History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

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the quickness of this apparently unwieldy bird, one must make an
attempt to capture him alive or even to shoot him. During travels
in the Northwest the writer found three specimens of the family
living quietly in a lakeside nest.
Famzly Rallidae, or rail tribe, is comparatively well known
here. It includes the Carolina rail, Virginia rail, Florida gallinule, and coot, all common summer birds; together with the black,
yellow, king, and clapper rail, rare summer visitors.
Family Laridae comprises all the terns and gulls known in the
tem.perate zone of our continent. The birds of the tribe common
to Saginaw county are the herring gull, the ring-billed, the laughing, and Bonaparte's gulls. The forktail gull is an uncommon visitor. The terns best known here are the marsh, Arctic, least,
black, Forster's, and Wilson's.
Family Podicipidae, or grebe tribe, comprises the horned grebe,
pied-billed grebe, common residents; together with the red-necked
and eared grebe, a class of rovers which direct their flight hither
at long intervals.
Family Anatidae is perhaps the best known and most useful of
the feathered race. It comprises the goose, duck, widgeon, teal
and merganser. The birds of the tribe common to the county are
the brant and Canada goose, the mallard, black, pin-tail, gadwall,
wood, big black-head, little black-head, ring-necked, poachard,
canvas-back, golden-eye, butter-ball, long-tailed, Labrador, ruddy
and fish ducks, the red-breasted merganser, the hooded merganser,
American widgeon, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, and the
shoveller teal.
The Family Scolopacidae includes the woodcock, American
snipe, red-breasted snipe, upland plover, long-billed curlew, stilt
sandpiper, selnipalmated, least, pectoral and red-backed sandpipers, WVillst, greater yellow legs, lesser yellow legs and solitary,
spotted and buff-breasted sandpipers. All these birds are common
here. They are all "waders," and subsist on aquatic insects, grasshoppers, mollusks, crustaceans, etc.
THE MAMMALIA.
The New York bat and brown bat are common. The mole shrew
visits the gardens and appears to be quite at home in the county.
The common mole is found in the low lands, and the star-nosed
mole in dry and wet lands throughout the county.
The Family Felidae is represented here by the wildcat. Until
recently the animal was abundant in the Valley.
The Family CaAiidae is represented by the red, black and gray
foxes. The two latter are very rare now; even the former, once
so abundant, is fast passing away. The wolves were all killed off
many years ago.
Tae Family fMustelidae comprises the brown weasel, the Richardsonii, or little ermine, the white and least weasels, the common
weasel, the mink, the otter, and the skunk. Even these animals,
once so common, are being thinned out.