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Poetry
Gallery

                     << < June 11, 1899 > >>

[Page 30 continued]
When we got before the glacier, I saw my first pair of harlequins, swimming some distance behind the boat. They looked like oldsquaws in the distance, but the glass showed them plainly to be a [male] + [female] histrionicus. The next morning [Page 31] I had the good luck to get three, all males, one full plumage, the next less so, + the 3rd nearly like the [female]. Four black brant were in the vicinity, and got up with the flock of 30 or more harlequins, but were out of range. That same afternoon, at about 6:30 (June 8) Cole shot two fine gulls, L. brachyrhinchus + L. glaucescens) which he brot for me to paint. The bill of the former was corn yellow, pink vermillion at the gape + the whole mouth was feather light coral red, the tongue a little yellower. The eye was grayish hard, + the flesh lid vermillion. The feet were greenish yellow, slightly leady at the joints + on the web. The latters feet were flesh-colored, like a herring gull's feet, only slightly leady blue on the big scales + at the joints, + the bill was yellow throughout its length, but very pale at the tip-almost whitish, and pale flesh color inside + at the gape: the lower mandible had a vermillion spot at its thickest part. A dusky semicircle on the upper mandible near the tip (sign of immaturity)

The birds seen at Gustavus point are as follows (June 11-14)

[List, Part 1]  [Page 32 - List, Part 2]

[Page 33] The V.G. Cormorant's eyes, like the anhinga's + Fla. C. seem to become highly colored at the height of the breeding season, as those of the [female], and the males not in full plumage were dark hazel, while the old fine [male]s had deep Hooker's green eyes. The facial skin in life was dull blackish, the caruncles on eyelids + entire face was scarlet. The inside of the bill was cad. y. orange, + the gullet was flesh colored: tongue nearly white. The bill had no bright color in any specimen taken. The feet are dead black.

The Pigeon Guillemot has the entire legs + feet most vivid scarlet, + the mouth and whole beak inside + tongue is orange coral red. Iris deep brown; uniform.

??? seven ad. L. glaucescens, the eyelids of all but one were flesh color - that one had the eyelids very full and clear strong purple. bills were all alike, as prev desc. on the outside, but the inner part or "mouth" varied from strong light greenish grey to pure lemon yellow; the "internakes" were in all cases flesh-color.

The grouse has bright orange cornels over his eyes + his eyelids were lemon yellow. The sacs are said to be bright scarlet; "bowt the color o'that blanket ther." -but of course not to be determined from the specimens. (Merriam says bright orange

The most noticable thing, perhaps, about the birds here in this virgin place, is their extreme wildness. The kinglets, even, won't be approached within range unless the greatest caution [Page 34] is used. The only birds of the 44 species observed which answer to "chirping" are the Varied Thrush, Chestnut b. Chic-a-dee, + the two kinglets. Sometimes, also, the lutescent warbler, but not generally. The hawks don't notice it in the least.

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Chickadee, Black-capped
Watercolor
1897




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