288 



ORDERS OF BIRDS— FULLY-WEBBED SWIMMERS 



some bird is usually made known by the dead 

 body of a cagemate that has been foully mur- 

 dered. 



In its home, the habits of the Snake-Bird 

 interested me greatly. Almost invariably it 

 perches on a dead tree, or a branch which over- 

 hangs water, preferably a small running stream. 

 Its neighbors are the two white egrets, the 

 Louisiana and Uttle blue herons, and an occa- 

 sional black vulture. Seldom indeed is one 

 of these birds found swimming in the water, 

 but Mr. C. E. Jackson once very dexterously 

 speared one from his boat, as it was diving under 

 him. 



When your boat approaches a Snake-Bird 

 and crosses his danger-line, the bird slides off its 

 perch, falls straight down, and sinks out of 

 sight. It goes down head erect, and " all stand- 

 ing," as if weighted with a bag of shot. This 

 is the queerest of all bird ways in diving. If 

 you halt, and watch sharply for the bird to 

 reappear at the surface, for three or four minutes 

 you will see nothing. 



At the end of a long wait you' will notice a 

 sharp-pointed stick, half as long as an adult 

 lead-pencil, sticking up out of the water. It 

 looks so queer you watch it sharply. Presently 

 you see the point of it turn a few degrees; and 

 then you discover a beady black eye watching 

 you. It is one of the neatest hiding-tricks 

 practised by any water-bird I know. 



The Snake-Bird has the power to submerge 

 its body at any depth it chooses, and remain 

 for any reasonable length of time. It is a very 

 expert diver, and the manner in which it can 

 pursue and capture live fish under water is 

 enough to strike terror to the hearts of finny 

 folk. The bird swims with a sharp kink in 

 its neck, driving forward by powerful strokes 

 of its cup-shaped feet. On overtaking a fish, 

 the kink in its neck flies straight, and like the 

 stab of a swift dagger the finny victim is trans- 

 fixed. Then the bird rises to the surface,7^ 

 for it is unable to swallow its food under water, — 

 tosses the fish into the air, catches it head first, 

 and in an instant it is gone. 



In the United States this bird is most at 

 home in the rivers and creeks of southern and 

 central Florida, but it is also found farther 

 west, along the Gulf. It is abundant in the 

 delta of the Orinoco, in the Guianas, and far- 



ther south. It lives well in captivity, and when 

 provided with a large glass tank is quite willing 

 to give daily exhibitions in diving after live 

 fish. In color the adult male is a glossy black 

 bird, and so is the female, except that her 

 entire neck is light brown. 



THE GANNET FAMILY. 



Sulidae 



The Common Grannet* is, in many respects, 

 a bird of very striking appearance. It is a 

 goose-like bird, as large as a medium-sized 

 goose, and its prevailing colors are white and a 

 very beautiful ecru. Its pliunage is as smooth 

 and immaculate as the surface of a wooden 

 decoy; it has a slow and solemn manner, and 

 has the least suspicion of man of any swimming- 

 bird I know. Its head, neck and bill are mas- 

 sive, the latter especiallly being long and very 

 thick at the base. The total length of this bird 

 when adult is only a trifle under three feet. 



Although the Common Gannet is strictly a 

 bird of the ocean coasts, and apparently never 

 is seen inland, it is a bird of such striking 

 personality it .well deserves to be introduced 

 in these pages. Any large bird which once 

 existed in countless thousands on our coast, and 

 has not yet been exterminated, may well be 

 known to every intelligent American. 



Although the Gannet wanders as far south as 

 Long Island, its real home is where it breeds. 

 "While there are many points along the coast 

 from Maine to Labrador where the Gannets 

 might breed,- they are found, so far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, only at three places, an 

 island in the Bay of Fundy, the Bird Rocks 

 near, the geographical centre of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, and Bonaventure Island, at Perc6, 

 Canada, the colony at Mingan being too small 

 and too nearly exterminated to be taken into con- 

 sideration." (Frederic A. Lucas.) 



In 1860, Dr. Brj-^ant estimated the total num- 

 ber of Gannets on the Bird Rocks at 150,000. 



In 1872, Mr. William Brewster estimated the 

 number then living there at 50,000. 



In 1887, Mr. Lucas found not a single Gannet 

 nesting on Little Bird Rock, and not over 10,000 

 on Great Rock. 



Although the Gannets, and other sea-birds, 

 make their homes on the most inaccessible 

 * Sxi'la has-sa'na. 



