Graceful Birds on Land and Water — Birds That Swim and Climb
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| Graceful Birds on Land and Water — Birds That Swim and Climb |
As we have so often seen, wherever there is food to be had, there Nature has placed the creatures best fitted to benefit by it. We have learned from the story of the sea birds what great numbers of feathered hunters live upon the products of the ocean; but there are many sorts of birds which owe their life to the food contained in the fresh water, in the rivers and lakes and marshes. Sea birds may come inland to feed in rivers and in fields, but many of these fresh-water birds never go to the sea for their food, any more than fresh-water fish go out into the briny ocean for theirs. Yet the difference between some of the fresh-water birds and some of the sea birds is not very great.
🐦 The Clever Darter
After studying the habits of the skilful cormorant, we should, if we saw a long-necked, long-beaked bird fishing in an African river, very likely exclaim, "There is a cormorant!" But a naturalist would at once point out the mistake. Our new friend has a very long neck, it is true, but it is thicker than that of the cormorant. Besides, its beak is sharper, and looks like a small spear; and that is just the purpose that it serves. The bird is a darter, and, though its feet are webbed like a duck's, this bird builds in the trees of great forests, and hunts by night in the rivers and lakes and swamps near at hand.
It is a splendid swimmer and diver, but does not rely upon its speed in swimming nor its ability to dive for getting its food. Experience has taught it that it is not safe to hunt by day, so it comes out when the sun is going down, and seeks its food in the gloom. Even this precaution is not enough. It does not like to expose itself on the water; it sinks its body beneath the surface, and glides along with its great wings partly open. Only part of its neck and beak are visible above the water. At the least sign of danger it sinks still lower, and only its bill is to be seen. Should danger still threaten, down the darter goes entirely under the water, to come up far away in a place where we least expect it.
But when all is quiet, the bird goes very cleverly to work. When it espies a fish, it makes a sudden dart with its closed beak, and drives this right through the body of the fish, fixing it as with a spear. Then the darter comes to the top of the water, and a wonderful formation of the bones of the neck enables it to give its head such a jerk that the fish is thrown off the beak to be eaten in comfort. In India the darter nests in company with cormorants, and, like these, can be tamed to travel with boatmen.
🦆 Water-Hens and Coots — Masters of Hiding
That trick of sinking under the water to escape detection is not known to the darters only. We may see it perfectly carried out by the handsome little water-hens and coots. The water-hen's feet are thinly webbed; those of the coot are not, but each of its toes has a lobe of membrane on both sides, so that the same effect for swimming is gained. Water-hens, which we Americans call mud-hens, and the coots are common in Europe. They are to be found in most parks where there is water: but the greatest joy is to find them ourselves, wild, in their own homes.
A Family of Coots in a Little Stream in Essex
Only a little while ago a lady and two gentlemen took a canoe up a small stream in Essex, quite near a good-sized town. The little river flows through the town and turns the wheels for a lot of machinery. Then it passes quietly along its bed, through a dense growth of trees and plants, and on into the open to turn the wheels of a water-mill. Now, so close were the trees that to get their little boat along our party had to cut their way through the branches that met across the stream, and they came upon a stretch of water as quiet and peaceful and beautiful as if it were a thousand miles from London. To their delight the friends, keeping very quiet, saw two or three big coots and their babies.
The friends paddled quietly along the stream to get a nearer view. The little coots scuttled into the bushes at the side of the stream, and hid, but their baby cries could be heard, like the cheeping of tiny ducklings. This greatly alarmed the mother of one of the broods. The father bird flew, beating the water with his wings and making a great chuckling in his fright. The mother bird stayed near to draw the visitors away from her babies. She swam away from where the nest was, dived under the overhanging root of a big tree, then disappeared as if a conjurer had held her.
How a Mother Coot Hung in the Water and Collected Her Babies
Instead of a coot there remained to view only something like a little yellow leaf and a tiny red one, which seemed to have drifted into the water. That pink "leaf" and the yellow one were really the mother coot. She had sunk herself in the water under the root of the tree, and only her little yellow beak, with its small red crescent, remained above the water. And there she hung in the water, as still as a mouse. The people in the boat drifted near enough to see the body of the bird deep down in the water, then they drew quietly and slowly away to a distance, and had the happiness of seeing her collect her babies together and sail off to her nest in the root of a tree growing down to the water's brim.
Had she been seen on the land the brave little coot would not have had to hide: there she can run through the grass and reeds with the speed of a young deer. Water-hens and coots never do any damage. They eat insects and vegetation. But they have many enemies. Pike, the great hungry fish, often eat their young ones. And, of course, the men who call themselves sportsmen kill them as they kill everything that can swim, run, or fly.
🐣 The Wonderful Pelican
America, as well as the warmer parts of the Old World, has pelicans wherever there are extensive marshes. In Florida they dwell in great colonies on certain islands where they are safe; and in the Far West throng about the prairie ponds and marshes, and nest on the shore.
The Pelican & the Adjutant — The Most Comical-Looking Birds in the World
The pelicans and the adjutant birds are the most comical-looking creatures in the whole bird family. The pelican is as large as a swan, has white feathers tinged with red, while the breasts of the old ones are yellow. The breast feathers end in narrow points, and all the plumage is very coarse. But the remarkable point about the pelican is its beak. The upper mandible, or jaw, is long, large, and flat, and has a hook at the end, which curves over the lower jaw.
The lower jaw has attached to it a great pouch, which the pelican can make very small when empty, or so expand as to carry all the fish which it catches in the course of a hunt. This pouch is compared to a bag-net, and that is what it is—the pelican's bag-net. When the pelican goes into the water of a stream or lake, it catches all the fish it can, but does not swallow them; it simply carries them in the big pouch of the lower jaw. When it reaches the land it can eat the fish at its leisure. But more important is the fact that from this pouch the pelican can feed its young ones. The little pelicans pop their bills down the mother's mouth and take out as much food as they need.
💡 A Gem Worth Remembering:
"Wherever there is food to be had, there Nature has placed the creatures best fitted to benefit by it."
📌 Source:
Excerpt from: The Book of Knowledge — "Graceful Birds on Land and Water"
Status: ✅ Public domain — shared here for educational purposes
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#Nature #Birds #Wildlife #NaturalHistory #KnowledgeGems