Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

The head and neck are velvet black, with a white crescent immediately under the throat, and another behind. The upper parts of the plumage are also black, spotted with white, and the breast and belly perfectly white. This bird is found in all the northern parts of Europe, and feeds on fish. It breeds on the inaccessible rocks and steep cliffs in the Isle of Man, and likewise in Cornwall, and several other places in England. The northern diver lays exceedingly large eggs; being full three inches long, blunt at one end, and sharp at the other, of a sort of bluish color, generally spotted with some black spots or strokes. It flies high and well. It is found on the coast of the United States, where it is known by the name of the loon.

THE PUFFIN'

Is the size of the teal, weighs about twelve ounces, and is twelve inches in length. The bill is much compressed; the half next the point is red, that next the base is blue gray. It has three furrows or grooves impressed in it; one in the livid part, two in the red. The eyes are fenced with a protuberant skin, of a livid color; and they are gray or ash colored.

The puffin, like all the rest of this kind, has its legs thrown so far back, that it can hardly move without tumbling. This makes it rise with difficulty, and subject to many falls before it gets upon the wing; but as it is a small bird, when it once rises, it can continue its flight with great celerity. All the winter these birds are absent, visiting regions too remote for discovery. At the latter end of March, or the beginning of April, a troop of their spies, or harbingers, come and stay two or three days, as it were, to

1 Mormon fratercula, TEMM. The genus Mormon has the bill shorter than the head, deeper than long, and much compressed; both mandibles arched transversely, furrowed, and notched towards the tip; ridge of the upper mandible elevated above the level of the skull; nostrils lateral, marginal, linear, naked, almost wholly concealed by a large naked membrane; legs short, placed far behind, furnished with only three toes, all directed forwards, and webbed; claws much hooked; wings short.

view and search out their former situations, and see whether all be well. This done, they once more depart; and, about the beginning of May, return again with the whole army of their companions. But if the season happens to be stormy and tempestuous, and the sea troubled, the unfortunate voyagers undergo incredible hardships; and they are found, by hundreds, cast away upon the shores, lean, and perished with famine.

The puffin, when it prepares for breeding, which always happens a few days after its arrival, begins to scrape out a hole in the ground, not far from the shore; and when it has penetrated some way into the earth, it then throws itself upon its back, and with its bill and claws thus burrows inward, till it has dug a hole with several windings and turnings, from eight to ten feet deep. It particularly seeks to dig under a stone, where it expects the greatest security. In this fortified retreat it lays one egg, which, though the bird be not much bigger than a pigeon, is the size of a hen's.

Few birds or beasts will venture to attack them in their retreats.. When the great sea raven comes to take away their young, the puffin boldly opposes him. Their meetings afford a most singular combat. As soon as the raven approacees, the puffin catches him under the throat with its beak, and sticks its claws into its breast, which makes the raven, with a loud screaming, attempt to get away; but the little bird still holds fast to the invader, nor lets him go till they both come to the sea, when they drop down together, and the raven is drowned; yet the raven is but too often successful, and, invading the puffin at the bottom of its hole, devours both the parent and its family.

THE GREAT AUK'

Is distinguished peculiarly by the form of the bill, which is strong, convex, compressed at the sides, in general crossed with several furrows, and in some degree resembling the coulter of a plough.

[ocr errors]

It is the size of a goose; its bill is black, about four inches and a quarter in length, and covered at the base with short, velvet-like feathers. The upper parts of the plumage are black, and the lower parts white, with a spot of white between the bill and the eyes, and an oblong stripe of the same on the wings, which are too short for flight. The bird is also a very bad walker, but swims and dives well. It is, however, observed by seamen,

1 Alca impenuis, LIN. The genus Alca has the bill straight, broad, compressed, much bent towards the tip, both mandibles half covered with feathers, and grooved near the point, the upper hooked, the lower forming a salient angle; nostrils lateral, marginal, linear, situated near the middle of the bill, almost entirely closed by a membrane, and covered with feathers; legs short, placed far behind, with three toes directed forwards, and palmated; wings short.

that it is never seen out of soundings, so that its appearance serves as an infallible direction to land. It feeds on the lump fish, and others of the same

[graphic]

size; and is frequent on the coasts of Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland, &c. It lays its e close to the sea-mark.

