Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of AmericaAudubon, John James
Science
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
The extent of the southward migration of the Gannet, after it has
reared its young, is far greater perhaps than has hitherto been
supposed. I have frequently seen it on the Gulf of Mexico, in the
latter part of autumn and in winter; and a few were met with, in the
course of my last expedition, as far as the entrance of the Sabine
River into the Bay of Mexico. Being entirely a maritime species, it
never proceeds inland, unless forced by violent gales, which have
produced a few such instances in Nova Scotia and the State of Maine,
as well as the Floridas, where I saw one that had been found dead in
the woods two days after a furious hurricane. The greater number of
the birds of this species seen in these warm latitudes during winter
are young of that or the preceding year. My friend JOHN BACHMAN has
informed me that during one of his visits to the Sea Islands off the
shores of South Carolina, on the 2d of July 1836, he observed a flock
of Gannets of from fifty to an hundred, all of the colouring of the one
in my plate, and which was a bird in its first winter plumage. They
were seen during several days on and about Cole’s Island, at times
on the sands, at others among the rolling breakers. He also mentions
having heard Mr GILES, an acquaintance of his, who knows much about
birds, say, that in the course of the preceding summer he had seen
a pair of Gannets going to, and returning from, a nest in a tree!
This is in accordance with the report of Captain NAPOLEON COSTE, who
commanded the United States Revenue Cutter, the Campbell, placed at my
disposal during my visit to the Texas, and who was Lieutenant as well
as Pilot of the Marion. He stated that he had found a breeding place on
the coast of Georgia, occupied by a flock of old, and therefore White
Gannets, the nests of all of which were placed upon trees. No one can
be greatly surprised at these reports, who knows, as I do, that the
Brown Gannet, _Sula fusca_, breeds both on trees and on dry elevated
sand bars. During winter months I have generally observed single birds
at some considerable distance from the shore out at sea, sometimes
indeed beyond what mariners call soundings, but rarely young ones, they
generally keeping much nearer to the shores, and procuring their food
in shallower water.
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