Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast Part 12

THE EMPEROR GOOSE

(Philacte canagica)

The Emperor goose is a north Pacific species, breeding princ.i.p.ally on the islands of the Alaska coast. The great majority of these birds winter well to the north of us, though a number venture southward into California to Humboldt bay and even south of that. A small flock or two is seen almost every winter on the marshes near San Francisco. A close watch of the markets will reveal one or two offered for sale almost every winter.

=Color=--Head and back of neck, white; throat, brownish gray, shading into light gray on the breast and abdomen; back, a little darker; the feathers being gray, tipped with lighter gray, with a subterminal band of brownish gray; legs, flesh color.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nests are usually found on the small islands of the salt marshes, and contain eight to ten eggs of a dull white color.

=Measurements=--Wing, about 15-1/2 inches; bill, 1-1/2 inches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BLACK SEA BRANT (Branta nigricans)]

THE BLACK SEA BRANT

(Branta nigricans)

The black sea brant is another purely Pacific Coast species, found nowhere else except as a straggler. They resemble the barnacle brant of the Atlantic (=Branta barnicla=) except in the shape of the head and bill. A differing characteristic, however, is that the white speckling on the sides of the neck of the barnacle brant extends all around the front of the neck in the case of the black sea brant. As their name implies, these are purely seabirds, rarely flying over the land even, and only found in such bays as produce the eel gra.s.s on which they feed almost exclusively. I only know of the following places within the Pacific Coast shooting grounds where the black sea brant is found. These are: Puget sound, Washington; Coos bay, Oregon; Humboldt, Tomales, Moro and San Diego bays, California, and Magdalena bay, Lower California. In most of these places they ate plentiful during the winter season. Of all birds that fall to the aim of the sportsman, the black sea brant is the most difficult to get within range of. This is only accomplished by great caution and a good deal of strategy, but when they are brought to bag the reward is a full compensation, for of all the waterfowl their flesh is the most delicious. The sea brant is rarely found away from the haunts mentioned, yet the bird from which the accompanying ill.u.s.tration was made was killed from a small flock that had strayed into the lower end of San Francis...o...b..y, near Redwood City, and was mounted by that accomplished sportsman and taxidermist, Chase Littlejohn, of that place.

=Color=--General color, black; throat, with a white or speckled ring all around the neck, except a small portion of the back; flanks, mottled white and black; under tail feathers, white.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is only a depression on the ground, but nicely lined with down. The eggs, numbering six to eight, are of a dull white.

=Measurements=--Wing, 13 inches; bill, 1-1/2 inches.

THE SWANS

(Olor columbia.n.u.s) and (Olor buccinator)

(Subfamily, CYGNINAE)

Both the whistling swan (=Olor columbia.n.u.s=) and the trumpeter swan (=Olor buccinator=) were once very plentiful on the Pacific Coast hunting grounds, as far south as central California, and especially so on the Columbia river and the lakes of Oregon and Washington. A few were met with also as far south as San Diego county, California.

I shall never forget the first two swans I ever killed and my experience with them. It was the first winter after I came to California and I was living in Los Angeles, then a little Mexican village, and three of us were doing our own housekeeping. Whatever the reason--most likely from some hallucination of boyhood--I entertained the belief that swans must be exceedingly fine eating. As I prided myself then, just after crossing the plains, upon being a good cook, great preparations were made for an extra fine feast on what I fancied would be a delicious bird. We had a good stove and the first of the two swans was carefully "stuffed" with the choicest dressing, consisting of the combined suggestions of the three of us. It was placed in the oven, the fire carefully tended and the magnificent bird repeatedly "basted." When it was ready and placed on the table it fell to my lot to do the carving. Having drawn my knife across the hunger-producing carca.s.s without making any perceptible impression, I decided that it must be the fault of a dull knife. Among our table furnishings we had no sharpening steel, a scythe stone doing service in its stead. I hunted this up and began on the knife with the "mower's challenge" stroke and soon had an edge that would have cut through anything less than an eighty-pound rail. With no little effort I amputated the legs and the wings, and cutting a generous piece from one side of the breast pa.s.sed it to one of my companions, who at once began on it with his knife. A few attempts to sever it and he reached for the scythe stone. Then when he began chewing on the segregated piece he declared that it was not cooked enough. A dispute followed as to whether it is over-cooking or under-cooking that makes a bird tough. With this momentous question still unsettled we decided that some of the many ingredients that we had put into the "stuffing" must have given the meat its sole-leather consistency. We had a couple of hounds, whose teeth had been well tested in many a coyote kill, and we pa.s.sed this first swan up to them.

The next day the other bird was worked into a fine stew and well cooked. When served the stew was fine. The dumplings were light and fairly melted in our mouths; the red peppers were hot; the aroma of onions was just of that degree to suggest the ambrosia of the G.o.ds; but the swan! Well, the hounds ate it through the compulsion of hunger.

A half-grown swan, however, is very good eating.

There is very little difference in the two varieties. The whistling swan being more of a northern bird, rarely migrating as far south as central California. About the only noticeable difference is that the whistling swan has a small yellow spot at the V-shaped point of the bill where it meets the eye.

