

            Tetrao bears a strong structural resemblance to Canachites of the New World,

    despite the great discrepancy in size. The nostrils are feathered. The plumage

    of the crown and throat is somewhat elongate, especially in the male. There

    are no inflatable air sacs or pinnae on the neck of the male. The tarsus is

    thickly feathered. The toes are scantily covered with bristle-like feathers

    at the base, but are otherwise bare, the front three being equipped long each

    side with an extra row of flat scales and a double fringe of narrow scales

    which probably serve as snowshoes. The claws are broad and flat in winter,

    narrower in summer. The tail is large, strongly rounded, and composed of 18

    357      |      Vol_IV-0414                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tetrao and Tetraonidae

    broad feathers. The wings are rounded, the outermost primary being much

    shorter than the one next to it (second), the fourth being the longest.

    The male is much larger than, and different in color and color pattern

    from, the female. The eggs are spotted, as in Lyrurus , Lagopus , and Cana –

    chites .

            Tetrao is a bird of the forest, hence is found in the Arctic or Sub–

    arctic only where the tree growth is extensive. It ranges northward to

    the Arctic Circle and beyond in Scandinavia and Siberia and probably also

    in northern Russia. There are two species: urogallus of Europe and

    western Asia, and parvirostris of eastern Asia (long. 115° E. eastward).

            See Capercaillie or Capercailzie.

            298. Tetraonidae . A family composed of 11 genera of grouse, the only

    family of the order Galliformes which is confined to the Northern Hemisphere.

    It is found in both the New World and the Old, but only one genus, Lagopus

    (ptarmigan), is common to the two. Bonasa (ruffed grouse) of North America

    superficially resembles Tetrastes (hazel hen) of Eurasia. Canachites (spruce

    grouse) of North America is very close to Falcipennis (sharp-winged grouse)

    of Asia, and the two forms may be congeneric. Throughout the family the

    nostrils are covered with feathers. In most genera the tarsus is fully

    feathered; but in Bonasa and Tetrastes it is bare or very scantily feathered

    at the distal end. In Lagopus the toes are well feathered in winter, less

    heavily feathered in summer. In all genera except Lagopus the toes are more

    or less bare, the three in front being pectinate along each edge. In winter

    the pectinate fringes are longer than in summer and the claws are broader,

    hence the feet are equipped with “snowshoes.”



    358      |      Vol_IV-0415                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tetraonidae

            Throughout the family polygamy is the rule rather than the exception,

    and males are given to various forms of strutting, booming, sparring, etc.,

    in chosen spots to which the females come. Ptarmigan ( Lagopus ) apparently

    are monogamous. Courtship is conspicuously gregarious in some genera, notably

    in Lyrurus (black grouse) in Eurasia, and in Tympanuchus (pinnated grouse),

    Pedioecetes (sharp-tailed grouse), and Centrocercus (sage grouse) in North

    America. In most genera the tail is an important part of the male’s dis–

    play, being widely spread and lifted, or tiled with its upper side toward

    the female. In Pedioecetes it is loosely spread, lifted, and rattled.

    Whether for purposes of display or not, the tail varies greatly within the

    family. As a rule it is graduated or rounded, but in Lyrurus it is forked,

    and in Pedioecetes it is short and stiff, save for the middle feathers,

    which are longish and comparatively soft. The tail has 16 feathers in

    Lagopus, Canachites, Falcipennis , and Tetrastes; 18 in Tetrao , Lyrurus ,

    Tympanuchus , and Pedioecetes ; 18 or 20 in Bonasa ; and 20 in Centrocercus

    and Dengragapus . As a rule the rectrices are broad, but in Centrocercus

    they are excessively narrow and pointed.

            In some genera (notably Tympanuchus , Pedioecetes , Dendragapus , and

    Centrocercus ) the neck of the male has inflatable air sacs which are used

    in courtship. In Tympanuchus the air sacs are featherless and orange or

    dull pink and there are also decorative tufts of feathers (pinnae) on the

    neck, which are lifted and spread in display, but no air sacs. In most

    genera the feathers of the crown are elongate, forming a crest when lifted.

    In Tetrao the elongate throat feathers are lifted during courtship.

            Throughout the family the female makes the nest (usually a shallow

    359      |      Vol_IV-0416                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Teraonidae

    basin on the ground) and incubates the eggs. The clutch usually is large

    and but one brood is reared in a season. The eggs are spotted in some

    genera, plain in others. Since incubation begins about the time the last

    egg is laid, the young all hatch on the same day (or thereabouts). The

    young are down-covered, and leave the nest with the mother almost at once.

    They can fly when 2 to 3 weeks old.

            The most distinctly boreal genus of the family is Lagopus , which has

    four species, two of which – the willow ptarmigan ( L. lagopus ) and

    rock ptarmigan ( L. mutus ) have circumpolar distribution. Of the 10 other

    general, all but Centrocercus , Dendragapus , and Tympanuchus range northward

    into the Subarctic. Falcipennis of Asia may not quite reach the Arctic

    Circle; but all the others breed northward in more or less forested regions

    to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond either in North American or in

    Eurasia.

            See Lagopus , Tetrao , Lyrurus , Canachites , Falcipennis , Bonasa , Tetrastes ,

    and Pedioecetes .

            Reference:

    Dwight, Jonathan. “The moult of the North American Tetraonidae (quails,

    partridges and grouse).” Auk , vol l .17, pp.34-51; 143-166,

    1900.

    360      |      Vol_IV-0417                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tetrastes.

            299. Tetra t st es . A galliform genus to which the small Eurasian grouse,

    commonly referred to as the hazel hens, belong. Tetrastes bears a strong

    resemblance to Bonasa (ruffed grouse) of North America in general color pat–

    tern, especially that of the wings, tail, and body, and in certain particulars

    (e.g., well-defined crest, broad fan of a tail, naked toes with pectinate edges,

    feathered proximal end of the tarsus); but it has only 16 tail feathers (rather

    than 18 or 20); there is no trace of a ruff on the neck; its over-all size is

    smaller; and it is monogamous. Tetrastes is said to have Bonasa’s habit of

    crouching motionless until almost stepped upon, then rising with a great whir

    of wings. Its eggs are spotted (they are usually plain in Bonasa ).

            Tetrastes Tetrastes is, like Bonasa , a woodland bird. Though it ranges northward

    to the Arctic Circle and beyond in both Europe and Asia, it is nowhere an

    inhabitant of the tundra. It probably reaches its northernmost limits in

    Scandinavia, northern Russia, and along the lower Lena, Yana, and Kolyma

    rivers in northeastern Siberia. It does not inhabit Kamchatka, but [ ?] is

    found in the mountains of Korea and on the islands of Hokkaido and Sakhalin.

            There are two species - bonasia of wooded parts of Europe and northern

    Asia (eastward in Siberia to the Amur and Kolyma valleys); and sewersowi of

    western China.

            See Hazel Hen.

            301. White-tailed Ptarmigan . A plump galliform bird, Lagopus leucurus ,

    found only in the Rocky Mountain system of North America. It is noticeably

    smaller than the willow ptarmigan ( Lagopus lagopus ), slightly smaller than the

    rock ptarmigan ( L. mutus ), and wholly different from these two species in

    having white (rather than black) tail feathers. It is the only ptarmigan

    361      |      Vol_IV-0418                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-tailed Ptarmigan

    known, in fact the only galliform bird of the world, which wears a wholly

    white plumage. In general, its manner of molting is similar to that of the

    willow and rock ptarmigans. Males in breeding plumage are dark on the head,

    neck, bank, rump, and middle two tail feathers, but white on the lower breast,

    belly, wings, and 14 outer tail feathers. Females are similar but are more

    uniformly dark on the sides and flanks, and buff tones are more pronounced

    throughout the plumage. The complete summer plumage (i.e., the plumage

    having the greatest number of dark feathers) is not assumed until early fall.

    In this plumage the wings, 14 outer tail feathers, and middle of the belly

    still are white. All birds, males and females, young and old alike, become

    white in winter.

            The white-tailed ptarmigan’s nest is a depression in the moss or among

    rocks. The eggs usually number 6 to 8, though as few as 4 and as many as 15

    have been recorded. They are buff, more or less spotted with brown, and are

    less handsome than those of the other species of the genus Lagopus , sometimes

    being almost plain. Only the female incubates them. Family groups stay to–

    gether during the late summer and fall, and possibly all winter, breaking up

    when courtship begins in early spring.

            Lagopus leucurus ranges from central Alaska southward through the Rocky

    Mountains to northern New Mexico. Five races currently are recognized: P

    peninsularis of Alaska and northwestern Mackenzie; leucurus of the British

    Columbia mainland; saxatilis of Vancouver Island; ranierensis of Mount Rainier

    and probably of the Cascade Range of southern and central Washington; and alti –

    petens of the Rocky Mountains from Montana southward to northern New Mexico.

    All of these races are arctic in the sense that the birds breed in a treeless

    362      |      Vol_IV-0419                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-tailed Ptarmigan and Willow Ptarmigan

    habitat above timber line on mountain tops. One race, peninsularis , may pos–

    sibly range northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in central Alaska,

    though its northernmost limits are, so far as is known at present, in the

    vicinity of Mt. McKinley.

            Reference:

    Lewis, Evan. “The nesting habits of the white-tailed Ptarmigan in Colorado.”

    Bird - Lore , vol.6, pp.117-21, 1904.

            302. Willow Ptarmigan . A plump galliform bird, Lagopus lagopus , found

    in arctic and subarctic parts of the New and Old Worlds. In winter it is some–

    times called the white partridge or snow partridge. The English almost in–

    variably call it the willow grouse, reserving the term ptarmigan for the related

    species, Lagopus mutus , which inhabits Scotland. The willow grouse or willow

    ptarmigan does not inhabit any part of the British Isles, but the closely

    related red grouse, Lagopus scoticus , is locally common in the Orkneys, the

    Hebrides, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and northern England. The red grouse

    does not molt into a white plumage in winter. It is never called a ptarmigan

    save by taxonomists, who sometimes refer to all the species of the genus

    Lagopus as “the ptarmigans.”

            The willow ptarmigan is well known among the Eskimos, who often capture

    it for food. They take care lest their dogs eat it, however, for the irregularly

    shaped bones sometimes lodge in the dogs’ intestines, obstructing the passage of

    food and causing death. The Eskimo name for the willow ptarmigan is ahigivik

    and ahigek or akkigek being a ptarmigan of any sort, an ahigivik a large (or

    363      |      Vol_IV-0420                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Willow Ptarmigan

    the large) ptarmigan. An Aleut name for Lagopus lagopus is alladek (Wetmore).

    The word ptarmigan itself is interesting. It is from Gaelic tarmachan (be–

    lieved to refer to a larch or some other northern tree). The p was added by

    the French, who must have supposed that tarmachan (or its equivalent, tarmigan )

    was from the Greek, hence required a classic letter-combination, pt , at the

    start!

            The willow ptarmigan is about the size of a white leghorn hen, but much

    shorter-legged. In winter it is white all over except for the 14 black outer

    tail feathers, which show only when the bird flies. The bill is horn gray and

    the eyes vary dark brown. The white plumage sometimes has a delicate rosy

    cast, which produces an illusion of light reflected from the rising or setting

    sun. In spring (April and May) the bright red combs over the eyes of the males

    begin to enlarge as brown feathers appear in the head and neck. Feather re–

    placement (molt) continues until the head and neck are deep reddish brown, but

    the body stays white. In the female, on the other hand, the spring molt in–

    volves the head, neck, and body . She is, therefore, quite inconspicuous in

    comparison with the male as she proceeds with egg-laying [ ?] and incubation.

    Ornithologists have assumed that this temporary sexual dimo r phism was a pro–

    vision of Nature whereby the female escaped the detection of predators while

    the male bore the brunt of the attack; but recent studies of galliform bird

    behavior suggest that, unless the sexes are different in appearance, pairing

    does not take place readily; so the brown-headedness or white-bodiedness of

    males and over-all gray-browness of females may aid to some extent in the re–

    productive process. About the time the chicks hatch, the males become dark

    all over except for the wings (which are more or less white throughout the

    year). Molting of the body plumage is almost continuous throughout midsummer

    364      |      Vol_IV-0421                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Willow Ptarmigan

    and fall in both males and females. Many ornithologists believe that both

    the willow and rock ptarmigan have a separate “fall plumage” which is worn

    for a comparatively short period in late summer, but this probably does

    not involve a complete replacement of body feathers.

            The willow ptarmigan and rock ptarmigan are much alike. In both

    species the wings stay more or less white, and the 14 outer rectrices black,

    all the year round. In general, the willow ptarmigan is the larger-bodied

    and heavier-billed of the two; the more reddish brown in summer and early

    fall plumages; and in winter the whiter, the male rock ptarmigan usually

    having a black line running from the bill to the eye.

            The willow ptarmigan is incredibly unsuspicious or “tame” in certain

    unpopulated parts of the Far North. I have on many occasions, both in sum–

    mer and in winter, almost stepped on the protectively colored birds, and

    have been struck with their fearlessness or nonchalance as they have dodged

    and moved gracefully off. They can, however, become wary when they have

    been shot at a few times. The Eskimos and other northern peoples often cap–

    ture them with nets and snares.

            The willow ptarmigan probably is more or less migratory throughout its

    range. In winter the birds which breed at high latitudes move southward

    and those which have nested on hills and plateaus at comparatively low lat–

    itudes move into the valleys. Migrations sometimes involve crossing large

    bodies of water. The races of Lagopus lagopus which breed on certain southward–

    lying islands (i.e., those off the Alaska coast) probably are the least migra–

    tory of all. It is my belief that nearly all ptarmigan of both species move

    southward in the dead of winter far enough to be able to expose themselves

    365      |      Vol_IV-0422                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Willow Ptarmigan

    directly, even though only occasionally, to the rays of the sun. I may be

    quite wrong in this (especially in view of Pike’s reported observations on

    Lagopus mutus in Spitsbergen in winter) and will welcome all definite records

    of ptarmigan seen in the dead of winter (i.e., in the winter darkness) at

    far northern localities.

            All the year round the willow ptarmigan is an interesting, if not an

    entertaining, bird. In the bitter cold of winter it runs about on its well–

    feathered feet, scratching the snow away from the buried willow bushes and

    plucking off with gusto the wool l y buds and twigs. Ordinarily its breath does

    not show even when the thermometer stands at 30 to 40 below zero (F°.), but

    if it has to work hard in scratching the snow away, or is obliged to run fast,

    little wisps of steam curl up from its nostrils or open mouth. At night it

    burrows in a drift, scoops out a basin in the snow, or appropriates a man’s

    footprints.

            Ptarmigan often move about in winter with bands of caribou, feeding on

    the vegetation exposed when the big ungulates paw away the snow. Frank Banfield,

    who has observed this close association of beast and bird in the wild area east

    of Great Bear Lake, informs me that the caribou are instantly start l ed by the

    appearance or sudden crying out of a gull, for their instincts warn them that

    the gull may have seen a wolf or other enemy species; but the ptarmigan may

    run about, take flight, and even cackle without disturbing the caribou in the

    slightest.

            In spring the male willow ptarmigan give themselves over to courtship

    display and defense of nest territory and the tundra resounds with their

    lusty go back ! go back ! go back , delivered as they fly upward a few yards

    366      |      Vol_IV-0423                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Willow Ptarmigan

    and descend on noisily beating wings. The ardor of these performing birds

    is amazing. So intent are they on making themselves heard or seen that

    between flights they sometimes attempt to walk on snow too soft to hold them;

    or, forgetful of everything save their strutting and the secondary problem

    of keeping an eye on the human observer, they run plump! into a tree or rock

    so hard so to knock themselves almost silly. Yet the instant they scramble

    up out of the snow or recover their full sense of equilibrium off they go

    again!

            The female does all the incubating. She is devoted to her nest and some–

    times will not leave it even when touched by the human hand. At Churchill,

    Manitoba, my associates and I were amused by the behavior of an exceptionally

    docile female, whose eggs we took from the nest, placing them at varying

    distances from her as she clucked and ruffled her feathers and ineffectually

    jabbed at us with her beak. All eggs which she could reach with her bill while

    in the nest in brooding position she promptly reclaimed, u pulling them back

    under her with her bill; but to those which were away from the nest — even

    only a few inches away — she paid not the slightest attention until we

    placed them on the rim, within reach .

            The full clutch usually numbers 7 to 12 eggs, though as few as 5 and as

    many as 15 have been recorded. The eggs are buff, thickly and handsomely blo [ ?] hed

    with reddish brown. Incubation does not start until the whole set has been laid.

    The incubation period is about 24 days. The female does all the incubating;

    but the male is a devoted parent all the while; not only does he remain in the

    vicinity; but when the fluffy balls of deep brown, black, and golden buff ar–

    rive, he is there to protect them — if need be with his life.



    367      |      Vol_IV-0424                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Willow Ptarmigan

            The willow ptarmigan is a somewhat less northern bird than the rock

    ptarmigan. In neither the Old World nor the New does it reach the high lat–

    itudes attained by the other species, though in many ways the ranges of the

    two are similar. Peters recognizes 9 races of the willow ptarmigan: ( 1 )

    the circumpolar lagopus , which inhabits northern Eurasia (south in Europe to

    about lat. 60° N., and in Siberia to the lower Yenisei, Transbaikalia, the

    Kentai Mountains, Kamchatka, and the lower Amur) and northern North America

    from northern Alaska and the Mainland south of the Arctic Archipelago south

    to the eastern Aleutians, central Mackenzie (in the mountains to British

    Columbia and west central Alberta), northern Manitoba, James Bay, and Ungava;

    ( 2 ) birulai of the New Siberian Archipelago; ( 3 ) leucopterus of the Arctic

    Archipelago northward to Viscount Melville and Lancaster sounds (and sparingly

    in the west even to Prince Patrick Island); ( 4 ) rossicus of European Russia from

    Leningrad to Moscow, eastward to the steppe region of southeastern Russia;

    ( 5 ) maior of southeastern Russia eastward to the Cis-Altai Steppe and north–

    ward at least to Tobolsk and Omsk; ( 6 ) brevirostris of the southern Siberian

    mountains from the taiga of Minussinsk south to the southern Altai; ( 7 ) kozlowae

    of the mountains of northern Mongolia; ( 8 ) alexandrae of the islands off the

    south and southwest coast of Alaska and of the mountains of British Columbia;

    and ( 9 ) alleni of Newfoundland (Peters, Check-List of Birds of the World , 1934.

    Vol. 2, pp.30-32). Several other races have been named, some of which probably

    are valid.

            References:

    1. Dixon, J.S. “Contribution to the life history of the Alaska Willow Ptarmigan.”

    Condor , vol.29, pp.213-23, 1927. 2. Höst, Per. “Effect of light on the moults and sequences of plumage in the

    Willow Ptarmigan.” Auk , vol.59, pp.388-403, 1942.

    Gruiformes (Cranes, Rails)



    368      |      Vol_IV-0425                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cranes

    CRANES

           

    Order GRUIFORMES ; Suborder GRUES

           

    Family GRUIDAE

            303. American Crane. A name occasionally used for the whooping crane ( Grus

    americana ) ( q.v. ).

            304. Anthropoïdes . See writeup.

            305. Asiatic White Crane. A name sometimes used for the white crane ( Grus

    leucogeranus ) ( q.v. ).

            306. Common Crane. See writeup.

            307. Crane. See writeup.

            308. Demoiselle Crane. See writeup.

            309. GRUIDAE. See writeup.

            310. GRUIFORMES . See writeup.

            311. Grus . See writeup.

            312. Hoodes Crane. See writeup.

            313. Lesser Sandhill Crane. A name currently applied to Grus canadensis

    canadensis , the most northward-ranging race of the sandhill crane.

    The form has long been known as the little brown crane, but that name

    is not very apt. See Sandhill Crane.

            314. Little Brown Crane. A widely used name for Grus canadensis canadensis ,

    the most northward-ranging race of the sandhill crane. See Sandhill Crane.

            315. Sandhill Crane. See writeup.

            316. White Crane. See writeup.

            317. White-headed Crane. A name sometimes used for the hooded crane ( Grus

    monacha ) ( q.v. ).

            318. Whooping Crane. See writeup.



    369      |      Vol_IV-0426                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anthropoides

            304. Anthropoïdes . A genus composed of two species of Old World

    cranes — A. virgo (demoiselle crane) of Eurasia and northern Africa and

    A. paradisea (Stanley crane or paradise crane) of South Africa. The present

    distribution of the genus is thought-provoking, for nowhere do the ranges

    of the two species touch or overlap and any time of the year. Virgo breeds

    in northern Africa (Algeria and perhaps Morocco), southeastern Europe (pos–

    sibly also Spain), and central Asia (northward to the Arctic Circle and

    slightly beyond in Siberia), and winters southward to India, China, Burma,

    the valleys of the White and Blue Nile, and P Et hiopia; but paradisea , which

    is nonmigratory, inhabits only the high veldt of Africa south of the Zambezi

    River.

            In Anthropoïdes the bill is slightly longer than the head. The head is

    fully feathered. The plumage of the occiput is a flowing crest in virgo ,

    and “lengthened, disintegrated and loose, so as to form a ball” in paradisea.

    The inner secondaries are excessively long and pointed. In paradisea they

    are sometimes so long that they touch, or even drag on, the ground. The

    feathers of the lower foreneck are long and loose, as in some herons, but

    broad and flat rather than attenuate. The trachea is not as long as in Grus

    (common crane and allies), for the keel of the sternum is not completely hol–

    lowed out or chambered but is merely cut away or pushed back in front to ac–

    commodate an S-fold of the structure.

            Anthropoïdes virgo breeds northward along the upper Lena to latitude 60° N.

    and also along the Yana, which is considerably farther north. In this part of

    its range it is strongly migratory.

            See Demoiselle Crane.



    370      |      Vol_IV-0427                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Crane

            306. Common Cane . A large Old World crane, whose loud cry, a clanging,

    trumpeted grooh or krooh , is a familiar sound of the wilderness areas in

    which it nests. It is about 44 inches long from tip of bill to tip of tail,

    and 4 feet or more high, with broad, elongate inner secondaries which in the

    standing bird look at a distance like a large, loosely feathered tail. Adults

    are light gray on the body and slate gray on the head and neck, with a h broad

    white stripe leading from each eye backward and downward along the side of

    the neck. The top of the head is featherless, the skin of the crown being

    black throughout the front half, red throughout the back half. The bill is

    light grayish green, with pinkish base. The eyes are light yellow. The legs

    and feet are dark gray. Young birds are similar, but have fully feathered

    heads and the general color of their plumage is brown.

            The common crane frequents open marshes, lagoons, river flats, and grass–

    lands in winter; but in the breeding season it seeks out wooded swamps or

    boggy marshes close to woodland, usually in a wild and deserted region. At

    any season of the year, but especially in spring, it may dance. During these

    astonishing performances, which are believed by many ornithologists to be

    merely an outpouring of exuberance and vitality rather than a sexual display,

    the birds hop about with flapping wings, sometimes flying upward a short way

    but quickly returning to the ground. Dancing birds frequently pick up stick

    or stones, tossing them into the air and catching them playfully.

            Common cranes probably pair for life. The great northward-moving flocks

    are composed of paired and unpaired birds. The paired birds start their nest–

    ing almost at once on their return to the breeding ground. Younger birds

    continue to go about in flocks until they, too, have paired.



    371      |      Vol_IV-0428                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Crane

            The nest is a large, flat heap of grass, sedge, reeds, and moss, sometimes

    on a twig foundation, built on an islet in a marsh or in the water itself.

    The eggs usually are 2, though sets of 3 have been recorded and in Sweden the

    clutch not infrequently consists of one egg. The eggs are olive gray or

    brown, spotted and blotched with dark shades of gray and brown. Both sexes

    incubate. The incubation period is 28 to 30 days (Witherby). The downy

    young is foxy reddish brown above, paler on the crown and neck and darkest

    in the middle of the back, and rufous buff below, fading to white on the chin,

    the middle of the belly, and under the wings.

            The common crane breeds across the whole of Eurasia, ranging northward

    to the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia, northern Russia (lat. 68° N.) and Siberia.

    Molchanow reported a pair of on the south island of Novaya Zemlya. The species

    is strongly migratory, European birds spending the winter in the Mediterranean

    countries and in northeastern Africa; Siberian birds moving southward into

    China, the island of Hainan, and northern India. Two races are recognized:

    Grus grus grus of the greater part of Europe, and G. grus lilfordi of south–

    eastern Europe and Siberia. Lilfordi is paler (especially the wing coverts)

    than the nominate race, and the red of the rear part of the crown is much

    restricted.

            Reference:

    Berg, Bengt. To Africa with the migratory birds . G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New

    York and London, 1930.

    372      |      Vol_IV-0429                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crane

            307. Crane . Any of several large, long-legged, long-necked, long–

    winged, and usually long-billed wading birds which bear a strong, though

    superificial, resemblance to herons and storks. A crane’s four toes all

    are rather short, and the very short hind toe is elevated, so the foot has

    little grasping power. Only one species, the crowned crane ( Balearica

    pavonina ) of Africa, perches at all regularly in trees. Most Cranes have

    strong, far-carrying voices. In the whooping crane ( Grus americana ) of

    North America, a rare species famous for its trumpeting call notes, the

    trachea is almost, if not quite, as long as the bird itself — so long, in

    fact, that the keel of the sternum is chambered to accommodate a 28-inch–

    long coil of the structure (Knowlton and Ridgway).

            Cranes often feed in marshes, wading in water sometimes up to their

    bellies; but they also frequent well-drained uplands, where they catch

    grasshoppers and other insects, mice, small reptiles, and nestling birds,

    and browse on tender vegetation. Most persons are likely to associate

    cranes with a southern setting; yet some species are truly characteristic

    of the wide stretches of tundra where, in the unpeopled solitudes, they find

    a suitable nesting ground.

            There are 14 species of Cranes in the world. Three of these - the

    crowned crane, wattled crane ( Bugeranus carunculatus ), and paradise or Stanley

    crane ( Anthropoïdes paradisea ) — are confined to Africa. One — the Aus–

    tralian crane or “native companion”( Grus attigone ) — is found only in Aus–

    tralia and southern New Guinea. All others inhabit the Northern Hemisphere

    exclusively. Most of these northern forms are strongly migratory, but even

    those which move farthest south in winter do not cross the equator.

            Of the ten species found in the Northern Hemisphere only one is common to

    373      |      Vol_IV-0430                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crane and Demoiselle Crane

    both the New World and the Old. This is the sandhill crane ( Grus canadensis Grus Canadensis ),

    the northernmost race of which is found across continental North America

    from Alaska to Hudson Bay, in parts of the Arctic Archipelago, and in

    extreme northeastern Siberia.

            For other important information concerning cranes see Gruidae.

            308. Demoiselle Crane . A rather small crane, Anthropoïdes virgo ,

    which breeds in southeastern Europe (and possibly Spain), central Asia, and

    Algeria. Eurasian birds are strongly migratory, there being two principal

    wintering areas for them — India, Burma, and China in the east, and the

    valleys of the White and Blue Nile (and Ethiopia) in the west. The species

    fares well in captivity, though it has not been domesticated. It is,

    generally speaking, blue-gray with strikingly elongated inner secondaries

    and long, soft, flowing feathers on the lower foreneck. The whole head and

    foreneck are black except for the crown, which is gray like the body, and a

    crest of white feathers which springs from back of the eye and flows over

    the occiput. The bill is light olive gray, with red tip; the feet and legs

    blackish gray; the eyes deep red.

            The demoiselle crane nests in wild country far from human habitations.

    It likes marshlands, but also nests in flat sandy plains or “open steppe,

    which may be unproductive [i.e., barren] in the extreme” (Raddle, fide Blaauw).

    In central Asia the species arrives on its breeding grounds in early spring.

    Though many of the birds are paired, they all dance in a chosen place, then

    rise in flight, mounting higher and higher, circling together in the sky.

    During these courtship performances some young birds which have not bred

    before find mates.



    374      |      Vol_IV-0431                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Demoiselle Crane and Gruidae

            The nest is a slight hollow in the ground, usually in a dry place,

    and lined with sticks, leaves, and moss. The parent birds are said to

    fill all holes and cracks in the vicinity with pebbles so that the young

    ones will not injure themselves by falling. The eggs number two. They

    are light olive gray, spotted and blotched with darker gray, lilac, and

    brown. According to Seebohm, both the male and female incubate, the one

    standing guard while the other is on the nest. The chick is gray with

    buffy yellow head.

            The demoiselle is the only crane of the world which breeds both in

    Eurasia and in Africa. It ranges farthest north in central Asia. It nests

    along the upper Lena northward at least to latitude 60° N. It is found

    also along the upper Yenisei. Along the Yana, where Buturlin encountered

    it, it reaches latitudes slightly beyond the Arctic Circle.

            309. Gruidae . A family of large, long-legged, long-necked, usually

    long-billed birds known as cranes. They resemble storks and herons super–

    ficially, but the hind toe is short, elevated, and possessed of no grasping

    power. Almost all species are loud-voiced. In some species the trachea is

    so long as to necessitate special chambering of the sternum. Throughout the

    family there are 19 to 20 cervical vertebrae, the nostrils are perforate,

    the tongue is long, the toes are short, and the oil gland is feathered.

    There are 11 primaries — except in the genus Balearica (crowned crane) of

    Africa. The crowned crane has but 10 primaries and the species is exceptional

    also in that it alights in trees. The inner secondaries of cranes are long

    (longer than the primaries) and often plumelike. The tail is short and of

    12 feathers.



    375      |      Vol_IV-0432                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gruidae and Gruiformes

            Cranes nest on the ground. The eggs, which number 2, are olive or

    light brown (never pure white), spotted and blotched with darker colors,

    usually grays and browns. The young are downy and leave the nest soon

    after hatching.

            Of the four genera, Grus (common crane and allies) is well represented

    in the Arctic in both the Old World and the New; Anthropoïdes (demoiselle

    crane) is an Old World form which ranges northward to the Arctic Circle

    along the Yana River in Asia; and Bugeranus (wattled crane) and Balearica

    (crowned crane) are restricted to Africa. No crane is found in South

    America. Though the family is represented in Australia it does not inhabit

    New Zealand.

            Wetmore lists fossil North American cranes dating back to the middle

    Pliocene, and perhaps even earlier. However, as Mayr has pointed out, the

    Gruidae “would seem to be an unquestionably Old World family on the basis

    of their present distribution. There are 13 species (4 genera) in the Old

    World as compared with 2 species (one genus) in the New World” (1946. Wilson

    Bulletin 58: 19-20).

            See Grus , Anthropoïdes and Crane.

            310. Gruiformes . A diverse avian order for which there is no adequate

    common name. The word gruiform implies morphological likeness to a crane,

    but so many birds of the order Gruiformes do not resemble cranes that calling

    them “cranelike” would be both pedantic and misleading. Wetmore includes

    six suborders under the Gruiformes — the Mesoinatides (three curious

    species, sometimes collectively referred to as the Mesites, and all of

    Madagascar); the Turnices (bustard quails and collared hemipodes); the Grues

    376      |      Vol_IV-0433                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gruiformes and Grus

    (cranes, limpkins, trumpeters, rails, coots, and gallinules); the

    Heliornithes (sun grebes); the Rhynocheti (kagu of New Caledonia); and

    the Eurypygae (sun bitterns). Lowe (1931. Ibis , pp. 491-534 and 712-771),

    who believes that the rails and cranes are not at all closely related,

    places the cranes among the charadriiform birds (plovers, sandpipers, etc.)

    and the rails in an order by themselves, the Ralliformes. The arctic and

    subarctic species of cranes and rails are, in any event, very few, and

    they are all more or less long-legged, more or less long-necked wading birds.

            See Gruidae, Crane, Rallidae, and Rail.

            311. Grus. A genus composed of 10 species of cranes, all of which

    are large gray or white birds with long, wide wings; much elongated, some–

    what plumelike secondaries; and short tail. In all species except G. leuco –

    geranus (white crane) and the keel of the sternum is chambered to accommodate

    bends or a full coil of the very long trachea. The bill is longer than the

    head. The tibia is long, the bare portion being more than one-third as

    long as the tarsus. In adults the head is partly featherless ( ilel., i.e., thinly

    covered only with short bristles), but young birds have fully feathered

    head and neck. The sexes are alike in color.

            The genus is not found in South America or in New Zealand. Of the

    10 species, only one — G. rubicunda (“native companion”, Brolga , or

    Australian crane of Australia and southern New Guinea) — is confined to

    the Southern Hemisphere. Of the 9 species which inhabit the Northern

    Hemisphere, 7 are confined to the Old World, one to the New, and one —

    G. canadensis (sandhill crane) — is common to both.



    377      |      Vol_IV-0434                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Grus and Hooded Crane

            The most northward-ranging species probably are G. leucogeranus

    (white crane), which breeds locally in southeastern Russia and in Siberia

    northward to the lower Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma rivers; G. canadensis

    (sandhill crane), which breeds in Florida, locally in the United States

    and Canada, and widely in the North American barrens beyond tree limit

    northward to Melville, Prince Patrick (probably), and Baffin islands and

    northern Alaska, as well as in extreme northeastern Siberia; G. grus

    (common crane), which breeds in Eurasia northward almost, if not quite,

    to the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia, northern Russia, and Siberia; and

    G. monacha (hooded, white-headed, or monk crane), which breeds somewhere

    in Asia, probably between the Ob and Yenisei rivers, in the valley of the

    Upper Lena, along the lower Tunguska, or north of a line drawn from Lake

    Baikal to the lower Amur.

            All of these northward-ranging species of Grus are strongly migratory,

    but none of them winters southward as far as the equator.

            See White Crane, Common Crane, Sandhill Crane, and Hooded Crane.

            312. Hooded Crane . A large Asiatic Crane, Grus monacha , known also

    as the white-headed crane or monk crane. At a distance adult bird appear

    to be dark gray with white head and neck, but actually the top of the

    head is dull red, thinly covered with bristles. The plumage of the head

    and neck is whitest during summer. At other seasons it is somewhat grayish.

    The bill is yellowish horn color, the feet and legs blackish brown, the

    eyes orange-brown. Young birds are similar to adults, but browner. The

    species must [ ?] have a loud and far-carrying [ ?] voice, for the keel of the

    sternum is extensively chambered to accommodate an extra loop of the trachea.



    378      |      Vol_IV-0435                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hodded Crane and Sandhill Crane

            The nesting pla grounds of this handsome crane remain to be discovered.

    According to H. Johansen, the species has been recorded during the breeding

    season only from the upper course of the Lower Tunguska, from the Lake

    Baikal district, and from southern Siberia along the north Mongolia border.

    Johansen has, however, actually seen the bird in April and May as far west

    as the Baraba Steppe, and he calls attention to one June record for Tomsk

    and another for Minusinsk. According to Peters, three are summer, spring,

    and fall records for southeastern Siberia “from Lake Baikal to the Amur,

    south to northwestern Mongolia and Ussuriland, also in Korea and Japan.”

            Two crane eggs, alleged to be of the hooded crane, were obtained some

    years ago respectively at a market in Tomsk and from somewhere in the

    Baraba Steppe. Schonwetter has carefully measured and weighed the shells,

    convincing himself that they are actually eggs of Grus leucogeranus , the

    large Asiatic white crane. They are much larger than authentic eggs of

    Grus monacha laid by captive females in zoological gardens.

            Pleske does not mention Grus monacha in his Birds of the Eurasian

    Tundra . Possibly the species does not range northward into the Subarctic,

    but from all that has been reported, breeding birds should be looked for

    along the lower Tunguska, in the valley of the upper Lens, and in the

    vast area between the Ob and the Yenisei.

            According to Peters, the species winters “in China southward to the

    Yangate Valley.”

            315. Sandhill Crane . A well-know crane, Grus Canadensis , found

    principally in continental North America, but also in several islands of

    the Arctic Archipelago, in extreme northeastern Siberia, and in Wrangel

    379      |      Vol_IV-0436                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandhill Crane

    Island, St. Lawrence Island, the Aleutians, the Isle of Pines, and

    western Cuba. It is the only species of the family Gruidae found both

    in the New World and the Old. The northernmost race, G. canadensis

    canadensis , which breeds in arctic America and northeastern Siberia,

    is called the lesser sandhill crane or little brown crane. The Eskimos,

    who know this bird well, call it the tutteghuk — in imitation of its

    characteristic cry.

            Grus Canadensis is a tall gray-brown bird with elongate, somewhat

    plumelike secondaries. The tail, which is very short, is completely

    hidden by the folded wings. In fully adult individuals the neck is more

    ashy gray than the body; the featherless crown and forehead are red; the

    sides of the head and throat are white; and the eyes are bright yellow-

    orange. Young birds are brown all over, sometimes quite rusty in tone.

    Since their heads are fully feathered, no red patch shows on the crown.

    In both old and young birds the legs and feet are dark gray.

            The sandhill crane has a curiously spotty distribution. The largest

    race of all, G. canadensis pratensis , is found in Florida, southern

    Georgia, and probably somewhat farther west along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

    It is nonmigratory. In western Cuba and in the Isle of Pines lives another

    nonmigratory race, G. canadensis nesiotes . Throughout the prairies of

    southern Canada and locally from northern California eastward to Wisconsin

    and Michigan a third race, G. canadensis tabida , breeds. This form is

    migratory. It winters from California, Texas, and Louisiana south to Mexico.

            The most northward-ranging race, Grus canadensis canadensis , is,

    surprisingly enough, the smallest. In this form the exposed culmen is

    usually less than 100 mm., and almost never more than 110 mm. in length

    380      |      Vol_IV-0437                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandhill Crane

    (Friedmann). This lesser sandhill crane is a bird of the wilderness barrens,

    yet, if numbers be a basis for judgment, it is the most “successful” of all

    races, for it is commonest. It is st r ongly migratory. Great bow-shaped

    flocks of the trumpeting birds move up and down the Mississippi Valley

    in fall and spring. Its arrival in the Far North is loudly acclaimed by

    the Eskimos, who imitate its cries so successfully that they lure the flocks

    down from the sky. It breeds on the mainland of northeastern Siberia

    (Chukotsk Peninsula westward probably to Cape Baranov); on Wrangel Island

    (probably); on St. Lawrence Island; locally in the Aleutians and throughout

    Alaska; and eastward across continental North America to Boothia and Melville

    peninsulas and Hudson Bay. In the Arctic Archipelago it breeds on Banks,

    Victoria, Melville, Baffin, Southampton, and Coats islands. Charles O.

    Handley, Jr. recently discovered an old egg shell on Prince Patrick Island,

    though he did not actually see the birds there. In the flat southwestern

    part of Bylot Island it has been seen repeatedly by men of the Hudson’s Bay

    Company and Royal Canadian Mounted Police force, so it almost certainly

    breeds there. Although it has been reported from the southeastern corner

    of Bylot (Cape Graham Moore), that part of the island is much too rough

    and high for its nesting. It has been seen several times in the vicinity

    of Pond Inlet, Baffin Island, and it probably nests along the Salmon River,

    south of that point, in the flat country inhabited by a colony of greater

    snow geese ( Chen hyperborea atlantica ). It has been reported from the

    mouth of the Colville River, Alaska, where it probably nests. It does not

    breed in Greenland, or anywhere along the east coast of Hudson Bay, or in

    the great Labrador Peninsula.

            The sandhill crane probably mates for life. On Southampton Island the

    381      |      Vol_IV-0438                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandhill Crane

    first arrivals of the spring of 1930 were separate pairs, or even-numbered

    flocks composed wholly of pairs, which scattered to their separate nesting

    areas almost immediately. Nowhere in the Far North does the species appear

    to be abundant in summer, yet the pairs are evenly scattered throughout

    vast areas, and the total population must be immense — as is evinced by

    the great flocks which congregate for migration. The widest stretches of

    flat, marshy tundra are the favorite nesting ground in the north. Here,

    standing erect, the tall birds can see a long way through the clear atmos–

    phere; and while they themselves also can be seen, they are usually so wary

    that not even the craftiest hu n tsman can get close enough for a shot with

    bow and arrow.

            The nest of the lesser sandhill crane is a broad heap of moss and grass,

    sometimes on a small islet in a shallow lake, sometimes in the midst of a

    wide stretch of tundra. The eggs nearly always number two. They are pale

    olive brown, spotted and blotched with various shades of brown and gray.

    Both sexes incubate. Incubating birds sometimes stretch their necks full–

    length in front of them, flat on the ground. The downy young are foxy

    red-brown, darkest on the back, paler on the face, belly, and sides, with

    a white spot in front of each wing. They leave the nest shortly after

    hatching, and grow with surprising rapidity. The parent birds are devoted

    to each other and to the young ones. The family groups stay together all

    summer, migrate southward together, and probably do not break up until the

    following spring. Nonbreeding flocks of cranes, which sometimes summer

    together in the North, probably are young birds which have not reached

    sexual maturity.

            Reference:

    Walkingshaw, Lawrence H. The Sandhill Cranes . Cranbrook Institute of

    Science Bulletin No. 29, 202 pp. 1949.

    382      |      Vol_IV-0439                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White Crane

            316. White Crane . A large Old World crane, Grus leucogeranus , which

    when adult has pure white plumage except for the black primaries, primary

    coverts and alula feathers. The forepart of the head, which is featherless

    save on the throat and chin, is red, sprinkled with white bristles on the

    forehead and black bristles on the crown and malar region. The bill is

    yellowish brown, the legs and feet flesh-colored, the eyes light yellow.

    Young birds are cinnamon brown or sandy buff in general appearance, much of

    the plumage being white basally, with brown tipping. In general, the species

    looks much like the rare whooping crane ( Grus americana ) of North America,

    but there are pronounced differences between the two birds. The voice of

    the whooping crane is exceedingly loud and far-carrying, while that of the

    white crane is not. The sternum of the whooping crane is drastically

    modified to accommodate the extra-long trachea. The sternum and trachea of

    the white crane are about ‘normal.’

            Hume, who gives an excellent account of the white crane in its winter

    home in India, states that it frequents wet marshlands there almost exclusively,

    rarely being seen on the dry plains. When it arrives from the north in the

    fall the white adults are accompanied by the brown young ones. Incoming

    flocks often separate into groups of three, each composed of two adults and

    one young one. They feed wholly on vegetable matter, in this respect being

    different from the other cranes. Hume firmly believes that the birds mate

    for life; that young birds do not become fully white until the end of their

    second year; and that young females lay but one egg at their first nesting

    He does not discuss the species’ molts. The postnuptial molt may, as with

    certain other cranes, take place after rather than before the fall migration.



    383      |      Vol_IV-0440                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White Crane and Whooping Crane

            The white crane nests locally in southeastern Russia and throughout

    much of Siberia. Various observers have reported its summering in small

    numbers along the arctic coast, especially at the mouths of the Yana,

    Indigirka, Kolyma, and Omoloi rivers, and at Cape Svyatoi Nos. At one

    of these points has it ever been common, apparently. Pleske’s statements

    indicate that it becomes “commoner … at the southern edge of the forest

    region” (1928. Birds of the Eurasian Tundra, p. 286). The nest, as

    described by Pallas, is of grass and is placed among marsh vegetation.

    The eggs, which probably are two as a rule, have been figured as olive,

    spotted and blotched with dark brown, gray, and black, chiefly at the

    larger end.

            318. Whooping Crane . A very rare large North American crane, Grus

    americana , which when adult is white with black wing tips, featherless red

    crown and face, light olive-gray bill, pale yellow eyes, and blackish-gray

    legs and feet. Young birds are white, more or less spotted and washed all

    over with pale reddish brown. The species nested formerly in some numbers

    in middle parts of the continent from Iowa northward to southern Mackenzie.

    There is an old record for Pond Inlet, northern Baffin Island (see Taverner,

    1934. Canada’s Eastern Arctic , Department of the Interior publication,

    p. 120), which suggests that the few remaining pairs may possibly breed in

    little-visited parts of the Arctic Archipelago, though most ornithologists

    believe that the present breeding ground lies somewhere directly west of

    Hudson Bay.



    384      |      Vol_IV-0441                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rail e s and Their Allies

           

    RAILS AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order GRUIFORMES; Suborder GRUES

    Family RALLIDAE

            319. American Coot. Fulica americana , a plump bird of the rail family

    (Rallidae) found only in the New World, but closely related to

    the Old World coot ( Fulica atra ). It is dark gray, with white

    bill, red eyes, and green, lobed feet, and is about the size of

    a small chicken. It has been recorded once in the American Arctic,

    at the north end of Boothia Peninsula (Shortt and Peters, 1942.

    Canad. Journ. Research D, 20: 343), but does not normally breed

    northward even into the fringes of the Subarctic. See Rallidae.

            320. Carolina Rail or Carolina Crake. The sora rail ( Porzana carolina )

    of North America. See Sora.

            321. Coot. 1. A plump, rather large, dark gray marsh bird of the gruiform

    genus Fulica , especially F. atra of the Old World, and F. americana

    of the New. Both species are black on the head and neck and have

    white bill, red eyes, and lobed, pale green feet. The Old World

    species ranges northward into the fringes of the Subarctic, but the

    American species does not. See Rallidae.

            2. A vernacular name for certain diving ducks, especially the

    scoters of the genus Melanitta . See s S coter and MELANITTA.

            322. Corn Crake. See writeup.

            323. Crake. See writeup.

            324. Crex . See writeup.

            325. Gallinule. Any of several rather large, plump, short-billed marsh

    385      |      Vol_IV-0442                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rails and Their Allies

    birds, especially of the genus Gallinula , a common species of

    which G. chloropus , is known in England as the moor hen and in

    North America as the Florida gallinule. This bird is dark gray

    on the head, neck, and under parts, deep olive brown on the back,

    wings, and tail, with bold white markings on the sides, flanks,

    and under tail coverts, red and yellow bill, and yellow-green legs

    and feet. The gallinule ranges northward into the fringes of the

    Subarctic in Norway (to lat. 64° N.), but not in North America.

    See Rallidae.

            325.1 Land Rail. A name sometimes applied to the corn crake ( Crex crex ) ( q.v .).

            326. Moor hen. A name widely used in Great Britain for the gallinule

    ( Gallinula chloropus ) ( q.v .).

            327. Porzana . ( S ee writeup.

            328. Rail. See writeup.

            329. RALLIDAE. See writeup.

            330. Rallus Rallus . See writeup.

            331. Sora. A small North American rail, Porzana carolina , which ranges into

    the fringes of the Subarctic in western Canada, and which has

    wandered occasionally to Greenland. It is closely related to the

    spotted crake ( Porzana porzana ) of the Old World. See Porzana and

    Rallidae.

            332. Spotted Crake. A small Old World rail, Porzana porzana , which ranges

    northward into the fringes of the Subarctic. See Prozana .

            333. Water Rail. ( S ee writeup.



    386      |      Vol_IV-0443                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Corn Crake

            322. Corn Crake . A short-billed Old World rail, Crex crex , also

    known as the land rail. It ranges northward to the Arctic Circle and

    slightly beyond in Norway, Finland, Russia, and (probably) western and

    central Siberia. It frequents extensive stands of coarse grass as a rule,

    and is often found on rough hillsides rather than wet marshlands. It is

    about 10 inches long. In the field the yellowish buff of its body plumage

    and chestnut brown of its wings are apparent when it flies; but on the

    ground it usually keeps itself so well hidden that its colors can hardly be

    seen. In the hand, the dark streaking of the upper parts and barring of the

    sides and flanks are very noticeable. Its bill is dull brown, its feet and

    legs flesh-colored. Its characteristic cry is loud, rasping, and two-syllabled.

    Its nest, which is of grass, is placed in rank grass, nettled, or sedge. The

    eggs, which usually number 8 to 12, are pale greenish gray to light reddish

    brown, spotted and blotched with gray and dark brown. Incubation begins when

    the clutch is complete and is carried on chiefly by the female. The incuba–

    tion period is 14 to 21 days ( Handbook of British Birds ). The downy young

    is brownish black.

            No rail found regularly in North America is anything like the corn crake,

    the monotypic genus Crex being confined to the Old World. The corn crake has,

    however, been reported several times from Greenland and once from Baffin

    Island. It is a strongly migratory form and records of casual or accidental

    occurrence are widely scattered throughout the world.

            See Crex .

            Reference:

    Brown, R. H. “Notes on the Land-Rail.” Brit. Birds , vol.32, pp.13-16, 1938.

    387      |      Vol_IV-0444                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crake and Crex

            323. Crake . Any of several species of small rails (family Rallidae),

    especially of the short-billed genera Crex and Porzana . Two crakes range

    northward to the Arctic Circle or thereabouts in the Old World — the corn

    crake ( Crex crex ) and the spotted crake ( Porzana porzana ). Both of these

    have been recorded as stragglers several times in Arctic America (chiefly

    Greenland). The corn crake has no close relative in the New World; but the

    spotted crake has a close North American relative in the sora rail or

    Carolina crake ( Porzana carolina ), which breeds northward to the fringes

    of the Subarctic in western Canada and which has been recorded as a straggler

    several times in Greenland.

            See Crex and Porzana .

            324. Crex . The monotypic genus to which the corn crake or land rail

    ( C. crex ) belongs. Crex is characterized by its short, strong, high bill and

    noticeably pointed wing. It is about 10 inches long. Its closest relatives

    belong to the genus Prozana , all of which are somewhat smaller. The species

    of Prozana are also known as crakes. In Porzana the bill is less high at the

    base and less strong throughout than in Crex , and the wing is less pointed.

    In the wing of Crex the second primary (counting from the outside) is longest

    and the first and fifth (or sixth) are of equal length. In Crex the tarsus

    is about as long as the middle toe and its claw.

            Crex breeds throughout the western half of Eurasia northward to the

    Arctic Circle on the mainland. It nests not in marshes but in dry stands

    of coarse grass. It inhabits the British Isles, but not Iceland. It winters

    chiefly in northern and eastern tropical Africa. The pointedness of its

    win t g s probably is correlated with its strongly migratory habits. It has

    388      |      Vol_IV-0445                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crex and Porzana and Rail

    been recorded casually in many parts of the world, including Greenland,

    Baffin Island, and northeastern continental North America.

            See Corn Crake.

            327. Porzana . A genus of small, short-billed rails known (especially

    in Britain) as crakes. Prozana is found in both the New and Old Worlds.

    It is similar to Crex (corn crake or land rail), but the wing is less

    pointed and the bill is not as high at the base nor as strong. The middle

    toe and its claw are longer than the tarsus.

            Porzana inhabits wet marshes, often placing its nest directly over

    water. In several (probably all) species incubation starts before the last

    egg is laid, so the young do not hatch simultaneously.

            The genus is widely distributed in both the Northern and Southern

    Hemispheres. There are at least 12 species, some with restricted ranges.

    The most northward-ranging species are the spotted crake ( P. porzana ) of

    Eurasia and the Carolina crake or sora ( P. carolina ) of North America.

    The widely ranging Baillon’s crake ( P. pusilla ) of Eurasia, Africa,

    Australia, and New Zealand does not breed northward quite to the fringes

    of the Subarctic.

            328. Rail . Any of numerous slender-bodied, rather coarse-plumaged

    marsh-inhabiting birds of the family Rallidae. Rails fly weakly, though

    some of them migrate long distances. A few of them are flightless. Rails

    often are hard to flush from the grass, bulrushes, sedge, or cattails in

    which they feed and nest. They are somewhat crepuscular or nocturnal.

    Of the many known forms (over 50 genera) only one ranges regularly northward

    389      |      Vol_IV-0446                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rail

    into the Subarctic — the so-called corn crake or land rail ( Crex crex )

    of the Old World. This bird inhabits grassland rather than wet marshes.

    It breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in Norway,

    Sweden, Finland, Russia, and (probably) central Siberia. The Old World

    spotted crake ( Porzana porzana ), which is similar to the corn crake in

    being short-billed, also ranges well northward, being found as far as

    latitude 64° N. in Norway, Finland, and Russia. Its New World relative,

    the sora rail or Carolina crake ( Porzana carolina ), ranges northward to

    about latitude 64° N. (in western, but not eastern, Canada). The moor

    hen or gallinule ( Gallinula chloropus ), one of the few gruiform birds found

    both in the New World and the Old, ranges northward to latitude 64° in

    Norway, but not by any means that far north anywhere in North America.

    The genus Fulica (coots) has a somewhat similar distribution. Represented

    by one species ( F. atra ) in the Old World and by a very similar one ( F. ameri –

    cana ) in the New, it reaches the fringes of the Subarctic more or less

    across the whole of Eurasia, but not in North America. The water rail

    ( Rallus aquaticus ) of the Old World ranges northward to Iceland and the

    fringes of the Subarctic in Eurasia, but the closely related Virginia rail

    ( R. limicola ) of North America does not range northward of about latitude

    55° N. Three Old World rails — the water rail, corn crake, and spotted

    crake — have been recorded in Greenland several times. The sora rail has

    been recorded in Greenland at least five times. The American coot has been

    recorded at the nor t hern tip of Boothia Peninsula (Bellot Strait) once.

    There is one Baffin Island record for the corn crake.

            See Corn Crake, Water Rail, Crex Crex , and Rallus Rallus .



    390      |      Vol_IV-0447                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: RALLIDAE

            329. RALLIDAE. A family of slender-bodied, long-legged, long-toed,

    marsh-inhabiting birds commonly known as rails, crakes, gallinules, and

    coots. By most taxonomists theRallidae are considered a family of the

    order Gruiformes, but others believe the cranes to be a rather specialized

    group of charadriiform birds, and the rails to belong to a separate order

    by themselves — the Ralliformes. A clear-cut diagnostic character

    (whether the group has the rank of family or of order) is, oddly enough,

    a purely external one — namely, the generalized structure or coarseness

    of the tips (terminal half or third) of the contour feathers. This coarse–

    ness results from absence of interlocking hooklets such as are found through–

    out the barbules of normally firm (pennaceous) feathers. Throughout the

    group the pterylosis, also, is distinctive in that the spinal feather tracts

    are not divided into anterior and posterior parts.

            Slenderness of the body in the Rallidae is correlated with need for

    moving easily through dense marsh vegetation. The sternum is long and narrow,

    with but one incision on each side and with very long lateral processes. The

    furcula does not reach the sternum. The legs and toes are long — an adapta–

    tion for wading and climbing through marsh vegetation. The hind toe not only

    is always present but it is well developed, so the four toes have considerable

    grasping power. There is a distinct claw at the tip of the first digit of

    the wing. The wing usually is short and rounded and in adults the wing

    muscles and bones are not very well developed. In most species there are

    10 primaries, but flightless forms have only 9 or 8. The tail is short,

    rather soft, and of 12 feathers (14 in the coot). The contour feathers

    have a short aftershaft.



    391      |      Vol_IV-0448                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rallidae

            Throughout the Rallidae the newly hatched young are well covered

    (except on the wings) with black or very dark down. They leave the nest

    shortly after hatching. Their wing bones are sturdy. In certain species

    incubation begins before the whole clutch has been laid, so the young

    continue to hatch throughout a correspondingly long period.

            The Rallidae are almost cosmopolitan in distribution. Certain flight–

    less forms inhabit oceanic islands. The most northern forms are not by any

    means the largest. The most northward-ranging of all, the corn crake or

    land rail ( Crex crex ) is, however, among the most point-winged rails known.

    This species is believed to breed regularly as far north as the Arctic

    Circle in Norway and at comparably high latitudes in Sweden, Finland, Russia,

    and (probably) central Siberia. The spotted crake ( Porzana porzana ) of the

    Old World breeds northward to latitude 64° N. in Norway, Russia, and Finland,

    and probably almost that far north in Siberia. The closely related sora

    rail or Caroline crake ( Porzana carolina ) of North America ranges to about

    latitude 64° N. in western Canada (Mackenzie), but not that far in eastern

    parts of the continent. Other more or less northward-ranging forms of the

    family are the water rail ( Rallus aquaticus ), moor hen or gallinule ( Gallinula

    chloropus ), and coot ( Fulica atra ), all of which range considerably farther

    north in the Old World than their closest relatives do, respectively, in

    the New.

            See Water Rail, Corn Crake, Crex , and Rallus .



    392      |      Vol_IV-0449                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rallus

            330. Rallus . A genus of small, middle-sized and large rails (family

    Rallidae) characterized principally by the long, almost straight laterally

    compressed bill, which is longer than the head and as long as, or a little

    longer than, the middle toe and its claw. The tarsus is shorter than the

    middle toe and its claw. The feathers of the forehead are slightly

    stiffened. The wings are rounded and moderately long, the second primary

    (counting from the outside) usually being the longest. The tail is less

    than half as long as the wing.

            Rallus is almost world-ranging. Of the 15 species (two of which are

    extinct) only one ranges northward into the Subarctic. This is the water

    rail ( R. aquaticus ) of the Old World. No species of the genus is common

    to the New World and the Old, though one species found in North and

    South America — the Virginia rail ( R. limicola ) — is very closely related

    to the water rail. Rallus aquaticus is represented in continental Eurasia

    by three races, all of which are to some extent migratory. It also

    inhabits Iceland, the endemic race there being nonmigratory. Rallus

    reaches its northernmost limit in Iceland, where it breeds just south of

    the Arctic Circle. The Virginia rail reaches its northernmost limits

    (lat. 55° N.) in western Canada.

            See Water Rail.

            333. Water Rail . A middle-sized Old World rail, Rallus aquaticus ,

    which breeds northward to the fringes of the Subarctic more or less across

    Eurasia. The three currently recognized continental subspecies ( aquaticus

    of Europe; morejewi of Persia, Turkestan, etc.; and indicus of eastern

    Siberia, Korea, Japan, and Sakhalin) are all migratory; the Iceland form,

    393      |      Vol_IV-0450                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Water Rail

    hibernans , is sedentary.

            The water rail is about 11 inches long, with deep ashy-gray face,

    foreneck, and breast; streaked black and olive-brown upper parts; barred

    black and white sides and flanks; and white belly, thighs, and under tail

    coverts. The bill, which is longer than the head (and therefore quite

    different in shape from that of the corn crake and spotted crake) is

    dark along the upper edge and at the tip, but bright red otherwise. The

    eyes are red. The feet are brownish flesh-color. Young birds in their

    first flight plumage are likely to be mottled or blotched in appearance

    and are usually darker throughout.

            The water rail’s characteristic call notes are loud grunts and a

    sharp kick or keck . The grunts, when insistently repeated, sometimes end

    in a curious squeal. The bird is likely to be heard more often than seen.

    When put up, it flies off slowly with legs dangling, drops into the vegeta–

    tion, and darts off. It is incredibly swift-footed, and can run through

    the sedge without giving a hint as to which direction it has taken unless,

    perchance, the noise of its running is audible. The nest is usually in

    thick grass or bulrushes, and sometimes directly above water. The 6 to 11

    eggs are creamy white, spotted (chiefly at the larger end) with brown.

    Incubation begins with the laying of the last egg. The incubation period

    is said to be 19 to 20 days. Both sexes incubate, but the female is believed

    to do the greater part. The chicks, which are black, usually hatch simultaneously

    (i.e., within a 24-hour period). Their cry is a thin cheep. While they are

    very young one parent broods them while the other brings them food; but they

    soon learn to forage for themselves.

            The closest New World relative of the water rail is the Virginia rail

    394      |      Vol_IV-0451                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Water Rail

    ( Rallus limicola ), which does not range farther north than about latitude

    55° N. The water rail has been recorded in northern Scandinavia frequently

    in summer, and casually in Spitsbergen, Greenland (several times), Jan Mayen,

    and the Faeroes.

            See Rallus .

    Charadriiformes (Oystercatchers, Plovers, Sandpipers, Phalaropes, Gulls, Terns, Auks)



    395      |      Vol_IV-0452                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oystercatchers and Plovers

    OYSTERCATCHERS AND PLOVERS

           

    Order CHARDRIIFORMES ; Suborder CHARADRII

           

    Family HAEMATOPODIDAE, CHARADRIIDAE

            334. American Golden Plover. Pluvialis dominica , one of the two species

    of golden plover. See Golden Plover.

            335. Asiatic Golden Plover. A name sometimes applied to Pluvialis

    dominica fulva , the western race of the American golden plover.

    See Golden Plover.

            336. Black-bellied Plover. A name widely used in America for the gray

    plover ( Squatarola squatarola ) ( q.v .).

            337. CHARADRIIDAE. See writeup.

            338. CHARADRIIFORMES . See writeup.

            339. Charadrius . See writeup.

            340. Dotterel. See writeup.

            341. Eudromias . See writeup.

            342. European Golden Plover. A widely used common name for Pluviallis

    apricaria , one of the two species of golden plover. See Golden

    Plover.

            343. Golden Plover. See writeup.

            343.1 Green Plover. A name for the lapwing ( Vanellus vanellus ) ( q.v .).

            344. Gray Plover. See writeup)

            345. HAEMATOPODIDAE. See writeup.

            346. Haematopus . See writeup.

            347. Killdeer. See writeup.

            348. Lapwing. See writeup.



    396      |      Vol_IV-0453                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oysteracathcers and Plovers

            349. Little Ringed Plover. See Ringed Plover.

            350. Mongolian Plover. See writeup.

            351. Northern Golden Plover. Pluvialis apricaria altifrons , a northern

    race of the Golden Plover. See Golden Plover.

            352. Oystercatcher. See writeup.

            353. Pacific Golden Plover. A name widely used for Pluvialis dominica

    fulva , the western race of American golden plover. Known also

    as the Asiatic golden plover and the Western American golden plover.

    See Golden Plover.

            354. Peewit. A vernacular name used widely in England for the lapwing

    ( Vanellus vanellus ) (q.v.).

            355. Pluvialis. See writeup.

            356. Ringer Plover. See writeup.

            357. Sea- D p ie. A vernacular name, used especially in England, for the

    oystercatcher ( Haematopus ostralegus ) ( q.v .).

            358. Semipalmated Plover. Charadius semipalmatus , a small New World plover

    considered by some taxonomists to be a race of Charadrius hiaticula .

            See Ringed Plover.

            359. Squatarola . See writeup.

            360. Vanellus . See writeup.

            361. Western American Golden Plover. A little-used name for Pluvialis

    dominica fulva , the race of American golden plover inhabiting

    western North American and eastern Asia. Called also the Pacific

    golden plover and Asiatic golden plover. See Golden Plover.



    397      |      Vol_IV-0454                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Charadriidae

            337. Charadriidae . A family of shore birds which includes the well–

    known Old World lapwing ( Vanellus vanellus ) and its allies (subfamily

    Vanellinae) and the true plovers (subfamily Charadriinae). In the Vanellinae

    there are 19 genera, only one of which ( Vanellus ) ranges northward into the

    Arctic. The lapwing ( V. vanellus ) is a plump, middle-sized bird with largish

    head; short neck; long, thin, recurved occipital crest; moderately long bill;

    rather short legs; four toes (the hind one very small); and broad, much–

    rounded wings (especially in the male). Certain of the allied genera (some

    in the Old World, others in the New, but none in both) are proportionately

    longer-legged than Venellus ; some have three toes rather than four; some have

    wattles at the base of the bill; some have a spur on each wing. On the whole,

    the Vanellinae are larger than the true plovers and more diverse in color and

    pattern (see Vanellus ).

            In the true plovers (Charadriinae) the bill is usually short (sometimes

    very stubby, occasionally as long as the head, rarely a little longer than

    the head), constricted in the middle, and swollen or knobbed at the tip.

    In one genus — the remarkable crook-billed plover ( Anarhynchus ) of New

    Zealand — the terminal third is bent to the right. Usually the head is

    large; the eyes are rather large and dark; the neck is short; the body is

    somewhat chunky; the wings are pointed and rather long; and the tail, legs,

    and toes are short. In most of the 14 genera of the Charadriinae the hind

    toe is missing, an exception being Squatarols (gray or black-bellied plover).

            As Lowe has pointed out, the downy chick in most species of Charadriidae

    has a white post-nuchal band which is the more noticeable because of the

    narrow black occipital band just in front of it. In most adult true plovers

    there is a white postnuchal band, or a suggestion of one; a complete or

    398      |      Vol_IV-0455                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Charadriidae

    Incomplete dark chest band (in some species two such bands); and a dark

    subterminal tail band. The outstanding exceptions are thw two species of

    golden plovers (genus Pluvialis ) and the gray or black-bellied plover, all

    of which are solid black throughout most of the under parts in full breed–

    ing dress.

            The Charadriinae are wll represented in the Arctic and Subarctic,

    four of the fourteen currently recognized genera ( Squatarola , Pluvialis ,

    Charadrius , and Eudromias ) breeding northward to the Arctic Circle and

    beyond, the first three regularly in both the Old World and the New, the

    fourth almost wholly in the Old. Of the other ten genera, Eupoda , though

    found in both the New and Old Worlds, does not range northward even into

    the fringes of the Subarctic; Oreopholus , Pluvianellus , Phegornis , and

    Zonibyx are confined to South America; Elseyornis and Erythrogonys are

    found only in Australia; Pluviorhynchus and Anarhynchus are restricted to

    New Zealand; and Thinornis , which formerly inhabited New Zealand, Great

    Barrier Island, and the Chatham Islands, is now confined to certain islets

    of the Chatham group.

            All plovers which nest in the true Arctic are migratory, some of them

    strongly so. Few birds are more famous for their transoceanic migrations

    than the two races of American golden plovers — the western Pluvialia

    dominica fulva and the eastern P. dominica dominica . Plovers which nest

    in the Arctic do not attempt to rear more than one brood. The nest is

    invariably a mere hollow in the ground; the eggs are protectively colored;

    and the clutch nearly always numbers four (in Eudromias Eudromias , three). In most

    species both the male and female are believed to incubate the eggs and care

    for the young. The newly hatched young are downy and leave the nest almost

    399      |      Vol_IV-0456                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Charadriidae

    immediately after hatching. They are very protectively colored.

            If first sets of eggs are destroyed by foxes, jaegers, gulls, or

    others predators, a second set is laid. In delayed nestings of this

    sort the young sometimes do not attain their flight plumage until very

    late in the season. In many species the postnuptial molt is not fully

    completed before migration starts, for birds in mixed plumage are some–

    times seen among southward-moving flocks in the fall. Young and old

    birds are believed to more southward independently, but this needs

    further confirmation in view of the fact that in many species the winter

    plumage of the adult is very similar to the first winter plumage of the

    young bird.

            338. Charadriiformes . The large avian order to which the shore birds,

    gulls, terns, and auks belong. The order is important to students of arctic

    biology for many of its forms breed in the Far North. The most cursory com–

    parison of a plover or sandpiper with a gull or tern, and then with an auk

    or murre, will serve to show how diverse the group is. The plovers and

    sandpipers are all short-tailed and rather soft-billed. Most of them are

    small and long-legged. None has fully webbed feet and none is predatory.

    The gulls and terms, on the other hand, are all hard-billed, long-winged,

    rather short-legged, and web-footed. Some very large and some decidedly

    predatory. The auks are hard-billed, stocky, short-winged, short-tailed,

    and web-footed. Many of them are plan t igrade (i.e., they stand on both the

    tarsus and the toes rather than on the toes only). This upright standing

    position gives certain auks and murres a close, but wholly superficial,

    likeness to the penguins (order Sphenisciformes), which are, of course,

    confined to the Southern Hemisphere.



    400      |      Vol_IV-0457                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Charadriidae

            The characters which unite the shore birds (suborder Charadrii),

    gulls and terns (suborder Lari), and auks (suborder Alcae) are not very

    satisfactory for everyday use chiefly because some of them (e.g., the

    schizognathous type of palate) cannot be seen without careful cleaning of

    the skeleton; and, what is more to the point, not even seeing the bones

    makes clear why their shape and arrangement should be as it is. In general,

    the pterylosis (feather arrangement) is the same throughout the order. All

    contour feathers have an aftershaft, and these feathers are, on the whole,

    rather soft, with loose structure basally. Throughout the order the newly

    hatched young are downy. Young shore birds as well as young gulls and terms

    of many species leave the nest almost immediately after hatching; but young

    gulls, hatched on high, narrow ledges, and young auks, hatched in deep

    crevices in the rocks, are obliged to stay in or very near the next until

    they become strong enough to get away.

            The purpose of this discussion is to clarify rather than to confuse,

    but it is only honest to mention ( 1 ) that some taxonomists have regarded

    even the doves and pigeons as charadriiform birds, and ( 2 ) that reasonable

    arguments have recently been advanced for regarding the cranes as charad–

    riiform (see Gruiformes). All this boils down to the suggestion that the

    present system of classification be followed until a more satisfactory one

    is worked out.

            The suborder Charadrii includes the following 12 families:

            Jacanidae (jacanas)

    Rostratulidae (painted snipes)

    Haematopodidae (oystercatchers or sea-pies)

    Charadriidae (plovers)

    Scolopacidae (woodcocks, sandpipers, curlews, etc.)

    Recurvirostridae (avocets and stilts)

    Phalaropodidae (phalaropes or sea geese)

    Dromadidae (crab plovers)



    401      |      Vol_IV-0458                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Charadriidae

            Burhinidae (thick-knees)

    Glareolidae (coursers and pratincoles)

    Thinocoridae (seed snipes)

    Chionididae (sheath-bills)

            Of these the most distinctive boreal are the Phalaropodidae, a small

    but uniform family composed of three monotypic genera all of which breed

    exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere, two being holarctic in distribu–

    tion. Numerous species of the Charadriidae and Scolopacidae breed in the

    Arctic, but most of these migrate to far removed regions in winter. The

    only other family which ranges into the Arctic is the Haematopodidae — a

    virtually cosmopolitan group composed of one genus (four species) which

    ranges somewhat farther north in the Old World than in the New.

            The Lari are cosmopolitan. Many forms breed in the Arctic, some of

    them at high latitudes, others as far south as the Antarctic. Certain gulls

    and terns are among the most widely distributed of birds. The herring gull

    ( Larus argentatus ) is found in virtually all oceans and has a very wide

    breeding range. The arctic tern ( Sterna paradisaea ) breeds only in northern

    parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but it migrates deep into the Southern.

    Of the three families which comprise the suborder Lari, the Stercorariidae

    are the most distinctively boreal. There are two genera in this family,

    one of which, Stercorarius (jaegers), breeds only in the Far North, the other,

    Catharacta (skuas), in widely separated areas — the Far North and the Far

    South. The following families comprise the Lari:

            Stercorariidae (skuas and jaegers)

    Laridae (gulls and terns)

    Rynchopidae (skimmers)

            The suborder Alcae is the most distinctively northern of all avian

    suborders. There are 13 genera in the suborder, all belonging to one family,

    402      |      Vol_IV-0459                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Charadriidae and Charadrius

    the Alcidae.

            Reference:

    Low. G. Carmichael. The Literature of the Charadriiformes . 2d ed.

    London, Witherby, 1931.

            339. Charadrius . A genus of so-called “true” plovers, all of them

    small, chunky, short-tailed, simple in color pattern, and three-toed (the

    hind toe is missing). The legs and feet are stout and strong. The tarsus

    is reticulate. The bill is strong, and usually short and thick. The wings

    are long and pointed, the inner secondaries elongated but usually not reach–

    ing the tip of the primaries (in the folded wing). The tail is rounded,

    about half as long as the wing, and marked (usually) with a dark subterminal

    band. In most species there is a postnuchal white band which, with the throat,

    forms a sort of collar, and a dark (often black) band across the chest. In

    some species there are two black chest bands.

            Osteologically, Charadrius falls into two rather sharply defined groups —

    (a) those which have “free” lachrymal bones; and (b) those in which the lach–

    rymal bones are merged with the supraorbital rim, which is, in turn, “conspicu–

    ously raised, everted or corniced, with conspicuous foramen for nasal duct

    immediately behind nasals, subraorbital grooves extensive and deeply sculptured,

    often perforated by foramina” ( Handbook of British Birds ). Lowe and others

    consider these differences so fundamental that they recommend splitting the

    “true” plovers into two genera — Charadrius with 5 species (those in which

    the lachrymals are not free), and Leucopolius , with 11 or more species (those

    in which the lachrymals are free). While such an arrangement may prove to be

    403      |      Vol_IV-0460                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Charadrius and Dotterel

    best, the united genus Charadrius (with 16 to 20 species) is certainly quite

    uniform otherwise, and those who wish to emphasize the osteological difference

    may employ the subgenus Leucopolius.

            Charadrius ranges from latitudes well north of the Arctic Circle southward

    to the Falklands, southern south America, south Africa, Australia, and New

    Zealand. Of the 16 to 20 species, only two are found in both the Old World

    and the New. These are the ringed plover ( C. hiaticula ) and the snowy plover

    ( C. alexandrinus ) — the latter represented by 13 or 14 races breeding in

    Eurasia, Africa, both America, Australia, and New Guinea, not to mention

    numerous others islands. None of these races ranges northward into the

    fringes of the Subarctic, however, whereas C. hiaticula , though far less

    widely distributed, ranges to the Arctic Circle and well beyond in both

    Old and New worlds. C. hiaticula and C. semipalmatus are, indeed, the only

    species of the genus found in the true Arctic, though the little ringed plover

    ( C. dubius ) of the Old World ranges northward very nearly to the Arctic Circle

    in Finland; the killdeer ( C. vociferus ) of the Americas breeds on the tundra

    at tree limit along the west coast of Hudson Bay (Churchill); and the Mongolian

    plover ( C. mongolus ) ranges northward to the Arctic Circle or thereabouts in

    northeastern Siberia.

            340. Dotterel . A plump middle-sized plover, Eudromias morinellus ,

    well known for its confiding nature or “stupidity” while at the nest. In

    Sweden it is called the fjällpipare fjällpipare (fieldpiper). It is confined almost

    wholly to the Old World, but A. M. Bailey presents evidence that it breeds

    occasionally in arctic Alaska. The word dotterel allegedly is applied also

    to stupid human beings much as are the words dolt , dullard , and dope .



    404      |      Vol_IV-0461                                                                                                                  
    [?]rn. Sutton: Dotterel

            The dotterel is a handsome, richly colored bird about 9 inches long.

    The upper parts are ashy brown, many of the feathers being edged with

    rufous. The crown is black. A white line extends from eye to eye across

    the nape. The throat is white. The upper breast is gray, succeeded by a

    narrow band of white on the lower breast. The belly, sides, and flanks are

    bright chestnut. The abdomen is black.

            The dotterel prefers open barrens as a nesting ground. In the Far

    North it is found at sea level in some areas, though it shows a marked

    preference for high ground. South of the Arctic Circle it breeds only in

    open or tussocky ground in mountainous districts. It is somewhat colonial

    in its nesting. In winter it frequents semiarid plains and waste places.

    Its behavior is typically ploverlike. While feeding it runs a short way,

    stops to pick up an insect, then quickly runs again. It has a habit of

    stretching oneor both wings, often just before flying. On the breeding

    ground the females sometimes gather in small bands while the males are on

    the nests. The call note is a twittered whistle, which has been written

    wit-e-wee , wit-e-wee , wit-e-wee . During courtship females often display

    before males, sometimes pursuing them. Both sexes lift their wings and

    spread their tails, sometimes while facing one another.

            The nest is a depression in the ground sparingly lined with bits of

    moss of grass which is added usually during the egg-laying period. The

    eggs ordinarily are 3 (occasionally 2). They are clay-color to tawny buff,

    blotched all over with brownish black. The incubation period is 21 to 25

    days. The male does much of the incubating, but females have been collected

    while on nests. The downy young are brownish buff above, gray below, with

    a white bar across the rear of the crown. The superciliary line, ear coverts,

    405      |      Vol_IV-0462                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dotterel and Eudromias

    and cheeks are white, and there are irregular black marking on the crown,

    back, and wings.

            For details concerning the dotterel’s distribution see Eudromias.

            Reference:

    Berg, Bengt. Min vän Fjällpiparen . Stockholm, Horstedt, 1919. Haviland, Maud. “Notes on the breeding-habits of the Dotterel on the

    Yenesei,” British Birds vol.11, pp.6-11, 1917.

            341. Eudromias . The monotypic charadriiform genus to which the dotterel

    ( E. morinellus ) belongs. Eudromias is plump and middle sized. Its short,

    slender bill is slightly decurved at the tip. The wing is pointed and

    moderately long. The tail is half as long as the wing and somewhat rounded,

    the outermost pair of rectrices being noticeably shorter than the rest. The

    tarsus is slender and about one-fourth as long as the wing. There is no hind

    toe. The three front toes are webbed basally. The color pattern is distinc–

    tive, the under parts being dark save for the white of the throat, under

    tail coverts, and narrow chest band. The female is larger and more brightly

    colored than the male. The male performs most of the duties of incubation.

            Eudromias breeds from northern Norway (lat. 71° N.), northern Sweden,

    northern Finland, the Murman Coast, Kolguev, Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya (both

    islands), the Taimyr Peninsula, the Lyakhov Islands, the New Siberian

    Archipelago (probably), and extreme northeastern Siberia southward to the

    mountains of England, Scotland, southern Scandinavia, northern Germany,

    Austria, Romania, eastern Russia, central southern Siberia, and Mongolia.

    It almost certainly breeds in small numbers along the coast of western and

    406      |      Vol_IV-0463                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eduromias and Golden Plover

    northern Alaska (Bailey, 1938. The Birds of Arctic Alaska , p. 199).

    It has been reported casually from Spitsbergen, St. Lawrence Island, King

    Island, and the Faeroes. It winters in lands bordering the Mediterranean

    and in Arabia and Persia.

            See Dotterel.

            343. Golden Plover . Either of two species of the charadriiform genus

    Pluvialis , especially P. apricaria , which is widely known simply as the

    golden plover but is sometimes called the common golden plover, Old World

    golden plover, or European golden plover to distinguish it from the other

    species. P. dominica , the American golden plover. These common names are

    not very satisfactory, for a race of dominica breeds across almost the whole

    of Siberia, and nearly all golden plovers thus far reported from Greenland

    have been apricaria . The term golden describes the beautiful yellow

    spangling of the upper parts, especially of the full breeding plumage.

            The golden plover ( apricaria ) and American golden plover ( dominica )

    are so much alike in general appearance and behavior that discussing them

    at the same time is desirable. The principal morphological difference

    between them is the color of the under wing, which is white in apricaria ,

    and dark gray in dominica . Adults of both species in breeding plumage are

    speckled black and gold above (especially bright in the Asiatic race of

    P. dominica ) and solid black below, the speckled upper parts and solid

    black under parts being separated by a broad zone of white running from

    the forehead backward above each eye, down the sides of the neck to the

    side of the chest, and, in some forms, along the sides and flanks to the

    white of the under tail coverts. Adults in complete winter plumage and

    407      |      Vol_IV-0464                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Golden Plover

    young birds in late summer, fall, and winter are much duller in general

    appearance, the yellow of the upper parts being paler and the under parts

    gray. In these plumages, both apricaria and dominica are much like winter

    and young gray or black-bellied plovers ( Squatarola squatarola ), but that

    somewhat larger species always has black axillary feathers.

            Golden plovers nest on dry ground as a rule, sometimes at considerable

    distance from water. On the tundra the whistled cries of the birds are a

    familiar sound. Ticehurst tells us that the ordinary note of apricaria is

    a liquid, whistled tlui . Williamson describes a “trilling pee-yur-ee-oo ,

    ee-yur-ee-oo , ee-you-ee-oo ” as among the characteristic cries of the species.

    These call notes do not seem markedly dissimilar to those I heard from

    breeding dominica on Southampton Island and at Churchill, on the west coast

    of Hudson Bay, but Popham, who encountered both species side by side along

    the Yenisei was able to distinguish the two by their calls. Eskimo names

    for dominica are tudilik and tudiliatsuk (Southampton Island), tu-leek-tu-lear

    (Alaska), and ungalitte (Baffin Island). The first three of these are almost

    certainly onomatopoeic, but the etymology of the last is unknown to me.

    Zitkow heard the Samoyed name jaipyre (pronounced ?) applied to apricaria

    on the Yamal Peninsula, while Bunge recorded the Yakut name for dominica

    as kulit (see Pleske). In the vicinity of Golchika, at the mouth of the

    Yenisei, Haviland heard the name tilyokko used for dominica .

            The nest is a depression in the gravel or moss, usually in the openest

    sort of place. The 4 eggs are more richly colored and slightly more glossy

    than those of the gray (black-bellied) plover. They are buff in ground color,

    handsomely marked with dark grays and browns, often in a wreath or cap at the

    larger en [ ?] . The incubation period is about 4 weeks in apricaria (Witherby),

    408      |      Vol_IV-0465                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Golden Plover

    27 days in dominica (Allen). The downy young of both species are golden

    yellow, finely dotted with black on the crown and upper part of the body,

    white below, with white postnuchal collar and white superciliary area.

            Pluvialis apricaria breeds [ ?] from Iceland (possibly southern

    Greenland), the Faeroes, and northern Scandinavia (including Kolguev,

    Vaigach, and possibly Bear Island, Jan Mayen, Novaya Zemlya, and even

    Spitsbergen) eastward to the Yenisei, and south to Ireland, central England,

    Holland, Denmark, and northern Germany. Birds which breed in the Orkneys,

    Ireland, Scotland, England, Denmark, and Germany are believed to be sedentary.

    These belong to the nominate race. The more northward-ranging birds, which

    belong to the race altifrons (northern golden plover), are migratory. They

    winter chiefly in the Mediterranean countries, reaching also the Azores, the

    Canaries, the Cape Verdes, and northern India.

            Pluvialis dominica breeds from the Yamal Peninsula (Gulf of Ob) east–

    ward across northern Siberia and North America as far as Devon Island,

    southwestern Baffin Island, Southampton Island, and the west coast of Hudson

    Bay (Churchill). Its northern limits in America apparently are Banks Island,

    Melville Island, and latitude 77° N. on Devon Island. Handley did not

    encounter it on Prince Patrick Island. It breeds southward to about tree

    limit in Siberia, the Stanovoi Mountains, Kamchatka, the Komandorskis,

    southwestern Alaska, central Mackenzie, the northeastern Manitoba (Churchill).

    The ranges of the two species overlap in the Yamal Peninsula and along the

    Yenisei. All North American birds from Point Barrow, Alaska, eastward

    belong to the nominate race, P. dominica dominica . The other race, fulva ,

    ranges from western Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales and Nelson and Nunivak

    islands) westward to the Yamal Peninsula (Gulf of Ob). What race breeds

    409      |      Vol_IV-0466                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Golden Plover

    on the Arctic coast on Alaska between Cape Prince of Wales and Point

    Barrow remains to be determined.

            Whatever the evolutionary history of the two golden plovers may be,

    dominica is certainly the more strongly migratory today. As stated above,

    one race of apricaria is sedentary or very nearly so, and the other performs

    no such remarkable transoceanic flights as those of dominica . Those golden

    plovers which migrate at all presumably move to areas south of the breeding

    grounds, but specimens collected in winter and during the season of migration

    must be identified with great care. For further discussion of the winter

    distribution of the two species, see Pluvialis .

            Reference:

    1. Allen, A. A. The Golden Plover [P. d. dominica] and Other Birds .

    Ithaca, N.Y., Comstock, 1939. 2. Fisher, James, and Ferguson-Lees, I.J., and Campbell, Hamish. “Breeding

    of the Northern Golden Plover [ P. a. altifrons ] on St. Kilda,”

    British Birds , vol.42, pp.379-82, 1949. 3. Haviland, Maud. “Notes on the breeding habits of the Asiatic Golden

    Plover [ P. d. fulva ],” British Birds , vol.9, pp.82-89, 1915. 4. Swanberg, Olof, et al. “Studies of some species rarely photographed.

    XXIIII. The Northern Golden Plover [ P. a. altifrons ] (with

    note on racial variation on Golden Plovers, by B. W. Tucker,”

    British Birds , vol.42, pp.383-84 and plates 73-84, 1949. 5. Williamson, Kenneth. “Field-notes on nidification and distraction-display

    in the Golden Plover [P. aprisaria],” Ibis , vol.90, pp.90-98,

    1948.

    410      |      Vol_IV-0467                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: [ ?] Gray Plover or Black-bellied Plover

            344. Gray Plover or Black-bellied Plover . A rather large, stocky,

    four-foe s d plover Squatarola squatarola , found in both the old World and

    the New. The name gray plover, which describes the winter plumage, is

    widely used in England but not in America. The name black-bellied plover

    describes the breeding plumage. The Eskimo names torgaiuk and tooleehuk

    are imitative of characteristic call notes. The species breeds widely in

    the North, but not in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Spitsbergen, the

    Franz Josef Archipelago, or the northern part of the Arctic Archipelago.

            Squatarola squatarola is about a foot long. It has a rather large

    head, large eyes, and heavy bill, and its appearance is almost lumpy as

    it runs slowly across the ground, pausing now and then to bow stiffly. It

    is anything but an energetic feeder, especially as compared with the numerous

    “peeps” and other sandpipers with which it often associates in migration.

    When resting it has a pensive, almost lethargic bearing; but if startled

    into flight it makes off rapidly with strong, steady wing beats. An

    important diagnostic field mark, the black of the axillary feathers, now

    shows clearly, and its liquid, whistled plee - u - ree rises above the

    twittering of the lesser shore birds.

            At all seasons the upper parts have rather a pale gray appearance in

    the field, and this pallor is accentuated when the white of the rump, tail,

    and wing bar show in flight. In summer and lower half of the head and the

    whole foreneck, breast, and belly are solid black. A broad white line,

    passing from the forehead backward above the eyes and down each side of

    the beck and chest, separates the black of the under parts from the

    checkered gray and black of the upper parts. The under tail coverts are

    white. Adults in winter and young birds in their first flight plumage are

    411      |      Vol_IV-0468                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gray Plover or Black-bellied Plover

    speckled gray and white above and white below, usually with some dusky

    streaking on the foreneck, breast, and sides, and often with a pale

    buffy-yellow wash on the crown and back. Some individuals in this plumage

    look much like golden plovers ( Pluvialis ) in winter dress, but that species

    never has black axillary feathers, its bill is noticeably less heavy, the

    general tone of its under parts is browner, and (in case the specimen is

    in hand) it has three toes only, never four. The hind toe of the black-

    bellies plover is, however, very small.

            Bird students who are familiar with the black-bellied plover in winter

    and the season of migration think of it as a bird of outer beaches and tidal

    flats, but its northern breeding ground is inland, often far from salt water.

    Seebo [ ?] m and Harvie Brown found it “thinly scattered over the tundra” along

    the Lower Pechora, “preferring the lower-lying damper portions … where the

    hummocks lie in ridges and not broadcast.” Haviland found it “much more of

    a marsh lover than the Golden Plover” at the mouth of the Yenisei. On the

    Southampton Island, in the summer of 1930, nesting pairs were widely

    scattered. Two nests which I found were on low gravel ridges between

    tundra lakes.

            Call notes characteristic of the nesting ground are the well-known

    whistled plee - u - ree , too - ree , or torah - ee ; a two-syllabled kl - eep (Seebohm);

    and a low quip given at the nest (Sutton). Occasionally a rolling trill

    precedes the whistled plee - u - ree . The nest is a hollow in the turf or gravel.

    Nests found by Trevor-Battye on Kolgue s v were deep, but a nest at the mouth

    of the Yenisei was “a shallow depression, lined with a few lichen haulms”

    (Haviland). The eggs, which number 4, are light stone gray, rather evenly

    spotted with dark grays and browns. The incubation period is said to be

    412      |      Vol_IV-0469                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gray Plover or Black-bellied Plover and Haematopodidae

    23 days (Bent, fide Brandt). The downy young is dark gray, mottled with

    white and pele yellow, above; and light gray below. It is similar to

    the young golden plover, but the yellow of the upper parts is much less

    bright or deep.

            Two or three races of Squatarola squatarola have been described, but

    these are not currently recognized. For details concerning the species’

    breeding and winter ranges see Squatarola .

            References:

    1. Haviland, Maud. “Notes on the Grey Plover on the Yenesei,” British

    Birds , vol.9, pp.162-66, 1915. 2. Seebohm, H., and Brown, J. A. Harvie. “Notes on the birds of the

    Lower Petchora,” Ibis , vol.6, pp.222-30, 1876. ( [ ?]

    (Material [ ?] on Squatarola helvetica , with color plate

    showing the eggs).

            345. Haematopodidae . A family of large charadriiform birds known as

    the oystercatchers or sea-pies. The family characterized primarily by its

    long bill, which is much compressed laterally and almost chisel-sharp at

    the tip. With this instrument the birds pry shellfish from the rocks and

    open them. In general the plumage is black or [ ?] brown and white (solid

    black or brown in some forms). The tail is short and square; the wings long

    and pointed. The tarsus and toes are thick. The tarsus is reticulate, the

    scales being more or less hexagonal both in front and behind. There is no

    hallux. The three toes are rather wide and flat and jointed at the base by

    webs. The family is almost cosmopolitan. There is but one genus, Haematop s us ,

    though the black oystercatcher ( H. ater ) of South America has such a remark–

    ably shaped bill that some authors have placed it o i n a separate genus.



    413      |      Vol_IV-0470                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Haematopus

            346. Haematopus . A genus to which all the oystercatchers of the world

    belong. The characters of the genus are the same as those for the family

    Haematopodidae ( q.v .). Haematopus inhabits virtually all tropical, temperate

    and subpolar seacoasts of the world, though it is not found in Polynesia and

    on other remote oceanic islands. Certain forms, especially In the Old World,

    nest far inland. There is a difference of opinion as to how many species

    there are. Peters lists four, others as many as seven. Formerly the solid

    black or brown forms were through to be specifically distinct from the pied

    forms, but Stresemann has shown that all but one of the solidly colored

    forms are mutational phases of the white-breasted forms.

            The most aberrant forms of the genus is the black oystercatcher ( H. ater )

    of southern South America. Not only is this species’ bill very large and

    extraordinarily upturned, but the feet are very large. Since South America

    has four other forms of oystercatcher, all of them very distinct from ater ,

    and probably representing two full species, we may think of that continent

    as an important center of origin, possibly for the genus or family as a whole.

            For details of distribution in the Far North, see Oystercatcher.

            347. Killdeer . A well-known New World plover, Charadrius vociferous ,

    which ranges from the southernmost fringes of the Subarctic southward through

    North America and most of the West Indies. A separate, nonmigratory race

    inhabits the coast of Peru. The killdeer is about 9 1/2 inches long and

    has two black chest bands and a bright orange-brown rump patch. Its usual

    cry is a high, car-carrying kill - dee . Throughout most of its range it nests

    in farmlands — old pastures, stubble fields, and the like, but in the North

    it nests sparingly along the fringes of the true tundra. It breeds fairly

    414      |      Vol_IV-0471                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Killdeer and Lapwing

    regularly, though in small numbers, at the mouth of the Churchill River,

    on the west coast of Hudson Bay. It presence there may be the direct

    result of man’s clearing of the area. Bailey tells us that it has been

    taken twice along the north coast of Alaska. It has been captured once

    at Nain, Labrador (Sutton, 1942, Au g k 59: 304).

            348. Lapwing . A well-known Old World plover, Vanellus vanellus , known

    also as the green plover and the peewit. It is a chunky bird about a foot

    in length, with long, slender, slightly recurred occipital crest. It is

    boldly white on the lower breast, belly, rump, base of the tail, and the

    sides of the head; black on the crown (including the crest), forehead, throat,

    foreneck, and upper breast; and dark brownish gray, glossed with olive on

    the back, with green on the wing coverts, and with violet on the scapulars.

    A patch of light smoky brown shows near the tips of the primaries when the

    wings are spread. The winter plumage is similar but the whole under parts

    are white save for a broad black chest band, and some of the scapulars and

    back feathers have light edges. The feet are brownish flesh-color, the bill

    black, the eyes dark brown.

            Throughout much of its range, the lapwing nests in agricultural districts.

    It seems to prefer flat areas which are not very stoney, especially margins

    of streams and flats which are subject to occasional flooding by fresh water.

    This is perhaps because it obtains food by probing in the soil. It is some–

    what deliberate in its movements, its usual gait being a slow run, and its

    flight slightly labored. In the courting season the males perform remarkable

    aerial maneuvers, dashing recklessly about, sometimes veering upward swiftly

    or tumbling so rapidly as to give the impression of turning somersaults.

    415      |      Vol_IV-0472                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lapwing and Mongolian Plover

    The beating wings produce a musical sound. On the ground the birds display

    in various ways, sometimes sinking forward to their chest, sticking their

    tails straight up, spreading their wings apart (with tips pointing upward),

    and scraping their feet while turning from side to side. The nest is

    usually in a meadow, rough pasture, or (along the northern edge of the

    species’ range) open bog or mossy flat. The eggs (usually 4, occasionally 3)

    are olive or pale brown in ground-color, spotted and blotched with black.

    The incubation period is 27 to 29 days (D. N. Thompson). The newly hatched

    young are brownish gray mottled with black above, white below, with a white

    pos f t nuchal band and black chest band.

            For details concerning the lapwing’s distribution see Vanellus .

            Reference:

    1. Brown, R. H. “Some breeding habits of the Lapwing,” British Birds ,

    vol. 20, pp.162-68, 1926. 2. Haviland, M.D. “Notes on the courtship of the Lapwing,” Zoologist ,

    vol.19, pp.217-25, 1915.

            350. Mongolian Plover . A handsome charadriiform bird, Charadrius

    mongolus, which breeds in continental Asia from the Chukchi Peninsula and

    Kamchatka southward and southwestward through the Stanovoi and Yebloni

    mountains to Kashmir, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia. It breeds commonly on

    the Komandorskis. Since Pleske does not even mention it in his Birds of

    the Eurasian Tundra , it probably does not range to the arctic coast even

    in extreme northeastern Siberia, though it probably breeds to the Arctic

    Circle and beyond in the area north of the Stanovois. It winters well to

    416      |      Vol_IV-0473                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Mongolian Plover

    the southward of its breeding ground, birds remaining on the Asiatic

    coasts, others journeying to Ceylon, the Andamans, New Guinea, and Aus–

    tralia. It has been reported from Nunivak Island, St. Lawrence Island,

    and various points along the western and northern coasts of Alaska. It

    has bred once at Goodnews Bay, Alaska (Friedmann, 1934. Condor 36: 89).

            The Mongolian plover is about 7 inches long. In summer its principal

    field mark is the broad, light rufous band which completely encircles

    the chest and upper back. The same tone of rufous is repeated is repeated

    in the forepart of the crown, there being a narrow band of black just back

    of the white forehead, another line of black from the bill to the eye, and

    no white postnuchal band — the whole postnuchal area being rufous. Adult

    birds in winter plumage are much less definite in pattern. Young birds are

    light gray above, white below, with no band across the chest. They are

    very plain-looking birds.

            Stejneger, who found the Mongolian plover common in summer on the

    Komandorskis, tells us that its call note is a clear, Penetrating drrriit .

    Most breeding birds he encountered at an elevation of thousand feet above

    sea level, but about the middle of September the family groups descended to

    the lowlands and beaches and shortly thereafter left for the south. A nest

    which he discovered on the islet of Toporkof contained 3 eggs, which were

    like those of the semipalmated sandpiper but darker in ground color. The

    nest was 14 feet above high tidemark. It was placed among four agenlicas

    and lined with dry bits of leaves, leaf-stems, and seeds of this umbelliferous

    plant.

            Reference:

    Whistler, H. “ Charadrius mongolus atrifrons in Lahul, N.W. Himalaya,”

    Ibis 1925, pp.203-05.

    417      |      Vol_IV-0474                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oystercatcher

            352. Oystercatcher . A remarkable charadriiform bird, Haematopus

    ostralegus , sometimes called the sea-pie. It is about 17 inches long,

    with long orange-red bill, red eyelids, and pink legs and feet. It is

    almost cosmopolitan, its range being approximately that of the family

    Haematopodidae. The species as a whole cannot be described easily, for

    the numerous geographical races differ so in color. The well-known races

    ostralegus , occidentalis , and malacophaga (respectively of the coasts of

    Europe, the British Isles, and Iceland) are black on the head, neck, and

    upper parts (with bold white markings on the rump and in the wings and

    tail), white below, and red -eyed; while the race which occupies the

    Atlantic coast of America from Virginia to Brazil ( palliatus ) is similar,

    but yellow-eyed; and the race which occupies the Pacific coast of North

    America ( bachmani ) is solid black with red eyes. The species inhabits

    seacoasts principally, but in some areas (especially Europe) it follows

    large rivers inland and nests far from salt water. In Scotland it feeds

    “many miles inland…on…pastures and arable fields, and even on moorlands

    up to as much as 1,810 feet’ ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            The oystercatcher is usually wary, noisy, and excitable. Ordinarily

    it walks while feeding, but it can run rapidly. It nests in scattered

    pairs, but in fall and winter gathers in large flocks. It uses its

    chisel-shaped bill in prying limpets from rocks (observed especially on

    North Pacific coasts) and in forcing open mollusks of various sorts. Its

    best-known cry is a shrill wheep , wheep , or kleep , kleep . The nest is a

    mere hollow in the sand or gravel. The eggs, which usually number 3, are

    clay-colored, heavily spotted and blotched with rich dark brown. Both

    sexes incubate. The incubation period is 24 to 27 days. The downy young

    is dark brownish gray on the head, beck, and upper parts; white on the

    418      |      Vol_IV-0475                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oystercatcher

    breast sides, and belly (darker below in bachmani and other forms

    in which the adult is solid black or brown).

            Haematopus ostralegus is found on all the continents. It ranges

    from Iceland, northern Eurasia, and the Alaska Peninsula southward

    (except in Polynesia and on other remote oceanic islands) to Australia,

    New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, and both coasts of South America to

    the State of Chubut, Argentina, on the Atlantic side, and so Chiloë

    Island, Chile, on the Pacific side). It ranges northward to the Arctic

    Circle and beyond only in the Old World. Pleske tells us that it breeds

    regularly on the Murman Coast. It has been reported also from the Kanin

    Peninsula. Stragglers have been reported from Spitsbergen, Bear Island,

    and Jan Mayen. The species has been recorded several times on the west

    coast of southern Greenland.

            The most northward-ranging races are ostralegus of continental

    Europe; osculans of eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, the Komandorski Islands,

    etc.; malacophaga of Iceland and the Faroes; and bachmani of Pacific

    coast of North America (from the Aleutians to lower California). All

    of these but malacophaga are migratory.

            Reference:

    1. Keighley, J., and Buxton, E. J. M. “The incubation period of the Oyster–

    catcher,” British Birds vol.41, pp. 261-66, 1948. 2. Makkink, G. F. “Contribution to the knowledge of the behavior of the

    Oyster-Catcher ( Haematopus ostralegus L.),” Ardea vol.31,

    pp.23-74, 1942. 3. Webster, J. Dan. “The breeding of the Black Oyster-Catcher,” Wilson

    Bull . vol.53, pp.141-56, 1941.

    419      |      Vol_IV-0476                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pluvialis

            355. Pluvialis . A genus composed of two species of golden plovers.

    Pluvialis superficially resembles Squatarola (gray plover or black-bellied

    plover), but the I l achrymal bones are attached to the supraorbital rim as

    they are in Charadrius , and there are other osteological differences (see

    Squatarola ). Pluvialis has a moderately long, rather slender bill, the

    terminal third of which is not much swollen. The tarsus is about 1 1/2

    times as long as the middle toe without its claw. The three front toes

    are webbed basally (there is no hind toe). The wings are long and pointed.

    The tail is less than half as long as the wing, and square. In color

    patter Pluvialis is much like Squatarola .

            The two species, apricaria and dominica , are very similar morphologi–

    cally and in behavior. The genus is holarctic in distribution, though no

    golden plover is positively known to nest in Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef

    Archipelago, Wrangel Island, or the extreme northern part of the Arctic

    Archipelago. As for Greenland, apricaria has been recorded frequently

    enough along the coasts of the southern part of suggest that it may nest

    there. The breeding ranges of apricaria and dominica overlap in Siberia.

            Pluvialis is migratory on the whole, though those apricaria which

    breed in the Orkneys, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, certain parts of England,

    western Denmark, and northern Germany are believed to be sedentary. The

    transoceanic flights which take most North American P. dominica dominica

    across the Atlantic to South America, and some North American and Asiatic

    P. dominica fulva across the Pacific to far removed islands are world-famous.

    The winter range of the genus as a whole is very wide, including most

    coasts within 30° of the equator.

            See Golden Plover.



    420      |      Vol_IV-0477                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ringed Plover

            356. Ringed Plover . A name applied to certain small, ring [ ?] -necked

    plovers of the genus Charadrius , especially C. hi s a ticula (ringed plover),

    C. semipalmatus (called the semipalmated plover in America but the semi–

    palmated ringed plover in Britain, and C. dubius (little ringed plover).

    All have one black and one white neck ring and a white forehead patch

    which is the more noticeable because it contrasts with the black of the

    lores and corepart of crown. In general the upper parts are black gray–

    ish brown and the under parts white. The rump and tail are brown, but the

    lateral upper tail coverts are white, and the tail as a whole is so light

    that the dark subterminal band shows fairly plainly in flight. In all three

    specie the secondaries are more or less white.

            The distribution of these birds in interesting. Hi s a ticula breeds in

    northern parts of the Old World, in Greenland, and in the northeastern part

    of the Arctic Archipelago. It winters solely in the Old World, however.

    Greenland and Arctic Archipelago birds migrate not southward but southeastward,

    and in so doing probably follow the path of the species’ comparatively recent

    spread. Semipalmatus breeds in southern parts of the arctic America and winters

    more or less directly to the southward, the scattered Old World records

    being of “casuals” or strays, presumably. Dubius is confined to the Old

    World. Its breeding range includes much of continental Eurasia, as well as

    the Philippines, New Guinea, etc., but does not extend northward quite into

    the true Arctic.

            Hiaticula and semipalmatus are very much alike in appearance. Hi s a ticula

    is slightly the larger. It has a much broader black chest band and more black

    in the head. Its inner secondaries are wholly white (they are mostly brown

    in semipalmatus). In first winter plumage hiaticula’s chest band is variable

    421      |      Vol_IV-0478                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ringed Plover

    (usually complete, sometimes incomplete). In both forms the bill is black

    at the tip, bright orange at the base. The legs and feet of hiaticula are

    yellow. Those of semipalmatus have been described as “pale flesh color”

    ( Handbook of British Birds ), but a drawing which I made from a freshly

    shot breeding specimen (July 16, 1930) shows them to be rich yellow. In

    both forms there is a well-developed web between the middle toe and outer

    toe. In hi s a ticula there is no web between the middle toe and inner toe, but

    in semipalmatus a small web connects these two toes at the very base.

            Dubius has no webbing at all between the toes, its bill is black with

    a little “yellowish flesh” at the base, and its legs and feet are “pale

    flesh or yellowish flesh.” Its most constant character is the color of the

    primaries, which are fray, not white, on the inner webs, and brown-shafted

    (except for the outermost, which is white-shafted). It may be distinguished

    easily from hi s a ticula in flight because only the tips of its inner secondaries

    are white.

            As for behavior differences between the three species, much more needs

    to be learned. Charles O. Handley, Jr., informs me that he was much impressed

    with the long-drawn-out and plaintive quality of hi s a ticula’s call note in

    Greenland. The ordinary call note of semipalmatus , as he heard it in Baffin

    Island, struck him as being abrupt. No one has recently compared hiaticula

    and semipalmatus     directly in life. Kumlien, who lone ago called attention

    to the presence of both forms in Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island (U.S. Nat.

    Mus. Bull . no.15, p.83, 1879), [ ?] states that even the Eskimos seemed to

    realize that hiaticula was the more robust and louder-voiced bird. Dubius

    is said to be very different from hiaticula in behavior. It is much more

    excitable on its breeding grounds.



    422      |      Vol_IV-0479                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ringed Plover

            Taxonomists agree that dubius is a distinct species; but there is wide–

    spread disagreement a to whether hiaticula and semipalmatus are two species

    or one. If they are geographical races of one species, then that species is

    holarctic, but far from completely so, since no race inhabits the greater part

    of the Arctic Arichipelago. The present winter ranges of hiaticula and semipal –

    matus clearly indicate that the one split off from the other long ago, and

    the failure of semipalmatus to occupy the whole of the Arctic Archipelago

    despite its breeding across continental North America, seems to reveal some

    basic dissimilarity. It can be argued, of course, that Old World hiaticula ,

    if it is the more robust form, should “take over” and occupy the Arctic

    Archipelago. Perhaps that is just what it is doing.

            Assuming, for the sake of clarity, that hiaticula and semipalmatus are

    two species, hi s a ticula may be called the Old World species. In the Old

    World it breeds in Iceland, the Faeroes, and British Isles, Spitsbergen

    (Nansen recorded it north of Spitsbergen at latituce 82° 59', on June 13,

    1896), Bear Island, Kolguev, Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya, the New Siberian

    Archipelago (probably), and across the Eurasian continent from the Scandinavian

    Peninsula, Denmark, and northern Germany to the Chukotsk Peninsula. In Siberia

    it probably breeds southward about to tree limit. Stejneger does not list

    it from Kamchatka. In the New World it breeds on Ellesmere Island (probably),

    Devon Island, Bylot Island (probably), Baffin Island (from Pond Inlet south

    to Clyde Inlet and possibly to Kingnait Fjord in Cumberland Sound), and both

    coasts of Greenland (including Peary Land).

            Semipalmatus is not nearly so northward-ranging. It breeds across

    continental North America, north of the tree limit, from Alaska to Newfoundland,

    but reaches its northernmost limits in northern Alaska, the south end of

    423      |      Vol_IV-0480                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ringed Plover

    Somerset Island (Fort Ross), and northern Baffin Island (Pond Inlet).

    It has been reported from Greenland, though it does not breed there.

            Comparison of the above two paragraphs makes clear that the ranges

    of hiaticula and semipalmatus overlap in Baffin Island. No one since

    the time of Kumlien has, however, encountered the two forms breeding to–

    gether at any one locality. Soper did not encounter hiaticula anywhere

    in southern Baffin Island, though he took two specimens at Pond Inlet on

    August 29, 1923. Shortt and Peters ( Canad. J. Res . Ser. D, vol.20, p.343,

    1942) collected two immature specimens of hi s a ticula at Pond Inlet in 1938,

    and saw birds which they believed to be hi s a ticula at Clyde Inlet in 1939.

    Handley collected two immature specimens of semipalmatus at Pond Inlet in

    the summer of 1948. Since several of these Baffin Island records are based

    on immature specimens, a suspicion lingers that the birds may be incorrectly

    identified, or that misconceptions as to the true characters of hi s a ticula

    and semipalmatus in immature plumage exist.

            The little ringed plover breeds northward to latitude 60° N. in south–

    eastern Norway, to 67° in Finland, and in Siberia presumably to corresponding

    latitudes.

            The semipalmated plover is the only one of these species which I have

    observed extensively in life. Though a quiet bird during migration, it is

    astonishingly noisy and pugnacious on its nesting ground. Its usual call

    note is a terse, whistled ker-wee ; but as it flies back and forth across

    its nest territory it repeats a simple koodily , koodily , koodily , over and

    over, dozens of times without stopping. No wonder the Eskimos call it the

    Koodilikoodiliatsuk ! The ordinary note of the ringed plover is a “melodious,

    liquid tooi .” That of the little ringed plover, tee-oo , is “noticeably

    424      |      Vol_IV-0481                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ringed Plover and Squatarola

    higher-pitched and thinner-sounding” ( Handbook of British Birds ). In

    both these species the courtship song is a repetition of the ordinary

    note followed by a sort of trill.

            The eggs of the three species are much the same — olive or buff in

    ground color, spotted and blotched with dark brown and black. Those of

    the semipalmated plover are, according to some authors, more heavily marked

    than those of the ringed, though not conspicuously so. The downy young of

    the three species also resemble each other. They are mottled gry above,

    white below, with a narrow white ring around the neck but no black band

    across the chest.

            Reference:

    1. Edwards, George, Hoskins, Erie, and Stuart, Smith. “Aggressive display

    of the Ringed Plover,” British Birds vol.40, pp.12-19, 1947. 2. Sluiters, J.E. “Bijdrage tot de biologie van den Kleinen Plevier

    ( Charadri [ ?] dubius curonicus GM .),” Ardea, vol.27, pp.123-51,

    1946. 3. Spingarn, E. D. W. “Some observations on the Semipalmated Plover

    ( Charadrius semipalmatus ) at St. Mary’s Islands, Province of

    Quebec, Canada,” Auk vol.51, pp.27-36, 1934. 4. Williamson, Kenneth. “The distraction display of the Ringed Plover,

    Charadrius hiaticula hiaticula Linnseus,” Ibis, vol.89,

    pp.511-13, 1947.

            359. Squatarola . The monotypic genus to which the gray plover or

    black-bellied plover ( S. squatarola ) belongs. It appears to be close to

    Pluvialis (golden plovers), its color pattern and behavior being much the

    same, but it is larger and proportionately larger billed and has a small

    hind toe. Furthermore, as Lowe has pointed out, there are numerous osteological

    425      |      Vol_IV-0482                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Squatarola and Vanellus

    differences between the two genera. The lachrymal bones of Squatarola

    are free, i.e., not attached to the supraorbital rim; and the cervico–

    dorsal vertebrae with free ribs number three in Pluvialis , only two in

    Squatarola .

            Squatarola is holarctic in distribution. In the Old World it breeds

    across the whole of the Eurasian continent from northern Russia and the

    Kanin Peninsula eastward at least to the mouth of the Kolyma and south–

    ward to about the Arctic Circle and Kamchatka, as well as on Kolguev, the

    southern island of Novaya Zemlya (probably ) , Great Liakhov, the New

    Siberian Archipelago (probably), and Wrangel; in the New World it breeds

    from north Alaska and northwestern Mackenzie eastward through Victoria

    Island and Somerset Island to Melville Peninsula and southwestern Baffin

    Island and southward to southwestern Alaska, the Yukon valley, north-central

    Mackenzie, and Southampton Island. It has been recorded several times in

    Greenland. It does not breed at Churchill, along the west coast of Hudson

    Bay, though the golden plover ( Pluvialis ) does. It migrates chiefly along

    the outer coasts, wintering in the Old World from the British Isles, the

    southern coasts of Europe, northwestern India, southern China, and the

    Solomons southward to southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand; and in

    the New World from southwestern British Columbia, the Gulf of Mexico, and

    New Jersey southward through the West Indies to the coasts of Brazil,

    central Peru, and the Galapagos Islands.

            360. Vanellus . The monotypic charadriiform genus to which the lapwing

    ( V. vanellus ) belongs. Its most distinctive external feature is the long,

    slender, slightly recurved occipital crest which is present in all plumages

    426      |      Vol_IV-0483                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Vanellus

    except the natal down. The bill is slightly shorter than the head, straight,

    and very little swollen at the tip. The legs are rather short, the head

    and body chunky. The hind toe is very small. The three front toes are

    webbed at the base. The wing is very broad, much rounded in the male,

    more pointed in the female. The outermost primary is minute. The color

    pattern is bold. The scapular, back, and wing feathers are more or less

    iridescent, even in the first winter plumage. The flight is rather slow,

    labored, and “wobbly.”

            Vanellus breeds throughout the greater part of Eurasia, northward

    to northern Norway (lat. 70° N.), northern Sweden, northern Finland (68°),

    northern Russia (62° in the west, 59° in the Urals), Siberia (in the Ob

    valley to 57°), Transbaikalia, Ussuriland, and the Amur Valley. It is

    migratory in the northern part of its range. It winters south to southern

    Europe, northern Africa, Asia Minor, Syria, southwestern Asia, northern

    India, Burma, southern China, and Japan (Peters).

            Vanellus has been recorded many times in the New World and in parts

    of the Old World lying north of its breeding range. It was seen in

    Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick in flocks in 1927. It has

    been recorded in Iceland, Greenland, Jan Mayen, Bear Island, Solovetski

    Island in the White Sea, the lower Ob, Baffin Island, and the Labrador.

            See Lapwing.



    427      |      Vol_IV-0484                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandpipers, Snipes, Curlews, Godwits, Phalaropes, and Their Allies

           

    SANDPIPERS, SNIPES, CURLEWS, GODWITS, PHALAROPES,

    AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order CHARADRIIFORMES ; Suborder CHARADRII

           

    Family SCOLOPACIDAE, PHALAROPODIDAE

            362. Actitis . See writeup.

            363. Aleutian Sandpiper or Aleutian Rock Sandpiper. Erolia ptilocnemis

    couesi , one of the races of the rock sandpiper ( q.v .).

            364. American Stint. A name widely used in England for the least sandpiper

    ( Erolia minutilla ) ( q.v .).

            365. Amur Curlew. See writeup.

            366. Aphriza . See writeup.

            367. Arenaria . See writeup.

            368. Armstrong’s Yellowshank or Armstrong’s Sandpiper. See writeup.

            369. Asiatic Knot. A name sometimes applied to the great knot ( Califris

    tenuirostris ) ( q.v .).

            370. Baird’s Sandpiper. See writeup.

            371. Bar-tailed Godwit. See writeup.

            372. Bartramia . See writeup.

            373. Bartramian (Bartram’s) Sandpiper or Upland Plover. See writeup.

            374. Black-tailed Godwit. See writeup.

            375. Black Turnstone. Arenaria melanocephala , a turnstone which breeds

    along the western and southern coasts of Alaska. It does not

    range northward quite to the Arctic Circle. See Turnstone and

    Arenaria .

            376. Bonaparte’s Sandpiper. A name widely used in England for the white–

    rumped sandpiper ( Erolia fuscicollis ) ( q.v .).

            377. Bristle-thighed Curlew. See writeup.

            378. Broad-billed Sandpiper. A small scolopacid shore bird, Limicola

    falcinellus , which is much like the dunlin ( Erolia alpina ) in

    many ways, but broad-billed. For a brief description and

    discussion of distribution, see Limicola .



    428      |      Vol_IV-0485                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandpipers, Snipes, Curlews, Godwits, Phalaropes, and their allies

            379. Buff-breasted Sandpiper. See writeup.

            380. Calidris . See writeup.

            381. Capella . See writeup.

            382. Common Curlew. See writeup.

            383. Common Sandpiper. See writeup.

            384. Common Snipe. See writeup.

            385. Crocethia . See writeup.

            386. Curlew. Any of several large to middle-sized, long-billed scolopacid

    shore birds belonging to the genus Numenius . See writeup.

            387. Curlew Sandpiper. See writeup.

            388. Doe Bird of or Dough Bird. A vernacular name once widely used for the

    Eskimo curlew ( Numenius borealis ) ( q.v .).

            389. Double Snipe. A name sometimes applied to the great snipe ( Capella

    media ) ( q.v .).

            390. Dowitcher. See writeup.

            391. Dunlin. See writeup.

            392. Dusky Redshank. See writeup.

            393. Eastern Dowitcher. A name sometimes applied to the nominate race of

    the short-billed dowitcher ( Limnodromous griseus ) ( q.v .).

            394. Eastern Stint or Eastern Little Stint. A name applied by some writers

    to the rufous-necked sandpiper ( Erolia ruficollis ) ( q.v .).

            395. Ereunetes . See writeup.

            396. Erolia . See writeup.

            397. Eskimo Curlew. See writeup.

            398. Eurasian Knot. Ca [ ?] ris canutus canutus , the knot which breeds in

    northern Eurasia. Sometimes called the Old World knot. See Knot.

            399. Eurynorhynchus . See writeup.

            400. Godwit. Any of several rather large scolopacid shore birds, most of

    which belong to the genus Limosa . The so-called snipe-billed godwit

    of the Ole World belongs [ ?] in the genus Pseudoseolopax . See Limosa .



    429      |      Vol_IV-0486                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandpipers, Snipes, Curlews, Godwits, Phalaropes, and their allies

            401. Gray Phalarope. The name used in England for the red phalarope

    ( Phalaropus fulicarius ) (q.v.).

            402. Great Knot. See writeup.

            403. Great Snipe. See writeup.

            404. Green Sandpiper. See writeup.

            405. Greenshank. See writeup.

            406. Hudsonian Curlew. A widely used name for the American race of the

    whimbrel ( Numenius phaeopus ) ( q. v .).

            407. Hudsonian Godwit. See writeup.

            408. Iceland Redshank. Tringa tetanus robustus , the allegedly sedentary

    race of the redshank which inhabits Iceland. See Redshank.

            409. Jack Snipe. See writeup.

            410. Knot. See writeup.

            411. Least Sandpiper. See writeup.

            412. Least Whimbrel. A name sometimes used for the pygmy curlew ( Numenius

    minutus ) ( q.v .).

            413. Lesser Yellowlegs. See writeup.

            414. Limicola . See writeup.

            415. Limnodromus . See writeup.

            416. Limosa . See writeup.

            417. Little Curlew. A name sometimes used for the pygmy curlew ( Numenius

    minutus ) ( q.v .).

            418. Little Stint. See writeup.

            419. Lobipes . See writeup.

            420. Long-billed Curlew. 1. A large North American scolopacid shore bird,

    [ ?] umenius americanus , which breeds northward through the prairies

    of the central part of the continent as far as Manitoba and eastern

    British Columbia.

            2. A name sometimes applied to the Oriental curlew ( Numenius

    madagascariensis ) ( [q?].v .).



    430      |      Vol_IV-0487                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandpipers, Snipes, Curlews, Godwits, Phalaropes, and their allies

            421. Long-billed Dowitcher. One of the two species of the genus Limnodromus .

    See Dowitcher.

            422. Long-toed Stint. See writeup.

            423. Limnocryptes . See writeup.

            424. Madagascar Curlew. Numenius madagascariensis , a species which rarely,

    if ever, visits Madagascar. See Curlew and Oriental Curlew.

            425. Micropalma . See writeup.

            426. Nordmann’s Greenshank. A name sometimes applied to Armstrong’s yellowshank

    or Armstrong’s sandpiper ( Tringa guttifer ) ( q.v .).

            427. Northern Phalarope. See writeup.

            428. Numenius . See writeup.

            429. Pacific Godwit. Limosa lapponica baueri , the race of bar-tailed godwit

    which breeds in northeastern Asia and in Alaska. See Bar-tailed Godwit.

            430. Pectoral Sandpiper. See writeup.

            431. Peep. A name widely used in America for various small sandpipers,

    especially of the genera Erolia and Ereunetes . It is almost an

    equivalent of the word Stint , which is used in England for certain

    of the smallest sandpipers.

            432. Phalarope. A small, thick-plumaged swimming shore bird of the family

    PHALAROPODIDAE. There are three species, 2 of which have holarctic

    breeding distribution. See Red Phalarope and Northern Phalarope.

            433. PHALAROPODIDAE See writeup.

            434. Phalaropus . See writeup.

            435. Philomachus . See writeup.

            436. Pin-tailed Snipe. See writeup.

            437. Prairie Whistler. A colloquial name for the B e a rtramian sandpiper or

    upland plover ( Bartramia longicauda ) ( q.v .).

            438. Pribilof Sandpiper or Pribilof Rock Sandpiper. Erolia ptilocnemis

    ptilocnemis , the nominate race of the rock sandpiper ( q.v .).

            439. Pseudototanus . A monotypic genus in which some taxonomists place the

    Armstrong’s yellowshank or sandpiper ( Tringa guttifer ). See

    Armstrong’s Yellowshank and Tringa Tringa .



    431      |      Vol_IV-0488                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandpipers, Snipes, Curlews, Godwits, Phalaropes, and their allies

            440. Purple Sandpiper. See writeup.

            441. Pygmy Curlew. See writeup.

            442. Red-backed Sandpiper or Red-backed Dunlin. Names widely used in America

    for Erolia alpina sakhalina , one of the New World races of thes

    dunlin ( q.v .).

            443. Red-breasted Snipe. A name sometimes used for shore birds of the genus

    Limnodromus . See Dowitcher.

            444. Red-necked Phalarope. The name used in England for the northern phalarope

    ( Lobipes lobatus ) ( q.v .).

            445. Red Phalarope. See writeup.

            446. Redshank. See writeup.

            447. Red-throated Stint. A name sometimes used for the rufous-necked sandpiper

    ( Erolia ruficollis ) ( q.v .).

            448. Reeve. A name widely used in England for the female ruff ( Philomachus

    pugnax ) ( q.v .).

            449. Rhyacophilus . A monotypic genus in which some taxonomists place the

    wood sandpiper ( Tringa glareola ). See Wood Sandpiper and Tringa .

            450. Robin Snipe. A vernacular name for the knot ( Calidris canutus ) ( q.v .).

            451. Rock Sandpiper. See writeup.

            452. Ruddy turnstone. Arenaria interpres morinella , the race of turnstone

    which breeds throughout the greater part of the Arctic Archipelago.

    See Turnstone.

            453. Ruff. See writeup.

            454. Rufous-necked Sandpiper. See writeup.

            455. Sanderling. See writeup.

            456. Sandpiper. Any of [ ?] several small to middle-sized scolopacid

    shore birds, all of which have rather long legs; fairly long, slender

    bills; and pointed wings. They feed on beaches and mud flats,

    especially in winter. See SCOLOPACIDAE.

            457. SCOLOPACIDAE. See writeup.

            458. Scolopax . See writeup.



    432      |      Vol_IV-0489                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandpipers, Snipes, Curlews, Godwits, Phalaropes, and their allies

            459. Sea Goose. A name used principally among seafaring folk for the

    small, thick-plumages, swimming shore birds known as Phalaropes.

    See PHALAROPODIDAE.

            460. Semipalmeted Sandpiper. See writeup.

            461. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. See writeup.

            461.1. Short-billed Dowitcher. A name proposed for Limnodromus griseus .

    See Dowitcher.

            462. Siberian Pectoral Sandpiper. The name used in England for the sharp–

    tailed sandpiper ( Erolia acuminata ) ( q.v .).

            463. Siberian Whimbrel. Numenius phacopus variegatus , the race of whimbrel

    which breeds in northern Asia. See Whimbrel.

            464. Snipe. In general, any smallish shore-or marsh-inhabiting bird of

    the family Scolopacidae, especially the comparatively long-billed

    species of the genus Capella ( q.v .). Also such larger forms as the

    woodcocks (genera Scolopax and Philohela ), which are sometimes called

    bog snipes.

            465. Solitary Sandpiper. A small scolopacid shore bird which has been

    considered a separate species from its nearest Old World relative,

    the green sandpiper. It is probably conspecific with that bird.

    See Green Sandpiper.

            466. Spoon-billed Sandpiper. ( S ee writeup.

            467. Spotted Greenshank. A name sometimes used for the Armstrong’s

    yellowshank or sandpiper ( Tringa guttifer ) ( q.v .).

            468. Spotted Redshank. A name sometimes used for the dusky redshank

    ( Tringa erythropus ) ( q.v .).

            469. Spotted Sandpiper. See writeup.

            470. Stilt Sandpiper. See writeup.

            471. Stint. Any of several very small shore birds of the genus Erolia .

    The word is used principally in England. The best known stints are the

    little stint ( Erolia minuta ), Temminck’s stint ( Erolia temminckii )

    and the least sandpiper or American stint ( Erolia minutilla ),

    al [ ?] q.v .

            471.1. Surfbird. See writeup.

            472. Temminck’s Stint. See writeup.

            473. Terekia . See Xenus .



    433      |      Vol_IV-0490                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sandpipers, Snipes, Curlews, Godwits, Phalaropes, and their allies

            474. Terek Sandpiper. See writeup.

            475. Totanus . A genus in which some taxonomists place the scolopacid

    shore birds known as the redshank, greenshank, yellowshank

    (yellowlegs, and spotted redshank. See Tringa .

            476. Tringa . See writeup.

            477. Tryngites Tryngites . See writeup.

            478. Turnstone. See writeup.

            479. Upland Plover. A name widely used in America for the Bartramian

    (or Bartram’s) sandpiper ( Bartramia longicauda ) ( q.v .).

            480. Western sandpiper. (See writeup.

            481. Whaup. A name used in Scotland for the common curlew ( Numenius arquata )

    ( q.v .)

            482. Whimbrel. See writeup.

            483. White-rumped Sandpiper. See writeup.

            484. Wilson’s Snipe. Capella gallinago delicata , the North American race of

    the common snipe ( q.v .).

            485. Woodcock. See writeup.

            486. Wood Sandpiper. See writeup.

            487. Xenus . See writeup.

            488. Yellowshank. A name wi [ ?] ely used in England for the lesser yellowlegs

    ( Tringa flavipes ) ( q.v .).



    434      |      Vol_IV-0491                                                                                                                  
    EA-O f r n. Sutton: Actitis

            362. Actitis . A genus composed of two small scolopacid shore birds —

    the common sandpiper ( A. hypoleucos ) of the Old World and the spotted sand–

    piper ( A. macularia ) of the New. Both these birds teeter conspicuously as

    they make their way along the water’s edge. They are almost exactly the

    same in size, proportions, call notes, manner of flight, and nesting habits,

    and differ principally in minor details of color pattern, the adult spotted

    sandpiper in breeding plumage being heavily spotted with black throughout the

    under parts, the adult common sandpiper being lightly streaked with gray on

    the foreneck and breast but virtually immaculate on the belly in that plumage.

    Some ornithologists believe that the two birds are geographical races of the

    same species.

            Actitis is close to Tringa , its proportions and behavior being about the

    same, but it has a well-defined white wing her (which shows in flight); the

    tail is considerably more rounded; and, what is still more significant, the

    pattern of the downy young is much simpler. In new-hatched Tringa the black

    and buff pattern of the upper parts is intricate; in Actitis the upper parts

    are warm buffy gray (finely sprinkled with dusky), with a black line down the

    middle of the crown and back, and a narrow black line through each eye.

