Hudson-Fulton Celebration Number 



ZOOLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Published by the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission, 

 in cooperation with 

 The New York Zoological Society. September, 1909 



Xo. 35 



THE WILD ANIMALS OF HUDSON'S DAY 



By William T. Hornaday, 



Director of the New York Zoological Park. 



PART I.— THE BIRDS* 



ONLY the bold adventurer who has sailed 

 a frail bark westward across three thou- 

 sand miles of stormy ocean can know the 

 thrill that is transmitted by the heliograph flash 

 of a pair of silvery wings, with the knowledge 

 that land is near. To the westward trans-At- 

 lantic voyager, it is always the Herring Gull 

 that far at sea proclaims the land. 



On the wing, this Gull is always beautiful ; 

 but never is its plumage quite so silvery, and 

 never are its flight-curves so graceful, as when 

 it greets the tired American who thankfully is 

 sailing toward the Statue of Libert}' and Home. 

 Other birds sometimes met off shore, are the 

 deep-water ducks, particularly the Red-Breast- 

 ed Merganser, with a bill like the serrated snout 

 of a Gangetic crocodile, and flesh so frankly 

 and rankly fishy that only the most powerful 

 human palate can accept it. The Scoters, or 

 Surf Ducks, once in evidence at sea, now are 

 rarely seen in the waters adjacent to New York. 

 Three hundred years ago, before the dark 

 days of bird slaughter in America, it is reason- 

 ably certain that New York Bay attracted im- 

 mense flocks of web-footed wild-fowl. If the 

 histories of that period do not so record it, then 

 the historians were remiss. We are certain that 

 once inside Sandy Hook, the all-too-succulent 

 Canvasback Duck, and its understudy, the 

 Redhead, "might have been seen," and in fact 

 were seen, by the discerning mariner. But in 



* All the Illustrations reproduced with this article 

 are from "The American Natural History," copy- 

 right, 1904, by William T. Hornaday, and appear here 

 by the permission of the publishers, Messrs. Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 



an evil moment the baneful eye of the epicure 

 fell upon the savory Canvasback, and he pro- 

 nounced it the king of table ducks. From that 

 hour, its doom was sealed ; and today it is al- 

 most a bird of history. 



Let us for the moment try to put ourselves in 

 Explorer Hudson's place, and see the birds of 

 the Hudson River and Valley, as he and his 

 men saw them. 



Surely on the ponds and streams of Manhat- 

 tan Island they found the exquisite Wood 

 Duck ; for even today an occasional wanderer 

 returns to its old haunts in the Zoological Park! 

 Stated in the form of a proportion, the Wood 

 Duck is to Other Ducks as The Opal is to Other 

 Gems, — the most glorious in colors of them all. 

 The Pintail Duck, however, is more beautiful 

 in form. The most graceful yacht that ever 

 floated never was half so exquisitely modeled in 

 hull and stern and bow as this web-footed water 

 fairy. 



The Mallard Duck is like charity. It suf- 

 fereth long, and is kind ; so it holds on long 

 after the more sensitive species have been shot 

 out. It will be our last good wild duck to be 

 exterminated by the pot-hunters for the starving 

 millions of wealth, — for whom the fashionable 

 chef feels that he MUST provide game, or be 

 disgraced. In the years that have flown, the 

 quiet bayous of the eastern shore of the Hud- 

 son have fed and sheltered untold thousands of 

 lusty "Green-Heads," young and old, and they 

 were the lawful prey of the hungry explorer and 

 pioneer. 



A hundred years ago, the Osprey, or Fish- 

 Hawk, bred numerously on the rocky walls of 



