The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-15

lands from Nova Scotia northward
notably on "Gannet rock" in the c,ulf
OF ST. Lawrence, counties thousands
or feathered fishermen of a different
ORDER assemble during the breeding
season. Like many maritime birds the
gannets lay only a single egg, which,
however, seems quite enough to keep
their companies recruited to their full
strength. The one nesting keeps it's
parents busy fishing to supply its
wants. The writer has fed twelve aver
age sized CLAIMS in quick succession to
captive, which could not have been
more than six weeks old. Flying at
an elevation of hundred feet or
tnereaoout, the gannet keeps sharp
eye on the waves beneath. When a
nsh appears within range, it's watch
ful enemy goes down like a fash, the
wings closed till near the water, and
then, with wings tight shut, 1t vanishes
from sight, to reappear a moment later
with It's prey, which is swallowed while
the bird rests on the waves. When
1t is remembered that the gannet is a
heavy bird fully three feet long, it will
be understood that this dive is a nota-
Die performance. The gannets appear
on the Long Island coast in October
and November, and some are said to
spend the winter there but the majori-
ty prefer a warmer climate for their
winter residence.
About a month later than the gannets
the httiwakes return from their north
ern nesting grounds. Smaller than the
herring gulls, the species most often
seen in winter in our harbors and
rivers, they are even more graceful and
tireless on the wing and are ready to
sleep on the water when their day
is ended. Like all other gulls, the
httiwake will eat anything, but it's
choice is fresh fish, and more than
most Of its kind it confines itself to
that diet. If 1t can take the fish alive.
well and good, but 1t by no means
scorns the floater which the wave
brings within range. All gulls are to a
greater or less extent scavengers, and
the kittiwake is true to the traditions
of its race, but far less persistently
than most of it's congeners The duck
family, as a rule, feed upon mollusks,
crustaceans and aquatic plants, but the
mergansers, or sheldrakes, are fishing
ducks, in this particular resembling
looms and grebes rather than their
nearer relatives. There are three of
these fishermen, the American mer-
ganser or goosander, the redbrested
merganser or shldrake and the hooded
merganser. All of them are often called
lllCSOGHSCIS, Tie ldIIle DS1nR apparently,
corruption Of the true one. They are
winter visitors to the Long Island
shores, the red breasted being the
most abundant. Like the looms and
| grebes, they obtain their prey by pur-
suing 1t under water, their saw tooth
ed bills enabling them to hold 1t fast
when captured.
The hooded merganser, very hand
some bird. with striking black and
white dress, has a magnificent semi
circular crest, bordered with black
and having a white centre. 1t would
| seem as If this extraordinary adorn-
ment would be no advantage to a bird
which has to make fast time under
water in pursuit of it's dinner, and
we find, indeed, that it frequently
varies its fish diet by courses of in
sects, seeds and roots. At best, how
ever, its flesh remains rank and more
or less unpalatable, although some in
sfst that 1t is an excellent table duck
1t may be allowed that it is eatabie
when so cooked and seasoned as to
have no taste Of it's own. passing equal
ly well for mutton or ancient fowl or
anything else you choose, but it may
be set down as established that no fish
eating bird is other than rank and
7 fishy- heshed. Consequently, be not be-
| guiled into purchasing for the table
| ducks with serrate bills. They are in
| the market, but not every pot hunter
| is an epicure. Two of our sea ducks
| the American golden eve and the buffle
| head, are also fish eaters, to such an
extent as to make their flesh wholly
| unpalatable.
Another visiting fisherman along our
coasts in winter is the razor billed
aux, or tinker. Its cousin, the great
aux, was last seen alive in 1912 and
one could hardly wonder If the tinker
had also become extinct when IL is
learned that as far back as Audobon's
time, three men in six weeks gathered
| 49,, 900 eggs of the aux and it's rela-
tives. The razor bill is still with us,
| fortunately, though in sadly decreased
numbers.
OF five noted fishermen which fire.
quent Southern waters at least four
have occasionally strayed as far north
as Long Island. These five are the
brown and the white pelicans, the
frigate bird. the royal tern and the
snake bird, or darter, the last named
| being the only one which has not been
! recorded from Long Island. OF the
pAlioans, the brown species procures
it's fish by diving like the gannet,
| though from far less elevation. Being
somewhat over four feet in length, 1t
naturally causes good deal or COM
motion when it plunges into the water
from height of fifteen or twenty feet,
and it is said that the splash may
be heard half mile. Both pelicans are
provided with hugh pouches. or skinny
bags, hung to the lower bill and ex-
| tending down along the throat. These
| bags hold a gallon or more, and the
| white pelicans use them as a dip net,
swimming up to school of small fish
and simply scooping them in.
The frigate, or man-o'war bird,
| catches fish by snatching them as they
swim near the surface or leap above
| it. and, although measuring seven to
eight feet in extent of wing, is as swift
and graceful as a swallow. The royal
tern does not differ in habits from the
| other terms already mentioned, but,
with one exception, is the largest of
all it's family. The darter is, except
| ing the cormorant, the largest bird
which pursues fish under water. 1t is
| three feet in length, and has the ser
rated bill of the merganser, which pre-
vents its victims from escaping when
once seized. Like the grebe, the darter,
when alarmed, sometimes sinks down
| in the water without apparent effort,
and then swims with only the head and
neck visible, showing a singular re-
semblance to a snake.
Some observers think that they find
among the birds prototypes of all
classes Of men. According to this idea,
| the tramp would discover his original
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