USA > Iowa > Mills County > History of Mills County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 42
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239. 240. 241. 242. 243. Querquedula carolinensis, Stephens-Green-winged teal. Spatula clypeata, Boie-Shoveler.
244. 245. Chaulelasmus streperus, Gray-Gadwall. 246. Marcca americana, Stephens-Baldpate. Aix sponsa, Boie -- Wood duck. 247. 248. Fuligula marila, Steph-Blue-bill, shuffler; abundant. Fuligula affinis, Eyton-Broad-bill; little black-head. 249. 250. Fuligula collaris, Bonap-Ring-necked duck. 251. Fuligula ferina, var. americana, Coues-Red-head. 252. Fuligula vallisnera, Steph-Canvas-back duck; not common.
Bucephala clangula, Coues-Golden eye. Rare!
253. 254. Bucephala albeola, Baird-Butter ball.
Histrionicus torquatus, Bonap-Harlequin duck.
257. Mergus merganser, Linn-Sheldrake.
258. Mergus serrator, Linn-Red-breasted merganser; common.
359. Mergus cucullatus, Linn-Hooded merganser. PELECANIDE-PELICANB.
255. 256. Erismatura rubida, Bonap-Ruddy duck.
260. Pelecanus trachyrhynchus, Lath-White pelican; occasional. GRACULIDE-CORMORANTS.
261. Graculus dilophus, Gray-Double-crested Cormorant.
*The ducks are fairly common, some species being abundant. Since they are, for the most migratory, they are found in greatest numbers during the spring and fall.
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
LARIDÆ-GULLS ND TERNS.
262. (?) Larus marinus, Lin-Black-backed Gull.
263. Larus delawarensis, Ord-Ring-billed Gull.
264. ( ?? ) Larus franklini, Rich-Franklin's rosy Gull.
265. Gelochelidon anglica, Mont-Marsh Tern.
266. Sterna hirundo, Linn-Wilson's Tern.
267. Sterna antillarum, Coues-Least Tern.
268. Hydrochelidon lariformis, Coues -Black Tern.
COLYMBIDIE-LOONS AND GREBES.
269. Colymbus torquatus, Brunn-Loon; a good diver!
270. Colymbus septentrionalis, Linn-Red-throated Loon.
271. Podiceps holbollii, Reinh-Red-necked Grebe.
272. Podiceps cornutus, Lath-Horned Grebe; common.
273. Podiceps cristatus, Lath-Crested Grebe; abundant.
274. Podilymbus podiceps, Lawr-Carolina Grebe. Dabchick.
It will be observed from the above list that two hundred and seventy- four different and distinctly defined species of birds occur in this county, which are distributed among forty-five families and one hundred and sixty- eight genera. The presence of so large a number-a certain per centum of which are migratory, and though sometimes tarrying, are not, properly speaking, residents of the county-is to be attributed to the extensive wooded sections on its western side, and to the fact that the valley of the Missouri acts as a great highway along which many birds migrate to or from high latitudes.
It would have been a matter of deep interest, and perhaps of abiding value, to have introduced short notes illustrative of the habits and homes of many species. The limits of a work of this nature will permit only a brief extract or two from the highest living authorities on American birds, which, it is hoped, may serve to interest some of the residents of this county in the study of their wonderful and beautiful avi-fauna. In the fol- lowing notes the figures refer to the numbers of the preceding list:
No. 16 .- "I was walking in a narrow path through a hummock, which lies back of the old fort at Miami, Florida, and had paused to observe a female of this species, when I heard a low warbling which sounded like the distant songs of some bird I had never heard. I listened attentively, but could make nothing of it, and advanced a few paces, when I heard it more plainly. This time it appeared to come from above me, and looking upward, I saw a male gnat-catcher hopping nimbly from limb to limb on some small trees which skirted the woods. Although he was but a short distance away, I was obliged to watch the motion of his little throat before I became convinced that this music came from him. It was even so, and nothing could be more appropriate to the delicate marking and size of the tiny, fairy-like bird than the silvery warble which filled the air with sweet
Mostly birds of passage.
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
continuous melody. I was completely surprised, for I never imagined that any bird was capable of producing notes so soft and low, yet each one was given with such distinctness that the ear could catch every part of the wondrous and complicated song. I watched him for some time, but he never ceased singing, save when he sprang into the air to catch some passing insect. The female seemed to enjoy the musical efforts that were accomplished for her benefit, for she drew gradually nearer, until she alighted upon the same tree with her mate. At this moment she took alarm and flew a short distance, followed by her mate. As I walked away I could hear the murmur of the love-song till it became indistin- guishable from the gentle rustling of the leaves around." -- Maynard.