THE RAZORBILLI

Is not above half the size of the preceding, which it resembles both in form and plumage, except that it has the use of its wings, and lays its egg (for each of these species lays but one) on the bare top of a precipice, and fastens it by a cement, so as to prevent its rolling off. It is pretty common on the coasts of England during the summer season.

THE PENGUIN.

THE penguins seem to hold the same place in the southern parts of the world, as the auks do in the north, neither of them having ever been observed within the tropics. The wings of the larger species do not enable them to rise out of the water, but serve them rather as paddles, to help them forward when they attempt to move swiftly, and in a manner walk along the surface of the water. Even the smaller kinds seldom fly by choice; they flutter their wings with the swiftest efforts, without making way; and though they have but a small weight of body to sustain, yet they seldom venture to quit the water, where they are provided with food and protection.

1 Alca torda, LIN.

As the wings of the penguin tribe are unfitted for flight, the legs are still more awkwardly adapted for walking. This whole tribe have all above the knee hid within the belly; and nothing appears but two short legs, or feet, as some would call them, that seem stuck under the rump, and upon which the animal is very awkwardly supported. They seem, when sitting, or attempting to walk, like a dog that has been taught to sit up, or to move a minuet. Their short legs drive the body in progression from side to side; and were they not assisted by their wings, they could scarcely move faster than a tortoise.

This awkward position of the legs, which so disqualifies them for living upon land, adapts them admirably for a residence in water; in that, the legs, placed behind the moving body, push it forward with greater velocity; and these birds, like Indian canoes, are the swiftest in the water, by having their paddles in the rear.

They are also covered more warmly all over the body with feathers, than any other birds whatever; so that the sea seems entirely teir element.

oat

THE PATAGONIAN PENGUIN'

WEIGHS about forty pounds, and is four feet three inches in length. The bill measures four inches and a half, but is slender. The head, throat, and hind part of the neck, are brown; the back of a deep ash color; and all the under parts white. The Magellanic penguin is about the size of a goose; the upper parts of the plumage are black, and the under white. These birds walk erect, with their heads on high, their fin-like wings hanging down like arms; so that to see them at a distance, they look like so many children with white aprons. Hence they are said to unite in themselves the qualities of men, fowls, and fishes. Like men, they are upright; like fowls, they are feathered; and, like fishes, they have fin-like instruments, that beat the water before, and serve for all the purposes of swimming rather than flying.

ORDER XVI. INERTES.

BIRDS of this order have the bill of different forms; body probably thick, covered with down, and feathers with distant webs; legs placed much behind; tarsus short; three toes before, divided to the base; hind toe short

1 Aptenodytes Patachonica, LATH. The genus Aptenodytes has the bill longer than the head, slender, straight, inflected at the tip; upper mandible furrowed throughout its whole length, the under wider at the base, and covered with a naked and smooth skin; nostrils in the upper part of the bill concealed by the feathers of the forehead; legs very short, thick, placed far behind; four toes directed forward, three of which are webbed, and the fourth very short; wings incapable of flight.

articulated exteriorly; claws thick and sharp; wings improper for flight. There are only two birds known of this order; the apteryx, a bird inhabiting New Zealand, and the dodo.

[merged small][graphic]

SWIFTNESS is generally considered as the peculiar attribute of birds; but the dodo, instead of exciting that idea by its appearance, seems to strike the imagination as a thing the most unwieldy and inactive of all nature. Its body is massive, almost cubical, and covered with gray feathers; it is just barely supported upon two short thick legs like pillars. The neck, thick and pursy, is joined to the head, which consists of two great chaps, that open far behind the eyes, which are large, black, and prominent; so that the animal, when it gapes, seems to be all mouth. The bill, therefore, is of an extraordinary length, not flat and broad, but thick, and of a bluish white, sharp at the end, and each chap crooked in opposite directions. From all this, results a stupid and voracious physiognomy; which is still more increased by a bordering of feathers round the root of the beak, and which give the appearance of a hood or cowl. The dodo is furnished with wings, covered with soft ash-colored feathers; but they are too short to assist it in flying. It is furnished with a tail, and with a few small curled feathers;

1 Didus ineptus, LIN. The characteristics of the genus Didus are a bill long, stout, broad, compressed; upper mandible bent at the point, transversely furrowed; lower mandible straight, gibbous, bent upwards at the point; nostrils in the middle of the bill, placed obliquely in a furrow; tarsus short; three toes before, divided, the hind toe short, claws short, bent; wings incapable of flight.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »