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
Although parties of these birds remove from the south to betake
themselves to the eastern shores, and breed there, they seldom arrive
at Great Egg Harbour before the middle of May, or deposit their eggs
until a month after, or about the period when, in the Floridas and
on the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, the young are hatched.
To these latter sections of the country we will return, Reader, to
observe their actions at this interesting period. Were I to speak of
the vast numbers that congregate for the purpose of breeding, some of
my readers might receive the account with as little favour as they have
accorded to that which I have given of the wild pigeons; and therefore
I will present you with a statement by my friend the Rev. JOHN BACHMAN,
which he has inserted in my journal. “These birds are very abundant,
and breed in great numbers on the sea islands at Bull’s Bay. Probably
twenty thousand nests were seen at a time. The sailors collected an
enormous number of their eggs. The birds screamed all the while, and
whenever a Pelican or Turkey Buzzard passed near, they assailed it by
hundreds, pouncing on the back of the latter, that came to rob them of
their eggs, and pursued them fairly out of sight. They had laid on the
dry sand, and the following morning we observed many fresh-laid eggs,
when some had been removed the previous afternoon.” Then, Reader, judge
of the deafening angry cries of such a multitude, and see them all over
your head begging for mercy as it were, and earnestly urging you and
your cruel sailors to retire and leave them in the peaceful charge of
their young, or to settle on their lovely rounded eggs, should it rain
or feel chilly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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