Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5)

by John James Audubon

The trachea is 1 foot 10 inches long, a little flattened, 1/2 inch in diameter throughout, but a little narrower about the middle; the rings 160, not ossified, excepting the lower. The contractor muscles are very small; as are the sterno-tracheal; and the inferior larynx is destitute of muscles. The bronchi are large, 5 twelfths in diameter, of 25 half rings.

The upper mandible is hollow in its whole extent; but the lateral spaces intervening between the edges of the median bone or ridge and the margins, are filled with a beautiful net-work of bony spiculæ. The two superior maxillary branches of the fifth pair of nerves, which are very large, being about 1 twelfth of an inch in diameter at the base, run close together along the median line, sending off branches at intervals, and extending to the end of the mandible. The lower mandible is also hollow, and similarly reticulated. The inferior maxillary branch, having entered on the inner side at the base, runs in like manner along its whole length, and is of the same thickness; by an aperture on the outer side near the base, it sends off a branch almost as thick, which runs within the membrane of the gular sac, parallel to the mandible, and about half an inch distant from it, sending off branches at intervals. The sac is plentifully supplied with blood vessels.

The nasal cavity is of an oblong form, 1 inch and 5 twelfths in length, passing obliquely backwards and upwards from the aperture of the posterior nares, and opening externally by curving forwards; its greatest diameter 5 twelfths, in its lower third 3 twelfths, and so continuing until it expands into the inferior slit-like aperture, which is 8 twelfths long. The cavity of the nose is thus small, and the olfactory nerve, which passes out from the anterior part of the brain, is a slender filament, about 1/3 of a twelfth in diameter. It runs at first through a bony tube, then passes along the bony septum of the orbits, in contact for a short space with the superior maxillary nerve of the fifth pair, which at its commencement makes a great curve upwards, and crosses the orbit to enter the maxillary cavity, which has no communication with the olfactory. Fig. 2 represents the sternum viewed from before. It is remarkable chiefly for its great breadth and convexity. Its sides, a, b, c, d, are nearly parallel; its posterior margin broad, with two shallow notches, e, f, separated by a short conical obtuse median process. The crest or ridge, h, i, is carried forward in front, where it is only, however, of moderate height, and is not continued to the posterior extremity, but terminates at i, in the most convex part. The coracoid bones, i, i, are extremely large, very broad at their lower part, and having a deep groove and thin elongated process, j, at the upper for the tendon of the pectoralis medius, which raises the wing. The furcula, k, k, l, is anchylosed with the crest of the sternum, at h, has its crura moderately stout and much diverging, and its upper extremity very broad and recurvate. The scapula, of which only the anterior process t, l, is seen, is small. A sternal apparatus like this indicates a steady and powerful flight, the wings being supported upon a very firm basis, and well separated. The great mass of the pectoral muscle being thrown forward, it acts more directly than in such birds as the Gallinæ and Ducks, in which it is placed farther backwards, and although its bulk is not so great as in them, it is more advantageously situated. The sternal apparatus of this Pelican is thus extremely similar to that of the Cormorant, and the American Anhinga, and is also constructed on the same plan as that of the Gannets, although in the latter its body is more elongated.

LONG-TAILED DUCK.

Fuligula glacialis, Bonap.
PLATE CCCXII. Male and Female in Summer, Male in Winter, and unfledged Young.

In the course of one of my rambles along the borders of a large fresh-water lake, near Bras-d’or in Labrador, on the 28th of July 1833, I was delighted by the sight of several young broods of this species of Duck, all carefully attended to by their anxious and watchful mothers. Not a male bird was on the lake, which was fully two miles distant from the sea, and I concluded that in this species, as in many others, the males abandon the females after incubation has commenced. I watched their motions a good while, searching at the same time for the nests, one of which I was not long in discovering. Although it was quite destitute of anything bearing the appearance of life, it still contained the down which the mother had plucked from herself for the purpose of keeping her eggs warm. It was placed under an alder bush, among rank weeds, not more than eight or nine feet from the edge of the water, and was formed of rather coarse grass, with an upper layer of finer weeds, which were neatly arranged, while the down filled the bottom of the cavity, now apparently flattened by the long sitting of the bird. The number of young broods in sight induced me to search for more nests, and in about an hour I discovered six more, in one of which I was delighted to find two rotten eggs. They measured 2 inches and 1/8 long, by 1 4 1/2/8 broad, were of a uniform pale yellowish-green, and quite smooth.

My young companions had, unfortunately for me, walked that morning to Blanc Sablon, about thirty miles distant, down the Straits of Belle Isle; and having no dog to assist me in procuring some of the young ducks, I was obliged to enact the part of one myself, although the thermometer that day was 45° 50´, and the atmosphere felt chilly. I gave chase to the younglings, which made for different parts of the shore, as I followed them up to my middle in the water, while they dived before me like so many Water-witches, the mothers keeping aloof, and sounding their notes of alarm and admonition. I was fortunate enough to procure several of the young birds, and afterwards shot one of the old, which having young much smaller than the rest, was more anxious for their safety, and kept with them within shot. She and the young were afterwards put in rum, to be subsequently examined. I counted eleven broods on the same pond, and Mr Jones assured me that these birds always breed in numbers together, but rarely on the same lake two successive years. Their plumage was ragged, in so far as I could judge, and the individual which I shot was similar. They never dived while in my sight, but seemed constantly to urge their young to do so, and the little things so profited by the advice of their parents, that had they remained in the water, instead of making, after a while, for the land, I believe I should not have succeeded, after all my exertions, in capturing a single one of them.

The gentleman above mentioned informed me that the old birds keep the young in the ponds until they are quite able to fly, or until the end of August, when the flocks remove on wing to the sea, and soon after leave the coast, seldom reappearing before the first days of May, or about two weeks before most other kinds of ducks. The little ones which I procured, were as you see them represented in my plate. Those that were larger were of the same colour, and none shewed any feathers on their bodies. Now and then, like all other young ducks, they would skim over the surface of the water with astonishing rapidity, emitting a sharp note somewhat resembling the syllables pee, pee, pee, and would then dive with the quickness of thought. When squatted among the moss, they allowed me to take them without making any attempt to escape. The young were put in a tub, and had some soaked biscuit placed near them; but they were all found dead the next morning.