Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of AmericaAudubon, John James
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Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America
Audubon, John James
Birds -- North America
How strange it is, Reader, that birds of this species should be found
breeding in the Fur Countries, at about the same period when they
are to be found on the waters of the inland bays of the Mexican Gulf!
On the 2d of April 1837, I met with these birds in abundance at the
south-west entrance or mouth of the Mississippi, and afterwards saw
them in the course of the same season, in almost every inlet, bay, or
river, as I advanced toward Texas, where I found some of them in the
Bay of Galveston, on the 1st of May. Nay, while on the Island of Grande
Terre, I was assured by Mr ANDRY, a sugar-planter, who has resided
there for some years, that he had observed White Pelicans along the
shores every month of the year. Can it be, that in this species of
bird, as in many others, barren individuals should remain in sections
of countries altogether forsaken by those which are reproductive? The
latter, we know, travel to the Rocky Mountains and the Fur Countries
of the north, and there breed. Or do some of these birds, as well
as of certain species of our ducks, remain and reproduce in those
southern localities, induced to do so by some organic or instinctive
peculiarity? Ah, Reader, how little do we yet know of the wonderful
combinations of Nature’s arrangements, to render every individual of
her creation comfortable and happy under all the circumstances in which
they may be placed!
My friend JOHN BACHMAN, in a note to me, says that “this bird is now
more rare on our coast than it was thirty years ago; for I have heard
it stated that it formerly bred on the sand banks of our Bird Islands.
I saw a flock on the Bird Banks off Bull’s Island, on the 1st day of
July 1814, when I procured two full-plumaged old birds, and was under
the impression that they had laid eggs on one of those banks, but the
latter had the day previous to my visit been overflowed by a spring
tide, accompanied with heavy wind.”
A single pair of our White Pelicans were procured not far from
Philadelphia, on the Delaware or Schuylkill, ten or twelve years
ago. These were the only birds of this kind that, I believe, were
ever observed in our Middle Districts, where even the Brown Pelican,
_Pelecanus fuscus_, is never seen. Nor have I heard that an individual
of either species has ever been met with on any part of the shores
of our Eastern States. From these facts, it may be concluded that
the White Pelicans reach the Fur Countries of Hudson’s Bay by inland
journeys, and mostly by passing along our great western rivers in the
spring months, as they are also wont to do, though with less rapid
movements, in autumn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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