            Actitis has an interesting range. It breeds from about tree limit (the

    edge of the tundra) southward throughout the greater part of North America

    and Eurasia as well as in one part of Africa (Uganda and Kenya); and winters

    in southern Asia, the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, Australia, the

    whole of Africa, the West Indies, and throughout continental America from

    southern British Columbia, Louisiana, and South Carolina southward to southern

    Brazil, central Peru, Argentina, and Bolivia. It apparently ranges farther

    north in Europe than in Asia. Its northernmost limits in Scandinavia are

    435      |      Vol_IV-0492                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Actitis and Amur Curlew

    about latitude 71° N., in Russia 68°. Pleske calls the common sandpiper

    an “inhabitant of the forest region” which “appears only accidentally in

    the tundra zone.” He mentions a record from latitude 71° 40′ N. at the

    mouth of the Yenisei. In North America the spotted sandpiper ranges much

    farther north in the west than in the east. It ranges to the Arctic Circle

    and beyond in Alaska (Kobuk River; Alatna River in the Brooks Range; and the

    upper Yukon) and in northern Mackenzie (lower Mackenzie Valley). Along the

    west coast of Hudson Bay it does not breed farther north than the mouth of

    the Churchill. On the Labrador Peninsula it breeds at the heads of bays and

    along inland watercourses. Hantzch did not encounter it in coastal northern

    Labrador, but it has been reported from Nain, Okak, and Fort Chimo. It has

    twice been reported from Greenland.

            See Common Sandpiper and Spotted Sandpiper.

            365. Amur Curlew . A large Old World scolopacid shore bird, Numenius

    madagascariensis , regarded by some ornithologists as a race of the common

    curlew or whaup ( N. arquata ). It has been called the Australian curlew

    because it winters to some extent in that continent. It has also been called

    the long-billed curlew, but that name properly belongs to N. americanus ,

    a well-known North America species. G. C. Low, in his Literature of the

    Charadriiformes , employs the name Madagascar curlew, presumably on the basis

    of Van Cort’s (“Notes from the Leyden museum,” 1910, 32; 116) and Bang’s

    ( Bull . Mus. Comp. Zool., 1918, 61; 494) identification of specimens

    collected in Madagascar. Peters does not include Madagascar as part of

    the species’ winter range, however, nor does Rand list it in his Distribution

    and Habits of Madagascar Birds . Since it is known to nest in some numbers

    436      |      Vol_IV-0493                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Amur Curlew

    in the Amur valley, the name Amur curlew is hereby proposed. For a brief

    discussion of the diagnostic characters, see Curlew.

            Peters states that Numenins madagascariensis nests “in eastern Siberia

    north of Kamchatka and probably as far west as the Stanovoi Mountains”; but

    it also nests considerably to the south of this area, in Khabarovsk Territory

    in the Amur Valley. It winters “from China, Korea and Japan south to the

    Philippines, Sunda Island, Celebes, Moluccas, New Guinea and Australia” (Peters).

            The Amur curlew’s call note has been described as “a ringing ker-lee”

    (Delacour and Mayr). Spangenberg, who has characterized the species’ nesting

    ground along the Iman (a tributary to the Amur) as “open marshes alternating

    with higher areas,” states that “the nesting sections [i.e., territories] of

    separate couples are ... pretty close to one another, but they by no means

    present the character of a colony. If one couple happens to be disturbed

    and cries out, a neighborhood bird (usually a male) hurries ot their aid.”

            In the marshlands between the villages of Verbovka, Goncharovka and

    Lukianovka, Spangenberg encountered 11 pairs of Amur curlews. A nest described

    by him was “on the edge of a vast moss swamp ... on a small mound, in completely

    open space …” The eggs (4 in all nests thus far discovered) are olive in

    ground color, spotted sparsely with grays and browns. The ground color is

    darker than that of the eggs of the common curlew. The downy young has not,

    apparently been described.

            Reference:

    Spangenberg, E. P. “Observations on the occurrence and biology of birds in

    the lower reaches of the Iman River,” Proc. Moscow Zoological

    Park, vol.1, pp.78-79, 1940.

    437      |      Vol_IV-0494                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aphriza and Arenaria

            366. Aphriza . The monotypic scolopacid genus to which the surfbird

    ( A. virgata ) belongs. It is a stout, medium-sized wader more closely related

    to the turnstones ( Arenaria ) than to the true plovers ( Charadrius and allies),

    though its bill, which is swollen at the tip and contracted at the base, is

    decidedly ploverlike in shape. Its legs and feet are short and robust. It

    has four toes, the hallux being well developed though small, the front toes

    having conspicuous, roughened, almost serrate pads along the edges. The

    tarsus is scutellate in front, but reticulate otherwise. The tail is

    slightly emarginated (forked). The genus is found only along the Pacific

    coast of America. It is known to breed in the Alaska Range in south-central

    Alaska, and it probably nests also in the Baird and De Long Mountains just

    northeast of Kotzebue Sound. It has been recorded in migration along the

    Pacific coast of Canada and the United States. It winters southward to the

    Strait of Magellan.

            See Surfbird.

            367. Arenaria . The genus of scolopacid shore birds commonly known as

    turnstones. There are only two species — A. interpres (turnstone), which

    ranges very widely in both the New World and the Old; and A. melanocephala

    (black turnstone), which breeds in Alaska and winters along the Pacific coast

    of North America from southern Alaska to Lower California.

            Arenaria is a plump, short-necked, rather small-headed shore bird with

    short, sharply pointed, straight or slightly upturned, conical bill. The

    legs are short and stout. The tarsus, which is scutellate in front and

    reticulate behind, is about as long as the middle toe. The hind toe is well

    developed. There are no webs connecting even the bases of the three front toes.

    438      |      Vol_IV-0495                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arenaria and Armstrong’s Yellowshank

    The color pattern is bold, in some ways (e.g., the dark pectoral hand)

    suggesting that of the true plovers of the genus Charadrius. Arenaria

    belongs, however, to the Scolopacidae and not to the Charadriidae, as

    recent osteological investigations have shown.

            In behavior the two species are similar throughout most of the year,

    but during the brief season of courtship the black turnstone mounts high

    in air and produces a curious winnowing sound like that of the common

    snipe ( Capella gallinago ). Arenaria interpres gives no such flight

    performance.

            Arenaria is holarctic in distribution. The more wide-ranging of the

    two species ( interpres ) breeds northward to very high latitudes (to lat. 83° N.

    in Ellesmere Island and possibly even farther north in Peary Land) [ ?] and

    winters southward to the Malay Archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, South

    Africa, South America, and the Galapagos Islands.

            See Turnstone.

            368. Armstrong’s Yellowshank . A rather large Old World scolopacid

    shore bird, Tringa guttifer , which is known also as the Armstrong’s sandpiper,

    spotted greenshank, and Nordmann’s greenshank. In general appearance it

    resembles the common greenshank ( Tringa nebularia ) so closely that it has

    often been mistaken for that species. It is not very well know, at best,

    and is usually referred to as “rare.” By some taxonomists it has been placed

    in a monotypic genus ( Pseudototanus ) because the front toes are joined at

    their bases by webs; because the decidedly upturned bill is notably short and

    stout; and because the secondaries are short (in the folded wing reaching to

    about the 5th or 6th primary, counting from the outside).



    439      |      Vol_IV-0496                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Armstrong’s Yellowshank [ ?]

            The species is about a foot long, with bill 2 inches long. In winter

    it is plain light gray above, white below, with almost pure white lower

    back, rump, and upper tail coverts. In summer it has much more black in the

    plumage, the crown being black, streaked with white; the back feathers,

    scapulars, and tertials black, spotted with white along their edges; and

    the throat, foreneck, and breast white, spotted with black. The rest of

    the under parts, including the axillary feathers, under wing coverts, belly,

    and under tail coverts, are pure white. The basal half of the bill is said

    to be “horny yellow”; the distal half dusky. The feet and legs are yellow

    or yellowish green.

            The breeding grounds of this beautiful wader are not by any means fully

    known. Reports of its breeding in Tibet are badly in need of confirmation.

    Since it migrates regularly through Kamchatka and along the shores of the

    Sea of Okhotsk, it almost certainly nests [ ?] somewhere to the north of

    those areas. Kuroda ( Tori , 1936, p. 238) has reported its nesting on the

    west side of the Tsui River, near R u û taka-machi, south Sakhalin. Here G. Okada

    collected 3 (of a brood of 4) downy young on July 5, 1936. These were, accord–

    ing to a color plate illustrating Kuroda’s paper (and also according to the

    description) not strikingly unlike the young of the common greenshank, though

    the upper part of the body was plain gray, marked with a dark and a light line

    on each side of the rump.

            The species has been reported once from Bering Island, in the Komandorskis.

    It winters “in northeastern India, Burma, Malay Peninsula and Hainan” (Peters).



    440      |      Vol_IV-0497                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Baird’s Sandpiper

            370. Baird’s Sandpiper . A small scolopacid shore bird, Erolia bairdii ,

    which is not very easy to identify in the field. It has no white wing bar

    or rump patch. It is somewhat like the lest sandpiper ( Erolia minutilla )

    but is a little larger and (especially in the fall) less rufous on the upper

    parts. It is a little larger than the semipalmated sandpiper ( Ereunetes

    pusillus ) but browner. It is proportionately longer-winged than either

    of these “peeps” and this tends to make it look larger. It is 7 to 7 1/2

    inches long. It is brown in general tone not only on the back but all over

    the head, neck, and upper breast. In the hand the beautifully scaled

    effect of the back and scapulars (especially in young birds in their first

    winter plumage) is instantly apparent, but this does not show very clearly

    in the field. The bill, legs, and feet are black. The somewhat similar

    pectoral sandpiper ( Erolia melanotos ) varies greatly in size, and small

    individuals of that species are sometimes very hard to distinguish from

    Baird’s sandpipers unless the legs and feet are clearly visible. The legs

    and feet of the pectoral sandpiper are green.

            I do not recall ever seeing a large flock composed wholly of Baird’s

    sandpiper. Often I have encountered one or two Baird’s sandpipers by

    themselves, or in flock of other shore birds. They frequent beaches and

    mudflats, showing no such partiality for wettish grasslands as the pectoral

    sandpiper sometimes shows. The call note which bairdii gives as it flies

    up is distinctive, but difficult to describe. To me it is more mellow and

    rolling than the kreep or reese it is alleged to utter. There is a difference

    of report concerning songs given on the breeding ground. Dixon says that

    courtship “appears to be carried on in absolute silence.” Bailey, on the

    other hand, likens the sounds made during display flights to the “winging

    441      |      Vol_IV-0498                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Baird’s Sandpiper [ ?]

    of many little grass frogs.” Dixon says that males and females arrive on

    the breeding ground at the same time. The nest is usually in a dry place,

    sometimes in grass at the foot of a knoll, often without concealment of

    any sort. It is scantily lined. The eggs (usually 4) are buff, spotted

    and blotched with dark shades of brown. Dixon says that “the male does at

    least half of the incubating.”

            The Baird’s sandpiper breeds at Koli n u chin Bay and probably elsewhere

    along the Arctic coast of extreme northeastern Siberia and across the

    whole of the North American Arctic from Alaska to Baffin Island, Ellesmere

    Island, and northwestern Greenland. The northern limits of its breeding

    range apparently are Point Barrow, Alaska; northern Yukon (Herschel Island);

    Prince Patrick Island; Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island; and Thule, Greenland.

    Winther did not report it from Peary Land. Dalgety found it “the commonest

    Sandpiper between Eglinton Fjord and Clyde Inlet,” Baffin Island ( Ibis ,

    1936, p. 586). The southern limits of its breeding range are Cape Romanzof

    (Aksinuk Mountains) along the west coast of Alaska; southern Baffin Island;

    Southampton Island (probably); Melville Peninsula; and Peel River (Possibly

    Aylmer Lake), Mackenzie. It does not nest at Churchill, Manitoba, nor

    anywhere in the Labrador Peninsula. It migrates chiefly between the Rocky

    Mountains and the Mississippi River and winters locally in the mountains

    of Ecuador, northern Chile, Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina, along

    the coasts of Chile and Argentina, and in the Falklands.

            Reference:

    Dixon, J. “The home life of the Baird Sandpiper, Condor vol.19, pp.77-84,

    1917.

    442      |      Vol_IV-0499                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bar-tailed Godwit.

            371. Bar-tailed Godwit . A rather large scolopacid shore bird, Limosa

    lapponica , with very long, slightly upturned bill. It breeds locally from

    northern Scandinavia eastward across northern Eurasia and northern Alaska

    as far as the delta of the Colville. It is considerably more northward-ranging

    than the black-tailed godwit ( Limosa limosa ) and, unlike that species, does not

    breed in Iceland or the Faeroes. It is about 15 inches long with bill 3 to 4

    inches long. In general it is rather plainly colored, with somewhat curlew–

    like upper parts and no strikingly bold pattern in the spread wings and tail.

    The rump is white and the tail whitish, narrowly barred with black. In winter

    the upper parts are gray and the under parts are quite plain — buff on the

    foreneck and chest, whitish on the chin, throat, belly, and under tail

    coverts. In the breeding season the whole head, neck, and under parts are

    chestnut red and the edges of the feathers of the upper parts are strongly

    rufous. The female is much less richly colored than the male in summer.

    The bill is pinkish at the base, black otherwise; the eyes dark brown; the

    legs and feet gray. An important diagnostic point is this: the legs are

    not as long as those of the black-tailed godwit, hence in the flying bird

    they do not stick out much beyond the tail.

            In winter Limosa lapponica is not noisy. Its usual call note as it

    flies up with other shore birds is a low kirruc , kirruc . On the breeding

    ground, however, it is noisy. Among its chief call notes here are querulous

    to - bak , to - bak (Bailey) and a musical weerka , weerka , weerka , a [ ?]

    petulant kik , kik , kik , and a sharp kwick-ik ( Handbook of British Birds ).

    These notes are delivered from the air or the top of a tree. The nest is on

    a hummock or islet in a marsh, or among moss on the tundra. The eggs, usually

    4, are greenish- or brownish-olive, marked rather sparingly (and chiefly at

    443      |      Vol_IV-0500                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bar-tailed Godwit

    the large end) with dark brown. The downy young are buffy brown, plain

    below, boldly marked with dark brown above.

            The nominate race breeds locally from northern Scandinavia eastward to

    central Siberia. It is common on the Murman Coast and has been reported

    from Kolguev, the mouth of the Pechora, the Yenisei (north to lat. 72° N.),

    the Taimyr Peninsula (north to 75°), and the mouth of the Lena. In the

    E T aimyr Valley Middendorff noted its arrival on June 15, its egg-laying in

    mid-July, and its departure for the south by August 23. It winters from

    Britain and the shores of the North and Baltic seas south to “the coast of

    tropical Africa (Senegambia and Somaliland), Mekran coast, Persian Gulf and

    northwestern India” (Peters). It has been reported from Iceland and the

    Faeroes.

            Limosa lapponica baueri , which is often called the Pacific godwit, breeds

    in northern Siberia from the Yana River eastward to the Chukotsk Peninsula

    and southward to Kamchatka; in the New Siberian Archipelago; and in Alaska

    from Unalaska northward and eastward along the whole coast to the delta of

    the Colville River. Portenko did not list it from Wrangel Island. It winters

    in the Malay Archipelago, Oceania, New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand.

            Reference:

    Rosenius, Paul, Swanberg, Olof, and Hosking, Eric. “Studies of some species

    rarely photographed. X. The Bar-tailed Godwit,” [ ?]

    British Birds vol.41, p.209, and plates 23-30, 1948.

    444      |      Vol_IV-0501                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bartramia and Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover

            372. Bartramia . The monotypic genus to which the Bartramian (B e a rtram’s)

    sandpiper or upland plover ( B. longicauda ) belongs. Bartramia is a sandpiper

    with the attributes of certain plovers. It inhabits dry prairies and fields

    and does not feed along the shore or on mud flats even in winter. Its color,

    long neck, and certain osteological characters are very curlew-like. Its

    tail is exceptionally long for a shore bird (half as long as the wing) and

    wedge-shaped. The bill is straight, shortish, slender, and somewhat decurved

    at the tip. The tarsus is scutellate both in front and behind. Though there

    are some hexagonal scales just below the heel. The hind toe is well developed.

    The head is rather small, and the neck very thin for so large-bodied a bird.

            Bartramia is confined to the New World. It inhabits open, comparatively

    treeless country the year round, breeding locally from northwestern Alaska

    (Kobuk River Valley, just north of the Arctic Circle) southeastward to

    Montana, Colorado, north central Texas, central Illinois, and south central

    Maryland. In central Canada it breeds northward probably to extreme north–

    eastern Manitoba, though it has never been recorded in summer at the mouth

    of the Churchill River. It winters on the South American pampas from

    southern Brazil and northern Argentina southward to south central Argentina.

            See Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover.

            373. Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover . A scolopacid bird, Bartramia

    longicauda , which breeds locally throughout the prairies of middle North

    America and winters on the pampas of southern South America. In England it

    is known as B e a rtram’s sandpiper. It breeds in the Kobuk River Valley just

    north of the Arctic Circle in northwestern Alaska, but it is not, generally

    speaking, a bird of the tundra. Preble recorded several along the west coast

    445      |      Vol_IV-0502                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover

    of Hudson Bay 25 to 50 miles south of Cape Eskimo (about lat. 60° N.),

    August 8-13, 1900. The species certainly breeds somewhere in that area.

            The upland plover’s liquid cries, some of which have won for it the

    name “prairie whistler,” and its custom of lifting its wings archangel–

    style high over its back just as it alights, are distinctive. On its

    breeding grounds it often perches on fences or telephone poles or other

    high places, though it is ordinarily terrestrial. It is 10 to 11 inches

    long and brown and black above, buffy white below, with markings which are

    much like those of the curlews. There is no very good field mark (such as

    a white wing bar or rump patch) but the bird’s plump body; short, straight

    bill; small head and long, very slender neck are themselves diagnostic.

    The axillary feathers and under wing coverts are heavily barred with black.

    The species migrates in curiously scattered groups, perhaps in families,

    almost never in flocks. Its bubbling cry is a familiar night sound when

    migration is on.

            The nest is a depression in the ground, usually somewhat hidden by

    grass. The 4 eggs are creamy buff in ground color, finely speckled with

    reddish brown. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is 26 days

    (Goodpaster and Maslowski, 1948, Wilson Bull . 60, 188). The downy young

    is grayish white on the face, forehead, superciliary region, nape, and

    under parts, boldly marked with black and sandy brown on the crown and

    upper part of the body.

            For details of distribution, see Bartramia .



    446      |      Vol_IV-0503                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-tailed Godwit

            374. Black-tailed Godwit . A rather large scolopacid shore bird,

    Limosa limosa , found only in the Old World. It breeds in Iceland, the

    Faeroes (probably), and across Eurasia from southern Scandinavia and

    Belgium to Mongolia and Kamchatka. It does not breed nearly so far north

    as the bar-tailed godwit ( Limosa lapponica ). Pleske does not even list

    it as a bird of the Eurasian tundra. Two races are recognized: L. limosa

    limosa of Europe and central western Siberia (wintering in the Mediterranean

    countries, Africa, and southern Asia); and L. limosa melanuroides of north–

    western Mongolia, the shores of the Sea of Lkhotsk, and Kamchatka (wintering

    in the Philippines, Borneo, and Australia). Iceland birds are believed by

    some taxonomists to belong to a distinct race, islandica . The nominate

    race has been reported from the west coast of Greenland.

            The black-tailed godwit is 15 to 17 inches long with a very straight

    bill 4 to almost 5 inches long. It is easily distinguished from the bar–

    tailed godwit in flight by the broad white bar in the wing; the long legs,

    which project beyond the tail tip; and dark rump; and the pure white tail

    with its broad terminal band of black. In winter it is dark brownish gray

    above; light gray on the foreneck and breast; and white on the belly and

    under tail coverts. In summer it is dull chestnut red on the head, neck,

    and under parts (except for the lower belly, flanks, and tail coverts, which

    are white marked irregularly with black and dark brown) and black on the

    back, scapulars, and wings. The bill is pink, fading to black on the tip;

    the eyes dark brown; the legs and feet greenish black.

            When flocks of black-tailed godwits are m vo ov ing about, the flight call

    is a loud, clear wicka , wicka , wicka . Feeding birds sometimes utter a low

    kuk , kik , keu or teuk . On the nesting ground, where pairs are often very

    447      |      Vol_IV-0504                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-tailed Godwit

    noisy, the chief calls are kwee-it , kit-it-it , and “a long … creaking

    ee-ow” ( Handbook of British Birds ). The display flight includes a steep

    ascension on rapidly beating wings (accompanied by a quickly repeated tri–

    syllabic note); a change to disyllabic song and slow wing beats with the

    wings held downward markedly; and a rolling flight accompanied by a twist–

    ing back and forth of the widespread tail. Suddenly the rolling flight

    and calling stop, the bird glides silently on set wings, nose-dives with

    closed wings to within about 50 feet of the ground, spreads its wings

    and side-slips in all directions, holds its wings vertical, spreads its

    tail, and alights (Ticehurst).

            The nesting ground is usually a grassy meadow, quaking bog, or stretch

    of sand dunes. The nest is a substantial mass of dry grasses in a hollow

    among luxuriant grass. The 4 eggs are pale blue-green, greenish olive,

    olive-gray, or brown blotched with various shades of dark grays and browns,

    usually most heavily at the larger end. The incubation period is 24 days.

    The downy chick is cinnamon buff in general tone, paler on the face and

    thighs, and marked with dark brown on the crown, nape, back, and wings.

            Reference:

    Merk, M. “Ein beitrag zur Biologie der schwarzshwënzigen Uferschnepfe,

    Limosa limosa L., Zoologischer Beob . vol.57, pp.237-42, 1911.

            377. Bristle-thighed Curlew . A rather large scolopacid shore bird,

    Numenius tahitiensis , so named because each feather of the tibial region

    has a long, bristly tip. The species is one of the most ruddy of the

    curlews in general tone, and the plain buffy upper tail coverts are said

    448      |      Vol_IV-0505                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bristle-thighed Curlew

    to be a good field mark. The species is somewhat smaller than the whimbrel

    ( Numenius phaeopus ) but larger than the Eskimo curlew ( N. borealis ). The

    “bristles” are not at all conspicuous, though they glisten in strong light;

    and Henry C. Kyllingstad, whose carefully observations led to the recent

    discovery of the first nests known to science, tells me that from a blind

    the “bristles” can easily be seen with the naked eye at a distance of

    10 feet, especially as the bird steps down from a hummock.

            The bristle-thighed curlew has been recorded in summer from various

    parts of Alaska (Kotzebue Sound, Hooper Bay, Kobuk River, Lopp Lagoon,

    Mint River, Meade River, and the headwaters of the Colville River north

    of the Baird Range), and it may well breed at or near some or all of these

    places. The only known breeding ground is, however, the plateau country

    about 25 miles north of Mountain Village, Alaska, southeast of Norton

    Sound. The plateaus are surrounded by lower ground in which alders and

    willows grow, but the nesting ground proper is the high, open part. The

    two nests so far discovered were in open tundra country at an elevation

    of about 800 feet, among black lichens on a rocky outcropping. Mountain

    Village is well south of the Arctic Circle, of course, but the fact that

    the bristle-thighed curlew migrates regularly in the fall along the

    Bering Sea shore from Nome to the Yukon (see Bailey, 1948. Birds of

    Arctic Alaska , p. 208) would seem to indicate that the nesting area

    extends northward through the high interior to the Arctic Circle and

    beyond. The possibility of another nesting area in Siberia also should

    be borne in mind.

            A call note of the bird on its nesting ground is pee-u-wit . The

    incubating birds sits very close. At one of the nests above referred to,

    449      |      Vol_IV-0506                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bristle-thighed Curlew and Buff-breasted Sandpiper

    the incubating bird flushed at 30 feet. This nest was a mere depression

    among the black lichens — a little basin about 7 inches across and 2 1/2

    inches deep. The eggs (4) were olive, spotted and blotched with brown,

    chiefly at the larger end. The newly hatched young is notably thick-legged

    and long-toed in comparison with a young whimbrel of the same age (Allen

    and Kyllingstad). In color it is light buff, with a tawny tinge on the

    body, a narrow dark line through the eye, and dark markings on the crown,

    back, and wings. The legs and feet are grayish blue.

            The bristle-thighed curlew winters in the South Pacific, southward

    as far as the Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Marquesas, and Tuamotu islands.

            References:

    Kyllingstad, Henry C. “The secret of the Bristle-thighed Curlew,”

    Arctic vol.1, no.2, pp. 113-18, Autumn, 1948. Allen, Arthur A. and Kyllingstad, Henry. “The eggs and young of the

    Bristle-thighed Curlew.” Auk vol.66, pp.343-50, 1949.

            379. Buff-breasted Sandpiper . An interesting scolopacid shore bird,

    Tryngites subruficollis , which is really not an inhabitant of the shore

    at all, but of dry prairies and plains. It is 7 to 8 inches long, with

    short, straight bill about 3/4 of an inch long, short neck, and rather

    stocky appearance despite its longish legs. It is brown all over, but the

    feathers of the upper parts are black medially, so worn midsummer birds

    are somewhat blotched above. The under wing is extremely beautiful, the

    spotting, barring and marbling of the under primary coverts and of the

    inner webs of the primaries being very clear-cut and delicate. The bill

    is black, the eyes dark brown, the legs and feet dull orange.



    450      |      Vol_IV-0507                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Buff-breasted Sandpiper

            The buff-breasted sandpiper is usually very approachable, but it is

    so hard to see that a whole flock may fly up and make off before one has

    so much as glimpsed the birds on the ground. In flight it looks curiously

    like a mourning dove ( Zenaidura macroura ), with its soft brown color,

    drawn-in head, and swiftly moving wings. Its usual call notes are a

    simple tik and a gentle prrreet . Rowan has described wing-lifting displays

    which are accompanied by several repe ti tions of the tik call note. Brooks

    (Ibis, 1939, p. 451), whose statement that the male buff-breasted sandpiper

    is “very much larger than the female” is decidedly misleading, believes that

    the “very large male has a striking and unusual display,” but no description

    of such a display seems to have been published. Rowan does not even mention

    a flight song.

            The nest is a shallow depression in the humus, scantily lined with bits

    of grass, moss, or lichens. It is usually on a ridge or well-drained slope.

    The eggs (usually 4) are greenish when first laid, fading to buff or light

    brown, and boldly marked with purplish black or sepia, chiefly at the larger

    end. The female probably does all the incubating, or most of it. The downy

    young, as figured and described by Brooks is brownish gray above, finely

    dotted with white on the crown, back, and wings. Among downy young shore

    birds it is “unique, as there is no trace of rufous; instead there is

    a delicate wash of pale yellow over the jugulum and sides of the head.”

            For details concerning the species’ distribution, see Tryngites .

            Reference:

    Rowan, W. “Notes on Alberta waders included in the British list. Part 5.

    Buff-breasted Sandpiper,” British Birds , vol.20, pp.186-92, 1927.

    451      |      Vol_IV-0508                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Calidris [ ?]

            380. Calidris . A genus composed o t f two species of middle-sized scolo–

    pacid shore birds known as knots. Calidris is somewhat stocky, short-necked,

    and short-legged. The sexes are alike in color. The bill is straight,

    fairly stout, longer than the head, longer than the tarsus, and slightly

    swollen at the tip. Both mandibles have a lateral groove running almost

    their full length. The wing is long and pointed, the longest (outermost)

    primary extending beyond the secondaries in the folded wing by about half

    the total length of the wing. The tail (12 feathers) is rather short and

    square, the middle feathers being about the same length as the others. The

    tarsus is scutellate both in front and behind. The middle toe is slightly

    longer than the other two. The hind toe is well developed but small. Small

    webs connect the front toes at the base. The two species have much the same

    color pattern (i.e., gray above and white below, with whitish upper tail

    coverts) in winter, but are dissimilar in summer.

            Both species of Calidris breed in the Far North. C. canutus (knot or

    robin snipe) breeds wholly to the north of the Arctic Circle in the Old World

    and the New, but has a much interrupted distribution. C. tenuirostris (great

    knot) nests only in northeastern Siberia, in mountains along the lower Kolyma

    and Anadyr rivers. The winter range is widely separated from the breeding

    range. Calidris is found in winter as far south as South Africa, Australia,

    New Zealand, and Tierra del Fuego.

            See Knot and Great Knot.



    452      |      Vol_IV-0509                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Capella

            381. Capella . A genus of scolopacid shore birds commonly known as

    snipes. Throughout the group the bill is very long, slender, and more or

    less flexible except at the tip. The upper mandible is slightly longer

    than the lower. The eyes are large and placed far back and high in the

    head, somewhat as in the woodcocks of the genera Philohela and Scolopax ,

    and the ears are far forward, almost directly below the eyes. The legs are

    short, the toes long and slender, the hind toe well developed, the front

    three toes without webs at the base. The tarsus is scutellate both in front

    and behind. The tibial part of the leg is bare of feathers for some distance

    above the heel joint. The wings are long and pointed, the first “developed”

    primary being the longest. The tail is rounded, the middle feathers of

    normal width, the lateral ones in some species narrowed or stiffened or

    both. The rectrices number 14 to 26. In certain species — e.g., the

    common snipe, C. gallinago — the number of rectrices is not constant.

    The sternum has two notches.

            Throughout the group the color pattern is so much the same that one

    general description fits them all. The sexes are alike. Summer and winter

    plumages are similar and young birds in first winter plumage are like adults.

    In general, Capella is dark on the head, neck, breast, and upper parts, barred

    on the sides and flanks, and (in most forms) white on the lower breast and

    belly. The head is distinctly lined — one light line through the middle of

    the dark crown, a dark line through the eye, and another, less definite one,

    parallel to and below this one, cutting across the light, more or less buffy

    area of the face. The light edges of the scapular and back feathers so follow

    each other as to form definite lines running almost the full length of the

    upper part of the body. The light tipping of certain wing feathers also tends

    453      |      Vol_IV-0510                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Capella

    to form lines. The barring of the sides and flanks forms vertical lines

    when the bird is in normal standing position. This broken up or “ruptive”

    pattern makes the bird exceedingly hard to see when it is in the grass.

            The downy chick is rich dark brown and black with silvery-gray markings

    and, on the upper parts, fine white speckling which gives it a curiously

    “moldy” appearance. The eggs, which usually are 4, are olive-buff or brown,

    spotted and blotched with gray, dark brown, and black. The nest is always

    on the ground, usually on a mossy hummock or in a grassy tussock in a wettish

    place.

            Of the 12 species only one, the common snipe, inhabits both the Old World

    and the New. Of the other 11, six are confined to Eurasia, one to Africa,

    one to Madagascar and Mauritius, and three to South America. This clearly

    points to Eurasia as a center of origin for the genus, though it is to be

    noted that the largest and perhaps the least “normally” colored form of all —

    the giant snipe, C. undulata — has developed in South America, the very

    continent in which another, quite different, group of snipes (the genus

    Chubbia ) has evolved. The smallest of the snipes, the jack snipe ( Lymnocryptes

    minimus ), is not a Capella at all, though it looks somewhat like one.

            The common snipe ranges northward to the Arctic Circle and a little

    beyond both in America and in Eurasia, but it is not a tundra bird. The

    great snipe ( C. media ), pin-tailed snipe ( C. stenura ), and solitary snipe

    ( C. solitaria ) all range northward to, or almost to the Arctic Circle in

    Eurasia. Not one of these is, however, discussed at length by Pleske in his

    Birds of the Eurasian Tundra . See Common Snipe, Great Snipe, Pin-tailed Snipe,

    and Jack Snipe.

            Reference:

    Meinertzhagen, Annie C. “A Review of the Subfamily Scolopacinae,” Ibis,

    vol.2, (Ser.12), pp.477-521, 1926.

    454      |      Vol_IV-0511                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Curlew

            382. Common Curlew . A large Old World shore bird, Numenius arquata ,

    which is well known for its loud, high pitched, bubbling trill and croo-ee

    or coor-wi call note, the latter probably being the basis for the word

    curlew . In Scotland it is called the whaup. It is about 2 feet long,

    with bill 5 to 6 inches long. The female is usually larger and longer–

    billed than the male. For the species’ diagnostic characters, see Curlew.

            The common curlew frequents mud flats during migration and in winter

    but lives inland in summer. In some parts of its range it seems to prefer

    high, open prairies, hilltops, or even sand dunes as a nesting ground, but

    it also nests in marshlands and bogs, usually keeping well away from the

    woods. It is not a bird of the whole palearctic tundra, however, for it

    ranges northward only to about latitude 70° N. in Scandinavia, to 65° in

    Russia, and to considerably less northerly latitudes in Siberia. Pleske

    does not list it in his Birds of the Eurasian Tundra . Three races are

    currently recognized — arquata of northern Europe (wintering in Ireland;

    along the North and Mediterranean Seas; and in Africa, Madagascar, India,

    and Ceylon); sushkini of southeastern Russia and the Kirghiz Steppe

    (wintering in northern and subtropical Africa); and orientalis of the

    Baikal region and probably western Siberia (wintering in southern Asia,

    Ceylon, and Africa). The nominate race has been reported from Iceland,

    the Faeroes, and Greenland (east coast and southern tip).

            The nest is a hollow in the ground lined with a few grasses, twigs,

    or bits of moss. The eggs (usually 4) are olive to brown in ground color,

    marked with spots, blotches, and streaks of dark brown and gray. The

    incubation period is 29 to 30 days (Witherby). The downy young is plain

    buff throughout the whole face and under parts and grayish brown above,

    455      |      Vol_IV-0512                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Curlew and Common Sandpiper

    marked with blackish brown on the crown, back, and wings.

            383. Common Sandpiper . A small Old World scolopacid shore bird,

    Actitis hypoeucos , widely known for the constant teetering or up-and–

    down movement of the rear part of its body. It maybe conspecific with

    the spotted sandpiper ( A. macularia ) or America. Ordinarily it flies low

    over the water, alternating a few rapid wing beasts with short glides in

    which the widespread wings are held motionless in the position they take

    at the bottom of the downstroke. Usually the bird circles out a way and

    returns to shore. The white bar on the spreads wing shows plainly.

            The common sandpiper is about 8 inches long. Its upper parts are

    brownish grey, slightly glossed with gree d n , and indistinctly spotted and

    barred with dusky, especially on the scapulars, back and wings. Its under

    parts are white, lightly streaked with gray on the throat, foreneck, and

    breast. Its tail is narrowly edged and tipped with white. Adults are very

    plainly colored in winter, their upper parts being almost without the dark

    brown flecking and barring. Young birds in the first winter plumage are

    indefinitely barred above with dusky. In young and old birds the bill is

    dusky with dull yellow base. The feet and legs are dull grayish green.

            The species’ usual call note is a shrill weet , repeated several times

    rather rapidly. The alarm or protest cry is the same note, loudly given.

    The song, which usually is delivered in flight, has been transliterated as

    kitti-wee-wit , kitti-wee-wit , repeated over and over (Jourdain).

            The nest is along the edge of a stream or pond, usually not far from

    the water. Sometimes, however, it is in an upland field or open woodland

    a long way from water. As a rule it is more or less hidden among grass or

    456      |      Vol_IV-0513                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Sandpiper and Common Snipe

    sheltered by the leaves of some big-leafed annual plant. The eggs, which

    are glossy, are cream-buff, olive-buff, or yellowish brown in ground

    color, spotted with dark brown, chiefly at the larger end. Both sexes

    incubate. The incubation period is 21 to 23 days.

            For a description of the downy young and details of the species’ range,

    see Actitis.

            References:

    Gladstone, H. S. “Incubation period of Common Sandpiper,” British Birds ,

    vol. 29, p. 53, 1925. Stein, G. “Zur Brutbiologie des Flussuferlaufers ( Tringa hypoleucos ),”

    Ornithologische Monatsber . vol.34, pp.163-69, 1926. Thompson, I. M. “The Sandpiper,” Field , vol. 144, p. 714, 1924.

            384. Common Snipe . A well-known long-billed scopopacid bird, Capella

    gallinago , found in both the Old World and the New. The American race,

    delicata , is usually called the Wilson’s snipe, and is sometimes referred

    to as the jack snipe. The common snipe is about 10 inches long, with bill

    2 1/2 inches long. It frequents marshy places and is quite nocturnal. When

    flushed by day it usually springs from the grass with a startling sca-a-a-pe

    and makes off swiftly and erratically. As if flies away, the light lines on

    its back, and the white edging and tipping and pale rufous subterminal band

    of the tail are sometimes visible. As it twists in flight, it shows now

    the dark of its upper parts, now the white of its belly.

            During spring migration and on its nesting ground the common snipe

    produces a remarkable “drumming,” “bleating,” or “hooting” sound, allegedly

    by spreading wide the outermost two of its many rectrices during display

    457      |      Vol_IV-0514                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Snipe

    flights. The vibrating of these feathers as the bird’s body moves swiftly

    forward and downward through the air is believed to produce this beautiful

    windy sound, which can be heard long distances.

            The nest is never far from water, and often it is in a grassy tussock,

    at the base of a clump of ferns, or on a half-submerged log, surrounded by

    water. The female incubates the eggs. The incubation period is about 29

    days. Two broods are sometimes reared in one season. Both parents care

    for the young ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            Three races of Capella gallinago are recognized — gallinago of con–

    tinental Eurasia and the Komandorskis; faeroeensis of Iceland and the Faeroes;

    and delicata of North America. The nominate race breeds northward to

    latitude 70° N. in Scandinavia, to the Murman Coast and the Pechora River

    in north Russia, to comparable latitudes in Siberia, and to Kamchatka. It

    has been recorded in summer at the mouths of the Lena, Yana, Indigirka, and

    Kolyma rivers, and it may well breed at these places. The southern limits

    of its breeding range are the British Isles, the Balkan States, the Caucasus,

    Transbaikalia, the Amur River, and the Kurils. It winters from the southern

    part of its breeding range southward into Africa, Persia, India, Indo-China,

    southern China, and Japan. It has been encountered several times in Greenland

    and once on the Labrador.

            The Faeroe common snipe, C. gallinago faeroeensis , winters occasionally

    in the British Isles, the Netherlands, and Heligoland. It has been recorded

    several times in Greenland.

            The Wilson’s snipe, Capella gallinago delicata , breeds across North

    America from Alaska to the Labrador. In Alaska it nests in the Kotzebue

    Sound region, at Point Hope, along the Alatna River in the Brooks Range,

    458      |      Vol_IV-0515                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Snipe and Crocethia

    and at Cape Smyth (near Point Barrow). It breeds at Aklavik, in northern

    Mackenzie, and probably all along the lower Mackenzie Valley. It is fairly

    common at Churchill, Manitoba, and has been reported from even further

    north along the west coast of Hudson Bay (Cape Eskimo). Along the Labrador

    it breeds as far north as Webb’s Bay, just north of Nain. Webb’s Bay is,

    according to Austin, just south of the tree line. The southern limits of

    the breeding range are northern California, southern Colorad, northern

    Iowa, central Ontario, and northwestern Pennsylvania. The form winters

    from the southern part of its breeding range southward through Central

    America and the West Indies to Colombia and Brazil. It has been taken in

    Greenland.

            References:

    1. Sutton, George M. “Notes on the nesting of the Wilson’s Snipe in

    Crawford County, Pennsylvania,” Wilson Bull. vol.35, pp.191-202,

    1923. 2. Taylor, L. E. “Further notes on the flight performance of the Snipe,”

    Condor , vol. 27, pp.224-26, 1925.

            385. Crocethia . The monotypic scolopacid genus to which the sander–

    ling ( C. alba ) belongs. It is a middle-sized, somewhat stocky shore bird

    having no hind toe. The sexes are alike. The bill is about as long as the

    head and slightly swollen at the tip as in Calidris (knots). Each mandible

    has a lateral groove running almost its full length, that on the upper being

    more distinct than that on the lower. The wing is long and pointed. In

    the folded wing the longest tertials do not reach nearly to the tip of the

    longest primary. The tail (12 feathers) is slightly double-forked (i.e., the

    459      |      Vol_IV-0516                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crocethia

    middle two feathers are longest, the outermost two are next longest, and

    the ones in between are shortest). The tarsus, which is about the same

    length as the bill, is scutellate both in front and behind. The three

    front toes are without webbing at the base, but have serrate fringing

    along their edges.

            The genus is almost completely holarctic in breeding distribution.

    During the course of the full year it ranges virtually throughout the

    world. It nests northward to Spitsbergen, possibly the Franz Josef Archi–

    pelago (see P.Z.S. 1882, p. 653), the arctic coast of Siberia from the

    Taimyr Peninsula eastward to the mouth of the Lena, the New Siberian Archi–

    pelago, northern Ellesmere Island, northern Greenland, and Prince Patrick

    Island; and southward as far as Novaya Zemlya (probably), Kolguev (probably),

    Vaigach, the Kanin Peninsula (possibly), about latitude 72° N. in Siberia,

    Iceland (possibly), the Liakhov Islands, the Franklin Bay and Peel River

    districts of northern Mackenzie, Melville Peninsula, and Southampton Island

    (probably). It apparently breeds throughout the Arctic Archipelago except

    on the east coast of Baffin Island. It winters from the British Isles,

    the North Sea, India, China, California, Virginia, and the Gulf of Mexico

    southward to Madagascar, Cape Colony, Australia, various islands of the

    South Pacific, and southern South America. It has been recorded repeatedly

    in northern Alaska during migration; occasionally on Jan Mayen; and at least

    once in New Zealand. It has never been recorded in the South Orkneys,

    South Shetlands, or the Antarctic continent. It inhabits Chilean coasts

    in large numbers during its breeding season (i.e., the northern summer),

    but these birds are in what appears to be winter plumage and they certainly

    do not breed in South America.

            See Sanderling.



    460      |      Vol_IV-0517                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Curlew

            386. Curlew . Any of several tall scolopacid shore birds of the genus

    Numenius , all of which have long legs; long, more or less pronouncedly de–

    curved bill; long neck; and characteristically spotted, barred, and mottled

    coloration. Of the l e ight species, six breed in the arctic or subarctic.

    Of the six arctic species, one breeds in both the Old World and the New

    (whimbrel; Hudsonian curlew); two in the New World only (Eskimo curlew

    and bristle-thighed curlew); and three only in the Old (common curlew,

    pygmy curlew, and eastern curlew). The following brief descriptions will

    aid in identification:

            The largest species are the common curlew ( N. arquata ) and eastern

    curlew ( N. madagascariensis ), both of which are conspicuously long-billed

    and coarsely streaked on the neck and under parts. The common curlew is

    white on the lower back and rump while the eastern is dark throughout the

    whole back and rump.

            The whimbrel ( N. phaeopus ) is white-rumped in Europe and western Siberia,

    but distinctly dark-rumped in the races inhabiting North America and eastern

    Siberia. Where the whimbrel and common curlew occur together the difference

    in size is usually fairly apparent, the common curlew being considerably the

    larger and longer-billed. The In the whimbrel the crown is divided by a distinct

    light line; in the common curlew the whole crown is dark.

            The Eskimo curlew ( Numenius borealis ), which is extremely rare if not

    extinct, is perhaps the hardest curlew of all to identify in the field, for

    it is much like the American race of the whimbrel (i.e., the Eudsonian curlew,

    N. phaeopus hudsonicus ) except that it is smaller. Some authors describe

    the Eskimo curlew as green-legged, but others insist that its legs and feet

    are bluish gray. In the hand it may be distinguished from the various races

    461      |      Vol_IV-0518                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Curlew and Curlew Sandpiper

    of the whimbrel at once from the dark brown outer primaries, which are

    without light markings of any sort.

            The bristle-thighed curlew ( N. tahitiensis ) is about the size of the

    Hudsonian curlew, hence larger than the Eskimo curlew. It is the most

    ruddy of all the curlews. Its upper tail coverts are plain tawny buff,

    and this patch probably is a good field mark. In the hand the species

    may be recognized at once by the bristly tips of the tibial feathers.

            The pygmy curlew, little curlew, or least whimbrel ( N. minutus ) is

    smaller even than the Eskimo curlew. Its slightly decurved bill is

    less than 2 inches long. Its back and rump are dark, and its outermost

    primaries (as in N. borealis ) are without light barring.

            See Common Curlew, Eastern Curlew, Whimbrel, Bristle-thighed Curlew,

    Eskimo Curlew, and Pygmy Curlew.

            387. Curlew Sandpiper . A small scolopacid shore bird, Erolia ferruginea ,

    so called because of its long, downward-curved bill. It is 7 to 7 1/2

    inches long and is much like the dunlin ( Erolia alpina ) in size and shape,

    though its bill is longer and slenderer. The downward-curved bill is not

    an infallible field character, for in some young birds the bill is as short

    and as comparatively straight as it is in the dunlin. The best field mark

    is the white rump, which is always present, though it is less conspicuous

    in summer when the feathers are barred with black. Adults in winter are

    gray above, white below, with white rump, whitish face, and fray suffusion

    on the chest. Young birds in their first winter plumage are brownish gray

    above and buffy on the chest, and the feathers of the upper parts are edged

    with buff in such a way as to produce a scaled effect. Adults in summer are

    462      |      Vol_IV-0519                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Curlew Sandpiper

    unmistakable. They are rich chestnut all over the face, neck, breast,

    and belly; black chestnut on the crown and back; and white on the under

    tail coverts. The rump feathers and upper tail coverts are white barred

    with black.

            In behavior and habits the curlew sandpiper is much like the dunlin,

    with which it often associates in winter and during migrations. Its usual

    call note is a musical chirrip , which does not have the nasal grating

    quality of the dunlin’s cheezp . Feeding birds twitter in unison, as many

    sandpipers do. Near a nest Haviland heard alarm notes which she described

    as wiek-a-wiek , wiek-a-wiek. Sushkin says that in summer both sexes sing

    a muffled trill on the ground. The display flight is probably accompanied

    by this same trilling, but the flight performance has not been described.

            The nest is on the tundra, usually on a slope with southern exposure

    from which the snow has melted early. Along the lower Yenisei the species’

    habitat is “the dry open tundra, especially where the reindeer moss was

    more or less broken up by tufts of grass, and where the bird could have an

    uninterrupted view of the surrounding country.” (Haviland). Popham, who

    in early Jun d e of 1897 found the first nest of the species known to science

    (Krestovski Islands, north of the mouth of the Yenisei) described it as “a

    [ ?] rather deep hollow amongst the reindeer moss in an open space on a

    ridge of ground somewhat drier than the surrounding swampy tundra, in much

    the same sort of place as that generally chosen by a Gray Plover” ( Ibis ,

    1898, p. 517). Haviland found a nest which was so deep that the eggs were

    tilted almost vertically, “the blunt ends uppermost.” The eggs are olive

    buff to greenish gray, boldly marked with dark brown and purple. The downy

    young are much like those of the dunlin, but the pale parts of the crown

    463      |      Vol_IV-0520                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Curlew Sandpiper and Dowitcher

    and back have a yellowish (less tawny) tone.

            The species breeds on the Gydanskii Peninsula, at the mouth of the

    Yenisei (southward to the village of Golchikha), along the west [ ?] side

    of the Taimyr Peninsula, in the New Siberian Archipelago, at the mouth

    of the Kolyma River (Cape Bolshaia Baranov), and probably at interlying

    points along the arctic coast of Siberia. It migrates throughout Europe

    and Asia and winters in Africa, Madagascar, India, Burma, the Melay

    Archipelago, and Australia (Peters). It has been recorded on Bering Island

    in the Komandoskis and taken once at Point Barrow, Alaska.

            Reference:

    Haviland, Maud D. “Notes on the breeding-habits of the Curlew-Sandpiper,”

    British Birds , vol.8, pp.178-83, 1915.

            390. Dowitcher . Either of two species of snipelike New World shore

    birds of the genus Limnodromus : ( 1 ) L. scolopaceus , the long-billed dowitcher,

    with bill about 3 inches long, and ( 2 ) L. griseus , the short-billed dowitcher,

    with bill about 2 1/2 inches long. The nominate race of griseus is sometimes

    referred to as the eastern dowitcher. All dowitchers are commonly referred

    to as red-breasted snipes — a name which describes the breeding plumage

    fairly well. Adult griseus and scolopaceus are so much alike in color that

    one description will suffice for both. Many ornithologists regard them as

    geographical races of the same species.

            The long-billed dowitcher and short-billed dowitcher are rather plump,

    squat-looking birds about a foot long. At all seasons the rump and lower

    back are white. This white patch, as well as the white tipping of the

    464      |      Vol_IV-0521                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dowitcher

    secondaries and white barring of the tail, show plainly in flight. In the

    breeding plumage the crown, upper back, and scapulars are black, barred

    and mottled with rufous; and the face, sides of the necks, and under parts

    are cinnamon brown, more or less speckled and barred with dusky, especially

    on the sides and flanks. There is a dark line through the eye. In winter

    the upper parts are plain ashy gray (except for the white of the lower back

    and rump), the under parts light gray, indistinctly barred on the sides and

    flanks with brownish gray. The bill is olive at the base, [d?] usky at the tip.

    The legs and feet are dull olive green.

            In winter and during migration dowitchers are very gregarious. Feeding

    together on an open flat they probe the mud feverishly, moving their bills

    up and down sewing-machine fashion (Peterson). Frightened into flight, they

    wheel about excitedly, rise high in air, and presently return, settling with

    a chorus of low call notes. Often they wade in water up to their very bellies,

    feeding with their heads beneath the surface.

            The long-billed dowitcher is distinguishable from short-billed species

    in the field if its bill can be seen plainly. Pitelka’s measurements of

    almost 3,000 dowitcher specimens indicate that scolopaceus is not only

    consistently longer-billed than griseus , but that it is also longer-legged

    and shorter-winged, and that size-intermediates between the two forms do

    not exist. The newly hatched young of scolopaceus is very much darker

    above than of griseus , and the crown pattern of the two “downies” appears

    to be significantly different in specimens at hand. This should be checked

    through photographs of living birds, for patterns may be profoundly affected

    by the way in which specimens are prepared. Peterson states that the call

    note usually ascribed to scolopaceus is a thin keek , occasionally trebled,

    465      |      Vol_IV-0522                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dowitcher

    but that the call note of griseus is a “trebled t u ū - t u ū - t u ū ”. Both species

    have rather elaborate flight songs, and these may differ in some striking

    way not yet reported. Nelson, who observed displaying scolopaceus in

    northern Alaska, wrote that the males rose “15 or 20 yards from the ground

    where, hovering on quivering wings,” they gave a “lisping but energetic and

    frequently musical … peet-peet; pee-ter-whee-too; per-ter-whee-too; wee-too ;

    wee-too ;” Harlow described the flight song of griseus in Alberta as a “clear,

    liquid, musical contralto gurgle.” Nests of the two species apparently are

    very much alike. Griseus breeds in or near wooded country, but the nest itself

    is on the ground, usually in an open bog well away from the trees. Scolopaceus

    nests on the tundra. Scolopaceus nests found by Brandt in the Hooper Bay

    district of Alaska were scantily lined depressions in a “wet moss-covered

    meadow through which short sedge grew sparingly to a height of about six inches.”

    In both species the clutch numbers four, and the eggs are olive or olive buff,

    spotted and blotched with sepia and other shades of brown.

            Pitelka’s studies have revealed that the long-billed dowitcher prefers

    freshwater ponds the year round, but that the short-billed dowitcher frequents

    tidal mud flats and inlets in winter, exhibiting a liking for fresh water

    only during the breeding season. Of the two species, scolopaceus is the more

    northern. It breeds in western and northern Alaska and migrates along the

    Pacific coast, through interior Canada, and over the whole United States,

    becoming less common eastward. Griseus breeds in southern Alaska, across

    interior Canada, and probably in Ungava (see Aldrich, 1948, Auk 65: 285-286),

    and migrates on both coasts as well as in the Mississippi Valley and the

    Great Lakes region. In winter both species occur in the southern United States,

    but the southern limits of scolopaceus at that season are in Central America,

    466      |      Vol_IV-0523                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dowitcher and Dunlin

    whereas those of griseus are in Peru and Brazil.

            Pitelka’s map showing the distribution of scolopaceus in Alaska (p. 25)

    seems to indicate that the species breeds only near the coast, but Hook

    obtained breeding specimens at Anuktuvuk Pass, in the Endicott Range, far

    inland along a tributary to the Colville. Scolopaceus is believed to breed

    in northern Yukon and northwestern Mackenzie, and Macfarlane’s notes clearly

    indicate that some form of Limnodromus breeds along the Anderson River, but

    breeding specimens need to be collected in these areas. Probably both species

    breed northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in western North America.

            Three races of the short-billed dowitcher appear to be recognizable:

    griseus , which breeds, presumably, east of Hudson Bay; hendersoni of the

    interior; and caurinus of southern Alaska. There are no races of L. scolopaceus .

            See Limnodromus.

            Reference:

    Pitelka, Frank A. “Geographic Variation and the species problem in the

    shore-bird genus Limnodromus,” Calif. Univ. Publ.Zool . vol.50,

    pp. 1-108, 1950.

            391. Dunlin . A well known and widely distributed scolopacid shore bird.

    Erolia alpina , which frequents beaches and tidal flats in great flocks in

    winter and on migration. Usually it migrates along the seacoast and shores

    of larger lakes. The race which migrates regularly through Canada and the

    United States is widely known as the red-backed sandpiper.

            The dunlin is 7 to 9 inches long. The best field mark (whatever the

    season) is the rather long, heavy bill which is curved downward slightly

    467      |      Vol_IV-0524                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dunlin

    (but perceptibly) at the tip. The wing has a distinct, though not especially

    noticeable, white bar. In winter the bird is plain gray above ( without white

    rump ), and white below, with a grayish suffusion across the chest. In summer

    it is bright rufous on the crown and upper part of the body; white on the

    face, foreneck, and under parts; with fine black streaking on the breast

    and a bold black patch on the belly. Its bill, legs, and feet are black.

            Dunlins feed in compact flocks, dabbling or probing in the mud, often

    in shallow water. They mingle with other shore birds in winter and while

    migrating. The usual call note is a “nasal rasping cheezp ,” given as the

    bird flies up (Peterson). When flocks settle and begin feeding they twitter

    together. The full song, which accompanies display flights on the nesting

    ground, is a “rich purring trill” which may be considerably prolonged.

    Displaying males rise almost vertically to a height of 70 to 100 feet or

    more; trill while hovering or moving slowly up and down; and descend on

    rapidly vibrating or set wings, sometimes directly, sometimes in a wide circle,

    often repeating the whole performance before reaching the ground.

            The nest usually is not concealed by grass or shrubbery. It is close

    to water in marshy tundra rather than on a dry ridge. It is a cup in the

    moss, lined with small dry leaves. The eggs (4) are variable in ground color,

    usually green, handsomely marked with rich brown spots and blotches which

    appear to have been deposited spirally. Both the male and the female incubate.

    The incubation period is about 3 weeks. The downy chick is yellowish tawny

    and black above, finely dotted with buff on the crown and back; and white

    below, with a buffy band across the chest. With the postnatal molt the

    young bird assumes a distinct intermediate plumage, which may well be called

    the juvenal, the principal feature of which is the dusky spotting throughout

    468      |      Vol_IV-0525                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dunlin

    the under parts. This plumage is held for only a very short time, being

    molted usually before migration southward starts.

            Erolia alpina is holarctic in distribution, but in general it does

    not breed as far north as the sanderling ( Crocethia alba ) and knot ( Calidris

    canutus ). It probably breeds in Spitsbergen, but it is not common there.

    It breeds in eastern Greenland at least as far north as Germania Land

    (about lat. 77° N.), and it has been reported from Peary Land. It has

    not been reported from the north island of Novaya Zemlya. It is absent

    from the Franz Josef and New Siberian archipelagos, from the northern tip

    of the Taimyr Peninsula, and from almost the whole of the Arctic Archipelago.

            Six races currently are recognized. The nominate race breeds in

    Spitsbergen (probably), northern Scandinavia and Russia, the Kanin and

    Yamal peninsulas, Kolguev, Vaigach, and the south island of Novaya Zemlya.

    The southern limits of its breeding range are the upper Volga and lower Ob.

    It winters in the Mediterranean countries, southwestern Asia, and northeastern

    Africa.

            Erolia alpina arctica breeds locally in eastern Greenland from Germania

    Land south to Cape [D?]alton. Manniche found it almost as common as the

    sanderling in the vicinity to Stormkap. It may breed in Perry Land. Its

    winter range is not known.

            E. alpina schinzii breeds in the Angmagssalik district of southeastern

    Greenland; in Iceland, the Faeroes, Hebrides, and British Isles; and along

    most North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts. It winters from southern Ireland

    and southern England south to northern Africa.

            E. alpina centralis breeds from the Yenisei River eastward to the Yana,

    northward to latitude 75° 30′ N. on the Taimyr Peninsula, and southward

    469      |      Vol_IV-0526                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dunlin and Dusky Redshank

    to 69° on the Yenisei (Peters). Dunlins which winter in India and Assam

    are believed to belong to this race.

            E. alpina sakhalina breeds in eastern Siberia from the Yana and

    Indigirka rivers eastward to the Chukotsk Peninsula (southward as far as

    the Sea of Okhotsk) and winters along the east coast of Asia. Dunlins

    which breed on the Komandorskis probably belong to this race.

            E. alpina pacifica , which is called the red-backed sandpiper or

    red-backed dunlin, breeds across Arctic America from Hooper Bay, Nunivak

    Island, and northern Alaska, eastward to Boothia Peninsula, southern

    Baffin Island (Nettilling Lake), Southampton Island, and Churchill, Manitoba.

    It winters in North America — on the Pacific side from British Columbia to

    Lower California, and on the Atlantic side from Massachusetts to southern

    Florida, southern Texas, and (probably) Tamaulipas.

            Reference:

    Dewar, T. M. “Notes on the feeding habits of the Dunlin ( Tringa alpina ),”

    Zoologist , vol.13, pp.1-14, 1909.

            392. Dusky Redshank . A rather large Old World scolopacid shore bird,

    Tringa erythropus , sometimes called the spotted redshank. In summer it is

    dull black all over, spotted and crescented with white on the back and wings.

    In this plumage it is wholly unlike any other shore bird. In winter plumage,

    when it is gray above and white below, it is readily separable from the

    species which is perhaps closest to it (i.e., the redshank, Tringa totanus )

    by its more ashy appearance above; its relatively longer bill; the absence

    of conspicuous white on the secondaries; the noticeable white spotting and

    470      |      Vol_IV-0527                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dusky Redshank

    barring on the secondaries, tertials, and wing coverts; and the wholly

    different call note (a readily recognizable chu-eet ). The legs and feet

    are very dark brownish red, not at all like the red-orange legs and feet

    of the common redshank. The bill is dusky, with an area of dull red at

    the base of the lower mandible.

            On the breeding ground the chu-eet call note is a familiar sound.

    Alarm notes are: tuck - tuck - tuck , etc., and chit - chit - chit , etc. The

    “regular song” has been written as “tee-u, tee-u, tee-u (slow), tack-tack-tack

    (quick), tu, tu, tu (quick), tee-u-wee, tee-u-wee, tee-u-wee (quick)” Handbook

    of British Birds ).

            The species nests in openings in coniferous and deciduous woods and

    exhibits no marked preference for dry or wet ground. The nest is a depression

    in the moss or ground under low vegetation. The male is known to incubate,

    and the female probably does also, since females with well-defined brood

    patches have been collected. The species does not breed much beyond tree

    limit. Pleske mentions the bird, saying that “it may even nest … in those

    places where the subalpine zone nears the shores of the Arctic Ocean.” There

    are summer records for the Murman Coast and the mouth of the Yenisei. The

    species has been taken once on Kolguev. The northern limits of its demonstrated

    breeding range for northern Scandinavia (lat. 69° 30′ N.). It breeds across

    the whole of Eurasia, but apparently not north of Kemchatka in the east. In

    winter it moves southward to India, Burma, China, Japan, the Malay States,

    and Africa.

            Reference:

    Swanberg, Olof, and Christiansen, Arthur. “Studies of some birds rarely

    photographed. XIV. The Spotted Redshank,” British Birds

    vol. 41, pp.179, and plates 17-21, 1948.

    471      |      Vol_IV-0528                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ereunetes

            395. Ereunetes . The genus composed of two species of very small

    scolopacid shore birds — E. pusillus (semipalmated sandpiper) and

    E. mauri (western sandpiper) — both of which have a distinct web connecting

    the basal phalanges of the outer and middle and inner and middle front toes.

    No other character is really distinctive, the bill, tarsus, wing, tail

    (12 feathers), and color pattern being about “average.” The hind toe is

    well developed.

            Ereunetes breeds only in the Arctic and Subarctic and is definitely a

    bird of the tundra, though it does not range northward to very high latitudes.

    The comparatively little known western sandpiper breeds only along the Alaska

    coast from the delta of the Yukon and Nunivak Island to the Seward Peninsula,

    Point Barrow, and Camden Bay. In its southward migration it fans out tremen–

    dously, for it is found in numbers in late summer and early fall along the

    Atlantic (as well as the Pacific) coast of the United States; and it winters

    on both coasts of the Americas (from Washington and Carolina southward to

    the West Indies, Venezuela, and Peru) as well as in the interior. Its spring

    migration northward along the Pacific coast of North America is well known;

    but how the birds which have wintered along the Atlantic coast of North America

    move northward or northeastward is a question.

            The well-known semipalmated sandpiper breeds across Arctic America

    (including the whole of the area occupied by the western sandpiper). The

    southern limits of its breeding range are the mouth of the Yukon, the Perry

    River district south of Queen Maud Gulf, northeastern Manitoba (Churchill),

    the east coast of James Bay (For George), and Labrador (Ramah, Okak, and

    Seal Island). The northern limits appear to be Point Barrow, Alaska; northern

    Yukon, Mackenzie, and Keewatin; Victoria Island; Somerset Island (Fort Ross);

    472      |      Vol_IV-0529                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ereunetes and Erolia

    and southwestern Baffin Island. The species winters from Carolina and the

    Gulf of Mexico southward through the West Indies and Central America to

    Peru, southern Brazil, Paraquay, and (casually) Patagonia.

            396. A genus composed of 13 species of scolopacid shore birds, none of

    which is large, some of them being among the smallest birds of the order

    Charadriiformes. On the whole, Erolia’s characters are not very clearly

    defined. Some authors believe that the knots ( Calidris ), semipalmated and

    western sandpipers ( Ereunetes ), and the 13 species here considered as Erolia

    all belong in one genus. Ereunetes has extensive webbing between the basal

    phalanges of all three front toes. Calidris is large, square-tailed, short–

    legged, and rather chunky. None of the 13 species here set apart in Erolia

    has webbing between the middle and inner front toes; and none is as large,

    or as definitely square-tailed, as Calidris . All have somewhat wedge-shaped

    tails (i.e., the middle rectrices are definitely longer than the others);

    and all have slender, flexible, straight or slightly decurved bills. Some

    species — e.g., the dunlin ( E. alpina ) — have a pronounced dark spot on

    the under parts in the breeding plumage. One (curlew sandpiper, E. ferruginea )

    is dark reddish brown all over the head, neck, breast, and belly in summer.

    One (rufous-necked sandpiper, E. ruficollis ) is cinnamon-rufous on the

    throat and foreneck (instead of white, more or less streaked with gray) in

    summer. But all are gray above and white below, generally speaking, in winter .

    In some species there is a basal web between the middle and outer front toes.

    In all species there are 4 toes. Throughout the genus there is a tendency for

    the females to be larger than the males, and slightly longer billed.

            The genus is almost world-wide in distribution, though it breeds only

    473      |      Vol_IV-0530                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Erolia

    in northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Of the 13 species, five

    ( minuta , subminuta , temminckii , acuminate , and ferruginea ) are confined

    to the Old World; two ( minutilla and fuscicollis ) are confined to the New;

    but of the six found in both the New World and the Old ( ruficollis , bairdii ,

    melanotos , maritime , ptilocnemis and alpina ) only two — alpine (dunlin)

    and maritime (purple sandpiper) — breed widely throughout the holarctic

    region. The Baird’s sandpiper ( bairdii ) and pectoral sandpiper ( malanotos )

    breed widely in America but in only the eastern part of Eurasia. The rufous–

    necked sandpiper breeds chiefly in northeastern Siberia, but a few pairs

    breed regularly in extreme western Alaska (Seward Peninsula). The rock

    sandpiper ( E. ptilocnemis ) is a bird of the coasts of the Bering Sea. It

    is the least migratory species of the 13, some races being completely

    sedentary on certain island groups.

            Throughout the genus feeding and nesting habits are much the same

    Most species are highly gregarious in winter and during migration, inhabiting

    beaches, wet grasslands, and tidal flats at those seasons, but moving inland

    to nest. All species have special displays and display flights, the latter

    often accompanied by “songs.” The nest is invariably on the ground. The

    eggs are usually 4. The shape and color of these, as well as the pattern

    of the downy young, is much the same throughout the group.

            The genus ranges southward to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand,

    southern South America, the Falklands, and many islands of the South Pacific

    in winter.

            See Little Stint, Long-toed Stint, Least Sandpiper, Temminck’s Stint,

    Rufous-necked Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, Pe [ ?] toral

    Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Purple Sandpiper, Rock Sandpiper, Dunlin,

    and Curlew Sandpiper.



    475      |      Vol_IV-0531                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eskimo Curlew

            397. Eskimo Curlew . A middle-sized American shore bird, Numenius

    borealis , which was once very common but is now almost extinct. It was

    sometimes called the doe (or dough) bird. The Alaska Eskimos called it

    the tura tura , probably in imitation of one of its call notes. It is

    much like the Hudsonian curlew but decidedly smaller, being only 13 inches

    long, with bill 2 1/2 inches long. Field identification of the species is

    almost impossible ( 1 ) because the bills of young Hudsonian curlews continue

    to grow for some time, hence are short even in the middle of the birds’

    first winter; and ( 2 ) because under certain atmospheric conditions small

    birds look large or large ones small — in other words, dependable size–

    determination is possible only with handling the specimen. For differences

    between N. borealis and the other curlews, see Curlew.

            The Eskimo curlew’s principal breeding ground is believed to have been

    the coast of the North American mainland in the vicinity of the Anderson

    and Mackenzie rivers. Nelson’s reporting the species as commoner than the

    Hudsonian curlew about Norton Sound, Alaska, has led many to believe that

    it bred there too. It may have nested along the Arctic Coast of Alaska,

    for Murdoch found it an “irregular summer visitor” at Point Barrow in 1882–

    1883. McLenegan saw what he believed to be Eskimo ourlews on the Kobuk

    and Noatak rivers, respectively, in 1884 and 1885, though he may possibly

    have confused the birds with Hudsonian curlews. All this clearly points to

    a western breeding area; but, as Taverner has pointed out, the species almost

    certainly nested in the East also, probably on both sides of Hudson Bay.

    Kumlieu recorded it once in Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island. It was well

    known as a transient on the Labrador. A specimen was taken as recently as

    476      |      Vol_IV-0532                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eskimo Curlew and Eurhynorhynchus

    August, 1932, at Battle Harbor, on that coast. Ornithologists agree that

    the fall migrations of the birds from their nesting grounds took them in

    a southeasterly direction across southern Labrador; and that in their return

    from the south they moved up the Mississippi Valley. The wintering ground

    was southern South America (Chile and the plains of Argentina). Scattered

    records for Greenland, Iceland, the Pribilogs, the Falklands, and the British

    Isles indicate that the bird wandered widely, as many shore birds do. Nelson’s

    sight record (4 flying birds) for the Chukotsk Peninsula, northeastern Siberia,

    is hardly acceptable, however.

            Macfarlane found the Eskimo curlew breeding abundantly in the open

    country east of Fort Anderson, Mackenzie. Between 1862 and 1866 he collected

    30-some sets of eggs there. The birds inhabited the open tundra, not the

    wooded tracts. The nests were difficult to find, for the birds customarily

    left the eggs the instant they saw a man approaching in the distance. The

    eggs numbered 3 or 4, and were olive brown irregularly spotted and blotched

    with dark brown (Bent). The downy young apparently has never been photographed,

    drawn from life, collected, or described.

            399. Eurynorhynchus . The monotypic genus to which the small but remark–

    able spoon-billed sandpiper ( E. pygmeus ) belongs. Whatever other characters

    it may possess, this genus may be recognized instantly from its excessively

    widened, or spatulate, bill tip. So far as is known, Eurynorhynchus breeds

    only on the Chukotsk Peninsula, in extreme northeastern Siberia. It migrates

    through Sakhalin, the Kurils, Korea, and Japan, and winters in eastern Assam,

    Burms, and southeastern China.

            See Spoon-billed Sandpiper.



    477      |      Vol_IV-0533                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Knot

            402. Great Knot . A little-known Old World scolopacid shore bird,

    Calidris tenuirostris , which is sometimes called the Asiatic knot or

    Japanese knot. It is larger than its congener, the knot or robin snipe

    ( Caldris canutus ), being about 11 inches long, with bill almost 1 3/4

    inches long. In breeding plumage it is white below (rather than red–

    breasted, as canutus is), thickly spotted with brownish black on the

    foreneck, breast, sides, and flanks; brownish black, streaked with light

    gray, on the crown, nape, and hind neck; gray on the wings and tail; and

    black, boldly marked with yellowish rufous and buffy white on the scapulars

    and back. In winter it is similar, but less boldly marked both above and

    below.

            The species has been observed infrequently in summer. The first nest

    known to science was found June 19, 1917, by Johan Koren near the mouth of

    the Kolyma River, in northeastern Siberia, on a “barren mountain ridge” at

    1,500 feet elevation. The 4 eggs, which lay in “a slight depression in

    short reindeer moss,” were grayish yellow in ground color, uniformly

    speckled with reddish brown and lila c , with a distinct wreath or cap of

    reddish brown at the large end. Crossing this wreath were “a few twisted

    lines of tar-brown colour” (Schaanning, Ibis, 1929, 38-39).

            Nothing is known as to the length of the incubation period, but

    Portenko, who encountered the species in the summer of 1932 “among broken

    rocks and spots of tundra” in the Gorelovy Mountains northeast of Markovo,

    along the upper Anadyr River, found two broods of downy young. Each brood

    was being cared for by one parent only — the male. Describing the agitation

    of one of these males, he writes: “Sometimes it ran up quite closely,

    plaintively piping and feigning and injury…; sometimes it was flying

    478      |      Vol_IV-0534                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Knot and Great Snipe

    around with vibrating wings and emitting a high warble” (1933, Arctic ,

    1: 80). The downy young were grayish white below and “a motley” of grayish

    white, tawny, and blackish brown above. A photograph and color plate

    clearly show the beautiful sprinkling of white dots over the dark parts

    of the crown, back, and sides of the rump.

            Portenko believes that the great knot breeds colely in the mountains

    of northeastern Siberia — eastward from Verkhoyansk and Yakutsk and north–

    eastward from the mouth of the Uda River. The species has been recorded in

    migration at these three places, and also in Kamchatka, and Kurils, China,

    and Japan; on the southern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk; along the lower Amur;

    in India; and on the Andamans, the Laccadives, and most islands of the Malay

    Archipelago. It winters in the Malay Archipelago, the Moluccas, Java,

    New Guinea, and Australia. It has been recorded once in North America--

    a specimen collected May 28, 1922, on a bench at Wales Mountain, near Cape

    Prince of Wales, western Alaska (Dailey, 1924. Condor 26: 195).

    See Calidris.

            403. Great Snipe . A middle-sized scolopacid shore bird, Capella media ,

    which breeds in northern parts of Europe and extreme western Asia; migrates

    through southern Europe and southwestern Asia; and “winters in Africa, south

    of the Sahara, mainly in the east” (Peters). It is sometimes called the

    double snipe. It is very much like the common snipe ( Capella gallinago )

    in color and proportions but is a little larger (11 inches long, with bill

    2 1/2 inches long); the markings of the under parts are more distinct

    (especially in first winter plumage); the greater and median wing coverts

    are distinctly tipped with white; the outermost “developed” primary is m i o ttled

    479      |      Vol_IV-0535                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Snipe

    with brownish white on the outer web rather than plain dark brown; and

    the tail is quite different. The rectrices number 16 or 18. The outer

    three pairs are largely white, with olive brown bases and widely separated

    bars of olive brown on the outer webs. As the bird flies up the white of

    the outer feathers and tip (on all but the middle feathers) shows rather

    plainly. The bill is dusky, with yellowish base. The legs and feet are

    f g rayish green.

            The great snipe is usually solitary. It inhabits drier places than

    those frequented by the common snipe, and has a comparatively slow, direct

    flight. As it flies up it utters a “monosyllabic gutteral grunt.” In its

    breeding haunts the males gather and display before the females. This

    [ ?] behavior suggests that of some of the polygamous galliform birds

    (e.g., the capercaillie, Tetrao urogallus ). The males have a distinctive

    twittering song which they give in chorus on the ground at display places.

    Apparently there is no regular display flight of any sort, though when

    the males fly to the display places of beating of their wings produces

    a muffled whuff , whuff , as if a special wing beat were involved; and

    Seebohm, reporting on birds observed on the Kureika River, describes short

    flights which accompany some of the courtship displays (1901. Birds of

    Siberia , P. 350).

            The nest is usually in a thickly upgrown marsh or “broken country

    with scattered birch trees” (Meinertzhagen). The female is believed to

    do all the incubating. The incubation period is probably about 3 weeks

    and further observation will probably show that the female alone cares

    for the brood. The young are like those of the common snipe, but are

    yellowish or cinnamon buff in general tone; there are no black patches

    480      |      Vol_IV-0536                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Snipe and Great Sandpiper

    On the chin and throat; and the streaks on the face are less distinct.

            The great snipe breeds northward in Norway at least to latitude 64° 45' N.,

    to 68° in Sweden, to 64° in Finland, and to 67° 30' in Russia ( Handbook of

    British Birds ). It ranges eastward only to the Yenisei, but along this

    river it must breed considerably to the northward of the Arctic Circle

    for Miss Haviland encountered it at Krestova, north of Dudinsk, at approxi–

    mately 70° and Popham says that its range “extends to the most northern

    islands of the Brekhoffski group (lat. 71° N.).” The southern limits of

    its breeding range are Denmark, Poland, Bessarabia, the Kirghiz Steppe,

    and Altai.

            404. Green Sandpiper . A small scolopacid shore bird, Tringa ochropus ,

    the only species of the genus Tringa found in both the old and New Worlds.

    The races inhabiting the New World are almost universally known as solitary

    sandpipers, there being a widespread belief that the green sandpiper and

    solitary sandpiper are distinct. They are, however, essentially the same.

    Both customarily lay their eggs above ground in old nests of other birds.

    Both have sharply whistled call notes which they utter as they fly up, and

    yammering flight song which they perform above the nest territory. Both

    “bob” or teeter in the same way while feeding — a jerky lowering of the

    head and lifting of the tail which is something like that of the common

    sandpiper and spotted sandpiper (genus Actitis ), but not nearly so continuous.

    Both have the habit of flying up from a woodland pool, rising high in air,

    and departing for a distant feeding spot. Both are more or less “solitary”

    (i.e., given to feeding separately or in scattered flocks). The only

    difference is that in Old World birds the rump is white, while in New World

    481      |      Vol_IV-0537                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Green Sandpiper

    birds the rump is dark — precisely the same sort of difference obtaining

    between the conspecific whimbrels ( Numenius phaeopus ) of Europe, Asia,

    and North America.

            Tringa ochropus is about 9 inches long and is dark gray (speckled

    with white) above, except for the tail, which is white, barred with black

    (and the rump, which is white in Old World birds); and white throughout

    the under parts except for the fine gray streaking of the foreneck and

    breast. The under wing coverts are dark, with white flecking, the axillary

    feathers black-and-white-barred. The legs and feet are green, sometimes

    with a strongly yellowish cast. The usual call note is a clear, sharply

    whistled peet-weet or peet, weet-weet given as the bird s flies up. The

    spring flight song, which is performed high in air above the nesting ground,

    might almost be described as prolonged yodeling . At Churchill, Manitoba,

    where I witnessed the phenomenon day after day, I was much impressed with

    its long duration. Lack has syllabified the flight song of the Old World

    bird as Ki-too-wi-it , ki-too-wi-it , etc.

            The species usually lays its eggs in the nests of various passeriform

    birds. In the Old World it has been known to nest also “on accumulations of

    pine needles among branches, and on stumps or among fallen trees: perhaps

    exceptionally on the ground.” So far as I know, no one has found a ground

    nest in North America, though I have been told of a bird which laid its

    eggs in the nest of a red-winged blackbird ( Agelaius phoeniceus ) among

    cattails at the water’s edge.

            Nowhere is Tringa ochropus a tundra bird. The northern limits of its

    breeding range are those of the forest. It ranges northward to the Arctic

    Circle in Scandinavia; almost that far in Finland; to somewhat lower latitudes

    482      |      Vol_IV-0538                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Green Sandpiper

    across Siberia eastward to the Sea of Okhotsk; beyond the Circle in the

    Kotzebue Sound district of northwestern Alaska (probably also along the

    upper Yukon); and among the forests along the lower Mackenzie River. In

    eastern North America it does not range nearly so far north. It is common

    back away in the forest near the mouth of the Churchill River. The southern

    limits of its breeding range are ill-defined. In Eurasia they are believed

    to be northern Germany, Switzerland (occasionally), the Caucasus, Turkestan,

    and northwestern Mongolia. In the New World the species has been seen in

    summer in the northern United States, but the only nests which have been

    found have been north of the U.S. Border. The nominate race breeds in

    Eurasia. Two races breed in North America — Cinnamonea of Alaska, northern

    Mackenzie, northwestern British Columbia, and northeastern Manitoba

    (Churchill); and solitaria , which occupies a rather narrow transcontinental

    belt just south of the range of cinnamomea. The winter range of the

    species-as-a-whole does not overlap the breeding range, generally speaking,

    its southern limits being in southern Asia, the Philippines, Africa, the

    West Indies, and South America. T. ochropus solitaria has been reported

    once from Greenland.

            See Tringa .

            Reference:

    Stansell, Sidney S.S. “Two interesting photographs from Alberta [one showing

    young Solitary Sandpipers in a Robin’s nest],” Bird Lore vol. 11,

    pp. 108-109, 1909.

    483      |      Vol_IV-0539                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Greenshank

            405. Greenshank . A rather large scolopacid shore bird, Tringa

    nebularia , of the Old World. It resembles the redshank ( Tringa totanus )

    but is larger, taller, and grayer; has dark, rather than white, secondaries;

    has a noticeably upturned bill; and is almost pure white throughout the

    lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts. The tail, too, is largely white,

    but all the rectrices and longer upper tail coverts have traces of dusky

    barring. The legs and feet are pale olive green.

            The greenshank is about a foot long. It is, generally speaking, gray

    with white lower back, rump, tail, and under parts. The crown, hind neck,

    back, scapular, and wing feathers are margined with whitish gray and the

    scapulars and tertials are spotted along the edges with black. The foreneck

    and upper breast are streaked with gray. In summer the whole bird is more

    sharply black and white, the streaking of the foreneck, chest, and sides

    being much more bold, and the black element in the back and scapular plumage

    much more pronounced.

            When frightened from its feeding ground, the greenshank calls tew , tew , tew .

    This cry, which is often given in alarm or protest on the breeding ground, is

    said to be less musical than the redshank’s too , hoo , hoo . Another alarm note

    of the greenshank is a chip , chip , chip , chip . The display flight is accom–

    panied by a long continuing song which has been written “rü-tü, rü-tü, rü-tü ---”

    ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            The species’ habitat in northern Eurasia is open swamps and bogs in the

    coniferous woodland, and the tundra just beyond tree limit. The nest is on

    the ground, often near a rock or some other object which sticks up noticeably.

    The northern limits of the breeding range are northern Scandinavia, Finland,

    Russia, Siberia, and Kamchatka; the southern limits are, roughly, latitude 55° N.

    484      |      Vol_IV-0540                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Greenshank and Hudsonian Godwit

    in the west, 54° in the east. The winter range is from Japan, Formosa,

    southern Asia, and the Mediterranean countries southward to the Philippines,

    Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The species has never been recorded

    on any of the arctic islands, apparently.

            Reference:

    Gilroy, Norman. “Field notes on observations on the Greenshank,” British

    Birds     vol. 16, pp.129-39, 1922.

            407. Hudsonian Godwit . A rather large scolopacid shore bird, Limosa

    haemastica , which breeds locally on the barren grounds of continental North

    America from the Anderson River eastward to Hudson Bay (and probably South–

    ampton Island) and winters on both coasts of southern South America and in

    the Falkland Islands. Its fall migration southward in North America is

    chiefly along the Atlantic coast. On its return in spring it moves north–

    ward through the interior. McLenegan reported it as common in the fall

    along the Kobuk River and in Kotzebue Sound, western Alaska, but Bailey

    has found only two specimens in American museums from the arctic slope of

    Alaska, so the species probably does not breed there. Kumlien saw two

    godwits in Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island, in September, 1877. While he

    could not be sure of the species, they probably were haemastica. Haemastica

    has not, apparently, been collected in the Arctic Archipelago except on

    Southampton Island.

            The Hudsonian godwit is 14 to 16 inches long, the slightly upturned

    bill being 3 to 3 1/2 inches long. In winter it is gray on the crown, hind

    neck and upper part of the body, very pale gray below. In summer it is buffy

    485      |      Vol_IV-0541                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hudsonian Godwit

    on the face and foreneck; brown, streaked with black, on the crown, hind

    neck and upper part of the body; and deep rich, reddish brown (barred with

    black) on the breast, belly, and under tail coverts. At all seasons the

    bold white upper tail coverts, white basal part of the outer rectrices,

    and dark gray under wing coverts are distinctive. In summer the bill is

    orange-yellow at the base and black at the tip; in winter it is less bright.

    The eyes are dark brown, the legs and feet gray.

            In winter and on migration the Hudsonian godwit is usually silent,

    though as it flies up it sometimes gives a low qua qua (Wetmore). At

    Churchill, Manitoba, before the birds had nests I heard them give a brief

    too-it . Above what must have been their nest territories the birds flew

    back and forth repeating a call note which reminded me somewhat [ ?] of the

    grunting of the stilt sandpiper ( Micropalama himantopus ) in that it was not

    whistled or musical. Hazel Ellis, writing of birds which alighted on treetops

    to scold her while she was at the nest, says that they gave a “rather weak

    robinlike chirrup with a sandpiper quality.” After the eggs hatched the

    parents became very aggressive, diving at her as they uttered “almost a

    hiss.”

            The eggs (4 as a rule) are dark olive buff rather obscurely marked with

    darker spots chiefly about the larger end. The downy young are buffy on the

    face and under parts, with a deep brown crownpatch which runs down each

    side of the nape, and irregular dark brown markings on the back and wings.

            409. Jack Snipe. An interesting Old World snipe, Lymnocryptes minimus,

    which in outward appearance is a small edition of the common snipe ( Capella

    gallinago ), but which is actually very different. It never has more than

    486      |      Vol_IV-0542                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Jack Snipe

    12 tail feathers, while Capella gallinago has 12 to 18. It is only about

    7 1/2 inches long, with a bill 1 1/2 inches long. Its secondaries are

    quite sharply pointed — not attenuate for the full length, but “whittled

    off” abruptly at the tips. Its color pattern is much like that of the

    common snipe, but the median light line in the crown is very indistinct;

    the white tipping of the secondaries shows plainly in flight; the tail is

    brown without any subterminal band or noticeable pattern; and the dark parts

    of the scapulars, back feathers, and tertials reflect greenish and violet

    lights.

            The little bird is said to be reluctant to fly from the grass and

    sometimes is almost stepped on before it takes wing. It rises silently,

    does not fly off so rapidly or erratically as the common snipe, and usually

    pitches soon. Almost never does it flush in a group or flock. It is,

    apparently, rather rail-like in some ways. Probably it feeds a great deal

    at night and sleeps by day. Its display note, which it gives both from the

    ground and from the air, is a muffled lok-toggi , lok-toggi , lok-toggi , like

    the distant sound of a horse cantering on hard, hollow ground ( Handbook of

    British Birds.

            The nest is usually in a wettish place among grass, sedge, cottongrass,

    low willows, or dwarf birches. It is deep and lined with birch or curlewberry

    leaves. Only the female incubates the eggs, which are usually 4. The incuba–

    tion period is 24 days. A nest photographed by Popham was in rather deep grass.

            Note: The Wilson’s snipe of North America (a geographical race of the

    common snipe) is frequently referred to as the jack snipe. For details of the

    true jack snipe’s distribution, see Lymnocryptes.

            Reference:

    Popham, H. L. “nest of Jack Snipe,” British Birds vol. 8, p.149, 1914.

    487      |      Vol_IV-0543                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Knot

            410. Knot . A stocky, middle-sized shore bird, Calidris canutus ,

    sometimes called the robin snipe because of the ruddy under parts of its

    breeding plumage. It is about 10 inches long, with bill 1 1/4 inches

    long. In winter it is ashy gray above and white below, the best field

    marks at that season being the white upper tail coverts and not very con–

    spicuous white wing bar. (The tail doverts are barred and spotted with

    black, but at a distance they appear to be white.) The back and scapular

    feathers are beautifully patterned, each having a narrow edging of white

    or pale buff and a fine dark gray line neatly bordering this light edging.

    In summer the upper parts are gray (the back and scapular feathers black

    at the base, irregularly spotted with buff), and the under parts, including

    the whole of the face, are light rufous except for the lower belly and under

    tail coverts, which are white, irregularly marked with dusky.

            In winter and during migrations knots usually go about in closeknit

    flocks, sometimes literally hundreds or thousands of them together. In

    migrating they usually keep to the outer seacoasts, but they occasionally

    move through the interior with other shore birds. As they feed they walk

    rather slowly, all facing the same direction, dabbing at the mud or sand

    two or three times from a given position, then taking a step or two forward.

    Their usual call note, which probably is imitated by the Eskimo name tullik ,

    is among the lowest and gentlest of shore bird cries. The mingled calls of

    a flock become a shrill twitter. The true song, which is given on the

    nesting ground, is said to be [ ?] melodious and fluty. Birula has written

    it down as kou-hi , kou-hi , kou-hi repeated three or four times and ending

    with a deeper, louder kooit , kooit. The note of alarm or protest at the

    nest is a loud, sharp quee, quee, quee . Several males give their flight songs

    488      |      Vol_IV-0544                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Knot

    together. The birds rise to a great height, circle widely on quivering

    wings, glide slowly downward with stiff-set wings and widespread tail,

    rise again, and finally descend to earth with set wings bent forward

    strongly.

            The nest is a depression in the ground usually on a high slope or dry

    hilltop at considerable distance from the feeding ground. It is well

    lined with lichens which are hollow-stemmed, hence insulative. The eggs,

    which usually are 4, are light olive-buff in ground color, marked all over

    with smallish spots and streaks of various shades of brown and gray. When

    first laid they are strongly green in tone, but this color fades. The male

    and female both incubate. Birula estimates the incubation period at 20 to

    25 days. The downy young is rich brown above, white below, beautifully

    marked with dark brown and white on the fact and finely spotted with silvery

    white on the crown, back, and wings.

            The knot is holarctic in breeding distribution, and it ranges northward

    in summer to very high latitudes. It is known to breed in Spitsbergen, the

    Taimyr Peninsula, the New Siberian Archipelago, northern Alaska (Point Barrow),

    northern Greenland, and northern Ellesmere Island. Is probably breeds

    throughout the Arctic Archipelago from southeastern Victoria Island, Boothia

    Peninsula, and Melville Peninsula (Igloolik) northward. It has not, apparently,

    been found breeding along the east coast of Baffin Island. On Southampton

    Island it has been encountered only as a transient, but it may breed at the

    north end, in the Duke of York Bay region. It has been captured on Mansel

    Island in mid-June.

            Two races of Calidris canutus are recognized by Conover, who has

    recently reviewed the species (1943. Condor 45: 226-228). One of these,

    489      |      Vol_IV-0545                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Knot

    the so-called American knot, C. canutus rufus , breeds in the Arctic

    Archipelago (southward to Victoria Island and Melville Peninsula),

    migrates southward through North America east of the Rocky Mountains,

    and “winters in Central and South America (probably both coasts) south

    to Tierra del Fuego and occasionally on the south Atlantic and gulf coasts

    of the United States.” The nominate race, which is sometimes referred to

    as the Old World knot, breeds in northwestern Greenland (Parker Snow Bay),

    Spitsbergen, the Taimyr Peninsula, the New Siberian Archipelago (including

    Great Liakhov, Little Liakhov and Kotelnyi), Wrangel Island, and northern

    Alaska (Point Barrow); migrates through Europe and Asia and along the

    Pacific coast of North American; and winters in England, Africa, Australia,

    New Zealand, and probably on the Pacific coast of South America.

            Calidris canutus does not breed on Iceland, the Franz Josef Archipelago,

    Novaya Zemlya, Kolguev, Vaigach, or the arctic coast of Europe. It has

    been reported once from Jan Mayen. It has been encountered in northern–

    most Greenland (Peary Land), but has not actually been found nesting

    there.

            See Calidris .

            References:

    1. Ekblaw, W.E. “Finding the nest of the Knot,” Wilson Bull. vol.30,

    pp.97-100. 1918. 2. MacMillan, D. B. Four Years in the White North . N.Y., Harper, 1918.

    [Refers to breeding of the Knot.]

    490      |      Vol_IV-0546                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Least Sandpiper.

            411. Least Sandpiper . A very small New World scolopacid shore bird,

    Erolia minutilla, known among British ornithologists as the American stint.

    It is about 5 to 6 inches long and is, like most other species of the genus

    Erolia , dark above and white below, with fine streaking on the foreneck and

    upper breast. Its upper parts are strongly brown in tone save at the height

    of the breeding season when, as a result of wear, the back and scapulars are

    largely black. Its legs and feet are yellowish green. Its bill is slender

    and slightly decurved. In these several respects it differs from the semi–

    palmated sandpiper ( Ereunetes pusillus ), which is comparatively gray above

    (especially adults in winter); has black legs and feet; and is rather heavy–

    and straight-billed. The least sandpiper is much like Baird’s sandpiper

    ( Erolia bairdii ) in general appearance, but that species is definitely

    larger, more buffy on the foreneck and chest, and clay-color rather than

    rufous in tone on the upper parts.

            The least sandpiper is less gregarious than some of the larger shore

    birds. In winter and on migration it often goes about in small bands, feed–

    ing on narrow mud flats or restricted stretches of open shore on which the

    great flocks of dowitchers ( Limnodromus ) and dunlins ( Erolis alpina ) do not

    deign to alight. Its usual call note is a shrill creep . It is confiding,

    and often allows a man to approach close enough to see the colors of the

    feet and plumage clearly. On its breeding ground it performs a display

    flight which is much like that of the semipalmated sandpiper. With wings

    vibrating rapidly it trills its simple but lively song.

            The nest is a cup in the moss, lined (often rather neatly) with tiny

    leaves. The eggs (usually 4) are grayish green, finely spotted and blotched

    with brown. Probably both the male and female incubate, the specimens

    491      |      Vol_IV-0547                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Least Sandpiper

    collected at nests have usually been males. The downy chick is deep, rich

    mahogany above, buff on the throat and upper breast, and white on the belly,

    beautifully marked with black and dotted with white on the crown and upper

    part of the body.

            The least sandpiper breeds in Alaska, Mackenzie, and Yukon, and also

    from northeastern Manitoba (Churchill) eastward and southeastward to Ungava

    Bay, the Labrador coast, Anticosti, and Magdalens, and Newfoundland.

    Gavin (1947. Wilson Bulletin 59: 201) did not find it in the Perry River

    district south of Queen Maud Gulf. The Catalog of Birds’ Eggs in the British

    Museum lists three eggs taken at Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, but this

    record and records for Boothia Peninsula and Cape Fullerton are questionable.

    In general the species is not so northward ranging as the semipalmated sand–

    piper ( Ereunetes pusillus ), with which it has frequently been confused. At

    Churchill, Manitoba, where the two species bred side by side in the summer

    of 1931, I failed to note any difference in their breeding habitat requirements.

            In Alaska the least sandpiper breeds northward to Point Barrow and

    southward to the Alaska Peninsula and Yakutat Bay. In Mackenzie and Yukon

    it breeds along the arctic coast and also far southward in the interior.

    Apparently it has not even been reported from any island of the Arctic

    Archipelago aside from Victoria and Baffin. It may well breed along the west

    coast of Hudson Bay at Points lying somewhat to the northward to Churchill.

    On the Labrador it breeds northward at least as far as Nain. Although it

    is not, in the usual sense of the phrase, a forest bird, the northern [ ?]

    limits of its breeding range seem to coincide to a considerable extent with

    the tree limit. The southernmost point at which it has been found breeding

    is Sable Island, off the coast of [ ?] Nova Scotia.



    492      |      Vol_IV-0548                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Least Sandpiper and Lesser Yellowlegs

            The least sandpiper winters from southern California, Texas, and

    North Carolina south through Mexico, Central America, the West Indies,

    and South America to Peru, eastern Brazil, and Galapagos Islands (Peters).

            Reference:

    Moore, R. T. “The Least Sandpiper during the nesting season in the Magdalen

    Islands ( Pisobia minutilla ), Auk , vol. 29, pp. 210-23, 1912.

            413. Lesser Yellowlegs . A middle-sized New World scolopacid shore bird,

    Tringa flavipes , known in Britain as the yellowshank. It is about 10 inches

    long; is decidedly slender and lanky; and has long, bright yellow legs and

    feet. It is dark grayish brown above and white below, generally speaking;

    the upper parts are spotted with white or light gray, and the foreneck and

    breast are rather finely streaked or otherwise marked with dusky. As the

    bird flies, it appears to be white-tailed, though actually the rectrices are

    barred with dusky. The wings have no striking markings which are revealed in

    flight. The plumage is much more clearly black and white in summer than in

    winter. By the middle of the breeding season the light edgings of the scapulars

    and tertials have so worn away that the feathers are curiously notched or

    serrate along both edges. Some birds in this worn plumage are almost black–

    backed.

            The lesser yellowlegs’ usual call note is a yelped out tewk, tewk .

    According to those who have heard both species, this note is very much like

    that of the greenshank ( Tringa nebularia ). The lesster yellowlegs has many

    other call notes, but its most memorable one is the many-times-repeated

    pillowy , pillowy , pillowy , pillowy , which is sung by the birds (sometimes

    493      |      Vol_IV-0549                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lesser Yellowlegs

    both the male and female together) as they circle over the nesting ground.

    When a man nears their nest, the birds become incredibly excited and noisy,

    and their alarm visibly rouses and disturbs the other birds of the vicinity.

    The favorite nesting ground is sometimes near a fallen tree and usually is

    not far from a pool. The eggs are handsomely blotched with purplish brown,

    chestnut, and gray. The scolding parent birds often alight on the tips of

    dead trees.

            Tringa flavipes breeds only in northern North America. It ranges from

    northern Alaska, northern Mackenzie, northern Manitoba, and northern Quebec

    southward to northern British Columbia, central Alberta, southern Manitoba,

    and west central Quebec. It does not breed on the tundra, and is nowhere

    found beyond tree limit. In northern Quebec, where the forest is scattered,

    its summertime distribution must be very spotty. It ranges northward to the

    Arctic Circle and beyond only in Alaska (Kotzebue Sound, the Alatna River,

    and the upper Yukon) and northern Mackenzie (Lower Mackenzie valley). It

    winters in southern South America, south as far as the Strait of Magellan.

    In North America it migrates principally to the east of the Rocky Mountains.

    It has been recorded in Greenland, the Pribilofs, and Great Britain.

            The much larger greater yellowlegs or greater yellowshank ( Tringa

    melanoleuca ), is a less northern New World species. It has been reported

    from Baffin Island and northern Greenland.

            Reference:

    Henderson, A. D. “Nesting habits of the Lesser Yellowlegs (Totanus flavipes,”

    Ool[o?]gists Record vol. 8, pp. 13-15, 1927.

    494      |      Vol_IV-0550                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Limicola

            414. Limicola . The monotypic genus to which the broad-billed sand–

    piper ( L. falcinellus ) belongs. Limicola is much like Erolia except for

    the bill, which is strongly flattened from the nostrils to the tip; slightly

    swollen and wrinkled at the base; hard at the tip, but flexible otherwise;

    and straight (or slightly upturned) from the hostrils to the tip, but

    decurved at the tip proper. The nostrils are short and very near the base

    of the bill. The tail is almost square, though the middle 2 feathers are

    a little longer than the rest. There are 4 toes, the hind one being well

    developed. A few specimens which I have handled have not been conspicuously

    broad-billed; these are, possibly, young birds.

            Limicola is an Old World form. It ranges northward to the Arctic Circle

    and beyond in Norway, Finland, Russia (probably), and Siberia (possibly).

    It is not an inhabitant of the tundra, however, It is about 6 1/2 inches

    long. In breeding plumage the pattern of the head, neck, and upper part of

    the body is distinctly snipelike (i.e., as in the genus Capella ). In winter

    plumage it is plain gray above. Its lower breast, belly, and under tail

    coverts are white at all seasons.

            Along the north edge of its range it breeds at sea level, or slightly

    above; but farther south it inhabits boggy places in the mountains. Its

    nest is in a tussock of grass just above water level. The eggs (4) are

    whitish in ground color, but usually so heavily spotted as to be solid

    brown in appearance. Both sexes are said to incubate. The color pattern

    of the downy young is much like that of Erolia .

            Further information as to the northern limits of this birds ’ range is

    [ ?] needed. Popham did not find it at Yeniseisk or farther north along

    the Yenisei. In Norway it breeds northward to Östland and eastern Fin k [m?] ark;

    495      |      Vol_IV-0551                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Limicola

    but apparently it does not range to very high latitudes anywhere in Siberia.

    Two races are recognized — falcinellus of northern Europe and wooded parts

    of northwestern Asia; and sibirica , which is believed to breed in northeastern

    Siberia, possibly northward to tree limit. The southern limits of the

    winter range are the Mediterranean, India, the Malay Archipelago, and

    Australia.

            415. Limnodromus . A genus composed of two species of New World scolo–

    pacid shore birds known as dowitchers or red-breasted snipes. They are like

    the true snipes of the genus Capella in that they are long-billed, but during

    migration the feed in the open in flocks. The tip of the bill is somewhat

    broadened and hard, while the basal part is soft. The wings are long and

    pointed. The middle two tail feathers are slightly longer than the rest.

    The tarsus, which is soutellate both in front and behind, is much shorter

    than the bill. The hind toe is well developed. The three front toes are

    joined by basal webs, that between the middle and outer toes being longer

    than that between the middle and inner toes. As in Capella , the ear is

    almost directly below the eye. The color pattern of the downy young and

    shape and color of the eggs are similar to those of Capella .

            There is a difference of opinion as to whether the genus Limondromus

    inhabits both the New World and the Old. The bird known as the snipe-billed

    godwit ( Pseudoscolopax semipalmatus ), which breeds in central Asia well south

    of the Arctic, and which many taxonomists currently place in Limnodromus ,

    probably is not a dowitcher at all, though its bill admittedly is snipelike

    and the webs joining the bases of its front toes are only a little more

    extensive than in the dowitchers. It is, however, a large bird with a

    general appearance so suggestive of the bar-tailed godwit ( Limosa lapponica )

    496      |      Vol_IV-0552                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Limnodromus

    that it has repeatedly been misidentified as that bird. Since its hind toe

    is proportionately longer than that of Limnodromus or Limosa , and since

    its upper mandible fits down into the troughlike lower mandible in a way

    which may possibly be unique among shore birds, it probably belongs in a

    genus by itself, as Blyth long ago suggested.

            The two species of Limnodromus are scolopaceus (long-billed dowitcher)

    and griseus . The latter species has been called the eastern dowitcher, but

    short-billed dowitcher is hereby suggested. The long-billed dowitcher breeds

    in western and northern Alaska and winters from the southern United States to

    Central America and the West Indies, migrating principally along the Pacific

    coast and in the Mississippi Valley but also, in limited numbers though

    regularly, along the Atlantic coast. The short-billed dowitcher breeds

    across the continent from southern Alaska to the Labrador Peninsula, winters

    from the southern United States southward to Peru and Polivia, and migrates

    along both coast and in the interior. The genus reaches its northernmost

    limits in northern Alaska, northern Yukon, and northwestern Mackenzie. Birds

    which breed in northern Alaska are all scolopaceus , but those of northern

    Yukon and the lower Mackenzie Valley may be griseus. Scolopaceus breeds

    on the open tundra, griseus in openings among the woods.

            The two species are very much alike in color when adult, but the downy

    young of scolopaceus is much darker than that of griseus .

            See Dowitcher.



    497      |      Vol_IV-0553                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Limosa

            416. Limosa. A genus of rather large scolopacid shore birds commonly

    known as godwits. The bill is very long, rather slender, more or less up–

    titled or recurved, and slightly blunt or swollen at the tip, the upper

    mandible being a trifle longer than the lower. The neck is rather long.

    The win g s are long and pointed, the outermost of the “developed” primaries being

    the longest. The tail is square or very slightly double-forked. The legs

    are long, the bare [ ?] portion of the tibial part being longer than the

    middle toe. The tarsus usually is soutellate, but in L. lapponica (bar-tailed

    godwit) it is more or less reticulate proximally. The outer and middle toes

    are joined by a basal web. The hind toe is well developed. In three of the

    four species the breeding plumage is much more showy than the winter plumage.

    The genus breeds only in the Northern Hemisphere, but the winter range, which

    does not overlap the summer range at all, includes some of the southernmost

    lands.

            No species of the genus is holarctic is breeding distribution. L. lap–

    ponica     breeds across Eurasia and in northern Alaska, but nowhere east of the

    delta of the Colville. L. limosa (black-tailed godwit) is confined to the

    Old World, L. haemastica (Hudsonian godwit) and L. fedoa (marbled godwit)

    to the New. The marbled godwit is the most southern of all. The northern

    limits of its range are southern Alberta and southern Manitoba.

            No godwit breeds northward to very high latitudes. While all three

    species which breed in the Far North choose an open nest site, the nest

    territory is likely to include some trees on which the birds alight when

    scolding. In winter all godwits inhabit tidal flats and beaches, where they

    mingle with mixed flocks of smaller shore birds.

            Note: The so-called snipe-billed godwit, which breeds in Asia, and which

    498      |      Vol_IV-0554                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Limosa and Little Stint

    currently is placed in the genus Limnodromus (dowitchers), appears to be

    more of a godwit than a dowitcher. Its bill is like that of Capella (true

    snipes) but its size, proportions, and color pattern are certainly more

    like those of the bar-tailed godwit ( Limosa lapponica ) than of either of

    the New World dowitchers. The bird might well be placed in a genus by

    itself, as Blyth long ago suggested ( Journ. Asiatic Society, Bengal, 1859,

    28: 280).

            See Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Bodwit, and Hudsonian Godwit.

            418. Little Stint . A very small scolopacid shore bird, Erolia minuta ,

    which breeds in arctic and subarctic Eurasia. It is 5 3/4 inches long and

    is dark above and white below (more or less streaked on the chest) at all

    seasons. It has a narrow white wing bar which is not very conspicuous as

    a field mark. The rump and upper tail coverts are dark in the middle and

    white at either side. The bill, legs, and feet are black. In summer the

    upper parts and streaks on the breast are strongly rufous. At this season

    it looks a good deal like the Temminck’s sting ( Erolia temminckii ) but is

    much more rufous above and has a wholly gray tail. In winter it is gray

    above and resembles a small, very short-billed dunlin ( Erolia alpina ).

    Various writers have called attention to the resemblance it bears to the

    dunlin. Seebohm and Haviland state that even its eggs and downy young

    resemble those of the dunlin more than they do those of the Temminck’s stint.

            The little stint is highly gregarious in winter and during migration.

    It often associates with the dunlin on open flats but unlike that species

    it feeds from the surface rather than probing deeply in the mud or sand.

    Its usual cry is a simple chit or tit . On its tundra breeding ground it is

    499      |      Vol_IV-0555                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Little Tint

    found everywhere save in very wet and very dry places. At Golchikha, on

    thed Yenisei, where Haviland observed it in summer, it was especially

    fond of sphagnum and drawf willow scrub. A familiar cry on the nest

    territory is a gentle drrt . During its display flights, which have been

    described as “butterfly-like or hovering,” it gives a trill which is

    similar to that of Temminck’s stint but higher pitched and less soft. The

    nest is lined with willow leaves. The eggs (usually 4) are more glossy

    than those of Temminck’s stint and are pale green to buff or brown, spotted

    and blotched with various darker shades of brown. On Kolguev Island,

    Trevor-Battye found several nests. At each nests he found but one parent

    bird. On collecting 7 such birds he found 5 of them to be females, 2 males.

    One bird, while feigning lameness, made “a noise exactly like the squeaking

    of a house mouse.” Another behaved “like a dancing doll, jumping up and

    down on the same spot as if on springs.” Haviland observed a male bird

    carrying egg shells from the nest just after the young had hatched.

            The little sting breeds in northern Eurasia north to northern Norway,

    the Murman Coast, Kolguev, Vaigach, southern Novaya Zemlya, the New Siberian

    Archipelago, and the mouth of the Indigirka. The southern limits of the

    breeding range are along the tree limit. The species migrates through Europe

    and western Asia and winters in Africa south to Cape Province and from the

    south shores of the Caspian Sea to Ceylon (Peters). It has been reported

    from Iceland, and Faeroes, and the Franz Josef Archipelago.

            References:

    1. Haviland, M. D. “Notes on the breeding-habits of the Little Sting,”

    British Birds vol. 8, pp. 202-08, 1915. 2. Seebohm, H., and Brown J. A. Harvie. “Notes on the birds of the Lower

    Petchora,” Ibis vol.6, pp.294-308, [Material on Tringa minuta ]

    1876,(with color plate of eggs.)

    500      |      Vol_IV-0556                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lobipes

            419. Lobipes . The monotypic genus to which the northern or red–

    necked phalarope ( L. lobatus ) belongs. Lobipes is similar to Phalaropus,

    but smaller; has a very slender, almost “needle-like” bill; and its

    nostrils are at the very base of the bill, close to the feathers of the

    lores. In winter plumage, its color pattern is much like that of Phalaropus ,

    but in summer the under parts of Phalaropus are red, while those of Lobipes

    are white. The color pattern of the downy young is similar in the two species.

    Some ornithologists place the two forms in the same genus.

            Lobipes is holarctic in breeding distribution, and its range overlaps

    that of Phalaropus to some extent; but in almost all northern land areas it

    breeds farther south than Phalaropus and does not breed quite so far north.

    It breeds in Iceland, Spitsbergen (rarely), the Faeroes, the Hebrides,

    Scandinavia, Finland, northern Russia, Kolguev, Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya,

    northern Siberia, Sakhalin, the Komandorskis, the Aleutians, the arctic coast

    of North America from Alaska to Hudson Bay and the Labrador, and Greenland.

    Jackson did not report it from the Franz Josef Archipelago. It has not been

    encountered in the New Siberian Archipelago. It probably breeds infrequently

    in the southern part of Southampton Island. Kumlien reported it from Cumber–

    land Sound, southern Baffin Island. It breeds at Churchill on the west coast

    of Hudson Bay, on islands in James Bay, and along the entire Labrador coast.

    In Scandinavia it breeds southward to middle Norway; in eastern Siberia to

    the Sea of Okhotsk. What makes it more southern than Phalaropus I cannot

    say. I have studied Phalaropus on Southampton Island, where that form breeds

    commonly but Lobipes does not, and Lobipes at Churchill, Manitoba, where

    that form is common but Phalaropus does not breed at all, and I certainly

    did not become aware of any special ecological requirement of either form.



    501      |      Vol_IV-0557                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lobipes and Long-toed Stint

            Lobipes winters at sea in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean,

    off the coasts of Peru and West Africa, between New Guinea and the Bismark

    Archipelago, and in the Bands Sea (Peters).

            422. Long-toed Stint . A very small Old World scolopacid shore bird,

    Erolia subminuta , which is much like the least sandpiper or American stint

    ( Erolia minutilla ) and may be conspecific with that bird. It is well named,

    for the total length of its middle toe, with the claw, is greater than that

    of the tarsus. It breeds on Bering Island in the [ ?] Komandorskis; on

    Paramushiro and Onnekotan in the Kurils; and perhaps on Sakhalin and Kamchatka.

    It may breed northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in extreme Asia (from

    the Anadyr southward to Sakhalin), but on the mainland it is believed to nest

    high in the mountains, and not on the low-lying tundra near the sea. Little

    has been published about its breeding habits, nest, eggs, or young. Stejneger

    reported its “breeding sparingly” in a “large swamp” on Bering Island, but

    he failed to find nests. Yamashina (Tori 1929, 6: 87) tells us that the

    bird “breeds fairly commonly” on Paramushiro Island. Eggs described by

    him varied in ground color “from bluish white to grayish cream” and were

    spotted with brown, chiefly at the larger end. The nests were “in damp fields.”

    H. Johansen, who found a nest on June 20, 1930, at the north end of Bering

    Island, tells of the incident as follows: “I was driving a dog sledge across

    the moist lowland tundra when the leading dog suddenly stopped and put its

    nose into the grass. An Erolia subminuta flew up. I rushed to the place

    and just succeeded in saving the last egg. I found two smashed eggs, and

    probably a fourth egg had been swallowed by the dog. The egg measured

    32 × 22.5 mm., one of the smashed one 32 × 22 mm., pyriform. Th i u s they

    502      |      Vol_IV-0558                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-toed Stint and Lymnocryptes

    are slightly larger than those of E. temminckii and E. minuta . The ground

    color is mineral gray with a faint brownish tinge. Comparatively finely

    spotted with sepia brown spots and blotches which coalesce at the big end

    in a large dark brown patch with blurred limits. The shell marks are

    brownish gray and small. The eggs contained large embryos! (personal

    letter, dated December 17, 1948, to George M. Sutton).

            The long-toed stint migrates through China and Japan and winter sin

    eastern India, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, the Sundas, and the Philippines

    (Peters). It has been reported once from Otter Island in the Pribilofs.

            Reference:

    Johansen, H. “Langtäet Dvaergryle ( Calidris subminuta Midd.) og dens Aeg,”

    (The Long-toed Stint ( Calidris subminuta Midd.) and its eggs.)

    Dansk Orn. Foren. Tideskr . vol.43, pp.101-104, 1949.

            423. Lymnocryptes . A remarkable monotypic genus to which the Old World

    jack snipes ( L. minimus ) belongs. It resembles Capella (common snipe and

    allies) in general color pattern and proportions but is much smaller; the

    secondaries are not round at the tip but quite sharply pointed; and the tail,

    which has only 12 feathers, is soft and wedge-shaped, the middle 2 feathers being

    more sharply pointed and longer than the rest. The bill is higher at the base

    proportionately than in Caplella , and very narrow in the middle. The sternum

    has 4 notches instead of 2. An interesting character is the violet and green

    iridescence of dark parts of many back, scapular and tertial feathers.

            The genus is confined to the Old World. It breeding range extends across

    continental Eurasia from northern Scandinavia (latitude 69° 30' in Norway)

    503      |      Vol_IV-0559                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lymnocryptes and Micropalama

    and northern Russia to the mouth of the Kolyma River (except in the northern

    part of the Taimyr Peninsula), the southern limits being central Sweden,

    Denmark, the Baltic States, central Russia, and central southern Siberia

    (Minusinsk). It winters in the British Isles, the Faeroes (casually),

    southern Europe, the Mediterranean countries, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia,

    India, Burma, Taiwan, and Ceylon, and casually in Nigeria, Uganda, and

    Kenya. It has been reported once from the Pribilofs and once from the

    Labrador coast.

            425. Micropalama. The monotypic genus to which the stilt sandipier

    ( M. himatopus ) of the New World belongs. It is a slender, long-billed,

    long-legged shore bird with strikingly barred under parts (in breeding

    plumage). The bill is slender, slightly decurved, considerably compressed

    laterally, a little swollen at the very tip (noticeable from above, but not

    from the side), and about 1 1/2 inches long. The tarsus is a little longer

    than the bill and continuously scutellate in front and behind. The unfeathered

    part of the tibia is more than half as long as the tarsus and also scutellate

    in front and behind. There are 4 toes. The front 3 are webbed at the bases,

    the web between theouter and liner toes. The wing is long and pointed. When

    the wing is folded, the longest primary extends much beyond the tip of the

    longest tertial. The tail (12 feathers) is short (about 2/5 as long as the

    wing) and almost square.

            Micropalama breeds from the Barter Islands in northeastern Alaska east–

    ward along much (perhaps all) of the arctic coast of North America as far as

    the west coast of Hudson Bay. It has been recorded in summer from Smith

    Bay (65 miles southeast of Point Barrow) and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska,

    504      |      Vol_IV-0560                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Micropalama and Northern or Red-necked Phalarope

    but it is not known to breed at either of these places (see Bailey, 1948.

    Birds of Arctic Alaska , p. 223). Gavin reported it as common in the Perry

    River country south of Queen Maud Gulf. The only part of the Arctic Archi–

    pelage in which it is known to breed is southern Victoria Island. It is

    common in summer at Churchill, Manitoba; but Preble did not find it nesting

    between Churchill and York Factory, and it is not known to nest along the

    west coast of Hudson Bay anywhere north of Churchill. It migrates through

    the Mississippi Valley, Florida, the West Indies, and, to a lesser extent,

    along the Atlantic coast of the United States, Central America and Mexico,

    wintering in South America south to Paraguay, Uraguay, Bolivia, and northern

    Argentina.

            See Stilt Sandpiper.

            427. Northern or Red-necked Phalarope . A swimming shore bird, Lobipes

    lobatus, with holarctic breeding distribution. It is not, oddly enough, as

    northern a bird as its close relative, the red (or gray) phalarope ( Phalaropus

    fulicarius ), so “red-necked” is really a better name, save that it applies

    only to the summer plumage. The species is a little smaller than the red

    phalarope, being 6 1/2 to 7 inches long, and has a much slenderer bill. In

    winter it is dark gray above, with a bold white wing stripe and narrow buffy

    lines on the back; white on the face with a blackish line through the eye;

    and pure white below. In summer the female is dark ashy gray on the top of

    the head, hind neck, and sides of the chest, with a white spot above the

    eye and white throat; bright rufous orange on the sides and front of the

    neck; blackish gray on the upper part of the body with a white wing bar and

    distinct buffy yellow stripes on the back and scapulars; and white on the

    505      |      Vol_IV-0561                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Northern or Red-necked Phalarope

    breast, belly, and under tail coverts. The male is the same in pattern but

    much duller or paler. The bill is black, the legs and feet dark bluish

    gray, the webs between the toes dull yellow.

            In general behavior the northern phalarope is much like the red phalarope.

    It has the same rapid, sometimes erratic flight, alights with the same abrupt–

    ness, sits very high when swimming, and begins twirling characteristically

    almost the instant it settled on the water. It is remarkably approachable

    at times, seeming to have no feat whatsoever of man. Though short-legged

    and squat, it walks well. One of its characteristic call notes is an unmusical

    tchick or tchwick . [ ?] Ti nbergen, who has observed it closely in East Greenland,

    reports that the female arrives on the nesting ground in advance of the male;

    occupies a territory; and proceeds to give display flights (sometimes as

    often as once every five minutes for considerable stretches of time) until

    the attracts a male. The unpaired female suddenly stops feeding, utters a

    sharp wit , wit , wit , stands in the water and rattles or shirrs her wings;

    then flies off 10 or 20 yards, alights, and swims or rests lightly with

    neck [ ?] stretched high, uttering a cry which sounds like wedü , wedü , wedü .

    An unpaired female performs this display flight for any northern phalarope

    which happens by; if the newcomer proves to be another female, she attacks

    and perhaps drives it off; but whether it goes or stays, she continues with

    her display flights. If, on the other hand, the newcomer is a male, her

    displaying stops. The display flight is, in other words, advertisement of

    desire for a sex comrade. The wing-rattling or wing whirring is [ ?] “the

    sexually stimulating action par excellence , displayed by both male and

    female, and in psychological respect certainly expressing sexual desire.”

            The species is sometimes semicolonial in its nesting, though this may

    506      |      Vol_IV-0562                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Northern or Red-necked Phalarope and Numenius

    be because the marsh grass in which it prefers to nest is restricted to

    narrow zones about the tundra ponds or to low-lying islets at the river

    mouth. The nest is usually very close to the water in a tussock and as

    a rule it is well hidden by grass. According to Tin g bergen, both the male

    and female construct it. The eggs (usually 4) are olive brown, handsomely

    marked with dark sepia and chocolate. They are incubated by the male only.

    The incubation period is about 20 days. The downy chick is yellowish

    brown above, beautifully marked with black on the crown and back; buffy

    yellow on the throat, foreneck, and breast; and grayish white on the belly.

            For details of the northern phalarope’s distribution, see Lobipes .

            Reference:

    Tinbergan, N. “Field observations of East Greenland birds. I. The

    behavior of the Red-necked Phalarope ( Phalaropus lobatus L.)

    in spring,” Ardea vol. 24, pp.1-42, 1935.

            428 Numenius . A genus of middle-sized to large scolopacid shore birds

    commonly known as curlews. They have long, strongly decurved bills which

    are blunt and slightly thickened at the tip. The upper mandible is a little

    longer than the lower, in some species forming a sort of hook. The tarsus

    is long (much longer than the middle toe) and reticulate except for a small

    [ ?] scutellate part in front. The hind toe is well developed. The wings

    are long, the outermost of the readily visible primaries being the longest.

    The tail is short (less than half as long as the wing) and rounded. The

    color pattern is characteristic: in general the upper parts are dark brown,

    mottled, spotted and margined with buff or white; and the under parts buffy

    507      |      Vol_IV-0563                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton:Numenius and Pectoral Sandpiper

    white, streaked, barred, and otherwise marked with dusky. All eight species

    breed in the North Hemisphere, and most of them winter well to the south

    of their breeding range, come on remote oceanic islands, some in New Guinea,

    Australia, Africa, or South America. Only two species — Numenius americanus

    (long-billed curlew) of North America and N. tenuirostris (slender-billed

    ourlew) of Asia — do not range northward quite to the Arctic or Subarctic.

    Of the six arctic species only one — N. phaeopus (whimbrel) — inhabits

    both the Old World and the New. The Eskimo ourlew ( N. borealis ), which is

    nearly extinct, breeds only in North America. The bristle-thighed curlew

    ( N. tahitiensis ) breeds in a very restricted plateau area in Alaska. The

    pygmy curlew ( N. minutus ), common curlew ( N. arquata ), and eastern curlew

    ( N. madagascariensis ) breed only in the Old World.

            For brief descriptions of the six arctic species of Numenius , see Curlew.

            430. Pectoral Sandpiper . A middle-sized scolopacid shore bird, Erolia

    melanotos     , so called because the male inflates its pectoral region

    excessively during courtship displays. An Alaskan Eskimo name for the bird,

    aibukia or aiviukya , likens it to a walrus, again probably an allusion to its

    huge chest. The species is puzzlingly variable in size, the smallest females

    being about 7 inches long, the largest males 9 1/2 inches long. The male is

    believed to be the larger; and certainly a breeding male which I collected

    on Southampton Island was one of the largest pectoral sandpipers I ever

    handled in the flesh; but some transient males seem to be very small, and

    these suggest the possibility than an undescribed race exists.

            The species is strongly brown in tone. One of the best field marks is

    “the brownish breast streaking, which ends abruptly agains the white belly

    508      |      Vol_IV-0564                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pectoral Sandpiper

    like a bib” (Peterson). The back and scapulars are streaked with black.

    The rump and upper g tail coverts are dark and the tail pale gray with

    dark middle feathers. In adults the brown tones are more rufous in summer

    than in winter, but brightest of all are young birds in their first winter

    plumage. Not only are these sometimes quite rufous on the back, but the

    whole chest has a strongly buffy tone. The legs and feet of all birds,

    young and old, are greenish yellow.

            The usual call note is a shrill krick or trrip, which is sometimes

    quite loud. The cries of birds feeding together are subdued and mingled.

    The species shows a strong preference for wettish grasslands while on

    migration. On its breeding ground, too, it likes the grassy margins of

    tundra ponds, though it sometimes inhabits dry, well-grassed slopes. The

    alarm notes given by adults near the nest are various; but the hooting

    or booming which accompanies the grotesque inflation of the esophagus is

    very distinctive. In some of these displays the male walks about the

    female with bulged neck hanging almost to the ground; in others he rises

    several yards in air, inflates his neck enormously, and drifts downward

    with wings stiff-set horizontally or arched over his back, legs dangling,

    and head bobbing back and forth. The Eskimos are delighted with these

    antics and like to imitate them.

            The nest is usually well hidden in the grass. The eggs are green

    in tone when first laid, but fade to buff or [ ?] brown. They are handsomely

    marked with dark brown, sometimes in streaks, usually with a dark, irregular

    cap at the larger end. The female incubates the eggs and cares for the

    young. The males desert the nesting ground about the time incubation begins.

            The pectoral sandpiper breeds on the arctic coast of Siberia from the

    509      |      Vol_IV-0565                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pectoral Sandpiper

    Indigirka and Kolyma deltas (and possibly the Taimyr Peninsula) eastward;

    and in arctic America from the mouth of the Yukon to the west coast of

    Hudson Bay and Southampton Island. It does not nest at Churchill, Manitoba,

    but Preble found it common in July in marshy country south of Churchill

    (50 miles north of York Factory). There are few definite breeding records

    for the Arctic Archipelago. Manning collected it on the west coast of

    Baffin Island in August (Bray and Manning, 1943, Auk 60: 522). Handley

    recently collected it on Prince Patrick Island. It has been reported from

    Victoria Island. There are records for Greenland, Iceland, Kotelnyi, and

    Wrangel but it is not known to breed at these places. It winters from Peru

    (probably), Bolivia, Uruguay, and northern Argentina to south-central Chile

    and the State of Chubut, Argentina (Peters).

            Reference:

    Buturlin, S. A. “On the breeding habits of the Rosy Gull and the Pectoral

    Sandpiper ( Tringa maculata ),” Ibis , 1907, pp.570-73.

            433. Phalaropodidae . A family of swimming charadriiform birds to

    which all the phalaropes of the world belong. There are only three species,

    each of which is currently placed in a separate genus. All three species

    (genera) are small, though stout-bodied. The bill is straight, flexible,

    and as long as, or longer than, the head. The wings are long and pointed.

    The legs are short, the tarsi scutellate both in front and behind, and flat.

    There are 4 toes. In two species (genera) – Phalaropus falicarius (red or

    gray phalarope) and Lobipes lobatus (red-necked or northern phalarope) —

    the front toes are webbed basally and also lobed (i.e., with flaps along the

    510      |      Vol_IV-0566                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalaropodidae

    edges) somewhat as in the gruiform genus Fulica (coots), the family

    Colymbidae (grebes), and the charadriiform genus Recurvirostra (avocets).

    In the third species (genus) — steganopus tricolor (Wilson’s phalarope) —

    the toes have lateral membran c es which are not lobed nor scalloped. In all

    phalaropes the plumage is thick and soft, especially on the breast and belly,

    where it sticks out from the body as in the ducks and gulls. The tail is

    rather short, the middle feathers being a little longer than the others.

            Phalaropes are so heavily feathered that they are exceedingly buoyant,

    hence they sit very high in the water. They often feed while swimming,

    twirling characteristically as they pick small crustceans or aquatic insects

    from the water or stick their heads under the surface and probe the muddy

    bottom. The females are larger and more brightly colored than the males,

    arrive at the nesting ground in advance of the males, and take the lead in

    courting. Males, on the other hand, do a large part of the incubating and

    as a rule take complete charge of the young.

            Phalaropes inhabit both the Old World and the New. Two of the three

    species, the red (gray) and northern (red-necked) breed only in the arctic

    and subarctic and both these forms have virtually holarctic summer distribu–

    tion, but move far southward in winter. The third species (Wilson’s) breed

    only in western North America well south of the Arctic. All three species

    nest in marshy places about fresh water. The two species which breed in the

    Far North migrate chiefly at sea, sometimes a long way from land. Among

    mariners they are familiarly known at “see geese.” They winter also at sea,

    chiefly south of the equator.

            See Phalaropus , Lobipes , Red Phalarope, and Northern Phalarope.



    511      |      Vol_IV-0567                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Phalaropus

            434. Phalaropus . The monotypic genus to which the red or gray phalarope

    ( P. fulicarius ) belongs. It is distinguished from Lobipes (northern or

    red-necked phalarope) by its somewhat larger size; its broad bill; and the

    position of its nostrils, which are well in front of the loral plumage.

    From Steganopus (Wilson’s phalarope) it differs in being smaller, and in

    having decidedly shorter tarsus, much broader bill, lobate and partly webbed

    feet, and rounded rather than doubly forked tail.

            Phalaropus is holarctic in distribution and breeds northward to high

    latitudes. On the whole it is more boreal than its relative, the northern

    or red-necked phalarope ( Lobipes lobatus ). It breeds in Iceland (locally),

    Spitsbergen, Bear Island (rarely), the Franz Josef Archipelago (possibly),

    and Novaya Zemlya; on the arctic coast of Asia from the mouth of the

    Yenisei (north of Golchikha) to the Chukotsk Peninsula; in the New Siberian

    Archipelago; on Wrangel Island (probably); from Hooper Bay and the mouth

    of the Yukon northward and eastward along the arctic coast of North America

    to Ungava Bay and northern Labrador; throughout the Arctic Archipelago

    northward to Prince Patrick Island and Ellsemere Island, and south as far

    as Southampton Island and southern Baffin Island; and in Greenland (north

    as far as Peary Land). Portenko reports that it is abundant in the fall

    on the north coast of Wrangel Island, so migrating birds probably pass east–

    ward and southward that way. It does not nest at Churchill, Manitoba, where

    the northern phalarope breeds commonly.

            It migrates chiefly at sea — throughout the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

    (including the North, Baltic, Mediterranean, and [ ?] Okhotsk seas).

    Meinertzhagen believes that migrating birds follow five principal routes —

    one along the west coast of Europe to the coast of West Africa; another across

    512      |      Vol_IV-0568                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: [ ?] Phalaropus and Philomachus

    central Asia from the Arctic Sea to Mekran and the Arabian Sea; one along

    the east coast of Asia to Mekran or the coast of Chile; a fourth along the

    west coast of America to Chile; and one along the east coast of America

    to Chile or West Africa.

            The species winters at sea chiefly in the Southern Hemisphere south–

    ward to the latitudes of Patagonia, Chile, and New Zealand.

            Reference:

    Meinertzhagen, R. “The distribution of the Phalaropes,” Ibis, (Ser. 12)

    vol. 1, pp. 325-44, 1925.

            435. Philomachus . The monotypic scolopacid genus to which the ruff

    ( P. pugnax ) belongs. It is similar to Calidris (knots), having a short,

    straight bill, but the s m ale is very much larger than the female, and in

    breeding plumage has such an extraordinary “ruff” of long, curled feathers

    on the neck and back of the head, and such a bizarre variety of color patterns,

    that comparison with any other bird than, possibly, the domestic fowl, is

    apt to be misleading. In the male the springtime plumage changes are

    concomitatn with the advent of the tubercles or minute wattles on the face

    and lores, which give parts of the head an almost featherless appearance.

    The upper tail coverts are very long. The bill, which is proportionately

    higher at the base than in Calidris , tapers to the very tip. The hind

    toe is well developed.

            The genus is confined to the Old World. It breeds across almost the

    whole of Eurasia (from western France, Holland, and Denmark to the Amur

    Valley) northward to extreme northern Scandinavia (lat. 71° N. in Norway),

    513      |      Vol_IV-0569                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Philomachus and Pin-tailed Snipe

    the Murman Coast, Kolguev, Vaigach, the Kanin and Yamal peninsulas,

    about 73° along the west side of the Taimyr Peninsula, Faddeevski Island

    (probably), and the delta of the Kolyma River; and southward to Bavaria,

    Silesia, Hungary, southern Russia, and latitude 50° N. in Siberia.

    Pleske calls it a bird “of the forest, subalpine and even alpine areas.”

    It has been reported several times from the New Siberian Archipelago and

    may breed there. It winters from England, Scotland (rarely) and the Medi–

    terranean countries southward in Africa to Cape Province, and in Iraq, Iran,

    Baluchistan, India, Ceylon, Lower Burma, Siam and (rarely) the Malay States

    and Borneo. It has strayed from time to time to Iceland, Greenland, Nova

    Scotia, the Faeroes, the Berings, the Pribilogs, and the Komandorskis.

            See Ruff.

            436. Pin-tailed Snipe . An Old World scolopacid bird, Capella stenura ,

    so named because of its oddly stiffened and narrowed outer tail feathers.

    It is like the common snipe ( C. gallinago ) in general appearance, but in the

    hand can instantly be told from all other snipes by the odd tail, which has

    26 feathers, of which the outer 6 to 9 pairs are stiff and wirelike, the

    outermost pair being only 1 to 2 mm. wide.

            The pin-tailed snipe is said to have a slower, heavier flight than that

    of C. gallinago . It is, like that species, nocturnal. Seebohm tells us

    that it rises from the ground silently rather than with a whir of wings, as

    the great or double snipe [ ?] ( Capella media ) does (1902. Seebohm Birds

    of Siberia , p. 350). Popham says that its “drumming,” which sounds like

    bubbling water, is louder and much more protracted than that of the common

    snipe. To quote: “The bird makes its way to a considerable height and [ ?]

    514      |      Vol_IV-0570                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pin-tailed Snipe and Purple Sandpiper

    then descends rapidly, ‘drumming’ as it goes; if close overhead the noise

    is terrific.” This drumming probably is produced by the rushing of air

    through the widespread stiff outer tail feathers.

            Pin-tailed snipe nests found by Popham along the Yenisei River were

    on the tundra. He says that the eggs “differ considerably from eggs of the

    Common Snipe in being larger, having the ground-color as in eggs of the

    Common Snipe in being larger, having the ground-color as in eggs of the

    Double Snipe, and being much more richly marked.” The species breeds in Asia

    north to about latitude 67° N., westward to the Yenisei, and eastward to the

    coast and Sakhalin. Popham found a nest on May 28, 1897, at Yeniseisk, and later

    [ ?] three more nests along the Yenisei, at “the monastery” (lat. 65° 40′ N.).

    Etejneger did not find the species in Kamchatka. Pleske speaks of a snipe’s

    egg, possibly that of stenura , obtained in the Taimyr Peninsula. The southern

    limits of stenura’s breeding range are northern Tibet, the upper Hoang-Ho,

    Amurland, and Sakhalin (Peters).

            Reference:

    Popham, H. L. “ Gallinago stenura nesting on the Yenesei (lat. 65° 40′N.),”

    Ibis, 1898, pp. 514-15.

            440. Purple Sandpiper . A stocky middle-sized scolopacid shore bird,

    Erolia maritima , whose back and scapular plumage has a rich purple gloss. In

    winter and during migration it frequents rocks or heaps of dark seaweed on

    outer coasts, often at the very tips of jutting peninsulas or along the bases

    of cliffs. Rarely does it feed on sandy beaches or wide tidal flats, and only

    occasionally does it wander inland. When it does appear on large lakes in the

    515      |      Vol_IV-0571                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Purple Sandpiper

    the interior it invariably frequents rocky shores. Often it associates

    with the turnstone ( Arenaria interpres ).

            It is a hardy bird. It runs up and down the wet rocks without

    slipping or stumbling, only rarely having to catch itself with fluttering

    wings. The yellow of its short legs is sometimes conspicuous. It is among

    the most approachable of shore birds. Often a tightly bunched flock sits

    quietly among the rocks not far from the breaking waves, refusing to budge

    until almost trod upon, then flying up with a low twittering which can hardly

    be heard above the sound of the water. As the birds make off, white shows

    at either side of the rump and upper tail coverts and in the wings.

            The purple sandpiper is about 8 inches long. At all seasons it is rather

    dark. In winter it is almost sooty above, with whitish chin, light gray

    edgings on the wing coverts, white lateral upper tail coverts, white belly

    and under tail coverts, and white wing bar. The purple gloss is never very

    noticeable in the field. In summer the general tone of the top of the head,

    upper part of the body, and chest is brownish, for some of the feathers

    (especially the scapulars) are edged with rufous. At all seasons the legs

    and feet are dull yellow, the bill dusky at the tip and olive at the base.

            On its breeding ground the purple sendpiper is far less tame than it is

    in winter. Its alarm notes have been described as a loud tooit and a

    “whinnying titter, not unlike the Whimbrel’s note softened down” ( Handbook

    of British Birds ). The display flight is a simple fluttering upward followed

    by a graceful glide, accompanied by trilling. Ground displays consist in

    wing-lifting (sometimes one wing, sometimes both) by the male before the

    female.

            The nest is a neat cup in the tundra, usually lined with tiny leaves.

    516      |      Vol_IV-0572                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Purple Sandpiper

    The eggs (4) are green when fresh, fading to buff, irregularly blotched

    with deep brown. Both the male and female incubate (chiefly the male).

    The incubation period is about 3 weeks. The downy chick is warm buff on

    the forehead, face, and nape, with a velvety brownish-black line through

    the eye, dark brown crown and back markings, and grayish-white breast and

    belly.

            The purple sandpiper is not completely holarctic in distribution. It

    breeds in Iceland, the Faeroes, Spitsbergen, Bear Island, the Franz Josef

    Archipelago, Novaya Zemlya, Vaigach, and northern Eurasia from Scandinavia

    eastward to the Taimyr Peninsula; in the Arctic Archipelato from Melville

    and Prince Patrick islands to Ellesmere and Baffin islands; and in Green–

    land. It probably does not breed in the New Siberian Archipelago (although

    Birula saw one there on June 8, 1902); along the arctic coast of Siberia

    eastward from the Taimyr Peninsula; nor on continental America except on

    Melville Peninsula and (probably) Boothia Peninsula. It probably nests

    on Southampton Island, where young birds still partly in down have been

    collected. It is the most boreal of all shore birds, for it never moves

    southward very far in winter. It winters regularly in Iceland; from southern

    Greenland southward along outer coasts to Long Island, New York, and Maryland

    (Ocean City); and about the British Isles and coasts of the North and Baltic

    seas (rarely as far south as the Mediterranean Sea).

            441. Pygmy Curlew . A middle-sized Old World shore bird, Numenius

    minutus , also known as the little curlew or least whimbrel. It bears a

    superficial resemblance to the Bartramian (Bartram’s) sandpiper or upland

    plover ( Bartramia longicauda ) of the New World, though it is shorter-tailed

    517      |      Vol_IV-0573                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pygmy Curlew

    and has a longer, more curved bill. It is about 10 to 12 inches long

    (skins) with bill slightly under 2 inches long. It breeds in central

    and eastern Siberia northward to latitude 68° N. in the alpine zone of the

    mountains of the Yana and Adycha watersheds, in the Tukuringha Mountains,

    and probably also in the Stanovoi Mountains north of the Sea of Okhotsk.

    It winters chiefly in Australia.

            Tugarinov, who has reported in detail on this interesting bird’s

    breeding range, informs us that a nest found by Czekanovski on the Mogero

    River at latitude 66° 30′ N. on June 25, 1874, contained 3 eggs. These were,

    according to a colored illustration, pale olive brown, blotched (very heavily

    at the larger end) with dark brown. The downy young, first captured by

    Tkachenko in the Kumach-Sygy country, 80 kilometers from Verkhoyansk down

    the Kolymsk road, is plain grayish buff on the face and under parts, grayish

    brown, rather vaguely marked with fuscous, on the crown and back.

            The species is said to prefer open country as a nesting ground — either

    burned-over areas in the forest or naturally open mountain tops. If its

    nest is disturbed it circles close, making a great outcry. Certain published

    statements read as if this species and the Siberian whimbrel ( Numenius

    phaeopus variegatus ) occasionally breed side by side in open montane

    country of eastern Siberia.

            Reference:

    Tugarinov, A. J. “The breeding of the Least Whimbrel, Mesocolopax minutus

    (Gould) in Yakut-Land (N-E. Siberia),” Journ. f. Orn. Hartert

    Festschr ., Vol. 2, pp. 136-42, 1929.

    518      |      Vol_IV-0574                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red Phalarope; Gray Phalarope

            / 445. Red Phalarope; Gray Phalarope . A swimming shore bird, Phalaropus

    fulicarius , which is called the red phalarope because of the rich reddish

    brown of its summer plumage, and the gray phalarope because of the gray

    winter plumage. It is about 8 inches long. At any season it can be recog–

    nized as a phalarope the instant it alights on the water. In winter it is

    gray on the upper part of the body with a distinct white wing bar; white on

    the head, with a black line through the eye and black patch on the nape; and

    pure white below. At this season it is much like the smaller northern or

    red-necked phalarope ( Lobipes lobatus ), but that species has a needle-slender

    bill and is very dark, almost black, on the back and wings, with a bold white

    wing bar and yellowish buff lines down the back and scapulars. In breeding

    plumage the red phalarope is unmistakable. It is rich reddish brown all over

    the foreneck and under parts; black on the front and top of the head and on

    the throat; pure white on the side of the head; gray on the wings, with a

    white bar; and brown otherwise, with bold yellowish buff streaks on the back.

    The bill is yellow, with dusky tip. The female is larger and much brighter

    than the male.

            In winter these little birds live at sea, gathering in great flocks

    where food is abundant. William Beebe tells us of seeing them off the

    Gal a á pagos Islands “in a half gale, with spray blowing, and every watery

    hilltop fountaining into ugly lashing foam,” yet managing to keep themselves

    in the troughs of the waves or so headed into the wind as not to be overturned

    by it. Usually they begin their postnuptial molt on the breeding ground and

    are in complete winter plumage by the time they reach their winter home, but

    Murphy reports individuals collected as late as November 13 (off Valparaiso,

    Chile) which still had traces of red among the belly feathers and under tail

    519      |      Vol_IV-0575                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red Phalarope; Gray Phalarope

    coverts. The prenuptial molt probably is completed on the wintering ground,

    or during a leisurely migration northward; at any rate I have never seen

    a partly gray red phalarope in the Far North in the spring.

            The red phalarope arrives on its nesting ground in groups of three or

    four. If the tundra ponds are still ice-covered, it lingers at the river mouths

    or even at floes among the sea ice, making its way inland to any open water it

    can find. Manniche tells us that at Stormkap, in northeastern Greenland, it

    began pairing about a week after its arrival. On Southampton Island, in the

    spring of 1930, the first birds to return were females. The Eskimos reported

    little companies of females seen at sea as early as May 19. I first saw

    females inland on June 10. Two days later I saw the first male, and from

    that time on the birds were courting everywhere. Often I saw two or three

    females chasing a single male. Displays consisted in noisy whirring or

    fluttering flight a foot or so above a swimming male, followed by dropping

    into the water with an audible flup . Occasionally a male fluttered above a

    female, but not often. The call note which I heard most frequently was an

    unmusical phit-ick , phewp , or phu-eep . I never heard what seemed to be a

    flight song.

            The birds usually fed in shallow water at the edges of the ponds. They

    twirled characteristically, apparently stirring up the mud with their feet,

    and dabbling for whatever came to the surface. Occasionally they stuck

    their heads completely under, probed energetically, and brought up a large

    worm or insect larva, which they swalloed with some difficulty. Occasionally

    they “tipped” duck-wise, disappearing beneath the surface all but their tails.

    Pairs usually fed together. I rarely saw them feeding among grass on the

    ground, though this has been reported.



    520      |      Vol_IV-0576                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red Phalarope; Gray Phalarope

            The nest is almost always in, and somewhat sheltered by, grass. Often

    several nests are close together in a sort of colony along the shores of a

    marshy lake or on low islands at a broad, shallow river mouth. The eggs

    (usually 4) are olive brown boldly marked (chiefly at the larger end) with

    rich chestnut brown and black. The male is believed to do all the incubating.

    The incubation period is “at least 19 days” (Conover). The female often

    assist the male in caring for the s young. The downy chick is rich yellowish

    brown above, boldly marked with black on the crown and back; buffy yellow

    on the throat and foreneck; and grayish white on the breast and belly.

            The postnuptial molt begins about the time the chicks hatch. So often

    have I seen half-grown young birds (still partly downy and not quite able to

    fly) going about by themselves, that I suspect the old birds customarily leave

    when their offspring have learned to feed by themselves, possibly going out

    to see to finish the molt. This part of the red phalarope’s life history

    needs to be studied further. On August 4, 1930, I saw small companies of male

    and female birds in molting condition near Bear Island, in South Bay, several

    miles out from the shores of Southampton Island.

            For the red phalarope’s distribution see Phalaropus .

            Reference:

    Haviland, M.D. “Notes on the breeding-habits of the Gray Phalarope,”

    British Birds , vol.9, pp. 11-16, 1915.

    521      |      Vol_IV-0577                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Redshank

            446. Redshank . A rather large Old World scolopacid shore bird, Tringa

    totanus , so called because of its bright red-orange legs and feet. It is,

    generally speaking, grayish brown above, lighter below — especially on the

    throat, belly, and under tail coverts, which are almost white. The bill is

    red-orange at the base, dusky at the tip. In flight the bold clear white

    of the secondaries and rump shows clearly, giving the upper parts a pronounced

    pattern. The tail is light gray, narrowly barred with black. In summer the

    dark and light parts of the plumage contrast sharply. The spotting of the

    foreneck, breast, and sides is very noticeable, and the light edgings of the

    upper parts have so worn off that only the dark median portions of the feathers

    remain. The bird is 11 inches long. It is neither so large nor so tall as the

    greenshank ( Tringa nebularis ), which has pale olive green legs and feet.

            The redshank is said to be shy, restless, and noisy. As it feeds it

    proceeds at a brisk walk or run, stopping frequently to “bob” in excitement

    or curiosity. Its best known call note is a musical too , hoo , hoo . When

    startled it flies off yelping loudly. This complaint has been written as

    peep , peep , peep , peep , pit-eep , pit-eep . The flight song is a long series of

    toots or a musical ta-wee-o , ta-wee-o , ta-wee-o which is repeated about five

    times — sometimes in ordinary flight, sometimes when, on set wings, the bird

    glides downward ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            The redshank’s summer habitat is grassy marshes and wet tundra, usually

    at low elevations. The species breeds more or less throughout Europe (including

    the British Isles, the Faeroes, and Iceland) northward to latitude 71° N. in

    Scandinavia, but to lower latitudes in Finland and Russia, and only to 58° in

    the Urals. Iceland birds belong to the race robusta , which is believed to be

    at least partly nonmigratory. The birds of northern continental Europe belong

    522      |      Vol_IV-0578                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Redshank and Rock Sandpipe [r ?]

    to the race robusta , which is believed to be at least partly nonmigratory.

    The birds of northern continental Europe belong to the nominate race;

    those of southern Europe and the British Isles to bewickii . Asiatic

    birds ( eurhinus ) do not breed northward nearly to the Arctic Circle

    (Pleske does not list the species in his Birds of the Eurasian Tundra ).

    The species’ winter range overlaps the breeding range to some extent, its

    southern limits being northern Africa, southern India, Ceylon, Celebes,

    the Philippines, and Japan. The redshank has been reported from Greenland,

    the Murman Coast and (possibly) Kolguev.

            The nest is unlike that of many shore birds in that it is usually well

    hidden in a tussock of grass, with an entrance at one side and an inter–

    lacing of grass over the eggs. There may be a correlation between this

    tendency to hide the nest and the comparatively high incidence of light–

    colored, virtually unmarked eggs.

            Reference:

    Huxley, J. S. “A first account of the courtship of the Redshank ( Totanus

    calidris L),” Proc . Zool. Soc. London, 1912, pp. 647-55.

            451. Rock Sandpiper . A stocky, short-legged, middle-sized shore bird,

    Erolia ptilocnemis , found in extreme northeastern Siberia and on islands

    and coasts of the North Pacific. It closely resembles the purple sandpiper

    ( Erolia maritima ), and by some ornithologists is considered conspecific with

    that bird. In winter and during migrations it usually goes about in flocks,

    often in company with the black turnstone ( Arenaria melanocephala ) and

    surfbird ( Aphriza virgata ), feeding on slippery tidal rocks rather than on

    523      |      Vol_IV-0579                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rock Sandpiper

    sandy beac g h es or mud flats. A feeding flock does not hesitate to run

    up and down sharply sloping wet surfaces; but the birds sometimes exhibit

    an amusing tendency to run around an obstruction in preference to climb–

    ing or flying over it. As they crowd and jostle in choosing the course

    which offers the least in the way of resistance and the most in the way

    of food they seem almost to flow along. Encountering a small tidal pool,

    they do not hesitate to swim through it, crowding each other as they hurry

    for the farther side, climb out, and start feeding again.

            In winter pumage the rock sandpiper is dark bluish slate-color, with

    whitish chin, distinct white wing bar, white lateral upper tail coverts,

    and whitish belly and under tail coverts. In flight the general effect

    of the upper parts is dark, though the white lateral tail coverts show

    indistinctly. At this season the species is almost indistinguishable

    from the purple sandpiper. In summer, however, the plumage on the head

    and upper part of the body is edged with rufous and there is a big dark

    spot in the middle of the lower breast. The legs and feet are dull yellow

    at all seasons.

            While feeding, the rock sandpiper’s call note is a mellow clu - clu - clu .

    On the wing it cries tweo-tweo-tweo (Nelson). On its tundra nesting ground

    the males are very active and noisy. In displaying they fly 30 or 40 feet

    above the ground, hovering for a time, then “fluttering down while pouring

    out a delightful twittering song” (Bent). Stejneger speaks of the species’

    loud “bleating,” which impressed him as being much like that of the common

    shipe ( Capella gallinago ). Some of the call notes have been likened to

    those of the upland plover ( Bartramia longicauda ).

            The nest is a hollow in the moss, 3 inches across, 2 inches deep, and

    524      |      Vol_IV-0580                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rock Sandpiper

    lined with dead leaves, a few straws, and feathers (Bent). The eggs (4)

    are olive buff, boldly marked, chiefly about the larger end, with dark

    browns of various shades. Both sexes incubate the eggs and care for the

    young. The independent observations of Turner, Bent, and Bailey indicate

    that the male does the greater part of the incubating. When one bird is

    on the nest the mate is usually far away (Hanna). The downy young is

    like that of the purple sandpiper but can easily be recognized “by its

    warmer and richer browns” (Bent). The fine silver-white dotting on the

    upper parts is extremely beautiful.

            The rock sandpiper breeds only on islands and coasts of the North

    Pacific. The southern limits of its breeding range are the middle Kurils,

    the Alaska Peninsula, the Shumagins, and the Aleutians. The northernmost

    of the five races, Erolia ptilocnemis tschuktschorum (northern rock sand–

    piper), breeds on the northeasternmost tip of Siberia, St. Lawrence Island,

    Nunivak Island, and the Alaska coast from Cape Prince of Wales to Hooper

    Bay, and winters from the Alaska Peninsula southward along the mainland

    coast to Oregon and northern S C alifornia, and also from Kamchatka (probably)

    and the Komandorskis south to the middle Kurils. E. ptilocnemis coudsi

    (Aleutian rock sandpiper) is resident in the Aleutians, the Shumagins,

    and the Alaska Peninsula, intergrading with tschuktchorum on the Alaska

    Peninsula. E. ptilocnemis ptilocnemis (Pribilof rock sandpiper) breeds

    on the Pribilofs, Hall, and St. Matthew. It is migratory, but its winter

    range has not been ascertained. E. ptilocnemis quarta breeds in the

    Komandorskis and is probably resident there, though it has been taken

    once at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska (Bailey, 1948, Birds of Arctic Alaska ,

    p. 215). E. ptilocnemis Kurilensis is resident in the northern and middle

            Reference:

    Hanna, G. D. “The Pribilof Sandpiper,” Condor , vol. 23, pp. 50-57, 1921.

    525      |      Vol_IV-0581                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ruff:

            453. Ruff . A middle-sized shore bird, Philomachus pugnax , which

    is in many respects the most remarkable species of the family Scolopacidae.

    It is called the ruff because of the excessively long head and neck feathers

    of the male’s breeding plumage. The female is known as the reeve. The male

    is 11 to 12 inches long, the female much smaller (8 1/2 to 10 inches). In

    winter the sexes are much alike in color, being brown above, and pale ashy

    brown on the breast (warmer brown below in younger birds). At this season

    the ruff looks something like the redshank ( Tringa totanus ) but is shorter–

    billed and shorter-legged; has a narrow white wing bar; and has an oval white

    patch on each side of the dark middle of the tail. The female does not

    change greatly with the coming of spring, but the male’s new, brightly

    colored ear tufts turn him almost into a monstrosity. This long plumage

    is black, white, purple, chestnut, or buff in varying combinations — some–

    times boldly streaked, sometimes barred. The back also varies greatly,

    sometimes being brown or black, or brown and black; sometimes brown or

    chestnut boldly spotted with black; sometimes black or brown, barred and

    vermiculated finely with light gray. The breast and flanks usually are black.

    The bill is flesh-colored or yellow at the base, brownish black otherwise.

    The featherless parts of the face are brown, red, yellow, or orange. Even

    the legs and feet are variable (green, orange-yellow, bright orange, yellow–

    brown, or flesh-color). The iris is dark brown.

            The ruff feeds largely at night, In winter the sexes tend to flock

    separately. There are more females than males and the species is polygamous.

    The males have special display hillocks on which they strut and fight, and

    to which the females come. The fighting is more a matter of posture and

    526      |      Vol_IV-0582                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ruffand Rufous-necked Sandpiper

    and threat than of bloodshed. Display consists of scuttling about with

    head and neck horizontal, bill pointed slightly upward, ruff expanded,

    and wings spread and fluttering; stopping suddenly, crouching with bill

    touching the ground, wings half spread, ruff spread, and tail spread

    and bent down; shaking the feathers and quivering the spread wings and

    tail. After such a display, the male may rest or fly about excitedly,

    perhaps with other males, but there is no display flight and no special

    song. Indeed, the ruff is a very quiet bird, its loudest note being a

    teu-i-toi given occasionally in flight during migration.

            Along the north edge of its range the ruff breeds on the tundra,

    selecting a somewhat sheltered, preferably grassy, spot in which they place

    the nest. Where the grass is deep the nest is usually well hidden. The

    4 eggs are pale gray, buff, or green, boldly spotted and blotched with

    deep brown and ashy gray, chiefly at the larger end. Only the female

    incubates. The incubation period is 21 days. The downy young is deep,

    rich brown above, pinkish buff below and on the face, finely dotted with

    pale buff on the crown and upper part of the body.

            For details concerning the ruff’s distribution, see Philomachus .

            454. Rufous-necked Sandpiper . A small shore bird, Erolia ruficollis ,

    called also the red-throated stint and eastern little stint, the latter by

    those who believe it to be a race of E. minuta . It is almost 6 inches long;

    is somewhat heavier-billed than E. minuta ; has a double-forked tail (i.e.,

    the 2 middle feathers are longest and the 2 outermost the next longest); is

    very pale gray above and white below in winter; and is plain cinnamon-rufous

    on the chin, throat, and foreneck in the breeding season. The bill and feet

    are black.



    527      |      Vol_IV-0583                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rufous-necked Sandpiper

            In winter it goes about in flocks, frequenting mud flate along with

    other shore birds (MAyr). It migrates through eastern Siberia (including

    the Lake Baikal area), Kamchatka, and the Kamchatka, and the Komandorskis,

    and winters from China and Japan south to Burma, the Andaman and Nicobar

    islands, the Philippines, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia (Peters).

    It is, apparently, a numerous species and presumably breeds over a rather

    wide area in northern Asia. Bunge, who collected a specimen on Sagastyr,

    at the mouth of the Lena, in 1884, believed that it bred commonly there

    and in the New Siberian Archipelago (see Dresser, Ibis , 1908, p. 489).

    But Pleske, who informs us that Bunge collected minuta on Sagastyr in 1883,

    believes that ruficollis is only casual or accidental in that area (see

    Pleske Birds of the Eurasian Tundra , 1928, p. 252). Pleske states that

    ruficollis has also been recorded along the east coast of the Taimyr

    Peninsula at latitude 76° 40′ N.; at Dzhenretlen on the north coast of the

    Yana. So far as is actually known, the species breeds only in extreme

    northeastern Siberia (Cape Serdtse Kamen, and Providence Bay) and extreme

    western Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales), but it may also breed on the shores

    of the Sea of Okhotsk and along the arctic coast of Siberia from the mouth

    of the Kolyma River eastward. If its breeding range actually [ ?]

    complements that of minuta , it may well be a race of that species; if, however,

    minuta and ruficollis should be discovered breeding side by side in the New

    Siberian Archipelago or at the mouth of the Lena, we would be obliged to

    accept that as proof that both were full species.

            Alfred M. Bailey, who has described nests found in the Cape Prince of

    Wales region of Alaska, and who watched a pair of building a nest, says

    nothing about the species’ displays or flight songs. (1948, Birds of Arctic

    528      |      Vol_IV-0584                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rufous-necked Sandpiper and Sanderling

    Alaska , pp. 218-219). Bunge’s report that the birds flew “continually

    backwards and forwards, fluttering like Bats, and uttering an uninterrupted

    shrill chirring note” [quotation from Dresser, not from Bunge] may or may

    not have applied to ruficollis .

            Ruficollis has been reported from the Kurils, Sakhalin, the Pribilofs,

    and Wainwright, Alaska.

            455. Sanderling . A middle-sized scolopacid shore bird, Crocethia alba ,

    notable for having only three toes. It is somewhat chunky, but very active.

    It follows the waves as they retreat, and runs nimbly away from them as they

    return, probing for sand fleas which burrow energetically as the water drains

    away. It is about 8 inches long. In winter it is very white on the head and

    under parts (gray on the upper part of the body). In all plumages the flash–

    ing white wing bar is a good field mark. In breeding plumage the whole head,

    neck, breast, and upper part of the body has a speckled, strongly reddish

    appearance, while the belly and under tail coverts are white. The bill,

    legs, and feet are black. The eyes are dark brown.

            The usual call note is a shrill, though not very loud, kip or twick ,

    which becomes a twitter as the flock flies up, wheels sharply, settles, and

    starts to feed. The song of the male on the breeding ground is a loud,

    shrill, unmusical trrr , trrr , trrr (Walter). THe performing bird rises on

    rapidly beating wings to a height of about 10 feet; makes a short, steep,

    downward flight; sings; then rises to repeat the downward flight and song,

    or circles and alights.

            The sanderling usually nests inland some distance from salt water in

    dry tundra country throughout which the vegetation is thin and scattered.

    529      |      Vol_IV-0585                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sanderling

    The nest proper is a nest hollow about 2 1/2 inches deep and 3 1/2 inches

    across at the edge of a clump of saxifrage, dwarf birch, or Dryas . Usually

    it is well filled with dry leaves. The eggs, which number 4, are dull

    greenish olive (sometimes olive brown; rarely g reenish blue), rather sparsely

    marked with small brown and gray spots, principally (sometimes solely) at

    the larger end. Male birds have been shot as they left nests, but the female

    probably assists with incubation. The downy young is buffy brown above,

    white below, finely marked with black on the face and dotted with white on

    the crown and upper part of the body.

            For details concerning the sanderling’s distribution, see Crocethia .

            Reference:

    Clarke, W. E. “The chicks of the Sanderling,” British Birds vol.3, pp.33-34,

    1909.

            457. Scolopacidae. A large family of charadriiform birds commonly known

    as [woodchuck ?] woodcocks, snipes, dowitchers, sandpipers, peeps, curlews, godwits, and

    turnstones, all of which normally stand, walk, and run with body horizontal

    and neck somewhat drawn in. Most of them are soft-plumaged and more or less

    long-legged and long-billed. The size range is considerable, some of the

    stints being very small (about 5 inches long), some curlews large and tall

    (as much as 2 feet long and 18 inches tall). While most of the Scolopacidae

    spend much of their time near water, some of them (e.g., the Bartramian

    sandpiper or upland plover) almost never feed or nest along the shore; others

    (e.g., the woodcocks) never feed in the open but probe for worms and the like

    in moist places in the woods; and others (e.g., the curlews) inhabit beaches

    530      |      Vol_IV-0586                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Scolopacidae

    or mud flats in winter and during migration but in summer repair to open

    plains or tundra sometimes far removed from water. Species which nest

    in wooded country often perch on treetops, especially when scolding.

            All scolopacids are incluned to be gregarious except during the

    breeding season. Some species usually flock by themselves, but others

    mingle extensively, and it is interesting that these mixed flocks ordinarily

    react (i.e., take alarm and fly off, wheel quickly in flight, or ascent to

    mill about a falcon) as if they were all of the very same species. The

    larger forms may, perforce, move a little more slowly than the smaller; but

    the almost simultaneous twisting and turning of the great masses of birds is

    extremely impressive. These mixed flocks often number hundreds, if not

    thousands, of birds. Their feeding habits along the coast is to some extent

    determined by the comings and goings of the tide. During certain periods

    they feed at night and sleep by day. A flock of drowsy shore birds is an

    interesting phenomenon. The birds face the wind, stick their bills under

    their scapulars, draw one leg up into the plumage of the flanks or belly,

    and sleep. Whether or not there is an appointed watchman, they usually waken

    when danger threatens, open their eyes, take stock of the situation, and fly

    off in haste if necessary; or, if the “enemy” is only a man with a binocular —

    they hop, one-legged, to a safe distance, half-shut their eyes, stick their

    bills into their scapulars, and go to sleep once more.

            On their breeding grounds many scolopacids are very noisy and conspicuous

    while giving courtship displays and defending their nest territories. I

    recall in this connection a male red-backed sandpiper or dunlin ( Erolia alpina )

    which happened to have lost one leg. This bird in his plain, gray winter

    plumage must have been a meek, nondescript little creature at best; but in

    531      |      Vol_IV-0587                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Scolopacidae

    his bright Southampton Island summer dress he was an entity, a positive

    and very dominant entity, as he circled back and forth on quivering wings;

    gave his musical, rolling cry; chased off a long-tailed jaeger which came

    by; and sank to his belly long enough to stretch his one leg.

            Some ornithologists are of the opinion that all shore birds (i.e.,

    the plovers, as well as the sandpipers, curlews, and other birds mentioned

    above) belong in the same family. But P. R. Lowe has shown that there is

    a sound osteological basis for regarding the two groups as distinct. As

    has also been pointed out, certain well-defined color patterns are [ ?] found

    repeatedly among the plovers (e.g., the ring round the neck) which are not

    found among the Scolopacidae at all.

            Four subfamilies of the Scolopacidae are now in use: the Tringinae

    (curlews, godwits, and their allies); the Arenariinae (turnstones and

    surfbirds); the Scolopacinae (dowitchers, snipes, and woodcocks); and

    Eroliinae (the peeps and other small sandpipers, including the ruff). Many

    of these birds nest almost exclusively in the Arctic or Subarctic, but

    none of them is arctic in the sense that the willow ptarmigan ( Lagopus

    lagopus ) is, for they migrate long distances, some of them to the Southern

    Hemisphere. The fact that they spend comparatively little time in the North

    leads us to wonder what their true “home” is. Obviously the Arctic is

    important to them. Were it not, why should they make the long, perilous

    journeys back and forth?

            Tringinae. Of the 10 genera of this subfamily, two have (or have had)

    very restricted ranges — the extinct [ ?] P [ ?]rosobonia of the Society Islands;

    and Aechmorhynchus , which is represented today by the odd, plainly colored

    little bird, A. parvirostris of the Tuamotu (Paumotu) Archipelago. All the

    532      |      Vol_IV-0588                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Scolopacidae

    other genera range much more widely, though Xenus (1 species) is found

    only in the Old World, and Bartramia (1 species) and Catoptrophorus

    (1 species) only in the New. Numenius (curlews; 8 species), Limosa

    (godwits; 4 species), Tringa (redshank and allies; 9 species), Actitis

    (common and spotted sandpipers), and Heteroscelus (wandering and Polynesian

    tattlers) inhabit both the Old World and the New. Of the above-mentioned

    genera, Numenius, Limosa , Tringa , and Xenus range well into the Arctic;

    Bartramia and Actitis range northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly

    beyond; and Heteroscelus breeds in the New World above timber line in

    mountains not far south of the Arctic Circle. The nest and eggs of the

    Polynesian tattler ( Heteroscelus brevipes ), which probably breeds in the

    mountains of eastern Siberia, have never been found.

            Arenariinae. There are but two genera in this subfamily; Aphriza

    (surfbird), which breeds in the mountains of southern Alaska and winters

    southward along the Pacific coast of the Americas to the Strait of Magellan;

    and Arenaria (turnstones; 2 species). Arenaria is holarctic in distribution

    and very wide-ranging, especially in winter.

            Scolopacinae. The distribution of the seven genera comprising this

    subfamily is extremely interesting. Only two of them — Limnodromus

    (dowitchers; 2 species) and Capella (snipes; 12 to 13 species) — are found

    in both the Old and New Worlds, and both of these range well northward.

    Capella breeds also in South America, Africa, and Madagascar. Scolopax

    (Old World woodcocks; 4 species) and Lymnocryptes (Old World jack snipe;

    1 species) are found only in the Old World but both range northward to the

    Arctic Circle and somewhat beyond. Philohela (American woodcock; 1 species)

    is confined to North America and breeds no farther north than southern Canada.

    533      |      Vol_IV-0589                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Scolopacidae and Scolopax

    Of the remaining two genera, Chubbia (giant snipes; 3 species) is confined

    to the highlands of South America and the Falklands; and Coenocorph s a (1 species

    with several races) is found only in New Zealand, the Chathams, the Auklands,

    the Snares, and Antipodes.

            Eroliinae. All nine genera of this subfamily breed in the Arctic.

    Four of them inhabit both the New World and the Old; Calidris (knots;

    2 species); Crocethia (sanderling; 1 species), Ereunetes (semipalamted

    and western sandpipers; 2 species), and Erolia (stints and allies; 13 species).

    Three are found only in the Old World; Eurynorhynchus (spoonbill sandpiper;

    1 species), Limicola (broad-billed sandpiper; 1 species) and Philomachus

    (ruff; 1 species). Two are found only in the New World; Micropalama (stilt

    sandpiper; 1 species) and Tryngites (buff-breasted sandpiper; 1 species).

            458. Scolopax . A genus of rather large Old World snipelike birds known

    as woodcocks, all of which are long-billed, short-legged, large-eyed, and

    more or less nocturnal. The sexes are colored alike. The bill resembles

    that of Capella (“true” snipes) in that it is flexible. It is equipped with

    muscles just back of the tip, hence somewhat prehensible. The eye is high

    and far back in the head, the skull correspondingly reduced above and

    behind, and the ear “moved foreward” to below the front edge of the orbit.

    The sternum has to incisions or “notiches,” as in Capella . The wings are

    proportionately shorter and more rounded than in Capella . [ ?]

    The tail, which has 12 feathers, is short and rounded. The middle pair of

    rectrices are slightly upturned. The tibia is wholly feathered. The toes

    are long and without webbing. The hind toe, while well developed, has a

    very small claw. Scolopax is larger than most species of Capella.



    534      |      Vol_IV-0590                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Scolopaz

            The woodcocks probe for their food. They live in woodland rather than

    in marshes, and feed in moist earth along the borders of swamps. They do

    not flock, though in late summer family groups feed together. Only the

    northernmost species ( S. rusticola ) is migratory, and even this species

    is sedentary in parts of its range. So dependent is Scolopax upon moist

    earth in which it can probe for food, that it cannot live where the ground

    freezes hard for long periods in winter. The genus ranges northward to

    latitude 69° 30′ N. in Scandinavia; 66° 30′ in Finland, 66° in Russia, 62°

    in the Ural Mountains, and to slightly lower latitudes across Siberia to

    the valley of the Amur, Japan, Sakhalin, and the Ryukyu Islands. It has

    been recorded at least twice in Spitsbergen; casually in Iceland and the

    Faeroes; and once in Greenland.

            Of the four species, that just referred to is the only one confined

    to the Northern Hemisphere. Of the other three species one ( saturata ) is

    found in the mountains of Sumatra, Java, and New Guinea; another ( celebensis )

    is confined to Celebes; and the third ( rochussenii ) is known only from the

    island of Obi in the Moluccas.

            The American woodcock ( Philohela minor ) does not [ ?] range northward

    even into the southernmost fringes of the Subarctic, though it has been

    reported once from southern Labrador. Philohela is a monotypic genus in

    which the under parts are plain (unbarred) and the three outermost primaries

    are excessively narrowed.

            See Woodcock.



    535      |      Vol_IV-0591                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Semipalmated Sandpiper

            460. Semipalmated Sandpiper . A very small scolopacid shore bird,

    Ereunetes pusillus , which closely resembled certain other small “peeps.”

    Since it is found almost exclusively in the New World, it is most likely

    to be confused with the western sandpiper ( Ereunetes mauri ), which has

    almost exactly the same coloration in winter ( not in summer ) but is

    almost always longer-billed; and with the least sandpiper ( Erolia minutilla ),

    which has a slenderer and slightly decurved bill; greenish (rather than black)

    legs and feet; and (usually) more rufous upper parts (especially the scapulars

    and tertials). Least sandpipers in fresh fall plumage are usually easy to

    identify because they are so very rufous above; but some semipalmated

    sandpipers, especially young birds in first winterplumage, also have a good

    deal of rufous on the crown and upper part of the body; and in summer when

    featherwear and fading give both the semipalmated and the least sandpipers

    a rather nondescript appearance, they are sometimes quite difficult to tell

    apart in the field. This has led to the F f ar-from-correct assumption that

    wherever the one species is found in the North, the other is also. On

    Southampton Island, where the semipalmated sandpiper nested abundantly in

    the summer of 1930, I never once saw the least sandpiper. The least sand–

    piper is, in fact, a definitely more southern bird, insofar as its breeding

    range is concerned, though there are many areas, especially on the continent,

    where the two species nest regularly side by side.

            The s e mipalmated sandpiper is about 5 1/2 inches long. The bill is

    straight and has a slightly heavy or stubby appearance in life which it

    does not have when shrivelled and dried. Adults in summer and winter are

    gray above and white below, with dark centers in the feathers of the upper

    parts, and some streaking on the chest, especially in summer. Young birds

    536      |      Vol_IV-0592                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Semipalmated Sandpiper and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

    in first winter plumage are browner in tone above, but almost pure white

    below. The rump and upper tail coverts are black in the middle, white

    at each side.

            The usual call note is a gentle, rolling cher or cherk . During

    display flight the male cries ree , ree , ree over and over as he fans

    the air rapidly with his wings, circling far above the ground. The nest

    is a cup in the moss, sometimes among dwarf willows or birches, and

    well lined with small leaves. Both the male and female build it and incu–

    bate [ ?] the eggs (4), which are olive buff or olive brown, spotted with gray

    and sepia. The incubation period is about 18 days (Southampton Island). The

    downy young is brown and black above, buffy white on the face and below (this

    tone is sometimes stronger on the throat and breast than on the belly), with

    beautiful buffy spotting on the crown, back, and wings.

            For details of the semipalmated sandpiper’s distribution, see Ereunetes .

            461. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper . A middle-sized Old World shore bird,

    Erolia acuminata , so called because all its tail feathers are rather sharply

    pointed. It is sometimes called the Siberian pectoral sandpiper, a mislesding

    name since the true pectoral sandpiper ( Erolia melanotos ) also breeds in

    Siberia.

            The sharp-tailed sandpiper is 6 to 7 inches long. It resembles the

    pectoral sandpiper, but in breeding plumage its whole throat, foreneck, chest

    sides, and flanks are heavily spotted and v-marked with dusky, even the under

    tail coverts having dark stresks. The chest streaking does not end abruptly,

    forming a definite band or zone, as it does in the pectoral sandpiper. The

    upper parts are reddish brown in tone, the feathers being black medially,

    537      |      Vol_IV-0593                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

    rufous on the edges. There is a fairly distinct white superciliary line.

    The middle rump feathers and upper tail coverts are black, but the lateral

    ones are white. Young birds lack the heavy spotting and v-marking of the

    under parts and are sometimes quite buffy on the chest, but resemble the

    adults otherwise. Stejneger says that the legs and feet of birds in first

    winter plumage are yellowish olive.

            The sharp-tailed sandpiper’s habitat and feeding behavior are much like

    those of the pectoral sandpiper. Nelson, who encountered it in some numbers

    in northeastern Siberia, observed it feeding among reindeer tracks in damp

    grass flats near the coast. The birds were “scattered singly over the march.”

    When flushed, they “made off with a twisting flight, uttering at the same

    time a short, soft, metallic pleep, pleep.”

            The species breeds, presumably, from the Lena River eastward. Buturlin

    recorded it as a migrant at the mouth of the Lena and expressed his belief

    that it nested in the valleys of the Alazeya and the Indigirka. Amory

    obtained it at the mouth of the Kolyma. Peters states that it “breeds on

    the Chuckchi Peninsula,” but its actual breeding range is probably far more

    extensive than that. Its nest and eggs have never been found. It migrates

    through much of Siberia (west as far as Yeniseisk), Japan, Sakhalin, eastern

    China, the Philippines (Java, casually), and along the west coast of Alaska

    (chiofly Kotzebue and Norton sounds). It has been reported from Unalaska, the

    Pribilofs (Mailliard and Hanna), the British Columbia coast, Washington,

    California, the Hawaiians, and Guatemala. It winters from New Guinea, New

    Caledonia, and the Tonga Islands southward to Australia, Tasmania, and (rarely)

    New Zealand. It is especially abundant in Australia.



    538      |      Vol_IV-0594                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spoon-billed Sandpiper

            466. Spoon-billed Sandpiper . A remarkable small scolopacid shore bird,

    Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus , so named because the tip of its bill is widened

    into a flat “spoon” from 1/4 to almost 1/2 inch wide. So striking is this

    bill shape that one would suppose field identification to be easy; yet

    those who have seen the bird alive report that it does not swing its head

    from side to side in feeding, nor go through any peculiar scooping or skimming

    motions, and that, oddly enough, the bill looks much like that of other

    shore birds because it is almost always seen in full profile. When the

    birds are flying or running about rapidly, the broad bill tip does reflect

    light in such a way as to attract attention, however, especially when wet.

    This is perhaps the best field mark for the species, which somewhat resembles

    the little stint ( Erolia minuta ) in color and feeding behavior.

            In winter the spoon-billed sandpiper is, generally speaking, dark gray

    above and white below, the rump and upper tail coverts being grayish black

    in the middle and white at either side. In summer it is rusty brown all

    over the head, neck, and upper breast; the lower breast is white, spotted

    with black; the belly and under tail coverts are white; and the feathers of

    the upper parts are black, edged with rusty. The bill, legs, and feet are

    black.

            In winter and on migration the species frequents beaches and mud flats

    along with other shore birds. In summer, however, its favorite feeding grounds

    are the grassy margins of tundra ponds and river mouths. On its nest territory

    it performs serial display flights in which it sings from one position while

    hovering or letting itself downward on fluttering wings, then swoops over

    the nest; mounts to hover and sing again; and so on. The song has been

    described as cicada-like in quality. Dixon has written it as z e é e é -e-e-e ,

    539      |      Vol_IV-0595                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spoon-billed Sandpiper

    ze e é -e-e-e , ze e é -e-e-e . The male is alleged to give these flight songs;

    but since the male is known to incubate the eggs and take care of the

    young by himself, we cannot help wondering whether it is the larger and

    more brightly colored female which performs the serial displays. To

    determine this, a bird should be collected while performing.

            The male excavates the nest-cup, lining it with small leaves. The

    nest is usually more or less sheltered by grass. The eggs, which normally

    number 4, are buffy brown, rather finely spotted with darker brown, chiefly

    at the larger end. The incubation period is about 18 to 20 days (Dixon).

    The newly hatched young, which is beautifully patterned with brown, black,

    and buffy white above, and plain buffy below, can be identified at once

    by the spoon-shaped bill .

            The spoon-billed sandpiper breeds only at the easternmost tip of Siberia,

    on the Chukotsk Peninsula, so far as is known. Nests which have been des–

    cribed have been in open tundra on rather high ground and not far inland

    from the coast. The species migrates along the east coast of Asia and

    winters “in southern China, Hainan and casually to Tenasserim and Arrakan”

    (Peters). It has been recorded once in North America — two specimens

    collected by Granville from a flock of about 10 not far north of

    Wainwright, Alaska, on August 15, 1941.

            References:

    1. Dixon, Joseph. “The nesting grounds and nesting habits of the

    Spoon-billed Sandpiper,” Auk vol. 35, pp. 387-404, 1918. 2. Thayer, John E. “Eggs of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper ( Eurynorhynchus

    pygmeus ),” Auk vol. 28, pp. 153-55, 1911. (With color plates

    showing eggs and downy young.)

    540      |      Vol_IV-0596                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spotted Sandpiper

            469. Spotted Sandpiper . A common New World scolopacid shore bird,

    Actitis macularia , known widely as the peet-weet, tip-up, tilt-up, or

    teeter snipe because of the constant up-and-down motion of the rear

    part of the body. It is very similar to, and may be conspecific with

    the common sandpiper ( Actitis hypoleucos ) of the Old World. Baby spotted

    sandpipers just out of the eggs lie quietly in their nests for a short

    while, but by the time their down is thoroughly dry they get to their

    feet, take a few hesitant steps, and begin their teetering. So much a

    part of them is this somewhat comical behavior that it continues in the rest

    of their lives — never ceasing save when they fly or go to sleep.

            The spotted sandpiper is about 7 1/2 inches long. It is brownish

    gray (glossed with green) above, and white below. A white superciliary

    line is fairly distinct. In flight a white bar in each wing and the white

    of the tail edge and tail tip are noticeable. The legs and feet are grayish

    flesh-color. The bill is dusky at the tip, straw yellow at the base. In

    summer the upper parts are flecked and barred with dusky and the lower

    parts neatly spotted with black. The winter plumage is similar in general

    effect (i.e., dark above and light below) but almost wholly without dark

    markings. Young birds in their first winter plumage are like winter

    adults but are indefinitely barred above with dusky. Spotted sandpipers

    and Old World common sandpipers ( Actitis hypoleucos ) in first winter

    plumage are very much alike, but in the spotted the throat is plain, while

    in the common it is streaked with grayish brown along the edges.

            The spotted sandpiper frequents the shores of lakes, ponds, and

    streams, nesting among vegetation about 25 to 50 feet from the water’s

    edge, or back some distance in a garden or field. Often it nests on a

    541      |      Vol_IV-0597                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spotted Sandpiper

    low, weed-grown gravel bar. Its best known call note is a shrill, whistled

    west , west , west , uttered as it circles low over the water on widespread,

    somewhat bowed-downward wings. The true courtship song is a series of these

    same cries with little trills before each of them. Thus elaborated, the wong

    might be written prrr-eet , prrr-eet .

            The nest is usually somewhat hidden in grass or under the leaves of

    growing plants. The eggs, which are almost always 4, are pale olive buff,

    spotted and blotched with sepia, gray, chestnut, cinnamon, and lilac. Both

    the male and the female incubate the eggs. Some observers believe that the

    male does most of this work, for males with extensive brood-patches have been

    collected. The incubation period is 20 to 22 days (Theodora Nelson). The

    young are usually brooded by the male. The young can swim fairly well, and

    adults sometimes dive when attacked by a hawk.

            For details concerning the breeding range and color of the downy young,

    see Actitis .

            References:

    1. Hunt, C. J. “Habits of the Spotted Sandpiper ( Actitis macularia ),”

    Wilson Bull . vol. 17, pp. 51-52, 1905. 2. Miller, J. R. and Jean T. “Nesting of the Spotted Sandpiper at

    Detroit, Michigan.” Auk , [ ?] vol.65, pp. 558-67, 1948. 3. Mousley, Henry. “Nesting behaviour of Wilson’s Snipe and Spotted

    Sandpiper,” Auk , vol. 56, pp. 129-33, 1939. 4. Nelson, Theodora. “Growth rate of the Spotted Sandpiper chick with

    notes on nesting habits,” Bird-Banding , vol. 1, pp. 1-13, 1930

    542      |      Vol_IV-0598                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Stilt Sandpiper

            470. Stilt Sandpiper . A slender, not very large shore bird, Micropalama

    himantopus , so called because it is unusually long-legged. In winter and

    on migration, when it mingles freely with other shore birds, it is rather

    like a lesser yellowlegs ( Tringa flavipes ) in general appearance, for it

    is gray above, white on the rump, and very light-tailed. But the slight

    down-curve of its bill is usually apparent; it has a rather distinct white

    superciliary line; its legs and feet are dull green rather than yellow; and

    its call note is not a shrill whistle but a low, soft-voiced keu , or keu-keu.

    The breeding plumage, which is dark all over, is very distinctive. The

    pattern is complex above, but at a distance the whole bird is dark looking.

    A broad rusty-brown streak passes through the eye and ear coverts, and there

    is the same rusty tinge on the rear of the crown. The under parts are grayish

    buff, heavily barred with dusky. The white of the rump is not very conspicu–

    out, though the tail is grayer than the back and wings. The bird is 8 to 9

    inches long, with bill about 1 1/2 inches long.

            At Churchill, Manitoba, where I observed the stilt sandpiper during

    the summer of 1931, I occasionally heard it give a one-syllabled cry which

    reminded me of the peent of the woodcock ( Philohela minor) . I often heard

    the keu , or keu-keu note also. But when the males gave their flight displays

    several yards above the ground, they u e ttered a very strange “song” indeed —

    one which sounded like the braying of tiny donkeys — kee-ho , kee-ho , kee-ho ,

    kee-ho , kee-ho over and over. This they did while circling on rapidly beating

    wings or while hovering. The sound of many birds performing together was

    sometimes ludicrous.

            The nest is a depression in the moss, scantily lined with bits of grass,

    tiny leaves, and strands of lichen. The eggs (4) are olive, handsomely

    543      |      Vol_IV-0599                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Stilt Sandpiper and Surfbird

    blotched with rich dark brown. On June 14, 1931, I watched a female

    making a nest. Later, on two separate occasions, I collected a male bird

    as it left the eggs. So presumably both the male and female incubate. The

    downy young is much like that of most species of Erolia (i.e., the pattern

    of the upper parts is intricate) but it is noticeably long-legged and has

    a little knob at the end of the bill.

            For details of the stilt sandpiper’s distribution, see Micropalama .

            471.1. Surfbird . A stocky, midle-sized shore bird, Aphriza virgata ,

    which lives along the seashore most of the year but deserts the coast

    entirely during its brief nesting season. It is about 10 inches long. It

    is gray, generally speaking, but in flight its tail is conspicuously white

    except for the broad black band at the tip, and a narrow white bar shows in

    each wing. The bill is rather short. The legs and feet are dull yellow. In

    the breeding season the plumage is more boldly marked than in winter. The

    head and neck are now streaked, the under parts white scaled with dusky, the

    scapulars rufous marked with black.

            The species often associated with the black turnstone ( Arenaria interpres )

    except during the nesting season. It likes the wave-washed rocks along the

    outer shoes. Its call note is a “sharp pee-west or key-a-west ” (Peterson).

            The surfbird was described by Gmelin in 1789, but its nesting ground

    remained undiscovered until 1921. That year, in June, O. J. Murie encountered

    a pair and their young on McKinley Creek, a tributary of Middle Fork at

    Fortymile River, on the divide between the Yukon and Tanana rivers in Alaska.

    Murie reported this: “The nesting ground ... is very different from that of

    the Wandering Tattler. The Surf-bird was found on a gentle slope of a high

    544      |      Vol_IV-0600                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Surfbird

    hill, a considerable distance above the timber, where the ground was

    covered with a lumpy growth of mosses, grass, and other low vegetation.”

    The eggs were discovered by G. M. Wright, in May, 1926, on a rocky ridge

    a thousand feet above timber line on Mount McKinley. The nest was in dry

    rocky ground, not “on the wet tundra which was plentiful close by.” The

    eggs (usually 4) are like those “of the falcons, particularly certain eggs

    of the Sparrow Hawk [ Falco sparverius ] and Prairie Falcon” (Dixon).

            The species is known to breed in the high mountains of southern Alaska.

    Since it has been recorded also in the Kotzebue Sound region, it may breed

    in the Baird and De Long Mountains north of the Sound. For further details

    concerning distribution, see Aphriza .

            References:

    1. Dixon, Joseph. “The Surf-bird’s secret,” Condor vol. 29, pp. 3-16, 1927. 2. Murie, O. J. “Nesting records of the Wandering Tattler and Surf-bird in

    Alaska,” Auk vol. 41, pp. 231-37, 1924.

            472. Temminck’s Stint . A very small scolopacid shore bird, Erolia

    temminckii , which breeds across the whole of northern Eurasia. It is 5 1/2

    inches long and is, generally speaking, gray above and white below, with a

    considerable amount of streaking on the foreneck and breast. In summer some

    feathers of its upper parts are rufous-edged, but the most highly colored

    Temminck’s stint is a dull, grayish bird as compared with the little stint

    ( Erolia minuta ) in its bright summer plumage. In Temminck’s stint the outer

    tail feathers are white, but these do not serve as a very good field mark

    partly because the lateral edges of the little stint’s upper tail coverts

    545      |      Vol_IV-0601                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Temminck’s Stint

    also are white. In temminckii the legs and feet are brown, gray, greenish

    gray, yellowish green, or yellow, but never black as in minuta .

            In winter and during migration the Temminck’s stint is a bird of the

    interior. It frequents muddy margins of freshwater streams and ponds

    rather than the beaches and tidal flats of the outer coasts. Often it

    feeds in rather high vegetation. When flushed it utters a “high-pitched

    trilling titter,” which is quite unlike the simple tit , tit , tit of the

    little stint. Its flight is erratic and twisting. Occasionally it towers

    far above ground, and returns to a spot close to that from which it rose.

    The display flight, which it gives on its breeding ground, is a “rising

    and falling in long undulations,” or a “hovering over one spot,” accompanied

    by trilling of 20 to 30 seconds duration (Haviland). The nest is built

    “only in the neighborhood of running water, and then only if the bank ...

    is overgrown with dwarf willow” (Haviland). It is lined with bits of

    grass. The eggs (usually 4) are without gloss. They are green or greenish

    gray when fresh, fading to olive-buff to stone-color, and spotted with

    dark reddish brown. Both sexes incubate. The downy chick is grayer in

    tone than the newly hatched little stint.

            Temminck’s stint breeds from northern Norway, the Murman Coast,

    Kolguev, Vaigach, the Kanin Peninsula, latitude 72° N. on the Yenisei,

    76° 15′ on the west coast of the Taimyr Peninsula (Actinia Bay), the mouth

    of the Lena (Kharaulakh Mountains), and the Arctic Coast of the Chukotsk

    Peninsula, southward to the limits of the subalpine zone. According to

    Pleske, it is a more southern bird than Erolia minuta. It winters in the

    Mediterransan region, northeastern Africa, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Ceylon,

    Burma, the Malay Peninsula, China, and Japan (Peters).

            References:

    1. Haviland, M. D. “Notes on the breeding-habits of Temminck’s Stint,”

    British Birds vol. 10, pp. 157-65, 1916. 2. Southern, H. N., and Lewis, W. A. S. “The breeding behaviour of

    Temminck’s Stint,” British Birds vol. 31, pp. 314-21, 1938.

    546      |      Vol_IV-0602                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Terek Sandpiper

            474. Terek Sandpiper . A small scolopacid shore bird, Xenus (or Terekia )

    cinereus , with long, slender, upturned bill. It is about 9 inches long

    and is rather robust and short-legged. Its behavior is similar to that

    of the common sandpiper ( Actitis hypoleucos ) and spotted sandpiper ( A.macu –

    laria ), for it “bobs” or “tips” its whole body while standing or feeding.

    It is brownish gray above, white below, with dusky streaking on the fore–

    neck and breast. The streaking and patterning of the summer plumage is

    more definite than that of winter. In most summer specimens the dark

    centers of the scapular feathers are so exposed by wear that the back

    seems to have two converging black stripes. The bill is dusky, with dull

    orange base. The legs and feet are orange.

            The species’ winter call note is a sort of trill. The note of the

    displaying bird on the nesting ground is something like koo-vi-trie .

    The note of alarm of protest is koo-lick or cur-lick . The display flight

    involves an oblique ascent to a considerable height, a few moments of hover–

    ing, and a slanting descent on motionless wings. The species nests near

    rivers, on little islands in fresh water, sometimes in deltas where there

    is a dense growth of willows (Jourdain). The eggs are usually four. The

    are olive buff or stone buff, spotted and blotched with sepia. Birds collected

    as they flew from nests along the Yenisei were all males (Popham). The

    incubation period has not been ascertained.

            For details of the Terek sandpiper’s distribution, see Xenus .

            Reference:

    Parkin, Thomas. “The Terek Sandpiper in Kent,” British Birds vol. 6,

    pp. 74-77, 1912. (Includes material on distribution of

    species.)

    547      |      Vol_IV-0603                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tringa

            476. Tringa . A scolopacid shore bird genus for which there is no

    adequate common name because of difference in opinion as to which birds

    belong to it. Some ornithologists place the redshank, dusky redshank,

    greenshank, marsh sandpiper, and greater and lesser yellowshanks (Yellow–

    legs in North America) in the genus Totanus ; the wood sandpiper in the

    monotypic genus Rhyacophilus ; and the Armstrong’s sandpiper in the mono–

    typic genus Pseudototanus . There are reasons for such a classification,

    of course; but these several forms and the green and solitary sandpipers

    are much alike in proportions, behavior, color pattern and internal anatomy,

    so placing them all together in Tringa seems entirely justifiable.

            As thus conceived, Tringa has a long, straight or slightly upturned

    bill, both mandibles of which have clearly defined grooves running the full

    length of the basal half, and a hard, slightly decurved tip. The base of

    the bill is soft. The tarsus is long, especially in the larger species,

    and finely scutellated both in front and behind. The hind toe is well

    developed. The basal webbing is noticeable between the middle and outer

    front toes, not noticeable between the middle and inner ones. The wings

    are long and pointed, the outermost “developed” primary being the longest.

    The tail is almost square, the middle pair of rectrices being a little

    longer than the others. No species has a white bar in the spread wing,

    but all have a considerable amount of white in the tail (some also in the

    rump and upper fail coverts).

            Throughout the genus the number of eggs is usually 4 and these are

    pyriform; brown, buff, or olive in ground color; and spotted and blotched

    with darker colors chiefly at the larger end. Most species nest on the

    ground, but some forms nest in trees, laying their eggs in the old nests

    548      |      Vol_IV-0604                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tringa

    of other birds. In several species both sexes are known to incubate, though

    the female is believed to do the greater part. The incubation period is about

    3 weeks (20 to 24 days), more rather than less in the larger species. The

    downy chick is plain grayish white below, beautifully patterned in buff and

    black above.

            There are nine species, only one of which, Tringa ochropus , is found

    in both the New and Old Worlds. This statement needs explanation. All bird

    books in use today consider the green sandpiper of the Old World and the

    solitary sandpiper of the New World as distinct species; but there is no more

    reason, apparently, for regarding them as separate than there is for regard–

    ing the whimbrel and Hudsonian curlew as separate. In both sets of forms

    the Old World bird is white on the rump and upper tail coverts, the New World

    form dark throughout the rump and upper tail coverts. The green and solitary

    sandpipers have the same interesting nesting habits, the same sharply

    whistled call notes, the same mannerisms in feeding. For a fuller discussion

    of this conspecificity, see Green Sandpiper.

            Of the nine species only two — the greater yellowshank or yello w legs

    ( T. melanoleucus ) and the march sandpiper ( T. stagnatilis ) — are believed

    to breed wholly to the south of the Arctic Circle. The breeding ground of

    the Armstrong’s yellowshank or sandpiper ( T. guttifer ) is not fully known.

    It has been found nesting in Sakhalin. Since it regularly migrates through

    Kamchatka and along the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, it probably nests also

    in eastern Siberia north of those districts. The whole group is confined to

    the Northern Hemisphere in summer, but all forms save possibly the Iceland

    redshank ( T. totanus robusta ) are distinctly migratory, and the genus is

    widely scattered through far southern lands in winter.

            See Dusky Redshank, Redshank, Greenshank, Lesser Yellowlegs, Armstrong’s

    Yellowshank, Green Sandpiper, and Wood Sandpiper.



    549      |      Vol_IV-0605                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tryngites

            477. Tryngites . The monotypic genus to which the buff-breasted sand–

    piper ( T. subruficollis ) belongs. Tryngites is similar to Bartramia ( Bartremian

    sandpiper or upland plover) in that ( 1 ) the head is small; ( 2 ) the summer and

    winter plumages are almost exactly the same; ( 3 ) the first winter plumage is

    very similar to that of the adult; and ( 4 ) the habitat is prairies and upland

    plains. The downy chick is, however, quite different from that of Bartramia .

    The very fine spotting of its upper parts is reminiscent of that of newly

    hatched Erolia .

            In Tryngites the male is conspicuously larger than the female — a sexual

    dimorphism which seems to be the exception rather than the rule among the

    Scolopacidae, but which we find also in Erolia melanotos (pectoral sandpiper),

    Erolia acuminata (sharp-tailed sandpiper), and Philomachus pugnax (ruff). In

    all four of these birds the male departs from the nesting ground early, leaving

    the female to care for the young.

            In Tryngites the bill is much shorter than the tarsus. The bare portion

    of the tibia is about half as long as the tarsus, so the bird stands rather

    high, though skins usually have a chunky appearance, and the neck certainly

    is shortish in the living bird. The tail is rounded or wedge-shaped, the

    middle feathers being longer than the rest. Because of the bird’s soft

    colors, short bill, high forehead, and forward-running featheration of the

    lower mandible, it bears an odd superficial resemblance to the mourning dove

    ( Zenaidura macroura ).

            Tryngites breeds on the Arctic Coast of North America somewhat discon–

    tinuously from northern Alaska to Mackenzie. Some years it breeds commonly

    at Point Barrow, Alaska. It has been taken in summer at Wainwright, Alaska,

    but, according to Bailey, it is rare on the Bering Coast and also along the

    550      |      Vol_IV-0606                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tryngites

    arctic coast east of Barrow (1948. Birds of Arctic Alaska , p. 226).

    Amundsen’s Gjøa expedition (1904-1906) found it breeding on King William

    Island (Schaanning). Taverner questions a breeding record from Melville

    Island; but Handley has taken a young bird off the southwest coast of Bathurst

    Island, so the northward limits of its range remain to be worked out. It

    migrates chiefly through the interior of North and South America and winters

    presumably in southern Argentina, but the limits of the winter range also

    need to be ascertained.

            See Buff-breasted sandpiper.

            478. Turnstone . A plump, short-legged scolopacid shore bird, Arenaria

    interpres, so called because of its habit of flipping pebbles and shells

    over with its bill as it searches for food along the shore. It is about

    9 inches long. In breeding plumage it is black and white on the top and

    sides of the head, reddish brown and black on the upper part of the body,

    and white below, with a broad black band across the chest. Its bill is black;

    its eyes dark brown; its legs and feet bright orange. As it flies up, the

    white of the lower back, the white tail with its broad black subterminal

    band, and the bold white markings of the wings become apparent. The call

    note which it utters is an incisive, not at all musical ricky-tick , a phrase

    which may be repeated several times.

            In winter the pattern is less bold because the white head markings

    are reduced and the reddish brown of the back is replaced by dark grayish

    brown; but in flight the bold white markings are always noticeable. Young

    birds in their first winter plumage are much like winter adults, but the

    chest band is narrower and less black. There is a pronounced difference

    551      |      Vol_IV-0607                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Turnstone

    between the two geographical races, interpres and morinella . The latter

    (ruddy turnstone) is bright rufous on the back; the common turnstone, even

    at the height of the breeding season, is a dull bird by comparison.

            In winter and during migration turnstones frequent rocky shores and

    tidal flats, usually going about in flocks and almost never moving away

    from salt water. They associate with other shore birds about heaps of seaweed

    and where the whore is rough, but they do not like clean sandy beachea very

    well. In summer they move inland to a barren dry ridge or gravelly island

    and hollow out the nest in the most exposed sort of place. They are not

    conspicuous as they run about, for their color pattern is very “ruptive.”

    They are noisy and pugnacious when their nest is threatened. Furiously they

    peck the feet of gulls which fly through the nest territory. Their usual

    alarm note is a sharp kew. A more elaborate cry (which I have heard repeatedly)

    is a rapid, though clearly enunciated ricky-ricky , teer , teer , tuck ! Various

    Eskimo names for the bird — such as teliviatsuk (Southampton Island) and

    kye-uti-cat-tat-tah (Alaska) probably imitate this cry to some extent. The

    eggs are grayish green, spotted with various shades of gray and brown. Both

    sexes take part in the incubation. The downy young is not boldly patterned.

    It is buffy gray above, white below, with a suggestion of the dark pectoral

    band which is so noticeable in the adult.

            The turnstone breeds virtually throughout the Arctic. It nests on Spits–

    bergen, Novaya Semlya, the New Siberian Archipelago, the whole arctic coast of

    Eurasia, northern Iceland, Greenland (including Peary Land), most islands of

    the Arctic Archipelago, and much of the arctic coast of America. It is not

    known to breed in the Franz Josef Archipelago or Jan Mayen, but may do so.

    Its southern limits in the Old World are the coasts of the Baltic Sea, the

    552      |      Vol_IV-0608                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Turnstone and Western Sandpiper

    Gulf of Ob, and Kamchatka; in the New World: Hooper Bay, southwestern Alaska;

    Coronation Gulf; southwestern Baffin Island and Southampton Island. Birds of

    the Old World, Alaska, and Greenland belong to the nominate race; others are

    morinella.

            See Arenaria .

            Reference:

    Wilkes, A. H. P. “On the breeding-habits of the Turnstone as observed in

    Spitsbergen,” British Birds vol. 15, pp. 172-79, 1917.

            480. Western Sandpiper . A small scolopacid shore bird, Ereunetes mauri ,

    which is much like the semipalmated sandpiper ( Ereunetes pusillus ) in all

    plumages save the breeding plumage, but is a little larger and usually longer–

    billed. Fully adult female western sandpipers are, indeed, so much larger

    and longer-billed than the largest, longest-billed female semipalmated sand–

    pipers that they can be distinguished with fair certainly in the field, even

    in the winter when the upper parts are largely gray in both; but some western

    sandpipers (subadult birds, possibly) are considerably shorter-billed than

    others, and these are difficult to place until they molt into the bright

    breeding plumage, which is so rufous on the crown, ear coverts (usually),

    back, and scapulars, that this color alone makes identification easy.

            The western sandpiper is 6 to 7 inches long. The bill and feet are

    black. The bill tapers and curves downward slightly toward the tip, and

    is quite high at the base. Winter birds are gray above, white below.

    Breeding birds are usually very rufous on the crown and upper part of the

    body and distinctly streaked with black on the foreneck and breast. The

    553      |      Vol_IV-0609                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Western Sandpiper

    downy young is like that of the semipalmated sandpiper but the rusty brown

    areas of the upper parts are darker (more chestnut).

            The usual call note of the western sandpiper is a “thin jeep or jee-rp ”

    (Peterson). The song which accompanies the display flight has been translite–

    rated as tzr-r-e-e-e , zr-e-e-e , zr-e-e-e . This is uttered while the bird

    hovers in one position sometimes for nearly a minute (Nelson).

            Herbert Brandt (1934. Alaska Bird Trails , pp. 206-207) tells us that

    in the vicinity of Hooper Bay, Alaska, the western sandpiper starts nesting

    earlier than the semipalmated sandpiper. “The Western Sandpiper had completed

    sets on May 26, and nearly all had finished laying by June 1,” whereas the

    semipalmated sandpiper did not have eggs “until June 6.” According to this

    author, the western sandpiper’s nest is “always under a concealing cover of

    moss and grass,” whereas that of the semipalmated sandpiper is “on the open

    sand dunes amid very low vegetation, and entirely exposed.” Discussing

    differences between the eggs of the two species, Brandt says that semipalmated

    sandpiper eggs have a white ground color, whereas those of the western sand–

    piper are “creamy white to buff,” and so heavily spotted that the ground

    color is obliterated. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is about

    21 days (Nelson). Brandt reports that “the downy young of the Semipalmated

    Sandpiper is considerably darker than that of the Western Sandpiper, with a

    shorter and much stouter bill.”

            For details concerning the western sandpiper’s year-round distribution,

    see Ereunetes .



    554      |      Vol_IV-0610                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Whimbrel

            482. Whimbrel . A large shore bird, Numenius phaeopus , of holarctic

    breeding range which winters southward to Australia, New Zealand, Africa,

    and southern South America. The race which breeds in North America, N .

    phaeopus hudsonicus , is called the Hudsonian curlew. The Siberian race,

    variegatus, is called the Siberian whimbrel. The nominate race receives

    the nicknames “half curlew” and “jack curlew” in England. The species is

    15 to 16 inches long with bill about 3 1/2 inches long. For ways of dis–

    tinguishing it from other curlews, see Curlew.

            The whimbrel is a bird of vast mud flats, beaches, and open plains in

    winter, but of the tundra in summer. It moves northward in flocks, but often

    appears on its nesting ground in pairs. It is said to prefer “drier heaths

    in forested districts” in Lapland, and “heaths with relatively luxuriant

    vegetation” in Iceland. Hantzsch has described courtship flights in which

    the bird rises to great height with wings beating rapidly and planes down–

    ward in a spiral. Side-slipping is also a characteristic serial maneuver

    during courtship. Near the mouth of the Churchill River, on the west coast

    of Hudson Bay, I have found its nest in the H h ummocky moss well out from the

    tongues of stunted spruce which protrude into the tundra. While on its

    eggs it is very inconspicuous, for the patterns of its plumage resemble

    moss and dry grass; but once it has left the nest and risen in flight, it

    circles boldly back on trembling wings, uttering its rapid quip-ip-ip-ip-ip

    in a shrill voice. The eggs, which number 3 or 4, are olive brown, boldly

    blotched with various dark shades of gray and brown, usually more heavily

    at the larger end. The downy chick is brownish gray above, buff on the

    face and under parts, with black markings on the upper part of the head,

    back, and wings.



    555      |      Vol_IV-0611                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: S W himbrel and White-rumped Sandpiper

            Numenius phaeopus phaeopus breeds northward to latitude 71° N. in

    Norway on the Murman Coast, Kolguev, (probably) Kanin Peninsula, and

    eastward across Siberia to the valley of the Lena. It has been reported

    from Spitsbergen, Bear Island, and Jan Mayen. A closely related subspecies,

    islandicus , breeds in Iceland and the Faeroes and has been noted in South

    Greenland so often in May and June as to suggest that it may nest there.

    Variegatus breeds in Siberia from the Lena eastward to the Kolyma and

    southward to Lake Baikal, and has been taken once at Point Barrow, Alaska

    (Bailey, 1939. Auk vol. 56, 333). Hudsonicus breeds from the northwestern

    Alaska (Kobuk River) and Mount McKinley National Park eastward to the S

    mouth of the Mackenzie and the west coast of Hudson Bay. It is rare on the

    arctic coast of Alaska, but it probably breeds locally along the mainland

    coast between the Mackenzie and Anderson Rivers and Hudson Bay. It is

    fairly common at the mouth of the Churchill River and almost certainly

    breeds in the western part of Southampton Island. It has been recorded

    in summer in Melville Peninsula and at Arctic Bay, northern Baffin Island.

    There are casual records for Greenland, the Pribilofs, Clipperton, and

    Iceland.

            483. White-rumped Sandpiper . A small scolopacid shore bird, Erolia

    fusciollis , which is known along British ornithologists as the Bonaparte’s

    sandpiper. It is 7 to 8 inches long and is much like the dunlin ( Erolia alpina )

    in shape except that its bill is shorter. The white upper tail coverts are

    a good field mark at all seasons, although they show clearly only when the

    bird is flying. There is a pale zone in the wing, but no white bar as in the

    dunlin and san d erling ( Crocethia alba ). It most resembles the Baird’s

    556      |      Vol_IV-0612                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-rumped Sandpiper

    sandpiper ( Erolia bairdii ), being very much like that species in size and

    shape, but less buffy on the face and chest at all seasons, and with a

    rufous and gray appearance throughout the upper parts rather than black

    and clay brown. Its usual cry, an unmusical tchick or tseek , is very

    distinctive. In winter and on migration it mingles freely with other small

    shore birds, all of which are similar but dark-rumped, having white only

    on the lateral upper tail coverts.

            The display flight on the breeding ground can be very impressive,

    On Southhampton Island I watched one bird hovering, as if suspended by a

    string, for over 20 minutes, during which period it occasionally slackened

    its wing beats and gave a song which sounded like quo-ick repeated several

    times. Displaying birds which flew past me at about eye-level seemed to have

    their necks distended somewhat in the manner of pectoral sandpipers ( Erolia

    melanotos ). Buzzing sounds which the birds uttered were decidedly mechanical,

    like the “shifting of the carriage of a typewriter.” Soper speaks of the

    “weird dripping quality” of songs he heard on Baffin Island. About the time

    the females begin incubating the eggs the males withdraw from the nesting

    grounds and flock separately. This again is reminiscent of the behavior of

    the pectoral sandpiper. The eggs (4) have a decidedly greenish cast, and are

    spotted and blotched, usually most heavily at the larger end. The nest is in

    the moss, usually in a wettish lowland. On Southampton Island, I repeatedly

    came upon half-grown, still partly downy young birds which were not being

    care for by parents of either sex.

            The white-rumped sandpiper breeds along the arctic coast of North

    America n from Wainwright, Alaska, to southern Baffin Island and Southampton

    Island. It does not nest at Churchill, on the west coast of Hudson Bay.

    557      |      Vol_IV-0613                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-rumped Sandpiper and Woodcock

    It has been reported as breeding in Victoria, Somerset, and Melville Islands.

    Handley recently encountered it in summer on Prince Patrick Island. On the

    east coast of Baffin Island it apparently does not range farther north than

    Cumberland Sound, but Shortt and Peters have recently reported it from the

    northwesternmost part of the island (Arctic Bay, Admiralty Inlet). It may

    possibly breed on the west coast of southern Greenland. It winters in South

    America, chiefly east of the Andes, from Paraguay to the Strait of Magellan,

    and in the Falklands. It has been reported once from the Franz Josef

    Archipelago ( Ibis , 1898: 259).

            485. Woodcock . 1. Any of several long-billed, short-legged, rather

    large-eyed scolopacid birds of the Old World genus Scolopax and New World

    genus Philohela. Philohela inhabits North America but does not range north–

    ward even to the fringes of the Subarctic. Scolopax , on the other hand,

    ranges well northward in Europe and to somewhat lower latitudes in Asia.

            2. Scolopax rusticola, a well-known Old World game bird, famous [ ?]

    for its custom of “roding” at dusk. Roding is a work applied in England

    specifically to the male woodcock’s fast display- or advertisement-flight

    through the woods along a regular circuit, and to the slower, owl-like flight

    a short distance above the treetops or open ground. These flights are

    accompanied by 2 call notes — a thin tsiwick , which is uttered with opened

    bill and which has fair carrying power; and a low croaking, which has been

    thought by some to be a mechanical sound produced by the wings during

    curious “double hesitations” which are characteristic of the flights.

            The woodcock is a rather large, short-tailed, brown looking bird

    which inhabits open woodland. It feeds [ ?] in moist ground and is likely

    558      |      Vol_IV-0614                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Woodcock

    to be flushed from shrubbery along a swamp edge. As it rises its wings

    make considerable noise. It turns and twists through the trees, often

    alighting after a short flight. On the ground it is difficult to see, for

    it is very protectively colored, the variegated rusty brown, russet, gray,

    and black of its back and wings; the lines running the long way of, and

    across, its head; and the bold barring of its under parts combining to

    make it look like the dead leaves. It is about 10 inches long with bill

    3 inches long.

            Along the north edge of the breeding range, the nest is usually in a

    birch woodland. It is a little hollow in the ground, often at the base of

    a tree in the forest, though sometimes it is more or less in the open, among

    shrubbery. The eggs usually are 4. They are grayish white, buff or light

    brown, spotted with reddish brown and gray. Only the female incubates them.

    The incubation period is about 3 weeks. Along the north edge of the species’

    range it is probably one-brooded; but in the south it sometimes rears two

    broods.

            For the northern limits of the woodcock’s range, see Scolopax . The

    continental southern limits of the breeding range are the [ ?] Pyrenees, Alps,

    northern Balkan States, Kashmir, the Himalayas, Ussuri, and Japan (Peters).

    The birds of the continent winter from the southern edge of the breeding range

    southward to the Mediterranean countries, Egypt, Ceylon, southern China, and

    Japan. The species is resident on the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores. An

    endemic, nonmigratory race, S. rusticola mira, is confined to Amami-Oshima

    in the Ryukyu Islands.

            Reference:

    Ledlita, O. de. “Contributions a l’Etude biologique de la Becasse,”

    Revue Franc. Orn. vol. 2, pp. 74-81, 1927. Pycraft, W. P. “On the position of the ear of the Woodcock ( Scolopax

    rusticola) ,” Ibis , 1908, pp. 551-58.

    559      |      Vol_IV-0615                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wood Sandpiper

            486. Wood Sandpiper . An Old World scolopacid shore bird, Tringa

    glareola , which looks very much like the green sandpiper ( Tringa ochropus ),

    but is a very different species (possibly even genus) since its metasternum

    has 4 notches instead of 2 (as in other species of the genus Tringa ). In

    proportions it differs from the green sandpiper in being shorter billed,

    the exposed culmen being much shorter than the tarsus (rather than approxi–

    mately as long as the tarsus). In color it is like the nominate race of

    ochropus (i.e., that which inhabits the Old World) in being white-rumped,

    but its rectrices and longer upper tail coverts are narrowly barred with

    black and white. It is, generally speaking, more coarsely marked above

    than ochropus (i.e., that which inhabits the Old World) in being white-rumped,

    but its rectrices and longer upper tail coverts are narrowly barred with

    black and white. It is, generally speaking, more coarsely marked above than

    ochropus (especially on the back and scapulars). A good (though not a

    noticeable) character is the white shaft of the outermost “developed” primary.

    In ochropus this feather is dark-shafted.

            The wood sandpiper is 8 inches long. The call note which it utters

    as it flies up is an excited chiff-chiff , chiff , which is much less liquid

    and musical than the weet-weet - of the green sandpiper. The son d g which

    accompanies its undulatory flight display is a many-times-repeated deedle,

    deedle , deedle , or leero , leero , leero . Its breeding habitat is chiefly

    northern forestland, but it also ranges beyond the tree limit, where it

    [ ?] frequents birch and willow scrub growing in sheltered places.

    The nest is usually on the ground on a hummock of tundra moss, but it is

    sometimes among low vegetation in an opening in the woods, and sometimes

    560      |      Vol_IV-0616                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wood Sandpiper and Xenus

    (especially in flooded river bottoms) in the nests of other birds.

            Tringa glareola breeds across Eurasia from northern Scandinavia,

    Finland, the mouth of the Pechora, and tree limit in Siberia southward

    to northern Germany, southern Russia, Turkestan, Amur River, and Kamchatka.

    It nests on the Komandorskis, the northern Kurils, and Sakhalin. It

    winters in the Mediterranean countries and southern Asia southward through

    the Malay Archipelago, Australia, and Africa. It has been reported from

    the Faeroes, Kolguev, Sanak Island (at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula),

    and the Pribilofs.

            487. Xenus . The monotypic genus to which the curious Terek sandpiper

    ( X. cinereus ) belongs. Xenus is probably closest to Tringa , but it is

    instantly separable from all other small shore birds on the basis of its

    strikingly recurved or uptilted bill. The bill is considerable wider at

    the base than at the tip. The legs and toes are short. The tarsus is much

    shorter than the bill. The three front toes are connected by short webs

    at the bases. The hind toe is well developed.

            The genus is confined to the Old World. It breeds from southern

    Finland (Gulf of Bothnia), the Onega River, the delta of the Dvina, latitude

    67° N. on the Ob, 70° on the Yenisei, 68° 30′ on the Kolyma, and (possibly)

    the Anadyr, southward to the Riazan Government in Russia, latitude 53° 30′

    in the Ural Basin, 51° in western Siberia, Minusinsk in central Siberia,

    and some point north of Lake Baikal. It has been noted repeatedly in the

    Anadyr Valley in the spring and is considered a fairly regular transient

    in Japan. It has been reported at least once from the Komandorski Islands.

    Buturlin (in Dresser’s Eggs of the Birds of Europe , p. 726) presented data

    561      |      Vol_IV-0617                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Xenus

    showing that it was for a time extending its breeding range southwestward

    in central Russia. It winters in eastern Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius,

    India, Burma, the Malay Archipelago, Australia, and Tasmania (Peters).

            This genus for a long time bore the name Terekia and is so listed

    in many works.



    562      |      Vol_IV-0618                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Skuas and Jaegers

           

    SKUAS AND JAEGERS

           

    Order CHARADRIIFORMES ; Suborder LARI

           

    Family STERCORARIIDAE

            489. Arctic Skua. A name used widely in Great Britain for the parasitic

    jaeger ( Stercorarius parasiticus ) ( q.v .).

            489.1 Bonxie. A name used on the Steland Island for the great skua

    ( Catharacta skua ) ( q.v .).

            490. Catharacta . See writeup.

            491. Buffon’s Skua. A name widely used in Europe for the long-tailed jaeger

    ( Stercorarius longicaudus ) ( q.v .).

            492. Great Skua. See writeup.

            493. Jaeger. A term applied to the predatory gulls of the genus Stercorarius ,

    all of which are known among British ornithologists as skuas. See

    Long-tailed Jeager, Parsitic Jaeger, and Pomarine (or Pomatorhine)

    Jaeger.

            494. Long-tailed Jaeger. See writeup.

            494.1 Marlinspike. A sailor’s nickname for the parasitic jaeger ( Stercorarius

    parasiticus ) ( q.v .).

            495. Northern Skua. A name sometimes applied to Catharacta skua skua , the

    northernmost race of the Great Skua ( q.v .).

            496. Parasitic Jaeger. See writeup.

            497. Pomarine Jaeger or Pomatorhine Jaeger. See writeup.

            498. Richardson’s Skua. A name widely used in Great Britain for the parasitic

    jaeger ( Stercorarius parasiticus ) ( q.v .).



    563      |      Vol_IV-0619                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Skuas and Jaegers

            499. Robber Gull. A name used especially among seamen for the predatory gulls

    of the family Stercorariidae.

            500. Skua. A term loosely applied to all the predatory gulls of the family

    Stercorariidae. The species widely known in America as the skua,

    Catharacta skua , is called the great skua in England. See Great

    Skua.

            501. STERCORARIIDAE. See writeup.

            502. Stercorarius . See writeup.



    564      |      Vol_IV-0620                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Catharacta

            490. Catharacta . A genus of large, robust predatory gulls known as

    skuas. Catharacta is similar to Stercorarius but larger and more powerful;

    the tarsus is shorter than the middle toe and claw; and the middle tail

    feathers are never more than slightly longer than the rest. In coloration

    Catharacta is always dark. In this respect it differs strikingly from

    Sterocarius , all three species of which are boldly white below in certain

    plumage stages or phases.

            Catharacta’s distribution is extremely interesting. Though often thought

    of as a bird of the Far North, it is actually much more widely distributed in

    the Far South. It breeds in Iceland, the Faeroes, the Shetlands, and the

    Orkneys but not, so far as is known, anywhere else in the North. The northern–

    most point at which it breeds is the islet of Grimsey, off the north coast

    of Iceland. In the South it has an extensive breeding range (for details,

    see Great Skua). Between the northern and southern breeding areas there is

    a tremendous gap.

            Individuals of the genus which breed in the North Atlantic all belong to

    the same species and race. In Britain this form is called the great skua.

    Individuals of Catharacta which breed in the Far South are currently believed

    to belong to several forms, but morphologically these resemble each other,

    as well as the northern form, very closely. Until fundamental differences

    in behavior or structure are discovered, we may properly regard all of them

    as one species, Catharacta skua — a species unique among birds in being bipolar.

            Catharacta wanders widely through the high sess. Great skuas which breed

    in the North Atlantic are more or less migratory, but they probably do not

    wander much to the south. The far southern birds frequently wander north,

    565      |      Vol_IV-0621                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Catharacta and Great Skua

    though whether their visits to North Temperate waters are regular remains to

    be discovered. Catharacta is irregularly common in summer off the Atlantic

    coast of North America from Labrador and Newfoundland south to Massachusetts.

    These may possibly be birds from the far south. Murphy has reported the genus

    from the area between the West Indies and the equator in May. The fact that

    Catharacta so frequently obtains its food by forcing other birds to disgorge

    their prey suggests that it may accompany such far southern species as the

    greater shearwater ( Puffinus gravis ) in their migrations northward.

            References:

    1. Lowe, P.R. and Kinnear, N.B. British Antarctic (Terra Nova) expedition

    1910     . Zoology, vol.4, no.5, Birds, p.113, 1930. 2. Murphy, Robert C. Oceanic Birds of South America , vol.2, pp.1006-12, 1936.

            492. Great Skua . A robust, predatory maritime gull, Catharacta skua —

    the largest species of the family Stercorariidae. In America it is usually

    called simply the skua, there being no confusion because the three other

    species of the family are all called jaegers. In England all species of the

    Stercorariidae are called skuas. In the Shetland Islands the great skua is

    called the bonxie.

            Catharactua skua is about 23 inches long. It is somewhat variable in

    color, but always dark brown in general appearance. As it flies past, its

    hawklike bearing and pointed wings are noticeable. Jourdain has pointed out

    that it “rarely glides, and then only for short periods: it keeps up a steady

    and tolerably quick wing-beat nearly all the time” ( British Birds , 1913, 6: 244).

    566      |      Vol_IV-0622                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Skua

    As it settles in the water its short neck, large bill, and short tail give it

    a chunky, or even a lumpy, shape. The upper parts are more or less streaked

    with tawny. Adults have a whitish patch at the base of the primaries. Young

    birds are dark brown all over, without the white patch on the wing. All birds,

    young and old, have black bills, legs, and feet.

            The great skua is so heavy that it sometimes looks awkward, but when it

    gives chase to a smaller gull, intent on forcing that bird to disgorge fish,

    it maneuvers with astonishing ease. Many a northern seafarer has witnessed

    the consternation of arctic terns ( Sterna paradisaea ) and kittiwakes ( Rissa

    tridactyla ) at its appearance, and heard their vain cries as it started in

    pursuit. It east fish extensively, many of which it steals from smaller birds.

    It has been known to kill l adult herring gulls ( Larus argentatus ), kittiwakes,

    whimbrels ( Numenius phaeopus ), coots ( Fulica ), and ducks of various sorts

    ( Handbook of British Birds ). Its usual hunting cry is a terse, low huck-huck

    or hack-hack . Selous says that a note like a-er , a-er , a-er , accompanies wing–

    raising in display flights. This cry must be very much like the ringing error ,

    error , error which I have heard the parasitic jaeger ( Stercorarius parasiticus )

    give on that species’ nesting ground. Some of the great skua’s cries have

    the quality of mirthless laughter — a rough hah , hah , hah , hah .

            The great skua nests in scattered groups or colonies, but the pairs are

    never very close together. The nest is on the ground, usually on an eminence

    not far from the shore, sometimes on a rocky islet. In Iceland, Jourdain

    found it breeding “in large numbers on the flat lava plains and islands near

    the mouths of the great rivers.” The nest is a depression in the moss or low–

    growing vegetation, sometimes scantily lined with grass or twigs. The eggs

    567      |      Vol_IV-0623                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Skua

    (usually 2) are grayish olive or olive brown, spotted and blotched with dark

    brown. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is 28 to 30 days ( Hand –

    book of British Birds ). The downy young is yellowish or pinkish brown, paler

    and grayer below.

            The northern great skua, Catharacta skua skua , is known to breed in Ice–

    land, the Faeroes, the Shetlands, and the Orkneys. Kumlien (1879) reported

    seeing “young ones on the rocks” on Lady Franklin Island, off the southeast

    coast of Baffin Island, but it is highly doubtful that the species had actually

    bred there. Summer records for the coast of Greenland suggest that it may

    breed there occasionally. The known breeding range is very restricted, despite

    the fact that the bird has been recorded in summer from such widely separated

    areas as Spitsbergen, the Murman Coast, Kolguev, the south island of Novaya

    Zemlya, Baffin Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. The race is

    believed to winter in the North Atlantic, principally well offshore.

            Catharacta skua ranges widely in the Southern Hemisphere. It breeds in

    New Zealand, the Chathams, southern Chile, Tierra del Fuego, the Falklands,

    Gough, Inaccessible, Tristan da Cunha, and Kerguelen. The southernmost race

    of all, C. skua maccormicki , described from Possession Island, Victoria Land,

    at latitude 71°14′ S., breeds on many islands and coasts of the Antarctic. The

    northernmost records for the northern race may well be those from Spitsbergen,

    where it has several times been encountered in pairs. It has been reported from

    King Charles Foreland at latitude 79° N., in that archipelago.

            See Catharacta and Stercorariidae.

            Reference:

    Pitt, Frances. “The Great and Arctic Skuas in the Shetlands,” British Birds ,

    vol.16, pp.174-81; 198-202. 1922.

    568      |      Vol_IV-0624                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-tailed Jaeger

            494. Long-tailed Jaeger . A beautiful predatory gull, Stercorarius

    longicaudus , so called because of its very long middle tail feathers. In

    Europe it is known as the long-tailed skua or Buffon’s skua. Eskimo names

    for it are ishungok (Baffin and Southampton Islands and Perry River area)

    and cha wah sho yuk (Alaska). It is 20 to 22 inches long, including the

    middle tail feather, which project 6 to 8 inches beyond the rest of the

    tail. Its color pattern is much like that of a light-phased parasitic

    jaeger ( S. parasiticus ). It has no dark phase of plumage, i.e., it is

    never solid black or dark brown all over. Adults are black on the whole

    top of the head; yellowish buff on the sides of the head and whole back of

    the neck; brownish gray on the back, wings, and tail; ashy gray on the

    lower belly and under tail coverts; gray (without white) on the under side

    of the wings; an c d creamy white on the throat, breast, and fore part of the

    belly. The toes and their webs are mostly black. Otherwise the legs and

    feet are slaty gray.

            The immature long-tailed jaeger is short-tailed (i.e., the middle tail

    feathers project only a short way beyond the others); hence it is very much

    like the young parasitic jaeger in shape. It is sometimes much the same

    also in color. It is usually dark brown on the upper part of the body,

    the back, scapular, and wing feathers being tipped with light brown; buffy

    gray on the head and neck, streaked with dusky on the crown; and speckled

    and barred with buffy white and dusky on the throat, breast, sides, and

    flanks. The legs and feet are blu si is h gray except for the black distal part

    of the toes and their webbing. For ways of distinguishing immature birds

    of the two species in the hand, see Parasitic Jaeger.



    569      |      Vol_IV-0625                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-tailed Jaeger

            The long-tailed jaeger is one of the most graceful of arctic birds in

    flight. When not pursuing prey it circles easily on steadily beating wings,

    its long tail feathers quivering with each stroke. It is more buoyant and

    also apparently more playful than the other jaegers and, unlike them, is

    given to soaring high in air. It swims easily and well, holding its tail

    well up when in the water. Various observers report that it occasionally

    harasses terns and small gulls, but on Southampton Island, where I lived

    with it all summer long, I never saw it stealing fish from the arctic terns

    ( Sterna paradisaea ). One pair of long-tailed jaegers nested not far from a

    colony of arctic terns and the two species seemed to get along perfectly.

    The jaegers lived almost wholly on lemmings, small fish which they caught in

    coves at low tide, and insects. I examined several stomachs, and found bird

    remains in only one of them. These remains were of a downy young semipalmated

    sandpiper ( Ereunetes pusillus ).

            Many long-tailed jaegers are paired by the time they reach their nesting

    grounds in spring. I should not be surprised to learn that they remain

    paired all year, or for life. They do, however, indulge in courtship or

    display flights in which one or both birds call crick , crick , crick in a

    spirited voice. Their cry of alarm or protest is a sharp, ringing cree-oo ,

    klee-oo , coo-ree-ar , or crick-crack , repeated over and over. A parent bird

    which had been screaming at me as I stood by the nest, changed its call note

    abruptly as it gave chase to a herring gull ( Larus argentatus ) flying past.

    Young birds not quite able to fly have a vibrant, surprisingly loud bleat or

    bellow.

            The long-tailed jaeger’s nest is a simple depression in the turf or

    570      |      Vol_IV-0626                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-tailed Jaeger

    gravel, often without lining, and usually in a high, well-drained place not

    at all near water. Both sexes incubate. The eggs, which usually are 2, are

    olive green (sometimes quite bright), spotted with dull brown and gray. The

    incubation period is 23 days (Manniche). The downy chick is brownish gray,

    paler on the face and under parts than on the crown and back. It resembles

    the newly hatched parasitic jaeger, but is paler, especially on the under

    parts. The young birds leave the nest a day or so a f ter hatching but remain

    in the vicinity for three weeks or more, being fed regularly by both parents.

            The long-tailed jaeger breeds northward to Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, the

    arctic coast of Siberia, the Franz Josef Arcipelago (probably), the New

    Siberian Archipelago, Wrangel Island, northern Alaska, the northern part

    of the Arctic Archipelago, and extreme northern Greenland. It is one of

    the 12 or so birds known to breed in Peary Land. In arctic Siberia and on

    the New Siberian Archipelago it is much commoner than the parasitic jaeger

    (Pleske). In Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, Handley found it the commonest

    of all birds in the summer of 1948. In 1949, he found it common on Prince

    Patrick Island. It breeds southward to northern Scandinavia; northern Russia;

    the Yamal Peninsula; the lower Yenisei; the mouths of the Yana, Indigirka, and

    Kolyma rivers; Hooper Bay, Alaska; northern Yukon; northern Mackenzie; the

    Perry River district south of Queen Maud Gulf; Southampton Island; Ungava Bay;

    and Cape Chidley, Labrador. In the Perry River district, Gavin found it less

    common than the parasitic jaeger from 1937 to 1941. At Churchill, Manitoba,

    where the parasitic jaeger breeds regularly though in small numbers, the long–

    tailed jaeger occasionally is seen in summer, but it does not nest. The

    species’ breeding distribution must depend to a considerable extent on the

    571      |      Vol_IV-0627                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-tailed Jaeger and Parasitic Jaeger

    food supply. Where lemmings are abundant, it is likely to be correspondingly

    numerous, though it does not breed in colonies.

            Stercorarius longicaudus winters offshore in the Atlantic from about lat–

    itude 40° N. to 50° S. Its migrations are performed, for the most part, well

    out to sea.

            See Stercorarius .

            496. Parasitic Jaeger . A predatory gull, Stercorarius parasiticus ,

    known in Great Britain as the arctic skua or Richardson’s skua. An Eskimo

    name for it, ishungok , is applied to other jaegers also. In Labrador it is

    sometimes called the hagdown. A sailors’ nickname, marlinspike, is descriptive

    of its sharply pointed middle tail feathers.

            The adult is about 17 to 18 inches long, including the tail tip, which

    projects 2 to 3 inches beyond the other [ ?] feathers. Females tend to be

    larger than males (Brooks, Ibis , 1939, p. 328). Adults in the light, or

    “normal,” phase of plumage are dark grayish brown on the crown, back, wings,

    and tail, anc creamy white beneath. A broad white collar, which is washed

    with yellowish buff on the nape and hind neck is usually conspicuous. But

    some birds have a gray collar, some have a dark gray band across the chest,

    and some are dark (almost blackish) brown all over. The bill and feet are

    dark bluish gray. Young birds are, as a rule, much mottled and barred,

    especially on the under parts, some being brownish gray or dusky all over,

    obscurely marked with lighter and darker tones, others being noticeably

    lighter below than above and narrowly barred with dusky on the belly. The

    legs and feet of young birds are light bluish gray except for the black

    distal part of the toes and webs.



    572      |      Vol_IV-0628                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Parasitic Jaeger

            You gn ng parasitic jaegers are very difficult to distinguish from young

    long-tailed jaegers ( Stercorarius longicaudus ), though the latter are

    usually smaller and less heavily barred with dark grayish brown on the

    under parts. Murphy (1936. Oceanic Birds of South America , 2: 1035) states

    that in young parasitic jaegers the three or more outermost primaries are

    white- or ivory-shafted, whereas in young long-tailed jaeg e rs only the two

    outermost primar i es are white-shafted. This distinction holds in all speci–

    mens which I have examined. Murphy further states that in the parasitic

    jaeger the length of the cere is “decidedly greater” than that of the

    dertrum (tip of the upper mandible distad of the cere), whereas in the

    long-tailed jaeger the cere and dertrum are of about equal length, but I

    find this not always to be so. Willett and Howard (1934. Condor 36: 158-60)

    state that there are differences between the two species in length of the

    wing bones. According to them, the humerus in longicaudus ranges from 83

    to 87.6 mm. (average 85.4), whereas in parasiticus it ranges from 94.3 to

    104.6 mm. (average 100.4); and the ulna in longicaudus ranges from 90.9 to

    to 96.7 mm. (average 92.5) whereas in parasiticus it ranges from 101.8 to

    110.8 mm. (average 107.2). Løppenthin ( Medd. om Grønland , 1932, p. 83) ex–

    presses a belief that in young parasitic jaegers the very tips of the

    rectrices are pointed, whereas in young long-tailed jaegers they are

    rounded, but in carefully identified specimens before me this difference

    does not seem to obtain.

            The parasitic jaeger is a sea bird which moves inland a short way to

    nest. On Southampton Island I found it among the coastal lakes in summer,

    close enough to the sea to permit it to badger the arctic terns ( Sterna

    573      |      Vol_IV-0629                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Parasitic Jaeger

    paradisaea ) which fed in the bays, or to prey upon the shore birds which

    flocked on the tidal flats. In Iceland, Jourdain found it breeding not in

    colonies, as the great skua ( Catharacta skua ) did, but in “isolated pairs ...

    in ... boggy places.”

            I have seen parasitic jaegers hunting in pairs or in groups of three

    or four. I recall watching two of them along the coast of Southampton

    Island turning and twisting in their efforts to capture a shore bird. All

    at once, to my great surprise, the harried shore bird made straight for me

    and dived into a crevice among the rocks of an old, broken-down Eskimo fox

    trap near which I was standing. The jaegers swooped about the pile of

    rocks hungrily, but my presence prevented their alighting. After they had

    flown off, I removed stone after stone and presently found the bird — a

    white-rumped sandpiper ( Erolia fuscicollis ) — huddled in a lemming burrow.

    It rested a moment in my hand, then stood up and flew off. Not far from

    that spot I collected a parasitic jaeger which had swallowed whole the body

    of a red phalarope ( Phalaropus fulicarius ). Jaegers of all sorts prey ex–

    tensively upon lemmings when these small mammals are abundant. During

    early spring, when melting snow floods thousands of lemmings from their

    burrows, jaegers as well as glaucous gulls ( Larus hyperboreus ) and herring

    gulls ( L. argentatus ) may live almost exclusively upon them. The breeding

    distribution of all jaegers probably depends to some extent upon the abun–

    dance of lemmings.

            The parasitic jaeger’s usual call note is a low-pitched kek or kep ,

    which is decidedly reminiscent of one of the notes of the goshawk ( Accipiter

    574      |      Vol_IV-0630                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Parasitic Jaeger

    gentilis ). But when the birds are agitated by a man’s presence near their

    nest they plunge about him squealing error , error in a ringing voice. The

    nest is usually on low ground among lakes, but not often at the water’s edge.

    It is a depression in the turf, scantily lined with grass or moss. The

    eggs, which sometimes lie an inch or more apart, are brownish olive, spotted

    with dark brown. The incubation period is 24 to 28 days. Both sexes incubate.

    The downy young is dark brown, paler and somewhat grayish about the eyes and

    on the chin, tips of the wings, and middle of the belly. The young leave the

    nest when 2 to 3 days old, but linger in the vicinity for 3 or 4 weeks, being

    fed by both parents.

            The parasitic jaeger breeds widely in the Arctic, but in general it

    seems to be less northward-ranging than the long-tailed jaeger. Thus,

    while longicaudus has been found breeding in northernmost Greenland (Peary

    Land), along the northern edge of the Arctic Archipelago, and on Wrangel

    Island, parasiticus has not been reported from Peary Land, Handley did not

    encounter it on Prince Patrick Island, and Portenko did not list it from

    Wrangel. The Andr e é e Expedition recorded it at latitude 82°15′ N. at about

    longitude 30° E. Pleske states that it is much less common than longicaudus

    in the New Siberian Archipelago and along the whole arctic coast of Siberia.

    It is known to breed regularly in Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, Bear Island, the

    Franz Josef Archipelago, Novaya Zemlya, extreme northern Siberia, the New

    Siberian Islands, northern Alaska, Melville Island, Ellesmere Island (north

    to lat. 82° N.) and Greenland (north to Myggkukta on the east coast and at

    least to Disko Island on the west). The southern limits of its breeding range

    are Iceland, Scotland, the Faeroes, northern Scandinavia, northern Russia

    575      |      Vol_IV-0631                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Parasitic Jaeger and Pomarine Jaeger

    mouths of the Ob, Yenisei, and Kolyma rivers, the Aleutians, the Alaska

    Peninsula, Kodiak Island, Southern Mackenzie, Southampton Island, Coats

    Island, the west coast of Hudson Bay (Churchill), and northern Labrador (Cape

    Chidley). At Churchill, Manitoba, a few pairs nest regularly. The long–

    tailed jaeger does not nest there at all.

            The parasitic jaeger winters off the west coast of Africa; in the

    Mediterranean; off the coasts of India, Australia, and New Zealand; and off

    American coasts from California to Chile and Florida to Argentina (Peters).

            Reference:

    Williams, K. “The distraction behaviour of the Arctic Skua,” Ibis , vol. 91;

    pp.307-13, 1949.

            497. Pomarine (or Pomatorhine) Jaeger . A predatory gull, Stercorarius

    pomarinus , which in adult plumage has long, curiously twisted middle tail

    feathers. The word pomarine has nothing to do with the word marine . It is

    derived from Greek words mea n ing lid and nose , and refers to the cere under

    which the nostrils open. The commonest Eskimo name for the species is the

    same as that for jaegers in general, ishungok . Among the Aivilik Eskimos

    it has the special name kamigalik , meaning “the one that has a boot,”

    the “boot” being the long, twisted middle tail feathers! From the Baillie

    Islands, off Cape Bathurst, R. M. Anderson reports, in addition to ishungok ,

    the special name kipiyoktalik , which therefore is probably the special name

    used along the entire section of the Canadian north coast from the Alaska

    boundary to Cape Parry.

            The pomarine is the largest and, according to my observations, the most

    576      |      Vol_IV-0632                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pomarine Jaeger

    phlegmatic of the three jaegers. It is 20 inches long, including the middle

    tail feathers, which project 2 to 3 inches beyond the others. It is much

    like the parasitic jaeger ( Stercorarius parasiticus ) in color pattern, being

    dark brownish gray on the top of the head, upper part of the body, and under

    tail coverts; yellowish buff on the sides of the head and hind neck; and

    creamy white below, with a varying amount of gray or dusky spotting on the

    chest, sides, and flanks. Birds in dark phase of plumage are dark brown all

    over. Young birds in their first winter plumage are dark brown, vaguely

    barred below, and short-tailed (the middle feathers projecting only a short

    way beyond the others and not at all twisted). Some (perhaps all) birds in

    their first breeding plumage are long-tailed, dark-capped, and light-necked,

    but heavily barred with brown on the under parts. Some “black” adults are

    speckled with white on the belly, and many birds in the so-called light

    plumage phase are heavily flecked with dark gray throughout the under parts.

    In young and old birds the bill is dusky at the tip, dull olive otherwise.

    The legs and feet are bluish gray, noticeably paler in young birds.

            Like the smaller par a sitic jaeger, this species obtains much of its food

    by stealing it from terns and smaller gulls. In some areas it centers its

    attack upon the kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ), but it has been known to chase

    even glaucous gulls ( Larus hyperboreus ) and great black-backed gulls

    ( L. marinus ). One of its cries is a low, harsh hek or kek . A cry of alarm

    protest is a loud, ringing koo-ree-ough , or ker-ew-ah — somewhat like the

    error , error of the parasitic jaeger in tone.

            The species seems to prefer low-lying somewhat marshy tundra for its

    nesting. The nest is a depression in the moss, sometimes lined with a little

    577      |      Vol_IV-0633                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pomarine Jaeger

    grass. The eggs (usually 2) are olive b or ro wn, blotched and spotted with dark

    brown. Both sexes incubate. The period of incubation has not been ascer–

    tained. The downy chick is grayish b or ro wn, darker above than below. It is

    like the chick of the parasitic jaeger, but paler.

            The pomarine jaeger ranges widely in the Arctic in summer, but its

    actual breeding range is puzzlingly spotty or disconnected. In the Old

    World it breeds on Novaya Zemlya, the Kanin Peninsula, the New Siberian

    Archipelago, Wrangel and Herald islands, and along the whole coast of

    Siberia from the Yamal Peninsula eastward; it does not, apparently, nest

    in Iceland, Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, or northern Scandinavia. Gorbunov

    encountered it in the Franz Josef Archipelago but believed that it nested

    there only very rarely. In the New World it breeds along the coast of

    Alaska (from Hooper Bay northward to Point Barrow); in northern Mackenzie

    (Mackenzie River mouth to Cape Parry); and on the west coast of Greenland.

    Gavin did not find it in the Perry River district south of Queen Maud Gulf.

    I encountered it on Southampton Island, but it was the least common of the

    jaegers there. Taverner lists Banks Island, Melville Island, Somerset

    Island, and southeastern Baffin Island (Cumberland Peninsula) as the northern–

    most points at which it breeds in the Arctic Arhicpelago. Handley recorded

    one bird on Prince Patrick Island in the summer of 1949. Hagerup considered

    it the commonest of the jaegers along the west coast of Greenland between

    latitude 64° and 74° N. Manniche and Bird have reported it from northeast

    Greenland (between Germania Land and Hudson Land). It has not been reported

    from Peary Land. It does not breed at Churchill, along the west coast of

    Hudson Bay. It is seen regularly along the Labrador coast in summer but

    does not breed there.



    578      |      Vol_IV-0634                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pomarine Jaeger

            It winters off the west coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean and Black

    seas, in the Indian Ocean (rarely), near Australia (rarely), about the

    Gal a á pagos Islands, along the coast of Peru, in the Gulf of Mexico, and off

    the coast of Virginia (Peters). Wynne-Edwards has discussed its habits in

    winter off the west coast of Africa (between lat. 25° and 5° N.). Here,

    along with other jaegers wintering in the vicinity, it finds such an abun–

    dance of food in the colder waters that it does not have to harass other

    birds.

            Reference:

    Southern, H.N. “Dimorphism in Stercorarius pomarinus (Temminck).” Ibis ,

    vol.86, pp.1-16, 1944. (With excellent discussion of

    breeding range.)

            501. STERCORARIIDAE . An interesting family of gull-like charadriiform

    birds known in England as skuas and in America as skuas and jaegers. They

    are notable principally for their hawklike behavior and build. Their beaks

    are hooked; their wings are long, pointed, and powerful; and even their claws

    are large, strongly hooked, and sharp. Throughout the family the bill is much

    the same. It is straight for about two-thirds of its length, strongly hooked

    at the tip, and provided with a sheathlike cere at the base of the upper man–

    dible. This cere overhangs the mostrils. The legs and feet are not modified

    for grasping and killing prey, but the sharp claws are used for holding prey

    in place while it is being torn to pieces. There are four toes, the front

    three of which are fully webbed as in the gulls and terns (Laridae). The

    tarsus is somewhat longer than the middle toe with its claw in the genus

    579      |      Vol_IV-0635                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Stercorariidae

    Stercorarius (jaegers) and somewhat shorter than the middle toe and claw

    in Catharacta (skuas). The legs and feet are not developed for extensive

    walking and running. The wings are pointed, as in the true falcons (genus

    Falco ), and flight is, in many senses of the word, falconlike, for it can be

    very direct, with strong, steady wing beats, or erratic in the extreme, with

    quick turnings, twistings, and haltings. The tail is variable. In Cathar –

    acta it is almost square; but in adult Stercorarius the middle feathers are

    conspicuously lengthened.

            All members of the family are predatory. Not only do they chase

    smaller gulls and terns until those birds are forced to disgorge fish or

    other food, but they often capture and eat small birds, especially shore

    birds. Frequently they hunt in pairs or in groups of three or four. I

    recall watching two parasitic jaegers ( Stercorarius parasiticus ) capturing

    and killing a full-grown golden plover ( Pluvialus dominica ). One of the far

    southern races of the skua, Catharacta skus maccormicki , is known to prey

    widely on the young of penguins and other birds which breed on the Antarctic

    land mass. In the north, both skuas and jaegers live largely on lemmings

    when these small mammals are excessively abundant. Jaegers are said to eat

    berries at times, though I have never actually observed them doing so. Both

    skuas and jaegers are somewhat vulturine in that they feed on carcasses which

    they find dead.

            The skuas and jaegers are dark-colored, generally speaking, rather than

    white or light gray as so many “true” gulls are. Two of the three species of

    jaegers ( S. parasiticus and S. pomarinus ) are extremely variable in color

    pattern, some individuals being almost solid black; others are black, white,

    580      |      Vol_IV-0636                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Stercorariidae

    and dark gray, or black, white, dark gray, and yellowish buff. This variabil–

    ity seems to parallel that of certain falconiform birds, e.g., the rough–

    legged hawk ( Buteo lagopus ) and gyrfalcon ( Falco rusticolus ).

            All skuas and jaegers nest on the ground, the former often in high

    places near the sea, the latter in low-lying country among coastal lakes

    or at river mouths. Skuas “nest by preference in colonies” ( Handbook of

    British Birds ). The parasitic jaeger and long-tailed jaeger ( S. longicaudus )

    also breed more or less colonially. The pomarine jaeger ( S. pomarinus ) has

    never been reported as breeding in [ ?] colonies, but it may do so at times.

    The probability is that any of these birds will nest together in considerable

    numbers in the same area where the food supply is unusually good. The nest

    is a slight structure made of grass or moss, or a mere depression in the

    gravel or turf. Apparently it is never built on a cliff face. Jaeger nests

    are usually on a low ridge in a tundra marsh, on a gently sloping hill, or on

    an islet in a lake or delta in a spot from which the incubating bird can see

    widely in all directions. Skua nests are often on an eminence. All species

    of the family lay two eggs as a rule, and these are olive or brown, spotted

    and blotched with darker shades of gray and brown. Both sexes incubate. The

    newly hatched young are plain (i.e., without a bold pattern of any sort). The

    young stay in the nest proper only a short time, but remain in the vicinity for

    several weeks.

            The three above-mentioned species of jaegers are currently believed to

    belong to one genus — Stercorarius . This genus is one of the most distinctly

    and exclusively panboreal of polytypic bird genera. The genus Catharacta

    (skuas), on the other hand, breeds about both poles and the arctic and antarctic

    581      |      Vol_IV-0637                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Stercorariidae

    breeding areas are wholly separate. While many ornithologists regard all

    the forms of Catharacta as conspecific, such a disposition may not be cor–

    rect. Murphy has called attention to puzzling facts about the wanderings

    of these birds, as well as to the possibility that certain “subspecies” may

    maintain separate breeding populations side by side in remote southern

    islands. We may eventually discover that the northern skua ( C. skua skua )

    is a comparatively sedentary species , which never leaves the Northern

    Hemisphere, while the far-removed southern skuas belong to one or more

    wholly distinct species, some of which range very widely, possibly as a

    direct result of their parasitism of certain procellariiform birds which

    breed in the Southern Hemisphere and migrate regularly into the Northern

    Hemisphere. The problem is a knotty one, partly because some of the southern

    forms are extremely variable in color, and the reasons for this variation

    are not understood.

            All the jaegers are migratory and their migrations are performed at

    sea, usually well offshore. The northern skua ( C. skua skua ), the bird

    known in Britain as the great skua, migrates southward as far as the Tropic

    of Cancer and Sargasso Sea. The southern skuas also wander well away from

    their nesting places, but their migrations are not very well known.

            References:

    1. Brooks, Allan. “Migrations of the Skua family,” Ibis , vol.81, pp.324-28,

    1939. 2. Murphy, Robert C. Oceanic Birds of South America , vol.2, pp.1006-12, 1936.

    582      |      Vol_IV-0638                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Stercorarius

            502. Stercorarius . A genus of predatory gulls commonly known in

    America as jaegers, in England as skuas. The three species are alike in

    having the tarsus longer than the middle toe and claw, but differ in the

    length and shape of the middle tail feathers when adult. In longicaudus

    (long-tailed jaeger) these feathers are about three times as long as the

    others and very narrow; in parasiticus (parasitic jaeger) they are about

    twice as long as the others and sharply pointed; and in pomarinus (pomarine

    jaeger) they are about twice as long as the others, rounded at the tip,

    and twisted. An interesting difference between the three species is this:

    in pomarinus the male is definitely larger than the female; in longicaudus

    and parasiticus the sexes are about the same size, the female tending to

    be larger.

            Some taxonomists believe that each of the above three species should

    occupy a genus by itself, while others believe not only that they all

    belong in the same genus but also that the larger, proportionately shorter–

    tailed great skua ( Catharacta skua ) is congeneric with them. The great skua

    is, however, a much more robust bird; its tarsus is shorter than the middle

    toe and claw; and its bipolar breeding distribution bespeaks either much

    greater antiquity than that of the jaegers or an adaptability the jaegers

    do not possess.

            Stercorarius is circumboreal in distribution — almost exclusively so

    in summer, though nonbreeding birds range widely. All three species are

    found in both the New World and the Old, and all breed northward to high

    latitudes.

            For a discussion of feeding and nesting habits, see STERCORARIIDAE.



    583      |      Vol_IV-0639                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gulls

           

    GULLS

           

    Order CHARADRIIFORMES ; Suborder LARI

           

    Family LARIDAE; Subfamily LARINAE

            503. American Herring Gull. Larus argentatus smithsonianus , the race of

    herring gull which breeds in continental North America, the extreme

    southeastern part of the Arctic Archipelago, and Newfoundland. See

    Herring Gull.

            504. Atlantic Kittiwake. A name often used for the nominate race of the kitti–

    wake ( Rissa tridactyla ) ( q.v .).

            505. Black-backed Gull. A name frequently applied in America to the great

    black-backed gull ( Larus marinus ) ( q.v. ).

            506. Black-headed Gull. See writeup.

            507. Bonaparte’s Gull. See writeup.

            508. Burgomaster or Burgomeister. A name widely used in Europe for the glaucous

    gull ( Larus hyperboreus ) ( q.v. ).

            509. Common Gull. See writeup.

            510. European Herring Gull. A name sometimes applied to the nominate race

    of the heering gull ( Larus argentatus ) (q.v. ).

            511. Fork-tailed Gull. A name sometimes applied to the Sabine’s gull ( Xema

    sabini ) ( q.v. ).

            512. Glaucous Gull. See writeup.

            513. Glaucous-winged Gull. See writeup.

            514. Great Black-backed Gull. See writeup.

            515. Gull. See writeup.



    584      |      Vol_IV-0640                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gulls

            516. Herring Gull. See writeup.

            517. Iceland Gull. See writeup.

            518. Ice Partridge. A vernacular name sometimes used for the ivory gull

    ( Pagophila eburnea ) (q.v.).

            519. Ivory Gull. See writeup.

            520. Kittiwake. See writeup.

            521. Kumlien’s Gull. See writeup.

            522. LARIDAE. See writeup.

            523. Larus . See writeup.

            524. Lesser Black-backed Gull. See writeup.

            525. Little Gull. See writeup.

            526. Mackerel Gull. A widely used vernacular name for terns of various sorts,

    especially the common tern ( Sterna hirundo ) and arctic tern ( Sterna

    paradisaea ), both of which see.

            527. Mew. A name used chiefly in Great Britain for various small gulls,

    especially the common gull ( Larus canus ) ( q.v. ).

            528. Minister. A vernacular name for the great black-backed gull ( Larus

    marinus ) and glaucous gull or burgomaster ( Larus hyperboreus ), both

    of which see.

            529. Nelson’s Gull. See writeup.

            530. Pacific Kittiwake. Rissa tridactyla pollicaris , the pacific race of

    the kittiwake ( q.v. ).

            531. Pagophila . See writeup.

            532. Point Barrow Gull. A name sometimes applied to Larus hyperboreus bar –

    rovianus , the race of glaucous gull which breeds on the north

    coast of Alaska. See Glaucous Gull.



    585      |      Vol_IV-0641                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gulls

            533. Rissa . See writeup.

            534. Rhodostethia . See writeup.

            535. Ross’s Gull. See writeup.

            536. Rosy Gull. A name sometimes used for the wedge-tailed gull or Ross’s

    gull ( Rhodostethia rosea ) ( q.v. ).

            537. Sabine’s Gull. See writeup.

            538. Saddler. A vernacular name used along the Labrador coast for the great

    black-backed gull ( Larus marinus ) ( q.v. ).

            539. Sea Gull. A name widely used for gulls of various species, especially

    the herring gull ( Larus argentatus ) ( q.v. ).

            540. Short-billed Gull. The name by which Larus canus brevirostris , the New

    World race of the common gull, is usually known. See Common Gull.

            541. Slaty-backed Gull. See writeup.

            542. Thayer’s Gull (Thayer’s Herring Gull). Larus argentatus thayeri , the

    race of herring gull which breeds throughout most of the Arctic

    Archipelago. See Herring Gull.

            543. Vega Gull (Vega Herring Gull). Larus argentatus vegae , a race of herring

    gull which breeds in Siberia. See Herring Gull.

            544. Wedge-tailed Gull. A name sometimes applied to the rosy gull or Ross’s

    gull ( Rhodostethia rosea ) ( q.v. ).

            545. Western Glaucous Gull. A name applied to Larus hyperboreus barrovianus ,

    the race of glaucous gull which breeds on the north coast of Alaska.

    Known also as the Point Barrow Gull. See Glaucous Gull.

            546. Xema . See writeup.

            546a. Yellow-legged Herring Gull. A name applied to a gull found in southern

    parts of Eurasia. By some authors it is regarded as a full species,

    Larus cachinnans , by others as a race of the herring gull, Larus

    argentatus ( q.v. ).



    586      |      Vol_IV-0642                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-headed Gull

            506. Black-headed Gull . A small Old World Gull, ( Larus ridibundus ,

    which probably is very closely related to the Bonaparte’s gull ( Larus

    philadelphia ) of the New World. It resembles that species in several

    significant respects: ( 1 ) The patterns of its several plumages are much the

    same. ( 2 ) Its flight is buoyant and ternlike. ( 3 ) Its summer habitat is

    comparable in that it breeds northward to about tree limit. So far as is

    known, the Bonaparte’s gull nests exclusively in trees. The black-headed

    gull, on the other hand, usually nests on the ground or low in such growing

    vegetation as reeds or rushes.

            The black-headed gull is 14 to 15 inches long. Adults in breeding

    plumage are white with chocolate brown head (and incomplete white eye ring),

    gray mantle, black whing tips, and red bill, legs, and feet. Adults in

    winter are similar except that their heads are white (with a small dusky

    spot about the eye and a dusky blotch on the auriculars). Adults at all

    seasons have a unique wing pattern. Seen from above the primaries are

    largely white with very narrow black border in front and narrow black tips;

    but actually the inner webs of the feathers are so edged with black that

    from below the whole outer part of the wing (manus) seems dark except for

    the white of the outermost primary at the front edge. Young birds in juvenal

    plumage are brown on the crown, back, scapulars, and lesser wing coverts, with

    black subterminal tail band. At this plumage stage the bill, legs, and feet

    are dull yellowish, but the colors of these fleshy parts brighten to yellow–

    ish red with the molt into the first winter plumage.

            The black-headed gull is an inlan t d as well as a coastal bird. It often

    captures insects on the wing; is well known for its habit of obtaining worms

    and other animal food by trampling the mud or wet sand; and it sometimes dives

    587      |      Vol_IV-0643                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn: Sutton: Black-headed Gull

    into the water from the air after a fish. It often snatches food from the

    mouths of coots, ducks, or grebes which have just risen from a dive. Its

    voice is harsh. Its notes have been transliterated as kwup , kwurp , kwur-ir-ip,

    kwur-ur-ur , etc. (Kirkman). Like the Bonaparte’s gull, it is very vociferous

    while attacking an intruder on the nesting grounds.

            It is colonial in its nesting. Colonies breed “among sandhills by sea,

    on islands in lochs and meres, in shallow water among growing vegetation, on

    shingle and low sandbanks, frequently near sea, but often far inland, rarely

    on marine islands” ( Handbook of British Birds ). Occasionally colonies estab–

    lish themselves in forests, placing the nests in trees and bushes. The nest

    is often started by the male, but the female assists in completing it. The

    nest is built of grass, moss, twigs, and other such material as is available.

    Material is added during the whole period of incubation. The eggs, which number

    3 as a rule, are grayish buff to dark brown in ground color, spotted and

    blotched with backish brown and dark purplish gray. Both sexes incubate.

    The incubation period, which begins when the first egg is laid, lasts 22 to 24

    days as a rule. The newly hatched young is buff, darker above than below,

    spotted and mottled with blackish brown on the face and upper parts. Fleding

    requires 5 to 6 weeks. During this period both the male and female parents

    feed the young.

            The black-headed gull breeds from Iceland, the Faeroes, southern Norway,

    central Sweden, Finland, northern Russia, and northern Siberia south to the

    British Isles, Sardinia, the mouth of the Danube, central Russia, southern

    Siberia, northwestern Mongolia, and Kamchatka. In Europe it does not nest

    northward quite to the Arctic Circle, though it reaches the southern shores

    of the White Sea. Along the Lena, Ob, and Kolyma rivers it breeds northward,

    respectively, to latitude 64°, 66° 30′, and 68° N. It winters from the

    588      |      Vol_IV-0644                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-headed Gull and Bonaparte’s Gull

    southern parts of its breeding range southward to the Azores, northern

    Africa, the Persian Gulf, India, Japan, and the Philippines. It has been

    collected in summer on Jan Mayen. It occurs more or less regularly in migra–

    tion in northern Norway, but is not known to breed there. It has been taken

    several times in Greenland. A specimen taken at Stag Bay, Labrador, in

    September, 1933, had been bended as immature in southern Holland a little

    more than a year before (Gross, A. O. 1935. Bird-Banding 6: 24). The species

    has been recorded with surprising regularity — though of course in small

    numbers — along the coast of New England and in Long Island, New York, during

    recent years.

            References:

    1. Haverschmidt, F. “On the breeding of the Black-headed Gull ( Larus r .

    ridibundus ) in first summer plumage,” Ardea , vol. 20, pp.147-50,

    1931. 2. Kirkman, F. B. Bird behavior. A contribution based chiefly on a study

    of the Black-headed Gull. T. Nelson and Sons, Ltd. and T. C. and

    E. C. Jack Ltd., London and Edinburgh, 1937.

            507. Bonaparte’s Gull. A small New World gull, Larus philadelphia ,

    which nests in forested parts of continental North America from western and

    central Alaska, northern Mackenzie, and northeastern Manitoba (Churchill)

    south to central British Columbia, central Alberta, central Saskatchewan,

    and southern Manitoba. Its breeding range extends to the Arctic Circle

    and slightly beyond in central Alaska (Fort Yukon), along the lower Anderson

    River, and (probably) along the lower Mackenzie. Reports of its breeding

    on Southampton Island are erroneous. Unlike the black-headed gull ( Larus

    ridibundus ), which it resembles in many ways, it never nests on the ground.

    589      |      Vol_IV-0645                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bonapart’s Gull

    It migrates along both coasts of North America as well as in the interior,

    and winters from Washington, the Great Lakes, and southern Massachusetts

    southward to Lower California and the west coast of Mexico; Florida and

    the Gulf of Mexico; and Bermuda.

            Bonaparte’s gull is about a foot long, with a wingspread of about 32

    inches. In breeding plumage it has a black head (with incomplete white

    eye ring), pearl gray mantle, and black wing tips, and is white otherwise,

    with a delicate pink flush over the breast and belly. The bill is black,

    the eyelids, mouth-lining, legs, and feet red. The primaries are mostly

    white, the black being confined to the outermost borders. In winter the

    adult[?] is white-headed (with a dusky spot in front of the eye and a dusky

    blotch on the auriculars) and usually lacks the pink flush on the under parts.

    Young birds resemble winter adults but are brownish on the crown, back,

    scapulars, and lesser wing coverts; the tail is tipped with black; and all

    the primaries and secondaries are tipped with black. For differences between

    the Bonapart’s gull and black-headed gull, see Black-headed Gull.

            Bonapart’s gull is usually silent in winter and during migration. On

    its breeding ground, however, it can be very vociferous, especially when its

    nest is threatened. It dives boldly at the intruder, screaming harshly. Its

    usual call note at such times is not unlike the tee-arr of the arctic tern

    ( Sterna paradisaea ). The nest is a flat but well-built platform of twigs

    about 10 inches in diameter, with cup an inch or so deep, well lined with

    grass and moss, and situated on a horizontal spruce branch 4 to 20 feet

    above the ground. Both the male and female build it. Though often it is in

    an exposed place it is not easy to see, hence one usually discovers it through

    seeing the bird fly to or from it. Ordinarily nests are widely scattered,

    590      |      Vol_IV-0646                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bonaparte’s Gull and Common Gull

    but Richardson reported 7 or 8 nests in one tree in a colony he found at

    Great Bear Lake. The eggs number 3 as a rule (sometimes 2; rarely 4) and

    are deep buffy olive, blotched, spotted and scrawled with dark olive and

    brown. Both sexes probably incubate. The newly hatched young is cinnamon

    brown, spotted and blotched with blackish brown on the crown and upper

    part of the body. The under parts are unspotted, but the chest is darker

    than the throat or belly. The young apparently leave the nest at an early

    age, though how they do so is a mystery. Only one brood is reared in a season.

            References:

    1. Henderson, A.D. “Bonaparte’s Gull Nesting in northern Alberta,” Auk,

    vol.43, pp.288-294, 1926. 2. Twomey, Arthur C. “Breeding habits of Bonaparte’s Gull,” Auk vol.51,

    pp.291-296, 1934.

            509. Common Gull. A small gull, Larus canus, well known in England,

    where it is often called the mew gull, or simply the mew. It is represented

    in North America by a well-marked geographical race, L. canus brachyrhynchus ,

    which has long been known as the short-billed gull. The common gull is about

    16 inches long, with wingspread of about 3 feet. It is white with pearl gray

    mantle and black and white wing tips, and looks much like a herring gull

    ( Larus argentatus ) despite its being considerably smaller. Its bill, legs,

    and feet are yellowish green, however, and the tip of the lower mandible

    lacks the orange-red spots which is present in the herring gull. The best

    means of distinguishing it from the herring gull is the slenderness of its

    bill. The herring gull, by comparison, is a much coarser-faced bird — a

    difference which often is apparent as the two species fly past. The common

    591      |      Vol_IV-0647                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Gull

    gull’s wing tips are longer than those of the herring gull, protruding

    farther beyond the tail when folded, and giving the body of the standing

    bird a longer, more tapered appearance.

            The common gull’s behavior does not differ from that of other gulls.

    It occasionally dives from a swimming position, disappearing for an instant

    beneath the surface and bobbing up lightly, wings and tail first. It fre–

    quently breaks clam shells open by dropping them from high in air onto rocks.

    Its cries include a ka - ka - ka , which is similar to that of most large species

    of Larus , but shriller; and such phrases as kee-ow , kee-ya , kick-ick , and

    kwuck-uck . It is fierce and noisy in defense of its nest and young.

            It nests in small colonies (occasionally in isolated pairs) on little

    islands in lakes or arms of the ocean, grassy hillsides not far from the

    shore, or boggy openings in the forest. It often nests in trees. In Scotland

    it has been known to use the old nests of rooks ( Corvus frugilegus ). J. Grin–

    nell, who encountered it the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska, found it nesting

    in spruce trees growing close to the edges of small lakes. In one colony the

    nests were 7 to 20 feet above ground. One nest was “a shapeless mass of

    slender twigs and hay, 9 inches across on top. There was scarcely any

    depression and I found the shells of two of the eggs broken on the ground

    beneath, probably pitched out by a severe wind of the day before.” Macfarlane,

    who collected many of its eggs along the Anderson River in northern Mackenzie,

    wrote: “Its nest is usually a small cavity in the sand by the side of a

    stream or a sheet of water; but it also frequently builds on a stump or tree,

    and in such cases dry twigs, hay, and mosses, are used in its construction.

    The parents do their utmost to drive away intruders.”

            The eggs, which usually number 3 (occasionally 2, rarely 4) are olive

    592      |      Vol_IV-0648                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Gull

    (occasionally pale green or blue), spotted, blotched, and streaked with

    dark brown. Both sexes incubate. Incubation begins when the first egg

    is laid and continues 22 to 25 days ( Handbook of British Birds ). The

    newly hatched young is buff, irregularly marked throughout the upper parts

    with dark brown. Fledging requires 4 to 5 weeks. Young birds hatched in

    trees probably leave the nests at an early age, as do the young of the

    Bonaparte’s gull ( Larus philadelphia ), but how they get to the ground is

    not known at present.

            Larus canus breeds across the whole of Eurasia and in northwestern

    North America northward to about tree limit. The nominate race breeds in

    the British Isles and from northern Scandinavia and the Kanin and Kola

    peninsulas south (locally) to Baltic coasts, the Don River and Transcaucasia.

    The Siberian race, kamschatschensis , which is darker on the mantle and

    longer-billed, breeds northward to the Arctic Circle along the Ob and

    Yenisei rivers, to latitude 70° N. along the Lena, and to 68° 40′ along

    the Kolyma. The southward limits of its breeding range are the Kirghiz

    Steppe, northeastern Mongolia, the Stanovoi Mountains, and Kamchatka. The

    North American race, brachyrhynohus , reaches its northern breeding limits

    in the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska and in northern Mackenzie (Anderson

    River and probably the lower Mackenzie River). Bailey reports it from

    several localities in arctic Alaska, but at none of these points does it

    breed. Its southern breeding limits are central British Columbia and Lake

    Athabasca. Larus canus is definitely migratory. It winters south to the

    Mediterranean Sea and the coasts of China, Japan, Formosa, and southern

    California.

            Reference:

    Haviland, Maud D. “The courtship of the Common Gull.” British Birds ,

    vol. 7, pp.278-80, 1914.

    593      |      Vol_IV-0649                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Glaucous Gull

            512. Glaucous Gull . A well-known arctic gull, Larus hyperboreus ,

    so called because of the pale gray mantle worn by the adult. In Europe

    it is often called the burgomaster (burgomeister), in America the minister

    gull or white minister. The Eskimos call it the nowyah , nowyahvik , or

    kowmak , the last of these names probably being onomatopoeic.

            It is one of the largest gulls of the world, being 28 to about 31

    inches long with a wingspread of somewhat over 5 feet. Adults in summer are

    pure white throughout the [ ?] head, neck, under parts, rump, tail, and

    primaries, and on the tips of the secondaries, tertials, and humeral feathers,

    with pale pearl-gray mantle. In winter the head and neck are flecked irregu–

    larly with pale brownish gray. The bill, which is very heavy and strong, is

    yellow, with a spot of red-orange near the tip of the lower mandible. The

    eyes are pale yellow, the eyelids dull orange. The legs and feet are pinkish

    flesh color. Young birds are much paler than the young of other gulls

    (except the Iceland Gull) and never have a dark subterminal tail band.

    During their first winter they appear at a distance to be buffy gray all

    over, but actually the feathers are intricately speckled and barred [ ?] through–

    out. At this plumage stage the eyes are brown, the bill dusky with an area

    of pinkish flesh color at the base of the lower mandible, and the legs and

    feet flesh color. As the bird matures it becomes steadily whiter, but it

    does not assume the white and pearl gray [ ?] of the full adult until its fourth

    or fifth year. The Iceland gull ( Larus leucopterus ), another of the “white–

    winged gulls,” is very similar in color to the glaucous gull, but much smaller.

    For a discussion of the differences between the two forms, see Iceland Gull.

            The glaucous gull is a powerful, hardy bird which breeds northward to

    very high latitudes and never moves very far south in winter. It is famous

    for its voracious appetite. It feeds on many sorts of fish and other aquatic

    594      |      Vol_IV-0650                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Glaucous Gull

    animals (crabs, mollusks, sea urchins, starfish, and even young seals);

    the eggs and young of various sea birds, especially colonial species;

    occasional adult birds, notably dovekies ( Plautus alle ) which it probably

    captures as they come out of their nesting crannies; the droppings of bears,

    seals, and walruses; carrion of all kinds; and even, especially in August,

    crowberries ( Empetrum ). Manniche, who found the species fairly common near

    Stormkap, in northeast Greenland, observed that “at flood time the gulls

    would diligently visit the cracks made by the tide along the shore; here

    they picked up small fishes ... which were forced up to the surface.” He

    several times saw glaucous gulls, together with ravens and arctic foxes,

    “attended upon the meals of Polar Bears.” Near Seashore Point, Southampton

    Island, I saw glaucous gulls hovering closely about a polar bear which was

    standing near a harp seal it had killed. So annoyed was it by the squealing,

    teasing birds that it rose occasionally to strike at them with its paws, as

    a man might strike at mosquitoes.

            In many parts of the Far North the glaucous gull is known to be the

    first of the birds to return in spring. Kumlien noted its appearance in

    Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island, on April 20, 1878. Open water was still

    about 70 miles [ ?] from shore on that date, but the birds “seemed to fare well

    on young seals.” Hagerup, reporting that it wintered (“chiefly young birds”)

    in the neighborhood of Ivigtut, South Greenland, mentioned an adult shot

    March 20. At St. Michael, Alaska, Turner noted its arrival about the middle

    of April. At stormkap and Hvalrosodden, Northeast Greenland, Manniche noted

    its arrival “the end of May, while the bays and firths as well as the fresh

    waters were still covered with thick ice. The first two weeks after their

    arrival they were obliged to fly far and wide for food. In small flocks they

    used to fly so high in the air that I — only guided by their cries — could

    595      |      Vol_IV-0651                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Glaucous Gull

    hardly discover them even by the aid of my field glasses.” On Spitsbergen,

    Svendsen noted the species’ arrival on February 18, in 1910, and Hunge saw

    the first bird of spring on April 17, in 1900. Smirnow reported that

    Larus hyperboreus wintered regularly on the snow fields of the White Sea

    and neighboring parts of the Barents Sea (see Pleske, 1928, Birds of the

    Eurasian Tundra , p. 205).

            The species usually nests on cliffs, often near the top, so that a man

    in reaching them is obliged to make his way down, rather than up, to them,

    and many are quite inaccessible. A solitary pair of birds may nest year

    after year by themselves on a cliff or rocky islet, but often many pairs

    nest together in a scattered colony. The birds use the same nests year

    after year. Many authors have reported layered nests of pyramidal shape.

    Nests are usually made of moss and “soft grass.” In areas which are with–

    out cliffs, the species regularly nests on islands in tundra lakes. In

    northern Alaska, where there are no cliffs, Bailey found the “ancestral

    nesting grounds” to be the “inland tundras and islets of the lagoons.” An

    excellent photograph in his Birds of Arctic Alaska (p. 237) shows a nest

    which was probably on the highest point of an island — but how strange the

    site to one who, like myself, has climbed steep cliffs in reaching glaucous

    gull nests in other parts of the Arctic!

            The eggs are usually 3 (sometimes 2 or 4). They are light gray or brown

    (rarely bluish green or reddish brown) spotted and blotched with gray and

    dark brown. Both sexes probably incubate. The incubation period is about

    4 weeks. The chick is light buffy gray (whiter below than above), obscurely

    marked with dark spots on the crown and back. The young are fed by both

    parents. Only one brood is reared per season.



    596      |      Vol_IV-0652                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Glaucous Gull and Glaucous-winged Gull

            Larus hyperboreus is circumboreal in distribution. It breeds north

    to Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef Archipelago, the New Siberian Archipelato,

    Wrangel Island, Herald Island, northern Alaska, Prince Patrick Island,

    Melville Island, the arctic coast of Eurasia (from the Murman Coast to

    the Chukotsk Peninsula), the Pribilofs, and the arctic coast of North

    America (Alaska to James Bay, Labrador, and Newfoundland). Birds which

    breed in Alaska and on Wrangel and Herald islands are definitely smaller

    than those from eastern parts of the American Arctic. They belong to the

    race L. hyperboreus barrovianus (Point Barrow gull or western glaucous gull).

            The glaucous gull winters southward to the coasts of western Europe,

    China and Japan, and to California, Long Island (New York), and the Great

    Lakes.

            References:

    1. Kay, G. T. “The Glaucous Gull in winter,” British Birds , vol.40,

    pp.369-73, 1947. (13 plates showing glaucous and Iceland gulls.) 2. Wilkes, A.H. Paget. “Breeding habits of the Glaucous Gull.” In

    Spitsbergen Papers, Volume 1, Scientific results of the First

    Oxford University Expedition to Spitsbergen (1921). Oxford

    University Press, Loneon, 1925. 3. ----. “On the breeding-habits of the Glaucous Gull as observed on Bear

    Island and in the Spitsbergen Archipelago,” British Birds ,

    vol.16, pp.2-8, 1922.

            513. Glaucous-winged Gull. A large “ gray-winged” gull, Larus

    glaucescens , which is very common in the North Pacific and has been reported

    several times (usually erroneously) from arctic Alaska and northeastern

    Siberia. It is known to breed as far north as Hooper Bay, Alaska, as well

    as on St. Lawrence Island, the Komandorskis, and the Pribilofs. It breeds

    597      |      Vol_IV-0653                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Glaucous-winged Gull and Great Black-backed Gull

    southward on most North Pacific islands and coasts to the Aleutians, south–

    eastern Alaska, western British Columbia, and northwestern Washington. It

    winters from Kamchatka and the Komandorskis southward to the Kurils, Japan,

    T t he Gulf of California, and Sonora. It is about 24 to 26 inches long. In

    breeding plumage it is white with pale gray mantle, gray markings toward the

    tips of the wings, yellow bill (with an orange-red spot near the tip of the

    lower mandible), and pink legs and feet. Young birds are grayish brown

    throughout, with wings the same color as the body , not of a conspicuously

    darker shade of brown or gray. A large gull with pale gray mantle and gray

    and white wing tips seen in the North Pacific is likely to be of this species.

    It nests in colonies, those off the coast of Washington being extremely large.

            Gulls with gray and white wing tips encountered north of the Arctic

    Circle in Alaska and Siberia must be identified with great care, for the

    puzzling Nelson’s gull is similar to the glaucous-wing; and Kumlien’s gull

    ( Larue kumlieni ), though smaller, and found usually in easternparts of the

    American Arctic, is similar in color pattern.

            514. Great Black-backed Gull . A very large gull, Larus marinus , found

    along both coasts of the North Atlantic and in adjacent parts of the Arctic

    Sea. It is often called the black-backed gull, a name which does not dis–

    tinguish it very well from the lesser black-backed gull, Larus fuscus , a

    similarly colored but much smaller species found only in the Old World. On

    the Labrador the great black-back is never called anything but the saddler

    or saddle-back, and several place names, such as Saddler Rocks, Big Saddler

    Island, and Little Saddler Island, attest to its abundance there. It is

    598      |      Vol_IV-0654                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Black-backed Gull

    about 30 inches long, with wingspread up to 65 inches, and is sometimes

    referred to as the largest gull of the world, though the glaucous gull or

    burgomaster ( Larus hyperboreus ) is just as large and perhaps larger. The

    great black-back is somewhat slow-moving, as large birds are apt to be.

    When flying from the ground it runs a short way with wings extended, rises

    with powerful strokes, and makes off majestically. Often it climbs to

    great heights and soars. So steady is its circling, and so white its head

    and tail, that in the distant sky it can easily be mistaken for the bald

    eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ).

            In summer the adult great black-back is slaty gray on the mantle (with

    white-tipped primaries, secondaries, and humeral feathers), and pure white

    otherwise. Its bill, which is large and powerful, is yellow, with a red-orage

    spot near the tip of the lower mandibles. The eye is yellow, the eyelids orange–

    red, the legs and feet pinkish flesh color. In winter the head and neck are

    lightly streaked with dusky. The fully adult plumage is not attained until

    the third or fourth year. Young birds in their various plumage stages are

    mottled and spotted, e [s ?] pecially on the upper parts. For a superb photograph

    of the first flight plumage see F. Fraser Darling’s Wild County (1938. Cam–

    bridge University Press, p. 19).

            Identification of subadult gulls is often difficult, partly because there

    is no way of being absolutely sure about their size without capturing them.

    Young great black-backed and glaucous gulls are actually larger than other

    gulls, but the size-difference between them and young herring gulls ( Larus

    argentatus ), Iceland gulls ( Larus glaucoides ), and lesser black-backs often

    is not apparent in the field. Young glaucous gulls, in comparison with young

    great black-backs, are white -winged (the wings are not pure white but at a

    599      |      Vol_IV-0655                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Black-backed gull

    distance they look white). Great black-backed gulls in first winter plumage

    are conspicuously darker above than below. Herring gul l s and lesser black–

    backs in first winter feather are, in comparison, dark all over. Adult great

    black-backs differ markedly from adult lesser black-backs in size, the latter

    being only 21 inches long. The legs and feet are pink in the great black-back,

    green in the lesser black-back.

            The great black-back’s voice is deep and powerful. A common call note is

    a terse kow , kow , kow , which is very similar to one of the notes of the glaucous

    gull. A far-carrying, screamed-out keeaaw , is given (sometimes in duet) with

    the bill wide open and the neck fully outstretched. Other cries are a high–

    pitched kee , kee ; a hoarse ha , ha , ha ; a throaty oo or woo ; and a mellow kuk ,

    kuk, kuk. Young birds have a peculiarly whinnied food cry. In Labrador fishing

    villages, where one becomes accustomed to the varied sounds of the tethered

    sledge dogs and other domestic animals, one is apt to misidentify as goats

    the bleating, [ ?] whinnying captive young sa d dlers, which are being fattened

    for the table.

            The great black-back gull frequents low-lying shores, sand bars, and

    tidal flats in winter, but moves to rockier coasts to nest. In northern

    Europe it sometimes breeds on freshwater lakes at some distance from the sea.

    Usually it is rare inland at all seasons. Along certain coasts it nests in

    scattered pairs — one pair to an islet or pomontory; but in many parts of the

    North certain offshore islands or “stacks” have for centuries been the breed–

    ing grounds of sizeable colonies. Nests usually are on the very highest

    parts of islands or headlands. They are built up season after season,

    eventually becoming great masses of moss, feathers, gra [ ?] s, and rubbish. Both

    the male and female build the nest and incubate the eggs. The eggs, which

    600      |      Vol_IV-0656                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Black-backed Gull

    are 3 (sometimes 2, 4, or 5), are grayish buff, spotted and blotched

    with gray and dark brown. Incubation, which begins before the clutch

    is complete, continues 26 to 28 days, and the chicks hatch at 24-hour

    intervals. The newly hatched chick is gray (lightest on the chin and

    middle of the belly), with small dark spots on the head and irregular

    dark mottlings on the back. The young are fed by both parents for about

    seven weeks. They begin to use their wings on about the fiftieth day and

    fly well at eight weeks ( Handbook of British Birds) .

            The great black-back eats the eggs of other sea birds and is

    especially adept at catching young elders ( Somateria mollissima ). I have

    seen it attacking a mother eider and her breed, scattering the ducklings

    with its fearsome swoops, capturing them one by one, swallowing each with

    a gulp or two without even settling on the water. It eats carrion of all

    sorts and frequently captures weak or crippled birds. Many of the fish it

    eats it probably finds dead.

            In the Old World, Larus marinus breeds on Iceland, the Faeroes, the

    British Isles, Spitsbergen (in small numbers), Bear Island, Scandinavia,

    Finland, the Murman Coast, the shores of the White Sea, the Kanin Peninsula,

    Vaigach, Kolguev (probably), and coasts of the Baltic south to Estonia

    (rarely), Denmark (rarely), and northwestern France ( Handbook of British

    Birds ). It has been reported from Jan Mayen and the mouth of the Yenisei

    River. In the New World it breeds from Nova Scotia and the north shore of

    the Gulf of St. Lawrence northward down the Labrador, and along the west

    coast of Greenland north as far as Upernivik (lat. 73° N.). It has been

    reported once from Franz Josef Fjord, in northeast Greenland. Low (1906.

    Cruise of the Neptune , p. 316) reported “a large colony seen on the high

    601      |      Vol_IV-0657                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Black-backed Gull and Gull

    cliffs of Cuming Creek, North Devon,” and evidently believed that it

    nasted “in other inaccessible places on the northern islands,” but recent

    visitors to Baffin, Devon, and Ellesmere islands have not recorded the

    species anywhere on the west side of Baffin Bay or Davis Strait. Its

    breeding range in Greenland is surprisingly like that of the pomarine jaeger

    ( Stercorarius pomarinus ). It winters south to the Great Lakes, Delaware

    Bay, the Azores, the Canaries, and the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian

    seas. For comments on the ranges of certain very closely related forms,

    see Larus .

            Reference:

    Gross, Alfred O. “The present status of the Great Black-backed Gull on

    the coast of Main,” Auk vol.62, pp.241-56, 1945.

            515. Gull . Any of several long-winged, web-footed charadriiform birds

    of the subfamily Larinae, all of which resemble terns (subfamily Sterninae)

    but are, as a group, larger, more robust, and longer-legged. In most gulls

    the bill is rather heavy and hooked and the lower mandible is deepened and

    “angled” near the tip. In g e neral, gulls have less pointed wings than terns

    have, and in normal flight they beat their wings more slowly. Most gulls

    have square tails. A very few species have slightly forked tails, but in

    no species is the tail deeply forked as it is in several of the terna.

            Throughout the subfamily Larinae there is a notable similarity of

    color pattern. Most adult arctic gulls have a mantle — i.e., the back,

    scapulars, and wing coverts have the same color tone, and this color tone

    is different from that of the rest of the body. In some species the mantle

    602      |      Vol_IV-0658                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gull

    is light pearl gray; [ ?] in others it is dark (sometimes almost black).

    Many gulls of other parts of the world also are “mantled”; but some are

    dusky all over even when fully adult, their pattern being similar to that

    of the juvenal plumage of certain arctic species. Most gulls have black,

    black and white, or gray and white wing tips when adult. Many are hooded

    (i.e., dark-headed) in summer when adult; others are hooded only when imma–

    ture. Species which are white-headed in summer usually have the head and neck

    streaked or spotted with light brownish gray in winter. Species which are

    hooded in breeding plumage usually are more or less white-headed in winter.

    Several species wear a black tail tip in juvenal (or some subadult) plumage.

    Some gulls do not attain their fully adult plumage until they are three or

    four years old or older.

            Gulls are known to be creatures of the ocean, hence the widely used

    vernacular name “sea gull”; but actually they spend most of their time near

    the shore and many species feed and nest well inland. They stand horizontally;

    walk while feeding afoot; occasionally speed the walk up to a dignified run.

    Some species frequently alight upon the water and spend much time there, but

    others do not. All of them can swim, but the ivory gull ( Pagophila eburnea ),

    which has deeply incised webs, swims but little and alights more frequently

    on the ice than in the water. Gulls characteristically pick food from the

    water while flying, but only a few of them — notably the black-headed gull

    ( Larus ridibundus ) — dive tern-wise from the air in obtaining food beneath

    the surface. Herring gulls ( Larus argentatus ), glaucous-winged gulls ( Larus

    glaucescens ), and common gulls ( Larus canus ) break clam shells open by dropping

    them from a great height onto the rocks. Some large gulls are quite predatory,

    feeding regularly upon the eggs and young of other sea birds. The glaucous

    603      |      Vol_IV-0659                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gull

    gull or burgomaster ( Larus hyperboreus ) is known to kill and devour young

    seals. Certain small gulls are adept at capturing insects on the wing.

    A few species are famous for their habit of following the plow and feeding

    on grubs and other organisms snatched from the freshly turned-up earth. If

    grasshoppers become unusually numerous, certain species of gulls sometimes

    prey largely on them. All gulls are scavengers. They pick up refuse,

    follow vessels about for garbage, and gather in great flocks in harbors

    or near canneries. Indigestible matter which they swallow they cast up as

    pellets.

            All gulls are gregarious. They feed, roos e t , and go about together in

    flocks, and nest colonially. Most species are noisy and aggressive in defense

    of their eggs or young, the black-headed gull and Bonaparte’s ( Larus philadel –

    phia ) especially so. Some gulls — notably the kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla )

    and Iceland gull ( Larus glaucoides ) — nest only on cliffs. Others, such

    as the glaucous gull, frequently nest on cliffs, but in some areas nest on

    offshore islands or even among tundra lakes in flat country. The herring

    full, common gull, and black-headed gull nest in a variety of places, includ–

    ing trees. The [ ?] Bonaparte’s gull nests only in trees.

            Clutch-size does not vary much within the subfamily Larinae. Most

    species lay 2 or 3 eggs (sometimes 1; occasionally 4 or 5). The eggs are

    usually olive or brown, spotted with deep brown. In most species both the

    male and female incubate. The downy young of most species are buff, gray,

    or brown, spotted or mottled above with dark brown or black. In no species

    is the downy young solid black or pure white.

            Several gulls range northward to high latitudes in summer. The ivory

    gull has been called “the most northerly of all birds.” Virtually all gulls

    604      |      Vol_IV-0660                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gull and Herring Gull

    which nest in the Far North are boreal in year-round distribution — i.e.,

    they do not move very far south in winter; but the beautiful Sabine’s gull

    ( Xema sabini ), which breeds northward to Spitsbergen, and New Siberian

    Archipelago, northern Alaska, and northern Greenland, winters off the coast

    of Peru.

            Many gulls are found in both the New World and the Old. Among these

    are such well-known arctic species as the ivory gull, herring gull, glau–

    cous gull, Ross’s gull ( Rhodostethia rosea ), Sabine’s gull, and Kittiwake.

    The great black-backed gull ( Larus marinus ) is found on both sides of the

    North Atlantic and supposedly nowhere else in the world; but further inves–

    tigation may reveal that the great black-back, the slaty-backed gull ( Larus

    schistisagus ) of the North Pacific, and the kelp gull or Antarctic Black-back

    ( Larus dominicanus ), a Southern Hemisphere form which breeds southward through

    most of the subantarctic islands, are all geographical races of the same

    species.

            Reference:

    Dwight, Jonathan. “The Gulls (Laridae) of the world: their plumages, moults,

    variations, relationships and distribution.” Bull. American Museum

    of Natural History     , vol.52, pp.63-408 (with many plates). 1925.

            516. Herring Gull . A well-known and abundant gull, Larus argentatus ,

    which ranges widely along northern coasts. It is the commonest “big gull”

    of North Temperate harbors, as a rule; and it so often follows vessels about

    that it is believed to cross the ocean with them. It breeds northward to the

    Arctic Circle and beyond in both the Old World and the New. It nests chiefly

    on outer coasts, but large colonies also nest on islands in lakes and rivers

    605      |      Vol_IV-0661                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Herring Gull

    far from the sea. The Eskimos know it well. The name they usually apply

    to it, nowyah , is their name for gulls in general.

            It is about 22 inches long, with wingspread of 54 to 58 inches. It

    is noticeably smaller than the glaucous gull ( Larus hyperboreus ) and great

    black-back ( L. marinus ), but is about the same size as the lesser black-back

    ( L. fuscus ) of the Old World, and certain similarities between these two forms

    have led Stefmann ( Journ. f. Orn ., 1934, pp. 340-380) and others to regard

    them as conspecific. The species it most closely resembles in color is the

    common gull ( L. canus ) — a much smaller, slenderer-billed bird with green

    legs and feet. A fact worth bearing in mind when identifying gulls in the

    Far North is this: The herring gull is never “white-winged” as is the

    Iceland Gull ( L. glaucoides ), a species of similar size.

            The fully adult herring gull in summer is pure white with pearl gray

    mantle and conspicuous black and white wing tips. The bill is yellow, with

    a red-orange spot near the tip of the lower mandible. The eye is pale

    yellow, the eyelids red-orange, the legs and feet pinkish flesh color in

    some geographical races, yellowish in others. In winter the head and neck

    are streaked with light brownish gray. Individuals in this pure-white-tailed

    plumage are four years old or older.

            Young birds in their first flight plumage are quite dark both above and

    below and very dark-billed. At a distance they appear to be solid brownish

    gray, but close examination reveals speckling spotting, and barring on all

    the feathers. As they grow older they become lighter molt by molt. In their

    second winter they are light buffy gray on the head, under parts, rump, and

    tail, more or less mottled throughout with darker gray. At this stage the

    primaries are plain brown, without white markings. In their third winter

    606      |      Vol_IV-0662                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Herring Gull

    many birds still “have the exposed rectrices wholly brown.” Even four-year–

    old birds sometimes “have dark areas in the tail” (quotations from Poor, 1946).

    It is widely believed that herring gulls begin breeding in their third year,

    but the white-tailed birds which so obviously make up the greater part of

    most breeding colonies are four years old or older.

            We do not have very extensive data as to the herring gull’s life expec–

    tancy. Gross mentions one banded individual 26 years old, another 14 years

    old. Marshall (1947), after examining much banding data, reports that 40

    per cent of the young survive for one year, 25 per cent for two years, and

    1 per cent for 10 years. Gross (1940), in a scholarly study of a large Kent

    Island colony, states: “Assuming that the average span of life of breeding

    gulls is eight years, or five years as a breeding individual, only 20 birds

    per 100 need be added each year to maintain the population of the colony.”

    Some birds of each colony do not breed, of course. The Kent Island popula–

    tion studied by Gross included “a number of non-breeding birds of all ages.”

            The herring gull’s cries are so varied that an attempt to set them

    down as words or phrases is apt to be ludicrous. The birds squeal, whinny,

    kuk , kow , kee - ow , mee - oo , ah - oo , wi - wi - wi , and so on in jumbled unison. A

    high, and at times somewhat musical kill - ee - oo , or klee - you , is characteristic.

    In temperate regions the species nearly always breeds in colonies, and the

    colonies return year after year to their favorite islands, cliffs, or remote

    peninsulas. In the North, however, populations are sometimes widely scattered

    and separate pairs nest on tiny islets in coastal lakes. On flat-topped

    turfy islands nests are nearly always placed among the grass. Nests are

    of grass, seaweed, moss, feathers, and rubbish, and are built by both the

    male and female. The eggs (usually 3) are brown or brownish olive, spotted

    607      |      Vol_IV-0663                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Herring Gull

    and blotched with dark brown. Incubation, which sometimes begins with

    the laying of the first egg, but may not start until the clutch is com–

    plete, continues 28 days (Gross). Both sexes incubate. The downy chicks

    are grayish buff, neatly spotted with black on the head and irregularly

    marked with black on the upper part of the body. They stay in the nest

    for only a short time but remain in the vicinity while fledging. While

    still unable to fly, they squat when danger threatens, often escaping

    detection because they look so much like the lichen-covered rocks.

    Strong states that they “are at least two months old before they begin

    to fly well.”

            Larus argentatus breeds widely along northern coasts of both the Old

    and New Worlds and also in the North Temperate interior. Curiously

    enough, it does not breed in Iceland, eastern Greenland, or arctic Alaska.

    It attains its highest latitudes on the Faeroes, the Murman Coast, Kolguev,

    the Taimyr Peninsula, the New Siberian Archipelago, Wrangel Island, Banks

    Island, Cornwallis Island, southern Devon Island, east central Ellesmere

    Island, and western Greenland. Handley saw one bird only on Prince Patrick

    Island in the summer of 1949. The most southerly points at which it breeds

    are, apparently, the Azores, the Canaries, Madeira, Spain, Portugal, certain

    coasts of the Adriatic, the Black and Caspian seas, central Minnesota, and

    the coast of New England.

            Several geographical races have been described, of which about 10 are

    widely recognized. Peters lists: thayeri (of West Greenland and much of

    the Arctic Archipelago); smithsonianus (Southampton Island, southern Baffin

    Island, and continental North America from south-central Alaska eastward to

    Hudson Bay and Quebec and southward to central Minnesota, the Great Lakes,

    608      |      Vol_IV-0664                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Herring Gull

    and the coast of New England); omissus (Murman Coast and coasts and islands

    of the White Sea); argentatus (Faeroes, British Isles, Scandinavia, and

    Baltic coasts); antelius (Kolguev and the lower Dvina, Ob, and Pechora

    rivers); heuglini (lower Yenisei and Khatanga rivers and wooded parts of

    the Taimyr Peninsula); birulai (New Siberian Archipelago, Wrangel, Kotelnyi,

    the Taimyr Peninsula north of the tree limit , and eastward on the arctic

    coast of Siberia to the Yana); vegae (northern Siberia from the Kolyma

    River to Anadyr Bay); mongolicus (lakes of d central Asia); cachinnans

    (southern Russia, Black and Caspian seas, eastward across south central

    Asia); michahellis (Adriatic and western Mediterranean islands and coasts

    of Spain and Portugal); and atlantis (Azores, Canaries, and Madeira). The

    breeding range along the Siberian coast is almost certainly continuous, so

    the area between the Yana and Kolyma rivers probably is one of intermediacy.

    Among the supposedly more strongly marked races is cachinnans, the so-called

    yellow-legged herring gull, which by some authors has been considered a

    full species. Lönnberg ( Ibis , 1933, pp. 47-50) has shown, however, that

    there is some yellow coloring matter (xanthophyll) in the feet of herring

    gulls from Sweden (i.e., birds whose feet ordinarily appear to be flesh–

    colored); that sexual stimulation increases the rate at which xanthophyll

    is deposited; and that yellow foot color may therefore be “acquired inde–

    pendently at different localities.”

            Larus argentatus ranges south (usually in winter, sometimes at other

    seasons) to the coasts of Gambia, Somaliland, Angola (rarely), the Persian

    Gulf, the Bay of Bengal, the northern Philippines, the coasts of India,

    China, Japan, Mexico, Florida, and the West Indies.



    609      |      Vol_IV-0665                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Herring Gull and Iceland Gull

            References:

    1. Gross, Alfred O. “The migration of Kent Island Herring Gulls,”

    Bird-Banding , vol.11, pp.129-55, 1940. 2. Marshall, Hubert. “Longevity of the American Herring Gull,” Auk,

    vol.64, pp.188-97, 1947. 3. Poor, Hustace H. “Plumage and soft-part variations in the Herring

    Gull,” Auk , vol.63, pp.135-51, 1946. 4. Strong, R.M. “On the habits and behavior of the Herring Gull, Larus

    argentatus Pont,” Auk , vol.31, pp.22-49 and 178-99, 1914. 5. ----. “Further observations on the habits and behavior of the habits

    and behavior of the Herring Gull,” Auk , vol.40, pp.609-21, 1923.

            517. Iceland Gull . An arctic gull, Larus glaucoides (often listed as

    Larus leucopterus ) which might more accurately be called the Greenland gull,

    for it breeds in great numbers along certain stretches of the Greenland

    coast. It may breed occasionally in small numbers on Iceland (Einarsson

    reported its nesting on Vestmann Islands, just to the south of Iceland, in

    1939), but it is certainly not common there at any season. Supposed breed–

    ing records for various parts of the Arctic Archipelago (especially Victoria

    and Baffin Islands), for Boothia Peninsula, and for Novaya Zemlya need con–

    firmation.

            The species is often referred to as “a smaller edition” of the glaucous

    gull, and some authors insist that it is a geographical race of that species;

    but if glaucous and Iceland gulls consistently maintain distinct breeding

    populations side by side, as apparently they do in both eastern and western

    Greenland, then surely they are distinct species — regardless of the fact

    that their feeding and nesting [ ?] habits, not to mention their coloration,

    are very much the same. The principal morphological difference between two

    610      |      Vol_IV-0666                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Iceland Gull

    two species is that of size. The glaucous gull is 27 to 30 inches long,

    the Iceland about 21. This is a really considerable difference. Even the

    familiar herring gull ( Larus argentatus ), which is usually not thought to

    be especially large, is about 22 inches long, in other words, larger than

    the Iceland.

            The Iceland gull is longer-winged, proportionally , than the glaucous

    gull, so the tips of the folded wings extend well beyond the tip of the tail;

    but this character is often difficult to be sure about in the field. As

    certain authors have pointed out, theeyelids of the Iceland gull are dull

    brick red at the [ ?] height of the breeding season, whereas those of the

    glaucous gull are orange. Otherwise, the two species are astonishingly

    alike in color — in the various subadult plumage stages as well as when

    fully adult.

            In behavior the Iceland gull resembles the herring gull. It is less

    majestic in flight than the glaucous gull, not wuite so deep-voiced, and,

    being less powerful, is less predatory. It feeds on small fish, crustaceans,

    mollusks, and dead carcasses of all sorts which it finds in the sea or along

    the shore.

            Hagerup tells us that the Iceland gulll breeds in great numbers near

    Ivigtut, in southern Greenland. On the bird cliff there, it nests above

    the kittiwakes ( Rissa tridactyla ), returning in March and laying its eggs

    before the ice in the fjord below has broken up. The nests are bulky, made

    of moss and grass, and built on narrow ledges. The eggs, which number 2 or 3,

    are light brownish gray, blotched and spotted with gray and dark brown. No

    one has studied the nesting habits of this bird closely, so we have no

    information as to the incubation and fledging periods. The downy chick is

    611      |      Vol_IV-0667                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Iceland Gulland Ivory Gull

    described by Bent as “Dingy white, with brownish-gray spots above, especially

    about the head.” At the Ivigtut colony above referred to the young were

    observed to leave the nests about the end of July. Only one brood is reared

    per year.

            The Iceland gull probably breeds along most of the Greenland coast,

    though Manniche expressed a doubt that “any nesting place” existed “on the

    tracts explored” by him in the vicinity of Germania Land; Bird and Bird did

    not report it from the area between Germania Land and Hudson Land; and the

    species has not been reported from Peary Land. It may formerly have nested

    on Jan Mayen ( Handbook of British Birds ). Records for Spitsbergen, Vaigach,

    the Taimyr Peninsula, and the Murman Coast are open to some question. It is

    not known to nest anywhere about Baffin Island or Hudson Strait — i.e., in

    areas throughout which the Kumlien’s gull ( Larus kumlieni ) nests. It winters

    along Scandinavian coasts, about the Faeroes, Iceland, and the British Isles,

    in the Great Lakes, and along the Atlantic coast of the northeastern United

    States.

            Reference:

    Kay, G.T. “The Glaucous [and Iceland] Gull [s] in winter,” British Birds ,

    vol.40, pp.369-73 (with 13 [ ?] photos), 1947.

            519. Ivory Gull . A beautifully middle-sized northern gull, Pagophila

    eburnea , which when fully adult is pure white — one of the few really white

    birds known to science. It is familiar to all explorers of the true Arctic,

    for even in winter it does not move very far south of the pack ice. It has

    been called “the most northerly of all birds” (W. B. Alexander). [ ?] W halers have

    612      |      Vol_IV-0668                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ivory Gull

    have given it the not very accurate names snowbird and ice partridge. Eskimo

    names for it are nowyavah and nowyaluk .

            It is 16 to 18 inches long, with bill about 2 inches long. Its plumage

    is faintly glossy. Adults are immaculate. Their legs and feet are black,

    their eyes dark brown, the y i r eyelids bright vermilion, their bills grayish

    blue at the base, pale greenish yellow along the culmen and cutting edges,

    but they are spotted with gray on the head and with dusky on the back,

    scapulars, wing coverts, and sometimes the sides. The gray of the head has

    the appearance of dirty smooching. All the primaries, secondaries, and

    tertials are tipped with black, and the tail has a narrow black subterminal

    band. The eyelids are black and the bill dark, without bright color of any

    sort. Bailey tells us that in a young bird which he collected off the Alaska

    coast the bill was black, the gape and inside of the mouth salmon-orange, the

    legs and feet fuscous.

            In the air the ivory gull is extremely graceful. Observers have called

    its flight “strong,” “buoyant,” and T “t ernlike.” When perching, its legs seem

    to be disproportionately short, its neck overly long, and its breast bulging;

    but it walks strongly and runs with surprising agility. It alights in the

    water only infrequently, but often settles on the ice. It follows hunters

    about, gathering in small companies at the scene of a kill. Here it eagerly

    consumes the bloody remains. It is quarrelsome by nature and drives off the

    larger gulls seemingly without difficulty. Nuttall’s description of its

    “only note” as a “loud and disagreeable scream” probably was somewhat sub–

    jective. Manniche described its call note as “short” but “sonorous.” Naneen

    reported a “shrill, querulous cry” given in flight. Longstaff’s animated

    word-picture of it is worth quoting entire: “When jumping up and down in

    613      |      Vol_IV-0669                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ivory Gull

    expectation of food while a seal is being skinned it utters a shrill,

    excited squeal.”

            The ivory gull spends most of its time at sea. With the fulmar ( Fulmarus

    glacialis ) it follows up and down the openings in the pack ice, sometimes

    gathering in considerable numbers at the sarbuk , or tide rips, which rarely

    if ever freeze over even in the coldest weather. It moves southward in late

    fall, but reports of its appearance along ice floes or at seal holes in the

    semidarkness clearly indicate that it is less definitely migratory than most

    northern gulls. Brooks has reported a specimen obtained near Humphrey Point,

    Alaska, on November 25, 1913, five days after the winter darkness had set in.

    The bird was caught in a fox trap set on the ice five miles out from shore.

            Bailey tells us that the Alaska Eskimos consider the ivory gull one of

    the earliest birds to return in spring. When the first whales appear along

    the edge of the pack, the ivory gulls almost invariably accompany them. At

    his winter quarters on Frederick Jackson Island, Nansen saw the first ivory

    gulls of spring on March 12, 1896. The year before he had seen a pair of the

    birds at latitude 82° 20′ N. on May 31. Neale noted the return of the species

    to the Cape Flora district of the Franz Josef Archipelago on April 20, 1882.

    Bunge reported its arrival time in Spitsbergen as mid-March.

            The ivory gull nests in colonies. It returns to its breeding places

    long before the ice has broken up and retreated from the shore, and as a

    rule the eggs have hatched and the young left the nests before the rookery

    is accessible to man. Occasionally the birds nest on a cliff, but usually

    the nests are on a boulder-strewn shore or barren outcropping, not far from

    the ice on which seals come out to sun themselves. Seals are important as

    a source of food. Not only do the gulls feed on the droppings of these and

    614      |      Vol_IV-0670                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ivory Gull

    other marine mammals, but they gather quickly when a polar bear kills a

    seal and wait around until they have a chance to clean up the remains.

    They also eat fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and insects — as most other

    gulls do.

            The nest is made of seaweed, grass, moss, old feathers, and bits of

    driftwood. Jackson, who encountered nests “scattered about in isolated

    patches or colonies” over the greater portion of a large spit on an island

    in the Franz Josef Archipelago, described them as “constructed entirely of

    moss and a few white feathers.” They were about 6 inches high and 2 feet

    to 30 inches in diameter, with “a shallow depression at the top — in which

    the eggs were deposited.” The parent birds “became violently excited,

    swopping down one after another with frantic screams within a foot or two

    of our heads, the whole colony joining in the attack. So [ ?] daring

    were they that in one or two cases men were actually struck by them” (1899.

    A Thousand Days in the Arctic , p. 759).

            The eggs, which normally are 2 (sometimes 1 or 3) are buffish olive or

    olive drab, spotted and blotched with various shades of dark brown and gray.

    Incubation begins with the laying of the first egg. Both the male and

    female incubate. The incubation period is not known. The downy young is

    pale ashy gray, without a striking pattern of any sort. The down is actually

    blue-gray at the base and white at the tip. Both sexes feet and care for

    the young. The length of the fledging period has not been ascertained.

            The postnuptial molt probably begins about the time the young learn to

    fly. Several adults which McIlhenny took off the north coast of Alaska

    between August 28 and September 17 were molting. An adult male which an

    Eskimo shot for me off Southampton Island on July 28, 1930, was molting

    615      |      Vol_IV-0671                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ivory Gull and Kittiwake

    so extensively that its wings and tail were ragged. Its eyelids were dark

    gray and its bill without the usual red-orange tip, so perhaps it had not

    bred that season. In any event, it was far from its breeding ground.

            The southward migration is difficult to describe. The birds which

    McIlhenny shot along the north coast of Alaska in August and September

    probably were transients, for the species does not nest anywhere in that

    region. In eastern parts of the Arctic Archipelago, however, the bird

    usually is not encountered until late in the fall. In Cumberland Sound,

    Baffin Island, Kumlien noted it as “very common” for a few days just before

    T t he Sound froze up. Along the Labrador the species occurs “in the late fall

    only” (Bent). The last date on which Schaanning saw it on Novaya Zemlya in

    1902 was October 25. Neale saw it throughout the whole of October in 1881 on

    the Franz Josef Archipelago. Nansen saw immature birds in the vicinity of

    his winter quarters until the beginning of October in 1895. The crew of the

    famous Fram noted the ivory gull as far north as latitude 84° 38′ N. during

    the time when the vessel was caught by the ice.

            For a detailed discussion of the ivory gull’s distribution see Pagophila .

            Reference:

    Dalgety, C.T. “The Ivory-gull in Spitsbergen,” British Birds, vol. 26,

    pp.2-7, 1932.

            520. Kittiwake (Kitterwake) . A small gull, Rissa tridactyla, which

    breeds in immense colonies on bold cliffs in the North. Its name is onomato–

    poeic. A somewhat less euphonious, but thoroughly realistic, transliteration

    of its usual call note is ka-ka-eek (Ticehurst). It is known also (more or

    616      |      Vol_IV-0672                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eittiwake (Kitterwake)

    or less locally) as the frost bird; the s now, winter, jack or haddock gull;

    the meterick; and the tickle-else (Newfoundland-Labrador). Among its cries

    are a low uk-uk-uk; a sharp kik-kik ; a rattling kaahk , kaahk ; and a loud

    quake , quake . At the nest it occasionally coos or mews.

            It is 16 inches long, with a wingspread of about 36 inches. Its wings

    are proportionately longer than those of the well-known herring gull ( Larus

    argentatus ), and its tail is very slightly forked. Its facial expression is

    milder than that of most gulls, perhaps because its eye is always dark. The

    adult kittiwake resembles the adult common gull ( Larus canus ) rather closely,

    but its wing tips are almost wholly black (with little or no white spotting),

    its legs and feet are black rather than light green, and its mantle is some–

    what darker gray. In summer it is white on the head, neck, rump, tail, and

    under parts, with red eyelids, yellow bill, orange mouth-lining, and black

    legs and feet. In winter it is similar, but the crown, nape, and hind neck

    are gray, of about the same shade as the mantle. Young birds have a broad

    bla [c ?] k band across the back of the neck, a dusky patch on the ear coverts,

    and a diagonal black band across the whole wing. The tip of the tail is black,

    and the bill is black. The tail is a trifle more deeply forked than that of the

    adult.

            The kittiwake is one of the most truly oceanic of the gulls. It often

    follows vessels about and in winter ranges the high seas. In summer adult

    birds repair to their breeding cliffs, however, and from mid-June to mid-August

    even the nonbreeding immature birds move into shallower coastal waters (Wynne–

    Edwards). The species does not often occur inland. Solitary birds which are

    reported from freshwater lakes and reservoirs probably have wandered up rivers

    rather than been blown about by gales.



    617      |      Vol_IV-0673                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kittiwake (Kitterwake)

            So dependent is the kittiwake upon cliffs for breeding that in certain

    far northern localities colonies have established themselves some distance

    back from the sea. As a rule the nests are almost o d irectly above the water,

    on narrow ledges. The nests are bulky, comparatively neat, well-cupped

    structures made of seaweed, grass, and moss. The eggs usually number two.

    Reports that in the Far North the normal full clutch frequently is only one

    egg need to be confirmed. Eggs vary in ground color from pale gray to

    yellowish brown and are spotted with darker shades of brown and gray, chiefly

    at the larger end. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is 21 to 24

    days (Hantzsch). The newly hatched chick is white on the head, neck, and

    under parts and dark grayish brown (mixed with creamy white) on the upper

    part of the body. The young stay on the nest ledge for 44 to 45 days, being

    fed by both parents (Keighley and Lockley).

            The kittiwake breeds northward to Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, Bear Island,

    the Franz Josef Archipelago, Bennett Island, the New Siberian Archipelago,

    Wrangel Island, Herald Island, northern Alaska, Banks Island, Devon Island,

    and northern Greenland (north on the west coast to Smith Sound, on the east

    coast to Mallemuk Fjeldet). It is not known to breed in Peary Land. It

    probably breeds in the Arctic Archipelago between Banks Island and Ellesmere

    Island wherever there are high cliffs, but Handley did not encounter it at

    Prince Patrick Island in the summer of 1949. The southward limits of its

    breeding range are Iceland, the Faeroes, Norway, Denmark, northern Russia,

    the arctic coast of Siberia east as far as Chaun Bay ( Handbook of British

    Birds ); Sakhalin, the Aleutians, and southern Alaska; the Gulf of St.

    Lawrence, Newfoundland, and southern Greenland. It winters south to the

    Tropic of Cancer and northwestern Africa in the Atlantic; to the Mediterranean

    618      |      Vol_IV-0674                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kittiwake (Kitterwake) and Kumlien’s Gull

    Sea; and to Japan and the northwestern coast of Lower California in the

    Pacific.

            Two races are currently recognized — the Atlantic kittiwake ( Rissa

    tridactyla tridactyla ) and the Pacific kittiwake ( R. tridactyla pollicaris ).

    The former, which is the smaller, has less black on the wing tips. It breeds

    in eastern parts of the American Arctic and Subarctic, and in northern parts

    of the Old World east as far as the New Sibierian Archipelago and Chaun Bay.

    The Pacific kittiwake breeds in Kolyuchin, Herald, and Wrangel islands,

    northeastern Siberia, northwestern Alaska, and numerous islands of the north

    Pacific.

            References:

    1. Keighley, J., and Lockley, R.M. “Fledging-periods of the Razorbill,

    Guillenest and Kittiwake,” British Birds, vol. 40, pp.165-71, 1947. 2. Salomonsen, F u i nn. “Tretaaet Maage ( Rissa tridactyla (1) som Ynglefugl i

    Denmark,” Dansk Ornith. For. Tidds , vol . 35, pp.159-79, 1941.

            521. Kumlien’s Gull . A little-known, middle-sized full, Larus kumlieni ,

    which has “a more or less unbroken breeding range along the coast [of southern

    Baffin Island] from Cumberland Sound to Foxe Peninsula” (Soper, 1946. [ ?] Auk ,

    63: 235). It probably breeds also along the bold north coast of the Ungava

    Peninsula from Cape Wolstenholme to Cape Wegg e s and on the cliffs of Salisbury

    and Nottingham islands. It has been recorded in summer at Beechey Island

    (at the southwest corner of Devon Island), in southern and western Greenland,

    and on the Labrador, but it has never been found breeding in these areas.

    For nesting it seems to prefer cliffs which breast the sea. At a colony of

    619      |      Vol_IV-0675                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kumlien’s Gull

    about three hundred birds at the north end of Itivirk Bay, Baffin Island,

    visited by Soper in mid-July, the nests were “quite impossible to reach.”

    Young birds were in the nests at the time.

            By many ornithologists the Kumlien’s gull is regarded as a hybrid

    between the Iceland gull ( Larus glaucoides ) and the Tahyer’s herring gull

    ( L. argentatus thayeri ), but the absence of these forms in summer from the

    area above mentioned precludes their being parent stock, and the presence

    there of the American herring gull ( L. argentatus smithsonianus ), in breeding

    populations wholly separate from those of kumlieni , strongly suggests that

    kumlieni and argentatus are in no way genetically connected. The actual

    interbreeding of the two species certainly has never been reported.

            Kumlien’s gull is very much like the Iceland gull except that the four

    or five outermost primaries, instead of being pure white, are marked subter–

    minally with gray. This gray and white tipping is highly variable in

    intensity as well as in pattern. So far as is known, it is present only

    in adult birds (i.e., birds three years old or older). It is never even

    faintly present in the Iceland gull, so Kumlien’s gull can hardly be a

    geographical race of that species (though certain ornithologists, including

    Soper, currently consider it to be so).

            At Cape Wolstenholme, in August, 1926, I sketched in the field an adult

    Kumlien’s gull which I had shot at the foot of the great cliff there. The

    bill of this bird was yellow, with a spot of orange-red near the tip of the

    lower mandible. The eyes were grayish yellow, the eyelids dull purplish pink,

    the feet pale flesh color. I gained the impression that most of the gulls

    which were wheeling about the cliff face were of the same sort — i.e.,

    birds with gray white win t g tips. They must have been breeding there

    that season.



    620      |      Vol_IV-0676                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kumlien’s gull

            Kumlien’s gull is rare. The world’s total population is probably only

    a few thousand individuals. No one has yet made a study of it for the

    express purpose of finding how its nesting behavior differs from that of

    the Iceland gull. Soper states that it “unquestionably” migrates from

    southern Baffin Island “much earlier in the autumn” than either the herring

    gull or glaucous gull ( Larus hyperboreus ). Rand’s statement (1942) that

    “the proportion of adult kumlieni that comes south along the Atlantic coast

    in winter is greater” than in glaucoides must be reconsidered when means

    are found of distinguishing immature kumlieni from immature glaucoides

    with certainty. No one knows, at this writing, just what the young Kumlien’s

    gull looks like. Until young gulls actually banded in kumlieni nests are

    recovered in various plumages stages, taxonomists probably will continue to

    argue as to what the “true characters” of immature kumlieni are.

            So far as is known, Kumlien’s gull winters solely along the Atlantic

    coast of North America from southern Labrador southward to Long Island

    (New York). Its call notes and feeding habits are believed to be similar

    to those of the Iceland gull.

            References:

    1. Rand, A.L. “ Laurus kumlieni and its allies.” Canad. Field - Nat .,

    vol.56, pp.123-26, 1942. 2. Taverner, P.A. “A study of Kumlien’s Gull ( Larus kumlieni Brewster).”

    Canad. Field - Nat ., vol.47, pp.88-90, 1933. 3. Taverner, Percy A. and Sutton, George Miksch. “The birds of Churchill,

    Manitoba.” Ann. Carnegie Mus. , vol.23, pp.53-55, 1934.

    621      |      Vol_IV-0677                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Laridae

            522. Laridae . A family of long-winged swimming birds to which the

    gulls and terns belong. It is a well-defined group of 17 genera, most of

    which are large or medium-sized birds with soft, thick plumage and sus–

    tained flight. The smallest species is the least tern or kittle tern

    ( Sterna albifrons ), a beautiful bird about 8 inches long; the largest are

    the great black-backed gull ( Larus marinus ) and glaucous gull ( Larus hyper –

    boreus ), whose total length is 27 to 30 inches and whose wingspread is over

    5 feet. The Laridae, Stercorariidae (skuas and jaegers), and Rynchopidae

    (skimmers) comprise the suborder Lari of the order Charadriiformes. Unlike

    the Stercorariidae, the Laridae have no cere at the base of the upper

    mandible; and the Rynchopidae, though much like the Laridae in general

    appearance, have a very different sort of bill, the lower mandible being

    much longer than the upper and the whole structure being so compressed

    laterally as to be almost knife-thin.

            The Laridae are rather uniform in color pattern. Adults of most species

    are gray on the “mantle” (i.e., the back, scapulars, and upper surface of

    the wings) and white on the lower part of the body and tail, with more or

    less white head and neck. In several species the top of the head, or the

    whole head, is black in the breeding season but white (or largely white)

    in winter. Many species of gulls have black wing tips when adult. No

    species of the family wears a brightly colored plumage at any season, though

    the bill, eyelids, legs, and feet of some species are yellow or red. Young

    birds usually do not have a bold color pattern. In some species several

    subadult plumages are worn and molted before the fully adult plumage is

    donned. Downy chicks are not as boldly patterned as most young shore birds,

    but the pattern of their upper parts is much more complex than that of

    downy young skuas and jaegers.



    622      |      Vol_IV-0678                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Laridae

            The Laridae are gregarious and most of them are noisy. Their legs are

    attached to the middle of the body, so they stand in a horizontal position

    on their toes (as do the shore birds of the families Charadriidae and Scolo–

    pacidae) rather than on their whole feet (toes and tarsi) as do the auks

    murres, and guillemots of the family Alcidae. In most species there are

    4 toss; but whether there is a hind toe or not, the 3 front toes are webbed.

            Most of the Laridae are oceanic birds, though some species nest both on

    salt water and fresh, and some — e.g., the Franklin’s gull ( Larus pipixcan )

    of the New World — breed far inland along the marshy margins of lakes. All

    are good swimmers, but the gulls spend more time resting on the water than

    terns do. The flight of gulls is somewhat more labored than that of terns,

    though all the Laridae are graceful fliers.

            The Laridae eat fish and other aquatic animals which they obtain [ ?]

    from the surface of the water or on the tidal flats. The gulls, in particular,

    are very fond of garbage, and congregate in vast numbers in harbors or bays,

    or follow ships about. Gulls and terns which migrate overland often eat

    grasshoppers and other insects, and some gulls regularly forage in farm

    [country ?] , following the plow as it exposes grubs and other organisms which

    live in the soil. Some gulls have the interesting habit of dropping clams

    on the rocks from high in air, thus breaking the hard shells. Terns custom–

    arily dive for their food, plunging well beneath the surface directly from

    the air. Gulls do not often dive from the air, but while swimming they

    occasionally tip forward and disappear beneath the surface for a short time.

            The Laridae are almost cosmopolitan in distribution. While “no Gulls are

    found in the vast ocean area between South America and the island-continents

    of Australia and New Zealand” (Knowlton and Ridgway), terns are plentiful there.

    623      |      Vol_IV-0679                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Laridae and Larus

    Several gulls range northward well into the Arctic, but only one tern, the

    arctic tern ( Sterna paradisea ), breeds northward to very high latitudes.

    This species migrates “south in winter through the Atlantic and Pacific

    Oceans, along both coasts of South America to southern Argentina and Chile,

    and sometimes to waters beyond the antarctic circle” (Murphy, 1936. Oceanic

    Birds of South America , 2: 1100).

            Gulls and terns ordinarily nest in colonies. Usually they nest on the

    ground or on steep cliffs, often on islands. Some species, notably the

    Bonaparte’s gull ( Larus philadelphia ), regularly nest in trees. The interest–

    ing white tern or fairy tern ( Gygis alba ) often lays its single egg on the

    bare limb of a tree in the most precarious sort of situation.

            The gulls and terns are basically very similar, yet so different are they

    in bill-shape and general appearance when feeding, flying, or standing that

    they can be told apart readily. They are, of course, placed in separate

    subfamilies — the Larinae (gulls) and Sterninae (terns). The gulls have

    strongly decurved (almost hooked) bills and rather long legs; the terns

    slender, comparatively straight bills and [ ?] short legs. In almost all

    terns the tail is forked, in some species deeply so. The tail-shape of gulls

    varies considerably, some species having square or slightly rounded tails,

    others forked or wedge-shaped tails.

            523. Larus . A genus of gulls believed to date back to Upper Oligocene

    times and represented today by 30-some species, 11 of which are found in the

    Far North. Of these the most exclusively boreal are two white-winged species,

    the glaucous gull ( L. hyperboreus ) and the Iceland gull ( L. glaucoides ), the

    624      |      Vol_IV-0680                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Larus

    former with almost completely circumboreal distribution, the latter confined

    chiefly to Greenland in the breeding season. A third species, the Kumlien’s

    gull ( L. kumlieni ), is definitely boreal, but has a very restricted range,

    breeding only in southern Baffin Island. The herring gull ( L. argentatus )

    is found in both the Old and New Worlds and breeds northward well into the Arctic,

    but it is principally a North Temperate bird. The great black-backed gull

    ( L. marinus ), a North Atlantic species, breeds northward to Spitsbergen

    and West Greenland. (The slaty-backed gull, L. schistisagus , of the North

    Pacific, may be a race of L. marinus . It does not, so far as is known, breed

    northward to the Arctic Circle.) The glaucous-winged gull (L. glaucescens),

    a North Pacific species, breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in

    Alaska and northeastern Asia. The common gull ( L. canus ) ranges widely in

    northern Eurasia but in North America breeds only in the northwest. The

    lesser black-backed gull ( L. fuscus ), black-headed gull ( L. ridibundus ), and

    little gull ( L. minutus ) are Old World species, none of them very far north–

    ward ranging. Bonapart’s gull ( L. philadelphia ), breeds only in northwestern

    North America, along the northern tree line.

            Among the above-named species are the smallest gull of the world, the

    little gull (10 to 11 inches long), and the largest — either the glaucous or

    the great black-back both of which are 25 to 27 inches long.

            Throughout the genus ( Larus the bill is strong, laterally compressed, and

    without a “saddle” or cere comparable to that of the skuas and jaegers (family

    Stercorariidae). The tip of the upper mandible is pointed and bent downward

    over the lower mandible, forming a hook. The lower mandible is deepened and

    “angled” near the base of the bill. The taraus is usually longer than the

    middle toe and its claw, and is scutellate in front and recticulate otherwise.

    625      |      Vol_IV-0681                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Larus

    There are 4 toes, the hind one being well developed, the 3 front ones

    fully webbed. The wings are long and pointed, though not quite so pointed

    as in the terns (subfamily Sterninae). The outermost primary is the longest.

    The tail is short and square. The sexes are alike in color, the male usually

    being the larger.

            In certain details of color pattern all species of Larus found in the

    North are similar. They all have a gray mantle when adult. In some species

    the mantle is very pale, in others dark, but it is always different in color

    from the rest of the body. All fully adult boreal Larus are white on the

    neck (all the way around), breast, belly, tail coverts, and tail at all

    seasons, and more or less white also on the head in winter. In summer the

    head is pure white or solid black or dark brown. All juvenal boreal Larus

    are brown in tone, some being brownish gray all over. This gray-all-over

    pattern may be that of the ancestral Larus . Certain South Temperate species

    — notably the gray gull ( L. modestus ) of the west coast of South America —

    are largely gray-bodies when adult. Some boreal Larus mature very slowly,

    attaining their full adult plumage when they are three or four years old or

    older. Some boreal species have a black tail tip in certain subadult plumage

    stages — a character present also in the Rissa (kittiwake), Pagophila

    (ivory gull), and Xema (Sabine’s gull). Most boreal species have black, black

    and white, or gray and white wing tips when adult. Two species, the glaucous

    gull and Iceland gull, are “white-winged” (i.e., with white or nearly white

    remiges) in all plumages.

            All species of Larus are gregarious and nest colonially as a rule. Some

    boreal species, notably the Iceland and Kumlien’s nest exclusively on cliffs.

    The glaucous usually nests on cliffs, but along the flat coast of northern

    626      |      Vol_IV-0682                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Larus

    Alaska it nests among tundra lakes. The black-headed gull nests in many sorts

    of places — on the ground, among growing marsh vegetation, even on buildings

    or in trees. The Bonaparte’s gull nests only in trees so far as is known.

    Throughout the genus the full clutch of eggs usually numbers 2 or 3. The

    eggs are brown or gray, spotted and blotched with dark brown. The downy young

    are buff, brown, or gray, unmarked below, but spotted and mottled with dark

    brown or black above.

            Larus is found along all continental coasts, though it is conspicuously

    absent (as are all other gulls) from the great area between South America and

    Australasia. Not even the very wide-ranging kelp gull ( L. dominicanus ) in–

    habits the South Pacific islands. Widely distributed though the genus is,

    most species do not range over vast areas. Of the 11 which breed in the

    Arctic, only two have close relatives in the Southern Hemisphere. As Murphy

    has pointed out, the spot-winged or Patagonian brown-hooded gull ( L. maculi –

    pennis ) of South America “appears to be a representative of the palearc t ic

    species, Larus ridibundus ”; and Wetmore, though believing that differentiation

    between the [ ?] kelp gull (Antarctic black-back) and the great black-back has

    “progressed to a point where we may consider the two as full species,” neverthe–

    less concedes that “calling them subspecies of one form may be considered” (1926.

    U.S. Natl. Mus. Bull . 133: 132). If the great black-back, the slaty-backed

    gull, and the kelp gull be regarded as races of one species, then that species

    is probably the world’s most wide-ranging gull. This very classification has

    been adopted by Conover (1948. Zool. Ser. Field Mus. Nat. Hist . 13, pp.267-273).

            When we consider the powers of flight possessed by such a wide-winged

    bird as Larus, we are surprised to find so many species of the genus confined

    to small areas. The dusky gull ( L. fuliginosus ) is found only in the Gal a á pagos

    627      |      Vol_IV-0683                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Larus

    Islands; the Buller’s gull ( L. bulleri ) only in New Zealand; the Belcher’s

    gull ( L. belcheri ), Andean gull ( L. serranus ), and gray gull only in

    western South America. Of the species found in the Far North, the glaucous,

    great black-back, herring, and common gulls breed regularly both in the

    Old World and the New, but only one of these, the glaucous, is completely

    circumboreal in distribution. The most wide-ranging of those which do not

    have close relatives or representatives in the Southern Hemisphere is the

    well-known herring gull. This species breeds southward as far as the

    Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian seas, the Azores, the Canaries, Madeira,

    the coast of New England, the Great Lakes, and central Minnesota. It

    wanders in winter to the coasts of Japan and China, the Persian Gulf,

    Morocco, Senegal, Angola, the West Indies (rarely), and Mexico.

            Larus appears to be somewhat unstable in the Far North. The relation–

    ships of the herring gull and lesser black-backed gull ( L. fuscus ) are

    puzzling, to say the least, where a dark-mantled race of the former and light–

    mantled race of the latter appear to occupy the same geographical area, if

    not precisely the same habitat. Bertram and Lack ( Ibis , 1933, p. 297) have

    reported observing on Bear Island a glaucous gull paired with a herring gull.

    The puzzling form known as the Nelson’s gull, which has been reported

    principally from Alaska, is currently believed to be a hybrid [ ?] between

    these two very species. Kumlien’s gull, which for such a long time was

    thought to be a hybrid between the Iceland gull and herring gull, may

    actually have become a species (i.e., a self-sustaining biological unit)

    only recently. All ornithologists who have an opportunity to study Larus

    in the Arctic should pay special attention to odd-looking birds which

    appear to be part of any breeding population, as well as to the composition

    628      |      Vol_IV-0684                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Larus and Lesser Black-backed gull

    of isolated pairs at edges of ranges.

            Reference:

    Stegmann, B. “Ueber die Formen der grossen Mowen (“subgenus Larus ”) und

    ihre gegenseitigen Beziehungen.” Journ. f. Orn . vol.82,

    pp.340-80, 1934.

            524. Lesser - Black-backed Gull. A medium-sized gull, Larus fuscus,

    found only in the Old World. It is much smaller than the great black-backed

    gull ( L. marinus ), a species found in both the Old World and the New. It

    is similar in size and color pattern to the well-known herring gull ( L. argen –

    tatus ), and may, as Stegmann, Mayr, and others believe, be conspecific with

    it. Concerning the two birds, Witherby (1941. Handb. Brit. Birds , 5: footnote)

    has this to say: “In the N. W. European part of their range, Herring-Gulls

    breed over the same area as Lesser Black-backed Gulls and often on the same

    cliffs and do not interbreed. Moreover, in these parts the birds are very

    different from each other and have different habits.” It is Mayr’s belief

    that argentatus and fusous are at opposite ends of “a chain of intergrading

    subspecies” forming a circumboreal loop or overlapping circle, and that, as

    “terminal forms” of this chain, they “no longer interbreed, even though they

    coexist in the same localities” (1942. Systematics and the Origin of Species ,

    p. 180).

            This concept is thought-provoking, but when we read what such a careful

    student as F. Fraser Darling (1938) has to say about observable differences

    in behavior there seems to be little point in calling them the same species

    even though we might readily concede that both recently developed through,

    629      |      Vol_IV-0685                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Lesser Black-Backed Gull

    or from, a common ancestor. Darling’s observations were made on a small

    offshore island in Britain. Here the herring gulls nested early in the

    season, the lesser black-backs late, the herring gulls in a close-knit,

    completely exposed group, with nests only a few feet apart, the lesser black–

    backs in scattered pairs, “their nests .... thirty, fifty, or eighty yards

    apart,” hidden among growing vegetation. The young herring gulls, on

    sensing danger, squatted wherever they happened to be and remained motion–

    less among the rocks, while the young lesser black-backs ran numbly for

    cover, their instinct directing them to get under something. The young

    herring gulls, on their first flights, dropped from the cliff edge into

    the wind. The young lesser black-backs, on the other hand, let the wind

    lift them from the ponds in which they spent much of their time.

            The lesser black-back is about 21 inches long. The adult is white

    with slaty-gray mantle. The primaries are black with white tips. The

    secondaries and humerals are white-tipped, so that when the wing is spread

    the entire “following edge” is white. The bill is yellow with a red-orange

    spot near the tip of the lower mandible. The eyes are yellow, the eyelids

    orange, the legs and feet yellow . Juvenal birds are dark brownish gray all

    over, with dark bills, brown eyes, and dull yellowish flesh-colored legs and

    feet. Molt by molt the young birds become steadily lighter on the head, tail,

    and under parts, and more definitely slaty gray on the mantle. They probably

    do not become fu o l ly “black-backed” and yellow-billed until they are three or

    four years old. Subadult lesser black-backs are sometimes very difficult to

    distinguish from young herring gulls of the same plumage stage.

            The species nests “usually in colonies, often on moors or [ ?] flows at

    some distance inland or on islands in lakes, but also on grassy sea-cliffs,

    630      |      Vol_IV-0686                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Lesser Black-backe [d ?] Gull

    flat-topped islands and shingle banks” ( Handb. of Brit. Birds ). No one has

    reported it nesting in trees, as the herring gull occasionally does. Nests

    are made of grass, moss, feathers, and rubbish. The eggs (usually 3), which

    are brown, spotted and blotched with brownish black, are incubated for 26 to

    28 days. The eggs hatch simultaneously or at intervals of up to three or

    four days. Both sexes incubate. The downy chick is indistinguishable from

    the newly hatched herring gull. The fledging period is said to be about five

    weeks.

            Larus fuscus breeds in northwestern Europe (including the Faeroes, British

    Isles, and Channel Islands) from northern Scandinavia eastward to the Murman

    Coast and south to the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, and Lakes Ladoga

    and Onega, and also on the west coast of France. It winters from the British

    Isles, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf south to Sierra Leone, the

    Gulf of Guinea, and the lake region of East Africa. Two races are currently

    recognized — the pale graellsii , which breeds on the Faeroes, British Isles,

    Channel l Islands, the west coast of France, and possibly the Vestmann Islands,

    near Iceland; and the darker fuscus , which occupies the northern part of the

    continental area above outlined. Some adult specimens of graellsii are diffi–

    cult to distinguish, even in the hand, from adult L. argentatus atlantis and

    L. argentatus heuglini , the darkest races of the herring gull. A specimen

    of graellsii reported from Greenland proves, on careful reidentification, to

    be a herring gull (see Auk , 1933, p. 304).

            References:

    1. Darling, F. Fraser. Wild country . Cambridge University Press. pp.47-49,

    1938. 2. Mayaud, Noël. “Consid e é rations sur les affinit e é s et la syst e é matique de

    Larus fuscus et Larus argentatus .” Alauda, vol.12, pp.80-98, 1940.

    631      |      Vol_IV-0687                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Little Gull

            525. Little Gull. Larus minutus , the smallest gull in the world. It

    breeds locally in subarctic parts of Eurasia and winters south to Mediter–

    ranean coasts (including North Africa), the Black and Caspian seas, and the

    east coast of Asia. During recent years it has been recorded with some

    regularity in eastern North America. It is 10 to 11 inches long, with wing–

    spread of about 28 inches. Adults can be identified at any season by the

    dark gray color of the whole under wing, and the absence of black wing tips;

    but young birds are white on the under wing. In the breeding adult the head

    is black; the mantle gray; the whole neck, under parts, and tail white (the

    breast sometimes suffused with pink); the bill dark red; and the legs and feet

    vermilion. Adults in winter are lead gray on the rear part of the crown and

    nape, in the region just under the eyes, and on the auriculars, but otherwise

    white on the head and neck. Young birds in their first flight plumage are

    blackish brown on the top of the head, the hind neck, and mantle, with black–

    tipped white tail. The head and body feathers of this plumage are molted in

    late summer and fall, and first-winter birds are like adults in winter except

    that the under wing is white, the tail is tipped with black, and the upper

    surface of the wing is marked with a broad band of black which extends from

    the shoulders to the black primaries, creating a bold zigzag pattern when

    the wings are spread. In this plumage stage the little gull resembles the

    kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ) of the same age, but that species is considerably

    larger.

            In North America the little gull usually is seen in company with the

    Bonaparte’s gull ( Larus philadelphia ). Young little gulls resemble young

    Bonaparte’s gulls, but the wing of the latter is narrowly outlined with black,

    whereas the outer primaries of the young little gull are wholly black and the

    632      |      Vol_IV-0688                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Little Gull and Nelson’s Gull

    wing otherwise is outlined with white.

            The little gull breeds in marshy places, usually in colonies and

    sometimes in company with the common tern ( Sterna hirundo ) or black-headed

    gull ( Larus ridibundus ). Its callnote is a low-pitched Kek , kek , kek , or

    a sharper kay , kay , kay . In display flights this last note is elaborated

    into a loud tick-ay , tick-ay , tick-ay . The nest is a slight affair of

    grasses, rushes, or reeds placed in a tussock or on a little mud-bar. The

    eggs, which usually number 3, are olive brown, spotted and blotched with

    dark brown. Both sexes incubate. The downy chick is dark grayish buff,

    spotted indistinctly above with brownish black.

            The little gull breeds about the Baltic Sea (north to southern Sweden,

    Finland, and Estonia); in Russia north to Lakes Ladoga and Onega and the

    White Sea; and in Asia north almost to the Arctic Circle on the Ob, to 64°

    on the Lena, and to the Sea of Okhotsk. In the British Isles it is a

    transient and winter visitor. It has been reported from Norway, Iceland

    (where it may breed), and the Faeroes. It occurs rather regularly, though

    in very small numbers, on the coast of New England; about Long Island, New

    York; on the Niagra River, near Buffalo, New York; and on the Great Lakes.

    It has been reported once from Greenland (Godthaab area).

            529. Nelson’s Gull . A rather large “gray-winged” gull currently

    believed to be a hybrid between the glaucous gull ( Larus hyperboreus ) and

    the Vega herring gull ( Larus argentatus vegae ). The adult resembles the

    adult Kumlien’s gull ( Larus kumlieni ) but is larger and the gray of the

    wing tips is darker. The form was described from an adult male specimen

    633      |      Vol_IV-0689                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Nelson’s Gull and Pagophila

    taken at St. Michael’s, Alaska, on June 20, 1880, by E. W. Nelson. Very

    few specimens have been taken since that time; no breeding pair of gulls

    in which both the male and female were believed to be Nelson’s gulls have

    ever been observed; and it is pointless to guess at a breeding range for

    the form. Attempts to describe subadult specimens have been made, but

    until more is known as to the plumages which actually precede that worn

    by the adult Nelson’s gull, these descriptions serve merely to show how

    puzzling the subadult plumages of some gulls can be.

            Nelson’s gull is about 25 inches long. The outermost 2 to 5 primaries

    are white-tipped but more or less gray subterminally, especially on the

    outer webs. In one specimen illustrated by Dwight all the primaries are

    broadly tipped with white and the 2 outermost feathers are gray subter–

    minally on the outer webs; in another the outermost has a broad white tip,

    but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are narrowly tipped with white and more or less

    gray subterminally.

            531. Pagophila. The monotypic genus to which the ivory gull ( P. ebur –

    nea ) belongs. Its outstanding characters are the short, stout tarsi; the

    rugose (roughened) scales of the tarsi and feet; the heavy, strongly curved,

    sharp claws; the incised webbing of the front toes; and the pure white

    plumage of the adult. The bill is rather short (a little shorter than the

    tarsus) and blunt, its shape and the position of the nostrils suggesting

    somewhat the bill of a jaeger (genus Stercorarius ). The tail is square.

    The plumage has a slight gloss, giving it in some lights a silky appearance.

    The color pattern of the young in first winter plumage is distinctive, the

    634      |      Vol_IV-0690                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pagophila and Rissa

    dark gray blotching of the head having almost the appearance of dirt which

    would come off with a good washing.

            Pagophila inhabits both the Old World and the New. It lives almost

    wholly to the north of the continents and attains very high latitudes in

    summer. It breeds in Spitsbergen (chiefly the northern and eastern parts),

    the Franz Josef Archipelago, both islands of Novaya Zemlya, Lonely Island

    (probably), Bennett Island, Herald Island, Prince Patrick, and the Polynias,

    northwestern Baffin Island (Port Bowen), and northeastern Greenland (Hoch–

    stetters Forland). It probably nests at many northern points in the Arctic

    Archipelago. It has not been reported from Peary Land. On Bear Island it

    is a transient. Portenko reports it as very rare on Wrangel. About Iceland

    it has been recorded in winter. It is essentially a northern bird, for even

    in winter it does not move very far south. The southern limits of its winter

    range are the northern coasts of continental North America and Eurasia.

            See Ivory Gull.

            533. Rissa . A genus of small gulls known commonly as kittiwakes. There

    are two species — R. tridactyla (common kittiwake) and R. brevirostris (red–

    legged kittiwake), both of which are strictly oceanic, breed in colonies, and

    require cliffs for nesting. Rissa is very short-legged. The tarsus is shorter

    than the middle toe and its claw. The hind toe is very small and usually with–

    out a claw. The tail appears to be square, but actually it is very slightly

    forked, the middle rectrices being a little shorter than the others.

            The red-legged kittiwake breeds only on certain islands in the Bering Sea.

    Bailey does not list it from arctic Alaska. The common kittiwake has a much

    635      |      Vol_IV-0691                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rissa and Rhodostethia

    more extensive distribution, breeding northward to high latitudes in both

    the Old World and the New. Its northern limits in the Old World are

    Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef Archipelago, Novaya Zemlya, the New Siberian

    Archipelago, Bennett, Wrangel and Herald. In the New World it is known to

    nest northward to northern Alaska in the west and to northern Ellesmere

    Island and northern Greenland in the east, but its distribution in the Arctic

    Archipelago is not understood. It is said to breed in Prince Regent Inlet.

    Handley did not encounter it at Prince Patrick Island. Reports of its breed–

    ing in northwestern Victoria Island and in Franklin Bay need confirmation.

    The southern limits of its breeding range are Newfoundland, southern Greenland,

    Iceland, northern Ireland, northern [ ?] France, Helgoland, Norway, northern

    Russia, southern Alaska, the Aleutians, and Sakhalin. It winters south to

    Japan, northern Lower California, southern New Jersey, the Bermudas, the

    Tropic of Cancer, northwest Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

            See Kittiwake.

            534. Rhodostethia . The monotypic genus to which the beautiful but

    little-known Ross’s gull or rosy gull ( R. rosea ) belongs. It is about a foot

    long. It is much like the smaller species of Larus in general shape, but the

    bill is very short (much shorter than the head) and blunt, the tail wedge-shaped

    and pointed, the wings very long and pointed, and the plumage in general soft

    and satiny. The color pattern of the breeding plumage is unique among the

    Laridae in that the whole head, neck, and under parts are pinkish white, and

    the neck is completely encircled by a narrow black collar. Even in winter the

    white parts of adult birds are strongly suffused with rosy pink. Young birds

    636      |      Vol_IV-0692                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rhodostethia

    in their first winter plumage are without pink.

            Rhodostethia is one of the most boreal of the gulls. While it does

    not, so far as is known, nest northward to the high latitudes attained by

    Pagophila (ivory gull), it possibly does not move quite so far southward

    in winter as that form does. It ranges widely throughout the Arctic Islands

    of the Old World in summer, repeatedly having given explorers the impression

    that it was nesting about the Spitsbergen, Franz Josef and New Siberian

    Archipelagoes. It has been reported in summer from Novaya Zemlya, Bennett,

    Wrangel, the Melville Peninsula, Boothia Felix, Cornwallis Island, Greenland,

    and northern Alaska (Point Barrow). It is known to breed regularly in north–

    eastern Siberia at the mouths of rivers between Cape Svyatoi Nos and the

    Indigirka, and in the valleys of the lower Indigirka, Kolyma, and Alazeya

    southward to about the Arctic Circle (Peters). There is one breeding record

    for west central Greenland — an island in Disko Bay, east of Egedesminde

    (see Dalgleish, Auk, 1886, pp. 273-274; and Ticehurst, Ibis , 1933, pp. 785-786.

            Its fall migrations take it to the New Siberian Archipelago, Kamchatka,

    and (in considerable numbers) the north coast of Alaska. Along the west coast

    of Greenland (from Melville Sound southward) it has been recorded in the fall

    frequently enough to suggest that the birds which pass Point Barrow, Alaska,

    flying eastward, eventually make their way through or around the whole of

    the Arctic Archipelago. Whether these same birds have migrated directly

    from the breeding grounds, or via the New Siberian Archipelago, is a question

    which remains to be settled. In any event, no one knows where Rhodostethia

    winters.



    637      |      Vol_IV-0693                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Boss’s Gull

            535. Ross’s Gull. A beautiful small arctic gull, Rhodostethia rosea ,

    known also as the rosy gull or wedge-tailed gull. It is one of the world’s

    most northern birds. Collett and Nansen report encountering it in the Fram

    at latitude 84° 41′ N. It is only about a foot long, and in all plumages

    is instantly recognizable from its wedge-shaped tail and short, stubby bill.

    Its wings are very long and pointed and without black (except on the outer

    web of the outermost primary). Its plumage, particularly that of the wings

    and tail, has a soft, satiny luster. Adults in high breeding dress are pale

    bluish gray on the mantle and delicate rose pink throughout the head, neck,

    under parts, rump, and tail, with a narrow but distinct black collar. The

    secondaries and tertials are tipped with white. The axillary feathers are

    white, but the under wing coverts are blue-gray. The bill is black, the eyes

    dark brown, the eyelids and gape bright red, the legs and feet orange-red.

    Adults in winter are very similar, but the black collar is missing, the

    plumage just in front of and below the eye is grayish black, and the forehead,

    crown, nape, and hind neck are veiled with gray. Young birds have little or

    no pink anywhere. They are gray on the crown, hind neck, and mantle (with a

    good deal of grayish black on the wing coverts and near the tips of the primaries

    and secondaries) and white throughout the forehead, face, foreneck, breast,

    belly, and rump, with one dusky spot surrounding the eye and another on the

    auriculars. The tail is white with a noticeable black tip. The bill is

    black at the tip and brown at the base. The legs and feet are pinkish brown,

    the eyes dark brown, the eyelids gray.

            So few persons have seen the Ross’s gull alive that one writes of it

    almost as one might of a mythological or fictional character. With the less

    colorful, but hardly less beautiful, ivory gull ( Pagophila eburnea ) it inhabits

    638      |      Vol_IV-0694                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ross’s Gull

    the edge of the pack ice much of the year, making its way along the dark

    leads in loose flocks, feeding on amphipods, crustaceans, and small fish.

    Its flight is light, graceful and ternlike. It apparently is rather quarrel–

    some while feeding, as most gulls are. It alights on, and rests in, the

    water more frequently than the ivory gull does, and swims well, but is a

    little less agile than that species in walking and running. Buturlin has

    reported an astonishing assortment of cries which vary from the usual claw ,

    cliaw , or a-wo , which is many times repeated, to a miaw and a-dac (given

    when angry), “a longer kiaw , kiaoo , or viaw ” (given when “much disappointed”),

    and a short via , via , via (given when disturbed). A bird which flew past

    Buturlin cried carvac - wa ! as it skimmed a drink and finally “settled on the

    surface for some two or three seconds without folding its wings.”

            Bailey quotes Brower to the effect that a whole flock of Ross’s gulls

    “will hover overhead when a wounded bird is down. They seem attracted by a

    gun shot — possibly it sounds like ice cracking, where food might be available”

    (1948. Birds of Arctic Alaska , p. 251).

            In the spring the Ross’s gull makes its way to land and nests. Buturlin

    recorded its arrival (a single bird) on nesting grounds near the mouth of the

    Kolyma River on June 12, 1905. The following day he noted dozens of the birds,

    all in pairs. Several colonies promptly established themselves in company with

    arctic terns ( Sterna paradisaea ). The mixed colonies nested in “little mossy

    swamps almost bare of grass” and on islands surrounded by boggy ground. In the

    swamps the two species nested in much the same way — on the drier ground; but

    on the islands the terns nested in higher places at some distance from the

    water, laying their eggs in unlined depressions in the moss, whereas the gulls

    built nests “on wet grassy spots or bogs much nearer to the water.” The gulls’

    639      |      Vol_IV-0695                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ross’s Gull

    nests were 4 to 10 (usually 5 to 8) inches high. The hollows in the grass

    holding them were 6 or 7 inches in diameter, but the nests themselves were

    shallow cups only 4 or 4 1/2 inches across. They were made of dry grass

    and sedge, sometimes with a few dry birch and willow leaves. One was “made

    of white reindeer moss.”

            The eggs usually number 3, sometimes 2. They are greenish olive, with

    a scattering of brown spots and blotches. Both sexes probably incubate. The

    incubation period has not been ascertained. At the colonies just mentioned,

    on June 26, Buturlin examined eggs which were only slightly incubated.

    This was 14 days after the species had arrived. On July 9, eggs which he

    examined held chicks which would have hatched in a few days. On July 13 he

    collected a downy chick a few days old. The incubation period must, therefore,

    have been well under a month.

            The downy chick is buff — yellowish in tone on the top of the head and

    throat, whitish on the chin and the middle of the belly, closely spotted

    and blotched with black on the crown and back, and with a few dark spots

    on the throat and sides of the head. On July 19 and 20, Buturlin collected

    seven chicks of assorted sizes at the Kolyma Delta. Between July 26 and 31

    the young birds of the entire colony — all still with down on their heads —

    left the nesting ground proper and made their way on foot to the shore of

    the Arctic Sea. Not one of them was able to fly. Buturlin did not collect

    a young bird which was actually flying until August 4, at Soucharnaja.

            Rosy gulls are rarely seen along the mainland coast of Siberia in late

    summer; but oddly enough about the time they disappear from the breeding

    ground at the mouth of the Kolyma they appear in the New Siberian Archipelago.

    In 1902, Katin-Jartzeff noted the species’ arrival along the shore of Kotelny

    640      |      Vol_IV-0696                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ross’s Gull

    Island on August 6 and 8. In 1903, Kolchak noted its arrival on the

    same island on July 30 and 31. Obviously the birds had wasted no time in

    getting from the Kolyma Delta to the edge of the ice. Pleske’s explanation

    is that the water along the mainland coast is so freshened by the great

    rivers which pour into it that the “pelagic fauna ... is much less rich

    and varied than it is on the coasts of those islands” (1928. Birds of the

    Eurasian Tundra , p. 220).

            The breeding range of Ross’s gull is only imperfectly known. The species

    has been recorded in summer from Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef Archipelago,

    Novaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Archipelago, Bennett Island, Wrangel Island,

    northern Alaska, Melville Peninsula, Boothia Peninsula, Cornwallis Island,

    and Greenland; yet it has actually been found breeding only in northeastern

    Siberia (at the mouths of the rivers between the Indigirka and Cape Svyatoi

    Nos and in the valleys of the Kolyma, Indigirka, and Alazeya southward to

    about the Arctic Circle), and in west central Greenland (island in Disko

    Bay). Nansen encountered it so frequently near the Franz Josef Archipelago

    that he felt sure it nested in the vicinity, perhaps on Liv Island. Koenig

    struck the species from the Spitsbergen list because he doubted an early

    Hinlopen Strait record, but Nansen recorded it so frequently in the ocean

    not far from Spitsbergen that its breeding somewhere in that district seems

    likely. It has been reported many times from Greenland, especially on the

    west coast from Melville Sound southward. Manniche did not, however, record

    it on the east coast in the vicinity of Stormkap. Numerous records indicate

    that it is a regular migrant in the fall along the coasts of Kamchatka and

    northern Alaska, and Bailey believes that it may nest occasionally in the

    vicinity of Point Barrow. Bent sums up the fall migration thus: “Birds

    641      |      Vol_IV-0697                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ross’s Gull and Sabine’s Gull

    leave their breeding grounds in northeastern Siberia about July 20 and

    are abundant at Point Barrow, flying east, between September 10 and

    October 9.” Probably only part of the Ross’s gulls which leave their

    breeding grounds “about July 20” move eastward to Kamchatka and Alaska.

    Numerous reports indicate that some of them move northwestward to the

    New Siberian Archipelago, the Franz Josef Archipelago, and Spitsbergen.

    Possibly they follow no established route, but move about with open water.

    Where they go in winter is a mystery. The extreme paucity of winter

    records suggests that great numbers of the birds may spend the entire

    winter in little-known parts of the great north Polar Mediterranean.

            537. Sabine’s Gull. A very beautiful small gull, Xema sabini — the

    only gull of arctic regions with a forked tail . This statement will be

    misleading unless the term “forked” is fully understood. Never is the

    tail deeply forked, as it is in the adult arctic tern ( Sterna paradisaea );

    indeed, when fully spread it hardly appears to be forked at all; but the middle

    feathers are definitely shorter than the others and the outermost pair the

    longest; and the forking is instantly perceptible with the bird in hand.

    The species is about the size of the arctic tern (13 inches long). Among

    the Eskimos it is known as the ahigeriatsuk and tookalookalook .

            At all seasons the Sabine’s gull’s wing pattern is both striking and

    diagnostik. The outermost 6 primaries are black, each with a white tip,

    and the inner primaries and all of the secondaries are boldly white. In

    adults the front edge of the wing is white, but just back of this border

    is a narrow line of black. Adults have a gray mantle. In the winter they

    642      |      Vol_IV-0698                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sabine’s Gull

    are white on the front of the head, on the whole neck both in front and

    behind, and throughout the under parts and tail. The rear part of the head

    is gray. In the breeding season the whole head is a rich dove gray. Sepa–

    rating this gray from the white of the neck is a narrow black ring. The

    whole of the breast and belly is suffused with delicate rose pink. The

    bill is black, with yellow tip. The eyes are dark brown, the eyelids

    bright red, the legs and feet black. Young birds have the same striking

    wing pattern, but the tail is tipped with black and the upper part of the

    head, hind neck, and mantle are brownish gray, each of the back and scapular

    feathers having a dark subterminal band and narrow whitish tip.

            In flight the Sabine’s gull is so agile and buoyant that it reminds

    one of a tern. It wheels quickly, picks food from the water, and moves

    forward with measured wing beats, sometimes even pointing its bill downward

    in the manner of a tern. It often feeds on the tidal flats, running about

    with the agility of a shore bird. One of its call notes is a harsh kek .

    When defending its nest it gives a cackled tuck-a-tuck , tuck-a-tuck , over

    and over. Young birds give the same cry when their curiosity is roused.

    Other notes of adult birds I wrote down as ker-wee and ka-wee .

            The Sabine’s gull nests in colonies on flat islands in shallow coastal

    lakes or in tundra marshes. In many parts of its range it associates all

    summer long with the arctic tern. While it seems to enjoy the company of

    this other species, it does not hesitate to chase vigorously any tern which

    approaches its eggs or young too closely. Its nest is usually a little more

    elaborately lined than that of the arctic tern. Manniche describes nests he

    found in northeast Greenland as “like those of the Arctic Tern, but a little

    larger and lined with a few withered twigs of Salix arctica and big pieces

    643      |      Vol_IV-0699                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sabine’s Gull and Slaty-backed Gull

    of straw” ( Medd. om Grønland , 1912, p. 169). The eggs, which usually

    number 3 (2 in some areas) are brown or olive, rather sparsely spotted

    and blotched with olive brown. Both the male and female incubate. The

    incubation period is 23 to 26 days. The downy young is rich brownish buff,

    spotted and blotched with black on the crown and back, and fading to white

    on the middle of the belly. When newly hatched its bill is pinkish flesh–

    color.

            The young are fed on small fish, crustaceans, and insects. Fledging

    requires at least three weeks, probably more. Only one brood is reared in

    a season. The postnuptial molt probably begins in August, before the birds

    leave for the mouth, but it may not be completed before December. Adults

    which I saw on Southampton Island in late summer were gray-headed. I suspect

    that they do not assume their winter plumage until some time after they have

    left their breeding grounds.

            At least four geographical races of Xema sabini have been described but

    these are not readily separable. For a discussion of them see Portenko, L.,

    Ibis , 1939, pp. 266-269.

            For details of the Sabine’s gull’s distribution, see Xema .

            541. Slaty-backed Gull. A large ‘black-backed’ gull, Larus schistisagus ,

    which breeds in Kamchatka, the Kurils, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido; which winters

    from Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk to Korea, Japan, the Volcano Islands,

    Quelpart, the Ryukyus, the coast of China, and (occasionally) Formosa; and

    which has been reported from the Aleutians (Atka and Unalaska), the Komandorskis,

    the Pribilofs, the Diomedes, Herald, and the coast of Alaska. Reports of its

    644      |      Vol_IV-0700                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Slaty-backed Gull and Xema

    breeding in Harrowby Bay and the vicinity of Cape Bathurst in northern

    Mackenzie probably are erroneous. As Bailey points out, the breeding gulls

    of these areas should be identified with great care by ornithologists who

    go there (1948. Birds of Arctic Alaska, p. 241).

            The Slaty-backed gull is 25 to 26 inches long. When adult it is white

    with “dark bluish slate-gray” mantle, deep yellow bill (with an orange-red

    spot near the tip of the lower mandible), and pinkish flesh-colored feet

    (Stejneger’s original description). It is, in other words, very much like

    the great black-backed gull ( Larus marinus ) of the North Atlantic and is

    quite possibly a geographical race of that species. The black and white

    pattern of the wing tips is, however, different in the two forms. In

    marinus the next to the outermost primary is tipped with white and also has

    a bold white subterminal spot of “mirror.” In schistisagus this second

    primary has a narrow white tip but no subterminal white spot or mirror. The

    juvenal slaty-backed gull is, according to Dwight, “unlike any other gull,

    being a paler brown with a striking drab wing-bar and a white chin sharply

    contrasting with the gray underparts.”

            The call notes, nesting habits, and behavior of Larus schistisagus

    are similar to those of L. marinus .

            546. Xema . The monotypic genus to which the Sabine’s gull ( X. sabini )

    belongs. It is small for a gull, being about 13 inches long. Its most con–

    spicuous external character, the forked tail, it shares with the monotype

    genus ( Creagus (Swallow-tailed gull), which breeds in the Gal a á pagos Islands

    and migrates “to the west coast of South America between Ecuador and southern

    645      |      Vol_IV-0701                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Xema

    Peru” (Murphy). The tail of Xema is forked for about a fifth of its length,

    the rectrices being rounded at the tips. The bill is short (about as long

    as the middle toe). The tarsus is slightly longer than the bill and rather

    slender. The hind toe, though small, is well developed. In the adult in

    breeding plumage a black collar separates the gray of the head from the white

    of the neck and the white of the under parts is strongly suffused with pink.

            Xema resembles certain terns of the genus Sterna in shape and color

    pattern — notably in the forked tail and coloration of the primaries, the

    outer 6 of which appear to be solid black with white tips when viewed from

    above, but are actually white along the inner edge of their inner webs for

    virtually their entire length.

            Xema is strongly migratory. It has a holarctic breeding distribution

    but winters, so far as is known, only on the coast of Peru. Its routes of

    migration have not been very well worked out. But the fact that the re–

    stricted ocean area in which it winters more or less coincides with that

    occupied by the only other fork-tailed gull known to science suggests strongly

    that the two forms originated there.

            Xema breeds in Spitsbergen, Kolguev (probably), the New Siberian Archi–

    pelago, locally along the arctic coast of Siberia from the Taimyr Peninsula

    to the Chukotsk Peninsula and Anadyr Gulf, on the north and west coasts of

    Alaska south as far as the mouth of the Kuskokwim, in northern Mackenzie,

    locally in the Arctic Archipelago as far north as northern Ellesmere Island;

    and south to Victoria, King William, Southampton, Coats (probably) and Mansdl

    (possibly) islands. Gavin saw it occasionally in summer in the Perry River

    district south of Queen Maud Gulf, but did not find a nest. Portenko reported

    it as abundant some years on Wrangel but did not, apparently, find it breeding.

    646      |      Vol_IV-0702                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Xema

    Handley did not encounter it on Prince Patrick Island. Bird and Bird

    found it breeding regularly but in small numbers in northeastern Greenland

    (between Germania Land and Hudson Land), but it has not been reported from

    Peary Land.

            See Sabine’s Gull.



    647      |      Vol_IV-0703                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Terns

           

    TERNS

           

    Order CHARADRIIFORMES ; Suborder LARI

           

    Family LARIDAE; Subfamily STERNINAE

            547. Arctic Tern. See writeup.

            548. Common Tern. See writeup.

            548.1. Sea Swallow. A name frequently applied to terns of various species,

    especially those with long, forked tails. No true swallow (i.e.,

    species of the family Hirundinidae) is ever called the sea swallow.

            549. Sterna . See writeup.

            550. Tern. See writeup.

            551. Wilson’s Tern. A name used in America for the common tern ( Sterna

    hirundo ) ( q.v .).



    648      |      Vol_IV-0704                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arctic Tern

            547. Arctic Tern . A beautiful tern or sea swallow, Sterna paradisaea,

    which breeds in northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere and winters regu–

    larly at almost the opposite end of the earth — in southern parts of the

    Southern Hemisphere. Its annual migrations have been widely discussed.

    According to many authors, all arctic terns which breed in eastern contin–

    ental North America, eastern parts of the Arctic Archipelago, Greenland,

    Iceland, and northern Europe move southward in fall along the west coast

    of Europe or in the mid-Atlantic, skirt the northwest coast of Africa, and

    separate off French West Africa, some continuing down the coast of Africa,

    others crossing the Atlantic to the east coast of South America, thus pro–

    ceeding to the latitudes of the Falklands, South Georgia, the South Shetlands,

    the South Orkneys, and even the edges of the Antarctic continent. The route

    taken by birds which breed in the North Pacific (Alaska, Wrangel, the

    Aleutians, etc.) is not well known and seems to have received comparatively

    little attention, but the species certainly winters to some extent off the

    coast of Chile, so there probably are Pacific migration routes.

            Several arctic terns which have been banded on northern breeding grounds

    have been recovered at points south of the equator, but thus far no bird has

    been banded at the northernmost edge of the summer range and recovered at a

    very high southern latitude. Lincoln (1939. “The migration of American

    birds,” pp. 89-90) discusses three birds banded in North America and recovered

    at remote places. “All three birds were downy chicks at the time of banding;

    one was marked at Eastern Egg Rock, off the coast of Maine, on July 3, 1913,

    while the other two received their bands at the Red Islands, in Turnevik Bay,

    Labrador, on July 22, 1927, and July 23, 1928. The bird from Maine was found

    dead by a native in the Niger River delta, West Africa, in August, 1917, while

    649      |      Vol_IV-0705                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arctic Tern

    the Labrador birds were recovered near La Rochelle, France, on October 1,

    1927, and at Margate, near Port Shepstone, Natal, South Africa, on November

    14, 1928. The flight indicated by this last record is the longest known as

    the shortest possible distance is between 8000 and 9000 miles. Considering

    the somewhat erratic flight of terns and the fact that the bird had to hunt

    for its food while en route, it is reasonable to believe that it actually flew

    twice that distance. In both cases the Labrador birds were not more than

    three months old at the time of recovery.”

            Another of the young arctic terns banded in Turnevik Bay, Labrador, on

    July 23, 1928 was recovered as an adult six years later (August 16, 1934) at

    the same locality. Think of the mileage that one small bird had covered in

    the course of its annual migrations! (see Bird-banding , 1935, 6: 24).

            The arctic tern is known to breed regularly as far north as northernmost

    Greenland (Peary Land), Spitsbergen, and the Franz Josef Archipelago, and it

    has actually been collected as far south as latitude 66° S. (off the Ross Sea)

    and 68° 32′, (in the Weddell Sea). As murphy points out, however, terns

    reported “by thousands” from latitudes 72° 31′ and 74° 1′ S. off Coast Land

    might well have been antarctic terns ( Sterna vittata ), at least one race of

    which is more or less resident in West Antarctica (1936. Oceanic Birds of

    South America , 2: 1103). Arctic and antarctic terns are readily distinguishable

    in the hand, the former having a comparatively very short tarsus and distally

    narrower outermost tail feather (which is dark gray on the outer web and white

    on the inner, instead of white on both webs), but in the field the two species

    probably are very difficult to tell apart.

            The adult arctic tern is about 14 to 15 inches long, with pearl gray

    mantle and very long, narrowly forked tail. In summer a glossy black cap

    650      |      Vol_IV-0706                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Arctic Tern

    covers the whole top of its head. In winter only the rear part of this cap

    is black, the front part being white, as in [ ?] mature birds. From the common

    tern ( Sterna hirundo ), which it resembles closely, it is distinguishable at

    all seasons by its very short tarsi. In summer its bill is deep red (carmine)

    all over, without a black tip, while that of the common tern is orange-red

    or scarlet, with black tip. In summer the arctic tern’s feet are red; in

    winter both the bill and feet are believed to become black, often wholly so,

    though Murphy has reported specimens with “dark reddish feet” taken in November

    and December. In winter the common tern’s bill usually is at least partly

    red, and its feet red or orange.

            In breeding plumage the arctic tern is much darker gray throughout the

    breast and belly than the common tern, but this is not a dependable field

    character because gray tones are so variable in different sorts of light.

    Perching arctic terns are so short-legged that they are noticeably squat ,

    even when standing in the most upright position possible for them. Another

    point of difference is this: in both species the outermost primary is dark

    gray on the outer web and also on the inner web immediately bordering the

    shaft. In the arctic tern this dark part of the inner web is about as wide

    as the outer web, while in the common tern it is fully twice as wide.

            Immature arctic terns are very similar to immature common terns. They

    are white on the forehead and black on the rear part of the crown. The

    mantle, which is gray, has a somewhat scaled appearance because each feather

    has a light grayish brown bar near the tip. The lesser wing coverts are

    usually less dark than those of the common tern. The under parts, hind neck,

    rump, upper tail coverts, and tail are white except for the dark outer webs

    of the outermost tail feathers. The tail, though deeply forked, is shorter

    651      |      Vol_IV-0707                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Arctic Tern

    than that of the adult. The bill is orange or red at the base, dusky at

    the tip. The feet are orange or red-orange.

            In almost every colony of arctic terns a very few individuals remain

    “white-faced” (i.e., white across the forehead) all summer. Birds in this

    so-called “ portlandica plumage” are of two wholly different categories —

    sexually immature birds one or two years old, whose gonads are not enlarged;

    and very old birds which apparently have reverted to an immature type of

    plumage but are nevertheless breeding. If all year-old, and some or all

    two-year-old arctic terns wear this portlandica plumage, then most birds

    of this age group probably do not even migrate northward. Where they spend

    the summer remains to be found out (see Palmer, 1941. Auk, 58: 164-178).

            The arctic tern, like other members of the Sterninae, is gregarious.

    It nests in colonies, sometimes a dozen or so birds on a grasay islet in

    a tundra lake, sometimes literally hundreds of pairs on a flat island in

    the sea. They are bold in defense of their nests. I have been pecked on the

    head repeatedly by the irate birds, which called kee-arr , kee-arr , in a

    loud, rasping voice as they circled, hovered, and dived. The nests are

    mere depressions in the gravel or moss, often without shelter or lining.

    On ocean islets the eggs are sometimes laid on the bare rock. Where the

    colony is large and the island small the nests sometimes are only a few

    feet apart. The eggs usually number 2; but sets of 3 are frequent, and

    in some localities clutches of 1 seem to be the rule. The eggs are gray

    or brown in ground color, spotted and blotched with various shades of gray

    and brown. They closely resemble those of the common tern. Incubation

    sometimes begins with the laying of the first egg, but usually not until

    the set is complete. Both the male and female incubate, but the female

    652      |      Vol_IV-0708                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Arctic Tern

    stays on the nest at night ( Handb. Brit. Birds) . The incubation period is

    21 to 22 days.

            The downy young is dull black on the forehead, loral region, chin and

    throat; buff, brown, or gray on the rest of the head, neck and top of the

    body; spotted with dusky on the crown and back’ and clear white on the

    breast and belly. Some chi c k are brown-phased, others gray-phased, and

    broocks frequently are composed of a gray-phased and a brown-phased bird.

    The chicks are fed on crustaceans, insects, minnows, sticklebacks, and sand

    launces. Small fish which are brought to them they swallow whole. They

    stay in the nest proper for only a day or so, but remain in the vicinity

    while fledging. Fledging requires about three weeks, but they continue to

    beg loudly for, and to receive, food for about a week longer. During the

    fledging period the parents usually obtain food at colony feeding grounds,

    coming and going all day, following a definite route, each bird returning

    with a fish held crosswise in its red beak.

            A great many eggs and young of the arctic tern are destroyed by jaegers

    and other gulls, but Pettingill (1939), in his study of 100 nests on the

    Maine coast, found that the “greatest loss of eggs and young was due, not

    to vicissitudes of the environment ... but to ... factors arising within

    the colony itself ...” Among these “internal factors” were puncturing

    and carrying off of eggs by the adult terns, “kidnapping” of young, failure

    to incubate eggs steadily, and desertion of eggs and young. In the Far North

    ravens and arctic foxes sometimes raid the tern colonies, but the most per–

    sistent predator of all may be the Eskimo, who has an understandable liking

    for tern eggs whether they happen to be fresh or not.

            The postnuptial molt of the arctic tern certainly is not completed on

    653      |      Vol_IV-0709                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Arctic Tern

    the breeding ground. An adult Southampton Island male which I collected on

    September 11, 1929, had not even started to molt. An adult female which I

    collected six days later seemed to be a trifle whiter on the belly than most

    birds I had been seeing, and the molt of body plumage may have started. We

    had had a sharp freeze on September 11, when a great premigratory flock of

    terns (both youn g and old) had gathered in South Bay.

            A prenuptial molt is said to take place in February and March, presum–

    ably before the northward migration begins. Some pairing takes place after

    the return to the nesting ground, though colonies return year after year to

    the same islands to nest, and some of the birds may possibly remain paired

    through the winter. During pairing a sort of song, which may be written kek ,

    kek , kek , kek , te-keer , te-keer , te-keer , is sung. An important part of

    pairing is the so-called “fish-flight.” One bird, with a fish in its beak,

    flies round and round, followed by another bird which apparently tries to

    snatch the fish away. If the two birds slight, the one with the fish may

    give it to the other, but the recipient, rather than eating the fish, flies

    off with it and another chase starts.

            The breeding range of the arctic tern is very extensive. The northern

    limits are Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef Archipelago, Novaya Zemlya, the New

    Siberian Archipelago, Wrangel Island, the arctic coast of Alaska, the Parry

    Islands, northern Ellesmere Island and northernmost Greenland. The southern

    limits are Iceland, the Faroes, the British Isles, Holland, the coast of

    the Baltic Sea, northern Russia (Lake Ladoga), the upper Yenisei, the Taimyr

    Peninsula, Yakutsk on the Lena, the Komandorskis and Aleutians, northern

    British Columbia, the lower Slave River, northern Manitoba (Chirchill), the

    coast of Massachusetts, and southern Greenland.



    654      |      Vol_IV-0710                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Arctic Tern and Common Tern

            The exact limits of the winter range remain to be worked out. The

    species probably does not, however, winter at all regularly quite so far

    south as latitude 74° S.

            Reference:

    Pettingill, Olin Sewall, Jr. “History of one hundred nests of Arctic Tern.”

    Auk , vol. 56, pp. 420-28, 1939.

            548. Common Tern . A widely distributed tern or sea swallow, Sterna

    hirundo , sometimes called (in North America) the Wilson’s tern. It is not

    by any means so boreal as the arctic tern ( Sterna paradisaea ), though like

    that species it is found in both the Old and New Worlds and is strongly migra–

    tory. The adult is about 13 to 14 inches long, there being considerable seasonal

    variation in over-all length because the outermost feathers of the deeply forked

    tail are shorter in winter than in summer.

            In breeding plumage the common tern is glossy black throughout the top

    of the head; pearl gray on the mantle; and white otherwise, tinged with pale

    gray, and sometimes with delicate rosy pink, on the breast and belly. The

    outer webs of the outer tail feathers are dark gray, the inner webs white.

    The outer webs and part of the inner webs of the outer primaries are dark

    gray, too, but details of this sort usually escape detection in the field.

    In winter it is similar, but the forehead is white and the black of the rear

    part of the crown is browner and less lustrous. Immature birds are similar

    to adults in winter plumage, but the back and scapulars have a brownish cast

    and a somewhat scaled appearance (because each feather has a grayish brown

    bar near its tip) and the lesser wing coverts are blackish. In all birds,

    655      |      Vol_IV-0711                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Common Tern

    young and old alike, the legs and feet are red of orange (usually less

    bright in winter than in summer). In adults the bill is scarlet or orange–

    red at the base and dusky at the tip (a little less than the distal half)

    in the breeding season, much darker in winter; in young birds it is dusky

    at the tip and more or less orange or red at the base. The common tern

    resembles the arctic tern so closely that the two species are sometimes

    indistinguishable in the field. No matter what the season or plumage-stage,

    however, the arctic tern is always the shorter legged. For a discussion of

    other differences see Arctic Tern .

            Common terns probably do not start breeding until they are two or three

    years old: First summer (one year old) birds resemble the immature birds

    described above in that they are white on the forehead, but the mantle is

    clear gray except for the dusky lesser wing coverts. R. S. Palmer (1941.

    Auk, 58: 164-178), who had discussed this “white-faced” plumage, reports

    that white-faced (i.e., white-foreheaded) year-old (or two-year-old) birds

    collected in breeding colonies or while migrating northward invariably have

    had unenlarged gonads, hence presumably were not yet sexually mature; but

    that white-faced very old birds (8 to 10 years old) were known to be breed–

    ing. White-faced birds encountered on the breeding grounds in spring or

    early summer are, therefore, either nonbreeding young ones which have moved

    northward because of their desire to associate with other terns (i.e., normal

    transients) or very old breeding birds which have, supposedly, reverted to an

    immature type of plumage. Some observers believe that the incidence of this

    “white-faced” plumage, which is often called the portlandica plumage, is

    higher among arctic terns than among common. Be that as it may, if all year–

    old birds (not to mention the two-year-olds) wear such a plumage, the summering

    656      |      Vol_IV-0712                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Common Tern

    ground of these nonbreeding subadults remains to be discovered, for no one

    has reported more than a very few of them from any given locality.

            In flight the common tern is one of the most graceful of birds. With

    bill pointed downward (in the manner characteristic of all terns) it moves

    through the air with easy, measured strokes of its long wings, its body

    rising and sinking perceptibly with the strokes. Suddenly it wheels sharply,

    drifts downwind, swings into upwind position, hovers an instant watching a

    fish not far below the surface, and sets its wings for a swift plunge and

    capture. It dives with very little splash; usually disappears completely;

    and comes up flying. An instant after it has risen from the surface, it

    shakes itself vigorously. Flocks often feed together where there are exten–

    sive shoals of small fish. Sometimes they find food along the shore, on the

    beach well back from the water’s edge, or even inland. Often they catch fly–

    ing insects. They do not often walk (their gait is a waddle) nor swim, though

    they settle in the water to bathe. When resting, they usually gather on a

    sand bar or floating log, several birds together all facing the same direction —

    into the wind.

            The common tern breeds in colonies, usually on rocky islands along the

    seacoast, on flat islands in salt marshes, or on gravel bars at river mouths,

    but sometimes on lakes far inland. The nest is the simplest sort of depression

    in the send or gravel. It is scooped out and sometimes sketchily lined by the

    female with bits of grass, feathers, or small pieces of wood. Nests are often

    very close together. The eggs, which are gray or brown, blotched and spotted with

    dark brown and ashy gray, usually number 3 (sometimes 2 or 4). Incubation

    begins with the laying of the first egg. Both the male and female incubate,

    though the female spends the night on the nest. The incubating bird is fed

    657      |      Vol_IV-0713                                                                                                                  
    EA-Sutton: Common Tern

    regularly by the mate. The incubation period is 21 to 22 days as a rule,

    though Austin reports that it sometimes lasts as long as 30 days. The

    chicks remain in the nest about 3 days, brooded by the female, and supplied

    with food by the male. Fledging requires about 4 weeks. Usually only one

    brood is reared in a season, but small young observed in late July may be of

    second broods.

            The postnuptial molt begins about the time the young birds are fledged,

    but it probably proceeds slowly while the birds are migrating and may not

    be finished until midwinter. The outermost tail feathers of the winter plumage

    are shorter than those of summer. An incomplete prenuptial molt takes place

    in February and March. This gives the bird new (and longer) tail feathers,

    new body plumage, and new wing coverts; but the primaries and secondaries

    are molted only once a year — during the postnuptial molt.

            Throughout its entire breeding range, the common tern is somewhat local.

    The northern limits of its breeding range are the British Isles, Norway,

    Finland, the White Sea, latitude 69° 30′ N. on the Ob, 64° on the Yenisei,

    the upper Amur valley, the Sea of Okhotsk (probably), Kamchatka, Great Slave

    Lake, central Ontario, and the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The

    southern limits are the Azores and Canaries, Madeira, northern Africa, the

    Black and Caspian seas, Persia, Mongolia, southern Alberta, North Dakota,

    the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, the Florida Keys,

    the Behamas, and islands off the coast of Venezuela (possibly). It winters

    chiefly along the outer coasts of West Africa, Mekran, India, Burma, the

    Malay States, New Guinea, the Solomons and Louisiades, Florida, Mexico,

    Central America, western South America (southward to Ecuador), and eastern

    South America (southward to the Felklands and Strait of Magellan).



    658      |      Vol_IV-0714                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Tern and Sterna

            Birds which breed in the New World, Europe, and western Siberia belong

    to the nominate race. Sterna hirundo tibetana breeds in Turkestan, Ladak,

    and Tibet. S. hirundo minussensis breeds in central Asia from the Altai

    country eastward to the Ingoda River. S. hirundo longipennis breeds in

    northeastern Asia from Ussuriland, the upper Amur, and Sakhalin to Kamchatka.

            References:

    1. Lincoln, F.C. “Notes on the migration of young Common Terns.” Bull .

    Northeastern Bird-banding Assn., vol. 3, pp. 23-28, 1927. 2. Marples, G. and A. Sea Terns or Sea Swallow . County Life Ltd.,

    London, 1934. 3. Marshall, Nelson. “Factors in the incubation behavior of the Common Tern.”

    Auk , vol. 60, pp. 574-88, 1943.

            549. Sterna . A genus of medium-sized and small terns or sea swallows.

    Throughout the group the bill is slender, very slightly curved, laterally

    compressed, rather sharply pointed, and about as long as the head or slightly

    longer. The tarsus is short (about as long as the middle toe, including the

    claw). The wings are long and pointed. The tail is deeply forked, the outer–

    most pair of rectrices being much longer than the others and narrow at the

    tip. In some species these outer feathers are so long (especially in summer)

    that they are called “streamers.” Sterna has four toes, the hind toe being

    well developed but small. The front toes are fully webbed. In many species

    a glossy black cap, [ ?] which contrasts sharply with the white of the rest

    of the head, is a conspicuous part of the breeding plumage.

            There are 22 or 23 species in Sterna . These range in size from the least

    tern ( Sterna albifrons ), which is about 8 inches long, to such species as the

    659      |      Vol_IV-0715                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sterna

    common tern ( S. hirundo ), Forster’s tern ( S. forsteri ), and sooty tern

    ( S. fuscata ) all of which are about 14 to 15 inches long. No species of

    the genus is nearly so heavy-bodies or heavy-billed as the Casp i an tern of

    the genus Hydroprogne .

            All species of Sterna nest colonially. Some species (e.g., the arctic

    tern) sometimes lay their eggs on the bare rock. The sooty tern frequently

    lays its single egg on the sand, making little or no nest. The common tern

    usually lines its nest rather scantily; but if nests on a floating log, as

    it sometimes does, it constructs a sizeable nest. The Forster’s tern, which

    almost always nests in an extensive marsh, builds a sprawling nest on a muddy

    islet or on floating vegetation.

            The size of the colony varies greatly. Along the Canadian River in

    Oklahoma, three or four pairs of least terns may colonize on a sand bar,

    with nests several yards, or even rods, apart. But the sooty tern or “wide–

    awake” often nests in dense groups with the nests only a few feet apart.

    Throughout the genus the eggs are buff or brown, spotted and blotched with

    darker shades of brown. In most species the clutch is 2 or 3; but in some

    species only 1 egg is laid. The most northward-ranging species of all, the

    arctic tern, does not, as might be expected, lay the largest sets. Usually

    it lays 2 eggs, sometimes 3, in some areas regularly one.

            Sterna has far more species than any other genus of the subfamily

    Sterninae (terns). It is virtually cosmopolitan in distribution. The

    arctic tern ranges much farther north than any other tern of the world;

    the antarctic tern ( S. vittata ) farther south. Only two species are truly

    boreal — the arctic and the common. Both of these have a wide breeding

    range, are strongly migratory, and probably have a wide winter range, though

    660      |      Vol_IV-0716                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sterna and Tern

    the winter ranges of several of the terns need to be worked out with

    great care. The arctic tern breeds north to latitude 82° N. in both the

    Eastern and Western Hemisphere (Bent). The common tern is not nearly so

    boreal, and oddly enough it breeds farther north in the Old World than in

    the New. The northernmost point at which it nests in America is Great

    Slave Lake (about lat. 61° N.). In Eurasia, on the other hand, it nests

    northward to Lofoten Islands, Norway; East Finmark; the White Sea; lati–

    tude 69° 30′ in the valley of the Ob; and 64° in the valley of the Yenisei.

            550. Tern. Any of several long-winged swimming birds belonging to

    the Sterninae, one of the two great subfamilies of the charadriiform family

    Laridae. The terns differ from their allies, the gulls (subfamily Larinae),

    in having slender, comparatively straight (unhooked) bills, short tarsi, and

    small feet. Many terns have conspicuously forked tails, but the degree of

    tail furcation in certain small gulls a about the same as in the short-tailed

    terns. The color pattern of terns is such like that of gulls, though no

    gull has a bold black cap similar to that of several of the terns; no gull

    is black throughout the head, neck, breast, and belly as is the black tern

    ( Chlidonias nigra ) in breeding plumage; and no tern has definitely black

    and white wing-tipping like that of many gulls. In general, the terns are

    not as large as the gulls, the largest terns being about 22 inches long,

    the largest gulls 30 to 32 inches long. Terns are so short-legged that

    they are very squat in appearance when standing or walking.

            The flight of terns is easy, graceful, and more buoyant than that

    of even the smallest gulls. Terns customarily capture their food by picking

    661      |      Vol_IV-0717                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tern

    it from the surface of the water, or by diving for it straight from the air.

    A flock of terns busily engaged in catching fish can be the very embodiment of

    graceful animation. Each bird moves slowly upwing, with bill directed sharply

    downward, watching the water intently. On sighting a fish it folds it wings

    and plunges with a slight splash, disappearing beneath the surface for a

    second or more, then emerges, flying, with its silvery prey grasped in its

    mandibles. It shakes the water from its plumage and swallows the fish or

    heads for the nesting ground. Only infrequently does it alight in the water

    and almost never does it attempt to dive from a swimming position.

            Terns nest in colonies. Most species nest solely on the ground on islands,

    sandspits, and gravel bars; but the moddy ( Anoüs stolidus ) nests in low trees,

    on bare rocks, or in holes in cliffs, and the white or fairy tern ( Gygis alba )

    lays its single egg on a bare branch. Several species of terns lay but one

    egg; but in most species the clutch numbers 2 or 3 (infrequently 4). The eggs

    are spotted. The downy chick is not uniformly colored as are young skuas and

    jaegers (family Stercorariidae), but are intricately patterned above, as are

    most young shore birds of the families Scolopacidae and Characriidae.

            The 40-some species of terns are distributed among 10 genera, six of which

    are monotypic. Of these monotypic genera, two — Gelochelidon (gull-billed

    tern) and Hydropogne (Caspian tern) — breed widely throughout the New and

    Old Worlds, each being represented by two or more races, the more northward–

    ranging of which are migratory; two — Phaetusa (large-billed tern) and

    Larosterna (Inca tern), — are found only in South America; and two —

    Procelsterna (gray ternlet) and Gygis (white or fairy tern) — inhabit widely

    separated islands of the Southern Hemisphere.



    662      |      Vol_IV-0718                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tern

            All four of the polytypic genera ( Thalasseus , Chilidonias , Anoüs , and

    Sterna ) are very wide ranging. Thalasseus (7 species) is almost cosmopolitan.

    It breeds northward to the British Isles, the North Sea, the coast of China,

    Lower California, and Virginia, and southward to Madagascar and South Africa,

    Australia, and (in winter only) Argentina and Chile. Anoüs (3 species)

    ranges widely through tropical seas, breeding northward to Mexico, the West

    Indies, the Red Sea, the Ryukyus and Bonins, and southward to Australia,

    Madagascar, and Tristan da Cunha. Chilidonias (3 species) inhabits both the

    New World and the Old, breeding northward to latitude 60° N. in Russia,

    58° in Siberia, and 62° in east central Alaska and west central Canada (Great

    Slave Lake), and southward to South Africa, Australia, and (in winter only)

    Peru and Chile. Sterna (23 species) has a distribution which is far greater

    than that of all the rest of the subfamily Sterninae put together, chiefly

    because of the very extensive circumpolar breeding of the arctic tern ( S.

    paradisaea ) and antarctic tern ( S. vittata ). Both of these species are

    migratory, the arctic tern dramatically so. The arctic tern breeds northward

    to Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef Archipelago, the New Siberian Archipelago,

    North Greenland, and northern Ellesmere Island; the antarctic tern southward

    to the South Shetlands and South Orkneys, Kerguelen, Crozet, the Campbells

    and Macquaries.

            See Arctic Tern and Common Tern.



    663      |      Vol_IV-0719                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Auks, Guillemots, Murres and Puffins

           

    AUKS, GUILLEMOTS, MURRES, AND PUFFINS

           

    Order CHARADRIIFORMES: Suborder ALCAE

           

    Family ALCIDAE

            552. Aethia . See writeup.

            553. Alca . See writeup.

            554. ALCIDAE. See writeup.

            555. Atlantic Murre. A name used by taxonomists for the nominate race

    of the common murre or common guillemot, Uria aalge ( q.v .).

            556. Atlantic Puffin. A name for the nominate race of the puffin,

    Fratercula arctica ( q.v. ).

            557. Auk. See writeup.

            558. Auklet. See writeup.

            559. Baccalieu Bird. A name used in Newfoundland and Labrador for the

    razor-billed auk ( Alca torda ) ( q.v. ).

            560. Black Guillemot. See writeup.

            561. Brachyramphus . See writeup.

            562. Brünnich’s Murre or Brünnich’s Guillemot. Names widely used (the

    former in North America, the latter in England) for the thick-billed

    murre or thick-billed guillemot ( Uria lomvia ) (q.v.)

            563. Cepphus . See writeup.

            564. Common Murre or Common Guillemot. ( q.v .)

            565. Crested Auklet. See writeup.

            566. Cyclorrhynchus. See writeup.

            567. Dovekie. See writeup.

            568. Fratercula . See writeup.



    664      |      Vol_IV-0720                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Auks, Guillemots, Murres, and Puffins

            569. Garefowl. A name in wide use formerly for the great auk ( Pinguinis

    impennis ) (q.v.). Used also ? to some extent, even today, for the razor–

    billed auk ( Alca torda ) (q.v.).

            570. Greak Auk. See writeup.

            571. Guillemot. See writeup.

            572. Horned Puffin. See writeup.

            573. Kittlitz’s Murrelet. See writeup.

            574. Large-billed Puffin. A name for Fratercula arctica navmanni , the most

    northward-ranging race of the puffin (q.v.).

            575. Least Auklet. See writeup.

            576. Little Auk. A widely used name for the dovekie ( Plautus alle ) (q.v.).

            577. Lunda . See writeup.

            578. Mandt’s Guillemot (Mandt’s Black Guillemot). A common name for a

    northward-ranging race of the black guillemot ( Cepphus grylle ) (q.v.).

            579. Murre. See writeup.

            580. Murrelet. See writeup.

            581. Pallas’s Murre. Uria lomvia arra , the North Pacific race of the

    thick-billed or Brünnich’s murre (q.v.).

            582. Parakeet Auklet. See writeup.

            583. Pigeon Guillemot. See writeup.

            584. P inguinis . See writeup.

            585. Plautus . See writeup.

            586. Puffin. See writeup.

            587. Razor-billed Auk. See writeup.

            588. Ringed Murre. A widely used name for what is believed to be a color

    phase of the common murre or common guillemot ( Uria aalge ) (q.v.).



    665      |      Vol_IV-0721                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Auks, Guillemots, Murres, and Puffins

            589. Rotche or Rotge. A name used principally in Europe for the dovekie or

    little auk ( Plautus alle ) (q.v.).

            590. Sea Parrot. A more or less colloquial common name for the puffin

    ( Fratercula arctica ) (q.v.).

            591. Sea Pigeon. A widely used name for the middle-sized diving birds of

    the genus Cepphus , species which are known among ornithologists as

    guillemots. See Black Guillemot and Pigeon Guillemot. Sometimes

    called also Sea Dove.

            592. Thick-billed Murre or Thick-billed Guillemot. (See writeup.

            593. Tinker. A colloquial name for the razor-billed auk ( Alca torda ) (q.v.).

            594. Tufted Puffin. See writeup.

            594.1 Tystie. A name used in Scotland for the black guillemot ( Cepphus

    grylle ) (q.v.).

