The Audubon Societies i8i 



It is quite true that we cannot atlord to lose these feathered scavengers about 

 our harbors, coasts, and larger inland waters. 



It is more than likely that many of you have never seen or heard of the 

 Tube-nosed Swimmers, unless, possibly, you have read of the Albatross, or 

 the Petrels which go by the name of "Mother Carey's Chickens." The birds 

 •of this order wander far out to sea, being seen only occasionally off land. 



Fulmars, Shearwaters, Petrels and the powerful Albatrosses, famed in 

 song, that find their way over the southern Pacific even to the coast of China 

 and Japan, are all birds of the ocean, wanderers of the high seas from the 

 largest to the smallest. Transatlantic voyagers often see the Uttle Wilson's 

 Petrel, beating back and forth by the ship, at home anywhere on the vast 

 expanse of water. From May to September, it roams the Atlantic as far north 

 as the British Isles and Labrador, very rarely straying to inland waters. Feb- 

 ruary finds this hardy visitor breeding in rocky crevices along the little- 

 Jcnown islands of the Antarctic Ocean. Can you reckon the distance from 

 Labrador to Kerguelen Island, and find out how long a journey this tiny 

 Petrel, which is scarcely larger than a Sparrow, makes? 



In order IV we find birds which have all four toes webbed. Their young 

 .are born naked, instead of feathered like those of other water-birds, and there- 

 fore their nests are fashioned with more care. A strange group of birds is 

 this, from the long-tailed Tropic-Birds, the curious Anhinga, or Water-Turkey, 

 sometimes also called "Snake-bird," and the Man-o'-war-bird or "Frigate- 

 bird" which is noted for its wonderful power of flight, to the Booby and Gannet, 

 the odd-looking Cormorants, and still odder Pelicans. The great White 

 Pelican, which is fast becoming rare, as its breeding-haunts are claimed by 

 man, is one of the notable travelers of the interior, while the Gannet and 

 Cormorants are better known along our coasts. The White Pelican goes as 

 far north as latitude 6i.° In the winter it leaves the United States, except 

 along the borders of the Gulf of Mexico and Southern California, keeping on 

 to Central America. 



Order V brings us to birds which we know and see rather commonly. Of 

 all spring travelers, the Canada or "Wild" Goose is perhaps the most welcome, 

 for, when the "honking" of Wild Geese is heard, we feel sure that snow and 

 ice w'ill melt soon. From Texas, Florida, southern California, and now and 

 then from Jamaica and the Bermudas, this large Goose comes on powerful 

 wings, to nest in bleak Labrador to the East, and from the north of those 

 states fed by the upper Mississippi, west to Oregon, and so far on, up to the 

 tree-limit in the lower Yukon valley, northwestern Mackenzie and central 

 Keewatin. One must have sharp eyes to spy out the swiftly flying birds 

 of this order, whose whistling wings cut the air with the speed of an express 

 train, as they fly by in orderly companies. 



Quite as striking a bird, either on the wing or on foot, as the Canada Goose, 

 is the Great Blue Heron, the largest of the wading-birds which commonly 



