DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Dryotomus. Swainson. Lardner’s Cyclopedia, Birds, II., p. 308. (1837.)

Size large; bill straight, long, wide at base, very strong; wings long, third and fourth quills usually longest; tail long, graduated, rigid; legs short; tarsi distinctly scaled; toes rather long, outer hind toe longest, claws strong, compressed; feathers of the head behind elongated and crest-like; colors generally black, white, and scarlet; contains species of both the old and new world, amongst which are the largest of the Picidæ.

Dryotomus imperialis. (Gould.) Picus imperialis. Gould. Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1832, p. 140.

Form. The largest of Woodpeckers; bill long, wide at base, three distinct ridges on the upper mandible; wing long, primaries narrow, third and fourth longest; tail rather long, graduated, middle feathers longest; all the feathers of the tail narrow, rigid; tarsi moderate, strong, scales in front very distinct; toes long, claws strong, curved, compressed; general organization very strong; crest-like feathers long.

Dimensions. Male. Total length (of skin) about 23 inches; wing 12½; tail 9½; bill to the corner of the mouth 4; tarsus 2 inches.

Colors. Male. Elongated feathers of the head or crest, bright scarlet; interscapular feathers, outer two-thirds of secondaries, and inner edges of shorter primaries, white; under wing coverts white; all other parts of the plumage deep black, with a greenish lustre; bill yellowish-white; tarsi and toes dark; secondaries at their bases black; bristle-like feathers at the base of upper mandible black. Female similar to the male, but rather smaller, and with the crest black.

Hab. Oregon. California. Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada.

This gigantic Woodpecker is strictly of the same generic group as the well known Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the forests of the Southern States of this Union, and in some measure resembles it, but not in such degree as to be readily confounded. The present bird is considerably the larger, and is without the white stripes on the neck which are to be found in the Ivory-billed. In both species, the females have the elongated or crest-like feathers black.

It is quite remarkable that this fine species has not been brought by any of the naturalists or travellers who have visited, or at least passed through its native forests. This fact tends to demonstrate the truth of our views, occasionally expressed in the present volume, that we have much yet to learn of the Ornithology of Western America.

Plate 50
The Short-tailed Albatross
Diomedea brachyura (Temminck)

DIOMEDEA BRACHYURA.—Temminck.
The Short-tailed Albatross.
PLATE L. Adult Male.

This Albatross is the adult of the bird represented in [plate 35], (the Black-footed Albatross, Diomedea nigripes, Aud.) of the present volume. At the time of the publication of the plate alluded to, and our article accompanying it, we were not aware of this identity; but having had our attention called to it by a distinguished European ornithologist, we have, on careful re-examination and comparison, fully confirmed its truth. So great a change taking place, however, in this bird, from early age to maturity, the two figures only fairly represent the species, of which that formerly given, as above, is the young bird.

The common occurrence of this species on the coasts of California and Oregon, was ascertained by the naturalists of the Exploring Expedition in the Vincennes and Peacock, under command of Captain Charles Wilkes, of the United States’ Navy; and its addition to the ornithology of North America is one of many services to Zoology performed by that celebrated and most important Expedition. In fact, of the many similar undertakings of governments for the purposes of exploration and scientific research within the present century, the expedition alluded to stands pre-eminent in its contributions to Geographical and Zoological Science, a result to be attributed to the enlightened and judicious exertions of its distinguished Commander, and to the fact that it numbered amongst its naturalists several of the most accomplished Zoologists of America.

This Albatross probably inhabits the entire extent of the Pacific Ocean, from the northern coasts of America and Asia to Australia. It is given by Mr. Gould as a bird of the coast of Australia, though somewhat doubtfully, and is very probably the species sometimes mistaken for the Great Wandering Albatross (D. exulans), and found abundantly in the vicinity of the Kurile Islands and the coast of Kamtschatka, and other more southern coasts of Asia. It is smaller than the species just mentioned, but otherwise much resembles it. That species, though abundant in the southern hemisphere, does not apparently venture so far north as the present bird.

In a volume on Quadrupeds and Birds, by Mr. Titian R. Peale, which was printed and partially distributed as one of the valuable series of works on the scientific results of the Exploring Expedition of the Vincennes and Peacock, we find the following in relation to the bird now before us:—

“Numbers of the Short-tailed Albatross were observed by the Expedition on the Northwest coast of America, and this species is believed to be a common inhabitant of all the Pacific Ocean, north of the Tropic of Cancer. Specimens vary as much, or perhaps more, from each other, than in the Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans), of the Southern Ocean, and require several years to attain to their perfect dress. The changes are regularly progressive. Until the second year the plumage remains of a dark sooty-brown color, with black feet, and dirty flesh-colored bills (which become black when the skins are dried), and in this state this bird pairs and raises its first young; after this, cloudy-white spots appear about the base of the bill, and white spots over and under the eyes; the rump begins to show a conspicuous spot of the same; and the bill turns yellow, with a tinge of carmine; the tip bluish; the legs are then flesh-colored; and, finally, the back, wings, and tail, become cinereous-brown; rump, head, and all the under parts pure white; a white margin shows along the back-edge of the wing in flight; and a cloudy-black spot generally remains in front of the eye. Thus, in some years, the plumage of the body is changed from nearly black to a pure snow-like white.

“On the 20th of December we found this species breeding on Wake’s Island. The single egg of each pair was laid on the ground, in a slight concavity, without any lining material; both sexes take turns in the duties of incubation, and neither the male nor the female abandoned the nest on our approach, but walked around us in a very dignified manner, and made but a few demonstrations of defence with their beaks, when taken up in our arms. The eggs are white, of an oblong figure, nearly alike at both ends, and measure four and two-tenths inches long, and two and six-tenths inches in diameter.

“The two sexes are alike in plumage, and do not vary much in size, though the male is rather the larger.

“This bird is usually silent, but sometimes quarrels with its fellows over the offal thrown from ships, when it “brays” in much the same tone as a jackass. It is easily caught with a hook and line, but owing to its thick plumage and tenacity of life, it is difficult to kill it with shot.

“It was not our fortune to observe more than this one species of Albatross in the North Pacific. It is subject to great variations of plumage, as stated above, but is very distinct from the species of the Southern Hemisphere. The Wandering Albatross (D. exulans), and the Yellow-nosed (D. chlororhynchus), both of which, it has been asserted, have been sometimes found in the Northern Oceans, we believe, on the contrary, to be entirely restricted to the Southern hemisphere, or else they would sometimes be seen in crossing the intermediate tropical region. We saw both of those species, and also the Sooty Albatross (D. fusca), as far south as latitude 57° 41′, which appeared to be nearly their southern limit. Their northern limit of migration on the Atlantic shores of South America is somewhere about the River La Plata, and on the Pacific coasts about the southern parts of Peru.”

In Dr. Pickering’s Journal this bird is alluded to frequently, and especially as occurring at sea north of the Hawaiian Islands, and on the coast of Oregon. His observations agree with those by Mr. Peale, above quoted.

This species is given by Messrs. Temminck and Schlegel, as a bird of Japan, in their Fauna Japonica, and is well figured in its young plumage, but they give no account of its manners or history.

The figure in our plate represents the adult male, and was made from a specimen obtained on the coast of Kamtschatka, now in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy, but precisely similar to others in the collection of the Exploring Expedition in the National Museum, Washington city.