Some Local Fish-eating Birds 



BY HENRY W. FOWLER 



The water-birds of the Delaware Valley have always been of 

 primary interest to me in my studies of natural history. Liv- 

 ing near the Delaware River, and close to one of its smaller trib- 

 utaries, my opportunities for study have been more advan- 

 tageous than many other investigators. Added to this are 

 many opportunities while studying fishes along the coast, or off 

 the shores of our adjacent States. A number of the more im- 

 portant notes, made at odd moments, are here embodied as a 

 slight contribution to science, and in the hope that they may 

 stimulate further efforts in this direction by our ornithologists. 

 Acknowledgment should be made to Messrs. David McCadden, 

 D. E. Culver and Richard F. Miller, who have supplied me with 

 notes, as well as material, used in these studies. 



The information gathered is at best fragmentary, and refers 

 largely to our commoner species of birds. The element of fish- 

 eaters is doubtless larger than here outlined, though the list is 

 characteristic for the fresh-water tidal regions about Phila- 

 delphia. Off the coast are hosts of water birds, feeding on 

 marine life of one form or another. Such are gannets, shear- 

 waters, various gulls and terns, smaller species of auks, murres, 

 guillemots, jaegers, petrels, ducks, geese, skimmers, etc. No 

 local information appears available, and many of the statements 

 given in Wilson and Audubon will remain as purely conjectural 

 about their vague ' ' fish ' ' diet, until detailed studies are made. 



Three methods of observation are open to the study of the 

 food of fish-eating birds. The first, and most important, is the 

 examination of stomach contents, or such remains as are in the 

 alimentary canal, of the freshly-killed bird. The second method 

 is the observation of the living bird, feeding about waters where 

 the fish-life has been previously examined. The last method is 



(6) 