THE WADERS AND Sh.o.r.e BIRDS

The Pacific Coast is especially rich in waders and sh.o.r.e birds, there being upwards of forty species that are more or less common, with some ten or more that are occasional visitors. Of these few can be considered game birds, while others are so small that they are rarely shot by our sportsmen. Many of both the waders and the sh.o.r.e birds are constant residents. Others come from still farther south for breeding purposes, while still others breed north of us and migrate throughout the territorial scope of these articles to spend their winters.

The sh.o.r.e birds, while very common, are hunted but little by the sportsmen of this region, and many of the smaller species that are considered quite a delicacy by our eastern brethren are pa.s.sed by entirely by our lovers of the gun. The reasons for this will be obvious to all who have read the preceding pages and noted the abundance and great variety of larger and better game. By better game I mean birds that furnish better sport by requiring more skill in approaching them and better marksmanship in bringing them to bag. The little mountain plover, of the southern part of the Coast, while not surpa.s.sed even by the jack snipe as a table delicacy, are hunted but little, even where they are very abundant, because there is little sport to be had in shooting them. And the same is true, in a great measure, of several other species. Sportsmen, therefore, are little acquainted with these birds either as to their names, gastronomic merits or means of identification.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHITE-FACED GLOSSY IBIS (Plegadis gaurauna)]

THE HERONS and IBISES

(Order, HERODIONES)

While none of the order =Herodiones=, which includes the storks, herons, ibises and bitterns, can be considered game birds, they are so common about our waters, and some of them add such a charm to the scene by their beautiful plumage and graceful movement, that mention of some of them here will not be out of place.

The great blue heron (=Ardea herodias=) is the most common of these waders. With his long, gracefully curved neck and slender legs he wades with stately mien along the shallow waters of the lakes, marshes and streams, both summer and winter, for he is to the manner born and has no desire to seek other lands or other climes. The herons are said to be destructive to fish. This can be to a limited extent only, for they subsist very largely on the enemies of the fish, destroying hundreds of snakes, water lizards and other fish destroyers.

The snowy heron, or white crane as it is commonly called (=Ardea candidissima=), is another handsome wader that lends a charm to the lakes, ponds and streams from Oregon south through Mexico. Built on the same graceful lines as its blue relative, and with a plumage as white as the purest snow, it never fails to attract attention.

Three representatives of the family =Ibididae= are found here and present a pleasing and interesting group.

The white-faced glossy ibis (=Plegadis guarauna=) ranges over the larger portion of the Coast, but from Lower California north only for breeding purposes. Its long curved bill, slim, gracefully bent neck, shapely body, tall legs and irridescent reflections of its plumage in the sunlight, place it among the most attractive of North American birds. Unlike the herons they are gregarious and are, therefore, seen in flocks of varying size. The glossy ibis is often called bronze curlew, but this is a bad misnomer, as they are in no way related to the curlew.

Another of the family is the white ibis (=Guara alba=). These are quite common in Lower California and Mexico. They rarely migrate into California, though they venture much to the north of us in a northeastern direction, reaching the sh.o.r.es of the Great Salt Lake, during the breeding season. The scarlet ibis (=Guara rubra=), the other member of the family, is confined to Mexico, so far as these articles are concerned.

The American egret (=Ardea egretta=) ranges from Oregon south to South America. It was at one time quite plentiful in California, but its handsome plumes attracted the eye of the milliner, which in turn aroused the cupidity of the market hunter, and these beautiful birds are now rare north of Lower California and Mexico, and are rapidly decreasing even there. The reddish egret (=Ardea rufescens=) is an inhabitant of Lower California and Mexico, not coming north of these places. Though not as handsome as the white egret, it is also being exterminated for the same purposes.

The birds that I have so far mentioned, while not game birds, are so constantly before the eyes of the sportsmen who engage in waterfowl shooting that they can not help but be interested in them. They add a variety and a beauty to the scene, and many an hour's wait, that otherwise would have been tedious, has pa.s.sed away pleasantly in watching the graceful movements of some one or more of these stately waders.

THE CRANES, RAILS, GALLINULES

To the order, =Paludicolae=, belong the cranes, rails, gallinules and coots, or mudhens, as they are commonly called. Of the members of this order we are concerned only with the cranes, rails and coots. The sandhill crane (=Grus canadensis) is a common visitor to all parts of the Coast, but more plentiful in the interior valleys than near the seash.o.r.e. They are generally hard to approach and for that reason they are but little hunted by our sportsmen. The whooping crane (=Grus americana) once common throughout the middle states, is still met with to considerable extent in Mexico, but it is by no means a common visitor.

The California clapper rail, known also as the San Mateo rail (=Rallus obsoletus=), is the largest as well as the most important of the rail family in this section. At one time the clapper rail was very plentiful in certain localities in California and furnished abundant sport, though rather of a tame nature, to those who hunted them. Being an easy bird to kill and unsuspicious, they have been rapidly reduced in numbers until now they are in danger of extinction unless laws are enacted giving them better protection. The clapper is only a straggler south of San Francis...o...b..y.

The Virginia rail (=Rallus virginia.n.u.s=), a species not more than half the size of the clapper rail, is found sparingly over the Coast, but princ.i.p.ally on the fresh water marshes.

The little yellow rail (=Porzana noveboracensis=) is found on the fresh waters from central California south, but it is nowhere abundant.

The black rail (=Porzana jamaicensis=) is another of the smaller rails that are found on the fresh waters to a limited extent. Both this and the last preceding one are so small that they are seldom shot, though as an article of food they are very delicate.

THE Sh.o.r.e BIRDS