            595. Uria . See writeup.



    666      |      Vol_IV-0722                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aethia

            552. Aethia . A genus composed of three small species of auklets —

    the crested ( A. cristatella ), the least ( A. pusilla ), and the whiskered

    ( A. pygmaea ), all of which are confined to the North Pacific. The least

    auklet is the smallest species of the family Alcidae (suborder Alcae); it

    is also the most northward-ranging species of Aethia ; indeed it is the only

    species of Aethia which breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in

    considerable numbers.

            The three s pecies of Aethia are so different superficially at the

    height of the breeding season that they have — at various times in the past —

    been placed in separate monotypic genera. The created auklet and least auklet

    are much more “ornamented” in summer than in winter; the whiskered auklet, on

    the other hand, keeps its pretty head plumes the year round. Aethia is small–

    billed (in all three species the culmen is much shorter than the tarsus),

    rather small-winged, and short-tailed. The tail has 14 feathers. The tarsus

    is somewhat shorter than the middle toe with its claw. The sexes are colored

    alike. All three species are white-eyed.

            Aethia ranges from extreme northeastern Siberia (the Chukotsk Peninsula)

    and Cape Lisburne, Alaska, southward through the Bering Sea to the Aleutians,

    Sakhalin, the Kurils, and Japan. All three species winter more or less

    throughout the breeding range, wherever the water is open, but migrations

    which take the birds south of the breeding ground seem invariably to take

    them southwestward toward the east coast of Asia, for none of them winters

    regularly along the coast of southern Alaska or British Columbia.



    667      |      Vol_IV-0723                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alca

            553. Alca . The monotypic genus to which the razor-billed auk ( Alca

    torda ) belongs. The bill of Alca is much flattened laterally, strongly

    decurved at the tip, feathered at the base for almost half its length, and

    (in adult birds) grooved and ridged vertically. The nostrils are narrow

    slits which open just below the feathering at the base of the bill. The

    tarsus is shorter than the middle toe with its claw. The tail (12 feathers)

    is short, graduated, and pointed (especially the middle feathers).

            Alca breeds on rocky coasts of the North Atlantic — northward to Green–

    land, Iceland, Bear Island (probably), Norway, and northern Russia; westward

    to western Greenland : ; eastward as far as the White Sea; and southward to

    southern Quebec (Cape Whittle), certain islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence

    (Anticosti, Bonaventure, the Magdalens, and the Bird Rocks), Newfoundland,

    southern New Brunswick (Grand Manan), Maine (Seal Island), Helgoland, Denmark,

    Cotland, and southern Finland (Lake Ladoga). It is somewhat migratory. In

    the New World it winters from Greenland southward to New York (Long Island),

    New Jersey (rarely), and Carolina (casually); in the Old World from southern

    Norway and the Baltic Sea to Portugal, the western Mediterranean, and (casually)

    the Canary Islands. It is a “rare visitor” to Spitsbergen (Johnsen) and has

    been recorded from Novaya Zemlya (Gorbunow) and Jan Mayen.

            Alca is not closely related to any living bird. The extinct Pinguinis

    (great auk) was very similar structurally, though its wings were so small in

    proportion to its body size that it was unable to fly. Pinguinis inhabited

    certain North Atlantic islands and coasts. Its range probably never was so

    extensive as that of Alca is today.

            See Razor-billed Auk.



    668      |      Vol_IV-0724                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alcidae

            554. Alcidae . A family of charadriiform birds (23 species belonging

    to 13 genera) collectively known as the auks, found only in northern parts

    of the Northern Hemisphere (i.e., the Arctic and North Temperate zones).

    The family is circumboreal, being about equally represented in the Old and

    New Worlds. It has had this wide distribution for a long time; alcid

    remains have been found in the Tertiary deposits of both Europe and North

    America.

            Among the Alcidae is one of the world’s most famous birds, the extinct

    great auk or garefowl ( Pinguinis impennis ), a spectacular creature which

    was considerably larger than any member of the family living today, but

    flightless. By early writers it was frequently described as an inhabitant

    of the “terrible arctic wastes,” and called the “Northern Penguin.”

    Actually it was not arctic at all, nor was it more than very remotely

    related to the penguins. It inhabited certain North Atlantic coasts and

    islands, notably Iceland, but probably did not breed north of the Arctic

    Circle along any meridian (Greenland records being highly questionable).

    It managed to survive until 1844. Its relative, the razor-billed auk

    ( Alca torda ) is widely distributed in the North Atlantic today. The great

    auk and razor-bill may properly be called the “true” auks.

            The little auk or dovekie ( Plautus alle ) is about half as big as the

    razor-bill, but it ranges very much farther north. Indeed it is one of the

    most abundant of boreal birds, and is, consequently, an important source of

    human food, at least locally. Like the “true” auks above discussed, it is

    a North Atlantic bird, but its range includes Spitsbergen and the Franz

    Josef Archipelago as well as Greenland.

            The interesting little auklets of the genera Ptychoramphus (Cassin’s

    669      |      Vol_IV-0725                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alcidae

    auklet, Cyclorrhynchus (parakeet auklet), Aethia (crested, least, and

    whiskered auklets), and Cerorhinoa (rhinoceros auklet) bear at least a

    superficial resemblance to the dovekie, but they are all North Pacific

    birds. Among them are some of the most oddly shaped birds imaginable. The

    crested auklet has a strongly recurved crest on its forehead, as well as a

    decorative plate at the base of its bright red bill. The whiskered auklet’s

    head fairly bristles with slender white plumes. The parakeet auklet’s bill

    is flattened laterally and oddly upturned. All three of the species just

    mentioned have white eyes.

            The murres are black and white birds which resemble the razor-billed

    auk in general appearance. They are known as guillemots in England. They

    belong to the genus Uria and there are two species, both of which range into

    the Arctic in both the Old and New Worlds. Closely related to them are the

    sea pigeons or sea doves, which also are known (both in North America and in

    England) as guillemots and which belong to the genus Cepphus . There are

    three species — the black guillemot ( C. grylle ), pigeon guillemot ( C. columba ),

    and spectacled guillemot ( C. carbo ). The Mandt’s black guillemot ( C. grylle

    mandti ) is one of the most distinctively boreal of birds in that (a) it breeds

    all round the pole on some of the northernmost lands; and (b) it moves south–

    ward but little during winter.

            The murrelets are plump little birds of the North Pacific. They belong

    to the genera Brachyramphus , Endomychura , and Synthliboramphus . Only one of

    them, the Kittlitz’s murrelet ( Brachyramphus brevirostris ) , is positively

    known to breed northward as far as the Arctic Circle.

            The anomalous puffins or sea parrots (genera Fratercula and Lunda )

    differ from all other alcids in that they stand on their toes, with tarsi

    670      |      Vol_IV-0726                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alcidae

    fully elevated. All puffins are grotesque, but the tufted puffin ( Lunda

    cirrhata ), with its bright red and olive-yellow beak, white fact, and

    flowing postocular plumes, is almost incredible.

            All the above-discussed birds are divers and all inhabit salt water.

    Throughout the family the legs are short and set far back in the body. In

    diving the birds probably use their feet more for steering than for propul–

    sion, for they “fly” when beneath the surface. The 3 front toes are fully

    webbed, and in those few species which have 4 toes, the hind toe is vestigial.

    The wings are small, narrow, and pointed. There are 11 primaries, the outer–

    most one being minute. The tail is short, rounded, or more or less square in

    most forms, pointed in the “true” auks. The rectrices number 12 or 14 in some

    genera, 16 (or even 18) in others. The bill is usually short, but in Uria and

    Cepphus it is almost as long as the head. As a rule it is somewhat flattened

    laterally. In some forms it is ornamented during the breeding season with

    plates which drop off in late summer.

            Most (if not all) alcids are colonial. Throughout the family males and

    females are colored alike. The egg s is enormous in proportion to the size of

    the bird. In most species the full clutch numbers 1; but some species lay 2

    (rarely 3) eggs. The young, which are down-covered at hatching, stay in the

    nest until they are partly or fully fledged. They are fed by both parents.

    In most species one brood is reared per season. The tufted puffin may rear

    two broods in the southern part of its range.

            The strong, but wholly superficial resemblance of the murres and “true”

    auks to the penguins should be mentioned. The penquins are, of course, as

    exclusively southern as the auks are northern; and they are so radically

    different from the auks that a detailed discussion is not necessary. No

    671      |      Vol_IV-0727                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alcidae and Auk

    penguin can fly, of course; but note how different the penguin’s flipper

    is from the great auk’s [ ?] full-feathered wing; and the thick, unwebbed

    foot of a penguin from the webbed foot of a razor-bill or murre! Convergent

    evolution — the process which brings two unrelated and structurally

    different groups of animals to a stage in which they resemble each other

    strikingly, though superficially — surely that process is no better illus–

    trated anywhere in Nature than it is here.

            Reference:

    Salomonsen, Fiin. “The Atlantic Alcidae.” Medd. Goteborgs Musei Zoologiska

    Avdelning , vol.108, 1944.

            557. Auk. In general, any member of the family Alcidae or auk family;

    but the name applies especially to the razor-billed auk ( Alca torda ), the

    extinct great auk ( Pinguinis impennis ), and the little auk, dovekie, or

    rotche ( Plautus alle ). All the Alcidae are northern in distribution. The

    little auk breeds abundantly at high latitudes in Greenland, Spitsbergen,

    and the Franz Josef Archipelago. Early accounts of the great auk described

    the bird as a creature of the “terrible frozen wastes,” but it was actually

    arctic in only a very limited sense. The razor-bill is much less abundant

    north of the Arctic Circle than it is to the south, but it breeds along the

    west coast of Greenland northward to Upernivik (about lat. 74° N.), on Bear

    Island (probably), and on the Murman Coast. The three above-named auks are

    well confined to the North Atlantic and adjacent waters.

            See razor-billed auk, great auk, and dovekie.



    672      |      Vol_IV-0728                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Auklet and Black Guillemot

            558. Auklet . Any of several small, chunky, oceanic diving birds of the

    genera Ptychoramphus Ptychoramphus (Cassin’s auklet), Cyclorrhynchus (parakeet auklet),

    Aethia (created, whiskered, and least auklets), and Cerorhinca (rhinoceros

    auklet), all of which belong to the family Alcidae and are confined to the

    North Pacific and adjacent seas. Only two of them breed at all regularly

    in the Arctic — the least suklet ( Aethia pusilla ) and the parakeet auklet

    ( Cyclorrhynchus psittacula ), but neither of these ranges far to the north of

    the Arctic Circle. The created auklet ( Aethia cristatella ) is known to

    summer northward to the north coast of the Chukotak Peninsula, in Siberia;

    to Wrangel Island and Herald Island; and to the arctic coast of Alaska; but

    it has not yet actually been found breeding in any of these places. The

    whiskered auklet ( Aethia pygmsea ) is found principally from the Komandorskis

    to Kamchatka, the Kurils, and Japan. It has been recorded as far north as

    St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, and Plover Bay, Siberia. The rhinoceros

    auklet ( Cerorhinca monocerata ) breeds in the Aleutians and on both sides of

    the North Pacific (chiefly on islands) from Kamchatka to Korea and southern

    Alaska to Washington. Cassin’s auklet ( Ptychoramphus aleuticus ) breeds from

    the Aleuticans south to latitude 27° N. on the west coast of Baja California.

            See least auklet and parakeet auklet.

            560. Black Guillemot . A widely distributed oceanic diving bird,

    Cepphus grylle , which is often called the sea pigeon or sea dove. It is

    one of the most northern of birds. The crew of the Fram observed it as far

    north as latitude 84° 32′ N. Among Scotsmen it is called the tystie . The

    Germans call it the teists , and various Scandinavian names for it resemble this.

    673      |      Vol_IV-0729                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black Guillemot

    The Russians call it the chistik . Among most Eskimo tribes it is called

    the pitseolak.

            It is about 12 to 14 inches long with a wingspread of about 23 inches.

    It has 12 or 14 tail feathers. In breeding plumage it is brownish black

    all over except for a large and noticeable white patch on each wing and

    the white under wing coverts. The black plumage is glossed with green —

    an iridescence which gradually disappears with wear and fading. The

    winter plumage is white, generally speaking, though actually only parts

    of the head, foreneck, breast, and belly are immaculate: the feathers of

    the upper parts are tipped with blackish grey, and the wings are about as

    they are in summer, though they are usually more or less hidden by the

    dark -tipped scapulars and side plumage. The sexes are colored alike.

    At all seasons adults have dark brown eyes, black bill, vermilion mouth

    lining, and bright red legs and feet. Young birds resemble adults in winter

    plumage, but are duskier; the white feathers of their wing patches are tipped

    with brownish gray; and their mouth lining, legs, and feet are duller.

            The black guillemot is familier to all who have journeyed along North

    Atlantic coasts. The swimming bird has a curious custom of dipping its bill

    in the water, as if in agitation at being approached. As it flies up the

    white patches in its wings show clearly, giving it an oddly butterfly-like

    appearance as it circles the boat and alights. Its cry is a feeble, shrill

    whistle which it utters either while at rest or in flight. On land it often

    rests prone on its belly. When erect it stands on its whole foot (i.e., the

    tarsus as well as the toes), but when it runs it rises to its toes, and

    moves with agility. When it calls or yawns, the bright red of its mouth

    lining is sometimes very conspicuous. Under water it uses it [ ?] wings rather

    674      |      Vol_IV-0730                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black Guillemot

    than its feet for propulsion.

            The black guillemot breeds in colonies, but these are sometimes very

    small and the pairs may be so scattered as to seem quite independent of

    each other. The female lays her two eggs (often only 1; occasionally 3)

    under a rock in talus or in a fissure at the base of a cliff. The “nest”

    frequently is the bare rock, but I have found eggs in scooped-out nests

    in damp shale. The eggs are ovate rather than pyriform and are white,

    very pale buff, cream, or bluish green, spotted and blotched with black,

    brown, and gray. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is about

    28 days (Winn). The downy young is brownish black all over, a trifle lighter

    below than above. The young birds, which are fed by both parents, remain in

    the nest until they are fully fledged (about 40 days, according to Winn).

    When they go to sea they resemble winter-plumaged adults, except that most

    white feathers are slightly tipped with dusky. About this time their parents

    undergo a complete postnuptial molt, which is performed entirely at sea.

    Molting birds are flightless for a time, for all the remiges drop out

    simultaneously.

            The black guillemot has a very wide distribution. It is almost com–

    pletely holarctic, though there are very few actual records for the northern

    fringe of the Arctic Archipelago west of Ellesmere Island, and reports of its

    breeding in northern Alaska have yet to be confirmed. The northern limits

    of its range are northern Ellesmere Island, northern Greenland, Jan Mayen,

    Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Archipelago, Novaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Archi–

    pelago, Wrangel Island, Herald Island, the Seahorse Islands just north of

    Point Barrow (probably), and the northern fringe of the Arctic Archipelago

    (probably). It breeds southward throughout both coasts of Greenland and in

    675      |      Vol_IV-0731                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black Guillemot

    Iceland. The southern limits of its breeding range are the British Isles,

    the Baltic coasts of Sweden and Finland, the rockier parts of the whole

    coast of continental Eurasis and continental North American, Moose Factory and

    Fort George in James Bay, Anticosti Island, Newfoundland, and Maine. Through–

    out this vast area it is represented by various races. In 1934 Peters recog–

    nized only three — mandtii of the Far North (with holarctic distribution);

    arcticus of the west side of the North Atlantic from latitude 72° N. south–

    ward to about 55°; and grylle of both sides of the North Atlantic — south

    of the range of arcticus on the west side, and on Scandinavisn and British

    coasts. Salomonsen, in a more recent review (1944) recognizes seven “Atlantic

    subspecies.” The characters of these races are not very well defined and in

    many areas two forms intergrade. As for the winter ranges, they are almost

    impossible to define. Suffice to say that black guillemots found in winter

    in the Far North are almost certainly mandtii (in the Old World) or ultimus

    (in the New).

            Concerning the wintering of Cepphus grylle in the Point Barrow region

    of Alaska, Thomas P. Brower has this to say: “This bird winters in the open

    spots of the Arctic Ocean. If caught when water closes will wander around

    until it finds water or dies on the snow. Some stay in the water and keep

    little holes open where they come up to breath similar to seal blow-holes

    through ice. The Snowy Owl, Willow Ptarmigan and [this] Guillemot are the

    only birds I have seen to stay all year round, this far north” (personal

    letter to Max Minor Peet, dated March 25, 1947).

            See Cepphus.

            References:

    1. Bent, Arthur C. “Life histories of North American diving birds.”

    U.S.Natl.Mus. Bull. , vol.107, pp.156-67. 1919. 2. Darling, F. Fraser. Wild Country . Cambridge Univ.Press. pp.65-67, 1938.

    676      |      Vol_IV-0732                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Brachyramphus

            561. Brachyramphus . A genus composed of four species of small North

    Pacific diving birds known as murrelets. All four species are chunky, short–

    tailed and small-billed. The marbled murrelet ( B. marmoratus ) is probably

    the best known species of the genus, since it is found all along the west

    coast of the United States and Canada, but almost nothing has been dis–

    covered concerning its nesting habits. The Kittlitz’s murrelet ( B. brevi –

    rostris ) is definitely known to bread northward very nearly to the Arctic

    Circle. Its nest has been found in the mountains just inland from Cape

    Prince of Wales, Alaska, and in high country on the Alaska Peninsula and

    near Glacier Bay. It may breed northward to Point Barrow, or even farther

    cast long the Alaska coast, as well as along the Siberian side of the North

    Pacific. Its nest is to be looked for only in rugged country just back from

    the coast, apparently.

            Xantus’s murrelet ( B. hypoleucus ) and Craveri’s murrelet ( B. craveri )

    breed on islands off the coasts of California and Baja California, the

    latter solely within the Gulf of Baja California. The nesting habits of

    Xantus’s murrelet are quite well known. According to Wetmore, the nests are

    in caves, rock crevices, or hollows under stones. Two eggs are laid. The

    newly hatched young are active and alert and within four days are led

    down the steep slopes by their parents to t i u mble finally into the sea. Here

    they swim and dive, being able when they first reach the water to travel

    several yards beneath the surface, and even to elude the rushing attacks

    of large fishes.

            Some ornithologists are of the opinion that Xanthus’s murrelet and

    Craveri’s murrelet belong in the separate genus Endomychura . A pronounced

    difference between the two groups is this: Xantus’s murrelet and Craveri’s

    677      |      Vol_IV-0733                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Brachyramphus andCepphus

    murrelet have no special breeding plumage, whereas the breeding plumage of

    the marbled murrelet and Kittlitz’s murrelet is very different from the

    winter plumage.

            See Kittlitz’s Murrelet.

            563. Cepphus. A genus composed of three species of northern oceanic

    diving birds known as guillemots or tysties among English-speaking peoples

    (the world guillemot is from the French, and the Scottish tystie and German

    teiste are obviously related); as kajurka among the natives of the Komandorskis;

    as svitsun among the Russians of Kamchatka and the Komandorskis (according to

    Stejneger); as chistik among the Russians of Europe (according to Dementiev);

    and as pitseolak among the Eskimos. In England the name guillemot is applied

    also to all forms of the genus Uria , larger diving birds which in America are

    known as murres.

            Superficially, Cepphus is much like Uria , but, as Salomonsen states,

    Cepphus “differs in the coloration, in the feathering of the nostrils, in

    the moult and in the life-habits” (1944. “The Atlantic Alcidae,” Medd .

    Götesborgs Mus. Zool. Avdel . 108: 59). Furthermore, as Storer has pointed out,

    the two genera differ in the structure of the pelvis and hind limb, and in

    consequence, in posture and gait ( Ibis , 1945, pp. 433-456). In both genera

    the bill is longish (about as long as the head), somewhat flattened laterally,

    straight and pointed; the slitlike nostrils are more or less bordered above by

    feathers; the tail is short and rounded; and the tarsus is a little shorter

    than the middle toe with its claw. Uria is distinctly different in that its

    breeding plumage is similar to its winter plumage. In Cepphus the breeding

    678      |      Vol_IV-0734                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cepphus

    plumage is (generally speaking) black, while the winter plumage is (again

    generally speaking) white. Furthermore, in Uria the full clutch of eggs is

    1, while in Cepphus it is 2. The egg of Uria is strongly pear-shaped; in

    Cepphus it is not. Uria lays its eggs in a very exposed position, often on

    the top of a flat rock; Cepphus lays its two eggs under a rock or in a crack,

    and never in the open. Uria colonies are dense — composed of pairs whose

    “nests” almost touch each other. Cepphus colonies are scattered. Uria

    possibly does not breed at all unless many birds gather to form a colony;

    Cepphus probably breeds at times in separate, isolated pairs. This last

    statement may not be quite correct, but I have personally observed very small

    colonies (2 or 3 pairs) of Cepphus , whereas the only breeding Uria I have seen

    were in companies of a hundred birds or more.

            All three species of Cepphus are exclusively northern in distribution.

    C. grylle (black guillemot) inhabits the North Atlantic, the other two species

    the North Pacific. C. carbo (spectacled guillemot) is resident about the Sea

    of Okhotsk, the Kurils, Sakhalin, and the Sea of Japan (Peters), hence is not

    arctic; but both C. grylle and C. columba (pigeon guillemot) breed northward

    to the Arctic Circle and beyond, and the black guillemot is, in a sense, among

    the most northern of birds, since it winters northward to the limits of open

    water. Whether it inhabits the Far North during the period of winter darkness

    is a question which remains to be settled. It is one of the most definitely

    holarctic birds, since it breeds all the way round the North Pole on low coasts

    as well as high. Further investigations may reveal that it migrates only

    enough to find an adequate food supply (i.e., open water in which crustaceans,

    mollusks, etc., liv). Even the most migratory forms of Cepphus move but

    little to the southward of their breeding grounds in winter.

            See Black Guillemot.



    679      |      Vol_IV-0735                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Murre

            564. Common Murre . A northern marine diving bird, Uria aalge , which

    is known in England as the guillemot or common guillemot. It is similar to

    the thick-billed or Brünnich’s murre (or guillemot) in appearance and behavior

    and, like that species, is found in both the Old World and the New, but it is

    much less boreal in distribution. It breeds from southern Greenland, Iceland,

    Bear Island, both islands of Novaya Zemlya, and Bering Strait south to New

    Brunswick (Grand Manan), Nova Scotia, the Berlenga Islands (off Portugal),

    Japan, Korea, and southern California. It winters in open water throughout

    its breeding range as well as southward along the Atlantic coast of North

    America as far as Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. Several

    geographical races are recognized — the migratory aalge (sometimes called

    Atlantic murre) of Labrador, southern Greenland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,

    Iceland, Novaya Zemlya, the Orkneys and Shetlands, and Norway; the migratory

    hyperborea of Bear Island; the nonmigratory spiloptera of the Faerces; the

    nonmigratory albionis of the British Isles (exclusive of the Orkneys and

    Shetlands), the Channel Islands, northwestern France, and the Berlenga

    Islands; the migratory intermedia of the Baltic Sea; the migratory inornata

    of the North Pacific; and the nonmigratory californica of the Oregon and

    California coasts.

            The common murre is about 16 inches long. In summer it is dark brown

    or brownish gray on the whole head, neck, and upper parts (save for the white

    tipping of the secondaries) and white on the breast, belly, sides, and under

    tail coverts. In winter the white of the under parts extends forward to

    include the whole foreneck, sides of the head, throat, and chin. The bill

    is p al la in black, the eyes dull yellow (with grayish webs). A curious [ ?]

    phenomenon is the “ringed” or “bridled” condition of some individuals. This

    680      |      Vol_IV-0736                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Murre

    ring or bridle is a narrow white line encircling the eye and extending back–

    ward from it along the upper edge of the auriculars. Much has been written

    about this “abnormality.” Certain authors have believed that the “ringed”

    birds belonged to a full, distinct species, and have even given them a

    scientific name; but most ornithologists now regard the ringed condition as

    a sort of color phase, though they are at a loss to explain it.

            The common murre nests in colonies on cliffs which breast the sea, or

    on the tops of high offshore islets. Often it shares a cliff with such species

    as the razor-billed auk ( Alca torda ) and kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ). The

    colonies sometimes are badly crowded owing to the scarcity of good nest sites.

    The female lays her single egg on the bare rock, often in a fully exposed

    position on a narrow ledge, sometimes in a crevice. The eggs are pyriform and

    extremely variable in color, some being intense blue or green, others reddish,

    cream color, or white. Some are virtually immaculate, but most of them are

    spotted and blotched (principally at the larger end) with brown and black.

    Both sexes incubate. The period of incubation is 28 to 30 days. The downy

    newly hatched young is closely streaked with black and white on the whole head

    and neck; sooty brown on the upper part of the body; and buffy white on the

    breast and belly. Both parents feed the young bird, which remains in the

    “nest” for 15 to 17 days, then descends to the sea (Keighley and Lickley).

            The food of the common murre includes fish, fish eggs, crustaceans, and

    mollusks. Fish for the young are usually carried singly and lengthwise in

    the bill, not several at a time and crosswise, in the manner of the razor–

    bill ( Handb. Brit. Birds ).

            References:

    1. Bent, Arthur C. “Life histories of North American diving birds.”

    U.S.Natl.Mus. Bull ., vol.107, pp.172-89, 1919.

    681      |      Vol_IV-0737                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Murre and Crested Auklet

    2. Johnson, R.A. “Predation of gulls [ ?] in Murre colonies.” Wilson

    Bulletin , vol. 50, pp. 161-70, 1938. 3. ----. “Nesting behavior of the Atlantic Murre.” Auk , vol.58, pp.153-63,

    1941. 4. Keighley, J., and Lockley, R.M. “Fledging-periods of the Razobill,

    Buillemot and Kittiwake.” Brit. Birds , vol.40, pp.165-71,

    1947.

            565. Crested Auklet . A small oceanic diving bird, Aethia cristatella ,

    which breeds from the Diomedes south to Kamchatka, the Kurils, Aleutians,

    Pribilofs, and Shumagins. It has been recorded several times in summer as

    far north as Wrangel Island, Herald Island, the north shore of the Chukotsk

    Peninsula, and the arctic coast of Alaska (Wainwright and Point Barrow).

    A. M. Bailey believes that it may nest in small numbers among the boulder fields

    in the Wainwright-Barrow region ( Birds of Arctic Alaska , 1948, p. 260).

            The species is 10 1/2 inches long and is ashy gray all over except for

    a tuft of straight, slender, white auricular plumes. A strongly recurved

    crest rises from the forehead. The eyes are white, the legs and feet

    purplish gray. The bird’s oddest features is its bill, which has a “supra–

    rictal plate” at its base in the breeding season. The bill is orange-red

    with olive tip; but at the time of the postnuptial molt the supra-rictal

    plate drops off and the red-orange fades to brown.



    682      |      Vol_IV-0738                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cyclorrhynchus

            566. Cyclorrhynchus . The monotypic genus to which the parakeet

    auklet ( Cyclorrhynchus psittacula ) belongs. It is probably closdly

    related to Aethia , and, like the three species of that genus, has white

    eyes and fine, straight, white auricular plumes. But its bill, which must

    be seen to be believed, is quite different from that of Aethia in that it

    is strongly upturned and almost knife-thin — in this last respect resemb–

    ling the bills of the puffins of the genera Fratercula and Lunda . Viewed

    from the side, it is almost circular (as the name Cyclorrhynchus implies),

    but close examination reveals the fact that the lower mandible is almost

    needle-sharp at the tip — a condition resulting from the strong convexity

    of the upper mandible’s cutting edge and the equally strong complementary

    concavity of the lower mandible’s cutting edge.

            Cyclorrhynchus is confined to the North Pacific and adjacent sees.

    It breeds from the arctic coast of extreme northeastern Siberia, the Diomedes,

    Fairway Rock, and (possibly) Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, southward to the

    Komandorskis, Pribilofs, Aleutians, and Kodiak. It winters from the Bering

    Sea southward to the Kurils, Sakhalin, and Japan, and (well out to sea) off

    the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. It must migrate far from

    shore, for it has not been recorded from British Columbia. It has been

    reported a few times from Point Barrow, Alaska, and once from Sweden.

            See Parakeet Auklet.



    683      |      Vol_IV-0739                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dovekie

            567. Dovekie . A small, plump, stub-billed diving bird, Plautus alle ,

    which is extramely abundant locally in the far north and which is known

    also as the little auk or rotche (rotge). Among the Eskimos it is called

    the akpaliatsuk or akpalliarksuk — akpa being the name for the thick-billed

    murre ( Uria lomvia ) and akpalistsuk ( akpalliarksuk ), literally, the little

    akpa .

            Concerning the dovekie’s distribution, Bent has this to say: “It

    penetrates as far north as 82° and has been found breeding up to the seventy–

    eighth parallel of latitude, probably farther north than any other species

    regularly breeds” (1919. U.S. Natl. Mus. Bull . 107: 216). Salomonsen believes

    that birds of the Franz Josef Archipelago belong to a distinct race, P. alle

    polaris . For details concerning the species’ range, see Plautus .

            The dovekie is about 8 inches long. It is, generally speaking, black

    above and white below. In summer the whole head end neck are black (actually

    deep velvety brown) and the white of the under parts is restricted to the

    lower breast, belly, sides, and under tail coverts; in winter, however, the

    chin, throat, foreneck, and breast are white. At all seasons the secondaries

    are narrowly tipped, and the scapulars narrowly edged, with white, and just

    above the eye there is a tiny white spot which is visible at close quarters,

    giving the birds sitting outside their nesting places “the most comical

    waggish, leering expression” (Ticehurst). The bill and feet are black, the

    eyes dark brown. The species’ best field character is its stout, very

    short bill. The young puffin ( Fratercula arctica ) is black and white and

    chunky, but its bill, though shorter and less ornate than that of its

    parents, is much longer than that of a dovekie.

            Dovekies are very gregarious. Vast numbers of them breed together in

    684      |      Vol_IV-0740                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dovekie

    favored localities, usually on sea cliffs, but sometimes inland, well back

    from the coast. During migration multitudes of them swarm in the ocean, and

    the phenomenon of a vessel makings its way through these flocks, with the

    birds diving at either side of the prow, is familiar to all who know the

    North Atlantic at all well.

            On land, the dovekie often rests prone on its bellyor, in half upright

    position, standing on its toes and the whole tarsus. Sometimes it stands

    more erectly, with tarsus raised, and when it runs about the rocks or ice

    it does so wholly on its toes. Afoot it is more sprightly than the razor–

    bill ( Alca torda ), thickbilled murre, or black guillemot ( Cepphus grylle ),

    but it is hardly more agile than the puffin, which stands and walks wholly

    on its toes. The dovekie dives quickly, beating its wings under water as

    the other alcids do. It flies directly from the surface, apparently without

    much effort, and makes its way low over the water with rapid wing strokes,

    sometimes sticking its feet out rudderwise. At breeding colonies great

    numbers of the birds mill about together mid-air. “The Dovekie has a habit

    of stooping from a considerable height at a very steep gradient, like a

    hawk stooping to his prey, and at this time the descent is meteoric in noise

    and speed” (Ekblaw). Whole flocks will occasionally stoop in this manner

    in unison.

            Colonies of dovekies are noisy. Their “chirrup” or “pipe” has been

    transliterated as try and eye (Morris), rett - tet - tet - tet - tett - tett (Kolthoff),

    and kraak , aak , ak , ak , ak , ak (Ticehurst).

            The dovekie lays its one eye (rarely 2) on the bare rock in a

    horizontal fissure or crevice usually about two or three feet back from

    the “nest entrance.” Bent describes the eggs as “plain bluish white and

    685      |      Vol_IV-0741                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dovekie

    immaculate,” but eggs are said occasionally to be marked “with a few

    yellowish-brown spots or interlacing streaks at the big end” ( Handb. Brit .

    Birds). Egg-laying begins in mid-June. Both sexes incubate. The Period

    of incubation is 24 days (Faber). The young, which do not leave the nest

    for 20 to 30 days, are bed by both parents. Feilden noted a “pouch-like

    enlargement of the cheeks” in which great quantities of minute crustaceans

    were carried by the parent birds. The newly hatched young, which is “closely

    covered with longish soft down with sil k y tips” ( Handb. Brit. Birds ), is

    uniform sooty slate color, paler or more grayish below” (Ridgway).

            At a Greenland colony observed by Ekblaw, the young began hatching

    in mid-July, but most of them hatched about the middle of August or a little

    before. “The young birds, as soon as they hear any noise outside the entrance,

    set up an impatient shrill chirping, which continues until the old bird feeds

    them by disgorging into their bills the contents of its well filled pouch”

    (Ekblaw).

            The arctic fox ( Alopex lagopus ) and gyrfalcon ( Falco rusticolus ) regularly

    prey upon the dovekie, but Ekblaw considers the glaucous gull or burgomaster

    ( Larus hyperboreus ) “the most terrible and persistent” enemy of all. “When a

    burgomaster singles out a dovekie as his prey the only hope for the auklet

    is to escape into a hole in the rocks, or by a quick dash into a flock succeed

    in diverting the pursuit to some other luckless dovekie.”

            For information concerning the dovekie’s importance as food among the

    Eskimos and other northern peoples, see article on “Economic Use of Birds.”

            References:

    1. Bent, Arthur C. “Life Histories of North American diving birds.” U.S.

    Natl. Mus. Bull ., vol.107, pp.215-24, 1919. 2. Clark, William Eagle. “On the avifauna of Franz Josef Land.” Ibis,

    vol. --, pp. 272-73, 1898.

    686      |      Vol_IV-0742                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dovekie and Fratergula

    3. Murphy, R.C., and Vogt, William. “The dovekie influx of 1932.”

    Auk , vol.50, pp.325-49, 1933. 4. Sprunt, Alexander, Jr. “The southern dovekie flight of 1936.”

    Auk , vol.55, pp.85-88, 1938.

            568. Fraterc y u ka . A genus composed of two species of northern oceanic

    diving birds commonly known as puffins or sea parrots. They are plump birds

    with dark upper parts and white breast and belly.

            The most remarkable feature possessed by Fratercula is the high,

    laterally flattened (almost knife-thin), slightly hooked bill, which is red,

    yellow, and gray. The whole base of this grotesque structure, including the

    so-called “nasal cuirass” or “ nasal saddle,” is deciduous (i.e., molted annually,

    in late summer). The nondeciduous distal part is conspicuously corrugated, or

    “folded.” In the breeding season there is a yellow wattle or rosette at each

    corner of the mouth; a small, horizontal wattle just below the eye, and a

    similar (but vertical) wattle just above the eye. All these curious appendages

    are dropped annually, along with the base of the bill, at the time of the

    postnuptial molt. The nostrils are long narrow slits which open just above,

    and parallel to, the upper mandible’s cutting edge. The claws are long and

    much curved. The winter plumage is not strikingly dissimilar to that of

    summer. The sexes are colored alike.

            Fratercula stands only on its toes. It nests in burrows in the turf;

    lays one egg only; and rears but one brood per season. It is closely related

    to Lunda (tufted puffin), which has a somewhat differently shaped bill; no

    leathery appendages about its eyes; a tuft of long, flowing feathers back

    of each eye; and dark (rather than white) under parts.



    687      |      Vol_IV-0743                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fratercula and Great Auk

            Fratercula inhabits both the Old World and the New, but is not completely

    holarctic in distribution. There are two species — arctica of the North

    Atlantic and adjacent seas, and corniculata of the North Pacific. Both

    species breed northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond, and neither ranges

    very far south even in the dead of winter.

            570. Great Auk . An extinct flightless sea bird, Pinguinis impennis ,

    known also as the garefowl and (erroneously) the penguin or northern penguin.

    It was much like its dosest living relative, the razor-billed auk ( Alca torda )

    [ ?] in color and shape, though it was almost twice as large and had a large,

    roughly oval white patch in front of each eye in breeding plumage (probably

    also in winter). Its wings were actually smaller (proportionately very much

    smaller) than those of the razor-bill, and probably were used flipperwise for

    “flight” under water, though Newton and Wolley tell us that the bird “never

    tried to flap along the water, but dived as soon as alarmed” ( Ibis , 1861, p.393).

    It stood erect when on land, “more upright than either Guillemots or Razorbills,”

    and walked or ran “with little short steps,” Its note was “a low croak”

    (Newton and Wolley).

            Strictly speaking, the great auk was not arctic, for it did not breed

    to the northward of the Arctic Circle (save possibly in Greenland), but it

    was well known on certain islets about Iceland where its eggs were gathered

    regularly. At the famous Geirfuglasker (Egg Bird Island) colony along the

    Iceland coast the traditional egg-gathering date was June 24 (St. John’s day).

    Newton tells us that many birds were killed at Geirfuglasker about July 22, 1813.

    The last pair known to have been killed about Iceland were taken on June 3, 1844,

    688      |      Vol_IV-0744                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Auk

    on the islet of Eldey. This pair had an egg. So far as is known, the

    species (genus) has been extinct since that date. Other known breeding

    places were: Funk Island (and probably Penguin and Wadham islands), near

    Newfoundland; St. Kilda, in the Outer Hebrides; the Holm of Papa Wentray

    in the Orkneys; and (questionably) the Faeroes, Lundy, and the Isle of Man.

    A record from Disko Island, on the west coast of Greenland, and another from

    the Angmagasalik district on the east coast of Greenland (see ( Medd.om Grønland ,

    vol.39, p. 111, and Chapman’s Watkins’ East Expedition , 1934, p. 190) are

    open to some question.

            The great auk was migratory. It wintered southward to the British Isles,

    France, Norway (casually), southern Spain, Maine, Massachusetts, and (casually)

    South Carolina and Florida. The female laid only one egg. The egg was greenish,

    bluish, or creamy white, blotched and spotted (occasionally streaked) with dark

    brown or black. It was pyriform rather than ovate, hence probably was laid in

    the [ ?] open on the bare rock, where it would, if jostled, roll in a circle.

    Many pairs nested together, in colonies.

            Man was largely, if not wholly, responsible for the extermination of this

    remarkable creature. The bird was killed “primarily for food, later for bait,

    for its fat and feathers, and last of all, when it was doomed to extinction,

    the finishing blow was put by collectors” (Bent).

            References:

    1. Griev e , Symington. The Great Auk, or Garefowl. 1885. 2. Newton, Alfred. “Abstract of Mr. J. Wolley’s Researches in Iceland

    respecting the Gare-fowl or Great Auk (Alca impennis, Linn.).”

    Ibis , vol.3, pp.374-99, 1861.

    689      |      Vol_IV-0745                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Guillemot and Horned Puffin

            571. Guillemot . A French word which is widely used among English–

    speaking peoples as the name for certain oceanic diving birds. In North

    America the name is applied only to the so-called sea pigeons of the genus

    Cepphus — C. Grylle , (black guillemot), C. columba (pigeon guillemot),

    and C. carbo (spectacled guillemot). In England the name is also applied

    to the two species of the genus Uria — U. aalge (common guillemot) and U .

    lomvia (Brünnich’s or thick-billed buillemot). In North America all birds

    of the genus Uria are known as murres. Many British ornithologists believe

    that the five above-named species all belong in one genus ( Uria ).

            See Black Guillemot, Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, and Thick-billed

    Murre.

            572. Horned Puffin. An oceanic diving bird, Fratercula corniculata ,

    so named because of the long, narrow, wattlelike, erectile appendages which

    are worn during the breeding season on the upper and lower eyelids. The

    “horn” on the upper eyelid rises vertically and backward from the eye; the

    other follows the lower half of the eye and points backward along the upper

    edge of the auriculars. These two “horns” are not very different from the

    appendages on the eyelids of Fratercula arctica (common puffin) during the

    breeding season; indeed, the horned and common puffins are enough alike in

    most ways to suggest that they are strongly marked geographical races of the

    same species.

            The two birds differ as follows: ( 1 ) In corniculata the deciduous part

    of the bill occupies much more than the basal half; in arctica it occupies

    much less than half. ( 2 ) In corniculata the corrugated part of the bill is

    690      |      Vol_IV-0746                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Puffin

    only the very tip; in arctica it is the distal half or more. ( 3 ) In

    corniculata the rosette at the mouth-corner is red or red-orange; in

    arctica it is yellow. ( 4 ) In corniculata the sides of the head are white,

    or almost so, in summer; in arctica they are gray; in both species they

    become very much darker in winter. ( 5 ) In corniculata the throat and chin

    are blackish gray, of about the same shade as the neck band; in arctica

    the throat is conspicuously lighter than the collar, especially in summer.

    Corniculata is the larger, and proportionately the longer tailed.

            A beautiful painting of corniculata , made by Louis Agassiz Fuertes on

    or near Hall Island in the Bering Sea, shows the whole base of the bill to

    be pale yellow, the tip bright red, the rosette at the corner of the mouth

    reddish orange, the eyes gray, the eyelids vermilion, and the “horns” gray–

    ish black. My own field sketches of the Atlantic puffin ( Fratercula arctica

    arctica ) show the greater part of the basal half of the bill to be dark

    bluish gray, bordered at the very base and in front with creamy white; the

    tip orange red; the rosette deep yellow; the eyelids red; and the eyelid

    appendages bluish gray.

            The behavior and habits of the horned puffin are, apparently, identical

    with those of the common puffin. Certain authors have asserted that all

    horned puffin burrows have two entrances, but I do not know how many such

    burrows actually have been observed. Horned puffin burrows “10 feet long” have

    been described; but common puffin burrows are probably that long where the

    soil is loose, especially if part of the burrow has been dug by some mammal.

    The horned puffin lays 1 egg (white, sometimes faintly streaked or scrawled

    with gray at the larger end). Both sexes incubate. The incubation period

    has not been ascertained. The downy young is indistinguishable from that of

    691      |      Vol_IV-0747                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Puffin and Kittlitz’s Murrelet

    the common puffin. The young bird leaves the burrow before it can fly,

    sometimes being lured from the nest and “helped” to sea by the parent.

            The horned puffin is found only in the North Pacific and adjacent

    seas. It breeds from the arctic coast of northeastern Siberia (Koliuchin

    Island and possibly at other localities between there and Cape Dezhnev), Cape

    Lisburno, Alaska, and the islands and coasts of the Bering Sea and North

    Pacific southward to the Kurils and Komandorskis on the west and to

    Forrester Island, Alaska, on the east. It winters from the more southern

    parts of its breeding range southward to Japan and the Queen Charlotte

    Islands (Peters).

            Reference:

    Bent, Arthur C. “Life histories of North American diving birds.” U.S.

    Natl.Mus. Bull. , vol. 107, pp. 97-106, 1919.

            573. Kittlitz’s Murrelet . A small North Pacific diving bird,

    Brachyramphus brevirostris , which nests (so far as is known) not on cliffs

    or rocky beaches along the coast proper, but on mountain slopes well back

    from the water’s edge. A nest (1 egg) found by an Eskimo near Tin City

    (below Wales Mountain, Cape Prince of Wales), Alaska, was 5 miles from the

    water (see A. M. Bailey, Birds of Arctic Alaska , 1948, p. 258). The fact

    that the male bird collected at this nest had two brood patches rouses a

    suspicion that the complete set of eggs is 2 rather than 1. The eggs are,

    according to the illustration in Bent, light olive buff in ground color,

    rather heavily spotted all over with several shades of brown and gray. The

    species probably breeds along the whole Alaska coast from Point Barrow, or

    692      |      Vol_IV-0748                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: [ ?] Kittlitz’s Murrelet and Least Auklet

    even farther east, southward to Glacier Bay. It is said to be downright

    abundant in Glacier Bay at certain times. The only nests thus far dis–

    covered are the above-mentioned one near Tin City; one on the slopes of

    Mount Pavlof, on the Alaska Peninsula; and one in the Glacier Bay district.

    The species may well nest also on the Siberian side of the North Pacific

    at about the same latitudes.

            The Kittlitz’s murrelet is much like the closely related marbled

    murrelet ( Brachyramphus marmoratus ), another North Pacific alcid. Both

    forms have a much mottled and spotted breeding plumage and a winter plumage

    which is, generally speaking, dark gray above and white below. Of the two

    species brevi r ostris is distinctly the shorter billed, however; in breeding

    plumage marmoratus is very brown in tone above, while brevirostris is pre–

    dominantly gray; and in winter the fact of brevirostris is mostly white

    while that of marmoratus is dark gray.

            Kittlitz’s murrelet winters where there is open water from the southern

    parts of its breeding range southward to the Kuril Islands.

            See Brechyramphus.

            575. Least Auklet . An oceanic diving bird, Aethia pusilla, the

    smallest species of the family Alcidae (suborder Alcae). An Aleut name

    for it is choochky . It is about 6 1/2 inches long — a trifle longer than

    an English sparrow, though it is shorter tailed and chunkier, hence heavier,

    than that bird. In the breeding season it is slaty gray above save for a

    sprinkling of fine white feathers over the forehead and lores, a spray of

    straight, narrow white auricular plumes an intermixture of white feathers

    693      |      Vol_IV-0749                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Least Auklet

    in the scapulars, and white tipping on the inner secondaries. The throat

    is pure white, but the chin is slaty, the upper breast is crossed by a

    slaty band, and the white of the breast and belly is flecked throughout

    with brownish slate. The bill is dusky with a white tip and subterminal

    spot of bright red. The eyes are white, the legs and feet purplish flesh

    color.

            The least auklet is incredibly abundant about certain islands in the

    Bering Sea, and is an important food bird among the natives there. A. C.

    Bent, who visited that region at the height of the breeding season, “found

    them in the greatest abundance about the Pribilof Islands early in July.”

    As he approached St. Paul Island in a dense fog, he encountered great rafts

    of them sitting on the smooth water. “Their constant twittering sounded

    like the distant peeping of myriads of hylas in early spring or like a

    great flock of peep in full cry.” When he landed on one of the stony beaches

    they “suddenly appeared from beneath the great piles of loose rocks in

    inconceivable numbers, like a swarm of mosquitoes rising from a marsh,

    whirling about ... in a great bewildering cloud and flying out to sea”

    ( Bull . U.S. Natl. Mus. 107, 1919, p. 129).

            The species nests under smallish rocks piled up by wave action along

    beaches; under boulders too heavy for a man to move; and in crevices in

    cliffs. The female lays one egg, which is lusterless white and ovate.

    The newly hatched downy young is dark brown (lighter below than above).

    Only one brood is reared per season. The period of incubation and that

    of fledging have not been ascertained.

            The least auklet breeds from extreme northeastern Siberia (the north

    shore of the Chukotsk Peninsula), the Diomedes, and Cape Lisburne, Alaska

    694      |      Vol_IV-0750                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Least Auklet and Lunda

    (possibly), southward through the Bering Sea to the Aleutians, Pribilofs,

    and Shumagins. It winters chiefly along the coast of eastern Siberia south–

    ward as far as the Kurils, Sakhalin, and northern N J apan. It has been

    recorded several times at Point Barrow, Alaska (see Bailey, Birds of Arctic

    Alaska , 1948, p. 261), and commonly from Herald and Wrangel Islands.

            577. Lunda. The monotypic genus to which the tufted puffin ( Lunda

    cirrhata ) belongs. Lunda is very close to Fratercula , but it is dark through–

    out the under parts at all seasons, ( Fratercula is white on the breast and

    belly); its eyelids have no appendages or “horns”; in summer there is a tuft

    of long, flowing feathers back of each eye; and the bill shape is quite

    different in that the basal part (the so-called deciduous nasal cuirass) is

    considerably wider along the culmen than it is at the nostril and cutting edge.

            Lunda is confined to the North Pacific. It breeds from the arctic coast

    of extreme northeastern Siberia (Koliuchin Island and Cape Dezhnev), the arctic

    coast of Alaska (Cape Lisburne probably and Point Barrow possibly), and the

    Diomedes southward through the Bering Sea to the Aleutians, Kurils, and

    Komandorskis; Kodiak Island; Kenai Peninsula; southeastern Alaska; Sakhalin

    and Hokkaido (Japan); British Columbia; Washington, Oregon and California

    (Santa Barbara Islands). Throughout all of this area save the northernmost

    parts [ ?] it is nonmigratory.

            In behavior and nesting habits Lunda and Fratercula are much the same.

            See Tufted Puffin.



    695      |      Vol_IV-0751                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Murre, Murrelet, and Parakeet Auklet

            579. Murre . A name widely used in North America for the oceanic diving

    birds of the genus Uria — U. lomvia (thick-billed or Brünnich’s murre) and

    U. aalge (common murre). In England these two species are called guillemots

    and the term murre is used very little, if at all. Murre is probably an

    onomatopoeic word. Turre is a local variant.

            See Common Murre and Thick-billed Murre.

            580. Murrelet . Any of six species of small, chunky, oceanic diving

    birds belonging to the genera Brachyramphus and Synthliboramphus , all of

    which belong to the auk family (Alcidae) and are confined to the North Pacific.

    Only one of them, the Kittlitz’s murrelet ( B. brevirostris ) is positively

    known to breed northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond, but the closely

    related marbled murrelet ( B. marmoratus ) may do so.

            See Kittlitz’s murrelet.

            582. Parakeet (Paroquet) Auklet. A plump oceanic diving bird,

    Cyclorrhynchus psittacula , so named because of the fancied resemblance of

    its bill to that of a parakeet. The bird is somewhat large for an auklet,

    being about 10 inches long. It is white-eyed, gray-footed, and red-billed

    at all seasons, though the red of the bill is duller in winter than in

    summer. Actually, the bill is not hooked, but upturned (especially the

    lower mandible), and it is high and much flattened laterally, like that

    of a puffin ( Fratercula arctica ).

            In breeding plumage the species is slaty gray on the head, neck, and

    696      |      Vol_IV-0752                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Parakeet Auklet

    upper part of the body (including the sides and flanks), and white on the

    breast, belly, and under tail coverts. A spray of very narrow, straight

    white plumes extends backward from the eye along the upper edge of the

    auriculars. The bill is almost wholly red; but there is a soft white

    swelling (pedantically referred to as a “tomial tumor”) along the cutting

    edge of the upper mandible at its base. This swelling and several accessory

    pieces of the bill drop off annually at the time of the postnuptial molt.

    In winter plumage the white of the under parts extends forward to include

    the whole of the foreneck and throat and upward to include the sides and

    flanks.

            The parakeet auklet breeds from extreme northeastern Siberia (Cape

    Serdtse Kamen), the Diomedes, and Fairway Rock south to the Pribilofs,

    Aleutians, Komandorskis, and Kodiak. It winters from the Bering Sea south

    to Sakhalin, the Kurils, and Japan, and (well out to sea) off the coasts

    of Washington, Oregon, and northern California. It has been reported from

    Kotzebue Sound and Point Barrow, Alaska; and from Sweden.

            The species returns to its breeding grounds on the Komandorskis in

    April, and to the Pribilofs in early May. In 1911 Bent found it not nearly

    so abundant as the least auklet on the Pribilofs and much less gregarious.

    It did not fly about in great swarms, being comparatively solitary in its

    habits. On Walrhs Island it was nesting with created and least auklets

    and tufted puffins under the water-worn boulders which were piled up

    loosely in a great sort of ridge connecting the higher extremities of the

    island. “By rolling away such of the boulders as we could move, we succeeded

    in uncovering some two dozen nests. Compared with the other auklets, which

    were very lively and noisy, the peroquet auklets were very gentle and tame;

    697      |      Vol_IV-0753                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Parakeet Auklet and Pigeon Guillemot

    they did not seem to be greatly disturbed or alarmed by our rock moving

    operations; we usually found the female, and occasionally the male, sitting

    quietly on its single egg, serenely looking at us with its big white eyes”

    ( Bull . U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 107, 1919: 117). On the precipitous cliffs of

    St. Matthew Island, Bent encountered a few pairs breeding with the fulmars

    ( Fulmarus glacialis ) and puffins, “but their eggs were beyond ... reach

    in the inaccessible crevices in the rocks.”

            The parakeet auklet’s egg is white, bluish white, or (occasionally)

    pale blue. The period of incubation has not been determined. The newly

    hatched young is dark brown on the head, neck, upper breast, and upper part

    of the body, and drab gray on the lower breast and belly. The parent birds

    travel far out to sea for food. Such crustaceans and other marine animals

    as they capture they store in a pouch or sac beneath the tongue, carrying

    it thus back to the nest (Wetmore).

            583. Pigeon Guillemot. A North Pacific diving bird, Cepphus columba ,

    which is frequently called the sea pigeon or sea dove. It is very similar

    to the black guillemot ( C. grylle ) in appearance and behavior, but it has

    14 (rather than 12) tail feathers; its under wing coverts are brownish

    gray (rather than pure white); and a broad wedge-shaped bar of black en–

    croaches upon the white wing patch.

            The nesting habits of C. columba and C. grylle are the same, though

    the eggs of columba are slightly the larger and “are usually more heavily

    and more handsomely marked” (Bent). W. O. Emerson states that both sexes

    incubate the eggs; that the period of incubation is 21 days [probably an error;

    698      |      Vol_IV-0754                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pigeon Guillemot and Pinguinis

    the incubation period is probably about 28 days. G.M.S.]; and that

    “the young are fed principally on small fish and do not leave the nesting

    site for the water until they are fully fledged.”

            Cepphus columba breeds from Wrangel Island, Herald Island, the north

    coast of the Chukotsk Peninsula (west to Cape Serdtae Kamen), Cape Lisburne,

    Alaska, (possibly), the coasts and islands of the Bering Sea, and both

    sides of the North Pacific southward on the Asiatic side as far as the

    Komandorskis and Kurils, and on the American side to the Santa Barbara

    Islands, off California. Three races currently are recognized — snowi ,

    which is resident on the Kurils and in the northern part of Hokkaido (Peters;

    kaiurka of the Komandorskis and western Aleutians; and the nominate race,

    which occupies the rest of the species’ range. The pigeon guillemot winters

    in open waters throughout the above-stated range.

            584. Pinguinis . A monotypic genus to which many authors refer the

    extinct great auk or gar d e fowl ( Pinguinis impennis ). Pinguinis is doubtfully

    separable from Alca (the razor-billed auk), there being no pronounced

    structural difference between them. In Pinguinis the wings, though full

    feathered, are very small in proportion to body size. In Alca the wings

    are large and well developed, and Alca flies well. Had Pinguinis possessed

    wings large and strong enough for flight, that form might conceivably be

    extant today. The bird’s virtual helplessness on land made it the eady

    victim of fishermen with clubs. Pinguinis inhabited certain islands and

    coasts of the North Atlantic. In this respect it was like Alca , but its

    range proba bly never was so extensive as that of Alca is today.

            For details of Pinguinis’s distribution, see Great Auk.



    699      |      Vol_IV-0755                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Plautus

            585. Plautus . The monotypic genus to which the little auk or dovekie

    ( Plautus alle ) belongs. Plautus is a small, chubby bird resembling

    the various auklets and murrelets of the North Pacific in general appearance,

    but probably not being very closely related to them. Its summer and winter

    plumages are dissimilar, but not strikingly so. Its head has neither crest

    nor ornamental feathers at any season. Its bill is very stubby — much

    shorter than the bead; wholly without knobs, excrescenses, or appendages;

    and the same in size and shape throughout the year. The upper mandible is

    breader than hith at the base, and the culmen is strongly decurved. The

    nostrils are rounded rather than slitlike and are bordered with feathers

    only at the back. The feathering of the lower mandible extends forward to

    within 4 to 7 mm. of the tip. There are 12 tail feathers. The tarsus is

    a little shorter than the middle toe with its claw.

            Plautus is found only in the North Atlantic, and it is decidedly the

    smallest member of the family Alcidae (suborder Alcae) found in that region.

    The northern limits of its breeding range are in northern Greenland, Elles–

    mere Island, Jan Mayen, Slitsbergen and the Franz Josef Archipelago; the

    southern limits in west-central Greenland, Bylot Island, Iceland, Bear

    Island and the north island of Novaya Zemlya. It winters in ice-free

    waters from southern parts of the breeding range southward regularly to

    the New Jersey coast, the Azores, northern France, and the Baltic Sea, and

    irregularly as far as Florida, Bermuda, Madeira, and the western Mediterranean.

    There are scattered records for Point Barrow, Alaska; Melville Island; Perry

    River, Keewatin (Gavin); Southampton Island; Wisconsin; Toronto, Ontario

    (Detroit River); Cuba; Sweden; England and Germany.



    700      |      Vol_IV-0756                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Puffin

            586. Puffin. A plump northern oceanic diving bird, Fratercula arctica ,

    which is sometimes called the sea parrot. It is well known to some Eskimos,

    not to others. The Atlantic Eskimos call it the siggoluktok . Freenly trans–

    lated, this means “it has a queer bill,” siggok being the noun for bill or

    snout (Hantzsch).

            The puffin’s bill, which is strikingly parrotlike, is a remarkable

    structure. The whole base, together with the small wattle-like appendages

    on the upper and lower eyelids, are molted annually at the end of the breed–

    ing season. The curious rosettes at the mouth corners also disappear in late

    summer, though they may shrivel rather than drop off. The distal part of the

    bill is conspicuously ridged and quite strongly hooked. The puffin can bite

    a man’s hand badly — this I know from experience.

            The puffin is about a foot long, with wingspread of 21 to 24 inches

    (Forbush). It is, generally speaking, black and white. In breeding plumage

    the crown, whole neck (in front as well as behind), and upper parts are black,

    the throat and sides of the head gray, the breast and belly white. The bill

    is red, yellow, and bluish gray, the eye appendages bluish gray, the wattles

    at the mouth-corners yellow, the eyes cold gray, and the legs and feet

    bright orange. In winter the plumage is about the same, except that of the

    face, which is much darker, especially between the bill and the eye; and the

    bill is quite different in shape and color, for the decorative basal part is

    missing and the red of the distal part has faded to orange or yellow. Male

    and female birds are colored alike.

            The puffin, unlike the razor-billed auk ( Alca ), sea pigeons ( Cepphus ),

    and murres ( Uria ) stand only on its toes. It is quite agile as it walks

    “with nautical roll” about the rocks. Occasionally it is obliged to flutter

    701      |      Vol_IV-0757                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Puffin

    its wings when it attempts a steep upgrade. In flight the wings beat rapidly

    through a very small arc. The bird slights in the water with a splash, head

    and breast first, and sometimes goes under immediately, continuing its “flight:”

    beneath the surface. It probably uses its feet to some extent when diving,

    though the wings are its principal means of propulsion. It feeds on small

    fish and other marine animals. Like the razor-bill, it carries several fish

    at once, all held crosswise in the bill, when feeding its young. It flies

    from the water with difficulty, sometimes striking wave after wave before

    making a getaway. When leaving the nest is descends swiftly, when it begins

    normal flight or plunges in. Its cry is a sort of growl or bark. When cap–

    tured in its burrow it growls and bites savagely.

            The puffin is very gregarious. Solitary birds are the exception rather

    than the rule even in winter. Breeding colonies are sometimes very large.

    Courtship consists in head-shaking, rattling together of bills, bowing, touch–

    ing of breasts, and the like; but courtship is not very noticeable at the

    breeding places because the birds usually are paired on their arrival there

    in spring. The nest is a slight affair of grasses, moss, and feathers at

    the end of a burrow in the turf or (occasionally in a fissure or hole in the

    rocks. Many burrows the bird dig themselves, probably using their strong

    bills as well as their well-clawed feet; but occasionally they occup h y the

    burrow of some mammal. The female lays one egg, which is white, sometimes

    immaculate, but often with a wreath of faint gray scrawls and spots at the

    larger end. Presumably both sexes incubate. According to Lockley’s

    observations the incubation period is 40 to 43 days, a much longer period

    than that estimated by Audubon and by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway. The

    downy young is white on the belly and light brownish gray otherwise. Its

    702      |      Vol_IV-0758                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Puffin and Razor-billed Auk

    bill is hardly recognizable as that of a puffin; and even during its first

    winter the young puffin has a “facial expression” wholly different from that

    of the adult because its bill is so much smaller, weaker, and more pointed.

            The puffin breeds from northwestern Greenland, Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen,

    Bear Island, Iceland, the Murman Coast, and Novaya Zemlya (west coast)

    southward to New Brunswick, Maine, the British Isles, Norway and Brittany.

    It winters throughout much of its breeding range, moving southward occa–

    sionally as far as Massachusetts, the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, and the

    western Mediterranean. Three subspecies are currently recognized — the

    relatively nonm o i gratory naumanni (large-billed puffin ) of northwestern

    Greenland (south to about lat. 76° N.), Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, Novaya

    Zemlya (west coast) and the Murman Coast; the somewhat migratory arctica

    (Atlantic puffin) which breeds from southwestern Greenland (south of lat.

    76° N.), Ungava, Iceland, and Bear Island south to Nova Scotia, Maine, and

    northern Norway; and grabae (southern puffin) of the Faeroes, British Isles,

    southern Norway, and Brittany. Certain authors believe that the puffin

    breeds in the Franz Josef Archipelago, but Clarke (1898) expressed a doubt

    that it occurred there at any season. Puffins of all races must migrate

    somewhat irregularly. Two grabae banded in Europe were recovered in New–

    foundland. Naumanni has been taken on the east coast of Greenland, where

    presumably, no puffin of any sort breeds. Western Mediterranean winter birds

    probably represent both grabae and arctica .



    703      |      Vol_IV-0759                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Razor-billed Auk

            587. Razor-billed Auk . A well-known northern sea bird, Alca torda ,

    which is called also the tinker or baccalieu bird (Newfoundland-Labrador).

    It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk ( Pinguinis

    impennis ) and is much like that bird except that it is smaller and has

    proportionally much larger wings. The great auk was flightless, of course,

    whereas the razor-bill flies well.

            The razor-bill is found only in the North Atlantic and adjacent waters.

    It does not range nearly so far north as the dovekie or little auk ( Plautus allea );

    indeed, it breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond only on the west

    coast of Greenland (north as far as Upernivik, at about lat. 74° N.); the

    north coast of Norway, Finland, and Russia (eastward as far as the White Sea);

    Bear Island (probably); and the islet of Grimsey, off the north coast of

    Iceland. It has been reported from Spitsbergen, but does not breed there.

    Salomonsen recognizes three subspecies — islandica of the Faeroes, torda

    of Baltic waters, and pica of the rest of the species’ range. For further

    details of distribution, see Alca .

            The razor-bill is about 16 to 18 inches long and has a wingspread of

    about 25 inches. In breeding plumage it is black throughout the whole head,

    neck, and upper parts except for a narrow white line running from the base

    of the bill to the top of the eye, and the white tipping of the secondaries;

    and white throughout the lower breast, belly, and under tail coverts. In winter

    it is similar, but the chin, throat, foreneck, and sides of the head are white,

    and the narrow white line from the bill to the eye is obscured. The bird’s

    most striking feature is its bill, which is much flattened laterally and ridged

    and grooved vertically. The name razor-bill is fitting — as anyone who has

    been bit by the bird will agree; the mandibles are narrow and their cutting edges

    sharp.



    704      |      Vol_IV-0760                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Razor-bill Auk

            In general appearance the razor-bill is strikingly like the common

    murre ( Uria aalge ), with which it often colonizes. Both species bear a

    strong superficial resemblance to penguins with their boldly black and

    white plumage and custom of standing upright in statuesque rows or groups

    on the rocks. The razor-bill has a less pointed bill and more pointed

    tail than the murre, however, and the dark parts of its plumage are really

    blask rather than dark brown. When the razor-bill swims it points its tail

    upward at more of an angle than the murre does. It also seems to be more

    buoyant (i.e., to swim higher in the water), though this may be because

    the somewhat more excitable murre swims low while being observed. In

    flight the razor-bill and murre are much alike, though the razor-bill is

    obviously the blunter in front. Both the razor-bill and murre use their

    wings a great deal [ ?] under water and sometimes emerge from a dive with

    wings flapping as if in full flight. The razor-bill’s cries have been

    likened to the syllables arr , odd , hurr-ay (Morris), and caarrrr (Ticehurst).

            Where razor-bills and murres nest together the colony usually inhabits

    a cliff; but razor-bills often colonize by themselves on flat oceanic

    islands, “amongst talus and boulders of undercliff,” or on boulder-strewn

    shores where there are no cliffs at all. Where a colony inhabits both

    cliffs and talus “Razor-bills will be seen sprinkled about on boulders as

    freely as on elevated ledges” ( Handb. Brit. Birds ). The female lays her

    single egg (rarely 2) in a crevice, fissure, or hole, or underneath a

    boulder, rather than on a ledge in the open (as the murre does). The

    egg is far less pyriform than that of the murre, presumably because being

    laid in a fissure or hole, it does not need to be shaped so that when

    jostled it will roll in a circle. It is white (occasionally pale green

    705      |      Vol_IV-0761                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Razor-bill Auk

    or brown), speckled, spotted, or blotched with dark brown. Both the male

    and female incubate. The period of incubation is 33 to 36 days (Keighley

    and Lockley).

            The newly hatched young is covered with soft thick down which has a

    decidedly hoary appearance, especially on the head, neck and breast. The

    under-down is dark and as the chick develops the dark brown becomes more

    and more apparent. Young birds remain in the nest about two weeks, being

    fed by both parents, then flutter down to the sea “unaided, descending in

    a long slant with whirring wings, which breaks momentum and enables them

    to steer effectively and usually avoid projecting rocks” (Keighley and

    Lockley). According to Taverner (1929: 224), young birds wear “a distinct

    soft, semi-downy plumage resembling that of the summer adult between the

    nesting down and the plumage of the first winter.” The dovekie ( Plautus

    alle ) is said to have this same sort of intermediate plumage, but not

    the murres ( Uria ). The postnuptial molt of the razor-bill begins, pre–

    sumably, about the time the young fledge. During this molt the birds are

    wholly flightless for a time.

            The razor-bill feeds almost entirely on marine animals — fish,

    mollusks, crustaceans, and the like. This it obtains by diving, and

    swallows under water. Fish intended for the young are held crosswise in

    the beak, usually several at one time.

            References:

    1. Frohawk, F.W. “On the food and feeding-habits of the razorbill.”

    British Birds , vol. 4, pp. 90-92, 1910. 2. Keighley, J., and Lockley, R.M. “Fleding-periods of the razorbill,

    guillemot and kittiwake,” Brit. Birds , vol.40, pp. 165-71, 1947. 3. Taverner, P.A. “The summer molt of the razor-billed auk ( Alca tords ).”

    Auk , vol.46, pp.223-24, 1929.

    706      |      Vol_IV-0762                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Thick-billed Murre

            592. Thick-billed Murre . A northern oceanic diving bird, Uria lomvia ,

    which is widely known in North America as the Brünnich’s murre, and in

    England as the thick-billed or Brünnich’s guillemot. It is a familiar bird

    among the Innuit, their name for it being akpa . In some parts of Europe it

    is known as the loom or lumme, hence the term loomery , which refers to the

    colony. On the Labrador I have heard murres in general referred to as turres .

    Murre and turre probably are onomatopoeic names.

            Like the common murre ( Uria aalge ), the thick-billed murre is dark brown

    above and white below, with white-tipped secondaries. The two species are

    very much alike, but lomvia has, as its common name implies, a shorter, thicker

    bill; and a streak at the base of its upper mandible is so white that the bird

    at times appears to have a slit or opening in the bill through which the light

    shines through. This streak is a food field mark, for it is present all the

    year round. Another character by which lomvia may be distinguished in winter

    is the comparative blackness or darkness of the whole top of the head. In

    aalge in winter the side of the head is white except for the dark line extend–

    ing backward from the eye along the top of the auriculars; in lomvia the

    white of the throat reaches only part way up the auriculars.

            The thick-billed murre is decidedly more boreal than the common murre.

    It breeds from northern Greenland, Ellesmere Island, Spitsbergen, Fridtjof

    Nansen Land (Franz Josef Archipelago), Novaya Zemlya, the New Siberian

    Archipelago, Wrangel Island, Herald Island, and the arctic coast of Alaska

    southward to Coats Island (Cape Pembroke) in Hudson Bay; Hudson Strait

    (Cape Wolstenholme, Cape Hope’s Advance, Akpatok Island, and Cape Chidley),

    the Labrador, Bird Rock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Iceland, and the Murman

    Coast. It winters in the open water of Hudson Bay; off the coasts of

    707      |      Vol_IV-0763                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Thick-billed Murre

    Greenland, Norway, and Japan; and southward irregularly as far as Long Island,

    New York; the Great Lakes; Sweden, Korea, and the Baltic Sea. Two races are

    recognized — lomvia of the North Atlantic and arra (Pallas’s thick-billed

    murre) of the North Pacific. Whether the species breeds anywhere along the

    north edge of the Arctic Archipelago between Alaska and Ellesmere Island

    remains to be ascertained. The birds of Franz Josef Archipelago have been

    described as a separate race ( arroides ), but this form is not currently

    recognized.

            Some thick-billed murre colonies of the Far North are incredibly large.

    On cliffs which rise abruptly from the sea the white-breasted birds stand in

    thick-set rows on the narrow ledges, or in masses where the shelves are broad.

    At the height of the breeding season each adult bird has a bare brood patch

    on the belly. Into this patch, which is almost a pouch, the bird works the

    big, [ ?] pyriform egg, holding it directly against the warm skin. The incu–

    bation period is about one month. The downy young resembles the newly hatched

    common murre closely, but the white streaking of the crown and neck is much

    more noticeable ( Handb. Brit. Birds ). The young birds, which are fed by

    both parents, remain in the nest three or four weeks, then make their way

    to the sea. One young bird is reared in a season; but if the first egg is

    destroyed another one is laid. The eggs are indistinguishable from those

    of the common murre.

            Reference:

    Bent, Arthur C. “Life histories of North American diving birds.” U.S.

    Natl. Mus. Bull ., vol.107, pp. 189-99, 1919.

    708      |      Vol_IV-0764                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tufted Puffin

            594. Tufted puffin . A northern oceanic diving bird, Lunda cirrhata ,

    which is notable for its bizarre shape and coloration. It is a little

    larger than the well-known common puffin ( Fratercula arctica ) of the North

    Atlantic, being 13 to 15 inches long. The sexes are alike in color. The

    adult in breeding plumage is blackish brown with white face, and a long,

    rather outlandish, sil k y yellow crest (which slightly resembles a bunch of

    corn silk) flows backward from each eye. The eyes are light gray; the eye–

    lids vermilion; and the feet orange-red. The distal part of the bill is

    bright red, the base (the part which drops off at the end of the breeding

    season) olive-yellow. A flesh-colored rosette adorns each mouth-corner.

    In the winter the whole bird is much less striking; the post-ocular tufts,

    rosettes at the mouth-corners, and olive-yellow plates at the base of the bill

    have disappeared; the white facial plumage has been replaced by dusky gray;

    and the red of the bill and feet has become much less bright.

            The tufted puffin’s behavior and nesting habits do not differ markedly

    from those of the common puffin and horned puffin ( Fratercula corniculata ).

    The bird stands on its toes (rather than the toes and tarsus); flies rapidly

    with “vibrating” [ ?] wings; dives with a leap forward and upward, then

    abruptly down; uses its wings a great deal while under the water; and

    sometimes has difficulty in rising from choppy waves. When it flies from

    its burrow it descends rapidly with its bright feet stuck stiffly out behind

    until, establishing equilibrium, it draws them alongside the short tail.

            The tufted puffin nests in a burrow in the turf as a rule, but also in

    a crevice in or under a rock and occasionally under such tangled vegetation

    as salal. The female lays but one egg, which is dull white, sometimes

    faintly marked with gray. Both sexes incubate. The period of incubation

    709      |      Vol_IV-0765                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tufted Puffin and Uria

    is said to be 21 days, but this is probably an error, for the common puffin’s

    incubation period is known to be 40 to 43 days. The downy young is sooty

    black above and sooty gray below (Bent). The young one is fed by both parents,

    which bring small fish held crosswise in the bill. It is believed that two

    broods are reared in a season, at least in southern parts of the range.

            The tufted puffin breeds in the North Pacific northward through the

    Bering Sea to the Diomedes, the arctic coast of extreme northeastern Siberia

    (Cape Dezhnev and Koliuchen Island) and the arctic coast of Alaska (Cape

    Lisburne). For details of its distribution see Lunda .

            595. Uria . A genus composed of two species of northern marine diving

    birds which are commonly known in North America as murres, and in England

    as guillemots. They breed in colonies on cliffs. Their [ ?] boldly black

    and white plumage and erect standing posture impart a striking, but wholly

    superficial, resemblance to penguins.

            In Uria the bill is straight, quite sharply pointed, somewhat flattened

    laterally, and about as long as the head. The nostrils, which are slitlike,

    are almost surrounded by feathers. The tail is short and rounded and of

    12 or 14 feathers. The tarsus is a little shorter than the middle toe with

    its claw. The sexes are colored alike and summer and winter plumages are

    similar.

            Both species of Uria are plantigrade — that is, they stand on the

    whole tarsus as well as the toes, in this respect resembling the two species

    of the genus Cepphus (sea pigeons), the monotypic ( Alca (razor-billed auk),

    the monotypic Plautus (dovekie or little auk), and the monotypic Pinguinis

    710      |      Vol_IV-0766                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Uria

    (great suk), but not the polytypic Fratercula (puffins). In both species

    of Uria, the female lays but 1 egg, and this is decidedly pyriform.

            The genus is more or less holarctic in distribution, though it breeds

    only where there are high cliffs, hence it is wholly absent from certain

    vast areas throughout which the coasts are low. The two species are much

    alike in general appearance and behavior, and both are common to the New

    World and the Old.

            Many British ornithologists regard the genus ( Cepphus ) as inseparable

    from Uria ; but in Cepphus the full clutch consists of 2 eggs rather than 1;

    the social structure of the colony is much looser than in Uria ; and the

    summer plumage is strikingly different from the winter plumage.

            See Common Murre, Thick-billed Murre, and Cepphus.

    Cuculiformes (Cuckoos)



    711      |      Vol_IV-0767                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cuckoos and their allies

    CUCKOOS AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order CUCULIFORMES ; Suborder CUCULI

           

    Family CUCULIDAE

            596. Cuckoo. See writeup.

            597. CUCULIDAE. The avian family to which the “true” cuckoos belong.

    See Cuculiformes.

            598. CUCULIFORMES . See writeup.

            599. Cuculus . See writeup.

            600. European Cuckoo. A name applied to the far-famed cuckoo ( Cuculus

    canorus ), especially to the nominate race, which ranges widely

    in Europe. The name is used loosely for any race of Cuculus

    canorus , no matter where it happens to live. Acutually, Cuculus

    canorus ranges throughout most of Eurasia, and one of its races

    is endemic to Africa. Only three of the nine currently recognized

    races inhabit Europe.

            601. Himalayan Cuckoo. A name often applied to the oriental cuckoo

    ( Cuculus saturatus ) — especially to the more southern of the

    two races of that species.

            602. Oriental Cuckoo. See writeup.



    712      |      Vol_IV-0768                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cuckoo

            596. Cuckoo . A middle-sized Old World bird, Cuculus canorus , famous

    for its parasitic nesting habits and springtime call note. In America it

    is often called the European cuckoo, but five of the nine subspecies

    currently recognized breed exclusively in Asia and one is confined to Africa.

    The species breeds across Eurasia northward to tree limit and a little beyond.

    In Norway and Finland it reaches latitude 71° N.; in Russia, 66°; along the

    Yenisei River — the mouth of the Kureika (about on the Arctic Circle); and

    in eastern Asia — Yakutsk, Kamchatka, and the Anadyr. It is represented

    by the race canorus at the north edge of its range in Europe; by telephonus

    in northeastern Asia; and, in the interlying parts of Siberia, probably by

    johanseni. C. canorus has been reported once from St. Lawrence Island in

    the Bering Sea and once from extreme western Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales).

    Throughout the whole boreal region it is migratory, of course. The winter

    ranges of the Asiatic races have not been ve r y well worked out, but the

    winter range of the species as a whole includes most of Africa and south–

    eastern Asia, and certain of the East Indies.

            The cuckoo is about 13 inches long. The adult male is bluish gray on

    the whole head, neck, breast, and upper part of the body, and white, narrowly

    barred with black, on the belly. The tail is spotted and tipped with white.

    The adult female is similar, but less definite in pattern. Her lower throat

    and breast are washed with brown and faintly barred with black. Young birds

    are of two types: “plain” ones, which are comparatively unbarred above; and

    barred ones, which are more or less barred all over. In young and old birds

    alike the eyelids, mouth corners, tarsi, and toes are yellow.

            Many authors have alluded to the cuckoo’s hawklike appearance and bearing.

    The bird often alights “in rather clumsy fashion, steadying itself with its

    713      |      Vol_IV-0769                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cuckoo

    wings and elevating [its] tail” ( Handbook of British Birds ). It is primarily

    arboreal, but sometimes feeds on the ground where it hops or waddles. Its

    food is largely insects — many of them noxious. It eats spiders and centi–

    pedes also, as well as birds’ eggs which it removes from nests of “fosterers”

    before depositing its own.

            The cuckoo builds no nest. The female lays her eggs in the nests of

    other (usually smaller) species, and the young cuckoos forcibly eject from

    the nest the young and eggs of the fosterer species so as to assure for them–

    selves complete comfort and an adequate food supply. If two young cuckoos

    happen to be hatched in the same nest, one usually ejects the other, but the

    two sometimes settle down to growing up together. The instinct to eject

    other young birds or eggs from the nest seems to disappear on the fourth day.

            Egg-laying female cuckoos which are only a year or so old probably are

    rather hit-and-miss in their choice of fosterers, but older females develop

    what appear to be individual preferences for certain species, and confine

    their parasitism to those species. Thus, while the cuckoo is known to para–

    sitize 50 or so species of birds, the individual female cuckoo may parasitize

    only a few species in the course of her lifetime. Furthermore, as Chance’s

    careful studies have revealed, there is a definite correlation between the

    color of the cuckoo’s egg and that of the fosterer species. How this can

    have come about no one knows. For a long time the female cuckoo was believed

    to carry her egg about in her mouth, placing it carefully in the nest of the

    fosterer; but Chance tirelessly abserved cuckoos, ascertaining that they laid

    their eggs “normally,” sometimes (where the nest of the fosterer was tiny

    and above ground) missing the nest and losing the egg entirely! Change believes

    that cuckoos pair rather than being “indiscriminate in their love affairs” --

    714      |      Vol_IV-0770                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cuckoo and Cuculiformes

    as so many authors have believed them to be.

            Among the species parasitized are several which nest on the ground.

    It is not surprising, therefore, that the cuckoo ranges northward to

    slightly beyond tree limit. No cuckoo of the New World, be it noted, ranges

    northward to anything like tree limit, and neither of the two species which

    range farthest north in North America is parasitic though each is believed

    to lay its eggs in the nest of the other occasionally.

            Reference:

    Chance, Edgar P. The Truth about the Cuckoo . Country Life Ltd., London,

    and Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 207 pp. 1940.

            598. Cuculiformes . An avian order composed of the plantain-eaters,

    cuckoos, road runners, anis, and their allies. There are two suborders —

    the Musophagi (plantain-eaters, or turacos, of Africa) and the Cuculi

    (cuckoos, etc., of all continents). Ornithologists now place the latter

    group in one family (Cuculidae), but the many forms are so remarkably diverse

    in morphology and behavior that it is not in the least surprising that they

    are currently distributed among six subfamilies. All cuckoos are alike,

    however, in being zygodactylous (two toes pointing permanently forward and

    two backward) and in having 10 rather long tail feathers (8 in the New

    World subfamily Crotophaginae — the anis and guiras); naked oil gland;

    thin, tender skin; and imperforate nostrils. The shape of the bill varies

    greatly, in some forms being toucanlike, in others somewhat galliform, in

    some (anis) high and so greatly compressed laterally as to be almost

    knife-thin — but it is always more or less decurved at the tip. Many cuckoos

    715      |      Vol_IV-0771                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cuculiformes

    have well developed eyelashes, but throughout the family the rictual bristles

    are small or obsolete.

            Cuckoos in general are arboreal, but some — including the famous road

    runner or chaparral cock ( Geococoyx ) of North America — are decidedly ter–

    restrial. The nesting habits of cuckoos vary greatly. The nest (if any) is

    of very rude construction. The nesting habits of cuckoos vary greatly.

    Several species — notably Cuculus canorus of the Old World (the cuckoo of

    classical literature) — are entirely parasitic. Much has been written about

    this parasitism, and the subject is a fascinating one. Young cuckoos are

    hatched naked, or covered thinly with hairs. Never, at any time during their

    development, are they downy. Even in adult cuckoos down is present only on

    the apteria. Cuckoo plumage is without aftershafts; or, if an aftershaft is

    present, it is very small. Often the plumage is glossy; in some forms, notably

    the golden cuckoos ( Chrysococcyx ) of Africa, it is highly iridescent.

            Only two cuckoos of the world range northward to the Arctic Circle, and

    these both belong to the subfamily Cuculinae — an Old World group composed

    of 16 genera. The most northward-ranging cuckoos of the New World — the

    yellow-billed cuckoo ( Coccyzus americanus ) and black-billed cuckoo (C. ery–

    thropthalmus     ) both belong to the subfamily Phaenicophaeinae, a group of 12

    genera found both in the New World and the Old. These two American species

    build rather flimsy nests, but they are not parasitic, whereas the two most

    northward-ranging forms of the Old World — the above-mentioned Cuculus canorus

    and Cuculus saturatus (oriental or Himalayan cuckoo) are both entirely

    parasitic.

            See Cuckoo and Oriental Cuckoo.

            Reference:

    Friedmann, Herbert. The Parasitic Cuckoos of Africa . Washington [D.C.]

    Academy of Sciences, Monograph No. 1, 204 pp. 1948.

    716      |      Vol_IV-0772                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cuculus

            599. Cuculus. A genus composed of 12 species of “true” cuckoos. It

    is confined to, and ranges almost throughout, the Old World. It has a long,

    graduated tail of 10 feathers; rather long, flat wing which does not fit

    close against the body and which is somewhat rounded, the third primary

    (counting from the outside) being the longest; a moderately long, decurved

    bill; round nostrils; and no crest. The plumage of the rump is long, thick,

    and rather stiff, forming a sort of pad, and the upper tail coverts are very

    long, the longest being about half as long as the tail itself. The tarsus

    is feathered in front for two-thirds or more of its length.

            Most species of the genus are rather hawklike in coloration (more or

    less barred with grays and browns, especially below), and, oddly enough,

    behave like hawks — so much so that smaller birds are likely to become silent,

    to chirp in alarm or anger, or to dart for cover as they fly past. I well

    recall seeing my first cuckoo in England. The bird suddenly appeared not far

    from me, and circled over a mars x h. As long as it continued flying I thought

    It was a sparrow hawk ( Accipiter nisus ); but when it alighted I instantly

    saw that it was a cuckoo. The small birds continued to cry out in alarm

    until it flew off.

            The parasitic nesting habits of Cuculus canorus are well known and the

    voluminous literature pertaining to the subject is extremely interesting.

    All species of Cuculus are highly parasitic (i.e., they do not build nests).

    Knowlton and Ridgway affirm it to be “a matter of apparently authentic record

    that the European Cuckoo may occasionally rear its own young,” but the

    thoroughgoing Handbook of British Birds mentions no such case.

            Cuculus ranges from the Arctic Circle southward to Australia. The

    northward-ranging species are C. canorus (often referred to as the European

    717      |      Vol_IV-0773                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cuculus and Oriental Cuckoo

    cuckoo, though it is [ ?] represented by endemic races in Asia and Africa),

    and C. saturatus (oriental or Himalayan cuckoo). The geographical races

    of these species which breed northward to the Arctic Circle are migratory;

    some of the more southern races are not.

            For a further discussion of the nesting habits of Cuculus , see Cuckoo.

            602. Oriental Cuckoo . An Old World cuckoo, Cuculus saturatus , which

    is sometimes called the Himalayan cuckoo. It closely resemble d s the common

    or European cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ), but is smaller and proportionately

    heavier-billed; it has, on the average, bolder and more widely separated

    bars on the under parts; and its under wing coverts and axillary feathers

    are tinged with buff. In canorus the under wing coverts and axillars are

    white, narrowly barred with gray. The oriental cuckoo is a darker bird

    than the common cuckoo, the male in particular being much darker, and less

    brownish, than male canorus .

            The oriental cuckoo’s call, which consists of three or four hoots,

    sometimes preceded by a single high note, apparently is different from any

    cry uttered by Cuculus canorus . The oriental cuckoo is parasitic in its

    nesting habits, and seems to prefer parasitizing species which build domed–

    over nests. In southern parts of its range it keeps hidden most of the

    time in densely foliaged trees.

            C. saturatus breeds in eastern Asia and winters from India southward

    to the Philippines, the Solomons, numerous other South Pacific islands, and

    Australia. Two races are recognized — the larger horafieldi , which nests

    virtually throughout eastern Siberia northward to the Arctic Circle and

    718      |      Vol_IV-0774                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Oriental Cuckoo

    southward to the Altai Mountains, northern China, Manchuria, Korea, and

    Japan; and the smaller saturatus , which breeds in the southern Himalayas,

    Assam, Burma, southern China, and Formosa.

            C. saturatus horsfieldi has been reported once from the Pribilof

    Islands (Palmer, W., 1894. Auk 11: 325).

    Strigiformes (Owls)



    719      |      Vol_IV-0775                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Owls

    OWLS

           

    Order STRIGIFORMES

           

    Family STRIGIDAE

            603. Aegolius . See writeup.

            604. American Hawk Owl. Surnia ulula caparoch , the New World race of

    hawk owl ( q.v. ).

            605. Arctic Horned Owl. Bubo virginianus wapacuthu , a pale, large northward–

    ranging race of the great horned owl ( q.v. ).

            606. Arctic Owl. A name widely used for the snowy owl ( Nyctea scandiaca )

    ( q.v. ).

            607. Asio . See writeup.

            608. Boreal Owl. See writeup.

            609. Bubo. See writeup.

            610. Eagle Owl. See writeup.

            611. Eurasian Hawk Owl. Surnia ulula ulula , the Old World race of the

    hawk owl ( q.v. ).

            612. Great Gray Owl. See writeup.

            613. Great Horned Owl. See writeup.

            614. Hawk Owl. See writeup.

            615. Hoot Owl. A name applied loosely to owls which hoot, especially to

    the great horned owl ( Bubo virginianus ) ( q.v. ).

            616. Horned Owl. A name often applied to the great horned owl ( Bubo

    virginianus ) ( q.v. ).

            617. Labrador Horned Owl. Bubo virginianus heteroonemis , a large dark race

    of the great horned owl ( q.v. ).



    720      |      Vol_IV-0776                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Owls

            618. Lapp Owl. A widely used name for Strix nebulosa lapponica , the better

    known of the two Old World races of the great gray owl ( q.v. ).

            619. Long-eared Owl. See writeup.

            620. Marsh Owl. A common name for the short-eared owl ( Asio flammeus ) ( q.v. ).

            621. Northwestern Horned Owl. Bubo virginianus lagophonus , a large northern

    race of the great horned owl ( q.v. ).

            622. Nyctea . See writeup.

            623. Owl. See writeup.

            624. Prairie Owl. A little-used common name for the short-eared owl ( Asio

    flammeus ) ( q.v. ).

            625. Richardson’s Owl. A name widely used for Aegolius funereus richardsoni ,

    the New World race of the boreal owl ( q.v. ).

            626. St. Michael Horned Owl. Bubo virginianus algistus , an Alaskan race of

    the great herned owl ( q.v. ).

            627. Short-eared Owl. See writeup.

            628. Snowy Owl. See writeup.

            629. STRIGID [ ?] E. See writeup.

            630. STRIGIFORMES . See writeup.

            631. Strix. See writeup.

            632. Surnia. See writeup.

            633. Tengmalm’s Owl. A name widely used, especially in England, for the

    boreal owl ( Aegolius funereus ) ( q.v. ).

            634. White Owl. The snowy owl ( Nyctea scandiaca ) ( q.v. ).



    721      |      Vol_IV-0777                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aegolius and Asio

            603. Aegolius . A genus (four species) of small and medium-sized owls.

    Only one species — the boreal or Tengmalm’s owl ( Aegolius funereus ) ranges

    northward into the Arctic or Subarctic, and this species is found in both

    the Old and New Worlds. The saw-whet owl ( A. acadicus ) of the New World

    ranges northward to southern Alaska and central Canada as well as southward

    (in the mountains) at least to Mexico. A. harrisii is found only in South

    America. A. ridgwayi , which is confined to Central America, is almost

    certainly conspecific with A. acadicus (see Peters, Check-List of Birds

    of the World , 1940, 4: 174, footnote).

            Aegolius is “hornless,” or virtually so. As in Asio , the ear openings

    are extremely large. That on the right is quite different from that on the

    left in size, shape, and relative position, and this asymmetry is so basic

    that it involves even the shape of the skull. The wings are rounded, the third

    to fifth (or fourth and fifth) primaries being the longest. The two outer–

    most visible primaries are notched near the tip on the inner web. The tail

    is short and slightly rounded. As in Surnia , the eyes are comparatively

    small. The tarsi and toes are well feathered.

            See Boreal Owl.

            607. Asio . A genus composed of six species of middle-sized, very

    soft-plumaged, long-winged owls, two of which range northward into the

    Arctic or Subarctic. Throughout the group the ear openings are extremely

    large — so large, in fact, as to seem abnormal. These openings are not

    symmetrical: that on the right is different in shape and size from that

    on the left. Each has an operculum and transverse fold.



    722      |      Vol_IV-0778                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Asio and Boreal Owl

            The wings are long: folded they reach to the tail tip or beyond. One

    or two of the outermost primaries are emarginate (i.e., notched or incised)

    on the inner webs. The tarsi and toes are feathered. In some species the

    ear tufts are very long (and usually conspicuous), but in others they are

    extremely short.

            Asio inhabits both the Old World and the New, and the two northernmost

    species — the short-eared owl ( A. flammeus ) and long-eared owl ( A. otus ) —

    are circumboreal in distribution. The short-eared owl is a grassland–

    inhabiting bird, and it breeds extensively on the tundra in some areas. It

    ranges [ ?] northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in Scandinavia,

    Alaska, and Siberia. The long-eared owl, on the other hand, is a woodland

    species which breeds northward to and slightly beyond the Arctic Circle in

    Europe, but not in Asia or America. The short-eared owl is a very wide–

    ranging bird, especially in the New World, where it has become endemized

    in such widely separated areas as the Falkland Islands, Hawaiian Islands,

    Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Gal a á pagos Archipelago.

            See Short-eared Owl and Long-eared Owl.

            608. Boreal Owl. A rather small owl, Aegolius funereus , which

    inhabits northern woodlands of the Northern Hemisphere. In England it is

    usually called the Tengmalm’s owl. The New World race, richardsoni , is

    widely known in North America as the Richardson’s owl. The species breeds

    from northern Scandinavia (lat. 70° N.), the Archangel district of northern

    Russia, the Ob River (61°), the Kolyma River (68° 41′), northern Alaska,

    723      |      Vol_IV-0779                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn: Sutton: Boreal Owl

    and northern Canada southward to the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Balkan Peninsula,

    the Caucasus, Tian Shan, Kansu, Manchuria, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, northern

    British Columbia, northern Alberta, northern Manitoba, the Gulf of St. Law–

    rence, and Nova Scotia. It is one of the very few birds known to spend the

    whole winter as far north as Kautokeino, Norway, at about latitude 69° N.

    (see Ibis , 1939, p. 606). It is irregularly migratory, sometimes being

    found in winter as far south as Spain, Asia Minor, Japan, southern British

    Columbia, and the northern tier of the United States. Of the eight races

    currently recognized, three range into the Subarctic: funereus of northern

    Europe and northwestern Siberia; magnus of northeastern Siberia; and richard–

    soni     of North America.

            The boreal owl is a large-gheaded bird with well-defined feather discs

    of 19 to 24 inches. It is chocolate brown above, thickly spotted with white

    on the top of the head, and boldly marked with white on the scapulars. The

    face is grayish white, encircled with dark brown. The under parts are gray–

    ish white, broadly streaked with brown. The eyes are light golden yellow.

            In southern parts of its range the boreal owl is usually nocturnal;

    but in the Far North it regularly hunts by day. It is surprisingly unsus–

    picious and often quite approachable. Its song is a many-times-repeated

    (almost trilled) hoot. It feeds largely on mice. In winter it sometimes

    caches large quantities of prey in a hollow tree. At Svanseiv, Sweden

    (lat. 66° 40′ N.) on November 11, 1945, some boys saw a boreal owl in an

    old woodpecker hole. On chopping down the tree they found in the hole a

    pile of frozen prey — 43 small rodents, 3 shrews, and 2 tits ( Parus

    stricapillus ). Later that year another owl “nest,” full of small mammals,

    was found in that same district. It would seem that in this way the owl

    724      |      Vol_IV-0780                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Boreal Owl and Bubo

    assures itself of a food supply, no matter how dark the winter weather

    may be (Rune Selen, 1946, Norbottens Natur , 1: 15).

            The boreal owl lays its eggs in holes in trees, often using old nests

    or roosting cavities of woodpeckers. The eggs number 3 to 6 as a rule,

    though larger sets have been recorded. The female is believed to do most,

    if not all, of the incubating. The incubation period is 25 days. The

    newly hatched young are buffy white above, white below. The fledging

    period has been estimated at 30 to 32 days. Young birds in juvenal plumage

    are chocolate brown all over, with a few white markings.

            See Aegolius .

            609. Bubo. A genus of large, powerful owls, all of them “horned,”

    i.e., with two prominent feather-tufts on the head, one above each ear

    opening. These “horns” can be held erect or pressed down so closely

    against the head as to be virtually invisible. The ear openings are com–

    paratively small, and are not covered by any sort of operculum. They are

    symmetrical (i.e., that on the left has the same size, shape, and relative

    position as that on the right). The tarsi are thickly feathered. The toes

    are more or less feathered down to the claws even in the tropical forms.

    The wings are rounded, the 4th or 5th primary usually being the longest.

    The longest primaries are much longer than the secondaries. The 2, 3, or

    4 outer primaries are notched or emarginate on their inner webs. The

    claws are very powerful, that of the hind too being slightly smaller than

    the others.



    725      |      Vol_IV-0781                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bubo and Eagle Owl

            Bubo inhabits wooded parts of Eurasia, Africa, and America but is not

    found in Australia or New Zealand. Of the 11 species none is found in both

    the Old World and the New. The one New World species — the great horned

    owl ( B. virginianus ) — ranges from tree limit in the north southward

    (except in the West Indies) to Tierra del Fuego. Of the ten Old World

    species, none has the latitudinal range of virginianus , though the eagle

    owl ( B. bubo ) breeds from tree limit southward through much of Eurasia and

    northern Africa. The other nine species have comparatively restricted

    ranges, three being found in southeastern Asia (two of these also on certain

    islands in adjacent seas); one in Arabia and Africa; and five in Africa only.

    Bubo is nonmigratory as a rule, but food shortage in the North occasionally

    drives it southward.

            See Great Horned Owl and Eagle Owl.

            610. Eagle Owl. A large, powerful Old World owl, Bubo bubo, which has

    conspicuous ear tufts and orange eyes. It resembles the great horned owl

    ( Bubo virginianus ) of the New World, but is larger, and the under parts are

    brown, streaked (and somewhat barred) with black. It is 25 to 28 inches

    long, with a wingspread of 5 feet or more.

            The eagle owl is a bird of wild country — wooded mountains or treeless

    regions in which there are cliffs and gorges. Often it sits close to a tree

    trunk or rock in a shady place during the day, with feathers tightly pulled

    in against its body. In northern parts of its range it hunts, perforce,

    by full daylight in summer; but even in winter it is somewhat diurnal, as is

    the great horned owl. It feeds, almost literally, on all sorts of birds and

    726      |      Vol_IV-0782                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eagle Owl [ ?]

    mammals — even such large forms as the roe deer and capercaillie, not

    to mention snakes, lizards, frogs, fish, and large insects. Its call is

    a loud, deep, far-carrying boo-hoo .

            The eagle owl does not build a nest, but lays its eggs on a ledge, in

    a crevice among the rocks, in a hollow tree, in the old nest of some other

    bird of prey, or in a depression on the ground. It sometimes nests in

    comparatively open country, but can hardly be called a bird of the tundra,

    for nowhere does it range beyond the tree limit. Its eggs, which are white,

    number 1 to 6 (usually 2 or 3). Only the female incubates. The incubation

    period is about 5 weeks. The young l e ave the nest when about 5 weeks old,

    but they do not learn to fly until after that ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            The eagle owl breeds across Eurasia northward to the Arctic Circle in

    Scandinavia and almost that far north in Russia and Siberia. Its southern

    limits are Spain, northern Africa, Arabia, Persia, and Tibet. Numerous

    races (some of them probably very local) have been described of which Peters

    recognizes 24. The birds of northern Europe belong to the nominate race.

    B. bu l bo sibiricus ranges from the “western foothills of the Urals eastward

    across western Siberia to Tomsk and the western Altai, extending northward

    to the limit of the forest” (Peters). B. bubo venisseensis inhabits the

    valley of the Yenisei. The race inhabiting northeastern Siberia is

    jakutensis .

            Pleske does not even list the eagle owl in his Birds of the Eurasian Tundra .



    727      |      Vol_IV-0783                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Gray Owl

            612. Great Gray Owl. A very large “hornless” owl, Strix nebulous ,

    which inhabits northern forests of the Old and New World. Three races are

    currently recognized: S. nebulosa nebulosa of North America; S. nebulosa

    lapponica (widely known as the Lapp owl) of the zone of forest just south

    of the tundra in Eurasia; and S. nebulosa elizabethae of the Kentei Mountains

    of northern Magnolia. Lapponica and elizabethae probably intergrade along

    the north edge of the latter’s range. Nebulosa and lapponica are the only

    races which range northward into the Subarctic. Of these lapponica is much

    the paler.

            Nowhere does the great gray owl breed beyond [ ?] tree limit, but where

    far northern stands of good-sized spruces are extensive and uniform it finds

    an adequate breeding ground. It ranges to the Arctic Circle and beyond in

    Alaska, along the lower Mackenzie, and probably at the mouths of the great

    Siberian Rivers, the Yenisei, Lena, Indigirka, and Kolyma. The southern

    limits of its breeding range are ill-defined. In North America it has been

    found in summer south in the Rocky Mountains as far as northern California,

    northern Idaho, northwestern Wyoming, central Alberta, northern Minnesota,

    and Ontario. In the Old World the southern limits of its nesting range are

    central Russia, northern Mongolia (Kentei Mountains), and Sakhalin. It is

    irregularly migratory, having been reported in winter from eastern Germany,

    south central Russia, the Amur valley, southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, New

    York, and Massachusetts. Its southward migrations are not nearly so extensive

    as those of the snowy owl ( Nyctea scandiaca ).

            The e g reat gray owl’s most notable features are its exceedingly deep,

    soft plumage (which gives it the appearance of much greater weight than it

    actually has); its very broad facial discs; and its comparatively small,

    728      |      Vol_IV-0784                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Gray Owl

    yellow or straw-colored eyes. It is about 2 to 3 feet long, with wingspread

    of 4 or 5 feet, and is, generally speaking, gray all over, though actually

    the plumage is finely speckled, mottled, barred, and vermiculated. The

    markings of the under parts resolve themselves into broad streaks and narrow

    bars. The feather discs about the eyes are marked with concentric rings of

    light and dark gray. The whitish gray areas on the face and throat are more

    extensive in the male than in the female.

            There is probably no more warmly coated bird in the world, for the body feathers

    are so long and soft that the insulative layer between the “inner bird” and the

    cold air may be increased to a depth of several inches through the simple

    expedient of lifting the plumage. This exceedingly warm covering may reduce

    to a significant extent the amount of food required. John and Frank Craighead

    ascertained that a healthy captive great gray owl consumed, at low temperatures,

    considerably less food in proportion to body weight than did any of several

    other species of birds of prey, including the great horned owl ( Bubo virginia –

    nus ) and red-tailed hawk ( Buteo jamaicensis ). This means that a great gray

    owl actually requires less food than a great horned owl living in the same

    habitat. Forbush hints at a possible correlation between the efficiency of

    the great gray owl’s feather covering and its exclusively boreal distribution

    when he says that it “never goes so far south as does that typical Arctic

    bird, the Snowy Owl.” Statements of this sort must be examined critically.

    It is certainly true that southward “invasions” comparable to those of the

    snowy owl have never been reported for the great gray owl. It is also true

    that if the two species were to move equally far south, more snowy owls would

    be reported, because that species is more diurnal, more apt to inhabit open

    farmlands, hence far more apt to be seen by human beings from automobiles

    729      |      Vol_IV-0785                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Gray Owl

    and train windows. The snowy owl is probably a much more numerous bird

    (i.e., the total population of snowy owls in the world is probably far

    greater than that of great gray owls). My personal belief is that the

    great gray owl rarely moves south in winter — a belief borne out by the

    published records, surely. There may possibly be a correlation between its

    sedentary habits and its food. If, as seems thinkable, the small woodland–

    inhabiting mammals on which it regularly preys are less subject to extreme

    fluctuation than are the grassland and open tundra mammals on which the

    snowy owl preys, then we have, perhaps, found the explanation of the great

    gray owl’s comparatively sedentary existence.

            The great gray owl’s call note has been described as a tremulous cry

    not unlike that of the screech owl ( Otus asio ) of North America, and as

    “several deep-pitched whoo’s at irregular intervals” (Grinnell and Storer).

    The Craighead brothers, who made observations at a grea y t gray owl’s nest

    in northeastern Wyoming, were impressed by the silence of the adult birds

    during the incubation and fledging periods. A young bird which the

    Craigheads reared gave a somewhat whistled hoot.

            The great gray owl does not build its own nest, but uses that of some

    other large tree-nesting bird. The only other large birds which nest in

    trees in the Far North are the goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ) and raven

    ( Corvus corax ), so the great gray owl’s actual nesting distribution

    coincides to a large extent, perforce, with that of these other species.

    The eggs usually number 3, sometimes 4 or 5. They are laid in April or

    May in more southerly parts of the range, in June in northern parts. The

    length of the incubation period has not been determined. The downy young

    bird is white with a buffy wash over the back of the neck, the back, and the

    wings (Forbush).



    730      |      Vol_IV-0786                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Horned Owl

            613. Great Horned Owl . A large, powerful New World owl, Bubo

    virginianus , which ranges from tree limit in Alaska and Canada southward

    through the whole of [ ?] America (except the West Indies) to Tierra del

    Fuego. It has two large ear tufts, which are usually conspicuous. It is

    often called the hoot owl, for its usual call is a deep-voiced hoo , hoo-hoo,

    hoo , hoo or hoo- h oo , hoo , hoo-hoo , hoooo (some of the hoots being rapidly

    repeated or even slurred). It captures birds and small mammals of many

    sorts, as well as reptiles, amphibians, crayfish, and fish. It is

    especially fond of mice, rabbits, and skunks, and has been known to kill

    birds as large as turkeys, geese, and nearly full-fledged red-tailed hawks

    ( Buteo jamaicensis ). Throughout much of its range it inhabits wooded country,

    and it is remarkably successful in maintaining itself in small areas of

    woodland. In some parts of the western United States it inhabits open

    sagebrush country, nesting on mesas or cliffs. In farming district it is

    disliked because it kills poultry as well as game.

            The great horned owl is about 2 feet long. Males have a wingspread

    of 45 to 53 inches, females of 53 to 60 inches. The upper parts are

    beautifully mottled and the under parts finely barred with grays, browns,

    buff, black, and white. The chin and throat are white, the eyes large and

    bright yellow. There is much individual variation in details of pattern

    and in general color-tone. In a series of breeding birds collected at a

    given locality some birds are likely to be distinctly browner, or grayer,

    or lighter, or darker than others, and the species as a whole varies greatly,

    some races or subspecies — such as the arctic horned owl ( Bubo virginianus

    wapacuthu ) — being large and very pale; others — such as the Labrador horned

    owl ( B. virginianus heterocnemis ) — large and very dark; still others --

    731      |      Vol_IV-0787                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Horned Owl

    such as the dwarf horned owl ( B. virginianus elachistus ) — small and

    dark, and so on. Of the 16 currently recognized, 11 are confined to North

    America. In general the northern races are large.

            Bubo virginianus is an exceedingly hardy bird. It is not migratory

    in the usual sense of the word. Even at the northern edge of its range

    it does not move south in winter unless there is a food shortage. It

    nests early. Many an author has written of seeing snow-covered nests or

    snow-covered brooding birds. Eggs in February are not exceptional in the

    northern United States. The great horned owl probably pairs for life, but

    if one of the pair is shot the remaining bird finds a mate promptly. Some

    pairing takes place in the fall, as early as October or September, if we

    may judge by the insistent hotting at that season; but fall pairing may be

    limited to year-old birds. There is a great deal of hooting, too, during

    the period of egg-laying and incubation. This probably is a form of nest–

    territory defense against other great horned owls.

            The eggs are white and almost spherical. The set usually numbers 2,

    though 3, 4, and even 5 eggs have been found. Both sexes incubate. The

    incubation period is about 4 weeks. The young remain in the nest until

    their wings are well developed, but they often climb (or fall) out before

    they can fly. If crows ( Corvus brachyrhynchos ) find the nest they sometimes

    kill the young owls.

            Four races of Bubo virginianus are to some extent arctic or subarctic

    in distribution — the Labrador horned owl, which ranges northward to

    tree limit in Ungava and along the Labrador; the arctic horned owl of

    west central Canada, which breeds to tree limit (and therefore almost to

    the Arctic Ocean) along the Mackenzie; the so-called St. Michael horned owl

    732      |      Vol_IV-0788                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Horned Owl and Hawk Owl

    ( B. virginianus algistus ) of coastal western Alaska, which breeds from

    Bristol Bay north to Kotzebue Sound, and which has been recorded at Point

    Barrow; and the northwestern horned owl ( B. virginianus lagophonus ), which

    probably ranges to the Arctic Circle in central Alaska. Identification of

    some of these races, especially those of Alaska, is not easy.

            References:

    1. Gardner, L.L. “The nesting of the Great Horned Owl.” Auk, vol.46,

    pp.58-69, 1929. 2. Hoffmeister, Donald F., and Setzer, Henry W. “The postnatal development

    of two broods of Great Horned Owls ( Bubo virginianus ).” Univ .

    Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. , vol.1, No.8, pp.157-173, 1947.

            614. Hawk Owl. A middle-sized, thick-plumaged owl, Surnia ulula ,

    which inhabits the northern forests of the New and Old Worlds. It is 14 to

    15 inches long, with a wingspread of 31 to 34 inches. It has no “horns,”

    is decidedly long-tailed for an owl, and hunts as often by day and by night.

    As it perches on the top of a dead stub in the bright sunlight, or flies

    rapidly along the edge of the forest looking for prey, it is decidedly

    hawklike in shape and manner, its short, pointed wings and long tail being

    somewhat suggestive even of a falcon. It is dark gray (or grayish brown)

    and white. Its crown is blackish, thickly spotted with white. Its upper

    parts are mottled, spotted and barred with dark gray and white. Its under

    parts are white, closely barred with brownish gray. Its facial disc is white

    (or light gray), [ ?] bordered at the sides and below with dark gray. Its

    eyes are bright yellow.

            The hawk owl’s call notes are rapidly repeated or chattered, and hawklike

    733      |      Vol_IV-0789                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hawk Owl and Long-eared Owl

    in effect. The bird nests in hollow trees (sometimes in old woodpeckers’

    holes) or in the old nests of certain falconiform birds. The eggs, which

    are white, number 3 to 10 (or even more). They are laid during late March,

    April, or May. Most (perhaps all) of the incubating is done by the female.

    Only one brood is reared in a season.

            The food of the hawk owl includes many species of small birds and

    mammals. Some birds are captured on the wing.

            Three races of Surnia ulula are now recognized: ulula of most of

    northern Eurasia; tianschanica of “forested parts of the Tian Shan from

    the Alexandrovski Mountains to the Tekes River”; Tarbagatai (?) (Peters);

    and caparoch of the northern forests of North America. Fur further details

    concerning the limits of breeding and winter ranges, see Surnia .

            619. Long-eared Owl. A well-known and well-named owl, Asio otus ,

    which inhabits both the Old World and the New. It is 13 to 16 inches long

    and has a wingspread of 36 to 42 inches. Its very long ear tufts are usually

    conspicuous. Its plumage is gray, brown, buff, black, and white. The upper

    parts, which usually appear gray as the bird flies off, are finely speckled.

    The under parts are buff and white, broadly streaked and barred with dark

    brown. The eyes, which are immediately surrounded with black, are bright

    yellow.

            The long-eared owl seems to prefer thick coniferous wood for nesting

    or roosting, but it inhabits deciduous woods too, and has [ ?] been known

    to nest in brushlands and even in marshes. Nowhere does it inhabit the tundra.

    734      |      Vol_IV-0790                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-eared Owl

    It is nocturnal and ordinarily spends the day standing close to the trunk

    of a pine or cedar, with plumage drawn in against its body, and eyes half

    closed. In winter it frequently roosts in a loose flock in thick woodland

    but hunts in grassland.

            It feeds largely on mice and other small mammals, and occasionally

    captures small birds. Its song is a “subdued co-oo ” which is “often

    uttered for hours at mating time” (Forbush).

            The long-eared owl lays its eggs in the old nest of a squirrel, magpie,

    crow, or heron; in a depression or “hole” among the roots of a tree; or among

    shrubbery on a rocky slope. The eggs, which are white, usually number 4 or

    5, though 3 to 8 have been reported. The female probably does most of the

    incubating, which begins immediately after the laying of the first egg.

    The incubation period is about 4 weeks. The newly hatched young are covered

    with white down. The young remain in the nest 3 weeks or more, then climb

    out and wander about the “home tree” for several days before learning to fly.

            Asio otus breeds northward to latitude 65° N. in Norway, to 68° in

    Sweden, to 69° in Finland, and probably to somewhat lower latitudes across

    Siberia. In the New World its northern limits are southern Alaska, southern

    Mackenzie, southern Manitoba, Ontario, and southern Quebec. It breeds south–

    ward to the Azores, the Canaries, northwestern Africa, southern Europe,

    Palestine, the Himalayas, Manchuria, Japan, northwestern Baja California,

    northern Texas, Arkansas, and Virginia. In winter it migrates from more

    northern parts of its range. The southern limits of its winter range are

    northwestern Africa, southern China, southern Japan, the Gulf of Mexico,

    Florida, and central Mexico (Michoacan). All long-eared owls of the Old

    World are currently believed to belong to the nominate race, except for A .

    otus canariensis of the Canary Islands. New World birds belong to the race

    A. otus wilsonianus .



    735      |      Vol_IV-0791                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Nyceta

            622. Nyctea . The monotypic genus to which the snowy owl ( Nyctea

    scandiaca ) belongs. Nyctea has no “horns.” The facial feathers are very

    long, especially in front, where they almost cover the bill. The tarsi and

    feet are thickly feathered. The hairlike feathers of the toes are so long

    that they almost completely cover the claws. Three toes point forward,

    one backward. The claws are long, much curved, and tapered to a very sharp

    point. The 4th primary (counting from the outside) is usually longest, but

    the 3rd, 4th, and 5th are about equally long. The tail (12 feathers) is

    slightly rounded. The eyes, which are yellow, are small in proportion to

    body size, though not as small (either proportionately or actually) as

    those of the great gray owl ( Strix nebulosa ). Nyctea is much like Bubo

    (eagle owl and allies) in size and structure, but Bubo has well developed

    ear tufts and is larger-eyed.

            Adult Nyctea is white, more or less barred with brownish gray. Some

    individuals are almost immaculate. The newly hatched young are white too.

    But the white natal down is followed by a soft intermediate plumage which

    is dark brownish gray . Young birds wear this plumage about the time they

    leave the nest. They cannot fly at this stage, but hobble about among

    the rocks and moss. Were they white during this period they probably

    would be much more liable to molestation or capture.

            Nyctea is circumpolar in distribution, and it breeds solely north of

    the tree limit. It is not exclusively boreal, however, for when there is

    a winter food shortage in the North it moves far to the south of its usual

    winter range. The most northerly points at which it breeds are: northern

    Scandinavia, northern Russia, Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, and the Franz Josef

    Archipelago (probably), Novaya Zemlya, northern Siberia (including the New

    736      |      Vol_IV-0792                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Nyctea

    Siberian Archipelago and Wrangel Island), northern Alaska, northern Yukon

    (Herchel Island), northern Mackenzie (Baillie Island), and, presumably,

    all the northward-lying islands of the Arctic Archipelago. Handley found

    it common on Prince Patrick Island in the summer of 1949. It ranges well

    northward in Greenland but has not yet been found breeding in Peary Land,

    apparently. It does not breed in Iceland. The southern limits of its

    breeding range are the Baltic States; the southern edge of the Eurasian

    tundra; Kamchatka; Hall Island, Bering Sea; Hooper Bay, Alaska; and the

    southern edge of the continental North American tundra (Churchill, Manitoba;

    Fort Chimo, Quebec; and Okak, Labrador). It is migratory, probably

    regularly so, since it is observed every winter in Iceland, the Faeroes,

    the Shetlands, central Europe, Turkestan, northern China, Japan, southern

    Canada, and the northern United States, throughout vast areas in which it never

    breeds. Whether it ever remains in the Far North throughout the dead of

    winter (i.e., the period of winter darkness) remains to be ascertained.

    There are many valid winter records for far northern localities. The

    question, then, is this: does the individual bird ever remain at a far

    northern locality for the entire period of winter darkness? I firmly

    believe not. Virtually every report dealing with north polar exploration

    mentions “the return” of the snowy owl in spring, “the first owl of the

    season,” etc. This sort of comment clearly indicates that persons who

    have wintered at high latitudes have not seen owls all winter long.

            See Snowy Owl.



    737      |      Vol_IV-0793                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Owl

            623. Owl. Any of numerous soft-plumaged birds of prey belonging to

    the order Strigiformes. Several owls range northward to the tree limit

    and beyond in both the New World and the Old, and one species — the snowy

    owl ( Nyctea scandiaca ) — is among the best known of arctic birds.

            Owls are widely alleged to be creatures of the night, but many species

    fare forth by day as well as by night, and some are largely diurnal. Owls the

    world over are readily recognizable, first of all because their eyes are

    directed forward. Whatever the advantages of this arrangement, the neck

    of an owl is long, permitting the bird to turn its head and face directly

    backward in a twinkling. So remarkable is this ability that tall tales

    are told of the owl which, in keeping its eyes on a man who walked round

    and round it, eventually twisted its own head off. Certain Eskimo versions

    of f t his tale are very funny.

            Owls have wonderful eyesight, but their sense of hearing may be even

    keener. If a man carefully conceals himself and squeaks in imitation of a

    mouse he can sometimes lure an owl hundreds of yards scross a stretch of

    prairie or woodland. The hungry [ ?] bird flies up, hovers inquiringly

    overhead or alights on a branch close by, peering eagerly downward. Owls

    fly very quietly, but the beating of their wings is not, strictly speaking,

    noiseless.

            Owls which inhabit wooded country usually nest in hollow trees or in

    the old nests of other birds or squirrels. The snowy owl and short-eared

    owl ( Asio flammeus ) nest solely on the ground. The eagle owl ( Bubo bubo )

    of the Old World and great horned owl ( Bubo virginianus ) of the New often

    nest on ledges or in crevices in a cliff. All owls lay white eggs. The

    eggs of some species are very nearly spherical. Newly hatched owls are

    738      |      Vol_IV-0794                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Owl

    downy and blind. The natal down is succeeded by an intermediate plumage

    which is softer than, and sometimes quite different in color from, the

    adult plumage.

            Owls feed on animal life — small mammals, birds, insects, reptiles,

    amphibians, and even crayfish and fish. The fish owls of the genus Ketupa

    have spiculated soles which help them hold their slippery prey. One of

    these fish owls, K. blakistoni , ranges northward as far as Sakhalin.

            Owls swallow small prey whole — fur bones, and all. The great horned

    owl can swallow a half-grown rat ( Rattus norvegicus ) without much trouble

    and the snowy owl swallows the largest lemmings with a toss of the head and

    a gulp or two. Indigestible matter (fur, bones, etc.) forms pellets which

    are coughed up periodically. Careful analysis of these pellets furnishes

    incontrovertible evidence as to the owls’ food habits.

            Small birds are quick to recognize even the smallest of owls as an

    enemy, and proceed to mob it, gathering about it scolding noisily. Crows

    ( Corvus brachyrhynchos ) are especially given to mobbing the great horned owl,

    sometimes remaining with and following the big bird about [ ?] for hours at a

    stretch, cawing savagely. Their anxiety is fully justified, for great horned

    owls eat crows frequently.

            The only truly arctic owl is the snowy owl, above referred to. But the

    short-eared owl breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in both the

    Old World and the New; and several additional species breed northward to about

    tree limit — the great gray owl ( Strix nebulosa ), hawk owl ( Surnia ulula ),

    the boreal owl ( Aegolius furnereus ) and long-eared owl ( Asio otus ) in both

    the Old World and the New, the eagle owl in Eurasia, and the great horned owl

    in America.



    739      |      Vol_IV-0795                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Owl and Short-eared Owl

            See Strigiformes, Strigidae, Nyctea , Bubo , Asio , Aegolius , Surnia ,

    Snowy Owl, Great Horned Owl, Great Gray Owl, Short-eared Owl, Long-eared

    Owl, Hawk Owl, and Boreal Owl.

            627. Short-eared Owl . A grassland-inhabiting owl, Asio flammeus ,

    known also as the prairie owl, marsh owl, or bog owl, which ranges north–

    ward well beyond tree limit in both the Old World and the New. Taxomonists

    currently recognize nine races, sever a l of which are confined to New World

    islands or island groups. The most northern race of all, A. flammeus

    flammeus , is circumboreal in distribution. This is exceptional, for in

    most species of very wide distribution American birds are subspecifically

    distinct from Eurasian birds.

            A. flammeus flammeus breeds from Point Barrow, Alaska; Franklin Bay,

    Mackenzie; Eskimo Point on the west coast of Hudson Bay; southern Baffin

    Island; Iceland; latitude 70° N. in Scandinavia; northern Russia; and

    northern Siberia (mouths of the Lena, Indigirka, and Kolyma) southward

    to England, France, Italy, Malta, [ ?] the Caucasus, central and southern

    Asia (presumably), southern California, Nevada, Utah, Kansas, southern

    Illinois, northwestern New York, and New Jersey (Cape May). It winters

    throughout much of its breeding range as well as southward to “the Medi–

    teranean, northern Africa, Palestine, Ethiopia, Aden, northern India,

    southeastern China, Lower California, Guatemale, the Gulf of Mexico and

    Cuba (rarely)” (Peters). In winter it often lives in flocks. It has

    been reported from Greenland, the Azores, the Canaries, Madeira, tropical

    Africa, India, Baja California, Mexico, and extreme southern Florida.



    740      |      Vol_IV-0796                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Short-eared Owl

            The short-eared owl is 14 to 15 inches long with a wingspread of

    38 to 44 inches. Its ear tufts are so short that they are usually not

    visible in the field. It is terrestrial, but occasionally it alights on

    a fence post, stub, rock, bush, or low tree. On the ground it is very

    inconspicuous unless it happens to be in the snow. As it flies up it some–

    times gives a barking cry or snaps its bill in annoyance. Its long wings

    move through a wide are, seeming almost to touch each other both above and

    below the body. It is dark brown above, mottled and barred with buff on

    the back, scapulars, wings, and tail; and pale buff below, streaked (not

    barred) with dusky on the chest and belly. Its eyes (which are surrounded

    by black facial plumage) are bright yellow.

            The short-eared owl hunts by coursing back and forth a short distance

    above ground. During courtship it circles high in air, beating its wings

    occasionally as it rises, then suddenly plummets toward the ground, flaps

    its wings noisily a few times, and circles upward again. It sometimes

    gives its song, a series of hollow hoots, during this display flight.

            The nest is on the ground, often in a marshy place. It is a mere

    depression in the moss grass, or broken-down sedge. The eggs, which are

    white, number 5 or 6 as a rule, but if mice are unusually abundant as

    many as 13 or 14 may constitute a clutch. The eggs are laid in late April

    or May in southern parts of the range (in June in the Far North). A. M.

    Bailey reports full sets of fresh eggs collected in northern Alaska on

    June 18 and 19. Incubation, which begins with the laying of the first

    egg, is performed entirely by the female. The incubation period is 24 to 28

    days. The newly hatched young are buff above and buffy white below. The

    741      |      Vol_IV-0797                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Short-eared Owl

    color of the down darkens as the nestlings develop, and when they are

    half grown they are quite dark. They stay together in the nest about

    15 days, then scatter in the grass or sedge, being fed by the parent birds

    for several days more before being able to fly.

            References:

    1. Armstrong, Rev. E.A., and Phillips, Major G.W. “Notes on the nesting

    of the Short-eared Owl in Yorkshire.” British Birds, vol.18,

    pp.226-30, 1925. 2. Dubois, A. Dawes. “A nuptial song-flight of the short-eared owl.”

    Auk , vol. 41, pp.260-63, 1924. 3. Urner, Charles A. “Notes on the short-eared owl.” Auk , vol.40, pp.30-36,

    1923. 4. ----. “Notes on two ground-nesting birds of prey [short-eared owl and

    marsh hawk],” Auk , vol.42, pp.31-41, 1925.

            628. Snowy Owl. A well-known owl, Nyctea scandiaca, which breeds

    exclusively in the Far North. It is known also as the arctic owl or white

    owl. The Eskimos, who are well acquainted with it, call it the ookpik or

    ookpikjuak . It is widely believed to be nonmigratory save at times of

    food shortage. The records clearly show, however, that it is a regular

    winter visitant to vast Eurasian and North American areas in which it

    neither breeds nor summers. Careful observation in the Far North will

    probably reveal that all snowy owls move southward in winter; that,

    strictly speaking, the species is not “resident” anywhere.

            The snowy owl is about 20 to 27 inches long, with a wingspread of

    54 to 66 inches. The female is considerably larger than the male. Adult

    birds are white, more or less barred with grayish brown. This barring is

    742      |      Vol_IV-0798                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snowy Owl

    usually heaviest on the upper parts, and it is usually heavier in females

    than in males. Very old birds are said to be whiter (i.e., less barred)

    than young ones, but I have collected specimens in first winter plumage

    which were almost immaculate except for a mottled grayish nape patch;

    and I have also collected at least one fully adult female which was molting

    into a plumage more heavily barred than that which it had just been wearing.

    The bill, eyelids, and claws of full-grown birds are black, the eyes golden

    yellow.

            The snowy owl can hardly be called terrestrial, yet it spends much of

    its time on the ground. While watching for prey it sometimes perches on a

    boulder or cliff edge; but not infrequently its lookout is a low ridge or

    hillock from which it surveys the flat land about it. It does not often

    stand bolt upright. Ordinarily it has a somewhat hunched-up attitude —

    its whole body leaning forward and its head drawn down between its shoulders.

    Sometimes it squats on its belly. If, while it is watching for prey or

    resting after a meal, the wind is blowing, it faces the wind. It may also

    face the sun directly, with eyes almost shut.

            Not infrequently it flies back and forth above the tundra, quartering

    for prey. Its flight is direct and powerful, suggesting that of a diurnal

    falconiform bird. Sometimes it hovers or treads the air in the manner of

    a kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus ). It often hunts along the shore, for it

    captures ducks and other waterfowl, sometimes snatching them from the air.

    It is fond of lemmings ( Dichrosonyx and Lemmus ), but as Pleske has clearly

    pointed out, it does not by any means depend on these little mammals exclu–

    sively for food. It captures a great many ptarmigan ( Lagopus ) and dovekies

    743      |      Vol_IV-0799                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snowy Owl

    ( Plautus alle ) as well as other birds. It often captures the arctic hare

    ( Lepus arcticus ). When lemmings are abundant it probably lives to a large

    extent on them, and there apparently is some correlation between the

    lemming supply — or any sort of food supply, for that matter — and the

    size of the brood. David Lack, on a visit to East Greenland some years

    ago, encountered very few lemmings and owls and was convinced that the

    2 or 3 owls which he did see were not even breeding. In 1929-30, when I

    was on Southampton Island, lemmings were abundant, and the numerous snowy

    owls reared large broods. To my way of thinking, clutch-size in the snowy

    owl is determined largely by the amount of energy expended by the female

    in obtaining food during the period of nest-territory establishment and

    egg-deposition. If, just before egg-laying begins, she does not have to

    travel far in obtaining food; and if, after egg-laying and incubating have

    started, the male supplies her with so much food that she scarcely has

    to leave the nest at all, her system proceeds to produce a clutch commen–

    surate with the easily assured (and demonstrated) food supply.

            Snowy owls may pair for life, but individuals which arrive on the

    nesting ground early in spring appear to be solitary, and there is enough

    courtship display about the time the tundra becomes free of snow to

    suggest that pairing often takes place on the nesting ground proper rather

    than in winter or during migration northward. While displaying in flight

    the male (perhaps also the female) circles a ridge or hilltop with wings

    beating slowly and body rising and sinking with each stroke. Display on

    the ground is a comical sort [ ?] of “dance” during which the bird hobbles

    about with tail lifted and half-spread wings flopping, occasionally

    pausing long enough to hoot. The hollow, far-carrying sound is accompanies

    by an immense bulging of the throat.



    744      |      Vol_IV-0800                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snowy Owl

            The nest territory is a ridge or hill surrounded, as a rule, by

    lower, flatter country. It is rarely, if ever, wholly flat or marshy.

    The nest is on an eminence. It is a depression in the moss or among

    the lichen-covered stones, and is sometimes lined with a few feathers.

    Egg-laying begins in late May or early June. During unseasonable storms,

    snow sometimes covers the nest and the incubating female. In late May of

    1930 I found a nest which was surrounded by snow several inches deep.

    The 6 eggs were lying in icy water half an inch or more deep. The female

    lays an egg every other day as a rule, though the interval varies from

    1 to 5 days. Incubation begins with the laying of the first egg. Only

    the female incubates. The clutch numbers from 4 to 9 or 10 as a rule, but

    as many as 14 have been reported ( Handbook of British Birds ). At a nest

    containing 10 eggs Pleske ascertained that when the last one hatched the

    oldest young one was 386 hours (15 days, 9 hours) of age. The older

    young keep the unhatched eggs warm, of course, thus permitting the female

    to be abroad in search of food. The incubation period is 32 to 38 days.

