FINCH— TERNS— RAIL— HERON— PLOVER— CURLEW— IBIS-SKIMMER. 



169 



recognized in all warm countries, where they are encouraged in 

 their familiarity with man, and rightly regarded as public bene- 

 factors. 



" Curious ornithologists have gone so far as to try the flavor of 

 almost every bird. Among those not ordinarily used for food, and 

 which are comparatively unsavory, though not positively bad, may 

 be reckoned most of the cleaner sorts of rapacious birds. Thus a 

 young Hawk is passably good, though I believe that some such 

 qualit}' as that which suggested the saying, ' tough as a boiled 

 Owl,' renders in the whole order. Crows and Ravens fall in the 

 same category ; so do most of the water-birds below the true wild 

 fowl, such as Pelicans, Cormorants, Gannetts, Gulls, Loons, and 

 others that feed upon fish. But Vulture-meat is certainly not to be 

 thought of." One would think that the great Israelitic law-giver 

 hardly had need to interdict it, as he did however : ' Of all clean 

 birds ye shall eat. But these are they of which ye shall not eat : 

 the Eagle, and the Ossifrage, and the Osprey, and the Glede, and 

 the Kite, and the Vulture after his kind.' As a more modern au- 

 thor has remarked, ' We presume this prohibition was religiously 

 observed, so far, at least, as it related to the Vultures, from whose 

 flesh there arises such an unsavory odor, that we question if all the 

 sweetening processes ever invented could render it palatable to Jew, 

 Pagan, or Christian.' Certain it is, that independent of the passing 

 contents of the alimentary canal, permanent foetid, musky odors ex- 

 hale from the bones and muscles ; and the same stench is entangled 

 in the web of feathers. It is retained for a long while, even after the 

 bird is killed and stuffed. So strong is it, that one author, an ex- 

 cellent naturalist, too, fancied it must be rather unpleasant to the 

 birds themselves ! Thus, Pennant, speaking of the Vulture's 

 habit of basking in the sun, with half-opened, drooping wings, 

 supposed that this was done 'to purify their bodies, which are most 

 unpleasantly foetid,' as he naively remarks. It is somewhat to be 

 wondered that, when Audubon's experiments came up, no person 

 of an ingenious and inquiring turn advanced a theory why Vultures 

 were deprived of the sense of smell ; reasoning that if their olfac- 

 tories were acute they could not bring themselves to eat carrion, 

 and that moreover they would be continually unhappy in the 

 noxious atmosphere emanating from their own bodies ; in short, 

 that a merciful Creator had so arranged that they might not smell 

 themselves I " 



PLATE CXII. 

 Dusky Seaside Finch. (Ammodromus maritimus, var. mgrescens.") 



Figr i- 



This bird is a variety of the Seaside Finch (Ammodromus mari- 

 fimus), represented on Plate XLIX, fig. 4, page 70. 



White-winged Black Tern. (Hydrochelidon leucoptera.) 

 Fig. 2. 



A female specimen of this species was obtained by Thure Kum- 

 lein, in Wisconsin, July 5, 1873. It is an European bird, and this 

 is the only one ever taken or seen in North America. The speci- 

 men was presented to the Smithsonian by Dr. T. M. Brewer. 



Pike's Tern ; Slender-billed Tern. {Sterna longipennis.) 



Fig. 3. 



This is a very rare bird, which is said to be met with on the 

 coast of California. 



California Black Rail 



: Western Little Black Rail. 

 censis, var. coturniculus?) 



Fig. 4. 



(Porzana jatnai~ 



This bird is a Pacific Coast variety of the Little Black Rail 

 (Porzana jamatcensts), Plate XCI, fig. 3, page 137. 



Little Blue Heron. (Ardea ccerulea!) 

 Fig- 5- 



The Little Blue Heron is mostly confined to the South Atlantic 

 and Gulf States, from whence it migrates south into Mexico, and 

 north to New England, in summer. 



Along the ocean and its tributary streams this bird is very 

 abundant, as it affords them their proper food, which consists of 

 worms, insects, and reptiles. It is active, and when occasion re- 

 quires, very silent, intent, and watchful. According to Nuttall, 

 these nocturnal and indolent birds appear to associate and breed 

 often in the same swamps, leading toward each other, no doubt, a 

 very harmless and independent life. Patient and timorous, though 

 voracious in their appetites, their defense consists in seclusion, and 

 with an appropriate instinct, they seek out the wildest and most 

 insulated retreat in nature. The undrainable morass grown up 

 with gigantic and gloomy forest, imperviously filled with tangled 

 shrubs and rank herbage, abounding with disgustiug reptiles, shel- 

 tering wild beasts, and denying a foothold to the hunter, are among 

 the chosen resorts of the sagacious Herons, whose uncouth man- 

 ners, raucous voice, rank flesh, and gluttonous appetite allow 

 them to pass quietly through the world as objects at once contempt- 

 ible and useless ; yet, the part which they perform in the scale of 

 existence, in the destruction they make amongst reptiles and in- 

 sects, affords no inconsiderable benefit to man. 



Slender-billed Plover. (^Sgialitis microrhynckus.) 

 Fig. 6. 



A new species of Plover from San Francisco. It is described 

 by Mr. Ridgeway (Am. Nat., vol. 8, page 109). Winter plumage 

 similar to, but much more slender than the Semi-palmated Plover. 

 Plate XL, fig. 5, page 56. 



Bristle-bellied Curlew. (Numenius femoralis.} 



Fig. 7. 



A specimen of this Curlew in the Smithsonian, was taken by 

 F. Bischoff, at Fort Renai, Alaska, May 18, 1869. It is said to 

 be a well-known bird on the Pacific. 



Green Ibis. (Ibis thalapinus^) 

 Fig. 8. 



White-faced Ibis. (Ibis guarauna.) 



Fig. 9. 



These two new species of Ibises have lately been added to our 

 North American fauna by Mr. Ridegway (Am. Nat., vol. 8, page 

 no), who says that the Glossy Ibis of the West Indies and the 

 Eastern United States is absolutely indistinguishable from that of 

 Europe. A close examination of nearly a hundred American 

 specimens, reveals the fact that this continent has at least one, and 

 probably two, species distinct from the Glossy Ibis. Plate XCI? 



