File:Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds (1898) (14563085370).jpg

Identifier: birdlifeguide00chap (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds -- United States
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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d of by closing the bill and forcing it out throughthe strainers, the food being retained. Geese are more terrestrial than Ducks, and, thoughthey feed under water by tipping, often visit the land toprocure grass, corn, or cereals, which they readily nip off.The white-faced, black-necked Canada Goose is our onlycommon species. Its long overland journeys, whilemigrating, render it familiar to many who have seen itonly in the air. It migrates northward in March andApril and returns in October and November, breedingfrom the Northern States northward and wintering fromNew Jersey southward. The two Swans, Whistling and Trumpeter, found inNorth America, are generally rare on the Atlanticcoast. HEBONS, STORKS, IBISES, ETC. (ORDERHERODIONES.) Herons and Bitterns. (Family Ardeid^.) Of the seventy-five known members of this familyfourteen inhabit eastern North America. Most of theseare Southern in distribution, only six or seven speciesregularly visiting the Northern • States. Their large size
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Plate XXVIII. Page 119. CHIMNEY SWIFT. Length, 540 inches. Sooty bUxek, throat grayish. GREAT BLUE HERON. 91 renders Herons conspicuous, and, though worthless asfood, few so-called sportsmen can resist the temptationof shooting at them when opportunity offers. Severalof the Southern species, notably the Snowy Heron andWhite Egret, are adorned during the nesting season withthe beautiful aigrette plumes which are apparently sonecessary a part of womans headgear that they will goout of fashion only when the birds go out of existence.One can not blame the plume hunters, who are generallypoor men, for killing birds whose plumes are worth morethan their weight m gold—the blame lies in anotherquarter. But I have no words with which to expressmy condemnation of the man who kills one of thesebirds wantonly. The presence of a stately Great Blue Heron or Crane adds an element to the landscape which no Great Blue Heron, ^^rk of man can equal. Its grace of Ar,i,a herodias. form and motion, empha

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