    The newly hatched young are white; but by the time the last egg is hatching

    the oldest of the brood are clothed in dark mouse-gray plumage. While

    part of the clutch is still unhatched the male captures most (or all) of

    the food, bringing it to the female. She feeds part of it to the young

    birds and eats part of it herself. The fledging period is almost 2 months.

    A brood reared in captivity did not fly until they were 51 to 57 days old.

    The young leave the nest long before they can fly, scattering to more or

    less sheltered spots among the grass, willows, and moss. At this stage,

    they are almost wholly gray, but the legs, feet, and facial discs are white.

    As the dark gray plumage gradually disappears the white wing, tail, and body

    plumage becomes more and more apparent.



    745      |      Vol_IV-0801                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snowy Owl

            The parent owls are bold in defense of their nest or scattered young.

    Back and forth they fly, uttering barks or shrieks, snapping their bills,

    and diving fiercely at the intruder. If a man is at the nest, they occa–

    sionally desist from attacking, alight awkwardly as if wounded, fall forward

    and flop about while squealing in a thin voice. Amusing indeed can be the

    behavior of a big female owl which decides that these antics are futile.

    Pulling herself together with a shake, she opens her eyes wide, snaps her

    bill, and returns to her aerial attack. A pair of owls may chase a foraging

    fox half a mile or more until the harassed mammal is a long way from the

    scattered brood of young owls.

            Foxes, jaegers, and ravens all steal snowy owl eggs, and so do the

    Eskimos. Many owls are caught in fox traps in fall and spring.

            For a full discussion of the Snowy Owl’s distribution, see Nyctea .

            References:

    1. Murie, O.J. “Nesting of the Snowy Owl.” Condor , vol.31, pp.3-12,

    1929. 2. Pleske, Theodore. Birds of the Eurasian Tundra , pp.161-172 and

    Plate 33 (showing a nestful of young, of assorted sizes).

    1928. 3. Sutton, George Miksch. Birds of Southampton Island , pp.204-210

    and Plate 20. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1932.

    746      |      Vol_IV-0802                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Strigidae

            629. Strigidae . The avian family to which most owls of the world

    belong. It is one of the two families of the order Strigiformes ( q.v .),

    the other being the Tytonidae (barn owls). In the Strigidae there are

    two subfamilies (Striginae and Buboninae), 27 genera, and numerous

    species. Throughout the family the inner toe is much shorter than the

    middle toe (in the barn owls the middle and inner toes are about equal

    in length); the claw of the middle toe is not pectinate or comblike; the

    orbits are large; the interorbital septum is thin and often fenestrated;

    the sternum has two deep incisions on either side; and the facial discs

    are more or less round.

            The Strigidae are found almost throughout the world except in the

    Antarctic and Polynesia. Of the 27 genera, six ( Bubo , Nyctea , Surnia ,

    Strix , Asio , and Aegolius ) range northward into the Arctic or Subarctic

    in both the New World and the Old. Two species of Asio are circumboreal —

    the prairie-inhabiting short-eared owl ( A. flammeus ), which breeds north–

    ward to well beyond the Arctic Circle in North America and Eurasia; and

    the woods-inhabiting long-eared owl ( Asio otus ), which reaches less

    northerly latitudes than those attained by the short-eared owl. [ ?]

    Nyctea , Surnia , and Aegolius are each represented by one boreal species

    common to the New World and the Old — respectively, the snowy owl

    ( N. scandiaca ), hawk owl ( S. ulula ), and boreal or Tengmalm’s owl ( A .

    funereus ). Two species of Strix range well northward: S. nebulosa

    (great gray owl) of Eurasia and North America, and S. aluco (tawny owl)

    of Eurasia and Africa. The tawny owl does not breed northward quite to

    the Arctic Circle. Bubo is represented in the American Subarctic by one

    species — B. virginianus (great horned owl), and in the Eurasian Subarctic

    [ ?] by another species, B. bubo (eagle owl).

            See Bubo , Nyctea , Surnia , Strix , Asio , and Aegolius.



    745      |      Vol_IV-0803                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Strigiformes

            630. Strigiformes . The avian order of owls — a large group of

    soft-plumaged birds of prey found in all parts of the world except the

    Antarctic. Taxonomists currently recognize two families — the Tytonidae

    and Strigidae. There are but two genera in the Tytonidae — Phodilus of

    southeastern Asia and certain islands in adjacent waters, and Tyto , which

    ranges widely through the Old and New Worlds except in New Zealand, the

    Hawaiian Islands, and the cold regions. A species of this genus, Tyto alba

    (barn owl), is one of the world’s most cosmopolitan birds, yet none of the

    more than 30 geographical races which have been described ranges northward

    beyond the British Isles, southern Sweden, western Russia, northern Palestine,

    Iraq, northern Burma, Indochina, southwestern British Columbia, North Dakota,

    southern Michigan, and southern New England. Why so adaptable a form should

    find northern forests uninhabitable is difficult to comprehend. The Strigidae

    (27 genera), as a family, are more wide-ranging than the barn owl (at least

    six genera range northward into the Arctic or Subarctic in both the New

    World and the Old), but no one species has a range at all comparable in

    extent to that of the barn owl.

            Strigiform birds resemble falconiform birds (eagles, hawks, etc.)

    superficially in that they have powerful feet and claws, curved sharp bill,

    and a cere in which the nostrils are situated; but in all owls the skull

    is comparatively soft, the eyes are directed forward, and the feathers of

    the face are so arranged as to form a disc around each eye, and also a much

    larger disc around both eyes. This facial disc is bordered by a ruff of

    short, stiff, recurved feathers which originate in a thick fold of skin.

    The disc is very noticeable in the barn owl. One falconiform genus, Circus

    (marsh hawk and allies) has a facial disc, but it is not as well developed as

    in the owls.



    746      |      Vol_IV-0804                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Strigiformes and Strix

            Owls, like falconiform birds, are principally brown, gray, black,

    and white and are never gaudily colored. Males and females are usually

    colored alike. The female is larger (in some species considerably larger)

    than the male.

            Most owls are at least partly nocturnal. Even such more or less

    diurnal genera as Surnia (hawk owl), Nyctea (snowy owl), and Glaucidium

    (pygmy owl) are, however, rather large-eyed. Owls shut their eyes by

    moving the upper eyelid, which is more or less feathered. Owls have very

    keen hearing and their ears are very large. In the genus Aegolius the two

    ears differ so from each other in shape and relative position that the

    bones of the right side of the head are different from those on the left.

            Owl plumage is long and soft. The remiges are so soft-edged that

    even the largest owls fly almost noiselessly.

            For a discussion of Strigiform behavior, etc., see Owl.

            631. Strix. A genus of large and middle-sized “hornless” owls

    found in the Old “world (principally in northern parts) and in both of the

    Americas. There are at least 13 species, several of which are represented

    by numerous geographical races. Strix is large-headed, its head plumage

    being very deep. It is also large-eyed. The ear openings are large and

    unlike each other, that on the right being larger than, and of a different

    shape from, that on the left. The ear openings have a protective flap of

    skin, or operculum, but no transverse fold. The wings are comparatively

    short, the tips of the primaries extending only a short way beyond the tips

    of the secondaries when folded. The 5th and 6th (or 4th, 5th, and 6th)

    747      |      Vol_IV-0805                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Strix and Surnia

    primaries are the longest. The 5 or 6 outermost primaries are emarginate

    on the inner webs. The tail is fairly long and slightly rounded. The

    tarsi are fully feathered, but the toes are scantily feathered, especially

    toward the tips. In some species — notably Strix varia (barred owl) of

    North America — the toes of the northernmost race are more heavily feathered

    than those of the southern races.

            No species of Strix is truly arctic (i.e., an inhabitant of the tundra),

    but three species range well northward. The largest of these, the big,

    deep-plumaged grat gray owl ( S. nebulosa ) breeds northward to the Arctic

    Circle and beyond in both the Old World and the New. The two smaller species,

    S. aluco (tawny owl) and S. uralensis (Ural owl) range northward almost to

    the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and northern Russia, but are less northward–

    ranging in Asia.

            See Great Gray Owl.

            632. Surnia. The monotypic genus to which the hawk owl ( Surnia ulula )

    belongs. It is middle-sized and “hornless” and has slaty gray and grayish–

    white plumage. Its under parts are heavily and evenly barred. It is hawklike

    in proportions and behavior, being diurnal. Its eyes are small and its plumage

    compact. Its wings are short and rather pointed, the 4th primary being the

    longest and the 5th only a little shorter. The primaries are much longer

    than the secondaries. The tail is long, proportionately, and much graduated.

    The ear openings are comparatively small, that on the left being the same in

    size and shape as that on the right. The tarsus is very short. The tarsi

    and toes are thickly feathered.



    748      |      Vol_IV-0806                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Surnia

            Surnia is circumboreal in distribution. It breeds northward about to

    tree limit, reaching northern Norway (lat. 70° N.), northern Sweden, northern

    Finland, northern Russia (67°), slightly lower latitudes in Siberia, northern

    Alaska, northwestern and central Mackenzie, northern Saskatchewan, northern

    Manitoba, northern Quebec, and the Labrador. The southern limits of its

    breeding range are central Russia, Tian Shan, northern Mongolia, northern

    Manchuria, Sakhalin, southern British Columbia, central Alberta, east central

    Saskatchewan, northern Michigan (Isle Royale), and southern Quebec. Its

    migrations are irregular. It winters southward to Germany, the Baltic States,

    Poland, south Russia, probably southern Mongolia and southern Manchuria, and

    the northern tier of the United States. It has been reported from England

    several times in fall and winter; from northern France, Belgium, the Nether–

    lands, Helgoland, Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, northern

    Yugoslavia, and Romania in winter; and the north coast of the Chukotsk

    Peninsula (in extreme northeastern Siberia) in May.

            See Hawk Owl.

    Apodiformes (Swifts)



    749      |      Vol_IV-0807                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Swifts and their allies

    SWIFTS AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order APODIFORMES ; Suborder APODI

           

    Family APODIDAE

            634.1a. APODIDAE. See writeup.

            634.1b. APODIFORMES . See writeup.

            634.1c. Apus . See writeup.

            634.1d. Common Swift. Apus apus . See Swift.

            634.1e. Swift. See writeup.



    750      |      Vol_IV-0808                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Apodidae and Apodiformes

            634.1a. Apodidae . A family of exceedingly long-winged, wide-mouthed,

    small-footed birds known as swifts. They are one of the two families of

    the suborder Apodes, the other family being the Hemiprocnidae, or so-called

    crested swifts, a small group (three species, all belonging to one genus)

    confined to the eastern tropics.

            The Apodidae, or “true” swifts, are all compact-bodied, thick-skinned

    birds which bear a strong superficial resemblance to swallows (family

    Hirundinidae) but are actually very different. The feet, though small,

    are very strong, and the toes have great grasping power. The plumage has

    a long aftershaft. The skull is flat. The salivary glands are strongly

    developed, especially during the nesting season, when the saliva is used

    in nest building. The eggs are white. The family inhabits both the Old

    World and the New. There are 17 genera, of which only one ( Apus ) ranges

    northward into the subarctic.

            See Apus.

            634.1b. Apodiformes . A remarkable order of birds commonly known as

    swifts and hummingbirds. They are the most serial of birds. They virtually

    never descend to the ground except when stunned or caught by a sudden tor–

    rential rain. They are distinguishable from other birds by several internal

    characters (13 to 15 cer t v ical vertebrae, unnotched sternum, absence of

    basipterygoid processes, exceedingly short humerus, long manus bones), but

    they can be identified readily by external characters also — principally

    the 10 tail feathers, 10 primaries (the outermost very long), very short

    secondaries, and small feet. The tarsi are exceedingly short. There are

    751      |      Vol_IV-0809                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Apodiformes and Apus

    4 toes. The swallows (family Hirundinidae), which are also aerial, have

    12 tail feathers.

            The two suborders, the Apodes (swifts) and Trochili (hummingbirds),

    also are readily separable from each other on the basis of external

    characters. The hummingbirds, most of which are very small, are long–

    and slender-billed and exclusively American. They are principally tropical,

    though one species, the rufous hummingbird ( Selasphorus rufus ) ranges north

    to latitude 61° N. in Alaska. The swifts, which have extremely wide m [o ?] uths

    (but very small bills) and very long wings, inhabit both the Old World and

    the New. They range northward into the Subarc [t ?] ic only in Europe. The most

    boreal species of the suborder is Apus apus (common swift), which breeds

    north to latitude 70° N. in Norway.

            See APODIDAE, Apus, and Swift.

            634.1c. Apus . A genus (15 to 16 species) of swifts, found principally

    — perhaps wholly — in the Old World, there being a difference of opinion

    as to whether the Andean swift ( andecolus ) of the mountains of Peru, Bolivia,

    extreme northern Chile, and western Argentina belongs in Apus or in Mircropus .

    Apus has a very deeply cleft mouth (opening to well back of the eyes), no

    rictual bristles, and short, thickly feathered tarsi. All four toes are

    directed forward. The tail is fairly long and more or less forked, but not

    spine-tipped. The most northward-ranging species, A. apus , breeds through–

    out almost the whole of Eurasia and Africa (including Madagascar). The

    northern limits of its breeding range are latitude 70° N. in Norway, but

    it has been recorded casually farther north.

            See Swift.



    752      |      Vol_IV-0810                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Swift

            634.le. A well-known Old World bird, Apus anus , which is the only

    member of its genus, family (Apodidae), and order (Apodiformes) to range

    regularly northward into the Subarctic. It is 6 1/2 inches long from

    tip of bill to tip of tail, and a full inch longer if the measurement

    includes the tips of the folded wings. It is sooty brown all over, except

    for the whitish throat. Its tail is rather deeply forked. In flight it

    has somewhat the appearance of a swallow, but its tail is proportionately

    shorter, its wings longer and more scythelike, and its behavior different.

    It often changes its course and tilts from one side to the other. Sometimes

    it beats its wings rapidly, sometimes it sails, but never does it partly

    close its wings. So constructed is it that the instant it launches forward

    or moves upward in flight, the wings spread fully. In this respect it is

    radically different from a swallow. It is a confirmed eater of insects,

    all of which it captures while flying. Often it feeds in loose flocks.

    Its call note is a harsh squeal or scream which has been written sweer or

    [ ?] sweereee.

            The swift usually breeds in colonies. It sometimes lays its eggs in

    old nests of the house martin ( Delichon urbica ) or house sparrow ( Passer

    domesticus ); but usually it builds a nest of its own. Snatching wind-borne

    feathers and straws from the air, it glues them together with its own saliva

    and attaches them to a wall, rock, or tree cavity, fashioning a shallow,

    bracketlike cup. The eggs, which usually number 3, are white. The incubation

    period is 18 to 19 days. The young remain in or near the nest about 6 weeks.

    One brood is reared per season ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            Apus apus ranges throughout most of Eurasia and Africa (including

    Madagascar). The northern limits of its range are latitude 70° N. in Norway,

    753      |      Vol_IV-0811                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Swift

    northern Finland, northern Russia, 65° 35′ on the Yenisei (Theel, in

    Popham; Peters gives “at least 57°”), and the north end of Lake Baikal.

    The southern limits are southern Africa, Madagascar, Transcaucasia, and

    the Himalayas. It winters in India and in Africa south to Cape Province.

    It has been reported from Iceland, the Faeroes, the Murman Coast (Cape

    Svyatoi Nos), off Spitsbergen, off Kolguev, and between Novaya Zemlya

    and Franz Josef Archipelago.

            The white-rumped swift ( Apus pacificus ) of Asia, a species which

    breeds northward to Yakutsk and Kamchatka, has been reported casually

    from St. George’s Island in the Pribilofs.

            The needle-tailed swift ( Hirund - ap [u ?] s caudacutus) , so named because of

    the sharp spine at the tip of each tail feather, breeds from Yakutsk on the

    upper Lena, Lake Baikal, Sakhalin, the Kurils and Japan southward to

    Formosa, India, Indochina, the Malay States, Sumatra, and Java. It winters

    in Australia and Tasmania.

            The most northward-ranging swifts of North America inhabit the western

    part of the continent. Both the black swift ( Nephoecetes niger ) and Vaux’s

    swift ( Chaetura vauxi ) breed northward to southeastern Alaska. The well–

    known chimney swift ( Chaetura pelagica ) of eastern North America has been

    reported from Greenland.

            See Apus, APODIDAE, and APODIFORMES.

    Coraciiformes (Kingfishers)



    754      |      Vol_IV-0812                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kingfishers and their allies

    KINGFISHERS AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order CORACIIFORMES : Suborder ALCEDINES

           

    Family ALCEDINIDAE

            635. ALCEDINIDAE. See writeup.

            636. Belted Kingfisher. See writeup.

            637. CORACIIFORMES . See writeup.

            638. Kingfisher. See writeup.

            639. Megaceryle. See writeup.



    755      |      Vol_IV-0813                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alcedinidae

            635. Alcedinidae . The almost cosmopolitan coraciiform family to

    which the kingfishers belong. Ornithologists currently recognize about

    90 species, six of which are found only in the New World, the rest only

    in the Old World. Of the 15 ot 16 genera, one ( Chloroceryle ) is confined

    to America; one ( Megaceryle ) is found in both the Old World and the New;

    and the rest inhabit the Old World. In Chloroceryle there are four species,

    all of them rather small. Several kingfishers, especially Old World species,

    range very widely and have become endemized in numerous islands and island

    groups. A good example of such a “plastic” species is Halcyon chloris

    (white-collared kingfisher), which ranges from Ethiopia across the Indo–

    nesian Archipelago to Australia and Samoa. No fewer than 45 geographical

    races are now recognized. The kingfishers of the world (species and sub–

    species combined) number over 300 forms.

            In general, kingfishers are small or middle-sized birds with compact

    bodies, short, weak legs, and short, rounded, but strong wings. In most

    species the head is (or at least appears to be) disproportionately [ ?] large,

    this partly because the bill is long and stout, and partly because the

    plumage is long. The eyes are rather large and the tongue very short

    (almost rudimentary). Many kingfishers are conspicuously created. The

    kingfisher’s wing has 11 primaries and 11 to 14 secondaries. The tail

    in most species is short, square, or slightly rounded, and of 12 feathers;

    but in several Old World species it has only 10 feathers, the middle pair

    of which are greatly lengthened and racket-tipped. Foot structure is much

    the same throughout the entire family. Most species are four-toes (three

    in front, one behind). In these the middle and outer front toes are joined

    for more than half their length, and the middle and inner front toes are

    756      |      Vol_IV-0814                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alcedinidae [ ?]

    joined at the base. In 12 species (all belonging to the Old World genus

    Ceyx ), there are only three toes — two pointing forward, one backward,

    the second, the innermost of the front toes, being absent. Throughout the

    Alcedinidae the sternum is usually two-notched, the furcula U-shaped, the

    oil gland tufted. The contour feathers of the body have no aftershafts.

            Most kingfishers nest in burrows which they dig in banks. Their eggs

    are white. The young are born naked and helpless. Many kingfishers live

    largely on fish, as the name implies; but some species live away from water

    and feed almost wholly on insects; and some of the large species prey

    widely on small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and crayfish. Adult king–

    fishers vary greatly in color and color pattern, some of them being among

    the most beautiful birds of the world.

            Only one species of this great family ranges northward into the Sub–

    arctic — the belted kingfisher ( Megaceryle alcyon ) of North America. It

    breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and somewhat beyond in the Kotzebue

    Sound area of Alaska, along the headwaters of the Yukon (probably), and

    along the lower Mackenzie. The most northward-ranging species of the Old

    World is the common kingfisher ( Alcedo atthis ) which breeds as far north

    as mid-Sweden, the Baltic States, latitude 58° N. in western Russia, and

    56° in eastern Russia. The greater pied kingfisher ( Megaceryle lugubris )

    breeds northward as far as Japan.

            See Belted Kingfisher and Megaceryle .



    757      |      Vol_IV-0815                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Belted Kingfisher

            636. Belted Kingfisher . A well-known American bird, Megaceryle

    alcyon , which has the distinction of being the only species of the

    kingfisher family (Alcedinidae) and of the great order Coraciiformes

    (rollerlike birds) known to breed northward to the Arctic Circle and

    beyond. The northern limits of its breeding range are the Kotzebue

    Sound region of Alaska (Noatak and Kobuk rivers), the Alatna River in

    the Brooks Range, the upper Yukon (probably), the lower Mackenzie (Fort

    McPherson), northern Saskatchewan (Knew Lake), northern Manitoba (Oxford

    Lake), central Quebec, east central Labrador (Grand Falls), and Newfound–

    land. Remarkably enough, the southern limits of its breeding range

    coincide with the southern boundary of the United States (southern

    California, southern New Mexico, southern Texas, southern Louisiana, and

    extreme southern Florida). It winters throughout the southern half of its

    breeding range and southward through Bermuda, the Caribbean and West Indian

    islands, Mexico, and Central America to northern Columbia, Venezuela,

    Trinidad, and the Guianas.

            Two races are recognized — an eastern ( Megaceryle alcyon alcyon )

    and a western ( M. alcyon caurina ). The eastern race breeds throughout

    Canada and the United States east of the Rocky Mountains; the western from

    northern Alaska and southwestern Yukon south through the entire Rocky Mountain

    district (including the Black Hills) to southern California. Mackenzie River

    birds belong to the eastern race, and all Alaska birds are believed to be

    caurina , so the divide between the Yukon and Mackenzie drainages may well

    be also the “divide” between the races.

            The belted kingfisher is 11 to 15 inches long with wingspread of

    slightly under 2 feet. Both the male and female are conspicuously crested

    758      |      Vol_IV-0816                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Belted Kingfisher

    and are, generally speaking, blue-gray above and white below, with a

    rather noticeable white collar and a blue-gray “belt” across the upper breast.

    There is a white spot midway between the eye and the top of the bill.

    The female is actually more colorful than the male, for her sides are

    rufous. In some females this rufous meets on the lower breast to form a

    “second belt.” Young birds resemble the adults, but their belts are more

    or less brown, and some young males have traces of a rufous “second belt.”

            The belted kingfisher’s flight is distinctive. Forbush describes it

    as “two moderate wing beats alternating with a few very fast ones.” The

    bird is not often seen stay from water. It has favorite stumps, snags, or

    roots from which it watches for prey, and its plunge for a fish, frog, or

    crayfish often takes it completely out of sight for a second or more. Its

    cry is an unmusical rattle; but some of the syllables are sometimes arranged

    in phrases and repeated in such a way as to suggest a song.

            The nest is at the end of a long burrow which the birds dig in a

    perpendicular bank. Usually the entrance is in a comparatively inaccessible

    place directly above a deep, swift stretch of stream. Occasionally the

    burrow is in a gravel pit or road-cut a long way from the nearest lake or

    stream. The 5 to 8 eggs (as many as 14 have been reported), which are

    white, lie on the bare earth or on a little heap of fish bones and crayfish

    scales. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is 23 to 24 days (Bent).

    The young remain in the nest until they are well able to fly (at least 4 weeks)

    and keep together as a brood for some days thereafter, while their parents

    teach them to fish for themselves.

            This species should be studied with care at the northern edge of its

    range. It would be interesting to discover why it breeds so much farther

    759      |      Vol_IV-0817                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Belted Kingfisher and Coraciiformes

    north than do the greater pied kingfisher ( Megaceryle lugubris ) and common

    kingfisher ( Alcedo atthis ) of the Old World.

            See Megacer y le .

            References:

    1. Bailey, William L. “The Kingfishers’ home life.” Bird-Lore , vol.2,

    pp.76-80, 1900. 2. Mousley, William H. “A study of the home life of the eastern belted

    kingfisher.” Wilson Bulletin , vol.50, pp.3-12, 1938.

            637. Coraciiformes . A large, diverse, almost world-ranging order of

    birds which includes the kingfishers, todies, motmots, bee-eaters, ground

    rollers, rollers, hoopoes, wood hoopoes, and hornbills. Many taxonomists

    arrange these birds in [ ?] six suborders, the Alcedines (kingfishers), Todi

    (todies), Momoti (motmots), Meropes (bee-eaters), Coracii (rollers and allies),

    and Bucerotes (hornbills). Five of these suborders contain only one family

    each; but the Coracii are four families — the Leptosomatidae (ground rollers),

    Coraciidae (true rollers), Upupidae (hoopoes) and Phoeniculidae (wood hoopoes).

    Some taxonomists place the kingfishers, todies, and motmots together in one

    suborder.

            The many above-mentioned birds differ considerably in outward appearance

    — the todies being brilliant, fluffy, delicate little creatures which w s eem

    more like Christmas-tree ornaments than birds; while some of the hornbills

    are large, exceedingly coarse birds of noisy flight, almost reptilian facial

    expression, and rather sordid, though estremely interesting, nesting habits.

    Most species of the order have four toes, of which three are directed forward,

    760      |      Vol_IV-0818                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Coraciiformes

    one backward. There is a tendency for the front toes to be joined. This

    syndactylism is especially pronounced in the Alcedines and Meropes, in

    which the middle and outer front toes are joined for most of their length.

    All coraciiform birds are short-legged and all have desmognathous palate

    and slitlike nostrils. The ambiens muscle is always absent. The basiptery–

    goid processes at the base of the skull are either rudimentary or wholly

    missing. Most coraciiform birds nest in holes and lay white eggs. The

    young are blind, helpless, and naked (down-covered in the hoopoes) when

    hatched.

            Of the six suborders only the Alcedines are at all arctic in distribution.

    The numerous species of this suborder belong to one family — the Alcedinidae.

    While there are far more genera and species of kingfishers in the Old World

    than in the New, the order (family) ranges farther north in America than it

    does in Eurasia. The balted kingfisher ( Megaceryle alcyon ) breeds northward

    to the Arctic Circle and somewhat beyond in Alaska and along the lower

    Mackenzie. The most northward-ranging kingfisher of the Old World is the

    beautiful small common kingfisher ( Alcedo atthis ), which ranges north to

    mid-Sweden, to latitude 58° N. in western Russia, and to 56° in eastern

    Russia. So far as is known these two kingfishers nest almost entirely in

    holes in banks and feed largely on fish and other small aquatic animals

    at the northern edge of their range.

            See ALCEDINIDAE, Magaceryle, and Belted Kingfisher.



    761      |      Vol_IV-0819                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kingfisher and Megaceryle

            638. Kingfisher. Any of numerous birds of the coraciiform family

    Alcedinidae, may of which feed largely on fish. They are strong-billed,

    compact-plumages, rather large-headed birds with very short legs and

    small, weak feet. The more than 300 currently recognized forms belong

    to 90 species, 15 or 16 genera, and 3 subfamilies. Of these only 1 species

    (2 subspecies) breeds northward to the Arctic Circle. This species — the

    belted kingfisher ( Magaceryle aleyon ) — is confined to the New World. The

    most northern kingfishers of the Old World do not range northward beyond

    the southernmost fringes of the Subarctic.

            See Belted Kingfisher, Megaceryle, ALCEDINIDAE, and CORACIIFORMES.

            639. Megaceryle . A genus composed of four or five species of large,

    conspicuously crested kingfishers. Of the 15 or 16 genera of the king–

    fisher family (Alcedinidae), it is the only one found in both the New

    World and the Old. It is characterized by its large, finely serrate bill;

    its two crests (one [ ?] vertical, the other occipital); and its wholly or

    partly bluish-gray (never green) upper parts. The axillary feathers of

    the adult male are white, of the female rufous. The tail is short and

    square or slightly rounded, each of the 12 feathers being more or less

    pointed at the tip. The tarsus is exceedingly short, stout, and distinctly

    scaled in front. The plumage has very little luster.

            Of the four or five species, none is common to the New World and the

    Old. The two New World species, the belted kingfisher ( M. alcyon ) and

    ringed kingfisher ( M. torquata ) have almost complementary breeding ranges,

    the former breeding from about tree limit south to the southern United States,

    762      |      Vol_IV-0820                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Megaceryle

    the latter from northern Mexico to Tierra del Fuego.

            None of the two (or three) Old World species ranges northward nearly

    to the Arctic Circle. M maxima (giant kingfisher) is confined to Africa,

    and N lugubris (greater pied kingfisher) to Asia. M guttulate (Indian

    greater pied kingfisher) is found in “the Himalayas from Kashmir to Assam

    eastward through China north to the Tsin-ling Mountains and southern Chihli,

    south to Tenasserim and northern Indo-China” (Peters). By some taxonomists

    guttulata is considered a geographical race of lugubris . The northernmost

    limits reached by Megaceryle in Asia are the “Tsin-ling Mountains and

    southern Chihli” and the island of Hokkaido, Japan.

            By some taxonomists, including Peters, Megaceryle has been reduced

    to subgeneric rank under Ceryle .

            Reference:

    Miller, Waldron Dewitt. “A revision of the classification of the Kingfishers.”

    Bull . Amer. Mus. Natl. Hist., vol. 31, pp. 239-311.

    (with plates), 1912.

    Piciformes (Woodpeckers)



    763      |      Vol_IV-0821                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Woodpeckers and their allies

    WOODPECKERS AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order PICIFORMES : Suborder PICI

           

    Family PICIDAE

            640. Alaska Three-toed Woodpecker. Picoïdes tridactylus fasciatus ,

    the race of three-toed woodpecker inhabiting extreme northwestern

    North America. See Three-toed Woodpecker.

            641. American Three-toed Woodpecker. A name sometimes used for Picoïdes

    tridactylus bacatus , the race of three-toed woodpecker inhabit–

    ing northeastern North America. See Three-toed Woodpecker.

            642. Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker. A misleading but widely used name for

    the black-backed three-toed woodpecker ( Picoïdes arcticus ) ( q.v .).

            643. Black-backed Woodpecker or Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker.

    See writeup.

            644. Boreal Flicker. Colaptes auratus borealis , the northernmost race of

    the yellow-shafted flicker ( q.v. ).

            645. Common Three-toed Woodpecker. A name sometimes applied to the Three–

    toed woodpecker ( Picoïdes tridactylus ) ( q.v. ).

            646. Colaptes . See writeup.

            647. Dendrocopos . See writeup.

            648. Flicker. Any of several North American woodpeckers of the genus

    Colaptes , all of them notable for the red, orange, or yellow

    color of the under side of the wings and tail. See Colaptes and

    yellow-shafter Flicker.

            649. Golden-winged Woodpecker. A widely used name for the yellow-shafted

    flicker ( Colaptes auratus ) ( q.v. ).



    764      |      Vol_IV-0822                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Woodpeckers and their allies

            650. Great Spotted Woodpecker. See writeup.

            651. Hairy Woodpecker. See writeup.

            652. Ladder-backed Three-toed Woodpecker. A common name sometimes applied

    to the three-toed woodpecker ( Picoïdes tridactylus ) ( q.v. ).

            653. Northern Hairy Woodpecker. Dendrocopos villosus septentrionalis ,

    the northernmost race of the hairy woodpecker ( q.v .).

            654. PICIDAE . See writeup.

            655. PICIFORMES . See writeup.

            656. Picoïdes . See writeup.

            657. Three-toed Woodpecker. See writeup.

            658. Woodpecker. See writeup.

            659. Yellow-shafter Flicker. See writeup.



    765      |      Vol_IV-0823                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-backed Woodpecker or Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker.

            643. Black-backed Woodpecker or Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker .

    A North American woodpecker, Picoïdes arcticus , widely known as the arctic

    three-toed woodpecker. It is much like the common three-toed woodpecker

    ( Picoïdes tridactylus ), but its back is entirely black, without any white

    barring. The name “arctic,” while not wholly inept, is certainly misleading —

    for P. arcticus is actually a less boreal bird than P. tridactylus , and

    neither species is arctic save in a restricted sense.

            The black-backed woodpecker prefers to nest in deciduous trees in

    mixed woods, and often is commonest in recently burned-over areas. It ranges

    north to about latitude 63° N. in the Mackenzie Valley (Preble) and probably

    to similar latitudes, or a little farther north, in Alaska; but in eastern

    North America the northern limits of its range are James Bay, southern

    Quebec, Anticosti Island, and Newfoundland. So far as is known, it does

    not breed northward to the Arctic Circle along any meridian. It has never

    been reported from Churchill, Manitoba, at which place the common three-toed

    woodpecker ( Picoïdes tridactylus ) is found among the larger spruces.

            See Three-toed Woodbecker.

            646. Colaptes . A genus composed of six species of “true” woodpeckers

    commonly known as flickers. It is confined to the New World. All six species

    are four-toed. The outer front toe and outer hind toes are of about equal

    length. The bill, which is about as long as the head, is pointed rather than

    chisel-shaped. The culmen is slightly decurved rather than straight, and the

    upper mandible is without lateral ridges or grooves. The nostrils are more

    or less covered with small antrorse feathers. The tarsus is nearly as long

    766      |      Vol_IV-0824                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Colaptes and Dendrocopos

    (about two-thirds as long as the wing) and yellow, orange, or red on the

    under side throughout the basal half or more. The wing linings also are

    more or less yellow, orange, or red. The under parts are pale pinkish buff,

    spotted with black. There is a black crescent-shaped spot on the chest.

    In males there is a bold black (red in some forms) moustache spot on each

    side of the head.

            All flickers are somewhat terrestrial. They are fond of ants, which

    they often obtain on the ground by sticking their long, saliva-covered

    tongues down into the ants’ burrows. They nest as a rule in a tree,

    but nests in banks have been reported. The only far northern nests thus

    far reported have been in trees.

            Colaptes ranges throughout North and South America from about tree

    limit south to Chile and Patagonia. One form is endemic to Cuba. Two

    North American species so frequently hybridize that some birds of mixed

    parentage are difficult to identify. The only species which ranges north–

    ward into the Subarctic is the golden-shafted flicker or golden-winged

    woodpecker ( C. auratus ). This bird has been found nesting in the Kotzebue

    Sound region of Alaska and along the lower Mackenzie. It has been reported

    from Greenland. A. M. Bailey [ ?] has reported it from Wainwright, Cape

    Halkett, and Colville River, Alaska.

            647. Dendrocopos . A genus composed of 30-some species (and numerous

    subspecies) of small and middle-sized woodpeckers (subfamily Picinae, family

    Picidae) found in both the Old World and the New. All species of the group

    have four toes, and the outer hind toe is definitely longer than the outer

    767      |      Vol_IV-0825                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dencrocopos

    front toe. The bill is shorter than, or about as long as, the head. The

    nostrils are covered with bristly feathers. All species are black and

    white with small amounts of red here and there (chiefly in the males).

    The genus inhabits North and South America, Eurasia (including the Mediter–

    ranean islands, the Philippines, Ceylon, Celebes, Japan, the southern

    Kurils, and Sakhalin), and Africa, but not, of course, Australia, Madagascar,

    or Polynesia — there being no woodpecker of any sort there.

            Dendrocopos ranges northward to about tree limit in the Old World and

    the New, but no species is found both in North America and in Eurasia. The

    most northern species of the Old World is D. major (great spotted woodpecker)

    which breeds northward to about latitude 70° N. in Norway, and to more or

    less comparable latitudes across the whole of Eurasia. The lesser spotted

    woodpecker ( D. minor ), another Old World species, does not range quite so

    far north. In North America the most northern species is the hairy wood–

    pecker ( D. villosus ), which reaches its northern limits in central Alaska,

    central Mackenzie, northern Manitoba, James Bay, and south central Quebec.

    It is decidedly rare along the north edge of its range. The considerably

    smaller downy woodpecker ( D. pubescens ), another North American species,

    also ranges well northward, but it is not as hardy a bird as the hairy

    woodpecker and does not attain quite such high latitudes.

            See Great Spotted Woodpecker and Hairy Woodpecker.



    768      |      Vol_IV-0826                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Spotted Woodpecker

            650. Great Spotted Woodpecker . A black, white, and red, middle-sized

    Old World woodpecker, Dendrocopos major , which ranges north to latitude

    70° N. in Norway and to slightly lower latitudes across the whole of Eurasia.

    It is not, of course, found anywhere beyond tree limit. In Siberia it ranges

    farthest north in the valleys of the great northward-flowing rivers, the

    Yenisei, Khatanga, Lena, Indigirka, Yana, and Kolyma. It nests chiefly in

    conifers, but also in birches. Numerous (27 or more) geographical races are

    currently recognized. The most northern of these are D. major major of

    Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and extreme northwestern Russia; D. major

    brevirostris of northern Russia (the part laying east of the White Sea) and

    Siberia (east as far as A murland); D. major tschuskii of Ussuriland and

    Sakhalin; and D. major kamtschaticus of Kamchatka. The species ranges

    throughout most of Europe, northern Asia (including Japan), the Mediterranean

    islands, the Canaries, and northwestern Africa. It is believed to be resident

    throughout its range, but the regular appearance in fall of the northern race,

    D. major major , in the British Isles, indicates that it may be migratory in

    the northern part of its range.

            The great spotted woodpecker is boldly black and white with red under

    tail coverts . The male has a red nape patch and young birds of both sexes

    are red on the crown. The white patch formed by the white scapulars and

    proximal greater wing coverts is distinctive. The similarly black, white,

    and red, but decidedly smaller lesser spotted woodpecker ( Dendrocopos minor )

    of the Old World has white barring on the lower back but no white scapular

    patch . The great spotted woodpecker is about 9 inches long. The lesser

    spotted woodpecker is 5 1/2 to 6 inches long. The lesser spotted woodpecker

    ranges well northward across the whole of Eurasia, but nowhere does it attain

    769      |      Vol_IV-0827                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Spotted Woodpecker

    the high latitudes reached by the larger species.

            The great spotted woodpecker feeds on wood-boring insects, [ ?] ants,

    spiders, berries of various sorts, the seeds of conifers, and (occasionally)

    the young of smaller hole-nesting birds. It drills rows of small holes

    or sap-wells in the bark of certain trees, in this respect resembling the

    sapsuckers of the New World genus Sphyrapicus . Its call is a far-carrying

    keek , keek (Owen). In spring both males and females drum and display with

    quivering wings in short flights from tree to tree. Displays also include

    crest-raising and tail-spreading.

            The next is excavated by both sexes. Usually it is well above ground

    (30 feet or more up) in the main trunk of a tree. Owen has reported one as

    low as 7 feet. The eggs, which are glossy white, usually number 4 to 7,

    though as few as 3 and as many as 8 have been reported. Both sexes incubate.

    The incubation period is 12 days (Neithammer). Usually the male spends the

    night on the nest. Both the male and female feed the young during the fledging

    period. Fledging requires 18 to 21 days. One brood is reared per season.

            See Dendrocopos .

            Reference:

    Owen, J.H. “Notes on the nesting of the great spotted woodpecker.”

    British Birds , vol.19, pp.125-128, 1925.

    770      |      Vol_IV-0828                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hairy Woodpecker

            651. Hairy Woodpecker . A middle-sized, black and white New World wood–

    pecker, ( Dendrocopos villosus ), so named because of the hairlike plumage

    covering the nostrils and base of the bill. Like the similarly sized great

    spotted woodpecker ( Dendrocopos major ) of the Old World, it ranges north–

    ward to about the limit of forest, being found across North America from

    Alaska to the Labrador and Newfoundland even as the great spotted woodpecker

    is found across the whole of northern Eurasia. In both the Old World and

    the New a larger and a smaller species of Dendrocopos range well northward.

    All four of these birds are wholly distinct species, though they fesemble

    each other in many ways and the two Old World forms probably fill ecological

    niches comparable to those filled by the two New World forms. In the Old

    World the larger species is D. major (great spotted woodpecker), the smaller

    D. villosus (hairy woodpecker), the smaller D. pubescens (downy wood–

    pecker). Neither the lesser spotted woodpecker nor the downy woodpecker

    ranges quite as far north as its sympatric congener.

            The hairy woodpecker is about 8 1/2 to 10 1/2 inches long. It is

    white below and black and white above, with white (unbarred) outer tail

    feathers. The adult male has a red nape patch. All young males and many

    young females are more or less red on the crown. The downy woodpecker is

    remarkably similar in general appearance, but is proportionately shorter–

    billed, and its outer tail feathers are white more or less barred with black.

            The hairy woodpecker is a sturdy, muscular bird which pounds vigorously

    as it tears loose bark away or digs into the dead wood for food. After

    feeding on one tree it swings to another, then to another, sometimes

    covering a great area in the course of one day’s feeding. Its itinerary is

    771      |      Vol_IV-0829                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hairy Woodpecker

    often the same day after day. On the University of Michigan campus I have

    seen a male hairy woodpecker at a certain tree at about the same hour morn–

    ing after morning all winter. I strongly suspect that this bird was the

    same individual; that it roosted regularly in the same place; and that it proceeded

    from tree to tree in the same order day after day. The various feeding grounds

    of a given bird are sometimes far apart. When a bird has finished making the

    rounds of one group of trees it may fly to another group a quarter of a

    mile or more away. Its usual call is a sharp peek . Sometimes it gives a

    flickerlike koowick , koowick , koowick (Saunders) or wick-a, wick-a , wick-a .

    Its alarm cry is a cherk or churr which is sometimes so rapidly repeated as

    to become a rattle. In spring it drums loudly on a chosen stub. During

    courtship it bows energetically this way and that with crest elevated, crying

    wicka , wicka , wicka , wicka ; or spreads its wings and tail wide as it spirals

    round the trunk.

            Both sexes excavate the nest cavity, which is in a living or dead tree

    usually 30 feet or more above the ground. The eggs, which number 3 to 5,

    are glossy white. Both sexes incubate. The incubation period is 14 days

    (Burns). Incubation probably begins with the laying of the first egg, for

    the young hatch during a 2 to 3 day period. The young remain in [ ?] the nest

    about 24 days, being fed by both parents (Staebler). Staebler found a male

    bird brooding the young at night. The young do not leave the nest all at

    once. The oldest one or two young ones go off with the male parent soon

    after leaving. The younger ones stay with the female. The young firds

    become independent of their parents about a month after leaving the nest

    (Staebler).



    772      |      Vol_IV-0830                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hary Woodpecker and Picidae

            The northernmost race of the species, Dendrocopos villosus septentrionalis ,

    breeds from central Alaska (Alatna River in the Brooks Range), middle Yukon,

    central Mackenzie, northern Manitoba, James Bay, and south central Quebec

    south to southeastern British Columbia, Montana, northern North Dakota, central

    Ontario, and the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The endemic New–

    foundland race is D. villosus terraenovae . Several other races inhabit

    wooded parts of North America. The species is found as far south as Central

    America and Panama.

            See Dendrocopos .

            654. Picidae . A family of piciform birds known as woodpeckers, piculets,

    and wrynecks. They are scansorial climbing birds with strong, though not dis–

    proportionately large, feet; hard, straight, powerful, chisel-like bills with

    which they obtain food in bark and wood and excavate their nests and roosting

    cavities; and remarkably lengthened tongues. The tongue is mobile, usually

    hard (and barbed) at the tip, and supported by extremely long hyoid “horns”

    which in some forms curve round the whole skull, originating near the base

    of the bill or even at the bill tip. In some forms with this extremely elongate

    hyoid apparatus the tips of the horns originate on the right side of the bill

    tip, pass backward under the right nostril, and separate at the forehead

    before proceeding back over the skull to the tongue. The neck muscles are

    exceedingly powerful. The palate is schizognathous, the vomer being repre–

    sented by what appears to be minute paired horns. The st e rnum has a long,

    pointed spina externa . The tarsus is short, with a row of scales in front.

    The toes usually number four, but in some forms the hallux is missing. The

    773      |      Vol_IV-0831                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Picidae

    wing has 10 primaries, of which the outermost is much reduced.

            The Picidae are almost world-ranging, but are absent from treeless

    regions, of course, as well as from Madagascar, Australia, and Polynesia.

    Most taxonomists recognize three subfamilies — the Picinae or “true”

    woodpeckers; the Picumninae, or piculets of South America, the island of

    Hispaniola, Africa (Cameroun and Gaboon), and the Orient; and the Jynginae,

    or wrynecks, of the Old World. Of the three subfamilies, the Picinae, with

    33 or more genera, is far the largest.

            The most northern species of the family is a “true” woodpecker with

    only three toes. It is the circumboreal common three-toed woodpecker

    ( Picoïdes tridactylus ). Two other “true” woodpeckers range northward to

    the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond — the flicker or golden-winged

    woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus ) of the New World, and the greater spotted

    woodpecker ( Dendrocopos major ) of the Old World. The subfamily Picinae is,

    therefore, rather well represented in the Subarctic. The subfamily Jynginae

    (wrynecks) ranges northward in Eurasia almost to the Arctic Circle, but not

    quite. The piculets (Picumninae) are comparatively southern in distribution.

            The tail of the “true” woodpeckers is highly specialized. It is

    wedge-shaped. The feathers (especially the middle ones) are stiff and

    rather sharply pointed. These middle feathers are molted last, presumably

    a “provision of Nature” whereby the tail continues to serve as a prop

    throughout the molting period. There are usually 12 rectrices, in some

    forms 10. In forms with 12 rectrices the outermost pair are vestigial.

            The Picidae usually nest in cavities dug in trees by the birds them–

    selves. The eggs are white and glossy. In some forms the full-fledged young

    are more brightly colored than the adults.

            See Picoïdes , Colaptes ,. and Dendrocopos .



    774      |      Vol_IV-0832                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Piciformes

            655. Piciformes. An avian order to which the families Picidae

    (woodpeckers), Galbulidae (jacamars), Bucconidae (puff-birds), Capitonidae

    (barbets), Indicatoridae (honey-guides), and Ramphastidae (toucans) belong.

    The jacamars, puff-birds, and toucans are confined to the New World tropics.

    The honey-guides are confined to Africa, southeastern Asia, Sumatra, and

    Borneo. Only the barbets and woodpeckers are found in both the New World

    and the Old, and the barbets are tropical. The woodpeckers, a large but

    remarkably homogeneous group, range farther north and farther w s outh than any

    other piciform family. Indeed they are the only piciform birds which range

    northward into the Subarctic. They breed to the Arctic Circle and beyond

    where the forest is uniform and extensive.

            All piciform birds have zygodactyle (yoke-toed) feet, and in all of

    them the only tendon which runs, without branching , the full length of the

    leg to the very end of a toe is that which serves the third toe. The other

    three (two in some forms) toes are served by a single tendon which branches

    at the base of the toes. In “normal” (i.e., many nonpiciform) birds the

    only tendon which runs the full length of the leg and to the end of a toe

    without branching is the flexor hallucis , that which moves the hallux or

    first toe.

            Throughout the Piciformes the bill varies tremendously in shape and

    size, the toucans being notable for their disproportionately large, though

    not heavy bills, the woodpeckers for their chisel-like bills, the jacamars

    for their long, straight, [ ?] much pointed bills. All Piciform birds are

    holorhinal, and the nostrils are imperforate. The very long deltoid muscle

    almost covers the humerus. There are 10 primaries and 10 or 12 (rarely 13)

    secondaries.



    775      |      Vol_IV-0833                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Piciformes and Picoïdes

            Piciform birds nest in holes and lay translucent white eggs. The young

    are hatched blind, helpless, and completely naked. Neither adult birds nor

    young are down-covered.

            Taxonomists currently recognize two suborders — the Pici and Galbulae;

    but there is a difference of opinion as to the disposition of the six families

    within these suborders. Some ornithologists believe that the woodpeckers

    (including the closely allied piculets and wrynecks) form a close-knit group

    which should stand by itself (as the suborder Pici), whereas the other five

    families should constitute the suborder Galbulae; but some believe that the

    closely related families Galbulidae and Bucconidae should constitute the

    suborder Galbulae, while the other four families should constitute the Pici.

            See PICIDAE and Woodpecker.

            656. Picoïdes. A ditypic genus of smallish woodpeckers found only in

    northern forests. Picoïdes has only three toes (the first toe, or hallux,

    is missing). The bill is much flattened (depressed), though chisel-shaped at

    the tip. The culmen is straight and strongly ridged. The nostrils are covered

    with long, antrorse, hairlike feathers. The plumage of the front edge of the

    malar region and of the chin is similarly antrorse and hairlike. The two

    front toes are of about the same length. The one hind toe is slightly longer

    than the outer front toe.

            The plumage is black and white, somewhat as in Dendrocopos , but without

    any red. Adult males and young birds of both sexes have more or less yellow

    on the top of the head. Adult females never have yellow on the head.



    776      |      Vol_IV-0834                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Picoïdes and Three-toed Woodpecker

            The so-called common three-toed woodpecker (Picoïdes tridactylus)

    breeds borthward circumboreally to tree limit. The black-backed

    three-toed woodpecker ( P. arcticus ), which regrettably — though logically

    enough (since its scientific name is arcticus ) — is widely known as the

    arctic three-toed woodpecker, is found only in North America. It breeds

    farther north in western Canada and Alaska than to the east. Its northern

    limits are, apparently, central Alaska, southern Mackenzie, northern Mani–

    toba, James Bay, southern Quebec and Newfoundland.

            Picoïdes is nonmigratory except possibly along the north edge of its

    range. Some birds do, however, wander casually well to the southward of

    the nesting ground in winter.

            See Three-toed Woodpecker and Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker.

            657. Three-toed Woodpecker. A middle-sized woodpecker, Picoïdes

    tridactylus , which inhabits northern coniferous forests of both the Old

    and New Worlds. It is sometimes called the ladder-backed (or banded–

    backed) three-toed woodpecker. It ranges northward to the very limit

    of the forest. Apparently it finds plenty of food and trunks large enough

    for nest- and roost-cavities even among the rather small spruces, for it

    ranges considerably farther north than the great spotted woodpecker,

    ( Dendrocopos major ), ha r i ry woodpecker ( Dendrocopos villosus ), or

    flicker ( Colaptes auratus ). The northern limits of its range are

    northern Scandinavia, northern Lapland, northern Russia, northern Siberia

    (north to lat. 68° N.), northern Alaska, northern Yukon, northern Mackenzie,

    northern Manitoba (Churchill), northern Quebec (mouth of the Koksoak River),

    777      |      Vol_IV-0835                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Three-toed Woodpecker

    and northern Labrador (Okak). The southern limits of its breeding range

    are the Alps, the southern Carpathians, the mountains of southern Siberia,

    the mountains of Oregon, the mountains of central Arizona and central New

    Mexico, northern Minnesota, east central Ontario, northern New York (Adiron–

    dack Mountains), New Hampshire (White Mountains), and northern Main. At

    the northernmost edge of its range it is probably more or less migratory.

    Records for southern Europe, southern Asia, southern Wisconsin, Michigan,

    Long Island (New York), and Massachusetts, however, probably represent

    casual wandering.

            Ten races are currently recognized, of which the following four are

    subarctic: tridactylus of Scandinavia, Lapland, and northern Russia;

    crissoleucus of northern Siberia; fasciatus of northern Alaska, northern

    Yukon, and northern Mackenzie; and bacatus of southern Mackenzie, northern

    Manitoba, Quebec, and Labrador. The race albidior is endemic to Kamchatka.

    Sakhalinensis is endemic to Sakhalin.

            Picoïdes tridactylus is about 8 to 9 1/2 inches long. It is white

    below and black and white above. The sides are heavily barred with black

    and the back is heavily barred with white. Its vernacular name, ladder-back,

    emphasizes the chief point of difference between it and P. arcticus (black–

    backed three-toed woodpecker), whose back is solid black. As in P. arcticus ,

    all adult males, both adult and young, and most young females are yellow–

    crowned. The call note of the adult is a sharp chirk , cheek , or queep .

    The young birds’ food-cry is a loud rattle which sometimes attracts

    attention to the nest about the time the brood is leaving. During the

    breeding season the adult birds are very quiet. They do not call often

    unless in alarm or protest when the nest is threatened; and even their search

    778      |      Vol_IV-0836                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Three-toed Woodpecke [ ?] nd Woodpecker

    for food is carried on secretively. They seem to find most of their food

    low on the tree trunks or on fallen trees.

            The nest, which is excavated by both [ ?] sexes, is usually rather low,

    especially in far northern localities, but nests 25 to 40 feet above ground

    have been reported from the Adirondack Mountains in New York (Eaton, in Bent).

    The eggs, which number 3 or 4, are glossy white. Both sexes incubate. The

    incubation period is said to be about 14 days. The length of fledging

    period has not been ascertained. Young birds have a remarkable cartilaginous

    process at each side of the mouth. This appendage slowly shrinks during

    fledging.

            See Piccides.

            658. Woodpecker . Any of numerous scansorial, zygodactylous birds of

    the subfamily Picinae (family Picidae, order Piciformes). They are charac–

    terized by their hard, straight, shisel-shaped bills; powerful neck muscles;

    stiff, wedge-shaped tails; and greatly lengthened tongues. Knowlton and

    Ridgway say of the tongue that it is “in some respects more modified than

    in any other birds.” For a discussion of the tongue and hyoid apparatus

    see PICIDAE.

            Woodpeckers nearly always nest and roost in cavities in trees. They

    dig these cavities themselves, using their powerful bills. So dependent

    upon trees are they for nest sites, roosting places, and food, that they

    cannot inhabit treeless regions. They are wide-ranging, being found in

    all forested parts of the world except Australia, Madagascar and Polynesia



    779      |      Vol_IV-0837                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Woodpecker and Yellow-shafted Flicker

            The few woodpeckers which inhabit boreal forests need fair-sized

    trees — i.e., trees with trunks at least 6 to 8 inches d.b.h. — for

    nesting. Since trees of this sort grow plentifully as far north as

    the Arctic Circle and well beyond in several parts of the North, we are

    not surprised to find the woodpecker family fairly well represented there.

    The ditypic genus ( Picoïdes (three-toed woodpeckers) is represented by

    one circumboreal species. The other species, which is confined to the

    New World, does not range northward even into the Subarctic, despite the

    fact that it is widely known as the arctic three-toed woodpecker, and

    its scientific name, P. arcticus , certainly would seem to justify such

    usage. The genus Colaptes (flickers), which is confined to the New World,

    is represented by one species. The genus Dendrocopos (spotted woodpeckers)

    is represented by one species in the Old World and by one (possibly two)

    other species in the New World.

            See PICIDAE, Three-toed Woodpecker, Flicker, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers,

    Hairy Woodpecker, and Downy Woodpecker.

            659. Yellow-shafted Flicker . A common North American woodpecker,

    Colaptes auratus , known also as the golden-winged woodpecker, yellowhammer,

    high-hole or high-holder, wake-up, etc. The species is said to have no

    fewer than 125 vernacular names. It inhabits the wildest forests, but has

    adapted itself to nesting in towns and cities (where its drumming on roofs

    is sometimes a nuisance), and it is common even in some treeless districts,

    where it digs nests in telephone poles, houses (under eaves), and wooden

    bridges. It is surprisingly terrestrial for a woodpecker. It is so fond

    780      |      Vol_IV-0838                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Yellow-shafted Flicker

    of ants that it frequently visits anthills, capturing the insects by

    sticking its long, salive-covered tongue down into the burrows. As it

    flies up the white of its rump and the yellow of its wing- and tail–

    linings shows clearly. Its flight is strongly undulatory.

            Colaptes auratus is 12 to 13 inches long, with a wingspread of

    18 to 21 inches. It is ashy gray on the crown and hind neck and pinkish

    brown on the rest of the head save for the red of the nape and (in males

    only) the black moustache spot at either side of the mouth. The upper

    part of the body is olive brown, rather inconspicuously barred with

    darker brown. A crescent-shaped spot of black almost encircles the

    upper breast. The lower breast and belly are pale yellowish cinnamon,

    neatly spotted with black. The rump is white, and upper tail coverts white,

    spotted and barred with black. The [ ?] hafts and linings of the large wing

    and tail feathers are yellow. The eyes are dark brown.

            The species is migratory throughout the northern half (or more) of its

    range. The northern limits of its breeding range are central Alaska

    (Kotzebue Sound and the Alatna River in the Brooks Range), northwestern

    Mackenzie, northern Manitoba (Churchill), James Bay, south central Quebec,

    and middle Labrador (lat. 55° N.). In extreme northwestern North America

    it breeds southward to northern and eastern British Columbia. Throughout

    the rest of the continent it breeds in the vast area lying east of the

    Rockies. The southern limits of its winter range are southern Taxas, the

    coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Keys, Cuba, and the island of

    Grand Cayman.

            The closely allied red-shafted flicker ( Colaptes cafer ) inhabits

    most of those parts of Canada and the United States which lie west and

    781      |      Vol_IV-0839                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow-shafted Flicker

    south of the range of C. auratus , as well as the more mountainous parts

    of Mexico. The two species hybridize throughout a broad belt of the

    interior of the continent. Some taxonomists believe that the two forms

    actually belong to but one species.

            The flicker’s courtship is elaborate. It involves dancing which

    is accompanied by wing- and tail-spreading, energetic bowing, and excited

    calling of pleeka , pleeka, pleeka. The nest is dug in a living or dead

    tree, fence post, or wooden building at almost any distance above ground.

    Both sexes excavate. The incubation period is 11 to 16 days (Bent). The

    young remain in the nest 25 to 28 days (Sherman). The young are fed by

    regurgitation. The young at the time they leave the nest are like the

    adult male in that they all (males and females alike) possess black

    moustache spots. And all of them are more or less red all over the crown.

            The northernmost race of the species is Colaptes auratus borealis .

    This form has been reported from Greenland; the Pribilofs; the Bering

    Sea coast of Alaska; Wainwright, Alaska; Cape Halkett, Alaska, the

    Colville River, Alaska; and northern Ungava.

            See Colaptes .



    782      |      Vol_IV-0840                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Perching Birds

           

    PERCHING BIRDS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES

            660. PASSERIFORMES . See writeup.



    783      |      Vol_IV-0841                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Passeriformes.

            660. Passeriformes . A large order of land-inhabiting birds usually

    referred to as the perchers or perching birds. They are all four-toed,

    and none is web-footed. The dippers or water ousels (family Cinclidae)

    are decidedly aquatic, but they carry on their many and highly interest–

    ing under-water activities with unwebbed toes. A very few passeriform

    birds are large, but an overwhelmingly large number of them are small. The

    ravens and crows (family Corvidae) are said to be the largest of the whole

    group, although the lyrebirds (family Menuridae) are large and very long–

    tailed; some of the birds of paradise (family Paradiseidae) are very long–

    tailed or long-plumaged; and some cotingas (family Cotingidae) and New

    World orioles (family Icteridae) are large and powerful. Among the smallest

    species of the order are certain stub-tailed South American flycatchers

    (family Tyrannidae).

            The order Passeriformes contains nearly half of the known species of

    birds. They are diverse superficially, hence the group is difficult to

    diagnose by external characters alone. In certain fundamental ways they

    are the same, however; so much the same, in fact, that the great difficulty

    rises not in setting them apart from other birds, but in arranging them in

    satisfactory smaller subdivisions — suborders, superfamilies, families,

    and so on. Throughout the entire order the external appearance of the

    foot is the same: the first toe (hallux) is directed backward, is on the

    same level with the three front toes, and is not reversible. Usually it

    is about as long as the middle front toe, and its claw is as long as that

    of the middle front toe, or longer.

            The bill is variable, but it is always provided with a horny covering.

    The nostrils are imperforate. The palate is of the aegithognathous type.

    784      |      Vol_IV-0842                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Passeriformes

    The skull has no basipterygoid processes. There are never more than 15

    cervical vertebrae. The wing has nine or ten obvious or “visible”

    primaries, and six or more secondaries. The tail almost invariably has

    12 feathers. There is always an oil gland, but it is naked, not tufted.

    Young passeriform birds are helpless at hatching. Some of them are quite

    naked at first, but in most species there is a scanty covering of down at

    least on the dorsal parts. The newly hatched young are all boreal passeri–

    form birds are more or less covered with down. Young ravens ( Corvus corax )

    have been described as “naked,” but actually they are not. The young of

    some corvids are, however, wholly without down at hatching.

            Of the 60 or so passeriform families, only four are really well repre–

    sented in the Far North — the Alaudidae (larks), Corvidae (ravens, crows,

    and jays), Motacillidae (wagtails and pipits), and Fringillidae (finches).

    Three others — the Tyrannidae (tyrant flycatchers), Turdidae (thrushes),

    and Sylviidae (Old World warblers) — are, however, represented in the

    Subarctic and fringes of the Arctic each by one or more forms; and three

    more — the Bombycillidae (waxwings), Regulidae (kinglets), and Prunellidae

    (accentors or so-called hedge sparrows) — are definitely northern in that

    they are wholly confined to the Northern Hemisphere and are well represented

    in the Subarctic. The Laniidae (shrikes), Paridae (titmice), Certhiidxe

    (creepers), and Cinclidae (dippers) are widely distributed families which

    are represented in the Subarctic of both the Old World and the New. The

    Muscicapidae (Old World flycatchers), Sturnidae (starlings), and Ploceidae

    (weaverbirds) range northward to the Subarctic in Eurasia, while the

    Icteridae (New World orioles and allies) and Parulidae (New World warblers)

    range northward to the Subarctic in North America. The Hirundinidae (swallows)

    785      |      Vol_IV-0843                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Passeriformes

    are in a category by themselves in that they breed northward into the

    Subarctic in both the New World and the Old and have been reported

    repeatedly from various truly arctic localities, at some of which they

    probably breed more or less regularly.

    Passeriformes (Perching Birds)



    786      |      Vol_IV-0844                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: New World Flycatchers or Tyrant Flycatchers

    NEW WORLD FLYCATCHERS or TYRANT FLYCATCHERS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder TYRANNI

           

    Family TYRRANNIDAE

            661. Alder Flycatcher. A widely used name for Empidonax traillii ,

    the most northward-ranging species of its genus. It breeds

    north to central Alaska in the west and to central Quebec in

    the east. See Flycatcher.

            662. Contopus . A genus of tyrannid flycatchers known as wood pewees.

    One species has been reported casually from northern Alaska and

    from the Labrador. See Flycatcher.

            663. Empidonax . A genus composed of several small tyrant flycatchers.

    One species — E. trailli (Traill’s flycatcher) — ranges

    northward in North America almost to tree limit. Another —

    E. hammondii (Hammond’s flycatcher) — has been captured twice

    in northern Alaska. A third — E. flaviventris (yellow-bellied

    flycatcher) — has been taken once in Greenland. See Flycatcher.

            664. Flycatcher. See writeup.

            665. Hammond’s Flycatcher. Empidonax hammondii , a small tyrannid which has

    been captured on two occasions in northern Alaska. See Flycatcher.

            666. Kingbird. Tyrannus tyrannus , a well-known American flycatcher which

    has been captured once in arctic Alaska and once in Greenland.

    See Flycatcher.

            667. Nuttallornis . The monotypic genus to which the olive-sided flycatcher

    ( N. borealis ) belongs. It ranges across northern North America from

    central Alaska to southern Quebec and southward into the United

    States, chiefly in mountainous areas. See Flycatcher.



    787      |      Vol_IV-0845                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: New World Flycatchers or Tyrant Flycatchers

            668. Olive-sided flycatcher. Nuttallornis borealis , a well-known New

    World flycatcher which breeds in northern woodlands and south

    in the mountains. It has been captured once in Greenland.

    See Flycatcher.

            669. Pewee. A small tyrant flycatcher (of the genus Contopus ) usually

    called the wood pewee. There is a difference of opinion as to

    whether eastern and western birds are two species or one. The

    western wood pewee has been captured once in arctic Alaska,

    the eastern wood pewee once off the Labrador. See Flycatcher.

            670. Phoebe. Any of three species of tyrant flycatchers belonging [ ?] to

    the genus Savornis , one of which — Savornis saya (Say’s phoebe)

    — breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in

    Alaska and Mackenzie. See Flycatcher.

            671. Sayornis . A genus composed of three species of tyrant flycatchers

    known as phoebes. One species — S. saya (Say’s phoebe)—

    ranges northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in

    Alaska and northern Mackenzie. See Flycatcher.

            672. Say’s Phoebe. Sayornis saya , a well-known tyrant flycatcher of western

    North America. See Tyrannidae and Flycatcher.

            673. Traill’s Flycatcher. Empidonax traillii , a small tyrant flycatcher

    which ranges northward almost to tree limit. See Flycatcher.

            674. TYRANNIDAE. See writeup.

            675. Tyrannus. A genus of tyrant flycatchers known as kingbirds. The best–

    known species — T. tyrannus (eastern kingbird) — has been

    captured once in northern Alaska and once in Greenland. See

    Flycatcher.



    788      |      Vol_IV-0846                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: New World Flycatchers or Tyrant Flycatchers

            676. Western Wood Pewee. Contopus virens richardsonii , a small tyrant

    flycatcher which has been captured once in northern Alaska.

    See Flycatcher.

            677. Wood Pewee. A small tyrant flycatcher of the genus Contopus . the

    western wood pewee ( C. virens richardsonii ) has been captured

    once in northern Alaska; the eastern race ( C. virens virens )

    has been captured once off the Labrador. See Flycatcher.

            678. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Empidonax flaviventris , a small tyrant

    flycatcher which has been captured once in Greenland. See

    Flycatcher.



    789      |      Vol_IV-0847                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Flycatcher and Tyrannidae

            664. Flycatcher. 1. Any of numerous small oscine passeriform birds

    belonging to the Old World family Muscicapidae, a group which has been

    bandied about by the taxonomists, and which cannot be characterized accurately

    and fully without discussion of numerous exceptions. In general, the Musci–

    capidae are 10-primaried birds with flat bill (broad at the base), strongly

    developed rictal bristles, and weak legs and feet. The tarsus is scutellate

    in front. In most species the young are spotted. Only two species range

    northward into the Subarctic, the spotted flycatcher ( Muscicapa striata )

    and the pied flycatcher ( Muscicapa hypoleuca ). Both of these breed north–

    ward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in Scandinavia.

            2. Any of numerous small non - oscine passeriform birds of the New

    World family Tyrannidae. Several species of this family have been recorded

    in the Far North, but only one — the Say’s phoebe ( Sayornis saya ) — breeds

    northward at all regularly as far as the Arctic Circle.

            See MUSCICAPIDAE and TYRANNIDAE.

            674. Tyrannidae. A large family composed of middle-sized, non - oscine ,

    New World passeriform birds known as flycatchers or tyrant flycatchers.

    Superficially they are much like the Old World flycatchers of the family

    Muscicapidae, but they are not “song birds” at all (i.e., their vocal

    apparatus is basically different from that of the Muscicapidae). Most

    tyrannids are flat-billed. In most tyrannids the sexes are colored alike,

    and the tail is square or slightly forked, but for these characterizations

    there are striking exceptions. Only one form breeds northward at all

    regularly as far as the Arctic Circle. This is:



    790      |      Vol_IV-0848                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tyrannidae

            Sayornis saya , Say’s Phoebe. Length 7 to 8 inches. Plain gray

    above, pale rusty below, with black tail. Call note a low plaintive

    pee-oo . Nests in caves, under or inside buildings, or on cliffs. A

    western North American species, breeding from northern Mexico northward

    to central Alaska and northwestern Mackenzie. It has been reported once

    from Point Barros, Alaska.

            The olive-sided flycatcher ( Nuttallornis borealis ) and Traill’s fly–

    catcher [ ?] ( Empidonax trailii ) both breed well northward across the whole

    of North America, but not to tree limit. The former has been reported from

    Greenland. The western wood pewee ( Contopus virens richardsonii ) and

    Hammond’s flycatcher ( Empidonax hammondii ) have been reported from arctic

    Alaska. The eastern wood pewee ( Contonus virens virens ) has been taken off

    the Labrador (Rand, 1948. Canad. Field -Nat. , 62: 177). The eastern kindbird

    ( Tyrannus tyrannus ) has been reported from Greenland and from arctic Alaska.

    The yellow-bellied flycatcher ( Empidonax flaviventris ) has been reported from

    Greenland.



    791      |      Vol_IV-0849                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Larks

           

    LARKS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family ALAUDIDAE

            679. Alauda. See writeup.

            680. ALAUDIDAE. See writeup.

            681. Eremophila. See writeup.

            682. Horned Lark or Shore Lark. See writeup.

            683. Hoyt’s Horned Lark. Eremophila alpestris hoyti , a race of horned

    lark with white, instead of yellow, supercilary stripe. It

    breeds north of tree limit between the mouth of the Mackenzie

    and the west coast of Hudson Bay, and on Southampton and Baffin

    islands. Both E. alpestris hoyti and E. alpestris alpestris

    (northern horned lark) breed at Chur [ ?] chill, Manitoba. See

    Horned Lark or Shore Lark.

            684. Lark. Any of numerous species of birds belonging to the family

    ALAUDIDAE ( q.v. ).

            685. Northern Horned Lark or Shore Lark.

            686. Pallid Horned Lark. Eremophila alpestris arcticola , a race of horned

    lark with white superciliary stripe and throat. It breeds in

    northern Alaska and northern Yukon. It has been taken once in

    southern Baffin Island. See Horned Lark or Shore Lark.

            687. Shore Lark. A name used widely in England for Eremophila alpestris.

    See Horned Lark or Shore Lark.

            688. Skylark. See writeup.



    792      |      Vol_IV-0850                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alauda and Alaudidae

            679. Alauda. A genus of brownish, much streaked, sweet-voiced

    passeriform birds known as skylarks. The bill is about half as long as

    the lead, rather sout, and slightly decurved. The exposed culmen is

    shorter than the middle toe without its claw. The nostrils are covered

    with short feathers, each of which has a bristly tip. The rictal bristles

    are minute. The crown feathers form a blunt crest when lifted. The wings

    are long and pointed. The outermost primary is shorter than the primary

    coverts, the second primary is almost as long as the third, and the third

    and fourth are of equal length and longest. The tertials are slightly

    longer than the secondaries. The tail is rather deeply forked. The tarsus

    is decidedly longer than the middle toe with its claw. The claw of the

    hind toe is usually much longer than the toe itself and is slender and very

    slightly curved. The sexes are colored alike. The young are spotted,

    rather than streaked, above.

            Alauda inhabits much of continental Eurasia, the British Isles, the

    Faeroes, the Philippines, Formosa, and northern Africa. In northern con–

    tinental Eurasia it is migratory. It has become naturalized in Vancouver

    Island, British Columbia, where it is sedentary.

            See Skylark.

            680. Alaudidae. A well-defined family of passeriform birds known as

    larks. They are dull-colored and rather pipitlike, but do not wag their

    tails. They are famous for their songs, and especially for their habit of

    singing high in air. They inhabit open, treeless country, cultivated

    farmlands, and arid plains. They spend much of their time on the ground,

    793      |      Vol_IV-0851                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alaudidae

    where their gait is a walk or run, not a hop. They do not often alight

    in trees.

            Though pronouncedly terrestrial, their feet are not especially large.

    The tarsi are blunt behind and soutellate both in front and behind. The

    toes are rather short. The claws are straight and sharp, those of the

    front toes being rather short, that of the hind toe long (in some species

    very long). The wings are long and pointed. There are 10 primaries, the

    outermost of which varies greatly in length, being virtually invisible in

    some genera, and as long as the primary coverts, or longer, in other genera.

    The inner secondaries are long. The tail (12 feathers) is moderately long.

    The bill is usually rather short and stubby, though sharply pointed. The

    nostrils are covered with short, antrorse plumage. In several forms the

    head is crested or “horned” (i.e., with a small feather-tuft at either side

    of the occiput). The sexes are usually alike in color pattern, but the male

    is larger than the female. In most forms the juvenal plumage is much spotted.

    All larks nest on the ground and lay spotted eggs.

            The Alaudidae are widely distributed in Eurasia and opener parts of

    Africa. Only one genus, Mirafra , is found in Australia and the East Indies.

    The family is well represented in North America and the mountains of northern

    Souther America, but all native New World forms are g oe eo graphical races of one

    species, Eremophila alpestris . This bird, which is known as the horned lark

    or shore lark, is also found throughout the opener parts of Eurasia and north–

    western Africa as well. Whatever its place of origin, it has spread widely,

    making itself at home in prairielands where the grass is short, in coastal

    plains, in semiarid and alkali flats, in cultivated farmlands, on high

    mountains slopes and plateaus, and on the tundra. It now has a circumboreal

    794      |      Vol_IV-0852                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Alaudidae and Eremophila

    distribution, though it does not range northward to quite the high latitudes

    attained by the snow bunting ( Plectrophenax nivalis ) and Lapland longspur

    ( Calcarius lapponicus ).

            On w e other member of the Alaudidae ranges northward to the Arctic Circle

    and beyond - - the famous skylark ( Alauda arvensis ). This species breeds

    in the British Isles, in the Faeroes, across the whole of Eurasis, and in

    northwestern Afirica. Various attempts have been made to introduce it

    into the New World. It is now well established in Vancouver Island,

    British Columbia, where it is nonmigratory.

            See Alauda, Eremophila, Horned Lark, and Skylark.

            681. Eremophila. A wide-ranging genus of true larks (family Alaudidae)

    found in the Old World and the New. Ridgway characterizes the group as

    follows: “Alaudidae with horn-like tufts on each side of the occiput,

    middle toe (without claw) not longer than exposed culmen, hallux [without

    claw] not longer than lateral toes, no obvious spurious primary, tail slightly emar–

    ginate or nearly even, and coloration of adults mostly unstreaked (More or

    less pinkish, vinaceous or cinnamoneous above), with black on the fore part

    of the crown, sides of head, and chest (these areas dusky, more or less

    streaked in females.)”

            The horned larks or shore larks, as the birds of this genus are known,

    are middle-sized. The claw of the hind toe is long (about as long as the

    digit itself), straight and sharp. The males sing well, and, like the male

    skylark ( Alauda arvensis ), sing while flying far above ground. They also

    sing occasionally from the ground or while perched on a rock or fence post.

    795      |      Vol_IV-0853                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eremophila and Horned Lark or Shore Lark

    They do not often slight in a tree.

            Opinion differs as to whether Eremophila is monotypic. Certainly

    all the forms are much alike. The genus ranges throughout opener parts

    of Eurasia, northern Africa, North America, and the Andes of Colombia.

    It ranges to the Arctic Circle and beyond in both the Old World and the

    New, but does not attain very high latitudes. Along the north edge of its

    range it is definitely migratory, but in the south it is more or less

    sedentary. It is gregarious in winter. In the eastern United States it

    has become steadily commoner as forests have been cleared. Lover of open,

    treeless country that it is, it has adapted itself to a tremendously wide

    latitudinal and altitudinal range. It is now represented by numerous geographical races

    in various parts of the world. This so-called “plasticity” — in other

    words, the great number of readily recognizable subspecies — may indicate

    an exceptionally high rate of genetic response to local conditions or habitat

    requirements.

            See Horned Lark or Shore Lark.

            682. Horned Lark or Shore Lark . A small passeriform bird, Eremophila

    alpestris , which inhabits treeless, prairielike, and semiarid parts of

    Eurasia, northern Africa, North America, and northern South America (Andes

    of colombia). It breeds northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in both

    the New World and the Old. It is about 7 inches long and is pinkish brown

    above (including the sides and flanks) and white below, with yellow face

    and throat. A black crown patch ends at either side in a little tuft of

    feathers or “horn” (for which the bird is named). A black patch runs from

    796      |      Vol_IV-0854                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Lark or Shore Lark

    the lores backward below the eye through the front half of the ear coverts.

    There is a black bib on the upper breast. The outer edges of the outer

    tail feathers are white, but not conspicuously so. The color of the

    upper parts is usually brightest on the nape and hind neck. The color

    of the rear part of the crown, hind neck, and back varies greatly in the

    several races; so does that of light parts of the face. In most races

    the chin, throat, and line above the eye are yellow, but in a few they

    are white, or very nearly so. Female birds are much duller, and somewhat

    smaller, than males. Young birds in juvenal plumage are beautifully spotted

    on the upper parts, chest, and sides.

            The horned lark is a quiet, not very noticeable bird which often escapes

    detection because it runs off rather than taking wing, and also because it

    does so much of its singing high in air. In many localities at which it is

    actually common it is not very well known. Its colors match the ground

    remarkably well. In semiarid regions, it is a pale, sand-colored bird.

    In some parts of the Far North, where the colors of the tundra are rich

    and dark, its hind neck is deep rusty red and its face very yellow. The

    pattern of the head is ruptive — i.e., the dark and light areas are so

    arranged as to make it difficult for the human eye (and, presumably, for

    the eye of a predator) to discern the bird-shape.

            The horned lark’s usual call note is a shrill tsip or tseep . Its

    son g , which is given from a stone or hummock, or high in air, is not loud,

    but it has a beautiful tinkling quality. Certain European observers

    believe that songs sung on the ground are the most elaborate and complete

    the bird can sing; but the flying bird certainly sings fervently as, facing

    the wind and rising and sinking, it moves round and round. It appears to

    797      |      Vol_IV-0855                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Lark or Shore Lark

    to climb as it sings, for the wing beats become more rapid as the tempo of

    the tinkling accelerates.

            Throughout southern parts of its range, Eremophila alpestris nests

    very early. Numerous American observers have reported nests with eggs in

    the eastern United States in late March and early April, while snow was

    still on the ground. In the Far North, where the species is definitely

    migratory, it returns to its breeding grounds and starts nesting at about

    the same time as the Lapland longspur ( Calcarius lapponicus ) and snow

    bunting ( Plectrophenax nivalis ). Trevor-Battye reported a nest just ready

    for eggs June 16 on Kolguev. On Southampton Island, on June 11, 1930, I

    saw a female carrying nest material and on June 16 saw a nest with one egg,

    Horned larks probably remain paired throughout the year and stay together

    even while migrating, but a certain amount of courtship takes place just

    before nest-building. This consists chiefly in singing.

            The female builds the nest alone. First she enlarges a depression in

    the ground, scratching and kicking out the earth and pebbles. The nest,

    whose rim is flush with the ground, is usually sheltered by a tuft of grass

    or by some low-growing plant. It is made of dry grass and plant stems, and

    lined with various soft materials, including hair, fur, fu xx zz from willows,

    and bog cotton. Pebbles and bits of vegetation are sometimes arranged about

    the nest in a sort of pavement. The eggs, which are b g reenish or grayish

    white, thickly speckled with grayish brown, usually number 4. The female

    does all of the incubating. The incubation period is 10 to 14 days in

    American races. Both parents feed the young, which remain in the nest

    9 to 12 days, but are not able to fly well until they are several days

    older. In the eastern United States, where the species starts breeding

    798      |      Vol_IV-0856                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Horned Lark or Shore Lark

    so early, the male bird cares for the young of the first brood while the

    female proceeds with the second.

            Eremophila alpestris is almost completely circumboreal in distribution,

    though it is not by any mena, s means, of course, confined to the North. The

    northern limits of its known breeding range are: northern Norway; northern

    Finland; the Murman Coast; the arctic coast of Eurasia from the Kola Peninsula

    to the mouth of the Yenisei and from the mouth of the Lena to the Chukotsk

    Peninsula; Kolguev; Vaigach; both islands of Novaya Zemlya; the arctic

    coast of North America (including Boothia Peninsula); Baffin Island (Admiralty

    Inlet) in the north and various localities in the southern part; Southampton

    Island; northern Quebec; and northern Labrador. It has never, apparently,

    been reported from the Taimyr Peninsula nor [ ?] from the arctic islands directly

    north of Siberia. Oddly enough it does not breed in Iceland. It has been

    reported from Spitsbergen and from Cape Flora, in the Franz Josef Archipelago

    (lat. 80° N.), but not from Bear Island or Jan Mayen.

            The nominate race has been reported from Greenland, but the species

    does not breed there.

            Reference:

    Pickwell, Gayle B. “The Prairie Horned Lark.” Trans . Acad. Sci.St.Louis,

    vol.27, 1931

    799      |      Vol_IV-0857                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Skylark

            688. Skylark . A well-known Old World bird, Alauda arvensis, so

    named because of its habit of singing high in air. It is about 7 inches

    long and is brown on the upper parts and buffy white below, streaked with

    dusky all over except on the chin, throat, and middle of the lower breast

    and belly. It has a more or less distinct buffy-white line over the eye.

    The sexes are alike. The bird has a fairly long, but blunt, triangular

    crest, which it occasionally lifts. As it flies up, the white on its

    outer tail feathers shows plainly. On the ground it walks or runs, holding

    its body rather low. When frightened it crouches. Its call note is a

    “rippling chirrup and variants.” Its song, which may be sung continuously

    for 3 to 5 minutes or more, is loud and spirited. In display flights it

    begins to sing shortly after leaving the ground, then, after reaching a

    considerable elevation, it heads into the wind, or swings about in wide

    circles, continuing its singing.

            The nest, which probably is built entirely by the female, is on the

    ground in short grass or growing grain. It is made chiefly of grass,

    lined with finer grasses or hair. The eggs number 3 or 4 as a rule,

    occasionally more. They are grayish white, thickly spotted with brown

    and gray. The incubation period is 11 days. Only the female incubates.

    The young, which are beautifully spotted on the upper parts, remain in the

    nest about 10 days, but do not fly well before they are about 20 days old.

    In England the skylark rears two (perhaps three) broods, but in the Far

    North it probably rears but one.

            The skylark breeds throughout opener parts of Eurasia from the

    British Isles and the Faeroes across the continent to the Komandorakis,

    Sakhalin, Japan, and Formosa. It also breeds in northwestern Africa.

    800      |      Vol_IV-0858                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Skylark

    The northern limits of its range in continental Eurasia are: latitude

    71° N. in Norway; 68° 30′ in Sweden, northern Finland; 60° t1 61° in

    northern Russia, the Ural Mountains; 66° on the Ob (occasionally); the

    valleys of the Lena and Yana; and the Chikotsk Peninsula. Throughout

    souther r n parts of its continental range and in the British Isles it is

    not migratory. Several attempts to introduce it in North America have

    been unsuccessful, but it has become established in Vancouver Island,

    British Columbia, where it is nonmigratory. It has been reported several

    times from the Murman Coast and at least once from Greenland.

            See Alauda .



    801      |      Vol_IV-0859                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Swallows

           

    SWALLOWS

    Order PASSERIFORMES : Suborder PASSERES

    Family HIRUNDINIDAE

            689. Bank Swallow or Sand Martin. See writeup.

            690. Barn Swallow or Common Swallow. See writeup.

            691. Cliff Swallow. A New World swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota ,

    which breeds in colonies on cliffs and barns. It nests northward

    to central Alaska, but not quite to the Arctic Circle. See

    HIRUNDINIDAE.

            692. Common Swallow. See Barn Swallow or Common Swallow.

            693. Delichon . An Old World genus of swallows with fully feathered feet.

    Delichon breeds northward to the Arctic Circle in Soandinavia,

    northern Russia, and Siberia. See House Martin.

            694. Eave Swallow. A name for the cliff swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota .

    See HIRUNDINIDAE.

            695. European Barn Swallow. A name for Hirundo rustica rustica . See

    Barn Swallow or Common Swallow.

            696. HIRUNDINIDAE. See writeup.

            697. Hirundo . A genus of swallows having deeply forked tails. The northern–

    most species is the barn swallow or common swallow ( H. rustica ) ( q.v .).

            698. House Martin. See writeup.

            699. Iridoprocne . A New World genus to which the tree swallow ( I. bicolor )

    belongs. It breeds northward to northern Alaska and the Labrador.

    See Tree Swallow.



    802      |      Vol_IV-0860                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Swallows

            700. Martin. Any of several swallows, especially the well-known house

    martin ( Delichon urbica ) of the Old World; the sand martin or

    bank swallow ( Riparia riparia ), of widespread distribution;

    and the several species of the New World genus Progne . The

    house martin and sand martin breed northward to the Arctic Circle

    and slightly beyond. The purple martin, [ ?] Progne subis , has

    been reported once from arctic Alaska. See HIRUNDINIDAE, House

    Martin and Bank Swallow or Sand Martin.

            701. Riparia . The monotypic genus to which the bank swallow or sand martin

    ( R. riparia ) belongs. The genus (species) breeds northward to the

    Arctic Circle in Alaska, Scandinavia, and probably elsewhere. See

    Bank Swallow or Sand Martin.

            702. Sand Martin. See Bank Swallow or Sand Martin.

            703. Swallow. Any of numerous small, long-winged, short-billed, wide-mouthed,

    small-footed passerine birds belonging to the family HIRUNDINIDAE

    ( q.v. ).

            704. Tree Swallows. See writeup.

            705. Violet-green Swallow. Tachycineta thalassina , a beautiful swallow of

    western North America. It breeds northward to Alaska, but probably

    not quite as far as the Arctic Circle. See HIRUNDINIDAE.

            706. White-bellied Swallow. A name for the tree swallow, Iridoprocne

    bicolor ( q.v. ).



    803      |      Vol_IV-0861                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bank Swallow or Sand Martin

            689. Bank Swallow or Sand Martin. A widely ranging swallow, Riparia

    riparia , known only by the former name in North America and only by the

    latter in England. It breeds circumboreally. The southern limits of its

    range are central South America, southern and eastern Africa, and southern

    India. It is about 4 3/4 inches long. The tail is short and slightly

    forked. The wings are not as long, proportionately, as those of the common

    or barn swallow ( Hirundo rustica ). There is a tuft of tiny feathers on the

    tarsus near the base of the toes. Adults are uniform brown above and white

    below, with a brown band across the chest. In young birds the feathers of

    the upper parts are narrowly edged with buff.

            The bank swallow is strongly colonial. It nests in burrows which it

    digs in banks sometimes directly above water, sometimes not. The burrow is

    horizontal and 2 to 3 feet long, with a nest chamber at the end. Burrows

    are often close together, the entrances being only a few inches apart. Both

    the male and female dig the burrow. Colonies sometimes nest in dry, friable

    banks which wear away swiftly during the summer, exposing the nests to the

    elements long before the second broods have fledged. The nest proper is of

    dry grasses picked up in flight and lined with feathers. The eggs, which

    number 3 to 7, are pure white. The young are fed by both parents. Fledging

    requires 19 days. Two broods are reared in a season in temperate regions

    (one brood only, probably, at the northern limit of range).

            The species breeds northward to north central Alaska (Kowak and Alatna

    Rivers), southern Yukon, northeastern Mackenzie, northeastern Alberta,

    east central Manitoba, northern Ontario, southern Quebec, Labrador (Hopedale),

    Newfoundland, the Hibrides and Orkneys, latitude 70° 30′ N. in Norway,

    northern Russia, and northern Siberia. Dementiev states that it breeds

    804      |      Vol_IV-0862                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bank Swallow or Sand Martin and Barn Swallow or Common Swallow

    northward to the Anadyr and Kolyma rivers. Koren reported it from islands

    at the mouth of the Kolyma. It has been reported from several points along

    the arctic coast of Alaska and from the Pribilofs and the Komandorskis.

    “A colony has been reported from [Liddon Bay] Melville island with details

    that almost carry conviction” (Taverner).

            All far northern bank swallows are currently believed to belong to the

    nominate race save those of eastern Siberia, which may be ijimae .

            690. Barn Swallow or Common Swallow . A widely distributed swallow,

    Hirundo rustica , well known for its swift, graceful flight and long, deeply

    forked tail. Though primarily a species of temperate regions, it breeds

    northward to the Arctic Circle in both the Old World and the New. Adults

    are 7 to 7 1/2 inches long. The upper parts are glossy blue-back, the

    throat and forehead reddish brown. In the nominate race a blue-back band

    separates the reddish brown of the throat from the pale pinkish buff of

    the breast and belly; but in H. rustica erythrogaster of North America

    there is no black threat band and the under parts in general are reddish

    buff. All but the middle tail feathers (in both young and old birds) are

    marked with white spots on the inner webs. Young birds are duller and

    considerably shorter-tailed than adults.

            The barn swallow spends much time feeding on the wing. It often

    alights on wires or leafless branches. Occasionally it feeds on the

    ground or gathers nest material there. It is less sociable than the house

    martin ( Delichon urbica ) and is not colonial in the sense that the bank

    swallow or sand martin ( Riparia riparia ) is. In late summer, however, it

    805      |      Vol_IV-0863                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Barn Swallow or Common Swallow

    gathers in large premigratory flocks.

            The nest, which is bowl-shaped, is made of mud lined with feathers.

    It is not crowded close to the roof under the cave as is the nest of the

    house martin, but is placed on a rafter or beam inside a barn or shed.

    Both sexes build it. The eggs, which usually number 4 or 5, are white,

    speckled with reddish brown. The female does most of the incubating. The

    incubation period is 14 to 16 days. Both parents feed the young, which

    fledge in about three weeks. Young birds of second broods often roost

    at the nest for several nights after fledging. Neither the young birds

    nor their parents molt before leaving for the south.

            Hirundo rustica is circumboreal in distribution. The northern limits of

    its breeding range are Iceland, the Faeroes, latitude 71° N. in Norway,

    northern Sweden, northern Finland, 65° 30′ on the Pechora, 64° on the

    Yenisei, Yakutsk, the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, northern

    Alaska, southern Mackenzie, southern Saskatchewan, southern Ontario, southern

    Labrador (probably), and southwestern Greenland (possibly). It winters far

    to the south, the southern limits of its winter range being northern Chile,

    northern Argentina, South Africa, India, the Malay States, the East Indies,

    the Philippines, and Micronesia. It has been reported casually from Jan

    Mayen, Bear Island, Spitsbergen, the Franz Josef Archipelago, the Murman

    Coast, Novaya Zemlya, the Point Barrow region of Alaska, the Pribilofs,

    St. Lawrence Island (Bering Sea), and Mansel Island (Hudson Bay). It has

    never been reported from the arctic coast of Eurasia east of the White Sea ,

    a fact which seems to indicate that its northern wanderings in the Old

    World are definitely influenced by the Gulf Stream. Specimens collected in

    Greenland have been of two races — rustica and erythrogaster . The latter

    806      |      Vol_IV-0864                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Barn Swallow or Common Swallow and Hirundinidae

    has been taken repeatedly on the west coast, among the specimens being

    young birds believed to have been reared locally. The nominate race

    has been taken on both the east and west coasts. These same two races

    have been taken at Point Barrow, Alaska. Charles Brower was of the opinion

    that erythrogaster nested in a deserted Eskimo hut near the village. He

    collected an adult and three young “just able to fly” in one afternoon

    (Bailey, 1948. Birds of Arctic Alaska , p. 274).

            696. Hirundinidae . A well-defined and easily recognizable family of

    small passeriform birds known as swallows. They resemble the swifts (family

    Apodidae) superficially, but are not at all closely related to that group.

    They are very long-winged, small-billed, and small-footed. Throughout the

    family the mouth is wide; the beak flat and triangular; the tarsus short;

    the toes slender, not very long, and strong-clawed. The wings have nine

    primaries, the outermost one or two of which are the longest. The tail is

    always of 12 feathers, but it varies in shape, in some forms being short

    and square or only slightly forked, in others very long and deeply forked.

    In most species the plumage of the upper parts is glossy, but some species

    are dull all over. In most species the male and female are much alike in

    color. Adults have only one molt annually, the postnuptial. Only one of

    the northward-ranging swallows — the tree swallow ( Iridoprocne bicolor ) —

    molts before (or while) migrating southward in the fall.

            As a family the Hirundinidae are widely distributed, being found on

    all the continents and most of the larger islands. There are “approximately

    twenty genera and over one hundred species,” most of which are migratory,

    807      |      Vol_IV-0865                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hirundinidae

    though “a few are confined to relatively small areas” (knowlton and

    Ridgway). One of the most widely distributed species, the bank swallow

    or sand martin ( Riparia riparia ), breeds northward to the Arctic Circle

    in both the New World and the Old and is represented either all the year

    round or in winter as far south as central South America, southern Africa,

    and Madagascar.

            Anyone who has seen the tree swallow gorging on bayberries ( Myrica )

    along the Delaware coast will be apt to think of swallows as confirmed

    vegetarians; but swallows feed primarily on insects captured on the wing.

    When great numbers of chironomids are inactive because of adverse weather,

    swallows may flutter in a compact flock above the grass capturing the

    insects by the thousand. There is no prettier sight than swallows swoop–

    ing back and forth capturing May flies. Swallows often pick insects from

    the water and they may skim a drink while feeding in this way. Swallows

    alight on the ground only infrequently, and when they do so they look out

    of place. Their gait is a waddle. The cliff swallow ( Petrochelidon

    pyrrhonota ), which builds a retort-shaped nest of mudm gathers this mud

    in its bill without alighting.

            Northern swallows are all strongly migratory. No species is exclu–

    sively arctic or subarctic in breeding distribution, although the biologist

    may reasonably wonder why, in a habitat which so swarms with mosquitoes in

    summer, there should be no specially designed swallow to swallow them.

    The probability is that swallows have difficulty in finding nest sites

    in the Arctic. Walkinshaw has reported the nesting of a tree swallow

    in a can on the ground in Alaska. The house martin ( Delichon urbica )

    and barn swallow ( Hirundo rustica ) are known to nest about man-made

    808      |      Vol_IV-0866                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hirundinidae

    buildings in the Far North beyond tree limit. Brower believed that the

    latter species nested in a deserted Eskimo hut near Point Barrow, Alaska.

    The bank swallow needs only the right sort of bank for its nesting, and

    it would seem that there might be many such banks in the Arctic. Bank

    swallows reported from Liddon Gulf, along the south coast of Melville

    Island, may actually have been a breeding colony.

            Swallows are wonderfully designed for capturing insects on the wing,

    but the great wingspread, ordinarily so advantageous, may be a handicap

    in time of high wind. Many a swallow which has been reported from the

    Far North probably has been blown there. Bailey comments on the remarkable

    fact that eight forms of swallows have been recorded in arctic Alaska —

    two races of Hirundo rustica , two races of Riparia riparia , the tree swallow,

    the violet-green swallow ( Tachycineta thalassina ), the cliff swallow,

    and — most surprising of all — the purple martin ( Progne subis ). Most

    of these birds probably were victims of the wind.

            The cliff swallow and violet-green swallow, just mentioned, are New

    World species which regularly breed northward to central Alaska. The

    latter is rich velvety green and violet above and white below. The tail

    is short and not very deeply forked. The bird nests in crannies about

    houses, in crevices in cliffs, and in cavities in trees. It is found only

    in western North America. The northern limits of its breeding are the

    Yukon Valley and the southern part of the province of Yukon. It has

    been taken twice at Point Barrow and once on the Pribilofs.

            The cliff swallow has a virtually square tail and light tan rump

    patch. It breeds north to central Alaska, central Yukon, central Mackenzie

    and (at somewhat lower latitudes) across Canada to southern Quebec.

    809      |      Vol_IV-0867                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hirundinidae and House Martin

    It is decidedly local. It builds a retort-shaped nest of mud, is strongly

    colonial, and usually nests on a cliff face. It has been reported from

    Point Barrow, Alaska, and from southwestern Greenland.

            See Bank Swallow or Sand Martin, Barn Swallow or Common Swallow,

    House Martin, and Tree Swallow.

            698. House Martin. A beautiful Old World swallow, Delichon urbica ,

    which breeds northward to the Arctic Circle in many parts of Eurasia. Its

    common name is apt, for it ordinarily nests about houses, barns, and sheds.

    It is about 5 inches long and is glossy blue-black above and pure white

    below, with a white rump. The tail is forked, but much less deeply so

    than that of the common or barn swallow ( Hirundo rustica ). Its tarsi

    and toes are thickly covered with white feathers. The white feet often

    clearly show as the bird perches on a wall near its nest. It spends much

    time on the wing. Its flight is slower and less twisting than that of

    Hirundo rustica , but it often flies higher. It frequently alights on

    buildings, wires, and bare branches. Only infrequently does it alight on

    the ground, but sometimes a flock settles together to feed on numbed insects.

            The house martin is a very sociable bird. Many pairs nest together,

    and nests are usually placed close to each other (sometimes one above another)

    under eaves or on a cliff. Exceptionally nests are built inside a barn,

    shed, or cave. Both the male and female build the nest, which is made

    of mud and so placed up against the roof or overhanging rock as to leave

    only a narrow entrance. The mud is gathered in the bill, and the birds use

    stems of grass in strengthening the walls. The lining is chiefly of feathers.

    810      |      Vol_IV-0868                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: House Martin and Tree Swallow

    The eggs, which are white, usually number 4 or 5. Both sexes incubate,

    the incubation period being 14 to 15 days. The young are fed by both

    parents. The fledging period is 19 to 22 days. Two broods (“three not

    uncommonly”) are reared in a season ( Handb. Brit. Birds ).

            The northern limits of the house martin’s breeding range are the

    British Isles, latitude 71° N. in Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, 63° on

    the Pechora, 69° 40′ on the Yenisei, the delta of the Kolyma, and probably

    the mouths of the other great Siberian rivers. It winters in Africa and

    India. It has been reported from northeastern Greenland (Bird s and Bird),

    Iceland, Kolguev, and the Faeroes.

            704. Tree Swallow . A New World swallow, Iridoprocne bicolor , some–

    times called the white-bellied swallow. It breeds across the whole of

    northern North America northward to about tree limit, and winters from

    eastern Virginia (Long Island irregularly), the coast of the Gulf of

    Mexico, and southern California southward (usually near water) to southern

    Baja California, central America, and Cuba. It is 5 to 6 inches long.

    Adults are glossy blue-black or green-black above and pure white below.

    Females are duller than males. Young birds resemble adult females but

    are without any iridescence and they sometimes have a suggestion of gray

    chest ban c d which makes them difficult to distinguish from bank swallows

    ( Riparia riparia ).

            The tree swallow usually nests in a natural cavity in a tree or in

    an old woodpecker hole in an open wooded swamp. The nest, which is

    sometimes only a few inches above water, is made of dry grasses, lined

    810a      |      Vol_IV-0869                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tree Swallow

    with feathers. The eggs, which number 4 to 6 as a rule, are pure white.

    As many as 10 eggs have been found in one nest, but these may have been

    laid by two females (Bent). The male has a delightful song which he sings

    high in air above the breeding grounds in the darkness just preceding dawn.

    The female builds the nest by herself and does most (if not all) of the

    incubating, but the male assists in feeding the young. The incubation

    period is 13 to 16 days, the fledging period 16 to 24 days (Austin and Low).

    Both adults and young molt extensively on the breeding grounds in late summer,

    in this respect being notable, if not unique, among North American swallows.

    Before and during migration they gather in tremendous flocks, often roosting

    together in marsh vegetation.

            In general the tree swallow does not nest in treeless regions, but

    Walkinshaw found a nest in a can on the ground in a treeless part of Alaska.

    The northern limits of the known breeding range are north central Alaska

    (Kowak River), southwestern Yukon, west central Mackenzie, central Alberta,

    central Saskatchewan, northeastern Manitoba (Churchill), southern Labrador

    and central Newfoundland. Nonbreeding birds have been taken in summer at

    Point Barrow and Demarcation Point in arctic Alaska. The species has been

    reported from the Pribilofs, Southampton Island (Sutton), and Chesterfield

    Inlet (Shortt and Peters).



    811      |      Vol_IV-0870                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ravens, Crows, and Jays

           

    RAVENS, CROWS, AND JAYS

    Order PASSERIFORMES: Suborder PASSERES

    Family CORVIDAE

            707. Alaska Jay. Periosoreus canadensis fumifrons , the Alaska race of

    the Canada jay, gray jay, or whiskey-jack ( q.v. ).

            708. Black-billed Magpie. A name often used in America for the magpie

    ( Pica pica ) ( q.v. ).

            709. Black Carrion Crow. A name sometimes used for the carrion crow

    ( Corvus corone ) ( q.v. ).

            710. Camp Rob b er. A vernacular name for the Canada jay, gray jay, or

    whiskey-jack ( Perisoreus canadensis ) (q.v.).

            711. Canada Jay, Gray Jay, or Whiskey-jack. See writeup.

            712. Carrion Crow. See writeup.

            713. Common Jay. A name sometimes used for the well-known jay, Garrulus

    glandarius , of the Old World. See Jay.

            714. CORVIDAE. See writeup.

            715. Corvus . See writeup.

            716. Crow. See writeup.

            717. Garrulus. A genus of Old World jays. See Jay.

            718. Gray Jay. See Canada Gray Jay, or Whiskey-jack.

            719. Hooded Crow. See writeup.

            720. Jackdaw. See writeup.

            721. Jay. See writeup.

            722. Magpie. See writeup.

            723. Northern Raven. Corvus corax principalis , one of the most northward–

    ranging races of the raven ( q.v .).



    812      |      Vol_IV-0871                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ravens, Crows, and Jays

            724. Nucifraga . The corvid genus to which the nutcrackers belong.

    See Nutcracker, CORVIDAE, and Crow.

            725. Nutcracker. See writeup.

            726. Pericoreus. The circumboreal genus to which the Canada jay (P. cana –

    densis ) and Siberian jay ( P. infaustus ) belong. See Jay; Canada

    Jay, Gray Jay or Whiskey-jack; and Siberian Jay.

            727. Pica. A genus of long-tailed corvids known as magpies. See Magpie

    and CORVIDAE.

            728. Raven. See writeup.

            729. Rook. Corvus frugilegus , A well-known Old World corvid which has

    been reported from Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroes, Lapland,

    Novaya Zemlya, and northwestern Siberia. Nowhere does it nest

    northward to the Arctic Circle, however. See Crow.

            730. Siberian Jay. See writeup.

            731. Whiskey-jack. A vernacular, but widely used name for the Canada jay

    or gray jay ( Perisoreus canadensis ) ( q.v. ).



    813      |      Vol_IV-0872                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Canada Jay, Gray Jay, or Whiskey-jack

            711. Canada Jay , Gray Jay , or Whiskey-jack . A New World corvid,

    Perisoreus canadensis , so well known among northern trappers and lumbermen

    that it has been given numerous nicknames (camp robber, moose-bird,

    whiskey-john, grease-bird, meat-bird, etc.) It resembles (as does its

    Old World congener, the Siberian jay, Perisoreus infaustus) a gigantic

    chickades in that its bill is stubby, its tail longish, and its body plumage

    long and fluffy. It is about a foot long and is slaty gray on the rear

    part of the crown, white or very pale gray on the rest of the head, and

    ashy gray on the body (including the wings and tail). It inhabits northern

    woodlands. It is nonmigratory though it wanders south casually. It breeds

    very early, its nest being deep, thick-walled, and very warmly lined. Only

    one brood is reared in a season. Young Canada jays are dark gray — almost

    sooty in general appearance. Their juvenal plumage is replaced in late

    summer by a lighter plumage, one virtually indistinguishable from that

    of the adult.

            Perisoreus canadensis breeds across northern continental North

    America from Alaska to the Labrador. Its northern limits are the Kobuk

    River, the Endicott Mountains, the Alatna River (Brooks Range), the Colville

    River, and Fort Yukon in Alaska; the delta of the Mackenzie River; northern

    [ ?] Manitoba; northern Ontario; northern Quebec; and northern Labrador.

    Bailey (1948. Birds of Arctic Alaska , p. 275) mentions a Canada jay seen

    north of tree limit on the Chandalar River, Alaska, and one which came

    aboard a vessel off Demarcation Point.

            See CORVIDAE and Jay.



    814      |      Vol_IV-0873                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Carrion Crow and Corvidae

            712. Carrion Crow . A well-known Old World corvid, Corvus corone ,

    sometimes known as the black carrion crow. It is very similar to the

    American crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos , and may be conspecific with that

    bird. Brachyrhynchos does not, however, range northward even into the

    fringes of the Subarctic, whereas corone does.

            The carrion crow is about 19 inches long and is shiny black all

    over. Unlike the rook ( Corvus frugilegus ), the base of its bill is fully

    feathered. Call notes: Kraa , keerk , konk , and other similar sounds. Nests

    in trees as a rule, but also among bushes on steep hillsides and occasionally

    on cliffs. Breeds in western Europe (including the British Isles, but not

    Scandinavia) and in Asia from Transcaspia and Turkestan northeastward to

    eastern Siberia, Japan, and Sakhalin. It does not quite attain the Arctic

    Circle in Europe, but apparently it does so in Asia. Buturlin ( Ibis , 1906,

    p. 132) speaks of its arrival in spring at the delta of the Kolyma.

    Dementiev states that it ranges northward to the limits of “ la zone boisee .”

    It has been reported once from Great Lyakhov Island in the New Siberian

    Archipelago, and from Scandinavia, Spitsbergen, and the north coast of

    the Chukotsk Peninsula.

            Note: The black vulture ( Coragyps atratus ) of f t he New World is

    sometimes called the carrion crow.

            714. Corvidae . A passeriform bird family to which the ravens, crows,

    rooks, choughs, jackdaws, nutcrackers, magpies, and jays belong. The ravens

    are mong the largest of passerine birds. Throughout the Corvidae the bill

    is powerful and rather long. In many forms it is almost as long as the head.

    815      |      Vol_IV-0874                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Corvidae

    The nostrils are not shielded by an operculum or membrane, but are

    covered with bristly, forward-directed feathers — an exception being the Maxi–

    can brown jay ( Psilorhinus ), which has completely exposed nostrils. The

    feet of the Corvidae are strong and the toes have considerable grasping

    power. Some species carry nest material in their feet as well as in their

    beaks, and all of them walk or hop strongly when on the ground. The basal

    segment of the middle front toe is united for about half its length to the

    toe at either side. The tarsus is soutellate in front; but behind it is

    covered with a single, undivided, rather sharply ridged sheath. The wing

    is variable; in some forms it is long and pointed, in others short and

    rounded, but there are always 10 primaries, the outermost of which is much

    shorter than the one next to it, but longer than the primary coverts.

    The tail, which has 12 feathers, is usually rounded or graduated. It is

    never forked and never stubby. Sometimes it is excessively long and much

    graduated. There is one complete molt per year, the postnuptial.

            Throughout the Corvidae male and female birds resamble each other

    closely and young birds are much like the adults. Many species are crested.

    All of them are active and energetic and possessed of a high degree of

    intelligence. Most of them inhabit wooded regions. They are omnivorous,

    and most of them are more or less predatory. They are, on the whole, shy,

    cautious, and difficult to approach; but their wariness is sometimes off–

    set by their curiosity, and some species — notably the gray jay, Canada

    jay, or whiskey-jack ( Perisoreus canadensis ) — become incredibly bold and

    unsuspicious.

            The Corvidae are almost cosmopolitan in distribution, but they are

    absent from New Zealand and part of Polynesia. They are well represented

    816      |      Vol_IV-0875                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Corvidae and Corvus

    in the Northern Hemisphere. One species, the raven ( Corvus corax ),

    breeds northward to high latitudes in the Arctic. This bird is common

    to the New World and the Old and inhabits most lands north of the equator

    aside from northern South America, southeastern Asia, and the East Indies.

    The black-billed magpie ( Pica pica ) also inhabits both the Old World and

    the New. It ranges much farther north in Europe than it does in Asia or

    North America, and in North America it is confined to the west. No raven

    or crow inhabits South America and the family Corvidae is rather poorly

    represented there. No corvid inhabits Antarctica.

            See Corvus , Raven, Crow, Hooded Crow, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Magpie,

    Jay, Canada Jay, Siberian Jay, and Nutcracker.

            715. Corvus. A genus to which the ravens, crows, rooks, and jackdaws

    belong. They are all hardy, intelligent birds. Most of them are glossy

    black, but some are black and gray or black and white. The wing is rather

    long and pointed. The four outermost primaries are slightly emarginate

    (out-in) on their inner webs toward their tips. The outermost primary is

    at least half as long as the second, and the third and fourth are about

    equal in length and longest. The length of the wing tip (i.e., the dis–

    tance from the tips of the longest primaries to the tips of the longest

    secondaries in the folded wing) is greater than that of the tarsus. The

    tail (12 feathers) is shorter than the wing, and is rounded or wedge-shaped

    (graduated).

            Corvus is nearly cosmopolitan, but it does not inhabit New Zealand,

    some islands of Polynesia, Madagascar, South America and the Lesser Antilles.

    817      |      Vol_IV-0876                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Corvus and Crow

    Decidedly the most boreal form is the raven ( C. corax ), the largest

    species of the family Corvidae. The most southern forms of the genus,

    C. coronoides of New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania, and C. capensis

    of northeastern and southern Africa, are considerably smaller.

            See CORVIDAE, Raven, and Crow.

            716. Crow. 1. Erroneously and locally, the raven, Corvus corax ,

    ( q.v. ).

            2. Any of several large, black, or partly black birds of the family

    Corvidae, especially the American or common crow ( Corvus brachyrhynchos ),

    which ranges northward into Canada and southern Alaska but not quite to

    the fringes of the Subarctic; the carrion cro s w ( Corvus corone ), which

    ranges across the whole of Eurasia and may breed northward as far as the

    Kolyma Delta in Siberia; and the hooded crow ( Corvus cornix ), which inhabits

    much of Eurasia, ranging northward to the Arctic Circle or thereabouts

    along the Ob and the Yenisei. Certain other more or less boreal members

    of the crow family are never called crows. Among these are the jackdaws

    ( Corvus monedula ), magpie ( Pica pica ), and nutcracker ( Nucifraga caryocatactes ).

            The rook ( Corvus frugilegus ), though obviously crowlike is never

    called a crow. It is about 18 inches long and is shiny black all over,

    with a bare, grayish white area about the base of the bill. This feather–

    less area is clearly visible in the field. Call Notes: caw or kash ,

    with variations. Nests in colonies, usually in large trees, but sometimes

    in small trees or bushes. Breeds in the British Isles and across Eurasia

    from southern Europe (including southern Scandinavia) to the valley of the

    818      |      Vol_IV-0877                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crow and Hooded Crow and Jackdaw

    Amur and Japan. Nowhere does it breed northward to the Arctic Circle,

    but it has been reported from the Murman Coast, the Kola Peninsula,

    Spitsbergen (probably), Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroes, Lapland, Novaya

    Zemlya, and northwestern Siberia.

            See Hooded Crow, Carrion Crow, CORVIDAE, and Corvus .

            719. Hooded Crew . A well-known Old World corvid, Corvus cornix ,

    often called the hoody or hoody crow. It is about 19 inches long and is

    black on the head and neck, wings and tail, but ashy gray otherwise.

    Usual call note a hoarse kraa . Nests as a rule in trees, but occasionally

    in bushes on hillsides, and sometimes on cliffs near the sea. Breeds in

    the Faeroes and British Isles and from Scandinavia, the Elbe River,

    Czechoslovakia and Italy eastward to Lake Baikal. The northern limits of

    its range are northern Norway, northern Finland, latitude 59° N. in Russia,

    the lower Pechora, 67° 15′ on the Ob, and 69° on the Yenisei. It has

    been reported from Iceland, Greenland, Novaya Zemlya, Vaigach, the Kola

    Peninsula, Bear Island, and Spitsbergen.

            720. Jackdaw . A well-known Old World corvid, Corvus monedula, which

    is shiny black with a gray sort of hood over the nape and ear covits. It is

    about 13 inches long. Its rather short bill gives it a compac e t appearance,

    even in flight. Its usual call note is a high-pitched chack . This is

    sometimes repeated, or used in such phrases as chack - a - chack . Usually it

    nests in a hole in a tree, a crevice about a building, or a fissure among

    819      |      Vol_IV-0878                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Jackdaw and Jay

    among rocks, but sometimes it builds a large, open, or more or less roofed–

    over nest in a tree, or lays its eggs in the old nest of a magpie ( Pica

    pica ) or rock ( Corvus frugilegus ). Breeds in the British Isles and across

    Eurasia northward to latitude 69° 30′ in Norway, 66° in Russia, 60° in

    western Siberia, and about 61° in eastern Siberia (Olekminsk). It has

    been reported from Iceland, the Faeroes, and Vaigach.

            721. Jay. 1. Any of several middle-sized to large hardy, woodland

    birds, some of which are conspicuously crested, some extremely long-tailed,

    some brightly colored, some very plain. With other members of the crow

    family (Corvidae) jays have strong bills and feet, bristle-covered nostrils,

    and 10 primaries. Most jays have rounded wings, and most of them are

    soft-plumaged.

            Three species of jays range northward to the Arctic Circle or there–

    abouts — the common jay ( Carrulus glandarius ) and Siberian jay ( Perisoreus

    infaustus ) of Eurasia, and the Canada jay, gray jay, camp robber, or whiskey–

    jack ( Perisoreus canadensis ) of northern North America. No species of jay

    is common t h o the Old World and the New.

            2. The well-known Garrulus glandarius of the Old World. It is some–

    times called the common jay. It is a beautiful bird about 14 inches long

    with pinkish brown body plumage and finely barred pale blue and black wing

    coverts. Its crest is light gray, streaked with black. A black moustache

    spot separates the brown of the side of the head from the white of the

    throat. The basal half of f t he secondaries and the upper and under tail

    coverts are white. The tail feathers, tertials, and ends of the secondaries

    820      |      Vol_IV-0879                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Jay and Magpie

    are black. The primaries are gray. The eyes are pale blue. The northern

    limits of the species’ range are latitude 65° N. in Scandinavia, the

    Archangelsk district of norther f n Russia, 61° on the Ob, 59° on the Yenisei,

    the Amur Valley, Ussuriland, and the island of Sakhalin.

            See Canada Jay, Gray Jay or Whiskey-jack, Siberian Jay, and CORVIDAE.

            722. Magpie. A strikingly patterned, long-tailed corvid, Pica pica,

    found in both the New World and the Old. In America it is sometimes called

    the black-billed magpie, to distinguish it from the yellow-billed magpie

    ( Pica nuttalli ), It is about 18 inches long (of which 8 to 10 inches is

    tail). It is shiny black with white scapulars and belly. The wings and

    tail are richly glossed with green, blue, and violet. Bold white marks on

    the primaries are concealed except when the wings are spread.

            The magpie goes about in pairs or small companies, often feeding on

    the ground, where it walks with tail elevated. Its flight is direct but

    rather slow. The birds tend to trail each other from place to place rather

    than moving about in compact flocks. The call note is a harsh, chattering

    kak , kak , kak , kak , kak . The nest is a bulky, domed-over affair of sticks,

    with entrance at the side, placed in a large tree. Pica pica breeds in

    the British Isles, across Eurasia, in northwest Africa, and in northwestern

    North America. Its northern limits are latitude 70° N. in Norway, 64 r ° on the

    Ob, r 6 1° on the Yenisei, the upper Lena, the upper Anadyr, southern Alaska,

    northwestern British Columbia, central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and

    northeastern Manitoba (Churchill). It has made its way northeastward

    to Churchill, Manitoba, in recent years. Meinertzhagen ( Ibis, 1938, p. 757)

    821      |      Vol_IV-0880                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Magpie and Nutcracker and Raven

    says that it ranges northward to the Arctic Sea in Lapland. It has been

    reported from Novaya Zemlya, Vaigach, and the Kobuk River, Alaska.

            725. Nutcracker . Any of various corvids belonging to the genus

    Nucifraga , especially the Old World species, N. caryocatactes , which is

    about 12 inches long and dark brown, [ ?] boldly fleck d e d with white all over

    the face, neck, and body (not on the crown, wings, and tail). Whole tip of

    tail white. Under tail coverts white. Bill long and pointed. Goes

    about in pairs during the breeding season, at other times in small companies

    or large flocks. Breeds in northern Eurasia (including Japan and Formosa),

    moving southward irregularly over vast areas in winter. Northern limits of

    its breeding are latitude 64° 30′ N. in Norway, 68° in Siberia. It wanders

    occasionally to the British Isles. The Clark’s nutcracker ( Nucifraga

    columbiana ) of western North America does not breed northward quite to

    the Subarctic. It has been reported once from the Kobuk River, northern

    Alaska.

            728. Raven. A large glossy black bird, Corvus corax, which is

    sometimes erroneously called the crow. It is, however, much larger than

    the best known of the crows — the carrion crow ( Corvus corone ) of Eurasia,

    and the common crow ( Corvus brachyrhynchos ) of North America. It is well

    known throughout the Arctic. The Eskimos call it the tuluak or tulugak .

    It is widely alleged to be a bird of ill-omen, but Eskimo stories often

    endow it with good humor, independence of spirit, and great fortitude.

    822      |      Vol_IV-0881                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Raven

    Surely it deserves to be admired, despite its penchant for stealing bait

    and ruining furs, for it is exceedingly hardy and intelligent. Unlike

    many creatures of the Far North, its color scheme is not protective. It

    is easily visible the year round. It has hearing and eyesight keen enough

    and wits sharp enough to compensate for any shortcomings of coloration,

    however. Its plumage is deep, but not especially thick. Being black, the

    feathers absorb light readily. The light-reflecting snowy owl ( Nyctea

    scandiaca ) is very thick-plumaged by comparison. How the raven can live

    in very cold air without freezing its featherless toes continues to be

    something of a mystery. Perhaps it draws its feet up into its belly plumage

    when flying about in extremely cold weather.

            The raven is 21 to 27 inches long, with wingspread of 46 to 56 inches.

    It is black all over, glossed with violet on the head and body and with

    green on the wings. Its large, powerful beak is convex both above and below,

    and the nostrils are covered with a thick pad of forward-directed bristles.

    Its throat feathers are long and pointed (lanceolate) but it does not often

    have the shaggy-throated appearance given it in drawings. The tail is

    wedge-shaped rather than square or rounded, and this shape is detectable

    even at great distance when the bird is directly overhead. In areas

    inhabited by both the raven and other members of the genus Corvus , tail

    shape may be an important means of identification, for most crows have

    slightly rounded tails. The raven soars a great deal. This gives it a

    hawklike, or even eaglelike, appearance.

            The raven’s call notes are distinctive. The most familiar cry is a

    guttural crauk , cronk , or cork . Ticehurst states that its usual flight

    note is a “repeated deep ‘pruk, pruk’.” Various authors have described

    823      |      Vol_IV-0882                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Raven

    notes resembling the syllables tock-tock and click-clock . Certain cries

    which accompany courtship in early spring have a pleasing bell-like quality.

    A musical note which I heard in early spring on the island of Attu I wrote

    down as coo-look , coo-look , coo-look . The Eskimo name, tulugak , above

    referred f t o, almost certainly incorporates this cry. Captive ravens have

    an astonishing vocabulary which becomes more extensive as the birds imitate

    the various sounds they hear.

            The antics of ravens can hardly be over-described. Ravens that feed

    together in winter seem to enjoy playing tricks on one another. One may

    approach another behind a stone and leap out suddenly. Two or three birds

    may play a sort of leapfrog t t o gether in the wind. Their odd aerial maneuver–

    ings have given them a reputation for being able to fly upside down. The

    skilled pilots of the U.S. Army Air Force, with whom I often talked in the

    Aleutians, delighted to describe the rolls and sideslips they had seen the

    ravens performing. One very special raven, which was known to almost

    everyone on Attu, was given to waiting for food perched on a wire not far

    from a certain building. Here, if the wind was high, it opened its wings

    and allowed itself to be lifted; or, grasping the wire loosely with its

    rough feet, it fell forward, one blown backward and upward as the wind

    caught its tail, resumed a horizontal position momentarily, and fell for–

    ward again, thus pinwheeling until (if reports of the guffawing soldiers

    were to be believed) it eventually flounced off dead drunk!

            Ravens probably pair for life; but whether they have long been mated

    or not, they invariably observe rites of courtship during spring. The male

    hobbles and prances about in the snow, lifting the feathers at the sides

    of his crown until they become little ridges or “horns.” Occasionally he

    824      |      Vol_IV-0883                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Raven

    turns his head farther and farther to one side until it is literally

    upside down. Having found a bit of food or a pretty pebble or shell,

    he carries this about in his beak, tosses it into the air, catches it

    nonchalantly, and presents it to his mate. She too may play with the

    object. All the while the two birds “talk” together. The word talk is

    not far-fetched, for some of the sounds they make bear strong resemblance

    to human words.

            Ravens wander widely in winter unless they happen to find a whale or

    walrus carcass at which they may feed regularly. As spring advances, paired

    birds spend more and more time about the cliff on which they intend to nest.

    Often this cliff breasts the sea. If it is far inland, the ravens divide

    their time between the shore, along which they feed, and the home cliff.

    As a rule they have used this cliff before. On bright days they soar

    together above the old nest, mounting higher and higher on wideset wings.

    Suddenly the male changes his position, flops gracefully over, and slides

    swiftly downward. His mate may join him in this descent and with him swoop

    upward again. Sometimes they touch each other just as they start soaring

    again.

            Ravens nest very early. In the true Arctic they nest wholly on cliffs;

    but throughout more southern parts of their range they sometimes nest in trees.

    In flatter parts of Alaska, Canada, and Eurasia they nest almost wholly in

    large spruces. The nest is large and deeply cupped. Both the male and

    female build it, carrying materials in their bills as a rule, but sometimes

    in their feet. In the Far North the foundation is made of such willow and

    birch branches as the birds can find, mixed with moss, turf, grass, and roots.

    It is warmly, and often beautifully, lined. Twomey has described a nest

    825      |      Vol_IV-0884                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Raven

    which was extensively lined with snow-white hare fur. The eggs, which

    number 4 to 6 as a rule, are light green or blue in ground color, spotted

    and speckled with brown, gray, and black. The female does all (or most)

    of the incubating, but the male feeds her regularly during the 20 to 21-day

    incubation period. The young, which are fed by both parents, remain in the

    nest 5 or 6 weeks. The mouth lining of the nestling is purplish pink, the

    eyes bluish gray. Only one brood is reared in a season.

            Ravens are very pugnacious toward other ravens which approach their

    home cliff too closely. They try to drive off the gyrfalcons ( Falco rusti –

    colus ) and peregrines ( Falco peregrinus ) too; but there is sharp competition

    for nest sites at some cliffs — especially those inhabited by great colonies

    of sea birds — and the ravens often have to put up with at least one pair

    of falcons. Where ravens and falcons nest not far apart a state of armed

    neutrality exists. But the ravens destroy the falcons’ eggs if they are

    given even the briefest opportunity; and the swift-winged falcons nag the

    ravens daily on general principles. Certain authors report that the raven

    has special call notes which it gives only when a falcon stoops at it.

    This is quite believable, for the great and powerful raven is not used to

    being badgered.

            The raven breeds widely in both the Old World and the New. Throughout

    much of its range it is truly sedentary; but in the Far North it moves

    southward in winter, presumably because it needs some ultraviolet light

    or because it cannot find sufficient food in the darkness. There are, to

    be sure, reports of ravens seen in winter at high latitudes (see Bird and

    Bird Ibis, 1941, p. 125); but Manniche has reported extensive migrations in

    eastern Greenland and the diaries of various explorers clearly indicate

    826      |      Vol_IV-0885                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Raven

    that ravens disappear in fall and reappear in spring.

            Several races of Corvus corax are recognized, but these differ from

    each other only slightly. The species has a truly holarctic distribution,

    but it does not by any means inhabit all arctic lands. It has never been

    reported from the Franz Josef Archipelago and it apparently reaches Spits–

    bergen very infrequently. The northern limits of its breeding range are

    Iceland, the British Isles, northern Scandinavia, the Murman Coast (where

    it is said to be very abundant), Bear Island (in small numbers), Vaigach

    (probably), northern Russia, northern Siberia, the New Siberian Archipelago,

    Wrangel and Herald Islands, most islands of the Bering Sea, northern Alaska,

    northern Yukon, northwestern Mackenzie, the northern edge of the whole

    Arctic Archipelago (probably), and both coasts of Greenland (north to lat.

    79° N. on the west and Navy Cliff on the east). Handley encountered it on

    Prince Patrick Island in the summer of 1949. It has been reported from

    Novaya Zemlya, but apparently it does not breed there. König removed it

    from the Spitsbergen list, but Pleske [ ?] believes that it was actually

    see there.

            See Corvus and CORVIDAE.

            References:

    1. Harlow, R.C. “The breeding habits of the Northern Raven.” Auk,

    vol. 39, pp.399-410, 1922. 2. Tyrrell, W. Bryant. “A study of the Northern Raven.” Auk, vol.62,

    pp.1-7, 1945.

    827      |      Vol_IV-0886                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Siberian Jay

            730. Siberian Jay An uncrested Old World jay, Perisoreus infaustus , which resembles

    the Canada jay, gray jay, or whiskey-jack ( Perisoreus canadensis ) in

    being stubby-billed, rather long-tailed, and fluffy plumaged. It is

    about a foot long and is lead gray with rufous rump and tail. It is

    found only in northern woodlands and is not migratory though it some–

    times wanders southward, presumably in search of food. It is one of

    the very few bird species which have been observed day after day in the

    period of winter darkness in northern Scandinavia, but virtually nothing

    is known about its activities, the number of hours it spends asleep,

    precisely what it feeds on, etc., during this period.

            Perisoreus infaustus breeds across northern Eurasia — from Scandinavia

    to the Anadyr River, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the island of Sakhalin.

    Dementiev recognizes 13 races. The northernmost limits of its range are

    northern Scandinavia, latitude 67° to 69° in Lapland (Meinertzhagen), the

    Kola Peninsula, northern Russia, latitude 64° N. in the Urals, 63° to 64°

    on the Ob, 62° on the Yenisei, and the extreme north edge of the forest

    from the Lena to the Anadyr. It is not mentioned in Pleske’s Birds of the

    Eurasian Tundra , so presumably it has never been reported from any area

    north of tree limit.



    828      |      Vol_IV-0887                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Titmice and their allies

           

    TITMICE AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES: Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family PARIDAE

            732. Aegithalos . See writeup.

            733. Alaska Chickadee. A name sometimes applied to Parus cinctus

    alascensis , the New World race of the gray-capped chickadee ( q.v. ).

            734. Black-capped Chickadee or Willow Tit. See writeup.

            735. Brown-capped Chickadee. See writeup.

            736. Chickadee. A name widely used in America for various uncrested species

    of the genus Parus, especially the black-capped chickadee or willow

    tit ( P. atricapillus ), the Alaska gray-capped chickadee ( P. cinctus

    alascensis ), and the brown-capped chickadee ( P. hudsonicus ).

            737. Coal Tit. See writeup.

            738. Gray-capped Chickadee or Lapp Tit. See writeup.

            739. Great Tit. See writeup.

            740. Hudsonian Chickadee. A name often used for Parus hudsonicus hudsonicus ,

    the nominate race of the brown-capped chickadee ( q.v. ).

