File:Nature neighbors, embracing birds, plants, animals, minerals, in natural colors by color photography, containing articles by Gerald Alan Abbott, Dr. Albert Schneider, William Kerr Higley...and other (14769371643).jpg

Identifier: natureneighborse11914bant (find matches)
Title: www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/tags/book...
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Banta, Nathaniel Moore, 1867- Schneider, Albert, 1863- Higley, William Kerr, 1860-1908 Abbott, Gerard Alan
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, American Audobon association
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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upper Canadaand from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, nesting evenwithin the corporate limits of Chicago. While gregarious, they are found in smaller groups thanmost of our long-Avinged swimmers. Largely insectivorous,they capture their prey in the air. They also plunge intothe water after small minnows and other marine life.Although the feet are webbed, these birds seldom swim,except, perhaps, when migrating across large bodies ofwater. Their call note is a harsh shriek, uttered incessantlyif one intrudes upon their nesting sites, usually in marshyplaces, preferably open country free from timber. The nests are constructed of decayed vegetation, deadflags, and rushes, often a mere depression on a partiallysubmerged muskrat house, containing two or three dark-yellowish eggs, heavily and tliicklj blotched with shades oflilac and very dark brown. These birds have a habit ofrolling their eggs in the wet earth and vegetation, therebyrendering them less conspicuous. I have known the birds
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LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS 49 to arrange a little nest on the top of an old grebes nest.Often the water is several feet deep where the nests aremade, but the growing reeds and rushes allow the water toremain more or less stagnant, so the eggs are seldomdisturbed by waves. WILSONS PETREL The sailors have always harbored a friendly feeling forthese sea-loving birds. They tell you that ^Mrs. Carey liveson the edges of the seas and the petrels are her chickens,hence they are frequentl) called Mother Careys chickens. Two species of petrel are common to the North Amer-ican coast. Probably at least a dozen other forms have beenrecorded on our continent, as the petrels are great wan-derers and frequenth^ stray out of their course. The feetare webbed and the wings are long and powerful. Theflesh is so oily that the plucked body of a petrel, suppliedwith a wick similar to that of a candle, will burn for overan hour. Petrels feed from the surface of the water, picking upfood while swimming or while on

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