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
The flight of this species is powerful, extremely rapid, and
wonderfully protracted. It passes along with a speed equal to that of
any of the Duck tribe, and I believe can easily traverse the space of
ninety miles in an hour. The whistling of its wings may be distinctly
heard when it is more than half a mile distant. This statement may
be found to be in contradiction to those of probably every previous
writer, for it has been a general opinion, that the greater the extent
of wing the more rapid is the flight, which is anything but correct.
On flying from the water, they proceed for a considerable distance very
low, not rising to any height until they have advanced several hundred
yards.
The only nest of the Golden-eye which I have examined, I discovered,
on the 15th of June, on the margin of a small creek about eight miles
from Green Bay. The female left it, probably to go in search of food,
whilst I was sitting under the tree in which it was, thinking more
of my peculiar situation than of birds of any kind, for I was almost
destitute of ammunition, and bent on returning to my family, then in
Louisiana. How exciting are such moments to the ardent observer of
Nature! In an instant, hunger, fatigue, even the thoughts of my beloved
wife and children, vanished; and in a few minutes I was safely lodged
on the tree, and thrusting my arm into the cavity of a large broken
branch. Nine beautiful, greenish, smooth eggs, almost equally rounded
at both ends, were at my disposal. They were laid on some dry grass of
the kind that grew on the edges of the creek, and were deeply imbedded
in the down of the bird. Not being then aware of the necessity of
measuring or keeping eggs, I roasted them on some embers, and finding
them truly delicious, soon satisfied my hunger. While I was eating
them, the bird returned, but no male was to be seen. Whether many of
these birds breed within the limits of the Union I cannot tell. Dr
RICHARDSON says they are abundant in the Fur Countries, and Dr TOWNSEND
states, that they are plentiful on the Rocky Mountains and along the
north-west coast of America.
Of the changes which the young males undergo, nothing is known beyond
the fact, that the young of both sexes resemble the adult female,
until the approach of the first spring, when their general migration
northward removes them from our observation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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