No. 46 .- "The pretty little prairie warble was one of my earliest bird acquaintances, and one I have always been fond of, on this and other accounts. When we were shooting birds pretty much all the time we could find, or "make," in spite of the college dons, in our early home at Washington, Dr. Prentiss and I knew just where to look for it, and it did not take long to get a few of the delicate birds, in their season. We were generally back in time for recitation, and even if that performance went lame in consequence, it did not seem much matter comparatively. The inflection of the prairie warbler's notes was a much more agreeable theme than that of a Greek verb, and I am still uncertain whether it was not quite as profitable. There was a little glade just by the college, border- ing Rock Creek, closed in by high woods-a sloping, sandy field, run waste with scattered cedars-where we could be sure of finding the war- blers any day, from the 20th of April, for two or three weeks. Ten to one we would not see the little creatures at first; but presently, from the very nearest juniper, would come the well-known sounds. A curious song, if song it can be called-as much like a mouse complaining of the tooth-ache as anything else I can liken it to-it is simply indescribable. Then perhaps the quaint performer would dart out into the air, turn a somersault after a passing midge, get right side up, and into the shrub- bery again jin an instant; or if we kept still, with wide-open eyes, we would see him perched on a spray; settling firmly on his legs, with his beak straight up in the air, the throat swelling, and hear the curious music again. After that would come the inevitable tragedy-for tragedy it is, and I cannot, after picking up warm bloody little birds for years, make anything else out of it, or learn to look on it with indifference."- Coues.
No. 48 .- "Speaking of music, and while I have a favorite author in hand, let me reproduce another passage-not alone for its truth and beauty, but because it tells something few know-something about the voice of the golden-crowned thrush that I never knew myself till I found
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it here, familiar as I thought I was with that pretty and dainty bird: 'Coming to a dryer and less mossy place in the woods, I am amused with the golden-crowned thrush, which, however, is no thrush at all, but a warbler, (the Seirus aurocapillus). He walks on the ground ahead of me with such an easy, gliding motion, and with such an unconscious, pre- occupied air, jerking his head like a hen or partridge, now hurrying, now slackening his pace, that I pause to observe him. If I sit down, he pauses to observe me, and extends his pretty ramblings on all sides, apparently very much engrossed with his own affairs, but never losing sight of me. Satisfied that I have no hostile intentions, the pretty pedestrian mounts a limb a few feet from the ground, and gives me the benefit of one of his musical performances, a sort of accelerating chant, commencing in a very low key, which makes him seem at a very uncertain distance, he grows louder and louder, until his body quakes and his chant runs into a shriek, ringing in my ears with a peculiar sharpness. This lay may be repre- sented thus: 'Teacher, teacher, TEACHER, TEACHER!' -- the accent on the first syllable, and each word uttered with increased force and shrillness. No writer with whom I am acquainted gives him credit for more musical ability than is displayed in this strain; yet in this the half is not told. He has a far rarer song, which he reserves for some nymph whom he meets ir the air. Mounting by easy flights to the top of the tallest tree, he launches into the air with a sort of suspended, hovering flight, like certain of the finches, and bursts into a perfect ecstacy of song-clear, ringing, copious, rivaling the gold finches in vivacity, and the linnets in melody. This strain is one of the rarest fits of bird melody to be heard. Over the woods, hid from view, the ecstatic singer warbles his finest strains. In the song you instantly detect his relationship to the water-wagtail (Scuirus noveboracensis)-erroneously called water-thrush-whose song is likewise a sudden burst, full and ringing, and with a tone of youthful joyousness in it, as if the bird had just had some unexpected good fortune. For nearly two years this strain of the pretty walker was little more than a disem- bodied voice to me, and I was puzzled by it as Thoreau was by his mys- terious night warbler, which, by the way, I suspect was no new bird at all, but one he was otherwise familiar with. The little bird himself seems disposed to keep the matter a secret, and improves every opportunity to repeat before you his shrill, accelerating lay, as if this were quite enough, and all he laid claim to. Still, I trust I am betraying no confidence in making the matter public here. I think this is pre-eminently his love- song, as I hear it oftenest about the mating season. I have caught half- suppressed strains of it from two males chasing each other with fearful speed through the forest."-Quoted by Coues.
