CASUALTIES AMONG ANIMALS. 



J. A. LORING. 



Photos by the Author. 



Few persons realize the different agencies 

 by which animals are either captured or in- 

 jured or meet unusual deaths. Most of us 

 have read newspaper accounts of the de- 

 struction of birds migrating in the night, as 

 they came in contact with the statue of Lib- 

 erty, Washington monument, lighthouses 

 and other such structures. Telegraph, tele- 

 phone and electric wires are equally perni- 

 cious to bird life. In the West, where prairie 

 chickens, sharptail grouse, ducks and 

 mourning doves abound, it is not unusual 

 to find their bodies lying under the tele- 

 graph wires, or beside railroad tracks, where 

 they have fallen after dashing against the 

 wires or cars, when frightened by approach- 

 ing trains. Instances are recorded where 

 birds, when suddenly surprised by trains 

 rounding sharp curves, have flown into or 

 against the open or closed windows of the 

 cab or coaches. 



About May ist, 1902, I found the mangled 

 remains of a whippoorwill, lying by a rail- 

 road track. It is possible the bird might 

 have been killed* by other means, and run 

 over afterward, but owing to the nocturnal 

 habits of this species and its fondness for 

 perching lengthwise on rails, or fence 

 boards, it is natural to suppose that it alight- 

 ed on the track at night, and, dazed by the 

 glare from the approaching engine, remained 

 on the rail too long and was run over, as 

 the nature of the wound seemed to indicate. 



Such birds as cormorants and mergansers, 

 fish eating birds, having the reputation of 

 being gormandizers, not infrequently try 

 to eat fish too large to swallow. Recently 

 a case of that character came under my 

 notice. A red breasted merganser attempted 

 to swallow a large rock bass, tail first ; a 

 course of procedure that is strictly against 

 the etiquette of any well bred fish eating 

 bird or animal. The fins of the fish pierced 

 the bird's throat and it choked to death 

 before surgical aid could be procured. 



Two similar cases of bird casualties were 

 noted by a well known writer and artist. 

 He found a yellow shafted flicker hanging 

 from the trunk of a tree, its head fast in 

 a crack at the junction of 2 large limbs. 

 The woodpecker, while searching for in- 

 sects, must have thrust its head into the 

 seam opened by the swaying branches, and 

 been caught when they came together. The 

 same gentleman found a chimney swift 

 impaled on a lightning rod which was at- 

 tached to the side of a chimney where a 

 number of swifts were nesting. The swifts 

 would fly about the chimney, then dart into 



it. This bird in descending miscalculated, 

 and struck the sharp point of the rod with 

 a force that pierced it completely through. 

 The body remained there until disposed of 

 by the heat and wind. 



During the nesting season, such birds as 

 the oriole, robin, chipping sparrow, and 

 others that use horse hair, string and simi- 

 lar fibrous substances in building the cradles 

 for their young, often become tangled in 

 them and are either hung or strangled. I 

 found a purple grackle, or common crow 

 blackbird, thus suspended from the top of 



PURPLE GRACKLE. 



a maple tree.. While gathering material 

 and carrying it to its nesting site, the 

 crow had selected a piece of com- 

 mon wrapping twine, which became en- 

 tangled about one of its feet and then 

 in the branches of the tree. Unable to free 

 itself, the bird struggled until exhausted. 

 By this statement I do not mean to inti- 

 mate that these birds carry nesting material 

 in their feet. 

 In the collection of birds belonging to 



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