108 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part I. 



THK HERRING GLLL. 



THE CANADA GOOSE. 



is slightly rounded. Length 15 inches, 

 the folded wing 10 ; bill along the gape, 



History. — This beautiful Gull is often 

 seen in small flocks in Lake Champlain, 

 but is most plentiful in autumn, when 

 those which have been rearing their 

 young at the north are proceeding south- 

 ward to spend the winter. Numbers of 

 them are however said to breed upon the 

 islands in lake Champlain, particularly 

 upon those called the Four Brothers. 

 They feed principally upon insects and 

 are distinguished by a peculiarly shrill 

 and plaintive cry. Their flesh is esteem- 

 ed good food. The specimen from which 

 our description was made, was shot, with 

 several others belonging to the same 

 flock, in Shelburne Bay. 



THE HERRING GULL. 

 Laras argcntatus. — Brcnn. 



Descriptio.n. — Winter plumage. Top 

 of the head, region of the eyes, occiput, 

 nape and sides of the m'ck white, each 

 feather with a longitudinal pale brown 

 streak ; front, throat, all the lower parts, 

 back and tail white ; top of the back, 

 scapulars, and the whole wing bluish ash; 

 primaries blackish towards the end ter- 

 minating in white ; bill ochre yellow ; 

 orbits and iris yellow, the latter pale ; feet 

 reddish flesh-color. Summer jilumugc^ 

 with the head and neck pure white. 

 Young blackish ash, mottled with yellow- 

 ish rusty. Length about 24 inches. — 

 JS'uttall. 



History. — The Herring Gull derives 

 its vuln^ar name from the circumstance of 

 its feeding much upon Herrings, which 

 it catches by following the shoals. They 

 are common to the milder parts of both 

 continents, and are not uncommon in 

 lake Champlain, where numbers of thein 

 breed upon the small, uninhabited islands. 

 The Rev. G. G. Ingersoll has procured 

 the eg'^s of this Gull from one of the isl- 

 lands called the Four Brothers, situated 

 five or si.x miles from Burlington. Their 

 ground color is light olive, irregularly 

 spotted with dull reddish-brown and dirt}^ 

 ash. The nest is usually made of sticks 

 upon the ground or a rock, but Audubon 

 found them at the Bay of Fundy, breed- 

 inor upon low fir trees. 



Genus Asser. — Brisson. 



Generic Characters. — Bill moderate, stout, at the 

 base higher than broad, somewhat conic, cylindri- 

 cal, depressed towards the point, and narrowed and 

 rounded at the extremity , upper mandible not cov- 

 ering the margins of the lower; the ridge of the bill 



broad and elevated ; the nail somewhat orbicular, 

 curved an. I obtuse ; marginal teeth ehortj conic and 

 acute; nostrils medial, lateral, longitudinal, ellip- 

 tic, large, open and pervious, covered by a mem- 

 brane ; tongue thick, fleshy and fringed on the 

 sides ; feet central, stent, webs entire : wings mod- 

 crate, acute; quills strong; tail rounded. SexeS 

 similar in plumage. 



.^ 



THE CANADA GOOSE. 

 Jlnser canadensis. — Bonaparte. 



Description. — Head, two thirds of the 

 neck, greater quills, rump and tail pitch 

 black ; back and wings broccoli-brown, 

 edged with wood-brown ; base of the 

 neck before and the under plumage yel- 

 lowish gray, with paler edges ; flanks and 

 base of the plumage generally brownish- 

 gray. A few feathers about the eye, a 

 large kidney- shaped patch on the throat, 

 the sides of the rump, and tail coverts, 

 pure white ; bill and feet black ; neck 

 long. Length 41, tail D, wing 191. — Rich. 



History. — The Wild Goose is well 

 known in all parts of the United States as 

 a bird of passage. \n Vermont they are 

 seen in large numbers during their spring 

 and fall miofrations, and it is not uncom- 

 mon for them to alight in our lakes and 

 ponds to feed and rest themselves, where 

 they are frequently shot, but they are not 

 known to breed within the state. Their 

 principal breeding places are further north 

 between the 50th and 67th parallels of 

 latitude. They lay 6 or 7 greenish-white 

 eggs in a nest rudely made upon tlie 

 ground. The residents about Hudson's 

 bay depend much upon geese for their 

 supply of winter provisions, 3 or 4,000 of 

 them being killed annually, and barrelled 

 up for use. In their migrations. Wild 

 Geese usually fly in large flocks, arranged 

 in the form of the letter [> , with the ver- 

 tex of the angle forward. Sometimes 

 they alight in fields and meadows, and, 

 not unfrequently, they are compelled to 

 alight in consequence of being bewildered 

 and lost in thick fogs and severe storms. 



