Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast

by Harry Thom Payne

There is very little difference in the two varieties. The whistling swan being more of a northern bird, rarely migrating as far south as central California. About the only noticeable difference is that the whistling swan has a small yellow spot at the V-shaped point of the bill where it meets the eye.

THE WADERS AND SHORE BIRDS

The Pacific Coast is especially rich in waders and shore birds, there being upwards of forty species that are more or less common, with some ten or more that are occasional visitors. Of these few can be considered game birds, while others are so small that they are rarely shot by our sportsmen. Many of both the waders and the shore birds are constant residents. Others come from still farther south for breeding purposes, while still others breed north of us and migrate throughout the territorial scope of these articles to spend their winters.

The shore birds, while very common, are hunted but little by the sportsmen of this region, and many of the smaller species that are considered quite a delicacy by our eastern brethren are passed by entirely by our lovers of the gun. The reasons for this will be obvious to all who have read the preceding pages and noted the abundance and great variety of larger and better game. By better game I mean birds that furnish better sport by requiring more skill in approaching them and better marksmanship in bringing them to bag. The little mountain plover, of the southern part of the Coast, while not surpassed even by the jack snipe as a table delicacy, are hunted but little, even where they are very abundant, because there is little sport to be had in shooting them. And the same is true, in a great measure, of several other species. Sportsmen, therefore, are little acquainted with these birds either as to their names, gastronomic merits or means of identification.

WHITE-FACED GLOSSY IBIS (Plegadis gaurauna)

THE HERONS and IBISES

(Order, Herodiones)

While none of the order Herodiones, which includes the storks, herons, ibises and bitterns, can be considered game birds, they are so common about our waters, and some of them add such a charm to the scene by their beautiful plumage and graceful movement, that mention of some of them here will not be out of place.

The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is the most common of these waders. With his long, gracefully curved neck and slender legs he wades with stately mien along the shallow waters of the lakes, marshes and streams, both summer and winter, for he is to the manner born and has no desire to seek other lands or other climes. The herons are said to be destructive to fish. This can be to a limited extent only, for they subsist very largely on the enemies of the fish, destroying hundreds of snakes, water lizards and other fish destroyers.