. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The Forster Tern In the Los Bafios country, whose wide watery stretches seem to possess an irresistible charm for these terns, the arbitrary handling of the flood gates brings disaster to many a colony, and a whole season's effort, renewed and persistent on the birds' part, may prove fruitless in the end. For all that the terns are often interlopers themselves, the brooding bird resents intrusion, diving angrily at the human visitor and giving vent
. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The Forster Tern In the Los Bafios country, whose wide watery stretches seem to possess an irresistible charm for these terns, the arbitrary handling of the flood gates brings disaster to many a colony, and a whole season's effort, renewed and persistent on the birds' part, may prove fruitless in the end. For all that the terns are often interlopers themselves, the brooding bird resents intrusion, diving angrily at the human visitor and giving vent to the only cry which this bird utters, a harsh, low a-a-a (like the a in bad), absurdly ineffective as a warning. All the neighbors join in the defense, and the intruder is berated in many inflections of very platt Dentsch. Every other point in the bird's make-up, the mild eye, the jaunty cap, the snowy plumage, the graceful lines of contour, the flowing streamers of the tail, so belie this vulgar vehemence that the observer is moved to jeer: "Aw, now, you ar'n't mo-ad!" Eggs are normally three in number, spotted, after their kind, but I have fancied a tendency toward greens in the otherwise neutral ground- colors,—an in- cipient approxi- mation of the normal sur- roundings. Nests containing five or six eggs are oc- casionally found, but these are undoubtedly the product of two birds. Marsh- dwellers are com- monly tolerant of social breaches. I f the eggs are neither re- moved by flood nor addled by undue exposure to the sun, babies ensue, of such fashion as Mr. Rockwell recites:1. Taken in Washington Photo by the Author 1 Robert B. Rockwell in "The Condor," Vol. Mar. 1911, p. 60. 1446 CONFLICTING CLAIMS TWO EGGS OF THE WESTERN GREBE AND ONE OF THE FORSTER TERN OCCUPY THE NEST PROPER, WHILE A WAIF EGG OF THE AMERICAN COOT APPEARS AT THE RIGHT. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1923
