The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-24
THE FAUNA
OF THE STATE


ranges of the more northerly birds, ami
mails and fishes and those of the life zone
south Of us that includes most Of
Floridas rich fauna it naturally com
prlses many species belonging to both OF
these life areas as well as those OF the
Oarolinian zone to which a majority of
our species belong.
OF large game animals we have left
now in good numbers i'll some sections
the Virginia Deer and Black Bear and
within memory Of living man the Blk
was factor in some of the mountain
counties. The panther probably occurred
IN the State formerly, but | cannot find
any reliable record of its capture during
the past forty years. Wolves are nearly
extinct, Canada Lynx may occur, pos
sums are plentiful. Among fur-bearing
animals of value the Otter stands pre-
eminent and plentiful, the Mink next and
very plentiful while in furs Of lesser
value, Wheat, Coon, Skunk and Rabbit
supply good many pelts to the Northern
markets. Marsh rabbits are plentiful on
the coast, this species entirely replacing
the COtton-tail on the salt marshes in the
tide-Water country. The Harb0r Seal
(Phoca vituiina) is sometimes caught on
the beaches, more particularly up Cur
rituck way.
The bird life of the State is very rich,
the numbers Of wild-fowl in particular
being a characteristic feature of the
eastern sounds. The Whistling Swan,
Canada Goose and Brant are common
and in some sections the Snow Goose is
a common bird. Some twenty-four or five
Of
them in large numbers and killing them
for market affords support to many
families ON our northeastern sounds.
Bald Eagles are quite plentiful on waters
where ducks are likewise, the many Grip
pies resulting from incessant shooting
forming a good part of the eagles diet.
Shore birds and waders generally, includ
ing plovers of various kinds, several spe-
cies of snipe and sandpiper, several cur
LEWIS including the big siclzle-bill, herons
to the extent of eight or nine species,
Turnstone, Oyster catcher, etc, are more
or less plentiful, some of the species oc-
curing III very great numbers One
rookery of herons noted last summer was
estimated to contain fifteen hundred
breeding birds. A cormoraut rookery in
another place showed several hundred
nests, one tree holding no less than thirty
eight nests containing eggs and young.
The plume hunters have about killed out
all the beautiful terms and sea-swall0ws
that formerly nested in countless NUM-
bers along the beaches. Fifteen or
twenty years ago the beautiful little
Least Tern nested in tens of thousands
If not hundreds of thousands or millions
all along our open beaches and high,
dry shoals, while an eight days trip by a
trained ornithologist in June 1899,
searching the coast from Roanoke Is
land to Beaufort, failed to reveal a SIN
gle specimen. The American Egret and
Snowy Heron have shared the same fate.
Lovely woman needed their feathers for
her hat so they had to die that she might
live adorned.
Land birds seem to hold their own in
spite of what many writer's familiar only
with northern conditions say Go out
into the woods a few miles from town
and see if it is not so. Listen to that
flock of noisy and beautiful Blue Jays,
celebrated as they are for "toting sticks
to the Devil in He'll of a Friday" Lis
ten to the notes of those vireos; the
Summer and Scarlet Tanager, those
many species of warbler, all little BIRDS
and mostly of bright and gay plumage.
Now, YOU hear that rat-tat-tat; that
must be a Shirt-tail woodpecker as the
boys call him tin town we call him n
Red-head). No! it is too loud, iIt is an old
"Good-God'' Gogcock or Plieated wood
pecker); so much the better, as you don't
see him every day, he being rather rare
and very shy.
Then there are those three queer birds
of the goat-sucker family, the Chuck
Wills widow, Whippoorwill and Bullbat
Lots of people think these three are all
the same. Go up to the State Museum
and you can see the differences much
better than | can describe them.
OF hawks and owls we get a large
number Of species-about twenty in all,
of which eighteen are shown in the
Museum. Perhaps the most interesting
and certainly the most beautiful among
them is that great Snowy Owl that was
killed in Hyde county winter before last
Other rare species are Swallow-tailed
Kite and Pigeon Hawk and Barn and
Acadian Owl-the last veritable pigmy
among birds of prey.
Other very rare or interesting birds
that have been taken in the State in
cllde the following: "A Water Turkey
or Anhinga, taken last summer with nest
and eggs in Brunswick county: a razor
billed AUX secured in Lookout Cove sew
eral years ago; American Egert with its
Use OF development hardly yet begun.
long plumes, several of that most gor-
geous of all our small birds: the Non
pareil or painted Bunting, White Ibis,
the only record from the State; Wood
Ibis from Wake county, thatbig white.
bald-headed bird with bill like a
pickaxe that you seldom see, possibly
Sandhill Crane, too rare to say much
about and perhaps best of all that Man
o. War Bird that was killed a few weeks
ago by Mr.. r. G.. Pearson, near Ocra-
coke This rare tropical specimen meas
ured seven and a half feet from tip to
tip and is particularly interesting as be-
ing the first recorded from this State
and as being. possibly, the most graceful
and powerful flyer known.
Among reptiles the Alligator and the
large Leather-back Sea Turtle are the
Continued on Page 20S.)