Upland Plover (Bartramia longicauda) is the only plainly colored shorebird which occurs east of the plains and inhabits exclusively dry fields and hillsides. It breeds from Oregon, Utah, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Virginia, north to Alaska; winters in South America. It is the most terrestrial of our waders, is shy and wary, but has the one weakness of not fearing men on horseback or in a vehicle. Since the bird is highly prized as a table delicacy, it has been hunted to the verge of extermination. Ninety-seven per cent of the food of this species consists of animal forms, chiefly of injurious and neutral species. It injures no crop, but consumes a host of the worst enemies of agriculture.
Stork (Ciconia alba).—The storks are usually divided into the True Storks and the American [218] “Wood Ibises” (Tantalus). There are about a dozen species. They belong chiefly to the Old World. The most familiar representative of the family is the Common Stork or White Stork (Ciconia alba), a native of the greater part of the Old World, a migratory. bird, its range extending even to the northern parts of Scandinavia. It is about three and one-half feet in length. The head, neck, and whole body are pure white; the wings partly black; the bill and legs red. The neck is long, and generally carried in an arched form; the feathers of the breast are long and pendulous, and the bird often has its bill half hidden among them. The flight is very powerful and high in the air; the gait slow and measured. In flight the head is thrown back and the legs extended. The stork sleeps standing on one leg, with the neck folded, and the head turned backward on the shoulder. It frequents marshy places, feeding on eels and other fishes, frogs, lizards, snakes, slugs, young birds, small mammals, and insects. It makes a rude nest of sticks, reeds, etc., on the tops of tall trees, or of ruins, spires, or houses. There are four or five eggs, white tinged with buff; and the old nest is re-occupied next year.
Woodcock (Scolopax).—Their nest is formed simply by lining a sheltered hollow with dead leaves, and three or four yellowish eggs with brown markings are laid in March or early in April. The young birds are sometimes carried by the mother from place to place, and the manner of carrying has given rise to much discussion. The woodcock feeds in the early morning and at dusk on worms, beetles, small crustaceans, etc., the quantity of food consumed being very large. The adult bird measures about fourteen inches, and weighs less than one pound.
The American Woodcock (S. minor) is a smaller bird than the European species, and it also is in much request for table use. It is eleven inches in length, and is found east of the Mississippi and south of the Canadian forests.
THE SWIMMING BIRDS (Natatores)
The beak is of a medium length; the front toes are, as a rule, joined together by a membrane, to aid the birds in swimming. The natatores live upon all still and flowing bodies of water, and feed upon the water reptiles and insects, rarely upon the water plants; and they are esteemed for their flesh, eggs, and feathers.
Albatross (Diomedea).—The Common or Wandering Albatross (D. exulans) is the largest of web-footed birds, measuring four feet in length, and from ten up to as much as seventeen feet in spread of wings. It weighs fifteen to twenty pounds, or even more. The wings are, however, narrow in proportion to their length. It often approaches very near to vessels, and is one of the objects of interest which present themselves to voyagers far away from land, particularly when it is seen sweeping the surface of the ocean in pursuit of fish and garbage. It seems rather to float and glide in the air, than to fly like other birds, for, except when it is rising from the water, the motion of its long wings is scarcely perceptible. It is affirmed by some to sail by setting its wings like sails, and to make headway against the wind without flapping. The albatross has great powers of sustained flight. It often follows a ship for a considerable time, and it has been calculated that it may fly seven hundred and twenty nautical miles in a day.
The plumage is soft and abundant, mostly white, dusky on the upper parts, with some of the feathers of the back and wings black. The bill is of a delicate pink, inclining to yellow at the tip.
The albatross is extremely voracious; it feeds on fish, cuttle-fish, jelly-fish, etc., but has no objection to the flesh of a dead whale, or to any kind of carrion. When food is abundant it gorges itself like the vultures, and then sits motionless upon the water, so that it may sometimes be taken with the hand. Its hoarse cry has been compared to that of the pelican, but is sometimes more suggestive of the braying of an ass. The single egg is four or five inches long, of a white color, spotted at the larger end. The nestling is white, the young somewhat brownish and of slow growth.
There are seven species. One of these, the Sooty Albatross (D. fuliginosa), chiefly found within the Antarctic circle, is called by sailors the Quaker Bird, on account of the prevailing brown color of its plumage.