            741. Lapp Tit. A name used in England for the gray-capped chickadee,

    Parus cinctus ( q.v .).

            742. Long-tailed Tit. See writeup.

            743. PARIDAE. See writeup.

            744. Parus . See writeup.

            745. Tit. See writeup.

            746. Titmouse. A name sometimes used for various sorts of tits and

    chickadees. See Parus and PARIDAE.



    829      |      Vol_IV-0888                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Titmice and their allies

            747. Willow Tit. A name used in England for Parus atricapillus , the

    species known in America as the black-capped chickadee. See Tit.

            747.1 Yukon Chickadee. Parus atricap p illus turneri , the most northward–

    ranging American race of the black-capped chickadee ( q.v. ).



    830      |      Vol_IV-0889                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Aegithalos and Black-capped Chickadee or Willow Tit

            732. Aegithalos . A monotypic genus of very small tits (family Paridae)

    known as long-tailed tits. The bill is short, thick, and much curved both

    above and below. The plumage is very soft and fluffy. The wing is short

    and rounded. The tail is very long (much longer than the wing), much gradu–

    ated, and composed of 12 narrow feathers. The tarsus is proportionately

    weaker than that of Parus , and less definitely scutellated in front. The

    hind toe is stouter than the others, and has a much longer, stouter claw.

    The sexes are alike. The nest is wholly different from that of Parus .

    Instead of being built in a cavity, it is hung on a branch. It is large,

    somewhat egg-shaped, and made of moss, lichens, spiderwebs, and plant fibers.

    There is an entrance hole at the side near the top. The genus (species) is

    confined to Eurasia, including the British Isles, Japan, and Sakhalin. It

    ranges north to the Arctic Circle and somewhat beyond in Scandinavia.

            See Long-tailed Tit.

            734. Black-capped Chickadee or Willow Tit. Parus atricapillus , known

    in America as the black-capped chic k adee, in England as the willow tit.

    It is about 5 inches long. The black cap and black throat are separated

    by a bold white patch extending from the lores backward under the eye

    throughout the ear coverts and sides of the neck. The back, wings, and

    tail are gray. The under part of the body is white, more or less tinged

    with rufous on the sides and flanks.

            This is, in a sense, the most northern of the tits because it is the

    only one which breeds well northward circumboreally. The northern limits

    of its range are Scotland, latitude 70° N. in Norway, northern Sweden,

    831      |      Vol_IV-0890                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-capped Chickadee or Willow Tit

    Lapland, northern Russia, the valley of the Ob, 64° in central Siberia

    (probably farther north along the large rivers), the Anadyr basin, central

    Alaska (north to the Kobuk River), southern Yukon, southwestern Mackenzie,

    central Saskatchewan, central Manitoba, central Ontario, southern Quebec,

    and Newfoundland. It apparently breeds farther north in the Old World

    than the New. The northernmost American race, P. atricapillus turneri ,

    is known as the Yukon chickadee. This form has been reported from Point

    Barrow, Alaska (two October specimens).

            In America the species’ best known call notes are its clearly whistled

    fee-bee spring “song,” and its companionable chickadee-dee-dee-dee , which

    may be given at any season. It has several other call notes which are less

    easily worded.

            The marsh tit ( Parus palustris ) of Eurasia is so similar to P. atricapillus

    in appearance that many records for both forms may well be erroneous. The

    marsh tit (length 4 1/2 inches) differs only in having a smaller back throat–

    patch, a dull (rather than glossy) black cap, and brownish, rather than

    grayish, back, wings and tail. The fact that so outstanding an ornithological

    work as the Handbook of British Birds gives one of the marsh tit’s call notes

    as chickabeebeebeebee , and attributes no such call note to A. atricapillus ,

    clearly suggests the possibility (a) that ornithologists have badly confused

    the two species in the field, and (b) that the marsh tit, rather than the

    willow tit, is the black-capped chicadee of the Old World (i.e., the circum–

    boreal species).



    832      |      Vol_IV-0891                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Brown-capped Chicadee

            735. Brown-capped Chicadee Brown-capped Chicadee . A North American titmouse, Parus hudsonicus ,

    widely known by such geographical names as Hudsonian chickadee (the nominate

    race), Acadian chickaee ( P. hudsonicus littoralis ), and Columbian chickadee

    ( P. hudsonicus columbianus ). It is about 5 inches long, The whole cap is

    dull brown; the throat black; the area between the cap and throat grayish

    white; the back, wings, and tail ashy gray; the breast and belly white; the

    sides and flanks washed with rufous.

            The call notes of this spruce-inhabiting species resemble those of

    Parus atricapillus , but the chickadee-dee-dee-dee dry is minor in quality

    and drawled, and the whistled spring song is huskier. In behavior the

    bird is much like atricapillus . It nests in cavities in dead spruce stubs,

    often near the ground.

            It is wholly confined to the New World. It ranges northward to tree

    limit across North America from north central Alaska (Kobuk and Alatna rivers)

    and northeastern Mackenzie to northeastern Manitoba (Churchill), northern

    Quebec, and northern Labrador. Its southern limits are northern Washington,

    northwestern Montana, southern Sackatchewan, south central Manitoba, north–

    eastern Minnesota, northern Michigan, central Ontario, northeastern New

    York, northern Vermont, northern New Hampshire, and Maine. It has been

    reported in winter from numerous points slightly south of the southern

    limits of its breeding range, but it is not regularly migratory. The

    nominate race is the most northward ranging of the four races currently

    recognized.



    833      |      Vol_IV-0892                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Coal Tit.

            737. Coal Tit . A well-known Old World titmouse, Parus ater,

    notable for its proportionately short tail. It is about 4 1/4 inches

    long. It has a black cap, black throat, white side of the head, and a

    large white nape-spot. The back, wings, and tail are olive gray. The

    wings have two rather conspicuous white bars. The under part of the body

    is buff, strongest in tone on the sides and flanks. The species is fond

    of conifers. Often it searches for food in the manner of a creeper ( Certhia )

    on the spruce trunks. Its call notes are said to be sweeter and clearer

    than those of other European tits. One of its commonest notes might be

    written tsee-ee , and others are variations or elaborations of this. It

    nests in a hole in a bank, in an old stump not far above ground, occasionally

    in the foundations of large nests of other birds.

            Parus ater inhabits the British Isles and northern Eurasia. So far

    as has actually been ascertained, it breeds northward just to the Arctic

    Circle in Norway. Its northern limits in Russia are the shores of the

    White Sea and latitude 62° N. in the Urals. In Asia it ranges from the

    Altai and Sayan Mountains northward at least to Obdorsk on the Ob, latitude

    60° N. on the Yenisei, and the Verkhoyansk Mountains. Pleske gives the

    species full standing in his list of Eurasian tundra birds, largely on the

    basis of records of several individuals seen on the west coast of the

    Taimyr Peninsula (at about lat. 75° N.) in the fall of 1900. What this

    company of spruce-loving tits could have been doing “in a region not only

    bare of trees, but even of bushes” is difficult indeed to explain. Per–

    haps a pair of them had actually bred in those patitudes the preceding

    summer.



    834      |      Vol_IV-0893                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gray-capped Chickadee or Lapp Tit

            738. Gray-capped Chickadee or Lapp Tit. Parus cinctus, known in

    America as the Alaska chickadee, in England as the Lapp tit. The name gray–

    capped chickadee is hereby offered as an apt one for the species as a whole.

    Parus cinctus is about 5 inches long. The whole cap is ashy gray, darkest

    in front of the eyes. The chin and throat are black. The sides of the head

    are white. The back, wings, and tail are gray. The under parts of the body

    are white, washed with rufous on the sides and flanks.

            Very little has been published about this species’ call notes and

    behavior. Bailey (1948. Birds of Arctic Alaska , p. 277) says that it seems

    “to prefer the spruce tracts along the base of the mountains rather than ...

    the river bottoms,” but Dementiev, in his Systema Avium Rossicarum , states

    that in Siberia it inhabits river bottoms and basins but not the highlands.

            The gray-capped chickadee is exclusively boreal. The northern limits

    of its range are tree limit in Lapland, northern Russia, northern Siberia,

    northern Alaska, northern Yukon, and northwestern Mackenzie. Its southern

    limits are farther south in Asia than in Europe. In Asia they are the Altai

    Mountains, the valley of the Nizhnia Tunguska, the Yakutsk district, and the

    shores of the Sea of Okhotsk; in Alaska, St. Michael and the middle and upper

    Yukon. According to Dementiev, the species inhabits the Taimyr Peninsula

    and the Kolyma basin, breeding north to the very edge of the tundra, and

    shifting somewhat southward in winter (as far as 1st. 61° N.). Pleske

    does not list it in his Birds of the Eurasian Tundra . In northern Yukon

    and northwestern Mackenzie it is apparently confined to the northern edge

    of the forest.



    835      |      Vol_IV-0894                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Tit

            739. Great Tit. A well-known Old World titmouse, Parus major ,

    decidedly the largest northern species of the family Paridae. It is

    about 6 inches long. Its head, except for the large triangular white

    patch on the ear coverts, is glossy blue-black. This black continues

    from the throat down the middle of the breast and belly. The back is

    yellowish green. The rump, tail, and wings are blue-gray, the wing

    having a fairly noticeable white bar, the tail white outer feathers. The

    breast and belly, except for the black median part, are light yellow.

            The great tit feeds in trees and bushes principally, but sometimes

    descends to the ground. Here it hops. Its flight is strongly undulatory.

    Its call notes are various — tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee, tooi-tooi-tooi-tooi , or

    tink-tink-tink-tink. Its song has been likened to the sounds made in

    sharpening a saw — teechu - teechu - teechu ( Handbook of British Birds ).

    In most parts of its range it is probably sedentary, but some of the

    several races may be more or less migratory.

            Parus major breeds across middle Eurasia (including the British Isles,

    various Mediterranean islands, Japan, Sakhalin, the Kurils and the

    Ryukyus) and in northwestern Africa. The northern limits of its range

    are: latitude 70° N. in Norway (it is rare there); northern Sweden,

    Finland, the Archangelsk district of northern Russia; 61° along the Ob

    and Yenisei; middle Siberia; the Amur Valley, the shores of the Sea of

    Okhotsk, Sakhalin, and the southern Kurils.



    836      |      Vol_IV-0895                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Long-tailed Tit

            742. Long-tailed Tit . A remarkable Old World titmouse, Aegithalos

    caudatus , notable for its smallness of body, its pink, blackish and dull

    white coloration, and its very long, narrow, much graduated tail. It is

    about 5 1/2 inches long, with 3-inch-long tail. Young birds resemble

    adults but have no pink in their plumage. The long-tailed tit is not to

    be confused with the so-called long-tailed chickadee, Parus atricapillus

    septentrionalis , one of the New World races of the black-capped chickadee

    or willow tit.

            The long-tailed tit builds an egg-shaped nest, with entrance (or two

    entrances) near the top, placing it from 4 to 50 feet from the ground in

    shrubbery or a tree. Both sexes build it. It is made chiefly of moss,

    and the materials are bound together with spider webs and plant fibers.

    The eggs (which are white, spotted with brown) number 8 to 12 as a rule,

    though as many as 20 have been reported. Incubation is principally by

    the female (period 14 to 18 days). The fledging period is 15 to 16 days

    ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            This interesting little bird breeds in the British Isles and across

    Eurasia. The northern Limits of its range in Norway are latitude 69° 30′ N.

    Dementiev says that it breeds northward to about 60° in Siberia. It

    inhabits the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Island of Sakhalin. It

    has been reported from the Murman Coast (Yokanga).

            See Aegithalos for important details concerning structure, etc.



    837      |      Vol_IV-0896                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Paridae

            743. Paridae. A family of small passeriform birds known as tits or

    titmice (in North America several species are called chickadees). They

    have soft, thick plumage, The bill is strong and short, usually much shorter

    than the head. The nostrils are covered with short antrorse feathers. The

    wings are long, but rounded. Of the 10 primaries, the 3rd to 6th, 3rd to

    5th, or 4th to 6th are longest. The outermost primary is much shorter than

    the one next to it, and sometimes rudimentary. The tail (12 feathers) is

    variable: in some species (e.g., Parus ater ) it is rather short, in others

    (e.g., Aegithalos caudatus ) very long. The tarsus, which is scutellate in

    front, is longer than the middle toe with its claw.

            The tits are energetic birds which look and act like little jays.

    Often they hold their food in their feet while they shell and eat it. They

    have a great variety of hearty call notes, some of which are melodious.

    Their breeding habits vary greatly. Most forms nest in cavities, usually

    in trees, exceptionally in a hole in the ground. Others build long, pensile

    nests. All Paridae are very prolific. They lay many eggs and (except in

    the Far North) rear two broods a season. In consequence, they are usually

    common wherever they are found at all.

            The family ranges virtually throughout the world except in South and

    Central America, the Pacific islands, and the intensely cold regions. It

    ranges northward in the forest to the Arctic Circle and beyond both in the

    Old World and the New. The most northward-ranging genus, Parus , has a

    virtually circumboreal distribution. The Old World genus Aegithalos also

    ranges northward to the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia. No member of the family

    is, however, an inhabitant of the tundra or of the true Arctic.

            See Parus , Aegithalos , Tit, Great Tit, Black-capped Chicadee or Willow

    Tit, Gray-capped Chicadee or Lapp Tit, Brown-capped Chicadee, Coal Tit, and

    Long-tailed Tit.



    838      |      Vol_IV-0897                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Parus

            744. Parus . A genus of small, soft-plumaged, energetic passeriform

    birds commonly known as tits (or titmice) and chickadees. The bill is

    strong and usually rather short and heavy. The nostrils are completely

    covered with short antrorse feathers. The tongue is not sharply pointed,

    but blunt, and covered with bristles at the tip. The wing is much rounded:

    the outermost primary is less than half as longas the second, and the third

    is longer than the second. The tail is rounded, sometimes double-rounded,

    or somewhat emarginate, but never strongly graduated The feet are strong.

    The tarsus is scutellate in front. The sexes are alike and young birds

    usually resemble the adults rather closely. All species of the genus nest

    in cavities in trees or fence posts 0 ( or, exceptionally, in holes in the

    ground). The birds frequently excavafe their own nest cavities.

            Parus has a very wide distribution. Generally speaking, it breeds from

    tree limit in the north, southward to Australia and New Zealand. It does

    not, however, inhabit South America or the Pacific islands. It is well

    represented in boreal regions. One northern species — P. atricapillus

    (known in England as the willow tit and in America as the black-capped

    chickadee) ranges widely in both the Old World and the New. Another —

    P. cinctus (gray-capped chickadee or Lapp tit) inhabits northern Eurasia

    and extreme northwestern North America. Other northern species are the

    great tit ( P. major ), coal tit ( P. ater ), and brown-capped chickadee

    ( P. hudsonicus ). The first two of these are confined to the Old World,

    the third to the New.

            See Tit and Paridae. PARIDAE.



    839      |      Vol_IV-0898                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tit or Titmouse

            745. Tit or Titmouse . A name applied to several well-known small

    birds of the family Paridae. In England all species of the principal

    genus, Parus , are commonly called tits, whereas in America only the

    crested species are called tits (or titmice), while the uncrested ones

    are called chickadees. All the tits and chickadees are energetic, hardy,

    woodland birds of soft plumage, given to going about in small companies

    (family groups, perhaps) throughout late summer, fall, and winter, often

    in association with such wholly different birds as woodpeckers, creepers,

    and nuthatches. Their most musical utterances are hardly songs, in the

    accepted sense of the word, but their cries are spirited and hearty and

    some can be imitated so easily by whistling or by spoken syllables that

    such onomatopoeic names as chic k adee have come into use quite naturally.

            Several tits are boreal, a few of them exclusively so. All the

    northern forms have a rather bold color pattern. In all of them the

    male and female are alike and young birds closely resemble the adults.

    They all nest in cavities in trees or fence posts (or, exceptionally, in

    the ground, in cans on the ground, in birdhouses, or in holes in walls).

    The fact that the eggs are spotted suggests two possibilities: first,

    that the tits originally built open nests (i.e., cu p -shaped nests not

    placed in cavities or dark places); second, that tits are actually little

    jays of the family Corvidae. The similarity of tits to jays has been

    noted by many ornithologists. In both groups there are crested and

    uncrested, as well as dull-colored and brightly colored, forms. All

    jays and tits are fluffy feathered, sturdy, and active. Tits like to

    go about in bands, as jays do, foraging together, mobbing an owl together,

    even, possibly, roosting together in groups. Tits and jays molt similarly.

    840      |      Vol_IV-0899                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tit or Titmouse

    All tits and jays are birds of extensive vocabulary, though so far as I

    know no tit is given to imitating other species, whereas some jays are

    confirmed mimics.

            Throughout the northern forms of the genus Parus , nidification is

    about the same. All these species lay large sets of eggs — 8 or 9 as

    a rule, though many more (up to 13 or 14) have frequently been reported.

    The female apparently does all the incubation, and she sits closely,

    being fed by the male. The incubation period is 13 to 14 days. The young

    hatch simultaneously, are fed by both parents, and remain in the nest

    about three weeks — a long fledging period. When they leave the nest

    they fairly burst out, for every one of them is well able to fly. They

    look very much like their parents, for their tails have had time to

    grow to considerable length. Abroad in the world at last, they keep to–

    gether as a brood, instinctively using call notes they have never used

    before and revealing that innate curiosity of theirs in gathering about

    the man who pauses to observe them. Two broods are reared in southern

    parts of the ranges, but in the Far North only one brood is reared.

            See PARIDAE, Parus , Black-capped Chic k adee or Willow Tit, Gray-capped

    Chickadee or Lapp Tit, Brown-capped Chic k adee, Coal Tit, Great Tit, and

    Long-tailed Tit.



    841      |      Vol_IV-0900                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Nuthatches

           

    NUTHATCHES

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES: Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family SITTIDAE

            748. Nuthatch. See writeup.

            749. SITTIDAE. See writeup.



    842      |      Vol_IV-0901                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Nuthatch

            748. Nuthatch. Sitta europaea , a scansorial Old World bird some–

    times called the common nuthatch, which breeds northward in Norway to

    latitude 62° N., in Russia to 64°; in Siberia to 68° in the Lena valley

    north of Yakutsk, and to 69° along the Kureika River. It is about 5 1/2

    inches long and is bluish gray above, buff below, with a black line

    through the eye, white cheeks and throat, and chestnut flanks. All but

    the middle two tail feathers are black at the base, and the outer pair

    are marked with white. Young birds are duller and have no chestnut on

    the flanks.

            The nuthatch usually goes about in pairs, though family groups may

    forage together in late summer. The species does not flock, but it

    associated with parties of tits, creepers, and woodpeckers in fall and

    winter. Its chief call is a loud, metallic chwit , chwit or chwit-it-it

    ( Handb. Brit. Birds ). It nests in natural cavities in trees as a rule,

    though sometimes in a hole in a wall, in the old nest of a magpie ( Pica pica ),

    or the old burrow of a sand martin ( Riparia riparia ). The eggs, which

    usually number 6 to 11, are white, spotted with reddish brown. The female

    does all the incubating. She is fed by the male throughout the 13 to 18-day

    incubation period. The fledging period averages 24 days (Henze).

            Sitta europaea is nonmigratory. The most northward-ranging nuthatch

    of the New World, Sitta canadensis (red-breasted nuthatch), breeds northward

    almost to the Arctic Circle in Alaska and along the Mackenzie, but to less

    high latitudes in central and eastern Canada. It has been encountered at

    Churchill, Manitoba, but does not nest there. It is definitely migratory,

    the southern limits of its winter range being northern Florida, Texas, and

    southern California.

            See SITTIDAE.



    843      |      Vol_IV-0902                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sittidae

            749. Sittidae . A family of small, strong-footed, short-tailed

    scansorial passeriform birds known as nuthatches. They feed on insects

    and also on various hard-shelled seeds which they wedge into crevices

    in the bark and open with their bills. (The word nuthatch is derived

    from the Middle English notehache , nuthage , or nuthake and means,

    literally, nut-hacker .)

            Adept at climbing though the Sittidae are, they do not prop them–

    selves with their tails as woodpeckers (family Picidae) do. They are

    unlike the woodpeckers also in having three toes in front and one behind.

    The bill, which is almost as long as the head, is straight or slightly

    upturned, and pointed. The tarsus is short, the toes large, with large,

    laterally compressed claws. The hallux is as long as the outer front

    toe. The wings are long and pointed. The tail, which is not stiffened,

    is composed of 12 broad feathers.

            Nuthatches are famous for their habit of moving down the trunks of

    trees headfirst. The principal genus of the family is Sitta , a group

    of about 15 species found in Eurasia, northern Africa, and North America.

    The most northward-ranging nuthatch of the world, Sitta europaea , is one

    of the larger species.

            See Nuthatch.



    844      |      Vol_IV-0903                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Creepers

           

    CREEPERS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES : Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family CERTHIIDAE

            750. CERTHIIDAE. See writeup.

            751. Tree Creeper. See writeup.



    845      |      Vol_IV-0904                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Certhiidae and Tree Creeper or Brown Creeper

            750. Certhiidae . A family of small scansorial passeriform birds

    known as creepers. Throughout the family the bill is slender, curved,

    and as long as, or longer than, the head. The nostrils are covered by

    an operculum or membrane, not by bristles or feathers. The tarsus is

    short. The toes are slender, but the claws are large and curved, that

    of the hallux being especially long in some species. The front toes

    are of unequal length, the middle being the longest, the inner the

    shortest. There are 10 primaries, the outermost being less than half

    as long as the nest; the longest being the third and fourth or fourth

    and fifth. The tail is rather long and graduated. The 12 rectrices

    are pointed and somewhat stiff. The Certhiidae are found in Eurasia,

    Africa, Australia, and North America. Five genera currently are recog–

    nized. The only species which breeds northward as far as the Arctic

    Circle is Certhia familiaris , the tree creeper or brown creeper,

    ( q.v. ).

            751. Tree Creeper or Brown Creeper. Certhia familiaris , a small,

    dull-colored scansorial bird known in England solely by the former name,

    in America solely by the latter. It is about 5 inches long and is notable

    for its long, rather strongly decurved bill and woodpeckerlike habit of

    climbing up tree trunks using its tail as a prop. It climbs in a succession

    of jerks, often moving spirally round a trunk. On flying it drops to the

    base of a tree close by and climbs again, thus proceeding through the forest.

    It is brown in general appearance above, with a rather noticeable whitish

    line above the eye, pale buffy back-streaking and wing-markings, and rufous

    846      |      Vol_IV-0905                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tree Creeper or Brown Creeper

    rump. Below it is grayish white. It usually nests behind loose bark

    in a dead tree in swampy woods. The nest proper has a twig, bark, and

    moss foundation and a lining of feathers, fur, and fine bits of moss.

    The eggs, which usually number 6 or 7, are white with a wreath of reddish

    brown dots around the large end. The incubation period is 14 to 15 days.

    Both sexes are said to incubate the eggs and feed the young, which

    fledge in about 15 days.

            Certhia familiaris breeds circumboreally, its northern limits being

    northern Norway (lat. 69° 40′), northern Sweden, northern Russia, latitude

    55° N. in central Siberia ( Dementiev ), the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk,

    Sakhalin, the Kurils, central Alaska (Mount McKinley), southern Manitoba,

    and southern Quebec. It has never been reported from Churchill, Manitoba.

    It does not breed northward to tree limit by any means, scarcity of loose

    bark back of which to nest possibly being a restricting factor. Pleske

    does not list the species in his Birds of the Eurasian Tundra . About 12

    races are currently recognized, the southward-ranging ones being montane.

            See CERTHIIDAE.



    847      |      Vol_IV-0906                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dippers or Water Ousels

           

    DIPPERS OR WATER OUSELS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES : Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family CINCLIDAE

            752. American Dipper. Cinclus maxicanus , a New World dipper which

    breeds northward to the Arctic Circle in Alaska. See

    CINCLIDAE.

            752.1. Black-bellied Dipper. A name applied in England to Cinclus

    cinclus cinclus of continental Europe. See CINCLIDAE.

            753. CINCLIDAE. See writeup.

            754. Dipper. 1. Any of several aquatic passeriform birds belonging

    to the family Cinclidae. Known also as water ousels.

            2. Cinclus cinclus , an Old World dipper which ranges

    northward to well beyond the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia.

    See CINCLIDAE.

            754.1. Water Ousel or Water Ouzel. A cipper. See CINCLIDAE.



    848      |      Vol_IV-0907                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cinclidae

            753. Cinclidae . A family of aquatic passeriform birds known as

    dippers or water ousels. They are much like wrens (family Troglodytidae)

    in having plump bodies, short tails, and short wings, but they are con–

    siderably larger than most wrens and some of their habits are unique.

    Their plumage is very thick, and they have a dense undercoat of down.

    The oil gland is extremely large, probably because of much oil is needed

    for waterproofing the plumage. The bill, which is slightly depressed at

    the base, is straight and rather long. The nostrils are slitlike and

    sheltered by a membrane. The plumage of the forehead extends forward to

    the nostrils. There are no rictal bristles. The eye is equipped with a

    well-developed nictitating membrane. The wings are rounded, the outer–

    most primary being short but well developed. The tail (12 feathers) is

    short and square, rounded, or slightly graduated. The feet are large,

    strong, and well clawed. The tarsus is long, and booted except at the

    distal end. The sexes are alike. Young birds are more or less spotted

    or mottled underneath as are young thrushes (family Turdidae).

            Dippers live almost entirely along cold, swift streams in mountainous

    areas. They do not, however, inhabit all the mountains of the world by

    any means. They are found in Europe, northern Asia (south to the

    Himalayas, China, and Formosa), and northwestern Africa, and in western

    America from Alaska to the Andes of northwestern Argentina. They inhabit

    the Black Hills of South Dakota, but not the mountains of eastern North

    America. There is only one genus: Cinclus . One species of this genus,

    C. cinclus , ranges northward into the Subarctic in the Old World, another,

    C. mexicanus , in the New. C. cinclus is one of the very few birds which

    have been regularly observed in the dead of winter at latitudes well north

    849      |      Vol_IV-0908                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cinclidae

    of the Arctic Circle (see Meinertzhagen, Ibis , 1938, pp. 754-759;

    and Alexander, Ibis , 1939, pp. 605-606). A specimen of C. mexicanus ,

    taken by Raymond J. Hock along the upper John River, well north of the

    Arctic Circle in Alaska on February 15, 1948, is in the Sutton collection.

    C. mexicanus has been taken at Point Barrow, Alaska.

            Dippers are the same in behavior the world over. They usually

    go about in pairs, flying from rock to rock along a rushing stream,

    pausing long enough to bob on their strong legs, lower their stubby

    tails, and blink their eyes. If seeking food, they walk along the shore,

    wading in fearlessly, sometimes becoming completely submerged. Often

    they plunge into the water flying, or alight on the surface and drift

    downstream with wings outspread. On the bottom they walk about with

    what appears to be complete case, moving slowly downstream, turning the

    stones over with their bills. They probably stay down by clutching stones

    with their feet (see Brownlow, 1949. Brit. Birds , 42: 69-73). They

    swim under water readily, using their wings and probably their feet also.

    Their serial flight is rapid and direct. As a rule they fly only along

    the home stream, following its course faithfully and keeping a few feet

    above it. Their call note is a sharp tink or tink-tink, which can be

    heard above the rushing of the water. Occasionally they burst into a

    volley of quickly repeated, descending notes — almost a squeal or scream.

    The song, which is sung by both the male and the female, is a loud,

    spirited wrenlike warble.

            The nest, which is built by both sexes, is an oven-shaped affair

    of moss, grass, and leaves about a foot in diameter. Almost always it

    is above water on a cliff or rock. Often it is near or behind a waterfall --

    850      |      Vol_IV-0909                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cinclidae

    so near, in fact, that the birds have to dart through the spray in

    coming and going. The eggs, which usually are 5, are dull white. The

    female does all the incubating. The incubation period is 15 to 17 days.

    The young remain in the nest 24 to 25 days (Hann). This is a very long

    fledging period for a passeriform bird. Hann has called attention to

    the interesting fact that almost immediately after the young have left

    the nest, the parent birds remove the lining.

            The most boreal of the dippers are:

            1. Cinclus cinclus . Adults dark brown with white throat and breast.

    In young birds the white extends over the lower breast and upper belly,

    and this whole light area is more or less mottled or clouded with brown.

    The species ranges widely in Eurasia and northwestern Africa. The northern

    limits of its breeding range are northern Scandinavia (lat. 70° N. in

    Norway), northern Russia, 65° in the Urals, the upper valleys of the

    great Siberian rivers (presumably), and the Staovoi Mountains. The

    nominate race, which breeds in Scandinavia, is known among British orni–

    thologists as the black-bellied dipper.

            2. Cinclus pallasi . This species is dark brown throughout all

    the under parts and dark ashy gray on the wings and tail. It inhabits

    the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk and the peninsula of Kamchatka, and

    apparently does not range northward to the Arctic Circle.

            3. Cinclus mexicanus . American dipper. Adults are ashy gray all

    over, sometimes with light edgings on the feathers of the lower breast

    and belly. The eyelids are covered with short white feathers. The

    legs and feet are flesh color. Young birds are whitish on the throat,

    breast, and upper belly, lightly mottled with gray. This species breeds

    851      |      Vol_IV-0910                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cinclidae

    in the mountains of western North America from near tree limit in

    north central Alaska south to Central America (western Panama). So

    far as is known it has never inhabited the mountains of eastern North

    America.

            References:

    1. Eggebrecht, E. “Brutbiologie der Wasseramsel (Cinclus cinclus aquaticus

    (Becht.)”. Jou nr rn . für Ornith ., vol.85, pp.636-676, 1937. 2. Hann, Harry W. “Nesting behavior of the American dipper in Colorado.”

    Condor , vol.52, pp.49-62, 1950. 3. Penot. J. “Notes biologiques sur le cincle plongeur Cinclus cinclus

    (L.).” L’Oiseaux et la Rev. Franc. d’Ornith ., vol.18, pp.141-151,

    1948.

    852      |      Vol_IV-0911                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wrens

           

    WRENS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES : Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family TROGLODYTIDAE

            755. TROGLODYTIDAE. See writeup.

            756. Winter Wren. A name widely used in America for Troglodytes

    troglodytes hiemalis and other New World races of the wren or

    common wren. None of these ranges northward quite to the

    Arctic Circle. See Wren.

            757. Wren. See writeup.



    853      |      Vol_IV-0912                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Troglodytidae

            755. Troglodytidae . A family composed of numerous passeriform

    birds known as wrens. They are energetic, slender-billed, strong-footed

    and more or less terrestrial, and most of them are small. Their plumage

    is rather fluffy and their wings short and rounded (the outermost primary,

    though short, is well developed). They are not strong fliers. Most

    species characteristically hold their tails straight up, except when

    singing, at which times they point their bills upward and let their tails

    hang straight downward. In general, wrens are birds of dull plumage —

    brown or gray above, and white, light gray, or buff below. In many species

    the wings and tail are barred with black. The sexes are alike and (except

    in a few species) young birds resemble the adults.

            Ridgway gives the following as the range of the family: “Palaearctic,

    Nearctic, and Neotropical regions, but absent from the Gal a á pagos Archipelago

    and Greater Antilles (including Bahamas); most numerously represented in

    the Neotropical region.” The wrens are, in other words, missing from the

    Australian and Pacific regions. The numerous “wrens” of Australia (several

    small birds there bear that name) are not members of the Troglodytidae.

            No wren ranges regularly northward to the Arctic Circle and beyond,

    but the well-known Troglodytes troglodytes (called the wren or common wren

    in England, and the winter wren in America) breeds in Iceland and circum–

    boreally throughout a rather narrow belt of woodland across the whole of

    northern Eurasia and North America.

            The long-billed marsh wren ( Telmatodytes palustris ) of continental

    North America bred in Godthaab Fjord, on the west coast of Greenland, in

    the summer of 1943. Remarkable extensions of range of this sort have been

    reported many times from Greenland in periods of mild weather (see Salomonsen,

    1948. Dansk Orn. Foren. Tidss ., 42: 99).

            See Wren.



    854      |      Vol_IV-0913                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wren

            757. Wren . 1. Troglodytes troglodytes, a small, sprightly bird

    found in northern woodlands of both New and Old Worlds. It is about

    3 3/4 inches long (some races are a little larger) and is very short-tailed.

    It is dark brown above, lighter brown below, more or less flecked, barred,

    and speckled all over. The buffy line over the eye is not very noticeable

    in the field. It has a vigorous, loud song which last 5 to 8 seconds.

            Troglodytes troglodytes breeds northward to Iceland, the Faeroes, the

    Shetlands, the Hebrides, St. Kilda, latitude 67° N. in Norway, 64° 30′ in

    Sweden, 64° in Finland, northern Russia, and Siberia, the Amur Valley, the

    Kurils, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, the Komandorskis, the Aleutians and most

    islands of the Bering Sea, southern Alaska, southern Alberta, southern

    Saskatchewan, northern Ontario, central Quebec, and Newfoundland. Austin

    does not list it from Labrador. It has never been reported from Churchill,

    Manitoba. It has been captured once at Point Barrow, Alaska.

            2. Any of numerous passeriform birds of the family Troglodytidae,

    which see.

            3. A name used in England for Regulus regulus , the goldcrest or

    golden-crested wren. In America this bird is known as the golden-crowned

    kinglet. It ranges well northward in coniferous woodlands. See RECULIDAE

    and Kinglet.



    855      |      Vol_IV-0914                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Thrushes and their allies

           

    THRUSHES AND THEIR ALLIES

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES : Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family TURDIDAE

            758. American Robin. See writeup.

            759. Blackbird. See writeup.

            760. Bluethroat. See writeup.

            761. Cyanosylvia . See writeup.

            762. Dusky Thrush. See writeup.

            763. Erithacus . An Old World genus to which the well-known robin

    redbreast ( E. rubecula ) belongs.

            764. European Blackbird. A name sometimes used for Turdus merula ,

    a well-known Old World species of the thrush family. The adult

    male is black. See Blackbird.

            765. Fieldfare. See writeup.

            766. Gray-cheeked Thrush. See writeup.

            767. Hylocichla . A genus to which several thrushes belong. It is almost

    wholly confined to the New World. See TURDIDAE and Gray-cheeked

    Thrush.

            768. Ixoreus . The monotypic genus to which the varies thrush ( I. naevius )

    of western North America belongs. See Varied Thrush.

            769. Greenland Wheatear. Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa , a subspecies of the

    wheatear inhabiting Greenland and parts of the eastern North

    American Arctic in summer. See Wheatear.

            770. Mistle Thrush. See writeup.

            771. Oenanthe. See writeup.



    856      |      Vol_IV-0915                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Thrushes and their allies

            772. Olive-backed Thrush. See Gray-cheeked Thrush.

            773. Ousel or Ouzel. 1. A name used in England for certain Old World

    thrushes of the genus Turdus , especially Turdus merula (black–

    bird or ousel) and T. torquatus (ring ousel). See Blackbird and

    Ring Ousel.

            2. A name sometimes applied to the various species

    of the family Cinclidae. These birds are often called dippers,

    and if called ousels at all are likely to be called water ousels.

    See CINCLIDAE.

            774. Phoenicurus . A genus to which several Old World thrushlike birds

    known as redstarts belong. See Redstart.

            775. Redbreast. Erithacus rubecula of the Old World — a species of the

    thrush family often called the robin redbreast. See Robin.

            776. Red-spotted Bluethroat. A name for the nominate race of Cyanosylvia

    svecica . The subspecies is also known as the Lapland bluethroat.

    It has a reddish brown spot in the middle of the throat. See

    Bluethroat.

            777. Redstart. See writeup.

            778. Redwing. 1. A name sometimes given the red-winged thrush ( Turdus

    musicus ), an Old World species with reddish brown flanks. See

    Red-winged Thrush.

            2. Agelaius phoeniceus , a well-known marsh-inhabiting

    North American bird of the family Icteridae. The adult male in

    breeding plumage is glossy black with bright red lesser wing

    coverts. The species is often called the red-winged blackbird.

    See ICTERIDAE.



    857      |      Vol_IV-0916                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Thrushes and their allies

            778.1 Red-winged Thrush. See writeup.

            779. Ring Ousel or Ring Ouzel. See writeup.

            780. Robin. See writeup.

            781. Saxicola . A genus of small Old World birds of the family Turdidae.

    See Whinchat and Stonechat.

            782. Siberian Thrush. See writeup.

            783. Song Thrush. See writeup.

            784. Stonechat. See writeup.

            785. Thrush. Any of numerous song birds of the family Turdidae ( q.v. ).

    No one species is known simply as the thrush.

            786. TURDIDAE. See writeup.

            787. Turdus . See Writeup.

            788. Varied Thrush. See writeup.

            789. Wheatear. See writeup.

            790. Whinchat. See writeup.



    858      |      Vol_IV-0917                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: American Robin

            758. American Robin . A rather large and extremely well-known

    New World thrush, Turdus migratorius , sometimes pedantically referred to

    as the migratory thrush. It is about 9 inches long. In adults the breast

    and belly are brick red. The species breeds northward to about tree limit

    across the whole of North America, hence to the Arctic Circle and beyond

    in Alaska and along the lower Mackenzie. It has been reported from

    several localities on the arctic coast of Alaska, from Bering Strait,

    and from Greenland.

            759. Blackbird . 1. A large Old World thrush, Turdus merula , some–

    times known as the ousel or common blackbird. It is about 10 inches long.

    The male is black with yellow bill and eyelids, the female brown. The

    northern limits of its breeding range are latitude 63° N. in Norway, and

    61° 30′ in Finland. It has been reported many times from such far northern

    localities as Spitsbergen, Greenland, Iceland, Bear Island, Jan Mayen,

    Vaigach, and the Archangelsk district of northern Russia.

            2. Any of several more or less black birds of the New World family

    Icteridae [ ?] (red-winged blackbirds, grackles, cowbirds, New World oiroles,

    meadowlarks, etc.). Only one species of this family ranges regularly

    northward to the Arctic Circle — the rusty blackbird ( Euphagus carolinus ),

    which see.

            Reference:

    Hillstead, A.F.C. The Blackbird. A contribution to the study of a single

    Species. Faber and Faber Limited, London, 104 pp., 1944.

    859      |      Vol_IV-0918                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bluethroat

            760. Bluethroat . A small (5 1/2 inches long) terrestrial northern

    thrush, Cyanosylvia svecica . The throat and chest of the adult male are

    a beautiful metallic blue. This blue “bib” is enclosed by a narrow black

    band which is, in turn, bordered below by a broad chestnut band. A large

    spot in the middle of the bib is chestnut in some races, white in others.

    Females of some races have no blue at all in their plumage ; but in others

    there is a little blue mixed with the dark band enclosing the throat. Blue–

    throats of all races, males and females alike, are identifiable by the rufous

    at the base of the tail. The upper parts in general are dark brown, and

    the rufous tail base is conspicuous, especially as the bird flies off. The

    belly and under tail coverts are buffy white. Young birds in juvenal plumage

    are dark brown, streaked all over yellowish buff.

            Of the 10 or more geographical races currently recognized, three breed

    northward into the Subarctic — svecica of western Europe (north into

    Scandinavia); grotei of Europe and western Siberia (north into the Kanin

    Peninsula and through the valleys of the Gyda and Taz to the Arctic Ocean);

    and robusta of Siberia (Taimyr Peninsula eastward to the Chukotsk Peninsula

    and Kamchatka) and northern Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales to Point Barrow).

    How close to the arctic coast the birds actually breed is a question. On

    the Yenisei, Popham found them “common all down the river to Lat. 69° 40′ N.”

    Bailey found them “fairly common ... on the higher benches ... feeding among

    the sprawling willows” near Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. They must breed

    in some numbers along the Meade River about 35 miles inland from the head

    of Dease Inlet (see Bailey, 1948. Birds of Arctic Alaska, p. 282). The

    three above-mentioned races are distinctly migratory. They winter far

    to the south of their breeding grounds, in southern Eurasia and Africa.



    860      |      Vol_IV-0919                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bluethroat

            The bluethroat summers in swampy places which are thicketed with

    willow or birch. In southern parts of its breeding range it finds these

    thickets at considerable elevation in mountains; but in the Far North

    it may find them as low as sea level. It is a secretive and inconspicuous

    bird except when singing. It creeps about in thick cover, making its way

    to the edge if undisturbed, there to move furtively across the open in

    little runs and long hops. If flushed it flies low, as a rule. Its notes

    are a chatlike taco , taco , a plaintive [ ?] hweet , and a soft, somewhat

    croaking turrc , turrc , The song, which is given from the tip of a bush

    or dead tree, or on the wing, is melodious, loud, and varied. Seebohm

    states that when the female arrives the male’s song end “with the most

    metallic notes I have ever hear a bird utter. It is a sort of ting, ting ,

    resemblinf the sound produced by striking a suspended bar of steel with

    another piece of the same metal.” Males which sing in flight leave the

    perch just after starting the song, rise, then descend on spread wings

    and tail. When the male displays on the ground, he droops his wings,

    lifts and spreads his tail, and throws back his head so as to show off his

    beautiful throat.

            The nest is usually well hidden in a hollow in a bank or on the side

    of a hummock in a swampy place. It is made of grass, roots, and moss and

    lined with finer materials, including hair. The eggs, which number from

    5 to 9, are usually greenish, but they vary from “warm reddish-cream with

    hardly a trace of green or blue to greenish blue with varrying amount of

    reddish-brown sptos” ( Handbook of British Birds ). More information is needed

    as to the incubation and fledging periods.

            See Cyanosylvia .



    861      |      Vol_IV-0920                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Cyanosylvia

            761. Cyanosylvia. A genus of small, long-legged terrestrial thrushes

    known as bluethroats. The several forms were once thought to belong to three

    or four species, but systematists now believe all of them to be races of

    C. svecica . This species breeds throughout much of Eurasia and along the

    arctic coast of Alaska from Cape Prince of Wales to Point Barrow.

            Cyanosylvia is very similar structurally to Erithacus (robin redbreast

    and allies), Phoenicurus (Old World redstarts), and Luscinia (nightingale

    and allies), and is doubtfully separable from the last. In Luscinia , how–

    ever, male and female birds are alike in color, whereas in Cyanosylvia

    they are not.

            The bill of Cyanosylvia is slender and about half as longas the head.

    The rictal bristles are small but distinct. The wing is rounded and less

    than three times as long as the tarsus. The tail is short (less than twice

    as long as the tarsus) and slightly rounded. The tarsus is booted. In

    the adult male the throat and chest are metallic blue, some forms having

    a chestnut spot, others a white spot, in the middle of this blue. In some

    forms the female has some blue on the throat, in others none. In both

    males and females the base of the tail is rufous.

            The genus (species) inhabits Eurasia principally, some forms remaining

    on that continent the year round, others wintering southward into Africa.

    Of the several races currently recognized, at least three range northward

    to tree limit and slightly beyond. These breed in low-growing willow

    thickets and other shrubby vegetation rather than on the tundra proper.

    The race found in eastern Siberia, robusta, breeds also in arctic Alaska from

    Cape Prince of Wales to Point Barrow.

            See Bluethroat.



    862      |      Vol_IV-0921                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Dusky Thrush and Fieldfare

            762. Dusky Thrush . A medium-sized Old World thrush, Turdus

    naumanni , with a broad whitish stripe above the eye, buffy throat, a

    broken black chest band, and dusky spots on the side and flanks. It

    is about 9 inches long. It is an Asiatic species found from the Yenisei

    valley eastward to the Anadyr, Kamchatka, and the Sea of Okhotsk. It

    breeds northward to the very limit of the forest. Popham found 5 nests

    in the vicinity of Dudinsk, on the lower Yenisei, at latitude 69° 30′ N.

    it breeds almost to the arctic coast along the lower Lena. Some authors

    regard T. naumanni and T. eunomus as distinct species, but the two forms

    are probably only subspecifically distinct. Their ranges are complementary

    (see Dementiev, G. 1935. Systema Avium Rossicarum 1: 242-243).

            765. Fieldfare . A rather large Old World thrush, Turdus pilaris , whose ruddy

    chest is spotted and streaked with black. It is about 10 inches long. It

    breeds northward in Norway to latitude 71° N.; in the birch forest between

    the tundra and the forest zone in the Kola and Kanin Peninsulas; and at the

    mouths of the Petchora, the Ob, the Yenisei (north to lat. 70° 30′), and

    probably the Lena. It has bred in the Faeroes. It has been reported

    from Iceland, Greenland, Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen, Vaigach, and Jens Munk

    Island (in the Foxe Basin in arctic America). During the summer of 1944

    it bred at Narssak, in the vicinity of Julianehaab, on the west coast

    of Greenland (Salomonsen).



    863      |      Vol_IV-0922                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Gray-cheeked Thrush, Mistle Thrush, and Oenanthe

            766. Gray-cheeked Thrush. A middle-sized thrush, Hylocichla minima ,

    which breeds along the north edge of the forest across the whole of North

    America and also in extreme northeastern Siberia. It is 7 to 7 1/2 inches

    long. It is grayish olive above, including the sides and flanks. The sides

    of the head are gray. The light gray eye ring is not at all noticeable.

    The under parts are white except for the chest, which is pale buff, spotted

    with dusky. Three specimens of the species were taken on the north coast

    of the Chukotsk Peninsula in June 1897 (Pleske).

            A closely related, wholly American, species, the olive-backed thrush

    ( Hylocichla ustulata ), is very similar but does not range quite so far

    north. Its buffy eye ring is distinctive.

            770. Mistle Thrush . A large Old World thrush, Turdus viscivorus ,

    with gray upper parts, a buffy wash on the chest, and heavily spotted under

    parts. It is about 10 1/2 inches long. It ranges north in the forest to

    latitude 69° on the Petchora, and to 64° in the Urals. It has been reported

    from Vaigach Island.

            771. Oenanthe. A genus composed of about 15 species of small, terres–

    trial, thrushlike birds known as wheatears. They are remarkably similar

    to each other in bearing and behavior, all being restless and active. As

    they flit from rock to rock, they spread and wag the tail with an up-and–

    down, rather than a side-to-side, motion.

            All forms of the genus are rather long-winged, the distance from the

    864      |      Vol_IV-0923                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Oenanthe

    tip of the secondaries to the tip of the primaries (in the folded wing)

    being at least as great as the length of the tarsus. All primaries

    number 10. The rump and base of the tail are conspicuously white (in a

    few forms rufous). The 12 tail feathers are of about equal length. The

    bill is slender and black. The rictal and nasal bristles are small but

    distinct. The tarsus is more or less booted (i.e., covered in front with

    a single long sheath, rather than with several scutes). In most species

    the color-pattern of the male is decidedly bolder than that of the female.

    Young birds in juvenal plumage are much spotted on the crown, hind neck,

    back, wing coverts, and chest.

            Oenanthe has a very wide distribution in Eurasia and Africa, being

    found principally in treeless regions. Some species inhabit deserts. Only

    one species, Oenanthe oenanthe, is found in the New World. This species

    breeds also throughout the greater part of Eurasia, and probably has spread

    rather recently into the American Arctic by way of Iceland and extreme north–

    eastern Siberia. The birds which breed in Iceland, Greenland, Ellesmere

    Island, Baffin Island, and Labrador are larger and browner than those of

    continental Eurasia and belong to the subspecies known as the Greenland

    wheatear ( O. oenanthe leucorhoa ). Alaska birds belong to the nominate

    race. Oenanthe oenanthe winters almost entirely in the Old World. It is

    resident in parts of its range. Birds which nest in the eastern American

    Arctic winter in west Africa, migrating through Iceland (probably), islands

    of the east side of the North Atlantic, and western Europe. Birds which

    nest in Alaska probably winter in wouthern Asia.

            See Wheatear.



    865      |      Vol_IV-0924                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Redstart and Red-winged Thrush

            777. Redstart . A small Old World thrush, Phoenicurus phoenicurus ,

    which is not to be confused wi f t h the American redwtart ( Setophaga ruticilla ),

    a wood warbler of the family Parulidae. P . l p hoenicurus is a western palae–

    arctic bird which ranges northward to latitude 71° in Norway, to 72° in

    Lapland, to 67° 30′ on the Petchora, to 64° on the Yenisei, and to gradually

    lesser latitudes as far east as Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. It is about 5 1/2

    inches long. The male in breeding plumage is white on the fore part of the

    crown; ash gray on the rear crown, hind neck, and back; darker gray on the

    wings; black over the whole face and throat; and rufous on the rump, tail,

    breast, sides, and upper belly. The female is gray with dull reddish-brown

    rump and tail. Several species of Phoenicurus inhabit Eurasia, but this is

    the only one which ranges northward into the Subarctic. A male specimen

    of P. phoenicurus was taken in May, 1923, at Yokanga, on the Murman Coast.

    (Pleske).

            778.1. Red-winged Thrush . A medium-sized Old World thrush, Turdus

    musicus , often called the redwing. It is about 8 1/2 inches long. Its

    sides and flanks, but not its wings , are rufous. It breeds in Iceland

    and across the whole of Eurasia northward to the fringes of the forest.

    Its northern limits are latitude 70° N. in Norway; Russian Lapland; the

    Kanin Peninsula; the mouth of the Pe t chora; latitude 71° N. on the lower

    Yenisei; and the mouths of the great Siberian rivers. It has been

    reported from Spitsbergen, Bear Island, Vaigach, the Faeroes, and Greenland.



    866      |      Vol_IV-0925                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ring Ousel (Ouzel) and Robin or Robin Redbreast

            779. Ring Ousel (Ouzel) . A rather large European thrush, Turdus

    torquatus . It is about 10 inches long. The male in breeding plumage is

    blackish gray with a broad white band across the chest. Females and

    winter males are less boldly patterned and the light edgings of the lower

    breast and belly feathers produce a scaled effect. The species breeds

    north to latitude 71° N. in Norway and to comparable latitudes in western

    Sweden. It has been reported from Finland and northwestern Russia where

    it probably breeds sparingly.

            780. Rob b in or Robin Redbreast . A small, extremely well-known Old

    World thrush, Erithacus rubecula , which is not to be confused with the

    equally well known but much larger American robin ( Turus migratorius ).

    E. rubecula is about 5 1/2 inches long. It is olive brown above with

    bright orange-brown forehead, throat, and chest; whitish belly; and gray

    sides and flanks. Males and females arealike. The juvenal is very

    different: it has no orange and is much spotted all over. The species

    ranges northward to latitude 69° 30′ N. in Norway, to 66° in Sweden, to

    67° in Finland, to 64° 20′ in northern Russia, and to lesser latitudes

    eastward as far as Tobolsk.



    867      |      Vol_IV-0926                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Siberian Thrush, Song Thrush, and Stonechat

            782. Siberian Thrush . A rather large thrush, Turdus sibiricus ,

    of northern Asia. The male is slaty gray with a white stripe above the

    eye and white belly. The female is brown. The species inhabits Siberia.

    Popham found it common in the vicinity of Turukhansk, along the Yenisei,

    at about latitude 67° 30′ N., and Dementiev states that it attains 69° on

    the river. It has been reported from Pustozersk, Vaigach Island.

            783. Song Thrush. A medium-sized Old World thrush, Turdus ericetorum ,

    whose buffy white breast is heavily spotted with black. It is about 9 inches

    long. Its song consists of clearly enunciated phrases each repeated two to

    four times. It breeds in the fores r t north to latitude 69° 30′ in Norway,

    to 68° in Sweden, to the Archangelsk district of northern Russia, and east–

    ward (at somewhat lower latitudes) to the valley of the Yenisei. It has

    been t r eported from Vaigach Island.

            784. Stonechat. A small Old World thrush, Saxicola torquata , of

    rough, shrub-grown hillsides often near the sea. It is about 5 inches long.

    The adult male in summer is black on the head and upper part of the body,

    with a bold white patch on each side of the neck, a narrow white spot in

    each wing, and tawny buff chest. The female closely resembles the female

    whinchat ( Saxicola rubetra ). The species does not nest quite so far

    north as the whinchat but it ranges eastward across Eurasia.



    868      |      Vol_IV-0927                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Turdidae

            786. Turdidae. A large family of passeriform birds, many of them

    fine songsters, collectivelyknown as the thrushes. There has been a

    sharp difference of opinion as to the limits of the family, some taxonomists

    having included in it several groups which are currently thought to be

    entitled to full family rank, among them the Old World warblers (Sylviidae),

    moc [ ?] ingbirds and thrashers (Mimidae), dippers (Cinclidae), and Old World

    flycatchers (Muscicapidae). The “true” thrushes and their obvious allies

    include many familiar birds which do not bear the name thrush at all,

    among them the blackbird or Øusel ( Turdus merula ), fieldfare ( Turdus

    pilaris ), redwing ( Turdus musicus ), and ring ouzel ( Tu [ ?] rd us torquatus )

    of the Old World, and the robin ( Turdus migratorius ) and bluebird

    ( Sialia sialis ) of the New. Less obviously “true” thrushes, though

    very closely allied to them, are the famous nightingale ( Luscinia megar–

    hyncha)    ; the bluethroat, ( Cyanosylvia svecica z ) ; the Siberian rubythroat

    ( Calliope calliope ); the solitaires of the New World genus Myadestes ;

    the wheatears ( Oenanthe ); the Old World redstarts ( Phoenicurus ); the

    whinchat and stonechat ( Saxicola ); the beautiful Old World rock thrushes

    ( Monticola ); the ground thrushes ( Geocichla ) of Asia, the East Indies,

    Australia, and New Zealand; the so-called magpie-robins ( Copsychus ) of

    India, the Malay Peninsula, the large islands thereabouts, Seychelles,

    and Madagascar; and the oddly shaped forktails ( Enicurus ) of Asia and the

    East Indies. Thus conceived, the family is almost cosmopolitan, though it

    is absent from parts of Polynesia.

            The Turdidae are characterized by ( 1 ) the long, strong tarsi which

    are, except in a few genera, booted (i.e., with a long solid sheath,

    rather than several scutes) in front; ( 2 ) 10 primaries, the first (outermost)

    869      |      Vol_IV-0928                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Turdidae

    very short in many forms; ( 3 ) distinct, but not very strongly developed,

    nasal and rictal bristles; ( 4 ) rather large eyes, and ( 5 ) a juvenal

    plumage which is more or less spotted or squamate. The bill is usually

    fairly slender and not quite as long as the head. The tail in most species

    is short or of medium length, square, and of 12 feathers, but some forms

    have 14 rectrices, and the forktails have very long, deeply forked tails.

    So far as is known at present, the members of the family have but one com–

    plete molt a year — the postnuptial. Some forms have a partial (never

    complete) prenuptial molt.

            Many thrushes range well northward in forestlands, but only one species

    of the familyis an inhabitant of the tundra: the wheatear ( Oenanthe oenanthe ).

    This bird has a wide range in Eurasia, from which continent it has, within

    comparatively recent times probably, made its way (via Iceland) to Greenland

    and the eastern American Arctic, and (via Bering Strait) to the arctic coast

    of Alaska. Løppenthin tells us that it breeds northward on the east coast

    of Greenland to latitude 75° N. It has been recorded several times in

    Spitsbergen, where it may breed sparingly. It is known to breed in Novaya

    Zemlya.

            Another far northern species of the Turdidae is the bluethroat ( Cyano –

    sylvia svecica ). This beautiful little bird breeds northward to latitude

    71° in Norway, probably to comparable latitudes across Eurasia, and in

    arctic Alaska from Cape Prince of Wales to Point Barrow. Pleske informs

    us that it “inhabits the willow thickets of the subalpine zone and occa–

    sionally goes beyond the northern limit of that zone.” It has been

    reported from the Murman Coast, at sea in the vicinity of Kolguev, along

    the L l ower Yenisei (at latitude 72° 15′ N.), along the lower Lena, and from

    the north coast of the Chukotsk Peninsula.



    870      |      Vol_IV-0929                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Turdus

            787. Turdus . A genus of middle-sized to rather large thrushes, among

    them such well-known songbirds as the blackbird ( T. merula ), American

    robin ( T. migratorius ), song thrush ( T. ericetorum ), and fieldfare ( T .

    pilaris ). They are plump-bodied, large [ ?] eyed, ten-primaried birds of

    “average” proportions. Throughout the genus the bill is somewhat shorter

    than the head, the culmen is curved, and there is a subterminal notch on

    the cutting edge of the upper mandible. The nostril is oval or round and

    partly covered by a membrance or by short feathers. The wings are long

    and pointed, the longest primaries being much longer than the secondaries.

    The tail is square or slightly rounded and composed of 12 (in certain

    races of one species, 14) feathers. The feet are strong, the tarsi long.

            All the species of Turdus build rather deeply cupped, open nests,

    placing them usually above ground in shrubbery or trees. Some species

    regularly use mud in their nests, others do not. Most species lay spotted

    eggs, but the American robin’s eggs are immaculate pale blue. Young Turdus

    in juvenal plumage are much spotted, in some species much more so than their

    parents.

            The genus is almost cosmopolitan in distribution, though it is absent

    from parts of Polynesia. Oddly enough only one species ( migraforius ) is

    found in North America north of Mexico. Turdus is well represented in the

    tropics of both the Old and New Worlds. No species is common to both the

    Old World and the New, though certain species of thew two areas resemble

    each other morphologically. Several species range northward to the Arctic

    Circle and beyond in Eurasia, but only the American robin ranges that far

    north in America, One species breeds regularly in Iceland — the redwing

    ( T. musicus ). The most boreal species are musicus (redwing) migratorius

    871      |      Vol_IV-0930                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Turdus, Varied Thrus, and Whestear

    (American robin), torquatus (ring ousel), sibiricus (Siberian thrush),

    naumanni (Dusky thrush), pilaris (fieldfare), viscivorus (mistle thrush),

    and ericetorum (song thrush). T. merula (blackbird) does not breed northward

    to the Arctic Circle along any meridian, but it has been recorded several

    times in the true Arctic.

            788. Varied Thrush. A plump, rather large western North American

    thrush, Ixoreus naevius , It is 9 to 10 inches long. It is dark bluish

    gray above, bright rusty brown below, with a black band across the lower

    throat. It breeds from Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, and the delta of the Mackenzie

    southward in the mountains to California. It has been reported from Point

    Barrow, Alaska.

            789. Wheatear. 1. Any of several small, terrestrial birds belonging

    to the genus Cenanthe of the thrush family (Turdidae). They are active

    creatures which flit about the rocks catching insects. At rest, they stand

    upright, with wings drooping and tail partly spread; but the instant they

    resume their feeding they take a more horizontal position and the tail spreads

    wider and wags up and down. In most species the tail is conspicuously white

    at the base in all plumages (e v gen the juvenal). Wheatears are birds of open

    country. Some species inhabit deserts. They do not often perch in bushes

    or trees except during the period of migration. One species has an almost

    holarctic breeding distribution (see below).

            2. The wheatear ( Oenanthe oenanthe ), a species which breeds in Eurasia,

    872      |      Vol_IV-0931                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wheatear

    the eastern American Arctic, and northern Alaska. At least five races

    are recognized. The nominate race breeds in continental Eurasia (includ–

    ing the British Isles) and coastal northern Alaska. It breeds northward

    to latitude 71° N. in Norway; to northern Sweden, Finland, and Russia; to

    Novaya Zemlya; and to northern Siberia (including probably the Yamal

    Peninsula), and has been reported from Bear Island, Vaigach, and Kolguev.

    The so-called Greenland wheatear ( O. oenanthe leucorhoa ), a browner, larger

    race, breeds in Spitsbergen (probably), Jan Mayen (probably), Greenland,

    Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, northern Quebec (Cape Wolstenholme), and

    northern Labrador. Wheatears which breed in Iceland and the Faeroes are

    intermediate between oenanthe and leucorhoa . The nominate race presumably

    is resident throughout the southern part of its range (and to some extent

    in the British Isles); but leucorhoa is distinctly migratory and it is

    remarkable that all the brids which breed in the eastern American Arctic should

    winter in western Africa, migrating through western Europe and islands of

    the eastern North Atlantic.

            The wheatear is about 5 to 6 inches long with rather short but noticeable

    tail. In all plumages the base of the tail is white, and in all plumages

    except the juvenal the rump also is white. This white of the rump and tail

    is an excellent field mark. Adult males in summer were ashy gray on the

    upper part of the head, neck, and body, with blackish wings and terminal

    tail band, a black patch on the side of the head, a noticeable white super–

    ciliary streak, and buff under parts. In winter adult males are less bol [ ?]

    in color pattern, the black of the face patch and wings being [ ?] obscured

    by brown feather-edgings. The adult female is brown (rather than gray) and

    without the black face patch at all seasons. Birds in juvenal plumage are

    much spotted on the upper parts and chest.



    873      |      Vol_IV-0932                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wheatear

            The wheatear is not gregarious. Even in migration it does not feed

    in flocks as do the horned or shore lark ( Eremophila alpestris ) and water

    pipit ( Anthus spinoletta ). It is usually on the move. As it hops about

    the rocks and moss it often flutters upward to snatch a fly midair. Most

    of the time its tail is spread and moving up and down. Its call note is

    a “hard chack , chack ” or “ west, chack , chack .” It song is a melodius,

    larklike warble of “delivered with great gusto” and “to some extent

    imitative” ( Handbook of British Birds ). Occasionally it sings at night,

    or in flight. The display of the male before the female involves bowing

    and dancing with tail lifted and spread in such a way as to show the bright

    pattern.

            The nest, which is built by both sexes (chiefly the female), is on the

    ground, under rocks or in a hole in the turf. It is of grass and moss,

    lined with hair, feathers, grass, and such soft materials as the tassels

    of bog cotton. The eggs usually number 6, though as few as 3 and as many

    as 8 have been reported. They are pale blue and usually unspotted. The

    female does most of the incubating, but the male sometimes assists. The

    incubation period is 14 days. The young are fed by both parents. The

    fledging period is 15 days. In the Far North only one brood is reared.

            See Cenanthe .

            790. Whinchat . A small Old World thrush, Saxicola rubetra, of rou c g h,

    shrub-dotted grasslands. It is about 5 inches long. The adult male in

    summer is streaked brown and black above, and buff below, with a white

    superciliary stripe, a white stripe below the auriculars, a white patch on

    874      |      Vol_IV-0933                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Whinchat

    the wing (formed by the white tips of the inner coverts), and white at

    the base of the tail. The female is much less bold in pattern. The

    species ranges north to latitude 69° 30′ N. in Norway, and to comparably

    high latitudes east as far as western Siberia.



    875      |      Vol_IV-0934                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Old World Warblers

           

    OLD WORLD WARBLERS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES: Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family SYLVIIDAE

            791. Acrocephalus. A genus of sylviids to which the so-called sedge

    warbler, A. schoenobaenus , belongs. See Wedge Warbler.

            792. Alaska Eversmann’s Warbler. Phylloscopus borealis kennicottii ,

    the only sylviid found regularly in the New World. This bird

    has been called the Kennicott’s willow warbler in certain editions

    of the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-List, but the term

    willow warbler should be reserved for Phylloscopus trochilus ,

    a different species. See Eversmann’s Warber.

            793. Blackcap. See writeup.

            794. Chiffchaff. See writeup.

            795. Eversmann’s Warbler. See writeup.

            796. Garden Warbler. See writeup.

            797. Grasshopper Warbler. Any of several species of the genus Locustella ,

    one of which, L. ochotensis , has been reported once from Nunivak

    Island, off the Alaska coast. See SYLVIIDAE.

            798. Kennicott’s Willow Warbler. A name widely applied to Phylloscopus

    borealis kennicottii , the only New World race of the Eversmann’s

    warbler ( q.v. ).

            799. Locustella. An Old World genus to which the so-called grasshopper

    warblers belong. The genus has been reported once from the New

    World. See SYLVIIDAE.



    876      |      Vol_IV-0935                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Old World Warblers

            800. Phylloscopus . A genus of Old World warblers to which many small,

    dull-colored birds, such as the chiffchaff ( P. collybita ) and

    willow warbler ( P. trochilus ) belong. See SYLVIIDAE, Chiffchaff,

    Willow Warbler, and Eversmann’s Warbler.

            801. Sedge Warbler. See writeup.

            802. Sylvia . A genus of Old World warblers to which the black-cap ( S .

    atricapilla ) and garden warbler ( S. borin ) belong.

            803. SYLVIIDAE. See writeup.

            804. Warbler. See writeup.

            805. Willow Warbler. See writeup.

            806. Yellow-browed Warbler. See writeup.



    877      |      Vol_IV-0936                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Blackcap and Chiffchaff

            793. Blackcap. A well-named Old World warbler, Sylvia atricapilla ,

    which is not to be confused with the black-capped chickadee or willow tit

    ( Parus atricapillus) or the Wilson’s warbler ( Wilsonia pusilla ), a New

    World bird sometimes called the black-capped warbler. The cap of Sylvia

    atricapilla is black in the male, brown in the female. In both sexes the

    upper parts of the body are brownish gray. The sides of the head and the

    under parts are ashy gray in the male, ashy brown in the female. The call

    note is a hard scolding taco , taco ; the song a series of richly warbled

    phrases given at the rate of five or six per minute (Ticehurst). The

    species ranges north to latitude 69° in Norway, to 63° in Russia, and to

    lower latitudes in western Siberia. It winters in southern Europe and

    northern Africa. It has been reported from the Faeroes and the Kola

    Peninsula.

            794. Chiffchaff. A well-known Old World Warbler, Phylloscopus

    collybita, which is plain olive gray above and plain grayish white below

    with an indistinct grayish-white superciliary line. It closely resembles

    the willow warbler ( Phylloscopus trochilus ), but has blacker legs and feet.

    Its song in the British Isles is a “measured repetition of two notes, one

    rather higher-pitched than the other, in very irregular sequence, ‘chiff-chaff–

    chaff-chaff-chaff-chaff-chiff-chiff-chiff-chaff-chaff-chaff-chaff-chaff-chaff’,

    sometimes continuing for 15 seconds or longer” (Ticehurst). The song of the

    Siberian race ( tristis ) is said to be more musical (less monotonous) than

    that of the European race. Seebohm has described it as a repetition of the

    syllables chiv-it , chiv-et . The species ranges northward to latitude 67° 20′

    878      |      Vol_IV-0937                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Chiffchaff and Eversmann’s Warbler

    in Scandinavia, 68° 20′ in Finland, 65° in Russia, 71° on the Yenisei, and

    to comparable latitudes eastward across Siberia. On the Yenisei Popham

    found two nests in “dead grass left on the boughs by the floods when the

    river had overflowed at the breaking up of the ice” and three nests “almost

    on the ground among ... willows.” The species winters in southern Eurasia

    and northern Africa.

            795. Eversmann’s Warbler. A small, dull warbler, Phylloscopus borealis ,

    placed by some systematists in the monotypic genus Acanthopneuste. It has

    the distinction of being the most northern species of the family Sylviidae

    as well as the only one which breeds regularly in the New World as well as the

    Old. Its range in the New World is restricted to a small part of Alaska.

    The Alaska race, kennicottii , has long been known as Kennicott’s willow

    warbler, but the true willow warbler is another species — P. trochilus .

            Eversmann’s warbler is about 4 3/4 inches long. It is greenish gray–

    brown on the upper parts, whitish below, with rather noticeable whitish wing

    bar and superciliary stripe. Its call note is a metallic clicking tzick .

    The song is a tzick , tzick , tzick followed by a rattled trill. The species

    breeds across the whole of Eurasia from northern Scandinavia to the Chukotsk

    Peninsula, probably on certain Bering Sea islands, and in western Alaska.

    Nowhere does it inhabit the tundra proper, but it nests among the willows

    and birches immediately bordering the tundra. In northern Finland it breeds

    from latitude 68° N. northward to the limit of trees. On the Kola and Kanin

    peninsulas and at the mouths of the Petchora and Kolyma rivers it breeds

    northward to the very shores of the Arctic Sea. Along the lower Yenisei it

    879      |      Vol_IV-0938                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Eversmann’s Warbler and Garden Warbler

    attains 69°. In the Taimyr Peninsula it reaches 75°. It has been seen

    in great numbers on the north coast of the Chukotsk Peninsula in spring.

    Portenko reported a specimen found dead in August, 1932, on Wrangel Island.

    The species has been reported from several points in the Kowak Valley in

    Alaska and from Point Hope and Icy Cape along the arctic coast. It has

    never been taken at Point Barrow proper, though it probably nests a short

    distance inland from there. Handley took a specimen on Prince Patrick

    Island in the summer of 1949.

            The species winters in southeastern Asia, the Philippines, and probably

    throughout the East Indies. The Alaska race winters not in the New World

    but “in the Philippine Islands and sparingly in the Indo-Chinese countries,

    Malaysia and the East Indies east to the Moluccas; known to migrate through

    eastern China (Shantung; Yunnan).” (See Parkes and Amadon, 1948. Condor ,

    50: 87).

            796. Garden Warbler. A rather plump Old World warbler, Sylvia borin ,

    which has no conspicuous field marks of any sort. It is about 5 1/2 inches

    long. It is dark hair brown above and pale buff below. Its song is a

    “sweet, even-flowing warbler...uttered in a series of phrases rarely exceed–

    ing 5 seconds in duration” (Ticehurst). It breeds northward in Norway to

    latitude 70° N., in Russia to the vicinity of Archangelsk, and to somewhat

    lower latitudes in western Siberia. It has been reported from Iceland.

    It winters in central and southern Africa.



    880      |      Vol_IV-0939                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sedge Warbler and Sylviidae

            801. Sedge Warbler . A secretive, dull-colored sylviid, Acrocephalus

    schoenobaenus , which inhabits marshy places. It is about 5 inches long.

    Its upper parts are dark grayish brown save for the tawny rump which shows

    plainly in flight. The crown and back are streaked with black. The under

    parts are grayish white and there is a distinct grayish-white superciliary.

    The scolding note is a staccato tucc , tucc . The song is a medley of loud,

    hurried phrases, each repeated several times (Ticehurst). The species

    ranges north to latitude 70° N. in Norway, to 67° in Sweden, to 68° in

    Russia, and to comparable latitudes along the lower Yenisei. It winters

    in Africa.

            803. Sylviidae. A large family of small and, for the most part,

    dull-colored passeriform birds known as warblers. In America they are

    customarily referred to as the “Old World warblers,” to distinguish them

    from the “New World warblers” or “wood warblers” of the family Parulidae.

    The Sylviidae are, in fact, almost wholly confined to the Old World. Only

    one species, Phylloscopus borealis (Eversmann’s warbler), has succeeded

    in gaining a foothold in America, and that inconspicuous little bird’s

    New World range is restricted to Alaska. (The New World gnatcatchers of

    the genus Polioptila are believed by some authors to belong to the Sylviidae,

    but they are so uniform as a group, and their mannerisms, nesting behavior,

    and color pattern are so distinctive, that it seems advisable to place them

    in a family by themselves — the Polioptilidae.)

            The Sylviidae are not easy to characterize satisfactorily. In most

    species adult male and female birds resemble each other closely and young

    881      |      Vol_IV-0940                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sylviidae

    young birds resemble the adults — in other words all the plumages of a

    given species are much alike. In exceptional species in which the adult

    male and female differ in color the young birds resemble the adult female.

    All Sylviidae have 10 primaries. In most species the bill is weak and

    slender, but in some it is stout. The rictal bristles vary, in some forms

    being obsolete, in others small, in some fairly well developed; but they

    are never very noticeable. The tarsus is either booted or soutellate.

    The tail has 12 feathers (exceptionally 10). It is usually square or

    round and rather short, but it is long and much graduated in some forms.

    There is one complete molt, the postnuptial, but the prenuptial molt is

    more extensive than in the Turdidae (thrushes).

            Several sylviids range northward into the Subarctic, and a very few

    breed at least sparingly beyond tree limit. Two which have been encountered

    north of the forest in “the region devoid of bushes” along the lower Yenisei

    are the willow warbler ( Phylloscopus trochilus ) and chiffchaff ( Phylloscopus

    tristis ). The yellow-browed warbler ( Phylloscopus inornatus ) may also breed

    north of the tree limit. The most wide-ranging of the boreal species

    probably is Phylloscopus borealis , a form which breeds northward to tree

    limit (and possibly beyond) across the whole of Eurasia and also in western

    Alaska. This bird is known in England as the Eversmann’s warbler. The

    Alaskan subspecies, P. borealis kennicottii , has frequently been called the

    Kennicott’s willow warbler, but this name should not be used since the true

    willow warbler, Phylloscopus trochilus , is a different species. The

    southernmost limits of the Eversmann’s warbler’s breeding range are actually

    north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and not far to the south of the

    Circle elsewhere. All of the just-mentioned sylviids are strongly migratory,

    of course.



    882      |      Vol_IV-0941                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sylviidae and Warbler

            The true willow warbler ( P. trochilus ), above referred to, has been

    reported once from northeastern Greenland. The Middendorff’s grasshopper

    warbler ( Locustella ochotensis ) has been reported once from Nunivak

    Island, off the Alaska coast.

            804. Warbler . 1. Any of numerous small, usually plainly colored

    passeriform birds belonging to the family Sylviidae. All genera and species

    except one are confined to the Old World, hence the family is often referred

    to as the “Old World warblers.” Among the Sylviidae are such well-known

    species as the willow warbler ( Phylloscopus trochilus ), Eversmann’s warbler

    ( Phylloscopus borealis ), and sedge warbler ( Acrocephalus schoenobaenus ),

    all three of which breed well northward. Many species of the family —

    e.g., the chiffchaff ( Phylloscopus collybita ) and blackcap ( Sylvia atrica –

    pilla ) — are never called warblers in ordinary parlance for their common

    names are so widely known. See SYLVIIDAE.

            2. Any of numerous small, often brightly colored passeriform birds

    belonging to the New World family Parulidae. These birds are often

    referred to collectively as the wood warblers, but it must be borne in

    mind that there is an Old World species known as the wood warbler ( Phyllos –

    copus sibilatrix ) which belongs to the family Sylviidae. Only a few

    species of the family Parulidae regularly breed northward into the

    Subarctic — among them the blackpoll ( Dendroica striata ). See PARULIDAE.



    883      |      Vol_IV-0942                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Willow Warbler and Yellow-browed Warbler

            805. Willow Warbler . A well-known Old World bird, Phylloscopus

    trochilus, which is olive above, pale yellowish buff below, with a not

    very bold pale yellowish buff superciliary line. It is about 4 1/4 inches

    long. The most noticeable thing about it is its song, which lasts 3 to

    5 seconds, is faint at first, grows much louder, then subsides as the

    syllables become more separated. It has been written se-se-se-se-see-see –

    su-sü-süit-süit-suet, sweetew (Ticehurst). The species breeds northward

    to the Arctic Circle and well beyond. Pleske tells us that it has been

    encountered on the Murman Coast of the Kola Peninsula, on the Kanin Peninsula,

    at the mouth of the Petchora, on the lower Ob, and north to latitude 71° N.

    on the Yenisei. It breeds in “willow-scrub on open tundra far beyond tree–

    limit” ( Handbook of British Birds ). It winters in Africa. It has been

    reported once from northeastern Greenland.

            806. Yellow-browed Warbler. A small, c d ull-colored, not very well named

    bird, Phylloscopus inornatus , which is light grayish olive above, and whitish

    below, with a yellowish white superciliary stripe and two rather noticeable

    whitish wing bars. It inhabits birch, conifer, and mixed woodlands in summer.

    It s call note is a sharp, shrill weesp , its song a rapid, monotonous repeti–

    tion of “same note, ‘ filifilifilifili ’ interspersed with trills” ( Handbook

    of British Birds ). It breeds in northern Siberia from the northern Urals to

    the Sea of Okhotsk and the Anadyr River. On the Yenisei it ranges north to

    latitude 70° N. A young specimen was taken in September on the east coast of

    the Taimyr Peninsula at about latitude 76° 40′. The species winters in

    southern Asia. It is surprisingly regular as a migrant in the British Isles,

    being more numerous there some years than others.



    884      |      Vol_IV-0943                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kinglets

           

    KINGLETS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES: Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family REGULIDAE

            807. Golderes t . A common name widely used in England for Regulus regulus ,

    species known in America as the golden-crowned kinglet ( q.v. ).

            808. Golden-crested Wren. A name sometimes used in England for the

    gold c rest or golden-crowned kinglet, Regulus regulus ( q.v. ).

            809. Golden-crowned Kinglet. See writeup.

            810. Kinglet. See writeup.

            811. REGULIDAE. See writeup.

            812. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. See writeup.



    885      |      Vol_IV-0944                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Golden-crowned Kinglet

            809. Golden-crowned Kinglet . A very small, fluffy bird, Regulus

    regulus, known in England as the goldcrest or golden-crested wren. It

    is about 3 1/2 inches long and is dull olive-green above, grayish white

    below, with a beautiful bright crown-patch (flame orange and yellow in

    the male; wholly yellow in the female) which is bordered at either side

    with black. The wing has two fairly distinct white bars and a dark patch

    back of the rear bar. The tail is rather short. The tail and wing feathers

    are edged with bright yellowish green. The bird has a plump, compact appear–

    ance, partly as a result of the short tail.

            The call note is a sibilant seee , seee , seee which is so faint that it

    escapes many human ears. The song, even at its brightest, also is faint.

    It is really an elaboration of the call note and may be written seee-seee-seee–

    seee-chippy-seee     . The nest is a deep cup of moss and lichens, warmly lined

    with feathers, many of which curl upward and inward in such a way as to hide

    the eggs, young birds, or incubating female. The eggs, which are white,

    faintly spotted with brown (often in a wreath around the larger end), number

    7 to 10 as a rule, sometimes more. The female does all of the incubating.

    More information is needed as to the incubation and fledging periods.

            Regulus regulus breeds widely in Eurasia and North America. The northern

    limits of its range are: latitude 70° N. in Norway, 65° in Finland, northern

    Russia, 60° in the Urals, about 60° (probably) in Siberia, the Amur Valley,

    Japan, Sakhalin, southern Alaska, central Alberta, central Manitoba, and

    southern Quebec. In Asia it breeds southward to the Altai and Sayan Mountains,

    in North America southward (in the mountains) to Central America.



    886      |      Vol_IV-0945                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Kinglet

            810. Kinglet . A name used in America for two species of very small

    birds of the family Regulidas: Regulus regulus , the golden-crowned kinglet

    (known in England as the goldcrest or golden-crested wren), and Regulus

    calendula , the ruby-crowned kinglet. Both of these birds range northward

    to the Arctic Circle and beyond — the latter in America only, the former both

    in America and Eurasia. The term kinglet is descriptive of the bright

    crown-patch worn by the adult male (the adult female and young birds of

    both sexes also in some species). The kinglets are delicate, slender-legged

    birds of fluffy plumage and weak, slender bills. They show a marked prefer–

    ence for coniferous woods as a breeding ground, but in winter they feed in

    trees or shrubbery of any sort.

            See Golden-crowned Kinglet and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

            811. Regulidae . A family of very small passeriform birds which are

    so closely related to the warblers of the family Sylviidae that they are

    placed in that group by some authors. The most wide-ranging form of the

    family, Regulus regulus , is known in England as the goldcrest or golden–

    crested wren, in America as the golden-crowned kinglet.

            The Regulidae have soft, fluffy plumage; a weak, slonder bill whose

    culmen is almost straight; operculate nostrils which are somewhat feather–

    covered; fairly well-developed rictal bristles; long, slender, virtually

    unscutellated tarsi; much rounded wings; and neatly forked tail. Young

    birds resemble the adults (i.e., they are not spotted wither above or below),

    but are less brightly colored. The principal genus Regulus , ranges north–

    ward to the Arctic Circle and beyond in both the Old World and the New.

    887      |      Vol_IV-0946                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Regulidae and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

    Its characters are approximately those of the family. All Regulidae

    are inhabitants of forests.

            See Golden-crowned Kinglet and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

            812. Ruby-crowned Kinglet . A very small New World bird, Regulus

    calendula, which breeds only in northern coniferous woodland. It is

    about 3 1/2 inches long and is grayish olive [ ?] above, grayish white

    below, with yellowish green rump and wing-and tail-edgings. A whitish

    eye-ring is interrupted above by a dusky spot. There are two not very

    conspicuous white wing bars. The brilliant scarlet crown-patch of the

    male is often almost completely concealed, but it can be lifted and spread

    so as to become very conspicuous. Young birds closely resemble the adult

    female. The female has no crown-patch.

            The usual call note is an incisive chuddah , given with a nervous flick

    of the wing. The song is brilliant and remarkably loud for so small a

    bird. It has been transliterated as See , see , see ! Where , where , where ?

    Here , here , here ! Just look at me , just look at me , just look at me ’.

    While this is obviously imaginative, it certainly gives a good idea of

    the number of syllables, and also of the interrogative quality of part

    of the performance.

            The nest is a deep, thick-walled cup of moss and lichens warmly lined

    with soft materials. It is sometimes semipensile, sometimes saddled on a

    branch. Virtually always it is in a spruce. The eggs, which are creamy

    white, are sometimes finely spotted with brown. The clutch usually numbers

    8, but often there are more. The female does all of the incubating. More

    888      |      Vol_IV-0947                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ruby-crowned Kinglet

    information is needed as to the incubation and fledging periods.

            The ruby-crowned kinglet ranges northward to about tree limit across

    the whole of North America. It breeds north to the Arctic Circle and

    beyond in Alaska and northwestern Mackenzie. It ranges southward in

    coniferous forests to southern British Columbia, the Black Hills of

    South Dakota, northern Michigan, and northern Main. A dark race is

    resident on Guadalupe Island, off Baja California. The northern races

    are strongly migratory; they winter from the southern United States

    southward through Mexico. The species has been reported once from Greenland.



    889      |      Vol_IV-0948                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Old World Flycatchers

           

    OLD WORLD FLYCATCHERS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES: Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family MUSICAPIDAE

            813. Muscicapidae. A large family of oscine passeriform Old World birds

    known as flycatchers. They are insectivorous and arboreal for

    the most part. Two species range northward to the Arctic Circle

    and slightly beyond in forested parts of northern Scandinavia.

            814. Pied Flycatcher. See writeup.

            815. Spotted Flycatcher. See writeup.



    890      |      Vol_IV-0949                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pied Flycatcher and Spotted Flycatcher

            814. Pied Flycatcher . A small Old World bird, Musicapa hypoleuca ,

    which ranges northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in

    Scandinavia. It is about 5 inches long. The adult male in breeding

    plumage is blue-black above, with white forehead, under parts, irregular

    patch in wings, and outer tail feathers. In winter the blue-black is

    replaced by grayish brown. The female is much plainer: she is grayish

    brown above, white below. Young birds are more or less spotted on the

    head and chest. The species breeds north to latitude 70° N. in Norway,

    to 61° in northern Russia, and to 64° in western Siberia. It winters in

    Africa and southwestern Asia. It has been reported from Iceland and the

    Murman Coast.

            815. Spotted Flycat c h[?]er . A small Old World bird, Musicapa striata .

    It is about 5 1/2 inches long. It is mouse-gray above, whitish below,

    with dark streaks on the head and breast. The young are spotted and scaled

    in appearance. The precise is recognizable as a flycatcher from its upright

    position and habit of flying out to snap up insects. It ranges north to

    latitude 70° N. in Norway and across Eurasia to slightly lower latitudes.

    It winters in Africa and southern Asia.



    891      |      Vol_IV-0950                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Hedge Sparrows and Accentors

           

    HEDGE SPARROWS AND ACCENTORS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES: Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family PRUNELLIDAE

            816. Accentor. Any of several small, plump, Old World passeriform

    birds of the family PRUNELLIDAE ( q.v. ).

            817. Arctic Accentor. See writeup.

            818. Hedge Sparrow. See writeup.

            819. Mountain Accentor. See Arctic Accentor.

            820. Prunella. The genus to which all the hedge sparrows and accentors

    belong. See PRUNELLIDAE.

            821. PRUNELLIDAE. See writeup.



    892      |      Vol_IV-0951                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Arctic Accentor

            817. Arctic Accentor. A small, finchlike Old World bird, Prunella

    montanella , sometimes called the mountain accentor. It is about 6 inches

    long. Its upper parts are brown, the back rufous with blackish-brown

    streaks. There is a broad superciliary streak of buff. The lores, region

    just below the eyes, and the auriculars are black. The sides of the neck

    are gray. The malar region, chin, throat, and breast are ochraceous buff.

    The sides of the breast are chestnut. The flanks are streaked with chest–

    nut. The belly is white, the under tail coverts cream-colored.

            This species breeds across northern Asia from the Ural Mountains to

    the Bering Sea, northward to the upper limit of the forest and southward

    to the Altai, Sayan, Yablonovoi and Stanovoi Mountains. On the Yenisei it

    breeds northward at least as far as the Kureika Valley and Dudlinka.

    Portenko found it in the Gorelovy [ ?] Mountains on the upper Anadyr, and

    it probably ranges northward almost to the Arctic Sea in the Chukotsk

    Peninsula. Seebohm, who expresses a preference for the name arctic

    accentor, has this to say of the bird: “Like the Lapland Bunting ..., when

    it gets out of its Arctic latitude it has to ascent a mountain in order

    to find a limate cold enough to suit its constitution. Yet it is essentially

    a bird of the plains, the willow swamps are its natural habitat, and there

    the female lays her blue eggs and rears her young only a few feet above the

    level of the sea.” Seebohm says that the call note is a titlike til-il-il .

    The species winters in northern China and Korea, migrating through Trans–

    baikalia, Amurland, and Ussuriland. It has been reported from Sakhalin,

    Hokkaido, Honshu, Nunivak (off Alaska), and St. Lawrence Island in the

    Bering Sea.



    893      |      Vol_IV-0952                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hedge Sparrow

            818. Hedge Sparrow. A small, dark, dull-colored Old World bird,

    Prunella modularis , of rather finchlike appearance. It is 5 3/4 inches

    long. The upper parts are brown, streaked with black. The under parts,

    including the malar region and sides of the neck, are ashy gray. There

    is one buff-colored wing bar. The call note is a shrill tseep . The song,

    which has been written wee-so , sissi-weeso , sissi-weeso , sissi-weeso lasts

    no more than 4 or 5 seconds, may be repeated 7 or 8 times a minute, and

    usually is sung from a bush or fair-sized tree. Flight songs and songs

    at night have been reported ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            The species nests in thick shrubbery not far from the ground; in a

    brush pile or bank; occasionally in the old nests of other birds. The

    nest, which is built by the female, is of twigs, dead leaves, moss, and

    roots, neatly lined with feathers, hair, wool, and moss. The eggs, which

    usually number 4 or 5, are deep blue (sometimes with reddish-brown spots).

    Only the female incubates. The incubation period is about 12 days, the

    fledging period about 12 days. In Great Britain two (sometimes three)

    broods are reared in a season.

            Prunella modularis nests throughout most of Europe (except in the

    southeastern part) and from Asia Minor to Persia. The northern limits of

    its breeding range are latitude 70° N. in Norway, northern Sweden, northern

    Finland, the Archangelsk region of Russia, and latitude 62° 30′ on the

    Petchora. It inhabits the British Isles. It has been reported from the

    Faeroes.



    894      |      Vol_IV-0953                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Prunellidae

            821. Prunellidae . A family composed of several species (1 genus –

    Prunella) of small passeriform birds known as hedge sparrows and accentors.

    They are confined to Eurasia and northern Africa. They are sparrowlike in

    general appearance, but probably are not very closely related to either

    the Fringillidae (finches) or Ploceidae (weaver-birds). They have been

    classified as a subfamily of the Turdidae (thrushes) by some taxonomists.

    Others have regarded them as closely allied to the warblers (Sylviidae)

    or tits (Paridae).

            They are plump birds of thick, dark plumage, with short, slightly

    notched, sharply pointed bills. Viewed from above the bill appears to

    be somewhat swollen at the base and compressed from the middle to the tip.

    The nostrils are large, diagonal, and covered with a membrance. The

    rictal bristles are few and weak. The forehead plumage is slightly dis–

    in g t egrated. The feet are moderately strong. The tarsus is short (about as

    long as the middle toe with its claw) and scutellats. The hind toe bears the

    longest of the claws. The wings are rounded, the outermost primary being very

    short. The tail, which is shorter than the wing, is square or slightly forked.

    The sexes are alike. The juvenal plumage is spotted and streaked, as in the

    Turdidae. All the species lay blue eggs.

            On the ground these birds progress in short jumps, sometimes partly

    spreading their wings without rising in flight. They are not strongly

    migratory. Some forms nest high in the mountains. A party climbing Mount

    Everest found one species at 21,000 feet elevation. These montane forms

    descend to the valleys in winter. Of the several species two range northward

    into the Subarctic: Prunella modularis (hedge sparrow) and P. montanella

    (arctic or mountain accentor).



    895      |      Vol_IV-0954                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wagtails and Pipits

           

    WAGTAILS AND PIPITS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family MOTACILLIDAE

            822. Alaska Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla flava alascensis , the only race

    of the yellow wagtail found in the New World. See Yellow

    Wagtail.

            823. American Pipit. A name often used for Anthus spinoletta rubescens,

    the best known of the New World races of the Water Pipit.

            824. Anthus. See writeup.

            825. Black-backed Wagtail. A common name for Motacilla alba lugens .

    See Wagtail.

            826. Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail. A name used in England for the nominate

    race of Motacilla flava . See Yellow Wagtail.

            827. Citrine Wagtail. See writeup.

            828. Gray Wagtail. Motacilla cinerea , a well-known Old World wagtail which

    resembles the yellow wagtail ( M. flava ) much more closely than its

    name would imply, but is longer-tailed. It ranges well northward,

    but not quite to the Arctic Circle (to lat. 67° N. in the Ob valley,

    according to Dementiev).

            829. Meadow Pipit. See writeup.

            830. Motacilla. See writeup.

            831. MOTACILLIDAE. See writeup.

            832. Pechora Pipit. See writeup.

            833. Pipit. See writeup.

            834. Red-throated Pipit. See writeup.



    896      |      Vol_IV-0955                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wagtails and Pipits

            835. Rock Pipit. A name frequently used in England for Anthus spinoletta

    petrosus. See Water Pipit.

            836. Swinhoe’s Wagtail. Motacilla alba ocularis , a race of the wagtail

    ( q.v. ).

            837. Titlark. A name applied to pipits of several species, especially the

    water pipit ( Anthus spinoletta ) ( q.v. ).

            838. Tree Pipit. See writeup.

            839. Wagtail. See writeup.

            840. Water Pipit. See writeup.

            841. White Wagtail. A widely used name for the nominate race of Motacilla

    alba. See Wagtail.

            842. Yellow Wagtail. See writeup.



    897      |      Vol_IV-0956                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Anthus

            824. Anthus. A genus of small, plain-colored terrestrial birds known

    as pipits. They belong to the wagtail family and have the typically mota–

    cilline custom of “wagging” the tail up and down. They are rather larklike

    in appearance, being streaked and spotted with brown and black throughout

    the upper parts. The bill is somewhat shorter than the head and rather

    weak. The tail is much shorter than the wing as a rule. The secondaries

    are as long as the primaries. The hind claw is very long in some forms,

    but short in others. The male and female are alike in color and shape, and

    young birds resemble adults. Anthus nests on the ground. The eggs are

    spotted, sometimes very heavily.

            The genus is almost cosmopolitan. It breeds well northward and well

    southward in both the Old World and the New. It is absent from the South

    Pacific islands, and, of course, from the Antarctic. It is especially well

    represented in Eurasia. Of the 10 or 11 species found in the Northern Hemis–

    phere not one is truly holarctic, however. A. spinoletta breeds across the

    whole of Eurasia and North America, but throughout most of Asia its northern–

    most limits apparently are far to the southward of the tundra. This is

    difficult to explain, and some ornithologists believe that further field

    work will reveal the presence of the species north of the tree limit from

    the lower Yenisei eastward to the Chukotsk Peninsula. A. cervinus (red–

    throated pipit) breeds on the tundra across Eurasia and (probably in very

    small numbers) in extreme western Alaska. Perhaps competition between

    spinoletta and cervinus is responsible for the absence of spinoletta from

    northern Asia.

            See Pipit.



    898      |      Vol_IV-0957                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Citrine Wagtail and Meadow Pipit

            827. Citrine Wagtail . A small passeriform bird, Mot e a cilla citreola ,

    which is closely related to the yellow wagtail ( M. flava ). The adult

    male in summer is light yellow all over the head and under parts and gray

    on the back (sometimes with a black band across the hind neck). The two

    wing bars almost form a solid patch of white. The tertials are broadly

    edged with white. The outer tail feathers are largely white. The female

    is similar but less bright throughout. Young birds in winter are duller

    still, usually being pale yellowish gray (or light gray without a trace

    of yellow) on the under parts. (This description is of the nominate race;

    other races are darker-backed.)

            The species breeds across middle Asia northward in the west to the

    region lying between the Ob River and the White Sea. Pleske tells us that

    it is found “on the lower course of the Pechora ..., in the Yamal Peninsula

    ..., and as far north as 72° at the mouth of the Yenisei...” Dementiev

    says that the race M. citreola werae inhabits “ Sib e é rie occidental , l’extr e ê me

    nord except e é .”

            In habits and behavior the citrine wagtail probably is similar to

    the yellow wagtail ( M. flava ), ( q.v. ).

            829. Meadow Pipit . A well-known but at times not easily identifiable

    Old World pipit, Anthus pratensis , which looks very much like its close

    relative the tree pipit ( A. trivialis ). In general it is a livelier bird

    than the tree pipit, and it is less apt to slight in a tree, but it does

    so habitually when on migration. It is about 5 3/4 inches long.

            The meadow pipit breeds throughout most of Europe and in Asia eastward

    899      |      Vol_IV-0958                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Meadow pipit and Motacilla

    to Turkestan and the valley of the Ob; and in the British Isles, the

    Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland (probably in very small numbers). It

    winters from southern parts of its breeding range to Asia Minor, Palestine,

    and North Africa. The northern limits of its breeding range are Iceland,

    southern Greenland, northern Scandinavia, the Murman Coast, the Kola

    Peninsula, Kolguev Island, the mouth of the Pechora, the Yamal Peninsula

    (possibly), and the lower On Valley.

            For differences between this species and A. trivialis see Tree Pipit

    and Pipit.

            830. Motacilla. A genus composed of several species and subspecies

    of wagtails. Motacilla is similar to Anthus (pipits) structurally, but in

    general appearance it is quite different. Anthus is plain-colored and always

    more or less streaked, while some Motacilla are boldly black, white, and

    gray; others are olive and yellow, or olive, gray, and yellow; and not one

    of the numerous forms is noticeably streaked, barred, or spotted in any

    plumage. All forms of Motacilla have more or less white outer tail feathers.

    The tail is longer, proportionately, than in Anthus , for it is fully as long

    as, or longer than, the wing. It is slightly rounded and the rectrices are

    rather narrow (though rounded at the tip). The secondaries are long. In

    some forms the tertials are so long that their tips hide the tips of the

    primaries when the wing is folded.

            In some species of Motacilla the hind claw is very long (longer than

    the digit itself) and slightly arched, while in others it is shorter than

    the digit and rather strongly arched. Some taxonomists have placed all the

    900      |      Vol_IV-0959                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Motacilla and Motacillidae

    species having the very long hind claw in a separate genus, Budytes , but

    this division of the group seems hardly warranted.

            Motacilla ranges widely through the Old World, but it is wholly absent

    from Polynesia and it occurs in Australia only as an infrequent straggler.

    One species, the yellow wagtail ( M. flava ) has made its way, via Bering

    Strait, to Alaska and now breeds there regularly. Another, the so-called

    wagtail ( M. alba ) has made its way via Iceland to southeast Greenland and

    via Bering Strait to extreme western Alaska. The northern limits of the

    breeding range of the genus are southeast Greenland, Iceland, northern

    Scandinavia, the Kola Peninsula, Kolguev Island, latitude 74° N. on the

    Taimyr Peninsula, Great Lyakhov Island (probably), the Chukotsk Peninsula,

    and northern Alaska (Meade River, south of Point Barrow; and the delta of

    the Colville River).

            See Wagtail.

            831. Motacillidae . A family of small, soft plumaged, oscine passeri–

    form birds known as wagtails and pipits. The pipits bear a strong super–

    ficial resemblance to the larks (family Alaudidae), but their up-and-down

    tail-wagging is distinctive, and the tarsi are sharp behind, not blunt or

    rounded, as in the larks.

            All forms of the Motacillidae have 9 primaries. The secondaries and

    tertials are long, sometimes being as long as, or even longer than, the

    primaries. The tail (12 rather narrow feathers) is never stubby and is

    often rather long, especially in the wagtails. The bill is slender, some–

    what shorter than the head, and slightly notched subterminally. The tarsi

    901      |      Vol_IV-0960                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Motacillidae

    are long and slender, covered with a single sheath behind, and scutellate

    in front. The toes are slender. The claw of the hallux is often elongate

    (as long as the digit or longer). There is one complete molt annually —

    the postnuptial, in late summer. The prenuptial molt in late winter and

    early spring is, however, very extensive in some forms.

            The Motacillidae are for the most part terrestrial. They walk or run

    in a graceful, “mincing” manner, wagging their tails almost incessantly.

    They nest on the ground or in holes in banks, buildings, or trees. These

    which breed on the tundra often conceal their nests under rocks. The eggs

    are spotted, sometimes so heavily as to appear to be of a solid dark color.

            The family is virtually world-ranging, though it is absent from

    Polynesia and the Antarctic. It is especially well represented in the

    northern part of the Old World. Several forms range northward to the

    Arctic Circle and beyond. Of these only one, the water pipit ( Anthus

    spinoletta ), ranges widely through both the Old World and the New. It

    breeds on the tundra as well as far to the southward of the Arctic Circle

    on mountain tops above tree limit. Another, the yellow wagtail ( Motacilla

    flava ), breeds across northern Eurasia and in Alaska. A third, the wagtail

    ( Motacilla alba ) inhabits northern Eurasia (including the British Isles, the

    Faeroes, Kolguev, and Iceland) and breeds irregularly and in small numbers in

    southeast Greenland and extreme western Alaska.

            See Motacilla , Anthus , Wagtail, and Pipit.



    902      |      Vol_IV-0961                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pechora Pipit

            832. Pechora Pipit . An Old World pipit, Anthus gustavi , which

    resembles the tree pipit ( A. trivalis ) in color, build, and stance, but

    has two pale streaks down the back; the outer tail feathers are pale

    buff rather than white; and the lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts

    are boldly streaked with black. It is about 5 3/4 inches long. Its

    call note is like the tisp of the meadow pipit ( A. pratensis ) but “noticeably

    softer and lower in key [and] repeated two or three times.” The first part

    of the song is a trill somewhat like that of the Temminck’s stint ( Ereunetes

    temminckii ) or the wood warbler ( Phylloscopus sibilatrix ), the second part

    “a low, guttural warble, delivered in song-flight” ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            Statements concerning the habitat of this bird are contradictory.

    Pleske, who does not even list the species in his compendious Birds of the

    Eurasian Tundra , states that it has been recorded “some distrance to the south

    of the mouths of the Pechora and the Yenisei but never from the tundra, properly

    speaking...” Dementiev, on the other hand, sums up its distribution with the

    phrase “ les tundras et la zone bois e é e de l’Europe orientale et de la Sib e é rie ...”

    (p. 162). Authors agree that the bird ranges across northern Eurasia from

    the Pechora to Kamchatka and the Komandorskis. Popham found it nesting at

    latitude 69° 40′ N. on the Yenisei ( Ibis, 1898, p. 500; but see Dementiev,

    Systema Avium Rossicarum , p. 162, who gives 64° as the northern limit). It

    breeds northward along the Kolyma to the delta proper. The southern limits

    of its breeding range probably are not far below tree limit. It winters in

    southeastern Asia and in the East Indies. It has been reported once from

    St. Lawrence Island, in the Bering Sea.



    903      |      Vol_IV-0962                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pipit

            833. Pipit. Any of several small, rather short-tailed birds belonging

    to Anthus and allied motacillid genera. The boreal pipits are all plain–

    colored (streaked with black and brown above; white, buff, or pinkish buff

    below, streaked with dusky on the chest and sides), terrestrial, and lark–

    like in appearance, though of course the true larks (family Alaudidae) do

    not wag their tails. The five species of pipits which breed northward to

    the Arctic Circle and beyond all belong to the genus Anthus . Living as

    they do in open, comparatively treeless country, they often sing while fly–

    ing. The aerial performances of some species are notably long-continued.

            All five of the boreal pipits are migratory. Three of the five are

    confined to the Old World; one is found almost wholly in the Old World;

    and one — the pipit ( Anthus spinoletta ) — ranges widely in Eurasia and

    North America. The five boreal pipits have similar habits. They all nest

    on the ground, sometimes in a bank, occasionally under a stone. The nest

    is of grass and moss, lined with finer grasses, occasionally with hair, but

    not with feathers. The eggs usually number 5 or 6 at northerly latitudes

    and are very heavily spotted. Only the female incubates. The incubation

    period is 13 or 14 days, the fledging period 12 or 13 days. In the Far

    North only one brood is reared in a season, but in the south two broods are

    reared by some species.

            The five boreal pipits are very similar in color and shape and one

    general description fits them all. They are about six inches long. They

    are streaked above and more or less stresked below. They have some white

    on the outermost one or two pairs of tail feathers. Color distinctions,

    then, are difficult to make. The strongly ruddy throat of the breeding male

    red-throated pipit ( Anthus cervinus ) is obvious enough in good light.

    904      |      Vol_IV-0963                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pipit and Red-throated Pipit

    No other pipit has this reddish throat. But female and immature red-throated

    pipits sometimes have little if any red on the throat. The black streaking

    of the rump plumage and upper tail coverts is another character of the red–

    throated pipit. The Pechora pipit ( Anthus gustavi ) is also streaked with

    black on the rump and upper tail coverts, but of course never has a reddish

    throat. The short hind claw of the tree pipit ( Anthus trivialis ) makes

    identification of that species easy with a specimen in hand. The compara–

    tively black legs and feet of the water pipit are sometimes clearly visible

    in the field. This leaves the meadow pipit ( Anthus pratensis ) as well-nigh–

    unidentifiable for those who do not remember call notes very well. Persons

    who are interested in making certain what a given pipit is should collect

    the bird and have it identified at a museum.

            834. Red-throated Pipit. A small terrestrial bird, Anthus cervinus,

    found principally in the Old World. The pale rusty red of the throat and

    breast of breeding males (and some breeding females) is distinctive; but in

    autumn and winter this color is not nearly so pronounced, and young birds

    are sometimes wholly without it. The rump and upper tail coverts are

    broadly streaked with black in all plumages. This character distinguishes

    it from the tree pipit ( Anthus trivialis ) and meadow pipit ( Anthus pratensis )

    but not from the Pechor pipit ( Anthus gustavi ). The last-named species is never

    red-throated, of course.

            The call note is a full, musical, rather abrupt chüp , the alarm note

    a shrill tsweerp , the song; twee-twee - twee - twee , trrrrr , twizz - wizz - wizz - wizz ,

    twizz - wizz - wizz , twizz - wizz .



    905      |      Vol_IV-0964                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-throated Pipit and Tree Pipit

            Anthus cervinus breeds in northern Eurasia northward to northern

    Norway, northern Sweden, northern Finland, the Murman Coast, the mouth

    of the Pechora, the Kanin Peninsula, Kolguev, Vaigach, the south island

    of Novaya Zemlya, the mouth of the Ob, the Yamal Peninsula, the mouth of

    the Yenisei, latitude 76° 8′ N. in the Taimyr Peninsula, and the mouths

    of the Lena and Kolyma. It has never been encountered in the New Siberian

    Archipelago. Portenko did not list it from W e r angel Island. It has bred

    once in extreme western Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales), and has been reported

    from St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea; St. Michael, Alaska; and the

    Chukotsk Peninsula.

            838. Tree Pipit . A small, usually inconspicuous Old World motacillid,

    Anthus trivialis, notable for the shortness of its hind claw. This distinc–

    tive feature is almost never visible in the field, however. The tree pipit

    and meadow pipit ( Anthus pratensis ) are similar in general appearance. Of

    the two, the tree pipit is slightly the larger, stockier, browner (less

    greenish) above, and more buffy on the chest. Some individuals of the two

    species are so much alike, however, that they cannot be told apart unless

    one of them utters a call note or song. The call note of the tree pipit is

    a hoarse teez , that of the meadow pipit a shrill tisp or tissip . The spring

    song of the tree pipit is a complex, musical, and far-carrying performance,

    that of the meadow pipit a “tinkling sequence of ... rather thin feeble notes

    resembling the call!” (Ticehurst).

            The name “tree pipit” is somewhat misleading, for Anthus trivialis is

    essentially a ground bird; but it often flies to a fence post, bush, or even

    906      |      Vol_IV-0965                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tree Pipit and Wagtail

    the top of a tall tree when flushed, and its full song is usually sung

    in a flight out from a tree. The nest is built on the ground, of course,

    never in a tree.

            The tree pipit breeds throughout most of Europe (including the British

    Isles) and western Asia (including Kashmir and the Pamir [ ?] ), and winters in

    Africa and southern Asia. The northern limits of its summer range are

    latitude 70° N. in Norway, 69° in Sweden, 65° in Russia, and 60° in western

    Siberia. The easternmost limits of its breeding range are the upper Lena

    and Yakutsk. It has been reported from Jan Mayen and from points at sea

    off the Taimyr Peninsula as far north as 76°.

            839. Wagtail. 1. Any of several small, soft-plumaged, rather long–

    tailed birds of the genus Motacilla , so called because they move their tails

    up and down almost incessantly. They have more or less white outer tail

    feathers which flash in flight. They are largely terrestrial, and walk or

    run with “mincing” gait. They are fond of water and obtain some of their

    food while wading. They nest on the ground or in holes in banks, buildings,

    or (occasionally) trees.

            The wagtails range widely through the Old World. They are, however,

    absent from Polynesia and they occur in Australia only as stragglers. The

    two most northern species, ( Motacilla alba and M. flava , range well beyond

    the Arctic Circle in the Old World and are, apparently, in the process of

    establishing themselves in the New World. Both of these species have a

    wide distribution and are represented by numerous geographical races.

            2. Motacilla alba , probably the best known species of its genus.

    907      |      Vol_IV-0966                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wagtail

    It breeds across the whole of northern Eurasia (including Iceland,

    Kolguev, and the Komandorskis) and (in small numbers), in southern

    Greenland and western Alaska, and winters in southern Asia and in Africa.

    It is about 7 inches long. Adults are boldly white on the forehead, fore–

    crown, and face; black on the back of the head and whole chin, throat,

    and breast; gray on the back; and white on the belly. The wings are dark

    gray, with white tertial edgings and fairly distinct whitish wing bars.

    The outer tail feathers are largely white. The juvenal plumage is brownish

    gray above and on the chest, and white on the throat and belly. The outer

    tail feathers are white and there is an indistinct whitish superciliary

    line. The foregoing description is really of M. alba alba , the best known

    race of the species, a form often called the white wagtail. It breeds

    northward to Iceland, southeast Greenland (in very small numbers), and

    extreme northern Europe (including Kolguev Island), and has been reported

    from Jan Mayen and northern Ungava.

            The other races differ considerably from M. alba alba in certain

    particulars, some of them being black rather than gray on the back, others

    having much more black, and correspondingly much less white, on the head.

    Of these other races, two range northward into the Subarctic and Arctic:

    dukhunesis (paler gray on the back, and with more white on the greater

    and middle wing coverts) of northwestern Siberia, northward to the Yamal

    Peninsula and the mouths of the ob and Yenisei and eastward (at lower

    latitudes to the upper Lena; and ocularis (a black line through the eye)

    of northeastern Siberia from the lower Lena eastward to the Chukotsk

    Peninsula and southward to the Stanovoi Mountains (Dementiev). This form,

    which is known as Swinhoe’s wagtail, has bred on Chamisso Island, off the

    908      |      Vol_IV-0967                                                                                                                  
    EA_Orn. Sutton: Wagtail

    coast of western Alaska. It has been reported from Attu (in the Aleutians)

    and from the mouth of the Yukon. M. alba lugens (black-backed wagtail)

    breeds in Kamchatka, and Komandorskis (in small numbers), Sakhalin, the

    Kurils, and Japan. It has been reported from Attu.

            In the northern parts of its breeding range the wagtail shows a strong

    preference for coasts. In its winger range it usually lives near water.

    Its summer habitat is determined to a large extent by the availability of

    nest sites, i.e., banks, low cliffs, and mossy hummocks. In peopled areas

    it often nests about buildings.

            The species is readily identifiable from its bold back, white, and

    gray color pattern. As it feeds it walks briskly or runs, moving its head

    backward and forward. It flight is strongly undulatory. During the down–

    sweeps it closes its wings. Its usual call note is a shrill chiz-zick . The

    song, which is delivered infrequently, is “a simple, but lively, warbling

    twitter, consisting largely of slurred repetitions of call-notes with variants

    and modulations. Delivered on wing or ground or from perch … sometimes in

    chorus at roosts of elsewhere” (Ticehurst).

            Pairing is preceded by elaborate courtship during which two or more

    males display before a male, ( 1 ) crouching with head thrown up so as to

    present the black throat patch; ( 2 ) running round her, bowing until the beak

    almost touches the ground, then stretching the head as high as possible;

    ( 3 ) bowing quickly, fluttering wings at return to normal position; and ( 4 )

    approaching the female in zigzag course with tail depressed, spread, and

    tilted, rump plumage lifted, and one or both wings spread.

            The nest, which is built by the female, is described by Pleske as “large,

    solidly built and thick-walled; it is made of dry grass blades of the preceding

    909      |      Vol_IV-0968                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Wagtail and Water Pipit

    year interwoven with twigs, sometimes fairly thick, of a small shrub,

    probably Betula nana , and tufts of moss or lichen. The inner layer …

    is formed of finger grass so arranged that the material becomes finer and

    finer toward the lining. The cavity itself is abundantly furnished with

    the hair of the wild reindeer [ ?] very skillfully selected from the finest

    tufts and in addition a feather of the Snowy Owl …”

            In the Far North the nest is built in a hole in a steep bank or cliff,

    usually not far from water. The eggs, which number 5 or 6 as a rule, are

    grayish or bluish white, speckled evenly with brown and gray. The female

    does most of the incubating, though the male occasionally assists for short

    spells. The incubation period is 13 to 14 days. The fledging period is

    14 to 15 days. In the Far North only one brood is reared, but at lower

    latitudes two broods are regularly reared. The male takes charge of the

    first brood while the female proceeds with the second.

            See Motacilla and MOTACILLIDAE.

            840. Water Pipit. A small terrestrial bird, Anthus spinoletta , known

    also as the titlark. Some Old World races are known as rock pipits and in

    America and best known of the New World races has long been called the

    American pipit. Breeding adults of this black-footed species are plain

    brownish gray above and pinkish buff below, with very little streaking.

    The streaking of the under parts is reduced to a sort of nicklace of spots.

    Immature birds and winter adults, on the other hand, are boldly streakent,

    especially below. Young birds molting into their first breeding plumage in

    late winter and early spring are often very bedraggled in appearance.



    910      |      Vol_IV-0969                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Water Pipit [ ?]

            The water pipit’s usual call note is a simple tsip or tsip-ip , given

    as the bird flies up. The song is a many-times-repeated note or phrase

    delivered high in air. Singing birds sometimes stay in the air for fifteen–

    to twenty-minute periods.

            Anthus spinoletta breeds in the Faeroes; the British Isles; Europe

    north to Scandinavia and the Murman Coast; mountains part of central

    Asia northward to the upper Yenisei; Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and the Kurils;

    northern continental North America; Baffin Island (commonly in the south

    and northward probably to Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay); Somerset Island

    (probably); and West Greenland (north to lat. 70° N.). The southern

    limits of its summer range are ill-defined, for its nests well southward

    on mountain tops in the interior. In the Far North it seems to prefer

    rocky country, but sometimes it nests on the shores of shallow lakes in

    flat coastal country. It is strongly migratory. The southern limits of

    its range are northern Africa, Southern Asia, Japan, Baja California,

    Guatemala, and Gulf of Mexico, and Florida. It has been reported from

    the latitude of Bear Island, the mouth of the Lena, and north shore of the

    Chukotsk Peninsula (see Pleske, 1928. Birds of the Eurasian Tundra . Pp. 155–

    156), and Nunivak Island. Handley did not encounter it on Prince Patrick

    Island nor did Portenko list it from Wrangel Island.

            Reference:

    Pickwell, Gayle. “The American pipit in its arctic-alpine home.”

    Auk, vol. 64, pp. 1-14, 1947.

    911      |      Vol_IV-0970                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow Wagtail

            842. Yellow Wagtail. A small passeriform birds, Motacilla flava ,

    so called because the yellow of its under parts is bright and noticeable.

    In England the name is applied especially to Motacilla flava rayi , the

    yellowest race of the species, whereas Motacilla flava flava is known

    as the blue-headed yellow wagtail. The term yellow wagtail , for the

    species as a whole, is, however, in general use in England, particularly

    when contradistinction to the gray wagtail ( Motacilla cinera ) is intended.

            Motacilla flava is about 6 1/2 inches long. The numerous races vary

    considerably in color, but all are more or less yellow below and olive on

    the upper part of the body; all have two not very distinct buffy wing bars;

    and all have much white on the outer tail feathers. The closely allied

    gray wagtail, above mentioned, is gray on the upper part of the body and

    much longer-tailed. There is a difference of opinion as to the so-called

    black-headed wagtail. Some ornithologists consider it a race of M. flava ,

    others as a distinct species, M. feldegg . In any event, M. flava breeds

    throughout much of Eurasia and winters in the southern part of the continent,

    in the Sundas and Moluccas, and in Africa. The northern limits of its

    breeding range are northern Scandinavia, northern Russia, latitude 72° N.

    along the Yenisei, the lower Lena, Kotelny Island in the New Siberian

    Archipelago (possibly), the Chukotsk Peninsula, and northern Alaska (Meade

    River and delta of the Colville). It has been reported several times from

    the Faeroes and probably visits Iceland occasionally. It breeds in the

    Komandorskis.

            In northern parts of its range the yellow wagtail inhabits swampy and

    marshy tundra, especially areas with scattered stands of dwarf birch and

    willow. At more southerly latitudes it frequents low-lying pastures, marshes,

    912      |      Vol_IV-0971                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow Wagtail

    and cultivated fields. Moreau states that the winter habitat in Africa

    is bare open ground and flat areas throughout which the grass is short.

            The species’ usual call note is a shrill, musical tsweep or too-eek.

    The song of the Alaskan race has been described as a “high tzee - zee - zee or

    ter - zwee -- ter - zwee - zwee - zwee … The regular rate of singing was about

    seven times per minute on warmer days during the morning” (Walkinshaw).

    The blue-headed yellow wagtail ( M. flava flava ) has a “peculiar nuptial

    flight with feathers much puffed out, head drawn in so that bill points

    slightly upwards, widely spread tail hanging down and wings moving in

    shivering fashion” (Jourdain and Ticehurst). Walkinshaw mentioned so such

    display among Alaskan birds, though he witnessed aerial performances in

    which the birds sang 8 to 15 meters above ground.

            [ ?] The nest is usually well concealed in lush vegetation not far from

    water. It is of moas, roots, and grass stems. Nests found in Alaska by

    Walkinshaw were beautifully lined with ptarmigan feathers. The female

    builds the nest. The eggs usually number 5 to 6. They are yellowish brown,

    sometimes of a solid color, occasionally of mottled or streaked appearance.

    The female does most of the incubating, though the male assists. The

    incubation period is 13 to 14 days. The young remain in the nest about

    11 days ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            The most northward-ranging races are thunbergi , which breeds from

    latitude 59° N. to 70° in Norway, from 63° northward in Sweden, and from

    63° to 65° in Finland; borealis , which breeds on the Murman Coast, in the

    Kanin Peninsula, north to latitude 72° N. in the Yenisei Valley, along the

    lower Lena, in Kotelny Island (possibly), and eastward along the north coast

    of Siberia to the region north of the Stanovoi Mountains; and alascensis ,

    913      |      Vol_IV-0972                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow Wagtail

    Which breads in the Chukotsk Peninsula and in Alaska east as far as the

    Colville River and south to the Nushagak River and Nunivak Island.

    Alascensis winters “in tropical East Asia, and does not go south through

    Canada and the States, thus showing its adherence to ancient migration

    routes” (Smith).

            Reference:

    Smith, Stuart. The Yellow Wagtail. Collins, St. James’s Place, London,

    178 pp., 1950.

    914      |      Vol_IV-0973                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Waxwings

           

    WAXWINGS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

    Family BOMBYCILLIDAE

            843. Bohemian Waxwing. A name used widely in America for Bombycilla

    garrulus . See Waxwing.

            844. Bombycilla. A genus to which the waxwings belong. See [ ?]

    BOMBYCILLIDAE.

            845. BOMBYCILLIDAE. See writeup.

            846. Greater Waxwing. A name used among American ornithologists for

    Bombycilla garrulus , to distinguish it from the smaller cedar

    waxwing, cedar bird, or cherrybird ( Bomybcilla cedrorum ).

    See Waxwing.

            847. Northern Waxwing. A name sometimes used (especially in America)

    for the waxwing ( Bombycilla garrulus ) (q.v.).

            848. Waxwing. See writeup.



    915      |      Vol_IV-0974                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bomycillidae

            845. Bomycillidae. A small, well-defined family of passerine birds

    known as waxwings. They are so called because in two of the three known

    species there are small, flat, tear-shaped, waxlike appendages on the tips

    of the secondary wing feathers of most adult males, many adult females,

    and some young birds. Appendages of the same sort are sometimes present

    also on the tips of some of the tail feathers.

            All waxwings are conspicuously created. Their plumage is soft and

    silky, but their coloration, in general, is not bright. Throughout the

    family the bill is thick, short, wide at the base, and slightly hooked.

    There are no rictal bristles. The plumage of the lores is short, dense, and

    velvety. The wings are long and pointed, the two outermost primaries being

    nearly equal in length and longer than the rest. The secondaries are much

    shorter than the primaries. The tail, which is short and square or

    slightly rounded, is composed of 12 feathers. The tarsus is short, rather

    thick, and scutellate in front.

            All waxwings are highly gregarious. During the breeding season pairs

    go about separately part of the time, but flocks are to be seen at all

    seasons of the year at favorite feeding, drinking, and bathing places.

    They are fond of bathing even in cold weather. They have been called “the

    most songless of the so-called ‘singing birds’”, their note being a

    monotonous, “beady” lisp which seems to be inaudible to a good many persons.

    Waxwings are fond of berries and small fruits. Occasionally they catch

    insects, snapping them from the air flycatherwise.

            The Bombycillidae are confined to the Northern Hemisphere. Only one of

    the three species, Bombycilla garrulus (waxwing, greater waxwing, northern

    waxwing, or Bohemian waxwing) is found in both the New World and the Old.

    916      |      Vol_IV-0975                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bombycillidae and Waxwing

    This species ranges northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond.

            See Waxwing.

            848. Waxwing . 1. Any of the three species of the Bombycillidae,

    soft-plumaged, crested birds often seen in large flocks especially in

    winter, and found only in the Northern Hemisphere. All three species

    belong to one genus — Bombycilla .

            2. Bombycilla garrulus , a species known in England simply as the

    waxwing, but in America as the B o ohemian, northern, or greater waxwing

    to distinguish it from the smaller and much better known cedar waxwing

    or cedarbird ( Bombycilla cedrorum ). Bombycilla garrulus is about 7 inches

    long. It is an elegant brown and gray birds with high, flowing crest;

    boldly yellow-tipped tail; black throat; black line from the forehead

    backward through each eye; and rufous under tail coverts. The wings are

    blackish gray with bold white markings. In high-plumaged males the white

    wing-markings are sometimes strongly tinged with yellow. The rump and upper

    tail coverts are soft, bluish gray — a character which shows plainly as the

    birds fly off. Young birds are duller and shorter-crested; they have no

    black on the throat; and their under parts are broadly streaked with buff.

            The waxwing is highly g regarious. Even when some pairs are nesting,

    companies of unpaired birds go about in flocks. They perch in close-knit

    companies in treetops. They are experts at catching insects on the wing,

    but they are especially famous for their fruit- and berry-eating. Usually

    they are arboreal, but they sometimes feed in low bushes and often descend

    to the banks of streams or ponds to drink and bathe. Whatever they do, they

    917      |      Vol_IV-0976                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Waxwing

    do together. A flock of waxwings bathing, preening, and drying off

    together is a very pretty sight. Their call note is a simple unmusical

    “high, feeble, trilling sirrrrr ” (Ticehurst).

            The nest is usually in a conifer, sometimes in a birch or other

    deciduous tree, 15 to 30 feet from the ground. It is a broad, rather

    shallow cup made of spruce twigs, dry weed-stems, and moss, lined with

    soft materials such as hair and feathers. Both the male and female build

    it, or any any rate the male accompanies the female constantly as she

    gathers materials and builds. The eggs, which number 4 to 6 as a rule,

    are pale gray with scattered dark gray and black spots. The female does

    most (probably all) of the incubating, but is fed regularly by the male.

    The incubation period is 14 days. The young, whose rapidly growing tails

    are yellow-tipped, remain in the nest about 2 weeks.

            Bombycilla garrulus has a virtually circumboreal distribution, but it

    is irregular in its nesting. It is not migratory in the usual sense of the

    word, though it moves about in search of food, and usually wanders well south

    of its breeding range in winter. Some years it is quite common in certain

    district, in other years rare. The northern limits of its breeding range

    are: latitude 70° N. in Norway, northern Sweden, northern Finland, northern

    Siberia, north central Alaska (Kotzebue Sound area), northern Mackenzie,

    northeastern Manitoba, and (probably) northern Quebec. It visits Iceland

    and the Faeroes casually in winter. It has been reported once from the east

    coast of Greenland (four birds seen in June at Cape Tobin, Scoresby Sound).



    918      |      Vol_IV-0977                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Shrikes

           

    SHRIKES

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family LANIIDAE

            849. Brown Shrike. Lanius cristatus , an [ ?] Asiatic shrike sometimes

    called the red-tailed shrike ( q.v. ).

            850. Butcherbird. A vernacular name for a shrike. See LANIIDAE.

            850.1. Gray Shrike. See Great Gray Shrike.

            851. Great Gray Shrike. See writeup.

            852. LANIIDAE. See writeup.

            853. Lanius . One of the principal genera of the family LANIIDAE ( q.v. ).

            854. Northern Shrike. A name widely used in America for Lanius excubitor ,

    a bird known in England as the great gray shrike. Sometimes called

    the great northern shrike. See LANIIDAE.

            855. Red-tailed Shrike. See writeup.

            856. Shrike. Any of several soft-plumaged, hook-billed, passeriform birds

    belonging to the family LANIIDAE ( q.v. ).



    919      |      Vol_IV-0978                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Gray Shrike

            851. Great Gray Shrike . A shrike, Lanius excubitor, the only species

    of its family found in both the New World and the Old. In America it is

    widely known as the northern shrike, a name which distinguishes it from

    the smaller and more southern loggerhead shrike ( Lanius ludovicianus ).

    Lanius borealis is sometimes called simply the “gray shrike” or “butcherbird.”

            It is about 10 inches long. Adults in summer, are, generally speaking,

    light gray above, white below, with black and white wings and tail and black

    mask from the base of the bill back through the ear coverts. All the tail

    feathers but the middle pair are white-tipped. The scapulars are white.

    The white of the wings is confined to the tertial- and secondary-tips and

    to a large, irregular spot at the base of the primaries and secondaries.

    There is a narrow white line just above the black facial mask. In winter,

    adults are faintly barred with gray all over the breast and belly. Young

    birds are like winter adults, but are brown or buff in tone, especially below.

            This shrike is conspicuous. It perches in prominent places, has a

    surprisingly tuneful song, and is so aggressive in driving hawks and jaegers

    from its nest territory in summer, and other shrikes from its individual

    feeding territory in winter, that it is sure to be noticed. In traveling

    from perch to perch it flies low, at which time the black and white of its

    wings and tail shows plainly. It custom of impaling prey on thorns is well

    known. In the Far North, where there are no thorns, it uses hard-pointed

    dead twigs or forks in slender branches.

            The nest is bulky, deeply cupped, and warmly lined. Both the male and

    female gather material (dry plant stems, grass, moss, hair, and feathers),

    but the female does the building. The nest is placed in a thickish tree,

    often a spruce or birch in the north, usually now more than 12 to 15 feet

    920      |      Vol_IV-0979                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Great Gray Shrike and Laniidae

    above ground, occasionally higher. The eggs, which number 5 to 7 as a

    rule, are light gray or grayish buff, spotted and blotched all over with

    darker shades of gray. The female does most but not all, of the incubating.

    The incubation period is about two weeks. The fledging period is about 20

    days. After leaving the nest the brood stays together for a time, but by

    winter each bird sets up a feeding territory of its own.

            Lanius excubitor breeds in northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

    It range northward to tree limit across Eurasia and North America. Jourdain

    says that the southern limits of its breeding in Russia and about latitude

    54° N. In North America the southern limits are northern British Columbia,

    Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba; southern Ontario; and southern Quebec.

    It moves somewhat southward in winter. Bailey reports a specimen taken in

    July in the foothills of the Endicott Mountains, northern Alaska; another

    taken in May along the Saravanuktuk (Sagavanirktok), a short river flowing

    directly into the Arctic Sea just each of the Colville. The species breeds

    regularly at Churchill, Manitoba; at the mouth of the koksoak, in Ungava;

    and as far north as Nain and Okak on the Labrador.

            852. Laniidae . A family of soft-plumaged, large-headed passeriform

    birds known as shrikes or butcherbirds. The northern forms are easily

    identifiable as shrikes on the basis of several well-defined characters,

    but some tropical forms, especially those of Austrasia, so depart in shape

    and color from “the average” that they do not look shrike-like at all.

