Color Key to North American Birds Part 14

=79. Noddy= (_Anous stolidus_). L. 15. _Ads._ Crown silvery white; rest of plumage _sooty brown_. _Yng._ Similar, but all sooty brown except white line from bill to eye. _Notes._ A low reedy _cack_ increasing to a hoa.r.s.e, guttural _k-r-r-r-r-r-r-r_.

Range.--"Tropical and subtropical regions; in America from Brazil and Chili north to the Gulf and South Atlantic States." (A.O.U.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 80.]

=80. Black Skimmer= (_Rynchops nigra_). L. 18. _Ads. Lower mandible longer than upper_; forehead, underparts, part of secondaries, and tail white; rest of plumage black. _Yng._ Plumage widely margined with buffy. _Notes._ Varied, nasal, penny-trumpet-like; also _ca-you_, _ca-you_, like a hound's voice.

Range.--North America, chiefly eastern; breeds from southern New Jersey southward; wanders rarely to Nova Scotia; winters from Gulf States to northern South America.

Order III. TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS.

TUBINARES.

Family 1. ALBATROSSES. Diomedeidae. 4 species.

Family 2. FULMARS, SHEARWATERS, and PETRELS. Procellariidae.

26 species, 1 subspecies.

The Albatrosses, of which about ten species are known, are birds of far southern seas, where they nest on isolated islands. After the young are reared, several species migrate northward and are found off our Pacific coast. The largest known species, the Wandering Albatross, which has been made famous by Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," measures from twelve to fourteen feet in expanse of wing, and, like other members of this family, is a tireless ocean wanderer.

In the museum of Brown University, there is a mounted Wandering Albatross, killed off the coast of Chili by Capt. Hiram Luther, December 20, 1847. When captured, a small bottle was found tied around the bird's neck, containing a slip of paper from which it was learned that the bottle had been attached to the bird December 12, 1847, by Capt. Edwards of the New Bedford Whaler, "Euphrates," when about 800 miles off the coast of New Zealand, or about 3,400 miles from the point at which, eight days later, the bird was secured.

The Fulmars, (genus _Fulmarus_), are northern birds and nest in immense numbers on isolated islets, somewhat like certain Gulls.

Comparatively little is known of the nesting places of our Shearwaters, but it is believed that most of them breed on the islands of the South Atlantic and South Pacific, and pa.s.s their winter, (our summer) off our coasts.

One of the Petrels, (Wilson Petrel), is known to have this habit. It has been found nesting on Kerguelen Island, in S. Lat. 49 54', in February, and in May it appears off our coasts for the summer.

Petrels nest in holes in the ground, laying one white egg. They are never seen near their homes during the day, the bird then on the nest waiting until night to feed, when the one which has been at sea returns to a.s.sume its share of the task of incubation. Those birds are therefore both diurnal and nocturnal.

Albatrosses

[Ill.u.s.tration: 81.]

=81. Black-footed Albatross= (_Diomedea nigripes_). L. 32. _Ads._ Sooty brown, lighter below; region about base of bill whitish; upper mandible _broad and rounded at its base_. _Notes._ A whining groan, uttered when contesting for food. (Turner).

Range.--North Pacific; north to Lat. 52; south at least to Lower California.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 82.]

=82. Short-tailed Albatross= (_Diomedea albatrus_). L. 36. _Ads._ White; the head straw; tail and primaries gray brown; upper mandible broad and rounded at base.

Range.--North Pacific, north to Bering Strait; south, at least, to Lower California.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 82.1.]

=82.1. Laysan Albatross= (_Diomedea immutabilis_). L. 32. _Ads._ Head, neck, rump, upper tail coverts, and whole under surface white; lores next to the eye sooty black; back, wings, and end of the tail dark sooty brown; interscapular region paler; base of the tail whitish.

(Cat. B. M.)

Range.--Laysan Island, Pacific Ocean; casual off the coast of Lower California.

=83. Yellow-nosed Albatross= (_Thala.s.sogeron culminatus_). L. 36.

_Ads._ Above slate brown, grayer on head; rump white; below white; neck sometimes grayish; tail gray.

Range.--"Indian and southern Pacific Oceans; casual off the coast of Oregon; accidental in the Gulf of St. Lawrence." (A.O.U.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 84.]

=84. Sooty Albatross= (_Ph?betria fuliginosa_). L. 35. _Ads._ _Sides of lower mandible conspicuously grooved_; entire plumage sooty brown, except a white eye-ring.

Range.--"Oceans of southern hemisphere, north to the coast of Oregon."

(A.O.U.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: BILLS VIEWED FROM ABOVE (84 and 81)]

Fulmars and Shearwaters

[Ill.u.s.tration: 86.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bill of 86 1/2 Size.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 86. Gray Phase]

=86. Fulmar= (_Fulmarus glacialis_). L. 19; W. 13; B. 1.5. _Ads. Light phase._ Head, neck, and under parts white; back, wings, and tail slaty gray. _Dark phase._ Uniform dark slaty gray. _Notes._ Silent.

Range.--North Atlantic, breeds from Lat. 69 northward; winters south to Lat. of Ma.s.sachusetts, and rarely to Virginia.

=86b. Pacific Fulmar= (_F. g. glupischa_). Similar to No. 86, but nasal tubes light.

Range.--North Pacific; breeds from Bering Sea north; winters south to Mexico.

=86.1. Rodger Fulmar= (_Fulmarus rodgersii_). Similar to light phase of No. 86, but back with white feathers; no dark phase.

Range.--"Bering Sea and adjacent parts of North Pacific." (A.O.U.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 87.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bill of 87 1/2ze.]

=87. Slender-billed Fulmar= (_Priocella glacialoides_). L. 18.5.

_Ads._ Head and underparts white; back and tail pearl; primaries black, _white on inner web_.