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Pike County Hunter Kills Rare Bird

Pike County Hunter Kills Rare Bird
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Pike County Hunter Kills Rare Bird

“An aquatic bird not common to this section of the country was killed recently by a hunter in the neighborhood of Shyville. Not knowing what kind of bird it was, the hunter brought it to Piketon thinking that perhaps he could learn the name of the bird, from local hunters.”

“The top of the bird’s head is black with a gloss of bronze. Down the front of the neck the feathers are marked with longitudinal dashes of blackish and reddish brown and the feathers of the breast are dark brown, edged with buff. The under surface of the body is buff, streaked with brown. The beak is greenish yellow and the legs are green. A bird answering this description and thought to be the one killed by the hunter near Shyville, was seen in the Scioto river near Piketon some time ago, and was eating a Mallard duck, which it is thought the bird killed as a quantity of feathers were scattered on the water nearby. The bird is a fish eating bird as is indicated by its odor and also eats eels, mice, and rats. The bird weighed four pounds and is thirty inches long between the tips of its wings.”

“The bill is about six or eight inches long and the point of the bill is as sharp as a knife blade.”1

  1. Pike county hunter kills rare bird. (1927, November 29). Portsmouth Daily Times, p. 9.
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