    Shrikes of northern regions are all rather simply patterned birds with

    laterally compressed, strongly hooked distinctly toothed bills. The nostrils

    921      |      Vol_IV-0980                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Laniidae

    are round, without opercula, but covered with bristle-tipped antrorse

    feathers. The rictal bristles are distinct. The eyes are rather large.

    The wings are short and rounded, especially in the less migratory forms.

    There are 10 primaries, the outermost being about half as long as the

    second (or less), the 3rd and 4th, or the 2nd and 3rd, being longest.

    The tail is rather long and much rounded. The feet are strong. The

    tarsus is fairly short, and distinctly scutellated in front. The claws

    are much curved.

            The shrikes of northern regions are well known for their predatory

    habits. They capture insects, small birds, and small mammals, impaling

    them on sharp sticks of fastening them into narrow forks before eating

    them. They often carry their prey in their feet. Some of them are good

    singers, with a penchant for mimicking. In general, they are birds of

    the open, given to perching in the tops of trees or dead stubs, from

    which vantage points they can look for prey.

            The Laniidae are very wide-ranging. They inhabit virtually the whole

    of Eurasia, Africa, Australia, the Pacific islands, and North America

    as far south as southern Mexico. The well-known genus Lanius , whose

    characters are virtually the same as those mentioned above for the family,

    ranges north to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond in America and in

    Eurasia. The most northern species of the genus is L. excubitor (great

    gray shrike or northern shrike), a bird of virtually circumboreal distribu–

    tion. The red-tailed shrike ( L. cristatus ) of Asia, a smaller species, also

    breeds northward to the Arctic Circle. The red-backed shrike ( L. collurio )

    of the Old World reaches only the fringes of the Subarctic (lat. 64° in

    northern Russia).

            See Great Gray Shrike the Red-tailed Shrike.



    922      |      Vol_IV-0981                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-tailed Shrike

            855. Red-tailed Shrike . A rather small Asiatic shrike, Lanius

    cristatus , known also as the brown shrike. It is about 7 1/2 inches

    long. The adult male is brown throughout the upper parts — grayish

    brown on the back, rufous on the drown (usually), rump, upper tail coverts,

    and tail. The lores and ear coverts are blackish brown, forming a mask,

    above which there is a whitish line. The wings and tail are plain brown,

    virtually unmarked, though the outer tail feathers have pale tips. The

    chin, throat, and middle of the belly are white, the sides, flanks, and

    under tail coverts rufous buff. The female is similar, but her superciliary

    is cream-colored rather than white, and her under parts in general are

    slightly more richly colored, with faint zigzag vermiculations on the chest.

    Young birds resemble the adult female, but the brown vermiculations below

    are heavier and more extensive.

            The cry of the red-tailed shrike is a “very harsh and loud chatter.”

    The song, though not loud, is “very sweet.” Nests have been described as

    “Large and massive cups composed of all sorts of materials … placed in

    trees at a fair height. The eggs have the ground-colour of a pale yellow–

    green, with a zone of confluent and detached underlying spots of pale

    brownish all over the egg” (La Touche).

            Lanius cristatus is “the most widely spread” shrike in Siberia (Pleske).

    The northern limits of its breeding range are Turukhansk on the Yenisei

    (about lat. 67° N.), the headwaters of the Olenek River (67° 76′), the

    delta of the Kolyma, and (probably) the Chukotsk Peninsula. It breeds west–

    ward to the Irtysh River and Southward to Altai, Mongolia, and China. It

    inhabits Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Japan, and the Philippines. The more northern

    races are definitely migratory. Siberian birds winter in Indo-China, southern

    923      |      Vol_IV-0982                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red-tailed Shrike

    China, the East Indies, and the Sunda Islands. Lanius cristatus

    has been reported once from Wrangel Island.



    924      |      Vol_IV-0983                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Starlings

           

    STARLINGS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family STURNIDAE

            857. European Starling. A name often used in America for the Starling

    ( Sturnus vulgaris ) ( q.v. ).

            858. Starling. See writeup.

            859. STRUNIDAE. See writeup.

            860. Sturnus . See writeup.



    925      |      Vol_IV-0984                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Starling

            858. starling. 1. In general, any bird of the passeriform family

    Sturnidae. Among these are species bearing such common names as pastor,

    stare, mynah, and glossy starling (subfamily (Graculinae).

            2. Sturnus vulgaris , a hardy Old World species which is usually

    called the starling or European starling. Originally it was confined to

    Eurasia (including the British Isles and certain other North Atlantic

    island groups) and northern Africa, but it has been introduced into many

    parts of the world and is now well established in North America, Australia,

    New Zealand, and Cape Province, South Africa. It is a little over 8 inches

    long. Adults are black, glossed with green, blue, and violet. In winter

    all the head and body feathers are tipped with white, giving the bird a

    much freckled appearance. These white tips wear off by spring, so the

    breeding plumage is virtually unspotted (i.e., solid glossy black). Young

    birds in juvenal plumage are brownish gray all over except for the chin and

    throat, which are whitish. The unspotted juvenal feathers are replaced with

    white-tipped black feathers during the post-juvenal molt.

            The starling is an aggressive, rather noisy bird. It nests in old

    woodpecker holes, natural cavities in trees, and holes about buildings.

    The male bird, on finding a proper nest site, proceeds to sing voluably

    in advertisement for a mate. His singing is a series of squeals, whistles,

    and sputtering, some of which imitate the cries of other birds. While

    singing he stands upright, waving his wings. He proceeds with buildings the

    nest, using dry grasses principally. At length he is joined by a female,

    who finishes the nest by adding the fine lining materials. The eggs, which

    are very pale blue, number 4 to 7, sometimes more. Both sexes incubate.

    The incubation period is 12 to 13 days. The young remain in the nest 20 to

    22 days.



    926      |      Vol_IV-0985                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Starling and Sturnidae

            Starlings often dispossess such hole-excavating species as the

    flicker or golden-winged woodpecker ( Colaptes suratus ) about the time

    the work of excavation has been finished. So abundant has the starling

    become in some parts of North America, that it has driver out certain

    indigenous species with which it competes for nest sites. The starling feeds

    extensively on noxious insects, but the birds it drives out are often

    equally valuable as insect destroyers.

            Sturnus vulgaris breeds northward to the Arctic Circle in Norway and

    to somewhat lower latitudes in eastern Europe and western Asia. It has

    bred at least once in Bear Island, and has been reported from Greenland,

    Iceland, Vaigach, and Solovetski Island.

            See Sturnus.

            859. Sturnidae. An Old World family of passeriform birds known as

    starlings. One especially common species, Sturnus vulgaris , sometimes

    called the European starling, was introduced into North America about the

    turn of the century and has established itself widely in the United States

    and southern Canada. Another species, the crested mynah ( Acridotheres

    cristatellus ), has been introduced into extreme southwestern Canada. Various

    species of starlings have been introduced successfully into many parts of

    the world (including New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Hawaii).

    The word “successfully” is, perhaps, ill-advised. So sturdy and dominent

    are these nonindigenous starlings that they sometimes driven out valuable

    native birds. Starlings are omnivorous. Their consumption of noxious

    insects is helpful to agriculture. But many native birds which they displace

    also eat noxious insects.

    927      |      Vol_IV-0986                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sturnidae

    The Sturnidae are middle-sized birds for the most part. The shape

    of the bill is variable: in some forms it is stout and blunt, in some

    rather long, flat at the tip, and sharply pointed, in some short and weak.

    The nostrils are without feather-covering. The tongue is flat, nor tubular.

    The feet are very large and strong in some species. The tarsus is scutel–

    late in front, but covered with one long, undivided sheath behind. The

    wing, which is rather long and pointed in most forms, has 10 primaries,

    of which the outermost is very short. The tail (12 feathers) is variable.

    In some genera it is short (about half as long as the wing) and square or

    slightly furcate; in others it is long and strongly graduated.

            As currently conceived, the family includes the beautiful glossy

    starlings (family Graculidae of some authors), which differ from the “true”

    starlings in that they have rictal bristles, are strictly arboreal, and lay

    spotted (rather than immaculate) eggs. Many “true” starlings are drabby

    by comparison, to be sure, though some of them are handsome, and even the

    common starling, in iridescent adult plumage, might be considered strikingly

    beautiful were it less abundant.

            The starlings now inhabit most of the Old World (including Australia

    and New Zealand). In the New World they have not yet spread into Central

    America, South America, northern Canada, and Alaska. The most widespread

    species of the family, Sturnus vulgaris , is the most northward-ranging as

    well as the most southward-ranging. It breeds regularly northward to

    latitude 71° N. in Norway and has bred at least once in Bear Island.

            See Starling.



    928      |      Vol_IV-0987                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Sturnus

            860. Sturnus . A genus of middle-sized birds known as starlings.

    The bill is straight, flat at the tip, and almost as long as the head.

    The nostrils are protected by a membrane, not by feathers. The wings

    are long and pointed. Of the 10 primaries the outermost is very small,

    pointed, and stiff. The tail is short (about half as long as the wing)

    and slightly furcate. The sexes are alike. The plumage of adult birds

    is very glossy, but that of young birds is dull. Throughout the genus

    the head, neck, and breast feathers of adult birds are long, narrow, and

    pointed.

            Before being introduced into North America, Australia, New Zealand,

    and the western part of Cape Province in South Africa, Sturnus [ ?] inhabited

    the greater part of Eurasia (including the British Isles, the Faeroes, the

    Shetlands, the Outer Hebrides, and the Azores), and northwest Africa. It

    breeds northward to latitude 71° N. in Norway, to 64° in Russia, and to

    somewhat lower latitudes in Siberia (eastward as far as Irkutsk and Lake

    Baikal). In the New world it is extending its range rapidly. It already

    has pushed into Mexico and it has been reported from the west coast of

    Hudson Bay.

            Sturnus is probably monotypic, though the dark form, unicolor, is

    sometimes treated as a separate species. It is resident on the above–

    named North Atlantic islands and in many other parts of tits range. In

    northern Eurasia it is, however, definitely migratory.

            See Starling.



    929      |      Vol_IV-0988                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: New World Warblers

           

    NEW WORLD WARBLERS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family PARULIDAE

            861. Bay-breasted Warbler. Dendroica castanea , a warbler reported once

    from Greenland. Se PARULIDAE.

            862. Black-capped Warbler. A species name hereby suggested for Wilsonia

    pusilla , the well-known eastern race of which is widely known

    as the Wilson’s warbler ( q.v. ).

            863. Black-poll Warbler. See writeup.

            864. Black-throated Green Warbler. Dendroica virens, a warbler reported

    twice from Greenland and once from the Atlantic Ocean off the

    coast of Labrador. See PARULIDAE.

            865. Canada Warbler. Wilsonia canadensis , a warbler reported once from

    Greenland. See PARULIDAE.

            866. Chestnut-sides Warbler. Dendroica pensylvanica , a warbler reported

    once from Greenland. See PARULIDAE.

            867. Dendroica . A large genus of the family Parulidae. Three species

    breed well northward. See Black-poll Warbler, Myrtle Warbler,

    Yellow Warbler, and PARULIDAE.

            868. Macgillivary’s Warbler. Oporornis tolmiei , a warbler reported twice

    from arctic Alaska. See PARULIDAE.

            868.1. Mangolia Warbler. Dendroica magnolia , a warbler recorded once in

    arctic Alaska. See PARULIDAE.

            869. Mourning Warbler. Oporornis philadelphia , a warbler reported once

    from Greenland. See PARULIDAE.

            870. Myrtle Warbler. See writeup.



    930      |      Vol_IV-0989                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: New World Warblers

            871 Nashville Warbler. Vermivora ruficapilla , a warbler reported from

    Greenland. See PARULIDAE.

            872. Northern Water Thrush. See writeup.

            873. Oporornis. A genus of more or less terrestrial warblers. One

    species has been reported from arctic Alaska, another from

    Greenland. See Mourning Warbler, Macgilliv [ ?] ay’s Warbler, and

    PARULIDAE.

            874. Orange-crowned Warbler. See writeup.

            874.1. Ovenbird. Seiurus aurocapillus , a somewhat terrestrial parulid

    warbler reported once from Greenland. See PARULIDAE.

            874.2. Parula. A genus of arboreal warblers. One species has been

    reported from Greenland. See Parula Warbler and PARULIDAE.

            875. PARULIDAE. See writeup.

            876. Pileolated Warbler. A name widely applied to two western races of

    Wilsonia pusilla . The more northward-ranging of these is W .

    pileolata pileolata . See Wilson’s Warbler and PARULIDAE.

            877. Pine Warbler. Dendroica pinus , a warbler reported once from Greenland.

    See PARULIDAE.

            878. Seiurus . A genus of parulid warblers to which the so-called water

    thrushes belong. One species, S. noveboracensis (northern water

    thrush) breeds northward almost to tree limit. Another. S. auro –

    capillus (ovenbird), has been reported once from Greenland. See

    Northern Water Thrush, Ovenbird, and PARULIDAE.

            879. Tennessee Warbler. Vermivora peregrina , a warbler reported once

    from Greenland. See PARULIDAE.



    931      |      Vol_IV-0990                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: New World Warblers

            880. Vermivora . A genus of parulid warblers which ranges northward

    almost to tree limit. The most boreal species is V. celata

    (Orange-crowned warbler). V. ruficapilla ( Nashville warbler )

    has been reported once from Greenland. See Orange-crowned

    Warbler, Nashville Warbler, and PARULIDAE.

            881. Warbler. See writeup No. 804).

            882. Water Thrush. Either of two species of the parulid genus Seiurus,

    both of which wag their tails. See Northern Water Thrush and

    PARULIDAE.

            883. Wilsonia. A genus of parulid warblers which ranges well northward.

    One species, W. pusilla (Wilson’s warbler) breeds northward in

    Alaska almost to the Arctic Sea. Another, W. canadensis (Canada

    warbler), has been reported once from Greenland. See Wilson’s

    Warbler, Canada Warbler, and PARULIDAE.

            884. Wilson’s Warbler. See writeup.

            885. Wood Warbler. A name frequently used for the numerous species of the

    family Parulidae, especially in contradistinction to the so-called

    “Old World Warblers” of the family Sylvidae. See PARULIDAE.

            886. Yellow Warbler. See writeup.

            887. Yellow-rumped Warbler. A name sometimes used for the myrtle warbler

    ( Dendroica coronata ) ( q.v. ).



    932      |      Vol_IV-0991                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Black-poll Warbler

            863. Black-poll Warbler. Dend r oica striata , a strongly migratory

    warbler which breeds in coniferous forests in northern North America (and

    high in the mountains at somewhat lower latitudes) and winters in South

    America. It is about 5 inches long. The male in breeding plumage has a

    black crown (i.e., poll); is streaked with black and gray on the back,

    scapulars, and rump; has two white wing bars; and is white below, streaked

    with black on the sides. The adult male in winter has no noticeable black

    in the plumage and is, generally speaking, olive green above and pale yellow–

    ish olive (slightly streaked with dusky) below. Adult females, both in

    summer and in winter, and young birds in first winter plumage, resemble

    the winter adult male. At all seasons the legs and feet are light yellowish

    brown. The song is simple but penetrating seet , seet , seet , seet .

            The black-poll warbler breeds northward to about the limit of spruces

    in north central Alaska (Kobuk River), northwestern Canada (mouths of the

    Mackenzie and Churchill), northern Quebec (Fort Chimo), and northern

    Labrador (Nain and Port Manvers). The southern limits of its breeding

    range are principally in mountainous areas — Colorado, northern Michigan,

    northeastern New York, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It nests in coniferous

    trees, usually not far above the ground. It winters southward through the

    West Indies (not Mexico or Central America) to Brazil and Chile. It has

    been reported from Greenland, but not from Point Barrow, Alaska.



    933      |      Vol_IV-0992                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Myrtle Warbler and Northern Water Thrush

            870. Myrtle Warbler. Dendroica coronate , a species sometimes known

    as the yellow-rumped warbler. It is about 5 inches long. It is distinguish–

    able in any plumage (except the natal down and much streaked juvenal plumage)

    by the four yellow spots: one on the crown, one on the rump, and one on each

    side of the chest. The male in breeding plumage is a beautiful bird with

    bluish gray and black upper parts, black and white under parts, and the four

    bright yellow spots. Breeding females, young birds, and all winter birds

    are much duller. The song is rather feeble, and does not lend itself to

    being set down in syllables.

            In summer the myrtle warbler is a bird of coniferous woodlands. It

    nests northward to the Kotzebue Sound and Alatna River districts of northern

    Alaska, to the lower Mackenzie, and to the Main district of Labrador. At

    Churchill, Manitoba, it apparently does not breed. It is fairly hardy,

    for it does not migrate very far south. Great numbers of myrtle warblers

    winter in the southern United States and Mexico. The species winters as

    far south as Panama. It has been reported from various localities in far

    northern Alaska, from the Chukotsk Peninsula in Siberia, and from Southampton

    Island. During periods of mild weather it has made it way to Greenland,

    but of course it does not breed there. Salomonsen tells us that it was

    encountered in Greenland in 1841, 1847, 1878, 1880, 1931, and 1937.

            872. Northern Water Thrush. Seiurus noveboracensis , a comparatively

    terrestrial and more or less aquatic member of the warbler family sometimes

    called simply the “water thrush.” The term “northern” has been given it to

    distinguish it from its southern relative, the Louisiana water thrush ( Seiurus

    motacilla) .



    934      |      Vol_IV-0993                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Northern Water Thrush and Orange-crowned Warbler

            The northern water thrush is 5 to 6 inches long. It is brownish

    olive above, white to pale yellow below, with noticeable white to pale

    yellow superciliary line and bold dusky streaking on the throat, breast,

    belly, and sides. It is easily recognizable when alive and in good health

    because it wags its tail in the manner of a wagtail or pipit. Its song

    is a loud, rapid hurry , hurry , hurry , pretty , pretty , pretty ! It nests

    on the ground.

            The species breeds across North America northward to the tree limit.

    It is fairly common in the Kotzebue Sound area of Alaska, on the lower

    Mackenzie, and at Churchill, Manitoba. It has been reported from

    Angutausugevik, Labrador (vicinity of Port Manvers), and probably nests

    there. It winters in central and northern South America and parts of the

    West Indies. It has been reported from Greenland; Point Barrow, Alaska;

    and the Chukotsk Peninsula, northeastern Siberia.

            874. Orange-crowned Warbler. Vermivora celata , a dull-colored warbler,

    olive green above, grayish yellow below, about 5 inches long. Adults have a

    more or less concealed brownish-orange crown patch. The song is an unmusical,

    rapidly delivered series of chirps. The bird inhabits alder and willow

    thickets in the Far North and may wholly escape detection unless looked for.

    It breeds northward to the Kotzebue Sound district of Alaska and probably to

    tree limit across the whole of North America, though actual nesting records

    for the east are few. Singing warblers heard by Townsend and Allen on the

    Labrador, and thought by them to be Tennessee warblers ( Vermivora peregrina ),

    may well have been orange-crowned warblers. V. celata breeds sparingly at

    935      |      Vol_IV-0994                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Orange-crowned Warbler and PARULIDAE

    Churchill, Manitoba, and probably as far north as Fort Chimo in Quebec.

    It winters in the southern United States and Mexico. It has been reported

    casually from Point Barrow, Alaska, and from Greenland.

            875. PARULIDAE. A family of passeriform birds known as warblers —

    or, by way of distinguishing them from the Old World warblers of the family

    Sylviidae — as the New World warblers or wood warblers. They are wholly

    confined to the New World. They are small and many of them are b ir ri ghtly

    colored. Most species are arboreal. They feed almost wholly on insects and

    some of them are very active. They have slender or flat, moderately long,

    bills; fairly long, pointed wings; and fairly long, usually slightly rounded,

    tails. Their feet are strong. The tarsi are rounded in front, sharp behind.

    The wings have 9 primaries, the tail 12 rectrices. The Parulidae resemble

    the Motacillidae )wagtails and pipits) but do not have elongate tertials or

    unusually long hind claw. They resemble the Vireonidae (vireos), but the

    tip of the bill is note hooked or notched. They resemble the Coerebidae

    (honey creepers) but the tongue is not “deeply dleft nor laciniate at the tip”

    (Ridgway).

            Northern Parulidae are all strongly migratory. They cannot exist with–

    out some insect food, and obtaining insects in the northern woods in winter

    would, presumably, require a heavier bill than they possess. A few of them

    bread well northward, however, either to the very limit of the conifers or

    among the stunted deciduous trees and shrubbery beyond. The northernmost

    of the Parulidae are Dendroica striata (black-poll warbler), Vermivora celata

    (orange-crowned warbler), Wilsonia pusilla (Wilson’s or black-capped warbler),

    936      |      Vol_IV-0995                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: PARULIDAE and Wilson’s Warbler

    Dendroica aestiva (yellow warbler), Seiurus noveboracensis (northern

    water thrush), and Dendroica coronata (myrtle warbler). All of these

    breed northward to about tree limit across North America, reaching the

    highest latitudes along the lower Mackenzie and in Alaska.

            A surprisingly large number of species of the Parulidae have been

    reported from Greenland. In addition to the six just mentioned, the

    following have been captured there at least once: Vermivora peregrina

    (Tennessee warbler), Vermivora ruficapilla (Nashville warbler), Parula

    americana (parula warbler), Dendroica virens (Black-throated green warbler),

    Dendroica castanea (bay-breasted warbler), Dendroica pinus (pine warbler),

    Oporornis philadelphia (morning warbler), Seiurus aurocapillus (ovenbird),

    and Wilsonia canadensis (Canada warbler). All six of the northward-breeding

    species mentioned above have been reported from arctic Alaska, plus two

    more: Oporornis tolmiei (Macgillivray’s warbler) and Dendroica magnolia

    (Magnolia warbler).

            884. Wilson’s Warbler. Wilsonia pusilla , a small, active warbler

    named for its discoverer, Alexander Wilson, and distinguished by its glossy

    black cap and bright yellow under parts. The western races, W. pusilla

    pileolata and W. pusilla chryseola , are both known as pileolated warbers.

    Black-capped warbler would be an excellent species name, but this has not

    yet come into common use.

            Adult male Wilsonia pusilla are black-capped both in summer and in

    winter. Some adult females also are more or less black-capped. But young

    birds never have black on there heads. Generally speaking, the bird is bright

    937      |      Vol_IV-0996                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Wilson’s Warbler and Yellow Warbler

    olive green above, yellow below — including the forehead and face.

    It is 4 to 5 inches long and has a custom of flicking its tail as it

    feeds among the leaves. It song is an unmusical series of chips run

    together as a trill.

            The species breeds northward to northern Alaska. Bailey says that

    it inhabits “the willows all along the foothills of the Arctic slope and

    the Endicott Mountains.” Several breeding specimens have been taken 75

    miles south of Wainwright. Presumably it breeds across the whole of North

    America, but records from central northern Canada are few and there may

    be a gap in the range. At Churchill, Manitoba, it has been taken once.

    In Labrador it breeds northward only to Hamilton Inlet. The southern

    limits of its breeding range are much farther south in the west (mountains

    of California and probably of Arizona and New Mexico) than in the east

    (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Maine). It nests on the ground, often

    among moss. It winters southward through the whole of Mexico and Central

    America. It has been taken several times in the vicinity of Point Barrow,

    Alaska.

            886. Yellow Warbler. Dendroica petechia , a well-known and widely

    ranging warbler sometimes called the “summer yellow-bird” It is about

    5 inches long. It is yellowish olive green, bright yellow below, with

    inconspicuous reddish-brown streaks on the chest, sides, and flanks The

    female is duller — in some races much duller. Some females and young

    birds are without any streaking below The song is a cheery, rather

    musical sweet , sweet , sweet , sit-so-sweet . The species nests in willow

    938      |      Vol_IV-0997                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Yellow Warbler

    and alders, rather than conifers, in the Far North. In more temperate

    regions it nests in willow, spiraea, Crataegus , elderberry, lilac, and

    dogwood. Along tropical coasts it nests in Mangrove.

            The species breeds almost throughout continental North America

    except in the Far North. In Alaska it reaches the Arctic Circle in the

    Kotzebue Sound area, it probably breeds along the Alatna River, and it

    has been reported from Wainwright and Icy Cape. In the Hudson Bay region

    it does not nest north of the mouth of the Churchill River. In Labrador

    it has been seen north as far as the Hamilton River, and it probably does

    not nest north of that valley. It winters largely in Central and South

    America



    939      |      Vol_IV-0998                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: New World Orioles, Etc

           

    NEW WORLD ORIOLES, ETC.

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family ICTERIDAE

            888. Euphagus . A genus of New World blackbirds which breeds northward

    to about tree limit See Rusty-Blackbird.

            888.1. ICTERIDAE. See writeup.

            888.2. Rusty Blackbird See writeup



    940      |      Vol_IV-0999                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Icteridae

            888.1. A family composed of numerous middle-sized to large New

    World birds known as orioles, troupials, grackles, blackbirds, cowbirds,

    bobolinks, and meadow larks. Many of them are brightly colored. The

    icterid orioles are not to be confused with the Old World orioles of

    the family Oriolidae; and the New World blackbirds are very different

    from the well-known Old World blackbird ( Turdus merula ), which is a member

    of the thrush family (Turdidae).

            The only species of the family Icteridae which breeds regularly

    northward to the Arctic Circle is the rusty blackbird ( Euphagus carolinensis ).

    But several other species have been reported from far northern localities.

    These are:

            1. Yellow-headed blackbird ( Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus ). Reported

    from Greenland and from Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska.

            2. Red-winged blackbird ( Agelaius phoeniceus ). Reported from Point

    Barrow, Alaska.

            3. Baltimore oriole ( Icterus galbula ). Reported from Greenland.

            4. Common grackle ( Quiscalus quiscula ). Reported from Weinwright,

    Alaska.

            5. Brewer’s blackbird ( Euphagus cyanocephalus ). Reported from Point

    Barrow, Alaska. It is like the rusty blackbird, but never wears a rusty–

    edged plumage. The breeding male is glossy black (with violet, green, and

    blue reflections), and has white eyes. The female is much duller and has

    grayish-brown eyes.



    941      |      Vol_IV-1000                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rusty Blackbird

            888.2. Rusty Blackbird. A middle-sized icterid, Euphagus carolinus ,

    common as a transient in the United States and southern Canada, but

    virtually unknown as a summer bird because it breeds chiefly in the north.

    It is 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 inches long. In breeding plumage the male is plain

    black, slightly glossed with green and blue, and female dark gray. In

    both sexes the eyes are creamy white. In the fall, individuals of all

    ages are decidedly brown in tone because of the rusty feather-edging.

            Flocking rusty blackbirds are rather noisy especially in spring when

    the males, singing their not very musical songs in unison, produce a sound

    not unlike the jangling of sleigh-bells. Transient birds are fond of

    swampy places. Finding much of their food on the ground, they move about

    among the alders wading in water sometimes belly-deep.

            The species nests in small colonies, or in separate pairs, in spruce or

    tamarack swamps usually well awy away from civilization, though Austin

    reports a nest built in a woodpile in a Labrador fishing village. The

    nest is large, deeply cupperd, and made of “twigs and coarse grasses lined

    with finer grasses” (Chapman). It is placed in a tree, on the ground, or

    in shrubbery above water. The eggs (4 to 7) are grayish green thickly

    marked with brown, gray, and purple.

            Euphagus carolinus breeds northward to the Kobuk and Alatna rivers

    in Alaska, the lower Mackenzie, northeastern Manitoba (Churchill), northern

    Quebec, and northern Labrador (Nain; possibly Hopedale). It has been

    observed many times about Point Barrow and Wainwright, Alaska, but does

    not breed there. It has been reported from Greenland.



    942      |      Vol_IV-1001                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Weaverbirds

           

    WEAVERBIRDS

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family PLOCEIDAE

            889. English Sparrow. The house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) ( q.v. ).

            890. House Sparrow. See writeup.

            891. Passer . See writeup.

            892. PLOCEIDAE. See writeup.

            893. Sparrow. See writeup No. 948.

            894. Tree Sparrow. See writeup.



    943      |      Vol_IV-1002                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: House Sparrow

            890. House Sparrow . A hardy and intelligent small bird, Passer

    domesticus , in America usually called the English sparrow. The adult

    male, with his rich reddish-brown upper parts, gray crown, black back–

    streaking, grayish-white cheeks, black throat, grayish-white upper parts,

    and one white wing bar, is quite colorful in breeding plumage, the female

    (grayish brown above, grayish white below, with blackish back-streaking

    and two indistinct wing bars) being very dull by comparison. Young birds

    in juvenal plumage resemble the adult female. The winter plumage of the

    male is similar to that of the breeding season but less bold in pattern.

            The house sparrow is well named. It shows a strong predilection for

    human settlements and in some areas nests only about buildings. It has

    become naturalized in many parts of the world. In Europe it breeds north–

    ward to the Arctic Circle and beyond, notably in Scandinavia. Collett

    recorded it at Hammerfest, Norway, as long ago as 1877, and Ingejborg

    Hoem names the “sparrow” (presumably this species) as one of the three

    passerine birds which regularly spend the winter in that vicinity (see

    Alexander, Ibis , 1939, p. 605). Dementiev tells us that it ranges north–

    ward to latitude 67° 19′ in the valley of the Taz and probably elsewhere

    in western Siberia. Popham encountered it in the Inbatskaya district (64°)

    along the Yenisei, but not farther north along that river. Zitkow and

    Buturlin reported a pair that spent two summers and a winter in Novaya

    Zemlya, but did not breed. The species has been reported from Yokanga, on

    the Murman Coast, and from the Faeroes. It does not inhabit Iceland. It

    has established itself recently at the town of Churchill, in northeastern

    Manitoba. Bailey does not list it from arctic Alaska.

            The species builds a domed-over or oven-shaped nest, lining it warmly

    944      |      Vol_IV-1003                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: House Sparrow and Passer

    with feathers. The nest is often placed in holes or niches about

    buildings, bridges, etc., but sometimes, at considerable distance above

    ground, in trees. The 3 to 7 eggs (grayish white, spotted with darker

    gray) are incubated chiefly by the female but also to some extent by

    the male. The incubation period is 12 to 14 days, but the fledging period

    15 days. In temperate regions two (even three) broods are reared, but in

    the Far North only one probably.

            For differences between the house sparrow and Old World tree sparrow

    ( Passer montanus ) see writeup No. 894.

            891. Passer . A genus of “sparrows” which are actually weaverbirds

    of the family Ploceidae. In Passer the outermos e t primary is said to be

    “a little more developed than in M m ost Fringillidae” ( Handb. Brit. Birds,

    Vol. 1, p. 154), but if this feather is to be seen at all it has to be

    looked for. It is said to be “much larger in the juvenile” than in the

    adult, but in an adult male specimen before me it is 8 mm. long and in

    a juvenal male 10.5 mm. long — a difference of 2.5 mm. The three outer–

    most obvious primaries are of about equal length and longest. The wing

    tip (i.e., the distance between the tips of the secondaries and longest

    primaries in the folded wing) is very short. The bill is heavy and

    finchlike. The nostrils are large, but almost hidden by feathers. The

    tail is square and at least 3/4 as long as the wing.

            The se [ ?] es are alike in color in some forms, very unlike in others.

    Young birds in juvenal plumage resemble the adult female. The nest is

    bulky and domed over, in this respect being different from that of any

    945      |      Vol_IV-1004                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Passer and Ploceidae

    true finch. Passer originally inhabited Europe, Asia, and Africa, but

    it has been introduced into America, Australia, and New Zealand and has

    become thoroughly naturalized in these places. The most northward–

    ranging species are the house sparrow ( P. domesticus ) and tree sparrow

    ( P. mo [ ?] anus ), both of which breed northward to the Arctic Circle and

    slightly beyond in Europe. These two species are comparatively nonmigratory.

            See House Sparrow and Tree Sparrow (894).

            892. Ploceidae . A large family of passerine birds known as weaverbirds.

    They are much like the finches (Fringillidae) but differ in the conformation

    of the horny palate (see Sushkin, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club , 45: 37, and Bull .

    Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist ., 57: 1) and in possession of “an obvious, though

    sometimes minute, first primary, which is usually considered the diagnostic

    feather” ( Hand. Brit. Birds ). This outermost primary, the tenth or first,

    if it is actually a primary at all, is indeed minute. In specially spread

    wings of adult [ ?] and young Passer domesticus before me, it is about as

    long as the outermost of the primary coverts, is very narrow and rather

    stiff, and looks more like a primary covert than a primary. Whether it is

    a primary or not, however, juvenal ploceids do regularly molt all their

    primaries, whereas many juvenal fingillids do not.

            The Ploceidae are an Old World family. They are especially numerous,

    and especially diverse, in Africa, some of the species found there being of

    striking shape and color. The well-known house sparrow or English sparrow

    ( Passer domesticus ) has become naturalized in so many parts of the world

    that the family is, practically speaking, very nearly cosmopolitan. Passer

    946      |      Vol_IV-1005                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Ploceidae and Tree Sparrow

    is the only genus which ranges northward into the Subarctic. It breeds

    northward in Norway at least to latitude 70° N., in Russia to the shores

    of the White Sea, and along the Taz River just to the Arctic Circle. Two

    species of Passer have been introduced into America, P. domesticus and

    P. montanus (tree sparrow). The former has spread widely, though it has

    not yet been reported from arctic Alaska.

            Many weaverbirds are famous for their colonial nesting. The house

    sparrow and tree sparrow, above mentioned, tend to nest in groups and to

    go about in flocks at all seasons. They are especially gregarious in

    roosting. City dwellers are well acquainted with the noise and filth of

    the immense aggregations of sparrows which roost in favored places (vines

    on the sides of buildings, thick trees, etc.) especially in winter.

            See Passer , House Sparrow, and Tree Sparrow.

            894. Tree Sparrow . 1. A small Old World bird, Passer montanus ,

    belonging to the weaverbird family (Ploceides). It is 5 1/2 inches long.

    The sexes are alike. Adults look much like the adult male house or English

    sparrow ( Passer domesticus ), but are smaller and trimmer; the crown color

    is chocolate brown rather than gray; and there is a black patch in the

    middle of the grayish white ear coverts. The young bird is much like the

    adult. The flight note, a “hard teck , teck ,” is distinctive. The other

    call notes and the song are much like those of the house sparrow. The nest,

    which is oven-shaped and made of grasses, lined with feathers, is like that of

    the house sparrows, but smaller. It is placed in holes in buildings or

    crevices in rocks or among thick branches in a hedge or tree. The eggs,

    947      |      Vol_IV-1006                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Tree Sparrow

    which number 4 to 6, are white, thickly spotted with gray. Both sexes

    incubate. The incubation period is 12 to 14 days. The fleding period

    is also 12 to 14 days.

            The species breeds throughout most of continental Eurasia, except

    the extreme north and southeast. Its northern limits are latitude 70°

    N. in Norway, the shores of the White Sea, the northern Urals, about 67°

    on the Yenisei, 63° 20′ in the Yakutsk area, and the valleys of the Amur

    and Ussuri. It has become established in the New World in the vicinity

    of St. Louis, Missouri.

            2. A New World finch, Spizella arborea . See writeup No. 949.1.



    948      |      Vol_IV-1007                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Finches, Etc.

           

    FINCHES, ETC.

           

    Order PASSERIFORMES ; Suborder PASSERES

           

    Family FRINGILLIDAE

            895. Acanthis . See writeup.

            896. American Crossbill. A name sometimes applied to one of the American

    races of the red crossbill ( Loxia curvirostra ) ( q.v. ).

            897. Brambling. See writeup.

            898. Bullfinch. See writeup.

            899. Bunting. See writeup.

            900. Calcarius . See writeup.

            901. Chaffinch. See writeup.

            902. Chloris . See writeup.

            902.1. Common Redpoll. See writeup.

            903. Crossbill. See writeup.

            904. Emberiza . See writeup.

            905. Finch. Any of numerous small passeriform birds belonging principally

    to the family Fringillidae, but also to the family Ploceidae. The

    Ploceidae are usually called the weaverbirds, but they are some–

    time referred to as the weaver finches. See FRINGILLIDAE FRINGILLIDAE .

            906. Fox Sparrow. See writeup.

            907. Fringilla . The genus to which the chaffinch ( F. coelebs ) and brambling

    ( F. montifringilla ) belong.

            908. FRINGILLIDAE. See writeup.

            909. Gambel’s Sparrow. Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys . See White-rcrowned

    Sparrow.



    949      |      Vol_IV-1008                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Finches, Etc.

            910. Golden-crowned Sparrow. See writeup.

            911. Greater Redpoll. Acanthis flammea rostrata , a large redpoll which

    breeds in Greenland and possibly elsewhere in the eastern North

    American Arctic. In England it is known as the Greenland red–

    poll. It is not to be confused with Acanthis hornemanni hornemanni ,

    another large redpoll which inhabits Greenland. See Common Redpoll

    and Redpoll.

            912. Greenfinch. See writeup.

            913. Greenland Redpoll. A name used in England for Acanthis flammea rostrata ,

    a large redpoll known in America as the greater redpoll. See

    Common Redpoll.

            914. Hoary Redpoll. Acanthis hornemanni exilipes , a small race of Hornemann’s

    redpoll ( q.v. ).

            915. Holboell’s Redpoll. Acanthis flammea holböllii , a long-billed race of

    the common redpoll ( Acanthis flammea ) ( q.v. ).

            916. Hornemann’s Redpoll. See writeup.

            917. Junco. See writeup.

            918. Lapland Longspur or Lapland Bunting. See writeup.

            919. Lesser Redpoll. Acanthis flammea cabaret , a small European redpoll.

    See Common Redpoll.

            920. Linnet. See writeup.

            921. Little Bunting. See writeup.

            922. Longspur. See writeup.

            923. Loxia . See writeup.

            924. McKay’s Snow Bunting. Plectrophenas nivalis hyperboreus , a race of

    of the snow bunting known to breed on Hall and St. Matthew islands

    in the Bering Sea. By some ornithologists it is regarded as a

    full species. See Snow Bunting.



    950      |      Vol_IV-1009                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Finches, Etc.

            925. Mealy Redpoll. A name used in England for the nominate race of the

    common redpoll ( q.v. ).

            926. Ortolan Bunting. See writeup.

            927. Painted Longspur. A name for the Smith’s longspur ( Calcarius pictus )

    ( q.v. ).

            928. Pallas’s Bunting. See writeup.

            929. Parrot Crossbill. See writeup.

            930. Passerculus . A genus of New World finches to which the Savannah

    sparrow ( P. sandwichensis ) belongs. By some authors Passerculus

    is thought to be monotypic, but the Ipswich sparrow ( P. princeps ),

    which breeds only on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia,

    is probably a distinct species. See Savannah Sparrow.

            931. Passerella . The monotypic genus to which the so-called fox sparrows

    ( P. iliaca ) of North America belong. See Fox Sparrow.

            932. Pine Grosbeak. See writeup.

            933. Pine Siskin. See writeup.

            934. Pinicola . See writeup.

            935. Plectrophenax . See writeup.

            936. Pyrrhula . See writeup.

            937. Red Crossbill. See writeup.

            938. Redpoll. See writeup.

            939. Reed Bunting. See writeup.

            940. Rustic Bunting. See writeup.

            941. Savannah Sparrow. See writeup.

            942. Siskin. See writeup.

            943. Slate-colored Junco See Junco.



    951      |      Vol_IV-1010                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Finches, Etc.

            944. Smith’s Longspur. See writeup.

            945. Snowbird. A name applied in America to the snow bunting ( Plectrophenax

    nivalis ) and also to the slate-colored junco ( Junco h. hyemalis ).

    Not to be confused with the snow finch ( Montifringilla nivalis )

    of the Old World, a bird now believed to belong to the weaverbird

    family (Ploceidae).

            946. Snowflake. A name sometimes used in America for the snow bunting

    ( Plectrophenax nivalis ) ( q.v. ).

            947. Snow Bunting. See writeup.

            948. Sparrow. See writeup.

            949. Spinus . See writeup.

            949.1. Spizella . A genus of North American finches to which the so-called

    tree sparrow ( S. arborea ) belongs. The Old World tree sparrows

    ( Passer montanus ) is not a true finch. See writeup No. 949.2.

            949.2. Tree Sparrow. See writeup.

            950. Twite. See writeup.

            951. Two-barred Crossbill. A name used in England for Loxia leucoptera ,

    a finch known in America as the white-winged crossbill (q.v.).

            952. White-crowned Sparrow. See writeup.

            953. White-winged Crossbill. See writeup.

            954. Yellow-breasted Bunting. See writeup.

            955. Yellow Bunting. See writeup.

            956. Zonotrichia . a A wide-ranging New World fringillid genus, two species

    to which range northward to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond.

    See White-crowned Sparrow ( Z. leucophrys ) and Golden-crowned

    Sparrow ( Z. coronata ).



    952      |      Vol_IV-1011                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Acanthis

            895. Acanthis . A genus composed of [ ?] various redpolls, the linnet,

    and the twite, all of which are small, boreal fringillids. The bill is

    small, conical, sharply pointed, and covered basally with nasal and rictal

    plumage. The culmen and cutting edge from the angle forward are nearly

    straight. The culmen is always shorter than the tarsus. The wing is

    rather long, the 3 outermost readily visible primaries being of about

    equal length. The tail is about 3/4 as long as the wing and noticeably

    forked. The tarsus is about as long as the middle or hind toe with its

    claw. The outer front toes are distinctly shorter than the middle toe.

    All the claws are strongly curved. The eyes are strikingly small in

    proportion to head- and body size.

            Throughout the genus the adult male always has some red or pink in

    the plumage. In both sexes the juvenal plumage is heavily streaked and

    wholly without red. Adult birds have one complete molt annually, the

    postnuptial. At the end of this molt the birds are covered with thick,

    long, winter plumage. The tips of the winter body feathers are gray or

    brown, obscuring the dark streaking of the upper parts and sides, and the

    pink of the under parts. With the passing of winter and the advance of

    spring, this tipping gradually wears off, thus bringing about the compara–

    tively bright colors of the breeding plumage. There is a seasonal change

    in bill color, too. In winter the bill is more or less yellow or yellowish

    brown, but as the breeding season approaches the yellow fades to gray in

    the twite ( A. flavirostris ) and linnet ( A. cannabina ) and to black in the

    redpolls.

            Acanthis inhabits both the Old World and the New. A. flavirostris

    and A. cannabina are confined to the Old World, but the redpolls, as a group,

    953      |      Vol_IV-1012                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Acanthis and Brambling

    are holarctic. Several species of redpolls have been described, but

    most ornithologists currently recognize two — A. flammea (common or

    mealy redpoll) and A. hornemanni (Hornemann’s redpoll). Salomonsen

    has presented thought-provoking arguments for regarding all of them as

    races of one species (1928. Vidensk. Med. Naturhist. Foren ., 86: 123-202).

    The map illustrating this paper indicates that no two forms breed in the

    same area, but the common redpoll ( A. flammea flammea ) and hoary redpoll

    ( A. hornemanni exilipes ) certainly bred side by side at Churchill, Manitoba,

    in the summers of 1930 and 1931 (see Taverner and Sutton, 1934. Ann .

    Carnegie Museum , 23: 73-75), and if two related forms actually demonstrates

    their ability to “breed true” in this manner, they are probably full species

    rather than subspecies.

            Acanthis is very close to Spinus , a genus composed of siskins and New

    World goldfinches, and to Carduelis , the monotypic genus to which the

    European goldfinch ( C. carduelis ) belongs. Some taxonomists place all

    redpolls, siskins, and goldfinches of both the Old and New Worlds in one genus.

    Maintaining Acanthis as a separate unit is, however, extremely useful in

    studying arctic bird life, since Acanthis is more extensively and exclusively

    boreal than either Spinus or Carduelis .

            897. Brambling . A well-known finch, Fringilla montifringilla , which

    breeds across northern Eurasia from Scandinavia to Kamchatka. The southern

    limits of its habitat in summer are the Baltic Sea, the Novgorod and UFA

    Governments of Russia, the Altai and Sayan Mountains, Transbaikalia, and

    the valley of the Amur. It breeds northward to tree limit. It is fairly

    954      |      Vol_IV-1013                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Brambling

    common in Norway as far north as latitude 70° N. Popham found it common

    along the Yenisei as far north as 68°. It winters in southern Europe

    (including the British Isles), northern Africa, and southern Asia (south

    to Asia Minor, Syria, Iran, Beluchistan, Tibet, China, and Japan.

            The blrambling is 5 3/4 inches long. In the breeding season the male

    is glossy black on the back and upper part of the head and neck; orange–

    buff on the scapulars, lesser wing coverts, and whole throat and breast;

    and white on the rump. The wings and tail are black, the former with two

    white bars, the latter with white markings on the outer feathers. The

    winter plumage is similar, but the feathers of the head and back, and the

    greater wing coverts are tipped with brown. Females and young birds are

    similar to the adult male but the head and back are dull brown; the orange–

    buff of the scapulars and wing coverts is much less bright; and the wing bars

    are less distinct. In all bramblings the white rump patch is conspicuous

    in flight.

            The species is gregarious except in the breeding season. Its call notes

    are a several-times-repeated chuck (given in flight); skik , skik; tsweek or

    scape ; and dwee . The true song, given at the beginning of the nesting

    season, is “sweet and melodious, consisting of several flutelike notes”;

    but the “song” of the p l atter part of the season is the dwee note, above

    referred to, followed by a harsh rattle (Ticehurst).

            The nest, which is usually only 12 to 15 feet above ground in shrubbery

    or a tree, is sometimes considerably higher. It is larger and less compact

    than that of the chaffinch ( Fringilla coelebs ). The eggs (usually 6 to 7)

    are blue to brownish olive, spotted with dark brown. The female does the

    955      |      Vol_IV-1014                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Brambling and Bullfinch

    Incubating. Since the species is exclusively northern it probably brings

    out only one brood. More information is needed as to the nidification.

            Fringilla montifringilla has been reported once from the New World

    (St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs).

            898. Bullfinch . A beautiful Old World fringillid, Pyrrhula pyrrhula ,

    about 6 1/2 inches long. the adult male is glossy blue-black on the crown

    and face (including the chin); rich rose pink over the rest of the head and

    the whole breast and upper belly; gray on the mantle and lesser wing coverts;

    and white on the rump and lower belly. The wings, tail, and upper tail

    coverts are glossy blue-black. There is a broad grayish-white wing bar.

    The bill is black, the feet brown. The female is similar in pattern but

    the black of the head is duller and the rose pink is replaced by pinkish

    or buffy brown. Young b ri ir ds are like the adult female except that the head

    is brown all over, without any black.

            The bullfinch is a rather secretive bird given to perching in the midst

    of thick shrubbery not far m from the ground. It usually goes about in pairs

    rather than in flocks, even in winters. Its call note is a low deu or deu , deu .

    The song is indefinite — a “low, broken piping warble of poor and creaking

    quality, interspersed with rather louder notes” (Nicholson, in Handbook of

    British Birds ). The nest is not far above ground in a thick bush or clump

    of conifers. It is made of fine twigs and moss, lined with a thick layer of

    black roots. The eggs, which number 4 or 5, are greenish blue with a zone

    of dark spotting about the larger end. The female does most of the incubating,

    but the male feeds her t hroughout the 12 to 14 day incubation period, and

    956      |      Vol_IV-1015                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bullfinch and Bunting

    occasionally takes a short turn on the nest. The fledging period is 12 to

    16 days.

            The bullfinch breeds in Europe and Asia. The race inhabiting northern

    Europe is pyrrhula ; that of the British Isles is nesa ; that of southern

    Europe is coccinea ; that of Caucasus is rossikowi ; and that of Kamchatka,

    the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Kurils is cassini . The species

    attains its highest latitudes in Europe, breeding to latitude 70° N. in

    Norway, 67° in Sweden, 65° 30′ in Russia, and 64° 30′ in the Ural Mountains.

    In Asia it is less northward ranging. It has been reported from Iceland;

    from Nunivak Island and Nulato, Alaska; and from Baffin Island (one sight

    record).

            899. Bunting . A name applied to numerous small birds of the finch

    family (Fringillidae), especially of the Old World genus Emberiza (little

    bunting, yellow bunting, reed bunting, etc.); of the New World genus

    Passerina (indigo bunting, painted bunting, etc.); of the holarctic mono–

    typic genus Plectrophenax (snow bunting); and of the holarctic polytypic

    genus Calcarius . The three species of Calcarius are known in America as

    longspurs, but Calcarius lapponicus , the only member of the genus found in

    both the Old World and the New, is called the Lapland bunting in England.

    The snow bunting and Lapland bunting (Lapland longspur) are fully discussed

    elsewhere.

            The bunting of the genus Emberisa are all rather long-tailed, more

    or less terrestrial, and, in winter, highly gregarious. As a group they

    are extremely varied in color pattern. In some comparatively dull-colored

    957      |      Vol_IV-1016                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Bunting

    species [ ?] males and females resemble each other closely; in other species

    the male is much more brightly colored than the female, and high-plumaged

    males of these species are beautiful indeed the diagnostic characters

    of Emberiza are difficult to define precisely, yet the group is so homo–

    geneous in proportions and behavior that some authors (e.g., Dementiev)

    have actually placed them in a family by themselves — the Emberizidae.

            Whether they be considered a genus, a subfamily, or a family, these

    Old World buntings inhabit forest edges, open woodlands, fields and marshes

    rather than heavily forested country. The males put much energy into their

    singing, though the songs of most species are not notable for their musical

    quality. The nest is usually in a bush or shrubbery, not far from the ground.

    Often it is on the ground in grass at the base of a bush. Sometimes it is in

    a marshy place. In some species it is occasionally 12 to 15 feet above ground

    in a pine. The female builds the nest by herself. The eggs number 4 or 5

    as a rule, though sets of 6 or more have been reported for several species.

    The eggs are white, light gray, pale blue, or pale brown, more or less

    thickly spotted with grays and browns. The female does all (or nearly all)

    of the incubating. The incubation period is 11 to 14 days. Both the male

    and female feed the young during the fledging period. The young remain in

    the nest about 11 to 13 days. From this terse summary one might suppose that

    the incubation and fleding periods of all species of Emberiza have been care–

    fully ascertained. Such is not the case. Some of the more boreal species are

    especially in need of further study. The most northward-ranging species of the

    genus Emberiza are the Pallas’s bunting ( E. pallasii ), the little bunting

    E. pusilla ), the reed bunting ( E. schoeniclus ), the rustic bunting ( E. rustica ),

    the yellow bunting ( E. citrinella ), the yellow-breasted bunting ( E. aureola ),

    and the ortolan bunting ( E. hortulanus ).



    958      |      Vol_IV-1017                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Calcarius and Chaffinch

            900. Calcarius . A genus of grassland- or tundra-inhabiting emberizine

    finches widely known as longspurs. Of the three species, one — C. ornatus

    (chestnut-collared longspurs) — breeds in the grasslands of south central

    Canada and the north central United States. Another — C. pictus (Smith’s

    or painted longspur) — breeds just north of tree limit from Fort Yukon,

    Alaska, eastward to the Anderson River and northeastern Manitoba (Churchill).

    Although this species nowhere ranges far to the north of the Arctic Circle,

    it is truly arctic insofar as its preference for the tundra as a nesting

    ground is concerned. The third — C. lapponicus (Lapland longspur or

    Lapland bunting) — is holarctic in distribution. Its breeding range over–

    laps that of C. pictus in northwestern North America to some extent.

            Calcarius resembles Emberiza , but the tail is proportionately shorter,

    the wings proportionately longer and more pointed, and the bill proportion–

    ately heavier. The claws are nearly straight, in this respect resembling

    somewhat those of the thre larks (family Alaudidae). The claw of the hind

    toe is very long — almost as long as the digit itself. In all three species

    the breeding plumage is much brighter than the winter plumage. Breading

    males are much more handsomely colored than breeding females. Young birds

    resemble adult females.

            See Lapland Longspur and Smith’s Longspur.

            901. Chaffinch . A well-known finch, Fringilla coelebs , of Europe,

    western Asia, and northern Africa. It is about 6 inches long. the male

    in breeding [ ?] season is dark blue-gray on the crown and nape, dark reddish

    brown on the back and scapulars, yellowish green on the rump, and rich pinkish

    959      |      Vol_IV-1018                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Chaffinch

    brown on the face and under parts. The wing has two noticeable white

    marks — a large squarish patch composed of lesser and middle coverts,

    and a bar formed by the tips of the greater coverts. The outer tail

    feathers are white. The female is dull yellowish brown with two wing

    bars (the anterior one white, the posterior one yellowish-buff), yellowish–

    green rump, and white outer tail feathers. In both sexes the white wing–

    and tail-markings show plaining in flight. The species is strongly grega–

    rious except during the breeding season. In winter it goes about in flocks,

    the males and females sometimes separately, often with other fringillids

    such as greenfinches ( Chloris chloris ), yellow buntings ( Emberiza citrinella ),

    or bramblings ( Fringilla montifringilla ). It has many call notes, the best

    known of which are: chwink; tsip - tsip (given in flight); wheet ; and tswee-e-e .

    The song is loud and rattling, but not unmusical, and last 2 or 3 seconds

    (Ticehurst).

            The chaffinch nests in shrubbery and small trees, usually not very far

    above ground. The nest is compactly built, made of grass, moss, roots, and

    bark strips, neatly lined with soft materials. The eggs (usually 4 or 5) are

    greenish blue to brownish gray, spotted with dark brown. The female usually

    does most of the incubating, but during the 11 to 13-day incubation period

    she is regularly fed by the male. The fledging period is 13 to 14 days

    ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            The northern limits of the chaffinch’s range are latitude 70° N. in

    Norway, northern Finland, and northern Russia. In Siberia it ranges as far

    east as Omsk and Tomsk, but neither Seebohm nor Popham encountered it along

    the Yenisei. It winters in Palestine, P Iraq, and northern Africa. It

    visits the Faeroes regularly in migration and has been reported many times

    from Iceland.



    960      |      Vol_IV-1019                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Chloris and Common Redpoll

            902. Chloris . A genus of small, stocky, fringilline birds known

    as greenfinches. The bill is short, stout, and pointed. Its length,

    measured along the culmen, is only a little greater than its height,

    and its breadth at the base is about this same distance. The culmen

    and cutting edges (from the angle forward) are nearly straight. The

    rectal bristles, which form a sort of brush or fringe, partly conceal

    the angle. The wings are long, the outer three primaries (not including

    the outermost, which is spurious) being about equal in length. The tail

    is rather short, and distinctly, though not deeply, forked.

            Chloris ranges through Europe (including the British Isles and

    certain Mediterranean islands), northwest Africa, northern Asia (south–

    ward into China), Japan, the Komandorskis, the Kurils, Sakh l a lin, and the

    Bonins. It breeds northward to about tree limit in Scandinavia and to

    somewhat lower latitudes in more eastern parts of Eurasia. It is only

    irregularly migratory.

            See Greenfinch.

            902.1. Common Redpoll . A small boreal finch, Acanthis flammea ,

    so called because of its red crown patch. Three or four races are currently

    recognized, the smaller of which are a little less than 5 inches long, the

    larger up to 5 1/2 inches long. All these races have streaked rump plumage .

    The closely related species, Acanthis hornemanni , has white (virtually

    unstreaked) rump plumage. The races of flammea are:

            1. Acanthis flammea flammea . In America this bird is called the redpoll

    or common redpoll, in England the mealy redpoll. It is about 5 inches long,

    961      |      Vol_IV-1020                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Redpoll

    hence is intermediate in size between the lesser redpoll ( A. flammea cabaret )

    of Europe, and the greater or Greenland redpoll (A. flammea rostrata), which

    attains a length of 5 1/2 inches. According to careful measurements and

    comparisons of specimens, A. flammea flammea has a circumboreal breeding

    distribution. It is definitely known to breed northward to northern Norway

    (lat. 71° N.), the Murman Coast, Kulguev Island, the lower Pechora, 71° 30′

    on the Yenisei (Golchikha), northern Alaska, northeastern Manitoba (Churchill),

    northern Quebec, and northern Labrador. It has been reported as breeding on

    Wrangel Island (Portenko), but specimens apparently were not collected there.

    It [ ?] undoubtedly breeds across the whole of northern Siberia, but the

    records for it and A. hornemanni from that region are somewhat confused. As

    suggested by Pleske, it probably does not breed regularly on the tundra proper,

    but rather just south of the tundra, among the willows and other shrubbery at

    tree limit.

            2. Acanthis flammea cabaret . Lesser redpoll. Length 4 3/4 inches.

    This bird breeds in the mountains of central Europe. It may wander northward

    into the Subarctic irregularly in fall and winter.

            3. Acanthis flammea rostrata . Greater or Greenland redpoll. Length

    5 1/4 to 5 1/2 inches. Darker than A. flammea flammea throughout, especially

    on the sides and flanks, where the streaking is very heavy. It breeds in

    Greenland, north to latitude 70° N. on the west coast and to 66° on the east;

    in southern Baffin Island; and in Iceland. It moves southward in winter to

    Quebec and Labrador and (irregularly) into southern Canada, the northern

    United States, and the British Isles.

            4. Acanthis flammea holböllii . Holboell’s redpoll. Length about

    5 inches. Very much like the common or mealy redpoll, but has a longer

    962      |      Vol_IV-1021                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Common Redpoll and Crossbill

    (and more sharply pointed) bill. The culmen measures 10.5 to 12 mm.

    This form is believed to breed in northern Eurasia, at slightly higher

    latitudes than A. flammea flammea , “but breeding range affected by weather

    conditions and variable” ( Handbook of British Birds ). Reported as breeding

    on Herschel Island, off the coast of northern Yukon. The breeding range

    remains to be worked out. The problem is not an easy one, for there is a

    difference of opinion as to just how long-billed holböllii is, and the

    possibility that a redpoll might become slightly longer-billed as it grows

    older, or be longer-billed at certain seasons that at others, seems not to

    have been given very serious consideration by taxonomists. Bailey ( Birds of

    Arctic Alaska , 1948, p. 293) has called attention to the fact that the common

    redpolls of northern Alaska are long-billed. He believes it “probable that

    they represent an undescribed subspecies.” I venture to suggest that they

    may be holböllii.

            For information concerning nesting, molts, and migrations of Acanthis

    flammea , see Redpoll and Acanthis .

            90 2 3 . Crossbill. Any of several boreal finches of the genus Loxia,

    all of which have laterally compressed bills and sharply pointed, crossed

    mandibles. There are three species, the common or red ( L. curvirostra ),

    the white-winged or two-barred ( L. leucoptera ), and the parrot ( L. pytyopsittacus ).

    The last-named of these is confined to Europe, and may well be a race of

    curvirostra . In any event, curvirostra and leucoptera , as currently con–

    ceived, range widely through the Northern Hemisphere, being found in both

    the Old World and the New.



    963      |      Vol_IV-1022                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crossbill

            The habits of the three species are much the same, so one general

    discussion will serve for all. Crossbills are gregarious, largely arboreal

    birds which feed on seeds of various coniferous trees, but also on berries,

    the seeds of apples, grasses, thistles, and certain Compositae, and (in

    d s ummer) insects. They have a great liking for salt, and have been reported

    as gathering in great numbers on salty ground. While feeding in trees they

    climb about the branches in the manner of little parrots. Their flight is

    strongly undulatory. In flight they give a double call note — a sharp

    tick - tick ( curvirostra ), chif - chif - ( leucoptera ) or kop - kop ( pytyopsittacus ).

    The song is bright, varies, and sometimes quite long (5 to 7 seconds). The

    whistled notes and trills are interspersed with rough churrs and squeals.

            The nest is a compact structure with strong foundation of twigs, thickly

    lined with soft dry grass, hair, and feathers. The feathers sometimes

    curl upward and inward, hiding the cup. In curvirostra (and probably in the

    other species), the nest is built solely by the female. In curvirostra and py –

    tyopsittacus (and probably in leucoptera ) the female does all the incubating.

    The eggs, which number 3 or 4 (rarely more), are very pale green or greenish

    blue, marked with a few bold spots of reddish or blackish brown. The eggs

    of leucoptera are not very well known. Specimens ascribed to that spec ei ie s

    have exhibited remarkable variation. The incubation period for curvirostra

    is 12 to 13 days. According to the Handbook of British Birds , the fledging

    period in that species is very long: young birds 24 days old still were

    unable to fly.

            See Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, and Parrot Crossbill.



    964      |      Vol_IV-1023                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Emberiza

            904. Emberize . A genus of small and middle-sized Old World finches

    (family Fringillidae) known as buntings. They are the principal genus of

    the subfamily Emberizinae. There are numerous species, several of which

    breed well northward. The North American genus Calamospiza (lark bunting)

    is also currently believed to belong to the subfamily Emberizinae, but it

    does not attain even the fringes of the Subarctic. The New World buntings

    of the genus Passerina (indigo bunting and allies) belong to the subfamily

    Richmondeninae, and are tropical in their affinities.

            Emberiza has a short, conical beak, the cutting edges of which are

    strongly angled. In most forms the upper and lower contours of the bill

    are straight, but the corn bunting ( E. calandra ) and certain races of the

    reed bunting ( E. schoeniclus ) have curved beaks. In the roof of the mouth

    of E. calendra there is a pronounced hump. This hump is present in several

    species of the genus, but absent in others, so it can hardly be considered

    a generic character. The nostrils are more or less covered with short,

    antrorse feathers. The tarsi are fairly long and the toes are well developed,

    for all species are more or less terrestrial. The claw of the hind toe

    is well developed, but never longer than the digit itself. The wings are

    well developed, for most species fly a good deal and many are strongly

    migratory. The tail is rather long, and slightly forked.

            Size range within the genus is not great, but the color pattern is

    exceedingly variable. In some species adult males resemble adult females

    closely, in others they do not. Young birds in juvenal plumage tend to be

    much streaked, especially below.

            Emberiza ranges into the Subarctic both in Europe and Asia, and in

    the Taimyr Peninsula it may be arctic. Pleske, in his Birds of the Eurasian

    965      |      Vol_IV-1024                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Emberiza and Fox Sparrow

    Tundra does not list any species of the genus, though he mentions the

    capture of a June male specimen of Cynchramus schoeniclus polaris [= Emberiza

    pallasii Polaris ] along the east coast of the Taimyr Peninsula. His

    decision that this bird was “evidently an accidental visitor” may have been

    erroneous. Dementiev, in his System Avium Rossicarum , names the Taimyr

    Peninsula as a definite part of the breeding range of this form. Whether

    or not Pallas’s bunting is an inhabitant of the tundra in the sense that

    the Lapland longspur ( Calcarius lapponicus ) is, it [ ?] certainly is decidedly

    boreal. So, also, is the little bunting ( E. pusilla ), a species which nests

    either on the tundra proper or in tongues of shrubbery protruding into the

    tundra.

            The yellow bunting ( E. citrinella ), yellow-breasted bunting ( E. aureola ),

    and read bunting ( E. schoeniclus ) all regularly range northward to the Arctic

    Circle and somewhat beyond in Eurasia. The ortolan bunting ( E. hortulanus )

    ranges northward to the Circle and beyond in Europe, but not, apparently in

    Asia. The rustic bunting ( E. rustica ) ranges northward into the fringes

    of the Subarctic in northern Russia and along the Lena, but it is rare or

    irregular in northern Scandinavia and in eastern Siberia. Several other

    species of Emberiza are more or less boreal but they do not attain quite

    the high latitudes attained by the above-discussed forms.

            See Bunting.

            906. Fox Sparrow. Passerella iliaca , a large (6 3/4 to 7 1/2

    inches long), rather chunky sparrow which is brown above and white below,

    with black spotting and streaking on the chest and sides. The name applies

    966      |      Vol_IV-1025                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fox Sparrow and Fringillidae

    chiefly to the well-known nominate race which is rich foxy brown above,

    especially on the rump and tail. This race is often called the eastern

    fox sparrow, but actually it breeds across the whole of northern North

    America, northward almost to tree limit. It is common in the Kotzebue

    Sound region of Alaska and has been encountered frequently enough at Carbon

    Creek (75 miles inland from Wainwright) and along the Meade River near

    Point Barrow to suggest that it probably breeds there. It ranges almost

    to the Arctic Sea along the Mackenzie; is common at Churchill, Manitoba;

    and breeds well northward in Quebec and Labrador. It has been reported

    several times from Greenland. It winters in the southeastern United States.

            Several exclusively western races of passerella iliaca breed in Alaska

    and Canada south of the range of P. iliaca iliaca . These are all much less

    foxy in color. The more boreal of them are the more strongly migratory and

    some of them are very nearly sedentary.

            908. Fringillidae . A large family of passeriform birds sometimes

    referred to as the finch family. Many birds which are actually called finches

    belong to the family, among them the hawfinches, bullfinches, chaffinches,

    greenfinches, goldfinches, purple finches, and house finches. Many birds

    known as sparrows are fringillids too, but the well-known house sparrow

    ( Passer domesticus ) and tree sparrow ( Passer montanus ) of the Old World

    are actually weaverbirds of the family Ploceidae. The buntings are fringillids,

    but most buntings of the Old World belong to the genus Emberiza , while the

    New World buntings of the genera Passerina , Cyanocompsa , and Calamospiza are

    very different birds. The beautiful arctic finch, Plectrophenax nivalis , is

    967      |      Vol_IV-1026                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Crossbill

    known as the snow bunting both in America and England; but Calcarius

    lapponicus, another tundra-inhabiting species, is called the Lapland

    bunting in England and the Lapland longspur in America. Among other northern

    fringillids are such well-known forms as the redpolls, siskins, linnets,

    crossbills, pine grosbeaks, and bramblings.

            All of these birds have short, stout, conical, seed-cracking bills,

    the cutting edges of which are strongly angled is most forms, smooth (unangled)

    in a few. The culmen is usually somewhat decurved rather than straight. In

    the crossbills ( Loxia ) the mandibles are strikingly crossed at the tips. The

    nostrils are imperforate, nearly always closer to the culmen than to the

    cutting edge, and sometimes concealed by frontal feathers. The wing has

    9 obvious primaries, the 10th (outermost) being very small and concealed.

    The tail (12 feathers) is usually of moderate length, and is graduated,

    rounded, square, or slightly furcated. The feet are strong. The tarsus

    is scutellate in front, but covered with a long, undivided rather sharply

    ridges sheath behind. Male birds are usually more brightly colored than

    females, and young birds resemble the adult female. In most adult fringillids

    there is one complete molt annually, the postnuptial, but many species have

    a more or less extensive prenuptial molt in spring. In some species, notably

    the above-mentioned snow bunting, the breeding plumage, which is quite

    different from the winter plumage in appearance, results not from feather

    replacement but from the wearing off the edges of the winter feathers.

            Most fringillids are arboreal, but they often feed on the ground and

    many forms are almost wholly terrestrial. Most species are gregarious in

    winter and some are semicolonial in their nesting. Though hardy, most of

    them are migratory. The family is almost cosmopolitan, but it does not

    968      |      Vol_IV-1027                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Fringillidae and Goden-crowned Sparrow

    inhabit New Zealand, Australia, or the numerous islands of that part of

    the world. It is especially well represented in the Northern Hemisphere.

    Of the numerous genera, several are more or less confined to boreal or

    mountainous regions, and most of these are common to the New World and

    the Old. Plectrophenax (snow buntings), Calcarius (longspurs), Acanthis

    (re d polls and allies), Pinicola (pine grossbeaks), and Loxia (crossbills)

    are in this category.

            910. Golden-crowned Sparrow. Zonotrichia coronate , a large species

    (6 to 7 inches long) with light yellow spot in the crown when adult. The

    sexes are alike. The adult looks much like a white-crowned sparrow

    ( Zonotrichia leucophyrs ) but there is no white whatever on the head.

    Immatu er re golden-crowned sparrow (in the first winter plumage) are very much

    like young white-crowned sparrows, in that in both the middle of the crown

    is buffy bordered at either side by dark brown; but in the young white-crown

    there is a distinct buffy superciliary line which the young golden-crown

    lacks.

            Zonotrichia coronata is exclusively western. It breeds from central

    British Columbia northward to the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska. Along

    the Kobuk River, at the north edge of its range, it is not common. It

    has been taken once at Point Barrow, Alaska.



    969      |      Vol_IV-1028                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Greenfinch

            912. Greenfinch . A small, stocky Old World fringillid, Chloris chloris ,

    so-called because of its olive-green color. It is a little less than 6 inches

    long. Its bill is stout and its tail short and distinctly forked. Four yellow

    patches (one on the primaries of each wing and one at each side of the base

    of the tail) are conspicuous, especially in flight. The rump is yellow-green,

    of a shade much brighter than that of the back. The female is duller than

    the male, and her upper parts are faintly streaked. Young birds are browner

    than adults (with brown, rather than yellow-green rump), but the wings and

    tail have the same yellow markings.

            The greenfinch is gregarious at all seasons. Often it flocks with the

    house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) and yellow bunting ( Emberiza citrinella ).

    Its call notes include a twittered chi - chi - chi - chit (often given in flight),

    a chew or tseu , and a long-drawn-out tsweee (Ticehurst). It nests in bushes

    and low evergreens as a rule, but sometimes in large trees. The nest, which

    is built by the female, is of twigs, other dry plants stems and moss, and is

    lined with feathers, hair, and similarly soft materials. The eggs, which

    usually number 4 to 6, are grayish white or very pale blue, lightly spotted

    with brown and gray. The female does all the incubating, and is fed by the

    male throughout the 13 to 14-day incubation period. The fledging period is

    about 2 weeks. Throughout southern Europe two broods are reared regularly,

    but in the north probably only one is reared. In England breeding begins in

    late April and continues until late September.

            The greenfinch breeds across the whole of Eurasia, from the British

    Isles and Scandinavia eastward to Kamchatka, the Komandorskis, the Kurils,

    Sakhalin, Japan and the Bonins. It ranges northward to latitude 70° N. in

    Norway (breeding at least to 65°), to 64 1/2° in Sweden and Finland, and to

    970      |      Vol_IV-1029                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Greenfinch and Hornemann’s Redpoll

    somewhat lower latitudes across Asia. The southern limits of its breeding

    range are southern Europe, the islands of the Mediterranean, northwest

    Africa, the Caucasus, Turkestan, northern Persia, China, and Japan. It

    is sedentary for the most part, but someties (probably when there is a food

    shortage) it moves southward in winter. Whether the greenfinches of Europe

    and North Africa belong to the same species as those of Asia is a question.

    Many ornithologists believe that those of Asia belong to a distinct species,

    Chloris sinica .

            See Chloris .

            916. Hornemann’s Redpoll. Acanthis hornemanni , a redpoll with white,

    unstreaked rump plumage. A. hornemanni exilipes , the smaller and better

    known of the two currently recognized races, is called the hoary redpoll

    in America and the Coues’s redpoll in England. The nominate race, which

    is the larger, has been called the Greenland redpoll by certain authors,

    but the “Greenland redpoll” of the Handbook of British Birds is Acanthis

    flammea rostrata . The races of hornemanni currently recognized are:

            1. Acanthis hornemanni hornemanni . Hornemana’s redpoll. Length

    about 5 1/2 inches. This beautiful, large, pale redpoll is believed to

    breed only in northern Greenland “probably north of Lat. 70°” (Taverner).

    It has not yet been found breeding in Peary Land. It moves southward in

    winter and probably winters regularly in southern Greenland and irregularly

    in Baffin Island, the various islands of Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait,

    Iceland, Jan Mayen, the British Isles, Southampton Island, and northeastern

    Manitoba (Churchill). It may possibly breed in Spitsbergen. A flock was

    971      |      Vol_IV-1030                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Hornemann’s Redpoll and Junco

    seen there in the summer of 1873 (Eaton, 1874. Zoologist , ser. 2, 9: 3806).

            2. Acanthis hornemanni ex [ ?] lipes . Hoary or Coues’s redpoll. About

    5 inches long. Believed by Pleske to breed north of the rage of A. flammea

    across northern Eurasia. Known to breed in Norway northward to latitude 70°

    N.; northern Finland; Russian Lapland; the Gulf of Kola (Katherine Bay);

    the Murman Coast; Novaya Zemlya; the lower Pechora; latitude 71° 31′ N.

    on the Yenisei; the mouths of the Lena, Yana, and Kolyma; the north coast

    of the Chukotsk Peninsula; the Arctic coast of Alaska; the north coast of

    North America east as far as Hudson Bay and Ungava; and Southampton Island.

    It probably breeds throughout much of the Arctic Archipelago. Handley has

    taken it on Devon Island. It moves southward irregularly in winter as far

    as the Baltic countries, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, southern Canada,

    and the northern United States.

            For further information see Redpoll and Acanthis.

            917. Junco . Any of several small, American finches of the genus Junco .

    The best-known species, the slate-colored junco ( Junco hyemalis ), breeds in

    coniferous woodlands across the whole of northern North America, and south–

    ward in the east through the Appalachian highlands. The male is dark slaty

    gray on the whole head, neck, and upper part of the body, and white on the

    lower breast, belly, and outer tail feathers. Females and young birds in

    first winter plumage are brownish, sometimes strongly so on the crown and

    back.

            The slate-colored junco breeds northward in Alaska almost to the arctic

    coast. Grinnell found it common in the Notzebue Sound district. It has

    972      |      Vol_IV-1031                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Junco and Lapland Longspur or Lapland Bunting

    been taken in summer at Carbon Creek, 75 miles inland from Wainwright.

    The Browers have seen it repeatedly about Point Barrow, where it almost

    certainly nests. It is believed to range to the very limit of trees in

    northern Yukon and Mackenzie. It is not, however, very common at Churchill,

    in northeastern Ma nitoba, and in central Quebec the breeding population is

    widely scattered. Along the Labrador coast it nests northward at least

    as far as Nain. It has been reported from the Chukotsk Peninsula in north–

    eastern Siberia, and from Southampton and Baffin islands.

            918. Lapland Longspur or Lapland Bunting . A terrestrial emberizine

    finch, Calcarius lapponicus , found in norther parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

    It is the only species of the genus Calcarius with holarctic distribution.

    In the breeding season it is confined to lower flatter parts of the tundra —

    the “meadowy parts,” they might be called — throughout which there is an

    abundance of moss, dwarf birch, scattered grass, occasional clumps of

    Empetrum , and numerous pretty flowers. It seems to shun the ridges and

    rocky tundra, and — perhaps as a consequence — is not found so far north

    as that other typically arctic finch, the snow bunting ( Plectrophenax

    nivalis ).

            The Lapland longspur is about 6 inches long. In high breeding plumage

    the male is black on the crown, face, throat, and upper breast, with a

    buffy white superciliary stripe. A broad white line separates the black

    of the auriculars from the rufous of the hind neck. The upper part of the

    body is brown, streaked with black. The lower breast, belly, and under

    tail coverts are white. The sides are boldly streaked with black. The

    973      |      Vol_IV-1032                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lapland Longspur or Lapland Bunting

    female has very little black on the crown, face, and throat, but her

    chest and sides are streaked with black. Young in first winter plumage

    resemble the adult female but are buffier below.

            There is no more beautiful scene in the Far North than a company of

    male Lapland longspurs in full song on a calm day in early summer. Flowers

    are blooming everywhere. Head-nets are not necessary, for “fly season”

    has not yet arrived, and the air is cool enough to make one glad for warm

    clothing. Far and near the longspurs are giving their flight songs.

    Literally hundreds of the birds are rising to a height of 30 or 40 feet,

    setting their widespread wings, and drifting gracefully earthward, singing

    as they descend. Alighting on the moss, they await the urge to display

    again. Between songs they sometimes walk swiftly or hop about, perhaps

    with their mates. They do not seem to be much interested in food.

            The female builds the nest alone. The nest is in the side of a bank

    or mossy hummock and is protected by grass or other vegetation. It is of

    dry grass, lined with feathers, hare fur, or caribou hair. The eggs, which

    usually number 5, are olive-brown to greenish gray, blotched and clouded

    with darker shades of brown and gray. The female does all of the incubating.

    The incubation period is 13 to 14 days. The young stay in the nest 8 to 10

    days. One brood is reared. Fledglings in juvenal plumage are very heavily

    streaked with black below. Young and old birds molt together in late

    summer. In winter plumage the adult male has very little black on the

    crown, face, and throat. The black plumage of these parts is acquired

    through an incomplete prenuptial molt in spring.

            The northern limits of the Lapland longspur’s breeding range are:

    latitude 71° N. in Norway, northern Finland, northern Sweden, the Murman

    974      |      Vol_IV-1033                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Lapland Longspur or Lapland Bunting

    Coast, Kolguev, Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya, the Franz Josef Archipelago, the

    Taimyr Peninsula, the mouths of the Lena and Yana, the New Siberian

    Archipelago, Wrangel Island, northern Alaska, northern Yukon, northern

    Mackenzie, Prince Patrick Island (Handley), Melville Island, Devon Island,

    latitude 73° N. in West Greenland, and 75° in East Greenland. It has not

    been reported from Peary Land. Spitsbergen records are considered by

    Løppenthin to be unreliable. The species has been reported from Iceland,

    but oddly enough it does not breed there. There are records for Jan Mayen

    and the Faeroes. The southern limits of its breeding range are, roughly,

    the tree limit. In Norway it breeds south to about latitude 61° N., in

    Sweden to 63°. On the Yenisei, Popham recorded it at Yeniseisk, but it

    probably does not nest there. It nests in Kamchatka and most islands of

    the Bering Sea. It is common on the open tundra just north of the forest

    at Churchill, Manitoba. It breeds in extreme northern Quebec and along the

    Labrador coast from Okak north. Why it should breed in the Franz Josef

    Archipelago but not in Spitsbergen is indeed puzzling. It is strongly

    migratory. During migration it is sometimes caught by an unseasonable

    ice storm and killed by thousands. It winters in middle Eurasia and from

    southern Quebec and the north central United States irregularly southward

    to the middle States and Texas.

            See Calcarius and Longspur.



    975      |      Vol_IV-1034                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Linnet

            920. Linnet . A small Old World finch, Acanthis cannabina , which

    is slightly larger than its congener, the twite ( A. flavirostris ). It

    is a little over 5 inches long. the adult male is rich brown (unstreaked)

    on the back and scapulars, and pinkish red on the crown and breast. The

    head, except for the red crown patch and white of the chin and throat, is

    gray. The region immediately surrounding the eye, and a spot below the

    ear coverts, are frayish white. The edges of the primaries and tail

    feathers are white, sometimes noticeably so. The middle of the lower

    breast and belly is white. The sides, flanks, and under tail coverts

    are washed with buffy brown. Females and young birds have no red on the

    head or breast. Their under parts are buffy, streaked with dusky. The

    bill is warm brown in winter, but this color fades to gray in the breeding

    season.

            The linnet is gregarious, as are all species of the genus Acanthis .

    It flocks by hundreds in winter, sometimes associating with chaffinches

    ( Fringilla coelebs ), greenfinches ( Chloris chloris ), yellow buntings

    ( Emberiza citrinella ), and other fringillids. It feeds on the ground or

    among bushes and weeds. Its flight is strongly undulatory. Its usual

    flight note is a twittering chi - chi - chi - chit . Its song is “musical and

    tolerably varied.” It has a plaintive tsooset cry, which is characteristic

    of all species of Acanthis .

            The linnet breeds semicolonially as a rule, though isolated nests have

    been reported. The nest, which is low in shrubbery or annual plants (or

    even on the ground), is built by the female. It is of moss, vegetable fibers,

    and plant stems, and is lined with hair, feathers, and other soft materials.

    The eggs, which number 4 to 6 as a rule, are pale blue, spotted with purplish

    976      |      Vol_IV-1035                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Linnet and Little Bunting

    red. The female does most of the incubating, but the male assists for

    short periods (Jourdain). The incubation period is 10 to 12 days, the

    fledging period 11 to 13 days. Two broods (perhaps even three) are

    reared in the British Isles, but at the north edge of the range only one

    brood is reared (probably).

            Acanthis cannabina breeds northward to the fringes of the Subarctic

    in Europe. It ranges to latitude 64° N. in Norway and western Finland,

    to 62° in Russia, and to 59° in the valley of the Kama. It ranges east–

    ward to Tobolsk. It is migratory on the continent, but resident on the

    British Isles.

            See Acanthis.

            921. Little Bunting. Emberiza pusilla, one of the smallest, dullest

    species of the genus Emberiza . It is about 5 1/4 inches long. In the

    breeding male the crown is light rufous, bordered at either side by a line

    of black. The sides of the head also are light rufous. The auriculars are

    bordered above and behind by a narrow line of black. The upper part of the

    body is brownish gray, streaked with black and a little rufous. The under

    parts are grayish white, finely streaked with black on the chest, sides, and

    flanks. The [ ?] outer tail feathers are white. The female is a trifle

    duller, with paler superciliary stripe.

            The little bunting feeds on the ground as a rule. In winter it gathers

    in flocks, often with other small birds such as pipits, redpolls, or tits.

    Its call note is a simple pwick or tick . Its song is “pleasanter than that

    of most buntings” (Popham). It nests on the ground among willows in swampland

    977      |      Vol_IV-1036                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Little Bunting and Longspur

    or on tundra. The nest is lined with fine grass usually, but occasionally

    with a few reindeer hairs. The eggs are extremely variable in ground color

    and markings. The incubation and fledging periods are not known.

            The species ranges across northern Eurasia, northward presumably to

    a little beyond tree limit. Pleske does not, however, discuss it as an

    inhabitant of the tundra. The northern limits of its breeding range are:

    northern Norway (occasionally), northern Sweden, northern Finland, the

    Archangelsk district of northern Russia, latitude 72° N. on the Yenisei,

    the valleys of the Lena, Yana, and Indigirka, and latitude 69° on the Kolyma.

    It has been reported several times from the British Isles and once from

    Wrangel Island. It winters in southern Asia — through Semipalatinsk, Altai,

    and Turkestan to northern India, Burma, and China.

            See Bunting and Emberiza .

            922. Longspur . Any of four species of small emberizine finches (family

    Fringillidae) of the genera Calcarius and Rhynchophanes. Rhynchophanes is

    a monotypic genus confined to middle North America. The common name of the

    bird is McCown’s longspur ( R. mccownii ). Calcarius is polytypic. One

    species — C. lapponicus (Lapland longspur or Lapland bunting — is holarctic

    in distribution; another — C. pictus (Smith’s or painted longspur) — breeds

    just north of tree limit in northwestern North America; the third — C .

    ornatus (chestnut-collared longspur) — has about the same range as the

    McCown’s longspur. All four longspurs are terrestrial, though they

    occasionally perch on fences, posts, or low trees. The males are good singers

    and characteristically sing on the wing. The males are more handsomely colored

    978      |      Vol_IV-1037                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Longspur and Loxia

    than the females. Adults are brighter-colored in summer than in winter.

    Young birds resemble the adult females.

            All longspurs are strongly migratory. In winter they feed and fly

    about in great flocks which are especially dense and noisy just as they

    are alighting.

            See Calcarius , Lapland Longspur, and Smith’s Longspur.

            923. Loxia . A genus of boreal finches known as crossbills. The

    crossed mandibles are an obvious character in adult birds, but not in very

    young nestlings. The bill is laterally compressed. The nostrils are covered

    with bristly antrorse feathers. The wings are long and pointed, the outer

    3 visible primaries being longest and of about equal length. The tail is

    short and deeply forked. The tarsus is shorter than the middle toe with

    its claw. The claws are strongly curved. The adult male is much brighter

    than the female. The young bird (fledgling in juvenal plumage) is much

    streaked.

            Loxia inhabits both the Old World and the New. Of the three speices,

    two — the red or common crossbill ( L. curvirostra ) and white-winged or

    two-barred crossbill ( L. leucoptera ) are found in both Eurasia and North

    America. The parrot crossbill ( L. pytyopsittacus ), which may be a race

    of curvirostra , is found only in Europe.

            See Crossbill.



    979      |      Vol_IV-1038                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Ortolan Bunting and Pallas’s Bunting

            926. Ortolan Bunting. Emberiza hortulanus , a beautiful Old World

    finch about 6 1/4 inches long. Adult birds are grayish olive on the head

    and chest except for the pale yellow of the throat and maler stripe; pink–

    ish buff on the lower breast and belly; and brown on the back, wings, and

    tail. The bill and feet are reddish brown. The outer tail feathers are

    white. The female is considerably duller than the male and is somewhat

    streaked on the chest. Young birds are still duller than the adult female

    and more heavily streaked below. The species inhabits scrubby woodland

    either in rough country or plains. It is quiet and secretive. Its usual

    call note is tsee-ip or tsip (Ticehurst). The song is a repetition of

    some such syllable as zeu or zee , terminating with two longer notes of a

    different quality.

            E. hortulanus breeds almost throughout continental Europe (including

    Crete and probably Cyprus), and winters in southern Eurasia and northern

    Africa. The northern limits of its breeding range are latitude 69° 30′

    N. in Norway, 67° in Sweden, northern Finland, northern Russia, and the

    Ural Mountains. Dementiev says that it is rare in northern [ ?] Russia,

    [ ?] It has been recorded several times in the British Isles.

            See Bunting and Emberiza .

            928. Pallas’s Bunting. Emberiza pallasii . The species is about

    6 inches long. It resembles the reed bunting ( E. schoeniclus ) very

    closely, and may be conspecific with that form. In the adult male in

    breeding plumage the black of the top of the head is separated from that

    of the throat by a white line which runs from the corner of the mouth

    980      |      Vol_IV-1039                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pallas’s Bunting and Parrot Crossbill and Pine Grosbeak

    backward beneath the auriculars, here joining the white of the hind neck,

    sides of the breast, and the belly. The species is confined to Asia.

    According to Dementiev it breeds throughout most of northern Asia, reach–

    ing its northernmost limits in the Taimyr Peninsula, the valleys of the

    Lena, Indigirka, and Kolyma, and the Chukotsk Peninsula. Seebohm reported

    it from the Kureika River, a tributary of the Yenisei. Pleske mentions

    an adult male taken in June on the east coast of the Taimyr Peninsula.

    Details concerning its breeding range, nidification, and migrations

    remain to be discovered. It winters in Manchuria, Mongolia, and China.

            See Bunting and Emberiza .

            929. Parrot Crossbill . A not very well known Old World crossbill,

    Loxia pytyopsittacus , so called because of its somewhat parrotlike bill.

    It may well be a geographical race of the red or common crossbill ( L .

    curvirostra ). The huge, coarse bill, with its much curved contours, is

    distinctive. In coloration the species is much like the red crossbill,

    but it is a little larger, being about 7 inches long. It inhabits northern

    Europe, breeding northward to latitude 67° N. in Sweden, 65° in Finland,

    and [ ?] 64° in Russia. It usually moves southward somewhat in winter.

            For further information see Crossbill and Loxia .

            932. Pine Grosbeak . A large, soft-plumaged northern finch, Pinicola

    enucleator , which inhabits coniferous forests of northern parts of the

    Northern Hemisphere. It is about 8 inches long. The adult male is rose-pink

    981      |      Vol_IV-1040                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pine Grosbeak

    with dark gray wings and tail,ashy gray belly, and a gray area bout the

    eye. The wing has two white bars. The female is the same in pattern, but

    orange-bronze throughout the parts which are pink in the male. Young birds

    resemble the adult female. The white wing bars are rather conspicuous in

    all plumages. They help to give the bird the appearance of an over-large

    white-winged or two-barred crossbill ( Loxia leucoptera ).

            The pine grosbeak climbs about the branches in the manner of a parrot

    or crossbill while feeding in a tree. It often feeds on the ground. Its

    flight is strongly undulatory. It is sometimes incredibly unsuspicious of

    human beings, almost allowing itself to be taken in the hand. Its usual

    call note is a bell-like tee , tee , teu . This it often gives in flight.

    The song is a rich, whistled warble.

            The pine grosbeak nests in a conifer as a rule, but also in other

    thickish trees, and usually note more than 12 or 15 feet from the ground.

    The nest, which is bulky, has a foundation of long, slender, carefully

    selected and interwoven twigs (often of spruce or birch), and a lining

    of fine roots, strips of bark, and slender grass stems. The eggs, which

    number 3 or 4 as a rule, are deep greenish blue, boldly marked with brownish

    black and dark purplish gray, chiefly at the larger end. The female does

    all the incubating, but she is fed by the male during the two-weeks-long

    incubation period. Feeding is by regurgitation.

            The northern limits of the species’ range are: latitude 70° N. in

    Norway; northern Sweden; 65° to 68° 30′ in Finland; the Kola Peninsula;

    northern Russia; about 68° on the Yenisei; the mouths of the Yana, Lena,

    Indigirka, and Kolyma; Kamchatka; Sakhalin; the valley of the Anadyr; northern

    Alaska; northwestern Mackenzie; northeastern Manitoba (Churchill); northern

    982      |      Vol_IV-1041                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pine Grosbeak and [ ?] Pine Siskin

    Quebec and northern Labrador. Several races are recognized. The species

    wanders southward irregularly in winter, chiefly at times of food shortage

    in the North.

            See Pinicola .

            933. Pine Siskin. A small North American finch, Spinus pinus , so

    named because of its liking for coniferous trees. It often alights in other

    trees, however, and sometimes feeds on or near the ground with goldfinches

    ( Spinus tristis ) and redpolls ( Acanthis flammea ). It is closely related to

    the common siskin ( Spinus spinus ) of the Old World; is about 5 inches long;

    and is heavily streaked with dusky, especially below. The bases of the wing

    and tail feathers are light yellow, a color which flashes when the birds

    are seen flying against a dark background. The flight is strongly undulating,

    like that of Spinus tristis . The song is like that of Spinus tristis , too,

    “but more coarse and wheezy.” The call notes are “a loud clee-ip or chlee-ip ,

    also a light tit - i - tit and a long buzzy shreeeee — latter unique along

    [American] bird-notes” (Peterson).

            The pine siskin breeds across America in coniferous forests, southward

    in the west to southern Mexico and in the east to the mountains of Pennsyl–

    vania and North Carolina. It does not, apparently, breed northward quite to

    tree limit, for Grinnell did not report it from the Kotzebue Sound district

    of Alaska, Preble from the lower Mackenzie, or Taverner and Sutton from

    Churchill, Manitoba. The most northerly area reached by it is central Alaska.

            The nest is compact, thick-walled, and well line with plant down, hairs,

    and other soft materials. It is usually in a coniferous tree at considerable

    983      |      Vol_IV-1042                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pine Siskin and Pinicola and Plectrophenax

    height above ground. The eggs, which usually number four, are bluish

    white, thinly spotted with light reddish brown.

            See Spinus .

            934. Pinicola. A monotypic genus of large arboreal finches known

    as pine grosbeaks. The bill, as in Pyrrhula (bullfinches), is short, heaby,

    and much curved. The plumage is dense, long, and soft. The wing is long,

    the 4 outer visible primaries being the longest and of about equal length.

    The nostrils are covered with rather long, antrorse, bristly feathers.

    The tail is rather long and forked. The tarsus is short, but much longer

    than the bill. The adult male is much brighter than the adult female.

    Young birds resemble the adult female. Pinicola is found in both the Old

    World and the New. It inhabits northern coniferous forests, ranging

    northward to tree limit both in America and Eurasia, and southward in

    the New World as far as California.

            See fine Grosbeak.

            935. Plectrophenax . A monotypic genus of boreal finches (family

    Fringillidae) known as snow buntings. The plumage is dense, soft, and

    rather long, permitting the bird to insulate itself quickly by lifting the

    feathers. The bill is like that of Emberiza, but there is no hump in the

    roof of the mouth. The wing is long. The outermost visible primary is

    the longest, the second is of about the same length, and the others are

    gradually shorter. The wing tip (i.e., the distance from the end of the

    984      |      Vol_IV-1043                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Pectrophenax and Pyrrhula

    primaries to the tips of the secondaries in the folded wing) is about

    a third as long as the wing itself. The tail, which is forked, is about

    3/5 as long as the wing. The hind claw is almost as long as the digit

    and is not very strongly curved.

            Plectrophenax is holarctic. It has a more continuously circumboreal

    distribution than Calcarius , which does not breed in Iceland or Spitsbergen.

    It is also much more exclusively boreal than Calcarius .

            See Snow Bunting and Calcarius.

            936. Pyrrhula. A genus of plum Old World fringillids known as

    bullfinches. The most distinctive feather of Pyrrhula is its short, heavy,

    somewhat bulbous bill. The culmen is strongly curved, and both mandibles

    are so swollen that the whole bill, viewed from almost any angle, has a

    roughly spherical appearance. The plumage is soft, that of the face

    being rather thick and plushlike. The tail is square or moderately forked

    and the upper tail coverts are very long (half as long as the tail, or

    longer). The tarsus is short — about as long as the middle toe with its

    claw. The male is much brighter than the female, though the two sexes

    have the same pattern. The young bird resembles the adult female, but

    is noticeably duller. The genus inhabits northern Eurasia principally,

    ranging from the northern forests southward to southern Europe, the

    Himalayas, the Melay Peninsula, Formosa, and the Philippines.

            See Bullfinch.



    985      |      Vol_IV-1044                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Red Crossbill and Redpoll

            937. Red Crossbill. A well-known fringillid, Loxia curvirostra ,

    often called the common crossbill or simply the crossbill. It is about

    6 1/2 inches long. The adult male is brick red with fuscous wings and

    tail. The subadult male is orange-red. The female is olive or yellowish

    green. Young birds have narrow, inconspicuous wing bars. The juvenal

    plumage is much streaked.

            The species has a circumboreal distribution, but it ranges much

    farther north in Europe, Alaska, and northwestern Mackenzie than elsewhere.

    It ranges southward from about tree limit through most of Eurasia (including

    the British Isles, the Mediterranean islands, Japan, and the Philippines),

    through northwest Africa, and in North America as far as Central America.

    It is almost never encountered except in coniferous woodland. It has

    however, been reported from the Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Bear Island.

            For information concerning its nesting habits, etc., see Crossbill and

    Loxia .

            938. Redpoll. Any of several small boreal finches which in adult

    plumage have a round patch of deep, rather glossy crimson on the crown or

    “poll.” They all belong to the genus Acanthis , and they are currently

    believed to belong to two species. The better known of these is A. flammea

    (common redpoll), the other A. hornemanni (Hornemann’s redpoll). The two

    species are much alike in color, proportions, behavior, and nidification,

    so one general discussion will serve for both.

            Adult redpolls are red on the forehead; streaked with black, brown and

    gray on the upper parts, sides, and flanks; and black on the chin . There

    986      |      Vol_IV-1045                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Redpoll

    are two wing bars. An unstreaked area down the middle of the throat

    and breast is rosy pink in some males, white or buffy white in all

    females and some males. High-plumaged males are pink over the whole

    face and neck, as well as the throat and breast. The bill is yellow

    (sometimes with dark tip) in winter, but as spring advances it darkens,

    eventually becoming very dark (sometimes almost black) by midsummer.

            Redpolls are socia lb bl e by nature. The great flocks which gather in

    winter often are composed of various races of the two species as well as

    certain other finches. They feed among weeds which protrude from the

    snow, in bare areas on the southern slopes of hills, or above ground in

    alders, birches, and tamaracks. Their flight is strongly undulatory.

    As they fly off those which have white rumps are sometimes conspicuous

    (see below).

            The redpoll’s flight note is a rather rough chuh - chuh - chuh - chuh –

    or cheh - cheh - cheh . On alighting, the bird often gives a drawled squeal

    which may be written dzu-eee . The song, which is not very musical, is

    really an elaboration of the flight note, or a series of flight notes

    interspersed with trills. It reaches a peak of ecstacy while the bird

    describes circles or figure eights in display flight.

            Pairing in spring is accompanied by display flights as well as

    “dances” in which the male hops from branch to branch with tail spread

    wide and wings lifted high above the back as he utters a low hissing note.

    Redpolls often breed semicolonially, and the two species may at times nest

    virtually side by side in what appears to be the same habitat. The nest,

    which is built by the female, is a compact cup, with foundation of twigs

    and other coarse material, placed not far above ground in a shrubby willow,

    987      |      Vol_IV-1046                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Redpoll

    birch, or alder, or a small conifer. At high northern latitudes it is

    sometimes (perhaps regularly) placed on the ground. It is rather deep

    and is well lined with soft materials including hair, dog cotton tassels,

    willow fuzz, and feathers. The eggs, which are 4 or 5, are blue, spotted

    with dark brow f n, chiefly at the larger end. The female does all the

    incubating, though the male “stands guard” and feeds her regularly while

    she is on the nest. The incubation period is 10 to 12 days Fledging

    requires 11 to 14 days. The young are fed by regurgitation and both

    parents bring food. The plumage of the young bird at the time it leaves

    the nest is much streaked both above and below and is wholly without red.

            After the breeding season all birds, both young and old, acquire through

    molt the beautiful fresh winter plumage with its veiled pattern. This

    plumage is also the breeding plumage, actually, for it is held not only

    all winter but also through the following spring and summer The bright–

    ness and bold pattern of the breeding plumage is the result of feather wear,

    not of feather replacement.

            Now for species differences. The common or mealy redpoll ( Acanthis flammes )

    is streaked on the rump, and each of the under tail coverts has a well

    defined dark streak down the center. The Hornemann’s redpoll ( A. hornemanni )

    is white-rumped, and the under tail coverts are white or almost white (i.e.,

    with only a suggestion of dark streaking down their centers).

            From this statement it would appear that the two species are readily

    distinguishable, but most ornithologists know from experience that worn

    midsummer birds, especially living ones, are sometimes very difficult to

    place. I recall finding several redpoll nests at Churchill, Manitoba, some

    years ago. The incubating females were so confiding that I was able to

    988      |      Vol_IV-1047                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Redpoll

    observe them closely, standing only a few feet away. Yet so hidden were

    their rump feathers by their folded wings that I was at a loss of identify

    them in the nests; and when, at length, they darted off, it seemed to me

    they were all about equally white on the rump: This statement is not

    designed to confuse the student of redpolls, but to comfort him. The

    common redpoll is distinguishable in the hand by the dark streaking of the

    rump feathers and under tail coverts, but this character is not always

    perceptible in the field, and, furthermore, some Hornemann’s redpolls are

    certainly less white (i.e., more streaked with dusky) on the rump than

    others. So far as I know there is no way of distinguishing the two species

    solely on the basis of call notes, song, or behavior. I have, at various

    times, thought that the Hornemann’s redpoll was the stubbier-billed of the

    two, but some races (or populations) of the common redpoll are stubbier–

    billed than others and stub-billed specimens of flammea lessen the value

    of the character, if such a character exists at all.

            The behavior differences between the common redpoll and Hornemann’s

    redpoll should prove to be a fascinating problem for the student of arctic

    ornithology. The two species nest side by side in certain parts of the

    Far North and it is almost unthinkable that they should have exactly the

    same habitat requirements, from pairs in the same way, nest in the same

    sort of places, and eat exactly the same food. Pleske has expressed

    his belief that hornemanni is the more northward-ranging of the redpolls

    in Eurasia and that at high latitudes it nests on the ground. To quote

    him: “The typical form [ A. flammea ] lives in the subalpine region and

    places its nest in bushes and trees at a certain distance from the ground.

    This form frequents the tundra … only at the non-breeding season and

    989      |      Vol_IV-1048                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Redpoll and Reed Bunting

    very seldom nests there, but is confined to the subalpine region in

    the breeding season. Aegiothus [= Acanthis ] hornemannii …., on the

    other hand, appears to be an inhabitant of the Regio alpina salicum

    [the lower zone of the alpine region]. It occurs in this zone farther

    to the north of the Eurasian continent and apparently places its nest

    directly on the ground because of the lack of bushes or trees in the zone

    it occupies,” ( Birds of the Eurasian Tundra , p. 127). This statement

    may represent conditions as they exist in northern Eurasia, but the so–

    called greater or Greenland race of Acanthis flammea almost certainly nests

    on or very close to the ground at high latitudes and I know from personal

    observation that the A. hornemanni nests well above ground, in shrubbery,

    in the Churchill region of northeastern Manitoba.

            Since the over-all ranges of the two above-discussed “species” are

    about the same (both are holarctic; both breed northward to high latitudes;

    and both move southward somewhat irregularly in winter); since the two are

    certainly very similar morphologically; and since there seems to be no

    constant difference in their nesting habits, they may indeed be one and

    the same — an idea advanced long ago by the Danish ornithologist,

    Salomonsen.

            See Acanthis , Common Redpoll, and Hornemann’s Redpoll.

            939. Reed Bunting. Homberiza schoeniclus. The species is about

    6 inches long. It resembles the Pallas’s bunting ( E. pallasii ) morphologi–

    cally and may be conspecific with that form. The male in breeding plumage

    is black on the head and throat with a white collar which is especially

    990      |      Vol_IV-1049                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Reed Bunting and Rustic Bunting

    broad on the upper neck. The upper parts of the body are brown, streaked

    with black, the under parts grayish white, streaked on the sides with

    black. The female is brown-headed, with a well-defined black moustache

    streak which is separated from the auriculars by a white streak. Adults

    and young alike have white outer tail feathers. The species inhabits

    marshy places. It has a habit of flicking its wings and flashing its

    white outer tail feathers. It is gregarious in winter and inhabits

    upland fields, as well as marshes, at that season. Its call note is a

    shrill tseep , its song a tinkling tweek , tweek , tweek , tititick. The

    nest is generally in marsh grass, but nests “up to 12 feet in thorns or

    briars in osier beds” have been reported ( Handbook of British Birds ).

            E. schoeniclus breeds northward to latitude 70° N. in Norway, to

    northern Finland, northern Russia, the lower valleys of the 0b and Yenisei,

    and (apparently at somewhat lower latitudes) across Siberia to Kamchatka,

    Japan, and the Kurils. It winters in southern Eurasia and northern Africa.

    It has been reported from the Faeroes.

            See Bunting and Emberiza.

            940. Rustic Bunting. Emberiza rustica. A handsom e species about

    5 3/4 inches long in which both old and young birds are strongly rusty

    above and silky white below. The chest is crossed by a band of rusty spots.

    The outer tail feathers are party white. The adult male in the breeding

    season is black on the top of the head, with a white superciliary line.

    The species inhabits marshes and shrub-grown fields. Its call note is a

    sharp tick - tick. Its song is said to be varied and musical. It nests on

    991      |      Vol_IV-1050                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Rustic Bunting and Savannah Sparrow

    or near the ground in swampy woodland. It breeds northward to northern

    Sweden (occasionally), Finland, the Archangelsk district of northern Russia,

    and across Siberia to the Kolyma River and Kamchatka. It has been reported

    from the British Isles, the Komandorskis, Kiska, and St. Paul Island in

    the Bering Sea.

            See Bunting and Emberiza .

            941. Savannah Sparrow. Passerculus sandwichensis , a ground-inhabiting

    species which breeds in treeless grasslands throughout much of continental

    North America as well as on the Aleutians. There are several geographical

    races, the smallest being about 5 inches long, the largest 6 inches long.

    The largest is P. sandwichensis sandwichensis , which [ ?] breeds on the

    Aleutians and the Alaska Peninsula and winters on the Pacific coast from

    British Columbia to California.

            The savannah sparrow is a [ ?] much streaked bird. Above it is

    brownish gray streaked with black. Below it is white, streaked on the

    chest, sides, and flanks with dusky. It does not have well-defined wing

    bars or conspicuous white marks on the outer tail feathers, but the fore

    parts of the superciliary line is yellow, and the streaking of the under

    parts is confluent, sometimes forming an irregular dark spot or blotch

    in the middle of the chest. The song, which is not very melodious, and

    which usually is sung from a high weed or rock, ends in an insectlike buzz

    or trill.

            The species breeds from the Arctic Sea southward to the Mexican plateau.

    Its distribution in this vast area is, however, far from continuous.

    992      |      Vol_IV-1051                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Savannah Sparrow and Siskin

    Apparently it breeds throughout most of treeless arctic Alaska. Anderson

    encountered it in the Colville Delta. Brower found a nest at Point Barrow.

    Bailey mentions records from numerous localities northward and eastward

    from Cape Prince of Wales. It almost certainly breeds in norther n most Yukon

    and Mackenzie, but Gavin did not report it from the Perry River district,

    south of Queen Maud Gulf. Along the west coast of Hudson Bay it breeds

    northward at least to Chesterfield Inlet. Shortt and Peters found it

    along the south shore of Hudson Strait (Wakeham Bay). Along the Labrador

    it is most abundant from Battle Harbor to Port Manvers, but inhabits the

    whole coast in summer. It has been reported once from Southampton Island.

            942. Siskin. 1. Any of numerous small, stocky, sharp-billed finches

    of the genus Spinus found in North and South America, Eurasia, and Africa.

    Most of the have yellow in the plumage. They are closely related to the

    goldfinches (genera Spinus and Carduelis ) and the redpolls (Acanthis).

            2. Spinus spinus , the siskin or common siskin. A well-known Eurasian

    bird about 4 3/4 inches long. The male has yellow and yellow-green body

    plumage; black crown, chin, and wing coverts; yellow rump; and a few black

    streaks on the flanis. A wing bar and patches on each side of the tail are

    greenish yellow. The female is duller and grayer, without black on the

    crown. Young birds are still duller. The call note is a clear tsee-yee or

    tay-zing . Often given in flight. The song is a lively twitter ending with

    this call note.

            The species nests in conifers, often at the end of a branch at great

    height. The nest, which is made by the female, is a deep and softly lined cup.

    993      |      Vol_IV-1052                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Siskin and Smith’s Longspur

    The eggs, which usually number 3 to 6, are pale blue, spotted with brown.

            Spinus spinus breeds northward to latitude 66° N. in Norway, 67° in

    Sweden, 66° in Finland, the Archangelsk district of Russia, northern China,

    Japan, and the Kurils. According to Dementiev, it is “absent de la sib e é rie

    centrale et de la r e é gion des monts Altaï et Tarbagatai .” It winters in

    the Mediterranean region eastward to Iraq (and probably to China and Japan).

    It has been reported from the Kola Peninsula, where it may breed sparingly

    at about tree limit.

            944. Smith’s Longspur . A terrestrial North American finch, Calcarius

    pictus, known also as the painted longspur. Generally speaking, its breed–

    ing range is a strip of barren grounds lying north of a line drawn from

    northeastern Manitoba (Churchill) to northern Yukon. It has been reported

    from Fort Yukon, Alaska, and from Point Barrow, but Bailey reports no

    evidence that it breeds anywhere in arctic Alaska. Gavin did not find it

    in the Perry River district south of Queen Maud Gulf. I failed to encounter

    it anywhere to the north of Churchill along the west coast of Hudson Bay,

    though a century ago it was reported from Repulse Bay. The numerous records

    mentioned by Preble for southern Mackenzie apply principally (perhaps wholly)

    to the migration season. The species is known to nest in the Caribou Hills

    (80 miles south of the Arctic Sea and just west of the Mackenzie Delta),

    along the Anderson River, or Herschel Island, and at Churchill, Manitoba.

    It probably breeds in the Aylmer Lake region, where Seton noted it in

    early fall.

            At Churchill, Manitoba, where I became well acquainted with [ ?]

    it in the summer of 1931, it nested chiefly in the strips or patches of

    994      |      Vol_IV-1053                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Smith’s Longspur

    tundra which lay among the stunted spruces at tree limit proper. The

    males sang their bright songs from the tops of the spruces. Occasionally

    they sang from a mossy hummock or on the wing, but they seemed to have

    no flight display at all comparable to that of the Lapland longspur

    ( Calcarius lapponicus ), which nested well away from the forest edge as

    a rule.

            The Smith’s longspur is about 6 1/2 inches long. The male in breed–

    ing plumage is a handsome bird. Its entire under parts are warm buff.

    The crown is black, the superciliary line white. A diagnostic mark is the

    white check spot which is boldly outlined by a triangle of black. The

    lesser wing coverts are black, with a large white spot in their midst.

    The upper parts of the body are b or ro wn, streaked with black. The outer

    tail feathers are marked with white. In winter, the adult male has no

    bold markings and is very dull and “sparr l o wlike.” The breeding female

    too is very plain, though the buff tone of her under parts is distinctive.

            The call note has been likened to the sound produced by winding a

    cheap watch (Lloyd). Preble mentions being attracted to the birds by

    their characteristic notes — “several sharp ‘chips’ uttered in quick

    succession.” Even on the breeding ground they are usually hard to see when

    on the ground. The nest, which is made by the female, is a simple cup of

    grass placed in the moss, usually in the shelter of a tuft of grass or

    flowering plants, rarely under a tiny spruce.

            The species is definitely migratory. Its winter home is the open

    plains from Kansas to central Texas.

            See Calcarius and Longspur.



    995      |      Vol_IV-1054                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snow Bunting

            947. Snow Bunting. A well-known arctic finch, Plectrophenax

    nivalis, which is sometimes calle d the snowflake or snowbird. It is

    the most exclusively boreal species of the family Fringillidae. It is

    well known to the Eskimos, who call in the amauligak or the kopernoak .

    According to Hentzech, the Baffin Islanders have a special name for the

    female bird — arnauviak .

            The snow bunting seems to prefer rocky tundra and ridges to “meadowy”

    tundra as a nesting ground. It shuns the low-lying moss- and grass-covered

    flats throughout which the Lapland longspur ( Calcarius lapponicus ) is often

    so common in summer. In general, the southern limits of its breeding range

    are about the same as those of the longspur, though it breeds in Scotland,

    whereas the longspur does not, and it breeds a little farther south in

    Norway than the longspur does. In some parts of the north it is definitely

    more boreal than the longspur. It breeds in Spitsbergen and presumably

    throughout the northernmost parts of the Arctic Archipelago. Oddly enough,

    it breeds in Iceland, whereas the longspur does not. The northern limits

    of its summer range are Jan Mayen, Bear Island, Spitsbergen, Kolguev,

    Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Archipelago, the New Siberian Islands,

    Wrangel, Herald, northern Alaska, the north edge of the Arctic Archipelago

    (probably), and northern Greenland (northland at least to lat. 83° N.).

    The southern limits of its breeding range are Iceland, Scotland, the Faeroes,

    latitude 60° N. in Norway, central Sweden, the whole arctic coast of con–

    tinental Eurasia, the islands of the Bering Sea, Cape Prince of Wales,

    Alaska (or a point even farther south along the west coast of Alaska), the

    arctic coast of continental North America, Eskimo Point on the west coast

    of Hudson Bay, Southampton Island, and northern Labrador. Throughout most

    996      |      Vol_IV-1055                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snow Bun g t ing

    of its range it is migratory, but in Scotland, the Faeroes, Iceland, and

    many islands of the Bering Sea it is probably more or less sedentary. The

    southern limits of its winter range are about 15° south of the southern

    limits of its breeding range.

            A snow bunting banded in winter in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

    was recovered the following spring is southwestern Greenland, and no

    evidence has thus far been obtained that the species migrates regularly

    from Greenland to the Old World as the Greenland weather ( Oenanthe cenanthe

    leucorhoa ) is believed to do. (See Wheateer)

            To the white man who has wintered in the Far North there is no more

    welcome sound in spring than the chirp of the snow bunting. The little

    bird is likely to arrive during the last wild gale of winter — in late

    May or early June. Bends of males travel north well in advance of the

    females, and trim they are in their black and white attire. The feathers

    they wear are the very ones they donned the latter part of the previous

    summer. There has been no spring molt. The gray and brown tips of the

    winter plumage have worn off, leaving the head and under parts pure white,

    and the back and dark parts of the wings and tail glossy black.

            As the buntings flit about in the storm they twitter companionably.

    They are not miserable with the cold, for their plumage is exceedingly

    warm; but they are sorely buffeted by the wind. They cling to any shelter

    they can find — the leeward side of a building or pile of oil barrels,

    crannies among stacked begs of coal, or an open space under the steps.

    Among their call notes is a clear, high-pitched tweet and a lower-pitched

    teuk. They are not very easy to see, for their white parts look exactly

    like the snow. As they fly, the black of their backs, wings, and tails

    997      |      Vol_IV-1056                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snow Bunting

    looks like pieces of charred paper blown about by the wind.

            When the storm dies and the sun comes out, the buntings begin to

    sing. The song is not long, but it is loud and bright and delivered

    with great vigor. If the band is headed for a more northern breeding

    ground, off they go. But some of the birds may remain, and these scatter

    up and down the ridges or to offshore islands, which are still buried in

    snow, and establish territories. Here, singing gaily, they welcome the

    females. Pairing is accompanied by various demonstrations — erratic

    flights; wing- and tail-spreading; deliberate strutting during which the

    black and white upper parts are shown off; and flight songs. Flight songs

    take the males 20 or 30 feet above ground. During the whole performance

    the widespread wings are fanned in such a way as to make the black and

    white pattern especially conspicuous, and when the bird alights is con–

    tinues to hold its wings (and sometimes the tail also) in spread position.

            The female builds the nest, though in her grass-gathering expeditions

    she is sometimes accompanied by the male. The nest is placed among rocks

    as a rule — sometimes under them, sometimes in a crevice on a cliff. It

    is made of grass, dry plant stems, and moss, and is lined with [ ?] air,

    feathers, and other soft materials. The eggs number 6 as a rule. Sets

    of 7 (rarely 8) have been reported. The eggs are yellowish-, bluish-, or

    greenish-white, boldly splotched with reddish brown. At nests which I

    have observed, only the female incubated, but the male is reported to

    assist by spells. The incubation period is 14 to 15 days. Both parents

    feed the young, which remain in the nest 10 to 15 days. Young which

    leave at 10 days of age probably to do prematurely as a result of being

    disturbed. When the young leave the nest normally their head and body

    998      |      Vol_IV-1057                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snow Bunting

    plumage is ashy gray. This juvenal plumage is worn a very short time.

    It begins to drop out about the time the black and white wing and tail

    feathers reach their full length, and is replaced by the white first

    winter plumage. White is perhaps the wrong word. Actually most feathers

    of the first winter plumage are tipped with buff.

            Incubating females are sometimes remarkably tame. At Southampton

    Island I chanced to find a nest as I was crossing a small rocky islet in

    in early July. The female flew out from under the stones, and I had to

    move stone after stone before I finally found the nest. While I was taking

    photographs, the female returned. As she settled on the eggs she cheeped

    in obvious distress, presumably because she missed the rock which had

    sheltered her. I touched her and fed her insects from my hand while she

    was on the nest. On various occasions I have heard the cheeping of an

    incubating bunting as I have walked over piles of stones.

            I pair of buntings nested in a hole under an upstairs window at the

    Southampton Island trading post. The parent birds fed their clamorous

    offspring at frequent intervals, bringing them crane flies and other insects,

    many of which I saw them catch about the windows. Why these insects were

    so abundant at the windows I never learned.

            All snow buntings molt in late summer. Molting young birds are likely

    to be much in evidence, but the parent birds retire to out-of-the-way places

    back among the ridges or higher hills. There probably is a good reason for

    this. The young birds do not lose their flight feathers, whereas the adult

    birds lose their primaries, secondaries, and tail feathers so rapidly that they

    cannot, at the very height of the molt, fly very well. I have, indeed, almost

    caught stub-tailed adult buntings which flew so poorly that they escaped

    999      |      Vol_IV-1058                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Snow Bunting and Sparrow

    by running into crevices among the rocks.

            See Plectrophenax .

            Reference:

    Tinbergen, N. “The behavior of the Snow Bunting in Spring.” Trans. Linn.

    Soc. N.Y., vol.5, 95 pp. 1939.

            948. Sparrow. 1. A name widely used for the two most northward-ranging

    weaverbirds (family Ploceidae) of the world. The better known of these is

    the house sparrow or English sparrow ( Passer domesticus ); the other is the

    tree sparrow ( Passer montanus ). See House Sparrow and Tree Sparrow.

            2. A small passerine bird of the Old World family Prunellidae:

    Prunella modularis , the so-called hedge sparrow. The other species of the

    family Prinellidae are [ ?] known as Accentors, See PRUNELLIDAE and

    Hedge Sparrow.

            3. Any of numerous American finches (family Fringillidae). No “true”

    finch of the Old World is regularly called a sparrow either in England or

    America; and no exclusively boreal finch of either the Old World or the

    New is regularly called a sparrow. Several “true” finches which are widely

    known as sparrows do, however, inhabit the American Subarctic. These are

    the fox sparrow, golden-crowned sparrow, savannah sparrow, tree sparrow

    [ ?] (949.1) and white-crowned sparrow, all of which see.



    1000      |      Vol_IV-1059                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Spinus and Tree Sparrow

            949. Spinus. A genus of small but stocky arboreal finches known as

    siskins and goldfinches. All of the numerous species have small, sharply

    pointed, conical bills; feather-covered nostrils; inconspicuous rictal

    bristles; rather long, pointed wings; and forked tails. The tail is more

    than half as long as the wing. The tarsus is rather short, but decidedly

    longer than the culmen, and the scutellation is distinct in front. The

    middle toe, with its claw, is as long as (or longer than) the tarsus.

    The claws are much carved. The toes have considerable grasping power.

    This is especially true of fledglings at about the time they leave the

    nest. Throughout the genus the plumage is more or less yellow. Through–

    out the [?]     In some forms, notably the American

    goldfinch ( Spinus tristis ), the adult male is colored very differently

    from the adult female in summer, but similarly to the female in winter.

            Spinus inhabits both the Old World and the New, but no species of

    the genus is common to the two worlds. The siskin ( S. spinus ) of Eurasia

    and the pins siskin ( S. pinus ) of North America and closely related but

    not, apparently, conspecific. Both these species range well northward.

    The genus is widely represented throughout North and South America and

    Eurasia, but there are only a few species in Africa and these are scattered

    widely.

            949.2. Tree Sparrow . 1. A small, rather long-tailed finch, Spizella

    arborea, of North America. It is about 6 inches long. The crown patch

    is bright reddish brown. The upper part of the body is brown, streaked with

    black. There are two white wing bars. The under parts are light gray except

    1001      |      Vol_IV-1060                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Tree Sparrow

    for a small, round black spot in the middle of the chest. The sexes are

    similar. The conversational note of the birds feeding together in winter,

    at which season they are very gregarious, is chi - ci - ly or tsee - di - lit

    (Heydweiller). The alarm note is a high, fine tseet . The song is melodious

    and varied, but not very long.

            The nest, which is a neat feather- and hair-lined cup, is placed

    on the ground among dwarf birch or other tundra shrubbery. It is built

    by the female. The eggs, which number 5 or 6, are blue, spotted with

    dark brown, chiefly at the larger end. The incubating is done by the female.

    The incubation period is about 13 days. Young birds are heavily streaked

    throughout the under parts.

            The species breeds at about tree limit across the whole of North

    America from northern Alaska to the Labrador. The breeding range is,

    actually, a rather narrow zone of shrubbery and stunted spruces lying

    just south of the open tundra. In Alaska the bird ranges almost to the

    Arctica Sea. It is common along the Kobuk River. Breeding specimens have

    been taken along the Meade River, just south of Point Barrow; at Carbon

    Creek, 75 miles south of Wainwright; and at the Colville Delta. The species

    is abundant in summer at Churchill, Manitoba. It breeds commonly in northern

    Quebec. It occupies the middle third of the Labrador, from Hamilton Inlet

    north to Port Manvers (Austin). It winters in southern Canada and the

    United States.

            2. An Old World ploceid or weaverbird, Passer montanus . See

    writeup No. 894.



    1002      |      Vol_IV-1061                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Twite

            950. Twite. A small Old World finch, Acanthis flavirostris , which

    bears a strong resemblance to the female or young linnet ( Acanthis cannabina )

    but is darker, tawnier in general appearance, and more orange-buff on the

    face and throat. It is 5 1/2 inches long. It is streaked with dusky brown

    both above and below in all plumages. The adult male has a pink rump. The

    primaries and tail feathers are white-edged, but less noticeably so than

    those of the linnet. In winter the species is yellow-billed, but the

    yellow fades to gray in the breeding season.

            The twite is a bird of open country. In summer it inhabits barren

    islands and coasts and comparatively treeless regions inland. It goes

    about in flocks all winter, and usually nests semicolonially. It feeds

    on the ground principally, but slights on weeds, shrubbery, and trees. Its

    usual call note is choceek or tsooeek , its song a sprightly jangle of

    twitters and trills. It nests on the ground or not far above ground in

    shrubbery or among rocks. The nest, which is built but the female, is of

    twigs, moss, and other plant materials, lined with hair and a few feathers.

    The eggs, which number 5 or 6 as a rule, as pale blue, spotted and

    scrawled with dark brown, chiefly at the larger end. Only the female

    incubates. The male reeds his mate throughout the 12 to 13-day incubation

    period. The young remain in the nest about 15 days.

            The twite breeds in the British Isles, throughout most of northern

    Europe, and in south central Asia eastward to Tibet and Manchuria. It is

    somewhat migratory, especially in Europe. It breeds farthest north in

    Scandinavia, attaining latitudes 70° N. in Norway. It is uncommon in Sweden

    and Finland. It breeds on the Kola Peninsula almost to the shores of the

    Arctic Sea. Of the several races currently recognized, only A. flavirostris

    flavirostris breeds northward into the Subarctic.

            See Acanthis .



    1003      |      Vol_IV-1062                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-crowned Sparrow

            952. White-crowned Sparrow. Zonotrichia leucophrys , a rather large

    (6 1/2 to 7 1/2 inches long) and handsome finch, so called because adult

    birds have boldly black and white crowns. The under parts are light gray,

    wholly without streaking. The sexes are alike. The crowns of young birds

    in first winter plumage are brown and gray.

            The species breeds across northern North America northward to tree

    limit and southward in the Rocky Mountains as far as New Mexico. At

    southern latitudes it breeds at great elevation, but in the Far North at

    little above sea level. The northern limits of the its range are the Kobuk

    River, Carbon Creek ( [ ?] 75 miles inland from Wainwright), and (probably)

    the Meade River, just south of Point Barrow, in Alaska; the lower Mackenzie;

    northeastern Manitoba (Churchill); northern Quebec; and northern Labrador

    (Hebron). It winters from the southern United States southward through

    the Mexican plateau. It has been reported twice from Baffin Island (Taverner

    Bay and Lake Harbor), and it may, according to Salomonsen (1948. Dansk Orn.

    Foren. Tides . 42: 88), have bred in the Godthaab district of West Greenland

    in 1824, during a period of high temperatures there.

            Several races have been described, two of which breed in the Far North.

    The two northern forms, nigrilora and leucophrys (see Todd, 1948. Proc.

    Biol. Soc. Wash. 61; 19-20) are easily recognizable, when in fully adult

    plumage, even in the field. In nigrilora (white-crowned sparrow), which

    breeds from Churchill, Manitoba, eastward to the Labrador, the white super–

    ciliary line begins above the eye and extends backward to the nape, and the

    lores and fore part of the superciliary region are black . In leucophyrs

    (Gambel’s white-crowned sparrow), which breeds from Churchill northwestward

    to Alaska, the white of the superciliary line starts well in front of the eye.

    1004      |      Vol_IV-1063                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: White-crowned Sparrow and White-winged Crossbill

    Both of these forms actually breed at Churchill. A careful study of them

    should be made there, for they may possibly be separate species.

            953. White-winged Crossbill. A well-known crossbill, Loxia leucoptera ,

    called in England the two-barred crossbill. It is about 6 1/2 inches long.

    The adult male is pink with black wings and tail. The wings have two con–

    spicuous white bars. There is dusky line through the eye. Females and

    young males are yellowish green with dark wings and tail and two white

    wing bars.

            The species inhabits northern coniferous forests. It is circumboreal

    in distribution and probably breeds northward to about spruce limit. It

    does not breed in Iceland, but it has been reported frequently enough from

    southern Greenland to rouse a suspicion that it may breed there. In North

    America it breeds southward to southern British Columbia, southern Alberta,

    central Ontario, New York (Adirondacks), New Hampshire (White Mountains),

    southern Maine, and southern Nova Scotia. It has been recorded as a vagrant

    in the British Isles and the Faeroes.

            My friend Sam ford once told me of finding a white-winged crossbill’s

    nest in the Ungava Bay country in February. While snowshoeing through the

    deep snow his knee struck a small spruce from which popped out a little bird.

    Examining the tree, which was almost buried by snow, he found the deep, feather–

    lined nest in which there were three eggs.

            See Crossbill and Loxia.



    1005      |      Vol_IV-1064                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow-breasted Bunting and Yellow Bunting

            954. Yellow-breasted Bunting. Emberiza sureola , a handsome finch

    about 5 1/2 inches long. The adult male is rich chesnut above, with a

    conspicuous white wing patch, partly white outer tail feathers, black

    face, and rich yellow under parts. There is narrow chestnut chest band

    and chestnut streaking on the sides and flanks. The female is duller, and

    much like the female yellow bunting ( E. citrinella ) but has a white wing

    bar and is plain yellow underneath, with very little streaking on the sides.

    The call note is a short zipp, the song simple but “loud and melodious.”

    The species breeds in willow thickets and also in dry scrub. The nest is

    usually 2 or 3 feet above ground in low vegetation. Jourdain says that

    both sexes incubate.

            E. aureola breeds across northern Eurasia from Scandinavia, where it

    is not very common, to the Kolyma and Anadyr rivers. It breeds at Lake

    Imandra, in the Kola Peninsula. Popham found it common at Yeniseisk, and

    it probably ranges to the Arctic Circle and slightly beyond along the

    Yenisei. It has been recorded several times in the British Isles.

            See Bunting and Emberiza .

            955. Yellow Bunting. Emberiza citrinella . A rather bright-colored

    bunting about 6 1/2 inches long. The male in summer is yellow on the head

    and under parts, streaked brown and black on the back, and chestnut on the

    rump, with white outer tail feathers which show distinctly in flight. The

    female is much duller, the young birds have scarcely and yellow on the

    head or under parts. The species feeds largely on the ground. The call

    note in tink , twink or tweenk . Song: tintintintintintink-sweee (Ticehurst).

    1006      |      Vol_IV-1065                                                                                                                  
    EA-Orn. Sutton: Yellow Bunting

    The yellow bunting nests on the ground in open dry country. It breeds

    across northern Eurasia, attaining its highest latitudes in Scandinavia

    (lat. 70° N. In Norway). Along the Yenisei, Popham recorded it at 64°.

    It is resident in the British Isles. It has been reported from the

    Faeroes and Bear Island.

            See Bunting and Emberiza .

    Back to top