No. 75. " In this manner he has more resemblance to the pies than to
3
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
to birds of prey, particularly in the habit of carrying off his surplus food, as if to hoard it for future emergencies; with this difference, that crows, jays, magpies, etc., conceal theirs at random, in holes and crevices, where, perhaps, it is forgotten or never found again; while the butcher bird sticks his on thorns and bushes, where it shrivels in the sun, and soon becomes equally useless to the hoarder. Both retain the same habits in confinement, whatever the food may be that is presented to them. This habit of the shrike, of seizing and impaling grasshoppers and other insects on thorns, has given rise to the opinion that he places their car- casses there by way of bait, to allure small birds to them, while he him- self lies in ambush to surprise and destroy them. In, this, however, they appear to allow him a greater portion of reason and contrivance, than he seems entitled to, or than other circumstances will altogether warrant; for we find that he not only serves grasshoppers in this manner, but even small birds themselves, as those have assured me who have kept them in cages in this country, and amused themselves with their maneuvers. If so, we might as well suppose the farmer to be inviting crows to his corn, when he hangs up their carcasses around it, as the butcher bird to be decoying small birds* by a display of the dead bodies of their com- rades!"- Wilson.
N. 116. " The entire change of plumage which the male of this species undergoes twice a year is none the less interesting because it is so well known a fact in its economy. When the bird reaches the middle districts, which is usually not until May, the males, as a rule, are already in nearly perfect breeding attire, but in the vast majority of instances still show touches of yellowish on the belly and legs. At this period they are very conspicuous, associated in flocks sometimes great in extent, moving rest- lessly about the meadows and orchards, overflowing with glad music. Their numbers seem out of all proportion to that of the females, but that is probably due to the silent and more retiring ways of the latter sex. They really pass through, in the vernal migration, quite rapidly, though they do not appear to be all in a hurry, as we see them day by day. They throw themselves in a field, scatter on the ground, feeding, and at the slightest alarm, or in mere wantoness, suddenly fly en masse to the near- est tree, fence, or bush, and begin to sing, producing an indescribable med- ley, hushed in an instant, only to be resumed. Sometimes they sing as merrily, though with less concerted action, while they are rambling in the grass. Their day-time leisure for song and food is easily explained; for they migrate at this season, almost entirely by night. Every night in
*This passage of Wilson's, written in 1808, must now be considerably modified in the light of advanced knowledge. None better than farmers know the habits and manners of the butcher bird, and whether the parallel instituted by Wilson is a true one each will decide for himself.
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
early May as we walk the streets, we can hear the mellow metallic clink- ing coming down through the darkness, from birds passing high over- head and sounding clearer in the stillness. By the middle of May they have all passed; a few, it is stated, linger to breed south of New England, but the main body passes on, spreading over that portion of the Union and the neighboring British provinces, occupying in pairs almost every meadow. The change of plumage with the finishing of the duties of reproduction is rapid and complete before the return movement is made, although this takes place in August. As far north at least as Maryland,
I never saw or heard of a decidedly black individual, among the millions that repass the state late in the summer and during September. The males are, indeed, distinguishable by their superior size and a sort of dif- fuseness of tawny coloration, not quite like the cleaner and lighter pat- tern of the females, aside from the black traces that frequently persist; but the difference is not great. They are now songless-who ever heard bobolink music in the fall ?- they have a comfortable, self-satisfied chink, befitting such fat and abandoned gourmands as they are, thronging in countless hoards the wild rice tracts and the grainfields, loafing and invit- ing their souls. So they go until the first cold snap, that sends them into winter quarters at once -- chiefly in the West Indies, but also much further south. They have successively filled the role of bobolink, reed-bird, rice- bird and butter-bird. As soon as the season relaxes once more, in March, they will re-enter the United States and do it all over again." -- C'oues.
