Identifier: historyofgamebir00for (find matches)
Title: A history of the game birds, wild fowl and shore birds of Massachusetts and adjacent states, including those used for food which have disappeared since the settlement of the country, and those which are now hunted for food or sport, with observations on their former abundance and recent decrease in numbers; also the means for conserving those still in existence
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Forbush, Edward Howe, 1858-1929 Massachusetts. State Board of Agriculture
Subjects: Game and game-birds Game and game-birds Birds Birds
Publisher: (Boston, Wright & Potter Printing Company, State Printers
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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e sky in theirexalted and unswerving flight, sweeping along at a speedexceeding that of the fastest express train, traversing a conti-nent on the wings of the wind, their long lines glistening likesilver in the bright sunlight, they present the grandest andmost impressive spectacle in bird life to be found on this con-tinent. When at last they find their haven of rest they swingin wide, majestic circuits, spying out their landfall, until, theirspiral reconnoissance ended and their apprehensions quiteallayed, they sail gently down to the grateful waters, to rest,drink, bathe and feed at ease. Fifty years ago in the far west great flocks of these birds, aquarter of a mile in length, were seen massed like blankets ofsnow on the river banks. On the water they move lightlyand gracefully. Their long necks and great size, taken inconnection with the mirage effects, sometimes seen in theirhaunts, deceive the eye, until in the distance they present theappearance of a fleet of ships under sail.
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PLATE XXL —WHOOPING CRANE. Once a migrant through New England, now extirpated and nearly extinct. (From a drawing by Annie E. Chase.) SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 477 The Trumpeter is well able to protect itself and its youngfrom the smaller prowlers, for it can deliver a terrible blowwith its powerful wing. Although it lays five to seven eggs,some mortality must overtake the young, for comparativelyfew young birds of the year are seen in the fall flights. TheBald Eagle sometimes surprises it in flight, and, hurtling fromabove, strikes it to the earth; otherwise it seems to have fewnatural enemies powerful and swift enough to destroy it. Little is known definitely about the food of the Trumpeter.Dr. Hatch says that it feeds chiefly on vegetation, bothaquatic and terrestrial. It feeds like all Swans, by immersingits head and neck and taking its food from the bottom. Itsfood consists largely of water plants, but it also takes shell-fish and crustaceans. WHOOPING CRANE (Grus american

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