No. 117. "It does not appear that the cow-bird ever attempts to take forcible possesion of a nest. She watches her chance while the owners are away, slips in by stealth and leaves the evidence of her unfriendly visit to be discovered on their return, in the shape of the ominous egg. The parents hold anxious consultation in this emergency, as their sorrow- ful cries and disturbed actions plainly indicate. If their nest was empty before, they generally desert it, and their courage in giving up a cozy home results in one cow-bird the less. Sometimes, even after there is an egg of their own in the nest, they have nerve enough to let it go, rather than assume the hateful task of incubating the strange one. But if the female has already laid one or two eggs, the pair generally settle into the reluctant conviction that there is no help for it; they quiet down after a while and things go on as if nothing had happened. Not always, how- ever, will they desert even an empty nest; some birds have discovered a way out of the difficulty-it is the most ingenious device imaginable, and the more we think about it the more astonishing it seems. They build a two-story nest, leaving the obnoxious egg in the basement. I want no better proof that birds possess a faculty indistinguishable, so far as it goes, from human reason; and such a case as this bears impressively upon the
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
general question of the difference between reason and that faculty we designate by the vague and misleading term "instinct." The evidence has accumulated till it has become conclusive, that the difference is one of degree, not of kind-that instinct is a lower order of reason-the arrest in brutes, at a certain stage, of a faculty reaching higher development in man. Instinct, in the ill-considered current sense of the term, could never lead a summer yellow-bird up to building a two-story nest to let a cow- bird's eggs addle below. Snch 'instinct' is merely force of habit, inher- ited or acquired-a sum of tendencies operating unknowingly and uni- formly upon the same recurring circumstances, devoid of conscious design, lacking recognized precision, totally inadequate to the require- ments of the first special emergency. What bird, possessed of only such a faculty as this, could build a two-story nest to get rid of an objectionable deposit in the original single-story fabric? It argues as intelligent a design as was ever indicated in the erection of a building by a human being. No question of inherited tendency enters here; and if it did, the issue would be only set back a step no nearer determination, for there must have been an original double nest, the result of an original idea. Nor is this won- derful forethought very rarely exhibited; considering what proportion the double nests discovered bear to the ordinary ones brought to our notice, among the millions annually constructed, we can easily believe that the ingenious device is in fact a frequent resort of the birds plagued by the cow-bunting. And how can we sufficiently admire the perseverance and energy of a bird which, having once safely shut up the terrible egg in her cellar, and then having found another one violating her premises, forth- with built a third story? She deserved better of fate than that her house should at last be despoiled by a naturalist. This was a summer yellow- bird, to whom the price of passing thus into history must have seemed hard."-Coues.
No. 130 .- " All jays make their share of noise in the world, they fret and scold about trifles, quarrel over anything, and keep everything in a foment when they are about. The particular kind we are now talking about is nowise behind his fellows in these respects-a stranger to mod- esty and forbearance, and the many gentle qualities that charm us in some little birds and endear them to us; he is a regular filibuster, ready for any sort of adventure that promises sport or spoil, even if spiced with danger. Sometimes he prowls about alone, but oftener has a band of choice spirits with him, who keep each other in countenance, (for our jay is a coward at heart, like other bullies), and share the plunder on the usual terms in such cases, of each one taking all he can get. Once I had a chance of seeing a band of these guerrillas on a raid; they went at it in good style, but came off very badly indeed. A vagabond troop made a descent upon a
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
bush clump, where, probably, they expected to find eggs to suck, or at any rate a chance for mischief and amusement. To their intense joy, they surprised a little owl quietly digesting his grasshoppers, with both eyes shut. Here was a lark! and a chance to wipe out a part of the score that the jays keepagainst the owls for injuries received, time out of mind. In the tumult that ensued, the little birds scurried off, the woodpeckers overhead stopped tapping to look on, and a snake that was basking in a sunny spot concluded to crawl into his hole. The jays lunged furiously at their enemy, who sat helpless; bewildered by the sudden onslaught, trying to look as big as possible, with his wings set for bucklers and his bill snapping; meanwhile twisting his head till I thought he would wring it off, trying to look all ways at once. The jays, emboldened by par- tial success, grew more impudent, till their victim made a break through their ranks and flapped into the heart of a neighboring juniper, hoping to be protected by the tough, thick foliage. The jays went trooping after, and I hardly know how the fight would have ended had I not thought it time to take a hand in the game myself. I secured the owl first, it being the interesting Pygmy Owl, (Glaucidium), and then shot four of the jays before they made up their minds to be off. The collecter has no better chance to enrich his cabinet than when the birds are quarreling, and so it has been with the third party in a difficulty, ever since the monkey divided cheese for the two cats." -- Coues.
No. 226 .- " Mudie speaks as follows of the European bittern's voice: 'Anon a burst of savage laughter breaks upon you, gratingly loud, and so unwonted and odd that it sounds as if the voices of a bull and a horse were combined; the former breaking down his bellow to suit the neigh of the latter, in mocking you from the sky;"'when the bittern booms and bleats overhead, one certainly feels as if the earth were shaking.'
* Chaucer speaks as follows in The Wife of Bath's Tale :
'And as a bitore bumbleth in the mire, She laid hire mooth into the water doun, Bewray me not, thou water, with they soun', Quod sne, to the I tell it, and no mo, Min husband hath long asses eres two.'
Another notion was that the bill was put inside a reed to increase the sound; the truth is, of course, that the bird uses no means to produce its bellow but its own organs of voice. Our own bittern has no rude roar, but, as its name in most parts of the country denotes, makes a noise very much like driving a stake with an axe. It has also a hollow croak at the moment of alarm."-Endicott.
No. 232 -- " In the southwest, where the coots are apparently resident, I frequently observed them, and they are probably more abundant than
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
one might suppose, for like their allies, the rails, they are naturally much withdrawn from general observation by their habits, and by the intricate character of their resorts. While steaming along the Colorado river in September, coots frequently appeared for a moment in places where the banks were fringed with reeds; to croak a note at sight of the boat, and then paddle out of sight again. The most satisfactory observations I ever made upon them was at a point on the Mojave river in California, where the stream became a broken chain of reedy lagoon, alternating with half- submerged tracks of oozy marsh, grown up to short crisp grass. There were great numbers of ducks here in October, along with hutchins and snow geese, herons and a variety of small waders. While wading about, waist-deep, in default of any more elegant or less fatiguing method of duck shooting, I continually heard the gabbling of the coots among the rushes, where they were disporting in flocks of a dozen or more, and noisy enough to be quite troublesome, since I was in urgent need of more desirable game for the table. But with all their clamor and apparent heedlessness they were shy birds, and it was only by strategem that after receiving all the wild fowl I desired, I go an opportunity of watching them at my leisure. Standing motionless just within the edge of a clump of reeds bordering an open space, and perfectly concealed, I could see the birds, after what appeared to be a council as to the expediency of their proposed move, come out of the rushes on the other side, examining silently at first and glancing steadily around to make sure the coast was clear before commencing their gambols. They swam with ease and grace; the head now drawn back and held back upright over their plump bodies, that floated lightly and changed their course at a movement of their broad paddles, now stretched out to full length as the birds hurried about, throwing off the ripples from their half-submerged breasts, cross- ing and re-crossing each others path in wanton sport, or attracted by some delicacy floating at a little distance; they were a gay and careless a crew as one could wish to see, yet not altogether given to sport, for on the slightest movement on my part their suspicions were aroused, and off they scurried into the inpenetrable masses of vegetation that effectually hid them from view and precluded pursuit." -- Coucs.
No. 247 .-- " No sooner has the female completed her set of eggs than she is abandoned by her mate, who now joins others, which torm them- selves into considerable flocks, and thus remain apart till the young are able to fly, when old and young of both sexes come together, and so remain until the commencing of the next breeding season. In all the nests I have examined I have been rather surprised to find a quantity of feathers belonging to birds of other species, even those of the domestic fowls and particularly those of the wild grouse and wild turkey, on com-
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HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
ing on a nest with eggs covered over with feathers and down, although quite out of sight, in the depth of a woodpecker's or squirrel's hole. On the contrary, when the nest was placed on the broken branch of a tree, it could easily be observed from the ground, on account of the feathers, dead sticks and withered grass about it; if the nest is placed immediately over the water, the young, the moment they are hatched, scramble to the mouth of the hole, launch into the air with their little wings and feet spread out, and drop into their favorite element; but whenever their birth-place is some distance from it, the mother carries them to it one by one in her bill, holding them so as not to injure their yet tender frame. On several occasions, however, when the hole was twenty, thirty or more yards from a bayou or other piece of water, I observed that the mother suffered the young to fall on the grass and dried leaves beneath the tree, and afterward led them directly to the nearest edge of the next pool or creek. At this early age the young answer to their parent's calls with a mellow pee, pee pee-e, often and rapidly repeated. The call of the mother at such time is low, soft and prolonged, resembling the skylarks' pe-ce, pe-ce. The watch-note of the male, which resembles hoe cek, is never nttered by the female; indeed, the male himself seldom uses it unless alarmed by some uncommon sound, or the sight of a distant enemy, or when intent on calling passing birds of his own species."-Audubon.
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